Thought for the day by David Bohm
Written By: Jessica Morrell
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Jan•
21•16
“Between where you are now and where you’d like to be there’s a sort of barrier, or a chasm, and sometimes it’s a good idea to imagine that you’re already at the other side of that chasm, so that you can start on the unknown side.”
~ David Bohm
Quick Take: Search out the perfect objects to enhance storytelling
Written By: Jessica Morrell
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Jan•
18•16
Consider weaving meaningful objects or possessions throughout your story. Then make certain these objects are repeated or reappear. In Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief there are books, the alphabet etched on the cellar walls, and the beautiful accordion. The books and alphabet represent a whole world that opens up to Liesel when she learns to read, her hunger for knowledge, her connection to her adopted father Hans and the Buergermeister’s wife who daringly loans her books. The title reflects this–young Liesel was so desperate to learn to read that she grabbed a book that someone had dropped–a gravedigger’s handbook. In one scene after a book burning ordered by the Nazis, Liesel snatches a burning book from the pile and carries it home. The accordion is a sign of friendship and connection.
Objects can also serve to push events along in a story. The family’s situation turns downright dangerous with the arrival of Max Vandenburg, the fugitive son of a Jewish comrade who saved Hans’ life during WWI. Hans now owns the accordion.
On the other hand, as the story goes along, the symbols of the Nazi regime also infiltrate, permeate the story. The flag with its swastika–an ancient symbol that once meant well-being–the armbands worn to signify Jewish identity, the troops and their powerful machinery of war.
In Stephen Spielberg’s film E.T. it’s the marigold plant.
In Lord of the Rings it’s the conch shell.
In Alice Hoffman’s latest novel The Marriage of Opposites the sea turtles come to shore every spring to lay their eggs and return to the sea. This also shows time passing and underlines the sense of magical realism and nature that permeate the story.
These items, or motifs, serve to connect the story, enhance themes, add subtext, and create emotional resonance. The objects can be static or can change such as the marigold thriving and wilting, and can also serve as sensory anchors in the story.
Keep writing, keep dreaming, have heart
Brian Doyle on Voice & Truth
Written By: Jessica Morrell
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Jan•
04•16
“I was learning a lot of times what people said was not at all what they meant….It was hard to learn all the languages spoken in our house. There was the loose limber American language that we all spoke, and then there was the riverine sinuous Irish language that the old people spoke when they were angry, and there was the chittery sparrowish female language that my mother and grandmother and aunts and neighborhood women spoke, and then there was the raffish chaffing language that other dads spoke to my dad when the came over for cocktail parties, and then there was the high slow language we all spoke when priests were in the house, and there were the dialects spoken by only one person–for example, my sister, who spoke the haughty languorous language of her many cats, or my youngest brother, Tommy who spoke Tommy, which only he and my sister could understand. She would often translate for him, apparently he talked mostly about cheese and crayons.”
Brian Doyle, My Devils, The Sun Magzine
2016 Beckons us Forward: Notes to Writers
Written By: Jessica Morrell
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Jan•
01•16
Around here the sun has made a welcome appearance and 2015 zipped past at a blazing pace. If I was the pinching-myself type, I’d have been pinching myself these past few months. Where did all the hours and days and weeks fly away to? Some mornings I woke feeling robbed by time’s velocity, but then most days I’m just too grateful for another 24 hours, for another chance at whatever lies ahead. And, of course, there were moments this past year when time seemed to stop. Moments that are seared in memory.
As this year ends I’m thinking of my mother a lot and her final days and what transpired between us. I’m thinking of my granddaughters and all I hope for them; about my future and plans that are percolating, about words and books still unwritten, friends I’m going to spend time with, plants I’m adding to our garden come spring, classes I’m going to teach.
My life circles around writing. I have a family and many loves and passions, but it always comes back to words, and the need to say what must be said. I’ve been penning ‘keep writing, keep dreaming, have heart’ in this blog and my previous one for years now. To expand on those sentiments I wanted to offer a few reminders about the writing life or whatever you call this delirious habit that possesses us. Without further or noisier ado:
- The inspiring and wise Deb Stone has been urging people to choose one word each year that will be their focus and mantra for the months ahead. It’s best to post this word in places you will see it often. Burn it in your heart. I’m still puzzling over mine, but am close to deciding. One year it was steadfast and remembering it helped me through some difficult times.
- Speaking of inspiration. It lurks around every corner, in every conversation or chance meeting or chat with a cashier. Notice. Expect it. Meet it.
- Same for enchantment.
- Curate meaningful images. It doesn’t matter the form, Instagram or an art journal or an old-fashioned scrap book. Just keep building your collection and take time to peruse it.
- Keep a word list, always on the lookout for new gems. “Words belong to each other.” Virginia Woolf
- If you’re the self-sabotaging type–I know I can be–January is the perfect month for figuring out how and why you do it. Well, maybe you cannot figure it all out, that’s what therapy is for after all, but do make a go of it. What fell through last year? Did you set a goal and then it just didn’t get accomplished? Did your energy fizzle? Did you start to doubt yourself? Did you log too many hours on the couch? What seduces you? What are your avoidance methods? What price did you pay in 2015 for sabotaging yourself? What emotions do you associate with your less-than healthy behaviors? Once you start sleuthing into your dark side, then start devising a single step or one simple action you can do day after day to beat your darkness. Say you’re the over-committed or cannot-say-no type. How about taking one obligation off your list and replace those hours with writing time? Have you served on the same (fill in the blank–school, neighborhood, cultural) committee for years and have been secretly longing to hand over the reins? Do it. Put writing or health or whatever needs to be your priority first. That toxic committee head who makes you break out in hives as the meetings progress? You’ve served your time. Seriously. Move on.
- Uncover and work with the rhythms of your body, your hungers, sleep cycle, need to stretch and move. Keep your body humming along via your rhythms, especially capitalizing on your peak hours.
Keep a list of books you read. Same for books you plan to read.- Celebrate even the smallest occasions and successes.
- This one is simple: There is never a reason to suffer alone.
- Boredom is impossible.
- Never lose faith in yourself, in your words and visions.
- Never forget that your powerful and true voice can change a person’s heart or viewpoint or purpose.
- Don’t fear desire, but don’t confuse it with addiction or obsessive or compulsive behaviors. Desire is fuel; addiction will spiral you too far from your true self, will mask pain that could fuel your best work. Compulsion saps your strength, keeps you spinning away from your own center.
- Nap.
- Be fascinated by what can go wrong in a person’s life. Apply it to your stories.
- Preserve all your notes.
Nurture a capacity, better yet, a longing for fertile and nourishing solitude. Drink from within.- Be willing to be disturbed, pissed off, saddened, insatiably curious.
- For writers and artists of all kinds, the devious and intrusive inner critic will always be with you. But it’s not your breath, not the person who nagged you most or didn’t believe in you when you were a child. And you don’t need to listen to it. Ever.
- Tea.
- No matter where you are with you writing or your relationships or your health there is always room for growth. Where you’re at this January is merely a placeholder; you can improve, learn to love harder, adapt healthier habits.
- Let go. Brim over. When you laugh do it with your whole body.
When you grieve surrender to the loss. When you love, take risks. Notice sensations, small joys, always savoring. When you eat, taste every bite. When you drink wine, taste the grapes and earth and sun. When you’re in the forest, smell the honeyed or damp air, the ferns, moss and whatever else permeates wild places. - The world is full of unspoken love, but it’s there nonetheless. It’s the heartbeat beneath this vast planet. It’s the music often not heard. Believe.
- Simply slow down whenever possible. Accomplish one thing at a time. Multi-tasking is not efficient, it’s a stressor.
- Trust in the writing.
When you feel your mood slipping or doom descending go out into the nighttime and look up. If you’re in a rut, make it a habit. Follow the timeless moon it all its shades and shapes and moods. That gorgeous, faraway pearl is a reminder of all that’s mysterious and cyclical and potent. And there is simply more consolation in a night sky than all the songs in the universe. Well, now that I think of it, cellos get to me every time–they haunt and move me and if I could pay a group of cellists to play for me while I sat in a dim room in a comfy chair, next to a fire, sipping a lovely red wine, all would be right in my world. If it’s not the moon or cellos where does your consolation come from?- Kick it in. You are so, so fortunate. Writing has chosen you. Choose back.
it all matters
Written By: Jessica Morrell
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Dec•
10•15
“It all matters. That someone turns out the lamp, picks up the windblown wrapper, says hello to the invalid, pays at the unattended lot, listens to the repeated tale, folds the abandoned laundry, plays the game fairly, tells the story honestly, acknowledges help, gives credit, says good night, resists temptation, wipes the counter, waits at the yellow, makes the bed, tips the maid, remembers the illness, congratulates the victor, accepts the consequences, takes a stand, steps up, offers a hand, goes first, goes last, chooses the small portion, teaches the child, tends to the dying, comforts the grieving, removes the splinter, wipes the tear, directs the lost, touches the lonely, is the whole thing.
What is most beautiful is least acknowledged.
What is worth dying for is barely noticed.”
– Laura McBride
Written By: Jessica Morrell
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Dec•
08•15
“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.” ~ Jack Kerouac
Quick Take: Make your Crucible Hell-Hot
Written By: Jessica Morrell
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Dec•
07•15
In fiction the cauldron or crucible is a setting or situation that forces characters to change or make difficult decisions; to face what they’d rather not face.
I’ve written about cauldrons before and mentioned how they must be inescapable. Two powerful examples come to mind–the islands in Lord of the Rings and Jurassic Park. Let’s return to this concept for a minute. I lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the 1970s and 80s. During these decades the heavy machinery factories were starting to close down and the blue collar jobs started disappearing. For a few years I lived on the south side of town and nearby was a huge foundry. I can still remember summer evenings driving or pedaling past when the workers would be outside on break. The furnaces were deep orange and scarlet against the darkening skies, sparks flying, shooting high, the mens’ black, sweat-streaked faces, slumped shoulders, the whole thing like something out of Inferno. The place radiated with not only heat, but also danger, toil, and misery. 
Do you know how real-life crucibles work? It’s a technique started centuries ago. It’s the furnace or container for molten metal where the iron ore, for example, is placed under extreme heat to liquefy. This removes the impurities and once the impurities are melted away or separated, the steel is stronger. Crucibles are used for other metals such as aluminum, brass, bronze, and copper.
Your crucible is a potent literary device that strengthens and focuses the drama. Along with the antagonist, it will force the protagonist to act in ways he or she normally wouldn’t act. Often his or her worst fears come into play.
The crucible can be anything or place that creates unbearable pressures–a dysfunctional family, a hostage situation, a workplace, or the Titanic. Even if the crucible seems benign to outsiders, it must be a huge threat for the protagonist.
Keep writing, keep dreaming, have heart
More writing contests & resources
Written By: Jessica Morrell
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Dec•
02•15
The Writer has posted more writing contests and resources here including their upcoming contest judged by Colum McCann that awards a first prize of $1,000. But enter soon since the deadline is midnight December 6.
The fine print:
- Entry fees: one story for $25, and up to five additional stories for $15 each on the same transaction.
- Must be 18 years or older to enter.
- Visit our contest page for more details.
