Q is for Questions
It’s late and I have had a cold for three days that has masqueraded as an allergy. Don’t you hate when that happens? I’m sitting with a tissue stuck in my nose. If you know me you know that means there is a prodigious tissue in front of my face , just below eye level. They don’t call me The Nose for nothing.
Questions.
Socrates was a Greek thinker from ancient times, a real smart dude who had a method (the Socratic method) of thinking that has been taken on by teachers worldwide – at least those who believe in having their students listen, think, respond.
Writers are great thinkers. If you write you are exercising your mind – asking questions of the universe great and small. Some through fictional enquiries and some through essays, some through the retelling of what has already happened and placing your perceptual imprint on it.
We ask questions of our selves and of the worlds we create, reflections or mirror images of what we see and perceive around us. I think one of the reasons writing is so hard is because of the amount of thinking required. So much has to live within our minds then get translated into words and placed on paper. It’s easier to let the mind run the way it wants to, harder to rein it in, even harder to make it think.
When my son writes I watch as small light bulbs go on across his forehead, some colored green and purple, others colored bright pink and orange- some the shape of sausages. He’s asking himself questions and answering them for himself, one after the other, maybe even taking a bite or two.
What questions lead you forward when you write?
For a look at the answers to my interview questions for Amalie Howard, author of Bloodspell, take a look at this link and see what colored lights go on around her head.
Guest Post at Got Teen Fiction
Go on over to check out my writing prompt and post on Triffids and Tribbles. Has anyone actually read The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham? My 12th grade English teacher read it out loud to us in a sci/fi writing elective class and I loved it. It’s a classic end of the world story from the 1950′s about walking talking, hungry seven foot tall plants.
Here’s the post: From Triffids to Tribbles
Guest Post at Gotteenfiction
I’ve got the writing prompt at Got Teen Fiction today so go take a look at my post and let me know what you think. Try out the writing challenge too.
Words from W. Goldman
I’ve got inspiration on Gotteenfiction.blogspot.com. Go check it out. There are also still two writing contests open (yesterdays scrabbliscious and last Mondays prompt with Raife), a raffle for five books by the blog’s writers, and a copy of Cheryl Rainfield’s Scars.
You Got Milk and I Got Teen Fiction
Raife pulls a knife...
Got Teen Fiction blog starts today.
I wrote the first post.
It is supposed to be edgy. You can tell me if it is or is not. I will tell you that my colleagues helped me to edit it. We took out words like sodomy and BOP-POCL (BUREAU OF PERNICIOUS POWER OVER CHILDREN’S LITERATURE), but we left in shit.
It’s the first post and my colleagues were a little nervous about those words - except shit which we left in, like I said, but they were still nervous about it. Shit makes people nervous. So does the word sodomy. It was in reference to the last 14 states taking their sodomy laws off their books in 2003. Now at least you have context.
- Today a writing prompt for a 100 word piece which, if chosen, will be published in two Fridays. Anyone can submit – teens, adults, anyone.
- Wednesday is quote day and
- Friday is an interview with Cheryl Rainfield (of Scars and Hunted fame).
Three Chicks and a Guy
“Got Teen Fiction?” coming on the 23rd – a joint blog endeavor with three other YA authors (Karen DelleCava, Shari Berger Maurer & Selene Bayrack- Castrovilla.). Okay… I’ll tell you the truth, the first name for this joint blog that was put on the table was Three Chicks and a Guy. Okay it might have been three chicks and Joe. In either case, I couldn’t deal with the stress so we went with Got Teen Fiction. Much better.
We all write realistic fiction (so far but who knows?) and all three of my colleagues are terrific writers so if you havne’t checked out their sites take a look to see what they’ve written. Key in any teens (teachers) you know for our contests. Every week we’ll have a short writing contest with the winner(s) getting published on the blog and getting a prize. The first contest will have a good one!
Writing is the subject. Teen fiction is the genre. January 23rd is the launch.
Book mark now: Gotteenfiction.blogspot.com
Got Teen Fiction?
Coming soon at Gotteenfiction, a new site I’ll be part of…
Two week count down for the online opening…
In the mean time I’m back to my book and the click-clack of keys.
