Encouraging Quotes

Mark Twain said,

...the really great [people] make you feel that you, too, can become great.

John Wooden said,

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.

Lord Chesterfield said,

I am convinced that a light supper, a good night's sleep, and a fine morning, have sometimes made a hero of the same man who, by an indigestion, a restless night, and a rainy morning, would have proved a coward.

From Theodore Roosevelt, "Citizenship in a Republic," Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910:

It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.

Metaphors and Similes

Writing advice tends to vary on the use of metaphors and similes in novel writing, so I'll tell you my ideas on what works.

In my opinion, metaphors and similes should be used to help clarify a description rather than to impress your readers. If you're doing it just to impress your readers, it'll be noticeable and I'm betting most of your readers won't be impressed or will find the language distracting since they have to stop to figure out what you mean.

However, metaphors and similes can be useful if you're writing something that:

1) transcends what plain language can convey (like in a romance...as a poor example, "At his hurtful words, she felt like the rose she so cherished had wilted.")

2) can more quickly convey an image than plain language can (perhaps like in a mystery; "The body lay like a puppet tossed aside into the corner.")

3) does not exist in reality (like in speculative fiction; "The pixie looked like a flame of light until it got closer.").

If you're going to use figurative language, make sure it adds something to the reader's understanding. "The fan wobbled like a drunken sailor" just stops me cold as I try to figure out how a fan can wobble in a way resembling a drunken sailor and why this exact type of wobbling is important to my understanding of the story. "The fan wobbled" conveys the same image more quickly.

Good luck.

The Ice Storm

The Storm
At noon on Jan. 26, the rain and sleet began. They continued until the evening of the 27th. We accumulated 1.6 inches of precipitation which means the ice built up over everything.



By Jan. 27th, as frequently as every five to ten minutes we heard the crack of large branches breaking from their trees followed by the tinkling of the ice shattering as the branch landed.



In some places, whole trees feel and over a thousand power poles broke or otherwise needed to be replaced. Our pole simply bent under the weight.



The power lines on one side bowed until they touched the ground. Further down in the other direction, they touched the ground and one line broke.



The whole northern half of Arkansas lost electricity, as well as areas in OK, southern MO, KY, TN and other states. Since such a massive area was involved, recovery has been a slow, steady process. Power-company crews and tree-trimming crews have come in from all over the nation to help out, for which we are very thankful.


How We Did
We lost electricity at 10:20 AM on Jan. 27th and finally regained it a week later at 4:50 PM on Feb. 3. Now, nearly two weeks later, the majority of outages in our area have been restored though there are several hundred people locally still without power.

Many people around here bought generators to run their furnace, refrigerators, and freezers for a few hours--and to sometimes run their computers and a few lights.



Our house is super-insulated and has both passive and active solar heating, so we decided not to buy a generator. (Generators cost about $900 and supplies quickly disappeared even though new shipments arrived each day.)

So, we had no source of electricity for 7 days and 5.5 hours. Because of the house's good insulation and due to the heat stored in the thermal mass of the floors, we never dropped below 60 degrees during this time. Once it hit 60F at night, it just stayed there.



If the sun shone during the day, the sunlight heated the house. Since our house is also super-tight, we had to open the windows a crack on the sunny days to help get some fresh air inside. (The ERV, which normally brings in fresh air, needs electricity to operate.) This meant the house didn't heat as much as it could have. On the cloudy days, we kept most of the windows covered with the blinds and thermal drapes to help hold in the warmth.

The interior temp. at the moment the power went off was 73.

Jan. 27, cloudy
Indoor High: 73F Low: 60F
Outdoor High: 31F Low: 21F


Jan. 28, sunny
Indoor High: 72F Low: 60F
Outdoor High: 29F Low: 14F


Jan. 29, partly cloudy
Indoor High: 70F Low: 62F
Outdoor High: 35F Low: 24F


Jan. 30, mostly cloudy
Indoor High: 64F Low: 60F
Outdoor High: 42F Low: 24F


Jan. 31, sunny
Indoor High: 67F Low: 63F
Outdoor High: 54F Low: 26F


Feb. 1, sunny
Indoor High: 68F Low: 64F
Outdoor High: 52F Low: 36F


Feb. 2, partly cloudy
Indoor High: 68F Low: 62F
Outdoor High: 44F Low: 20F


Feb. 3, partly cloudy
Indoor High (before power came on): 66F
Outdoor High: 34F

Of course, we use electricity for other things than heating. After 24 hours, the refrigerator no longer kept the food cold. We took ice from the plenteous outdoor supply and placed it in a container in the refrigerator to help keep the food cold. The freezer began to thaw after 48 hours. A neighbor who had a generator and a half-empty freezer offered to let us use his extra freezer room, and we took him up on it. We also ate a lot of previously-frozen food those first few days.

We moved the food that only needed refrigeration into our newly-completed garage where the temperture was maintaining at just above 32F. We put ice in our two ice boxes, and the food kept plenty cold.



My old house, which we still own, is the next house down the road, and it has propane heating for the water, stove, and fireplace (as well as the furnace, which didn't work without electricity). We cooked one hot meal a day on the propane stove. We were able to keep that house warm enough that the water pipes didn't freeze--though we also left two faucets dripping at night.

On Thursday, Jan. 29, we were losing our water. Water was starting to dribble from the faucet instead of gush. We filled a number of gallon jugs of water just in case we were going to lose water all together. Much to our relief, on Friday morning, the pressure was back and stayed strong from then on. We think someone got a generator connected to the pump on the nearby water tower until power could be restored.



Since we have an active solar water heater, we had enough hot water for one shower a day on the sunny days. That was very nice. We also heard that some people lost their phone connections during the storm, but our lines are underground and were not affected.



While our house was designed to maximize the use of natural lighting, we still had to use flashlights to move about and read after the sun went down. By 8:30 PM on most nights, we were having trouble staying awake and gratefully crawled into our warm beds. We didn't get up out of bed until daybreak at about 6:45 AM.

So we didn't suffer (thank God!), but I sure do like electricity. How could I blog without it? ;)

Taking Risks

I like to say, "Failure is just another chance to try again."

If you aren't willing to risk failure, you'll never try anything new. Everyone starts out at the bottom when doing something new; mistakes are expected and nothing to be ashamed of. If it's worth trying, then it's worth failing at. Go ahead and try it! It doesn't matter if you don't progress as rapidly as others. Take your time to learn the basics. Ask questions. Enjoy yourself. Focus on your own progress rather than comparing yourself to others. Often, you will be your own worst critic, so listen and believe when others praise your work even when it looks like crude compared to what you imagined.

And, even once you reach mastery of a skill, realize that flubs will happen and bad days occur. Such is life. But don't worry: failure is just another chance to try again.

What to Describe

Writing advise abounds on how to appropriately describe a character, object, or setting, so how do I go about it?

1) Describe first what the character would notice first. For example, gender, skin color, hair color, and physical build comes before the faint scar over the eye or the eye color (which the character might never be close enough or have any reason to notice). Also, a foreigner might first notice skin color while a native might never consciously notice it.

A long physical description can slow down the story, however, and a police-report description is usually not needed. So, how do I choose what description to include?

2) Base the description length on how important the person, object, or setting is.

3) Describe what is unique.

For example, if I'm describing a spear, I really don't have to say much. Most readers already know what a spear is and can imagine it based purely on the word "spear." If the spear is important, though, I might describe something unique about it: a scrap of blue cloth tied just below the iron head.

Don't just give information but use the description to tell the reader something about the character. Which sentence gives a more unique and interesting description of this minor character?

The sight of a short, plump woman wearing a dress and a hat distracted Randy from what his friend was saying.

or

The sight of a short woman wearing a tall hat topped with an ostrich plume distracted Randy from what his friend was saying.

I'm guessing you agree the second description is more interesting.

4) Be specific.

Instead of saying "the woman handed him a drink" be specific and say, "The waitress handed him a tall glass of water." Using specific nouns instead of general ones allows the reader create a vivid image in his head and reveals more about the characters.

So my advice is to keep focused on what your description is supposed to accomplish rather than coming up with long police-report descriptions.

A Deeper Problem

The other day, someone in my writer's workshop made the comment that he liked to write his short stories in present tense because they gave the story a sense of urgency the story lacked in past tense.

(For those who do know, this means he wrote the story like "He runs to the car door and yanks it open. 'Get out," he shouts at the driver" instead of the more traditional "He ran to the car door and yanked it open. "Get out," he shouted at the driver.")

Except, his story still lacked tension (which he obviously sensed) and changing to present tense didn't fix that. What he really needed to do was fix the story by adding tension, not try to artificially increase tension by telling the story in present tense.

I've heard a lot of writers say that they write in first person (i.e. "I went to the store") rather than third person (i.e. "She went to the store") because it allows the reader to get inside the character's head in a way that third person doesn't allow. Except, that's not true. Both styles can allow the reader deeply into the character's viewpoint.

For example:

Mandy was going to be late for the party, and Shelly would never forgive her. She looked down the dark, creepy alley knowing that it was the only route that would get her there in time. She hesitantly stepped into the alley. Something rattled further in. She jumped backward and smacked into something tall and firm.

versus

I was going to be late for the party, and Shelly would never forgive me. I looked down the dark, creepy alley knowing that it was the only route that would get me there in time. I hesitantly stepped into the alley. Something rattled further in. I jumped backward and smacked into something tall and firm.


If you just like writing in present tense or first person, that's fine. However, if you write that way in hopes of fixing a problem with your manuscript, let me warn you that the problem probably still exists. Look deeper and fix the problem instead of just trying to hide it.

Motivation

I am reading a book where the author doesn't take full advantage of showing what's going on in the main character's head and so some of his actions seem abrupt and out-of-character. Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

Sarah stomped up to Rebekah, who was smiling and holding another book clutched against her chest. Sarah scowled and threw the current book Rebekah had loaned her to the ground. "This book was horrible. I swear, I'll never read another book by that author. In fact, you couldn't pay me enough to read another one!"

Rebekah said hesitantly, "Oh, I'm sorry. I brought the next book in the series with me, but I guess you don't want it."

Sarah felt a surge of anger. "Of course I want it. The book's right here, so of course I'll read it."

You're left wondering why Sarah suddenly changed her mind and why she's reacting so strongly. Or, if you're like me, you're feeling a little wary of Sarah and wondering if she's insane. ;)

I expect the author knows a perfectly sensible reason why her main character acted the way she did but forgot to let the readers into his head so we also know. Here's an example of how adding motivation can help make an about-face scene like this make sense:

Sarah stomped up to Rebekah, who was smiling and holding another book clutched against her chest. Sarah scowled. She'd rather liked the book Rebekah had just loaned her, but she didn't like how her friend was getting into the habit of forcing books on her and she wasn't going to allow it to happen again.

She threw her book to the ground. "This book was horrible. I swear, I'll never read another book by that author. In fact, you couldn't pay me enough to read another one!"

Rebekah said hesitantly, "Oh, I'm sorry. I brought the next book in the series with me, but I guess you don't want it."

Sarah felt a surge of anger at Rebekah for picking this moment to finally bring a book she did want to read. "Of course I want it. The book's right here, so of course I'll read it."

Sarah's still not a very nice character, but at least we understand why she's acting the way she is. So, authors, be careful not to throw an unexpected emotional reaction at the reader. Make sure to get into the character's head and explain why they felt that way so the emotional reaction makes sense.