LisbethThom.com

Hello all.  Glad you stopped by.   I got my chapter back from the 3rd the summer workshop session, and it was covered with a gazillion pen marks. 

It turns out that I’m only touching the surface of my main character’s emotions.  Stephen King says in his book, On Writing,  ”Don’t stop writing a scene because it’s hard emotionally.”   I think that’s why I’ve been simply skimming the surface.   (Twenty lashes with a wet rag for me.)  When Tessa’s sister, Claudine, goes after her boyfriend while she’s lying in a hospital bed after getting her front teeth knocked out in a car accident, I don’t show her emotions.  I’ve got to let my readers know that she feels like she’s been stuck in the gut with a sharp knife.  And it hurts like hell. 

A second critiqued comment was about my tendency to jump into a journalistic mode.  I did just that in a scene where Tessa’s friend Lisa comes by and insists Tessa get her butt out of the house where she’s been  hibernating while her face heals.  The teenagers walk downtown.  I have a golden opportunity to show character in this scene.  Instead, I give a journalistic report.   In my revision, I plan to let the reader see the buildings, smell the doughnuts in the bakery, get a glimpse of what other shoppers are wearing, hear the clerk comment on Tessa injuries and Lisa’s trendy outfit, have Tessa see her face in a store mirror and get teary-eyed, and listen to the two girls share their thoughts.   Tessa may even notice the sawdust on the floor of the remodeled drugstore when they stop in for a milkshake.  These are only ideas, but it will be a real scene, not a newspaper report.

I hope my ramblings have helped you realize the importance in digging deep for emotion and in setting a scene in your writing.

Happy writing.  Have a good day.

I’ve got more writing tips.  The good news is that there weren’t as many pen marks on my manuscript at the second workshop.  There are two things I want to pass along.

1.  Let the reader SEE the scene.  In other words, show don’t tell.  I know you’ve heard these words over and over.  But let me give you an example.  In my novel Tessa and Claudine, Tessa is in the hospital and her Dad shows up.  Sounds fairly normal, right?  But it isn’t because she’s sixteen and hasn’t seen her dad since she was a toddler.  Her parents are divorced.  She’s a mess after an accident, and she;s shocked when he comes to visit her.  He’s about to leave, and I jump in and tell the reader why he’s leaving.    It turns out that this is a bad move.  I need to let the reader see the scene instead.  It’s better to  show the action, indicate just what the Dad is doing at this point  — after all he has to feel uncomfortable around her.

2.  Next tip.  Do not undermine the tension.  Okay, now I have a tense scene going.  Tessa’s Dad has just left her hospital room, and she hears a loud commotion in the hallway.  It’s her mother yelling and screaming her head off at her dad for coming to see the daughter he barely knows.  I slow the story down by throwing in a line about how the nurses tell her mother to keep her voice down.  (My workshop leader says NO, don’t do that, “It undermines the tension.”)    The  mother needs to walk into Tessa’s hospital room as if the confrontation with her dad never happened.  Great advice, I think.

I’m learning a lot by having my work critiqued and by listening to the critiques of others.  Stop in after my July workshop for more  tips.

Right now I’m spending hours revising my novel, but hey, it keeps me out of trouble.  It’s good and hot here in Savannah, but I love it.  I think those summers  growing up in Southern Illinois without any air conditioning prepared me for the hot, humid South.  

Happy writing to one and all.  And safe travels if you are hitting the road this summer.

Lisbeth

I went to the first meeting of my summer writing workshop.  When the first chapter of my novel, Tessa and Claudine, was critiqued, our workshop leader pointed out several instances where I’d stepped out of the narrative to explain something.   He emphasized the importance of character development and staying in the character’s voice.   He showed where I’d listed details and explained how it would be better to filter in the details by showing them.  I did some backdooring, meaning I tried to stick in info I wanted the reader to have.  He said to be patient. I could tell the reader later on when it worked better.   “It’s a novel,” he said.  “You have plenty of time.” I did a bit of overwriting.    The good news is I came home and spent hours revising this chapter. 

.My main tip from the first workshop is this:  watch out for those times when you are simply telling the reader something.  It stops the narrative.  Trust your reader and keep the narrative moving.  I found that to be such good advice.  I’m often afraid the reader won’t understand the narrative, so I stop to explain.  DON”T do this.  I hope you won’t  step out of the narrative either.  (Nobody said novel writing was going to be easy.)

(By the way, a few other tidbits from our workshop leader  regarding my manuscript, “This is nice.  Great line.  Another great line.  Perfect line.  Cut.  Cut.  And, what does this mean?”)

If this helps only a few writers, I will be delighted.  If you have any tips for me , I’d love to hear them. 

Cheers, Lib

www.lisbeththom.com

Last week, I visited the Saturday Zona Rosa group led by successful author, Rosemary Daniell.  I’ve attended Daniell’s workshops where she’s excellent at  encouraging writers of all venues to move forward with their projects and get their work on the market.  Rosemary gives workshops all over the country:  rosemary@myzonarosa.com

Rosemary had invited me to come to meet her guest speaker, Jessica Handler.   I’m certainly glad I accepted her invitation.  Jessica spoke about her book, Invisible Sisters, a memoir about Jessica and her two sisters.  Her sister, Susie was diagnosed with leukemia and died at the age of eight.  Her sister, Sarah, was born with a fatal blood disorder.  At this point, Jessica said she introduced herself as ”the well sister.” 

She has written a moving story about the effects of illness on her whole family and how she survived to find her way.   Jessica has become a successful individual with a talent for sharing herself.  Jessica is creative writing instructor in Atlanta.  I highly recommend her memoir.  You can check out her website at:  www.jessicahandler.com

Lisbeth

Hello readers and writers.  So glad you stopped by.   I’ve got exciting news to share. 

I visited the Library of Congress  in Washington D. C. this past week.  At this absolutely gorgeous building, I actually got to check out my own book , Row Away From the Rocks, in the main reading room.   It was SO exciting.  Sorry to toot my own horn, but I can assure you it was a grand experience.  The main reading room is a such a beautiful place with this marvelous high ceiling.  The Library of Congress gets 20,000 books each day.  They select about half of those, and most books go to various other buildings in Washington D. C. (The leftovers are donated to various libraries.)  Some books make it to the Library of Congress.  I feel so honored to have my book there. 

So you writers, keep on writing.   If you also get a book in the Library of Congress, you will need to apply for an official Library card at the Madison Building, across the street from the Library of Congress.  You will be required to fill out some forms and have official ID with you.  The card you receive is then good for two years.   You readers may go through the same process and check out a book at the nation’s library.   Try it.  It’s a fabulous experience.  And if you go, let me know what you think of this gorgeous building. 

Now that I’m back home, Tessa and Claudine, the two sisters in my novel in progress, are clamoring for my attention.  I’m still working at getting them to form a bond.  There are times when I think it’s simply not going to happen.  I start a new writer’s workshop on June 7.  I’m taking along chapters of Tessa and Claudine.I will let you know how the critiques go.  In the meantime, I wish you would let me know when you stop by.  I keep telling Tessa and Claudine I have blog fans, but they don’t believe me.  Sometimes my characters are a pain in the butt.

Lisbeth

 Mother’s Day makes me think  of the time I visited my daughter for an overnight, in her very first place of her own, right out of college.   She had landed a job after enough rejections to cover a whole wall. 

I looked at her that morning, dressed in her tailored suit of light gray, holding a briefcase, amazed.  Could this be the child that I had to walk to kindergarten every day for two weeks until I convinced her she could walk the path alone?  Could she actuallly be out in the world selling business forms? 

“Make yourself at home,” my daughter said before she left.  She put down her briefcase and gave me a hug.  Then she went out the door, briefcase in hand.  A part of me went with her. 

After she left left, I drank a cup of tea from the heart-covered mug we sent her for Valentine’s Day when she was in college.   On her coffee table lay copies of Business Week and Time.  She threw out her issues of Seventeen when she came home to retrieve her belongings.  We watched as she pulled out of the driveway,  a U-haul trailer in tow.  

Months later, when I arrived for my visit, the towels lay on the bed for me just the way I always put them out for her on trips home from college.  She served me a cold drink.  Offered me a snack.  Made me feel at home in her home.  It was like watching a movie of myself.  Our visit was short but we covered a lifetime of memories. Shared thoughts.  Ideas. Dreams for the future.  We laughed a lot.  

When it was time to leave, I grabbed a pen, a piece of note paper from her desk top and wrote a note thanking her for the visit.  I told her that we were so PROUD of her.  Then I went out the door, taking with me the hug she gave me earlier.   I left her home and headed for mine.  

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you mothers.

          I love March Madness.  Here we are almost to the end of the NCAA tourney.   I’m still revising TESSA AND CLAUDINE and my main character, Tessa, has become a big basketball fan now that she’s moved to Indianapolis, a big basketball state.  In fact in a recent chapter she attended a high school tournament at the Butler fieldhouse, so in light of that I’m rooting for the Butler Bulldogs.  I know it’s a long shot, but Tessa wants me on their side.

          The fun part about writing fiction is that the characters slowly come to life as the story progresses.  At first, they are like paper dolls.  I can get them to do what I want.  But, not for long.  The characters soon start driving the story forward on their own.  I remember the time, when I was writing my first book, ROW AWAY FROM THE ROCKS, and my husband invited me out to dinner.  (I think it was because he came home from golf at dinner time and I was still working on the computer).  

          At dinner, he said, “So how’s your book coming along?”

          “Okay, I guess,” I said, “but I’m so angry at Carrie, my main character.  She always has to have everything her way.   I’m getting sick of her attitude.”  

          My husband rolled his eyes and looked at me like, oh man, she’s really gone over the edge.   As for me, I got excited because at that moment I realized that my character had become real.  

           And now my characters in TESSA AND CLAUDINE hve reached this stage.   Each time I sit down to redo a chapter, I reread the chapter before making changes and wonder just where some of the scenes came from.   I suppose I have my characters to thank for some of the fun surprises.

           Well here’s hoping we have some plenty of surprises in the tournament next weekend.  Obviously, we have four dynamite teams– Duke, Michigan State, West Virginia, and Butler – vying for that top spot.

New recipe added:  Chicken enchilada recipe is listed  in the recipe section.    These enchiladas are delicious.

We went on this fantastic Western Carribbean cruise  — Cayamo,  A Journey Through Song and LOVED it.  We listened to concerts day and  night  for five days- it was great.  The musicians:  Lyle Lovett, Brandi Carlisle, Emmylou Harris, John Hiatt, Steve Earle, Shawn Mullins, Chuck Cannon (my favorite), and a host of others wowed us.  I went to a songwriters workshop and ever since I’ve been playing with words night and day.  

TESSA AND CLAUDINE – REVISION TIPS:  I’m rolling along with my novel, revising each chapter, making sure the reader can see the scene, and cutting out parts.  I may like a certain paragraph, or scene, but I ask, “Does this relate to the  overall story?”  If the answer is no, then no matter how well it’s written, I push the delte button.  It hurts, but it has to go.  I remember a writing instructor saying, “If you’re writing about an Indian, then everything you write must in some way relate to the Indian.”

I’m sharing chapters with a cousin who’s writing a memoir.  We read and critique.  It works well.  She catches things I can’t see.  I recommend this type of back and forth critiquing with one person you trust to do a good critique.  Sometimes we get too close to our work that we can’t see the small mistakes.  Knowng my cousin is going to want to touch, taste, see and feel what is going on is helping me to make sure I appeal to the senses.

On the cruise, I saw lot of families.  I visited with sisters traveling together.   Often the sisters seemed so different in personality, but there they were laughing, singing, having a great time together.  It gave me hope that I could get my two characters back in touch with one another.   

My sister, Charlotte, and I had our many differences, but we both liked to cook.  She loved my chicken enchiladas.  I’m going to add that recipe today.   Let me know if you like it.  (Look under Recipes for the chicken enchilada recipe.)

Any other Cayamo fans out there?

Well here it is Abe Lincoln’s birthday, a significant day indeed.  I grew up in Vandalia, Illinois, the Land of Lincoln.  Our small town of 5,000 was the first state capitol of Illinois, so in grade school we studied former President Lincoln like he was part of the family.  My great-grandmother, Lydia Mae, lived in our house when I was a child, and her claim to fame was that her grandfather, a member of the Illinois legislature, got an invitation to Lincoln’s funeral in Springfield.  She let me take the invitation to school for show and tell.  The other significant fact today is that it is grandson, Blake’s first birthday.  

TESSA AND CLAUDINE UPDATE: I am revising Chapter 9 at the moment.  Tessa, a high school junior, just received a letter from a boy she’s dating, a college freshman.  My story’s fiction, but I use some  autobiographical tidbits –as is the case with Tessa’s letter from Bill, her college beau.  He writes Tessa and also his parents, but he puts the letters into the wrong envelopes.  Tessa gets the letter intended for his parents, and they get the letter he’s written to her.  Writing this scene took me back to that day when I read the letter my old boyfriend wrote his parents.  It was pretty darn funny.  Little did I know it would one day end up in a novel. 

ECHOES UPDATE:  Our poetry book is doing well.   The Eden Prairie, MN, newspaper had a great article about ECHOES and Rachel Nelson, my granddaughter and 12 year old co-author.  They had a photo of Rachel, who lives in Eden Prairie, information about the poetry book, biography information about both of us, and a couple of our poems. 

Stay warm.  Snow is expected in Savannah tonight, not much, but it’s a big deal here in the South where it hasn’t snowed for many years.  I guess it’s time make one of my soup recipes. 

By the way, I now have a google and yahoo connection to my RSS feed in case you’d like to subscribe to my blog.  Come back for a visit.

Did you ever send the wrong letter to someone?

Lisbeth