Start a conversation with anyone today, stranger, friend, or even a family member, and within sixty seconds you could be in the midst of a full-on shouting match, or worse. Angst seems to be the first response to any situation where the slightest conflict is evident. “I hate (fill in your favorite target here)” is the initial response and often the only response you receive to what may be a simple query. So, I thought the topic of anger might be a suitable focus for my second attempt at serious poetry. What follows is that piece which was read at an open mic night at Lakefly Writer’s Conference this past month.
Ability to listen, lost. Common sense, vanishes. Topics, limited to right or wrong. High school football debates become yelling matches. Neighbor’s landscape projects end in restraining orders. Holiday celebrations devolve into splintered families and changed wills.
Where does your rage come from? Lies, media driven by profits, Rhetoric, politicians narrate to retain power, Misinformation, narrative over truth. Ideology, social acceptance.
Is your rage worth the cost? No information source is trustworthy, Paranoia drives intention, Violence for violence’s sake, Isolation from relationships.
When will it end? Think critically, who benefits from your rage? Remove the blinders, question sources before accepting them. Release the rage. Give grace.
Now that the trauma of a home sale, home purchase, and big move is behind me, I can find time to write again. But, writing a novel can be a slog. Ask anyone who has tried it. Sometimes the mind just shuts down. The muse flies back to her mountaintop.
In an effort to trick the muse into returning, I decided to try my hand at some short and short-short fiction. Flash, if you will. I didn’t really realize how difficult short works can be until I applied strict word counts to each attempt. 7,000 to 12,000-word short stories are not too difficult. An engaging beginning, an interesting middle that moves the story along, and a snappy ending are all possible, and for me, quite doable at this length. However, once you enter the realm of 2,000 words or less, the difficulty factor ramps up a bit.
In flash fiction, the flowery descriptions of scenes, the finite details of combat, the lengthy monologues, and internalizations once used to enhance a storyline are too large to include and leave room for the shortened plotline. Every word must count for more than one thing. Every sentence must perform multiple functions.
My first attempts received mixed reviews. A friend from my writer’s group suggested I try poetry. She is quite accomplished, and I take her advice seriously. However, poetry and I do not seem to mix well. After a few pitiful attempts, I returned to editing with a microscope and a scalpel. It was a brutal process. I truly learned what the phrase, kill your darlings means. Any word that was not multi-tasking or absolutely necessary to create comprehensive sentences was quickly deleted.
One project was a 2,000-word short story to submit to a competition at the Lakefly Writer’s Conference in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, this spring. It took much longer than planned, and I missed the submission date. The original story was around 3750 words. I made the cuts to get it to 1,998 words!!! The good news is that I was able to submit a flash piece of around 700 words. We’ll see how that fares.
The bottom line is that this process taught me that word choice and thoughtful editing significantly impact the final piece. Additionally, I can successfully write shorter works. The good news is that the muse has returned, and work on the second novel has resumed.
A taste of the good stuff. To remember and honor, Dad, Grandpa, and the 450,000 men and women who loved this country so much, that they gave their lives in defense of the ideals that the United States of America was founded on. Every year, I take a taste and thank them. I pray for them and their families. And, for my friends who served and lost comrades in arms. I thank you for the pain you have endured with that loss. It is the very least that I can do for strangers that paid for my freedom with their own blood. Rest in peace. I will be eternally grateful for your sacrifice.
A few years ago a friend of mine, AnnMarie Wyncoll, suggested I try clotted cream and jam on my crumpets. It has taken me a long time to track down a source for clotted cream here in Wisconsin. Most of the store managers I asked about it, didn’t have a clue what it was. I could have made my own and probably will going forward. But, I wanted to try the commercial stuff first. Well, this week, I stumbled into a jar of the real thing!!
With much fanfare my wife warmed up the crumpets, got out my favorite black raspberry jam, the new jar of clotted cream, and a hot cuppa coffee. OMG! Heaven!
I wish I could get in touch with AnnMarie to thank her for introducing me to this tasty treat.
The garden has been put to bed. A thin blanket of snow covers the crawling rocks up the hill. The hunting season for whitetails is over. Ice skims over the lakes. The wind shifts, coming out of the northeast, picking up tempo, driving the remaining leaves before it. The snowplow replaces the lawn mower at pole position in the garage. Old manuscript set aside in favor of a blank computer screen. A seemingly endless supply of decoration containers rotate into the house, only to rotate back into the garage after their contents adorns the halls of the manor. Warm fire. Hot tea. Hot shower. Flannel sheets, down comforter, heavy quilt, and purring cats await.
A critical part of any story is the arc of the character’s life as it traverses the plotline. The character must grow and/or change in some way during the course of the story to generate interest and tension. The reader expects and demands that the character to change in response to actions and events that engage with the character.
Some writers carefully plan every aspect of this change for each member of their cast. They develop piles of notes which include every cause and effect, action and reaction, beginning personality profile and end-state profile. They meticulously control each character to ensure that the ending exactly what they imagined it would be when they began the story.
Other writers start off with their basic character idea and let the character develop as the story unfolds, growing and changing based on the environment as it is encountered. At times, the character may act in a way that is unexpected or seemingly irrational. These actions may take the story in a direction the writer did not mean for the story to go.
So, what happens if the character’s arc veers wildly from its original path? The writer may have to make a decision whether to let the character’s arc continue in this new direction, or use a heavy hand and bring the character back in line within the original intention. Allowing the new direction can be exciting and very rewarding. However, the writer must trust the character. This is not always an easy thing to do, especially for new writers or untested characters.
Choosing to use the heavy hand and make major edits can be even more daunting and has caused some writers to start over at the beginning or even scrap a project completely. Character arcs are that important!
What happens then, when a writer reflects on his or her own life arc and is unsatisfied with where it is at? Perhaps they have not reached the goals they set for themselves by the time they reached their current age. Or maybe, their personality has changed due to life experiences and they are no longer the happy go lucky person they once were. Or, an accident or illness has left them unable to live the life they had dreamed of. Does a writer have choices regarding their ability to respond to their own life arc? Of course they do.
Granted, going back and rewriting ones life is not something that is currently possible. At least as far as I am aware. However, a writer can choose to accept their arc as it is, or they can choose to make changes that will alter the course of that arc in the future. Just like any other character, I might add. The choices and possible alternatives may or may not have limits depending on what the change entails and the actions required to affect the change. But as every writer knows, lots of little changes can have a huge impact on a character by the end of a story.
I noticed recently, after watching my wife interacting with several individuals in the grocery store, that I am not as nice a person as I used to be. I rarely smile and say, “Hi” to people I meet on the street. Offering to help someone in need is not automatic like it once was. Cynicism is a major mode of communication for me. When I asked my wife about my observation, we came up with all sorts of great excuses for my “shift” in behavior. Things like: lines of work, work environment, media, politics, social media, toxic personal relationships with family and friends, and lack of adequate stress relievers were just a few. As I said, these are just excuses.
To me it appears that changing my arc is simple, but not easy. It is about making better choices. I choose to smile and say, “Hi” to the cashier when I pay for my gasoline and coffee. I choose to to not watch ABC or CNN news. I choose to adjust my schedule to ensure that I spend more time writing and less time listening to or reading comments from individuals who might push my buttons. In other words, I’m taking the small changes approach to altering my character arc. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Tales From The Hare 