The Confabulator Cafe

Author: mgreen

  • Write it down!

    Everyone has an idea for a story. To dream up ideas is a part of being human. Writing down an idea is what changes you from being a dreamer to being a writer. When an idea is unwritten it is half-real like a dream. Writing it down is the act of creation. Writing is making something out of nothing.

    Once you have your idea on paper it might need to be worked on. It might need to be changed and developed or revised. All those things are secondary because the most important and first step has been taken. You have written something down.

    So take the plunge, write down your idea! Becoming a writer is easier than you think.

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  • 5 Ways to Avoid Character Confusion

    When I’m writing I can picture all the characters from my story interacting. In my mind they are fully realized individuals with their own strengths and personalities. They entertain me with their uniqueness, their specific way of speaking and their wacky fashion statements. It’s easy to forget that a reader coming to my work fresh might not perceive the characters as I do! Readers will need to be shown all the things that make a character unique before that character comes to life for them.

    Continually putting myself in my reader’s shoes and trying to view the story as someone else helps me keep from getting lost in my own imagination or taking my characters for granted.

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  • Right Brain, Left Brain

    I don’t use existing hobbies as part of my writing because they fulfill a different need. For example, I knit but I don’t write about knitting because my knitting mind is different from my writing mind. My knitting mind is calm and analytical. Sometimes I think about mundane problems while I’m knitting and this helps me sort things out. The act of knitting exemplifies problem solving through tedious repetition and slow progress. My mind while writing is totally different and may literally be using the other side of my brain. When I am writing I think in an excited way and can make big jumps between ideas. Like this…”Hey, wait maybe I could write about knitting. Perhaps a series of mystery books where the heroine is the owner of a local yarn store and each book comes with a pattern.” Note to self. Write that.

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  • Bad Dreams (Flash Fiction)

    “Maybe it was something I ate.” Claire said out loud, wiping sweat off the bridge of her nose with the sleeve of her t-shirt. Dan started at her, his head still on the pillow, his eyes foggy with sleep. “I’ll go spend the rest of the night on the couch.” Claire said to him.

    “You don’t have to do that.” Dan protested in a drowsy mumble. Claire took her pillow and left the bedroom. She shut the door and stuffed her pillow against the crack at the bottom of the door frame.

    Claire made her way to the kitchen, turning on every light along the way. She opened the microwave door and the refrigerator too. Their meager light doing some small part to abate the darkness of night.

    She turned on the radio and glanced back at the bedroom door. The pillow was still in its place blocking light and sound from reaching the sleeper within.

    Claire used the broadside of a chef’s knife to smash a couple cloves of garlic. She slipped open her cell phone and used one hand to dial a number while the other hand started the stove and pulled a skillet from the cabinet. Claire edged the phone into the crook of her neck and held it steady with her shoulder while she peeled the garlic and threw it into the hot oil of the pan.

    It only rang once before a man answered.

    “What made you change your mind?” He asked.

    “These damn dreams.” Claire said.

  • I only write in past tense, third person. That last statement is ironic, I know!

    Without a doubt my favorite point of view to write in is third person past tense. I especially like to write in the style where you can see inside one person’s thoughts, whoever the main character is. I know that’s not omniscient because omniscient is being able to see everyone’s thoughts. And I know it’s not limited because limited is where you can only see what people do, not what they think. So I’m not sure what this point of view is called, but it’s the only way I write.

    OK, I just went and looked up the wikipedia entry for Narrative Mode. It describes my standard point of view as being “Third person, subjective, limited.” Third person because my narrator never uses the words I or we. Subjective because one or more characters feelings and thoughts are described. Limited because the narrator cannot describe things unknown to the focal character. If someone has a different opinion on how the narrative mode of my writing should be classified, then I’m all ears.

    I have deliberately tried other points of view. For example, I wrote a pretty long piece of short fiction (around 10,000 words) in present tense. A lot of the feedback I got on that was that my readers thought it should be a screenplay. This feedback made me wonder how much point of view affects how the story is received by the reader. Maybe different types of stories would work better with different narrative modes. Maybe if one were writing a thriller, the present tense would help elicit the feeling that the events of the story are unfolding before the readers eyes.

    The idea that narrative mode affects how the story is received goes for point of view as well as tense. I did an experiment for a while where I only read memoirs. Reading that many memoirs in a row had a weird residual effect. Immediately after reading all those memoirs, I read a novel told in first person, Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk. Even though the story is completely unbelievable, and the characters are outrageous, I had a difficult time remembering that it was was fiction. I don’t write in first person but I suspect that it may engender more empathy in the reader kind of like how my use of present tense made readers think they should be seeing events in movie form.

    Hmmm. It would be funny to write an entire story in the future tense. But would it really be taking place  in the future or would it sound like a bunch of prophecies from the present? What about languages that have other tenses and perspectives which English does not have? Anyone have any experience with that? Are there any points of view which are impossible to translate into English?

    So, anyway.  I just don’t spend a lot of time thinking about that stuff. Maybe I should. I’ll set a challenge for myself to write a different flash fiction piece in each narrative mode anyone suggests to me. So comment away, here’s your chance to throw down the gauntlet!

  • Online Dictionaries FTW (for the win.)

    My favorite resources online for writing are online dictionaries. Love them, love them, love them. Here I will review my favorites: Google dictionary, urban dictionary, A Word A Day, and rhymezone.

    Everyone knows that google.com is a search engine. But it has many other features. For example, if one types a word into a Google search bar along with the search term “definition”, Google will return a dictionary entry for that word above the other search results. That is a feature I use every single day.

    Notice the synonym.

    I use urbandictionary.com to check the meaning of slang, but this website is not as useful as it could be. It allows anonymous contributors to add words. This leads to a situation where search results usually have multiple entries by different authors for each phrase, some of which are serious and many are jokes. Urban Dictionary is a good example of how allowing wide participation can drive down the value of an online resource. Another criticism I have of this site is that every entry has an option to buy a product attached to it, so why have a dictionary at all if the site is just to sell customized mugs?  The main value of this site is that I can always find the phrase I am looking for, even if it is in no other dictionaries.

     

    The antithesis of that same concept is A Word A Day available at wordsmith.org/awad. This site is a wonderful resource and an example of how narrow curation by a reputable editor increases the quality of an online dictionary. A Word A Day is not as easily searchable as other online dictionaries, but it is written with a high level of accuracy. As one might expect from the name of the site, there is a word every weekday. Every week has a unifying theme. In addition to the definition of the word of the day, there is etymology and thoughts from the founder, Anu Garg, about the word of the day.

    Rhymezone.com is my favorite online dictionary because in addition to searching for definitions, antonyms and synonyms one can search for rhymes as well as references in Shakespeare! The look of the site is kind of old school, but it functions.

    What about you? What online dictionary do you use?

  • This is not “A Finished Product.”

    One time I was talking to a painter and as I watched him work I asked “When do you know it’s finished?” He laughed and laughed and never gave me an answer. I don’t really understand what the problem was with that question, but maybe it’s similar to my experience writing.

    I write on a piece until I’m done with it, then I set it aside and it becomes “A Finished Product.” I will always talk about “A Finished Product” differently than I talk about writing because they are separate things to me. I always feel good about the act of writing, but I never need to feel good about “A Finished Product.” The finished product for me is separate from the experience of creation. So when I talk about writing for this essay, I will be talking about the verb not the noun. I will be discussing the process of creation, not my finished products.

    One of my strengths as a writer is being able to instantly get in touch with my creative source. I just write and write and it comes out like water comes out of a faucet. I guess another way to say this is to state that I am never at a loss for inspiration. Of course, this does not mean that I create an infinite number of finished products. Most of this writing that occurs will never be part of a finished product.

    And that’s ok. I do enjoy this part of writing. I like that I have something that brings me fulfillment and joy that does not cost any money. I like that I can create something that wasn’t in existence before. Having something that I practice every day and get better at over time makes me feel like I am doing something meaningful with my short time on Earth.

    Another strength I have as a writer is creating a two way street for discussion of ideas. I don’t want to preach to an audience. I think asking questions and planting seeds that will grow in the reader is a much more interesting thing for me to do with writing.

    I am better at “What if?” than at stating a thesis and backing it up with evidence, etc. My strong suit, in a word, is fiction. I enjoy writing fiction very much because I practice watching things. Then when it’s time for me to write, I write about what I’ve seen and heard. These things that I’ve seen and heard and want to write about are usually true but unspoken. When I do this correctly it has the effect of perking up a sense of recognition in the reader. Something they had noticed too, but never put into words.

    This is when I feel good about “The Finished Product.”

  • Colors of a Childhood Day (Flash Fiction)

    “I think I got everyone.” I said to myself under my breath.

    The green army man was digging into my side, but I didn’t loosen my grasp on the toys at all. I walked through the pain and stared straight at Cary’s grey house on the horizon. The grey house became blurry and far-away looking as my eyes filled with tears. It wasn’t because of the green army man poking my ribs. It was because Cary had hurt my feelings again. She always did this. My mom said that Cary was just mean because she was unhappy that her older brother was in prison. I wanted to believe that, but Mom didn’t understand that Cary was meaner to me than anyone else. I forced my eyes to stay open and the tears dried up.

    When I got to the grey house, the backdoor was open, but the screen door was shut and I couldn’t pull it with my arms full. I tried to pry it towards me with the toe of my shoe, but there was no way I was putting down all this stuff after having worked so hard to gather it up.

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  • Four horsemen

    Too much time on my hands. Not enough deadlines. No vision. Worries.

    These are the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

    “Too much time on my hands” is a tricky fellow. He appears at first to be a blessing. I think, “Now I will have time to finish that novel.” But no, it does not work that way. With all the time in the world I wind up not using any of it for anything of importance. Since I am a stay-at-home parent for this year, I could easily fall into this trap if I let myself. In order to combat “Too much time on hands,” I schedule each day with specific and accomplishable tasks so that writing time is a reward I grant myself after the chores are done.

    Not enough deadlines. This is not a problem now that I am writing every Wednesday for the Confabulator Cafe. I thrive on deadlines and my best work has been on self-imposed deadlines I took on in order to enter contests. That is how I combat this second horseman, by looking up writing contests where the deadlines are fast approaching then writing something specifically to be entered in that contest.

    No vision. This is the most ephemeral of the horsemen. It clouds my mind and makes me think things that aren’t true like “I don’t have anything important to say” or “All I know is what I DON’T want to do.” In order to counteract this horseman, I return to the basics. I ask myself “What do I enjoy?” and “What makes me happy?” Another phrase which works wonders is “What types of things do I like to read?” I make small projects that are just for me. The smaller the better. Specific and easy to maintain are also desirable qualities for these teeny tiny visioneering devices. Almost always they grow until they are large enough to show others, and I can’t even remember what my problem was when I had no vision.

    Worries. Stress is such a foe. It seems to suck the will to be creative out of a person. Stress leans over off his horse and says “Why bother with writing, you and I both know there’s no point. You’re just fooling yourself with these distractions.” It’s really insidious, because there are concerns that we have to be concerned with. But do they really need to take up every single waking (and dreaming) minute of our days (and nights)? There is always going to be stuff to wring one’s hands over. I can’t very well tell people to try to forget that they are going through medical stuff or that their financial situation is perilous. That is the sort of reality that hits one in the face like a frying pan. Someday I will learn how to be at one with the universe and not worry at all. In the meantime I am going to take walks, drink lots of water, empty my mind of thoughts, and minimize the things in my surroundings that give rise to the voice of that horseman of worries.

  • Freudian slip

    As far as I know, there is no one from my real life making appearances in my fiction. I do not deliberately make characters out of people I have known. I have sometimes made characters who have similar demographic information to me, or similar age-related issues. But these characters have been no easier to write than the characters who have nothing in common with me.

    For example, one of my screenplays is about a post-college female job seeker. I myself have been a post-college female job seeker, but that character was just as difficult to write convincingly as the retired military man, child prodigy, or engineer centaur. I have written about people looking for jobs or finding happiness in making art. These are experiences I have had. But I also write about things that are not possible in the real world like man-eating shrubbery, which is definitely not based on anything I have experienced in my own life.

    Having ruled out that I am deliberately putting myself or people from my real life into the characters in my writing, I still have to examine the possibility that it is happening unconsciously. I have certainly had the experience of reading a novel and thinking to myself “Gee Bob, your Freudian slip is showing.”  What if I am revealing more of myself through my characters than I intended to?

     

    Like I explained in my post “The Creativity Hopper,” writing for me involves taking in everything around me, letting it bounce around inside my mind, then spitting it back out. This means that the filter that I look at the world through colors my perception of things. It also means that my own personal feelings about issues influence how ideas bounce around and stick to one another. What I think about those topics will also affect how I present them in my writing. That’s a lot of bias. I consider myself a postmodern writer and try to be honest about my bias. That doesn’t mean I’m in the business of writing autobiographical stuff. So the idea that my work would be transparent enough that others could glean information about me by reading my fiction is, in a word, terrifying.

    I need to have faith that I am not subconsciously basing characters on real life people in order to preserve my calm and continue creating without being hampered by self-consciousness.

    The truth is characters aren’t the most important part of my writing anyway. I don’t get too attached to them, and I don’t try to mold them into anything specific because my philosophy is to just make characters do whatever needs to happen next in the story. In that way I gravitate toward plot-based stories as opposed to what I’ve heard people describe as “character-driven” stories. When I’m reading a book I am more likely to ask “Then what happened?” rather than “What’s she like?” If the story I’ve written is good, characters won’t need to be described because they will show what they are like through the decisions they make. In that way, I hope to be more like the characters in my stories rather than making the characters more like me.