This Modern Word

So, I've been lax in contributing to our collective blog here at the Scribblerati watering hole. I've been lax, in fact, in contributing to any form of writing at all. This blog, my personal blog, my novel.

Well, wait. That's not strictly true. Writing is everywhere these days. People communicate in texts more than phone calls. We email, we IM, we Tweet and update our statuses. Words, words, words, in the written (okay, typed, or texted) form is everywhere. I believe that I've spent more time communicating in writing in the past 10 years than I did in all the years previous.

Is this a good thing? Many say no... the lack of face-to-face communication, morons who text and drive, and dear heavens, the anonymity of those Youtube comments - let's just say, have made society a less pleasing place. Plus, when I was a teenager, confined to "the middle of nowhere" (as I often lamented to my parents), the only way to communicate with those friends I made in Forensics (speech, not dead bodies) or summer camp was with ridiculously long hand-written missives. This was even true in college, when I moved states away from many of my closest friends. I wrote to my brother when he was in the army, my sister when she was at college, and my parents, once I left home.

My husband, an old-fashioned fellow, still writes the occasional letter. For me, it's only thank you notes. I can't recall the last time I sat down and wrote a proper letter -it probably was in the mid nineties, when my best friend was working in England. I'm saddened by this - I miss the thrill of discovering a fat envelope, laden with stamps, peeking out of my mailbox. I miss cool stationery, and the joy of writing with that perfect pen.

However, I also love email. I still remember the wonder I felt when, in 1997, I tracked down my friend Michiko, a woman from The Netherlands whom I had met in Ireland... on AOL. The idea that I could type out a letter to her, hit 'send,' and it would reach her in a matter of minutes (well, hours - this was AOL in the nineties) was mind-boggling to me. Now it's commonplace, and although some of the amazement has receded, I still appreciate the ease - and the ability I now own - to keep up with family and friends regularly, rather than in one big chunk every month or two.

And then there's Facebook. (I'm not a Twitter girl, although I haven't given it a decent try.) People hate on the Facebook, and although I understand the reasons why - I don't care about your virtual Farm or Kingdom or Zombies or Whatnot - and oh, that acquaintance from high school who is now a Tea Party Republican and has 6 kids and likes to talk about their poops - but I love it. I don't work in an office, so Facebook provides me with daily socialization, albeit virtual. I enjoy laying down a well-crafted status, and the often humorous banter that ensues... and I'm just going to say it: that counts as writing. No, it's not Dostoyevsky or even Jackie Collins, and it's no substitute for creating a story with a beginning, middle and end. But it does speak to that creative, writerly part of our brains, and that's something.

Plus, it's a little diary, not documenting major, heavy events, but tiny little moments. Here are some of my statuses from the past year. Just to prove that I have been, you know, writing.

 ***

This is how it typically goes for Tony when he's trying to talk to me about baseball.
Tony (describing a baseball card): So, Felix the Cat, Felix Millan, he was a pretty good player for the Mets in the seventies - so he's standing at the base, and there's this Pirate right there... and this Pirate slides into second...
Me: Oh my god - did he fall on his cutlass?
Tony:
...
...
...
... so anyway...

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Don't believe that aliens have visited us and gifted us with their technology? I have one word for you: Accordions.

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Ah... the Holiday Season. The time we gather 'round the yule log and remind ourselves that Amy Grant happened. 

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I'd love to start a fund for manatees, partially because they're glorious creatures and their environment is being encroached upon, but mostly because I could call my charity "Habitat for Huge Manatees."

*** 

Sometimes I find it exceedingly odd that we choose to share our homes with adorable little predators. 

*** 

So, I walked into my back yard just in time to witness the 8-year-old neighbor girl, arms straight out, carrying a live, rusty-orange chicken - and then putting it on the trampoline. FOR SCIENCE!

***

In my shopping today, I'm picking up razors for Tony: "Remember, I use the Gillette Sensor Mach 3 XL Turbo Viking Marauder Supercharged Touchdown Pickaxe Razor." 

***  

And quite possibly my favoirte exchange of all time:

There are a dozen cardinals in our backyard right now!!! (Bird kind, not Catholic kind.)

413Like ·

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  Michelle Farley Whoa, that could have been scary. All the judging, and robes, who needs that?

  
  
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  Christian Hanson Is it wrong that when I read that, the first image was of catholic cardinals. Lol

  
  
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  Jane Gehr How do you know they're not Catholic?

  
  
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  Brian Kelly their yarmulkes.

  
  
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  Claudia Hankin Balluff They've been deflocked. HAHAHAHAhahahahahahah. Ha.

  
  
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  Claudia Hankin Balluff Credit where credit is due... my raised- Catholic husband came up with the above joke.

  
  
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  Claudia Hankin Balluff Waiting for white smoke, to let us know if they've elected a bird pope.

  
  
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  Brian Kelly There's bird pope on my car windshield.

  
  
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  Joolie Pritz WAHAHAHHAHAAAA!

  
  
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  Ahna Brandvik Logan THis thread made me happy. Thank you.

  
  
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  Karen Paurus This is seriously...

  
  
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  Karen Paurus ...POPETASTIC!!!!!!!

  

  
  

  Cheers,

  Q

  
  

The Rules to Fiction

I think that by now most everyone on the face of this planet has either heard of Twitter or has Tweeted at least once. Correction, let's make that everyone in the solar system because there is that astronaut on the space station who Tweets.

Twitter isn't for everyone, but I'm a big fan and have been pretty much from the beginning. It's an interesting place. At its best, Twitter is a fantastic medium for quick, efficient, real-time communication. It allows you to be a part of events as they unfold, whether that's the Olympics, the MacMillan / Amazon fight, or the Iranian protests. At its worst, Twitter is a great place for allowing people to share every mundane, inane thought that crosses their minds.

Now, I wouldn't necessarily classify the following Tweet as inane, but, well, see for yourself.

“There are NO rules to writing Fiction. None. Zero. Nada. Nyet. Zilch.”

Taken literally, that is true. There are no rules for writing fiction. Now, insert the word “good” before “fiction” and we are rapidly approaching Inane Land.

Speaking from experience, I can most definitely say that there are rules to writing good fiction. You can bend some of them, even break a few here and there, but there is a basic flow and structure that must be adhered to in order for people to comprehend what it is you are writing.

Case in point: the previous draft of my book, To Kill the Goddess. That draft was the culmination of several years of effort where I was bending the rules of fiction as far as I could.  I wanted to tell the story in such a way that the reader and the protagonists were in the dark up until the very end of the story. I wanted the reader to feel what the protagonists felt upon the revelation of what was happening to them. It's a neat idea, something different from most other things I've read, but…  I wouldn't say it flopped, but there was a definite similarity between that draft and a fish lying on the shore, gasping for air. I was so successful in keeping the reader in the dark that not one of mine fellow Scribblerati knew what was happening. They missed the vast majority of the clues I dropped throughout the book and their commutative reaction at the end was: huh. OK.

Not exactly what I was going for.

So let's revisit that tweet for a moment.

“There are NO rules to writing Fiction. None. Zero. Nada. Nyet. Zilch.”

Um, sorry, but yes there are.

I’m now I'm about a third of my way through my next draft. The cards are on the table this time. Those clues that everyone missed are now front and center and the result is astonishing. The comments have turned from “I didn't get this” and “what's up with that?” to “this is a really strong chapter.” Sure, I still get suggestions and there is room for improvement, but this time I'm following the rules and it shows.

As for the unnamed Tweeter who I have just drug through the mud, I hope, for his sake, he figures this out quicker than I did.

Minnesota Writers

Those of you who know me well know that I have been a regular user of Twitter for over two years now. Call me an early adopter, or maybe just a geek, but I like to think that I saw potential in Twitter long before CNN made it a regular practice of trolling Twitter feeds for news.

Twitter is an amazing communication tool. With it, you can broadcast every thought, from the profound to the banal, to just about anyone and everyone. In the early days there weren't that many people on Twitter and it was really easy to find unique and interesting people to follow just by watching the public Twitter feed. Nowadays, Twitter has been overrun by the masses and it can be difficult to find people of interest.

Apparently I'm not the only one who noticed that.

A wonderful solution to this problem was launched just last week. It’s a new Twitter feature called Lists. A Twitter list is exactly like it sounds, a list of Twitter users. There's a website out there called Listorious that lets you list your list and it's really astonishing how many lists have popped up there over the course of the last week.

Not wanting to be left out (remember the geek part) I created a list of my own. I call it Minnesota Writers. My goal is to find Minnesota based Twitter using writers and add them to this list. I think a list like this could be a really interesting way for the Minnesota Twitter community to keep in touch and stay abreast of issues that affect us.

And now for the sales pitch: if you are a Minnesota writer, and a Twitter user, leave a comment on the blog and I'll add you to the list.  I have already added all Twitter using members of The Scribblerati, plus a couple of others, so log on and follow Minnesota Writers!