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September 26, 2013 / Lisa / 3 Comments

My last post was about a writing prompt, asking me to write a love song to my body. I dared readers to take up the prompt and respond, and my sister did. Her response is within the comments of that post, and I wanted to pull it out and make it more visible. This sister has always been very gentle about prodding me along in life. Here’s her writing prompt response.

I love my body
This I can say
It took 60 years
To feel this way

I could not love
the strong young body
That lifted the car
Off of my Daddy

I would ingest poisons
Between my babies
In my twenties
My body kept on loving me

I love my body
That hugged cancer
Until it left
Stronger than the malignancy

I love the way
My body forgives
And lets me try
Again and again

My body is my dearest home
Housing my rocking mind
And aging bones
I love you body

What a wonderful prompt and powerful way to say good night. Thank you giver of prompts and dear sister for the challenge.

Writing Prompt

September 25, 2013 / Lisa / 4 Comments

I signed up to receive writing prompts from my friend, Lisa, and I confess I’ve been doing the easy ones. She just sent me an impossible one. When I read the prompt I immediately shut down and headed for the delete button. But then I thought a moment. How would I answer that? What would I write, if it is something that immediately throws such a wall up? Talk about the ultimate writing challenge. I thought there was absolutely no way to answer her prompt, to come up with anything. That made me realize I had to try.

What was the horrible prompt?

She asked us to write a love song to our bodies.

Stifle that immediate, uncomfortable emotional response you just had. Set that aside, and pause a moment.

Could you answer that?

I figured out a way to answer it, I challenged myself to write something, and it’s nowhere near what was probably intended by the prompt. I know it’s going to upset those family and friends who read this, but keep in mind that this is my honest response to myself, right or wrong, healthy or not. And, hey, it also made me laugh when I wrote the first line. Laughter is always a good thing.

What would be your honest response? Could you be honest? Give it a try. I dare you.

Here’s my writing prompt response, my love song to my body.

It could be worse.

The red hair could be redder. The freckles could be frecklier. The weight could be heavier. The reflection, the view of my mother, could be clearer.

The anger could be fury, The hurt could be betrayal. The loss could be permanent. The sense of not getting ahead could be falling behind.

Who I see might become what others see. They might quit filtering me through a lens of personality.

A love song like this becomes an exercise in pity.

But, it could be worse.

Son, me, husband, facing the sun

The Pact

September 17, 2013 / Lisa / 3 Comments

Recently a man I’d just met asked me about outlining. He’d heard how one author he likes outlines using post-it notes. I told him how some writers outline extensively, some outline roughly, and some are more organic, not outlining at all but allowing the characters and plot to unfold, so that the writer is also the first reader. He was fascinated by the idea that characters take over and have a life of their own. So the conversation then moved on to how that’s true for all writers, whether they outline or not. Outlines don’t always guarantee the story will move in the plotted direction.

Which got me thinking, of course.

I don’t outline, and have posted about that before. This conversation though, made me realize that by not outlining, I place a great deal of trust in the characters. I’m not saying that I don’t have a rough idea in my mind about who they are, and I always know what the last line of a story is before I start, so that the plot is actually discovering the path to the ending. But I trust the character to know what they want, to tell me if I’m going the wrong way, to tell me their story, and to be able to carry the plot.

People who outline also trust their characters, but it seems to me that the trust is tempered with a strong foundation. Rather like parenting, when you send your child out into the world, trusting them to do the right thing, and knowing that you have given them a strong compass. Outlines, to me, must be like that compass. Whereas, with me not outlining, I just nudge the characters off the edge and go along for the ride as they fall, or soar. (I don’t parent like that, by the way.)

Then there’s the trust between a reader and the characters. As a reader, I trust the character to be believable, to make me care about them, to make me cheer them on, and to make me live vicariously through them. I want to go along on the adventure with them, not simply be an observer, as sometimes happens in books when characters are not fully developed. To me, that problem is usually a result of the author telling me too much, and not showing me the character. So, I put a lot of faith in both the writer and the characters, when I open a new book. And there’s nothing worse than having that trust betrayed and discovering the anticipated new book is boring and flat.

Finally, there’s the pact between the reader and the author. I trust, when I pick up that new book by a favorite author, that I’m going to spend some time with old friends. That I am going to meet some new ones I’ll care about, that I’m going to be placed in a world as real as the one I live in, and I’m going to go for a great ride. I hate when that pact is broken, especially when it’s an author that I have followed for a long time. Yes, it’s unrealistic to expect someone to put out a book at 100% every time, but then I never said my trust was realistic. Especially when it comes to my favorite authors.

This makes me realize how much there is between writer, reader, and characters. I knew it was a strong bond before, of course, but I just never thought too much about it from the trust angle.

So do you feel that sense of trust in the author or characters when you pick up a book? Why do you trust, or not trust? I’d love to know as it will help me as a writer.