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/