Thinkin’ on Thursday: Picture This!

Easy as A, B, C . . . from BB

At times in the past, I have modeled characters’ looks, fashion sense, even personality on unknown models in magazines. I’ve even cut them out and then built characteristics for that person on the same page or on a 4×6 card. Or I’ve envisioned an old time actor (or a current one, for that matter) as my “hero,” “villain,” “sidekick,” or whomever.

I’m going to suggest another way to utilize pictures of unknowns from magazines or books to help your writing (and the above paragraph has some good ideas too: if you’ve never tried it, give it a go and see what you think). Look through a magazine or illustrated book, preferably one you haven’t read already, or an old one you’ve forgotten all about. Find a picture with at least two main “characters” on it. THINK of these two as major characters in a story you haven’t yet thought through.

Just allow them to begin interacting with each other. Don’t “plan” ahead (this will be a good one for all of us ‘pantsers’), because this is designed to give us practice in a more “organic” method of plot construction. Just start “recording” the story’s events and let them spin out in front of you. Pay attention to other props or objects that appear in the ad or picture. If there are other people in the picture, ignore them for the moment. See how or why the two might interact with the props, objects, bits of scenery, in the picture with them. Record items and events as faithfully as possible without thinking about the “rules” of story plot structure.

Once you’ve recorded the scene, note whether your characters interacted with or used any of the props, etc., given them by the picture. What did they do with items there? Twiddle nervously with papers on a desk? Pick up a coffee cup and look for a refill? Grab a hammer or bucket of paint, intending to use it as a weapon?

How did your characters interact with each other? Were they friends or strangers at the start? What relationship was forged during the scene: adversarial? Conciliatory? Pleading? Helpful? and so on.

Go ahead. This is just a writer’s PLAY ground. Have FUN in it ! ! !

(And, at the end, is there anything salvageable there? Can it be incorporated in your current WIP? Is it the beginning of a short story? An article? An editorial? A children’s book? Even a brand‑new novel?)

See you next for Saturday’s Spellbinder!

Thursday’s 13: Be Still, My Heart

Easy as A, B, C . . . from BB

The Ace of Hearts stands for

1. Love and happiness
2. The home, a love letter
3. Indicates troubles and problems lifting

The King of Hearts stands for

1. A fair-haired man with a good nature
2. Fair, helpful advice
3. Affectionate, caring man who helps you out without much talk
4. His actions reveal kindness, concern

The Queen of Hearts stands for

1. A fair-haired woman with a good nature
2. Kind advice from an affectionate, caring woman
3. This card can indicate the mother or a mother figure.

The Jack of Hearts stands for

1. A warm-hearted friend
2. A fair-haired youth
3. Often this points to a younger admirer

Interested in more information about cards, or the way to tell fortunes with a normal deck of cards?  See www.wikipedia.org

See you day-after-tomorrow for “Saturday’s Softcover”!

Friday Friends: Talk About Twittering!

EASY AS A, B, C . . . from BB

Taffy Earl Lovell writes a fun blog called “Taffy’s Writing”—check her out— and recently shared some information about Jaime Theler’s LDStorymakers Conference presentation on Twittering.

Really?  Twittering???

I was thinking: I already blog.

I have a web page.  (OK, we haven’t done much with it so far, but that’s about to change.)

What I want is SOME TIME TO WRITE.  You know, like NOVELS.  Like SHORT STORIES.  OK, maybe even some POEMS.  I want to do more of my own, possibly even saleable, writing.  I don’t want to “waste my time” twittering, tweeting, pinteresting, blogging, webbing!  (Well, as an author, you’ve got to do SOME of it, I guess.  But, really—twittering???)

Part of Jaime’s presentation, apparently, was convincing authors they could find people with similar interests, form good relationships with whole groups of people (like other authors?), and so on.  OK, I guess I could go for that.

Her idea about keeping up with people/events in “real” time didn’t appeal to me quite as much, but I get it.  Sort of.  Though there are few people I need to keep in touch with in “real” time, as far as I can tell.  She pointed out that Twitter was not Facebook—and there’s ANOTHER one that costs me lots of time.  And it’s not “private.”  OK.  That’s even an improvement.

However I LOVED the idea that it was NOT a place for “advertising”!  How much of my time gets swallowed up by unwanted “ads” on Facebook, on Yahoo, on Google . . . etc., etc., etc.?

My gripe?

END OF MESSAGE: YOUR 140 CHARACTERS ARE ALL USED UP

But if you’re determined to make a go of it anyway (and, yes, I’m getting more and more accustomed to the idea), give yourself a good “handle”.  I think “benschwensch” works well enough for everything else, why not this too?

Also, you can apparently include links.  That seems helpful.  You need to learn the lingo, like tweet, retweet, direct message and hashtag—things like what they are, how they’re abbreviated, and why they’re needed.

And—who knew?—you can also join twitter chats.  Seems there are some pretty good ones, aimed at more than just telling your friends you’ve got to go make the bed now, or you just left to drive over to their house.  The ones she listed look like . . . they’re all about writers and writing—cool!

Double check the times, but you might want to check out

#litchat – Mondays, MST: 2-3 p.m.
#kidlitchat – Tuesdays, MST: 7 p.m.
#ThrillerChat, Wednesdays, MST: 6 p.m.
#YALitChat, Wednesdays, MST: 7 p.m.
#bookmarket, Thursdays, MST: 12-1 p.m.
#scifichat, Fridays, MST: 12-2 p.m.

r u gonna try it?  I’m going 2 buy a smart phone now—L8R!  LOL!

See you day-after-tomorrow for “Sunday’s Snippets”