Throughout the time of our youngest daughter being in Japan I experienced an incredibly painful bout of sciatica, the most difficult in the recent past experiences. Normally it erupts following an extremely strenuous session of exercise.
But I have not been exercising to keep me weight down, rather
Of Sciatica, Garcinia Cambogia and As Best as I Can Remember … Read More »
My mother had no tolerance for my crying.
“If anyone looks at Anjuelle, she cries,” was how she described me.
She wanted to instill in me a mental toughness–what she had.
I was not going for it.
And so I cried.
I took
Mental Toughness, Girl Scout Badges, and Du’as … Read More »
In that a memoir, and the structure of any narrative, consists of scenes, I must write various scenes of my life, those that most depict my suffering for which I offer forgiveness and hold compassion for my mother.
This is hard. Not simply because I am writing of my mother, and about myself. The challenge lies in my lack of certainty, the ambiguity of my mother’s actions, and thus my ambivalence.
Perhaps what
Of Narrative, Scenes of a Life, and Brimming With Fear … Read More »
The display the revelations that take place during the denouement and resolution, end, of a novel must take place in scene, not summary.
End of story revelations work much like the action taking place during the crisis and climax points where the immediacy of the characters’ actions impress upon readers the significance and meaning of the ordeal the central character/characters are undergoing, surviving and ultimately growing stronger by enduring.
Just as the crisis and climax point of a novel provide places of major transition and transformation, so to the revelations presented during denouement and at resolution offer one last stage of growth and change.
Of Symbols, Change and Arc of Growth and Transformation… Read More »
Perseverance in completing that first draft it the first act of embarking on the journey of evolution we undergo each time we craft a story.
Thus we focus our energies and concentration on towards typing each word so that we might complete each sentence, craft every paragraph, shape each scene.
At this time, we, the writer must not fall under the spell of judgment and self-criticism of what we write.
Our goal is to remain open to the words coming through us. We must turn off the internal editor and write.
Of Perseverance, Remaining Open, and Characters that Embody Our Change… Read More »
Reaching that point where the protagonist has made the change, we, as writers feel differently.
We see the world of our novel from another level.
Ideally we come to hold those dimensions of personality regarding our central character(s) come in greater clarity and understanding.
And yet this is also a place where we can get to know ourselves better as individuals, not simply as persons who write.
Of Clarity and Understanding, Guide and Map, Epiphany and Plot… Read More »