writing community – Page 3

The Likability of Unlikable Characters

Published on March 18, 2020March 11, 2020 by Noreen LaceLeave a comment

I wonder if the new fad to make unlikable characters because people like them a myth.

I like detective stories, mysteries, among the other things I read. But in the last six months, I think I’ve read far too many stories with these types of characters:

The bad guy who kills other bad guys. Hasn’t this become a cliche? Or have I stumbled upon a pile of similar motifs?

The good guy spends his nights in cheap motels with young prostitutes doing blow. But, you know, he has a heart of gold because he doesn’t actually sleep with the ho; he just talks to them. At one point, it seems, he’s up for three days strung out on coke and coffee and is still able to critically analyze a scene and glean more than the other officers.

My suspension of disbelief has been suspended.

Why am I reading this book?

It’s richly detailed – in parts. It had a good enough beginning to get me interested. Also, I like to finish a book.

But I’m at the point, now, that I’m considering abandoning it. Too many issues for me to keep reading.

The characters names are similar or the same to well known famous book-to-movie characters. It makes it hard for me to picture anyone else but Tom Hanks.

Writing is hard. Originality is challenging.

Some people believe there are only so many stories. They are just told in different ways. But they have to be told in fresh, believable, even likeable ways.

I will read some books with unlikeable characters. But I have to like someone!

Opinions welcomed, please.

The Idea Farm

Published on March 16, 2020March 11, 2020 by Noreen LaceLeave a comment

The idea farm is a creation – where we keep all of our ideas planted, waiting for the spring.

PLANT:

There’s a time for the planting – every day, every minute, every conversation, every silence. But pick and choose. My favorite place to get ideas is from overheard snippets of conversations, words and lines heard in passing or overheard in a coffee shop. Sometimes, it’s just a word someone throws out that sticks. It might be an image. Someone posted a photo and it was eerie, strangely haunting to my strange little perception. I have notebooks, torn papers, lists of ideas. And the ideas do come to live when they’re ready.

FERTILIZE:

To keep the idea farm going, we need to keep it fresh. New ideas coming, water flowing, fertilizer tossed around. Water is connected, according to Freud, to our unconscious. Taking a bath before bed is a great way to feed your muse. Fertilize – remember to go back, reread, add a word or two, subtract a word or two, think about it before you go to bed, when you first wake up. Something will bloom. Sometimes it blooms prematurely and I’m up at 3am writing like a madwoman. But it works. I wrote a number of poems and short stories struck by a fever of words and rhythm. Of Strays and Exes and The Gold Tooth were written under one of those spells.

HARVEST:

When the time is right, you write. You’ll pluck that idea out of the ground and start massaging it into what it was meant to be. Eddy was on a list. It sat there for quite some time waiting for me to be brave enough to pull it out, confident enough to put the words to paper, and strong enough to show it to others. So many more stories came like that – waiting for just the right time, ripe from the time and the fertilizer and ready to burst forth.

Much love and luck.

At Home with Your Idea Farm

Published on March 13, 2020March 13, 2020 by Noreen LaceLeave a comment

Here in Southern California, schools closed, businesses limited, no hugging, and it’s raining. The mood has been set:

One newscaster is talking about cycling to work. Did he not get the memo?

STAY HOME. TOUCH NO ONE.

Schools have closed – or gone online. Starbucks is limiting in person ordering/seating, not allowing refillable cups, considering going with online ordering and pick up only. Restaurants are closing.

I saw my friends this week, and we didn’t hug. This makes me sad – but it’s completely understandable.

It feels like we’ve reached the point of all those 80’s sci-fi movies in which people stay inside, afraid to go out, and resist human contact.

In the Stallone/Snipes Sci-Fi flick, Demolition Man, (a genius move btw), people have sex through the use of computer attached to their temporal lobe. They don’t engage in physical contact.

I really want to say:

This, too, shall pass.

You don’t need 148 rolls of toilet paper or 37 boxes of cat litter. At least, the average person doesn’t need this. You’re going to wake up surrounded by bleach wipes for the next two years!

I guess this whole thing keeps me home, keeps me writing. Writers, at the very least, should be using this whole scenario to feed your idea farm. (More info on my idea farm on Monday).

Authenticity

Published on February 12, 2020February 12, 2020 by Noreen Lace2 Comments

I think this is my word for 2020.

I feel I’m always authentic, being me, to the best of my abilities.

I reach for the positive in the majority of my interactions. (I admit sometimes I fall short – no one’s perfect.)

That being said, some research seems to suggests positive people ignore the negative. So, when I said to someone today, I’m into the whole positive psychology movement, she stated, “I believe in being authentic.”

I thought about the statement, and her misconception that by being positive I’m ignoring some negative or darker emotions (uhm, have you read my work?) . However, I think of it differently. It’s a way to handle the negative, it’s not about ignoring it, (which is what I explained to her).

Last year, this blog was about writing. In looking at statistics, there were a great number of readers. Good. I hope you guys got some good advice. This year, however, I want it to be more about joy and authenticity.

I think my writing is authentic, sometimes raw, sometimes dark, but always with hope.

Happy New Year – Happy Birthday

Published on January 1, 2020December 29, 2019 by Noreen LaceLeave a comment

Yay – it’s a New Year. There’s always so much hope and beauty at the thought of something starting new and fresh. Many of those who join the gym, lose motivation around March. Writers who resolve to write every day lose motivation about Jan 2nd. Just Kidding!

I resolved last year to write 365 days. Well, it didn’t quite happen. In reflection, I figured out what stunted my writing. In all honesty, it’s the stupidest reason in the world. Computer problems. I hate to run out and buy another computer. I get used to things and want them to continue to work. I kept trying to deal with the problem and would distract myself from the computer completely!

I took up journal writing in an effort to help. It helped! For awhile.

But enough about last year! This is a new year! New challenges to overcome! And, yes, it’s my birthday! When I was a kid, I hated it. HATE. Loathe. Detest. Everyone was burned out from Christmas and New Year’s Eve. The kids were all out of school – no cupcakes for me!

You might think, getting older, would be another reason to hate it. But I don’t. I love it. I love that my birthday is on the first of January. The start of the new year.

I’m told I was born under a mutable grand cross. Similar to Mike Tyson and Charlie Sheen – uhm…. Okay. I’m also told I’m a Firehorse. In ancient China, they used to kill firehorse children, especially if they were girls. Uhm… okay.

Some years ago, on January 1st, I undertook a hike to the top of the Hollywood Sign. Not that easy dirt path some of you may be familiar with; our leader took up ankle breaker trail and cardiac hill. I didn’t know there was an easier path!!! Standing at the top of the Hollywood Sign (the hill behind, really), I met an astrologer (who took the easy path) who became animated when I told him it was my birthday; he said I was a King of Spades and I should be writing books and teaching people. 🙂

At least he didn’t reference Hamlet’s father.

I don’t really make resolutions for the new year. I make goals throughout the year to keep myself motivated. Sometimes, throughout the year, those goals are met, and sometimes they are changed.

Resolutions are bronze: Bronze is a hard metal made of copper and others that form an unbendable form. We are humans; we need something a little less stiff.

Intentions are silver: Silver is harder than gold, but doesn’t seem as immediate. It’s shiny and pretty and we want to continue to come back to it.

Goals are gold: Gold, can be melted down and made into other things.

I’d like to write in different genres. More essays. More serious writing. I’d like to take more time with my fiction writing. I’d like to reach a larger audience – teach – and help.

Happy New Year!
Wishing you much success and love for the coming year.

What people think they know…

Published on November 18, 2019November 17, 2019 by Noreen LaceLeave a comment

When people read what you’ve written, sometimes they feel they have some sort of insight into you the rest of the world is not privy too.

It’s ironic. I spend half my time in class convincing my students that maybe a yellow bird or a green light means something more in literature. That the author might have planned it or perhaps it was unconscious, but that it might just be a way into the text, to understand the story or characters a little better than a simple reading might.

And… we can sometimes assume things about the author.

We know Fitzgerald disliked the hypocrisy he saw all around him and Trumbo was disgusted by the war, but can we say with any certainty that F.Scott had unrealized feelings based on the characters’ portrayals.

Some people like to make guesses about me. They like to make what they feel are educated guesses about the person I am. Someone made a comment to me, recently, about one of the characters in my book, trying to guess which character was actually me.

Of course, we put ourselves into the characters, but rarely do we actually write ourselves. Sometimes, I let it go – let them wonder. Other times, I’m a little annoyed that someone makes an assumption because they read one story and based it on one of the hundred characters I’ve created.

We can’t let it get to us too much – once we send a story out into the world, we can’t control where it will end up or what people will think.

So… How do you….?

Published on November 11, 2019November 10, 2019 by Noreen LaceLeave a comment

Since my book, How to Throw a Psychic a Surprise Party, came out, people have consistently asked me – so, how do you?

I’m not sure how to answer without giving away the themes appearing throughout the book of short stories, or to get long involved conversation about what we want to to see verses what we hope to see.

One of the basic constants in life is we are consistently surprised by things that have been right in front of our eyes. When whatever it is finally reveals itself, we are shocked and embarrassed that we didn’t know.

Some of our more dense friends will say – how could you not know? and other rude a-holes will actually claim to have known the whole time.

Life is like a magicians trick – he has all the cards in his hands, but one quick shuffle and presto – chango – the card is suddenly behind our ear, in his jacket – pocket, up his sleeve. How did it happen? How did he do that while we were looking right at him.

It’s a matter of keeping our attention elsewhere. We’re too close. Too busy. Distracted. There are signs, but they’re so easily explained away – and then, then… kind readers… it’s Pandora’s box of tragedy released on the human race. It’s what grows like weeds deep inside all of us.

Hope.

That is what the book is about.

Spooky Reads

Published on October 16, 2019October 13, 2019 by Noreen LaceLeave a comment

Imagine being haunted by all your exes at once!

A little less horrifying is being visited by all the women you’ve loved and lost.

After attempting an overdose by opium, that’s exactly what happens to Eddy. Based on the true event of an attempted suicide, the events that follow are a twisting, shadowy melee with spirit after spirit.

Eddy is the fictional account of Edgar Allan Poe’s 1848 brush with death. It’ll get you in the Halloween Spirit!

Other spooky reads: $1.00 Stories, The Gold Tooth, Psychic Surprise Party.

If you’re local, come on by and hear me read.

Thanks for the support!

Published on October 14, 2019October 11, 2019 by Noreen LaceLeave a comment

Have you heard the old adage, the better you do the few people will like/support you. Sad, but true, in some cases. But, as always, we must focus on those who do support us.

Those who wish others wellness and success regardless of where they are in their own life and success are the best kind of people to be around. Sadly, in this ultra competitive world, our success may go beyond jealously to make people feel as if they’re not accomplishing enough.

However, no one should feel that way. Everyone is on their own path and their life is different, their ideas of success might be different. And wishing another well should not hurt.

There is room enough for everyone. There is no proverbial “top.” There’s a large, flat surface where we can all meander, eat cookies, and drink tea.

I want to thank those of you who wish me and others well.

This poster is an example of a well-wisher. Someone, a friend of a friend in fact, made this advertisement for me.

THANK YOU!

Mirror, oh deadly mirror…

Published on October 12, 2019October 11, 2019 by Noreen LaceLeave a comment

I’ve always been fascinated with the many myths and much mysticism associated with mirrors.

When I was a child, the Bloody Mary myth made it’s way around school. One girl claimed to be scratched and even showed us the poc mark (might have been a poked pimple!) on her face. Another said that she too had been haunted because she ran away from the mirror after daring Bloody Mary to come and get her.

My tentative relationship with Ghost Adventures proved fruitful as well in the haunted mirror of Bela Lugosi.

Mirrors are magical portholes through which people can travel.

Mirrors speak and offer information.

Vampires can’t be seen in mirrors, but that’s the only way one can view Medusa.

And souls can be trapped in mirrors….

That is where my story, Mirror People, comes in.

Marnie seems to have shut herself inside her house. She hasn’t shown up at holidays and promises to meet her family, but when she doesn’t show for the umpteenth time, her sister comes to visit her. Marnie is secretive and keeps leaving the room, her sister hears voices and noises – and she needs to discover what in the world Marnie has hidden in her house.

I just heard from a reader who asked if I had “any other horror or suspenseful type of stories.”