Today is the 52nd. anniversary of the day To Kill a Mockingbird was published. To Kill a Mockingbird will stand up for years to come as the definitive portrait of America during a time we can only hope is a distant memory. Here's a lecture by Charles J. Shields, from St. Bonaventure University, on Mockingbird's reclusive author:
--Diane
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Monday, July 9, 2012
What the Heck is Wattpad?
I’m at that awkward age. I’d probably be considered
wise and worth respect in Japan but in the U.S., by the American teenager, not
so much. Still, I have to hand it to my
granddaughter. She’s always willing to
bring the old lady up to date.
This week, she introduced me to Wattpad, an on-line
or phone ap that allows you to download books for free. While the original version—started in Canada
in 2006—began with the list of titles available from Project Gutenberg, it has
evolved into a place where amateur writers (age 13 and up) can upload their own
stories to be read and reviewed by thousands of readers.
I did a little research before I started writing
this post and rather than repeat a bunch of already-published comments, I’ll
send you to this link:
Professional David Gaughran does a nice job of
introducing the uninitiated to the site and explain what he hopes to get out of
posting some of his work for free: recognition.
I checked him out and found that he joined Wattpad
about 7 months ago and has accumulated 235 fans. Not bad, I think. Then I check out the “What’s Hot” section and
find this:
One
of the Boys
Samantha Evans. A 17-year old girl in her Senior Year
of High School. Stereotype says that she should be worrying about what outfit
she's going to wear and what boy she's going to date, but Samantha has a
different plan. For Samantha, her Senior Year is all about proving that she
deserves to be the Quarterback for Westview High School just as much as the
next guy. But as the season continues, Blake Jameson moves to town with one
idea on his mind. To lead the Westview High School football team to another
state victory, as Quarterback.
2,291,243 reads
8112
fans!
And “KnightsRachel” the author, has only been a
member for a year. She looks to be about 15 and has already impressed that many people!
The fact that anyone can upload anything gets you
things like this which are either written by someone very young, or someone with no typing skills, or someone who has no idea what grammar is:
Titanic
christy
is a 16 year old girl who loves exploring. when her mother decides to take the
titanic christy knows she will have the time of her life. when she meets a
second class boy just as wild as her she knows she came on titanic for a
reason. based on the true story of titanic. a heart breaking tragedy.(the
characters are made up though)
But, so what? The point is, kids are reading, kids are
writing, kids are commenting. (And so are grownups) That’s where it all starts, right?
I know for my granddaughter,
these books are discussed, recommended, and new authors who put up a chapter at
a time are encouraged to continue as their “fans” ask for more. Maybe it’s not the best writing in the world
but no one starts that way. My
granddaughter reads a lot. She’s in AP
English and has had as much to say about Jane
Eyre as she has about some of her Wattpad writers.
This isn’t a place to try out
your latest picture book, easy reader, or middle grade novel, but if you’re
into YA, it just might be the place to get a fan base and have readers asking
for more.
Friday, July 6, 2012
Poetry Friday--Tiny Poems
As a haiku poet, I'm a big fan of tiny poems. I love Valerie Worth's collection of poems titled, All the Small Poems and Fourteen More, I always participate in Laura Salas's 15 Words or Less Poems weekly challenge, and, I'm a big advocate of the "less is more" school of writing.
I never realized that tiny poems were not readily available or accepted 40 years ago, but I guess that was the case. I found this out when I purchased a used copy of The Sea and the Honeycomb: A Book of Tiny Poems, edited by Robert Bly (Beacon Press, 1971), when I was looking for older collections of haiku. I particularly enjoyed reading Bly's introduction, "Dropping the Reader," in which he states,
...the American poet sitting at his desk writes a fine, intense poem of seven or eight lines, than a hand silently appears from somewhere inside his shirt and hastily adds fifteen more lines, telling us what the emotion means, relating it to philosophy, and adding a few moral comments. The invisible scholar is outraged at the idea of anyone writing a brief poem, because he is hardly able to get his chalky hand out of his cloak before the poem is over!Ha! I've had to resist that invisible scholar myself! She's a tough nut to crack, but I keep trying. (For an example, today, over at Random Noodling, I have an original poem that I really had to work hard at, to not provide additional explanations for the reader! I hope I was successful.)
Bly says, a little later,
In the brief poem, it is all different: the poet takes the reader to the edge of a cliff, as a mother eagle takes its nestling, and then drops him. Readers with a strong imagination enjoy it, and discover they can fly. The others fall down to the rocks where they are killed instantly.Yowsa! That's harsh! Let's see if you can fly with these non-haiku samples from The Sea and the Honeycomb:
And Suddenly It's Evening
by Salvatore Quasimodo (translated by Robert Bly)
Everyone is alone at the heart of the earth
pierced by a ray of sunlight:
and suddenly it's evening.
[Untitled]
by Antonio Machado (translated by Robert Bly)
It is good knowing that glasses
are to drink from;
the bad thing is not to know
what thirst is for.
The Runner
by Walt Whitman
On a flat road runs the well-train'd runner,
He is lean and sinewy with muscular legs,
He is thinly clothed, he leans forward as he runs,
With lightly closed fists and arms partially rais'd.
Earth Hard
by David Ignatow
Earth hard to my heels
bear me up like a child
standing on its mother's belly.
I am a surprised guest to the air.
Meetings of Those in Love
by Ibn Hazm (translated by Robert Bly)
The meeting that has to be secret reaches
an intensity that the open meeting cannot reach.
It is a delight that is mixed with danger
like walking on a road over moving sandhills!
Well, did you survive the fall? I sure hope you did!
It's time now to head over to see Tabatha Yeatts for the Poetry Friday Round-Up.
--Diane
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Women of Wednesday - Love, Sex, and Money in Puritan Boston: The Story of Anna Keayne
Anna Keayne was sixteen years old in 1656. She did not come from a model family. Her grandfather, a wealthy merchant, gained his riches by being sneaky,conniving and miserly. Her parents were ne’er-do-wells. Her father accused her mother of adultery, and when she was found guilty, he moved back to London to take advantage of his new freedom and left Anna to be raised by his parents in Boston. Anna’s mother became a habitual offender, often in trouble with authorities for ‘Irregular prophecying in mixt Assemblies.’
But Anna was pretty and well liked, despite her family, who were all Puritans and still managed to live badly without any of the usual Puritan repercussions. Was it because they were wealthy, or was it because the Puritans weren’t really as strict and unbending as we think they were? In any case, Anna was considered quite a catch in Puritan Boston, and when her wealthy grandfather died that year and left her £900, she became even more desirable.
Enter Edward Lane. He was thirty-six, twenty years older than Anna, and worth £1800, which was very convenient because, in those days, a man was expected to be worth at least twice what his wife was worth. Edward fit the bill exactly.
Now that they were betrothed, Edward came to visit. Anna dreamed of the great lady she would become, once married to Edward. Her grandmother, overwhelmed by the complexity of her husband’s last will and testament—more than 100 pages long—saw Edward as a man who could help a woman in distress. They were both glad to have him. Edward and the elderly Mrs. Keayne even worked out an agreement where she would keep a house and some land, and receive a yearly allowance, and Edward could have everything else, as long as he was willing to execute the will and take on all the bequests of her dearly departed husband. Edward agreed, and on December11, 1657, he and Anna married. Fastforward fifteen months to March of 1659. Anna Keayne, now Anna Lane, seventeen or eighteen years old, sued for divorce. Anna wanted children and Edward, it seemed,was impotent. Edward appeared in court and admitted it was true and the marriage was annulled. Anna won her freedom, and Edward, because of his agreement with the elderly Mrs. Keayne, conveniently increased his worth tremendously. It was a nice little scam.
As it turned out, all the debts and bequests left by Anna’s grandfather came to more than the estate was worth, and Edward was the man stuck with the bills. Anna’s grandmother had outscammed the scammer.
Now, it was Edward’s turn to sue. He wanted to get out of the agreement made with Anna’s grandmother. Mrs. Keayne’s defense was that business was business. Edward had made the agreement and should keep his word. The court didn’t see it that way and voided the agreement. They also forced Mrs. Keayne to pay Edward much of the money he would have received from rents for the past two years.
The results of it all were that Anna now had no husband, no children, and a much smaller dowry, and was no longer quite the catch, her grandmother was in debt,and Edward had lost a fortune, and hismanhood had been publicly besmirched. Nothing had turned out as anyone had planned.
Luckily,Edward’s friend, Richard Cooke, had not abandoned the couple. He convinced Edward that Anna was still worth pursuing, he convinced Anna that Edward had been cured of his impotency, (there seems to have been a private showing) and he convinced Mrs. Keayne—by vividly describing the showing—to allow the remarriage. Nine months after the annulment, Anna and Edward sought permission tore-wed.
These magistrates were not the same men who had annulled their wedding, and they told Anna and Edward that they had never been divorced. Man, after all, could not separate what God had joined together.
OnDecember 12, 1659, the couple renewed their vows. The next morning, they were called upon by officials, who asked Anna if she was satisfied with Edward’s bedroom performance. She said yes. He no longer had a problem. The marriage was deemed good. Anna’s grandmother and Edward even consented to return to their old agreement with a few minor changes, and everyone was happy.For the next four years, the Lanes became wealthier and wealthier, and Anna gave birth to two children. (Her daughter died in infancy, her son lived to be eighteen.) And then Anna left for England, and Edward was to follow. Unfortunately, he died.
Anna,however, was no Hester Prynne. The scarlet letter was not for her. She fought the charges—by announcing her two children were really fathered by Paige and, therefore, he was her true husband. (Which seems an admission of guilt to me.) And then Edward’s friend, Richard Cooke, in an effort to show Anna as an unloyal, scheming adulteress, showed up in court with a document written and signed by Edward shortly before he died. It said he had never known Anna carnally,that their marriage had been nullified in 1658, and he did not consider her his wife. (Which, to me, would seem to prove hercase.)The magistrates were probably just as confused by the evidence as I was. In the end they couldn’t decide if Anna had ever been legally married to Edward or not, and they sent her home, free as a bird.
But,there was a surprise waiting for her there. His name was Richard Cooke, who now owned all of what should have been Anna’s property. He had orchestrated it all from the very beginning, introducing the couple and arranging their marriage so Edward would own everything. He knew Edward was sick and would not live long, and he knew Edward would have no heirs. He made certain that Edward named him as his beneficiary, because they both knew Anna’s children were not Edward’s. Cooke had played Anna, Edward, and the elderly Mrs. Keayne.
Once more, Anna was before the magistrates, fighting for what she wanted, for what should have been hers. She had evidence and witnesses to Cooke’s perfidy but, by then, the magistrates were a bit fed up with Anna and her family squabbles. They didn’t even consider her case. Cooke got to keep it all.
Anna didn’t brood over it, but she didn’t forget, either. Neither did her new husband, Nicholas. They lived their quiet lives and raised their surviving son, and every so often would broach the subject with the magistrates again. Sometimes she was heard and lost,sometimes she was rebuffed, but she didn’t stop trying.
King Phillip’s War broke out and Nicholas served as a Captain and came home a hero. The Paige’s gained new friends in his war buddies. He involved himself in Boston politics, and always seemed to pick the right side. When the Governor was in favor, he shouted the Governor’s praises. When the Governor was in disfavor, he stood with the common people, prepared to give him the boot. When the Governor was given the boot, he convinced everyone to let him decide the Governor’s fate. They agreed, and he saved the Governor from total ruin, leaving the Governor owing him a favor. The Governor, by the way, was Anna’s uncle, and had never done a thing to help her. So Anna and Nicholas bided their time and, finally, the government changed in their favor. They got the court to hear their case, and they won everything back. It was easy, considering the man who tried the case was the Governor Nicholas had rescued from the people’s wrath, and who was living very well in their home, at their expense. It didn’t hurt any either, that he was Anna’s uncle. Cooke appealed the case over and over, straight into the eighteenth century, but now it was his turn to either lose or be rebuffed.
Anna had recovered all her grandfather’s property and was now a grande dame. Nicholas was a Colonel with his own coat of arms. They were among the wealthiest people of Boston, and well respected. Everyone—rich, poor, or in between—liked the Paiges. The couple retired to their country estate with their new riches, where they continued to entertain lavishly and live out the rest of their lives as outstanding people in their community. When Anna died on June 30,1704, and word reached Boston, it’s said the whole city paused. The Governor, sitting at the council-table when he heard the news, postponed all business for two weeks.
Anna Keayne didn’t change the face of America or leave any lasting legacies. But what she did do was to go after what she wanted, and in the end she got it, despite her family, despite her mistakes, and despite her reputation. If she could do it in Puritan Boston, there’s no reason an American woman can’t do it today. Chase your dreams and listen to Nike. Just do it!
Monday, July 2, 2012
Mentor Monday
We’ve
all heard this one a million times—show, don’t tell—but what does it actually
mean, is there ever a good time to tell, and is showing really necessary?
Telling
is exactly that. It’s you, the writer,
telling the reader what is happening.
Showing is allowing your characters to act and react on their own, and
letting the reader see that. It’s like being at the bank while it’s being
robbed. You see it happen before your
eyes. You feel the excitement, the
danger, the terror. You are a part of
the robbery. Telling is one or more
steps removed from the actual event.
It’s like listening to your friend tell you about the bank robbery he
witnessed—interesting, but not nearly as exciting. Showing brings the reader closer and makes
your writing more intense.
Some Signs of Telling
The
most obvious sign of telling is passive writing, which is usually writing that
relies on the words was/were or is/are, depending on which tense you’re
using. Many times, those verbs are
followed by another ending in ing.
John was running to the finish
line.
Mary is eating her breakfast.
Both
sentences are passive, and in both cases, the writer is telling us what John
and Mary did. Make them active, and John
and Mary are acting on their own.
John ran to the finish line.
Mary eats her breakfast.
Another
sign is prepositional phrases. If you
are using phrases like – soon, at last, with no thought at all, so, in an instant,
before she could think, just then, when—you are probably telling.
In an instant, Mary’s cereal was gone.
The
above sentence tells us Mary ate fast.
To show Mary eating fast, you would simply say how she ate.
How
much more you added to the above description would depend on the importance of
the scene. If you just want the reader
to know Mary ate fast, the above would be enough. If you wanted to show Mary as a glutton, you
might add a line showing food dribbling from her mouth. If you wanted to show her as a starving girl
getting to eat, you might show a trembling hand.
Another
sign is adverbs—generally words ending in ly like – unfortunately, inevitably,
generally, usually, finally, certainly, and suddenly.
John
finally ran to the finish line.
Unfortunately, he arrived last.
Once
more, the writer is telling us what happened.
The words ‘finally’ and ‘unfortunately’ automatically take it out of
John’s POV and put it into the narrator’s.
Scenes
with no dialogue are also often telling.
Somewhere, the boat sprang a leak. Water was filling it quickly but the boys
couldn’t bail fast enough. In no time at
all, the sea rushed in and the boat sank like a stone. The boys were floating in the cold ocean,
water up to their chins, at least two miles from shore.
The
above is telling. It gets the point
across, but there is no tension or suspense.
It’s just the facts. And notice
the telltale signs of telling. Let’s
turn it into a scene of dialogue.
“We’ve sprung a leak!” John cried.
Alex stared at the water rushing into
the boat. “Quick! Grab something to bail her out.”
John dropped his oar and picked up a
small bucket. He swished it through the
water rising higher and higher in the rowboat.
Alex splashed the water out with his hands.
“It’s no use,” John said.
The ocean lapped at their ankles, their
shins and knees, as the boat sunk lower and lower. Alex stared toward shore, almost two miles
away.
“I can’t swim, John.”
John stared at him as the ocean began to
suck the boat under. He grabbed Alex’s
hand. “Just hang onto me,” he said, and
he pulled Alex into the sea, water lapping at their chins.
When to Show
My
personal thought is to show as much as you can, and certainly, if it’s an
important scene, show it. Action scenes
will become more vivid and real if they are shown. Emotional scenes become stronger and more
powerful. Humorous scenes become
funnier. Scary scenes become creepier. Showing pulls the reader in and helps create
one of those books where the reader gets so caught up in it, they don’t hear
the telephone ring, or the kids burning down the house.
When to Tell
There
are times when you need to tell. Transitioning from one scene to another, and
making a long period of time pass quickly, are places where you’d want to
tell. If your character does something
on a regular basis, like delivering newspapers or going to swim lessons, you
would show what that’s like the first time, and tell all subsequent times,
unless something different and important happened, in which case, you’d revert
to showing. If you want something done
and over with quickly, tell it.
Well,
the truth is, no. It isn’t. You can find many published books that are
more telling than showing, and you can even find plenty that are all telling,
except for the dialogue. Those kinds of
stories are published. But look at it like buying a car. In truth, any car that will seat everyone in
our family is really good enough. It
will get us where we want to go. We
don’t really need a radio or CD
player. We don’t really need automatic windows and GPS. We don’t need
heated seats. But it sure is nice having
all those things. They make a car more
than transportation. They make driving a
much more pleasant experience.
A
car with no extras is serviceable. It
will do the job and get you where you need to go, but that’s about all it will
do. And given a choice between a
serviceable car and one with all the amenities, which would you choose?
The
same holds true for stories. You might
have written a great told story that is fast-paced and exciting, and an agent
or editor may love it after reading it, but if the manuscript she picks up
after yours is fast-paced and exciting and shown,
a story with all the extras, yours will suddenly stand out as lacking and
subpar and, in the end, which do you think the editor will choose?
Want to sell that latest manuscript? Don't give them what they need. Show them all the extras. Give them what they never knew they were missing.
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