Meg Wolfe's Blog, page 8

Visual Writing Prompts: The Unreliable Mirror

The Gazing Ball

The sixth #augustbreak2014 prompt is “Reflection,” and the first thing that came to mind was the gazing ball my photographer husband used for a project. This suited me because I was wiped out from a frustrating afternoon of trying to find things I’ve been buying for years at Walgreens that they’ve suddenly stopped carrying. I made a cuppa tea, grabbed the ball, flopped down in my armchair, and goofed around with Instagram.

Reflection can be what is seen in a mirror surface, or f...

Visual Writing Prompts: The Rule of Three

Three Bottles

For the #augustbreak 2014 prompt “Three,” the first thing that came to mind was this ceramic sculpture on a bookcase shelf in my office. It was made by an art-fair artist whose name I’ve lost, but it’s a quirky piece that I’ve had on display somewhere in the house for the past ten years.

Odd numbers make for more dynamic groupings. Even when things come in pairs, a third element comes into focus. Think of formal arrangements like a pair of planters flanking an entrance door. The g...

Visual Writing Prompts: The Old is New Again

Baby With Orange Block

There were so many choices for the fourth #Augustbreak2014 prompt: Orange. There’s orange in the painting on the wall in front of my desk, a bit of orange ribbon (for creativity) around my Lucky Bamboo plant, an ancient orange B. Kliban “Momcat” pillow, a favorite orange vase on the dining room table, etc. Then an opportunity to babysit my granddaughter Ellie that evening found me leaving the house before I had a chance to take an Instagram of something orange.

Ellie, at...

Visual Writing Prompts: The View From a Window

A Rainy Afternoon

The August Break 2014 prompt for August 3rd was “Window.” It was pouring outside, and I thought the view of the garden from the studio might be interesting.

I’m fascinated by windows, the way they frame the view both outside and inside, the way light and dark play with color and shape. Many of my paintings featured people, cats, and plants backlit against a window. I’ve spent a long period of my life as a semi-recluse, on the inside looking out. I don’t hear very well, so I of...

Visual Writing Prompts: A Favorite Item of Clothing

Kikuyu on Paisley

The August Break 2014 prompt for August 2nd was “Pattern.” Two of the things I love and use a lot are my paisley wool challis shawl and my Kenya bag.

This is the second such bag I’ve owned, the previous one purchased about thirty years ago. Both times I had difficulty selecting one from a batch of many appealing colors and stripe patterns. The bag is mostly black and rusty brown stripes, colors that go well with 90% of my wardrobe. My previous Kenya bag was in watery colors, g...

Visual Writing Prompts: A Favorite Mug or Cup

The Big Red Mug

I have an iPod, an Instagram app that I’ve never gotten around to using, and an admittedly skimpy range of social media interaction. Then I learned (via Tamara Brown) about Susannah Conway’s August Break 2014 project, which is to take a photo each day in August and post it to Instagram. Itseemed like a fun way to expand my horizons a bit.

At first I thought I’d not bother with the prompts that Susannah offered and just take a photo and post it each day, of whatever caught my eye...

Complementary Outlines

A Complementary Concept

I’d like to be able to sit down and type out a story from beginning to end, or in complete scenes that will somehow forma story when strung together the right way. In practice, however, this just leads to chaos and a lot of wasted time. An outline is the only way to keep me on track so that I don’t have to go back and do endless rewrites. Or worse, there’s so much chaos that I just end up sitting there and staring at the screen, not knowing where to go with what I’ve wr...

Place and the Novel’s Plot

Furnishing the “dollhouse”

Research for a story is one of the things I like best about writing a novel. When I come up with an idea, a situation, or bring together a group of characters, I start to wonder about why they’re there, and what the connection is between people and the place they’re in.

Sometimes there are just too many options when it comes to characters. Everything from gender to heritage to health and education comes into play, along with every conceivable influence of nature and...

Learning to Write the Second Novel

Revving up again

Now it’s time for me to learnhow to write thesecond novel of a series. There are so many decisions to make: how long after the end of the first book should the next story begin? How many of the original cast of characters should reappear, and how many new ones? Since Charlotte is not a professional investigator or law enforcement officer, how should she get caught up in another murder mystery? Should there even be a murder? What are her personal stakes in being involved in thi...

A Really Real Book

It’s really real!

It was always my intention to have a print version of An Uncollected Death. In fact, I wanted a print version more than just about anything else in the world after good health, etc. It took a while to get the manuscript re-edited and for Steve to lay out in Create Space, then re-lay out (twice, in fact, because I was obsessed), and then we waited for the proof copy to come, which was supposed to take about ten days.

It arrived in five. I was sitting here at my desk, working on...