Sunday, February 27, 2011

What Is Fiction?

 
 
Fiction is a lie, an untruth, and for the writer it is a piece of writing using made up facts.  I love writing fiction because it lets me stretch my mind.  Use my imagination to make a world of love, joy, kindness, goodness, all of those Boy and  Girl Scout  ideals we learned so long ago.  I could also make a world so corrupt and dark, you’d cringe when you read the words.  It let’s the writer create whatever they want because it doesn’t have to be true.
As humans, why do we like stories?  They have been around as far back as man’s thinking abilities.  I can imagine a long ago ancestor, telling the family or a group of men how the hunt went that day.  I can see the proverbial “fish story” in the making.  It could have gone something like this; “You know what I saw today when I was hunting game, you’ll never believe it.  I sure didn’t when I first laid eyes on the creature.  You remember that huge rock  down by the lake?  It’s the one that won’t fit inside our cave.  The creature is bigger than the rock.  It is covered with brown hair and walks on two legs.  I could even see fangs hanging out its mouth.  I swear every word I’m telling you is true.”
We tell stories for entertainment, as well as to impart knowledge.  As humans we want to know about our existence, future and past.  The who, what, when, where and why of everything.  If we do not know for certain what the answers are then someone tends to create a story to fit the situation.
Fiction satisfies the need for entertainment.  We can use our imaginations and put ourselves in the world which has been created by the use of fiction.  The use of words and the imagination of us all is what’s needed for fiction.
Below is a video on Fiction Writing.  Enjoy


Friday, February 25, 2011

"Daddy"

 
My life with my Dad is/was complicated. I love him, and I now know he loves me.  It’s not always been so. I was fifty years old the first time I heard daddy tell me he loved me.  It was if he had gone through his life not being able to get the words to come out of his mouth.  I think it is amazing how important those words are to a daughter.  I went through half of my life not knowing if daddy loved me or not.  Now, he is never the first to say it, but I always hear it, “love you too.”
 
My dad fought his demons.  The alcohol ruled his life from the time I was a child until I was almost fifty years old.  There were casualties from the fight.  For many years I was one of them.  As a small child my memories of my dad was his drinking, going fishing and watching the Friday night fights.  When I reached my teen years, I hated my father.  I couldn’t bring friends home with me, because I didn’t know if he would kiss them or cuss them.
 
He taught me how to manipulate him, so I could get what I wanted. I learned just the right time to ask for something.  He went through all the known stages of
drinking alcohol, from quiet to downright mean.  By the time he reached the mean stage I would try to disappear.  It didn’t always work because he would set me up for a fight.  It was strange, but that is how I learned to love books.  I could disappear into one of them.
 
There was so much verbal and physical abuse, around me. He and mom would get into an augment which intensified into a physical fight all too often.  I am surprised they let each other live to make it to sixty years of living together.
 
Through Gods grace I was able to forgive my dad.  I now see him as a kind loving father who now appreciates his family, and what he has.  I still remember the pain, but it doesn’t affect me like it did.
Daddy doesn’t remember the life we had or the pain he caused. He remembers the good things about his life and not the bad.  At his age it is alright, he doesn’t need to remember. He enjoys his daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

His world revolves around his family now, not the bottle.
The video I have posted below is called : Alcohol: Poison for body and mind. It is very interesting to listen to.  Please take the time to listen.  We can’t have enough education concerning alcoholism.
ttp://youtu.be/-rsBMyFqCl8
That’s my two-cents for the day.   http://youtu.be/-rsBMyFqCl8

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

I ran across this wonderful YouTube video about life as a pioneer, and it added further  to the respect I have for the courage of my forefathers in settling the land.


In the latest book I’m writing, ”The Dobyns Chronicles,” I follow one branch of my family starting in Virginia.  They migrate from Virginia in the 1700′s settling in Ohio and Indiana.  My Great-Great Grandfather then migrated with his family to Texas, living in the Sherman/Denison area on the Red River.


Everyone has stories of their family.  Have you ever stopped and thought
about how they managed to accomplish what they did.  It is mind-boggling when
you consider the obstacles they had to overcome in order to settle a new land. 
The hardships they must have endured day after day. The things we take for
granted today.

I was very fortunate having a mother who loved family history, and wanted to
talk about it.  I grew up listening to the stories about how life was lived when
her Grandfather was a boy, and living through the depression.  She taught my
sister and I how to survive.  I have her Grandmother’s lye soap recipe.  I truly
hope it never gets to a point I have to make my own soap, but I know how, if I
need it.  I can live without electricity and running water if I have to.  I know
how to plant a garden and preserve food.    This is where I am very grateful for
the life today.  I don’t have to do what was common place to the pioneering
families of yesteryear.

How many people today could make it across the miles
and miles of plains, not seeing a soul, or cross a mountain range?  I know I
couldn’t do it.  I use to live in Wyoming many years ago, and looked
at the wagon ruts cutting across the country.  The canyons, wagons would have to
be lowered into with ropes and then lifted up the other side.  The small
cemeteries, containing loved one’s that could go no further.  Between Rawlins and Casper, there is a
large granite rock.  The pioneers who traveled by this rock would chisel
their name and the year into the rock.  They wanted it known, they were
there.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Are They All This Way?

Since I began in the writing world last year, I have learned a great deal, but not enough.  When I published my book, "The Tower," I was as naive as I could be.  I went with Xlibris Publishing because they promised me the world (so to speak), if I let them publish my book.  Getting the world did not happen. 
Since I am now working on my second book "The Dobyns Chroncles," I have been looking around for another publisher to use.  I have contacted at least two and get the same answers to the questions I ask.  I always ask what kind of access do I have to find out the amount of books I have sold.  The answer, quarterly, that is when the reports come in from the outside sources, such as Amazon.com.  I also ask what type of help I get as an author who does not know everything I should about writing and publishing a book.  The answer: All the help you need.  We are here to assist you in any way we can.
My problem with those answers are this:  If I am spending my hard-earned money on marketing my book, how do I know the marketing is working, if I can only get information quarterly.  With Exlibris, I did not have access to the Amazon account because it's in Xlibris name. I asked Xliblis about access and the answer was, "I can understand your concern," and wasn't given any information about the account.  I can't accuse anyone of doing anything dishonest because i just don't know if I sold 10,000 books or ten.  Does every Independent Publisher do the same thing?
As far as the question about helping, I feel like I was taken down a rosy path with Exlibris.  I was supposed to receive help with the cover.  That didn't happen, I was asked to produce a picture for the cover.  That was my responsiblity.  I wanted someone to help me determine what type of cover I should have that would compliment the book, as well as create interest.  I also wanted a publisher who would tell me what I needed to do to improve my writing.  That didn't happen either.  I found out line editing (a term I didn't understand) was not enough.
I wrote a good mystery, but in hind sight it was not technically perfect.  I can write a good story, but getting all the I's dotted and the T's crossed is not my strong point.  Is there an Indie publisher who really helps their clients, or are they all after the money?  That's my two-cents for today.

Train Robbery (Micro Fiction)

This small piece of fiction was wrote for a contest where I could only use 100 words to tell my story.  I have also included an article by GW Thomas on how to write Flash Fiction.  I found it very helpful.

Train Robbery
Micro Fiction 100 words
 
The high-speed train was on time. Holly kept her purse draped across her body, making her feel secure traveling with all her money.  Usually time was taken to get travelers checks, but this trip she didn’t. She felt it was unlikely this train would be robbed, because of its rate of speed.
Holly looked at the ceiling of the car when she heard the thumps. She didn’t see the parachutes opening, and the precision landings on the top of the train.  A Loud noise and a burning smell come next.  Two men drop through, guns in hand. “Money please.”


Writing Flash Fiction By GW Thomas
With the advent of the Internet, editors are looking for shorter works, more easily read on a computer screen. The current term is “flash fiction”, a tale between 300-1000 words long. Longer than micro-fiction (10-300 words) but shorter than traditional short stories (3000-5000 words preferred by most magazines), flash fiction is usually a story of a single act, sometimes the culmination of several unwritten events.
 
This article will offer several strategies for writing flash fiction. Used by themselves or in combination, the writer can focus their story to that brief, interesting event.
 
1) The small idea
Look for the smaller ideas in larger ones. To discuss the complex interrelationship of parents and children you’d need a novel. Go for a smaller piece of that complex issue. How kids feel when they aren’t included in a conversation. What kids do when they are bored in the car. Middle child. Bad report card. Find a smaller topic and build on it.
 
.2) Bury the preamble in the opening
When you write your story, don’t take two pages to explain all the pre-story. Find a way to set it all in the first paragraph, then get on with the rest of the tale.3) Start in the middle of the action
Similar to #2, start the story in the middle of the action. A man is running. A bomb is about to go off. A monster is in the house. Don’t describe any more than you have to. The reader can fill in some of the blanks.
 
4) Focus on one powerful image
Find one powerful image to focus your story on. A war-torn street. An alien sunset. They say a picture worth a thousand words. Paint a picture with words. It doesn’t hurt to have something happen inside that picture. It is a story after all.
 
5) Make the reader guess until the end
A little mystery goes a long way. Your reader may have no idea what is going on for the majority of the story. This will lure them on to the end. When they finish, there should be a good pay off or solution.
 
6) Use allusive references
By using references to a commonly known story you can save yourself all those unnecessary words. Refer to historical events. Use famous situations from literature. If the story takes place on the Titanic you won’t have to explain what is going to happen, who is there or much of anything. History and James Cameron have already done it for you. Beware of using material that is too obscure. Your reader should be able to make the inferences.
 
7) Use a twist
Like #5, the twist ending allows the writer to pack some punch at the end of the story. Flash fiction is often twist-ending fiction because you don’t have enough time to build up sympathetic characters and show how a long, devastating plot has affected them. Like a good joke, flash fiction is often streamlined to the punch-line at the end.

Let’s look at these techniques in my story “Road  Test”. I wanted to write a story about taking my driving exam. I didn’t mention the pre-test or practicing. Just the test. (#1 THE SMALL IDEA) This narrows our subject down to a manageable scene.
 
I didn’t have room to describe the driving examiner in detail. I set my main character in two sentences.(#2 BURY THE PREAMBLE) “The man in the government-issued suit sat down without looking at the person across from him. We’ve established the main character and his chief flaws. (He’s mediocre and probably hates his job.)
 
I started in the middle of the action by having the driver very quickly go from good driving to dangerous driving. Johnson, the driving examiner realizes the driver is not human but goat-headed (#3 START IN THE MIDDLE). “He had changed. The beard was longer, the skin darker and two large curved horns crowned his skull.” This creates tension and has created an image: a man trapped in a speeding car with a monster (#4 A POWERFUL IMAGE). It pushes the reader on because they want to know what will happen next, maybe why is it happening? We won’t tell them until the end (#5 KEEP THEM GUESSING).
 
The monster keeps yelling the same word, “Pooka!” Johnson begins to understand. He knows the old fairy stories about the Pooka, about how they pretended to be horses so they could drown their victims. (#6 ALLUSION) Now is the time for resolution, our great twist ending that no one sees coming (#7 TWIST ENDING). As the monster crashes the car into a pond, Johnson realizes a modern-day Pooka wouldn’t look like a horse, but would use a car. The car crashes and we finish with: “They would die, only Johnson would live long enough to feel those large goatish
into jello. Windshield collapsed under tons of water, washing away the high, shrill laughter of the driver.”
 
“Road Test” clocks in at 634 words. It is essentially a man gets killed by a monster story, but the crux of the idea is “How would mythological creatures adapt to the modern world?” This is really the small idea. The allusions to the Pooka will work for some, but I gave enough explanation to help those that don’t know about the old stories.
 
This example story was chosen because it illustrated all 7 methods. Using only one in a flash story can be enough. Writing flash fiction is a great way for writers to  write everyday, even when larger projects seem to daunting or they are pressed for time. Using these short cuts can have you writing in minutes.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Not My Destiny (Flash Fiction)

This is a flash fiction piece I wrote a couple of days ago.  I believe it shows a woman in a bad relationship that is coming to terms with her strength.  Please let me know what you think.  That’s my two-cents for the day.

The heartless bastard abandoned me. Doesn’t he realize the cruel damage he caused my heart. I don’t regret loving him, but I won’t play second fiddle to anyone’s drinking.
I can’t stand to be around him when he is drinking.  He gets sickly sweet and then meaner than hell. I told him I was going to Angie’s for a while.  She always helped me cope with Don’s drinking. I was only gone two hours; he packed his clothes, and left.
The apartments empty, I have to sit down. God it smells in here. Rocking back and forth gives me a new perspective on my life. I haven’t lost my life, only my pride.  I may not have him, but that’s just fine. I know he’s not my destiny. I will keep looking until I find it. When I do, I will know I’ve arrived at my destiny.