Fiction Scribe

Last week I challenged you to free write about your story for five to ten minutes before you started writing.

How did it go? Did taking notes/free writing before help you?

I’ll admit I didn’t free write every day because I choose to pick up writing right where I left off before because I knew what was going to happen next, and I wanted to get to the next scene. I still hold to writing notes whenever an idea strikes me because I’m very forgetful.

This week’s challenge might not work for you if you like to write one thing at a time. However, if you’re not working on something or need a break from something, I think you’ll like it.

Write in a different genre.

Write for at least ten minutes a day. You can write any length story (or poem, if you like). The big rule is that you have to write in a genre different than what you usually write in. Do you write modern romance? Try science fiction. Do you write fantasy? Try a crime thriller. Or horror. Or suspense.

This challenge is to help you expand your horizons. I’m not expecting you to fall in love with a genre, but an author who can incorporate the best of many genres into one book will appeal to a lot more readers.

Good writing. Let me know how it goes.

It’s the birthday of the painter Edward Hopper, born in Nyack, New York (1882). By the time he was 12, he was already six feet tall. He was skinny, gangly, made fun of by his classmates, painfully shy, and spent much of his time alone drawing.

After he finished art school, he took a trip to Paris and spent almost all of his time there alone, reading or painting. In Paris, he realized that he had fallen in love with light. He said the light in Paris was unlike anything he’d ever seen before. He tried to recreate it in his paintings.

He came back to New York and got a job as an illustrator at an ad agency. He hated the job. In his spare time, he drove around and painted train stations and gas stations and corner saloons. He’d sold only one painting by the time he was 40, but his first major exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in 1933 made him famous—paintings with titles such as “Houses by the Railroad,” “Room in Brooklyn,” “Roofs of Washington Square,” “Cold Storage Plant,” “Lonely House,” and “Girl on Bridge.”

He’d also been an illustrator for business magazines, and he became one of the first American painters to paint office scenes. Several of his paintings show office managers surrounded by gorgeous, buxom secretaries, or people working late at the office, sitting at desks high above the city.

He lived and worked in the same walkup apartment in Washington Square from 1913 until 1967. He ate almost every meal of his adult life in a diner. He never rode in a taxi. He loved the theater, but he always sat in the cheap seats. He never had any children with his wife, and he never included a single child in any of his paintings. The closest he came was a painting called “New York Pavements,” showing a nun pushing a baby carriage. His painting “Four Lane Road” is his only painting that shows people actually communicating: a woman is yelling at a man.

Edward Hopper said, “Maybe I am slightly inhuman … All I ever wanted to do was to paint sunlight on the side of a house.”

Courtesy of American Public Media

I say … and you think … ?

1. Deputy ::
2. Name ::
3. Arrested ::
4. Trade ::
5. Old ::
6. Fingerprint ::
7. Dwarf ::
8. Newspaper ::
9. Gabriel ::
10. Certificate ::

Courtesy of LunaNina

I’m a firm believer in the inspiration music can provide. It’s with that in mind that I direct you to this contest. It’s a bit short notice, but there isn’t a lot you have to do to enter, so it’s all good.

Prince took the controversial decision to give his new album ‘Planet Earth’ away with a Sunday newspaper in the UK. I of course picked up a copy, and I have it here waiting for one of readers to win.

Whether you live in the UK and missed out on the Mail On Sunday, or found it sold out, or whether you are from a country where the album isn’t available for another week, here is your chance to get your hands on the album before most of the rest of the world.

All you need to do to enter is the following:-

Brit Music Scene is a very new blog, and I’ll admit it, I need some publicity to up the readership and help my mission to become the first place people look at for news and reviews about the British music scene. To that end I want people to link to me, and send new readers my way.

So, from today until next Sunday at midnight, I want you to link either to http://britmusicscene.com or any specific post on Brit Music Scene on your own blog or website. In a post, on your sidebar, in a blogroll, all are acceptable. Once you’ve done this, comment on this post directing me to the place where you have linked Brit Music Scene, and that counts as your entry.

There is no limit on entries, so if you have 10 blogs, link me in them all and leave a comment for each and that’s 10 times your name will go in the hat. Forum links, and signatures however do not count!

Next Sunday at Midnight I will pick an entry at random and the winner will then receive the new Prince album ‘Planet Earth’. Make sure to leave a valid email address when you comment so I can contact you should you win, to obtain your postal address for dispatch. The winner will have the CD posted to them on Monday 23rd July.

Good luck!

Easy. So what are you waiting for? Just go to Brit Music Scene and let him know you’ve linked him!

Do you like telling a story? Do you like good food? Can you write a story about your favorite food past times?

If you answered yes, you’ll be interested to know that Gillian at Food History is holding a contest, and I am serving as one of the judges.

Write about your food and family stories, include at least one recipe, and you could win some great prizes.

Go here for more details.

From ChickenSoup.com

“Here Are Some of Our Working Titles:

…No Specific Title…
If you have a great story but you are not sure where it should go, please submit it here. When our editors read it they will forward it on to the appropriate book title.

…Results Stories…
Have you read a particular Chicken Soup story and, after reading it, found that it changed your life? We are looking for stories on how a story made important changes in your life and what, specifically, happened to you after you read it. Please be sure to let us know the title of the story that touched your life.

Baking With Kids
A collection of stories and recipes that bring back fond memories and experiences of the baking experiences you had as a young child. The deadline date for story submissions is December 31, 2007.

Basketball Lover’s Soul
Stories of inspiration and resilience from basketball players and from the fans who love basketball. The deadline date for story submissions is August 31, 2007.

Bedtime Stories for Adults
A timeless collection of wonderful stories for adults to warm hearts and soothe souls. The deadline date for story submissions is August 1, 2007.

Cat Lover’s Soul: Raining Cats!
Another wonderful collection of stories celebrating cats as family. The deadline date for story submissions is December 31, 2007

Catholic Soul
An affirming collection of powerful and heartwarming stories and poems full of faith and inspiration. The deadline date for story submissions is October 30, 2007.

Chocolate Lover’s Soul
All of the stories for this title have been collected. Since we are no longer accepting submissions it is no longer listed on our pull down menu on our Submit a Story link. If your story is selected to be included in this book, you will be notified by mail and your permission to print it will be requested. Please know that we never publish anything without a signed permission form. Purchase this title on our website or in a store near you in November, 2007.

Christmas Collection
We are excited to let you know that we plan to do a new Christmas Collection book each year. This series will be a timeless collection of stories that celebrate the magic of the season. There is no deadline date for story submissions..

Christmas Pet Book
Many people feel that their pets are a part of their families. Do you have a special holiday story to share with us involving your pet? We would love to have you submit it to us. The deadline date for story submission is March 31, 2008.

Coffee Lover’s Soul
All of the stories for this title have been collected. Since we are no longer accepting submissions it is no longer listed on our pull down menu on our Submit a Story link. If your story is selected to be included in this book, you will be notified by mail and your permission to print it will be requested. Please know that we never publish anything without a signed permission form. Purchase this title on our website or in a store near you in November, 2007.

Democrat’s Soul
There is nothing like a discussion about politics to stir things up! The stories in this book will be for and about Democrats. The deadline date for story submissions is September 30, 2007.

Divorced Soul
Stories of hope and encouragement for divorced people or people going through a divorce to let them know that they are not alone. The deadline for story submissions is July 30, 2007.

Do-It-Yourselfer’s Soul
Owning your own home is the American Dream, but transforming a house into your home—and doing it yourself—is what this book is all about. From decorating to demolition, painting to plumbing, pounding nails to pounding thumbnails, these stories will offer encouragement and entertainment to do-it-yourselfers, the novice and the experienced. The deadline for story submissions is September 30, 2007.

Dog Lover’s Soul: Unleashed!
Another wonderful collection of stories celebrating dogs as family. The deadline date for story submissions is December 31, 2007.

Extraordinary Teen’s Soul
A collection of stories on life, love and learning for teens. The deadline date for story submissions is December 31, 2007.

Father and Son’s Soul
A collection of wonderful and inspiring stories that celebrate the special relationship between a father and a son. The deadline date for story submissions is August 1, 2007.

Football Lover’s Soul
Stories of inspiration and resilience from football players and from the fans who love football. The deadline date for story submissions is August 31, 2007.

Green Soul
From recycling to reducing air polution, we have all been working towards a better environment for ourselves and our families. We are looking for stories about the interesting changes that have been made to benefit us all. No deadline date for story submissions has been established.

Hair Salon Chat!
Stories from the chair! For some reason people will tell their hair stylists their deepest, darkest secrets; things they wouldn’t tell anyone else. These stories will amaze you. No deadline date for story submissions has been established.

High School Graduates
The stories in this book will celebrate the memories, laughter, tears and accomplishments of those people graduating, or who have graduated, from High School. The deadline date for story submissions is August 31, 2007.

Life Lessons for Expectant Mothers
If you are an expectant mother, your life if about to change! These lessons and stories will inspire women to learn and to celebrate the joys and challenges of being an expectant mother. The deadline date for story submissions is December 31, 2007.

Life Lessons for Leaders
Some people inspire and bring out the best in others. These people are considered to be the leaders in our society and the stories and lessons in this book will be about them. The deadline date for story submissions is June 30, 2008.

Life Lessons on Relationships/Couples
Stories and lessons to help you reconnect with the things that are important in a relationship. No deadline for submissions has been established.

Republican’s Soul
There is nothing like a discussion about politics to stir things up! The stories in this book will be for and about Republicans. The deadline date for story submissions is September 30, 2007.

Runner’s Soul
Many people enjoy running. They find it to be an energizing and rewarding experience. The stories in this book will give us an insight into the runner’s soul. The deadline date for story submissions is July 31, 2007.

Southern Lady’s Soul
Southern ladies are special. This wonderful collection of stories will warm your heart and define for you just what it means to be a southern lady. The deadline date for story submissions is October 31, 2007.

Teenage Soul on Body Image
Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul is looking for true stories, poems and other writing from teens on the subject of BODY IMAGE. No deadline date for submissions has been established.

Twenty-Something Soul
Stories to warm the hearts of those who are no longer teenagers and who are adjusting to the world of adults. The deadline date for story submissions is September 30, 2007.

If you have a great story, but don’t see a book that it fits, that’s OK. Just click below and submit it under, “No Specific Title�

Thank you!”

For those of you who like to write erotica, people on LiteraryMary.com are getting together for a self-paced erotica writing class.

It’s loosely structured and a small class, but you can get feedback on your writing (Literary Mary has an erotica writing section) and have fun. (I know some of the people who are in the group.

Feel free to drop by Literary Mary and join the site and the group.

Like some other authors, I sometimes mourn the loss of my childhood. When I was young, there was no such thing as writer’s block. If my G.I. Joe squadron didn’t have a story to tell, I could be guaranteed either my army men or wild animal figures would take up the slack. Sometimes, my G.I. Joes would come over to assist the army men, giving one side a huge advantage (pun intended) as they walked as giants among the little green men.

There’s a lot more to creating a story now because for other people to understand how a world works, a world has to have rules. Back then it didn’t matter that spontaneous super powers good appear and disappear in any of my heroes. The concept is still the same, though. Project your scenes onto your toys and have fun. Forget you’re writing a book for a moment and enjoy the story as much as you did when you were a kid.

If you’re having trouble writing, try going back to your childhood days. Start bringing toys into the bath with you. Keep toys around your writing area so you can grab them whenever the mood or the need strikes and act scenes out. Don’t feel silly; get inspired.

My only regret is many of my toys are now long gone, and toys these days often take out the need to have an imagination.

Also, if you’re looking for cool toys, head over to Toy Bender. He always has awesome toy posts.

I have a few writing books I need to catch up on reading, and I was wondering if anyone would be interested in a sort of discussion group. We’d go a chapter a week.

I have Bird by Bird, On Writing, Writing Down the Bones… I have others as well, but I’d like to start with one of those, preferably Bird by Bird.

Let me know if you’re interested in discussing. I might anyway, but if there is enough interest, I could pick certain day of the week we can all talk about things on.

Now the moment you’ve all been waiting for…

No, not the next Harry Potter release. (That’s soon, isn’t it? I think I read somewhere it’s soon…)

Last week your ambiguously big word was ptochocracy.

Elisa thought…

A world ruled by a pteradactyl?

Jean thought…

ptochocracy- the ability to rule without a subject

What’s the answer?

Ptochracy - noun - the rule of beggars or paupers, wholesale pauperization.

Personally, I was going to the pterodactyl.

Your word for this week: Lobscouse

Have fun.

This is probably one of the most often confusing pair of words I’ve seen/read/used. And why not when they’re so similar in spelling and sound.

When you think affect, think influence.

“Her speech affected my mood.”

When you think effect, think primarily noun. Or ’cause and effect’.

“Her speech had an effect on me.”

Affect is more commonly used as a verb meaning to influence or to have an effect on something. Notice that even in that sentence, ‘effect’ is used as a noun.

Effect as a noun means result or consequence.

Where things might get confusing is when effect is used as a verb. But even then, the meaning is “to bring about”.

“She hoped to effect a change in the way people think.”

Yes, it’s a verb, but it still has a different meaning than affect. If you remember to think affect for influence and ’cause and effect’ it’ll help.

Walking across the salt pan was gruelling, but it wasn’t what depressed Kavan most. It was how he had come to this state. Five days ago, he had come into Hardy’s Port, well off and looking for fun. He chose as companion, a woman, from Nastir, where the sexual arts were celebrated in festivals throughout the year; he chose wrongly, looking back on it, or else he should have left first thing in the morning. Instead he had stayed on for breakfast, and the confrontation with an enraged husband/owner who sat on the Hardy’s Team and fronted for the Moral Majority.

The Teamster had one more revenge up his sleeve. Kavan had drawn salvage duty. Desert work mostly, because Hardy’s Port was a dry planet.

I like this beginning sentence. It’s nice and strong, and it has me immediately interested about what’s going on. I want to know what could be more depressing than walking across a dried up lake.

I don’t think you need the comma after “Port� because, if you recall the old rule, it could be read as “Five days ago well off and looking for fun�. Also, you don’t need the next comma after “woman�. My next catch is the semi-colon after “year� which could be started as a new sentence instead.

Beyond the technical catches, I very much like this piece. I’m already sucked in to what’s going on and wanting to know more about the man who would corrupt a slave and then dare to stay for breakfast. Nicely done. I would definitely keep reading on with this one, and I hope you honor me with showing me what happens to this interesting man.

You may have noticed there wasn’t a Saturday Night Exercise this weekend. No, I’m not slacking; there is a reason.

I have recently taken over the Write Anyway site here at 451Press. I’ll be retiring the Saturday Night Exercises here on Fiction Scribe because Write Anyway is a site about prompts, prompts, and more prompts.

Otherwise, if you weren’t already aware, I’ve taken over the site YouTube Digger. So you’ll be seeing me around 451Press a bit more than you’re used to.

What a month.

Literary and Historical Notes

It’s the birthday of journalist and writer Arianna Huffington, born in Athens, Greece (1950). She went to Cambridge and moved to America in 1980. She was a conservative columnist, but over the years she’s become more and more liberal. Arianna Huffington wrote, “One of the definite changes in my thinking was born of the hard reality I confronted when I discovered how much easier it was raising money for the opera and fashionable museums than for at-risk children. So I came to recognize that the task of overcoming poverty will not be achieved without the raw power of government appropriations.” Her book, How to Overthrow the Government, came out in 2000.

It’s the birthday of the novelist and short story writer Richard Russo, born in Johnstown, New York (1949). He was the author of many novels about small-town life in New England, including Nobody’s Fool and Empire Falls.

It’s the birthday of novelist Iris Murdoch, born in Dublin to Anglo-Irish parents (1919). Her novels include A Severed Head, The Sea, The Sea, and Jackson’s Dilemma. She was a philosopher before she was a novelist. She wrote 26 novels over 40 years. She wrote them all in longhand, copied them out, sealed the two handwritten manuscripts in plastic bags, and carried them down to her publisher herself. She never let any editor change a word of what she had written.

It’s the birthday of Clive Cussler, born in Aurora, Illinois (1931). His novels about underwater action adventures have sold more than 120 million copies around the world. The hero is a federal agent named Dirk Pitt, the special projects director for the National Underwater and Marine Agency who exposes government corruption and also explores for lost treasure.

It’s the birthday of Ralph Hammond Innes, born in the county of Sussex, England (1914), who wrote 35 novels, including Delta Connection, Wreckers Must Breathe, and The Doppelganger.

It’s the birthday of Thomas Bulfinch, born in Newton, Massachusetts (1796). He was famous for his books about legends and myths of other cultures—especially Greek and Roman myths—collected in 1855 in his book The Age of Fable, which became known as Bulfinch’s Mythology, a basic reference work for many years.

Courtesy of American Public Media

How did your week of locations go? My week of different writing locations had me writing…

*On the couch
*In bed
*At my husband’s desk
*At the mall food court
*In the library

Overall, it was a good experience and one that taught me if I want to get work done, I should be sitting in the library or at my husband’s desk. (”What about your desk, Fiction Scribe?” You don’t want to know… Maybe I’ll post pictures.)

This week, your challenge for every day is to free write for five to ten minutes before you write. (Because yes, I’m assuming you write every day. ) Also, I’m not talking about your regular free write about your day, your girlfriend, or your daisies. I challenge you to free write about your story. About possibilities or about absolutely ridiculous things - it’s your choice.

Good luck and have fun.