I've Moved

Well, THE MOVE was so scary that I thought about it for months before taking the plunge. I was so scared of  THE MOVE that I convinced myself it wasn't possible. Soon, however, I began to see blog posts (such as Rachelle Gardner's post, "Five Most Common Author-Website Mistakes") that recommended WordPress over Blogger for better SEO (Search Engine Optimization.)

I decided I could no longer ignore the truth.

My next step was to research how to do it. Once I found a couple of websites/blogs that gave instructions step-by-step, it still took me a month to work up the courage. I was petrified of messing up my blog.

Today I bit the bullet. Here's the website I used, which provided easy-to-understand instructions:  Do It With WordPress:  Moving From Blogger to WordPress--Your Guide.

It was easier than I expected, and though I still have some tweaking to do, I'm pretty happy with the results.

Here's my new blog link:

www.janmorrill.wordpress.com

I hope all of my dear follows will hop on over and follow me there. Better yet, I'd love for you to subscribe to my new blog, by clicking the "Follow Blog via Email" button. It was the hardest part about making the decision to move -- losing all my followers. :(

What do you think? Are you on Blogger or WordPress? Any thoughts about changing?

"Reaching" #FridayFictioneers #FlashFiction

I'm not sure how many times I've said this, but I thought this week's photo prompt by Madison Woods was her most challenging yet. Often, when I'm too challenged to write a story, I'll write haiku instead, which is what I did this week. And often, my haiku is a metaphor for life.

If you'd like to read other flash fiction tales about the photo, click here. As always, feel free to leave links to your blogs with your comments!

Reaching

Barren branches reach

toward heaven each winter

waiting for rebirth.

My Writerly Achilles Heel

My Facebook friend, Al Boudreau, posts daily questions to writers on Facebook. His question this morning was:






Writers/Authors: We all have strengths and weaknesses in our writing. What are you most deft at, in terms of winning readers over to make them fans? What are you striving to improve about your mad skills? 


Several authors have given their interesting, often self-deprecating answers. Reading them, it's good to know I'm not the only one out there. Here was my answer:


I think "voice" is my writing strength. My weakness is getting that shitty first draft on paper without being compulsive about getting every blasted sentence perfect. Most writers talk about over-editing their manuscripts. I over-edit my sentences.

I thought it was interesting that I had to think A LOT longer about my strengths than I did my weaknesses. Maybe that's because I'm experiencing one particular weakness full-on in the last few days. For over a week now, I have been stuck in the thick sludge of re-writing sentences over and over as I try to move forward with a story. I don't know if I should blame it on my obsessiveness with trying to get each sentence just right, or if I should blame it on my character's stubborn refusal to tell me her story.

In my Monday Mashup, I posted a link to an article by Jhumpa Lahiri called "My Life's Sentences." In the article, she states, "Constructing a sentence is the equivalent of taking a Polaroid snapshot: pressing the button, and watching something emerge." It is the same for me. I see mini stories within each sentence. Perhaps that's why I like to write haiku. (Click here to go to my haiku blog.)


I felt a little better after reading Ms. Lahiri's essay on her own struggle with sentences. She says:

My work accrues sentence by sentence. After an initial phase of sitting patiently, not so patiently, struggling to locate them, to pin them down, they begin arriving, fully formed in my brain. 

Still, it hasn't helped me to get more sentences down on paper. I suppose it's just one more aspect of waiting that tries the patience of a writer. Waiting for replies on queries. Waiting for a publisher or agent to call. Waiting for a character to tell her story. Waiting for a sentence to come.


So . . . back to Mr. Boudreau's question: What are your writerly strengths and weaknesses?

Telling Tuesdays 3/20/12 : "It was raining."

Welcome to Telling Tuesday, a day reminiscent of those in school when I looked forward to seeing what everyone brought for show and tell. This weekly feature was inspired by an article on WriteToDone.com, called "How to Show (Not Tell): A Writing Lesson from John LeCarre."


It is one of the best articles I've seen on the rule all writers know--show, don't tell--because it doesn't just tell us how not to tell, it shows us some of LeCarre's very own examples.

" . . . descriptions can set the scene, convey the inexpressible, and turn the reader into a witness, instead of remaining a mere bystander." -- Mary Jaksch, author of the article

Each week, I'll give a "telling" prompt, and invite you to show us, to make us a witness, not a mere bystander. Feel free to use the prompt, or the photo (if a photo is shown.) Of course, if you have a completely different "telling" prompt, you can "show" us that, too.


As always, I invite you to leave a link to your website or blog with your comments.


THIS WEEK'S PROMPT:


The following is my first attempt at writing romance. (We all have to step out of our comfort zones sometime.) I've already received some excellent critique from my writers' group, especially my friend,  Ruth Weeks, and I welcome whatever comments you might have.

It was raining. 

     It was raining that morning in Kyoto. Asako's kimono clung to her body, wet and cold as she ran across the street to find cover. Weaving her way through the crowds of people seeking shelter, she didn’t pay attention to where she stepped and the sole of her geta caught a pothole. She tripped and fell into the mud.

A young man ran to her and offered his hand. “Are you all right?” he asked as he helped her up.

She smoothed her kimono and bowed in gratitude. “Yes, I’m fine, thank you,” she replied, looking into his chestnut eyes.

When he smiled and nodded, said, "Good," in a velvety voice, when his keen gaze watched as she smoothed her kimono, something inside her warmed. In a flash, she knew her world would never be the same.

Though she could not break away from his gaze, she knew she she must be a terrible sight. Wet hair.  Smeared makeup. Her face surely had become a noh mask, a ghostly demon disguise. Embarrassed, she pushed away and stared down at the rain splashing in the puddles.

A loud clap of thunder startled her and snapped her back to reality.

Stupid girl. You are a maiko. Soon you will be a geisha. Stop your lovesick thoughts!

She ran for shelter from the rain, from him.

But he grabbed her arm and pulled her back so violently her geta fell off her foot. A second later, a rickshaw rumbled past and ran over her shoe, burying it in the mud.

When she turned to thank him, she was once again whisked away from the hectic, rainy world and the two stood alone in silence. She watched the gentle journey of water droplets as they fell from his black hair and trickled over high cheekbones before resting on firm lips.

She prayed the tingling she felt was only the raindrops upon her skin. 

Morrill's Monday Morning Mashup - 3/19/12

MASH-UP

A creative combination

or mixing of content

from different sources.

Writers are often bombarded with information on what we should and shouldn't be doing in our writerly lives, especially with all of the turmoil in the publishing industry today. The posts I've listed this week reminded me that right and wrong is not black and white. It's a big, foggy gray area, and it varies for each individual.

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Jenna Blum writes "The Tortured Soul: Do You Need To Be One To Be A Writer?" in a post on Grub Street Daily. In this post, she muses about the caricature of the tortured soul, but the best part of the article is where she lists qualities you actually DO need to be a writer. http://grubdaily.org/?p=4944&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GrubStreetDaily+%28Grub+Street+Daily%29

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The post "How to Write Readable -- And Retweetable -- Tweets" by Dave Copeland on ReadWriteWeb.com includes some of the best advice I've seen on tweeting, including where to place your links within your tweet. Did you know it should not be placed at the end of your tweet? Read on! http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_to_write_readable_-_and_retweetable_-_tweets.php

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I love the New York Times article, "My Life's Sentences," by Jhumpa Lahiri. In this post, Lahiri discusses her love of sentences, both in reading and writing them, saying, "The urge to convert experience into a group of words that are in a grammatical relation to one another is the most basic, ongoing impulse of my life." And though we're often taught that only after we complete our "shitty first draft" (Anne Lamott) should we then go through and perfect our sentences, Ms. Lahiri admits compulsion to analyze and perfect each sentence as she goes along. "All the revision I do — and this process begins immediately, accompanying the gestation — occurs on a sentence level." I felt better reading this article, because I admit, it's my natural way to write, also. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/17/my-lifes-sentences/?emc=eta1

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

Your assumptions are

your windows on the world.

Scrub them off every

once in a while,

or the light won't come in.

                            

                                         ~ Alan Alda