The Place For My Writers Notes

Original Posting 13 Nov 2009

Ekphrasis! The poor man was suffering from it, what could be done?

No, this is our word from an article in Writers Digest, February 2005, pages 41 to 43. The title is "The Fine Art of Poetry" by Miriam Sagan. And that odd word ekphrasis (say it five times in a row and it starts to roll trippingly off your tongue, eh?) apparently is an old term for making poetry based on a work of visual art. Sculpture, paintings, I suppose even music videos and advertisements are all fair targets to help you spark your poetry. "It's a time-honored technique of poetry to draw inspiration from other art forms. Often the imagination of another artist can truly fire a poet's desire for expression."

Apparently the term originally referred to the part of a poem that showed us something -- that drew an image. A description of Achilles shield or something like that. However, today it simply means a poem drawn from a particular piece of art -- or about a particular piece of art. There are no fixed formal constraints, and it's up to you as to whether you go to the museum or simply contemplate a reproduction. Nowadays, you might even take a look at Google images or some such digital repository and see what catches your eye there.

Miriam suggests a field trip. Dedicate some time to a poetry field trip. A museum, a park, that funny public sculpture in front of a corporate headquarters or perhaps the art hanging in a shopping mall? Take some time, look around, see the pieces and their setting and the people. Relax, look, let yourself respond and feel. Make some notes.

Next, "enter the scene and describe it." Describe the piece and the setting. Think about the words you're using, the colors, the lighting, the sounds, the smells -- and pick out the parts that really need to be there.

Miriam suggests starting with objective description. Then let your imagination take sway. "What do you imagine about the piece or the artist? Can you place yourself in the scene?" Interlace objective bits, sketching what you see in words, with your own inward description. Spend some time at this -- 20 minutes or so. You may feel as if you reach a natural stopping point. Give yourself a minute or two to make sure.

This is a journey of exploration. Clearly, ekphrasis already has a theme -- the piece of art in front of you. But feel free to welcome unexpected twists. Your poem does not have to be just a word sketch of the painting -- it's a painting, plus you.

There's a sidebar, that gives 12 steps to writing an ekphrasis poem:

1. Select your piece of art.
2. Take plenty of time to be alone with it and absorb it.
3. Draft some notes.
4. Observe color, forms, materials.
5. Notice how it makes you feel.
6. Add some historical or biographical material about the artist if you like.
7. Start drafting the poem.
8. Allow yourself to move back and forth between subjective reactions and objective observations.
9. Step out of the frame of the art if you like and observe the passing scene or your own reaction.
10. If you haven't been writing in lines of poetry, break the prose where you'd naturally take breaths.
11. Let the poem sit and revise it after a few days (but don't edit out the freshness of your initial response).
12. Enjoy -- and remember you can do this whenever you need a little inspiration.

So there you have it. Ekphrasis really isn't something you suffer from, it's just another way of inciting you to poetry with a little dash of art. So go ahead and try it.

Write!

Original posting 3 August 2008

Chapter 15: Contemplative Scenes

Walking through Make a Scene by Jordan Rosenfeld, in Part Three about scene types, suspense scenes, and dramatic scenes, we now turn our attention to contemplative scenes.

"Contemplation -- the act of careful consideration or examination of thoughts and feelings and smaller details -- is the antithesis of action." Rosenfeld suggests that good contemplative scenes:

• have more interior monologue than action or dialogue
• are slow-paced, letting the reader get a deep intimate look at the protagonist's inner life
• focus on the protagonist interacting with self and setting more than other characters
• give the protagonist time to digest what is happened and decide what to do next
• let the character reflect and the reader catch their breath before or after an intense scene

These are good for thoughtful consideration and reflection, but they're also slow. So you need to balance the pace.

Interior monologue is the mark of contemplative scenes. The protagonist is thinking, and the reader learns things about the plot and character from those thoughts. The old convention of italics for interior monologue is usually now simple, elegant exposition. Remember that interior monologue is very intimate, with the reader inside the mind of the character.

Contemplative scenes often open with interior monologue, setting description, or transitional action. You need to let the reader know quickly that we're going to slow down.

If you start to contemplative scene with interior monologue, make sure that the thoughts are related to the scene that just ended. Don't make readers guess what the protagonist is reflecting about.

Setting description, on the other hand, gives the reader a little bit of physical reality, then dives into the thoughts. Use the setting details to kick off the character of thinking and feeling. This little bit of interaction with the setting can provide an alternative to action for contemplative scenes.

Sometimes, of course, you can do a little bit of transitional action, usually finishing up the action of the last scene. Then slow down and contemplate.

Character and plot -- the contemplative scene is really there to give in-depth understanding of the character, and how they are reacting to whatever's going on. You want the contemplative scene to focus on the protagonist:

• having realistic and appropriate responses to an event
• struggling with something that has happened recently or is about to happen
• making a plan, thinking about options, or coming to a decision

One of the difficulties of a contemplative scene is keeping dramatic tension high. Mostly, you do that by including internal conflict, including unspecified dangers, or creating an eerie or tense atmosphere. Danger or mystery on the horizon, or settings that make the reader nervous, are likely to keep the tension high.

Setting is often used to provide mood and ambience for contemplation scenes. Setting details can provide balance for the thoughts and feelings. You can keep the contemplation in touch with reality with occasional detail of the setting.

Contemplative scenes usually end with a little return of energy and action. You might end with a sudden action cliffhanger, or with a moment of decision. You can end with a surprise, or a bit of foreshadowing pointing to what's coming next. You need to set up the next scene, and get the reader ready to go again.

Rosenfeld's checkpoints for contemplative scenes:

1. Does the contemplative scene balance or slow down action?
2. Does the contemplative scene signal that it is a contemplative scene as quickly as possible?
3. Does the contemplative scene focus on the inner life of the protagonist?
4. Does the protagonist grapple with a conflict, dilemma, or decision?
5. Are setting details used to create dramatic tension and establish a mood?
6. Does the end of the scene return the reader to action?

Next we will be taking a look at dialogue scenes, but for right now, let's reflect on those contemplative scenes.

Assignments? Probably the first question is whether you want to use a contemplative scene or not? While Rosenfeld suggests that traditional literary fiction uses them, he also admits that most genre and other writing uses them very sparingly if at all. I think in most of these you're more likely to see the contemplative paragraph.

In any case, you might try looking at a book that you enjoy and identifying a contemplative scene. Or take a piece of your writing and consider how you might use a contemplative scene in it. How would you introduce it, and how would you spend time letting the protagonist think out loud without boring the reader? How do you mark the ending of a contemplative scene, and return to the car chases?

'saright? Something to think about, eh?
and write!

When we write, we introduce unknown friends to each other.

Meandering Our Way through Plot and Structure (6)

And here we are again! Slowly working our way through Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell. We're about to start on chapter 3, which is about how to explode with plot ideas. Sound interesting? Let's dive in.

Bell starts by pointing out that ideas don't come full-blown. You have notions, little sparks, some of which ignite and some of which don't. So this chapter is going to talk about coming up with lots of ideas and choosing the right ones to develop. Also, he tells a little story about William Saroyan who was asked about the name of his next book. William replied, "I don't have a name and I don't have a plot. I have the typewriter and I have white paper and I have me and that should add up to a novel." Instead of write what you know, Bell suggest that originality comes from writing who you are. Deep in your own heart and soul, there is a wellspring of ideas to write about. This isn't autobiography, but rather gripping fiction without clichés, standard characters, or tired plots.

 Bell suggests thinking through these questions:

• What do you care most about in the world?
• If you were to write your own obituary, how would you want to read?
• What is your physical appearance? How do you feel about it? How does it affect you?
• What do you fear most?
• What are your major strengths of character?
• What are your major flaws?
• What are you good at? What do you wish you were good at?
• If you could do one thing and know that you would be successful, what would you do?
• What are three events from your childhood that helped shape you into the person you are today?
• What are some of your annoying habits?
• What secret in your life do you hope is never revealed?
• What is your philosophy of life?

The point is focusing on your own beliefs, values, what's going on in your depths. Then make sure that the stories hit a nerve inside you, are rooted in who you are. When you care about your writing, there's a passion and intensity that makes it reach other people. And that's what you want.

That's probably enough for this session, even though it's only about 1/10 of chapter 3. Still, spend some time working through that list of questions and thinking about what's important for you. Especially if you're writing a novel, you're talking about spending significant time working on it. Why would you bother doing something that was boring? Make it something that's important for you.

Original posting: Thu, 15 Jul 1993 17:57:01 JST

fo-cus (foh-kus) (pl. focuses, foci)

1. the point at which rays meet or from which they appear to proceed
2. the point or distance at which an object is most clearly seen by the eye or through a lens
3. an adjustment on a lens to produce a clear image at varying distances
4. a center of activity or interest, etc.

(v) (focused, focusing)

1. to adjust the focus of (a lens or the eye)
2. to bring into focus
3. to concentrate or be concentrated or directed (on a center etc.)

to lack focus (business and educational institutional usage)

1. slow down and do things the way I do.
2. don't ask questions I don't know the answers to.
3. ignore multiple levels, related points, and other parts of a complete, healthy understanding
4. quit looking around, thinking, and being interested in things I don't understand.
5. don't study, teach, or try to develop yourself or others (with an icy breath of "stay in your place" at times...)
6. put your blinders on, stop doing things I can't do, and sink to my level of boring closed-mindedness before I have to do something unusual such as think about my routine plodding along deeply worn tracks.

(based on almost 30 years of being criticized about focus. At this point in my life, I consider this comment and related forms as a signal indicating that I am threatening someone's cherished routines of thought. Whether to continue or not is up to me - and you! However, you should also consider it a compliment, as it means you are making them exercise that ill-used organ, their brain...)

in other words, consider the source - and go ahead and be the best person you can be for you!

conjugation practice!

I am a Renaissance woman. vs I am a specialist.
You lack focus. vs.  You are focused.
They are scatter-brained. vs. They are narrow-minded.

tink (who has never seen any particular virtue in being single-tracked...)

Original posting: Sat, 7 Mar 1998 10:58:57 EST

[under the influence of a book I'm reading -- no points for guessing what it is, but thank you for playing...I present a question which you may answer, consider and quietly decide not to answer, take as a starting point for a tangent, sine or cosine, or otherwise wave a tangeld web about...]

Remembering how you spent your day yesterday, would you have been better off:

• going to the movies instead
• as a cockroach for the day
• meditating on your life as a crystal
• as a runner-up in a Bill Gates Geek-Alike Contest
• as a [Ricki Lake or other daytime show] participant (don't forget to tell us what the theme of the day is)
• suing yourself in Judge Judy's courtroom for impersonation
• other fanciful variation at your selection

Don't forget to tell us why! and make us feel the pathos as you show us your day, and what you could have done with it...

Original Posting: Mon, 1 Aug 1994 18:35:02 JST

FAQ: Glimpses of A Writing Convention

"Yuiop!"

The cry starts small, then bounces and grows as they rally, and finally roars, echoing from storefronts and mountainsides, spacecraft and kneeling benches, and other curious locales.

The writers are in town.

And out of town.

And all around the town, wherever keyboard taps cyberspace into terminal networked delirium.

"Qwerty!"

Respond those who feel the earth move, the air flow, the water roll, and the fires glowing.

The muses muse, rationales bemuse, and sparkling wits amuse.

There is a party going on.

And Coven Mint of the party, by the party, and for the party, shall knot poor ice from dessert. Strange knots they be!

Words sluice, punctuation taps and scratches, and messages fly in the wilds of the list.

Oh say can you read, in the massed confusing messages, that our star is still shining, that lights our writing madness? Those broad metaphors and silly japes, through the parries and frustrations, give proof everyday, that writers like to write...

The cheers and jeers of the crowd may seem a bit hard to follow as the poetic brigade lays out its demands, the tale tellers recount their popularity polls, essayists pan for fool's gold and other precious flakes in the midst, and all the folderol fiddles wheee and far. But wait a bit, ask what you will, and lay your best out for the committee of the whole to ponder.

You may be surprised at the response.

For here there be writers. And in that jungle of words, burning bright, who will bind that fearful symmetry of writers and readers, the clawing need to communicate, to turn inner turmoil into measured prose and poem, ringing with the meat and blood of our humanity, burning in the night as a beacon for you...

And when you can, or when you must, put yourself in that arena with a dash of trust--lions and tygers and bears there may appear, but pussycats and teddy bears oft hide behind loud roars and raised claws. The verdict and judgment is--when all the sport is read and done--for life.

Welcome to the writers' convention! Our platform is a soapbox waiting for you to rise to the occasion, our smoke-filled backrooms are open for your breath of fresh air to sweep away the smog, and your word is always good here (even when fictional, faked, rhymed, or otherwise prepared for impersonation--we like characters!).

Have fun!

Have a cigar? How about kissing a few babies?

Hear ye, hear ye, the dishonorable Judge Crit is now reading submissions--get yours in soon.

And don't forget, every convention needs pros, amateurs, filksingers, balloons, razzle-dazzle peddlers and hawkers in the sales rooms, but mostly, quite especially, they need...

You.

So support your WRITERS convention.

Write!

original posting: Sat, 8 Jan 1994 18:35:03 JST

 FAQ: A Living Tree

[Please feel free to print and keep this, especially anyone new to the list. There is some helpful information. But before we get to the facts...]

Do not adjust your terminal...

you have entered...

THE WRITERS ZONE!

(please adjust your seatbelt now, the trip is about to begin!)

A Living Tree

As mists bubble and thicken, filling your email, if you are lucky and sick, you may be graced with glimpses, tantalizing, incomplete, and partially obscure, of the tree.

Watch for it.

It is an odd tree, multiple trunks thick, twisted, and vanishing into ancient pits of deception, and with branches, so many branches, all kinds and sorts, wrapped here, grafted there, working and jerking all the times and places anyone can dream of and some unimagined.

Those branches are so varied, so laden, so bent, that you know at one glimpse they've come from too many places and times to account. There are thin ones, whipping in non-existent breezes, with light green slivers of leaves shivering, quivering, and dripping. Others thickly poke out, slow growth of decades, almost decadent with age, bearing huge palmate fronds, or waving careful five-pointed outlines, or slowly baring ragged feathery glories of autumn.

Amongst the leaves, if you peek quite cautiously, and the wind teases just right, you may find strange fruits, huge berries, or sometimes popcorn! Go ahead and try that one, watch out for the thorns, but you might have, well it looks like, no I guess it isn't really the fruit of knowledge, just a tart little taste of unwilling extension of belief. Still, those fruits are varied, keep looking and you'll find.

Under the tree, where the passerby walks, is a mulch of drying leaves, thick, absorbent, and rich. For those who may dig in that mulch, they may find poetic whimsies, long tangled tales, and deeper, still deeper, a rich bed of past soils, mixed and enriched with the lighter leaves of today.

And up from that bed, through the roots and the branches, rises a potion quite heady and strong. That sap, driving up, into every branch, distills poisons and brews wines, sugars trunks, and slickens slides of such flowers as the tree sometimes shows.

Here, in one nook somewhat sheltered, out of the furies, yet quivering to their stormy blasts, with some sunshine, some rain, and even some winds, cluster some branches with intertwined twigs. Their leaves have yet to drop to the littered mould below, or to flutter free on the wind startling walkers and chased by snapping dogs. Yet they let each other see some of the patterned smoothness, or the prickly edges, or even the ragged roughness of leaves battered and torn, and in that sharing there is shelter and comfort sometimes from the worst of the dry sunshine or the snap of the lightning.

Where you are, reading this, one branch thrusts up strong. Lean back in the embrace of the tree, little bud, and shake a few leaves in the nook for us to see, to share the triumph of spring growth, the fullness of summer shades, the falling bittersweet red-gold frosts, or even the delicate chill traceries of winter.

And enjoy the fruits, whether true taste of knowledge, sweet grapes of disbelief, or unknown wobbling globe of imaginary bursting joy.

For the tree of the writers always has room for another bud.

This one's on me!

Don't let your leaves disappear in the dark! Stick some out in the sunshine and let us admire the dance of sunshine and shade on your writhing veins and tender green webs, the living words of the tree.

Who knows, we might get a wood nymph to help you...

original posting: Fri, 1 Dec 1995 12:54:19 EST

FAQ: Somewhere Near The Dudley Do Write Inn, (rev. 8)

walking down memory lane, I turned into this place in the moonlight...
thought some of you might enjoy taking a stroll with me.

[for those who wonder what the heck this is, keep reading...]

tink
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Somewhere Near The Dudley Do Write Inn,
On a Dark and Stormy Night
Nov. 28, 1995 (rev. 8)

You look a little lost, so let me introduce you to the place. It can be a mite confusing at first.

What is this? Well, let me invite you into the WRITERS Saloon, part time grill, and (sometimes) font for libations (all kinds welcome). Some people think of this as the bar for after the workshop, which isn't a bad way to describe it.

Don't you go listening to those rumors about us being a front for liberations, we just like candelabra on our piano now and then. Nothing to do with libertines, fraternizations, and eggheads, really.

I notice you're admiring that bar. Let me tell you, it's pretty special. Starts at WRITERS@[odd address], also called writers@[another address], but the bar (whether you're looking for drinking, ballet, or judgment) stretches around the world with plenty of odd kinks and twists. You can get caught in those angles in no time.

The place is open for business any time. Serves stories, poetry, essays, and those big bowls of chatter for your pleasure. If you don't see what you like, feel free to whip some up and set it out on the bar for everybody to enjoy. Don't let the comments about seasoning get to you, everyone seems to have their own notions about the best way to get the taste right. Try some of the bubbly humor or those dark poetics and relax with the folks.

Darn! Oh, not you. Someone stuck some of their gum up under the edge of the bar here. Just a minute, I got to get that out before it gets hard. That stuff seems to turn up everywhere.

Oh, now that's really pretty disgusting. Someone left their ear under here. Those artists!

Where were we? Oh, if you like gambling, try the Dare. Best game in town, I think. Simple, too, like drinking a shotglass of beer every minute. Just write a new story every week and send them all out to the magazines. Ask around, someone can tell you all about it.

There's usually a Quote Of The Day going on, and some of the folks toss in a game of words now and then. Some of the exercises are good ways to stretch your writing, too.

Aside from that, there's a fair amount of friendly talk, sometimes making it hard for your order to get through. But be patient, we will get around to you in time. If you get in a hurry, help us out.

Let's see. There's lots of dark corners, and always an empty seat for another lurker. So if that's what you want to do, set down, take a sip from the pop bubbling around or fill your plate at the smorgasbord of literate delights and relax for a while, watch the show.

If you get to feeling rowdy, go ahead and take a swing. Fair warning, plenty of these folks carry loaded words, so you may find yourself looking down a double-barreled thesaurus full of words. Some of the folks also like to dance, though, and you may get invited onto the floor. Can't tell until you try, and even then you may not be sure.

Oh, if you get into a real knock-down drag-'em-out fight, please take it outside. If you've got some real fancy wordwork, we might all watch for a while, but don't just keep on wasting everyone's time. Take it out in the alleys, and let us know how it comes out.

Whoops! Turn your head a little, that's it, there you are. Got to watch out for that mirror, it's a specialty of the place. Liable to show you almost anything. Fellow that made it, let me think, oh, yeah, Marlin, British fellow, I think, he said it's just like those ones they had way back in Greece and Rome, maybe before that, but he added in a lot of fancy new stuff. Sometimes you can see forever in it, sometimes just the back of your head... Takes some getting used to, but then you start to like seeing yourself in new ways. Bet you never knew about that little extra something back there on your neck, now did you?

If you get curious about something, ask around, and someone will usually help you out. Friendly bunch, even if they don't have a lot of spare time. They're all writers, you know, just like you, so don't yell at them about not doing something until you've tried doing it yourself. I mean, look at who has to sweep up - and I'm not getting paid for it, either.

Who am I? I run the popcorn, peanuts, and candy concession out at the east end of the bar, near Ha'va'd. Got a special on bubble gum this week, if you want some. I'll help pop your bubble, too. Just call me tink.

Okay, I'm going to put away the broom and leave you alone out here for a while. Whenever you're ready, step up to the bar or kick off your shoes and jump on the dance floor and show the folks your stuff.

They'll be looking for it. Just remember the key - write and write and write and...

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[Please feel free to print this FAQ and keep a copy for when you have questions! In fact, the author would be pleased if you did that.]

The meat in this sandwich - v. 18, Nov. 28, 1995

[removed because it is way past the use by date]
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You know, I think that storm's clearing up. Maybe you can find what you're looking for, or we can see you, dancing by the light of the moon at the Saloon... Won't you come out tonight?
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original posting: Sat, 19 Aug 2000 22:41:04 -0400

Hi, all...

Suppose some of us (yes, you with the lazy fingers and the roving eye) were to go to http://www.steampunk.com/sfch/writing/ckilian/ (provided gratis by some wonderful folks on another writing list) and there peruse, investigate, and otherwise read one of the articles collected there, and then perhaps discuss the contents here?

Seems like it might make an interesting way of keeping the bits flowing, the words atilt, and otherwise instigating the exchange.

Personally, I found that the first article I could read ("Developing Efficient Work Habits" by Crawford Kilian at http://www.steampunk.com/sfch/writing/ckilian/#1 had some interesting thoughts.  I mean, the contrast between the routine that feeds the habits and the efficient use of opportunity is an interesting little problem.  And here is Crawford Kilian pointing out that having a writing time and place is important, but we can also do some thinking as we walk the dog or vacuum the fishtank.  Avoid leaning on significant others for editorial advice -- that's unfair.  Be your own editor instead, and use letters to yourself to keep yourself straight.  Keep a log of what you're up to.  Set up a "project bible."  And be careful to avoid tying yourself too hard to all those routines (sometimes known as ruts) because part of being a writer means writing even when you aren't in the writing place or time, and getting the fine detail of the barroom fight down before you've decided who is going to be in the barroom may not work so well...

A bunch of tips and tricks and points, anyway.  Let's see, can I pick out three key points from that article?  How about:

1.  To Thine Own Routine Be True, and Thou Wilt Habitually Writ
2.  Synergize, Fit into Cracks, and otherwise take advantage of every opportunity to stretch those writing synapses and responses and wherever the muse may hide
3.  Learn your own phases and pacing -- some people like to outline before detailing, others really find the straightjacket of the outline far too confining, and then there are those who prefer the wilds of Surrealism (and if that makes sense to you, please explain in 200 words or less how outlines, details, and surreals do unrelate, okay?:-)

What would you pick out as the three points of Crawford's article?  Are there key points about efficient work habits that Crawford missed?  For that matter, do you really think that writing requires efficient work habits or should it be less efficient work and more artistic license?

[by the way, in the phrase "artistic license," is the license issued by the state and if so what kind of a test and bureaucracy arises around the provision of these plastic identifiers?  Or is the license that other form, referring to freedom from state regulation and control?  And why is a driver's license (which shows I know how to obey the rules and have said I will follow them) so different from exercising artistic license, where I gleefully take exception to the rules?]