How to Say When April 30, 2016
Posted by Isobel Freer in Writing.Tags: Advanced Writers, Writing Instruction
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[Editor’s note. This week’s post is adapted from unpublished correspondence, dated c. 2008, to a young writer.]
The first question a writer must resolve is the why of her writing. What is your dream—what is your purpose. What do you need to accomplish.
All words—all images—process from that choice. All directives have consequences that likewise proceed from that choice. Think of the images used as an arrow. All arrows have a direction; they do not wander—they pierce an object in a straight line of trajectory.
If your images do not commune with your reader, your trajectory is alienation. And it becomes your life.
That is from the long view—the causal effect of art on you, the artist. The impact of alienation on your work, however, derives from the reality that all words have power. It is a power not merely because of how each is defined (definition) nor how each is felt (connotation) by the human community at large.
Nor merely because of how each subjectively connects to you, the writer.
Nor merely because of their impulse within the reader (which would vary from reader to reader)—I mean here how they charge or ignite ideas and impressions within each.
Words and images have power in a cumulative sense—how they relate to each other. They are defined and resonate (or not) dependent on how they interact in the work itself.
That way of relating to each other might be said to be kind of like life itself: each piece has the individual power of its words and images and a collective one formed by the community of the words in each piece.
Art styles that are chaotic [what I have come to call ‘firewords,’ coined from fireworks] place the greater strain on community.
When a writer uses images that lack beauty, he must replace them with pathos. That is what ‘dark beauty’ is. Without either beauty or pathos, you risk alienating your reader. The reader’s participation in the process is critical to the exercise of writing. If you lose/alienate your reader, you do not get a second chance to catch him.
That tension between writer and reader is the great equalizer. Lovers—friends—family—they all laud and cry out, “Magnificent!” when introduced to the work of those they know and adore.
The world has no reason to.
The real horror of writing is knowing when to say when. It is, finally, what divides the amateur from the true.
Scary thought.
©2008 Valerie Isobel Freer. Unpublished papers.
And More Play April 27, 2016
Posted by Isobel Freer in Writing.Tags: Bio Notes, Writer's Groups
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[Editor’s note. When I was still a member of 10 Days Before (which is where my Café Blue originated), the leaders posted a series of questions for each of us to answer and post at the website as our profiles (10 Days Before is a successful and popular Meet-Up group in Atlanta for writers).
When I left the group, I copied my profile notes, and thought they might serve to further introduce me here, too, and add a bit of fun for a mid-week post.
I have edited for later life changes/progresses/regressions…]
Introduction
City girl since ’79. Writing since third grade. If I were a cat, I’d be in my sixth life. Simply because of endings. And I’d have long silver hair with tips of black shivered through like a dark mist—and gold eyes. But I am not a cat. I’m ajar.
We have all types of writers in our group! What kind of writing do you do? (Poems, Fiction, Non-fiction, Articles, Blogs, etc.)
Literary trajectory: poetry, fiction (novels & shorts), essay, blogs, memoir, private journal, & voluminous correspondence.
Some days it’s tough to stick with it… what motivates you to keep writing?
Fiction, poetry, lined paper, a pen, Beautiful Language, the click-clack of cadenced syllable, fire-words, sounds in a city night, image, shattered promise, truth, small 
irreverences, danced frenzies, sight, misunderstandings, curiosity, interior brick walls, glumness, half-closed eyes, a blazer made of grey wool, faith in God, two oceans, a mountain, winged horses, a clown in a brown suit, monks chanting the hours, the literary Canon, despair, a closet in a small room, whispers, seven days in October, requiems, questions, the darkness outside my window, a fragrance made of white flowers, a woman with white-blue eyes & auburn hair, after, one footbridge across a bayou, hope, a house that has a name, long vowels, joy, charm, moments stripped of all but essence, sweetness, colour, empty winter chapels at seven a.m., blue & white porcelain, an antique clock, jasmine tea, a blue wine glass etched with small flowers, the us of me+you, predawn coffee, indoor gardens, two secrets not told, a small teddy bear, January, & one black dress.
Have you ever been published before, or are you just getting started in the writing world?
Work published in a high school journal (1970), a college journal (1975) and an anthology (1976)…already veering toward the Dark Years. Began writing again, summer, 1999 and sending work out again, May, 2000. Currently have work submitted and am preparing several caches of poetry for projected January 2012 2016 submissions. First blog, 2007 with first post Saturday, October 27, 2007. Subsequently created seven eight blogs. One completed novel still in edit mode, four chapbooks still in edit mode, one completed ‘short’ short story that has been/will soon be again in circulation, plus several incomplete novels, a few sometimes-circulated essay/memoirs and other works-in-progress. Began keeping a journal the third time in 1985 and have continued to present. I write under three four different names for better handling of the sometimes surprising & always disparate clamour of voices within me…
To help us keep our group informative and useful, please tell us what do you hope to gain from joining our group?
Escaping the empty room, where words become projectiles that ricochet back and impale.
©2011 Valerie Isobel Freer. Personal papers. Images ©2007 Isobel Freer. Personal logo(s).
Cheat Sheet for Beginning Writers April 23, 2016
Posted by Isobel Freer in Writing.Tags: Writing Instruction
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[Editor’s note. Last week, I took out two-thirds of the post I was creating, intending to break it up into a couple of posts. We all know what happened next: I lost the critical portion, which would have created the segue from that article to a writing sample I was intending to use from Writing Fiction 2015. Since I often find myself editing one word at a time, rather than keeping two copies of the blog up (wherein I can edit the draft without stopping to save), I had passed the twenty-five retros allowed by WordPress before I realized I had overlooked saving it as a separate draft.
We’ve all done this enough times now that it is a mere blip in the universe of lost things, so I am going in a different direction this morning. The following is for beginning writers, and is pulled from my work at Café Blue. I created the document on two sides of a half sheet of 8.5×11 card stock and handed it out in the early weeks of our meetings. Some of the ‘rules’ pull from quips I have devised along the way to craft reminders for beginning writers.
Quips allow the playfulness essential to writing: after all, as I would frequently tell my 
fellow writers, artists break all the rules. That distinction was, in fact, my downfall as a ‘teacher,’ as I found myself contradicting all that I attempted to hand on with that caveat.
Playfulness must be the distinction here, then, especially when hard, strong words are utilized without exclamation points to offset!
If teachers would like to print the rules out on card stock to hand out/discuss in class, please be sure that the copyright notice and link to this blog are printed on each copy. And feel free to comment below with student reactions or questions.]
RULES & QUICK POINTERS FOR WRITING FICTION
Know the rules. Follow the rules. When you break the rules, break them with impunity.
PART ONE
- BELIEVE in your work
- We can’t always do it for you
- Learn difference peculiar to you between creative & edit modes in your brain
- Don’t edit when in creative mode
- Stay in creative mode until YOU are ready to move on into edit
- Maintain balance between critique & ‘closet’
You will train yourself to attain & achieve this balance over time- Too much time in critique borders on hubris
- Too little time in critique leaves you in an empty room
- Words will begin to bounce about in a vacuum
- Words will begin to impale (and/or suffocate) you
- Words will begin to bounce about in a vacuum
- Pay attention to the dream you’ve created of what a writer is
- Recognize its boundaries
- Know its pitfalls
- Don’t underestimate dry periods
- A writer is always eyeing life, edgy, ready to learn
- Dry period is a ‘work’
- Answers question “What are you doing right now?”
- Dry period is also a ‘place’
- Answers question “Where are you in your writing right now?”
- Dry period is a ‘work’
- A writer is always eyeing life, edgy, ready to learn
- Always doublespace your manuscript
- Industry standard
- Treat your words from moment of creation as the manuscript they are
- Don’t EVER throw away your work
- Computer manuscripts are destroying earlier versions of work
- Writers still print out versions – date & keep in file
- Manuscripts have an autonomy of their own separate from you
- You are ‘merely’ their creator
- Give them the respect due
- Your draft copies are proof that you created your work if someone sues you for plagiarism
PART TWO
- Don’t Bore Me
- “Show, don’t tell” is the industry standard for contemporary fiction
- My rule is easiest way to learn to incorporate that standard
- Create an IMMEDIATE emotional place in your opening sentence for your reader
- Tread very lightly when dealing with that place
- Don’t do heavy-handed
- Create a question in your opening paragraph for your reader
- Something he must explore or find out or resolve
- Some reason to keep reading
- Use DETAIL to draw a picture of what you are seeing for your reader
- Practice creating a paragraph of concrete details until you internalize this rule
- Won’t take so long as you’d think!
- “Tell” (as opposed to show) is still allowed in literary writing
- Make sure you give reader reason to endure it
- Learning craft is like learning multiplication tables
- Gift & talent cannot be learned
- They can only be honed
- Avoid homogenous ‘white bread’ writing style
- Use Beautiful Language
- Use ‘sizzle’ words
- Use rhythm & cadence even in non-poetic writing
- Vary sentence length
- Remember to vary ‘sizzle’ with ‘plainspoken’
- Don’t allow word(s) used to pull reader from story
- Reframe the King’s English – torture it! Set it free!
- Gift & talent cannot be learned
- Tread very lightly when dealing with that place
- ALWAYS step back from your reading and evaluate what picture you allowed reader to see
- Reader will certainly fill in the blanks on his own
- You, however, are in charge of what blanks he can fill in
© 2011 Valerie Isobel Freer. https://commentaryoptional.wordpress.com/
Quick typo oversights/corrections 23 Apr 2016
commentary optional 