Blogging - and the real me

The other day, Chuck Wendig posted about why and how he blogs over on terribleminds. He'd effectively been accused of putting on a false front in writing his blog the way he does, so Chuck was setting the record straight. You can read the post here, but be warned - he doesn't hold back on the language.

It got me thinking, though. How much of my blog shows the real me? How much of it is constructed as a writer trying to connect with her readership? And do I, subconsciously or not, change how I write my blog posts to serve a particular purpose?

I'd like to think that the way I write is how I'd speak to you if we met in the flesh. Friends and family who have known the real me for years say that's the case, which is why they enjoy dropping by to see what I've got to say; 'It's just like listening to you,' they tell me.

When you put yourself online, you are open to judgement and ridicule on the one hand, and to public interest on the other. (Although Squidge's Scribbles only generates a teeny-weeny bit of public interest - I get tens of hits per day rather than hundreds or thousands!) You can't take any of it back, either - once it's out there, it's out there, to be used and abused by anyone with access to the world wide web. It's a scary prospect.

So I try to be interesting and honest in my blog. I never intentionally go out of my way to be controversial (though some blogs seem to thrive on that!). I always ask before posting photos of, or writing about, other people. I share aspects of my life that I'm happy sharing, and keep a lot more private - not everyone wants to be in the public eye, and there are some things I might not want you to know! But it seems to be enough for you who are reading...because you keep coming back.

Is it the real me, though? In the same way that I am a different Katherine Hetzel when I'm being a mum, a daughter, a wife, a sister, a Christian, a writing group member, a supermarket shopper...Add to that list all the other 'faces' I show to the world. Yet here, I am Squidge - the short author who tells tall tales.

For those who only know this internet version of Katherine Hetzel, I wonder what you'd think if ever we met? Have I built up a persona here that you would recognise and feel at ease with in the flesh, or would you be disappointed with what you were faced with?

All I know is that, to quote Chuck:

"This is it.

This is me.

I hope you like it.

If you don’t, that’s okay.

But this is still gonna be it, and this is still gonna be me."

Bathroom blues

I can't remember whether I've mentioned this before on the Scribbles - but we're having a new bathroom fitted. Hooray!

It's taken us a fair few years to get round to doing it, as a loft extension and business venture (Big Bob, our wind turbine!) got in the way rather in terms of time and money... But finally, we are in a position to consider generally 'doing up the house'.

Now I have to say that I've been wanting to get on with this for some time. We've lived here for over twenty years and although most rooms have been redecorated at least once in that time, the house is beginning to look a bit shabby - it needs some serious TLC. Add to that the need for a second shower (anyone who's got/had teenagers will probably be nodding their heads at this point), insulation on the gable end wall (remember my saga of the underfloor insulation?) and probably a new cooker, (which means we are considering a new kitchen at some point) and I'm faced with the prospect of lots of disruption until my house looks a bit more loved. And as these things go, you can't start one job until you've done something else, which has a knock-on effect when you find something else that needs doing too...

But back to the bathroom - where this current round of 'doing up' will be starting. It's a bit of a saga...

Earlier this year - around Easter if my memory's correct - we started looking at catalogues from a reputable chain of bathroom specialists and went in to discuss our plans for turning our 'main' bathroom into a shower room for the kids (to stop them using what was supposed to have been my sanctuary in the loft). Part of the planning process is of course to have the bathroom measured and assessed to be able to quote the installation fee.

At this point, Mr Squidge ripped out the 1930's cast iron bath 'to make it easier for the guys to measure up.' Fortunately, as our loft extension included a bathroom, we weren't completely without washing facilities.

The quote came in from the bathroom specialists. Mr Squidge decided (in words of one syllable, mostly) that it was far too expensive, and there must be someone who could do it cheaper. I did at least manage to put him off doing it himself... Anyhow, after many weeks of chasing a variety of builders and plumbers, we finally got a quote - IN AUGUST. For exactly the same price as that quoted by the store. (It might be worth pointing out here that if we'd gone with the store price back in May, we'd have had the bathroom fitted for ages by now...Just sayin'.)

Somewhat sheepishly, Mr Squidge decided on the indie builder/plumber, and added into the plan the complete reboarding and replastering of the bathroom because the old plaster was falling off the walls where he'd taken the tiles off.

Work started yesterday to remove the rest of the old plaster; we spent most of the day leaving tracks in the dust. But that's the messy bit over and done with, at least. Um...nope. The builder announced he could see daylight through our bathroom wall.

*Squidge panics as thoughts of even more subsidence fill her head*

Today, we've had to send pics to the company that tied the walls in for us two years ago, and they are coming out to tie in the end wall tomorrow...

Before the sink and pipework came out

Not even my ceiling was safe...

You might have to squint - but there's daylight,
just above the corner of the window frame...

You know I said that thing - about one job leading onto another? Yeah.

It'll all be worth it in the end. I'll have a gleaming new bathroom for the kids, and my lovely loft bathroom all to myself. I might let Mr Squidge use it too. If he's good.

I'll be doing this soon...

Flowery Friday - Part 2

As promised yesterday : the second part of Flowery Friday. (Because by now, the wedding will be done and dusted!)

Six buttonholes using 'Kalahari' roses and small fatsia leaves for the gents - you can just see the little apricot rose we added to the groom's in the very top left hand corner. We also pushed a pearl pin into the centre of the larger rose. The corsages for the Mums are cream gerbera with white freesia and a couple of white spray rosebuds.

This is the long low arrangement for the top table - there are three blocks of oasis in a long tray. Again, pearls were added to some of the roses, but I took the photo before we did that!

Eight small, round table decorations - remembered to put the pins in BEFORE taking the photo this time. There's a small amount of greenery to plug the gaps, but these had a mix of all the flowers, similar to the top table arrangement. I think the only flower we didn't use was freesia...

And then we have the bouquets...Because they're supported in the box, you can't see the wrapped stems - we used a pale beige broad ribbon with an orange bow for the bridesmaids and a string of pearls wrapped around the bride's. They're not huge - the bridal bouquet is probably slightly smaller than a dinner plate in diameter and the bridesmaid's bouquets are smaller again.

Gemma's bouquet - the paler shades, with all the larger roses studded with pearl pins. 

A slightly closer view of one of the bridesmaid's bouquets, with much more deep orange. They'll look fantastic against the coffee-coloured dresses the girls are wearing.

And here's the full set, all laid out on my parent's front lawn!

Apparently the bride - as well as her Mum, Dad, brother and bridesmaids - were delighted when they were delivered this morning. (*phew!*)

Looking forward to seeing some snaps of the wedding now, to see what they looked like on the big day...

Flowery Friday

I spent most of today arranging flowers for a wedding with my Mum. I'm not going to post all the pics today, because I don't want to ruin the surprise for the bride on her big day...

But just to whet your appetite, take a look at these;

Buckets of flowers in Mum's garage - and this isn't all of them! White 'Vandela' roses, orange-yellow 'Kalahari', another dark peach rose (can't remember the name), bright orange and cream gerbera, white freesias and peach spray roses. 

Close up of 'Vandela' and 'Kalahari'. We've worked with Vandela lots of times - they are tinged with lime green on the outer petals and open into a beautiful full bloom. 

Central Operations - the pics we printed as inspiration after talking to the bride about bouquet styles and colours. You can see the pots for the table decorations at the back. 

And here's everything mixed together in an arrangement for the top table...gorgeous, gorgeous colours. 

I'll show you the finished bouquets, buttonholes and table decorations tomorrow, once I know the bride's in church...

To be continued...

Workshop a novel in a Day (FOW14)

One of the mini-workshops on offer at the Festival of Writing was 'How to Workshop a novel in a day', with the author Allie Spencer.

Why pick this session? Well, I tend to be a pantser rather than a planner...that is, I get an idea for a story and happily set to writing it - without any real planning of its structure. I have a start point, I have an end in mind; I just need to get my main character from A to B: job done.

Ahem. Not so. This session reinforced the fact that actually, I do need to plan more - especially with respect to the characters.

It was a small group, only half a dozen ladies, but that meant there was plenty of opportunity to input to the discussions and ideas. Allie's method should 'be used as a support, not a cage', and aims to build a nicely proportioned and structured novel. Well, by the end of the session, we'd certainly mapped out a complete new story...whether any of us goes on to write it is another matter!

Let me take you through the technique. At each point, we were encouraged to input our own ideas, then the group as a whole picked the characteristics etc that we wanted to use in this new, emerging storyline.

Step 1: Define your leading character.

Memorable characters have strong, definable personality traits. They are complex and open to change - even if they choose not to. They have strong goals or perceived goals. They have a strong physical presence, though it's often not described. The reader reacts strongly to them and the situations the character faces challenge the reader with events beyond their normal experience. The character is conflicted. They are human enough for the reader to connect with them, and they dictate plot elements because of their characteristics.

Armed with that list, we each wrote a description of a leading character. Mine was based on Lord Baraat, who appears in the flash fiction prequel to Thread, (which you can read on the Random Writers site.) We shared our descriptions and amalgamated them into one character.

Now at this point, my brain started to turn to spaghetti. I never - NEVER - plan my characters out in this level of detail. Before long, our new character had his own backstory, a career, a family history, favourite food, goals, flaws... Mine usually just get 'a look' - I trawl the internet for a person who looks like my character. There may be an idea of where they fit into the story and how I want things to work out for them, but a whole history? Nah. Which brought me to Important Realisation No 1: Squidge concentrates on story, not character.

Step 2 : Define your secondary character(s).

The protagonist - your lead - needs someone to spar with and talk to. The secondary character is as much about revealing the protagonist as they are about revealing themselves. They can be good or bad, there may be more than one, and they often create a synthesis in the story; if the protagonist provides the themes and tone of the book, the secondary character provides light and shade...

So again, we devised a secondary character - but specifically for Zack, our 40 year old suspended cop who was fighting to get his son back after accusations of child abuse. Again, we amalgamated the results and came up with two: Miranda, a female lawyer who can't do emotions, and Quince, Zack's coloured partner on the force.

Each of them got their own back story. Important Realisation No 2 : Each character needs their own story!

Now - apart from the fact that I don't normally 'do' the real world in my writing so I had no real idea of how to approach a scenario that included child abuse and drug use, I don't 'do' backstory for supporting cast either. But when the goals and flaws of these secondary characters started to be described by others in the group, the potential for the storyline began to unfold in front of my eyes - because we moved onto conflict.

Step 3: Give each of your main characters conflict.

There's internal and external conflict; internal could be claustrophobia, external could be that your character has to escape through a tunnel. It's best to have the two linked so that the external works on the internal.

So we worked out the conflicts for our three characters. Which opened up a whole can of worms...

You could take Miranda's secret drug habit - which meant she needed her job but taking on Zack's case is a last ditch attempt to save her career - and tie it in with a drug-addled one night stand with Quince that becomes the guilty secret of a happily married man...which is how Zack sees his partner and feels he can never measure up to with child abuse allegations hanging over his head.

Trying to keep track of all the possibilities was like trying to hold a handful of those wriggling worms...my brain felt like it was about to explode. There was almost too much information to deal with. But I could see that by developing the characters in this way to start with, the storyline sort of developed itself BECAUSE of the way the characters were interacting.

Important Realisation No 3: You can't just slot characters into the story - they have to BE the story.

I started to wonder whether THIS was the problem in my writing? The 'something special' to make it sparkle? Particularly when we got onto character arc...

Step 4: Character arc.

A character arc serves to plot the change the hero goes through. It can be positive, leading to a happy ending, or negative, which leads to tragedy. (Interestingly, some characters are already 'good' - like James Bond.) The dark element nowadays is often supplied by the secondary character, but we often see the main character moving from a position of weakness to strength or immaturity to maturity. One way to plot this change is to use the following stages:

Starting point - conflict - goal - catalyst for change - resolution.

So Zack, our cop, is starting at the point where he's been suspended from his job and has lost his son.
His conflict is that he's exhausted the legal route to get his son back and he's angry, which was the cause of the child abuse allegations.
His goal is to get his son back.
The catalyst for change could be that he sees how Quince handled the one night stand and stayed with his family for the sake of his kids - the realisation that he has to put his son first.
The resolution could be that Zack finds his son but realises he's better off where he is, ie puts his son's needs before his own selfish desire.

Repeat for each character in turn...

Aha! Important Realisation No 4: I have totally missed out character arcs from everything I've ever written. 

In StarMark, I don't show how Irvana changes by what she's been through. I haven't given her a goal - she just gets carried along on a wave of events which happen to her and she is almost a passenger until she reaches the end. I haven't given her a flaw - unless it's being too nice. And the same problem occurs with Rurik too - I haven't shown much of a change in him, either. How much of that is down to the fact I don't think about it and plan it  beforehand, I wonder?

So now, I have a choice to make. Continue to work on what I know are essentially flawed stories, or try my hand at something new, forcing myself to plan it out first when I'm dying to just get writing.

Hmm. I'll think on that a bit longer...but Allie certainly gave me a lot of food for thought and a method that might just work if I try it.

When is a chapter not a chapter? (FOW 14)

I enjoyed Hal's sentence workshop so much, I also sat in his chapter one too. Now I hope I'm going to remember most of it - this session was held Sunday afternoon, I was tired and feeling pretty poorly by that point, so I struggled to take in a lot of the technical stuff that Hal was sharing. Hopefully, there'll be enough here to be of use to you...

Again, it sounds simple - a chapter is a chapter. It starts with a new character, a new scene, and it finishes with something that keeps the reader turning the page, like a cliffhanger - doesn't it? But Hal pointed out that sometimes, a 'chapter' lacks the substance or structure to make it work.

If you think in terms of scales of action, then a clause or sentence can provide an action. A paragraph often frames a set of actions, and a passage shows the development of the action. The way Hal described the process, it sounded very much like a dance of sorts...

We read a short passage, in which the narrator is in a tavern, observing the clientele and eyeing up an old man as a model for a painting. This represented the goal of the passage. The barkeeper interrupts the narrator to apologise for his room not being ready, producing a diversion. The narrator considers how he came to be in the situation he's in, reflecting on his circumstances. Then, as the old man stands to leave, our narrator makes his request, giving us the incident.

Goal - diversion - reflection - incident.

Or...

Step - sidestep - shuffle - strike!

For a complete story, we know we need a beginning, middle and end. Another way of describing it would be Exposition, Rising action, CLIMAX, Falling action, Denouement. Or even...

Story is the Triumph of Outcome! 

The beginning is why and how things didn't stay the same. The middle is why and how things could have gone elsewise. The end is why and how things ultimately came out this way.

But we need the same in our chapters too - they aren't just a series of events following in step; we need to add the twists and turns that provide the dance and drama. And nail the end beat if you want to nail the impact! A spur, turn, step, crunch combination (different terms for the step, sidestep, shuffle, strike!) will add that ingredient.

But beware... a 'crunch' is not always a  chapter ending. Neither are cliffhangers (though both can be used effectively providing you don't start the next chapter picking up where you left off!), or reflections where there is no incident. Be wary too of overchaptering - putting too many breaks in might mean you don't satisfy that useful combo of spur, turn, step, crunch. Unnatural breaks can lead to scene snaps rather than complete chapters.

To find your true chapters, ask yourself;

- Is there unity of time, place and event?
- Can you encapsulate the event - name it?
- Is there a major plot stride?
- Two major strides? Can one happen elsewhere?
- Can you describe it, beginning 'In which our hero...'?

I particularly like the thought of 'In which our hero...', because to me, that helps capture the essential essence of the chapter; a chapter synopsis, if you like. It reminds me of an exercise we did on the self-edit course, too. We had to think of the chapter as a triangle - action, reaction, result - which then has an impact on the next chapter because the result may well turn out the be the action that causes the next reaction, and so on. So thinking of StarMark, you'd get something like 'In which our heroine's grandmother orders our heroine to go to the city with a box of keepsakes and the name of a man who'll help her.'

How do YOU decide on your chapter breaks? Gut reaction? Cliffhanger? Because you don't know where else to put it? Feel free to share any hints and tips that work for you, too...

How to write a sentence. (FOW 2014)

This year at the Festival of Writing, although there were some titles among the workshops I'd already attended in previous years, there were lots of new ones too.

One was Hal Duncan's 'How to Write a Sentence.'

Found at judyreeveswriter.com

Now it sounds simple, doesn't it? Most of us can write a complete sentence. I'm writing one now, and it makes perfect sense, doesn't it? Well, Hal's rapid-fire Scot-accented lecture got me thinking that perhaps I'm not as good at writing them as I thought...What follows is taken from my notes, so there's a strong flavour of 'Hal Duncan-ness rather than original Squidge!

We were told at the start of the session that 'Words are free and sentences are not precious; just write the sentence. Now throw it away. Repeat until you get it right.'

It's Hal's perception that the rules that are applied to sentences often try to rationalise an intuitive skill. So, for example, the 'Don't use adjectives' rule is more to do with mis-use than over-use...because sometimes, more IS better.

So rather than apply rules to sentences, Hal applies Principles. These Principles allow us to use words to conjure an illusion in the skull of the reader. They are Clarity, Economy, Specificity, Ingenuity, Acuity and Fluidity - and a lot of how effective they are relies on style. Not style (noun), which is a patina that can sometimes obscure the content, but style (verb), which is the act of shaping the words into tighter prose.

The following sentence was used as an example to work with - it had those of us sitting in the session cringing...

A sweeping blade of flashing steel riveted from the massive barbarian's hide enameled shield as his rippling right arm thrust forth, sending a steel shod blade up to the hilt into the soldier's vital organs. 

Hal applied the Principles...

CLARITY - Basically, decide between all the things you could say, the ways you could say it and the words you have; does the final sentence say what you want it to? Don't give in to garblage, ie garbling and garbage. Did the author really mean riveted?

ECONOMY - not everything is relevant. There are some qualities implicit in the noun or verb - you don't have to repeat yourself.

SPECIFICITY - Use exact terms. Do you need thrust? Is buried better? Is it a shield or a targe (the proper name for a hide-wrapped shield, apparently).

INGENUITY - Use a verb to conjure the qualities of a noun. Seek words that make others redundant.

ACUITY - Cut to the quick of what things mean. Make your phrases loaded - is the dog a cur or a pooch? Our barbarian is massive - as in a ripped hulk or a couch potato?

Up to this point, we've chosen to focus on the words and substance - now we get to the meaty bit: narrative, the process that makes our story flow...

FLUIDITY - Think of the dynamics of the piece. Yes, it could be written grammatically correctly, but that can interfere with the flow. Use punctuation to provide stress points.

Hal's final version ended up as

From behind the targe, steel flashed, brawn rippled, and the barbarian sank his blade, thrust it up to the hilt in the soldier's guts.

Applying each of these principles in turn, Hal then challenged us to rewrite the original sentence. After several false starts that either upped the word count or made the perpetrator of the action ambiguous, we settled on the following:

The soldier's blade flashed, glancing off the leathered targe as the barbarian buried his sword in the b*****d's guts.

Much improved, don't you think?

Remember - Work with the essential substance of your sentence...and make it sing!