writ7707, Author at Writing Like a Dancer

WRITERS AND LOOKING AT ART

Posted on October 15, 2015 by writ7707 Posted in Art and Writing, The Writing Life, The Writing Muse, Writing Inspiration, Writing Inspired by Art, Writing Muse, Writing What You See Leave a comment

Writing Practice and Meeting Up with your MUSE

Writing Leap #58

Hi Writers,

Isn’t it extraordinary how so much in our world can nurture our creative souls? A hill of sun bright orange pumpkins piled up next to haystacks on a farm. A small sculpture of a whimsical horse by Picasso. A warm table setting with crystal sparkling in candlelight next to soft blue napkins.

As writers we can be open to any experience that expands our creative sensibilities and helps us write with a ripe imagination.

For those who are inclined, viewing a work of art is one way to continue developing our instincts as an observer, to own our experience and reinforce our repertoire of emotions. Simply for the feeling of being moved.

Philippe Delaunay, a French art collector and connoisseur, cajoles us to do just that. Enter the world of the artist, he says, and just feel. Without any preconceived notions about style, technique or an artist’s repertoire. He writes:

Is it useless to try and explain a work of art?

Or is a work of art sufficient unto itself? More than ever we are subjected to a flood of literature by art critics and art historians attempting to show us the where and the whys, seeking to interpret what an artist has felt or to reveal what the work “means.”

This makes no sense…..

Let’s let a current work of art live for itself, without filling up the air with artistic explanations that are so often superficial. A work of art must be allowed to breathe freely and defend its own existence just by being. True artists are visionaries. They unconsciously approach that which is invisible and try to make it visible. It is difficult, if not impossible, for anyone other than the artist to affix his own words or sentences to someone else’s vision, without often becoming guilty of misguided or biased interpretations.

Through his own writings the artist himself may explain his creative vision and offer his thoughts in words. Here words and images do become a cohesive whole.

What is important for the observer of a work of art is to approach the work with his whole self without asking questions, without having read or listened to commentaries—and simply let himself be pulled into the world of the artist, bringing about moments of communion, moments of silence.

A work of art speaks for itself and if words are necessary to explain it then it is no longer a work of art.

Translated by Cynthia Magriel Wetzler

***

So writers. Don’t look at the plaques next to the painting for titles and dates. Jump in and find your own experience. Maybe the feeling will inspire a story totally unconnected to the facts of the painting itself.

What do you think? Agree wholeheartedly? Disagree violently? Let me know!

LINKING THE ARTS

Jackson Pollack

I looked at this painting for a long time. Got inside of it. It frightened me. Then I wrote a story about a lost child.

Good word: Uncluttered. As in a pure state of mind open to authentic experience.

No books on artists or art criticism. So you can have your own time with the work of art. Not someone else’s.

WRITERS AND THE PLEASURE OF NOSTALGIA

Posted on September 13, 2015 by writ7707 Posted in The Writing Life, The Writing Muse, Writing and the Pleasure of Nostalgia 2 Comments

Writing Practice and Meeting up with your MUSE

Writing Leap #57

Writers and the Pleasure of Nostalgia

Hi Writers Out There,

Does your mind ever float back into the folds of an old memory and you feel yourself grinning, or wincing or blushing? Can you capture that feeling before it flies off, a little hovering bird, half glimpsed, that disappears into a cloud? I like to ground the feeling of the memory with quick notes to be filled out later. It’s great writing practice to take these jottings and turn them into a little personal essay. Just for the pleasure of trying to write something well. And the pleasure of having written it.

When I’m tired, or disappointed in a book I’m reading, or for no reason, I sometimes reach for one of my old Nancy Drew mystery books from my childhood. Mine are the original Nancy Drew’s with slightly torn book jackets. There she is on the covers, Nancy Drew Girl Detective, with her high heels and bouncy blond hair tied with a bow, creeping up on some unsavory character. How I love these books. Yes, yes, despite all the adverbs and Nancy’s perfection in every way, I love them.

I was so taken with these mystery books as a child and rereading them now rekindles the flush of that same pleasure. I veer towards being a literary snob and normally I would never enjoy such writing as, “The gypsy Anton smiled evilly at Nancy.” Or, “So! He said gloatingly.” But when I’m reading Nancy Drew the adverbs just amuse me. You say, “But Nancy Drew? Please. She’s just a cardboard character, polite and nice with gumption.” I say, “Who cares?” You say, “But you never know what she’s feeling,” and I say, “Who cares?”

When Nancy barges into forbidden gypsy camps to look for a nasty thief who threatens her, I barge in with her all over again, remembering myself at ten years old curled up in a big armchair, lost in the drama. Oh, Nancy is fearless! Her lawyer father, Carson Drew, bless him, recognizes and marvels at her unique sleuthing abilities. I love that he is so proud of her, that he encourages her, that he gives her cases to pursue. “I trust your judgment, Nancy,” he says. He’s the papa bear who lets his little cub (a girl! and it’s the 1940’s) explore the forest on her own, always a phone call away.

There have been many modernized editions of Nancy Drew, written by several authors, all called Carolyn Keene. I would never read one. In the newer versions the images and language of Nancy Drew’s world are more contemporary. What brings me back to that armchair where the ten-year-old me imagined what it was like to have the spunk of Nancy Drew is the flavor of the language and the old-fashioned images in the original versions.

As in The Clue in the Old Album, where Nancy’s friends, George (a girl) and Beth say, “We’re not as good sailors as you, Nancy. Your spirit would win anything for you.” Nancy replies, “No. You’re grand sailors.”

When a telephone operator’s voice cuts into Nancy’s call she hears, “Your time is up. If you wish to talk longer, deposit five cents please.”

Or, the description of Nancy’s sort-of boyfriend. He pops up once in awhile. We read, “Nick Nickerson was an Emerson college student who had long admired Nancy.” Long admired! Today’s teens might wonder what that meant.

And the best, “Nancy drives a snappy roadster.” It’s the language and sensibility of an era that gets me.

So writers, good feelings from old memories can float in and out of our minds. Capturing one and turning it into a little piece of writing is great writing practice. Nostalgia can be a lovely place to go.

Happy Writing Everybody,

LINKING THE ARTS

Lost in a Book

Jesse Wilcox Smith “Girl Reading“

Good Word: gumption, as in Nancy Drew’s resourcefulness

WRITING AND VERBAL EXPRESSIONS

Posted on August 24, 2015 by writ7707 Posted in Literary categories, The Writing Life, The Writing Muse, Writing, Writing from a detail, Writing great dialogue, Writing Inspiration, Writing Muse 2 Comments

Writing Practice and Meeting up with your MUSE

Writing Leap #56

Hi Writers,

My sister, Laurie, and I were laughing recently and reminiscing about our late mother’s wonderful farm town expressions. They were part of her even after many years of living outside a big city. Mary Magriel was a country girl from upstate New York and her turns of phrase revealed so much about her nature, her background, her era and what tickled her.

What about giving your characters expressions that express their personalities, perhaps their biases or fears. Particular turns of phrase, either unique to your character or not, is one way to give readers a gateway into your character’s make-up and your fictional world.

So writers, listen to your characters! How do they express themselves? They may be telling you a lot.

Mary Magriel’s Expressions: What they reveal about her.

Some of these are doozies. Her word. Thank you to my sister for remembering so many and for enjoying them together all over again.

“There’s more than one way to skin a cat.”

Our mother would persist until she figured out a solution. Nothing was too much for her. Fitting things in a tiny closet, dashing her famous tomato seedlings over to a friend right before it was time to prepare dinner.

“I like to trade at the local butcher.”

Does anybody today say, “trade at the “A &P?” No! Trade is a farm town term from an era gone by. I would think it came from the fact that farmers traded their crops for goods. Our mother “traded” with a sharp eye for quality.

“My heart is klopping.”

As in beating hard. She either made this up or it was some version of a Yiddish word. Our mother, a Protestant, adored Jewish expressions. Maybe it was an expression of her love for our father who was Jewish and who loved to joke around with old Yiddish sayings. She would laugh and laugh, pleasing our father no end.

“Slower than molasses in January.” This just sounds really small town.

“Your father took us all the way around Robinson’s barn.”

There was no Robinson’s barn. It was how she expressed getting lost. Barns evoke rural environments and that’s where she grew up.

I wish my sister and I could remember more. Her farm town-isms bring her back.

Happy Writing! May you create many perfect expressions for your characters.

LINKING THE ARTS

A Wonderful Book

A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley: An authentic rural voice and the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992

A Funny Word

Hayseed, as in country boy. Slightly insulting. My father occasionally teased my mother about her high school boyfriend. “Only a hayseed like Tommy would say, ‘No matter how thin you slice it, it’s still baloney,'” my father kidded.

“Robinson’s Barn”

Red Barn by Esther Marie Versch

WRITING THE IMAGE

Posted on July 15, 2015 by writ7707 Posted in The Writing Life, The Writing Muse, Uncategorized, Writing, Writing the Image 1 Comment

Writing Practice and Meeting up with your MUSE

Writing Leap #55

Hi Writers,

It was like being led into a room of Writer’s Secrets and opening a box marked, “Image Systems.” It was enough to turn this writer’s head around and wonder, “How did I ever think I could get to the soul of my story without digging into my imagination and pulling up just the right images to evoke my story’s world?

In a recent workshop at the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Conference in Massachusetts, author and teacher Tim Weed elaborated on the magic of imagery. The kind that takes us beyond surface descriptions to the essence of the story’s world. Writers do this, he says, with specific sensory details that are part of a broader category of images and integral to the story. The images come from the writer’s subconscious and hit the reader’s subconscious as well.

For example: Tim Weed points out the imagery in Phillip Pullman’s The Golden Compass where there are, “…images of the north: icecaps, polar bears, the northern lights.” The north is the larger category of images and the rest are the all-important specifics.

See Tim Weed’s essays: http-//weedlit.blogspot.#4689A5

timweed.net/.webloc

Have you ever considered your imagery, writers? I think it’s a game-changer and can take your writing from really good to beyond good. Thank you so much, Tim Weed. Imagery may be a writing secret to some but it’s an exciting gift to me.

Here is my attempt. Not easy to try and make it right! But along with everything else writers think about I have found it thrilling to switch gears and put my focus where I dream. Perhaps we have all done this already. For me it has never been focused in quite this way. The passage is from my children’s middle-grade novel in progress. Maggie is nine years old.

Maggie’s ocean cove was empty and the surf sounded sleepy, like a lullaby. She sniffed the salty air. It smelled different, more like honey and lemon peel. Uh oh, Grammy Apple’s scent. Grammy Apple and her witchy magic? She closed her eyes and felt herself floating in a wide-awake dream. Suddenly little white clamshells, lots of them, and inky blue mussel shells sketched themselves into a fancy flower pattern on the wet sand. Maggie stared at the shells arranged like petals with strings of seaweed for stems. Draw, draw the shells my darling grandchild. The words slid right down the dunes into Maggie’s ears. You will be accepted into the Nantucket Art Fair.

Imagery, the kind Tim Weed is talking about, is a challenge! But go ahead, writers! Editing is what we do over and over, until our gut tells us, “Yes! I’ve got it!” Isn’t it worth it? You know there is no better feeling in the universe, right?

LINKING THE ARTS

For evocative imagery in the very first paragraph, Tim Weed’s book, Will Poole’s Island

With the images of the visual artist, the cover of Will Poole’s Island evokes a gray, moody ocean with a lone boat that looks very small on the dark horizon. We get a strong feeling of the book.

Word of the Moment: Imagery, as in writerly imaginings.

WRITING A CHARACTER DESCRIPTION

Posted on June 5, 2015 by writ7707 Posted in Character Description, Description, The Writing Life, The Writing Muse, Writing, Writing Description, Writing Inspiration, Writing Moment to Moment, Writing what you mean 2 Comments

Writing Practice and Meeting up with your MUSE

Writing Leap #54

Writing a Character Description

Hi Writers,

I belong to the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (S.C.B.W.I.) They have a new offering for their members. Write a 50 word description of a character for a children’s book, using the word wart. They will post it on their widely-subscribed website (scbwi.org) for agents and editors to see.

At first I dismissed the idea. I wasn’t inspired by warts. Then my closed mind decided to open up and I had an idea! Big lesson: Consider everything as inspiration for your writing. Don’t be an inspiration snob like me. Stretch!

Writing a 50 word description of one of your characters is great writing practice for showing not telling. Fifty words is a challenge to try and evoke, not describe, something about your character that is real. Try it Writers! It’s really satisfying, I found.

Here’s mine inspired by the word wart.

The plump Queen had a wart on her bottom. So embarrassing. Especially when she sat on her throne and cried, “Ouch!” Her round cheeks blushed cherry red, her round mouth resembled a doughnut and her round eyes opened as wide as two apple pies. She heard everybody giggling quietly.

Happy Writing Everybody,

LINKING THE ARTS

The Queen, trying her best.

A Favorite Word: Evoke, as in to summon or suggest. This is one of the jobs of our muse.

WRITING ABOUT FEAR

Posted on May 7, 2015 by writ7707 Posted in The Writing Muse, Uncategorized, Writing, Writing Inspiration, Writing Muse 1 Comment

Writing Practice and the Muse who is ALWAYS THERE

Writing Leap #53

Hi Writers,

Feeling deeply what your characters fear and then using that understanding to create their actions is one way to make him or her breathe with authenticity. When I “looked my 9-year-old character in the eye” and asked her gently, “What are you afraid of, darling?” she revealed something that surprised me.

So sit down, get quiet, comfortable and non-judgmental with your characters and ask them with kindness, “Are you afraid of something?”

I asked myself this question a few hours after my recent shoulder surgery. When I tried to lift my arm up in my sling it was dead weight, a heavy sack of potatoes. “My arm is paralyzed,” I thought, envisioning a life as a true lefty without the use of her left arm. Images of a useless left arm and an awkward right one bombarded my imagination. I stopped breathing. I tried to lift my arm again. Worse. With my right hand I punched in dear Dr. Yasgur’s telephone number with effort. It was a baby’s hand learning how to land on the correct button and missing. My fears escalated.

“No, No, Cynthia. That’s the nerve block we gave you for your surgery. It will disappear in six to twelve hours.”

I relaxed my grip on the telephone and felt a tidal wave of relief.

Fears, irrational and real, can pop up anywhere. Discovering what our characters fear can be a way for us to find the subtleties in their behavior. Just ask them! If they say, “None of your business,” persist. Use your wily, writerly ways.

LINKING THE ARTS

The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published by Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry. Workman Publishing Co. N.Y. 2010

An indispensable, glorious book for writers and my new go-to for clear insights into the world of writers, agents, editors and publishers.

Writers, I urge you to put this book on your head and hope for osmosis. And read the chapter “Rejection Section” over and over. I have.

Ah, writers’ fear. Who among us hasn’t been afraid at times of a litany of terrible possibilities concerning our work? Often following rejections by individuals in the publishing world. It’s a raw fear. My writing falls flat. I have nothing new to bring to the literary world. Do I even have my own voice? Chatter, Chatter, Chatter. The inner demon doesn’t shut up, even in the face of praise for one’s work and worse, in the face of an inner knowing that what you have just written sings with truth. Writer’s fear is a misery.

Listen to Arielle and David. Let them take your writing fears and send them off like so many birds escaping from their cage.

A GOOD PHOTO

A GOOD WORD

Dancing: As in “Keep on Dancing.”

WRITER’S WRITE

Posted on April 15, 2015 by writ7707 Posted in The Writing Life, The Writing Muse, Writing Leave a comment

Writing Practice and the Muse who is ALWAYS THERE

Hi Writers,

A thought for all of us.

“It’s impossible,” said pride.

“It’s risky,” said experience.

“It’s pointless,” said reason

“Give it a try,” whispered the heart.”

Unknown

WRITING YOUR TRAVEL MOMENT II

Posted on April 4, 2015 by writ7707 Posted in Anecdote, The Writing Life, The Writing Muse, Travel Writing, Uncategorized, Writing Inspiration, Writing Muse Leave a comment

Writing Practice and Finding Your Muse

Writing Leap #52

Hi Writers,

Back to Paris, this time in my imagination. It’s been hard for me to leave behind all the writing inspiration I find there. And my daily indulgences like pain au chocolat and an afternoon café au lait that fed my writer’s spirit.

Here’s another Paris moment, brought alive back home in front of my computer by a series of photos on my phone. While my notebooks and pens were always in my bag, ready to be scribbled in, I was too immersed at this particular moment in what I was hearing and seeing to take notes. Quick photos would have to do.

We stepped out of our courtyard onto the Rue Dauphine into the round full sounds of a jazz saxophone. It floated down our street from the next corner and the glorious notes slipped around my ears. I was so happy to be here, to be walking single file down this narrow street with tiny sidewalks towards the music.

“Woody Allen,” we both said, “From ‘Midnight in Paris.’”

By the time we reached the corner the deep bass had jumped in, as well as the plunk-plunk of the banjo, the birdcall of the clarinet and the low, velvet sounds of the trombone. A small crowd was gathered around five musicians of a certain age and no one was talking. Everyone was smiling. All eyes were on the five men caught up in the joy of their mellow music. They were clearly seasoned professionals, the music was that good. I stared. The melody, the riffs, the sunshine filled me up. I grinned like a happy child. I felt an increased admiration for Woody Allen, a kinship. A pride to be an American too. Spectators were tapping their feet, clicking their fingers. Some were nodding, Aaaah, Wood-y All-en. Accent on the last syllable. Sensationelle.

Woody Allen, it seems, loves Paris. He sees Hemingway there, and Fitzgerald. Corny? Not for me. So do I.

So Writers, Pull out your phone, capture something great, and WRITE ABOUT IT.

LINKING THE ARTS

A Good Word: Jazzy, as in lively and spirited

A Favorite Book: A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway.

I liked it even better the second time. He doesn’t always write in short, clipped sentences.

WRITING THE TRAVEL MOMENT

Posted on March 3, 2015 by writ7707 Posted in Anecdote, The Writing Life, The Writing Muse, Travel Writing, Uncategorized, Writing, Writing from a detail, Writing Inspiration, Writing Muse, Writing the Vignette, Writing What You See Leave a comment

Writing Practice and the Muse who is ALWAYS THERE

Writing Leap #51

Hi Writers Out There,

We were recently in Paris for three weeks and near where we were staying there is a papeterie, a tiny store that sells newspapers, pens and glorious notebooks of many kinds. You can find all sizes stacked on shelves, some lined, some plain and my favorite, notebooks with graph paper.

I carried three in my bag and tried my dear husband’s patience when I pulled one out at most street corners to capture a moment or a glimpse of something. “You wouldn’t see this, or hear this, or feel quite this way back home!” I would say.

With your writer’s sensibility to “stories” all around you, notebooks for grabbing the freshness of a moment while traveling are essential. Later when you are back home you can fill out your stories from your authentic first impressions and not just from your memory or photo shot.

So Traveling Writers. Lots of pens and lots of notebooks.

Here’s one of my moments, expanded from a few scribbled lines.

I stared at the Louvre across the Seine. It stretched the length of three quais. Hundreds of beautiful tall French windows. Poor Louis XVI and the thousands in attendance to him whose home this was. Beheaded with his wife Marie Antoinette because of all his high-ceilinged rooms gilded pure gold, his walls covered in silk brocade, his powdered wigs, his delicate lace cuffs–all given to him and him alone by God himself.

A woman draped in a dreary shawl picked something up from the sidewalk and approached me.

“Madame, excuse me, but look at this ring,” she said. “It looks like real gold.” She showed me some markings on the inside of the ring. “Sadly, I can’t wear it.” She began to try it on her fingers to show me. Her accent in French was foreign and she mumbled. I wasn’t sure if she said it was too small for her or that it was against her religion to wear it.

“I want you to have it,” she said and held the ring out to me. “You should have it,” she said. I saw kindliness in her face. I looked at her and smiled back. I had an impulse to accept it and actually took it in my hand.

My friend coughed in her glove and threw me a stern look. “No, no,” she said. “Just put it here on this closed up book stall. Come on. Right on top.” I gave the ring back to the woman and she walked away.

Then she turned back and said, “Please, just a few coins. My children are very hungry.”

My friend and I hustled on. “Do you suppose that was a set-up?” I asked. “Rather,” she said.

But I was wondering what the woman’s name might be. Maybe we should have given her something.

A few days later on a boulevard in another Paris neighborhood, a man leaned down and picked up a gold ring off the sidewalk. He offered it to my husband and me.

LINKING THE ARTS

A Good Word for Writers: Wallop, as in “Writer’s Wallop.” Feeling a moment in your gut and getting it down fast before it loosens its hold.

WRITING THE MOMENT THAT TICKLES

Posted on January 11, 2015 by writ7707 Posted in Art and Writing, Literary categories, The Writing Life, The Writing Muse, Writing, writing funny, Writing Inspiration, Writing Muse Leave a comment

Writing Practice and the Muse who is ALWAYS THERE

Writing Leap #50

Happy Creative New Year Writers! May you have many spontaneous bursts of ideas for your writing. And the discipline (ah yes) to sit down and turn some of your sparklers into articles, stories, plays and poems.

An unexpected moment can tickle and delight us. Writing about it (as close to the moment it happens as possible—carry your notebook with you at all times) can be great practice in capturing a revealing aspect of you the writer or your characters. In fiction, the moment may not tickle you the author, but if it tickles your character the reader will get to know him better.

Here’s mine.

Teddy is almost five months old and he is going to Paris. What will his eager little face take in when we, his grandparents, send his parents off to a café and push him in the stroller down the Boulevard St. Germain? I can’t help the ripples of delight I feel each time I imagine it.

And the funniest thing? Teddy needs a passport! His mother texted me a picture of this passport. He is smiling one of his new grins and he’s all official now. I stared at the passport, shook my head, enjoying lots of tickles around my funny bone.