Roland Yeomans's Blog, page 140

TO HAVE EVERYTHING AND NOTHING

I am Day.

I am Night.

I am the World.

I am the Turquoise Woman.

And a traveler like all of you.

You walk miles. 

I spin through the vastness of space, listening to the ghost songs of the solar winds.

I awakened already spinning through space, hugged to the sun's warmth by his invisible arms of gravity.

But the sun is a distant lover and following his own path through the stars, drawn by bonds of his own.

He is caught like a glistening bead of dew in the web of the solar system.

Together, he and my sisters journey in a cluster which is itself part of a moving community of stars you call the Milky Way.

Travelers all, we can neither turn to the left nor to the right of our own volition.

We are children of gravity and explosion, cast into the darkness by forces we little understand or know.

I used to envy you your freedom of movement, of choice. 

But the longer I watched your scurrying over my surface, the more a dark truth spoke to me:

You, too, are children of the gravity of your species and the explosion of the times around you which you little understand or know.

You bristle with denial?

If you cannot understand your own heart, how can you understand another's?

Which choices are yours totally?

As gravity and momentum send me on my path, so do your DNA, location, and experience spread the pattern of the paths before you.

You are no more free than I am or the goldfish wandering the narrow confines of its bowl.

From within its bowl, the world seems so large to the goldfish. Yet, it is trapped within invisible walls.

As are you.

Freedom is an illusion to the goldfish, to me, and to you.

Do we choose or do the choices choose us?

STEER CLEAR OF THESE WRITING MISTAKES

Don't you wish there was a map to follow to find success with your writing?

Each of us must chart our own course to our novel's successful end, but there are some shoals we should avoid:


1.) TOO MANY CHARACTERS

When more than just a few characters are introduced in the first few pages of a book, 

it’s difficult to keep their names and roles straight.

Have a literal boatload of characters?  

Filter them in slowly in the first few chapters, 

linking them in the mind of the readers with vivid sketches of their personalities.


2.) STERILE CHARACTERS

 If your characters are flat, if there’s nothing to set them and their struggles apart, we won’t want to cheer for them, and might not care enough to keep reading.


3.)  EXPERIMENTAL STYLE

When a writer experiments with style or structure, the result can be refreshing or irritating. 

Your ability to pull off something out-of-the-ordinary depends on your skill as a writer, 

and your ability to connect with readers despite your unusual style.

Anyone who has read my blog for long knows that I loved Roger Zelazny's books.  

But towards the end of his career, he experimented with strange formats to his books.

In DOORWAYS IN THE SANDS, he ended the chapters with cliffhangers, 

but then started the next chapter some time later, working back to the resolution of the crisis.  

VERY, VERY irritating!  

I only stayed because I liked him.  I don't think many other of his fans did. 


4.) UNCLEAR CHARACTER MOTIVATIONS

Have you ever read a book where a character does something, and you say, 

“Why on earth did she do that?? A mother would never do that!”

 Ensure your characters’ actions are in line with their motivations, 

and if they don’t appear to be on the surface, your reader must understand why not.

 Don't lift your readers out of your novel with characters you force to be stupid to get them to make mistakes to propel your story forward.


5.) HAZY STRUCTURE

  If all the good stuff happens at the beginning, or if nothing exciting happens until the end, your reader will be frustrated with the rest of the book.


6.) WRITE FOR THE MARKET ONLY

If you start by chasing the market, you study the bestseller lists and try to identify a trend, jumping on it.

Even if the trend is still hot by the time your novel comes out, the story will be lackluster, for it didn't come out of your dreams.


7.)  NULLIFY THE DANGER OR REACH THE GOAL TOO EARLY

The point is to raise the stakes so that the readers are not only cheering your protagonist on, 

but afraid that they may fail to save whatever it is that they are trying to keep.

 Regardless of your genre, 

every novel must have a protagonist trying to accomplish or reach some kind of goal. 

The plot itself is then the character’s journey to try to reach said goal.

 In some novels, that goal may evolve along the way, 

but the important thing is that whatever the goal is, it is out of reach throughout the large majority of the novel. 

By making your characters fail, often repeatedly, to reach that goal, 

you keep your readers hooked because they’ll want to find out how your character will manage to succeed.

What do you think are some deadly mistakes to avoid in our writing?

CAN'T SEEM TO GET THERE FROM HERE

Vesper
http://chickwithaquill.blogspot.com/2016/06/a-map-of-way-forward.html
has written a timely and important post on her blog.

Sometimes we get lost in the meandering paragraphs of our novels.
Which way to go?

Vesper has struggled with how to find her way through the fog of the wisps of plot in her head she sees for her story.

Multiple POV's seem called for, 

but they almost always confuse or throw off the identification the reader has with one character.

She felt she needed a firm outline , but how to go about writing a good one?

Vesper happily stumbled upon Larry Brooks’s Story Fix.

Blake Synder's SAVE THE CAT, though talking about movie scripts, is another great aid.

 https://www.amazon.com/Save-Cat-Blake-Snyder-ebook/dp/B00340ESIS/




I wrote a post on a Three Stage Blueprint for a good story outline:
http://rolandyeomans.blogspot.com/2014/03/your-car-whats-under-hood.html

  {Image of the werewolf, Higgins, courtesy of the genius of Leonora Roy}
If you are of a mind, take a peek at it.  It might help a bit.

Of course, that doesn't mean that I am not having to swim against the currents with my latest Steampunk, 
THE NOT-SO-INNOCENTS AT LARGE.

How to make a Texas Ranger taking on the Sidhe in 1836 Avalon 

and fighting dragons atop the flying Xanadu seem riveting and real has proven to be a real challenge.

I hope your Strawberry Moon went well and your WIP progresses smoothly.

LET AMAZON BUY YOU SOME OF MY BOOKS!

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to settle antitrust lawsuits brought by State Attorneys General and Class Plaintiffs about the price of electronic books (eBooks).
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Check your Amazon account to see how much has been credited to your account.
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Think about spending some of your credit on some of my books, will you?
Check my sidebar or my Author's Page for a roster of my books to choose from! www.amazon.com/author/rolandyeomans

STRAWBERRY MOON & THE AGE OF AQUARIUS

The Moons of the various months have been given many names in differing cultures.  

All with some supernatural significance. 

The Strawberry Moon comes from Native Americans, and the short season of the strawberry harvest. 

 We’re about to see an astrological phenomenon that hasn’t happened since 1967: 

the joining of the Strawberry Moon and the summer solstice.

Shades of the Age of Aquarius!  

We won't see this again until 2062!

This moon will be visible while the dying light of the day is still illuminating the world.

 The full moon will be hanging low the entire time. Around 8:00pm ET, it rose fully.

 It was dubbed “Strawberry Moon” by the Algonquins Native Americans 

because they knew that when this moon rose,

 it would finally be time to gather ripened fruit. Like strawberries!

 In Europe, the moon is also called the Rose Moon, Mead Moon, and Honey Moon.

 Did you know?
 On June 21 (the day after a Strawberry Moon), we’ll probably be swept up in a large storm.

 It may work out for the best, though, because according to folklore, 

crabbing and shrimping are best during this time, too. 

Shellfish and strawberries anyone?

Oh, and though it is called the Strawberry Moon, 

it glows golden like the sun.  Cool, huh? 

IN A WORLD OF TEMPORARY TREASURES

Actor Anton Yelchin, 27, who played Chekov in recent "Star Trek" movies, was killed in a freak accident early Sunday morning, police told CNN.


 A little more than a week after the shooting rampage at Pulse, an Orlando nightclub, 

key details remain unknown about what exactly happened during the violent episode and the hostage standoff that followed.


What can we learn from these two seemingly unrelated events?

Life is uncertain.
 We shouldn’t have to face a pivotal, life-threatening moment to truly appreciate what he have.

 Unfortunately, most of us forget what we have and how grateful we should be for it all.
 
In fact, usually we tend to count our misfortunes instead of counting our blessings. 

We take life for granted and forget to live our lives the way we should: with peace and contentment.

Nothing lasts forever. 
And before our fleeting life takes away from us what we fail to appreciate, we need to change our mindsets.

 Instead of attaching ourselves to the thinking that we need to keep adding to our life, 

we need to embrace the mindset that what we already have is quite enough.


LIVE IN THE PRESENT
For many the past is full of tears and the future is full of fears.

 The happiest of souls make it a point to “live in the present.” Only then can we truly started noticing the things around us and appreciating what we have.


TRULY SEE YOUR SURROUNDINGS 
As I wrote two posts ago, thanks to technology and media we have naturally forgotten to notice our surroundings.

 We notice what’s displayed on our screens more than we notice our surroundings.


As a result we lose sight of what’s important; the work we do, the people we love, the good things we experience, and the things we have.

Even a simple chirp of a bird is a blessing, because we are able to hear and understand what is in our surroundings.


HELP OTHERS
 Helping others will make you realize that there is so much that you should be grateful. Get in touch with your altruistic side and give back to the community.

This weekend, I worked 25 of the 48 hours.

True, I am exhausted, but I am uplifted as I realize that because of my efforts, 

ill patients are receiving much needed blood that saves lives and eases pain. 

What we burnt, broke, and tore is still in our hearts. 

Our minds hold the echo of fragile things,  

and they keeps the part of us that is indissoluble.


WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS?

THE FATHERLESS GENERATION

It's hard to be a good father.  

All of the praises being sung today for those men striving to be there for their children are justly earned.

Fatherlessness didn't strike me as an event.  It was just my life.

Fifteen million U.S. children, or 1 in 3, live without a father.  

In 1960 just 11 percent of American children lived in homes without fathers.

 Children in father-absent homes are almost four times more likely to be poor. 

In 2011, 12 percent of children in married-couple families were living in poverty, 

compared to 44 percent of children in mother-only families.

 The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services states, 

“Fatherless children are at a dramatically greater risk of drug and alcohol abuse.”

 The statistical data showed that a 1% increase in the proportion of single-parent families in a neighborhood

 is associated with a 3% increase in an adolescent’s level of violence. 

63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes (US Dept. Of Health/Census) – 5 times the average.90% of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes – 32 times the average.85% of all children who show behavior disorders come from fatherless homes – 20 times the average.  (Center for Disease Control)80% of rapists with anger problems come from fatherless homes –14 times the average.  (Justice & Behavior, Vol 14, p. 403-26)71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes – 9 times the average.  (National Principals Association Report)  Good fathers do three things: 

Provide, Nurture and Guide.  

But that is hard.  It is easier to just leave.

As I wrote yesterday, we are becoming the detached, impersonal culture ... the Me Generation.  

What do we know about such men? Not much. They are apparently quite common.

 Society condemns them. Yet fixing the blame never fixes the problem.

 Our society wants men to accept obligations of fatherhood, but they are not respected for doing so. 

In the media, 

fathers are mostly portrayed as clueless, hapless buffoons - or, occasionally, as violent abusers.

Just look at how far the father of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD fell in the "sequel" GO SET A WATCHMAN

WHAT DO YOU THINK? 

Whether a father is apart from his child as a result of divorce, non-marital childbirth or job relocation, his absence impacts the child and our society beyond what we can observe at the moment. - See more at: http://goodmenproject.com/families/th...

WE TALK WITH EARS ON MUTE

I was doing a blood run this afternoon ...

A mother was crossing the busy street with her little child in tow, ear glued to her cellphone.  

She walked right in front of an oncoming vehicle.

Luckily for the child, the driver was more alert than the mother.

We are the addicted society.

We go to a social gathering, and everyone has their nose glued to their smartphones.  

We do not experience the world around us.

We walk with eyes wide shut.  We talk with ears on mute, with hearts shielded in cyber-armor.

Four-fifths of my department use what they call VOX when communicating to others in our department.

Sometimes they have to ask clarification questions when if they simply TALKED TO the other person over the phone, 

no questions would have had to be asked and the transaction would have been much shorter.

I asked each of them why.  

Same answer.  "I don't like to talk to people.  On VOX, I ask a question, and I get a recorded answer."

Doing this harms us.

 Having a conversation with another person teaches us to, in effect, have a conversation with ourselves — 

to think and reason and self-reflect. 

That particular skill is a bedrock of development. 

 Take the texted apology ... “saying ‘I’m sorry’ and hitting send”

 Here what’s lost when we type instead of speak. 

A full-scale apology means I know I’ve hurt you, I get to see that in your eyes.

You get to see that I’m uncomfortable, and with that, the compassion response kicks in. 

There are many steps and they’re all bypassed when we text. 

When the apology takes place over the phone rather than in person, the visual cues are lost, of course, 

but the voice — and the sense of hurt and contrition it can convey — is preserved. 

Part of the appeal of texting in these situations is that it’s less painful — 

but that pain is the point. 

The complexity and messiness of human communication gets shortchanged.

Those things are what lead to better relationships.

We are becoming conversation-avoidant — mostly because it’s easier. 

Texting an obligatory birthday greeting means you don’t have to fake an enthusiasm you’re not really feeling. 

 Texting a friend to see what time a party starts 

means you don’t also have to ask “How are you?” and, worse, get an answer.

Too much texting amounts to a life of “hiding in plain sight."

And the thing about hiding is, it keeps you entirely alone.


WHAT DO YOU THINK?

PREPARING A TASTY LOGLINE

You need the right ingredients to prepare this dish:

I.) TITLE:

It must be short, magnetic, and say it all.

Sure, piece of cake ... Devil's Food Cake. Darn hard, but it can be done.

EXAMPLES:

THREE MEN AND A BABY

(You just know it's going to be a comedy of errors, and you know all the players in just 5 words.)

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD

(It says it all in another 5 words: horror, action, the living versus the undead)

SEAN OF THE DEAD

(In 4 fours you get comedy, horror, and you know it is going to be a toss-up between a floundering human against hordes of shambling dead.)

 
(II.) The sweet/sour sauce of IRONY with a hint of the spice of SAY WHAT?


BLIND DATE

She's the perfect girl -- until she takes that first drink.

(You see it all, don't you? In just 10 words. Comedy of a guy finding his dream date, only to see his dream become a nightmare.)


DIE HARD

On Christmas Eve, a cop tries to repair his broken marriage, only to find her company's building seized by terrorists.

(Twenty words this time, but they spell out irony, desperation, action, and thrills.)

III.) Remember THE GOOD; leave out THE BAD and THE UGLY:

PLANES, TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES

Two polar opposite men must scramble across country in whatever vehicle they can to make it home for Thanksgiving.

(This title is the good -- you know from it that it is a comedy and the venue where the action is going to take place.)

DUE DATE

(This is basically the same movie, but the title is vague. Is it about an expectant mother? The only draw is Robert Downey, Jr.

But your novel will not have that catalyst. In novel loglines, the magic must be in the prose.)


RUBY TUESDAY

(Do you have any idea what this novel will be about? Is it a name of a girl, a store, a restaurant, a name of a covert Intelligence plan? This is an example of an UGLY title for a logline.)


IV.) THE HOOK:

SHORT TIME

A cowardly cop on the eve of retirement finds he is dying from a disease not covered by police insurance. To protect his family's future, he must have none. 

The cowardly lion must die in the line of duty. The only problem : his partner wants to live out the week!


(Long but you see it all. Fifty words gives you the whole novel: the fear, the love, the desperation, ... and the partner going crazy trying to stay alive.)


VI.) The whole picture:

A.) All the above examples gives the agent the entire novel in just one short logline. 

You must do that -- and fast to snare the eye-weary attention of an agent numbed by a long line of vague, rambling loglines with no clear conflict and intended goal.


B.) How do you come up with that?

Think of your novel as a movie poster. 

The iconic image, the swirling glimpses of the dangers and allures in the background. 

Put the movie poster of your novel in 30 words or less -- and you have a winning logline.


C.) Create an itch the agent must scratch:


1.) With a title that grabs the collar of the agent:


I DIED YESTERDAY


2.) With irony that won't quit:


A teen finds the love of his life looking down upon him as he lies in his coffin.


3.) With a logline that gives you goal, obstacles, and resolution in one mental flash:


A mysterious funeral director tells the ghost of a teen he can be with the girl he loves always ... if he convinces her to take her own life. 

The teen must decide what true love really is.


@) There. I hope I have helped in some small way. Roland

***

POETRY IS DEAD

“Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself.”
- Robert Frost

"Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought, and the thought has found words.”
  - Robert Frost



Has poetry become the slide rule of literature, of the arts?

The knee-jerk instinct is to strongly deny that assertion.  

But sadly wanting something to be true does not make it true.


In 1992, 17% of Americans had read ONE poem IN THE PRIOR YEAR. ONE IN A YEAR'S TIME.

In 2012, 6.7% had read ONE poem IN THE PAST YEAR.  6.7%!  ONE POEM!

Since 2002, the number of poetry readers has contracted 45% --  

the steepest decline in any literary genre.

Poetry is less popular than jazz, dance, and knitting.  

It only beats going to the opera by a slim percentage.

From 2004 to 2015 Google Searches for poetry have fallen faster than a brick kite.  

Today's Google Searches for poetry are only 20% of what they were ten years ago.


Our hearts want it to be otherwise, but the numbers say different.


Still, I read poetry daily for it sings to me as no other prose does and whispers my soul's thoughts:


I live alone, I look to die alone:
Yet sometimes, when a wind sighs through the sedge,
Ghosts of my buried years, and friends come back,
My heart goes sighing after swallows flown
On sometime summer's unreturning track. 

 - Christina Georgiana Rossetti