All-Star Game Memories

Continuing in our Top Ten Tuesday series, today I'm going to tell you about another one of my favorite moments ever. In 1979, when I was 12 years old, I worked with my dad for the entire summer (my parents had been divorced for four years by this point). He painted new buildings before they were inhabited--places like nursing homes, apartment buildings, etc.

This particular summer was a blast for me. My Dad was painting a building that was about 60 miles away, so he hauled a trailer onto the job site and that became our home base during the week (we went home on the weekends). We ate there, slept there, played cards there, and bonded there. We had so much fun together. 

We didn't have a television or really anything else to entertain us, except for a radio and the aforementioned playing cards. That's all we needed. One night, after we'd played cards, and talked and laughed, I found the radio station that was carrying the baseball All-Star game. I've always been an American League guy--even way back then, since my beloved Kansas City Royals are in the AL. So, I was doing my best from a small trailer in an empty parking lot in Lincoln, Nebraska to root the American League on to victory.

I laid down in my creaky bed that night with the radio pressed against my ear as the game went into the eighth inning. The American League was up 6-5 when Lee Mazzilli hit a solo home run to tie the game. Unfortunately, the National League went on to win the game, but I'll never forget the feeling of closeness I had with my dad as I switched the radio off. I think he was in the other "room" in the trailer doing paperwork at that point, but I knew he was there.  

And even though my family dynamics were far from perfect, he'd found a way to invite me into his world, and in a way, I invited him into mine (I don't think he ever really liked baseball). I couldn't have described it that way back then. I just knew that I felt a sense of security and happiness as I drifted off to sleep that night.

Technorati tags: All-Star game, radio, summer

Saving Ticket Stubs

I love this article currently running on MSNBC.com by woman named Dawn Keable who has saved her ticket stubs over the past sixteen years to every major event she's gone to. Rather than all of these events just being a blur--as is often the case for those who don't find a way to preserve such memories--she can tell you stories about each event.

Here's what she says about her collection: "Each stub has the potential to bring me to a place long ago forgotten, sometimes uncovering hints of how and why I've become the person I am today."

I have a friend who saved many of her ticket stubs in a similar fashion, but she's gone one step further by putting them in a scrapbook. She also cut out reviews from the newspaper and/or promotion flyers for the event and put those right next to the tickets.

I love this idea and I wish I had done it. I have a lot ticket stubs from events I've attended, but I haven't put them in any sort of order like these two woman have. Makes me want to go back and do it now though. Actually, that might be sort of fun to do on this blog once in a while. I could scan a ticket, and write everything I remember from the event. What do you think? Have you kept your ticket stubs?

Technorati tags: tickets, ticket stubs, memories, scrapbook, scrapbooks

NaNoWriMo Tips, Part 2

I learned how to craft a scene from a great book called "Techniques of the Selling Writer" written by Dwight Swain. He wrote the book in the 1960's so his examples are a little dated (I haven't heard of most of the movies or novels he references), but the book is so comprehensive when it comes to writing fiction, and specifically about how to craft a scene, that I'd highly recommend picking it up if you really want to write a novel.

In recent years, I've sat under the teaching of a number of novelists who also either teach Swain's scene structure directly or in some variation. (One such novelist is Randy Ingermanson who has some great writing resources available on his website--including his original "Snowflake" method that he uses to design his novels, and a deeper discussion of what I'm about to lay out for you regarding scene structure.) Swain breaks scenes down into two types of scenes. He calls them "scenes" and "sequels." 

According to Swain, scenes depict action and are laid out in this fashion:

• Goal: Early on in each scene, your POV character needs a goal. It can be small, medium, or large, but the reader needs to sense that your POV character wants something.
• Conflict: Your POV character must experience obstacles as he or she sets out to pursue his or her goal.
• Disaster: Can be large or small, but you can't give your character his or her goal. If you are writing a love story, the woman your male protagonist is pursuing needs to give him the cold shoulder, or mention an old boyfriend, or notice a man she doesn't know as she walks by.

The next time you write a scene with that same POV character, you'll be writing what Swain calls a "sequel" scene. View sequel scenes as breathers that your characters take. Here's how sequels should look according to Swain:

• Reaction: This is a time for sulking, contemplation, etc. after your character has just experienced the disaster at the end of the last scene in which he or she was the POV character.
• Dilemma: After some time for reflection, your POV character needs to be faced with a choice between two seemingly bad scenarios.
• Decision: Your POV character chooses the "least bad" choice, which leads to his or her goal the next time you write a scene in his or her POV.

So, it's a cycle that continues throughout your novel. If you use Swain's scene structure, you'll notice that your scenes will seem to come to life with an element of realism because these are the cycles we all run through during our daily lives--maybe not so cleanly and orderly, but we still go through them.

Technorati tags: NaNoWriMo, NaNoWriMo tips, fiction, fiction tips, scene structure, how to write a novel

NaNoWriMo Tips

I taught a class at my church earlier this year about how to write a novel. I've been reviewing my notes in preparation for NaNoWriMo and I thought I'd share a few tips with you if you've never written a novel but are planning to participate in the event.

After you have your characters and basic plot in mind, you either need some sort of outline or at least an idea of where you are going--otherwise you are going to include scenes that aren't pertinent to the plot. And the only reason for including a scene is to advance the plot.

Once you are ready to begin writing, you need to decide which point of view (POV) you are going to write in. Each particular scene is told in one of the following POVs:

First person (I): Told from one particular character's point of view and includes only what that particular character thinks, sees, hears, tastes, touches, and feels. In other words, you as the author can't jump inside of another character's skin to show what he or she is thinking, seeing, hearing, etc. You can show what another character is experiencing by the way he or she acts, but that's it.

You can switch from one character's POV to another in a different scene, but never in the same scene when in the first person. First person POV is very intimate, but difficult to advance in your story since you sometimes have to put your characters in awkward situations (e.g. overhearing hear a conversation or seeing something he or she wouldn't normally see). 

Second person (you): Author addresses the protagonist as "you" as if the protagonist were having a conversation with himself. This is extremely difficult to pull off and not really used unless the protagonist is speaking to a younger version of himself--maybe in letter or journal form.

Third person limited (we): Author speaks for what one character per scene thinks, sees, hears, tastes, touches, and feels. As the author you can switch from one character's POV to the next in third person limited, but never in the same scene. So, for example, the reader can only know about one particular character's thoughts, sights, etc. in each scene. The reader might be able to tell what another character thinks, sees, hears, etc. by that character's actions, but not because the reader is in his or her head. If you've never written a novel before, third person limited might be the way to go. 

Third person objective (we): Author narrates the story and writes about what can be heard or seen from outside of the characters (we). In other words, the narrator doesn't know the thoughts, sights, tastes, etc. of the characters except by their actions. The narrator sees everything that is going on, but he or she can't tell you what is going on inside of a character. Third person objective is hard to pull off. 

Third person omniscient (we): Author narrates the story from various characters' perspectives and the narrator knows everything--including the thoughts and feelings of any character…and the author often intrudes with subjective thoughts. This is convenient, but impersonal and hard to follow unless it's done extremely well.

If I get a chance, I'll post more later about scene structure.

Technorati tags: NaNoWriMo, NaNoWriMo tips, fiction, fiction tips, POV, point of view

Whatchya Reading? Friday

A friend of mine gave me a book recently by Donald Miller called To Own a Dragon. I've already read Miller's breakout book, Blue Like Jazz, and I blogged about it here. Miller and I come from different camps when it comes to politics, but I flat out love the guy's honesty and willingness to just tell us who he really is. I suspect that his books are doing so well for this very reason.

To Own a Dragon had a special appeal to me. The subtitle is "Reflections of Growing Up Without a Father." I can relate. My parents divorced when I was eight. Thankfully, I can never remember a time when my Dad wasn't in my life, although if he were alive today, he could probably painfully point to many such instances, but at the same time when you grow up without a father in the house, you still miss out on a lot between visits every other Sunday. And you never really find a good substitute during the other 13 days. But my Mom tried.

She put me in Cub Scouts, but that wasn't my thing. She tried to bring me around adult male relatives hoping that one of them would be able to offer some valuable insight into manhood, but I never really got close to any of them. So, when it came to girls, and sports, and many other things, I sort of had to figure them out on my own. Since I didn't really know what I was missing by not having a father in my household, I just did the best I could, but this passage from Miler's book really got me: 

"For me a father is nothing more than a character in a fairy tale. And I know fathers are not like dragons in that fathers actually exist, but I don't remember feeling that a father existed for me...I don't say this out of self-pity, because in a way I don't miss having a father any more than I miss having a dragon. But in another way, I find myself wondering if I missed out on something important."

Miller is adamant that a person can never really find an earthly substitute for a father, but he did find the next best thing. A couple from his church asked him to move into an apartment over their garage. He lived there for four years and he got to see healthy interactions between the man and wife, and between the man and wife and their children. He wasn't always appreciative of it, but eventually he saw the light.

In a chapter called "Spirituality: God is Fathering Us" he noted that the "Our Father" prayer starts out with two intimate words that address the Father to the fatherless and that he was only now beginning to know such intimacy. Here's the way he described it:

"There is a part of me, and I think it is a growing part, that believes if I submit to God, read the Bible and obey His commands, and also talk to Him about stuff going on in my life, in His own way, He is fathering me toward maturity."

If you know somebody who grew up without a father--especially a man, think about picking him up a copy of this book.

What are you reading this week? Care to share with the rest of us?

Technorati tags: Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz, To Own a Dragon, father, sports

Nanowrimo

Nanowrimo is almost here again. Every November, budding novelists sign up for National Novel Write Month (or Nanowrimo) hoping to write 50,000 words before the month is over. People register at the Nanowrimo website, and then update their word count every time they write. I signed up last year and didn't come anywhere near hitting 50,000 words. Too many other deadlines got in the way.

I signed up again this year even though I have even lower expectations than I had last year. Certainly doesn't hurt to sign up though. My problem is, it's hard to focus on fiction when nonfiction pays the bills. But baseball season is over (except for the World Series), so maybe I can find some time at night to work on my novel. I've had an idea for a novel in my head for over a year and I haven't spent much time working on it.

The novel I want to write will be around 80,000 words, but even if I could write 25,000 (about 1,000 words a day) in November, I'd be thrilled because I'd be about a third of the way done. So, that's my goal. We'll see if I can do it.

How about you? Have you been wanting to write a novel for a long time, but just haven't made the time to do it? Now might be the perfect time to give it a shot.

Technorati tags: Nanowrimo, National Novel Writing Month, novel, write a novel