Jennifer Lauck's Blog, page 20

Thanksgiving Writing Prompt

Today is an essay in the making.

Don't miss the opportunity to write it down.

Here is your prompt:

1) Set the stage of your day, who is there with you, describe the room, the people, what everyone wears and says. Describe the smells.

2) How do you feel among these people, eating this food?

(Not how you are supposed to feel but how you really feel. Tell your truth in beautiful whispers).

3) Remember a Thanksgiving from the past and see how that one is different or the same as this.

4) Then come back to the room of your moment, see it all again, what detail stands out most for you?

If anyone asks, "what are you doing?" Tell them it's a writing assignment for a teacher and leave it at that.

Send it to me, or even do it in the comment box, and I'll post it here on the site (I might edit a few). The best essay will win a free signed copy of Found.

Writing Tip: Take a Good Class

[image error] I am so happy to announce our School Page on the Teaching Site. Here you will find all the classes for the winter term and soon there will be classes for the spring, summer and even the fall term of 2012.

No matter your budget or your location, there is a program for you. Please check out the new page by clicking here and help spread the word about these wonderful, illuminating and insightful classes.

We are here to help you write a beautiful memoir.

Prompt: Write about a time you attended a writing class. Stay close. Arrive in the place, describe the other students, describe the teacher and write about taking your seat. Include how you felt. Stay close to the body....GO!

Listen In: 11/17 Teleseminar - Write a Beautiful Book

God lives in the details. ~ Tom Spanbauer

This call was dedicated to conversation about writing a beautiful book. Just how is it done? Here are a few highlights:

1) Write - a lot.
2) Surround yourself with beauty--music, art, nature.
3) Immerse your writing in details of your senses.
4) Find beautiful teachings and teachers.
5) Read beautiful books.

Announcements & Check In

A Little Moment:

Jo Jo and I stroll along a windy morning. Casual.

I hold her hand in a gentle way. Light. Her fingers are tampered and delicate and it is easy to feel the bones through the soft skin. I call her hands "artist" hands. They are graceful hands with slim fingers.

The sidewalks are wet and the leaves are slick. We kick along as we go and it's the best part of my day. A walk with Jo before school.

This morning, she is in a pair of pants the kids call "skinny jeans" and they make her long legs longer. Over this she wears a new pink parka that is bright pink, vivid pink, pink on top of pink. There is no pink pinker than this pink jacket. The only break in all the pink is a span of brown gray fluff that lines the hood.

Her face is framed in this fuzz and all that pink.

We stop at the corner and wait for the cars to get through the intersection. Across the street, alone, is a little boy who walks with his head down. His jacket is half on and half off. It slides off one shoulder to show a thin t-shirt. His hair--a light red color--is wet. Jo is skinny but this boy is skinny and small. Slight. He's just bare sliver of a child. Six?


"There's that kid," Jo says."He's all alone."
"I wonder where his brother is?"
"I don't know," Jo says. "You think he had to walk alone today?"
"I hope not."

The crosswalk has been cleared by kids who hold blue and white flags. The crossing guard. Jo and I continue towards the school. The little guy is ahead of us and he walks in a kind of sloppy S. He weaves more than walks.

Over the last year we've watched him, always in the company of a not-much-older brother, forge his way to school without an adult. We always talk about it too: Why are these kids alone? Where are the parents? Why do some kids have to walk alone while others have parents or guardians or someone to help?

No matter how many times I answer her questions, they come up.

"Why is it like that?" Jo asks. "Why do mom's let their kids go it alone?"

I shake my head and shrug my shoulder since I don't have a damn clue.

"Maybe his mom has to work or she's sick in bed."

We cover the distance from the corner to the path that leads to the school and around us there is a funnel of human beings--big, little, short, tall, old, young. The little guy has been absorbed by the crowd and is gone.

"You know I would never let you go it alone, Sweets."

"I know," she says. "You're a good mom."

I stretch my arm long to get over her head and around her shoulder.

"Well, thanks but I'm not perfect."

"No," Jo says. "You're not perfect. But you are good, like all people in the world."

We have a thing in our house called "line of the day," and that is when one of us says something so perfect--each word forming an ideal message that is simple and exact--it must be noted. Line of the day is a writer's past time, a study of language and word choice.

This week, Jo has been on a roll. Her line yesterday was, "don't yell at the teacher, he has powers you don't." And today, this is it. "You're not perfect. But you are good. Like all people in the world."

Instead of taking the handle of the door, I bend down and wrap my girl from the back, pressing my chin into her neck and kissing her ear. The faux fluff around her new jacket is in my face and up my nose. I don't care.

"You just won the line of the day."

~

On my way to Reno--where fires blaze and wind blows and we are stuck in Portland until things get better.

Tonight, a presentation at the Carson Library. Hopefully I'm there at six! Tomorrow, a class on how to write a scene and if you are in Reno, we have room.
And below are new classes for the New Year. Do not miss them. Sign up. Hurry up now.
Six Writers – Six Weeks – A Critique Circle:
This class is for the more advanced writer who is progress on a manuscript or essay length work (articles are acceptable too). You needs to hear yourself read and to get skilled critique. You will be part of a very small group, just six writers and are invited to bring 8-10 pages of your current work per week. You'll read and discuss your work in the circle.

Requirement: You must have taken a class with Jennifer/have an interview to discuss your project.
DATES: Jan. 9-Feb.13 - Tuesday 10:30-12:30 p.m.
Cost: $40.00 per class/$240.00

Memoir Technique Class:
Lists, prompt, write, share. This is a class for the more beginning level student. You are the writer who is just getting going and don't feel as confident as you would like in the craft area of your work. You'll enjoy this relaxed, playful class that gives you more ideas and techniques for dealing with writer's block and memory doubt.

DATES: Jan 3-31 - Wednesday 10:30-12:30 5 week course
Cost: $220.00

The Master Class Series:

Create beautiful well crafted writing. Develop your writing muscle in the areas of scene, point of view, arc, plot, dialogue, setting and detail infusion. You will also learn about the skillful navigation of reflective writing and how to explore memory without being confined or limited. While this is a class geared toward the memoir writer, fiction writers are welcome too. There is prompt based teaching, there are handouts and we workshop two writers each week. There are 18 slots to read so you will surely get your pages worked over!

COST: $375.00 ($100.00 deposit to hold your spot)

REQUIREMENTS: Contact Jennifer at jennifer@jenniferlauck.com for waiver, instructions & space availability.

DATES: Sunday's, 3-6:00 p.m. Jan. 8, 5, 22, 29, Feb. 12, 19, 26, Mar. 4 & 11

Subscriber Classes:

Each week, you get a video prompt with a handout of explanation and writing instruction. Also get a video teaching around a work shopped piece of work that will be discussed in a critique style format with an audience of students. You will receive a PDF of the pages discussed, so you can follow along with the teaching.

1 month: $35.00 (2 classes)
3 month option: $90.00 (9 classes)
6 month option: $153.00 (18 classes)
1 year option: $207.00 (27 classes)

CLICK HERE to read more and sign up!

Book Talk: Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller

In this book, a loaded gun appears in the second sentence of the opening page. Mom is passed out on page 13.

To me, Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller is a big story, seemingly as big as the continent on which it is set—Africa.

Fuller's life in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) was a dangerous combination of poisonous spiders, snakes, terrorists and drunken parents who were farmers, colonists and soldiers in the newly formed white-only government.

My question, in reading this book (and considering my own memoir), is this: how do we share our stories that are simply too large? Even for writers who grew up in one house, in a small town, without African wildlife and war, the story can overwhelm. The setting and the people can take over. The tragedies can be more than the reader can bear.

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight bulges with history, geography, the author's larger than life parents and sister. Fuller's accounting of the war could be it's own book and yet, in the writing, she takes command of her story. Even in the years when Bobo (Fuller's nickname) is a very young girl, she is the story. With big open eyes, she describes this enormous world of hers and we stay riveted with the young girl as narrator. She is the smallest in the family, smaller than the ghosts of previous siblings who had died.

This exchange with her father, after she had a night of little sleep, and much to fear, displays seven-year-old narration in a pitch perfect tone.

"Morning Dad."
"Sleep alright?"
"Like a log," I tell him. "You?"

Bobo is stoic. She is in a dance with her father. She does not whine about her fear of the terrorists under the bed. She is a third generation white African farmer after all.

When her family moves, "right into the middle, the very birthplace and epicenter, of the civil war in Rhodesia and a freshly stoked civil war in Mozambique," her life goes on as any young girl who attends school and wears fresh clothes on her trips to town. When she has to say goodbye to her father, she shares,

There's a lump in my throat that hurts when I swallow and I can't talk or I'll start to cry. Mum puts down her hand. I slip my hand into hers and we begin to walk back to the house. It feels strange to hold Mum's hand and too quickly there is an uncomfortable film of sweat between us.

Her father leaves to fight in a tangled and bloody war and she, like many of us who must say goodbye to Dad, won't allow comfort from her mother. She is a tough girl, tough like those of us who've never even seen a poisonous snake or an Uzi gun.
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight reminds me that the only way through a big story is straight through. A writer must keep her senses on alert and her ears open to the narrator in her heads. A writer must also trust the reader will come along on the journey when we simply describe our story with wide eyes. A big story is harder to tame perhaps, I have learned that a writer must learn to keep command of her story. ~ By Clover Cohen


I'm happy to present Clover Cohen, a long time student in the Master Class. Cloie is one to watch! Enjoy her insights on memoir. She's a hard working writer who is paying her dues.

Writing Tip #12: Everyone Needs an Editor

This is likely the shortest writing Tip you'll get from me but likely the most helpful!

As my own literary agent told us on the call last Thursday, everyone, no matter how accomplished, needs a good editor.

William Stafford says it best, "an editor is a friend who helps keep a writer from publishing what should not be published."

Since we all cannot afford an editor, especially in the early stages of our writing life, here is an affordable option: Autocrit.

This is a free editing program that will let you know, non-emotionally and efficiently, what you are doing on the page.

Using clichés? Autocrit will catch them.

Using the same word over and over again (unoriginal). Autocrit will let you know.

Have awkward construction—Autocrit is there for you.

As a writing teacher, I am begging you save yourself a ton of money. Invest in a subscription to this program and use it.

I hate to sound like an advertisement but I'm telling you, it works (and no, I don't get a kickback. I just love this program and you will too!)

They advertise this as "five minutes to a better novel." It's true. This program will help you be a better writer.

Listen In: 11/10 Teleseminar - Agent Advice

"Write a beautiful book." ~ Anne Edelstein

I have had four literary agents and Anne has been with me since 2004. She is a keeper and has become a dear friend too. She was very generous and true on this call. She tells us about the publishing industry, how to submit work to an agent and if there is room in the market for fresh writing. Enjoy!

Listen In:






YOUR TURN: What made a difference to you? Did Anne give you insights and inspiration?

Announcements & Check In

November is "no school" month and it's delightful to have the little ones around and also, a bit undoing as I am a working/single mom too.

I have a couple questions:When do we work again? How do I achieve balance between mothering and working?

Okay, that was my three seconds of complaint. Look at these beautiful faces! How blessed I am to have children who are healthy and who have good schools. My gratitude to teachers and to any free time I can get to get some work done!

~

Classes are filling up and if you are interested in a Craft Class--don't miss the Winter Craft Series--which you take right from your home and also have the benefit of getting feedback from me over the weekend. How this class works is that you tune in for two hours of teaching, then go write and send your work to me which I will read that night and discuss as part of the lesson the following morning.

Your commitment is to show up, two hours, each morning--on Sat & Sun and to go write. It's a self styled, in house, life/writing retreat with teachings, prompts, writing and feedback.

What a fabulous idea!

I can only accept ten students per class so please, sign up and don't miss this opportunity.

~

The January Master Class is filling up too. We have a virtual option for up to ten writers and we have 15 spots in Portland. Don't miss this fantastic 3.5 hour class where you learn how to be a better writer through instruction and through example. We workshop one body of writing per class and give you specific instruction as well as time to write.

~

I'm in Reno Nov. 18 & 19th. I appear for Adoption Awareness Month, at the Carson City Public Library where I will read from Found and discuss the impact of adoption.

On Nov. 19th, I will be teaching a Scene Writing Class in Reno. Please write to me directly for info on these appearances. Jennifer@jenniferlauck.com

I'd love to see you there.

~

Last, what in the world is Adoption Awareness Month? Well, it's just like it sounds. All month is dedicated to increasing awareness around issues about adoption. As a two time adoptee, I have created a public service campaign that includes a series of informative conversations with adoptees and healers. Please CLICK HERE to learn more. I've also done an indepth interview with a wonderful young man, Kevin Ost-Vollmers (pictured here with his adorable son) who created a site titled Land of a Gazillion Adoptees. It was a deep conversation about changing the way adoption is managed in this world--and my conclusion was--well--GO LISTEN!

Book Talk: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver

I'm happy to present Clover Cohen, a long time student in the Master Class. Cloie is one to watch! Enjoy her insights on memoir. She's a hard working writer who is paying her dues.



I know why Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver enthralls me as a reader.

The topic is food.

Food equaled love in Mom's family, the Scotch-Irish Rutherfords of Burlingame, California.

There were five course meals, a collection of comfort foods (like macaroni and cheese, pot roast, Jell-O salad with suspended fruit, spinach salad with toasted almonds and mandarin oranges, brussel sprouts with hollandaise sauce), and we we're all together at the big table in Grandma Gertie's dining room.

The table could seat 12 or more if the kids sat on stools at the corners. There was loud discussion, arguments, platters passed, trips to the stove to refill the serving dishes, a frenzy of eating that left no leftovers. One or two of us cleared the dishes, breaking off from the group to start washing by hand in the plastic tub in the sink. Grandma had a dishwasher that rolled over and hooked up to the faucet, but I'd never seen it used even once. The rest of us sat the table sit with full bellies, talking but not so loud as before, and then we continued to argue until the volume ramped up again. Kids left the table from boredom, wandered off to watch TV in Grandma's room, then when it was time, dessert was served and the frenzy of eating started again.

In the family of my parents and sister, food equaled love as well. Having spent my early years on an isolated farm following the "Back to Land" movement in the 1970s, I knew where meat came from, knew how the beans were cultivated in their circular plantings around bamboo teepees to climb and flourish, knew that butter came from milk squeezed out of the cow's pink udders. Our food was wholesome and fresh. It was just the four of us at the table, if Dad was there, or many more when he brought home a collection of buddies he met at the bar. Our move to the Portland suburbs disconnected us from the earth and from each other. Mom and Dad got divorced. Mom tried to keep us connected to our food source as she could. We picked strawberries every summer in the fields planted high on a ridge above the Sandy River. In every rental, even the apartments and duplexes, Mom had planters of tomato plants or herbs. When there was no outdoor space to carve out, she grew sprouts on the windowsill of the kitchen.

When Animal, Vegetable, Miracle was released in 2007, it was just in time for Mom's 58th birthday. At the bookstore, I found the display with stacks of the hardcover books, covered in my favorite pale grass green with the texture of burlap. It was the perfect gift for Mom, a book by one of her favorite authors.

After she read it in just a few days, Mom lent it to me to read. She was flush from the luxurious story, deep in her remembrance of her own time on the farm. I poured through it just as fast and was so sad when I got to the end, that I checked out the audio version from the library to listen on my morning and afternoon commutes with the kids. They groaned and complained when the voice came through the speakers, then quieted to listen to the tales of weeding for days and days, making pizza dough from scratch, lopping off the turkey heads then hanging them to drain their blood. I liked it that they were interested at some level.

The storyline of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle follows perfect the growing season and the way the earth changes each month. It seared in to my brain, which vegetables come in which succession throughout the year. I made up my mind that I would not eat out of season or buy produce that had to be shipped from across the world.

Woven between the author's narratives are informational pieces written by her husband and recipes shared by her oldest daughter. The loveliness of the family's recipes gave me warmth. Their peaceful cooperation and weekly pizza night made me feel safe. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is an insider's view of how food can really equal love.

By: Clover Cohen


Your Turn: Do you have a food/family tale to tell? Leave a comment.

Writing Tip #11: Dialogue

Dialogue is basically one, two or more people in an exchange of conversation in your story. Dialogue is a tidy way to move a story forward without a lot of description. Characters can tell each other what is happening, describe locations, have judgments the narrator might not want to have and can move time along.

Here are four terrific dialogue insights to help you make good choices when approaching dialogue in your own storytelling:


1) Dialogue must characterize and capture the voice of the speaker…Everyone has a natural cadence and dialect to his or her speech. We nearly always speak in simple sentences, not complex compound ones. We might say, "When the rain comes, the grass grows," which has one short dependent clause beginning the word with "when"; we aren't likely to say, "Whenever it happens the rain comes, provided the fertilizer's been applied, grass grows, unless it's been masticated by cows grazing thereon"—a simple sentence or main clause ("the grass grows") festooned with wordy subordinate clauses.

~ Brenda Miller & Suzanne Paola Tell it Slant:

2) The way you craft conversations between characters can effectively elevate the tension in subtle or overt ways. If your protagonist wants something from the other character but doesn't want that character to know, tension underlies the seemingly innocent conversation. Another character may want information from your protagonist, who sidesteps the issue. Or, the dialogue can be openly confrontational. In any case, the exchange pushes the story to the next plot point.

~ Laura Backes, Write4Kids.com

3) As with sentence length, avoid loose, baggy lines of dialogue. Cut to the chase.

~ Sue William's Silverman from Fearless Confessions

4) My Rule is to not over-think dialogue and try to sound as natural as possible....Read your dialogue out loud and ask yourself--does this sound normal?

~ Paula Balzer from Writing & Selling Your Memoir:


Now let's take a look at a solid example of very effective dialogue from Faraway Places by Tom Spanbauer:

"This boy's too old to give a licking to, but I'm going to," my father said.

"The boy didn't do nothing," my mother said.

"He jumped in the river!" my father said, and stood up fast, kicking the chair back, "and I told him to stay clear of that river and those people. Now, just look at this mess!" my father said, moving his face right up against hers.

They stood like there like that, the two of them, my mother and my father, squared off, my father's hands becoming fists.

"You're going to lose that boy," my mother said. "You can't beat that boy for this."

"Mary," my father said. I had never heard my father call my mother that. "Leave us alone now. This is not a woman's concern."


These lines are clean and mood is so well established by these sparse lines of dialogue that are as harsh and as controlled as the characters themselves. The two are not talking to the narrator but the narrator is witness to the moment. The lines of dialogue are haunting and more so because the listener (the narrator) is the one who is going to get the beating.


Now you go write.

The Prompt:

1) Imagine two people in a setting, on a stage almost and they are having a disagreement. It could be a big fight or more subtle. Write dialogue between these two and make each argument convincing. The goal of this exercise is to see how dialogue reveals character and complexity in human relationships.

2) Go to a public place and just write out dialogue around you.

Do one or both and see what comes up for you. Enjoy listening in. Enjoy writing dialogue and if you have more say (and I hope you do), put it below in a comment.