Blog # 5 Lisa M. Russell "I have already changed my mind"

At first, I was annoyed by Elizabeth Strout’s use of perspective. A confused reader is never good. As I studied her use of third-person omniscient Revealing the character's thoughts and emotions allows us understand the purpose of the story.

Most of my experience as a writer is nonfiction. (The book cover is one of the studies I wrote for a woman's group I taught). As an inexperienced fiction writer, I began telling my only story from the main characters point of view. It is easy to see how using a first person narrative can stop a story. I will experiment with the use of this god-like point of view to involve more characters in the story. I may use the first person narrative as a way of getting the story out and the point, but switch once it becomes too self involved and claustrophobic.

In the end of Strout's book the reader feels something. Anger or regret are valid emotions even if in the end you dislike the characters - but you feel something. That is why people read fiction- to feel something. Spending so much time writing and the reader finishes the book with no emotion would seem to be a waste of time.

My reflections may seem simplistic to other fiction writers in our class, but they are honest about where I am at as a writer. I have learned so much from all of you. We learn so much from other writers. In an interview Elizabeth Strout made these comments about her mother (who by the way is not Olive Kitteridge. The author confides that Olive is a composite of her many Maine relatives):

Strout knew from childhood that writing was her future. Wasn't that what her mother was encouraging? Didn't she teach writing in high school? Wasn't it clear that she herself wanted to write?

"It was just in the air," Strout says. "She was always talking about writing." Yet she never wrote. Strout doesn't know the reason. They didn't discuss it. Still, she ventures a guess: The act of writing "requires some element of revealing oneself," she says, and that was something her mother "probably didn't want to do."

(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/03/AR2009080302901_4.html?sid=ST2009080302989)

Strout told about an experience in a writing class where she had to write one page and be completely honest. (Maybe inspired by "write one true statement" from Hemingway) She confessed how hard it was to complete that assignment. She discovered that we write the things we feel ashamed about feeling - that is why honesty is hard. Once you do write this way, the words will "read like magic and it will be universal." This blog is a priceless opportunity to write honestly to those who would understand the most.

Blog #5 Perspective Toni Michael

Call me chicken—because I am. Suffice it to say that when it comes to perspective I take the easy way out. When I write fiction, I like to write in third person. I love the omniscient narrator because it makes me feel like God—all knowing and ever present.
The omniscient narrator is the Grand Director developing the vision of story and seeing that vision carried out. The omniscient narrator can float in and out of anyone’s mind. He can move around telling a story using multiple characters and their varying personalities and perspectives. Stealthily he shapes views, creates scenes, and interprets actions. I find this fascinating.
In Creative Nonfiction, I attempted to write in first person and found myself feeling like I was running up against a brick wall. I would back off only to find my nose bleeding and that I had two black eyes. In first person I couldn’t tell or describe the thoughts of another person. I found it very limiting. Working on this blog entry, I have come to the realization that I need to make myself experiment with perspective. Perhaps practice writing the same piece from different points of view and from the perspective of different characters.

Blog 5 - Jessica Quinn

When I started my first book, the one I’m working on now, Faith-based Public Relations, I was in a bit of a quandary about how to “voice” the book. To use it as a textbook, it would make sense to be in third person. Yet, my stories are very personal and writing them that way just didn’t flow and my stories are often the lessons. The ultimate goal of this book is for me to use it as I teach PR as an adjunct again someday, so I decided that I’d write it as if I were in the classroom teaching and talking about PR. I’d write first person and become the teacher from the pages.

I’ve had a mix of responses, but those who feel they have learned something from the text have appreciated the first person and have said they can “hear me” telling the stories. I love that! I hope it will translate to those who don’t yet know me. I’ve also gotten a critical opinion that when telling my stories that it can come across as “bragging and name-dropping.” That one hurt. So I’m working hard to find a nice balance. I need to share the stories for the teachable lesson, but I do not want to appear—ever—to be in a bragging manner. That isn’t who I am and is not the intent of the book. So the first person perspective can cause some controversy. It has for me, but I still feel that this is the best way for me to go.

As a closet wanna-be fiction writer, I look at perspective from a different light and reading these novels has really gotten my mind flowing on what I’ll do when I finally get to write a novel or short story. Reading Olive Kitteridge really got my brain working overtime about how to use this type of narrator and other character’s perspective to show the true character of the antagonist—to build it up from all sides so as not to appear as one lone opinion. I look forward to being able to work through that and figure out how that occurs. I’m one of five siblings, maybe each has a voice, or is that too much? Maybe I tell it from the perspective of the two siblings who went through the worst of time—the brain tumor. I look forward to the fiction writing class when I’ll have time to sort this out further. I’ve loved Conroy and Strout for pushing my mental buttons on perspective. Conroy, however, makes me shudder to think of writing fiction. I’m a journalist with the “Keep It Simple Stupid” or KISS rule. Strout on the other hand gave me confidence—depth in simplicity. Now that I can aim toward.

(Photo: My family at Christmas 2009)

Another O'Keeffe Black Bird - 1950

Blog #5 - Kathleen - Putting Your Book in Perspective

I first read Faulkner's book, The Sound and the Fury, one summer on the beach when I was a teenager. My father had just had a heart attack and I was struggling to make sense of our fresh vulnerability as a family. I was also struggling to make sense of that book. I couldn't figure out who was talking in each section, but it didn't really matter to me, I just liked the jumbled mass of glorious words. I had to read it a second time before I figured out that each of the first three sections was narrated by a different brother of Caddy Compson's, and that the fourth section was the objective part, told by an omniscient narrator. I became intrigued by the concept of multiple viewpoints in a novel, of variations on a theme, and how it gave a fuller, richer picture of the characters and action in a book.

I was in my twenties by then and decided I wanted to write a book like Faulkner's, with different narrators for each section. And, I thought, why not make the book about eyesight, while I was at it? A book about a girl who is having a cornea transplant, told from multiple points of view. I began with her mother's perspective, giving details about the teenage girl and how her corneas were destroyed when she pulled an open bottle of bleach down on her face as a toddler.

The second section was written from the perspective of the younger brother, who had simply made a list, a very charming list, of all the things he wanted to show his sister when she could see again. The third section belonged to the doctor who explained the surgery and its possible failings, as well as described the psychological issues that newly sighted patients often face. The fourth and final section belonged to that ubiquitous omniscient narrator, who let the reader know if the surgery was a success or not, in a very subtle way.

I wrote it all down, just as I'd planned, then typed it up. And when I'd finished, I had about 16 pages total. Sixteen measly pages. What kind of book was that? Not much of one. So that was that. I wonder where I even put that thing.

The book I am working on now is a travel memoir, so the point of view is all mine - and that never changes. But my perspective changes in the three sections of the book. In the first, I am alone in Ireland, writing about myself; in the second, I am alone with my husband, writing about our hikes in the Burren and the Connemarra, as well as our marriage; in the third, we have our children back with us and I am writing about our family life and the time we spent together on two Irish farms. Like Olive, I've learned some life lessons over the years. I think I now have the drive and the discipline to go the distance - and get the book done.

Black Bird by Georgia O'Keeffe 1946

Blog #5: Melissa Davis

In most of my stories, I tend to write in third person, usually omniscient. For whatever reason, using personal pronouns seems odd when I write. When I read Olive Kitteridge, I was amazed at Strout’s ability to seamlessly move from perspective to perspective. She is able to take the reader through Olive’s life and those people who come and go without the reader stumbling. It never seems cumbersome or unwieldy.

I took a continuing education class online two summers ago and the teacher asked us to re-write our story using a different point of view. I found it very difficult and awkward. I felt it didn’t seem like I was staying true to the story or the main character. I have to admit that the story was good, but it has never fit correctly in my head.

In my Young Adult book about ghost hunting, I am using a third person point of view. I am also experimenting with changing perspectives since there are five main characters. I have tried changing perspectives with each new chapter and within the chapter. I have yet to find what works best, so I continue to plug away at it.

In the short story, “She Found Herself” I am using the main character, Enid, as my narrator and telling the story from her perspective. I am using a third person limited voice that allows the reader to see inside her thoughts and feelings but not anyone else’s. Since this is a mystery of sorts, it only seems right that only insight the reader gets is the main character.
I liked that Sarah included some of her story, so I did the same. This is the first paragraph of the “She Found Herself”, a retelling of the Cupid and Psyche story with a Welsh twist.

She found herself standing in the middle of a large grassy area. On her left were thick woods. On her right was a large garden maze gone wild. Everything was winter-laden and stripped bare. There were no leaves to block her view or her fears. She slowly whirled around and realized she was dressed in a long cloak of dark brown wool, and her dress was of a lighter brown silk. The wind softly caressed her and she breathed in the cold air. She heard a hawk call for it’s mate, small animals scurrying in the nearby woods, and the rustle of the silk as she moved. She caught movement out of the corner of her eye. She stared hard at the woods, but saw nothing, and so she forgot it.

In honor of Conroy

Meet the newest member of my family, Savannah the Puppy. No demonic dogs here!

Ghost of Milagro Creek story of healing | ajc.com

Ghost of Milagro Creek story of healing | ajc.com

Blog # 4 Take Me There by Brittany Leazer

No doubt Pat Conroy has many qualities as a writer, that I would love to steal. His beautiful use of language, incredible imagery, and seamless story lines are all qualities I covet as a writer. But the one major quality I love the most about Conroy is his extraordinary sense of place.



As a reader, I love being transported somewhere else in the world. I love to feel the breeze in the air, I love to smell the fragrances that surround the characters I read about, and I love to see the entire scene around them open up before me. From the very beginning of The Prince of Tides, the reader is taken to the beautiful beaches of South Carolina. Every part of his description was spot on. I am from South Carolina and I have combed those same beaches many times in my life, I have also been there in my mind when life gets a little too stressful. As I was reading Conroy's words about South Carolina I felt like I was going home.



Not only did Conroy write a masterful description of South Carolina, he wrote these same kinds of descriptions throughout out the novel. I can only hope that whatever I write has the ability to take the reader on a journey with me from place to place. Sense of place is one of the main qualities, I believe, helps the reader with a suspension of disbelief. I think it is one of the greatest gifts a writer can give a reader.

Blog #4: Jess Yaun

One of Conroy’s great strengths and definitely my weakness is setting. Tom Wingo’s New York and South Carolina sprang up as complete pictures in mere sentences. I knew where I was at all times. In one sentence he tells us a concrete location along with significant details, “I grew up slowly beside the tides and marshes of Colleton; my arms were tawny and strong from working long days on the shrimp boat in the blazing South Carolina heat.” One beautifully written sentence and I already know so much.

When my story was critiqued in my fiction class I realized for the first time that I hadn’t set the place for my story. I knew in my mind that it was the Blue Ridge Mountains, but I failed to portray that, partly because I was unsure whether I wanted my location to be a factual place or a purely fictional one. I described the forest, one I walk in often, but I forgot to mention it’s in Georgia. Conroy’s novel taught me that location can be as important as the characters and the plot. The town of Colleton is specific and exact. The local people, with their traditions like Mr. Fruit and Amos’ walk with the cross, and the marshes and rivers, which come alive through Conroy’s beautiful descriptions, are more than filler and background; these are the things that make Tom Wingo’s life and world become real, moving, and lasting.

Conroy also demonstrates how significantly location affects and shapes his characters. Lowenstein is a New Yorker through and through – she knows the rules of elite Manhattan society and she is as worldly and sophisticated as the city she lives in. For Savannah, the South is a monstrous place that threatens to strangle her. Her rejection of all things Southern defines her New York existence, and yet the beauty of the South Carolina landscape weaves its way into her poetry again and again. Luke is the character most tragically affected by his setting and his passion for it; Colleton is so ingrained into his identity that he cannot live without it.

In my story, I’ve been concentrating on a wide idea of modern western society. I see now that I forgot how important a specific and local setting can be. Conroy’s work reminds me I can’t write a story based in the South and then let the history, landscape, and characteristics of such a rich place play a minor, trivial role.

Blog #2 Toni Michael

Blog Entry 2: My three most important writing friends.
In thinking about my three most important writing friends, I am struck with how isolating writing really is. Writing is characterized by an essential dialectical tension: the need for solitude and the need for collaboration. With that in mind, my three most important writing friends are myself, my husband, and my professors and classmates at KSU. Because writing is such an autonomous vocation, I have come to the realization that I can be a friend to myself or a foe to myself.
It is important for me to be a friend to myself before I can write anything down. I must do the psychological and emotional work of fighting back self-defeating thoughts that attempt to persuade me that writing is not productive work. I have to set aside time so that I can engage in reading and self-reflection. It is imperative for me to have daily times of solitude in which I can create space in my mind so that conscious and unconscious thoughts can process and synthesize what occurred the previous day and integrate the ideas and thoughts that I read. Then I must allow myself to write. Through writing, I work on any number of ideas that manifest themselves in story form, ideas which I have to share with my husband.
Whether I am in the middle of processing a thought or I have just complete a piece, my husband, Greg, will listen to my sometimes lengthy pontifications or read my writing. He not only encourages me, but he will also point out any ideas or story problems that do not connect. Greg is a constant source of feedback; however, there are times when I have suspected that he looks at my writing through rose colored glasses, which is why I appreciate the professors and my classmates at KSU.
Even though the writing community in the MAPW classes is a construct created by the professors of each class, I have found the insights, discussions, and perspectives of my professors and classmates to be invaluable. I am thankful for the opportunity to share my writing with my classmates and in turn have them share their writing with me. It allows me to see that I am not alone in the writing process; moreover, I learn and become better through their praise of my work and constructive criticism. While I would love an intimate writing circle with whom I could sit with for hours in cafes and discuss the deepest aspects of writing, I am thankful for my husband and my professors and classmates.

Book Trailer for The Ghost of Milagro Creek

Here is the book trailer for my new novel, The Ghost of Milagro Creek.

Samara Blog#4: You take the good...you leave the bad

Even though this was a very long book, it was perfect in helping me with my current story. In my story I am actually writing about a police woman and her psychologist who is a man. I am worried about allowing them to have an intimate relationship with each other, but I think that is where I would like it to go. I really enjoyed seeing Tom and Lowenstein's relationship grow through out the book. I think the fact that most of this book is written from their sessions together works really well too. I think Conroy gave enough of their interactions together to make their love believable for me.

Another thing I will most definitely steal from Conroy is his sense of place. His sense of place is amazing! I have never felt so grounded in a setting in a book. I think it partially helped that some of the setting was in a familiar local (Stone Mountain) however, I have never been to South Carolina and I have such a clear picture of the family island. Conroy did an extraordinary job of making the setting as important, if not more so than the characters. Conroy's descriptions and language are beautiful and add so much to the story. I hope I can find a way to make my settings as important as Conroy has.

Blog #4 Lisa M. Russell “Lowenstein, Lowenstein.”

Jessica Handler, Invisible Sisters, at a writer’s workshop pointed out that we do not like some books because we do not like the author’s voice. She said that was okay, because we simply do not like everyone. I never thought about voice in those terms and as the reason we like certain books and authors and not others. Pat Conroy has a voice that is liked by most people. His narrative voice runs throughout the entire book in educated poetic prose. His voice tells the story, but his voice changes as Tom heals and grows. He is freed from the bondage of his past and it even concludes in a liberated whisper: “Lowenstein, Lowenstein.”

What I am learning most from from Pat Conroy (and this class), is how much I do not know about creative writing. I am an applied student with creative writing as my supporting area. I wanted to learn creative writing from the best. It is not what I write daily, but there are stories inside me sprouting and they need to grow. When I hear Ray Atkins and others talk about their projects, I know I am the creative writing amateur. This class has stirred something in me to learn more. For instance, I am fascinated by the idea of “finding your voice” as a way of calling out the personality in your writing. I want my readers to feel like they know me and want to connect heart to heart. (I once had a "friend" tell me she didn't like something I wrote because it sounded just like me---hmmm.. maybe she didn't really like me..)

Pat Conroy’s voice in The Prince of Tides is of an educated southern gentlemen, we know his personality by the running narrative. Much has been said of his phrasing and elegant style; these elements combine to amplify his voice and the personality of the main character.

I came across a series of questions you could ask a friend who has read your writing to help you discover your voice. Ask your friend to evaluate your voice in your writing by telling you:
• Is your “voice” in your writing – How do you sound?:
o funny?
o romantic?
o poetic?
o factual?
o upbeat?
o depressing?
o straightforward?
o flowery?
• Do you write your mind?
o Express opinions?
o Or are your words over-polite and politically correct?
o Is it stilted? Does it flow? Do you sound like YOU?
• Does your writing have a rhythm?
• Do all your sentences sound the same? Are they varied?
• Do you have 'favorite' words and phrases that you repeat
often?
o If so, which ones?
o Can you find alternatives?
(http://www.write101.com/lethamfind.htm)


Another way to “find your voice”, according to Write101.com is to think of “your manuscript as a long, long letter to your reader.” (http://www.write101.com/lethamfind.htm) This puts it “voice” into a different perspective that is easy to apply to writing.

I have much to learn about voice and have discovered great teachers in our summer reading list. This class has taken me places in my writing adventures I never knew existed.

Blog #4 Melissa Davis

What would I take from Conroy? There are so many different techniques in The Prince of Tides that it is difficult to choose. Conroy’s ability to tell a story within a story with such flawlessness is an amazing feat. His natural talent for shifting back and forth in time, point of view, and action is something that I find difficult, but necessary. In my ghost hunting story, I swap back and forth between finding the group members (the past) and fighting and capturing ghosts (the present). I have found that this can be a tricky endeavor at times. Conroy makes it look effortless and easy.

Conroy also has the amazing talent with settings. He spends such exquisite words describing the people and places. His use of imagery and figurative language solidifies the importance of the places and the events that take place there. In the ghost hunting novel, there are a vast amount of settings that need a variety of detailed descriptions. Making sure I depict the setting with enough characteristics without overwhelming the reader or losing the story flow is a very fine balance. Conroy knows when to go into great detail and when to give surface details. Finding this balance is important to any story and he does it beautifully.

Conroy also uses expressive and colorful words that are always clear and easy to understand. With the simple, yet meaningful language he conveys an underlying feeling and gripped me and made not want to put it down until I understood the story. Every writer wants to hear that about their own book, and I am not any different. The idea that young adults would be so wrapped up in my story that they couldn’t put it down would be my fondest wish!

My Shopping List by Danielle Swanson

If I was shopping at Conroy Grocery, the thing I would want to put in my cart is the author's amazing ability to create literary language that so vividly and accurately paints pictures for the reader. Metaphors and similes have always amazed me, and Pat Conroy has an uncanny ability for choosing just the right one. I found myself stopping as I was reading and just looking at the words on the page in awe, inspired by his unique combination of words.
Some examples are:

• "She pulled bright images from her life like peaches from a fragrant orchard" (171).
• "Sex, the old leveler and destroyer, spreading its wicked, glorious seeds even into the houses of culture and privilege" (294).
• "I could feel the breath of God running like light through my bloodstream" (333).
• "The veins in his arm protruded like the roots of great trees along eroded banks" (487).

I am totally jealous of Conroy for this skill. I try to write literary language. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. It always starts out well: "she threw the ball like," I'll write. But that like is where I get hung up, the thing I can't get past. If I could take Conroy's skill at making this work and put it in my shopping cart, I'd ask for two and wouldn't even use a coupon.

Writing literary language is a skill, a carefully honed artform. I know it takes practice and time, and I'm giving it both. I also read and search out other people's use of words. Even if it's not as simple as pulling Conroy's talent right off a shelf, I do think seeing what he does allows me to grow in my own writing of these unique images.

Blog #4 Dina - How to Choose?

How do I choose only one thing from Conroy's writing that I would like to apply to my own? I love it all - his characterizations, his language (oh, joy!), his dialogue, his settings, his use of progression/digression (which I also liked in A Pearl in the Storm) and on and on. I kept wondering if this was truly a piece of fiction because the world and the people he creates are so real. How could someone just make up a story like this? Everything about his writing impressed and scared me and made me want to throw my current book out and start all over again. But I suppose what I got the most out of and most want to emulate is his characterization.

Conroy's physical descriptions are more than "she had brown hair and blue eyes." He is able to distinguish a character from the hundreds of other brown-haired, blue-eyed girls by offering more. He couches his descriptions in poetic language but creates vivid pictures such as in this description of his mother, "My mother appeared in the doorway, immaculately dressed and groomed, and her perfume walked out on the porch several minutes before she did. My mother always carried herself as if she were approaching the inner chamber of a queen. She was as finely made as a yacht - clean lines, efficient, expensive" (19). We don't really know what her coloring is yet I have a clear picture of her in my mind. It's probably not the same as yours, but the essense of Lila Wingo will be the same for both of us. That's what's important about character - more than the color of their hair and eyes, it's how they appear, how their appearance reflects who they are, that matters.

Conroy also reveals his characters through dialogue. Directly after the prologue where we hear Tom sing Lila's praises but also say she "would cause the ruin of my family and the death of one of us" (4), we find out how Tom feels about his mother as an adult in a few lines between Sallie and him. The phone rings and Sallie answers:

"It's your mother," Sallie said, returning from the phone.

"Tell her I'm dead," I pleaded. "Please tell her I died last week and you've been too busy to call."

"Please speak to her. She says it's urgent."

"She always says it's urgent."

Tom's lack of respect and combative relationship with his mother comes through loud and clear, as well as his habit of dealing with stress through humor. Conroy says so much here about both characters with so few words.

These are just a very few examples of what he does and how he does it. He plumbs the depths of his characters through physical descriptions, dialogue, stories of their actions, and their relationships to other characters. He creates rich, real people in his stories and draws you into their lives - their trauma, their drama, and the outcome. I loved reading about these characters and learned more about myself and my view of the world in the process. My brain was so boggled by the book that I couldn't even write about it for a day; I had to process everything. That's the power of a great book.

Blog #4- Kristi DeMeester

As an As an aspiring Southern author who wants very much to write Southern fiction in the styles of Faulkner, O’Connor, Lee Smith, and Mr. Conroy himself, I found myself filled with longing at every page turn of The Prince of Tides. Conroy’s fiction carries me back to my Georgian childhood; he speaks to the young girl in me who still runs outside into the rich humidity after a bath to catch the summer fireflies while the frogs sing around me, and my Momma is in the house threatening a butt whoopin if I don’t get inside this instant. He writes, “The moon then rose quickly, rose like a bird from the water, from the trees, from the islands, and climbed straight up— gold, then yellow, then pale yellow, pale silver, silver-bright, then something miraculous, immaculate, and beyond silver, a color native only to southern nights” (6). Of course I want to steal from Conroy. I want to take his dark magic and make it my own, but I’m forced to pick from among his snapping dialogue, his characters who become achingly real because of the horror of their sins and the sweetness of their redemption, and his beautifully crafted settings. If I must choose, I’m going with the style because the style gets me every time.
Every time I read Conroy I seem to forget the overwhelmingly lyrical quality of his writing. His sentences rise and fall in cadences of lengthy description and short, cutting dialogue. His descriptions of Colleton waver on the poetic. When I was reading, I literally moaned aloud and the sheer beauty of his descriptions and the quick witticisms of his dialogue. One of my favorite bits begins,
"All of us touched, bound in a ring of flesh and blood and water. Luke would give a signal and all of us would inhale and sink to the bottom of the river, our hands still tightly joined. We would remain on the bottom until one of us squeezed the hands of the others and we would rise together and break the surface in an explosion of sunlight and breath. But on the bottom I would open my eyes to the salt and shadow and see the dim figures of my brother and sister floating like embryos beside me. I could feel the dazzling connection between us, a triangle of wordless, uplifted love as we rose, our pulses touching, toward the light and terror of our lives. Diving down, we knew the safety and silence of that motherless, fatherless world; only when our lungs betrayed us did we rise up toward the wreckage. The safe places could only be visited; they could only grant a momentary intuition of sanctuary. The moment always came when we had to return to our real life to face the wounds and grief indigenous to our home by the river"(454).

Sigh. Beautiful. His sentences flow seamlessly one into the next and create a natural rhythm in their variety. This style, this variety is something I long to emulate. I want my sentences and my style to flow as easily as his, and oh, I’m willing to toil mindlessly over a hot laptop to get my sentences to do what his do.