Read both Amanda and Why Does One Write?

For a limited time, read a complimentary copy of Donan Berg's Amanda. Visit Read Amanda, Click here. While at the website be sure to read the code to be entered as a coupon at checkout. Say thank you by posting a review at Barnes and Noble, www.bn.com, or Goodreads.

Why does one write?

For a limited time

For the innate joy?

To mask the pain?

To tell or retell a story?

For a buffet of riches?

Whatever the motivation to slide a pen across paper or to click keys and have characters pop up on a monitor’s screen, truth clashes with fiction. Even if our brain were infallible, would we want to record the minutiae of living? Would anyone desire to read it? The simple answer is no, or at least probably not.

And then there is the horrifying thought that perhaps someone else has said what you want to say or it has been said by others. Where is the idea, the turn of phrase never before spoken or set forth in writing? It is there. No one has had your experience, your perspective, your daily life. There’s the richness, the subtly, the unique emotion coursing from your brain to your fingertips. Whether it be a roar or a gentle nudge, it seeks expression, your exquisite unique expression.

And, with high hopes, you’ve begun. You inch the pen off the paper or press the “shift” button without pairing it with another key because you fear the “right” word exists, but not in your mind. Don’t wait. Perfection in the first instance is not your goal.

 First thoughts can be best, or fuzzy or out of context as the hand fails to match your mind’s speed. No worry. Experience will guide you and the first recorded thought is part of the required experience.  The sun shines every day at 36,000 feet. At sea level, there are lapses to allow daydreaming spurred by cloud images. Both the sun’s rays and their blockage frame the experience of the sun to give alternate and wonderful days not filled with monotony.

There be no need to worry that your first efforts drive a slow romantic dance step into a somersault. The journey into the box canyon is not lost. The return along the same road can offer new insights.

Do not be stymied by literal truth. Even if there is such a thing, differentiate between what the world may see and what you see and sense.  Be strong and forceful in all directions. If you envisioned one story and end up telling another, that’s not failure. It’s success.

About the author

Donan Berg, a heralded mystery writer, in 2016 won the Feathered Quill 1st Place Gold Book Award for Romance. He’s received comments from readers who said they don’t read romance, but One Paper Heart was an exception they enjoyed. You can read a One Paper Heart free sample by clicking on the link or at major online book retailer websites.

Messing with The Muse

Many a quote has spiraled into the conscious. More so from others.

Thus, while the journey is long, provisions sparse, inspiration may abound around life's next corner.

Thus, this post brings to light quotes from the not-to-distant past, not often repeated. Times may, however, change. All are penned from the mind of this author.

Seasons of life repaint age's glory.

Earned feats dance to the melody of life.

Like a joyful melody, charity supports every kindness.

Life's harmony is a symphony of friends.

Pack you life's case with wisdom, love, hope, and charity.
All will fit.

Life free from strain doesn't signal gain.

Happiness is fleeting; standing still won't reach it.

Sweet memories never sever today from unfinished goals.

(And what thought generated this last one is unknown.)

If old walls could talk, you'd probably get plastered.

(That's the lath. Enjoy the day forever more.)

Writing With Unity and Flow

A reader doesn’t create or follow just any path in your writing, except for maybe a path of disbelief. The reader sprints, trudges, or aimlessly wanders along the journey created by you as a good writer.  If the job’s done well, the reader doesn’t get lost. That includes fiction where a major purpose of the writer’s task is to build suspense, throw in a red herring, or tilt the reader’s sense of balance.

Prose that is loose and unstructured loses the reader while also indicating that the writer lacks a coherent idea of where he or she is headed.

Two writing concepts, never quite like identical twins, worthy of consideration are “unity” and “flow.”

“Unity” is a coherent journey that more likely than not takes the reader back to the beginning in either time, space, thought, or location. “Flow” is pacing and markers along the reader’s journey that keeps he or she moving forward to the next page, the newest thought built on or created out of a previous thought, or the revelation of an underlying theme.

While Tarzan swung from vine to vine, he had to keep looking forward to determine if the next jungle tree was strong enough to hold his weight and provided a new vine able to swing in the direction he wished to travel. Each tree or vine could be a different native species. It didn’t matter. Writing instructors often use the analogy of a flagstone path. Each stone is of different dimension and/or shape, yet together they “flow” in a direction that can be discerned and followed.

“Unity” is to make each tree or stone suggestive of the journey and provide for its accomplishment. Linkage is how you, as the writer, arrange and order the individual pieces. You as writer keep adding new things: Tarzan meets Jane. Tarzan reaches for a coconut. Tarzan avoids the swipe of a lion’s paw. You’re building Tarzan’s life. Giving the reader perspective and insight into Tarzan’s existence.

While Tarzan grows wiser, he ages. The sun dips below the horizon and dawn breaks to provide transition between days. A scrape on Tarzan’s leg first bleeds, the blood coagulates into a clot followed by a covering, protective scab, and then the scab dries up and disappears in the healing process. Life events are given and blended together with the transition of a healing wound.

But be on guard for tried-and-true words and phrases that may be convenient, but should be avoided.  Example:  “After having …” Having means the action has already taken place. The writer has indicated he or she is writing about the past. You would not say” “After having looked around the forest, Tarzan eyed a cypress.” Redundancy abounds. Use either “after” or “having.” “After looking around the forest, Tarzan eyed a cypress.” Or, “Having looked around the forest, Tarzan eyed a cypress.”

The reader takes in that Tarzan swings from a cypress to an oak and then to a palm tree. He finds the coconuts ripe, unlike two months previous. Thus, a single action ties together Tarzan’s journey and experience. There is both flow and unity. The logic is implicit and the writer keeps the reader on the single journey.

 

Step back from your writing and check it for unity and flow. Give yourself a mental pat on the back for doing a good job.

 

_______________________

Author Donan Berg's e-book "Abbey Burning Love" is now 99 cents. Visit www.dotdonbooks.com to learn more and order. He is author of three other novels in print and e-book formats.

 

 

 

 

Halloween Candy Whimsy, Part II

We tried this a week ago with success and suggestions. The encouragement strained our minds to expand the test to identify Halloween candy treats. (Ps, the answers at the bottom of this post relate back to the prior October 17, 2012 post.)

1.  Famous former baseball player.

2.  Famous New York street.

3. Single women look for him.

4. Dry cow.

5. Determines who wins the game.

6. Home of movie stars.

7. A feline.

8. Two female pronouns.

9. Nut happiness.

10. A sweet sign of affection.

Good luck. The only sought after prize is your enjoyment.

(Answers to October 17, 2012 post: 1. Three Musketeers; 2. Mounds; 3. Milky Way; 4. Bit O Honey; 5. Life Savers; 6. M&M's; 7. Mars Bar; 8. Snickers/Chuckles; 9. Butterfingers; and 10. O'Henry. If you guessed me for the author, I blush, but you're wrong. Don't you think, however, that a nice candy name could be made from the book title A Body To Bones changed to be called "Body Sweets" so it isn't too ghoulish. Happy Halloween, and parents check your child's candy just to be safe.)

Lucky 7 Meme Award

Call me crazy or a bloke sucked in, I've been nominated or invited to participate in the Lucky 7 Meme Award which may be farther from a dramatic red carpet stroll than an unwritten farce. If any reader watched Inspector Lewis on PBS Masterpiece Mystery Sunday (July 8, USA) then this may be akin to the brainaic Oxford University Wednesday Club without the craxy clothes, multiple teasing notecards, and, hopefully, completely devoid of any participant being found by authorities floating face down in a nearby river or body of water.

Here's the rules I've been told by my nominator: Earl B. Russell, @earlbrussell. It's an adventure on http://www.twitter.com/ so get your game piece in hand and follow these rules:

1. Go to your original manuscript, finished or not, and stop on either the 7th or 77th page.

2. Drop down to the 7th line. (Beginning to realize why it's called Lucky 7 Meme Award?)

3. Copy the next seven sentences or paragraphs. No editing. (If it's slanderous, then by all means don't put us all in a boiling kettle. Find another manuscript. If you've been an author for any stretch of time your nightstand or computer flashdrive is replete with oodles of starts that went at least seven pages before the inspiration bounced off a mental wall.)

4. Now for the fun part. Tag seven authors, giving twitter names, and tell them they've been nominated by you. Ask them to participate.

     Here's mine:

• Alexandra Lanc @AuthorLanc Florida USA multi-genre author
• Ali Atwood @aliwood1 Florida USA erotic paranormal and sci-fi romance
• Jamie Metcalf @wmetcalf Long Island NY USA Author Tony Gavel PI series
• Mark Dodge @markododge (world is guessed) Working on first novel.
• Chris McGoldrick @McGoldrickChris Orange County NY USA Working on first novel.
• Laura Pfundt @lauracatherinep Melbourne AUS Fantasy and YA author.
• Laurie J. Grove @LJGroveArts Portland OR USA Author The Icarus Files

5.  Here's my seven sentences from page 7 of the still-in-progress murder mystery entitled "Garden Bones" as a working draft.

    

"Her outstretched arms, with jerky finger movements, pointed into the water. Adolph haphazardly piled socks and his sport coat blazer atop his shoes already resting on the inclined slab poured to be a boat launch ramp. On instinct, to account for the river current, he chose a spot to dash into the river twenty feet south of where the woman stood screaming. Her words, “My boy, save my boy,” raced the breeze propelling him into the water.

"The five minutes he bobbed under the surface seemed to him an eternity until the cloth he tugged offered weighted resistance. When he planted his toes into the silty river bottom, stood and splashed toward shore, the shallower August river depths freed his arms as the lowered surface wavelets now only lapped his armpits.
          "With the boy given to an EMT, Adolph paused halfway up the boat ramp concrete."

For bullets 6 and 7, add thank you.

An Editing Exercise

Bench for All Seasons

On a cloudless Midwest spring day, a dawn visitor sits to squint into the golden splendor of a dazzling, radiant sun. Atop the crest of a small bluff, four sturdy A-frame metal poles with concrete feet shoulder the visitor’s bulk with the help of a horizontal bar sporting eyehooks from which hangs a park bench with arms. The bench’s seat no more than an average knee height above grass and compacted dirt. This one bluff within the environs of Raspberry Island rises above constructed asphalt walking paths that sprawl like a clump of worms wiggling for freedom. On the bench, resting one’s body or catching a breath, there’s a visage to behold, replete with nature’s full arsenal of aromas, sounds, and creatures, seen and unseen.

In spring the five-foot length resting perch becomes a lookout to spy, from overhead, on sparrows, finches, and robins building nests of twigs, dried grass, and/or the discarded snagged-kite-string remnant. Black and brown squirrels frolic, jump, and sprint across bending and springing-back tree branches.

Summer with its rising temperatures and storm breezes brings to the bench the fragrance of nearby blooming wildflowers and the whispers of three-foot-high grass. With a westerly wind, the bench swings to and fro to cast off a newly arriving grasshopper. A person’s gentle foot push aids the breeze to enhance the swinging sensation. Looking through the trees and downward, there’s a floating dock on the far shore of a stagnant water pond. Only this day the water splashes as unleashed dogs romp back onto land with clinging droplets to spray their owners. On the bench’s side of the pond, an earthen path juts left and right to a six-foot sandy beach where kids scour the shore for flat rocks to skip into a watery grave.

When the yellow, brown, and red fall leaves swirl and flutter in a tug-of-war between wind and gravity, spring’s green unfurled canopy no longer hides the approaching winter view. A mulch carpet of leaves often rustles as practicing cross-country runners approach and pass behind the bench.
Often unnoticed is the rectangular memorial plaque mounted on a concrete base. The gracious tribute to an eco-friendly soul who once, or more likely often, would stand on the bench's exact spot and wish to linger longer, to enjoy the quiet, and to be nurtured by nature's pulse.

How would one edit the above? Are there metaphors not organic? For more by Author Donan Berg visit http://www.abodytobones.com/

Newer Quotes Over Time

Done once before; now done again. Or is that well done. Let's hope.

Author Donan Berg click for website previously shared quotes. Now for the promised more.

Fiction is mankind's alternate face.

A riot is the exploding unheard expression of the oppressed.

A prayer can't be a wish turned inward.

Life is like a ten-speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use. (Charles Schultz as Charlie Brown)

Back to the quotes of Donan Berg:

Life is a dead end street with a fire escape if we look up.

Forget royalties, take free dry cleaning. (Advice to writers.)

Popularity -- a writer's smallest glory.

Popularity is the heady drink that fills the cup of vanity.

Captivating fiction is a beautiful flirt with a good heart.

If our life were a play, let's hope the plot isn't swallowed by needless drama.

And that's today's more. Come back for more quotes. The key will be in the door. (This line not a quote to the curious.)

Author Donan Berg has published four murder/mystery novels described best as entertaining mystery -- heartwarming romance. Visit here to learn more click for Donan Berg novels. Titles include A Body To Bones, The Bones Dance Foxtrot, Baby Bones, Abbey Burning Love.

Quotes Over Time

Quotes by Donan Berg from days past.

"Don't let a storm of words be a drought of common sense."

"Reverse gear doesn't signal your power's off."

"Rudeness, like paint, doesn't hide rot underneath."

"The heart has two chambers - one to collect and one to dispense love."

"Cruel criticism is a ruler without markings."

"Ridicule by another can authenicate one's worth."

"To depend on fate is to wait for train when there's no track."

And, a personal favorite:

"Human hearts die but don't retract love given."

To be continued without notice or prearranged schedule. (Ps, that's not a quote.)