Thursday is Quote Day on The Write Spot Blog. I like to post something interesting someone has said, or pithy or memorable. Adair Lara’s writing matches all three. Adair Lara comments, lifted from Facebook: “Facebook is destroying small talk. You open your mouth, and they say, ‘I know, I read it on Facebook.’” — January 24, 2014 Adair on Passwords: “I recall, children, a time when you didn’t have to spend part of each day trying to remember passwords, looking them up in your password file cleverly called something else, like sammy’s dog, putting them in wrong, having to get the password from the site which entails remembering whether you said the name of your maternal grandfather was Tom or Thom, and then having your new password being called weak or strong, and capitalizing the “H” to please them (you’ve employed a variation of the same password since you were…
Details prove it happened. Prompt #71
In her book, Naked, Drunk and Writing, subtitle: Writing Essays and Memoirs For Love and for Money, Adair Lara talks about details. “The terms ‘image’ and ‘detail’ are often used interchangeably. A concrete detail, for example, is said to be one that appeals to one of the five senses.” “Details prove it happened. If you say you are late because you hit traffic, the boss may squint at you, but if you say some bozo in a Mini-Cooper tried to drive along the margin of the road on the Waldo Grade and hit a gravel truck, spilling rocks across the road and blocking all the lanes in both directions, you have a shot at being believed.” Today’s prompt, from Naked, Drunk and Writing: “Write a list of details from your childhood.” Being about the same age as Adair, my list contains items on her list: milk delivered in glass bottles,…
Want to be a writer? Just write!
In Naked, Drunk, and Writing, Adair Lara writes “I grew up in the San Geronimo Valley . . . a bookstruck little kid sitting on a stump writing stories.” She continues with “Writing was easy then. I used my dad’s square carpenter pencil to cover sheet after sheet with stories of dogs that rescued families from a flood or a fire.” Note the details: Can you see the carpenter pencil? I see a yellow pencil and I can see that little girl hunched over, earnestly scribbling. Adair began her writing career as copyeditor at San Francisco Focus magazine. Her friend Cynthia, the production editor, also wanted to be a writer. They started partner writing, swapping freewrites and returning them with the good stuff highlighted in yellow. “That first writing club, as we called it, changed my life. It made me a writer by giving me the confidence to be one.”…
Find the right pace. Prompt #70
In Adair Lara‘s book, Naked, Drunk, and Writing, she talks about pace. “Add more images where you want to slow us [the reader] down, fewer when you want to speed up. This is called pace.” In a writing workshop, Adair said, “To slow down, give more detail, give unexpected detail, detail that moves story forward.” Today’s writing prompt is either, or, or both. Either take one of the story starts below (these are from Adair’s writing class) and keep writing, using detail to slow the story down or minimize detail to speed the story up. As Adair writes in her book, “The more important a scene or character, the more image and detail it gets.” OR: Have fun writing a scene with too much detail. Tell us way more than we need to know. Write a spoof on how to write too much detail. Use any of these lines to…
Quiddity is a great word. But what does it mean?
Quiddity is a multimedia arts venue featuring an international literary journal (print and audio), a public-radio program, and a visiting writer and artist series. Each is produced by Benedictine University in partnership with NPR member/PRI affiliate WUIS, Illinois Public Radio’s hub-station. The print journal, published semi-annually, features exemplary prose, poetry, and artwork from emerging and established writers and artists around the world. International submissions are encouraged. The public-radio program and the visiting writer and artist series feature select authors and artists. Contributors to the print journal are invited to contribute to the audio journal and may have their work featured on the public-radio program. The term quiddity means “the real nature or essence of a thing; that which makes it what it is.” Because those who participate in the arts—crafters, readers, viewers, listeners—are its quiddity, the venue Quiddity seeks not only work from a wide and diverse pool of individuals but also…
What if we speak truth with compassion? The power of words.
Guest Blogger Kshatriya Millick writes about the importance of words. The lyrics to “Speak Life” by Toby Mac have really been weighing on my heart and mind. Hearing this song, live in concert, touched my soul and spirit in a way hearing it on the radio never did. It has caused me to think about how I speak to others. Do I use my words to lift others up or tear them down? Do I take little jabs to their characters and their lives, to feel like I am connected to something or to feel superior? Do I use jokes that are hurtful to be funny? Do I use my words to inspire others or to discourage them? These questions have caused me to evaluate how I use words in my life, and how those in my life use their words in their lives. I no longer wish to associate…
Maybe what I have written today is messy, clumsy, raggedy . . .
“Say to yourself, ‘Maybe what I have written today is messy, clumsy, raggedy, but that’s my poem for today.’ Maybe there is a neater poem buried inside it that I can work on tomorrow.” — Naomi Shihab Nye, April 2014 Writer magazine, “Mystical Jolt,” by Robert Hirschfield
My mother always said . . . Prompt #69
I hope today’s prompt will inspire you to write about your mother, or your mother figure. Prompt: My mother always said . . . Or: My grandmother always said. . . Or: My [mother figure] always said. . . Marlene and her Mom, 1959, San Francisco, CA After you have written your freewrite, if you are inspired. . . polish, revise, edit, review your writing and submit to Lynn Cook Henriksen for her blog and possibly for inclusion in Volume II of Telltale Souls. Click here for details.
Use sensory detail and be specific.
I love gorgeous writing and wonder how authors produce writing so vivid you feel as if you are in their world. One idea is to watch what people really do when talking, use sensory detail and be specific. For example, author Rachael Herron creates believable fictional characters. There is so much to like about her writing. One tool she employs well is the actions her characters engage in while talking. The dialogue develops character and moves the story along. The action makes the characters believable. Here are some examples from “How to Knit a Heart Back Home.” Owen twisted the [plastic] spoon in his fingers. He would not rub the scar on his hip, which suddenly burned. Lucy took the now mangled plastic spoon out of his hand and then threaded her fingers through his. Dropping his eyes from hers, Owen watched Lucy’s pulse flicker rapidly in the hollow of…
If only . . . . Prompt #68
Writing Prompt: If only . . . Set your timer for 12 minutes and write “If only” . . . . and keep writing. Prompt #68 – If only . . .