The Write Game's Blog Hop!

Hello and welcome everyone, to Adventures in Writing.  Thank you so much for visiting.  I hope you find my blog helpful and interesting.

I'm trying C. Lee McKenzie's blog hop for the first time and hope I do it correctly.  I decided to look at two famous quotes from Eleanor Roosevelt because I think they can be of use to writers.  

Eleanor Roosevelt said, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”  

Sometimes when writers send their manuscripts out for critique or to be published, they can feel inferior when they receive negative comments or rejection letters.  

Notice I didn't say I feel crushed, although sometimes I do.  I try to rise above a feeling of inferiority to allow the comments or rejection to sink in, to notice if the comments pertain to the story I'm trying to tell, to see what revision needs to be accomplished to move from the rejection pile into the publishable pile.   

Another nugget of wisdom I've gleaned from Eleanor was to “Do one thing every day that scares you.”  

Okay, so maybe I can't do something scary every day, but maybe most days I try to stretch out of myself and submit my manuscripts, hoping not to feel inferior if negative comments come in.  I try to learn from every instance.

Do I succeed?  ...Mmmm, sometimes.  

But this leads to my own personal quote for writers:

Don’t let a blizzard of activity keep you from writing.

The things I do to be alone to write.
I got all the way out to the chairs
 and forgot my computer. Can you believe it?

Fellow writers, this means cast out your manuscript into the sea of publishing to see if you can catch a contract.

All the best, in 2016!

This is a Blog Hop!

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1. Tara Tyler	2. Christine Rains	3. The Write Game
4. PepperWords	5. Dr Gulara Vincent	6. Writer's Alley (S. A. Larsen)
7. Bish Denham	8. Michelle @ Writer~In~Transit	9. Spacerguy
10. Queendsheena	11. Yvonne Ventresca's Word Pop	12. Yolanda Renee @ Defending the Pen
13. Read is the New Black	14. Elizabeth Seckman. Author	15. Author J Lenni Dorner
16. Heather M. Gardner	17. Rena Rocford Writes	18. Literary Rambles
19. Susan Says	20. Adventures in Writing: One Woman's Journey	21. Madilyn Quinn @ NovelBrews
22. Denise Covey	23. Fairday's Blog	24. Juneta @ Writer's Gambit

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Synopsis Mini Course Part 2

Surviving critique and revision in writing is
as tough as backpacking the
Appalachian Trail.  But it can be done!

Okay.  My revised synopsis critique came back. 

I don’t know about you, but I’m beginning to hate question words.  You know the type.  Why did you do that?  How did this make you feel?  When did this happen?  What exactly do you mean by that?  What finally made you decide?  Where’s the trigger?  Why now? 

Why, why, why?  How, how, how?  I feel like I’m in therapy.  She’s worse than my children with all her questions.  It seemed like everything I wrote wasn’t specific enough for this editor.  

All these details are supposed to be in the synopsis? 

There are mountains of messages in my margins.

She picked on my phrasing:

            This is too formal.

            What happened to your humorous voice?

She unpacked my factual sentences:

            Clip some facts here.

            Sprinkle some other facts throughout the synopsis.  

She tried to get me to move from the general to the specific:

            Why is this important?

            What’s the bigger picture here?

             Comment on your experiences.

           

She poo-pooed my maxim: 

What is this statement tied to?  It feels random -

            I’d said, “Opportunity changes lives.”  [I thought it was one of my themes.]

This seems like a stretched reference:

            No person is an island.  [Okay…it is…but doesn’t it sound cool?]

Transition lines were missing.  So were some explanations.  I’m supposed to step back and reflect—even in the synopsis.  Then some of my reflections are too abstract, and others need to be more specific to me.  

Pick!  Poke!  Shred! 

…Boy, is she good.    

She helped me put my voice back into the synopsis.  I had changed some of the language, and even I thought it sounded too stilted.  I thought I needed to sound educated.  Obviously there’s a huge difference between educated and my particular voice.

I reminded myself that I asked for this carnage.  Unfortunately, it still stings.  But it’s the only way for the manuscript to get better.  For a writer to learn of her weaknesses.  To see what she can no longer see for herself in the manuscript story.  Don’t you think so?

As I sit here licking my synopsis wounds, crying into my teacup, I berate myself to get over it and send the entire manuscript in for a formal undressing if only to see what’s worth saving, what should be expanded upon.  This is my college journey, a ten-year ordeal.  Let’s not make the writing of it also a ten-year ordeal, Victoria.    

Thanks for listening.  Your insight is invaluable to me.  Feel free to share any experiences you have or to offer any tips.  Thank you!

Synopsis Is Not a Bad Word

Sometimes writing synopses can be like 

trudging through the tundra. 

It requires much stamina and effort, 

but it builds character in authors.

            Happy New Year, everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and are ready to get back to work on your dreams.                                                                                                            

            For me, it’s time to look for professional editing for my memoir about attending college with five children in tow instead of continuously changing and tweaking it.  To that end, I came across an offer after watching an excellent webinar called “The Synopsis Solution” presented by Jennie Nash, a book coach, for a critique of a synopsis for my memoir. 

            I was impressed.  Jennie gave concrete information and examples.  So I’m taking the chance.  Now all I need is that synopsis of my memoir.  *Gulp*

            Besides giving the format of a synopsis: single-spaced, present tense, third person, no more than three pages, Jennie informed her listeners to “tell a story and hook the reader” –even in the synopsis.  Not everything can be included in the synopsis summary of the story.  Use the main thrust of the story and give a resolution.      

            While I understood to tell whose story it was, in memoir or fiction, I never tried the line of thinking:  because this thing happens, the next thing happens and then the next thing.  I’ve heard of cause and effect, plot points, internal struggle.

            So I stepped back and looked at my memoir about attending college with five children in tow. 

            Because I had no prior college classes, I needed to take a Basic Skills test in order to begin my college journey.  And because I hadn’t had any upper level math courses or any algebra in *ahem* eons, I failed the math portion of the test.  And because of failing the math portion of the test, I needed to take basic skills math classes in order to begin my college journey.

            Okay, so that’s the external beginning of what happened.  What’s the internal struggle I faced?  Well aside from numerous motherhood duties, I couldn’t leave my fear of failure behind—that nagging thought that I wasn’t properly prepared for college—to be able to think positively, to engage in an experience of learning. 

            Then just when I thought I might be able to succeed in college, I was offered a scholarship at the University of Pennsylvania.  And another belief was tested, never to let opportunity pass me by.  I had to go to Penn.  I just had to, or another nemesis would enter the picture.  Regret.  Even if I failed, I had to try. 

            Wow!  Where did this all come from.  I could go on, but I need to write that three-page synopsis for critique.  I’ll keep you posted as to my experience and knowledge learned.

            Please share any tips or experiences you may have about writing synopses.  All the best to each of you in 2016!

Painting Holiday Wishes with Words

This is the 2014 edition. I haven't
started the 2015 edition.

Words, a writer’s paintbrush.  Storytelling, essay writing, and poetry carry music and rhythm in the words.  Writers paint images and whole worlds with words.  Writers fill the senses with vivid smells, sharp textures.  Writers create life through characterization. The characters are real, feel emotion, endure drama, and some may even survive the story.  A writer is an artist.  

Embodying that artistry can be stressful, especially during the holiday season.  With all the concerts and cookie bakes, the parties and gift-buying, sometimes writers need to place their creative talent with words on hold until after the rush.    

Or do they?

Holiday cards.  I don’t know about you, but I still send them out.  Not everyone I know is online.  At least some of my relatives aren’t.  Yet they all know I’m writing.  Because of this self-inflicted artistry I placed upon myself, I feel obligated to produce an entertaining Lees Through the Year 2015 letter to accompany an original photo card with pithy or poetic wishes on it.  Relatives and friends I haven’t seen in a while look forward to these letters and cards each year.  They tell me so.  They thank me profusely when I send them. 

                                                                                  

Yet I fret over the letter, what to say, which events, which memories to include.  As a writer, I feel my talents judged by the receivers of these cards and letters, be they friends or relatives.  I don’t wish to sound boastful in the letters, simply entertaining.  I don’t want to bore; I want to infuse my words with laughter, with story.  The letter isn’t memoir it’s conversational, I remind myself.  No themes or pithy insight.  Yet I imagine the need to appear witty, to create memorable lines. 

I consider myself a writer even though I’ve sold only a handful of stories and essays.  The key word in that statement is sold.  I’ve written plenty for local free markets.  *Sigh*           

The holidays are a time to catch up with family and friends, tell stories, enjoy delicious homemade baked goods with tea, and linger over wine and cheese platters.  It’s a time to enjoy one another’s company.

            With all the list-making and gift-buying; the home decorating and meal planning; baking cookies and breads, pies and cakes, do you ever feel the added pressure of creativity with words at Christmastime?  Please let me know how you fit creativity into the holiday rush or if you worry about words because of your craft. 

Have a wonderful Christmas and holiday season! 

Framing the Memoir: How Does Motherhood Fit into the College Experience?

Fall frames the world in color.

A writer friend asked me if my memoir was about how motherhood influenced me as a college student or was it how college influenced me as a mother.  While I realize that this is just one aspect of the memoir, it is a good question for it helps to frame the memoir. 

I think the memoir is more about how motherhood influenced me as a college student.  Yet the reverse can also be true.

            Let’s take the first part of the equation.  How did motherhood influence me as a college student? 

            Parenthood is a lifetime career.  It’s not something we stop doing once the children become adults—even if we wanted to.  At the time I started college, I was the primary care-giver to children in grades 2^nd through 8th.  It was my job to help these children become successful in their education and any life obstacles they might encounter.  This was no easy task with my oldest daughter having learning and social problems.  I needed to be there for them. 

I took the parenting job seriously, maybe even obsessively.  I wasn’t free to think only of my own trials in education.  I had to be home for them in the beginning.  This is what made attending college so difficult in the early years of my ten-year journey.  After devoting my life to my children, I needed to allow time for college work.      

            Yet motherhood affected my college journey in other ways, too.  Because I was older, because I was a mother, sometimes I saw the wants and needs of my fellow students at the community college.  I would ask their questions in math class, study with them, help them with their essays.  My husband said that I had gained more children going to college, and perhaps he was correct.  I didn’t mind.  These young students helped me with technical difficulties and math or science concepts I hadn’t experienced recently in the basic skills classes I needed to supposedly bring me up to college entry.  My children were too young; hadn’t had this upper level education. 

           

            And because I was a more mature student, running her own home and family, I brought a commitment to my college education that a few of the younger students may have lacked at the community college level.  My fellow students permitted me to be the group leader in projects.

            Now because I was a mother, I brought home my newfound knowledge to my children, not that they always appreciated it, of course.  I took the notion of parents being the first teachers of their children seriously—again obsessively.  It was my job to be sure the children could survive in today’s world.  I also wanted them to be properly prepared for college as I was not.  I demonstrated time and again what professors were looking for in essays, what was necessary to study to do well on a college exam. 

            Wow!  When I look back on all this I can see why my family is glad that I graduated.  Hopefully the children will see my mothering skills as a good thing in their lives.  Only time will tell.

            What do you think?  Did I answer my friend’s question completely?  Do you have any questions for me about my journey as a mother of five attending college?         

Memoirs: More Than Just What Happened

Memoirs require depth and not merely what transpired during the slice of life being recounted through story.  The writer needs to look up from her reminiscing, and explain the wider experience and the meaning of it to the reader.

College wasn’t for me or my siblings.  We were not encouraged to attend college right out of high school.  There was no money for higher education in my house growing up.  We four children were told we had our education, and it was time to enter the workforce.  My siblings and I accepted it; we had no other choice.  Most of the children in my neighborhood did the same thing in the late 1970’s, especially the females.  My family didn’t know about community college, never went looking for it.  

Through light backstory, intermixed with feelings on this, I could expound upon what it felt like to be left by the roadside on the journey to a formal degree.  I always wondered what it would have been like to live on campus and study.  Of course at that time, I had no idea how extensive a college education was, how expensive.  It looked exciting to me because it was just outside my grasp.  College was for the wealthy, my family had always said. 

On a personal level, I looked for education wherever I could find it, wherever I could afford it.  The law office where I worked talked about sending one of the secretaries to paralegal training offered locally.  I jumped at the chance and told the office manager I would do it.  But then the lawyers decided against it.

To add depth to my memoir about going to college with five children in tow, I could research the history of my local community college or perhaps the birthing of community colleges in general; the two year colleges that possibly helped make higher education more affordable for the masses, and then add snippets of information--not in a solid block, but rather throughout my experiences.  In a later section of the book, I could compare the idea of local community colleges to the 300 plus year history of the University of Pennsylvania, an international university, an Ivy League, part of the ivory tower in education that I thought I could never reach.      

Let's take a look at a few of the memoirs I’ve been reading and see how well-known writers interpret their stories.  I find the writers connecting beyond their own experiences in order to make sense of the larger themes of belonging, of learning from those who struggled before them.  

In Beth Kephart’s Still Love in Strange Places, Kephart describes the very land where her husband grew up and connects the volatility of the land to the political tensions of El Salvador.  The turmoil of the country mirrors Kephart’s trial to understand her husband’s culture, to feel a part of her husband’s culture. 

In Colleen Carroll Campbell’s memoir My Sisters the Saints, Carroll Campbell connects her experiences grappling with her Catholic faith in the context of personal difficulty and tragedy with various saints down through the centuries, demonstrating that Carroll Campbell is not alone in her struggles.   

These thoughts dance across my dreams as I continue to read memoir and hammer away at my revisions.  Your thoughts are always welcome and greatly appreciated.    

Beginnings: As in Where to Begin My Memoir

            

On a journey to a better
beginning for the memoir

Beginnings are the most important part of books, I feel, be it memoir or fiction.  Writers lose sleep over this. 

*Yawn*  [Excuse me.]

Writers need to pull readers into their stories.  Up till now, I’ve been starting my memoir with the decision to begin college.  With what my life was like before I started college. 

            I understand the in medias res concept, opening the story in the middle of the action.  I open chapter one of my memoir with a crucial scene from a YA short story I had published in Cricket Magazine, but I intersperse it with motherly duties to show my conflicting time:  writer/mother.  Then I [seem to] dump the reader into the reality of picking up the children from two different schools on a rainy day.  I allow the reader to interpret the children’s personalities through dialogue and interaction or offering one line quips that speak volumes about them.  Still, I can’t help but think this is a clumsy way to introduce my children to the reader.

            While I ask what I feel are probing questions about myself in an attempt to convince myself to sign up for courses at the local community college, I wonder if maybe my present first chapter should be a prologue instead, minus the opening writing scene, of course.  What have you found the purpose of prologues to be in books?  Reading memoir, my experience has shown that some memoirs have them and others don’t, and that these prologues tell of the essence of the book.    

            Chapter two starts with my toting the children along with me as I sign up for courses at the community college.  Perhaps I could show the children’s personalities there in that scene.  Maybe this is a better way to show in medias res, the actual beginning of my college journey.  Jump right into the journey instead of thinking about it.  Instead of showing what my life was like before I started college.

            Do you feel there is a need to show the pastoral setting of my life before the decision to attend college?  I do offer glimpses of my life with the family throughout the college journey as it affects my journey.  Thanks for any advice you may offer.