BarbsWriteTree

Name:
Location: San Marcos, California, United States

Southern gal living in California. Have been writing since the age of ten and am addicted to the written word. Have stacks of books-to-be-read in almost every room. I teach writing on a volunteer basis and in a paid position. I once worked with foreign customers for an aerospace company; interesting job that gave me great insight into other cultures. Family scattered all over the US so have excuses to travel.

Friday, April 24, 2009

TITLES THAT STAY WITH US

Doing research recently for a magazine article I came across some information about titles. Titles are the first thing that grabs a reader--or editor/publisher. They also help writers stay focused on their work; a working title may be the only thing that keeps you on track at the beginning. Make it a title that keeps you interested in writing page after page.

I have been a collector of titles for years. Some catchy phrase, line in a poem, or word in a conversatin may join my list. My list isn't catagorized--essay, article, mainstream, romance, western, inspirtional--but it's usually not hard to figure out which ones would fit best to a certain genre/story. Sometimes even the titles will set your muse off on a story line.

On my bookshelf are several titles that might grab a reader's attention. I've offered the genre after each grouping.

McKinnon's Bride, The Rancher Needs a Wife, or Unexpected Complication (Romance)

Mardi Gras Madness, Burn Out, Nothing But Trouble (Mystery)

The Piano Man, Plain Truth, Dairy Queen Days (Mainstream)

Bouquets of Hope, Keep it Simple, A Cup of Comfort (Inspiratiional)

Write Brain, Finding Your Voice, Make a Scene (Creative Writing)

There are famous titles we will never forget: Gone With the Wind, The Wizard of Oz,
Cat on at Hot Tin Roof, The Shining, etc. The one title I am so glad didn't make the final cut is a book by Tennessee Williams. He titled it "Poker Night." That book became "A Streetcar Named Desire." I can't imagine even removing Poker Night from the shelf to read the back cover.

What do you want your title on a bookstore shelf to convey?

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Tuesday, April 21, 2009

CHUNKS OF TIME

As I mentioned several blogs ago, I've been under the knife for skin cancers. That good-for-you antibiotics make me fuzzy headed. It's really very disconcerting. Here I have this large chunk of time--free time to work on that book I've been trying to restart and complete--and I'm wiped out. Brain doesn't work for extended periods of writing. Concentration is woozy. Terrible!

That doesn't mean I won't get anything done. It will be less than I usually plan. I have a schedule every day where I set aside at least two hours to write. Because of my busy life and scheduled teaching gigs, the chunk of time set aside is not the same each day. But I attempt to get those hours in.

Experts say we should create a time to write, the same as we set aside time to eat and sleep. Yes, there are some people who equate being able to write with the needs of daily living. I think I might be one of them but I do manage to snack at the computer and that is done without a schedule or any will power. It's not the best way to sustain myself.

I often have deadlines set by someone outside my usual schedule--editors, publishers, Homeowners Board I serve on, or lesson plans for my classes. I schedule those. Around them, I still mamage to make time to work on that unfinished novel, create an outline for a new short story, try to understand all the requirements of a POD publisher for my latest book, and all the other ideas flitting thourgh my head.

Those chunks of time are needed by all of us who write. Take advantage of them--make time for them--create that schedule to include them. Once you make the alloted time a part of your writing life, it will be routine to claim those chunks of time.

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Monday, April 20, 2009

USING ART TO WRITE

When I teach memoir writing classes or give seminars on the subject, I bring along a family photograph. I encourage beginning writers to pick such a photo and write the story they see in it. The memory might be of the people shown. Maybe it's the place--the river where you fished with your grandfather, the area where your family went on picnics, the lot where you chose the Christmas tree each year, cousin's homes, or the great-grandmother holding you as a baby.

You could also use a photo as the basis for a short story, or the beginning of a novel. Or you could use a great painting, a piece of sculptor, or a Remington bronze to stir the emotions, bring out the story.

Viewing artwork stimulates the poetic areas of our imagination also. I've done this thourgh a local art gallery where writers choose a painting or piece of artwork to produce poetry. It's a great opportunity to let art speak through your words.

Make this a part of your writing schedule. It's especially good to use such techniques when your book is stalled, or the article you have a deadline on won't come together. Using images or artwork heightens your creativity when you least expect it.

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Friday, April 17, 2009

MIRRORED IMAGES

I need to apologize to a dear writer friend, Rosanne Catalano, publisher of "Cat's Meow for Writers & Readers Ezine (www.rosannecatalano.net). If you don't receive this newsletter, you must sign up. It not only offers much needed publishing news and contest information, outstanding fiction, poetry and essays/articles, but it also brings writers the comfort of feeling we are a part of a caring, creative family.

That, however, is not why I owe Rosanne an apology. Some time ago I purchased a copy of her book, "Mirrored Images". This short collection of short stories (you will have to try real hard to decide which are fact or fiction), articles and poetry, both touched my heart and made me smile. I am here to tell you, Rosanne, and my readers, that I am sorry I haven't reviewed this book before. It's a great read!

It touched me because of the love shown for parents, God, and husband. It touched me because I was the kid with glasses who was bullied and picked on and I could feel Rosanne's pain when it happened to her. It touched me because I have lost my parents and her tribute to her father, and mother, brought back all of the good times and love I had with/for my own parents. It touched me because Rosanne, as I feel so many of us are but never put it into words so elequntly, are survivors.

I believe we all have guardian angels and "Mirrored Images" proves it to all who will listen. No one but angels could have saved her from bullies in junior high school, have looked over her until she found the perfect mate, and still guide her to this day in her writing craft. These are stories we should not only want to read, enjoy reading, but they are stories we all need to hear.

I get a glimpse of the love and courage that Rosanne shows, and shares, in her newsletter--and our most welcome online correspondance. She is writing a continuation of her life stories titled "Skeletons from the Past." I can't wait to read that. But first, my readers, you must read "Mirrored Images."

"Mirrored Images" may be purchased at Rosanne's website (www.rosannecatalano.net) or at Lulu Press (www.lulu.com). It is availabe in both e-book and paperback form.

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Thursday, April 16, 2009

STITCHES AND STITCHES

I would much rather be submitting something positive about the pleasure of writing, or putting my readers in stitches over something funny. However, I am not laughing tonight.

Instead, I am sending this short message--while on pain killers and antibiotics, keeping salve on stitches on my face and ear, willing the swelling to go down so I can breath properly and put a phone to my ear.

Good news. I was not melanoma's--confirmed first biopsy by this pathologist that these were basal cell carcinoma skin cancers. The stitches will come out next Wednesday. Before then I hope to be back online, and this blog.

Until then----Watch that sun exposure!

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Monday, April 13, 2009

IS FIRST PERSON THE VOICE FOR YOU?

My "Aunt Lutie's Blue Moon Cafe" is written in the voice that seemed to come from the heart of the story--first person. When the muse came to me with this story of a young woman in East Texas inheriting a cafe, it was her voice I heard telling me the story. "I've been hog-tied to Harts Corner, a place I've tried to run away from half of my life." Who could resist her right to tell the story?

Contrary to what many experts tell us, writing in Mary Margaret Butler's voice was easy. Her tone flowed, page after page, until some 400 plus double-spaced pages later, she gave me the exciting, surprising ending. I hadn't attempted to write a novel in first person before this; several award-winning short stories proved I could dodge the pitfalls and so I listened to the voice. This Southern woman, with her soft accent, wanted to tell her story, her way. I let her.

Something I recently read urged writers, such as I, to choose a narrator whose voice will work well in this tense. They say to make sure to choose a character with a rich interior life. What does that mean in MM's (Mary Margaret) case? The character-building brought on by her mother's death and her aunt's love? Having to admit she has the skills to run, profitably, a cafe even though she's longed to live somewhere else for years? Feeling God's presence? Loving others--in this case--a needy child and a gorgeous lawman? MM can show readers all of these qualities through her own voice telling her own story.

Many of those experts, and authors, admit that writing in first-person POV is hard work. For example, it's difficult not to begin each sentence with "I". A writer must create sentence structures so readers are not conscious of this "I", this storyteller. She can't overwhelm the story.

The writer through the narrator cannot forget the description. So often, first-person stories are told so deeply into the person and heart, they don't share what they are seeing--the cafe where she works, the apartment where she lives, the people around her, and the events of the story. I hope, through MM, my readers can see the cafe and its kitchen, observe Bess when MM first saw her when she was a child, and the smell of those catered parties. MM must let the readers see what she sees.

I'm reading this book aloud to a group. I hear them laugh or gasp; I look up and see them smile and nod at appropriate places in the sharing. This tells me that MM's voice is genuine, that people can believe the tale she is sharing.

This woman in the story speaks to me, a Southerner, and I hope to ones who have never lived in a place like Harts Corner. I want them to share that wonderful, simple and complex life and to meet the colorful characters found in those towns.

First-person is the only voice that can tell this story.

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Saturday, April 11, 2009

DAUGHTERS

On June 22, 1961, my beautiful daughter, Elizabeth Lauren, was born. She was, has been and is the apple of my eye, a wonderful daughter, wife, mother and now, grandmother. She and I are close though we live 3,000 miles apart. No one could take her place in my heart.

There is room in a mother's heart for everyone. On February 15, 2009, another beautiful woman slipped into her place in mine. Jarkata became the wife of my son, Edward (Eddie), and brought a new joy to me.

I haven't met my new daughter-in-law yet. They were married in Reno, will live in the Sacramento area of California, but she is back in the South working through tax season and the end of the school year before she will officially move to be with her husband. Until then, we talk via email to each other.

It's not that hard for one woman-wife-mother to size up another. She is a jewel. From all accounts from my son, her two children, Anna and Michael, are precious, well-behaved--children with those Southern manners I pray will not be corrupted by living in California. She shares her concerns about them, and I admire her for that. And she longs to make a home for them with my Eddie as soon as possible--and that endears her to me.

As a writer, it delights me that she reads and writes poetry when the muse creeps up on her and time permits. She is reading my work and enjoying it--that makes me feel good. I hope that we can one day soon share some of our work--in person.

The most important thing to a mother is for her children to be loved and to be happy. My son sounds like the happiest, luckiest man on earth. Jarkata says he is wonderful and expresses to me how much she loves him, how fortunate they both are to have found each other. That touches my heart, warms me inside, brings a tear to my eye.

Because that is all I can ask for, isn't it? That these two newlyweds will cling to each other, share the good and the not so wonderful aspects of life with love, caring, forgiveness, and laughter. No mother could ask for more.

Jarkata has asked if she may call me Mom. Isn't that wonderful? How honored I feel that she is comfortable asking--and doing so. I have a new daughter, a wonderful addition to our family. I can't wait to hug her and her children, to welcome them, and to see for myself that my son is loved.

Blessings, prayers, love to you both but especially to you, Jarkata.

Mom

Friday, April 10, 2009

NEVER THROW IT AWAY

I last wrote about making notes and keeping them--hopefully, where you can find them. Since them I read an article online about an author who lives in a 2-bedroom apartment in New York City, has just turned her office into the new baby's room, and now keeps her ideas on slips of paper, napkins, whatever, in decorative hat boxes. Mentioning keeping all these notes reminded me of a lesson I learned several years ago--one I hope you already know.

Don't throw anything away--not those notes, story starts, essays rejected many times---nothing.

We have moved quite often in our almost 32 years of marriage. On one move of quite some distance, I knew I needed to lighten the load, really cut down those 88 boxes (my husband does exagerate) coming out of my office. Therefore, I really cleaned out those files. I scanned through some of the old stories, essays, articles, clip files. I'd never completed them, or sold them, and the idea clippings hadn't been used, so I won't miss them, right? Do I need to tell you I still have thoughts of several stories, etc. I should have kept, picked them up again, and completed?

I have a new rule: never throw it away. As you might imagine, I don't have enough room in my office for all the files to hold all of these saved items. There are plastic tubs in our storage area of the workshop and four are in my walk-in closet in the office. One of these days I will set up a "program" of some sort to catalog it all, and not have to sit in the middle of the closet, searching through files looking for something I know I saved. Until then, I am not throwing it away.

And while I am sorting through those files, hopefully, I will find the beginning of a book a former student says he gave me to critique--just as I was giving up my teaching of that particular class and two months before I packed everything up for another of those moves.

I hope I haven't thrown it away.

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Sunday, April 05, 2009

POET'S SUNDAY

It's the first Sunday of the month which means I spent three plus hours with the wonderful voices of San Diego County poets. Our guest speakers, Oriana along with Janet Baker, were outstanding! Oriana is originally from Poland and often brings us this European insight to the poetry world. Janet writes nature poetry and it grabbed us all when she read of the cacti blooms of spring.

I've been invited to be a third member of the Board for this group and it is such an honor. The position means that I can be in on the decision making for where the group is going and am involved with the Escondido Arts Council when they meet. And someone has to stand in for Bob or Lenny, the facilitators of Poet's Inc, when one or the other is out--setting up the room and the "grazing" table, and making members feel welcome.

I feel pretty inadequate when I hear the poetry of these talented writers. But poetry writing is one of the oldest forms of writing, especially my own. I wrote poems when I was ten and have never stopped. My mood captures the pen and my muse is open to many topics. Here's a poem I shared today:

RUNNING

Hands reach out from nowhere
Faces appear from the past
Fielding questions to answer
Creating more questions to ask.
And I am dashing away
Ignoring them all. Or so I say.

Why am I running?
Why am I here?
What have I done
To feel such fear?

I hear the voice again--
"If we catch you, we'll kill you
Or wreak your life,
The only way to dodge us
Is to escape
To run from this strife."

So into the night,
Even during the day,
Not knowing where to go
Or the reason why, I obey.
I seek a place to hide
Turn my face
Close my heart
Shut off my pride.

Can't anyone see?
Can't they hear my plea?
What can the problem be?
Who is my enemy?

I turn to face my tormentor
And find that
It is--
Me.

BD (4/09)

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Saturday, April 04, 2009

SCRAPS

I find story ideas on scraps. Words on napkins. Names on business cards. Scenes on back of an envelope. Dialogue on a theater playbill. Short paragraphs in the notebook carried in my handbag. These fragments have triggered many of the stories, several novels, dozens of articles, personal essays and poems. Save those scraps.

There are other items I would suggest you collect to lead you to new ideas. I travel whenever the budget allows and have found that sourvenirs--a fan from Spain, a black heart-shaped necklace from Alaska, a Texas flag, a small watercolor from Italy, a menu from Turkey--all have led me to stories.

Remember to pick up brochures from towns, museums, tourist spots, and public gardens. Pick up a local newspaper, the freebie classifieds, and listen to the regional radio station. Eat in the small cafes offering homemade biscuits and gravy, chili or apple pie; you'll be in close proximity to the townspeople. Those napkins, or the small notebook, are a repository for character sketches.

Never throw those scaps away. You never know when one word, a short line, a paragraph--even the perfect name--will bring call forth the muse needed for a bestseller--or at least publication in your favorite small press quarterly, or monthly literary magazine.

Save those scraps.

Thursday, April 02, 2009

STORY MAPPING

I've been reading a lot recently about storyboarding. I don't have any excess wall space in my "office" to tape charts/outlines/scenes of my books on (and I'd probably not look at page after page of such in a notebook) but it is a fascinating way to work. I do have room for story maps though.

My writer fried, Diana Ice, as I have mentioned before creates fantasy worlds for her intriguing characters to live in. I am blown away by the way she pulls the reader into a country and city she has completely made up. With her descriptions and marvelous dialogue fitting the place and era, I walk the streets of ancient cities, feel the icy winds on the deck of a ship, and hear the clash of swords during battles. Diana tells fellow writers that she creates maps of her country and cities in order to "be there" as she writes.

If a town of your own creation is the prominent setting for your story, draw a plot of that place. Put in the house(s) where your character(s) live, add the business, the church, the park--even if some spots don't have a place in your story, draw the complete town so you can "be there."

A home may be an intregal part of your work. If so, draw a floor plan. Maybe you need to place furniture in the room--so in the dark the intruder won't bump into the furniture, so the suddenly blind person can find her way around, so the reader can see what the home looks like from the view of the characters.

Use these drawings. They are more dependable than your memory, less trouble than having to scroll back page after page for a description. These maps are reference tools. THey don't have to be perfect; the basic outline is all you need. Tape them up near your computer and write with confidence.

Looking back, I could have used such a town layout for "Aunt Lutie's Blue Moon Cafe." In fact, I will draw my map anyway in the near future, as I'm probably facing a rewrite of the book, and I have an outline for a sequence. I should have had one for the novella I recently wrote as I kept going back to the New Mexico road map. Even though I made up a town for my main characters to hide out in, I used actual highways for the escape route. Not looking at the map close enough, I had them traveling too far south on Hwy. 28 (when it actually turns toward El Paso). (You have my permission to nod and grin here, Diana.)

Create those town maps. Draw that house plan. Don't rely on your memory for important details. Using these visual aids will save you time and show readers you have presented the accurate, entertaining work you promised.