Shel Delisle's Blog, page 10

Does anyone remember the TV show The Swan?

Was I the only person in America to watch that cheesy reality show The Swan?

I might have been.  It was cancelled pretty quickly.  But the fairy tale The Ugly Duckling was one of my favorites growing up, so of course I would be tuning in.  Much to my dismay it was cancelled after the second season.  So, if you weren't in that original audience, here, check it out.  But read the rest of the post first!  Oh, okay, you can go now, but come back.

See I didn't lie—cheesy, right?  Anyway…the gist of this show, was that Ugly Duckling women were given a panel of specialists—a cosmetic surgeon, a dentist, a personal trainer, a therapist—and in only three months they would be transformed into…wait for it.

Swans.

There was a competitive piece to the whole show too, because the best transformation got to be THE SWAN, while the other imitation Swans were kicked off and sent home with only their veneers and lipo-suctioned thighs to keep them warm at night.

That probably sounds a little snarky.  And I suppose it is.  But the snark is not directed at the contestants; it's more about the whole idea of a show like this.

Did I mention that I never missed an episode?  Can you say hypocrite?

Anyway…the reason I decide to resurrect the show for this post is that there is an analogy to my writing.  Or maybe it's a metaphor?  Whatever.   I think the transformation is like the revision process, especially for our earliest work.  If you watched the video did you hear when someone said:

This process is not easy, as we know.  It's painful, it's hard work. 

I couldn't agree more!

Revision.  Rejection.  Friends, like the personal trainer in the show, urging me to trim some fat and transform.

Here's another line from the clip:

You have to wear your scars like jewels.

I love, love, LOVE this!  Why hide what you went through?  I don't mean whine, "Oh, poor me!"  But there is no shame in transformation.  So your writing didn't start as a swan.  So what.  Does anyone's really?  Is there even a swan when it comes to writing?

Maybe.

The most swan-like writing I've read in recent years was W.P. Kinsella's Shoeless Joe.  But I've read a lot of ostrich, grackle, ibis, heron, bald eagle, swallow, chickadee, even dodo bird writing and I must be a bird watcher because I can appreciate it all.

So, while swans may be rare.  And graceful.  And beautiful.  They aren't the sole bird in our great, big world.  Nor should they be.

In the show's final episode each season, they had what was called The Big Reveal.  The contestant stood in front of a curtain and the judges asked "Are you ready, Betty Lou?" (Or whatever her real name was) and then the curtains swept open to reveal the Swan who had emerged from the Ugly Duckling.

So, I wanted to let you know, next week's post is The Big Reveal.

I know, that's a cheapo way of building tension to bring you back to my blog. But frankly, this post has gone on long enough and I promised myself when I started this blog-thing I'd keep it fairly short and mostly sweet.  So, until then…

Is your muse like my muse?

What is your muse like?  Do they show up when you least expect it? Unannounced, like a relative or friend that barges in when you've got a ton of other things to do?

Or do they sometimes whisper so softly that it's hard to hear them?

Have they ever take a vacation and forget to tell you they're going?

Mine–and I love him or her–does all of the above.  But the thing that really blows me away is that sometimes mine can be a bit show-off-y. You might wonder what I'm talking about here. So I've got to tell you this one story.

I mentioned in an earlier post, right here,  about two times my muse has shown me something through music.  This story is about the second time.  I'll save the first time for later.

So, a few months back, I was working on  my novel, Dolphin Girl, and I was thinking about how a theme in the book dealt with her being tugged on by an undertow or pulled along by a current beyond her control.  While I was thinking, a song came on the radio, an old song that I hadn't heard in a long time.  "Numb" by Linkin' Park.  Do you know the song?

Anyway, the lyrics "under the surface" and "caught in the undertow" along with some others really hooked my imagination.  This song completely summed up exactly how Jane, the main character, was feeling! I couldn't remember ever seeing the video, so I wrote Numb on a slip of paper and set it aside to look up the video later.

Fast forward a couple of days, maybe a week, and I find the paper–LOL, yeah, that's how I roll with my muse–and decide to watch the video.  Can you say creeped out?  I'm embedding the video below so you can watch it, but I'll just mention that in the book Jane is an artist who has always her sketch pad with her.  The relationship with her mother is stifling and she's got some issues with cliques at school. Beyond that, there are a few other doozies that are eerily, eerily similar. I literally shivered when I watched this video.  'Cause my muse was showing off, that's why.   So, if you're maybe a little curious about the book or about the song, here it is.  Oh, one more thing, if you know my writing, pay attention to her first sketch.  No, it's not a dolphin, but you'll see. Shiver.  See?  Show off.

How to use YouTube as inspiration

A little while back–right here to be precise–in a post about writing tools, I mentioned that YouTube can be invaluable.  I even promised to show you how I used YouTube as research for one of my novels.  So, here's the post to keep that promise.

In Dolphin Girl, there is an important  scene where the main character, Jane, swims with the dolphins. So, because I live in Florida, I drove down to the Keys to do a dolphin swim in a more natural environment.  It was amazing and I was able to use a lot of it in writing the scene.  But even with the luxury of personal experience, the scene still wasn't right.

The problem?  During my "real life" swim, my head stayed above water for the entire time and with Jane's swim it was taking part mostly beneath the surface.  I wrote the scene  and wrote it and wrote it, but it kept coming out one dimensional.  Enter YouTube.  Check out this video:

In Dolphin Girl, the two dolphins end up playing the bubble scene with Jane. Here's another video I used.  This one gave me the underwater sound experience.  Plus it was great to see this real life dolphin girl.

Cool, huh?  The clicks and creaks and bubbles and silence. These videos changed the way I wrote the scene and it became less about the action, more dream-like.  I think.  At least that's what I was aiming for.

Anyway, I'm sure this won't be the only book where I'll tap into YouTube for help.  It seems like it would be great for figuring out setting. Or even to help picture a not-quite-fully-fleshed-out character.  In the meantime, I'm really curious, have you ever used YouTube for your writing?  If so, please leave a comment and let me know how.  If not, you can leave a comment anyway.

Music Monday — Can't Stop by RHCP

Yep, It's Music Monday.  I feel like rock today and this song — Can't Stop by the Red Hot Chili Peppers — is sort of an anthem of mine, because of the feeling it evokes.  The lyrics are obscure and a little unusual, even for them.  Even so, there are some that are incredible. Like:  music the great communicator or this life is more than just a read through.

Still, I gotta say, with this song it's all about the feeling, so please don't ask for an interpretation.  And, for me, this video doesn't really cut it.  Because it's completely different than the movie in my mind when I hear this song.  So, if you find the video distracting (and you might), close your eyes and just listen.

P.S.   If you happen to know a great place for me to find audio files on the web that I could use for WordPress posts, would you leave a message?  TY.

Top Texting Tips (for writers)

Here's a confession.  I'm a horrible texter.

Shoot, I don't even know if texter is a word.  Microsoft says no, but it is part of my vocabulary and I stink.  It might be that I use an old phone that's not really condusive to texting.  It might just be that it seems like too much work.   My kids' fingers fly and there are times that I wonder if texting is somehow the future of writing.

I hope not.

Still, I'd like to be better at it.  It seems like part of my problem stems from the fact that I simply don't know all the lingo.  I'm almost convinced that if I did, I could be great.  Or at least better. Maybe?

So, I visited net lingo, a site that bills itself as having the largest list of text and chat acronyms.

It was a lot of fun.

Okay. Fun might be a stretch, but I'm a nerd, so it was fun for me.  And, as I read through all the abbreviations, it occurred to me that a lot of them could work for writers.  We could use them as quickie notes to ourselves when revising our own work or for edits/critique of others. So, as a weird-ish public service announcement I've compiled a list, through the letter D.  Here goes:

! – I have a comment
411 – Information
511 – Too much information
AAK – Asleep At Keyboard
AB – Ass Backwards (This one is really useful to me. I tend to get the order of events wrong in first drafts)
ACK – Acknowledgments
ALOL – Actually Laughing Out Loud
AR – Action Required (another way of saying show don't tell?)
book – It means cool. (I don't know how to use this, but just thought this would make a lot of writers happy!)
BWTM – But Wait There's More (this one is good for when you leave out critical info)
CNP – Continued in Next Post
CRAFT – (It's probably not what you think, it has absolutely nothing to do with craft! *hint* CR = Can't Remember.  It's similar to CRAT and CRAWS)
d/c – disconnected
D+M – deep and meaningful
d00d – dude also dewd (this has nothing to do with writing!  It's just funny that none of these are shorter or easier than the original.)
DENIAL – Don't Even Notice I Am Lying (extremely clever!)
ditto – Ditto
DNC – Does Not Compute
DNPMPL – Damn Near Peed My Pants Laughing (a good thing if it's meant to be funny, otherwise…not so much)
DORD – Department of Redundancy Department
DUNA – Don't Use No Acronyms (you gotta love the grammar)
DRIB – Don't Read If Busy

And that's it for the first (and maybe last) installment of texting tips! If you like this, share or LAC* and if it seems like enough people like it, I'll CFP**

*Leave A Comment

**Continue in a Future Post

Music Monday with U2

Jane, the main character in Dolphin Girl, definitely gets herself stuck in a moment.  Don't we all?  So, this song has always felt like it's a good fit for the book .  It's a beautiful song with a beautiful message.  Hope you enjoy it.

So this is pretty random

I missed a deadline.

Boy, do I hate when I do that.  No excuses.  Except…could I tell you all about how I was copy editing/proofreading/fine-tooth combing Dolphin Girl?  Or about how Whatcha' Reading Now? launched their sports issue last week?  Or about how I had family come for a visit?  Or how I'm beta reading an incredible novel for a critique partner?  But it all comes down to the same thing.  Excuses.

Are you wondering what deadline was missed?  Last week's Random Acts of Publicity campaign–which is such a truly awesome idea–that's what.  If you know about Random Acts of Publicity skip ahead.  But if not, here's the scoop. Every year Darcy Pattison runs this on her blog and the idea is we're supposed to celebrate our friends' books by blogging, tweeting reviewing, linking–you get the idea.

I love the idea of helping other people, especially other authors.  So because I missed the deadline, shoot I missed the whole week, I think my shout outs here are hyper-random.   Here goes:

Kai Strand  – Recently I judged a global contest for e-books (I think that's probably another post) and I read Kai's book The Weaver, which was so well-written and an incredibly unique premise.  The main character, Mary, lives in a little town of word weavers, a population of people who specialize in storytelling.  She suffers because the skill doesn't come naturally to her.  The thing that I really loved about this book was how Kai wove multiple stories into the main story and the entire work had an original fairy tale feel.  Kai doesn't know me from brussel sprouts, which ups the randomness of this shout out.

Janeen Mason – If you don't know Janeen or her books, you really need to look for them.  I swear she's going to go all Caldecott on me one day.  Beautiful, beautiful illustrations.  This year alone she's had two incredible books:  The Gift of the Magpie, which is an adorable story about birds and a love of shoes that she both wrote and  illustrated and Fish Facts, the latest of her ocean themed non fiction picture books.  Janeen and I share a love of the ocean, so I'll be adding this one to my collection.

Christina Diaz Gonzalez – I was so blessed to have been a beta reader for Christina's debut novel The Red Umbrella.  Recently it was selected by for the Common Reading Program by FIU for the incoming freshman class.  It's the beautiful and heart wrenching story of Operation Pedro Pan, the exodus of children from Cuba to the U.S. in the midst of  Castro's revolution.  I'm anxiously awaiting her second novel, A Thunderous Whisper, which will be released in 2012.

Rhonda Stapleton – For a long, long, long time I was a lurker on Verla's Blue Boards, which is a forum for aspiring children's book writers if you haven't been there.  Now I post every once in a while, but way back when I read comments by all these other brave souls who were actually sharing the results of their queries and rejections in pursuit of their agent and publication. Rhonda was one of those brave souls and I cheered (to my-cowardly-self) when she got her book deal and I was finally able to read her books.  Recently, I ordered Pucker Up, the third and last book in her Stupid Cupid trilogy.  These books are funny and sweet, so read 'em if you haven't yet!

Laura Murray — At my very first SCBWI, in my very first critique group, Laura read a picture book about a mischievous gingerbread man who during the first day of Kindergarten takes off to explore the school.  Along the way the gingerbread man meets some pretty important people in the school–the cafeteria lady, the school nurse, the coach, and, of course, the principal.  It was absolutely adorable when she read it and so I was thrilled for Laura when she sold it to Putnam.  The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School is fresh off the presses and new and fun and has adorable illustrations.

Danielle Joseph — In South Florida we are very fortunate to have an incredibly tight SCBWI chapter and writing community, which centers around a critique group run by the talented teacher Joyce Sweeney.  During my first class/group with Joyce, Danielle read the first chapter of Dead Air, which was later re-named  Shrinking Violet, a story about a shy girl who loves music and wants more than anything to be a DJ. Ultimately, this book went on to become Danielle's debut novel and, now, Shrinking Violet has another name — Radio Rebel, a Disney made for TV movie which will air in January 2012.  Not only that, but Danielle has a new novel–her third–Pure Red.  I pre-ordered for my Kindle and it's coming on October 1.  Can't wait!

Donna Gephart — Somehow I missed reading Donna Gephart's debut novel when it first came out.  Then, it won the Sid Fleischman award for humor.  Then, I met Donna in January and she is one of the sweetest people ever. Then, as if I needed to be hit repeatedly on the head with a hammer, I read As If Being 12 3/4 Isn't Bad Enough (My Mother Is Running for President). It's so funny, but filled with big heart too.  So, right now I'm excited that her second novel How to Survive Middle School is in paperback and I'm especially looking forward to Olivia Bean, Trivia Queen.  The reason? I know it will be funny, but also because I kick a$$ in Trivial Pursuit and am particularly obnoxious when watching Jeopardy.

Okay, that's it. One shout out for every day of the week.  And, if you're wondering why the list is in the order that it is, please rest assured that I don't play favorites.  In the spirit of all things random, names were drawn from a coffee mug by my eleven year old.  And if you're wondering why it's Wednesday instead of the beginning of this week, well, we launched the Whatcha' Reading Now? blog yesterday, but I know, I know, I promised.  No more excuses.

Are you a horse or unicorn or dolphin girl?

Recently, I read an NPR article that explained girl power is the reason why so many girls love horses and dolphins and unicorns.   In the article there was a quote by Laurel Braitman, an MIT graduate student in the history of science who writes about animals and what we think about them.  She says girls' fascination with these animals is more than power — the animals fuel girls' imaginations.

"Horses and dolphins and unicorns — these are all borderland creatures; gateway animals to other worlds," she says. "They help us imagine wonderful other ways of being in the world. They let us be cowgirls and oceanographers and mermaids and princesses."

Apparently, each animal symbolizes how we view relationships and using our power.

Horses: Horses are all about control, about harnessing and taming our masculine energy. About charging forward in the world at a sure-footed pace. Also, horses are loyal, steadfast, and true, qualities that appeal to our relational nature.

Dolphins: Dolphins are sleek and sensitive, about following your instincts and following them quickly. They are constantly pushing or pulling, in tune with the tide. And they live in water, which typically represents emotion.

Unicorns: It's not all about the horn. Unicorns also represent mystery, spirituality, beauty, hope, uniqueness, and purity. The unicorn is all about what you can become. What has not yet been revealed to you, but what is waiting just around the corner if you believe.

So which one are you?  Or did you give that up when you grew up?

Carry This Picture

So, it's Music Monday a couple hours late.  This song has a story, for sure.  See what you think it is.

That is all.

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Top Ten Tools of the Trade

Yes, I know.  Do you really need another top ten list for writers about the things you should have at your fingertips?  Of course you need a laptop and printer ink.  A dictionary and thesaurus.  Probably Strunk and White. But this list is very personal.  These are the things that make me happy both when the story comes easily and when it doesn't.  So, while it's not completely original, maybe you'll see your favorite or discover a new one?

10.  A Clown Fish Flash Drive – Okay, so here's the deal.   I just saw this today while we were school shopping and I didn't buy it. But it inspired this post.  And I must have it!  Must!  There is a hen flashdrive too!  So, I'm going back tomorrow and probably by the time you read this post I'll be very ecstatic owner of both these flash drives.  Do not be jealous—you can buy them for yourself.

9.  Wilson Jones Big Mouth Files – Each manuscript has its own Big Mouth with drafts and research and, well, everything that I scribble on little sheets of paper. I just ordered a bunch more of these on-line.  Love 'em!

8.  Lots of writing utensils. — Pens, pencils, a sharpener.  Preferably including some wild colors.  If one utensil isn't channeling your muse switch to another and another and another.  Mine has moody days every so often and that's when I pull out the heavy artillery—a Sharpie. Tell me, who can resist the feel?  The smell?  Not me or my muse.

7.  A Flip Dictionary – I learned about this from a friend in my critique group and I'm eternally grateful to her.  Thank you Nicole Cabrera!  So here's the scoop.  It's not a thesaurus—exactly—but it's similar, kinda.  It will help you find the term or word that's eluding you.  It might even get you thinking of a whole new story to tell.  I just can't emphasize how totally awesome it is.

6.  My children – What they say and do is a constant source of inspiration.         Enough said.

5.  YouTube – An invaluable resource for history, for quick visualizations, for music, et cetera.  On the book that will release this fall, some scenes were fleshed out by  YouTube videos.  (I'll share which ones in another post soon.)

4.  Books about writing – I have an entire shelf dedicated to these, plus a file on my Kindle.  Yes, of course, I have Strunk and White but prefer Stephen King's On Writing or Robert's Rules of Writing by Robert Masello.

3.  Stationery – I have a crazy obsession with spirals, a notebooks, and memo pads.  They must scream elementary school, middle school, high school.  Anything but professional. Don't judge. Some women have a hard time resisting shoes

2.  My library – for many, many, many reasons.

1.  Books in print and especially on my Kindle – When I think back on my AHA! Moments, they all came reading someone else's writing.  A skill—like voice, for example—never sunk in until I was curled up with a book and then…Voila! It suddenly made sense.  Those moments used to come while reading printed books but now more often than not it's during an e-book.  Yep.  that's right. I've become a Kindle convert. And here's another confession:  I was given my Kindle as a gift and refused to read anything on it for six months. Then when I finally I did, I was hooked. It's now loaded up with well over one hundred books.  I carry it everywhere.

Well, almost everywhere.

So that's my list of items that inspire and support my writing.  What's your favorite?  Anything that I should run out and buy?  Um, after the Clown Fish Flash Drive or another spiral, that is.