I am a writing fool as of late!

So much so that I am actually considering opening my dusty, dilapidated... all but forgotten [because it is a thorn in my side] novel from last years www.nanowrimo.org contest and doing some work on it.  I know, its crazy.

I mentioned the other day that I belong to several writing and critique groups. I bestowed ghastly ghostly work upon one of the groups the week before last, but I am hoping to redeem myself next week with a story for a Writers Digest contest. At another critique group I've just sent off a piece via email I plan to enter into a contest in October. The two groups are quite different in how they work their exact critique, but the result is the about same - plenty of great advice on your piece.

At lunch the other day a friend that was present during the reading of a piece of flash fiction I'd written asked me about it. I told her I received Honorable Mention in a contest. She suggested that I expand the story into a series. I hadn't thought of it before. What a delightful idea! I was able to add to my delight when I later saw a couple pieces of art by someone I know. Boy, I could write a series and that artist could illustrate!  Ahhh! Move over Winnie the Pooh!

I've been coming up with different storylines. A series... are my characters detectives? Are they explorers? What is their mode of travel? How many main characters are there? Names! Oh, I have some wonderful names chosen already. For some reason I rarely name my characters if I can getaway with it. I've discovered that names hold meaning to people. I'm always afraid my character will be defined by his or her name. But, I have a few unique names I've sort of been holding onto through the years that may have finally found their character.

All of this writing has picked up and taken off over the last week or so. I wrote before that, of course. The last week I really feel like a switch has been clicked on for me though. It's a good feeling. I hope it lasts for a while.

Memorial Day 2012

In honor of today, I want to share a Personal Essay written by a Saturday Writers member in 2010. I was present to hear him read it and it has stuck with me since.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

In Honor of Memorial Day - An Essay by Jerrel Swingle "In Remembrance"

Memorial Day, 2009

It was a simple transaction. I exchanged two one-dollar bills for two small red plastic flowers. They were offered to me by a pretty little girl outside the main entrance of a supermarket. She was accompanied by an elderly gentleman holding a donation cup. He wore a dark blue overseas cap with an embroidered VFW on it. I recognized it. Veterans of Foreign Wars.
The girl held up one of the plastic flowers as I came close. Her smile said, “Please?” I looked at her and said, “I’ll take two. I have two grandchildren just like you who would love to have one.” I handed her the money, and she gave me the flowers.
The man spoke gently to her. “Give him another one,” he said. So I had three plastic flowers. I looked at him and then looked down at these small tokens of sacrifice from long ago.
“Buddy Poppies.”
I remember that in years past they were made of crepe paper by the hands of veterans scarred by war. But the message was the same: “Wear it proudly.”
I said to the man, “I wonder if anyone still knows what these mean?” It was a rhetorical question, and I didn’t really expect an answer. But he looked at me with what seemed to be surprise. For a moment he was silent.
I started to pass on my way back to the parking lot, but as I did, I heard his voice calling out behind me.
“In Flanders field . . .!”
I turned. Our eyes met, and I nodded in appreciation. This brief moment, a transaction deeper than I might have imagined brought two minds together in shared understanding in an unlikely place. I raised my hand and gave him a thumbs-up with a silently mouthed “Thank you!”

* “In Flanders field the poppies blow,
Between the crosses row on row . . .”

Over the years, I have read this poem many times. And over the years, I have bought many poppies, paper and plastic. I cannot pass them by. The feeling is still the same. It was the “war to end all wars.” World War I. But it wasn’t. And the poppies still blow. And every time I read these lines, they create a deep ache in the center of my being.

“We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
in Flanders fields.”

I have read stories and poems about soldiers and war, about battles and strife, about what soldiers think and feel in the midst of terror, death, and destruction. But, for whatever reason, this short poem has always been the one work that touched me most deeply. It was written a decade before I was born, but its meaning still reaches across generations. A mere fifteen lines that touch the soul. I always have to fight against a wrenching sadness as I read:

“. . . If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.”

I think of today, and wonder.
And every Memorial Day,
I buy a poppy.
-------
*- “In Flanders Fields”
by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD
(1872-1918)
Canadian Army

Essay by Jerrel Swingle
jerrelswingle@gmail.com

Critique Group : Every Writer Should Have One

            There are many factors that occur to make a writer great. Having a lot of support behind your work is quite valuable. Beyond your parents, whom are quite proud of everything you do, or your husband, boyfriend or best friend that better be proud, you may find that your work benefits significantly by having a good-fitting and experienced critique group behind you as well. You may have to shop around for the perfect fit, but it will be well worth your efforts.

            I belong to several writing groups, and happen to be the President of one (shameless plug: http://www.saturdaywriters.org/). Several times a month I find myself immersed in wonderful advise from writers of all different experience levels. Simply attending and observing is of advantage to a writer. So much is to be learned by listening to casual comments spoken throughout the room. If you are with a really good group you better take notes once the actual critique begins.

            Really, I believe we learn from any exposure we have to the craft. A writer gains even more by participating in the critique with his or her own work. For one group I attend, I had come to a point where I felt comfortable enough to commit to read something for critique this week. Boy, I soon found myself regretting that commitment.

            Nevertheless, (<---I learned this is one word at critique today!) I'd made a commitment, and I am not one to take doing so lightly. I have a couple of items I am working on for various projects. I've come up with a personal essay that will work for several venues, I have a few short stories that could use some critique for use in the future, a piece I want to enter into a particular contest with an upcoming deadline... my thriller novel I wrote for www.nanowrimo.org last November that desperately needs attention (so much so I rarely look at it because it seems a bit hopeless at times). Then there is the brilliant idea I came up with a few days ago which happens to be the lesson of this very blog...

            I am a ghost hunter. Only a handful of folks know this about me, and most that do find it hard to believe. Alas, it is true. Just this past weekend I was crawling around in creepy spaces in search of communication from the "other side".  I've been actively hunting for several years and have quite a few adventures under my belt. Back in 2010 I had an article published at http://paranormaltaskforce.com/ about a hunt I attended with the fine folks at PTF. Everyone was Ga-Ga over the article at the time. I didn't write anymore about my adventures, but in a twist of events, I've decided to chronicle my ghost hunting jaunts into a sort of "How to" manual. I figured it could be something I self-published down the road.

            So, this morning, (because my kiddo's keep me fairly busy in general, but added to that my poor dog broke her tail over the weekend, I'm busy attending events because its graduation season, and so on and so forth) I pulled up the article I'd written in 2010. Some of you may have read it on my old blog, it was called "In the Darkness, Silence is Easy to Find". I've since removed the photos I borrowed *cough*stole*cough* from the internet and what remained was the shell of the original article which relied heavily on the photos. I've since taken my own photos to replace the others, but of course they are stuck in a file somewhere to live out the rest of their natural computer file lives and are not likely to see the light of day again. (You know how it goes...)

            I decided I'd take the shell of this article and make it Part 1 of my story to read to my critique group. As I munched my egg sandwich I hurried through the article trying to change the areas I'd only had to "tell" about because it had a photo attached originally into a "show" with words. I worked on it for as long as time permitted, printed ten copies of the first 5 pages and commenced to getting the living souls in the house ready for the day.

            Once I got to my critique group I immediately changed my mind about reading. No way was this article-turned-almost-story ready to read to these members. Why, just last week one of them commented to me how he worked on his stories for weeks before presenting it to the group. Weeks?? I didn't even work on this one for hours. Yikes. The sign up sheet came to me and that darned commitment thing popped into my head again. I had to do it, bad or good writing. I'd made a commitment last week to read and I had to stand by it. Thankfully my name was last on the list. I hoped we'd run out of time before we got to my turn.

            A personal essay with a great moral was read. Then two short stories about motherhood. Next was a chapter from a memoir about a little boy learning to swim. I thought I'd be saved by the clock when it was decided I should go ahead of the second to last person.

            I-yi-yi! As I passed out a copy to each of the ten people in the room, I explained that what I was about to read was once a great paranormal article published on a legitimate website. This wasn't just some kooky ghost story, I wanted them to know. It had substance, I just needed a bit of direction, that's all.

            I read my article-turned-almost-story loud and clear and with pride. Here was a room full of people that had surely never heard of such a thing as ghost hunting. They certainly would appreciate knowing the technicalities that go into such an event. I got chuckles in the right places and I felt the reading went well. The article-turned-almost-story stalled a few times, I admit. The "sweaty ghoul finger" really had no place there, I admit that too. But, I'd explained this was a work-in-progress. It'd been a famous piece once, so they'd understand and unquestionably appreciate what was happening on the pages in front of them.

            [Crickets chirping...] Wow. Remember earlier when I mentioned the part about shopping around for the perfect fit in your critique group? Well, that's important. Writers are human beings. We're a bit slow to accept change just like everyone else. [I smile]

            The critiques and comments I received actually weren't that bad. I know folks were holding back from saying things like, "Oh my Gosh! Are you kidding me with this?? You bring this CRAP in here after I let you critique my finest work week after week??! How dare you? HOW DARE YOU?!" Okay, I probably did deserve to hear that because I admit I didn't work hard on the piece, but still. I think some people just didn't get it.

            I received comments like, "Don't leave the evidence for later." My defense (and you aren't supposed to be defensive in a critique group) is that during a ghost hunt you don't know what your evidence is until much later when you have a chance to review everything you've documented, and the original article was written in two parts.

            "It reads too scientific" It IS scientific... as scientific as paranormal can be, anyway. I got the feeling the group is programmed for STORIES.  This person took aim at a part where I wrote about describing our equipment to entities. Yes, its true, we ghost hunters speak to rooms that appear empty. I do believe the group member found this absurd. That was absurd, but a few weeks ago the person jovially critiqued a story about two headed dragons... okay.

            Of course my favorites were "Very interesting to me because I'm from that town" and "Like the whole story, keep it up" I'd say these people hated it most.

            This is where having a good and experienced critique group comes in handy: I also received numerous thoughts about my structure. Maybe I shouldn't keep all the evidence for later. My readers might find it boring having to read through tons of investigation with little or no result. They pointed out the fact that I used the word "investigation" fifteen-million times. Somehow... I hadn't caught that! They helped me think of different words for cemetery, building and old. They pointed out where they felt like I had extra long sentences that didn't work. Some of my long sentences they liked and told me to keep. They explained where my pace was slow and offered advice on how to pick it up. They want history on the town I hunted in, which I probably would not have included because that wasn't why I was there. Talking with my group I realized the history was actually interesting and it has the word "bones" in it, so it might actually add something. Two of the members even invited themselves on my next ghost hunt!

            So, the lesson of my blog is that every writer can benefit from a first-class, good-fitting critique group. Even though some of the group didn't seem able to handle the muck I forced upon them today, I feel the majority of them are willing to try and that sort of support is invaluable. I'm not sure where my article-turned-almost-story will go from here, but I am so thankful I have this group of fine folks to help me figure out where to start.        

Back from the Future

For years, I worked at a law firm where our biggest client had thousands of cases on court dockets. I noticed years flying by faster than I thought they should. Sure, I was getting older and all that jazz, but I began to think the feeling of time whizzing by was because I constantly worked months into the future. Everything I did was for an upcoming court event.

Recently I've been concentrating on events for a group I help organize that will take place during the Fall time-period. My summer is over before Memorial Day has even passed when I work on these things.

Today I decided to put all my "work" aside and work on painting a mural I've been planning in my home for a very long time. While I was painting I realized how grounded and in the present I felt. Each stroke was happening as soon as I touched the brush to the wall. Now those strokes are there for as long as the mural lasts. They were part of the present, and now they are part of the past, not the future.  

The Big Grab

I want to share a fun conversation I had with my son this morning. It's been a pleasure (and a horror and times, I admit!) being home with him all of his life and able to watch him become the Kindergarten graduate he will be in a few weeks.

This morning while he was dressing he said, "I know how to spell know: k-n-o-w"

I explained the context of spelling it that way means he "knows" something as opposed to not being allowed to do something, which is "no".

He stood still for a moment, obviously contemplating, then said, "I think I'll write that sentence, 'I know what no means'." And suddenly it was if his day was complete. Imagine being that fulfilled from one sentence!

I have a writer friend that is on "twitter novel" strike.  Since I began my serious interest in writing wayyyyy back in 2009, I've been told repeatedly that you have to grab the reader on the first page, in the first paragraph, with the first sentence, with the first word, with the first letter... in fact you have to know your audience well enough that they don't even have to read your book to fall in love with it... that is what all that jazz is beginning to sound like to me and apparently to my friend as well.

My friend told me about a pitch session turned conversation she had with an agent at a recent writing conference. She said she told the twenty-something agent she was done with "twitter novels" and doesn't believe you have to grab the reader the first millisecond they open your book. I tend to agree. Lets not wait until page 35 to grab them, but dang... the first sentence?!? The agent, of course wanting what is popular and now, didn't agree with my friend.

I've been told that if your novel doesn't grab someone until page 3, then move page three's action to page 1. what do you think? Can you lead into the Big Grab, or should it be the first thing the reader reads?

After Years

Rarely do I become moved by poetry. In fact, much of the time I just don't seem to understand it. Saturday Writers hosted a delightful speaker by the name of Anene Tressler-Hauschultz in March. She spoke of her use of poetry as a writing tool and read us the following poem. To speak lightly of the matter, I was moved.

I've used the poem several times since hearing it read, and it only seems fitting to share it here as well.

After Years

Today, from a distance, I saw you
walking away, and without a sound
the glittering face of a glacier
slid into the sea. An ancient oak
fell in the Cumberlands, holding only
a handful of leaves, and an old woman
scattering corn to her chickens looked up
for an instant. At the other side
of the galaxy, a star thirty-five times
the size of our own sun exploded
and vanished, leaving a small green spot
on the astronomer's retina
as he stood on the great open dome
of my heart with no one to tell.

Ted Kooser

Hi! I'm still here!

What does that thing say over there----> November 2011!? Gosh, does that make me a slacker or what?

Excuses. That's what I should have called this post. I started typing up a bunch of excuses as to why I haven't blogged in over 5 months, but I erased them all. I'll skip the excuses and only mention the exciting stuff!

The http://www.nanowrimo.org/ novel I finished in my last blog has survived. In fact it has been reworked and added to... it continues to grow and be rewritten as time permits. I'm thinking about ways to continue the book in fact, so that one day I can offer a series rather than a stand-alone book by a first time author. Something tells me that will be more appealing to the folks who matter.

In January 2012 I took over duties as President of an awesome non-profit group for writers called Saturday Writers. We're a Chapter of the Missouri Writers' Guild in our 10th year. We write just about every genre you can imagine and we range in age from 16-80, literally. We meet about once a month to encourage one another and learn about writing. I have an awesome group of fellow board members that are all willing to  go the extra mile, and continually offer great ideas and creative suggestions for our meetings.

I could go on and on about all the fabulous things happening Saturday Writers, but I'll save those things for future posts, because.. oh yes, my friends, there will be other posts. In the meantime, you can check out our group at http://www.saturdaywriters.org/