Community Creative Writing Course

Thank you for stopping in. Check back soon, more details to come. 

Original

Happy May 2023!

 Hello, my friends. Happy May—which is to say, happy mental health month. To round out the rest of the month I’m sprinkling here and there some happy mindful things. Some of my favorites. Starting with this:

 

And then this:

Because there is so much magic embedded here. Yom. 

Week Four--Week of Me

original link here

Hello fellow Creatives! Welcome to Week Four of our five-week Picture Book Challenge. 

Remember, as far as rules go, we’re keeping it simple:

1. Word count: 300-500 words.

2. Write only what the illustrator can’t illustrate. Allow room for their art (or yours if you’re illustrating your own stories) to bloom too.

3. Be kid friendly. Review Week 1 for a reminder of what that means.

Okay, friends, this week we’re taking the notes and the lists and the conversations we’ve had, all the digging we’ve done over the past few weeks, and we’re putting our findings to a different kind of work.

We’ve spread our arms wide to figure out why these books and stories are meaningful to us, generally. Now we narrow our investigation to the individual, specifically. To the me, and to the you, to our hearts.

Who are you? As a person, as a title, as a number in a crowd? And what experiences in your life, your culture, your surroundings have impacted who you were when you were two vs. when you were ten vs. who you are now?

How do these things affect the way you feel and interface with the narratives you’ve studied the past few weeks, and hopefully created as well?

These are big questions. Maybe it’s easier to ask the little questions, then over time answers to the big questions manifest more clearly.

Little questions, such as:

“Do you believe in soulmates and why, even if the answer is ‘no’?”

“If you have a nickname, what is it and how did you get it?”

“Which do you prefer, soy milk, cow milk, or some other kind?”

From broad wonderings to minute details, any query will do. Where do we find a lot of random yet potentially enlightening questions for ourselves? Put into your favorite search engine something like, ‘conversation starters,’ or ‘character prompts,’ etc. What are some questions you’d ask your favorite famous person, then ask yourself instead.

Here are a couple Q&A’s from Kicking Corners to get your brain rhythms flowing, if you need:

Lack Luster Liebster

1+1=11

HummyPutterings

Things I Love

Blogging Award and Such

Create an ongoing list of questions for yourself. As you consider your answers, take cue from our Week of Wonder and tap into your inner child. Remember: new, strong emotions, and empowering.

In what ways can you look at the questions from new angles? How can you incorporate smells, textures, sounds to make your answers feel more visceral? More real to you?

In what ways do the questions shake up your strong emotions? If they don’t, can you consider the questions in different ways so they do?

How does answering these questions empower you? If your answers don’t feel empowering at first, or this seems unclear, sit with the idea a little longer. Do you recognize change in yourself that’s been positive? Perhaps you haven’t changed, but rather you’ve become stronger in your resolutions.

Your findings through doing these exercises will be pure gold fodder, my friends. The stories you remember could be stories you want to retell. Maybe you see a series of patterns or events that connect in your answers to build a bigger story. Or maybe you understand now why a certain legend is so important to you and you want to create that connection for little readers.

Whatever you find, and whatever you decide, write it all down. Then write your story.

We can do this. 300 words from your heart.

 Go, write, win!

Week Three—Week of Legends

Hello fellow Creatives! Welcome to Week Three of our five-week Picture Book Challenge. 

Remember, as far as rules go, we’re keeping it simple:

1. Word count: 300-500 words.

2. Write only what the illustrator can’t illustrate. Allow room for their art (or yours if you’re illustrating your own stories) to bloom too.

3. Be kid friendly. Review Week 1 for a reminder of what that means.

Okay, so this week is similar to Week 2 in that we’re making a list of favorites. This week, though, we’re spreading our arms out a little broader and digging in a little deeper.

This week, we make a list of our favorite fairytales, legends, and songs. Here’s where we’re reaching broader, right? These foci span culture, time, and narrative style. And again, we’re digging deeper by figuring out why these different aspects of culture, time, and style are so meaningful to us. Why do these things go ping?

So, make your list of at least ten favorite fairytales, legends, and songs. Maybe circle the ones that come to mind first, without a lot of brain poking or research. The answers that just roll out sans thought.

If you want or need to research to get more ideas, definitely do. Project Gutenberg is a fantastic public domain resource. There are so many stories and songs out there that I forget I adore until I’m reminded of them, and then it’s like meeting old friends when I run into them again. Crane Wife! Teeny-Tiny Woman! Golden Goose! Little Talks! Happy gasps and small swoons for all.

Read or listen to them, if you can. Then read or listen to them again. Read or play them to others. Talk about them with friends and family, get their thoughts on these stories. Observe people’s reactions.

After you’ve gone through your favorite fairytales, legends, and songs multiple times, make notes of your favorite things in each. Things that make your heart squeeze, things that make you feel deeply, but also things you think could make the stories or songs better.

As with Week 2, your notes will reveal similarities across stories of your specific preferences. This is how you begin to understand what legends to embed into your own stories and why those themes or ideas are important for you to explore.

For example, three favorite fairytales that roll off the top of my head are Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty.

Some similarities across the three stories include:

*A female character who’s put into a situation(s) that’s difficult to deal with—hard both physically as well as mentally/emotionally.

*Enchanted surroundings, or people/animals, who help the main character. She’s not alone, even though she may not understand the enchantment(s).

*Moments of simplicity, wherein the main character is able to feel safe or peace, even if the big problem of the story hasn’t been resolved yet.

Looking at these three shared threads, I ask myself, Do I feel deeply about these things?

Yes, I do.

Can I incorporate these three ideas into my next 300-500 word children’s story, then?

Yes, I can.

We can do this, right? Write. Create something legendary.

Go, write, win!

Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men

Week Two—Week of Why

Hello fellow Creatives! Welcome to Week Two of our five-week Picture Book Challenge.  

Remember, as far as rules go, we’re keeping it simple:

1. Word count: 300-500 words.

2. Write only what the illustrator can’t illustrate. Allow room for their art (or yours if you’re illustrating your own stories) to bloom too.

3. Be kid friendly. Review Week 1 for a reminder of what this means.

How’d last week go? Were you able to cultivate some wonder? To tap into your strong emotions? Did this help you create 300-500 words of a story with a strong character, or set of characters, who will empower young readers?

I had a problem with a vacuum. Cue strong emotions. Rather than acting out on my frustrations while trying to wrap my brain around the problem, I tried doing this cultivating wonder thing. I got down on the floor, squiggled around to see the situation from a different angle. Tried wrapping my imagination around the problem instead, and vwalla! My 488-count vacuum story was born.

Week Two we want to continue doing this, but with a little more focus on the WHY of it all.

This week we make a list—an ongoing list, if you like, it doesn’t have to only be this week—of our favorite picture books. Then we figure out why they are our favorites.

So, first, make a list of at least ten of your favorite picture books. Read them, if you can, and then read them again. Read them to others, especially kids, to observe their reactions too. Where do they laugh? Is it the same as you?

If you don’t own all your favorite books, or they aren’t available at your library, YouTube usually has a number of people who read picture books for a virtual storytime experience [example below: The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, by Jon Scieszka...so, so good]. See if you can find what you’re looking for there.

After you’ve gone through your favorite books multiple times, make notes of your favorite things in each of the stories. Things you like, things you savor deeply, but also things you wish the author and/or illustrator did better.

Your notes are going to reveal similarities of your specific preferences across these stories. This is how you begin understanding your why’s. Do you always love a strong female character? A diverse cast of characters, whether the author uses humans or anthropomorphic animals? Do you appreciate great uses of metaphor? Witty twists on fairytales? Maybe you love it when the rhyme is spot on, or maybe you don’t like rhyme at all.

These similarities are your golden stars. Sticker them, and make sure you put at least some of those golden stars in your own story you write this week.

Just 300 words. No problem, right? Write. 

Gold star stickers for everyone this week! 

Go, write, win!

Week One—Week of Wonder

Hello fellow Creatives! Welcome to Week One of our five-week Picture Book Challenge.  

Remember, as far as rules go, we’re keeping it simple:

1. Word count: 300-500 words.

2. Write only what the illustrator can’t illustrate. Allow room for their art (or yours if you’re illustrating your own stories) to bloom too.

3. Be kid friendly. Read on to consider what that might mean:

Ann Whitford Paul wrote a fantastic, hands-on guide to picture book writing that leads us from the tiny seeds of story creation all the way to publication. It’s called Writing Picture Books, and it is truly so insightful. Truly, if you want more help with brainstorming, structure, language, tying up loose ends, and prepping your stuff for submissions, this book. This book, people.

Let’s dive into some characteristics of children that Paul suggests we keep in mind while creating children’s books (she gives us twelve, but I’m only paraphrasing/quoting from three here; I say again, get the book):

*EVERYTHING IS NEW

“We step right over [a worm, but] children squat to watch it squirm. The world is a wonder to children, but most adults have grown blasé about it. As a children’s writer, you must tap back into the excitement of discovery.”

She offers multiple suggestions on how to do this. Don’t be afraid to look foolish. Make yourself small, get on your hands and knees and pay attention to what you notice at that level. Really pay attention to sights, sounds, smells, textures. Then, when you write, put the things you notice, the recaptured wonder, into your words.

*CHILDREN HAVE STRONG EMOTIONS

Paul makes note that “…when you are young, everything matters; everything is serious.” So while we, as adults, might be able to shrug off the fact that we dropped our favorite ice cream on the ground and it’s gross now, all grimy with chunks of gravel and dirt, a child might throw a tantrum.

“Children care deeply. Tap into their strong emotions for your stories.”

*CHILDREN LONG TO BE INDEPENDENT

“In our books, we should strive to give [kids] examples of strong girls and boys who find their own solutions to problems. Our books should empower children.”

Paul reminds us how annoying it can be when someone tells us how to do something, especially when they tell us over and over, and over and over, and over, even if they’re just trying to be helpful. Kids feel this way too. They want to do things themselves. And they want to see themselves in our stories, so let’s give them characters who are strong and brave and kind. Capable, even when they make mistakes.

So, to write kid friendly we need to cultivate wonder, tap into strong emotions, and create strong characters who will empower our young readers to learn and be independent.

No problem, right? Write. 

This week, write 300 words. Text it out to a friend, scribble it on a napkin with permanent marker, journal it, spin it on the inside of a lid, turn it, tap-tap it up on your computer, whatever way helps you to get it out of your head and into the physical world. We can do this.

Go, write, win!

original link here

List of Sources

This is a quick list of sources and/or resources for the Picture Book Challenge:

https://www.gutenberg.org/

d3bstevens Pinterest

12x12 Challenge

Writing Picture Books by Ann Whitford Paul

Inktober Challenge

Getting Hope Back

Hello people, imaginary and otherwise.

Sometimes I forget who I am. Or I'm not proud of who I am. Sometimes a question throws me into a dark place and I don't remember what light looks like.

Today I'm thankful for this blog, and for all the people who have been involved with it somehow. I'm thankful for the people who inspire me and share their light. I'm thankful for moments of magic, for trouping fairies who have manifested in mysterious ways, and for backward clocks.

Thankful for so many things.

While I try to figure out where I want to go next, how I want to use this kickingcorners place to document my journey through, here is a lovely reminder from days long past. May it be used wisely, now, to charter direction into the future:

Inspiration from Final Countdown: 21 Days

(Note to self and otherwise--watch the elephant in the link above, you won't regret it)

Wrotes Quotes

All of these, m'kay? Because every once in awhile I need a kick in the arse that makes me go, "Oh, yeah! That's right...I didn't think about that." And then I dig in and write harder.

41 Eye Opening Quotes

link to original

Ask Polly

Hello to this, and thank you very much (click on exerpt to go to full badassery article):

We are old nobodies who love what we do. We would be old nobodies even if Oprah and the New York Times best-seller list consecrated us, because we don't want to create illusions around ourselves like so many others have done before. Instead, we make what we love and dress how we like and dance in our kitchens and breathe in the good moments because we know nothing lasts that long. We will never have everything we ever wanted. The world will not turn shiny and spotless and perfect one day. We aren't rushing to some imaginary finish line. We are inching along slowly, smelling the flowers, playing with our dogs and cats, giving generously to those who need our help when we can.

We wake up very early in the morning, before the sun comes up, and we say to the world: I AM OLD AND I AM A NOBODY AND I LOVE WHAT I DO. You will be just like me someday. If you're lucky.

Sacrificing Identity

Thinking about this post today, especially the bit here:

“It can be exciting, but also painful or sad, to relinquish an identity. Sometimes it’s necessary, to allow important changes to occur. The more aware we are of a clash between the identity we have and the habits we seek, the more we can shape our actions to reflect our true values.”

Because, see, there are these things I want to do in my life. With my life.

These things that I’ve always wanted to do. But there’s just not enough time. So habits need to be reassessed and reorganized and redirected. 

And that’s all for today. A golden child needs some attention. 

Leave me some thoughts on change and identity. What bits of yourself have you had to sacrifice, in order to make yourself more who you want to be?  

Small Blush

original link

Apparently it’s been over a month since I last posted. Uh. I might be blushing just a bit, because how did I lose all that time? I was doing really well with this consistency, so what happened?

I don’t know.

I have no ready-made excuses. Nothing huge and distracting happened. Except, I was having a hard time figuring out how to put my answer for my last post into words. Could that really have been all that kept me from writing? The anxiety I felt at having to condense a huge idea down into something as confining as words? 

I don’t know. 

Anxiety is one of my big walls. I have a hard time climbing over that huge, craggy block, busting through it in order to write. So many reasons to feel anxious about writing—

The specific selection of words I choose to convey a thought says a lot about me and/or the way I view the world. It’s intimidating to let people see that. Belly up. 

The specific selection of thoughts I choose to convey a situation, discussion, or scene, says a lot about me and/or the way I view the world. It’s frightening to allow people the opportunity to see inside my head. Belly up.

The specific choice of story I select to convey the way I view the world, what I love and hate about society, about the human condition, and what I think should change, says a lot about who I am in society, about my human strengths and flaws, and what I need to change about myself. It’s terrifying to let people see me belly up. 

To name just a few anxieties.

But. One of the reasons I love to write is caught visually at [1:08] of this music video. Did you see it? I have no idea what it is. But I’ve got theories. One of my theories is that, regardless of whatever god(s) or Universe we believe or don’t believe in, we are all part of Something Bigger. And that through creativity and the act of creating, we are able to tap into that Something Bigger. We are no longer just ourselves. 

Which is important because let’s face it, while many aspects of the creative process are social—problem solving with fellow creators, sharing mile stones and end products with others, etc—the actual part where you put derriere in chair and work is not. And it can be lonely. 

I think this tapping into Something Bigger thing is the difference between an A-movie actor and a B-movie actor—in the first we are no longer able to see Brad Pitt, but rather we see Tristan Ludlow, or Tyler Durden, or Gerry Lane. Whereas in a B-movie, the characters still seem to retain a sense of themselves and the story characters are not as believable and poignant. Am I making sense with this analogy?

I don’t know. 

Many people call it The Zone. I love writing in the Zone. I love writing because, for a least a moment, I’m no longer anxious about writing. For at least a moment, I no longer feel like I’m belly up and alone. 

What Is It?

This is the reason I write. One of the reasons, anyway:

Did you see it? See the moment? Watch it again, and then write down in the comments the [minute:second] where you saw it, and what you think it is. More on this next week, I just want to throw this little experiment out to the masses and hear what you think.

Elbow Grease

So I’m putting some elbow grease into the first chapter of Fivers for some upcoming critique opportunities at this and this. Pretty excited, but does anyone else have a hard time with beginnings? I’ve started and restarted this beast so many times. Here are just four examples of four different first lines: 
 

• Meidun’s aggressive sprawl zigzagged downhill from the massive fortress above, the colorfully decked-out lanes bulging with festival goers.

• Escape smelled like sour ale and skewered rat meat.

• The steep stairway leading up to the large terrace above doubled as a directory for the Pearl District, with multiple shops and ads stenciled onto any open stone-face available.

• Eliza ducked out of the hired carriage and paused, her totem senses humming.

original link

Why is it that first step out the door is always the hardest? (Gotta run back in, forgot my phone; it’s actually kind of cold out here so I should grab a jacket; my list isn’t in my pocket so where did I leave it? Keys, anyone?)

Anyone?

Word Hocus Pocus

Truth is, words are powerful things. Names are powerful things. Words are names for things, and people, and ideas – incantations giving life and meaning to what we experience and hope for. A bridge, from my head to yours.

There is magic in a bridge.

See what I mean? I say ‘bridge’ and all these images come to mind.

I name a specific bridge, and even more magic. Explosions to chains of magic. 

• Rainbow Bridge (immediate associations that come to mind: leprechauns; Rainbow Bright; Logan, Utah)

• London Bridge (England; Sleepy Joe; ancestry; decapitated heads; Arizona?)

• Bifrost Bridge (Chris Hemsworth; billy goats gruff; Marvel marathon with kids)

• Bridge to Terabithia (counting warts on my hands during reading time in elementary; scruffy dogs; childhood friend and Dumbo)

original link

There was a story in all this, but it got lost in the translation. And yet. Something about gratitude to a stranger who gave me life when he gave me his name, and nothing more. Gratitude to a friend who brought gifts to both my boys, when only one of them broke his leg. Gratitude to another on the other side of a phone call who let me live her reality vicariously, even if just for a moment. And it was all good.

These word-things, they're truly something, aren't they? To be able to paint a feeling in my heart onto the canvas of this screen, however abstract it may seem. Impossible, really, but therein lies the magic.

You, over there, on the other side of this digital bridge. Tell me something about bridges, or strangers, or broken things. Fixed things. Wordswordswords. Ready, go:

Feet Feats

Golden Child is doing this now:

original link

I’m truly and literally overjoyed for her about this because, while I don’t have many memories from when I was her age, I do remember being able to do this.

I remember it being the most amazing thing ever. Huge. That I could maneuver those things up to my face, to my mouth, and it was pure joy.

In retrospect, I don’t remember thinking others were better than me because, heyo, they could walk and stuff. That didn’t even compute since they were them, and I was me.

And, heyo, I was bad-ass. I could put my feet in my mouth.

Granted, all this is translated into my current head-voice and vocab. Of course. I didn’t have those specific cognizant baby-head-thoughts back then. But you understand what I’m saying, right?

How, it was awesome that I was accomplishing this heretofore impossible task.

And how it had nothing to do with anyone else and what they were able to do. I’m sure I recognized on some level that we were all different, but there was no distinction of which different was better or worse. There was no such thing.

As I have small, daily freak-outs in front of my computer where I try to talk myself down from trashing all my writing because it isn't up to par with so-and-so's writing, my daughter puts her foot in her mouth and reminds me -- there’s still no such thing. 

Makes me think fondly of this: 

How are your daily freak-outs and feats coming?

Seven

So have you heard of the seven basic plots?

I’m trying to figure out if I buy into the notion.
 

See, there’s the thing with color and what we as humans can perceive in the visible spectrum. R-O-Y-G-B-I-V. Wavelengths vary greatly outside this range – from the size of the universe to somewhere in the vicinity of the Planck length (as far as we know, but really, what do we know?) – and yet we can only see these certain ones with the naked eye, right? 

original link

Is it the same with the human experience? While the possible hues of our histories, life events, and realities may seem limitless, are we so constricted by the confines of our language and perception that we can’t move away from:

• Overcoming the Monster

• Rags to Riches

• The Quest

• Voyage and Return

• Comedy

• Tragedy

• Rebirth 

I can't seem to get my head out of this thinking spot, lately.

Also, is it just complete coincidence that both the basic colors and basic plots come in seven?

What are your thoughts about all this?

Burning Again

It's been long enough, I think, since I’ve been consistent on here. I'd really like to be consistent in more things. For example:

•  Getting up in the mornings to read and stretch and move before the Goobers get up.

• Looking at the stars, especially when the moon is huge and round to hang out with too.

• Vacuuming.

Just to mention a few.

Also, to write here every Tuesday like I did before this. So I offer you some lovelies to get things burning again:

Same Thing

I laughed because I didn't know what else to do.

Really I was squirming inside my skin.

Kicking and screaming inside my stretchy skin.

He touched my skin with strange hands,

and he kissed my skin with strange lips.

A stranger to me --

I had never seen him before.

A stranger to him --

he didn't ask who I was, who I am,

just assumed he'd make me feel full?

I wish he wouldn't have touched me.

I wish he wouldn't have kissed me.

I wish he wouldn't have assumed anything.

No. I wish I wouldn't have laughed.

Two women stood witness.

Their eyes --

I wish I could have disapeared into their round.

Now when women laugh, I try to really listen.

If they need them,

I try to offer my eyes.

Hollow places where they can be swallowed,

just for the moment, if they so wish it.

Sometimes, when people make that face,

I can't tell if they are laughing or crying.

Sometimes, maybe it's the same thing.

________________________________________________

The Game

I know what you want me to say,

so I'll say it,

because I don't want to see you again.

I know what you don't want me to say,

so I won't,

because I don't want to see you again.

I know the game.

I know the face you want me to wear.

You put your feet up on the chair.

In China that gesture is offensive.

I wear Chinese symbols for a reason.

But I'm in debt to you,

so it doesn't matter what I want you to do,

and it doesn't matter what I wear for me.

I will not wear my own face in front of you.

You don't want me to.

I know your game,

and I play it,

because I never want to see you again.

 ________________________________________________

 Hide and Seek

Pearls yearn.

We're born of sperm.

We sit and squirm.

What questions are okay to ask?

To think, and then say out loud?

For you I burn.

But that's not a question.

Is it?

What lays inside,

yearning to come out?

Where do we look --

awkward --

when those questions come out?

You wrap your shells around me

and I am safe on your soft tongue.

From them I come.

For you I hum.

And when I'm ready,

I will be said out loud.

Ready or not,

I'm going to open my eyes.

original here

Packing Peanuts V: Time is a Spice

Today's Packing Peanuts are from an interesting time in my life when I worked on the editorial side of a publication and had the opportunity to read thousands of submissions to help decide what would be accepted or rejected for publishing.

These are parts of three pieces that weren’t accepted for various reasons, but still pulled at my heart strings. They are reminders to me that:

• You don’t have to be verbose or perfect to hit home.

And,

• Just because one publication doesn’t accept your work doesn’t mean your words aren’t important and touching. Always try, try again. 

link to original here

Anonymous older person

Anonymous younger person

Anonymous younger person