Genghis Khan story review

This is a story review by Tyler Johnson (age 15) on the story of Genghis Khan and his Hawk.

He writes:

A very good story with a good moral. Genghis Kahn was a fierce general who ran his army. He went hunting with his hawk. I believe this is a very happy and sad but fun story.

The main characters are Kahn and his Hawk. Kahn is a large, fierce man. His Hawk is an agile bird with long wings. They are motivated by their love to hunt. Khan is very rash. The hawk is a little too prideful.

Kahn needs water. He was chasing a deer and got lost. He then thirst. He found a stream. But, the hawk wouldn't let him drink. He moves toward the source of the stream, but the hawk still won't let him drink. Kahn is angered.

In the end, Kahn kills his friend, and throws his cup only to find the water was poisoned. He grieves over his friend. He learns that it's not always for pleasure or gain someone does something. It has an overall theme of friendship and loss.

Khan is very relatable. We all have been too harsh at times. We all have been like the hawk, trying to help and only being punished. It's kind of ironic. Kahn was super smart and strong yet wouldn't listen to his best friend. I think that Kahn killing the bird makes the story so much more powerful. I was very intrigued by what would happen. It added to the story to keep the venom hidden because then when he found it the poison was all the more surprising.

I was quite surprised by the snake. I had no idea the snake would be there. I felt very sad about the bird dying to save one. It is obvious the author is trying to tell us sometimes we should just listen. It teaches us that standing up for another is never wrong. It is motives that can go astray. I found it a fun, sad and interesting read.

Tyler read the version of this story by Lori Verstegen, through the Institute for Excellence in Writing curriculum.

Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult a book review

Our book club just read Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult.

She has an interesting theme in her books of tackling an environmental or social issue through her story. In Leaving Time, Picoult spends a lot of time discussing elephants and their emotional responses to their environment, specifically grief.

She accomplishes this by creating a character whose job it is to study elephants and their emotional responses.

One thing that really sticks out in this novel for me is the Point Of View changes. They seem to be a common technique among contemporary writers, but I find them aggravating as a reader. They make the whole book FEEL like fiction.

Character viewpoint changes force me as a reader to do extra mental work of keeping up with who's talking when. I want the author to do that work for me, so I can benefit from the enjoyment of being drawn into the imaginary time and place and just enjoy the story.

Fiction shouldn't be so hard.

Picoult is not the first author I've read that does this, but it is very frequent in Leaving Time.

As to this specific novel, there is a lot of spirit/ghost/reincarnation conjecture presented as truth, right alongside the scientific information about elephants. One being so far-fetched makes me wonder if the facts about the elephants are real or made up. I don't know enough about this author to know how she does her research.

The changing Point of View combined with the presentation of the Netherworld come together in the end to bring about a surprise ending to the book, which I won't give away here at all, except to say that everyone in our group was not expecting it to end the way it did, and you probably won't expect it either.

Even though, in the end, I did see the benefit of the techniques she used and how it brought the story all together, I did not enjoy the journey.

So, if you like to read for literary analysis, or because you promised your book club that you would, there is an ending that will give you something to talk about. But, if you like a novel simply for the pleasure of it, I can't recommend Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult.

Failing NaNoWriMo 2015

It's November 29, 2015. Only two days left to complete NaNoWriMo. I have less than 15,000 words in this year's story. No where near the 50,000 needed to win. I will write today and some tomorrow maybe, and I will get closer, but I probably won't reach the goal.

It feels like failure. But, I've learned a lot this year.

In September, I read books and completed research to create a plan for writing a book. I put together a schedule and worked to see how many hours could realistically be squeezed out of each day.

In October, I put my plan into action, created an outline, character sketches and setting descriptions for November's novel.

In November, I set out to turn October's work into a finished novel.

I'm not there yet.

Instead, I went on vacation with my husband and children. A week of fun and sights and visiting. I took my laptop along, but my kids are just too much fun to be ignored.

Then, I won a huge turkey from out local grocer, so I invited some friends for Thanksgiving, so I fed twenty people dinner because they are more important than that story.

But, now that the last days are here, I can't make any more excuses.

I didn't finish the word count because I didn't put in the hours.

That's all.

I chose to do other things, like dishes and laundry, changing diapers and playing with babies. Every day I made the choice to be a mom and let the story sit.

But...
and this is a big one...
I'm not finished.

11:59pm on November 30th is not the final minute of my writing adventure.

This story will still be here. The outline is still solid, my characters compelling and the story worth telling. So, I won't win NaNoWriMo this year, but I am not defeated.

NaNoWriMo 2015

It's NaNoWriMo time!
I've been blog lazy lately, but November always drives me to designating writing time, and that always makes me think about blogging.

So, this year, I'm working on a book to finish. My NaNoWriMo journey is different, more mature maybe. In years past, I've ridden the wild ride in the chase of the fifty thousand word mark.

But, now, I'm thinking about the end product more than I'm thinking about numbers.

This year's novel journey actually began in October as I spent the previous month writing the outline for this novel. I'm working through my notes from a book I read a few years ago that gave step by step instructions to completing a novel. I've made some adjustments and catered it to my own writing style.

I've created character sketches, written setting descriptions and outlined major plot, several subplots, back stories and scenery.

Now, I enter November with a pile of ideas all ready to come together in a cohesive story line.

My word count is growing slower than I might like (probably because I'm raising and teaching 8 children - and we are on vacation this week, so every day is filled with museums and zoos and parks and fun stuff, bringing me home exhausted by the time I put all the tired babies to bed.)

But, I'm excited!

I'm dreaming about putting this year's novel on KDP or some other self-publishing platform. I would love to hear your experiences with this format.

What is a taxi stand?

What is a taxi stand?
That's this morning's internet search.

Not because I don't know, but because I'm wondering if my readers would know.

Which leads me to the real question, which is, how much should I explain?

How as a writer can I be sure that my readers, the bulk of them at least, will know and understand the meaning of terms and phrases through surrounding context?

And, which terms and phrases need more explaining within the story?



BTW, if you don't already know, a taxi stand is a designated parking area for cabs to park, usually in a line, waiting for walk-up passengers. These are often found in front of hotels, or nearby in hotel districts, or in front of hospitals, near theaters, in bar districts, etc. They are prominent locations where pedestrians can easily find a taxi when needed so that they don't always have to call and order one, but can often find one already parked at the taxi stand.
These also serve as queue lines for calls as drivers call in to dispatch to say which stand they are in line at and the dispatcher can disperse call in orders based on location of drivers and the order in which they arrived at that location.


AND, if you're paying attention, you just got your first clue to the plot of my next novel...

What Makes a Man Sexy?

What Makes a Man Sexy?
That is the latest request to my search engine.

To be honest, a man wearing a baby in a sling makes me melt.

But, I'm looking for some romance novel type sexy. In a romance novel, how do you describe a man so that readers think he is sexy? How do you describe him so that women want the heroine to be with him?

I'm leaving today to go on a husband sponsored retreat (that's sexy, right?) to write a novel. I will have about 24 hours without interruption, except for a nursing baby and my own body's requirements for sleeping, eating and endless coffee. As I prepare, I am researching publisher's guidelines and developing an outline to work from as I take advantage of those 24 hours and attempt to write a novel in that time.

I see a pattern of publisher's looking for a "sexy" hero.

What is it that makes him sexy? How do I put it into words? Thus, I turn to Yahoo...

So, here's what I found:
Confidence
Sincerity
Humor
Charm 
Stability
Protective
Leadership

Apparently, I'm not the first journalist to ask this question. USA Today produced an article on just this topic back in 2012. The writers interviewed here said, "cowboy hat" and I'm not so sure that fits my guy...

But, I'm thinking maybe my guy will be just a little bit dangerous, coming from sordid past, have some shady friends, but in the end, be just the kind of take charge and protect what needs protecting man that my heroine needs. That sounds pretty sexy to me. What do you think?

The Well-Educated Mind Reads...A LOT

I've been reading a lot lately, which is normal for me, but it also means less writing as my limited free time has to be divided between the two in some manner. Currently, reading has been overwhelming the writing.

I started in January with The Well-Educated Mind a follow-up to the popular book on classical education titled The Well Trained Mind. The Well Trained Mind is considered the primary source on classically educating your children at home. Susan Wise Bauer offers parents and adults "...the classical education [they] never had" in the Well-Educated Mind.

The first 80 pages or so offer her arguments on why you need to be classically educated. One of my favorites concerns the way we discuss things as adults. First off, Logic tells us that an argument is an offering of ones reasoning on an issue based on reasonable conclusions that follow agreed upon facts. But, one look at a series of comments following most blogs or articles on the internet will tell you that we don't argue well. We fight; we name-call, we spout fallacies of all sorts, we insult people we don't even know and we write things we would rarely say to someone's face. Bauer argues that we behave this way as adults because of the way we were educated as children.

Essentially, her argument is this: Children who are expected at early ages to read (or listen to) material and immediately spout opinions without any foreknowledge or facts to base those opinions on are taught that their opinion matters more than facts and historical knowledge and so become adults who spout opinions without much foreknowledge or facts on which to base those opinions.

Instead, she argues, we should be teaching ourselves and the next generation to first memorize basic facts and gain a foundation in historical knowledge (perhaps we'll be less likely to repeat the mistakes of those who came before us if we take the time to learn the results of our forerunners actions).

Secondly, we should analyze the data presented to us in the context of what we already know. Does the history make sense, are the scientific claims well founded, The idea is to connect these pegs of knowledge that have been memorized to the current information being received and make determinations about its accuracy and validity.

Only when we have done all this can we begin to share our own opinions.

Of course, here I am telling you what I think... laughing in the face of my poorly educated state of mind. Ha!

The next 300 or so pages of Bauer's book is essentially filled with a reading list and summaries of each suggested book. The readings are even listed in the order she recommends you read them and include explanations of why each one is on the list and the basis for its spot in the line up.

In the fiction line up, first is Don Quixote. I bought it. I'm reading it. It's slow - the book is looooooong and it's just plain silly.

But, I'm determined to finish it. So, back to reading for me.

Notes from Stephen King and Dean Koontz

I've always loved reading and writing. I taught myself how to type just so I could write stories faster... it takes me about an hour to add 1,000 words to whatever I'm working on. I think that's pretty fast.

And, my writing is pretty good, some of it is salable even, but I'm always trying to get better.

Stephen King is one of my favorite writers of all time, even though I haven't read a lot of his fiction in the past decade. The stories I remember had such an impact on me as a young writer because of the way he made the characters and the places come to life.

Over the years, King has always been the author most able to suck me in to a story. His book On Writing is one of my most cherished books.

The more I studied the craft, through assignments and journalism and coursework, the more it became about formula and marketing. So, while I still read the textbooks, I try to remember that the fun of writing is really in the story, even if it doesn't sell.

This last week, I've read Feast of Fear, Conversations with Stephen King and Writing Popular Fiction by Dean Koontz.

I hardly ever read a book without taking notes. When King says "...when you write or you do anything that's creative, there comes a moment when you see stuff that somebody got paid for and you say, 'I do better work than that. I don't care if I'm getting paid for it or not. I know I do.' So, that's like the big first step in becoming a creative person who's paid for what he does." I'm like, yeah, that's where I'm at.

King says Don't say to the reader - "It was so horrible that I don't want to tell you about it." Because then, they'll think you don't know what you're talking about.

He also says, "If you're not willing to go for the throat, you ought not to be in this business."

Oooooh...

I just finished a novel I thought was pretty dark, but when I read this quote, I was like 'Ah, he's talking to me' because I want to be brave, but when I think about the story I just finished, I totally held back. I'm terrified to tell it like I really see it in my mind... I am a pastor's wife after all... won't people think I'm sick?

He says you have to grab the reader by the throat and not let go... so, when I heard back from one of my test readers and she said...

" I read it all in one sitting!"

I said YAY!

When I read these comments:

"I was surprised by it."


"I was greatly saddened and I wanted to reach out to the 

girl in the story and hug her..."


"I was angered..."


"I wanted to yell..."


"I was sickened..."


"It was such a sad story, but I felt I could not put it down, 

which I did not."


I was yelling, "YES, YES, YES!!!"

At the same time, I'm thinking, but this is just the first draft and I could add so much more to the story and I could explore this element and that, and constantly questioning myself. But, then, I read Koontz who says,

Write the first draft right the first time.

"When you've finished a piece, send it out straightaway and get to work on something new. You're a professional. You have all the confidence in the world."

WHAT?!?

I'm thinking about everything I've learned and thinking that's crazy talk, it's called first draft because it comes before all the others, but, then, I'm all about getting it right the first time.

I read it again, and couldn't help but say, "Yeah. That."

So, today I find myself torn between tearing apart that "first draft" so I can really go for the throat and studying the 2014 Writer's Guide so I can get this "first draft" on it's way and start working on something else. Oh, the agony of choices.

When the book is finished, success is bittersweet

Today is the last day of NaNoWriMo and I could be scrambling to find another 3,000 words to write into my story, but I'm not.

In one way, that means I have failed. I've failed to meet the challenge to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Now, if you add in my blog posts, well, then I would be way over the word count. But, my story doesn't have 50K words, so technically I've failed.

I'm competitive. I'm persistent. I'm stubborn.

But, I'm done now.

Why?

Because the story is finished. I've reached the end. Agatha has reached her resolution, the only one available to her, so what else is there to write?

I printed out the 99 pages yesterday and thought I might try to read through it today and try to figure out a way to squeeze another 3,000 words in. But, it wouldn't make the story better, it would just be for pride.

And yet, really I don't feel like I've failed, because I've accomplished the real goal, and that was to get this story written down. It's been bouncing around in my head for several years, begging to be told.

I am relieved to be rid of it.

I am delighted with how it turned out.

But, now I have this strange feeling that something is missing from my life. This project that has consumed me for the last thirty days is now over.

I'll spend more time with my family, of course and I'll catch up on some chores, but I'm already thinking about the next story.

Because, for me the stories never end.

The story's climax, a writer's dilemma

It's coming into the final countdown for me and my fellow WriMo's.

Just three days left...

I'm staying up late to chase the clock and I've just topped 40K

I'm coffee'd up, exhilarated and speed typing.... ZOOM!!!

But, oh, poor Agatha. She just can't seem to get it together.

Guilt and shame are nasty bedfellows and they are weighing her down.

They speak to her in her weakest moments.

They lead her astray...

Sometimes, oh, many times, I've wanted to save her. I've been so tempted to have compassion on the poor girl and just give her happiness. But, happiness doesn't come that easily in this sinful world, and it's not fair to pretend it does just because I want it to be that way.

Agatha has to overcome (or not) all on her own. It's her story and it has to be her ending.

This is when I am most glad that I have a strong outline and sketch before I begin. Because it is now in this home stretch that I am most tempted to lie to my readers, to say it will all be hunky-dorey for Agatha, but once you've been with her this far into the story, you know that there really is nothing in Agatha's life that is, ever has been or ever will be hunky-dorey.

Like all of us, Agatha has a few things to cling to for hope, and at this point we have to follow Agatha to her ending, because we know that all hope is not yet lost for her, and we want to be with her when she overcomes (or be there for her if she doesn't).

Either way, this is it.

The end is near.

The Middle of the Story (NaNoWriMo 2013)

I promised that I would give some "teasers" about this year's NaNoWriMo...

First, let me say that I am super excited about my technique this year. As I've mentioned before, the first year I just wrote every day until I'd pounded out one thousand six hundred sixty seven words and went wherever the story took me. It was a haphazard mess.

The second year, I started with a story concept and got mixed up every time there was a distraction, so it sort of went flat at the end.

This year, I spent the month of October developing my story from beginning to end and creating a fairly detailed outline. So, since November 1st, this journey has been one of simply telling the story. I already know what is going to happen, in fact, in my mind it is like the events have already happened and now I am just relating them to my readers.

The story is better, makes more sense and the words come faster. I don't have to stop and try to remember who's who because it's in my notes...

So, with that said, and I do feel like I can't say enough about this as a creative writing method... where is the story now?

As I approach the 20K word mark, I really feel for Agatha. As soon as she works her way out of one abusive relationship, she finds herself plunged into another. The struggles in her life are intense and tragic, but she is strong and she keeps fighting back.
She has just given birth to her second child and things seem to be working out in her favor as she is working, earning her own way, and learning to save money. She is still young and there is a lot she doesn't know, but she is learning to grieve for her losses and make better decisions.
It seems at this point, that she has the highest hopes of anywhere in the story and all are cheering her on toward a happy ending.

But, it's only 20K words.
And, if you know anything about a story, you know that if it seems too good to be true, then it probably is.

It's like that point in a movie when you think everything is working out and you think the hero has solved the problem and overcome the villain, only to realize that there is still an hour left in the movie and so the story can't be over.

That's where we are with Agatha. It's too early in the book for things to be this good...

Ask the Author: Which one are you?

Readers fall in love with characters, and they love to hate others. Sometimes readers wish they could be a character, and they often wonder aloud, to the author, "Which one are you?"

If I'm honest, I'll tell you that I'm everyone and no one. I have to become each of them in order to write them... but their stories are their own, not mine. This is fiction, my own story is much too dull a tale.

Some characters have qualities I wish I had; they are prettier or smarter than me; often they are stronger than me - Emily is able to exact revenge on an abuse where I could not. In some ways, I become stronger because of them.

Other times, they are who I hope I'll never become. Their faith is weaker than my own; I think they would not be so distressed by their circumstances or desperate to change them if they trusted God. If I can learn what drives Claire to take her own life, perhaps I hope this understanding will help me avoid the same fate.

I am a part of every character I write, and they are all a part of me; but, I am none of them.