Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 448

Dilemmas, themes and writing solutions

“Every story I write starts with a dilemma or a theme. Once I am convinced that this is the issue that is perturbing my thoughts, I start to look for characters capable of representing it.” – Siegfried Lenz
A native of the East Prussian region of Germany, Lenz was born on this date in 1926 and grew up during the war years, ultimately becoming a writer of novels, short stories and essays as well as dramas for radio and the theatre.
An “internationalist” and strong peace advocate, he started writing for the German newspaper Die Welt before focusing on his creative writing as part of a writers group that encouraged democracy, free expression and confrontation with Germany’s Nazi past.
Lenz’s most well-known and acclaimed novel, The German Lesson,is a remarkable reflection on that era.  A late 1960s international best seller, it moved him to the forefront of German postwar writers and was translated into several other languages.    Lenz insisted that memories and the past be accepted       and honestly recounted, no matter how disgraceful they might be.  A meticulous writer who agonized over each word, he once noted,  “I read what I write over and over and make corrections and improvements, until I reach the conclusion that the material deserves to stand on its own.”  Lenz died in 2014.
Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend by clicking the g+1 button below.

The pleasure of writing fiction

“The pleasure of writing fiction is that you are always spotting some new approach, an alternative way of telling a story and manipulating characters; the novel is such a wonderfully flexible form.” – Penelope Lively
  A British writer of fiction for both children and adults, Lively has two prestigious writing honors – the Booker Prize for her adult book Moon Tiger and the Carnegie Medal for her children’s book The Ghost of Thomas Kempe.
Born on St. Patrick’s Day in 1933 in Cairo, Egypt – where she lived until high school – Lively studied Modern History at St. Anne’s College in England before marrying and raising a family.  She started writing in her late 30s and achieved her first successes with a children’s fantasy book, Astercote.  Branching out to adult fiction in her early 40s she was an instant success, her first two novels nominated for the Booker Prize and the third winning the award. 
Honored by the Queen as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for “services to literature,” she has authored some 30 books for children and 20 for adults, plus numerous short stories.  She also has written radio and television scripts, presented a radio program, and contributed reviews and articles to various newspapers and journals.  And, she said, a key part of her writing routine has been being a good reader.  “All I know for certain is that reading is                       of the most intense importance to me,” she said.   “If I were not able to read, to revisit old favorites and experiment with names new to me, I would be starved – probably too starved to go on writing myself.”


Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend by clicking the g+1 button below.

Research, Music, Theater = Writing and Fun

“With historicals, the research is half the fun. Contemporaries are especially easy. People are right out there in front of you; you meet them every day. You can concentrate wholly on the story and characters.”– Heather Graham Pozzessere
Born on the Ides of March in 1953, Pozzessere is a best-selling American writer of more than 150 romance, mystery and paranormal novels now published in 25 languages and with a huge following (her books have sold over 75 million copies).  
A native of Florida, she studied as an actress and singer and started her career in dinner theater before becoming a stay-at-home mom.  During “nap times” for her young kids, she started writing both romance and horror stories and made her first sale at age 29.  And while Romance and Historical Romance have been at the forefront of her work, her mysteries and “chill” tales also have won acclaim.  She has been a leading member of Mystery Writers of America, Horror Writers Association, and the International Thriller Writers.   Recently, she gravitated back to acting and                       singing, starting an annual dinner theater event to benefit the city of New Orleans and its libraries.  She also is the founder of the all-author Slush Pile players and Slush Pile band, which performs musical revues at writing conventions and for charity.
Known for her detailed descriptions and “true to the character” depictions, she noted,   “I always feel a responsibility to the people I write about. I feel obligated to portray them in the way they feel is proper.”

Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend by clicking the g+1 button below.

Writing humor to engage kids' lives

“Humor is the oxygen of children's literature. There's a lot of competition for children's time, but even kids who hate to read want to read a funny book.” – Sid Fleischman
An American author of children's books, screenplays, novels for adults, and nonfiction books about magic, Fleischman’s works for children are known for their humor, imagery, zesty plotting, and exploration of the byways of American history.
His understanding of and ability to perform magic led to many delightful uses of it in his writing, and in addition to 8 books about magic, he also broke into the children’s book market with a magician’s tale.  Mr. Mysterious & Company (1962), the adventures of a traveling magician's family in the old West, was the first of many books drawing on his background in both magic and his interest in history.   Winner of the Newbery Medal (for best children’s literature) for The Whipping Boy, he was the U.S. nominee for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1994.   Shortly before his death in 2010 (at age 90) The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators inaugurated the Sid Fleischman Award – recognizing a writer       of humorous fiction for children and young adults.    “Adult novels are as ephemeral as newspapers,” he said when asked whether he preferred writing for adults or children.  “Children's books stay in print for decades.”


Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend by clicking the g+1 button below.

Putting those 'voices' onto paper

“I think every fiction writer, to a certain extent, is a schizophrenic and able to have two or three or five voices in his or her body. We seek, through our profession, to get those voices onto paper.” – Ridley Pearson

Born in upstate New York on this date in 1953, Pearson is an author more than 50 novels – suspense and thriller novels for adults, and adventure books for children.  He was the first American to receive the Raymond Chandler-Fulbright Fellowship at Oxford University in 1991.
Among Pearson’s best-known works are Peter and the Starcatcher (for children), written with longtime friend Dave Barry and imagining how Peter Pan first met Captain Hook.  The book was adapted into a Tony-winning Broadway play and now has spawned 3 more books.  He also came up with the creative idea of a series of books set in the Disney Theme Parks called The Kingdom Keepers, in which five teenagers battle the Overtakers— evil Disney villains—to keep the parks safe.
Pearson advises young writers to be good readers and noted that his own favorite reading is the novel To Kill a Mockingbird “because of its broad sweep, its tackling of big issues in ways that even young minds can make sense of, and for the heart of the characters who span a wide range of ages. I re-read it every year.”                                                          His advice to aspiring writers:   “The way you get better is by putting words on the page and getting them behind you.”

Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend by clicking the g+1 button below.

Defining Reality; Creating Truths

“Good writers define reality; bad ones merely restate it. A good writer turns fact into truth; a bad writer will, more often than not, accomplish the opposite.”– Edward Albee   Born on this date in 1928, Albee wrote plays often considered frank examinations of the modern condition.  Among his best known are The Zoo Story, The Sandbox, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?  and A Delicate Balance, the latter being the first of three of his plays to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (the other two being Three Tall Women, and Seascape.   
Virginia Woolf and The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? won Broadway’s Tony Awards for Best Play – and Albee himself was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Tony, the first of many lifetime achievement awards.  Between 1995 and his death last September he also was awarded the Gold Medal in Drama, feted at the Kennedy Center Honors, and given the National Medal in the Arts.  A native New Yorker who was often at odds           with critics, he once said, “The difference between critics and audiences is that one is a group of humans and one is not.”  He also famously noted that he thought it would be a good idea to have friends in both Heaven and Hell.

His advice to blossoming playwrights was to remember that, “A play is fiction – and fiction is fact distilled into truth.”




Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend by clicking the g+1 button below.

Kerouac, Haiku, Saturday's Poem

“It's hard to write haiku. I mostly write long, silly Indian poems.”– Jack Kerouac 
That having been said, Kerouac – born this date in 1922, and ever remembered for his autobiographical novel On The Road – wrote a lot of haiku, scattered in among his many other writings.  On the Road, of course, is considered       a defining work of the post-WWII Beat and Counterculture generations, with its protagonists living life against a backdrop of jazz, poetry, and drug use.  It was based on the travels of Kerouac and his friends across America.
But, that’s best left for another “Writer’s Moment” entry.  Today, the focus is on Kerouac’s haiku, and here for Saturday’s Poems, are 3 that he liked.   I like them too.   Happy Saturday.

Holding Up My
Holding up my
purring cat to the moon
I sighed.

Birds Singing
Birds singing
in the dark
—Rainy dawn.
   The Low Yellow
The low yellow
moon above the
Quiet lamplit house.

Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend by clicking the g+1 button below.

Sharing some Kerouac haiku

“It's hard to write haiku. I mostly write long, silly Indian poems.”– Jack Kerouac 
That having been said, Kerouac – born this date in 1922, and ever remembered for his autobiographical novel On The Road – wrote a lot of haiku, scattered in among his many other writings.  On the Road, of course, is considered       a defining work of the post-WWII Beat and Counterculture generations, with its protagonists living life against a backdrop of jazz, poetry, and drug use.  It was based on the travels of Kerouac and his friends across America.
But, that’s best left for another “Writer’s Moment” entry.  Today, the focus is on Kerouac’s haiku, and here for Saturday’s Poems, are 3 that he liked.   I like them too.   Happy Saturday.

Holding Up My
Holding up my
purring cat to the moon
I sighed.

Birds Singing
Birds singing
in the dark
—Rainy dawn.
   The Low Yellow
The low yellow
moon above the
Quiet lamplit house.

Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend by clicking the g+1 button below.

Get 'immersed' in your characters' lives

“If you can't laugh at your own characters, or shed a tear for them, or even get angry at one of them, no one else will either.”– Johanna Lindsey
Born Johanna Helen Howard on this date in 1952, Lindsey has a legitimate claim to the title “Queen of American historical romance writers.”  All of her books (well over 60 and counting) have reached the New York Times bestseller list and many of them have been number one, including her 2016 award winner, Make Me Love You.  To date, her books have been translated into 12 languages and sold well over 60 million copies.
Born into a military family in Germany, she had the usual “Army Brat” experience of numerous moves before settling in Hawaii in 1964.  She lived there even after marriage before moving to New England, where she still resides.Lindsey broke into writing in 1977, writing her             first book, Captive Bride, "on a whim.”  Setting the stage for her lifelong successes, that novel went right up the bestseller charts as have almost all of those that have followed. 
Lindsey's books span various eras of history, but by far the most popular are the stories about the Malory family set in the 1700s and 1800s.   The latest of those, Beautiful Tempest, is scheduled for this July.     Never one to rest on her laurels, Lindsey says to remember, “Biding time is easy – and gets you nowhere.”
Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend by clicking the g+1 button below.

At the heart of creativity

“Mystery is at the heart of creativity. That, and surprise.”– Julia Cameron
Teacher, author, artist, poet, playwright, novelist, filmmaker, composer, and journalist, Cameron – who celebrated her 69th birthday earlier this week – is most famous for her bestselling book The Artist's Way. 
But, she also has become widely known as a speaker and teacher for her development of what she calls “creative unblocking” and writing for film.   A native of Chicago and married for a time to filmmaker Martin Scorsese, Cameron has taught filmmaking and writing at such wide-ranging locales as The Smithsonian, the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies, and Northwestern University, where she served as writer in residence for film.  
She continues to teach regularly around the world while also staying active as a writer, especially in nonfiction, where she’s authored more than 30 books.  Her most recent bestseller was 2013’s The Artist's Way for Parents: Raising Creative Children.     “I think we have a great deal of mythology around                          writing. We believe that only a few people can really do it. I wrote a book called The Right to Write.  In it, I argued that all of us have the capacity to write,” she said.  “(I believe) it's as normal to write as it is to speak.“

Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend by clicking the g+1 button below.