May Days to Submit Work

When the call to challenge rang out on May 1^st, many of our PAD and MNINB group members paused, took a deep breath, and sighed. I think it would be fair to say that few could believe what they were reading. “Submit at least one piece of work each day for the entire month of May.”

Yep. You saw that right. Some of the group simply can’t comply due to more critical situations at home and at work, but for the rest of us, we’re gamely attempting what seemed like an impossible feat just a few short days ago.

This is day four of this last minute challenge that none had contemplated. We each post on the group sites what we subbed and to which publication, whether online or print, contest or blog, and watch to see who else took the plunge that day.

I have yet to hit the send button today. I have three possibles on the starting line, waiting for a shove into the chute. I have a children’s story that can go out any time. It’s been polished to within a paragraph of existence. I have poems coming out of my ears that can go in nearly any direction. And I have a couple of polished and professionally edited essays that can go out on their own.

There’s a coin I’ve been saving for just such an occasion as this. I’ll do a three-way toss to see which item goes out today. That gives me plenty for the next few days. Who knows? I might send more than on submission out per day and really scare myself.

For those that are timid about subbing and worry about those nasty rejection emails, don’t be. Take a page from my post today on Claudsy’s Blog. Make that rejection your best friend. Embrace it. Plaster your wall with it and its friends. Proudly show that wall to family and friends and declare “See how much work I’ve sent out!”

If you’ve chosen to accept such a challenge as this, comment here. Tell me about your personal submission challenge. If you don’t have one, but want to try it, feel free. Post a comment here each day you’ve braved the “SEND” button and sent out a piece of work. I’ll gladly help you show the world how much you’re working on the craft.

Until later, keep writing while you enjoy the process,

Claudsy

Planning for the Month Ahead

During this past couple of months I’ve spent most of my spare writing time working on my Wordpress blog, with daily postings related to a central theme. This month’s theme was “Whether.” Nothing else, just “Whether.” I decided, for those who haven’t dropped by one of my other homes yet, to write about aspects of a writer’s life and work.

Each post title begins with the word “Whether” and tries to reflect the heart of the post’s theme. I’m not sure if I succeeded with my final desire. I know that I received more likes from April 1 to April 20 than I’ve ever received in one month before. That’s going some.

What I discovered is that I can suck the life out of a subject and still find something more to write about it. I wonder what else I can find to write about for the next few days before April arrives. Just call me “Vampira.”

Next month is almost a predictable theme. POEM. Since April is National Poetry Month, having this theme makes perfect sense.

Now, let’s look at that scenario before trying for substance on it. Robert Brewer’s Poetic Asides site will have its annual poem-a-day challenge going, with the end result being a chapbook manuscript to be submitted for competition and possible publication.

My friend Marie Elena and her poetic partner in cyberville, Walt, will probably have more goodies lined up on their poetry site, Poetic Bloomings. Several of the other sites dealing in verse will undoubtedly have goings-on that will rival the upcoming Maypole dance.

Which should I go for this coming month? It’s not like I haven’t anything else to do but write poems.

I could do Robert’s challenge prompt each day and also post it on my Claudsy’s Blog and on BlogHer. I think that would be cheating, though, and have to reconsider that to find out if I’m allowed to do that. Either way, I would be writing a lot of poetry throughout those halcyon days of Ares’ month, if I take up either challenge—BlogHer, Poetic Aides, and/or any of the others available.

As my friends know, I have no trouble writing poetry. I enjoy it more than most things, when I allow myself to take the time to produce it. I think what bothers me about it is that revision of it is such a pain. When I write verse, it’s instinctual, immediate.

I don’t what to have to analyze the intimate feelings that brought those particular words to the front of my consciousness and placed them on paper. I want raw emotion, not devised and controlled feeling that insinuates itself into the reader’s mind during the reading process. I want the reader to see and feel it as I did when I wrote it. I want the reader to envision that instant that’s been placed in physical form upon the page.

That need of my own may be the most poetic thing about what I do when I put words on paper for others to read. Visceral response should be the only response, to my way of thinking. That’s what verse is for me. Shakespeare wrote from the gut. Its form of verse tells a story that resonates within the sinuses upon reading aloud. Whitman did the same when he wrote about his take on the world and our place in it, about how we treated each other and ourselves.

There is no thought in my mind of advancing to great acclaim for verse I produce. My only need is to translate personal feelings and perceptions into some concrete form that approximates the echoes of nebulous and insubstantial stimuli.

April, a month of verse, arrives in five days. How many others out there will accept the challenge, is unknown. Would that each could take but a moment to place simple words on a page for the purpose of holding on to that moment in time.

TTFN, all

Claudsy

Writing Needs Its Exercise, Too

I wanted to title this post “Where There’s a Will.” Why, you ask? Because I’ve decided to throw out a challenge to readers.

A few days ago on Claudsy’s Blog I discussed an exercise that helps put many things in perspective for the writer, or someone in any walk of life; an obituary. If you haven’t written your own yet, you should consider it. You might be amazed at what you discover when you perform a type of “It’s a Wonderful Life” obituary for your own life. It’s very cleansing in unexpected ways.

I’m not going to ask you to do your own obit here. What I am going to challenge you to do instead is to write an obituary for your favorite fictional character. This character can be one from your favorite book or one of your own fictional characters. Try to keep the obituary between 250-500 words and fill it with everything that would normally be in a standard obituary.

If you’ve never written one of these mini-biographies before, take up the nearest newspaper and read that section. Some will be long, others very short, and ones in between. You’ll learn interesting things about each, similar things around family members, etc. These and more are the kinds of things that you will put in the obit you write for your character.

If you would like to share your exercise results with the rest of us, please do so. I’d be interested to see the different styles, characters, and approaches that you all take. Have fun with this, but also, follow standard practices for this little bio teaser.

I’ll put together one of my own during the next day or so. You’ll not be doing this alone. Seriously, peeps, I really want to see what you come up with and the types of characters you’re willing to write for.

Until later, have fun with this, and post here soon.

Claudsy

Review What You Know

Lately writers have gotten two bits of advice on what to write about: write what you know—the old literary standard, and the new, write about those things that you’ve always wanted to know.

 Either piece of advice will put words on a page, but the question is: what kind of words are sticking to that page?

During the February Blog Challenge on my Wordpress blog, Claudy’s Blog, I’ve talked about my family. I haven’t given away the store, by any means. I’ve dived into those strong personal memories that surged to the surface of the memory pool. They were strong in personal meaning, not necessarily in perfect imagery. They were things I’ve known from the past.

Since beginning, I’ve spoken to a couple of family members who remember additional info about specific aspects of those I’ve written about. I learned things that were previously hidden from me. In doing this challenge, I started a process of looking at family about which some was known to me, as well as the people who carry those additional memories.

How to Learn About Memory Carriers?

People store memories in odd ways that even the experts haven’t unraveled completely. Associations made up of emotion, sensory triggers, and/or trauma link aspects of memories within the brain and the mind. Ever wonder why the scent of a favorite baked goodie makes you feel good and think of mom or grandma? What about that sharp pain in your shin? Didn’t that leg get whacked during a Little League game?

Those associate olfactory and pain triggers have kicked in to bring emotion and their accompanying memories to the surface. In fact, many believe the sense of smell triggers the strongest and most accurate memory links.

My theory is that people reveal themselves through what they remember and the sensory triggers that call up those memories as much as through how they behave.

Many writers use this knowledge to build characters that are believable, rounded out, and belong in anyone’s family or town. This ability to reveal a person’s internal truth shows a character’s motivations, personal history, aspirations, what-have-you.

When I talked of my Dad’s lessons in field and forest, I was standing beside him, listening to what I remembered of his words, his tone; watched his gestures and facial expressions. The memory movie ran until I stopped it to move on to another lesson memory.

Like most people, hearing a song on the radio puts me immediately back into the time and place where I heard the song for the first time or into the most personally important event of my life up to that point. Flip the record and I do a similar bit of time travel.

The sound of a particular word or phrase—especially if it’s in dialect—and my world will shift to that place and those whom I’ve known who use that word or phrase in the same manner.

Collecting and Using the Knowledge

Think back to people you know within the family. What do you know about their lives? Isn’t it true that you think you know only what they’ve told you about their earlier lives?

You can broaden your view of them by sifting through your own memories; sort out the conversation or trigger that brought about the telling of your family member’s recollections. When you talked to you grandmother, for instance, as she helped you make your first cookies, didn’t she reminisce about baking like this with one of her loved ones?

Body language exhibits unconscious cues to internal feelings and can’t be totally controlled. Do you recall what her face showed during that retelling of a past event? Was her tone lovingly gentle, filled with suppressed laughter, or tight-lipped with suppressed emotion? Did her eyes sparkle and her hands pause as she stared off into space for a moment, lost to that memory?

All of those tiny cues hold keys to a life lived before you existed. They speak of that person as you’ve never known them. You have only to take note of them and add the information and supposition to your working knowledge of this person who belongs in your family.

Watch a speaker’s body language as carefully as you listen to her words. Together, speech and physical cues can fill out your mental photo of that person. Use that information in ways that help your relationship, create a believable character, and expand family history and your understanding of it.

You can now write about something you know. You can also dive deeper into things unknown for the sake of knowledge about someone in your life. These are examples of what writers do, some of what this writer does, and why all writers need to use what they know and be able dig into what they don’t know.

Until later,

Claudsy

NaBloPoMo

Yes, folks, your eyes aren’t deceiving you. There is yet another challenge for the writers who just can’t stand going without one.

I found this particular one when I joined the BlogHer Network a couple of days ago. The challenge is to write a themed blog post each day for the given month, in this case, February.

BTW, this should in no way intimidate or discourage any writer from picking up the gauntlet of that have beaten back many a writer. After all, there are many writers and other bloggers who already post each day. I know, because I used to be one of them.

According to the BlogHer challenge, February’s theme is “Relative,” meaning that each post must have something to do with family in one form or another.

Now, having redefined what constitutes “family” many times across the span of my life, I don’t seriously feel challenged as to topic. I have entire state’s worth of pseudo-family to draw from.

What might concern me, if I allow myself to think about it for more than a nanosecond, is the fact that I have three blogs—not counting an inactive one in the UK—which might, technically, fall under the auspices of this challenge.

Should I be held accountable for only one of my blogs each day, or, do I have to include all of them in the challenge?

That’s a big question and one I have only a few days to answer before beginning the keyboard shuffle.

I’m counting on all of you to help me with this decision. Am I supposed to do all three—that includes Trailing Inspirations on Wordpress—or can I muddle through doing only one of them? And if only one, which one—Claudsy’s Calliope on Blogspot, or Claudsy’s Blog on Wordpress?

Comments are encouraged, indeed, required on this one, peeps. HELP ME DECIDE!

Claudsy