Tips on Tuesday: Already Missing Robin Williams

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

Writers: let’s take a little break to consider what other artists have given us. The one I have in mind today is Robin Williams, whose passing I was so heart‑broken to see in yesterday’s news.

We could all consider the legacy he left behind that lifted us all, and come up with ways to celebrate his life, our lives, the lives of those we hope to touch. Each of us will have our own memories, but I’d like offer a list of some of my favorite films and/or TV shows starring this gifted actor — and perhaps you have some favorites of your own.

Dead Poets Society touched me as a teacher, a human being, a writer.

Good Morning, Vietnam brought me some new clarity — and even closure — about some “old news” while reflecting on a portion of my life when I, along with the rest of the country, was conflicted and confused.

The World According to Garp showed of crazy and quirky from almost every character in it, challenging my reactions to a world I knew nothing about.

Good Will Hunting brought out the teacher in me, again. And the humanity. And the writerly instincts.

Mork and Mindy was a not‑to‑be‑missed weekly jaunt into silliness and laugh‑out‑loud moments.

Patch Adams introduced me to a doctor I wish I had met and grown to know well . . . a brilliant mind and an engaging manner.

Not to mention the many, Many, MANY zany “interviews” on late‑night television.

Which of his works touched you? How can we learn to reach out, as he did, to “our” audiences?

Thanks, Robin Williams, for the zaniness, the smiles, the many laugh‑out‑loud moments, the surprisingly tender touches, and, yes, even the heart‑breaking moments, not least of which is this last one.

See you next for Thinkin’ on Thursday!

Thinkin’ on Thursday: Women’s Wise Words by the (Baker’s) Dozen

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

I’m thinkin’ about women: women of power—women writers, women movers and shakers, women artists of all types. I’m thinkin’ about women I’d like to emulate, follow, know, and have a sit‑down lunch with. Women whose wise words have inspired me, made me laugh, made me cry, made me think. Made me take action. Here are a few of the best of them:

A woman whose books touched me in so many ways: “[My mother] said that I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understand of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors. ~ Maya Angelou

A woman whose songs touched me, and a whole nation, a whole world: “It seems to me that those songs that have been any good, I have nothing much to do with the writing of them. They words have just crawled down my sleeve and come out on the page. ~ Joan Baez

A woman whose voice and twinkle of the eye I still miss: “When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me.'” ~ Erma Bombeck

A woman whose legend inspired me: “It is necessary to try to pass one’s self always; this occupation ought to last as long as life.” ~ Queen Christina of Sweden

A woman who made herself what she needed to be to flourish in her own lifetime: “It always seemed to me a sort of clever stupidity only to have one sort of talent—like a carrier pigeon.” ~ George Eliot

A woman who only became more beautiful as she aged: “I think most of the people involved in any art always secretly wonder whether they are really there because they’re good—or there because they’re lucky.” ~ Katherine Hepburn

A woman whose strength grew over time into a towering figure: “I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do.” ~ Helen Keller

A woman who inspires me to keep writing: “If you’re going to write, don’t pretend to write down. It’s going to be the best you can do, and it’s the fact that it’s the best you can do that kills you.” ~ Dorothy Parker

A woman whose words I loved even before I could read: “Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.” ~ Beatrix Potter

A much admired woman whose life matched her words: “You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with the best you have to give.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

A woman whose soaring voice made my soul soar as well: “There is a growing strength in women; but it’s in the forehead, not in the forearm.” ~ Beverly Sills

A woman whose strength encompassed a nation: “One only gets to the top rung on the ladder by steadily climbing up one at a time, and suddenly all sorts of abilities which you thought NEVER belonged to you—suddenly become within your own possibility and you think, ‘Well, I’ll have a go, too.'” ~ Margaret Thatcher

And finally, an unnamed woman who offers hope in times of stress: “Fear gives intelligence even to fools.” ~ Anonymous

See you next on Saturday’s Spellbinder!

These quotes came from a Treasury of Women’s Quotations, by Carolyn Warner, Prentice Hall, 1992, in 1998, through the hand of a strong woman whose friendship and laughter I still treasure: Connie Burrup.

Monday Moans: “Monday, Monday . . .”

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

“Oh, Monday morning, you gave me no warning of what was to be . . .” The old Mamas and Papas song is floating through my head, yet I feel rudderless today. With my usual huge push at the end (though I did manage to spread it out a little farther than usual) I completed my 50,000 words for National Novel Writing Month (NaNo) well before midnight November 30. Make that 52,000 plus!

And today is Monday. Today begins December. And I feel rudderless.

No more mad dash to make up the 20,000+ words I’m still missing. No more spending hours and hours hunched over my keyboard. Every. Single. Day.

No more shoving all things aside until “after November”!

Oh, I know. I could get right to work cleaning up the dreaded first draft. I could bring the story to a more satisfying conclusion (as it stands, it’s only the first half of the story. Or maybe not even quite that).

I could finally balance my check book.

I could work on the editing I promised a friend.

I could polish and send out the article I’ve written in hopes Writer’s Market or The Writer would publish it . . . it’s that good.

I could clean the kitchen.

I could finish the laundry.

I could read all the old newspapers I’ve put aside throughout November to read when “I have the time”.

But when you’re rudderless, you can’t tell which way to go. Well, you can, because you see all the possibilities you’ve been passing up. And you don’t know which way to go.

It all makes me think of the Lady Astor quotation: “Years ago I thought old age would be dreadful, because I would not be able to do things I would want to do. Now I find there is nothing I want to do.”

And that’s my quandary. November’s over. I made my goal. Now it’s Monday. And December.

And there is nothing I “want to do”!

See you day-after-tomorrow for Wednesday’s WIPs!

Wednesday’s WIPs: Still WIPpin’ It Up for NaNo!

EASY AS A, B, C . . . from A, B and both C’s

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo.org) is a little over half‑way finished. How’s everyone doing? And if you’re NOT doing NaNo, where are you with your current WIP? Is it part (or all?) of your NaNo? If you could pick one line (well, OK, maybe two) or one idea for your WIP that you’re most proud of in the last two weeks, what would it be?

H.A. The Other Siders: I have crossed the half‑way mark at NaNo. I have over 20,000 words‑‑‑not quite half‑‑‑but it does equate to 76 new pages for November. We’re about to embark on the rescue of our Hero who has been transported to “the other side.” Her kidnap was a new idea that just “sort of happened,” when the story took off on its own.

B.B. gElf and the Legend of Jarra‑Jen: Since I can only send in 7,500 to 10,000 words for the Dark Crystal contest, and I now have well over 16,000 words written, I need to cut, Cut, CUT — judiciously, of course. I have now written to a little past where I want to end the contest piece, so that it leaves at a point of great tension. I want those judges to want to see more! My recent favorite moment so far: Three young boys are teasing gElf, our intrepid Hero in a very mean way. They take his big stick which he’s dragging through the desert toward the village for heating and cooking that evening. As they fight over the stick, he does an almost magical‑looking trick jerking his stick out of their hands, as he calls “Come on, Cudgel, you can do it.” As he drags it toward him by hidden strands, he says, “Good boy, Cudgel, good boy!” and pats the upraised, jagged top edge of the wood as he would a pet dog.

C.C. Ezzy Bear: NaNo is trying to kill me! I asked a friend the other day, if it was OK to take a day off. All I’ve done is sit in my room for two weeks from morning to night. I yell at the anybody who knocks on my door, because I’m in my own world called “NaNo” ‑‑‑ BUT I am making very good progress on my story. I think NaNo will enable me to finish it. I wrote a poem about Ezzy ‑ I didn’t even know I could do that. It’s surprising to me that everyone I have read it to is left in tears. What came to me during this last two weeks, is how to resolve the lack of tension at the end of chapter 1.

J.C. The Shadow Master: I have chosen not to participate in NaNo. I completed chapter 1, and re‑read chapter 2 which I found to be extremely boring, plotless, dry, with no action, no interest, no hope, no tension . . . and it’s no longer in my book. It looks like chapter 2 is a total re‑write. I shall begin!

See you day‑after‑tomorrow for Friday’s Friends!

TUESDAY’S TUTOR: Hungry for the Hunger Games?

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

Last February, one of the panels at Life, the Universe and Everything (LTUE) took on an interesting question: why the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins had become so popular.  Patricia Castelli, Bree Despain, Allison Hymas, Diann T. Read, and J. Scott Savage all had interesting opinions.

Have you read the series?  Actually read all three?  Personally, I couldn’t put it down—which was amazing, as I was pretty traumatized at the time, having just found out I had cancer . . . again.  After 25 years of being clean.  I handled it well on the outside: teaching, participating in my life, taking care of business.  But on the inside I was apparently a bowl of quivering jelly.  And that gripping series got me through the biopsy, the surgery, the beginnings of radiation, along with the Holidays—Thanksgiving on into Christmas/New Year’s.  Well, they didn’t take me that long to read, but they stayed with me.

As writers, we can learn something from that.

The panel in question opined that YA is usually about HOPE.  One reason for popularity within dystopian literature is that in a dysfunctional, broken world, the reader can HOPE for even the little people to effect a change.  The Hero/Heroine will have the strength/skill, etc., to change his or her world.

The Hunger Games series offers several lessons:

— Katniss was sympathetic, volunteering in order to save her little sister

— The role “reversal” made it interesting: the girl with the bow and arrows; the boy with the bread

— Even with the female author and heroine, boys still liked it because fighting, etc., were so strong; while the “romance” became less and less important

— The “triangle” was handled believably

— Damage to survivor characters was realistic: after such traumatic incidents, they would be damaged

— Katniss is broken down in a different way in each book because of the difference in her trials

Spoiler alerts: (I’ll be a non-specific as I can.  READ them!)

— an Assassination was well done

— when one major character dies saving another, the motivation was brilliant

Which of the points above can we writers emulate today, without being derivative?  Appeal to male and female readers with sympathetic characters; keep the story riveting; handle human relationships in realistic, believable ways; be sure characters’ reactions synchronize with the events happening to them; give your major characters a variety of challenges throughout the story; keep your characters motivated in a consistent way.

There was some opinion that the series was modeled after Spartacus.  As a teen, I think, I read the book before the movie starring Kirk Douglas was made—yikes, I’m old!  I kept waiting for something to “happen” in the book, which I hated.  But I remember the film as being one of the few ever that was better than the book—so I had a rather visceral reaction to that opinion, though I might change my mind now if I either read or saw them again.  Well, I’m not going to.  But they recommended a few other books which might serve as models: the “early” dystopian, The Giver, by Lois Lowry (though the sequels weren’t considered as good); The Book Thief by Markus Zusak; and Suzanne Collins Overlander series.  Happy Reading, Happy Learning, followed by Happy Writing!

See you day-after-tomorrow for Thursday’s Thirteen!

Tuesday Tutor: What Do the “Real” Writers Do?

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

In the fiction/non-fiction class I teach in the Canyons School District, I often have students sign up, then tell me they don’t know whether they are writers or not. We all feel a little like that from time to time. But look at what some “real” inventors/writers/thinkers have said:

“Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.” ~ Henry Ford

So, if you “think you can,” just try it. Here’s some more advice:

“True hope dwells on the possible, even when life seems to be a plot written by someone who wants to see how much adversity we can overcome.” ~ Walter Anderson

But this comment of Anderson’s illustrates one of the main things “real” writers DO: put as many adversities in our protagonist’s way as possible, then figure out a way for him/her to “win” anyway! There are some cautions, as you grapple with the “how to” for your protagonist, as the next quote points out:

“The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.” ~ Tom Clancy

If you want to write, you work at it. You figure out the “sense” in what you are proposing. You can learn to be a writer. Who said you couldn’t? And who said you couldn’t be a success at it?

“There is only one success . . . to be able to spend your life in your own way and not to give others absurd maddening claims upon it.” ~ Christopher Morley

Although I spotted this next quote by P.J. Meyer, I’ve personally heard Dave Wolverton, well-known Utah writer and writers’ Guru, say almost exactly the same words:

“Ninety percent of all those who fail are not actually defeated. They simply quit.” ~ Paul J. Meyer

So don’t simply quit . . . do what you want to do. In other words, JUST DO IT! JUST WRITE! Or learn to knit. Or go sky diving. Or learn French. Or move to a quiet seaside town. THIS is your life—OWN IT!

Have questions about writing (grammar, punctuation, getting published, etc.)?  Brenda Bensch, M.A., a teacher of multiple decades’ experience in Utah’s university/high school/community ed. classrooms (English, fiction/non-fiction writing, study skills, drama, humanities, debate, etc.), invites you to “Ask The Teacher” at  http://BenschWensch.wordpress.com

See you day-after-tomorrow for Tuesday’s Tutor

Monday Moans: SHUT up

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

I told someone I had 13 kids. “Keep your legs shut, “ was the comment.

My moan is: Where’s the Golden Rule? Treat others as you would like to be treated.

Where’s the love for one another?  I know what I choose to do in my life is misunderstood and it’s not for everyone. I felt it was my calling and my husband agreed. When do one’s life choices become others’ concerns?

How does it affect anyone else—my choice to give unwanted children a home? I didn’t do it to save the world; I did it because I was gathering my family. Nothing more, nothing less. I am not a hero, just a mother. Someone had to do it, so why not me? Why not us? We have been blessed beyond measure for doing this. It’s been a hard road. It’s not easy, and we suffer for birthmother choices; but the kiddos suffer the most.

We are their parents and love them more than life itself. I am no different than any other mother who would give a kidney to her daughter or lay her life down for any one of her children. I shouldn’t be put on a pedestal. It’s a hard fall from up on high.

I’m just a normal mother gathering , raising, and loving her children any which-way they came to me: birth or adoption.

I want to raise my children in an accepting world which sees them for people and not the color of their skin, but by their actions and service. This is how I want to be seen. I hope you all are seen by the person you are inside; not your shell, but the real person you are. When you see someone different from yourself give him or her the benefit of not being judged. We will be judged by the All Mighty and only He knows the true content of our hearts and that will be the basis on which we are judged. Love one another. Show compassion for one another. Serve one another, you will find your world to be one of happiness and true fulfillment.

See you day-after-tomorrow for Wednesday’s WIP