Z is for ZONE

During April, I’m blogging daily as a participant of the 

Blogging from A to Z in April Challenge (with time off on Sundays).

 Stay a minute. Read. Tell me what you think. Thanks for stopping by.

    

     I've been in a blog post-writing mindset for each of the last 30 days at least.

     Blogging daily is hard, people! But I loved it -, loved meeting new people and favorite new blogs. But now it's time to switch focus, get back to a work-in-progress that stalled in mid-March (thus the Challenge came at a good time), and find long stretches of writing time again. I look forward to working in another kind of ZONE, a single-mindedness dedicated to one manuscript, a set of characters, a setting that I'm slowly growing familiar with. As with all first drafts, it's been a series of stops and starts; I'm anxious to finish it so I have something to start fixing (I'm much better at fixing than creating!). 

     Thank you to everyone who stopped by this month during the Challenge! 
                                                                                              Happy writing!
                                                                                              Dawn

Y is for YOUNG WRITERS

       Once in awhile, I'm invited by our school district to come into a class and talk about writing. Last spring, it was an organization at the high school hosting a career dar. My day involved giving the same talk to five rotating groups. I'm not a natural at public speaking, but get me talking about writing to students and I'd bore them to sleep if I wasn't given a time limit.
     I could tell some kids in the audience would rather have been back in their classrooms, heads bent over their books, pretending to read, and instead catching a few zzzz's before the bell rang for the next period. But others listened, bright-eyed and leaning forward in their seats. Seeing them, I knew if they weren't already writing their own stories, they would be soon. They had that look in their eye.

     I remember the first time I realized I could be a writer, and would be a writer someday. Mrs. Oliver invited her friend to visit our class and talk about writing. I wish I could remember who the author was,  but I do remember her standing in front of our class holding two of her books to her chest. I thought, WOW! she actually MADE that book! There was a real live person who created that very real book, and not some ambiguous name on a cover in the library. The realization was electric! I thought, I can write stories and see my name in print someday. I can do that, too!
     And that someday came true, thanks in part to an author coming to my school so many years ago.
     Who inspired you to be a writer?

X is for XINGJIAN

During April, I’m blogging daily as a participant of the 

Blogging from A to Z in April Challenge (with time off on Sundays).

 Stay a minute. Read. Tell me what you think. Thanks for stopping by.

    

    'When you use words, you're able to keep your mind alive.

 Writing is my way of reaffirming my own existence.'

  - Gao Xingjian, Chinese emigre novelist, playwright and critic, 

2000 Nobel Prize for Literature. 

W is for WAIT

During April, I’m blogging daily as a participant of the 

Blogging from A to Z in April Challenge (with time off on Sundays).

 Stay a minute. Read. Tell me what you think. Thanks for stopping by.

    

     Sometimes I come across a piece of my writing that I don't recognize. 
     This happens most often when I clean out writing files. I find years and years of unfinished work, a paragraph or two, sometimes a page, oftentimes more. Once in awhile, I'm pleasantly surprised by what I read, even though I can't remember having written it. But more often than not, it's bad. No wonder it was stuffed in a file!
     You want this objective point-of-view when you revise. Maybe not to the point that you've forgotten the project all together, but putting your work aside to 'cook' is essential during the revision stage. Problems become a little more apparent — a sagging plot line, a one-dimensional character, stilted dialogue. And how long should you wait to dive back in? I've heard anywhere from a minimum of three weeks to two months.

V is for VERIFY

During April, I’m blogging daily as a participant of the 

Blogging from A to Z in April Challenge (with time off on Sundays).

 Stay a minute. Read. Tell me what you think. Thanks for stopping by.

    

     If the press's initial handling of the Boston bombings could serve as a lesson on how NOT to release information to the public, it would be a long, fruitless search for a more accurate example. The networks broke with the 'news' of key details, only later to retract their stories when authorities came forward during the press conferences with information. In a few words, it was sad and embarrassing.

     One of my biggest pet peeves is when someone says 'I heard'. These two words usually have a name or names attached, coming in the form of gossip, a juicy story full of half-truths. I hear this too often when I substitute teach, especially at the junior high and high school level. It's awful, to exploit for entertainment or to improve one's 'ranking' in the social hierarchy. For years, I've told my kids never to repeat gossip, especially if a) they didn't hear it from the subject him/herself, or b) they didn't see it happen. Two books that illustrate the snowball effects of gossip and the harm it can cause are Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak and Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why.

'Never make negative comments or spread rumors about anyone.

It depreciates their reputation and yours.' - Brian Koslow

U is for UNBLOCK

During April, I’m blogging daily as a participant of the 

Blogging from A to Z in April Challenge (with time off on Sundays).

 Stay a minute. Read. Tell me what you think. Thanks for stopping by.

    

     As writers, we've all been blocked at some point. Fortunately, there are plenty of strategies for getting unstuck and I've tried my share. Here are my favorites:

• Write at a different location. Lately I can't write at my desk. I've been staring at the curtains behind the desk, obsessing that spring is happening outside and I'm stuck inside. I want to pull them back, study the pink flowers on the redbud tree, watch the school buses rumble back and forth down the road. But I can't because everyone will see me looking out the window and think, 'Look at her. She must have writer's block, the poor thing'. So yesterday I unplugged the laptop and moved to the dining room table. Instead I can see a  hint of the backyard and a bird feeder hanging from the apple tree. And just like that I finished a chapter after lunch. 
• Read a similar work. When I work on a manuscript, I have 2-3 similar books that have the same feel, tone, and/or subject matter as my project right beside me. I read a few pages of these books to 'get in the mood' for writing, as kind of a mental warm-up. 
• Make a list. If I'm stuck on a scene, I make a list of sensory details that my characters might see or encounter in the setting. A chain-link fence, a cardinal, a bike with a flat tire at the side of the curb. He/she might hear a car horn, smell fried chicken, or feel the texture of the trunk of a maple tree. These details might flesh out the scene that is giving you trouble. 
• Avoid writing for a day. Wait, what?! Now you're thinking, She's trying to get us writing again by telling us NOT to write? But it's works! I stay far away from my desk, even shutting the door. And the kicker is I can only do mundane, annoying things like iron (which I hate), weed (even worse), wash windows, and  clean out the utensil drawer. By days end, I'm so looking forward to sitting down to write the following day. 

     What's your strategy for curing writer's (or any type of creative) block?

T is for TEACHERS

     While cleaning out a file cabinet a few weeks ago, I found a story I wrote in eighth grade. It's now a yellowed piece of lined notebook paper headed with the title, 'The Lady or the Tiger?' My teacher, Mrs. Oliver, challenged the class to come up with a story for this first sentence: 'Without the slightest hesitation, the prince went to the door on the right and opened it.'
     My memory of actually writing the story is dim. Looking at the cursive handwriting of my thirteen-year-old self, I can't remember where I was when I wrote it. Was I in class? Sitting at home at my desk? At a table in the library? I have no idea.
      But I do remember the sense of pride I felt when Mrs. Oliver handed back the graded paper. Her comments in red-ink — 'written very well, Dawn!', 'very imaginative ending', and 'super description' —  boosted my confidence At that age, my writing dream was just a tiny spark, very vulnerable to the winds of encouragement and criticism. Luckily, Mrs. Oliver was the kind of teacher who nourished potential as were several other teachers I had during my young writing life. A few teachers like Mrs. Oliver worth mentioning who inspired me are:

• Ms. Kruckoff, who encouraged me to join the high school newspaper staff my freshman year, for helping me find my niche and developing an interest in my future course of study: journalism;
• 'Doc' Winger, who taught me to think and write critically about the classics in Rhetoric class even though he was beyond intimidating when he looked at me over the tops of his wire-rimmed glasses;
• Mrs. Bolen, for my first experience in a creative writing class, for taking us on that field trip to the Logan Square neighborhood in Chicago and far away from our comfort zone, for the best creative writing exercise ever;
• and Dr. White, for providing a creative writing class where I felt nervous yet safe while having my work critiqued for the first time by writers more experienced and skilled than me.

    Was there a teacher who encouraged you early in your creative life?