This morning I saw the story of George Raveling on the "CBS Sunday Morning News" show. Decades ago, Raveling showed up--at the last minute--to the march on Washington, volunteered to help with security (there were lots of celebrities, like Marian Anderson and Sammy Davis, Jr. in the front rows) and when Dr. King stepped away from the podium and was beginning to ball up the copy of his I Have a Dream speech, Raveling asked if he could have it. At that moment, a rabbi stepped up to introduce himself, and King handed George Raveling the three typewritten pages and the moment was over.
For several decades, the copy of the historic speech stayed where it had been stashed--tucked in the middle of an Eisenhower biography...until someone asked him how it felt to be the first black basketball coach of something-or-other (my eyes glaze over when it comes to sports) and the interviewer asked him if he had gotten involved in the Civil Rights movement. Raveling mentioned he'd heard King's famous speech, and had the copy. Ever since he realized its importance, it's been framed and is protected. He's offered it to museums, stipulating that they sign papers stating the speech belongs to him...They've refused. He's been offered 3.5 million for it. He's refused. He's since given the speech to his son, with the stipulation that it never be sold.
Sorry. I've spent a lot of words telling the "back story" and now I'm finally to what blew me away.
The words "I have a dream" are nowhere in those three typed pages. Nowhere.
There are, however, several spots where an asterisk was penciled in. And those were where King took off, adlibbing, making a four-minute speech into a sixteen-minute speech...transforming a powerful piece into an unforgettable moment.
If your story is moving along, in a certain direction, but then veers off in another...perhaps it's a good thing. Embrace the spontaneous moments. Make use of the ideas that suddenly and unexpectedly burst in your brain.
After all, it might transform your tale into something even better...
By the way, I just got word that my stories in two upcoming Chicken Soup books---Think Positive For Kids and Just Us Girls--have made it to the final round and will be included in those collections. Without my critique group, the felonious (at least in our daydreams) WWWPs, these slice-of-life stories would not have had a chance of getting published, so not only do I believe in the power of spontaneity, I also believe in the power of critique...
I am a firm believer in taking left-overs, adding some ingredients, and coming up with a new creation.
Today was my first day back to school with kids. I have my old teacher resource books, the activities we do every year but added to the mix are new things I learned from the summer workshops I attended, along with a new group of kids. (I think I have a super group of students. I can already tell that some of them are great writers.)
After school was over, I checked my email. A story that I had written, submitted to another anthology with some of the sassier (and seedier) elements included, and then reworked (with a great deal of help from my critique group, the notorious WWWPs) has made it over the first Chicken Soup hurdle.
It's a dating story, one that happened when I was a waitress. Some guy was a SA (smart-a**) and whenever I waited on him, he would specify "only small onion rings" and would be a PITA (pain in the a**) about other things as well. And not one thin dime did I get from him as a tip. (He was the manager of the restaurant. I ended up marrying him.)
Helpful Hint: Do not EVER tick off your server until you've had all the food and beverages served. Even refills can be tampered with. Waiters and waitresses can do evil things to your food, and you'll never know...but they will.
What new creation have you come up with, using old stuff? Or, what sort of dating horror story do you have to tell? Inquiring minds want to know...
A group of writers (poets and story-tellers) got together at a restaurant/bar recently, and I went to their public reading. I've compiled a list of (hopefully) helpful hints.
1. If you are nervous and tend to mumble/not enunciate clearly, shave off your beard and mustache for the occasion. (Ladies, that goes for you in the hairy menopausal phase, too.) We can't read your lips with all that hair obscuring our view, and as fast and mumbly as you present, we need all the help we can get.
Give the audience what they want.
2. You may think your twenty minutes of rambling introduction. About. Each. Poem. is engaging, but look at your audience. Their eyes are closed. Drool is coming from their mouths. They're snoring. Be aware of your audience.
3. If you're nervous, and alcohol is available, have a drink. A glass of wine might help out with #1. Drink. (Sorry. That's all I could come up with for that one.)
4. Be passionate/involved in your piece. Speak with expression. Pepper your piece liberally with Sioux's favorite word. Make the crazy redhead happy.
5. Be humble. Come up, give us a tidbit of an introduction, and then read, darn it, and when you're finished, leave the microphone. That's why we came--to hear you--and if you're good, your words will speak for themselves. Give the audience some credit.
What tips do YOU have for writers who read their stuff in public?
By the way, Linda O'Connell has almost reached her Chicken Soup goal. Is it a gross of stories (144)? Is her goal equal with her age? Find out what her next goal is, since she's about to hurdle over her current one...(Ask her.)
Meth. The science behind it is intriguing. The business of it is fascinating. And thanks to Vince Gilligan and Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, I get to immerse myself in the life of a meth-maker. All because of the show Breaking Bad. On August 11 the final (sixth) season begins. (Sigh.)
This show begins with a high school chemistry teacher--a very nice guy who never breaks the law--and after finding out he has a horrible cancer and mere months to live, decides to make meth (really pure meth) to take care of his wife, his high school-aged son (who has cerebral palsy) and his not-yet-born daughter after he dies. What began in season one with just drug manufacturing and distributing has spiraled out of control. Murder. Horrible choices. And lots and lots of lies.
As writers, we have to create interesting people when we craft fiction. We can't just have a person in our story go instantly from calm and rational to homicidal. Internal things have to start percolating. Tiny fuses have to be lit so when the explosion comes, the reader is left charred right along with the character.
What shows or movies did you love (or do you love) that immerse you in a different life? (And if you do watch Breaking Bad, don't tell me about how it ends. I don't have cable/satellite, and will have to buy the DVD once it comes out.)
I just finished leading a two-day workshop for teachers (from two schools) in my school district. It was exhausting rewarding and fun.
The workshop centered on teaching writing in math, science and social studies. The new Common Core Standards will officially begin in our state in the 2014-2015 school year. The Common Core will replace the state tests for most of the country and will signal the demise--at the end of this school year--of the idiotic unrealistic too-tough current MAP test, which is what Missouri students and teachers have had to endure use as far as assessment for too many years.
Hey! Writing should not be done only from 11:00-11:20 anymore. That's was our theme song for the past two days.
Writing is stickier than math (there's always a correct answer and a set way of finding the answer in math). It's more elusive than science or social studies, too. Knowing how to nurture a student's creativity, and figuring out how to teach students to loosen the reins on their writing voice...that's something that often flummoxes teachers.
The mind-boggling thing about this workshop was how many talented voices emerged. This workshop was underwritten by the Gateway Writing Project, a National Writing Project site, and writing is always a part of every workshop/meeting/national conference--it's never pure lecture with passive participants with the NWP. Over the past two days, teachers wrote "I am from" poems and memoir vignettes and a variety of other pieces. The talent and distinctness of their voices was amazing. Often, teachers are sometimes reluctant to share their personal writing, but this time, it was not the case.
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| a student writer... |
If you're a writer, when did you first figure out you enjoyed writing? Or do you--like me--still find it to be a grueling, hair-pulling screamfest (at times)?
Folks who make blanket statements about kids today aren't getting to know the kids of today.
For example, the kids living next door to us greet us first when they see us in the yard, saying, "Good morning." They're polite, well-mannered children.
Another example--a young man who (in May) graduated from one of my district's high schools, is now working in a local restaurant--as a pastry chef. As the owners were renovating (since January), he came by every week, looking for a job. They kept telling him no. On the day the restaurant opened, this kid showed up with his apron and his pastry chef tools, ready to work. (He was already a shining star of the high school home ec department.) They finally gave him a try, handed him their pie recipes, and from what the owners say, his apple crumb was prettier of than the owners, and out-of-this-world delicious.
One of my students this past year did something very selfless, and was a great friend in the process. Moved by what he did, I wrote a story about him (entitled "Help By the Bagful") and submitted it to the Chicken Soup: For Positive Kids I just got news today that the story about him had made it through the first round of editors. Although my friend Lisa Ricard Claro warns me to not count my chickens until they're hatched--she's known too many people who had their story booted out at the last minute--but if I have to, I'll just smash the eggs and chalk that up as one of my many rejections.
Speaking of eggs, the WWWPs are a bunch of good eggs. They helped me immensely with the story--if I had submitted it before I got it critiqued, it would not be under consideration right now.
What is your opinion of kids today?
