MY NAME IS SUE. MARY SUE.

Writer’s Block implies that our creative well has dried up.  When creating an epic hero, be certain to dip into your creative well and create a hero that is relatable.  If main characters have depth and fallacies, readers will more easily connect.  How can we create depth?

Ensure that your hero has fallacies and makes mistakes.  Norwegian author, Jo Nesbo, created an award-winning series of crime fiction novels revolving around a detective named Harry Hole.  Harry Hole asks probing questions, notices clues that others miss, and contains all the desired aspects of a great investigator.  However, Hole is an alcoholic.  He sabotages his own romantic relationships.  He smokes, he makes mistakes, he struggles with depressive thoughts – in short, he is human.  He is a hero, but he has depth. 

Nesbo does not spend a lot of time describing Hole’s physical attributes, other than to say that he is tall and has blue eyes which are frequently bloodshot.  If a writer spends too much time describing a character, the writer will be accused of self-insertion.  Let the reader fill in some of the gaps of physical details, and the reader will subconsciously insert himself and get hooked.

 A “Mary Sue” is a character that is simply too good to be true.  Roger Moore’s portrayal of James Bond is certainly a “Mary Sue.”  He gets the girl, kills the villain, saves the day, and still has fantastic-looking hair.  (He had fantastic hair in the television series “The Saint” as well!)  I am an admitted Bondophile, and own all of the Bond books.  The books are much better than the movies because the author, Ian Flemming, created a hero who often made mistakes.  In the novel Casino Royale, Bond questions whether he himself is the bad guy, realizing that a Russian spy would perceive Bond as an arch enemy.  Bond is unsure of his mission in life and considers leaving the service.  He doesn’t have perfect Roger Moore hair.  His hair is described as dark, forming a “cruel comma” above his brow.  He often gets captured and is a victim of incredible torture, and the author takes us to the dark shadows in Bond’s mind.  It is an interesting journey and a great study into character development.

In short, don’t make characters too perfect, too brilliant, or invincible, unless you’re Roger Moore, who is successful despite his perfect hair.

Keep writing and keep sharing! – Cronin Detzz

FIBONACCI POETRY

FIBONACCI – not your father’s haiku

General Motors tried to inspire a younger demographic with the catchy tagline of “This is not your father’s Oldsmobile.”  I’d like to think that a Fibonacci poem is not your father’s haiku!  A Haiku has a mathematically metered number of syllables in three lines, using a count of 5, 7, 5.  Similarly, a Tanka uses the measure of 5-7-5-7-7.  Below is an example, written when I was about sixteen years old:

LONELY TANKA

the wound is so Deep

it will scar your Memory

alone and Empty.

even after she leaves You

her unwanted stench Lingers

The Fibonacci sequence adds each subsequent number as the sum of the previous two numbers: 0 + 1 =1, 1 + 1=2, 1 + 2 = 3, 2 + 3 = 5, and so on.  This mathematical sequence occurs in nature, music, science, geometry, and art, and has also been applied to poetry.  The Fibonacci poem uses the following number of syllables per line:  1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, etc.

Below is a great example, used with permission by poet Narendra Rai:

Morn

As

It’s born

Brings with

Itself your aroma

That gives me hope

To hold you in my arms one day

Another mathematical approach to poetry can be found in an etheree, which contains lines of syllables in numerical sequence from 1 to 10.  I tried my hand at a reverse etheree:

BLACK DREAMS

1  In

2  my dream,

3  I reach out

4  Wailing, weeping,

5  the darkness creeping

6  heart beating and bleeding

7  growing numb as senses pale

8  Blackened by burning betrayal,

9  You enjoy my screaming as I drown

10 You even help the demons hold me down

9   But wait, here is the craziest twist

8   you let me live to make it last

7   pulling me into your past

6   you laugh as my blood drips

5   licking fingertips

4   luminous scream

3  ruinous,

2  haunting

1  dream

Writing in this style is more difficult than it looks!  Many poems typically have four to eight syllables per line, and in poetry, each line stands alone to allow the reader to pause.  Challenge yourself and try this art form.  You can share your poetry on this blog or you can share on my Facebook wall, just search “Cronin Detzz.”

Keep writing and keep sharing!  - Cronin Detzz

WRITER'S BLOCK - YELLOW STICKY NOTES

If you have a sudden rush of inspiration, where do you record it?  We often get great ideas while brushing our teeth or while sitting in traffic at a red light.  If you are anything like me, you know that you have to record your inspiration before it flutters away from your brain.

To prevent writer’s block, I make sure that I record inspirations as soon as possible.  A quick inventory shows me where my inspirations are sitting right now:

·        On a yellow sticky note on my car’s dashboard, and two more floating around in the bottom of my purse

·        On a tiny notepad next to my toothbrush

·        In a journal in the back seat of my car, and another journal in the trunk of my car (that journal is full)

·        In a journal next to the easy chair, and another journal on a chair in the dining room

·        In my gratitude journal, located on my nightstand

·        On virtual sticky notes in my smart phone, using an app called Color Note

·        On the backs of recycled envelopes, which have been stuffed inside a manila envelope entitled “Blog Ideas”

I clearly need to simplify!  I try to remember to stuff blog ideas into a manila envelope entitled “Blog Ideas,” but with life moving so fast it is difficult to stay organized.  On days where my eyes are tired from working on the computer for hours and hours, I go through my journals and tear out pages and organize them into categories.  If I already have a book title, the journal notes are stuffed into the back of a folder or manila envelope. 

Once I’ve used my latest delicious idea, I put a large checkmark next to the sections that have been used.  This helps me remember which ideas have already been put to use.

Writers, what systems do you use to capture all of your ideas?  Do you have a special app that you like to use, or do you have other systems?  Let me know!  The more we share, the better we can all become.  Writer’s block can be frustrating, so anything that you can do to stay organized can only help.

Keep writing and keep sharing!  - Cronin Detzz

WRITER'S BLOCK: FRIENDS, ROMANS, BOOKWORMS

“Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ear…”   Those few, simple words written by William Shakespeare are well-known to casual readers and bookworms alike.  Similarly, “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?” has been drilled into our heads by our beloved English teachers.  (By the way: wherefore doesn’t mean “where,” it means “why”.) 

Banal quotes and trite cliches make us wonder why certain phrases are so easily recognized.  Why do some lines have sticking power in our brains?  We are bombarded with clever turns of scripts every day, from Facebook posts to television shows to radio ads; yet, certain quotes are indelible.

Certainly, some famous quotes stick in our gray matter due to pure rote memory.  I had a Latin teacher, Mr. Paris, who began each class by making say aloud the opening line to Caesar’s Gallic wars:  “Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres.”  Mr. Paris added a few more words each day, and promised us that we would probably remember this for the rest of our lives.  After the Christmas break, a 30-year-old student popped in just to say hello to Mr. Paris.  That adult could recite the entire first paragraph, and we were amazed.

Besides rote memory, there are other tricks that our brain uses to remember these kinds of phrases.  If we see a parody on television that makes us laugh, our brains will ease and we will absorb what we are hearing.  If we are very sad or angry, we might identify with a particular phrase or song lyric and subconsciously think about it.  If we are celebrating a holiday, our hearts can quickly recall moving sayings like Dr. King’s “I have a dream” speech, or Tiny Tim’s gleeful, “God bless us, every one!”

In your writing, remember that a heartfelt phrase can have real staying power.  We don’t always know which phrases will resonate with a fellow bookworm, but chances are that if you are sincerely writing from your heart, readers will take notice.  It takes some confidence and a willingness to be vulnerable enough to share your innermost thoughts, but isn’t this what writing is all about in the first place?

Keep writing and keep sharing!  - Cronin Detzz

PITHY POETRY

“How long should my poem be?”

Deciding on the length of a piece of creative writing is a common question.  If one is writing a novel, the basic answer is that it must be sufficiently long enough to cover the topic, bring the emotions up to the climax, and in the end wrap it all together like the ribbon around a present. 

Poetry, on the other hand, is succinct by nature.  Poetry can be described as a piece of creative writing that distills ideas into the fewest, most impactful words possible.  Poetry could even be described as pithy – forceful and concise (not to be confused with a pith helmet).

Poetry that drags on endlessly is boring.  The best practice is to perform a Spock-like Vulcan mind dump, writing everything to your heart’s desire.  Then revisit the poem, and look for useless modifiers, repetitive adjectives, and unnecessary adverbs.  Common pitfalls include using bland words such as “very” or “really.” 

Part of the poetry-writing process should always involve masterful use of crisp words.  It is through the simplicity and beauty of language that a poet delivers a message with a powerful punch.  For example:

“It was a very dark and stormy night”

could be rewritten as:

“Night clouds burst, thunder’s hunger and lightning’s thirst”

Verbosity is a problem for poets.  Find a way to put your poem into a sieve, letting the useless, murky words fall through while retaining the heart of your poem.  Challenge yourself by taking a few lines out of the poem.  If you can retain your original meaning, leave the lines out of your final draft.  Keep writing and keep sharing! - Cronin Detzz

MASTERING THE SEGUE

MASTERING THE SEGUE

WHILE RIDING A SEGWAY

A segway is a personal transportation device on two wheels – no, not a bicycle.  It’s much more quirky and dorky than your bicycle.  Yes, even dorkier than the bike with the white basket and a dapper, chirpy  bell.

A segue, on the other hand, is its corresponding heterograph (sounds the same, spelled differently).  A segue seamlessly moves the reader from one place to the next.  Segues transition your story from one idea to the next.  A segue isn’t really a cliff-hanger, but it could certainly be described as a page-turner.  Segues round out your thoughts, and show multiple perspectives of a multi-faceted idea. 

Typically, segues are expressed through key words, including:

·        While – since – in addition to – along with

·        Obviously – clearly – similarly

·        Consequently – as a result – subsequently

Remember adverbs?  These are words that tell us how, when, where, or to what extent.  Notice that adverbs play a prominent role in segues:  “consequently,” “similarly,” and “subsequently.”  These are known as conjunctive adverbs and they connect one phrase to another.  These connections do not have to be similar ideas.  The connections can be contrasts (examples:  “on the other hand” or “conversely”).  The words chosen might be other types of adverbs as well, but this type of grammar hair-splitting isn’t critical.  The take-away from this article is to make writers more aware of the prominence of segues.

Let me know what other segues you create!  While a riding a segway might be a lot of fun, you know that as a writer, segues can be fun, too.  Just wear a helmet.  

- brought to you by "The Crow's Pen"

WRITER'S BLOCK - 3 TIPS FOR WRITING DIALOG

CAN WE TALK?

Crafting sentences while empathizing with a reader’s mind can be challenging and frustrating.  This article is intended to provide a few tips for improving dialog.

 

Writers put their best foot forward, and believe that they have written a great story…but remember that the reader is your ultimate critic.  Imagine the frustration of reading confusing dialog, combined with the boredom of reading bland “he said – then she replied” dialog.  This should be enough to fuel your passion for great writing.

As a consummate reader, I have noticed that even the best writers sometimes overlook three basic rules:

Rule #1 - Tell us who is talking!  Some books have a lot of characters, and when multiple characters get involved in a conversation, the reader can easily lose track of who is speaking.  For example:

               Lucy was bitter.  She turned to Charlie and said, “Get over here, you stupid blockhead.”

               “Are you calling me a blockhead?”

               “Don’t call him names,” said Snoopy.

               “I will call him whatever I want.”

               He seemed to consider the situation in deep thought.  “I don’t think that’s appropriate, Lucy.”

Quick:  who said which line?  Was Snoopy the last speaker, or was Charlie defending what was left of his manhood?  If your reader gets confused, the conversation loses its impact. 

One way to clarify the speaker is with action.  For instance:  He dropped his doggie bone and said, “Hey, you can’t talk to Charlie that way.”  Snoopy would be the only character with a doggie bone.

Another method of clarifying the speaker is by having one character mention the other character’s name (e.g., “Charlie, you are a blockhead” would infer that Lucy is speaking).  

Rule #2 - Enliven the dialog tags.

Occasionally replace “he said / she replied” with some of these examples:

Yelled

Replied

Shrieked

Begged

Cried

Muttered

Denied

Some of these can be modified with adverbs:

Angrily shrieked

Flatly denied

Softly cried

Vehemently begged

Anxiously replied

Rule #3 - Know how to transition conversations:  more showing, less telling.  Yes, my English teacher wrote this a million times on my school papers, and I try to keep this in mind.  In dialog, if a character spoon feeds the story, it seems unnatural and amateurish:

               “Has anyone seen the butler?” asked Sherlock.  “The butler was here this morning, and he had blood spatters on his shoes.  He was also carrying a large knife and had mean little beady eyes, and although it was a dark and stormy night, he was wearing a yellow shirt and…”

Blah blah blah, you’ve bored us to tears.  Give us action.  Describe feelings, thoughts, sounds, smells. Was Lucy smiling when she called Charlie a blockhead?  Was her face angry and red?  Was she frantically waving her arms in the air? Draw us into your head, alluding to the situation in your story, without having your characters spell out every detail.  The better you know your own characters, the easier your writing will flow.

Then after you’ve rewritten your dialog, share it in the comments section below so that YES, WE CAN TALK!  I will offer any guidance that I can.

KEEP WRITING & KEEP SHARING! - Cronin Detzz