The following prompt is a part of our Prompt-a-Day project to support NaNoWriMo during November 2015. Each prompt was generously donated by our Writers in the Grove members. You are welcome to take this prompt in any direction you wish.
Author: Staff
People Always Lie
The following is used by permission, written by Writers in the Grove member, Paula Adams, and published in the Fullerton Observer.
To Jonathan:
I love your column in the Fullerton Observer, but I got a surprise bump in the first line of your mid-September column: “I look at the picture of the boy LAYING lifeless … ” What?!
I realize the lay/lie thing is a common error (except for foreigners who usually know more of our grammar than we do), but we expect the media to do better, which it usually does.
Anyway, you need a word with your proofreader: “Lay” in the present tense requires an object – unless you’re a laying hen. Thus, I lay the book aside, and in the words of that grammatically confusing prayer, ” … I lay me down to sleep.” Without the object, we lie down to sleep, Goldilocks is lying on the bed, cats lie napping in the sun, and we lie low when there’s trouble.
Of course, our beloved English language changes the rules in the past tense (sigh), but just remember:
When stretching out for a nap in the present tense, people lie.
PEOPLE ALWAYS LIE, (sigh again).
Sincerely,
Paula Adams
– – – –
Dear Paula:
Great letter. I’m not lying to you! May we print it? I’ll lay you 8 to 5 that the editor will like it. Cheers!
Jonathan
Given the Answer
The following is based upon the NaNoWriMo prompt, The Answer is Blue, and written by Writers in the Grove member, Ann Farley.
Question, if you will, the sky,
at turns sapphire, robin’s egg, pink-gray
glistening like scales down a salmon’s side,
shifting with the wind and rain, sun and moon.
Question the ocean, a lake, this small pond
reflecting an opalescence, shimmering,
or suddenly so flat it pulls you in deep,
just a trick of light, playing into the dark.
Question the eyes of a newborn
searching for focus, watery wash of pigment,
unaccustomed to all this brightness,
delicate orbs that deepen and set in time.
Question those favorite jeans of yours,
washed and worn beyond softness,
a sort of ready comfort rarely found;
at their very finest just before the fray.
Question, even, your own sweet mind
and its tenuous tether to your heart,
a relentless tugging, calling for change,
those low places you go to sort it all out.
Question all of it, again and again.
Keep quiet watch, for the answer is blue.
October 22,2015
Writing Advice: A Place to Write
In a recent issue of The Costco Connection, Andrea Downing Peck intervie3ws author Kristin Hannah, author of Nightingale, Winter Garden, and 19 other books.
Nightingale tells the story of a woman who joins the French Resistance and saves downed Allied airmen and others, including her family, via an escape route she creates to Spain during World War II.
In the interview, she describes finding not only a writing space, but the space in which the writing takes place, in that time and place that inspires. For her, it is the Pacific Northwest. She makes her home on Bainbridge Island near Seattle.
If you are a certain kind of person and can live anywhere in the world, this place speaks to you. There is a certain individual that is drawn to the landscape, lifestyle, mountains, ocean, and sound. I also think the rain makes us more productive. There are a lot of days where there is really nothing else to do. You might as well write.
Several of the writers in Writers in the Grove have shared pictures and stories of their favorite writing places. Where is yours? What is it about the space that makes it your special place to write?
Letters Written, Never Meaning To Send…
The following is from Writers in the Grove member Ann Farley. It is inspired from the Prompt: Writing Letters You Might Never Send.
Write a letter I wouldn’t send?
Did that once, wrote a letter to a college professor, and I intended to send it, but the tone was snarky. I knew if I mailed it, I’d never hear from her. Put that letter in an envelop, but stopped short of a stamp. Stuffed it down in the couch cushions to give it time, give myself a little distance, reconsider. Perhaps rewrite it entirely.
Two days later I looked for that letter, tore the couch apart, got belly-flat on the floor looking for it.
Gone. It was gone.
Asked my husband if he’d seen an envelop in the couch, and sure enough, he had. Found it, put a stamp on it, put it in the mailbox a day or so ago.
Well, damn.
Maybe, I thought, maybe the tone wasn’t so bad. But I knew it was, and there was no pulling it back. I never heard from that professor again.
Never wrote a letter I wouldn’t send again, either.
Not worth the loss.
Baker City Wildfire
The following is written by Writers in the Grove member, Patti Bond. She often shares her memories and memories with us.
There was a wildfire near my grandparents’ house this weekend. I heard them telling us to stay away from the fire. But there are too many memories in these homes.
The red house on street, number 2706, is where my dad lived with his three sisters, my Aunt Kathy, Aunt Gayle, and Aunt Marilyn. Unfortunately, or fortunately as the fire threatened, Aunt Marilyn is no longer with us. That’s not the only memory at risk from the fire. My mother grew up in Baker City, the place where her biological father left her with her mother alone, just the two of them.
My mother was very active in theater and drama, and she loved Rainbow Girls. She was also very smart, skipping the third grade as she grew up. She and her mother, Zelene, moved several times, finally meeting Herbert Kelly and marrying him, giving them a place to settle in Baker City. Dave and I spent many years traveling to these homes visiting grandparents. I can remember hearing Daddy say that as long as the grandparents were alive, we were going to Baker City for Christmas. Grandma Kelly would greet us upon arrival every time saying “I hope Old Man Winter would give us a break.”
There are just too many memories in the houses up there, near the fire. Many are pleading for access to their homes to collect their precious memories before the wildfire consumes them. So many legacies remain, and wilt in the hearts of the many people who’ve lived in those houses, including my family.
They say the fires were started by lightning, normal for eastern Oregon. If I had unlimited resources, I would work day and night to save the livelihood and memories of my family’s heritage.
Please Lord put out these fires. Protect our memories and legacy in Baker City.
Writing Tips: Writing Chapter Hooks
This is part two of “Writing Hooks,” based on the workshop notes by Bunny Hansen, a Writers in the Grove member. If you haven’t read part one, please do so as it contains many notes and resources for understanding more about the writing of opening hooks.
Hooks can be found anywhere in the telling or a story. These hooks keep the reader reading and carry them through from sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph, page turning page, and pulling the reader through the book, chapter after chapter.
An example of a foreshadowing (okay, blatant foreshadowing) is found in the new book, “The Martian,” by Andy Weir, a statement that not only keeps the reader reading, but they now know what is coming, and based upon what has come so far in the book, they know it is going to be a fun ride.
Everything went great right up to the explosion.
The satirical nature of Weir’s writing and the strength of his first person character is found throughout the book, excellent examples of character-driven hooks, and readers keep reading for those precious ironic gems such as this much quoted passage at the midpoint of the book.
I need to ask myself, ‘What would an Apollo astronaut do?’ He’d drink three whiskey sours, drive his Corvette to the launchpad, then fly to the moon in a command module smaller than my Rover. Man those guys were cool.
And this prime example of voice, style, and character after using his own body waste to start a garden of potatoes:
They say once you grow crops somewhere, you have officially ‘colonised’ it. So technically, I colonised Mars.
In your face, Neil Armstrong!
In the trailer for the movie from the book, examine the use of hooks that not only ask questions but keep the viewer watching.
An example of foreshadowing is found in this excerpt from “To Kill a Mocking Bird” by Harper Lee in the early section of the story:
I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.
The lawyer, Atticus Finch, tells his children that it is better to be noble than take arms, proving it when he takes a case sure to fail by defending Boo Radley because it is the right thing to do. The reader easily sees into the heart of the character and feels compassion for him. You feel his courage and determination, a warrior with the law as his only weapon, and you keep reading on. (more…)
Writing Techniques: Writing Hooks
The following are the notes from the presentation on writing hooks by Writers in the Grove member, Bunny Hansen. The two hour workshop presented in August 2015 was based upon extensive research by Bunny on the variety of hooks used in writing, with tips on how to write such hooks. Writers in the Grove thanks Bunny for sharing her notes with us.
In part two, Bunny covers the hooks found throughout a story or novel, focusing also on the hooks at the ends of chapters.
There is art in the writing of hooks and story openings. They are found in poems, short stories, fiction, and non-fiction. Even editorial articles begin with strong hooks that compel the reader to keep reading. Some are written by the author in the beginning, a thought that leads to the opening of a story, and others are crafted, each word considered carefully, tested among readers, torn apart and glued together to make the reader dive into the words.
A good hook sets the tone, the way the author expresses his attitude toward the subject, characters, action, and setting. Tone can be ironic, sarcastic, personal, impersonal, melancholy, joyous, angry, contemptuous, frightening, etc. Here are some of the characteristics of a well-written hook:
- Ideally the opening sentence.
- An attention-getter.
- Creates a bond of interest, giving the reader a reason to care and invest in reading the story.
- Says, “Drop everything you’re doing and read me right now.”
- Draws a reader into the action and the message, making him a part of the story or piece.
A good hook always asks a question whether implicitly or explicitly. The question is what makes an opening a hook. The body of your work (fiction, nonfiction, novel, essay, article, poem, book or music) answers the questions raised by the hooks. A good hook, thus a good question, engages the reader, and they spend the rest of the book seeking answers to those initial questions.
Consider the questions raised in the opening lines of the acclaimed and award-winning book, “Ender’s Game,” by Orson Scott Card.
I’ve watched through his eyes, I’ve listened through his ears, and I tell you he’s the one. Or at least as close as we’re going to get.
Who is this person speaking? How are they watching and listening through this character? What could have that much power? Who is the one? Why is he the one? One for what? And why are we settling for this one? Have we run out of time? The questions just keep coming in the reader’s mind. (more…)
Diana Lubarsky’s Holocaust Images Presentation September 1
Diana Lubarsky, member of Writers in the Grove, will be presenting a program of story and poetry at the Forest Grove Library in Forest Grove, Oregon, on Tuesday, September 1, 2015, at 7PM in the Rogers Room.
Diana Lubarsky (D.K. Lubarsky) is world renown for her sculpture and poetry on the subject of the Holocaust. A sculpture for over 35 years, her work is on display around the world and a permanent collection at the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. She will bring six of her more than 60 works from her Holocaust Images collection to the library as well as the poetry pieces that accompany each work.
The event is free, a part of the Cultural Series Events at the Forest Grove Library, 2114 Pacific Avenue, Forest Grove, Oregon 97119. For more information, contact the library at r503-992-3247.
Unlimited Health and Resources Were Available – Who Would I Be?
The following is by Diana Lubarsky, one of our active and prolific members. It is in response to the prompt, If You Had Unlimited Resources.
With all the funds I’ll ever need in my pocket, and health and conflict gone, I see myself shedding the skin of survival mode. I slip my thin, healthy young woman’s body from my yacht onto a kayak and paddle gently across the tepid Caribbean waters under a perfect blue sky. A gentle sun warms my back. No longer in survival mode, I am free at last to write of stars and sun, mountains and ethereal beauty; the sights I’ve been privileged to see; the God woven fabric of life.
But soon, I am bored. Inhaling beauty all day is like eating only sugar. My stomach aches. My gaze focuses beyond the magnificent harbor where I lounge, toward the teaming city; a place of dreams and despair, of fortunes lost and lives gambled.
At night I leave my silk shawl behind, scrub my face, don sackcloth, and enter the gates of the destitute. This is where I belong. Birthing babies, bandaging wounds, bringing hope … neck deep in sweat and blood.
Although the majesty of mountain peaks and orchestral music sing to my heart, the first cry of a slimy new born taking its first breath in my arms replenishes my soul.
I have learned, wealthy or not, I am a healer.
Writers in the Grove 