Inkabout L. Darby Gibbs

Science Fiction & Fantasy author

L. Darby Gibbs

Tuesday prompt: #26 2012

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First grab a book off a shelf, any book.  Then close your eyes, flip it open and plant your finger on the page. You are welcome to swirl your finger about if you wish first.  Where it lands is the first line of what one character says to another.  Start your story there.

Sample: “used to ride a horse, which had feet that were almost human, the hoofs being cleft like toes.”  (Hen’s Teeth and Horse’s Toes by Stephen Jay Gould, p. 177)

     “I say,” Judson said, “he used to ride a horse, which had feet that were almost human, the hoofs being cleft like toes.”
     “Are you daft?” I said.
     “Really. It’s part of history,” Judson sputtered.  “I read it just this morning.  Caesar rode such a horse.”
     I sat back on my heals and tried to look at the new born colt in this different light. The feet were not human, but there were in fact three toes on each hoof where there should have only been one solid toe.

   

Rules for a classroom writer’s workshop

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A writer’s workshop is one of the best ways to advance student writers both in their writing skills and in their personal recognition that they are part of a community.  This is especially important in the classroom where many students may be admitting for the first time that they write because they like it.  There is much I can say about building this community feeling, but I am just going to focus on key rules to teach students how to participate in a workshop.

Both the writer and the critic must use their pens with thought.

The workshop critic

  • Focus on the writing, not the writer.  This workshop is not an opportunity to attack.  This is where the teacher/mediator must model the behavior required.  (I always go last and never pull my punches. The first workshop is always awkward since I make the students go first in order of seniority (so the most experienced writers set the tone. When necessary, I quietly redirect comments or responses to maintain the rules.)
  • Honor the writer’s voice.  In other words, don’t change the writing into something you might have written.  In fact, you must make an effort to appreciate this writer’s voice and work to help the writer develop it.
  • Be honest and kind.  Being kind without honesty does not help the writer.  And being honest without kindness for the sensitivity of a young writer is foolishness and destructive.
  • Point out what is good and why (often).  Every writer needs to know where it worked, so he or she can do it again.
  • Don’t just say what needs work; give suggestions for how it might be improved.  Then don’t expect the writer to use your suggestions. The intention is to give inspiration so the writer comes up with something original that fits both the writer’s style and the needs of the work.
  • Be clear and specific about both fine work and work that needs redrafting.  Also as a group, agree on routine symbols.  A question mark could mean confusion while an exclamation mark could mean especially fine image (or whatever was underlined).

The workshop writer

  • The writer must turn in as quality a work as possible.  Don’t write it the night before you distribute it.
  • Distribute your work in as timely a manner as possible.  All workshop members need time to look over the work.  Two days before a workshop is minimal.
  • Don’t take criticism personally.  The workshop is about the work.  Learn to put up a wall that allows you to listen with a willingness to consider change rather than a defense against every suggestion.
  • Do not explain to the others what you meant.  If they could not understand it, then you did not do it correctly.  I tell my students they must take the criticism in silence.  They may answer questions if asked, but may not volunteer information.
  • If you have concerns you want addressed, put questions at the top of your work, so the other members have time to consider them and be prepared to give you useful answers.
  • Do not provide a rewritten work that has not gone through considerable change.

Tuesday prompt: #25 2012

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This prompt is a bit different.  In fact, there are five prompts.  Start with the first and each day add to your written idea letting the day’s prompt add a new twist to the situation.

Day 1:  an argument (internal or external)
Day 2:  blue skies
Day 3:  the sound of time passing
Day 4:  something breaks
Day 5:  no forgiveness

Use the next two days to add, rework or set aside.  Let cool, prod until warm again, let cool.  Decide what to do with it.

Today I wish I was perfect, and probably tomorrow, too

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It is hard to believe, but I am close to publishing my second book at Smashwords.  This work is an anthology of shorts stories, Gardens in the Cracks & Other Stories. They are loosely connected by the “world” they are all derived from in that similar technology and history are imbedded in each.  The title piece (“Gardens in the Cracks”) and another short work (Scrapper, a novella) have some characters in common as well as time and general locale.  The remaining stories developed out of experiments of one sort or another: repeating motif, what if, narrative from a secondary character, and such.  I think all writers will agree, the editing is the hardest part.  I have gone over them so many times looking for every error I can.

Besides the fact that I write recursively and therefore edit constantly as I write, I am now on my fourth line edit of this work.  I can say that turning on the feature that checks grammar and mechanics in a word processing program can be the most annoying and beneficial experience.  I found myself examining nearly every sentence and defending or correcting innumerable aspects of my writing.  Frequently, the program would highlight a word or two and state “if you are using this to mean…., then you are correct.  But if you mean…., then….”  I can’t say how many times I said, “Can’t you tell?”  Every once and a while I was glad it did not let a single questionable word by, as I had in fact used a word incorrectly.

Dialogue can play a large part of a fiction work, and in an effort to sound like the genuine article, my characters often speak in phrases or are not necessarily grammatically correct.  So I was reminded on a regular basis that I had fragments of sentences or slang where I intended them to be.  This still was a benefit as I noticed that some of my characters did this more often than others, and I had the opportunity to decide if this was a characteristic I wanted for the individual or if it was too heavily used.

The fine tooth comb that I am using now gives me a headache, but not using it would be worse than a headache.  So off I go again scraping each sentence free of error.  This is one of those times when I really wish I was perfect.

What we read is certainly part of what we write.

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When I was a teenager I didn’t always have a book available, and I was an insatiable reader.  So I would go to my father and ask if he had a book to spare. He was always going on business trips and read whenever he was on a plane. Frequently, he would ask me not to lose his place, and he would tell me when his next trip was so I could get it back to him, and then he could pick up where he left off.  I read science fiction, and he read action adventure, but to me a book was a book was a book. If it had words placed in sentences, I was going to read it.

So I read a lot of John D. MacDonald, Ian Fleming and Mickey Spillane novels, though I wouldn’t hand them to my own teenage daughter. I came to know their series characters, such as James Bond and Travis McGee, pretty well.  I have been shaped by those books and characters.  And I know my writing was influenced by them though I don’t write in that genre. I think the character development and dialogue style of my own writing is built on the foundations of those works, as well as the authors I read when I could select the books for myself rather then beg for reading material from my father. So interior dialogue, the aside and internal motivation vs external motivation are as much central to my writing as the genre of science fiction is. And then I read The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything.  Time Travel became my favorite fiction, and I saw MacDonald in a whole new light.

Tuesday Prompt: #24 2012

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Take a previously written short piece and add internal dialogue (main character) responding to each action your supporting character takes.  Put the internal dialogue in italics.  This action will help you flesh out the personality of your main character.  Choose a response type:  examples – loves the supporting character, hates the supporting character, finds the supporting character boring, thinks the supporting character is hiding something. By choosing a response type, you will add depth to your character and interest in why he or she feels that way as well as cause the reader to begin to evaluate the actions of the supporting character: is he worth loving, hating, suspecting, and so forth?

When you have finished, add behavior cues, tone to dialogue, expressions that support what is being thought internally. Then remove all the internal dialogue and see if the additions created greater complexity to the piece.  Note: You may find you want to keep some of the internal dialogue.