Writing Full Tilt

What exactly is plot anyway? We know it when we see it, and we follow it when it’s put before us, but how do we write it? literaryterms.net defines plot as . . . the sequence of events that make up a story, whether it’s told, written, filmed, or sung. The plot is the story, and more specifically, how the story develops, unfolds, and moves in time. Plots are typically made up of five main elements: Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, and Resolution/Denoument. OK great. But as writers, how do we create these elements, how do we set about imbuing our narratives with the right doses of each to create an identifiable plot that our characters can embody? The thing is, we can go at it from the outside, and we can go at it from the inside. Or both. Essentially, everything is about plot: How The Story Develops, Unfolds, And Moves In Time. It’s that word HOW that sets us free of the formula. Keep asking how and let your pen find its way into the answer both obvious and subtle.

Several weeks ago, I offered photos as a writing prompt. Paul Rozario-Falcone, a workshop member, chose the photo below. In response, he wrote the following essay, which is not only brilliant, but gets to one kind of How in a most intriguing way. Thank you, Paul, for letting me share this beautiful piece of thought-provoking writing! Paul is an AWA workshop leader residing in Manhattan and Singapore. To write with Paul contact him at: paul@safespacestories.com Here is Paul’s essay:

A lot of good story is about oppositions. For example, appearances being deceiving, or still waters running deep, things the readers know versus things the characters know. I call these oppositions in the sense that one object is at odds or opposes the other. Contrast is opposition, light versus dark, open field versus shady bank, an opposing coastline, too. Neighbouring towns, warring lands. Opposition in story sets up a perspective through which action can take place. And action and behaviour can and should then over the course of the narrative change the opposition, either resolving it or dissolving it, or creating new opposition.

How does a writer use opposition to create a good story? It can be as simple as starting with a woman walking on a bridge in one direction and a man rowing in the river beneath her headed in the other direction, the opposite direction. Such physical and motional opposition in space and time, both spatial and temporal between the woman and the man, can beg questions such as: Do they see each other? Does one look down at the precise moment the other looks up? Do they see each other at a particular point in their paths? At which point? At the halfway point on the bridge and the river? Or at either ends? And will their meeting have any continued opposition in a different form?

As I write, I realise that the above scenarios represent ways in which oppositions dissolve and resolve. The meeting between the two characters, for example, can be seen as a resolving and dissolving of the opposition. But if you, as the writer, choose to keep these two characters — this woman on a bridge walking one way and the man in a boat rowing the other way below her in the river — if you choose to keep them separated throughout the story, the proverbial never the twain shall meet — if so, then what are you saying about these characters, their lives, the paths on which they are travelling? Do they really never meet? For consider also that the bridge and river may connect just two places: the place from which the woman is walking (the place from which she comes) is the same place to which the man is rowing (the place to which he goes). So, in physical space the woman is walking from a past that is the same future the man is rowing toward — another opposition. And of course, walking and rowing can also be set up as oppositions. So, you, the writer, can see the rich possibilities inherent in something as simple as walking and rowing, a bridge over a river, a woman and a man.

Paul Rozario-Falcone November 4, 2019

Upcoming Events

February Retreat Malibu, California: February 3 – 6, 2020

Serra Retreat Center overlooking Malibu Bay with tiled fountains, and hidden gardens offer the perfect winter getaway and a place to wander into your writing. All writers welcome, no matter the genre or experience level. Please join me this February! https://www.writingfulltilt.com/retreats/

Online Weekly Workshops: Monday Evenings eight weeks beginning January 6, 2020. https://www.writingfulltilt.com/online-workshop/

Weekly Workshops Amherst, Massachusetts: Thursday Evenings & Friday Mornings, ten weeks beginning December 5 & 6, 2019 https://www.writingfulltilt.com/workshops/

August Retreat Hawley, Massachusetts: August 9 – 12, 2020 Four days of writing bliss. The setting is perfect for allowing your writing to emerge! https://www.writingfulltilt.com/retreats/

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Someone recently asked me how I develop a story, what is it I do to create the next scene or to understand what’s going on for characters. I’ve read many other authors’ answers to that question, and lots of them talk about creating a plot diagram or writing out detailed backstories and particulars of a character’s personality. These are wonderful responses to the question. And these writers are far more responsible than I am, because they take charge and take control of what happens in their stories. I am a bit reckless, especially at the beginning. When I am daydreaming, wandering about supermarket aisles or cleaning the gutters, I let images come, characters converse, a gesture be expressed. I daydream as long as I can, following what has appeared as long as I can. Then I ask questions: What is going on here? Who is involved? How are they behaving? What got them to this point? What happened before this moment? What might they do next? I approach my stories as if events are being played out before my eyes and I’m not responsible for what gets written down. I follow the answers the characters give me and write it all down. The characters are real, with real lives being enacted, and I have the privilege of trailing along and witnessing what happens. I do ask how characters feel about the things they are experiencing as a way to understand them better. They show me their proclivities, their limitations and their biases. A good and well-known exercise is to open a character’s bureau drawer or medicine cabinet or the trunk of their car. What appears is great information. There have been important scenes that I have written and immediately known that it was wrong. I could feel a character’s resentment at having been pushed in the wrong direction or false words put in their mouth. So I wait. In one instance it took years. But the character eventually let me in on what actually transpired. I knew it because it felt exactly right. So my answer to the question might be something like: I write with abandon, except I never, ever abandon those wonderful beings who give me their incredible company. I stay faithful to those who populate my words.

Publications

Everyday Fiction is a wonderful online journal dedicated to publishing one short story or flash fiction every day. I have had the privilege of having one of my stories accepted. What could be more fun that having a new story delivered every day. Visit the site here and go explore: https://everydayfiction.com/scheveningen-beach-by-maureen-buchanan-jones/

Upcoming Events

February Retreat Malibu, California: February 3 – 6, 2020 All writers welcome, no matter the genre or experience level. This is your time to celebrate your writing! Please join me for this mid-winter getaway! https://www.writingfulltilt.com/retreats/

Weekly Workshops Amherst, Massachusetts: Thursday Evenings & Friday Mornings, ten weeks beginning December 5 & 6, 2019 https://www.writingfulltilt.com/workshops/

Online Weekly Workshops: Monday Evenings eight weeks beginning November 18, 2019. https://www.writingfulltilt.com/online-workshop/

August Retreat Hawley, Massachusetts: August 9 – 12, 2020 Four days of writing bliss. The setting is perfect for allowing your writing to emerge! https://www.writingfulltilt.com/retreats/

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Upcoming Events

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Writers often ask each other, especially those who have successfully published their work, whether they have a writing discipline. At a recent retreat writers asked each other this question. The answers were thoughtful and enlightening. It was the kind of conversation about writing I wish every writer could hear and participate in. One writer said she dislikes the word discipline as it conveys a rigidity that doesn’t suit the sensibility of artistic expression. She prefers the term ritual, meaning that she follows steps she has initiated that bring her to her writing as a way to prepare herself for creativity. These steps can be as simple as making good coffee or watching the birds for a few minutes, playing with a cat or listening to music. Other writers said they have a practice, which meant beginning to write at a certain time or writing a set number of pages. Some writers offered that they like to get up very early and write before any other obligations claim their time. Other writers admitted that their preferred writing time came late in the afternoon or late at night when the house was quiet.  Many of the writers at the retreat wanted to know if others wrote every day. Some answered yes, others no. Neither answer defined who wrote or published more.

What the discussion reinforced for me was that each writer has their own time and way of arriving at their writing. Life requires us to focus on so many things and those requirements demand various amounts of attention, time and problem solving. Our writing deserves our respect and determination, but there is no one way that writers resolve their need to write. Designating specific time to write is a way to offer our creativity respect. How we do that is as individual as rising at 4:00 a.m., staying awake until 2:00 a.m., sitting in a parking lot for twenty minutes before going grocery shopping, or attending a weekly writing workshop. Devoting what we can to our writing is being true to a practice. The one thing that keeps us from claiming ourselves as writers is feeling like we don’t measure up to a discipline prescribed by others. I know that I am devoted to my writing because I fall in love every time I sit down to do it, even when it’s hard. Devotion, for me, suits the way I come to the page: a kind of dance where mostly I don’t lead.

Upcoming Events

February Retreat Malibu, California: February 3 – 6, 2020 All writers welcome, no matter the genre or experience level. This is your time to celebrate your writing! Please join me for this mid-winter getaway! https://www.writingfulltilt.com/retreats/

Weekly Workshops Amherst, Massachusetts: Thursday Evenings & Friday Mornings, beginning September 19 & 20, 2019 https://www.writingfulltilt.com/workshops/

Online Weekly Workshops: Monday Evenings beginning September 16, 2019. https://www.writingfulltilt.com/online-workshop/

August Retreat Hawley, Massachusetts: August 9 – 12, 2020 Four days of writing bliss. The setting is perfect for allowing your writing to emerge! https://www.writingfulltilt.com/retreats/

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I ask many groups of writers: What makes someone a writer? The answers over the years have followed a similar theme, falling into the mythologies of who can claim to be a writer. The answers include ideas about solitary creation, being depressed, a life of desolation, achieving an academic degree, being paid for one’s work, being published, being acknowledged by publishers, the world, and forgoing all other endeavors. The following words often arise in these discussions: dedication, discipline, lonely, thick-skinned, deeply sensitive, introverted, impoverished, troubled, addicted, knowledgeable about everything, intellectual, precise and grammatically correct. The contradictions in many of these concepts is evident. For some people, only when their writing has earned a paycheck and/or affirmation by an outside agency such as a publishing house can a person claim the title Writer. These are daunting criteria and false premises in the inherent definition of what is and who can create Art.

This year I asked a room full of teens the question: Who is a writer? The very first answer was: You have to be a person. The other teens nodded in easy agreement. The second person to answer said, You have to believe in your writing. From there the group erupted with answers like: Don’t try so hard to be original, just say what you want to say. Pay attention to the world around you and write about it. Be serious or silly, but say it like yourself. These extraordinary statements hold empowerment and the recognition that everyone has a voice, a life to be told, a poem to sing, and a language with which to express them. These young writers have already claimed their voices. They offer hope and model what it means to be a Person!

Publications

Maud & Addie has been named a finalist in the Middle Grade category for Fitzroy Books, an imprint of Regal Publishing. Publish date is 2021. The following links are my author page and a blog post about the book on the Fitzroy website.

http://fitzroybooks.com/maureen-buchanan-jones/

http://fitzroybooks.com/blog/h

Upcoming Events

August Retreat Hawley, Massachusetts: August 11 – 14, 2019 Four days of writing bliss. The setting is perfect for letting your writing emerge! https://www.writingfulltilt.com/retreats/

February Retreat Malibu, California: February 3 – 6, 2020 All writers welcome, no matter the genre or experience level. This is your time to celebrate your writing! https://www.writingfulltilt.com/retreats/

Weekly Workshops Amherst, Massachusetts: Thursday Evenings & Friday Mornings, beginning September 19 & 20, 2019 https://www.writingfulltilt.com/workshops/

Online Weekly Workshops: Monday Evenings beginning September 16, 2019. https://www.writingfulltilt.com/online-workshop/

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Thomas Mann was asked how he would define a writer. He said, “That’s easy. A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.”

Douglas Adams said, “Writing is easy. You only need to stare at a piece of blank paper until your forehead bleeds.”

If these experiences are true, why would anyone be a writer?

Writers certainly access the pain they have lived and give expression to it. But beyond the accessed pain there are a variety of external discomforts that translate into creation being painful. Ambition, the act of wanting to be a writer, can cause conflict and anxiety. Deadlines certainly create pressure. And for an artist, being given a subject rather than allowing content to arrive organically can feel like being put into a room with no doors. And then there is the long line of critics that show up early and stay way past their welcome in every artist’s head. As we approach our work, the voices start in.

Is what you have to say important enough? Are your expressions artistic enough? Do you know enough about your subject? Do you know enough about your craft? Who are you to speak up about this experience? Who are you to speak at all?

The voices can seem endless and contain every facet of doubt. They are impediments that freeze us before the blank page and bleed us as we strive for creativity.  All the writers have these voices. Of course they do. Everyone has been told No repeatedly.

So I return to the question and only speak for myself, but I suspect I’m not alone. I write because I have to. As writers, it’s what we do to arrive back at ourselves. Imagine breaking your pens and sealing off your pages. What would you do? Would you be able to breathe? I wouldn’t. We write for our survival.

Which brings us to the myth of the lonely writer. Something different happens when we write together. We give witness to our work and we collectively defy No. We lend each other courage and company, creating an agreement that what we do is valued. What we have to say is worth listening to. Out of this shared compact we arrive at a place where the voices in our heads can go for coffee and relieve us of their vigilant judgment. We build our confidence together, and soon, whether writing by ourselves or in a group, we can bypass the nay-sayers and restore our intimate relationship with art. Whenever we create, we artists, we writers, should feel free to go for broke, experiment, discover, develop craft, play, search and fill our pages with ink, ink, ink. Not blood.

Upcoming Events

Maud & Addie, the novel so many of you have listened to as I wrote page after page in workshops and retreats, is a finalist in the 2019 Kraken Book Prize for Middle-Grade Fiction! Regal House Publishing will send it to press in 2021. Stay tuned for more details! https://regalhousepublishing.com/the-kraken-book-award/

August Retreat Hawley, Massachusetts: August 11 – 14, 2019 Four days of writing bliss. The setting is perfect for letting your writing emerge! https://www.writingfulltilt.com/retreats/

February Retreat Malibu, California: February 3 – 6, 2020 All writers welcome, no matter the genre or experience level. This is your time to celebrate your writing! https://www.writingfulltilt.com/retreats/

Weekly Workshops Amherst, Massachusetts: Thursday Evenings & Friday Mornings, beginning September 19 & 20, 2019 https://www.writingfulltilt.com/workshops/

Online Weekly Workshops: Monday Evenings beginning September 16, 2019. https://www.writingfulltilt.com/online-workshop/

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Believing in our own writing doesn’t end when we have set a period after the last line in our first draft. In fact, that moment is when the hard work of keeping our confidence up begins. Too often, we take our authentic and electric first draft and hammer the life out of it. We polish it to within an inch of its life, rub out its distinguishing features and make it proper. We make it sound like what we think it’s supposed to sound like. We re-create it so it reads like something that takes no risks and will be a guaranteed B-. We edit out the strangeness, the uniqueness and the surprises. We don’t trust that our spontaneous creativity has merit, so we sand it, bleach it, boil it until it’s smooth, see-through and limp. I’m not arguing for ignoring all language conventions; our readers do have to comprehend our intent. But we need to attend to our writing the way we honor moonrise and sunset. We are excited by these natural phenomena because each and every one is specifically different depending on atmospheric conditions, where we are on the planet and what is in our hearts at that moment. The genius resides in the infinite details, and we should hold to our writing no differently than we do when we rejoice that today’s sunset is like no other.

Upcoming Events

Workshop Reading: April 7, 2019 2:00 – 4:30 p.m. Amherst MA Thursday Evening & Friday Morning Workshop Members will read from their work. Free & Open to the public. maureen@maureenbjones.com

Malibu Retreat: February 3 – 6, 2010 All writers welcome, no matter the genre or experience level. This is your time to celebrate your writing! https://www.writingfulltilt.com/retreats/P

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There is a great deal of discussion in writing circles about Voice. In terms of craft, voice can mean two different things. There is your voice, and there is the voice of a character you have created. A character’s voice may or may not be very similar to or the very same as your own voice, especially if the character or narrator is I. All of us have more than one voice, even when we are in the world and having conversations. We don’t use the same voice when leading a staff meeting as we do when telling an anecdote to a friend. We are flexible and creative every day in the voices we choose. The same is true when we write. We decide the stance we adopt as we begin to put words on the page. All of these are true voices. What most writers mean when they refer to authentic voice is the voice that comes most naturally, even subconsciously, especially when writing something that has emotional content. When we dive deep and draw on a rich mix of memory and imagination, the voice that emerges is one that readers can believe in. Often the response to such writing from listeners is, “That character’s voice or that dialogue is exactly right.” If you aren’t sure of your voice, start with memory, and write a description of the sounds, smells, tastes, and feel of a specific place and time. Be the person you were in that moment. Let go of what you think you are supposed to sound like. Say what comes, in any order, with as much detail as you can recall. Does it feel right to you? Have you said not only what you wanted to say, but how you wanted to say it? Have you gotten close? Too often we borrow someone else’s voice, thinking it has more authority than the way we express ourselves. Our stories and poems depend on our authentic voices. Let them have their say.

Upcoming Events

Hawley Retreat August 11-14, 2019 Write in the western hills of Massachusetts; allow yourself to find your voice and share your work with other respectful, inspired writers. All writers welcome. https://www.writingfulltilt.com/retreats/

Online Weekly Workshop March 18 – April 29, 2019 6:30 – 9:00 EST. Need a workshop to come to you? This is it! https://www.writingfulltilt.com/online-workshop/

Weekly Workshops in Amherst: Thursdays 6:30 – 9:30 p.m.; Fridays 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Join other writers for adventurous writing and profound listening. https://www.writingfulltilt.com/workshops/

Malibu Retreat February 3 – 6, 2020 All writers welcome, no matter the genre or experience level. This is your time to celebrate your writing! https://www.writingfulltilt.com/retreats/

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Each year I teach a poetry class at Smith College. The writers expect to analyze published poems as well as create their own. They are surprised when I tell them that their first job is to notice the world rather than other writing. “You are detectives,” I tell them. Notice what is around you. Notice what you never noticed before. Notice what is new to you and what is as familiar as your old socks. Pay attention to what you hear as you walk from classroom to classroom, what you smell as you head downtown, what you taste when the air gets damp, what you feel on your fingertips when you open a door. Being awake and alive to what is around us is the first and most important job of a writer. These sensations are the primal elements of how we know we are sentient beings and how we can communicate to other sentient beings. If the responses to these questions find their way into poems or other writing, then that writing will have living energy. It will not only ground the reader, it will transport them physically and emotionally. Elemental sensory experiences are the basis for great metaphors. I offer you, as awake and curious writers, to notice your world too. What have you never noticed before? Be attentive, be a private eye to your own world of imagery. Then translate those observations into your own unique similes and metaphors. Try it. It’s your secret until you tell.

Upcoming Events

Malibu Retreat February 4 – 7, 2019 All writers welcome, no matter the genre or experience level. This is your time to celebrate your writing! https://www.writingfulltilt.com/retreats/

Online Weekly Workshop January 7 – March 11, 2019 6:30 – 9:00 EST. Need a workshop to come to you? This is it! https://www.writingfulltilt.com/online-workshop/

Weekly Workshops in Amherst: Tuesdays 2:00 – 4:00 p.m.; Thursdays 6:30 – 9:30 p.m.; Fridays 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Join other writers for adventurous writing and profound listening. https://www.writingfulltilt.com/workshops/

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Do You Believe?

Every week I listen to incredible writing. The writers in my workshops offer their work and we marvel at the innovation, the nuances, the true character voice. And nearly every week I see the look of surprise on a writer’s face as we notice these essential ingredients of authentic work. The surprise is a way of saying, “I had no idea my writing was that good.” It’s hard for us to believe in our own work for so many reasons: We are told so often that what we have done is ‘wrong,’ so we attach that value to everything we write; We are so used to our own voice that we no longer consider it novel or special; We fear the strange genius that emerges when we let our pens fly. It takes courage to put ourselves on the page. It takes conviction to stand behind our creations. I wonder what would happen if a writer believed in their work, really believed in the power, the extraordinary perspective, the cumulative observations, the personal rhythms, and the one-of-a-kind imaginings. What would happen if you believed in your writing? Would the energy strengthen as you write? Would you take an extra risk? Would you move into ‘forbidden’ territory? Would you plunge deeper into familiar subjects? Would you find a voice you didn’t know you had? Surprise starts with the writing itself. Surprise yourself. Give yourself a gift: Believe.

With joy in words,

Maureen

Upcoming Events

Malibu Retreat February 4 – 7, 2019 All writers welcome, no matter the genre or experience level. This is your time to celebrate your writing! https://www.writingfulltilt.com/retreats/

Online Weekly Workshop January 7 – March 11, 2019 6:30 – 9:00 EST. Need a workshop to come to you? This is it! https://www.writingfulltilt.com/online-workshop/

Weekly Workshops in Amherst: Tuesdays 2:00 – 4:00 p.m.; Thursdays 6:30 – 9:30 p.m.; Fridays 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Join other writers for adventurous writing and profound listening. https://www.writingfulltilt.com/workshops/

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Finding the Heat

We all have stories inside us. Big stories. Lots of characters, important settings, loaded dialogue, objects that hold meaning, and winding plots. Whether from memory or imagination, the natural question is: Where to begin? For many writers, logic says: Start at the beginning. Which would make wonderful sense if we were writing a chronology of a life, or an historical reporting of events. But we’re writing something from deep inside us. So where does it make sense to touch down on the page? My experience with both my own writing and in working with other writers is to ask: Where’s the heat? What scene rises up out of all the others and lays itself open for you to enter and become immersed? When that moment shows itself, start there. Then notice the sounds, the quality of air and light, the movement or stillness, the furniture or trees. How are the characters positioned, do they have anything in their hands? What are they doing? How do their bodies tell you what is happening to them? Listen carefully. What are they saying? Be a faithful scribe and write down exactly what you witness. Don’t intrude, don’t expect, don’t assume. You will vanish from the room where your hands spell out words. You will live in that moment, in that place and encounter what your characters experience and feel. You will sidestep logic and embrace the creative genius that our senses offer us. Your scene will have life and be a more accurate depiction of what you set out to write. Don’t worry if the scene that unfolds is the very heart of the story. Of course it is. It’s where we, as writers, most want to exist. Once the scene is written, you can backtrack, go sideways and forward, always asking the same question: Where is the heat? The next scene and the next and the next after that will show themselves. Then, like beautifully crafted puzzle pieces, you will be able to fit them together in the order the story needs. You will have given yourself possibilities for a uniquely constructed tale.

In these days of confessed gratitude, I have an embarrassment of riches: You. All of you who have written with me, who seek out my writing company and who read my thoughts on how we approach our work, share something better than a best seller. Thank you for your genius, your playfulness, and your courageous vulnerability. I am always and ever humbled.

Yours, Maureen

Upcoming Events

Malibu Retreat: February 4 – 7, 2019  Join me for a spacious and inspiring four days of writing deep within your imagination and memory.   https://www.writingfulltilt.com/retreats/

Tuesday Afternoon Workshops: January 7 – March 11, 2019  Write with a group of writers who offer respect and invite adventure. https://www.writingfulltilt.com/workshops/

Winter OnLine Workshops: January 8 – March 18, 2019. Snowed in? Too cold? Write in the coziness of your own home, in your slippers.  https://www.writingfulltilt.com/online-workshop/

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