Unblock Your Creativity with Mur

Posted on 02/25/2010 at 7:12 pm

Mur Lafferty of the “I Should Be Writing” podcast is leading a video podcast group through Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. If you want to unblock your creativity, buy the book and follow along.


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“In Between” – a short story

Posted on 02/24/2010 at 5:42 pm

Are you a man? Or a woman? Or something else? Who gets to decide what you are? You? Your doctor? Your therapist? The government?

In my short story “In Between”, Martina Glover is in the process of transitioning from male to female. But she’s not a girly-girl. She identifies as a butch lesbian. This leads to problems with her therapist who has strict standards about who should be allowed to get sex reassignment surgery and who shouldn’t. What’s a girl to do?

I want to thank Mila and Jayna Pavlin of the Trans-Ponder podcast for discussing the issues of self-determination and the control of the medical community over trans-identified individuals.

I hope you enjoy the story. If you haven’t done so already, be sure to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes. And please, leave me feedback!

 
icon for podpress  In Between [26:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Another Rough Draft Finished

Posted on 02/19/2010 at 12:01 am

Two nights ago,  I had a story dream. Yesterday, I got started turning it into a story and today I finished the rough draft. I love it when a plan comes together.

Tomorrow, I hope to finish working on Chapter 4 in my novel Desert Witch.


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Internalization

Posted on 02/14/2010 at 5:20 pm

Hello monkeys!

When I write rough drafts, I have a tendency to leave out a lot of internalization.  I’m more interested in getting the skeleton of the scene (primarily the action) on paper. But as I was reminded yesterday at my writer’s group, the skeleton isn’t enough. A skeleton with muscles isn’t enough. If I want my scene to really pop, I need to really flesh it out and that means nailing the internalization.

For those not familiar with the term, internalization is when you share what’s going on in your POV character’s head. This is important because it helps the reader see more of the conflict that this character is dealing with and what the potential consequences might be. You can set up foreshadowing and build tension.

Why not just demonstrate that in dialogue and action? Because what a person does or says may be different than what they are thinking. It adds an additional dimension to the character and also the story.

In the prologue of the story I’m working on, my POV character is trying to comply with requests made of her by another character. At the same time, she is trying to figure out why that other character is acting so strange. She comes up with a plan to manipulate the other character, plans that will soon be dashed. Drama! Tragedy!

Providing internalization also helps the reader understand why your POV character makes a sudden change in behavior. If you character has been going along with things, but suddenly rebels, internalization can keep your reader from losing the connection to the character. You don’t want to pop that believability bubble.

Not all stories require a lot of internalization. You will find more in some genres (literary, women’s fiction, romance) than others (spy thrillers, hardcore sci-fi). But more often than not, a little can draw your reader further into your make-believe world.


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Back in the Groove

Posted on 02/03/2010 at 1:34 pm

Now that I have the web redesign and the audio production of “Sappho” behind me, I am finally getting back in the groove to writing.

As I mentioned earlier, writing rough drafts is tough most of the time. So many decisions on what the story should be, how to make it unique and how to tell it.  It takes a while to build up some momentum, but once I do, I find some brief moments when the writing gets a little easier. It’s almost fun! LOL.

In the past 24 hours, I’ve written a prologue and the third chapter of my novel Desert Witch. I’ve also made progress on a short story titled “Chaperone”. I like times like this.


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