Goin’ On A Roadtrip

KODAK Digital Still Camera

My hubby has wanted to go to Yellowstone for as long as I have known him. So, this year our kids gave us the trip as an early anniversary present and we jumped at it. We planned it so we could go before the Memorial Day week-end, but with bad weather and a change in plans we wound up going on Memorial Day week-end.  We were coming into the park from California after a short visit with my brother.

We got into the area on Saturday of that week-end and decided to stay in Belgrade, Mt. It is about an hour from the park and about ten minutes from the headwaters of the MIssouri river, which is something we are interested in. The picture below is taken at the headwaters, which is really the convergence of the Gallaton and Madison rivers, rather than a stepping across point like the headwaters of the Mississippi in Itasca, Mn. It was great fishing, apparently, because there were several fishing. Since we were in Lewis and Clarke area, we went to the Lewis and Clarke state park, which was beautiful and enjoyable.

KODAK Digital Still Camera

After we finished this tour we went back for a nap and then on to Hylite park in Bozeman.  It has a gorgeous lake and some trails. We are not mountain climbers, but we can still do a trail or two. When we got to one spot in the park there was a sign, not a sign from above, but a sign. Well, it said falls and .7 miles. We walk about a mile and a quarter several times a week, so we’re up for this.

KODAK Digital Still Camera

Sure we were. We forgot. We were in the mountains, and if you have a falls they have to up to fall from something. We made it. With two rest stops and two trees to climb over. But it was worth it.

How I Voted

I was asked recently why I voted the way that I did. I didn’t vote in support of a particular person but rather for something I believed needed to happen. I needed change in the government.

I needed to feel that the things that were going on needed a different direction.

It had been the same old, same old for a long time. The press and the people kept saying we needed change. We needed to oust the old regime. No one needed to be a senator for fifty years or a representative for twenty-five. We already have a limit on presidents, yet it seems we keep electing the same type.

If you do what you have always done expecting a different outcome, you are considered crazy. I believe that is what we, as a country, have been doing. The same parties have presented us with the same people every election over the past few years. The lead candidate may be different, but the ones running in the first places, pretty much the same ones. And when the primary one is chosen, pretty much the same guy as last election.

This time around we were presented with someone old and someone new. The country decided on the someone new.

We do not need a lesson on the electoral college, here. Just expressing what happened.

Now, we can berate, berate, berate, but it doesn’t change it. We are in for four years of different.

Do you think we could look at the new and see how we could work with it, and not keep seeing things the way we WANT them? Maybe the left won’t get all it wants. Probably won’t. Maybe the right won’t get all it wants. Probably won’t. Would that be so terrible?

Do we get everything we want anywhere in our lives? No. We compromise and share.

If we are going to point out everything the president, congress, governors, etc. are doing wrong in our way of thinking, nothing will get done. Our country will fall by the wayside. I love my country. My military, my policemen, and firemen, but if we don’t figure out a way to let things get done, they may all go by the wayside and we will have chaos.

I know there will be some awful things done by this administration and some awesome things, also.

I don’t want anyone to lie down accept whatever is proposed, but could we look at the fight we present and perhaps lose as a way to fight better and win a bit more next time? We need help for impoverished people, people who need help to live a good life and help for those who protect us. How can we do it? I really have no clue, but someone does.

This is how I voted and how I hope we can get along, somehow.

Z for Zeugma

And….we made it. Today is Z day. It has been fun. Hope you have enjoyed and learned something. I have.

I want to talk about zeugma.

I hadn’t heard of the word till I dictionary hunted for a Z word. It fits beautifully in with my theme of ABCs for writing.

A zeugma is word used to modify two or more words when it really only makes sense for some of them.

Example: You are free to execute your laws, and your citizens as you see fit. This is from Star Trek the Next Generation.

I have seen these at various times and didn’t know there was a name for it. Now I do.

Another one is ‘ she dug for potatoes and praise.’ It kind of makes sense, but I would have said the punctuation was wrong. However, it is a zeugma.

In this final A to Z post let us learn what a zeugma is and how not to use it.

Here is to zeugmaless writing.

 

 

Just Say Yes

When you feel the urge to write, just say yes. If you have no paper use whatever is at hand, napkin, kleenex, receipt whatever. If you don’t act on the idea, it will vanish into thin air or somewhere, never to be heard from again.

Sometimes you can remember, but you may not have that same aha feeling you had in the first place, so when it strikes: say YES and capture it.

Yes is a word we can say sometimes when we should say no, but when the muse is in your corner, you should say yes.

We have covered a lot of things on writing this month and I hope I helped some.

You should write every chance you get and then edit as much time as you write. Editing is something

Editing is something we all want to say no to, but it needs to be done to put out the best work we can.

You need to say yes to doing things, too. Where you will you get your next idea, if you don’t do things. When someone says,  “let’s go for a drive” say yes. You never know where it will lead. You may wind up on top of the mountain or in the coolest valleys seeing great mountain tops and lush, green valleys.

If you never said yes, you might never be married, or a parent or a teacher.

Here is to saying YES.

 

Xenia

Trying to find an X word for my X day took a bit. Getting it to fit into the theme of ABCs for writing took a bit more, but here we go.

Xenia means the direct influence of pollen upon the seed in the cross-pollination fo certain plants.

Xenia in writing is when you are reading or researching something and you look in another category and it fits what you want to say in your piece. If you are researching about dogs and how they relate to their masters you may want to check out other master/subject relationships to see how they relate from animals to humans. You come across a story where the master/slave has the same encounters and responses. You can use this to show that relationships are similar across the animal kingdom.

Thus you have cross-pollinated with animals and humans.

It could work in other instances, also, and maybe it is a stretch of cross-pollinating a plant to cross-pollinating a story, but that is what we do as writers…make connections that you may not come across anywhere else.

Go write and see what hybrids you can come up with in your story.

W for Wend

“Wend: to go in a specified direction, typically slowly or in an indirect route.”

That pretty much is how I write: specified direction (finish) slowly or indirectly.

I know where I want to go, just not how to get there.

When you start to write, you know you want to say something. Maybe it is to say how to make biscuits or what your purpose in life is. You have to start somewhere and end somewhere else. You don’t want to end where you started unless the journey is what you are trying to sell.

Let’s say you want to talk about biscuits. Your specified direction is the recipe. Now, you are wending your way to the end. Moving slowly, or indirectly.

Moving slowly, you could tell the story of how you made your first biscuits and the results. Then you could list the recipe.

Story done.

You could do it indirectly by talking about your grandmother. You could tell how you spent time with her and what you did.

One of those things you did could be the biscuits. You made them one morning for the family with grandma, but you did all the work. They don’t know that and tell grandma that those are the best they ever ate.

Which could easily move in to the next story.

When you write you could picture wending your way through a garden as you try to put together your story, whether it is biscuits or flowers.

Here is to wending your way to a great story and great career of writing.

 

 

Variety

Variety is the spice of life and writing. We all choose a certain genre, usually, to write in. It may be as general as fiction or non-fiction, but usually we break out into specific genres, like historical, science fiction or science fact, biography, you see what I mean.

Within your story you need variety in your characters. You can make them mirror image of each other meaning they can act alike, but their reasons are opposite. When one is acting from the right the other is from the left. Or you can make them quite alike and present them with different situations and see what they do to handle the action.

You will want to use variety in the scene settings. Move the characters from the city to the country. Or from room to room, whatever fits the action and here, you can also set the scene in an unusual setting. Maybe a love scene in a garage or a dinner in a canoe.

That may all sound a bit far-fetched, but if you put your characters in unusual situations, they will act in unusual manners.

Remember, variety is the spice of life and writing.

Unique

The thing that most of us want to be in our writing is unique. It doesn’t have to be out in left field or pie in the sky to be unique.

We all have our own voice and our own way of putting sentences together. You need to develop that in your characters. Each one has their own voice, their own phraseology.

Under it all there is also your voice as a writer.

That is the uniqueness you need to develop as you write more and more. The only way to develop that is to write. A lot.

When you pick a story to write or it picks you, try different ways of expressing that story. Maybe set it in the future or the past where the language might be slightly different that today.

Take one of the characters and make them talk or act in the manner of a time past. We have all met people who use words from other languages to get their point across or just do it all the time.

Do you know how you catch a unique rabbit?

 

Unique up on him.

And that is also how you become unique. U niique up on it.

Traipsing Through Writing

Traipsing is moving wearily or reluctantly through grounds or anything else. Here we are talking about traipsing through your writing to edit.

You really don’t want to do it, but do it you must.

You need to take out unnecessary words and phrases, even though you may thing they are necessary.

When you see adjectives, you need to weed through them and keep the ones you need, which is none.

Show don’t tell and adjectives tell.

You need to check your repetitions. Your repetitions. Some are as obvious as this and some hide. Read your work aloud to find the ones who hide. Hearing what you have written is essential. It helps with the flow and with the unnecessary.

Where I live we usually think of traipsing as slow as well as reluctantly. So do it slowly and reluctantly as you don’t want to kill too many of your darlings. Some of them are pure gold.

So, traipse away.

Setting the Scene

Setting the scene is also part of the reeling the reader into your story.

If you are writing about vampires, you need to decide how you will introduce said vamp to the reader.

It can be in the process of finding his prey or it can be when he has found and pounced on his prey.

Either way, you need to decide the timeframe you will use for the story: will it be past, present or future? There is always fantasy or science fiction as well.

When you set it will tell you how to set it. If you are setting it in the past, you will probably choose to put the attack scene in a forest. When in the past can help you decide what kind of forest it is.

If you set it in the present you might choose to set it in a war torn section of the world.

In the future you can choose which world to use and that will set time and place.

If you are writing an article your setting is already chosen for you.

Each scene will need its own setting. And if you are writing a romance the more details the better. If you are writing a police procedural the fewer details and more dialog is my preference.

With a romance you can get to describing the room you are in down to the drapes and the drapery rods. With the procedural one saying there is a window would be sufficient.

Remember, setting is what keeps them grounded in where this takes place.