Pirate, Ghost, Pilot, Magician's Son (Melissa Robbins)

                Hmm, that title reminds me of the book Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, but really they are all my characters. Where do they come from? Simple answer. All around me from all walks of life and sometimes I don’t even know where they come from.

               One character, named for an ancestor of mine, appeared in a dream, probably after researching her genealogy. She was a ghost who wanted my heroine to solve the murders of her family that happened decades before.

                When I was a teenager, I created a character, because of my sad crush on Jim Hawkins. Yes, that Jim from Treasure Island. I crushed on a book character! Annie was Captain Flint’s granddaughter trying to break free from his pirate legacy.

                My son and his heart condition inspired another hero. The two share similar features, but my hero is WAY naughtier than my son. As writers, it’s important to let our characters make mistakes and remember that some teen boys don’t think like middle-aged women who know it’s wrong to break into houses, etc. 

                Some of my characters exhibit traits I wish I had. The extroverts I wish I could be. One beautiful blonde springs to mind. Vivian can wrap any man around her finger with her looks and sultry voice. Her friend, one of my heroines, tries her best to be like Vivian and she fails miserably at it and always seems to get herself into even more trouble.

                Many of my characters are Royal Air Force pilots from WW2. What a bunch of naughty boys! These brave men loved every day like it could be there last. My Connor is like that. Doesn’t care what his commanding officers think or for that matter anyone else. Doing what he isn’t supposed to do is what usually keeps him safe. Connor almost never sleeps without a woman by his side, but does he do that because he loves women or to frighten away the nightmares?

                Another character I’m currently creating has a family life quite different from my own or one I grew up with. His father is a magician and his mother is his father’s assistant. The family travels across Europe mesmerizing the nobility and commoners with a great magic show in a time just before WW2 when the political atmosphere is crumbling around everyone. He goes from living out of a suitcase to staying in one spot. Where did he come from? I’m not 100% sure. His older brother is a classmate of another hero of mine. The first chapter (or maybe it's a prologue) came to life one very early morning when I lay in bed awake. 

  

              The most important thing about characters is to welcome them when they do appear. I swear I suffer from multiple personality disorder, but don’t all writers?

The Spark that Sets My Knickers Ablaze or Lights My Way (Melissa Robbins)

Earlier in this year, dry, grassy areas caught fire along the highway in our town, sending my neighbors into a frenzy.  Neighbor helped neighbor.  Firefighters showed up to battle the fires to keep them from spreading and damaging the houses.  Children watched everything in awe. 

We asked the firefighters how the fires got started.  One said he saw sparks shooting off a trailer on the highway.  With the dry conditions and that darn Kansas wind, that’s all it took. 

“Uh, Mel.  The topic is your writing process, although we won’t complain if you start talking about hunky firemen.”  What does this have to do with my writing process?  Take that spark the fireman talked about.  If you’re panster, that spark would set your knickers ablaze and you would take off, writing like a fire frenzy.  I’m picturing Thunk (from The Croods) who thinks the fire is biting him so he runs into the tall grass and sets the entire field on fire. 

Now me, I’m a plotter.  I’ll take that spark, light a torch, and stake it into the ground.  Then I’ll circle it and to make my teachers proud, I’ll ask the Who, What, Why, When, Where, How, and the What Ifs.  Let’s go back to that fire by my house.  What if the firefighter didn’t see that trailer or what if they discovered it was arson?  What if a neighbor wanted to burn down his house for the insurance money or to cover up a murder?  My “spark” could be an incident or a character.  What if one of the homeowners was a single woman who gave a bottle of water to a fireman.  That one act of kindness could melt his cynical heart for whatever reason.  Romance!  Or one of the kids witnessed the heroism and the event reminded him of his dad who, also a fireman, died in the line of duty.  The possibilities are endless. 

I take another torch and, using the fire from the first torch, I light it.  Then, I run ahead or hop into my car and drive all the way down to the end of my story and stake that new torch into the ground.  This is where I want my story to end.  Then, I run or drive back to the first torch.  I can see the last torch.  I know it’s there.  With more torches, I start to light my way to the last torch.  First they are sporadic, spots were certain things must happen.  Some call them turning points.  I use Alexandra Sokoloff’s screenwriting method of plotting and she calls them act climaxes. 

More scenes are written.  More torches light my way.  Sometimes, characters light their own torches and go a different way.  As a writer, I have to decide if that’s good or bad.  Keep that bucket of water handy to douse any unwanted fires. 

Same goes for when I finally reach my last torch.  I may turn around and go yuck, that’s not a very pretty path of torches or my last torch is in the wrong place.  Some get extinguished altogether.  Some get moved around.  New prettier torches may take their places.  Only you know when the path of torches is complete and beautiful. 

Now go find those sparks and light up the world with your stories!  

A dream vacation involving planes and trains, but maybe not what you think (Melissa Robbins)

               In a couple of years, I turn 40.  Leaving the kids with the grandparents, my husband and I will travel to England to celebrate.  It will be a marvelous time to go, the 70^th anniversary of the VE Day and 75^th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.  It would be cool to stand in some of the places my characters have stood.  Some must-sees on my list.

Royal Air Force Museum – oh yeah, first on my list.  Not only do they have planes, but entire exhibits devoted to the Princess Mary’s Royal Air Force Nursing Service and Americans in the RAF.  Since one of my heroines is a PM and one of my heroes is an American RAF pilot, my husband will be dragging me out of those rooms hours after I go in. 

Hastings – Although the village of Sandwick-on-Sea and Thaddington Hall, where my characters reside, are made up, Sandwick has a striking resemblance to the town of Hastings on the southern east coast of England.  I would love to walk the hills and piers. Hopefully with no barbed wire and land mines on the beach.

Battle of Britain Memorial – not far from Hastings, near Dover.  Looks a lot like the Vietnam Memorial, with its wall of names. 

Imperial War Museums – All of them if my DH will let me, but definitely the ones including Churchill’s War Rooms and IWM Duxford, which was an aerodrome  for the Royal Air Force and then the Yanks (Mighty Eighth Air Force) took over.  Lots of planes.

The Blitz Party – This will take some planning, but I would LOVE to attend one while in England.  The Blitz Party is held one night once a quarter.  EVERYONE dresses up in 40’s clothes.  I don’t think you can enter the party without looking like you stepped out of WW2.  Google The Blitz Party and you’ll see loads of people dressed up from previous parties. 

 Train stations fascinate me.  Paddington Station would be cool to visit.  I had a Paddington Bear when I was a kid.  Waterloo Station would be another on my list.  I am curious to see how much it has changed since the war. 

  Of course, there are the usual tourist stuff, like the castles, Westminster Abbey, Tower of London, Trafalgar Square, etc.       

Whose with me?

Play Time!

What do you do to refill the well?  If you don't, why not?

Writing is just like any other relationship.  If you give and give and give eventually you are going to dry up and have nothing left.  Good books will not be written when you are all dried up.  Words won't flow without a full creative well.  

Whatever we are pulling from inside us that is flowing to the page when we write has to be refilled in order to keep our writer's mind juicy and plump with all those words oozing from us and onto our pages. 

Our writing relationship is usually something very private.  No one is going to refill that well for us. One of the things we have to do to keep from drying up is give ourselves permission to play.  With deadlines and the pressures that surround a lot of writers, it's easy to feel guilty over any time we take just for ourselves.  It's important to remember when guilt rears its ugly head, if we don't take that time we will eventually dry up.  That part of us that makes our writing different from everyone else out there will turn to crusty dry desert filled with prickly cacti and rocks. 

Writers have to take time to PLAY.  Have fun, do things that bring you to life and excite you. 

Play can be many things.  Take time to watch a movie, read a book, listen to some music or maybe go on a walk and clear your mind.  Maybe play for you is really playing something.  There is nothing wrong with a little Angry Birds or Solitaire.  All work and no play do not make for a creative, inspired and productive writer.  All play and no work, however, do not make for a writer at all.  Take the time you need to refill, but don't drown in your well and forget to get back to the writing.

There is a fine line, but play time can refill us, refuel us and get our minds back in a place where our writing can come from a juicy place within again.  What have you done to play today? 

Do-It-Yourself...Writing Retreat, That Is (Penny Rader)

http://bit.ly/NRyHS9

I wasn't able to attend the Romance Writers of America national conference last week in Anaheim, but I sure wish I could’ve been there.

So…I poked around the internet for tips on creating my own writing retreat and thought I’d share a few tidbits.  I hope you’ll click on the links and read the full posts.

Create Your Own Mini-Writing Retreat by Kathryn Haueisen Cashen

• Rethink your definition of a retreat.
• Commit to yourself.
• Create a portable writing kit.
• Set a goal for each retreat.
• Start small.
• Take a bigger leap.
• Get creative.

The DIY Writer’s Retreat by Jason Theodor

• Book vacation time.
• Find a remote place to stay.
• Remove distractions.
• Stock good, simple food.
• Organized files.
• Comfortable writing space.
• Physical space/mental space.
• Natural sleep.
• Obligation-free companionship.
• Accountability.
• Momentum.

http://bit.ly/MY7QmC

DIY Writing Retreat by Kelli Russell Agodon

Notes from the author:

• Do the longer assignments earlier in the day.
• If you need to generate material to do a poem (say a word list, images from childhood, etc.) do this BEFORE you get there.
• Have assignments for the end of the day that have more structure so when your brain conks out, you still have something to draw from.

...keep an open mind. We each brought new exercises, some we'd never tried before. We did not know if they would work or what would happen. Some exercises produced fantastic first drafts for all of us that we will continue to work on, others fell flat. We did not base our success on what we had written, but on the fact that we had tried something new and were all there together.

How to Create Your Own Writing Retreat by Midge Raymond

• Just do it.
• Gather your fellow writers together
• Clear the decks.
• Create your space.
• Stay offline.
• Give yourself guidelines.
• Afterward, assess the pros and cons, the highs and lows
• Schedule retreats often

Retreat Between the Pages with Elizabeth Ayres

Elizabeth Ayres, author, writing teacher, and founder of the Elizabeth Ayres Center for Creative Writing has paved the way for writers to take a retreat from everyday life with her book Writing the Wave: Inspired Rides for Aspiring Writers . For the price of the book and a cup of coffee, a writer can use Writing the Wave as a weekly retreat to stimulate creativity and learn, or re-learn, the fundamentals of writing.

Taking a Personal DIY Writer’s Retreat by Joan Whetzel
…the personal writer’s retreat is centered on writing, either concentrated working on writing in progress, concentrating on improving current writing skills, or adding new skills or techniques to the writer’s tool box. It can be combined with a personal retreat, where the writer recharges his or her batteries, either by sleeping more, taking naps, going to a restful location, exploring other creative outlets, eating better, exercising, or even taking a partial or complete break from writing – whatever it takes to refill the writer’s creative juices so he or she can get back to the business of writing with a fresh – or refreshed – perspective.


~~~~

http://bit.ly/Q7DJfe

Are you inspired? Going to plan your own writing retreat? If you need a book or two with writing prompts to get you going, I've listed several of my favorites in a post I wrote a couple years ago, Need a Jump Start?  

If memory serves, WARA has another retreat planned for early October.

If you’ve already planned your writing retreats, please share what worked and what didn’t.

Flex Your Writing Muscles - Childhood Memories (Penny Rader)

http://sites.google.com/site/vwnesler/RenoirChildWriting.gif

Since we've been discussing the impact our childhood might or might not have had on our writing, I thought it could be fun to use writing prompts to delve into our childhoods.  Might give us great fodder for stories.  I hope you'll join in.  Feel free to share.

Free Creative Writing Prompts: Childhood  (Bryan Cohen)

• How did the following things affect you during your childhood: music, books, the weather, money, love. You can combine them all into one story or do separate entries on each.
• Write a poem about [y]our earliest childhood memory.
• You have been given the opportunity to go backwards. You can pick an age and start over again from that age. Do you pick one or not? What age would you go to? Describe your first week with your "old person" memories in your younger body.

How to Write about Your Childhood — Autobiographical Writing (John Hewitt)

"Autobiographical Writing is an excellent way to work on your descriptive skills. When you describe items or memories from your past, you are able to provide details that are often lacking in more purely imaginative exercises. With autobiographical writing you learn how to describe what was rather than what isn’t."

Here a few examples of prompts given by John:

• What was family life like as a child? How did you feel you fit into your family?
• Write about your best friend as a child and the experiences you had together. What has happened to that friendship since childhood?
• Describe your nemesis growing up. Who made your life miserable and what did they do to make it so rough?
• What was the biggest trouble you got into as a child? Describe what you did or didn’t do to deserve what happened to you.

http://www.innertuitionlifecoaching.com.au/files/innertuition/photos/rope%20swing.jpg

Reawaken Your Creativity By Revisiting Your Childhood Pleasures (Aileen McCabe-Maucher)

• This week, honor the small child within yourself by revisiting the activities that brought you the most pleasure as a child. In your journal, make a list of all of the activities that you delighted in when you were a youngster. Think of the things that you used to do that made you lose track of time.
• This week, spend at least thirty minutes doing the activity that brought you the most pleasure in your childhood. Give yourself permission to be silly and spontaneous.

What do you remember from your childhood? (Jo Middleton)

"I’ve always thought of myself as a person with a fairly poor long-term memory, but one exercise we did on my recent Arvon course made me realise that there are actually a lot of interesting sounds, sights and smells buried in the murky depths of my brain, if only I can dig around enough and find them under the layers of daily life."

and

"... exercise was based on an extract of a book called I Remember by Joe Brainard. We were asked to close our eyes and imagine being ten. We then wrote down everything we could remember about how being ten tasted, how it smelt, how it sounded and how it felt. It was amazing how easily one memory triggered another, and before long we were all reciting the most amazingly evocative childhood memories. You should give it a go, see what you come up with."

Writing Triggers for Family Memories (Virginia Allain)

Virginia provides "a fresh memory prompt or writing trigger each week here. Use it to prod your memory, then write down what you discover. Your memory writing may be just a paragraph or it could be five or six pages. As you find the memories flowing again, take advantage and get it into written form. ... You don't have to write about every aspect suggested. Choose a part that interests or inspires you and start writing the memories from your childhood."

Here’s one of her triggers:

Remember Something Precious to You

Think back to some object that was important or precious to you as a child. Describe it. Do you still have it or was it lost or broken or given away? Tell why you considered it special. Who gave it to you or how did you get it? Where did you keep it?

This could be something simple like a feather you found or something valuable like a ring given to you by your grandmother. Think back to something you treasured.

http://salvacion.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/box-of-treasure.jpg

~~~

What do you think?  Care to share a memory or fictionalize a memory?  Do you have any prompts or exercises to creatively mine your memories?

Sparks Creativity a prompt does as Yoda would say. J Vincent

So what is a prompt that gets one writing? For me it can be one of many things. A word list, a phrase, a sentence, a photo, an old barn or house you drive by, an unusual rock formation, an overheard conversation, a memory, a dream, even another story. I’ll give some examples of some that have worked for me:

Word Promts: In Mission Possible a list of words is sent out and the object is to write a story with all the words.

A phrase prompt: Penny is very good at providing these. Check out her May and her August 31^st blog. She gave a list of prompts and invited us to play . Mine was

"After the door shuts and the footsteps die there will come the moment you know you are truly alone. Alone and safe.

“What if I don’t shut the door?”

“That’s a choice. Consider a door. Open. Anyone, anything can intrude, can disturb, can overwhelm you.”
“But to be alone forever . . . “

“To be safe forever.”

“But then you’d be gone.”

“Never. I am always with you. Am I not enough?”

“Enough?”

“With me you touch and stay on the edge of sanity. That is what you wanted? After all you’ve done all I’ve asked.”

“Yes, the room is empty.”

“Then take the knife and close the door.”

The woman gripped the handle of the knife. All she had to do was make one swipe across each wrist. Just one. She knew how. She knew it would close the door. Still she hesitated. Would the voice still be there is she did it? She needed the voice.

A photo: You’ll find the story I wrote from this photo about a Garden Bench

A Memory: This is what I wrote after recalling a favorite Christmas memory. Santa’s Hand

An unusual rock formation: In Colorado from La Junta to Walsenburg runs a very barren seventy miles. About half way to Walsenburg outcrops and steeply cut hills start to appear. They made me think of Roman Breton hill forts. Because of this scenery I wrote a Roman Breton romance---not yet published. You can read a rough draft of Chapter 9

These are a few of the things that inspired me. What type of prompt do you find most inspiring!