Writing and Dreams: what's your craziest one?

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We've all heard the story from Stephanie Meyer: 'I had a dream about a girl in a field with a sparkly boy who loved her but also wanted to kill her so I wrote it down and the next thing I knew I was a famous millionaire best selling writer with a movie contract and a mob of thirteen year old girls at my feet.'

What are your thoughts on that? Ok, so I'm being a bit facetious, but I mean about the whole dream to novel thing? Has something like that ever happened for you, if on a smaller scale?

I can't say I've ever written a story based on a dream I've had. I wish I was better at remembering my dreams. I dream a lot, but remember it for only a few seconds in the morning unless I remember to write it down, which I'm usually too tired to do. Then every once in a while I'll have stunningly vivid dreams that I can't shake off for the whole next day. Sorry, rambling a bit, but I find dreams fascinating. What kind of dreamer are you?

Here's what I find writerly valuable about dreams--I've never actually been sliced in half in a school gym by a sword-fighting wolf; or driven through the Grand Canyon in a covered wagon being pulled by a pig; or been jumped in a dark alley by a group of scruffy, creepy men (yeah, that one was petrifying and horrifically real)--But, because of dreams, I have a better understanding of terror, the bizarre, and what it would be like to have my family turn into zombies. Dreams expand our emotional experience in a very real way, and that definitely translates into our writing.

What do you think about dreams and writing? And I'm very curious--what is the most bizarre, terrifying, or memorable dream you've ever had?

Sarah Allen

Mark Rylance, Louis Jenkins and the Tony Awards

Mark Rylance is a genius. He was artistic director at the Globe for 10 years, and last night won his second Tony award for his performance in Jerusalem. I think you only get to being as good as he is by being obsessive and a little bit crazy. He is one of the most widely read people I know about, and can talk very intelligently on almost any subject. This is what I'm gathering from the bios and interviews I've been reading through.

Because I think they're awesome, here is Mark's acceptance speech for Boeing-Boeing, back in 2008, and the poem he read in his acceptance speech last night. Both are by mid-western American poet Louis Jenkins. The poem he recites in the video is called "Back Country."



***
WALKING THROUGH A WALL

Unlike flying or astral projection, walking through walls is a totally earth-related craft, but a lot more interesting than pot making or driftwood lamps. I got started at a picnic up in Bowstring in the northern part of the state. A fellow walked through a brick wall right there in the park. I said, "Say, I want to try that." Stone walls are best, then brick and wood. Wooden walls with fiberglass insulation and steel doors aren't so good. They won't hurt you. If your wall walking is done properly, both you and the wall are left intact. It is just that they aren't pleasant somehow. The worst things are wire fences, maybe it's the molecular structure of the alloy or just the amount of give in a fence, I don't know, but I've torn my jacket and lost my hat in a lot of fences. The best approach to a wall is, first, two hands placed flat against the surface; it's a matter of concentration and just the right pressure. You will feel the dry, cool inner wall with your fingers, then there is a moment of total darkness before you step through on the other side.
***

Awesome, right? Have any of you ever tried prose poetry like this? I took a class my last semester that involved a lot of mix genre stuff, such as prose poetry, and other stuff like flash-non-fiction and other crazy stuff. I appreciate Mark Rylance for introducing me to Louis Jenkins, and providing such a good example of literary crazy awesome. Read and study a TON TON TON and a TON more, and its ok to be crazy. When you read that much and are that dedicated to your craft, I don't know if its possible to NOT be crazy in some way. Maybe eccentric is a better word. And look what the possible results are: a nice shiny trophy and people thinking you're awesome.

I love the excitement and motivation I get from introductions to awesome people like my new buddies Mark and Louis. I want to learn more about writing plays. Now...what poem would I recite in my acceptance speech...?

Sarah Allen

Sunday Song: Betelehemu

Just thought I'd share something enjoyable for your Sunday. Betelehemu is a Nigerian carol and this is a version done by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I guess it's technically a Christmas song, but its only 6 months...well, Christmas in July...wait, um...ok, so I like Christmas music, and its in Nigerian anyway. But its awesome, and definitely worth listening too. Just letting you know, the song starts off slow but then gets progessively awesomer. Also the soloist at about 3:58 is one of my old choir directors, Shane Warby, who is kind of an incredibly fantabulous singer. If nothing else, you get to watch a bunch of old white guys trying to be African. We try, ok? ;)



So your next character is going to be a professor studying Nigerian folk music, right? Ok, maybe not, but hope you enjoyed!

Sarah Allen

Top Ten Songs for Writers

Ok, so these songs aren't only for writers, I mostly just think they're awesome. However, I do think music can be one of the greatest sources of inspiration, and these ones in particular have incredible lyrics, or emotional honesty, or tell a great story, something I think writers can learn from.

So in no particular order:
1-No Children, The Mountain Goats
2-I Think It's Going to Rain Today/God Give Me Strength, Audra McDonald (One video for 2 songs. Cool, eh?)
3-The I Love You Song, from The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
4-Lullabye (Goodnight My Angel)/And So It Goes/Scenes from an Italian Restaurant, Billy Joel
5-The Lonely, Christina Perri
6-I And Love And You, The Avett brothers
7-Space Oddity, David Bowie
8-Pretty Women, Brian Stokes Mitchell
9-Lonely Anywhere, The Everybodyfields
10-This Night, Black Lab
11-Wheels of a Dream, Ragtime the Musical (ignore the video, its the only one good audio I could find of the song)

Ok, ok, so that's more then ten, but it was hard enough narrowing it down this far. I linked to videos of each song (I really tried for number 8 but couldn't find anything--its still worth looking up) in case you're interested. I tried to list songs you might be unfamiliar with (ok, so Billy Joel and Christina Perri aren't exactly unknowns) and I hope you aren't too against a little Broadway. Here is the video for number 10, a particularly good video and a recent find I'm kind of obsessed with right now.



Now its your turn. What are the songs you think everyone should know about but don't? You don't have to give a list of ten if you don't want to, but I really want some good recommendations here.

Left a nice long list of songs in the comments? Good, now stop procrastinating and get back to work. Your novel isn't going to write itself, you know.

Sarah Allen

Liebrary: the best game for creative writers

I think a couple years ago my cousins gave me a board game called "Liebrary" for my birthday. It's still one of my all-time favorite games, and its very educational and creatively inspiring.

In Liebrary, there is a stack of cards for 5 or 6 literary genres, like sci-fi/horror, childrens, non-fiction, literary, etc. Each card has the name of a book, a synopsis, the author and the first line. The "librarian" reads everything except the first line. Everyone else's job is to write their own first line, and the librarian writes down the real first line. Then the librarian reads all the first lines, and everyone votes on which one they think is the right one. You'd be amazed at what people come up with.

When I'm stuck, I flip through the cards for ideas, and I still have a baggie full of all the first lines people have written. Maybe I'll write a story with them some day or something.

Anyway, just thought I'd introduce you guys to a game that you can play with your friends and family, have a ton of fun and be creatively inspired. Enjoy!

Sarah Allen

Creative Writing and the Olympics

With the Olympics going on, I was thinking about the chasm between the world of athletics and the world of literature/art and how it maybe it doesn't need to be as big of a gap as it is right now. There are definitely things we writers can learn from the world of athletics, the Olympics in particular.

Inspiration. Sports can provide direct creative material, like if you wrote a story about an Olympian or a wannabe pro athlete. Maybe you know an athlete and their stories and characters can inspire your next piece.

Determination. Think of how much time and effort these Olympians have put into their sport. Basically their entire life. Thats the only way they have gotten where they are, and if we want to be the "olympians" of literature, we should expect to have to do the same thing. Of course they are different things, and I'm not saying we need to train for ten hours every day. But we need to be doing something every day, and thinking of new and creative ways to expand our career, and hone our craft, and everything else writers have to do.

Marketing. This one is a little more complex, and I would love to hear your ideas on it. But what I mean is that maybe we can take marketing and promotion lessons from the NFL, NBA, etc. Commercials, target audience, stuff like that. Look at what they do and see how you could creatively apply it to marketing your work. I mean, Golf has a huge, almost cult following. Why? How? Is it because its a game that tons of people play, so tons of people can relate? If so, find a way to apply this to your writing career: create something everyone can feel a part of. Remember baseball cards? Yeah, something like that. I can't get very specific here, because this is very dependent on your individual work and personality. Be creative and find what works for you. And think about this: Does Tiger Woods have a cult following because he's a golfing heavyweight, or is he a golf heavyweight because he has a cult following? The answer is probably yes...but learn from it.

What are your thoughts? Do you think writers have anything to learn from athletes? Hope this helps, and enjoy the Olympics!

Sarah Allen

Creative Writing: Improv to Improve

I'm sitting on the couch watching 'Whose Line is it Anyway' laughing my head off. My high school English teacher, a large part of why I write, also taught an improv class that I took for a few semesters, and we spent a lot of time talking about the way improv can help and inspire artists and writers of all kinds, and I think its something useful and way fun to discuss.

Improv can generate ideas. When your story is stuck; when your characters need filling out; when dialogue isn't working right--improv can help. Improv can open you up to creative inspiration and calm down your internal editor. Improv can take your story in completely unexpected places or can fill out the spots that feel empty.

Take specific characters, lines, and plots that come out of an improv session and use them to generate or enhance your own work. Let yourself make crazy decisions in improv so you can see first-hand how creative risks can pay off big-time. Participating in improv can help you make connections and see things in completely new ways.

There are some ways to do solo-improv. Fill a jar with quotes and pull one out when you need inspiration. Listen to wordless music and make up your own words. Games like MadLibs may work.

That having been said, improv works best as a social activity. Have an improv party with some fun friends. Look up Whose Line episodes on YouTube (that can not only teach and inspire you, but its friggin hilarious). You may even want to go all out and research some improv groups in your area. Take an improv/acting class.

Most of all, have fun! Free your creativity and you will always surprise yourself.

Have any of you had experience with improv? What are your thoughts about how it can help inspire creative writing?

Sarah Allen

Valentines Day for Creative Writers

Whether Valentine's day is a happy occasion for you, or whether it is, as it is for me, simply Single's Awareness day, holidays are a great time to collect stories and build up your creative stockpile. Here are ways creative writers can use February 14th to their advantage.

Use it directly. Write a story about cupid or a misplaced valentine's card. This last is what 'The Office' writers used. Think of the movie that came out two days ago. You may find a way to use this holiday as direct creative material.

Get stories. What better day to collect stories from friends and family, whether happy or bitter. The couple who gets engaged on Valentine's. The couple who get divorced on Valentine's. The husband who plans a huge day with his wife only to be blocked at every turn. These stories can be a story of their own, a small part of a larger story, or adapted to fit other characters and other times.

Get characters. Maybe you have a sister who refuses to wear anything but black on valentines day. Perhaps your great aunt decorates her house for valentines day even more then she does for Christmas. What if your characters birthday was on February 14th, and he hated it because all he ever got were those disgusting chalk hearts. You could even mix holidays and write about how Blitzen and the tooth-fairy celebrate valentine's day. Even if you're currently working on a project, it's a good idea to know how your characters would feel about Valentine's day.

Get in touch with life. In order to write real, compelling characters, you have to make them have real experiences and feelings, and holidays are a good time to sit back and think about life and the things people go through. Valentine's day means so many different things to different people. It can be a day of bliss, loneliness, contentment, desperation, enchantment, disgust, ennui, stress, excitement, busy plans, reflection, or a combination of all of them.

Anyway, hope these ideas help. What are your thoughts about Valentine's day and art?

Sarah Allen

Will Sing for Plot

If you're like me, coming up with a good plot is one of the hardest parts about writing. I appreciate anything that can help inspire me, and here is an idea I thought of about using the music in your iTunes to get a plot.

It's a simple idea, really. Just put your iTunes on shuffle and click play. Every song has its own characters and situation, right? So the first song you here is the way things stand at the beginning of your story or novel. Listen to the song, get a feel for how the characters are feeling and why. After you've gotten a feel for it, go to the next song; that song is your novel's end. The way your characters and story ends up. Again, listen to the song and get a feel for the how and why.

Here's an example, from my own playlist:

First song: 'Thank You for the Music' by Abba
Second song: 'You Can't Always Get what you Wan't' Glee Cast

So you could make a story from those like this: Maybe there's a shy, very unconfident girl who doesn't feel like she can really do much, except she's brilliant at the piano and she actually has small, but piercingly good voice. Maybe she was even abused by one of her mom's many boyfriends or something, and she's kind of given up on ever finding love in her life, and basically devotes her existence to music. She even gets in to Julliard. Then maybe she gets hit by a car or something and gets damage to her brain such that she loses feeling her left hand. Obviously this means she can't play music anymore, and this devastates her. So then what happens is she decides to teach music at a local private school, and becomes close with the widowed father of one of her students. At first she obviously has trust issues with any guy, but eventually they realize that they can heal each other by loving each other.

Anyway, you may not have gotten that story from those songs, but work it out however it works best for you. I'd love to know what you come up with!

Sarah Allen

Genre Exploration: Cowboy Poetry

Yesterday in my American Folklore class we talked about cowboy poetry. My professor showed us some clips from the cowboy poetry gathering in Elko, Nevada. It was actually some great stuff, and definitely worth looking into.

As a beginning, general thing, here is a great cowboy poetry site with a big collection of poems.

I wanted to highlight a couple of my favorite poems, and put them here for easy access, but to keep safe from any copyright issues, I'll just have to link to them. Here are my two favorite:

The Pearl of Them All by Will Ogilvie

Anthem by Buck Ramsey

(On each of those pages there are several poems, so you may have to search for those specific ones).

Much of their poetry is put to music, so here is a link to The Riders in the Sky website, a very fun band who I think sang Woody's Roundup in the second Toy Story movie.

Other poet recommendations are Badger Clark, Baxter Black, Joel Nelson and Gwen Peterson. See if you can find something you like.

So why cowboy poetry? Well, its rhyming and often sentimental, which usually aren't good things in my opinion, but much of this poetry shows how sentimentality can be done well, and that is a good thing. I believe its good to read in tons of genres to round out your own writing. Plus cowboy poetry is just fun. I really enjoyed, and was moved by it, and that's the point of art, right?

Anyway, let me know what you think of this. I hope it will brighten your day as much as it did mine.

Sarah Allen

Character Songs

Right now i'm in the play 'Much Ado About Nothing.' I'm playing Verges, Dogberry's little sidekick. My director had us find a song that epitomizes our character. It was much more difficult then I thought it would be, but also more enlightening. It really helped me access a deeper side of my character, even though it is Verges, who probably doesn't really have a deep personality :-)

Anyway, I thought this could effectively and beneficially be applied to creative writing. For main characters in particular, and any other characters you're having a hard time grasping, finding a song (or for main characters, maybe two or three) that just clicks with them may give you the inspiration you need. It will give you a certain feeling or aura about that character, and I know that for me that's often how I can most successfully get to know a character. Especially complex main characters who have complicated personality traits; it takes more then just a personality checklist, and often a song is just the thing to help you capture what you're trying to capture.

Have you ever done this? What songs have helped you? Do you think this could actually work, or do you think it would be distracting?

Sarah Allen

25 Days of Christmas Stories: Creative Writing Prompt

A while ago I wrote about 25 Days of Christmas Stories, about how one of my family traditions is to read a Christmas story every night as a countdown towards Christmas. I think writing my own 25 Christmas Story Countdown would be fun, and suggested it as an idea for you writers out there. If you have written something towards this idea, I hope you had fun and hope it worked out for you. If you're stuck, here is a beginning that I wrote a few weeks ago. I may want to keep going with it later, but for now you guys can use it as a prompt for your own stories. I hope you like it, and I hope it helps:

*******************
Blitzen

My middle name is Blitzen. I would tell you my first name, but if I did there’s no way you’d stick around. Besides, it doesn’t matter, because all my real friends call me Blitzen anyway.

You’d think having a name like Blitzen, that I’d like Christmas a whole lot or something. To tell you the truth, I do like Christmas. Kind of. But when it’s come and gone, I’m always left feeling sort of disappointed. To tell you the real truth, in all honest to goodness truth, I’d have to say my favorite holiday is Valentines. But don’t tell my friends that. They’d never stick around.

I’m not quite sure why my favorite is Valentines. I mean I’ve never gotten a card or even those disgusting chalk heart things that say fruitcake things on them, and taste even worse. Except once I saw one that said ‘I thee jilt.’ It made me laugh, but I couldn’t think of anyone to give it to.
*******************

Hope this helps! Happy Holidays!
Sarah Allen

Dialogue and Screenwriting

Dialogue is one of the hardest, yet most necessary aspects of creative writing. Whether your writing fiction or script, I think reading dialogue is a good idea. So here are a couple links to a database of movie and tv scripts. Take a look, read some of your favorites and it may turn out to be very helpful for the dialogue in your own creative writing.

Internet Movie Script Database
Script-o-Rama

Hope this helps, and enjoy!

Sarah Allen

25 Days of Christmas Stories

For as long as I can remember my family has owned this tattered blue folder with 25 Christmas stories and poems inside. The aim is to read one a day until Christmas, as a sort of countdown. It's one of my favorite Christmas traditions.

Now, I can't give you the folder, but here are some sites that have lists of Christmas stories and poems that you can start with, if you're interested:

The Gift of the Magi
Christmas Story List1
Christmas Story List2

Lately, in thinking of this tradition, I have been thinking how fun it would be to write my own 25 Christmas Story anthology. If you like the idea, feel free to steal it and start working on some Christmas tales this month. Here are three ideas that I've come up with so far that you can use as a starting point for your own ideas:

-The Other Reindeer: write a story from one of the non-Rudolph reindeer's perspective. Give all of the reindeer characteristics and challenges and turn them into a story. Its basically reindeer fanfiction :-)

-A Christmas Tragedy: Create a character and show how their Christmas goes terribly wrong. I.e., a single mother of two loses her job and can't afford to buy presents.

-Cross holiday: Take a leaf from Tim Burton's book and combine a couple holidays. I've always wanted to know what Cupid does for Christmas.

Anyway, there are some new ideas for a new month. Enjoy, and good luck!
Sarah Allen

More Creative Writing Title Ideas

A while ago I posted some creative writing title ideas, and I think for today it may be a good idea to do that again, as well as discuss the process of titling your piece.

For me, titling is one of my favorite parts of a piece. Its a very intuitive process, and what works for me may not work for you, but there are certain things that may help everyone. And remember, writing down prospective titles in the back of your creative writing notebook is a great thing to do. Remember to make your title match your piece. You don't want false advertising. Let your title hint at the issues in your piece, but don't give everything away. There are no real rules for titling, so do what works for you. But just as a starting point, here are some "formulas" that may give you some ideas:

-'The Noun' or One Word titles: The Mask, The Notebook, The Road, The Stand, Macbeth, Les Miserables, Twilight, Frasier, Lost

-Pairing: (if you pair quirky things this can be pretty fun) Guns 'n Roses, Cats and Dogs, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

-Person and Phrase: Dan in Real Life, Anne of Green Gables, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends

-Known Phrase: I can't really think of specific examples for this one, except I have one short story called 'The Title of My Life'. Also the title of the novel I'm working on is a phrase from a Shakespeare play...which I will reveal at a later date :-)

-Word + Qualifier: Star Wars, Happy Feet, Star Trek, Silent Spring

-Verb(noun) + Phrase: Running out of Time, Interview with a Vampire, Touching Spirit Bear, Pushing Daisies

Anyway, those are just some basic ideas that may help, and here's just a random list of titles from the back of my notebooks that you can steal/use to get your own ideas:

-I Love You, Take a Right
-Your Whole Death Ahead of You
-In Between Raindrops
-Dissonant Peace
-Pickled Down
-Dead of 87
-This Narrative Woman

Hope this helps, and hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Sarah Allen

What authors can learn from Stephanie Meyer

As a significant portion of our population waits with baited breath tonight's midnight showings of New Moon (which I will be going to, I admit), I figure it might be useful to see what can learn from this craze and the author of it, Mrs. Stephanie Meyer.

Let me start off by saying that regardless of anyone's opinion of her actual artistic ability, Meyer has done something right, and any writer wanting even a smidgen of the type of success she has had would do well to see what leafs we can take from her book. Here are a few that I've thought of.

-The Erotics of Abstinence: I can't remember where I heard that phrase, but I think it sums it up well. I think it could also be called something like 'The 90% Principle'. So many artists think that just laying it all out there and holding nothing back is what will satisfy readers. But what Meyer shows us is that by not giving the reader 100%, they are left pleasantly and addictively unsatisfied, and will keep coming back for more. And this can apply to more then just love scenes. As a general principle, by taking your reader only part of the way, it makes it harder for them to leave you.

-Gimmickability: Meyer created a world that can be expanded upon. The story can be made into Twilight dolls, music, posters, fanfic, stickers, whatever. In other words, its everywhere. I think gimmickability is a lot easier in the fantasy genre, and a writer can't build their piece around the hope of character barbies, but in whatever genre you're writing it may end up being a successful marketing strategy to have a few quirky symbols, images, characters or whatever that can creatively be used as marketing gimmicks. Look at it this way: even black book covers with white and red front images is now a Twilight gimmick.

-Fan involvement: From what I can tell Meyer is very involved with her fans. She answers their questions, encourages them to write their own stories, and basically just lets them be involved in her world. This way readers feel welcome and excited to be a part of something.

Hope this helps, and enjoy the movie tonight. It promises to be...interesting.

Sarah Allen

Creative Writing Podcasts

I thought I'd compile a list of some of the best creative writing blogs for those times when your cleaning, working, driving, walking, or whatever and just want to listen to some good advice about writing. Here you go!

The Writing Show
Writers On Writing
The Secrets
Barnes and Noble podcasts
Washington Post Book World Podcast
I Should Be Writing
Write Where You Belong

Sarah Allen

World Literature Condensed

This is from a plaque that my grandpa gave to me a couple years ago. I have it on my desk and thought you might enjoy it as much as I do.

World Literature Condensed:

Moby Dick
Ahab chases whale. Whale chases Ahab. Whale prevails.

Romeo & Juliet
Two teenagers fall in love and then they die.

Gone with the Wind
Scarlett's a yuppie. The South falls. Rhett splits.

A Tale of Two Cities
Good times. Bad times. The peasants win. Marie loses.

War and Peace
A lot of Russians with long names doing complicated things. The Czars lose.

Enjoy! Have a fun and creatively productive weekend.
Sarah Allen

Some creative writing title ideas

Here are some titles I've pulled from my creative writing notebooks as beginning of the week creative thought provokers. Hope they at least spark some ideas in your own mind.

-The Darker Side of Yodeling
-Fundamentally Bailed
-The Oil Lamp Stories
-Rate of Decay
-A Dirty Job and Lamb
-I Blow with the Harmattan
-Witches, Wives, and Wonderbread
-Chimeras and Red Wine
-Burial 116

Anyway, there are some random titles from the back of all my notebooks. Remember to just keep your butt in the chair and write!

Sarah Allen

Audio books: What creative writers should have on their iPods.

I recently uploaded the last few chapters of 'Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows' onto my iPod and have been listening to them as I walk to school. Not only has it made the walk more enjoyable, but I've noticed that hearing the words out loud has helped me be aware of J.K. Rowling's voice, phrases and word choice in a way you just don't pick up from words on a page. I think listening to music is great too, and there are some incredible lyricists out there, but why not try shaking it up with some audiobooks, and using your iPod time to be taught and inspired by the greats.

Now, audio books are pretty expensive, and writers aren't typically known for their vast financial resources, so unless you have parents or friends with an awesome audio book library that you can mooch, there are a few things you can do to keep expenses down. I've been haunting the 'Free on iTunes' section of the iTunes store, and have found a few gems. I've found excerpts from newly released novels, and even a section of 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' read by Roald Dahl himself. And if you don't mind unprofessional readings, LibriVox has a huge audio library of public domain books. Here is a list of sites that offer free public domain audio books but LibriVox is the main one. Also, iTunes offers free podcasts of some of the classics, and that might be worth checking out.

If there are better/more sources for audio books out there, I would love to know. Happy listening!

Sarah Allen