Hello again.  I hope you all had a good week.  Today we’ll be talking about touch and how ordinary objects can become extraordinary when described through this sense.

First a poem by Wallace Stevens:  Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

Isn’t it lovely how such simple images can take an ordinary thing like a blackbird and make it into something so beautiful?  Which is your favorite of the thirteen?  Mine is:

XI

He rode over Connecticut
In a glass coach.
Once, a fear pierced him,
In that he mistook
The shadow of his equipage
For blackbirds.

Ordinary Objects Exercise:  Take an ordinary object from your desk (a pencil or pen, paper clip, eraser, etc.) and close your eyes.  Study it with your eyes closed, trying not to focus on what you know the object is, but on how the object feels.

After memorizing the object for a few minutes, set it aside and write a short paragraph or two describing the object but using only the things you memorized through your sense of touch.  You can use metaphors and similes but try not to use any of the other senses.  Note how the sense of touch transforms the object into something new and different.

 

1)  When your critique group says they don’t like your character, is what they’re secretly saying that they don’t like you?

2)  When a colleague points out a flaw in your manuscript, do you immediately reply with an explanation why that flaw isn’t really a flaw after all?

3)  You have 5 people in your writing group and they each have a different opinion about your WIP.  Do you try to rewrite your project so that it fits all 5 suggestions?

4)  When you send your manuscript to your critique partners, do you preface it by saying that the language is “coded” and that you’re going for something “post-modern”? (Meaning, of course, that if they don’t get it, it’s because they’re too dumb to get it and not because you were too dumb to write it like that in the first place.)

5)  A corollary to #4, when you send your manuscript out, do you preface it by saying it’s really, really rough and you wrote it in two minutes on your iPhone while standing in line at the movie theater?

6)  Do you refer to your manuscript as “your baby?”

7)  Do you find it hard to sit through a critique without your favorite comfort food?

8)  Have you ever cried after a critique but lied and told everyone it was because your hamster died?

9)  When your short story gets rejected by an editor, do you take it upon yourself to write back and calmly explain why said editor is utterly and completely wrong?

10)  You got critiqued by your writing group last week, got lots of suggestions for change and this week you come back with a manuscript that is… exactly the same.  No changes made.  Do you expect a glowing critique this time?

Count up your “Yes” answers and scroll down to see your score.

0 = You have a level head and you make the most of your critiques because don’t take anything too personally.  You take notes and you know when to incorporate feedback and when to let it go.  Keep it up and you’ll go far.

1 = OK, so you’re on the loopy side of normal, but you’re still pretty good about not letting critiques get to you.  Sure, you might need to reward yourself for a tough critique session with some ice cream or even a good cry, but that’s fine.  Just make sure you get home and close the shades before you do.

2-3 = You are a tricky one.  Let’s face it.  On one hand, you are a bit… how shall I put this… wacko.  The thing that makes it so hard for your critique partners to deal with you is that you seem completely oblivious to this fact.  Wake up!  Stop writing like a lunatic.  And start listening to what your critique partners tell you; they might actually be right.

4-5 = You are in need of a massive reality check.  Here it is.  Your book is not you.  Your book is not your child.  Your book is not a living being.  Get over it.  Now that we’ve made that clear, stop griping about how much everyone criticizes your work and focus on making it better.

6+ = Seriously?  You seriously answered “yes” to six or more of the above?  Wow.  I don’t know what else to say, but… Wow.  May I shake your hand?

Lately I’ve had some impromptu teaching gigs and I’ve never been more thankful for my writer’s toolbox (which I lovingly call the ORACLE).  The ORACLE contains tons of writing games and exercises and as you can see from the picture, it’s already overflowing.  Even so, I can never seem to have enough writing exercises.  There’s always room for more.

The ORACLE includes:

• Image file
• Kaleidescope
• Dice
• Postcards
• Writing Block Book (my own design)
• Mini plastic take-out container with random words in it
• Fairytale cards
• Paint chips
• Creative Whack Pack by Roger Von Oech
• Brain Book

The ORACLE Annex (AKA the bookshelf) stores additional items that don’t fit in the ORACLE. 

These are:

• The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg
• Faces by François and Jean Robert
• The 3 A.M. Epiphany and The 4 A.M. Breakthrough by Brian Kiteley
• Now Write! edited by Sherry Ellis

Searching through my writer’s toolbox and scrounging around for good exercises got me thinking.  I began to wonder: what’s in everybody’s writer’s toolbox?

OK everyone, this is it: the day you’ve all been waiting for.  Verbal Pyrotechnics–the only literary e-zine dedicated exclusively to teen literature–is finally open for submissions.

VP is looking for short stories, essays, poems, even comics. The editors’ tastes are diverse and the pieces they print will have two things in common: they are astonishing in some way and they appeal to a teen audience. Think you’ve got something that would be a good fit?  Visit the VP submissions guidelines for more information on how to submit.

So go dig through those files, look in the bottom desk drawer, search around in all those places where you store your best teen lit stories/poems/essays.  You know, the ones that you couldn’t find a home for because that home didn’t exist.  Now it does.

And don’t forget to spread the word!