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My grandmother, Bernice, braided this rug. Grandma was born in the tiny village of Łuczaje, Poland and came to the United States when she was 6 years old. She married my grandfather, Walter, when she was 16, and the following year my father was born. Bernice and Walter had 12 children all together. They farmed in Wisconsin, and in her "spare time" after cleaning, cooking, canning food for winter, making clothes, doing outdoor chores, and taking care of 12 kids, my grandma braided rugs.
I imagine Bernice (her Polish name was Bronisława), after a full day of hard physical work, sitting down to braid rugs. Was braiding just one more chore, or was it a way for her to express her creativity?
My aunt recently gave me one of Grandma's rugs, and it's now one of my prized possessions. I think about the material she used: children's clothes that had been handed down several times. Old coats that had seen several winters. Worn-out dungarees from the farmhands and boys. Scraps of material from girls' woolen stockings or dresses. Faded wool blankets that were torn into strips.
From all this used material, my grandma created something new and beautiful. From all the threads of her family's life, she braided a work of art with a tale to tell.
Isn't that a lot like our stories?
We start out with "used" material. We find the threads of the story. We braid the threads of our experience to create something new. And in the end, we have a work of art that tells a tale.
Try your own braiding. Not a rug, but a story. Think of two or three incidents or "threads" from your family's life. Write about one of those threads, incorporating colors, textures, and material from your family's experience. Maybe your threads are something that happened to you. Or maybe they're something you've heard family members talk about.
When you're done writing, share your story with your family. Like a beautiful braided rug, your story will be a work of art with a tale to tell--a tale that no one else but you could create from the fabric of your life.
Do you ever feel like you have no ideas? Lots of writers feel that way. Here's a way to make sure you'll never run out of ideas to write about.
Find a box. Any old box will do: an empty shoebox, a box from the grocery store, or simply a box you find around the house.
This is your Idea Box. If you'd like, decorate it to make your box feel special.
Whenever you feel like it, put things into your Idea Box. What kind of things? A ticket stub from a movie. A candy wrapper. A canceled postage stamp from another country. An interesting word you write on a scrap of paper. A striped sock that has lost its mate. A cool rock you found on the sidewalk.
Don't think too hard about what you put in your Idea Box: just whatever grabs you.
After a while, you'll have a lot of stuff in your Idea Box. Here's where it gets really fun.
One day, you'll think you have no ideas to write about. But you do! They're right there in your Idea Box. Go to your box and pull out three things without looking. For example, the candy wrapper, the rock, and the striped sock. Remember--no looking! The Idea Box works best if what you choose is random.
Write a story about those three things. What if a magical rock can turn lonely socks into chocolate candy?
Keep filling your Idea Box with stuff. That "stuff" will turn into ideas for awesome stories only you can write!
When is a tree just a tree? And when is it a poplar, maple, birch, pine, cedar, or Douglas fir?
Sometimes in a story, a tree serves as a background: "The trees swayed in the wind." "The branches creaked on the dead tree."
At other times, a particular tree needs its particular name. "The bark on the birch tree peeled off like paper." "He climbed the tall maple in the backyard, hiding in its red leaves." It's the difference between someone calling you by name or saying, "Hey, you!"
A couple of weeks ago I went for a hike in the Olympic National Forest and took the above photo. Those of us on the hike debated whether the trees with the whitish bark were birch trees or alders. (I still don't know.)
If I were to put these trees into a story, I'd ask myself if it was important to know what kind of trees they were. If the name was important to the story, I'd head for the nearest computer, nature guide, or forest ranger.
Even if we don't use the tree name in our story, it's good for us writers to know the names of things that surround us. The more we master particular names, the more we understand our world. That way, the world becomes richer, and so do we.
Find a tree whose name you don't know. Look up the name, and write a description of it in detail. Draw it if you'd like. What color and shape are the leaves? Is the bark black, brown, gray, white, or all of the above? What role could this tree play in a story you're writing?
Now excuse me while I look up the name of "my" trees.
I missed posting last Monday because I was following-up on the Field's End writers' conference I helped plan. It was a great conference, with several speakers and presenters and about 175 writers. I gave a talk about "Writing Groups and the Craft of Critique."
Today I want to talk about shadows. It's sunny here today on Bainbridge Island, and wherever there is sun, there are also shadows.
It's fun to see your own shadow, like in this photo I took of mine. Sometimes your arms look huge and your head looks tiny.
There's another way to look at shadows. Some writers think of shadows as the dark side of a character. We all have a dark side, and so do our characters. We may have a sunny personality, but sometimes we feel moody. We may be truthful, but sometimes we tell a white lie. We may be honest, but sometimes we do things that are less than 100% honest.
If you pay attention to your character's dark side, you give that character depth. No one is ALWAYS sunny, truthful, and honest.
Look at a character you've written about. If your character is too good to be true, can you add one characteristic that may show the shadow side of your character?
Maybe your character is on his way to his friend's when he finds a $10 bill on the sidewalk. What does he do?
Maybe your character is late to class. How does he explain his lateness?
Maybe your character wakes up and remembers she forgot to do her homework. What does she do?
Let your character's "shadow" turn your character into someone believable and true.
