Science Fiction & Fantasy author
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| Success going up the ladder |
Choose an idea: happiness, success, despair, governance, laziness or…. Give it human qualities (yes, personification) and let it wander through a room or down a road, take a seat at a desk or settle in comfortably against a tree along a byway. Describe it thoroughly from the button on the top of its cap to the nails in the soles of its shoes.
Recently some of my students have been following the “scene” mode of styling their hair. I don’t fully understand the term, but it appears to be a kinder, gentler version of emo, not dark or requiring heavy makeup or dyed hair. But it does create a look that tends to ride the edge of the norm. So I was thinking how one day a student can look like the average girl next door, reliable, kind, quiet. The next day she walks in and a statement is made that marks her as not one of the group, not the girl next door but the one across the street that people make up rumors about. The girl that is not “bad” but is not greeted by everyone.
That is what characterization is. Small shifts from the norm that make the character stand out with a certain image immediately created by a part in the hair made so far to the left that the bangs must lay low across the forehead. The long hair is all brought forward to the front, so a split occurs in the back at the neck line, as though the person only has a front she shows to everyone, the back similar to the facade of a building put up for a movie set. The front looks real enough, but the back lacks all the depth of a real building. This can be used to create character. Certainly the real live girl, has depth, but in the novel or short story, such a “front” can act as a thin veneer hiding the reality within. It builds mystery, which one might believe is the purpose of the “scene” image for these teenage girls I teach.
For today’s prompt, go a little Gothic. Poem or short story, throw in some mystery, a dash of ghostly visitations, a good dollop of stormy weather, a secret and for the climax, conflagration. If it helps, add some heavy eyeliner to put yourself in the mood. Think dark, stormy and someone hiding in the attic.
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| perfume |
Think of an odor, a sensation, and an article of clothing. Write out for each a detailed description. Once you have each one well developed, combine them in a short scene or poem.
Write in a gender different from your own and an age past your own (add or subtract about 20 years). In this voice write about some thing of particular concern: global warming, retirement income, home loans, pet care, hair dye. Keep it in first person and work on creating a distinct voice for your character.
Every writer knows that the only way to get that book, story, poem, etc., done is to write. We also know that the only way to improve is to get feedback, honest, no holds barred feedback. I teach creative writing, and I tell my new students every year that I will be considerate but honest. They will know what the strengths were in the piece as much as where growth is occurring and where it is needed. Every writer needs this and for some, like myself, it is hard to come by.
I am a teacher, and since I want my students focusing on what I am teaching them and not on me, I don’t advertise that I am a indie writer. I have told only a couple people in my family and just one friend. I know they’ll keep my writing activities secret. But where does that leave me for feedback: well in a very limited space. I have become friends with several writers, and those connections has been helpful because they know what I mean when I say tell me everything so I can get better. They want honest feedback from me, and I want the same from them. And it has been worth any uncomfortable feeling I might get from seeing the flaws pointed out in what I thought was a pretty thorough job (repeated numerous times)at line and context editing. I grow as a writer each time they supply feedback and each time I give feedback. It would have taken me years of personal distance to be able to give that kind of critique myself. I don’t want to imagine waiting five years to be able to look at my own work with the necessary distance and increased knowledge in editing, drafting, plotting, etc. needed to actually see what needs to be improved. That’s five years of embarrassment of having my work out there that I would get all in one fell swoop that could have been avoided by getting straight feedback from another writer or a professional editor when the work was “finished.”
So sure a writer writes, but a WRITER GETS FEEDBACK is even more important. I published my first book with minimal feedback (those two family members). It wasn’t long before I had a nagging feeling that perhaps I had overlooked aspects of the story or not edited as well as I thought (even an English teacher needs an editor, nobody can look at their own work without bias, certainly not after reading it one hundred times). So I took it off publication, sent it to a writer friend (she sent me hers as well) and we traded feedback. I am still working on it and hope by Christmas to have it back published again.
All this post really is saying is writers need feedback.