Kudos - writercize #27 (A to Z 11)

Recognition feels grand.

I absolutely love brainstorming the writercizes for this blog, but even more than that, I love seeing the comments and responses people leave under the exercises, especially those who give the exercise a try.  I recognize some writercizes are more intense than others, and for those of you participating in the A to Z Challenge, it can be A LOT to take the extra time to write a thoughtful post, but you are fabulous for doing so.  It is fascinating to me how many different responses can come from one idea, and proof positive how creative the blogging community is.

So, thank you for your participation and Kudos to you for making the time to do so!

Now, onto the interactive writercizing bit ...

Just over a week ago, Nutschell at The Writing Nut mentioned my writercize blog in a post and gave me the One Lovely Blog Award, with the instructions to 

1- Accept the award on your blog with a link back to the original post.

2 - Pass if on to 15 other blogs you have newly discovered.

3 - Contact those 15 bloggers to let them know that you have chosen them.

As this blog focuses on writing exercises, I would like to graciously accept the award (thank you Nutschell!) and change up the instructions just a tad. 

Rather than posting a list with links to blogs, I'd like to describe the blog I received the award from and describe a few blogs I've stumbled across over the past few weeks, along with their links.  If I mention you, you've received the award and may choose to accept per the original instructions or my altered instructions!  I will add comments as time progresses and I discover fabulous new writers and blogs.

writing exercise:  Leave a comment on this post with the name, URL and a short description of a blog you think the world should know about! 

Since this is a Kudos post, you are welcome to link to describe your own blog, but please be sure to write about another person's blog.  After you've written the description, send them a comment with the link to this page to pick up the following award pictured below.

(In lieu of my normal "click read more for writercizer response" I am recognizing some blogs within this post.  I'm giving a shout-out back to Nutschell, along with a summary of five other bloggers.  This list is by no means exhaustive of talent I see, so be on the lookout for more recommendations via comment or in the future.)

Thank you to:

The Writing Nut:  Nutschell, author of The Writing Nut blog is an amazing resource for writers, especially MG and YA writers, within the Los Angeles area and around the world via her blog.  She has researched the writing arena, from genres to inspiration to editing, agents and publishing, and she generously posts her findings for anyone to see.  She also posts the occasional book review and personal reflection.  If you have any interest in getting published, check out her blog.

Kudos to: 

Pocketful of Playdough:  Brianna, the author, started her blog just around the same time as I started mine and she was the first person to click "follow" that I didn't know personally, which was thrilling, so a special thank you also!  Brianna blogs about running, parenting and writing in a manner that is always engaging and vulnerable (which, lest you misunderstand, is by no means naive - for she is published and quite wise - rather to say charming and raw).  You feel instantly like a long-lost friend who is privileged to know her thought processes and emotions, especially as they pertain to the very self-aware task of writing.  Brianna is blogging her way A through Z creating blogs for biblical characters and her knowledge will be impressive to religious and secular readers alike, but what really stands out is her fresh, humorous voice.

Jaydee Morgan:  A self-entitled blog (to the best of my knowledge!), this is a refreshing read offering very short posts that are insightful and thought-provoking about writers and the craft.  If you're looking for three paragraphs that will leave you with a smile and affirmation, check out her blog!

Life in Retrospect:  NiaRaie, the author, offers a fresh, young voice on breaking into the world of writing.  She reads and writes a lot, and references interesting little tidbits from mainstream culture.  What I really love about her blog is that after analyzing an idea, she asks her readers a specific, pointed question as it pertains to the topic, and it's a great way to read a wide array of perspectives.  (i.e. "Any tips to add on developing emotion in your stories?"  "Any recent discoveries?  What are your invaluable writing resources?")

The Alliterative Allomorph:  Jessica Bell has partnered with her friend Nicole Ducleroir during the A to Z Challenge to write a daily post inspired by a one word emotion.  Followers are encouraged to guess the emotional word prompt and post a comment with their guess.  Fun, fun, fun.  Jessica's posts can get a little raunchy, so if you're a parent of a student looking through writercize, beware, but otherwise, check her out. 

Quilts Seam Just Right:  The author, "umbrellalady," posts about cooking and quilting.  I'm not a quilter and can hardly sew a seam to save my life, but I really do like to cook and especially love to eat.  For the month of April, umbrellalady is posting homemade recipes along with pictures that she took of the food and it makes my mouth water every time. 

He Said, She Said - writercize #24 (A to Z 8)

It is a widely accepted notion that men and women speak two different languages. 

In the book The Female Brain by Dr. Louann Brizendine, the author refers to studies finding that women use about 20,000 words per day whereas men use about 7,000.

Simply not true, says sciencemag.org that published the findings of another study in 2007 on how many words the average human speaks daily.  The abstract states: "Women are generally assumed to be more talkative than men. Data were analyzed from 396 participants who wore a voice recorder that sampled ambient sounds for several days. Participants' daily word use was extrapolated from the number of recorded words. Women and men both spoke about 16,000 words per day."

Even if we accept the notion that men and women speak the same number of words each day, John Gray's bestselling book Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus points out that men and women differ in their approach to communication.  He says that men speak to communicate needs and data while women speak to communicate feelings and emotions, that men process their thoughts before speaking and women process their thoughts while speaking.

If Gray's assertions are true, I must admit that I speak more like a man.  I may write like a woman, at times quite verbose, but conversation wise, I probably lean towards the masculine side of things.  

In my household, my husband and I literally do speak two different languages - his native tongue being Italian and mine English.  We go through many days speaking some form of Itanglish - mixing the two languages mid-conversation, sometimes even mid-sentence.  Throw in a couple of preschoolers and our house is a linguistic hodgepodge!  Somehow we find a way through the differences and generally find a meeting of the minds along the way.

So, how does all of this relate to writing? - you may ask.  Here's the deal - when you create a character in a book, you want their voice to sound as authentic as possible.  Study the nuances of male and female conversation and how they relate to one another - how men speak with other men, how women speak with other women and how men and women speak to one another.  There are very distinct styles and you want the characters in your book to reflect that.

writing exercise:  Write a short dialogue between each of the following characters, given the circumstances:

• two men - want to get together to watch sports and have a drink
• two women - want to pick a restaurant
• one man / one woman - looking through "for rent" ads (can be couple or roommates)

(Click "read more" for writercizer sample response.)

Five Words - writercize #22 (A to Z 6)

As a young girl on long flights and road trips, my mom knew just the thing to keep me quiet and engaged for an hour at a time.  She would buy me a notebook and a pencil and write down five words that I had to use in a story.  When I was young, the words would be simple like dog and ball, but as I grew older, the words would be more complicated or in some way related to the trip to serve as a travelogue.

At the time, it was a great writing tool for me.  I loved to write, but could never for the life of me figure out what to put down on the paper.  My mind would race so quickly that I was left with a blank stare at an empty page and get frustrated.

It's still a good tool, but not as necessary anymore.  The thing that fascinates me now about the exercise is that with the same five words, no two people will write the same story, and I love that!  So please, show me how your mind works.  Write a sentence, a poem, a paragraph or a story, but write. 

writing exercise:  Use the following five words in a sentence, poem, paragraph or short story. 

• business
• bureau
• start
• tickle
• yo-yo

Don't worry about structure - just freewrite for a few minutes.  You may use the definition of your choice for words with multiple meanings.

(Click "read more" for writercizer sample response.)

Review Local - writercize #3

If your neighborhood is anything like mine, the global slump can be recognized in the number of small, local shops and restaurants that have closed down in recent months and years.  No matter how much news coverage I hear about economic recovery, I can't help but notice the "For Lease" signs lining the sidewalks in cute boutique-y shopping destination previously bustling with commerce.  

My husband and I joke that every time we go on vacation, we'll return to see another of our favorite places has vanished.  Two weeks with the in-laws?  Favorite local pharmacy - gone.  Thanksgiving break?  Favorite coffee shop with kids' play area and free book exchange - lights out.  The joke is not funny.  We laugh to avoid the truth of what we feel - the heartache for those local families who lost a bit of their dream.

No doubt you've heard the phrases "Shop Local" or "Think Globally, Act Locally," reminders that your little corner of the world counts for something in the bigger picture of it all.

writing exercise:  Help out your favorite local spot with a positive online review on a review board such as Yelp or Yahoo! Local or foursquare.  While word of mouth is the best publicity, virtual word of mouth may be second best.  So, get to it: write local!

(Click "read more" to see the writercizer sample response.)