POEM: BLACK VELVET WITH DIAMONDS

BLACK VELVET WITH DIAMONDS
The rained pummeled His roof
for days and days
When the leaden clouds parted
He was lifted from His haze

So He built an impossibly long table
Draped it with black velvet
And littered it with diamonds

The newborn twinkling stars
Surely never shown so bright
The nascent moon
Surely never looked so kind
As they did on that first cloudless night

God reclined on his couch, satisfied
Took a nap
And dreamed up man
To be a willing audience,
To appreciate His nocturnal nativity
-poem by Cronin Detzz

Keep writing & keep sharing!

POEM: SUMMERDREAM BIRTHDAY WISH

A poem for my fellow writers...

SUMMERDREAM BIRTHDAY WISH

Take me to a magic summerplace
Where duality does not exist
Where pale, cold pain cannot remain
And love's warmth cannot resist

In my heavenly summer realm
Majestic thunderheads will purpley flume
evanescent rain will fall like shiny copper pennies
As amber dew drops adorn tiger lilies in bloom

I dream of a shimmering place
Where the darkness cannot comprehend
Where sunflowers laugh (and in harmony, sing!)
And beautifully long summer days never end

O take me to that place
Where stone-cold hearts cannot exist
Where mother nature goldenly smiles
And gentle jasmine breezes are sun-kissed

Where happiness cannot perish
And nothing turns to dust
Where moth and rust cannot corrupt
Games of hopscotch spontaneously erupt

Through the august fires of August
Death's piercing eyes will go blind with shame
Warmongers and fearmongers will be vanquished
The four apocalyptic horses will go lame

The soft lichens hug strong boulders
Like verdigris upon a bronze statue
while in my summer realm, skin is not white
nor black, nor Hare Krishna blue

In my eternal summerplace
Hatred will wither and die
ice cream drips down sticky elbows
Cotton candy clouds pinkly float by

Cartwheels in the manicured green
A sparkling lake lazily licks the shore
O summer, swathed in gold and green
So full of love, I couldn't ask for more
- Cronin Detzz

5 GREAT TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR STORY'S SETTING

WRITER'S BLOCK: WHERE ARE YOU?

The texture of a slimy earthworm, the sound of a creeking door, the lack of sight in a dark and cold mausoleum, and the taste of bile in your mouth upon seeing a decaying corpse are all examples of setting in a story.

It's surprising to me that writers often focus on character development, dialog, and action sequence, and while juggling all these balls in the air, they drop the ball on setting.

Setting explains the physical environment of your characters and gives the reader a shift in mood. Writers are good at letting us know when it rains, but give us more than the dew point. Is the room crowded? Is it noisy or quiet? What colors pop out? Does it smell musty, fresh, or malodorous?

Certain types of music can also provide setting - Nirvana's 90's grunge has a different vibe from Bob Marley, for instance. What your characters are wearing can also add depth.

If you get writer's block when describing setting, try some of these tips:
1. Physically go to a location that is similar to your story. For instance, if your characters are in a restaurant, bring writing materials with you to your next dining experience and record every sight, sound, and taste.
2. Look at a photo of a similar location. Use photos of your own or use Google images.
3. If setting is a weak point for you, then simply plow through your story and add setting later.
4. My FAVORITE tip, which I recently used myself: after the story was done, I created an outline in Microsoft Excel. I created a new row for each chapter. The columns were labeled as:
A. Chapter #
B. Name of Chapter
C. Brief description of events
D. Character name & descriptors (this shows me in which chapter the character was first introduced)
E. SETTING. this shows where certain setting elements are first introduced and prevents duplicate descriptions. This also shows which chapters are lacking setting references.
5. If you have a favorite book that is replete with setting, glance through the pages. My fave author who is masterful at setting is Carlos Luis Zafron, who wrote "Prisoner of Heaven" and other modern-day gothic tales.

Some writers are masterful at setting while others struggle. What works best for you? I'd love to hear from you.

Keep writing and keep sharing! - Cronin Detzz

3 TIPS FOR FRAGMENTED WRITING: I’M BATMAN

This teenage boy I know says, "I have a great idea for story: Batman goes into this virtual reality game in a contest against Ra's al Ghul, only Batman doesn’t know that the game actually creates real events. At the end of my story, Batman must be the one who goes back in time to kill his own parents."

So this boy writes the best parts of his juicy, action-packed story but get's writer's block when it comes to storyline rules, such as writing a compelling first page, creating masterful segues and crafting spine-tingling page-turners.

This type of writer's block is okay, and very normal! Don't let it stop you!

Go ahead and write all your favorite parts. You can fill in the gaps later. Your favorite portions are the heart and soul of your masterpiece. If you find that you are lamenting over fragmentation (how to string the pieces together), just have some trust in yourself and give it time.

Three key tips on fragmentation that I have found to be useful in overcoming writer's block include:

1. Before you go to sleep, write down your problem on a piece of paper. You can phrase it in the form of a question, such as: "How do I get Batman to accept a challenge from Ra's al Ghul?" This allows your subconscious to contemplate the issue.

2. Many writers have fragments of other stories in their treasure chests. Why not incorporate elements of your other stories into your current endeavor?

3. Use real events. Although we have never played a virtual reality game against a villain, we have had to deal with bullies at some point in our lives. How did you meet that bully? How did he make you feel? What elements in the bully's life formed him into such a tyrant?

I don’t normally create an outline until the primary sequence of events are clear. You may find that writing an outline is helpful at some stage, and I'd love to hear from you on this topic.

Keep writing and keep sharing! - Cronin Detzz

WHICH 3 BOOKS CHANGED YOUR LIFE? HOW DID THEY FIND YOU?

What are 3 books that changed your life? Why? How did these books "find" you?

Some books are highly entertaining and memorable. This question, however, asks you to dig deeper into the epiphanies and revelations of particular stories that have inspired you.

My three books are:
1. "Mans Search for Meaning" by Dr. Victor Frankl
2. "Wizard of Oz" by Frank L. Baum
3. "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes

"Mans Search for Meaning" was given to me by my boss at a time when I was extremely disheartened and ill. Dr. Frankl, a Holocaust survivor, explores which mental fortitudes enabled prisoners to survive. This book reminds me of my favorite quote, which is taped to my fridge. "In the absence of certainty, there is always hope."

"Wizard of Oz" is my favorite fairy tale because it reminds us that there's no place like home, that we already possess all the gifts we need to craft an amazing life, and that women will do anything for ruby slippers!

"Flowers for Algernon" was required reading in 7th grade. The writer uses a masterful style of compiling a diary that shows the progression of a scientific experiment conducted on a man of very limited intellectual capacity. The experiment is a success, raising his I.Q. from drastic lows to astronomical heights. The subject grows his mind all the way to a state of nirvana. This book gives me hope that God reaches from His omnipotent realm down to our low state of being. The story begs us to question how much knowledge is truly necessary in order to reach Him.

There are many other books that have inspired our writing style, entertained us, and helped inspire us to remove our writer's blocks. On your list of top three books, do you notice that not only have they influenced the direction of your core values, they have also given you direction in your writing style?

As writers, we must remember to treasure those unique tomes that moved our spirits. If you need motivation to get past a writer's block, re-read your top three books.

Keep writing and keep sharing! - Cronin Detzz

Pushing the Envelope – New Challenge to Remove Writer’s Block

Sometimes we see poets complaining via social media that they want to write but they feel wrung dry.  This is what we refer to as writer’s block.  We feel an irrepressible need to write, and when our muses are silent, we get aggravated.

Chuck Yeager, the first pilot to break the sound barrier, would be proud of this blog.  Chuck Yeager pushed the envelope of supersonic flight and “pushing the envelope” steadily grew into popular phraseology.  Pushing the envelope does not have anything to do with the postal service, rather, it means pushing a mathematical envelope of normal possibilities.

One way that writers tackle writer’s block is through poetry writing prompts.  Personally, many writers will agree that the best poetry writing prompts are the ones that push the envelope of the traditional iambic pentameter.

Using an alchemy of mathematical structures and writing, you can create a fun poetic masterpiece. Remember back in school when you were given a writing assignment with forced structure?  (Yeah, most of us hated that.)  The type of structure we suggest here is akin to cryptology.  Could you write a poem where the first word of each line rhymes?  Could you write a poem of homonyms?

Check out this fun ABC poem, shared with the permission of poet, Eric Musse:

Crazed Word Smithery

Another banished boy
Courageously creatively
Displaying every facetious facet
Gregariously hilariously
Interpreting indiscriminate implemented juxtaposed jurisdictions

Killing lusty lascivious laminated Mesopotamian mentalities
Neutralizing obvious overt possibilities
Quarantining ridiculous responding superficial Sumerian scleras
Seeking torturous time travel tendencies
Underlying viciously vacuous violent wizard-line youthful Zohar zealots.
-          Eric Musse (c) 2013

Thank you, Eric Musse and Chuck Yeager, for reminding us to continue pushing the envelope.

Keep writing and keep sharing!
Cronin Detzz

ANAGRAM POETRY IN 5 EASY STEPS

Feed me!  Anagram Poetry by Cronin Detzz

Here is a new challenge for your inner poet! Tackle your poetry writing block with an anagram of your name. The longer your name is, the more words you might find, but this is not always the case.

1. Start by choosing the name you'd like to anagram. I recommend starting with your own name. If you'd like to write an anagram for your ma (nice Mother's Day or birthday gift!) And her name is Jane Doe, you might want to also use her maiden name or make an anagram from a short phrase, like:"Jane Doe, the greatest mother ever."

2. Make a list of words. Give yourself extra points if you can create a word without using the same letter twice. For instance, Jane Doe only has one "d," so challenge yourself to use words that require only one "d." "Jane Doe, the greatest mother ever" contains words like an, and, are, as, dart, dear, do, don't, even, emote, gem, go, great, has, hath, heat, meager, mood, more, neat, nod, node, need, never, one, ogre, onto, over, read, remote, rev, she, so, some, son, stand, tart, tear, test, them, there, ton, vest. I'm sure you'll find more, as well.

3. Expand your word list, remembering word prefixes and suffixes. It is similar to playing a game of Scrabble or doing a good old fashioned word search. For example, many words end in "-tion," "-est," and "-ly." Many words begin with "pre-," "in," or "re." Our example contains retest, greater, greatest.

4. Look for short articles such as "in" or "the." You may find different insects or animals as well. This example has a doe, a dog, a deer and a moth. Keep your mind open.

5. Finally, see what you can string together. Don't worry if it doesn't rhyme. If you need a few more words, try rewriting all the letters in a jumbled order and your eyes will pick up new combinations.

Jane, a dear mother, a gem
Great to meet, she is neat
Never a greater heart
Most others never even start
She stands the test
Dare to meet the greatest
A hero, she has the "mostest"

Psychics say that our names have a vibration that is unique to each of us. Guess that makes me "so cozy!"

Keep writing and keep sharing!
- Cronin "Suzy" Detzz