Natalie Bright

Last week Mathis Rogers borrowed Natalie Bright's "Brainstorm for Critique Groups" for epubnationwide's newsletter, "The Quill." True to her name, Natalie tells about a bright way to work through a section of your story when you find yourself suddenly stuck.

Read about it, and if you get stuck, try it.

Then, why not learn more about the person behind those words at nataliebright.com. If you are an aspiring author trying to juggle home responsibilities, a day job, and writing, Natalie just may inspire you.

(c) 2012, Bernice W. Simpson

A Warm-up for Your Muse

Where do you get your ideas? That’s a typical interview question posed to writers. My answer on a profile form for The Writer's Quill, http://epubnationwide.com/quill newsletter edited by 


   

Mathis Rogers in Lubbock,Texas, started like this: "Ideas surround us." And they do. If you’re stuck, it’s likely the right and left sides of your brain are not in sync.

Left: “hurry up, and start working.”

Right: “I’m not ready.”

To push it makes as much sense as to scarf down a greasy burger when you’re hungry. Like your stomach, your page may fill quickly, but with results akin to indigestion. So, don’t force it. Relax while your sleepy muse gears up. If a few minutes of deep breathing don’t work, try this activity.

 As if daydreaming, look out the window. Make a bulleted list of five to ten items you see. Use simple words. For example, Looking through a picture window at my house, I see:

• Part of an elm tree in front of our house
• The street
• The neighbor's sidewalk
• Neighbor's lawn
• The tree in their front yard
• Sprinkler

Copy the list. Be more observant, and look at each item you listed again. Start with and one, and add details.  For example,

• Part of an elm tree in front of our house; colors—leaf green, silver (from sun reflection), bright leaf green, side of the trunk, textured brown tones to black
• The street—asphalt, mottled grayish brown, concrete curb
• The neighbor's sidewalk, swept clean, unlike ours littered with twigs dropped from our elm trees
• Neighbor's lawn, evenly mowed, edged
• The tree in their front yard—in afternoon light, it is dark green with dark and light sage highlights
• Sprinkler—on, spurting fine droplets three feet in the air, misting (looks like white smoke at times) as a breeze blows them toward the sidewalk

Continue to look, moving from keen observation to relaxed gazing and back again. Explore adjectives that describe the scene, or any part of it. Do any contrasts come to mind? Have you observed any motion? If so, where? Does the picture stir any emotions in you? What are they? If you were to paint the picture, what would you add or take away? Does any part of the actual scene or picture revised in your mind inspire you to tell a story about it? If so, what characters would you add to it? Can you apply analogies to it: as peaceful as…, appearing as if…, not unlike…, and so forth.

Before you finish your exploration your muse will be fully awake and ready to help you complete the work you sat down to do.

Name the document you created. Save it in a file—perhaps “Muse Warm-ups.”  Experienced writers say such writing bits and pieces are like a quilter’s excess fabric. One day’s scrap creates the perfect accent or thematic symbol needed for a future project.  

(c) Bernice W. Simpson

Your Mission: Write! By Mathis B. Rogers

If you are on anyone's "Fun Forwards" lists online, you no doubt received the "First Pictures from Mars" photo sent from either Spirit or Opportunity - I can't remember which one got there first - of the red planet with Wal-mart on the left-hand side of the photo. I can almost assure you that the Wal-mart Planning Committee did not send it out. I must admit that I am surprised that we were not bombarded with reruns of "My Favorite Martian" on TV or new shows concerning people living or life on Mars.

As a writer, what does this adventure do to your imagination? If you are not interested in Sci-Fi probably nothing. Some of my characters have been to a few parties on Mars and had a good time, but weren't really impressed with Mars, itself. It's dry and dusty. Not much different than the South Plains of West Texas. We do have a few trees here. There are none on Mars.

In July of 1994, the Shoemaker Comet hit Jupiter. If you've watched reruns of Bewitched, you know that Witches and Warlocks do not like the image that Mortals portray of Witches at Halloween. Therefore, in my story, Halloween Night, the Witches Council created a virtual ski resort at the location of the impact. Almost all Witches and Warlocks spend the entire week of Halloween at the resort, so if any of your friends ever disappear during that week, you'll know they're hanging out at Jupiter's ski resort.

The Moonbeam Lounge is the place to hang out after skiing on the slopes. Members can also workout in the gym and relax in the hot springs. Ice-skating on the frozen lake between the Moonbeam Lounge and the Starlight Restaurant while the moons of Jupiter reflect off the snow, also make for a fun, romantic time on Jupiter. Mortals are not allowed at the resort, so if you take one, they will turn to stone. It's a three minute flight to Jupiter from Hayden, Vermont, where my main character, Shane Jordan, lives. But after a conflict of trying to decide what to do about something, he gets so angry that he tears down his great-great grandparents four-story mansion with a gust of wind and makes the flight in two minutes.

In The Golden Locket, another story in the fantasy collection, my main character doesn't find out that he's a Warlock until he's 29. He has acrophobia. What would it be like to be able to fly and be acrophobic? He does okay until he leans up against the "wall" and falls off of Cloud Nine.

It's surprising what "Fun Forwards" and things I see in everyday life can do to get my over-active imagination really going. 

What gets your imagination flowing?

Your Mission: Write!