PLOT TWISTS

PLOT TWISTS: WHAT EVERY WRITER NEEDS TO KNOW

After struggling for some time with writer’s block on my current work in progress about an uprising, I jumped ahead to playing with plot twists. Yes! It’s okay to jump ahead and write what you can.  See more about fragmented writing here.

I’m not going to reveal my twists, but I will say that I implanted a red herring. My goal is to have the reader be very angry at the corrupt villain. This particular villain deserves to be detested, but the real villain – the powerful deceiver who is pulling all the strings – is not revealed until well after the mid-point.

Think about some of your favorite movies, and you will surely get some ideas for plot twists and surprise endings. “Book of Eli,” starring Denzel Washington, has a fabulous surprise ending. My husband and I pride ourselves in picking out Hollywood’s plot twists, so we watched the movie again. We wondered how we could have missed such a vital clue about Eli. You may have felt the same sense of wonder after M. Night Shyamalan’s “Sixth Sense.”

“HOW DID I MISS THAT?”

K. M. Weiland writes a fantastic blog. I admire her because she shares my vision of helping other writers. In her post about writing killer plot twists, she states that plot twists not only need to be unique and executed cleverly, they “must also not take away from re-readability.” This is sound advice for anyone who may want to re-read your book.  Your readers should be asking themselves, “Wow, how did I miss that? I need to go back and re-read the clues. A link to Weiland’s blog is below.

You can click on a blue button to create a random plot twist by visiting pantomimepony (link below). It offers ideas like, “The sister marries the vicar,” or “The social worker unintentionally burns the note, believing it to be cursed.”

A link to an infographic can be seen by clicking the “Awesomer” link below. Many of these twists have been done before, and I wouldn’t advise literally using them, but they are definitely worth a glance because these pictures can get your brain moving in creative directions. For instance, one fun twist is the “robot reveal,” (think Schwarzenegger’s “Terminator”) but a twist you’ll want to avoid is “it was all a dream.”

As a matter of fact, if you are concerned that your twist is trite, read Huffington Post’s blog (link below). Here, you’ll find taboos such as: don’t tell us the aunt is really the mother or that Darth is Luke’s father. I cannot comment on some of this blogger’s pet peeves because I haven’t read some of the books listed, but I do agree that a twist/surprise ending should not be, “oh, never mind, that guy’s just crazy.” This kind of ending is in danger of punching all the teeth out of a story. I do offer this counterpoint: “Fight Club” pulls it off brilliantly. Read the book.

Writers should especially remember to structure the twist so that readers do not feel cheated. Sprinkle a bit of foreshadowing, water it with a few subtle clues, and have fun.

What are some of your favorite plot twists?

Keep writing & keep sharing! – Cronin Detzz

See the link to K. M. Weiland’s plot twist blog at:http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/2013/07/5-ways-to-write-killer-plot-twist.html

Random plot twist generator:  http://writers-den.pantomimepony.co.uk/writers-plot-twists.php

The awesomer infographic:  http://theawesomer.com/42-essential-plot-twists/21034/

Huffington Post’s 7 awful plot twists:   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/14/7-awful-plot-twists-were-_n_1148717.html

POEM: FATHER'S GREEN EYES

A crumbling Spanish castle

adorning the Mediterranean Sea

a kite in my small hands

my father on bended knee

“See the world, and the beauty in it?”

My youthful nod (his reply, odd)

“Compared to heaven, it’s a pile of shit”

Why did he need to spoil that sunny day?

Why were his lessons always imparted this way?

I already knew the world and the ugliness therein,

I already wore fear and sadness as a second skin

So I released the kite into sun-drenched skies

Admired God’s work, shunning illusory lies

I shifted my view, envisioned the castle anew

Saw the world askew

through my father’s green eyes

My father said this to me when were in Spain, admiring the sea and the Spanish castles.  It was an odd way for him to burst my bubble of joy, but it was a teachable moment from his perspective.  We had been raised to honor God and learn our true purpose for being born into this worldly realm.  I have been coping with writer's block lately, mostly due to life's pressures and struggling with health issues.  I've been kinder to myself lately, and after some needed bed rest my Muse and I are back on speaking terms.  Keep writing & keep sharing! - Cronin Detzz

GETTING YOUR POEM ACCEPTED BY A LITERARY PRESS

Your family, friends, reading groups, writer’s circles all love your poetry.  Why is it so difficult to get your work accepted by a literary press?

Part of the problem is that literature works are art, and therefore, subjective.  I have been writing for so long that I know I have a feel for what it takes to write a stellar poem; and yes, many of my poems are not stellar in the public’s view.  I know that.  But I wrote them out of the earnest desire to express a view.  I do have a folder of unpublished poems – I cannot let go of the creative ideas birthed within those writings, but I cannot publish them, either.  They are not very good.  Most of them were written when my vocabulary and skills were nascent.

What I do when submitting poetry to contests or literary presses:  I choose the poems that have the best “hook.”  Writers know that novels require a hook – great poets know that the first three or four lines also require a hook.

I’m happy to report that this poem, “Black Velvet with Diamonds,” will be published in “Poetry Quarterly.”  As any poet can attest, it is a great feeling to know that someone else liked your poem enough to feature it in their journal. The poem came to me as I was sitting in my back yard one night, admiring the clear view of the desert sky (I live in Las Vegas, Nevada).   I began to wonder why God would create this view, and penned:

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

To submit your work in “Poetry Quarterly,” follow the guidelines on their website:  http://poetryquarterly.com/


Which of your poems have the best hook?

Good luck!  Keep writing & keep sharing – Cronin Detzz

CATCHING A FEW "ZZ'S"

If you thought that we were going to discuss sleeping as an aid to better writing – well, that’s true but that’s not the type of zz’s we are going to catch.

What do these names have in common:

Eric Blair

Francois-Marie Arouet

Sam Clemens

Ah, you saw Sam Clemens and you caught on.  These are pen names.  Eric Blair wrote as George Orwell, Francois-Marie Arouet was Voltaire, and of course you know that Sam Clemens was Mark Twain.  Have you considered using a pen name?  If you use your given name but were given the option for a pen name, what name would you choose?

Cronin Detzz is my pen name.  I use it for two reasons.  First, my real name is very common and forgettable.  Second – and more importantly – my mother was a writer and she mentored me.  Cronin Detzz was her pen name.  Ironically, I am a junior so my mother and I not only share the same “real” name, we also have the same pen name.

Mom was killed by a drunk driver when I was 24.  She was only 45.  I thought it would be a fitting tribute to use her pen name.  I asked my sister if she minded, especially since she likes to write, too.  She was glad to let me use it.

My mom chose this name for very specific reason.  In her time, female writers were still trying to break barriers.  One of my favorite coming-of-age books, “The Outsiders,” was written by S.E. Hinton.  Suzy Hinton used her initials to hide the fact that she is female.  Similarly, Mary Ann Evans wrote as George Eliot.  So my mother chose Cronin because it can be a male or a female’s name.  Detzz was her own creation, and she liked it because of the double z’s.  She felt that the “zz” combo was catchy.

Maybe using a pen name isn’t a big deal.  A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.  But with a writer’s need to be memorable or to have a name that is easy to pronounce, some people really should use a pen name.

Now that you know my reasons, I again ask you:  If you use your given name but were given the option for a pen name, what name would you choose?  If you already use a pen name, what is it and why?

Look forward to your comments.  Keep writing & keep sharing!  Cronin Detzz

POEM: VESSELS AND WINE

VESSELS AND WINE

Sometimes I am the vessel

Sometimes, the wine

It is all a matter of His will

that I wear as a cloak of mine

Sometimes the destroyer,

or the builder,

or merely the carpenter’s tool

Now a wise, wide-open eyes crone

who many times played the young fool

Marionette tangled in her own strings

Although knowing all along

sometimes I am the heavenly choir

but sometimes I am the song

Oftentimes, I am the poet

attempting to connect all the dots

Yearning to finally close the gap

between “savior-haves” and “have-nots”

Dancing on the dark matter

swirling through the void

karmic repercussions echo on

from all actions loathed or enjoyed

At some future time

when our karmic debt is done

the earth’s dust will be purged

the many will finally converge

the vessels and the wine will merge

Some time, when we return to The One

 – Cronin Detzz

Inspiration:  One of my friends said that she was “the dark matter in the world.”  I did not know what that meant.  This poem is my interpretation of her.  Sometimes, the universe seems to use us as vessels for its divine purpose; other times, we are that magical force.  Thank you for letting me share this with you.  Keep writing and keep sharing!

EASTER'S RISING

He is not rising

Because he never fell

He gave us everlasting thirst

So that we drink from The Well

He gives us hot sunshine

To appreciate the rain

He gives us religious pillows of comfort

For all our worldly pain

The spear of Longinus

Did not kill The King

When we finally surrender to His Will

We lose our egos and receive everything

-Cronin Detzz

POEM: BE HERE NOW

In the now,
time drips like a leaky faucet
I'm pulling weeds
the sun warms my back
my family rests in the safety of inside
my mind rests in the safety of my skull

No poisoned darts of yesterday will find their mark
No future entanglements ensnare this precious moment
And when this moment slips into what was
another moment jumps in joy, blaring his trumpet of arrival

I go on pulling weeds
Thanking the sun, thanking Spring
Thanking the now for the safety it can bring
Thanking the weeds for pulling me outside
Thanking the illusion of time for pulling me aside
Grateful to grandfather clock
for showing me the why, the how,
The peaceful surrender
to be here now

-Cronin Detzz

When writing, we are often  not in the present.  We are thinking ahead to our next chapter or we are applying lessons and characters from our past.  Next time you encounter writer’s block, try living in that very moment.

Keep writing & keep sharing! – Cronin Detzz