Story Cubes

Back at Christmas, I found a package under the tree for me from the Catbird that was the approximate size and shape of a deck of cards. When I picked it up, however, it was clear that it wasn't a deck of cards. This felt a little heavier. Denser. And when I picked it up, things moved inside. Shifted. When shaken, the box sounded a little like a box of Good & Plenty or Tic Tacs.

It wasn't candy, though. It was Story Cubes. Have you heard of them? I'm sure that, somewhere out there in this writing world I've immersed myself in, someone must have been talking about them on a blog, or Absolute Write, or somewhere, yet I can't quite remember hearing about them before. Even though I couldn't remember having heard about them before, I knew exactly what Story Cubes were, and how they worked, without really having to open the package (and I love the package, by the way; it's a clever little box that looks to be quite sturdy).

The idea behind Story Cubes is pretty simple. The box contains nine six-sided dice in the box, but instead of little pips for numbers, there are symbols, pictures. Throw the dice, look at the symbols that come up, and use those words in a story. That's pretty much it right there. The Catbird suggested that I could use the cubes when and if I got stuck.

Now, anyone who's been reading this space for a while may know that I'm not really big on the concept of writer's block. My approach has been, when stuck, to keep banging my head against the wall. This is the best approach, most of the time (for me--your mileage may vary), though I do know there are also times when it's best to get up and redirect the brain by taking a walk or a shower, doing the dishes, or vegging out in front of the television.

I confess, the Story Cubes sat unused for a long time. It's not something I would use in the course of a normal writing session, where I already have a starting point from the last writing session, and my desk is too messy to use them, anyway. I'd either lose them in the mess or have them fall off all over the floor. Recently, however, I took them to my writing group. Normally, we start our writing group off with someone reading a short prompt, followed by free writing that's supposed to be inspired by the prompt. I thought maybe we could use the Story Cubes as the prompt. Sounds like a perfect job for it, right?

The first time I brought them, no one else showed up. I knew this was a possibility and wasn't overly upset--I had to go to town for some shopping anyway. This just meant I got done that much earlier and we had dinner at a normal time. When it was clear no one else was going to show, I gave the cubes a shake up, tossed them on the table. Here are the symbols that came up: question mark, flowers, airplane, beetle, eye, fire, cane, house, bridge. Five minutes later, I had this 'story' (cube words underlined; note, this is completely unedited, and, as I look at it now, really kind of silly):

"I questioned the pilot's ability to fly this airplane. He lingered up the aisle, supported by a white cane, a heavyset, beetle-browed man with a lazy eye and a flower-child's hair. But he said in a voice full of fire, 'This is my house and I'll brook no disagreement; follow my every order and this flight will be no more trouble than walking across a bridge.' And he was right."

Does it make much sense? No, not at all. Is it a story? Not exactly, but it could be the beginning of something. And at this point, I need to say something about Story Cubes: the makers offer no explanation for the symbols, for what they mean, and that's a good thing. I used the question mark not as an object or a word, but as a concept (the narrator questions the pilot's ability). Meanwhile, the six-legged creature on one of the cubes was anatomically accurate enough for my naturalist's brain to call it a beetle; others might see it as 'insect,' 'bug,' 'cootie' or something more conceptual.

I did take the cubes back with me last week, and we used them again. I had a lot more trouble this time, scratching out another three paragraphs over forty minutes or so, nothing I'd care to share here (though I did manage a nice turn of phrase that maybe I'll use for something else). The others enjoyed it and had better writing success than I.

All in all, the cubes are a lot of fun. I may not use them as a regular part of my writing routine, but I'll keep them handy all the same, and I'll keep bringing them to my writers' group. Hey, you never know when they'll help unlock something big.

Have you ever used Story Cubes or something like it? What did you think?

Monday Musing: A Change In Style

Be warned, this is a top-of-my-head post, so it may end up not making any sense. I know where I'm starting, but I'm really not sure where it's going to end up, or how it's going to get there.

There's a woman in my writers' group who is legendary among us for two things: first, in 40, 45 minutes of writing time, she can crank out six or seven pages easily. She takes ideas and runs with them, and almost always comes out of the day with fully-formed stories or essays that have a beginning, middle and end. By contrast, I wrote maybe 250 words yesterday, and quite often, my work just sort of ends, incomplete, not satisfying (at least to me).

The second thing she does is she writes lush sentences, sentences full of clauses, dependent and independent; sentences that meander like a lazy river twisting left and right across the valley from which arises the sweet smell of hay in the summer, sentences that are packed with tastes and smells and textures so that you can feel the sun on your face when she describes it, or taste the sweetness of summer strawberries. When she reads her work, it can be a challenge sometimes to follow the thread of the sentence, but the journey is wonderful. My first sentence is a poor attempt at imitating what she can do. She does it much better.

Yesterday, she wrote a story recounting an event that occurred in her childhood, when she was ten years old. It involved girl scouts, an inattentive leader, and a rescue from a pond whose ice wasn't as thick as thought. What I found interesting (aside from the story, that is, which was quite compelling) was how much she varied from her usual style in the telling. Instead of sentences that stretched and twisted like a python, loaded with sensory input, she wrote short. Her sentences were quick and to the point, stripped of excess verbiage. There was no struggling to follow the thread of the sentence; it was instantly clear, but no less enjoyable.

After she read the piece for us I commented on how different it was from her usual style, and how fitting it was, given the action. She noted how odd--awkward, even--it felt when she read it. A lot of her work is contemplative in nature, but she's written plenty of other pieces that have action in them, and a lot of those pieces also have her very literary style. This was the first one I really remember, at least in a long time, that's been quite so...punchy, I guess I would say.

One of the other members of the group suggested the change in style was because this was a story she had relayed verbally many times over the years. Telling a story and writing a story are the same, yet different enough in delivery that it makes sense they'd come out different, and I can certainly see his point. I do wonder, though, if some of it had to do with the fact that she was reaching back into a memory of being ten years old, and as a ten-year-old will see the world very differently from a grown woman. I didn't think to ask that question yesterday, because it hadn't occurred to me. I'm not sure if she made a conscious decision to change her style, or if it just came out that way, and if it was the latter, was it because the telling has become somewhat set in stone, or was the product of unconscious adoption of her then-young age. Perhaps I'll raise the question next week.

I hope that all made sense. Have you ever found your style radically changed for a particular story or piece of writing? Please share!

Weekend Update

Warning: Not fully awake, less than a full cup of coffee in my system!

-School started last week for the Catbird. Two days down so far. She's also had two days of after school practice, is auditioning for the musical this evening, has an Honor Society function tomorrow morning before school, and at some point, she'll audition for the school's jazz vocal group. She packs a lot in a day.

-Speaking of school, they've altered the school day due to the adoption of the Common Core. School now starts about fifteen minutes earlier, ends fifteen minutes later, and has a bell schedule that makes no sense to me. Somehow, they've added an extra 2 periods into the day. First period is 42 minutes long. All the rest are 40. Except lunches, which are 30. So, if you have a 5th period lunch, you start the same as everyone else. But you start 6th period ten minutes before everyone else--huh? I guess they've figured this out, but the kids seem pretty confused so far, and the extra half hour apparently makes the day drag on even more. We'll see how it works out.

-When I woke this morning, I saw the orange upper edge of the moon sinking over the hills on the far side of town. Tonight is the Harvest Moon, which is also supposed to be a supermoon. Here's hoping the weather is clear--get out and take a look at and just after sunset!

-The Magpie leaves on Wednesday. That's all I've got to say about that right now.

-On a writing note, I have previously mentioned that in early August I wrote two short stories that I'm really excited about. I took the shorter one back and read it to my writers' group yesterday, and had my wife--and kids!--read it as well. It has now been test-fired at a couple of literary journals. These are reaches, as these are among the most exclusive of the markets, but dream big, right? The other story, rather longer, is marinating a bit after feedback from a number of readers. I'm hoping to shoot that one off by the end of the month. I also had a nice conversation with Agent Carrie about my next project, as I've been kind of stalled on two different ideas. We talked about them both, bounced some ideas around, and hopefully it's off to the races!

-Music time! This is from Ryan Adams, Gimme Something Good, from his new album, due out tomorrow.




-That's it for me, how was YOUR weekend? Thanks for visiting!

Monday Musing: It's Good? Really?

Sorry I'm late.

I do like to try to be consistent, but I overslept this morning and it was a crazy day where we all of us had to be out of the house early so something had to give and it was the blog. If you missed my 6:30 or so appearance, my apologies; these things happen. If you didn't notice...ignore this paragraph.

I had one of those days at my writers' circle yesterday. I wrote furiously for the better part of 45 minutes or so, filling about five sides of notebook paper in my hard to read writing. That's a lot for me; lately, I've been much more like a side and a half. Along  the way, I scrawled 'WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP!' across the bottom of page 4, partly because I had lost control of the piece—I kind of knew how I wanted it to end, but couldn't seem to figure out a way to bring it about, and partly because it just felt…wrong. It was good writing, I was pretty confident of that, but the piece just felt wrong on a content level. Still, it was nice to write with that…fury (yeah, second use of that sort of word, but it's appropriate); I haven't done it for a while. Carrie has the latest version of POWERLESS to look over and I've got two WiPs that just aren't grabbing me the way I need to be grabbed, so I've spent the last couple of nights sort of moving things around and doing a little bit of writing around trying to find my way back in.

So this piece was fun in that it was forty-five minutes or so of head down, nose to the paper writing, but when it came time to read…I really didn't want to. It just felt like something that was sort of …I don't know, stupid, but I read it anyway.

They liked it.

It wasn't in the, "Yeah, that was good, okay, who's reading next?" sort of way. They did like it, I even got a "You should submit that somewhere". Typing it up later, I could actually see the possibility—and I could see some ways to make it better.

Go figure.

DO you find that happens to you? Pieces that you think are drivel that everyone else likes? I'd almost think it's a form of self-defense, like "I really, really want people to like this, but I'm afraid they won't so I'll assume it's horrible, that way I can only be pleasantly surprised." The thing is, I don't usually think that way. When I have something in writers' circle that I really like, that I think is good, I get very nervous about reading, with a severe case of the 'jimmy leg.' This was a totally different feeling.

Anyway, my brain isn't working at 100% for this today, so I'd better go. Have a great day, see you on Friday, I think.

Reading Day, Part III

Years ago I was friends with someone who had the uncanny ability to stretch her birthday out from a single day to a week-long celebration. There was the happy hour/dinner with work folks; there was the dinner out with her non-work friends; if she had a boyfriend, there was a birthday dinner with him; and finally there was Friday and/or Saturday night out as well, assuming the birthday didn't occur on the weekend (I suspect the years it did, she felt cheated). I feel kind of like that now as I milk this week's reading yet again, and will do so again some time next week. At least next week's post on the reading will involve tips and strategies for those of you who may be doing your own readings.

My wife will attest that I was a wreck all day. I was nervous, keyed up, had trouble eating. Probably the best thing I did was mow the lawn (half of it, anyway), which killed good hour and a half and occupied my mind. There's something very meditative in riding a lawn tractor around in big circles. I get a lot of good brain work in that way. We got to the arts center an hour before the scheduled reading and I promptly abandoned my wife and kids, hanging out with my writers' circle friends instead. Aside from reading, we had a job of selling books, so I had to know what we were going to do. The book launch was part of a bigger event, the opening of the gallery for the season, so there was the potential for a lot of people.

At five, the doors opened. We drew a fair number of people, a number of whom bought the book--and asked for autographs. I will say, signing your name on something like this is an even stranger sensation than seeing your story in print.

We were very fortunate to have great weather. It was sunny, warm--but not too hot. We had a stage set up in the courtyard, there was a bar with beer and wine. I did not partake until I was done. The drawback for me was I went in the penultimate spot. 8 readers, I went 7th, and it took about 45 minutes before it was my turn. Somehow, I did not need to run to the bathroom half-a-dozen times!

I could get away with black--it was still Memorial Day!

The piece I've read is called Katydid Nights, and I've actually written about it before. By the time it was my turn, the crowd directly in front of the stage had thinned a bit, but there was a nice number  of people spread along one side, watching--and listening. As I posted earlier in the week, I nailed it, and got some nice applause. Better still, while I was getting my celebratory beer while writer #8 was preparing to take the stage, the husband of one of my fellow writers told me, "That really resonated with me." That made me feel really, really good. Later, when the reading was over, another person approached me and told me the same thing. It truly was a great feeling--and it still is.

That's it for me for now. Next time I write about reading, I will have what I hope will be useful tips and suggestions to make it all easier. Have a great weekend, everyone, and thanks for reading!

Photo by Barb Enderley

Reading Day, Part II

So, we had our launch party and reading for our Writers' Circle anthology last night. How did it go, you ask?

More coming on Friday, maybe even a couple of pictures. Let's just say it was a good time, the feedback was great, and now it's back to 'the real world'. Hope you all had a good weekend!

Reading Day

I'm likely to break with tradition this week and either post twice today, or again tomorrow. It's my blog, and I can do what I want here, after all. Today is reading day for our Writers' Circle, beginning around 5:30 the first of our members will take the stage in front of an audience that will number somewhat more than 0 and hopefully less than 100. I get to go next to last, so by the time it's my turn, my shirt will probably be wet enough to wring out and fill a barrel. That's really kind of disgusting, isn't it?

We got our books yesterday, here's a snapshot (I'm not a great photographer, and the light is bad). It looks pretty good. The powers that be used Lulu for the publishing. It's slim, 76 pages or so, but looks really nice. Photographs and artwork are included, all the works of multi-talented members of the Smithy Writers' Circle (not me), and all the stories, poems and essays are pieces that were begun during a session.

A terrible picture, but a sharp-looking book, no?

I practiced my piece about 5 or 6 times last week, clocking in at a pretty consistent 6 minutes. Yesterday, when I read in front of the group, I could feel my nerves taking hold of me, could feel me speeding up. It's kind of like when you're driving a car on the highway and you glance at the speedometer and find yourself doing 80--that's miles per hour, not kilometers--and you're not sure how you got there. I shouldn't be nervous in front of those people, but I am, and I'll be more nervous tonight, even if (and especially if) I know everyone in the audience. When I used to do the wildlife shows, I got more nervous when I was doing a program for my kids' school than a school full of strangers. There's all kinds of crazy psychology involved in that, I'm sure.

Anyway, that's it for now. Depending on how I feel (and how much I drink after the reading is done, hah ha), I'll have more tonight or tomorrow. Have a great day!