Today, the 18th of September 2014, is the day Scotland goes to the polls to decide whether to become and independent country or to stay within the United Kingdom and much of the world is looking on.
Living and working in Scotland it would be difficult to ignore what is going on all around me and it is too important.
But this is not a blog about the Referendum, because votes are being cast as you read this, the decision is already being made and the outcome will be something we will all have to live, with whatever our own thoughts are.
Decisions are sometimes easy and at other times much more difficult so I wanted to look at the decisions we make as we write.As I have said before, I am not a planner, so when I am starting to write a new book an idea pops into my head and I start to write about it, often with no idea what the story is or where it is going.
I need to try it out, run with it and see where it takes me. It is a very exciting stage.
When I started writing Dead Boy Talking I was on a train coming back from visiting a school and with a notebook open in front of me I was thinking about what my next YA novel would be.
The title DEAD BOY TALKING was the first thing I wrote down, followed by the first line...
'In 25 minutes I will be dead.'I had a picture in my head of a boy sitting on a pavement bleeding from a knife wound and it was cold, but most of all he was alone.
I was wondering how desperate that would be, how scared I would be if it was me. I started to write but it was his voice I could hear.
The first page of the book hardly changed from the words I scribbled in my notebook that day...
'The knife slipped into my body a bright, sharp edge of death, a thief. It sliced easily through leather, skin and flesh. Hot, red blood coating it's blade, warming the icy metal with a precious searing heat.... '
I was imagining how it might feel to be stabbed, scared and all alone. But then I started wondering if the reader would be thinking that this was another book where the main character is dead before it starts. Almost without making a conscious decision, the boy's voice intruded on my thoughts again. I feel it is instinctive at this stage and I try not to over-think it.
'No, this is not some dead person talking from the grave. It's just me, Josh, You know me. I'm not scared. I'm not! Who am I kidding? It can't really be happening to me, can it?'
There - I knew his name now!
But I still knew very little about Josh or why he was in that situation and what had happened to him that led to this. Also one of the crucial things I didn't know was whether his statement about having 25 minutes to live was right or not. Would I have him alive or dead at the end of the book?
Many of the decisions are made as the story progresses and I get to know the characters better. If I know them well enough I know how they would act in any situation and as long as I am true to their character the reader will find it credible. But sometimes the decision is about whether the character will do something completely at odds with their normal behaviour.
That is a decision that often shows how multifaceted the character is. We are all complex human beings so if I decide he has to act contrary to his nature there has to be a strong driving force that leads him to do that, otherwise it will not be believable.
How often have you seen someone act in a way that surprises you? It just shows that we can never fully know another person but if they do act out of character there will be a reason behind it.
The decision about whether he would survive or not was a difficult one, it could go either way. Much the same as in ordinary life, we cannot know if someone will survive a knife wound. In the end I went with my gut feeling about what was right for the story but somewhere in the back of my mind is always the reader, so whatever the outcome there has to be, in my opinion, a sense of hope. They need to know that whatever happens, life will go on.
There were also other things to find out about Josh. What was his family like, who are his friends, what was the pivotal thing in his life that changed everything. In this case it was his older brother running away from home, and never coming back. Josh's life changed that day because everyone around him was focussed on his brother, and he felt lost and betrayed but there was nothing he could do about any of it.
A writer has to make many decisions as a story progresses but perhaps the most important are how it begins and how it ends.
If the beginning does not draw the reader in they might not bother reading on. I always feel that when you get to the end of a book you should feel satisfied, like having had a good meal, not too much or too little but a sense that you have come to the end of a journey.
What decisions are you most aware of when you start writing?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------Linda Strachan is the author of over 60 books for all ages from picture books to teenage novels and the writing handbook Writing For Children
She has written 10 Hamish McHaggis books illustrated by Sally J. Collins who also illustrated Linda's retelling of Greyfriars Bobby
Our cat is fascinated with doors. If one is closed, she sits staring at it or dig under it until it is opened. She may not see the room within as worthy of a visit once she can enter, but she wants the opportunity nonetheless. For us bipeds, what is it about open doors that stirs our curiosity? Who can walk down a hall of doors where most are closed and not peek inside the ones ajar? A hotel, office, hospital – wherever we are, we must look! What do we expect to find inside?
Don’t tell me you walk on focused with your eyes straight forward. I won’t believe you. I know you slow your pace slightly to get as much of a look as possible as you approach. Isn’t it awkward when you turn your head as you are walking past and end up looking face to face with someone whose expression is always, “why is this person staring at me?”
Uhhh, you left the door open!
When you were a kid, did you think of doors as some sort of portal with endless possibilities? Every door was a wardrobe that could take you to Narnia. Bugs Bunny cemented that feeling with the recurrent theme of being chased down a hall by coming and going through random doors completely out of time and sequence. The heart-shaped monster was my favorite chaser.
I heard a commotion in our den and opened the door of our bedroom recently to investigate. It was not a magic portal, but I did learn a lesson. One should always make sure they are fully dressed when exploring what may be beyond closed doors. That became a door one daughter wishes had remained closed and a memory her visitor wishes he could erase.
As I see it, there are a number of potential doors.
- Closed doors that should remain closed
- Closed doors that need to be opened
- Locked doors with no hope of admittance
- Locked doors to which we have the key
- Doors sealed for our protection
- Doors sealed for the protection of those inside
- Open doors that we should enter
- Open doors we should pass by
The list goes on, but you get my point. Life is a series of one door after another. When one comes to a life door, he or she should decide on the best and worse case scenarios before passing under the threshold. Count the cost, as it were. I currently find myself standing in front of an open door and I have yet to decide how great the cost of entry. It seems attractive, but I find myself somewhat intimidated by its potential. What I lack is discernment about this particular door, thus all of my musing about doors in general. And so, I sit at the frame and pray, think, and wonder what could be inside. It is daunting, but I remember James 1:5
If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.
I need wisdom. Either that or a heart-shaped monster to chase me in or away.
I have thought about how important it is to live a purposeful life each day! I am always busy, but I want to be busy doing the right things each day. I don’t want to waste a moment! Think of December. Will you carry out any major goals before then? Do you have a goal? Your chances of accomplishing goals are better if you keep them in front of you! Write them down and then look at them each day. It’s okay to change your mind about a goal too. We are complex beings. We can change our minds! It only means we are growing!
Look at this website I found for girls in Dallas.
http://gllopinc.org/about_ourorg.html
To empower girls from the inside-out. We envision girls celebrating their femininity. We envision girls at the conclusion of each program level possessing the understanding, wisdom and knowledge to live life on purpose.
We envision girls better equipped to make good, sound decisions to do all that they purpose to do. We envision girls developing a plan and taking action, not allowing their race, gender, community, or financial status to limit their potential.
Our Mission
Our mission is to inspire girls from all walks of life to discover who they are, to connect with other like minded girls and to pursue their purpose with passion
After reading this I found myself wanting to attend! We did not have anything like this when I was growing up. Empowered with wisdom, knowledge and understanding, making sound decisions, taking actions, no limits due to race or finances. (those are excuses) inspired! discovered!
What are your first steps in the right direction this year? Mine is to make the MASTER LIST! Then I can fill in times and plans to carry out the things on my list! Perhaps I will even share my list with you in another blog. For now, I leave you with this.
Ephesians 5:15
Amplified Bible (AMP)
15 Look carefully then how you walk! Live purposefully and worthily and accurately, not as the unwise and witless, but as wise (sensible, intelligent people),
Filed under:
Inspiring Websites,
Kicking Around Thoughts 
Is the glass half empty or half full? It depends on your outlook, unless your character is nit-picking and breaks out a ruler to measure fractions of millimeters to prove it one way or the other.
It is conjectured that optimism drew us forth from caves to explore the wild. We would not have evolved without it and would not continue to thrive without it. Imagining a better world inspires us to work toward one. Optimism allows us to take a seat in a car, train or plane. It encourages us to date, walk down the aisle and parent. It inspires inventions, technology and religions.
Optimism is based on hopes of a future reward whether it is tied to a relationship, a resource, or global climate change. If there is no hope, why bother? Ironically, not all religions are fueled by optimism. Some take a very pessimistic view of the world. It is only by jumping through a certain set of hoops in this world that you can achieve ascendance to a better world. It offers the carrot of eternal life in a beautiful world while existing in a terrible world.
Optimism allows Dick to project positively into the future and to examine “what happens next” before it happens. The mind is capable of considering what has happened, what is happening now and what will happen in the future. The more positive Dick feels, the more likely he is to attempt something. The more negative he feels, the less likely he is to attempt it.
Your protagonist, antagonist, friends and foes can view the overall story problem and scene obstacle from one of two positions: (1) They can believe they will be successful no matter how many attempts it takes, or (2) They can believe they will fail and will be frustrated by how many attempts are made. Overturning what they believed creates tension and new complications.
Pair an optimist and a pessimist and they will disagree and irritate each other as they work to overcome the obstacle. Optimism and pessimism can be the obstacle in a tense conversation. If Dick needs Sally to adopt his point of view, she can fight it tooth and nail out of fear of negative outcome. They can be talking about breaking into someone’s office, taking a vacation to Istanbul or trying to stop a serial killer from reaching his next target.
The level of optimism Dick has will affect his decisions when he is faced with choices. It’s easy if Dick has to choose between a perceived negative and a perceived position option. He will, of course, jump on the positive option even if it ends up being the wrong thing. If his perception is faulty, you have further complications.
It’s interesting to give Dick two negative options (both with impossible outcomes) or two positive options (both with favorable outcomes). You define his character by showing how he reaches a conclusion.
Most of the time, once Dick has decided on an option, he will feel better. He will reinforce, in his own mind, the rightness of choice A and will begin to devalue choice B.
Decisions, decisions, decisions. That’s what writing is all about. Many of those decisions should be intuitive in the first draft or drafts. How do you make decisions intuitively? You put yourself in the right place.
Easy to say. Hard to do.
I've put myself in the wrong place a whole lot I often realize as I revise my manuscript. What was I thinking? How did I go right when I should have turned left? Why couldn’t I see the opportunity for the relationship between my three main characters and the central conflict in that relationship? I didn’t exploit that. Missed opportunity. Missed. Missed. Missed.
But—doesn’t matter. To get a first draft on paper I just have to feel like I’m going in the right direction, making the right decisions, and make them well enough that I don’t end up in Anchorage when I’m trying to get to San Diego. So, I won’t get to San Diego in my first draft, but I will go in the general direction of San Diego. I will get close enough that maybe with work in revision I’ll know how to get there.
The intuitive decisions of a first draft, along with the conscious ones, only need to be roughly successful. That’s all. Most of the real work, in the heavy lifting sense, happens in revision.
Or so I think today.
By: 1questionaday,
on 7/11/2010
Blog:
One Question A Day
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
Life,
comedy,
Funny,
Hobbies,
octopus,
Answers,
decisions,
Answer,
stand up,
Paul the Psychic Octopus,
Add a tag
I’ve decided. I don’t trust myself anymore. I’m going to let Paul the Psychic Octopus make all my decisions from now on. The kicker is, even when I think I’ve made the right decision, it always turns out wrong. It’s not like Tom Petty says. Even the losers get lucky sometimes. No, they really don’t.
That’s what I thought anyway, tonight when I couldn’t make it all go away. The night I had a chance to turn my whole life around. Go for the brass ring, like Grandpa always said. I miss him. I miss how he made life sound so simple. About an hour ago I reached for that big, brass ring–AKA my only shot at non-loserdom, my amazingly funny, yet insightful stand-up comedy act–but, as usual, I second guessed myself and it slipped through my fingers.
Losers don’t get second chances at anything. The only shot losers get in this world is if they’re funny. And after my first official attempt at funny, I prayed someone would just run me over and put me out of my misery, but do it in a way that would put a smile on my face. I worry about Paul. The minute he’s wrong he’ll have to resort to stand-up, and, well, it’s hard enough when you’re not an octopus.
Manuel Ramos
SCENE FROM THE MOVIE GIANT
Tino Villanueva (Curbstone Press, 1993)
It's been several years since I watched the classic movie Giant, whose cast included James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, Sal Mineo, and Rock Hudson. The first time I saw it, I was a young boy, probably eight or nine. It was the middle of the 1950s and I was in the Rialto Theater on Main Street, in a small Colorado town. The Rialto was one of those movie palaces that used to occupy places of respect in almost every American town -- a gaudy, blinking marquee, deep red carpeting, elaborate wall fixtures, and thick curtains that majestically opened when the lights dimmed and the newsreel flickered on the screen.
I remember Saturday afternoon matinees with my buddies and an occasional midweek night out with my parents and younger brother for some special screening. The Rialto was where I first encountered American icons of comedy such as the Three Stooges and the Little Rascals, and red-blooded heroes like John Wayne and Burt Lancaster. It's also the place where I practiced my recently acquired reading skill. Sitting on a worn cushion and scraping my shoes on the sticky floor, I read all the credits as they rolled up the screen; I learned that the director was always last and when his name appeared, the flick was about to start.
But my experience with Giant was different. Going in, I thought it was only a love story but it had some attraction for me because of James Dean. Back then, and maybe for years afterwards, I deluded myself that I was something of a rebel, even at that young age, and so I was drawn to teenage outlaw myths created by the movies and other facets of mass culture in the immediate post-War years. In another movie I thought Sal Mineo was perfect when he sauntered down a nameless New York street hunched over in a shiny red jacket, smoking a cigarette and flashing a switchblade. I saw the first four Elvis Presley movies and every rock and roll melodrama that passed through the Rialto.
And so I checked out Giant, mainly to see what James Dean had been up to after his surly bulldozing of the decaying middle American landscape in Rebel Without a Cause. Of course, I didn't think of it that way when I was a kid -- he was cool, man, and that was enough.
But what I got from Giant was this amazingly complicated story about Texas -- quick money from oil, cowboy aristocracy clashing with political tensions created by a vanishing Old West; rich and poor whites mixing it up in their own private class war; and, eventually, Mexicans: people who looked like my grandparents, who were scattered throughout the film as so many props.
I felt uncomfortable watching this movie. I didn't like the way the Mexicans were treated in the film but somehow I thought that maybe it was the Mexicans' fault. Why were they in a movie anyway? Movies were for slapstick comedy, outer space monsters, the glory and bluster of John Wayne on the shores of Iwo Jima, and juvenile delinquents.
Texas poet Tino Villanueva has focused his own reactions to this movie and created an epic poem entitled Scene From the Movie Giant. In his marvelously written book he capsulizes a lifetime of provocations inspired by the movie. In particular, he deals with one scene where a trio of quiet, almost submissive Mexicans are subjected to blatant and violent racism.
Villanueva agonizingly chronicles his own attitudes about the crucial scene, which portrays the apparent victory of brute force and hatred over the humble Mexicans. Sarge, owner of a diner, refuses to serve a Mexican family. When cattleman Rick Benedict (Rock Hudson) objects, Sarge savagely beats him up. Villanueva stretches his images over the years and miles to Boston where, as a graduate student, he still grapples with the real meaning of the scene from the movie. As Villanueva writes, he constantly must turn back to the time when his offended small world was disrupted, unresolved. As is made clear in Villanueva's pages, his own resolution comes through the words he has chosen to present to the reader, so many years after he watched a movie in fear and awe. He has presented the truth as only a poet can understand it.
(this review first aired on Denver radio KUVO in 1995)
A BIT OF NEWS
How Else Am I Supposed to Know I'm Still Alive?
If you can't read the image, it's an announcement of a presentation of How Else Am I Supposed to Know I'm Still Alive, written by Evelina Fernández and starring the very talented and always entertaining Debra Gallegos and Yolanda Ortega on January 19 at 7:30 PM at the Troutman Theater at Aurora Central High School, 11700 E. 11th Avenue, Aurora, CO. $35 for adults, $10 for students and seniors. The performance benefits the Nuñez Foundation College Scholarship Program. We love these women and their enthusiastic performance art, and I know I'll see many of you at the play.
Nation of Immigrants
The Art Students League of Denver sent the following announcement about their upcoming exhibit, Nation of Immigrants, curated by Tony Ortega and Susan Sagara Bolton: "This exhibit brings together a wide range of media, styles, concerns, and sensibilities from artists whose inspiration is the immigration experience. Walking through the exhibit, you will experience the history each artist brings to their art and how culture and heritage resonate through their work." Participating artists include Polly Chang, Manuel Cordero, Carlos Frésquez, Ken Iwamasa, Clara Martínez, Emanuel Martínez, Sylvia Montero, Adriana Restrepo, George Rivera, Danny and Maruca Salazar, Carlos Santistevan, and several others. Exhibit opens January 4, 5:30 - 8:00 PM and runs through February 27. The Art Students League is at 200 Grant Street, Denver, 303-778-6990.
Dolores Huerta 
Dolores Huerta will be the keynote speaker at the Latina/o Advocacy Day event to be held February 24-25 at the Adams Mark Hotel in downtown Denver. Sponsored by the Latina Initiative and the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights, the event provides advocacy and lobby training on policy issues of concern to Latinas and Latinos in Colorado. For those who might not know, Dolores Huerta is a long-time human rights activist and a co-founder with César Chávez in starting the United Farm Workers in the 1960s. Info., send an email to: [email protected]. Image courtesy of favianna.com.
Sacramento Poetry Center
I'm passing on the following piece:
Another great night of poetry is coming up this Monday, January 7 at the Sacramento Poetry Center, 1719 25th Street, at 7:30 pm.
Starting off the new year will be Barbara Jane Reyes and Oscar Bermeo. It will be an exciting night of powerful poetry hosted by Arturo Mantecon. Don't miss it!
Barbara Jane Reyes was born in Manila, Philippines and raised in the SF Bay Area. She is the author of Gravities of Center (Arkipelago, 2003) and Poeta en San Francisco (Tinfish, 2005) which received the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets. Her other honors include an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship and numerous Pushcart Prize nominations. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Asian Pacific American Journal, Chain, New American Writing, North American Review, Notre Dame Review, among others. She lives with her husband, poet Oscar Bermeo, in Oakland.
Born in Ecuador and raised in the Bronx, Oscar Bermeo is a BRIO (Bronx Recognizes Its Own) award winning poet, educator & literary events coordinator. Oscar now makes his home in Oakland, where he is the poetry editor for Tea Party magazine and lives with his wife, poeta Barbara Jane Reyes.
Sacramento Poetry Center
1719 25th Street
Sacramento, CA
916.451.5569 - www.sacramentopoetrycenter.org
Later.
.jpg?picon=1806)
Living and working in Scotland it would be difficult to ignore what is going on all around me and it is too important. But this is not a blog about the Referendum, because votes are being cast as you read this, the decision is already being made and the outcome will be something we will all have to live, with whatever our own thoughts are.
.jpeg?picon=3304)
.png.jpg?picon=4257)
Great post and insight Mark. May God’s wisdom guide you safely.
Thank you Levi, decisions are hard. Looking to the one who already knows the answer.
Great! You know He won’t lead you astray. Have a great day.
i can’t begin to tell you what to do with this door looming in front of you. all i can do is tell you what i would do. if i felt that what i would find once i opened the door and walked through or looked in, was a positive, with the potential to bring good to my and my loved ones lives in some way, i would open it without fear or a second thought. if something was holding me back from taking this step, i would follow my instinct not to enter and move on past this door.
It “looks” positive, but I’m afraid of strings. Will find out more soon and definitely follow my instincts. Thanks, Beth…and I’m sorry about your Mud Hens.
My husband is not a fan of closed doors either, but learned a valuable lesson in the need for them a few years back. I think being a parent and balancing the need to know with our children’s need for some privacy is a big challenge and requires great wisdom, and a healthy respect for those children. I realized how much I missed my oldest son when he moved to Phoenix when his room was empty and the door was open all the time. The house was so much bigger without him in it.
Boy! The last three years…an email I started to delete and should have!
I’m about to learn that lessons, and not ready for it.
Yikes. Hard lessons!
Lol, whatever door you open, make sure you’re dressed for it :D