What's your favorite viewpoint as a reader? Do you prefer first person ("My knees shook as I stood to ask the group a question") or third ("Janelle tried to hide her nervousness when she stood to ask the group a question")?
I prefer to write in third, but for some stories - no, some characters - first is the only way to capture the voice. This presents a challenge to me as a writer; I am limited in how much I can show the reader about what is going on with other characters. Alternating first person viewpoints can be done, but I've only read a handful of books with an alternating first where the author employed the technique well. One such example was a novella where the chapters alternated between the husband and the wife from a first person perspective.
No matter if it's in first or third, nothing frustrates me more as a reader than when an author alternates viewpoint and goes back to show me events I've already read about but from a different character's perspective. It's fine if the author moves the story along and reveals the different perspective of past events in context of the story as it progresses, but please don't backtrack!
I suppose these are the reasons why my favorite point of view to write from, and to read from, is third. Sure, third doesn't allow the reader/writer to get as close to the character as first, but it allows the author to move around, zoom in, zoom out, and even alternate characters without jarring the reader.
But first person sure can be fun to write!
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Monday, June 18, 2007
What Movie Is Your Love Life Like?
| Your Love Life is Like Pretty Woman |
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Meme tag
Elysabeth Eldering from http://elysabethsstories.blogspot.com/ has tagged me for my blog's first ever meme!
The ground rules: Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.
I was told to come up with facts about me that aren't widely known. Here goes:
The ground rules: Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.
I was told to come up with facts about me that aren't widely known. Here goes:
- My biggest regret: that I didn't do anything with my singing. From 4th grade to 12th, I participated in vocal competitions, attended an exclusive music camp, performed countless solos, and gave voice lessons to younger children. I sing in the car now and with the kids, but that's about it. Singing is my number one way to feel good on a down day. I miss it.
- I wish my family - my parents in particular - had attended more of my singing performances. It's one part of the mosaic of my life that is so very solitary.
- My career before having kids was assistant comptroller, and I loved to chase down errors and perform accuracy audits. Currently, I enjoy helping others gain control over finances by writing budgets for them or giving them advice on how to live well on less income. Some people would say I'm slightly obsessive about orderliness. I think the exacting habits (everything balanced and accounted for) that I learned early in my career have stayed with me. I can't stand to go to bed with dishes in the sink; I like things arranged a certain way; uneven lines bother me on an unhealthy level, to the point that I'll not be able to do anything else until I correct them (like I have to fix a crooked picture on the wall no matter who's house I'm in); I can live with clutter so long as I feel it's controlled clutter; I can't think clearly when I feel like I don't have control over my environment. It's just a quirk about me that most people don't notice.
- I married a racecar driver. He's retired now, but the restless spirit is still in his blood.
- One of the most rewarding experiences of my life has been homeschooling my son (12) and daughter (9). My son will be attending public school this fall for the first time in his life.
- My husband is my best friend. He's my split-apart, the voice in my head when I'm alone, and as vital to me as the air I breathe.
- I was born with adrenal insufficiency, and spent the first 6 months of my life mainly in the hospital. At 6 months of age, my adrenals decided to wake up and work. Then on my 40th birthday my adrenals began to fail again, only we didn't know that's what was happening. I spent my 41st birthday in the hospital. The last two years have been a roller-coaster ride of doctors, tests, and medications.
- I miss my grandmother, Bernice Dorothy Hackett Green, lovingly known to all as Bunny. She died on Christmas Day, 24 days after the birth of my first child. Twelve years later, I still wish I could visit with her. She would invite her grandchildren over for afternoon tea, so we all have fond memories of tea with Gramma. Each year on her birthday at the end of February, rain or shine, my sisters and I, and occasionally my brother, meet at her gravesite to have tea with Gramma. We pour a cup for her and set it on her grave marker. Gramma could whistle a bird's song, do a Tarzan yell, painted in oils (though she had lost most of her sight to glaucoma), and when she read to me, she used a different voice for each character. Gramma remains the most influential person of my childhood.
Now I'm supposed to say who I'm going to tag. How very sad that I can't think of 8 people with blogs. Well, I know lots of people with blogs but they don't know me! Let's see, I can tag Melanie, Ellie, JC, Beth. Hmm. Does it have to be a blogger? I haven't come up with 8 yet....
Thursday, June 14, 2007
The Things People Do
The story below is something I've been meaning to post from my pre-blog days. The kids and I talk about this story often. The lesson we learned that day was so valuable! Just today, when I found an open, shady parking spot, my daughter said, "I want that spot!" So, guess what? We left it for someone who needed it more than we did.
September 2006
Thought I'd share a recent experience. The kids and I were out on errands one day last week. It was fairly hot and we were hungry so we stopped at a deli for sandwiches. I drove the van to the far side of a parking lot - far away from the department stores and shops - and parked in the shade of the small trees lining the lot. All the parking spots along there were available because no one wanted to walk that far, in the heat, to the store and back. So I parked sideways, taking up 3 spots with my minivan, to make the best use of the shade. As I said, all the spots were open. There were at least 20 shady spots surrounding me, and a dozen more about 30 yards away across a median. We took out our sandwiches, rolled down the windows, and tried to enjoy a few minutes in our busy day. It wasn't an ideal place to eat lunch because we were parallel to a busy street, but you take what you can get, ya know?
A woman pulled up in a blue sedan and started honking. I mean, Toot-toot! Toot-toot! Toot-toot! My son looked out his open window and the lady said, "I want that spot."
I looked around, ahead of me, behind me - there was no one there. Not one car. All the spots were open and available. A car came along behind the blue sedan, went around, and then came back to park, crookedly, about ten slots behind me. I could see she was there to talk on her cell phone, drink her iced coffee, and smoke a cigarette.
The lady in the blue sedan was still there. She LAID on the horn. "Move your car!" she shouted.
I started looking for a sign that said Employee Parking Only or something to indicate that I had committed a violation. I had a deli sandwich on my lap - a messy veggie sandwich with avocado - and I had the driver's seat pushed back. Whatever the inconvenience, I thought I should move the van because obviously there was a reason. Why else would the lady be so upset? So I started the car and very carefully pulled forward far enough so that I was occupying 3 different stalls. This gave her room to pull in behind me.
She followed me and laid on the horn again.
I said to my children, "What? I thought she said she wanted that spot?"
My son said she was waving at me to pull forward. So I did. And she pulled forward. So I backed up, thinking maybe I had the wrong spot or something. The whole time I'm thinking, Why can't she take one of these other spots? Why am I moving around like this, when she could have any one of these? Where the heck does she want me to go?! There were at least 20 spots available and we played this twisted game of tag for a few minutes. I looked around thinking maybe she was meeting someone, but no, there was just that one car further down: Smoking Woman on the cell phone. If Blue Sedan was meeting Smoking Woman, then she'd pull closer to the other car, right? And no one was standing in the parking lot or on the sidewalk waiting, there wasn't a bus stop...nothing! So I pulled forward again and put the car in park and said to heck with it. She'd just have to deal.
I shut the car off and started eating my sandwich again. The lady revved the engine and pulled right up to my back bumper but didn't hit me. Next, she threw her car in revers and sped backwards at an alarming rate just as a car was coming along to get to the main road. I watched in my side mirror as they almost collided. Blue Sedan woman then pulled into one of the slots that we had been occupying when she arrived. Get this: the woman got out of her car and went to my SON'S side of the car (scary) and started to tell me off!
She said I was hogging the shade. Well, first of all, I was there first so neener-neener (I didn't say that) but my gosh, there were like 20 other shady parking spaces! All with the same amount of shade!
My response was a smile and a sweet, calm, "We're just sitting here for a few minutes to enjoy our lunch."
She said it was against the law for me to take more than one spot. Um, no, it isn't but I didn't say that. What if I had an RV? Or I was driving my husband's tool truck? Besides, the parking lot is private property and I don't believe traffic laws apply. (Are there traffic laws that state how many spots you can take up in a half-empty parking lot?) I told her there were plenty of other shady places for her to park. She said wanted to shop and she didn't want her car to be hot when she was done and I was not the only person in the world.
And she walked off.
I shook my head and laughed, and then I called my husband and told him about it. He told me all the choice things he would have said to her and pointed out that - first and foremost - he would NOT have moved the car. My husband was amazed at my attitude about the incident, that I didn't tell her off right there in the parking lot, that I wasn't sitting there thinking of what I should have said to the woman and most amazingly of all - he was amazed that I wasn't angry.
My thought about the incident was this: How pathetic of a person do you have to be to go out of your way to do that to someone? To physically antagonize and intend to intimidate? I felt pity for her. Her life must be a lot worse than mine if that's what she chose to do with her time. She was going shopping for new clothes - a privilege many don't have. Her actions were a reminder that nothing in life is so bad that you should go out of your way to try to hassle your fellow man. It was a good lesson for the kids, too. I don't know what bug crawled up her butt and made her so cranky or so violent, but her display and antagonism toward me for taking up three parking spots was so unnecessary that it was obvious she had bigger problems than needing to chew someone out. It was oddly...reassuring. Comforting. She made me see how stupid it is to get worked up about things you can't control. Her little temper tantrum had the exact opposite affect on me that she was aiming for. I was thankful that my life wasn't like hers, thankful for my wonderful husband and great friends. I hope the memory of the incident will make me think twice about my reactions, or actions, toward others.
Writers should see humanity in all its facets. Blue Sedan woman was one bizarre facet of humanity. I wonder if her day got better or worse after that?
September 2006
Thought I'd share a recent experience. The kids and I were out on errands one day last week. It was fairly hot and we were hungry so we stopped at a deli for sandwiches. I drove the van to the far side of a parking lot - far away from the department stores and shops - and parked in the shade of the small trees lining the lot. All the parking spots along there were available because no one wanted to walk that far, in the heat, to the store and back. So I parked sideways, taking up 3 spots with my minivan, to make the best use of the shade. As I said, all the spots were open. There were at least 20 shady spots surrounding me, and a dozen more about 30 yards away across a median. We took out our sandwiches, rolled down the windows, and tried to enjoy a few minutes in our busy day. It wasn't an ideal place to eat lunch because we were parallel to a busy street, but you take what you can get, ya know?
A woman pulled up in a blue sedan and started honking. I mean, Toot-toot! Toot-toot! Toot-toot! My son looked out his open window and the lady said, "I want that spot."
I looked around, ahead of me, behind me - there was no one there. Not one car. All the spots were open and available. A car came along behind the blue sedan, went around, and then came back to park, crookedly, about ten slots behind me. I could see she was there to talk on her cell phone, drink her iced coffee, and smoke a cigarette.
The lady in the blue sedan was still there. She LAID on the horn. "Move your car!" she shouted.
I started looking for a sign that said Employee Parking Only or something to indicate that I had committed a violation. I had a deli sandwich on my lap - a messy veggie sandwich with avocado - and I had the driver's seat pushed back. Whatever the inconvenience, I thought I should move the van because obviously there was a reason. Why else would the lady be so upset? So I started the car and very carefully pulled forward far enough so that I was occupying 3 different stalls. This gave her room to pull in behind me.
She followed me and laid on the horn again.
I said to my children, "What? I thought she said she wanted that spot?"
My son said she was waving at me to pull forward. So I did. And she pulled forward. So I backed up, thinking maybe I had the wrong spot or something. The whole time I'm thinking, Why can't she take one of these other spots? Why am I moving around like this, when she could have any one of these? Where the heck does she want me to go?! There were at least 20 spots available and we played this twisted game of tag for a few minutes. I looked around thinking maybe she was meeting someone, but no, there was just that one car further down: Smoking Woman on the cell phone. If Blue Sedan was meeting Smoking Woman, then she'd pull closer to the other car, right? And no one was standing in the parking lot or on the sidewalk waiting, there wasn't a bus stop...nothing! So I pulled forward again and put the car in park and said to heck with it. She'd just have to deal.
I shut the car off and started eating my sandwich again. The lady revved the engine and pulled right up to my back bumper but didn't hit me. Next, she threw her car in revers and sped backwards at an alarming rate just as a car was coming along to get to the main road. I watched in my side mirror as they almost collided. Blue Sedan woman then pulled into one of the slots that we had been occupying when she arrived. Get this: the woman got out of her car and went to my SON'S side of the car (scary) and started to tell me off!
She said I was hogging the shade. Well, first of all, I was there first so neener-neener (I didn't say that) but my gosh, there were like 20 other shady parking spaces! All with the same amount of shade!
My response was a smile and a sweet, calm, "We're just sitting here for a few minutes to enjoy our lunch."
She said it was against the law for me to take more than one spot. Um, no, it isn't but I didn't say that. What if I had an RV? Or I was driving my husband's tool truck? Besides, the parking lot is private property and I don't believe traffic laws apply. (Are there traffic laws that state how many spots you can take up in a half-empty parking lot?) I told her there were plenty of other shady places for her to park. She said wanted to shop and she didn't want her car to be hot when she was done and I was not the only person in the world.
And she walked off.
I shook my head and laughed, and then I called my husband and told him about it. He told me all the choice things he would have said to her and pointed out that - first and foremost - he would NOT have moved the car. My husband was amazed at my attitude about the incident, that I didn't tell her off right there in the parking lot, that I wasn't sitting there thinking of what I should have said to the woman and most amazingly of all - he was amazed that I wasn't angry.
My thought about the incident was this: How pathetic of a person do you have to be to go out of your way to do that to someone? To physically antagonize and intend to intimidate? I felt pity for her. Her life must be a lot worse than mine if that's what she chose to do with her time. She was going shopping for new clothes - a privilege many don't have. Her actions were a reminder that nothing in life is so bad that you should go out of your way to try to hassle your fellow man. It was a good lesson for the kids, too. I don't know what bug crawled up her butt and made her so cranky or so violent, but her display and antagonism toward me for taking up three parking spots was so unnecessary that it was obvious she had bigger problems than needing to chew someone out. It was oddly...reassuring. Comforting. She made me see how stupid it is to get worked up about things you can't control. Her little temper tantrum had the exact opposite affect on me that she was aiming for. I was thankful that my life wasn't like hers, thankful for my wonderful husband and great friends. I hope the memory of the incident will make me think twice about my reactions, or actions, toward others.
Writers should see humanity in all its facets. Blue Sedan woman was one bizarre facet of humanity. I wonder if her day got better or worse after that?
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Not The Average Weekend
I wrote another short story. I should have been working on my novel, I know, but with all the activity in my life, my brain didn't want to wrap around the width and breadth of a novel. A short story, however, seemed within my grasp. So I heeded the call of another Echelon Press short story contest: Fast and Foreign.
It won't be a surprise to most of you that I wrote about Mexico, as it has been on my mind much these days. (I'm trying to determine a time in the remodel schedule when I can go visit my mother.) The fun part about writing this story was that my character, Rachel, was a woman who looked good in a bikini. On the eve of her vacation, she finds out her lover has more than one identity.
The whole story was fun to write, actually, and not just because of my characters. I wrote with friends. Elysabeth, Batya, Chai, and a new edition to the word-war club: my daughter, Hannah. Funny thing, it is, to be in the midst of a scene and to have your nine-year-old ask you a way to turn a phrase. My son is also a writer, and quite talented if I do say so myself, but he didn't feel the need to write a Fast and Foreign contest story. He's been working on a fantasy novel for the last year.
In the eleventh hour, my daughter had one of those contest moments that we writers all have. She decided the only way to fix her story was to completely rewrite it. She came up with a different plot for her beloved characters. She learned a valuable lesson in that she didn't get her story done in time to submit, but she did write a great story, and I'm proud of her.
Writing with friends is a singular experience. We logged on to conference chats, brainstormed, swapped stories, gave each other feedback, and generally encouraged and motivated one another. Elysabeth's character, Marie, faced a ghost from a past life at a chateau in France. Batya's character, Sarah, unearthed more than archaeological relics in Israel. Chai's character, Aleida, was caught in a flood in Holland. And Hannah's characters, Adamo and Allgeria, got lost on their vacation in Italy.
They are all entertaining stories and I hope to see them all in print.
It won't be a surprise to most of you that I wrote about Mexico, as it has been on my mind much these days. (I'm trying to determine a time in the remodel schedule when I can go visit my mother.) The fun part about writing this story was that my character, Rachel, was a woman who looked good in a bikini. On the eve of her vacation, she finds out her lover has more than one identity.
The whole story was fun to write, actually, and not just because of my characters. I wrote with friends. Elysabeth, Batya, Chai, and a new edition to the word-war club: my daughter, Hannah. Funny thing, it is, to be in the midst of a scene and to have your nine-year-old ask you a way to turn a phrase. My son is also a writer, and quite talented if I do say so myself, but he didn't feel the need to write a Fast and Foreign contest story. He's been working on a fantasy novel for the last year.
In the eleventh hour, my daughter had one of those contest moments that we writers all have. She decided the only way to fix her story was to completely rewrite it. She came up with a different plot for her beloved characters. She learned a valuable lesson in that she didn't get her story done in time to submit, but she did write a great story, and I'm proud of her.
Writing with friends is a singular experience. We logged on to conference chats, brainstormed, swapped stories, gave each other feedback, and generally encouraged and motivated one another. Elysabeth's character, Marie, faced a ghost from a past life at a chateau in France. Batya's character, Sarah, unearthed more than archaeological relics in Israel. Chai's character, Aleida, was caught in a flood in Holland. And Hannah's characters, Adamo and Allgeria, got lost on their vacation in Italy.
They are all entertaining stories and I hope to see them all in print.
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