Pop Crackle Boom- Happy Fourth of July

Happy Fourth of July to everyone in the USA- Mandy Calvin

April Fool

We writer's can be so cruel to our characters can't we?  We just dump them into a world of terrible conflict.  Anyways, happy April Fools Day!  What pranks do you have up your sleeve today?  Tell me about it in the comments below.

Mandy Calvin

Out in the Rain

Some days it rains
In a unpredictable way
During those days
I watched the downpour from inside
But I was soaked
With all of my limitations
But not today,
I will not remain indifferent
Into the storm
I go, my eyes looking forward
I am still soaked
But by rain water, not by tears

 

All comments, question, and constructive criticism are welcome. Thank you for reading and watching.

In the Arctic

I have been watching animal planet a lot recently.  Watching the simple life of animals is a refreshing break from action packed, super explosion movies drugged up on special affects.  On a few of the animal shows I found myself poking fun at the narration.  Some of the things the narrator said were melodramatic and/or cheesy.  It really took away from the sincerity of story being filmed.  I think there is a lesson in that.  When you have story, don't try to force more drama than there is.  Let it be, as the Beatles so nicely put it.  Tell the story the way it is and it will be more realistic than phony.

I hope you enjoyed my little comic and I would love for you to check out other comics, poems, and stories on this blog.  All comments and constructive criticism are welcome.

Yours Truly,

Mandy Calvin

Black Friday

Today I will be doing a fictional short short story inspired by Alana's writing prompt on Writercize (awesome blog full of writing exercises).  The prompt:

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writercize #129: "Create a dialogue centered around a question of ownership."

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We are a consuming nation.  We buy stuff we want, we need, and we get just because someone else has that same thing.  Then there’s Black Friday.  It's the single biggest day of low price sales.  However shoppers swarm to the stores like all the items were free.  Normally I just spend the day after Thanksgiving resting and eating leftovers.  So how do I find myself sitting in the car in the wee hours of the morning on November 25th, driving loops in a parking lot?  Of all the people in the world, my boyfriend caught the Black Friday Fever.  We were sitting together on the couch at his house earlier in the week and he said, “Cindy, I’m thinking about buying myself a new television set.”  I nodded affirmatively unaware of where the conversation was leading.  He carefully mentioned he knew of a great Black Friday sale on HD flat screens and DVD players.  I said it wasn’t a good idea, he artfully argued that I should come along with him.  I gave in.

We eventually found a parking space at the far edge of the lot.  We trekked across the whole parking lot to the department store entrance.  Passing the threshold of the automatic doors I was greeted with a roar of concentrated murmuring of the masses of people.  Being in the store I was suddenly grasped by a state of urgency by looking into the eyes of other shoppers rushing around with baskets of stuff.  My boyfriend seemed completely in his element with a determined look on his face. 

We decided to split up. He went to the electronics section while I browsed the women’s clothing.  I had to admit, the prices were very appealing.  I soon found myself with a handful of blouses.  I was searching through a rack of jeans slashed to the tempting price of five dollars and ninety-nine cents.  I found an adorable pair that was my size.  I lifted the hanger off the bar, but there was a resistance keeping me from pulling them off the rack.  I saw a hand grasping it on the other side.  I looked over the top of the rack and my eyes met with another woman’s.  Neither of us was letting go.  I smiled faintly, “excuse me.”

“Excuse yourself,” the other woman scoffed and pulled.

“I realize this is an awkward situation but that doesn’t mean you have to be rude.”

“Whatever, why don’t you go get yourself some other jeans.”

“This is the only pair left on this rack that are my size.”

“This is my size too.  However, you might do better by trying a size larger.”

“I beg your pardon!”

“Quick being such a stick in the mud and let go of the jeans.”  I looked over at her cart.

“You already have a lot of items, I’m sure you can do without one pair of jeans.”

“Their mine, I found them first.”

“No, I found them first.”  She gave the jeans a jerk, which I returned with a pull. Another older shopper had overheard us and commented,

“Ladies, where are you manners?”

“This is none of your business,” the other woman snapped.  The other shopper quickly withdrew from us, her sensibilities insulted.  I sighed and let go of the jeans.

“You can lose yourself over a pair of jeans.”  The other woman gave me a glare.  With the jeans she pushed her cart-full of loot away.

Lost In the Message

   When writing fiction, tell a story, do not try to convince a moral, political, or philosophical view to the reader. I've always felt conflicted with this piece of advice. There is hardly a piece of quality writing without an idea being pushed. When we get down to it isn't that all what books are, thoughts? Like other aspiring writers, I imagine how my imaginary best-selling novel will affect the hearts and minds of my readers in my dreamy little head. On a not too distant cloud is getting published and other generic writer fantasies, that others would find utterly drab. So idealistic Mandy sets her goals high and aims to change the world with her fantastic writing. Then she looks down for a moment and sees that piece of advice mentioned in the first sentence and begins to get concerned.

   Just recently it dawned upon me what this chunk of advice was saying.  I was convinced that it was suggesting that a story shouldn't express a point of view or share some sort of moral.  However, this is not what it meant.  It meant that during the writing process don't try to bog down the plot with lecturing prose or skewing the dynamics of your story just to make it fit for some nice philosophy.  Write the story and the rest will follow.  I was listening to speaker once who brushed over this subject.  She suggested that if you are so intent to get your idea across, write and essay instead.  By trying to argue a point through a story you can be weighing it down instead of developing it into something spectacular like the way you see it.

   A story needs to speak to the heart of the reader, and the way of doing that is through its characters and a plot.  The characters in your story may well experience conflicts and their solution to the conflict may express a wonderful message: don't do drugs, persevere, love overcomes all, politicians have no soul, the key to happiness is within you, ect..  That's great because that message is being shown and not simply told.  I believe a powerful message can be artfully implemented into a story.  Just don't get so caught up in a message that you forget about the story.

Have you ever heard similar advice? What do you think of it?

Obscure

Collegiate Foothills

For the aspiring writer, there are many valleys and hills and other landscape metaphors that he must cross.  One decision he must make is the route he plans to take in his formal education: what college and what major.  Is it worth the investment of time and money to study creative writing in college?  do you need to? So let's look at successful writers and their decisions about their education:

• Ray Bradbury: His formal education never went farther than his high school diploma.

• Dan Brown: He graduated from Phillips Exeter, his high school, and continued into Amherst college.

• Meg Cabot: She attended Indiana University.  She made a point not to study writing there because a young man, whom would later become her husband, said that, "studying creative writing as a major sucks the love of writing out of you ". Taking his advice she studied studio art instead, however she did take a few workshops in creative writing.

• John Grogan:  Went to Central Michigan University and graduated with a double major in English and Journalism.

• Daniel Keyes: After he finished his service in the U.S. Maritime Service, he Graduated from Brooklyn college with a B.A. in Psychology.

• Stephen King: Graduated from the University of Maine with a bachelors in English.  He wrote a weekly column for his college newspaper while he studied there.

• Jean Kwok:  After moving to America from Hong Kong, Jean attended Harvard and graduated with honors in English and American Literature.  She went on to get a masters in fine arts at Columbia.

• Stephenie Meyer: Graduated from Brigham University in Utah with a bachelors in English.

• Jodi Picoult: Studied Creative writing at Princeton, then continued to get a masters in education at Harvard.

• Nicolas Sparks: He graduated from his high school as valedictorian.  Then he went to Notre Dame on a track scholarship and majored in Business finance.

Of course, there are many more writers, but from the lot we have there is an array of stories.  However, English seems to be the most popular.  Though school and learning the technicalities of writing is important, learning through life is even more important.  Even in the strangest fiction, life is the basic subject matter.  (I already wrote about learning through life in my post An Education).  Ray Bradbury, mentioned above, is very adamant about this also calling himself a "student of life".  Yet you can be a student of life and a student of the book simultaniously.  It's just that the value of learning from what's around you is often overlooked.

No writer is the same as they come from so many different types of backgrounds.  What you choose in your education will affect that.  In the end, I believe it doesn't matter what you get your degree in, so long as it's something you enjoy and if possible practical.  Because you do need some means to pay for your writing habit.  The diploma on the wall, whatever it may be, won't get you published.  It's the things you learn and apply to your writing that will.

References:
http://www.stephenking.com/the_author.html
http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/bio.html
http://www.nicholassparks.com/AboutNicholas.asp?PageID=1
http://www.megcabot.com/about-meg-cabot/frequently-asked-questions-about-meg-cabot/#college
http://www.jodipicoult.com/JodiPicoult.html#kudos
http://www.raybradbury.com/bio.html
http://www.danbrown.com/
http://www.jeankwok.com/author.shtml
http://www.johngroganbooks.com/marley/about.html
http://www.danielkeyesauthor.com/dksbio.html

Shoes with Toes and Writing Prose

   So the other day I was at a friend's house and we were eating lunch.  I happen to glance under the kitchen table to see her wearing the oddest pair of tennis shoes I ever saw.  The shoes looked like a pair of water shoes but molded to the shape of her foot, toes and all.  I immediately questioned her about them.  She smiled and casually explained they were the latest in running shoe apparel.  My friend is a dedicated morning jogger and fitness fanatic, so she's into that type of stuff.  Yet, I still don't know why she was wearing them in the kitchen.  She continued to give me a sales pitch about her foot's fashion statement.  The regular tennis shoe, though is soft on the feet, isn't very soft on joints in your hips and knees.  See, the human foot in biologically designed to run and support our body and absorb shock instead of our hips and joints.  The regular tennis shoe inhibits the foot from doing what it does naturally and it causes unnecessary wear and tear on joints and hips.  With this new design it's like running bare foot, but better.  That's what she said anyways.
   So how did I apply the mechanics of the shoe to writing?  Ever writer has a voice in which they share their ideas, whether that be through poetry or prose.  Some would call it a person's writing style but I prefer to call it a writing voice.  No one can tell you what you voice is like and it doesn't appear on demand once you begin the road to being a writer.  You alone must spend the large amount of time strengthening your voice.  It's frustrating.
   The worst mistake a new writer can make is copy another writer's unique style.  It doesn't work because that's not their voice.  In the end they just mix up their writing into gibberish and their writing was worse than it was before.  Studying another author's voice and mimicking it are two separate things.  So like the way the shoe conforms to the natural shape of the foot so must a person's writing conform to their natural style and not someone else's.


   Have you ever mimicked another author's voice? How did that go? Have you ever worn these strange shoes with toes? My next post is going to be my 50th post. Are there any ideas of something special I can do?

Writing a Novel is Like a Novel

The Writing Wagon

   No one ever said writing was easy.  If writing was easy, every mother's child would be churning out best sellers (we could also make every person in this hypothetical world a bookworm).  The most challenging thing is staying on task and finishing what has been started.  I don't know much about ADHD, but I know that humans in general have short attention spans, especially when it's most needed.  The modern age of technology isn't helpful.  You know what I'm talking about: those shiny mobile devices, iWhatevers, television, and websites.  These aren't a hindrance when the story is pouring through your hands as your transform it into words.  During those times you're the invincible, victorious writer.  Nothing can stop you.  Well, except for yourself. 
   Enter writers' block and play spooky music.  Now is the time when you can easily fall off the wagon.  The flowers and glitter are gone and the hard times have arrived.  But, instead of facing the dilemma, you face the television or browse YouTube for videos of a cat playing the piano.  May be you stay slightly more focused and twitter about it or post about it on facebook.  Then of course you start doing other things, like talking to friends or twittering about what you ate for lunch.  The story doesn't get picked back up until a month latter.  What needs to happen is the toys and gizmos to be put away so the work can be done.  A few pointers to do so:
    - Designate a certain time quota per day to social net working and web browsing so you don't get carried away with it in the first place.  (This could be a good thing all around)
    -Turn cell phone off while you write
    -Take up writing by hand on paper in quite room, later type it.  Sometimes the Internet button a click away is too tempting. 
    -Plan out what you're going to write in your head the day before you write, while you have some free time or as you're about to go to bed.
    -Whatever you do just keep writing.  You can possibly take on an extra writing project

Well I'm not one to talk, I just added onto my distractions by getting a twitter account.  Oh well, I'll manage.  Do you get sidetracked? How do you deal with it?

Genres Galore

   So the other day I was listening in on a conversation between a group of writers.  The part I overheard was how they described what genre they wrote.  They used fancy titles such as post apocalyptic action adventure and detective mystery thriller.  One mentioned they wrote realistic fiction, a term I never heard before but it makes sense.  Myself, I'm undeclared.  I'm still testing every genre.  It's part of my journey as a writer to try every genre and to see what I want to do.  Looking for my genre is a fun process though. It's like entering an ice cream parlor and trying every flavor, except it's less fattening. 

   My little doodle doesn't show every fiction genre and sub genre, but it was my attempt to.  According to the dictionary a genre is a type or kind of literature, art, or popular fiction.  Well, every work of literature is unique.  Most of them don't fit into just one type and some make their own type it would seem.  So there needs to be a large variety of genre labels. 

What genres did I miss in my drawing? Do you write in one particular genre or not?