The treasure box was full of old photos of my father’s paintings, a few 8×10 photos of me, a 1972 letter to the editor written by Dad concerning the construction of a nuclear power plant in Point Arena on the California Coast, and a small booklet of pen and ink and watercolor sketches by my sister Veneé.
Read MoreThis essay first appeared on Andrea Buginsky’s andisrealm as part of the blog tour organized by Virginia Grenier of World of Ink to promote Gabriela and The Widow. The link to the original posting is this url: Objects and Sentiment in Gabriela and The Widow Objects in Gabriela and The Widow To write Gabriela and The Widow I started with the idea that one character, Gabriela, was thin, while the other, The Widow, was thick. What I would like to lay out is a study of the way I use “objects” in this novel to build both emotional attachments between characters and to push the story line along to its conclusion. This is a preliminary working of the topic which developed more in the course of writing the novel. By focusing on the objects in a story and their relationship to character, you can go deeper into the emotional reality associated with objects. In this, fictional characters share an aspect of the sentimental life of people and that helps to make them whole. Step One: Emotional Attachment to objects. The main object in Gabriela and The Widow is the List that Gabriela has to keep for La Viuda. Boxes: carved, painted, decorated, engraved, different kinds of wood, metal. Each box comes and goes in the story: some days, La Viuda wants to examine the painted box with photos, other...
Read MoreWho Do You Listen To? After I came across a very brave and unique novel titled: Taliban Escape by Aabra which was reviewed in The Dark Phantom Review, I remembered an exchange I had with a fellow writer and former student. I want to post it here for anyone visiting this blog as a reminder of why we write: Writer: I’m trying hard to maintain the last bit of writing advice you provided, “write what you want, the way you want.” That’s hard, especially with two friends criticizing it. Right now, if I take them seriously, I need to go back and almost start over with my work-in-progress.” JR: Yes, that’s a tough one. One short answer is to listen but choose what to change if anything. The way I see it, we have this ideal story in our heads. It’s endless, but when you write, the readers plug in what you write and if it doesn’t connect somewhere to the universal story, they get this disjunction and their pencils move. What that gives us then is the issue of who’s doing the writing. But even deeper is the question of vision–-readers want you to tell them the story they want to hear. It’s your job to tell them a story they’ve never heard. If you can’t get past the universal, then you add nothing to the inventory of...
Read MoreIn Form, writers try out their voices in fiction (novel, novella, short story), drama (stage play), and film. At this stage of development, the core story has a direction.
Read MoreWriters who complete this first course will exit with three pieces of writing: a plot synopsis in three acts (8-10 pages); a dramatic scene (5-6 pages); and an extended essay that explores the writer’s hopes and fears, dreams and motives and skills.
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