Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Wed, Sep 01 2010
The muse is mature, but as for me...
I had to fill in some spots on my September calendar so that I could see exactly where I had room for some other activities. I'm wondering why that works for regular activities, but not for writing. I can set aside time slots in which to write, but regimenting the writing any more than that seems to make my creative blood run cold. I'm not a very mature writer that way at all.
posted at: 21:43 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
I had to fill in some spots on my September calendar so that I could see exactly where I had room for some other activities. I'm wondering why that works for regular activities, but not for writing. I can set aside time slots in which to write, but regimenting the writing any more than that seems to make my creative blood run cold. I'm not a very mature writer that way at all.
posted at: 21:43 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Mon, Aug 30 2010
September 2010 Deb's Monthly Review has been uploaded
Please take time to enjoy the September 2010 issue of Deb's Monthly Review, which is full of festivals and other events in the USA. It's always free to view. You'll find events featuring everything from turkey races to mule polo to the joys of popcorn.
posted at: 20:04 | category: /Arts and Entertainment | link to this entry
Please take time to enjoy the September 2010 issue of Deb's Monthly Review, which is full of festivals and other events in the USA. It's always free to view. You'll find events featuring everything from turkey races to mule polo to the joys of popcorn.
posted at: 20:04 | category: /Arts and Entertainment | link to this entry
Thu, Aug 26 2010
Dilemna: Balancing time to create, time to design, time to deliver, time to learn, time to promote, time to socialize
Just looking at these free brick textures from BittBox starts the story wheels turning for me. What writing scenes would take place in front of (or behind) a grungy brick wall? Sometimes a visual cue is stronger than any other for the creative part of me. I see more and more stories presented as packages, with art, audio files, even book trailers that mimic movie trailers in intensity and scope. The old-fashioned craft of telling stories and the old-fashioned method of curling up in a corner and reading a book are both evolving into a new form of entertainment in many instances.
In addition to making time for writing stories I'm also busy creating content for informative web sites. I see wonderful online sites with riveting design go sweeping by me as I struggle to maintain what I already have going. And one can't sit designing and writing 24/7. There are other people in the universe to communicate with and spend time with. With all the toys we now have available for phoning and texting and tweeting and sending videos and pictures, it's easy to spend an inordinate amount of time sitting in a corner figuring out the technology while the rest of life passes us by. And I'm in the minority among those in my age group. Many of them use technology sparingly. That's fine, but if we expect to draw young people to our content and creations, we're going to have to learn how some of the newer technology works and what young people are using in their daily lives. Radio was easy for generations before me. Television was easy. Movies were easy. Unless you were a creator of content, viewing and listening were mostly passive. Technology, including entertainment technology, has become increasingly interactive. If we don't keep up with things a little we're going to look up one day and be dinosaurs that deserve the labels of ridicule we'll be getting from younger people.
HTNL 5 is upon us and I've barely scratched the surface of HTML 4. I spend so much time creating contest that I lag behind on design and content delivery vehicles. I liked the post on My Ink Blog, in which Chris Thurman asks us to Blue Collar Designers: 5 Lessons From the Lunch Pail. Having dealt with many blue collar workers who are the basic builders of structure and infrastructure, I see his points. But the thing that also comes to mind, if the analogy is taken too far, is that a certain number of blue collar workers are so exhausted at the end of their working day that they are tempted to grab a six-pack and collapse for the remainder of their waking hours. At the end of a day spent working on design and content there are many other things still to be done and there needs to be energy and enthusiasm for those activities. Balance is key. It's not a new problem for society, but it's been flapping in my face lately. If we're going to work even a little like blue collar workers we're going to have to find time to pack that lunch pail and maintain a social life after navigating high-rise girders all day. Now, do we have to look good doing it or can we still get away with sweatpants and bedroom slippers?
posted at: 10:39 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Just looking at these free brick textures from BittBox starts the story wheels turning for me. What writing scenes would take place in front of (or behind) a grungy brick wall? Sometimes a visual cue is stronger than any other for the creative part of me. I see more and more stories presented as packages, with art, audio files, even book trailers that mimic movie trailers in intensity and scope. The old-fashioned craft of telling stories and the old-fashioned method of curling up in a corner and reading a book are both evolving into a new form of entertainment in many instances.
In addition to making time for writing stories I'm also busy creating content for informative web sites. I see wonderful online sites with riveting design go sweeping by me as I struggle to maintain what I already have going. And one can't sit designing and writing 24/7. There are other people in the universe to communicate with and spend time with. With all the toys we now have available for phoning and texting and tweeting and sending videos and pictures, it's easy to spend an inordinate amount of time sitting in a corner figuring out the technology while the rest of life passes us by. And I'm in the minority among those in my age group. Many of them use technology sparingly. That's fine, but if we expect to draw young people to our content and creations, we're going to have to learn how some of the newer technology works and what young people are using in their daily lives. Radio was easy for generations before me. Television was easy. Movies were easy. Unless you were a creator of content, viewing and listening were mostly passive. Technology, including entertainment technology, has become increasingly interactive. If we don't keep up with things a little we're going to look up one day and be dinosaurs that deserve the labels of ridicule we'll be getting from younger people.
HTNL 5 is upon us and I've barely scratched the surface of HTML 4. I spend so much time creating contest that I lag behind on design and content delivery vehicles. I liked the post on My Ink Blog, in which Chris Thurman asks us to Blue Collar Designers: 5 Lessons From the Lunch Pail. Having dealt with many blue collar workers who are the basic builders of structure and infrastructure, I see his points. But the thing that also comes to mind, if the analogy is taken too far, is that a certain number of blue collar workers are so exhausted at the end of their working day that they are tempted to grab a six-pack and collapse for the remainder of their waking hours. At the end of a day spent working on design and content there are many other things still to be done and there needs to be energy and enthusiasm for those activities. Balance is key. It's not a new problem for society, but it's been flapping in my face lately. If we're going to work even a little like blue collar workers we're going to have to find time to pack that lunch pail and maintain a social life after navigating high-rise girders all day. Now, do we have to look good doing it or can we still get away with sweatpants and bedroom slippers?
posted at: 10:39 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Tue, Aug 24 2010
The post that wasn't
Three unsuccessful tries at a new blog post means I'm not really ready to post. I'd rather wait until the thought comes together properly. I'm also hoping to soon add more blogs to the list of those I read so that when the proverbial cat has my tongue you don't have to go away feeling cheated. They will be happy to share their wisdom with you.
posted at: 22:16 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Three unsuccessful tries at a new blog post means I'm not really ready to post. I'd rather wait until the thought comes together properly. I'm also hoping to soon add more blogs to the list of those I read so that when the proverbial cat has my tongue you don't have to go away feeling cheated. They will be happy to share their wisdom with you.
posted at: 22:16 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Mon, Aug 23 2010
I need a name. Give me a name.
I was trying to form a visual image of a character this morning, but was having a tough time of it. For some reason I began to think of names, since I hadn't yet given her one. Once she had a name, details began to clear up. I felt a little conflicted about that. Was it somehow unprofessional to need a name in order to fill in the rest of the blanks? But names really do have a lot of clout, in life and in fiction. How often have you talked with someone on the phone or corresponded with them for awhile until an image of that person began to form in your mind? If you saw them in person later you may have been disappointed to find that they looked very little like what you had imagined.
The reader of a short story or novel usually has the advantage of getting to know your characters along with their names. You, the writer, have described John Leonard as the short, gray-haired, pencil-chewing physics professor with a fondness for military macaws and a weakness for red-haired women who compete in sand volleyball. That gives a reader a nudge in the right direction. But before John Leonard can come to life for the reader, John Leonard has to become a force in the writer's mind. And as strange as it might sound to a non-writer, a lot of what is going to make that happen has to do with John Leonard being called John Leonard. And just wait until CEO Miriam Hahn and Chef Cristo Yale start forming images in some writer's mind.
posted at: 22:11 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
I was trying to form a visual image of a character this morning, but was having a tough time of it. For some reason I began to think of names, since I hadn't yet given her one. Once she had a name, details began to clear up. I felt a little conflicted about that. Was it somehow unprofessional to need a name in order to fill in the rest of the blanks? But names really do have a lot of clout, in life and in fiction. How often have you talked with someone on the phone or corresponded with them for awhile until an image of that person began to form in your mind? If you saw them in person later you may have been disappointed to find that they looked very little like what you had imagined.
The reader of a short story or novel usually has the advantage of getting to know your characters along with their names. You, the writer, have described John Leonard as the short, gray-haired, pencil-chewing physics professor with a fondness for military macaws and a weakness for red-haired women who compete in sand volleyball. That gives a reader a nudge in the right direction. But before John Leonard can come to life for the reader, John Leonard has to become a force in the writer's mind. And as strange as it might sound to a non-writer, a lot of what is going to make that happen has to do with John Leonard being called John Leonard. And just wait until CEO Miriam Hahn and Chef Cristo Yale start forming images in some writer's mind.
posted at: 22:11 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Fri, Aug 20 2010
Your protagonist's last nerve
You know how some days everything feels as though it goes wrong? You sleep through the alarm, burn breakfast, lose your favorite watch, have to clean up after sick kids or cats (or both), miss a job interview and then, as a last bit of insanity, mash your finger in a drawer and that's when you really thinkg you'll just give up? Think. What brings your main character to that exact moment in your story?
posted at: 21:25 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
You know how some days everything feels as though it goes wrong? You sleep through the alarm, burn breakfast, lose your favorite watch, have to clean up after sick kids or cats (or both), miss a job interview and then, as a last bit of insanity, mash your finger in a drawer and that's when you really thinkg you'll just give up? Think. What brings your main character to that exact moment in your story?
posted at: 21:25 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Wed, Aug 18 2010
Five things toward the preamble of a tale
Things I wrote in longhand today:
Types of coffee beans on bags
A grocery list entry for powdered sugar
A note to find a paper someone wrote on family history
A reminder to read the 8th chapter of Romans
The correct spelling of the town of Nappanee, Indiana
These things, taken together, would make a great preamble for a story, wouldn't they? All I need are the characters that will inhabit a world where all these items have relevance. Writers, I hope you have your own set of things like this, again and again.
posted at: 22:23 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Things I wrote in longhand today:
Types of coffee beans on bags
A grocery list entry for powdered sugar
A note to find a paper someone wrote on family history
A reminder to read the 8th chapter of Romans
The correct spelling of the town of Nappanee, Indiana
These things, taken together, would make a great preamble for a story, wouldn't they? All I need are the characters that will inhabit a world where all these items have relevance. Writers, I hope you have your own set of things like this, again and again.
posted at: 22:23 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
