Decades

Have you noticed that each decade in life creates new challenges, new adventures, new wisdom? You probably know your characters' ages, but have you thought about their decades? Not the historical decade but the decade of their life.

For example,a female in her forties sees life differently than a female in her early thirties or twenties. Personally, I remember on each birthday thinking about how I had changed in the previous ten years and I wondered what I would be feeling in the next one. The older I get, the more I've realized how my perspective had grown in particular areas each time. Often, it was a surprise. With more decade experiences, I now sense the change coming the night before my birthday and then a month later, I know how and where I'm shifting and what my choices might involve.

A character can be deepened if something about that particular decade in their life is interjected. Readers can relate if they are or have been in the same decade or know someone who is. Characters become more real with a universal familiarity.

Try it.

CWC Literary Review

A nice surprise arrived in my mailbox. The California Writers Club has produced a Literary Review where CWC members can submit stories for publication. They chose twenty-eight to publish out of the 116 stories and poems that were submitted. Stories can be previously published as long as the author has the right to convey all rights to the CWC Literary Review for a one-time use.

This Spring 2012 Inaugural Issue is very well done, high quality paper, interesting stories, nice design and layout. They plan to have three issues a year. Submissions for the autumn issue are open from May 1st through June 30th. If you are a CWC member, you may enter. Here's another good reason to join the club besides the inspiring meetings and activities they have for members.

Lolly Winston Humor

Lolly Winston's "Good Grief" is an excellent book. I savored the last twenty pages, unable to leave the characters and their world in Ashland, Oregon,that I enjoyed these last few days. At times the story brought tears and other times, I laughed out loud, even in the reception room where I was waiting for an appointment.

Here is an example (page 256) of her style. It's a scene where Sophie, the main character, has been avoiding the man she dated for reasons I won't tell. He hasn't contacted her for a while and she's made a good-riddance list in an attempt to get over him. One morning she hears his voice on her answering machine as she's heading out the door to go to the bakery where she works. She clutches the front door handle and listens to the beginning of his apologetic message.

"Squeezing a stack of cookbooks to my chest, I creep back down the hall to the kitchen, holding my breath as if he might hear me through the answering machine.

This better be good."

A few lines down:

"I lean toward the answering machine as if to sniff it. Clean laundry smell, broad shoulders, narrow waist, callused warm hands. None of my good-riddance list items come to mind."

I'll miss Sophie, Crystal, Drew, Ruth, and Marion. Maybe I'll reread it one day just to be with them again.

Tuesday Class Musings

We talked about blogging in my Tuesday Writing Class today. The Minister of Leaves from my previous blog post caused Marilyn to wonder, "What branch was he sitting on?"

Art mused about "What wisdom was the minister rooted in?"

Art and Marilyn are our comic team but now we have a new character to explore with back-story and plot. Anyone want to research The Republic of Tea in Novato to learn more about this mysterious minister?

The Minister of Leaves

A week off from teaching the writing classes gave me an opportunity for extra time to read "Good Grief" by Lonny Winston. A cup of tea was all I needed while the rain on the windows blured the budding trees and the gentle tap on the roof whispered, read, read, read.

Someone had given me a pack of The Republic of Tea's Honey Ginseng. (China green tea, linden flowers, pollen, Eleuthero, Panax ginseng,and natural flavoring.) I read the back of the pack while the tea kettle heated. Here is what was printed on it:

"The leaf and the water, what would one be without the other? As with tea, so with life, only in union, with ourselves and other, do we join our fullest and truest sense.

--The Minister of Leaves"

Your Characters' Decisions and the Consequences

Frances G. Wickes in her "The Inner World of Choice", talks about the moment of choice and how one can conquer fear and go forth with the change or not. She says:

"If at that moment the ego turns back because of fear, if it dwells in hate, if it refuses decision because of weakness, the dark hour is not the 'living midnight' but a dead midnight out of which dead day comes. The 'new' day has died in the womb of night."

Well said and and an idea for plot. Do you have a character that could be too afraid to choose a change and you could show the devastating result? Frances does a good job in sparking character development based on her stories from real life. Great book, out of print, but available used.

Thoreau Quote

Henry David Thoreau sets high standards:

"If you can speak what you will never hear. If you can write what you will never read, you have done rare things."