On the first day of Christmas my Emergency Animal Hospital gave to me, an outrageously expensive Vet-er-in-ary Bill.
It was for Peaches our poodle. She has bounced back, regained her appetite, and yesterday wanted to eat everything in sight. Yea! Good sign.
Around here? Oh yes, it’s colder that it ought to be. I ask the weather, “This is southern California, why are you so cold?” It laughs at me. The hills, though, look happy, we have had rain, and there is a smear of green spreading like a Disney animated film—green watercolor flowing forth from the paint brush enlivening the landscape.
I’m still working on my Hawaii book. I found The Plot Whisperer by Martha Alderson, also her other book, Blockbuster Plots. Both were recommended by Shreve Stockton who wrote The Daily Coyote, and both are an invaluable contribution to anyone who wants to write. How in the hell, though, am I going to implement all that data?
I’ve found her information on writing a book, even a memoir, to be similar to writing a Screenplay. You know, three acts, a beginning—that is ¼ of the book, middle ½, and the end another ¼. Create a crisis and a climax. Put something pertinent at midpoint. (Remember, in the movie, the Titanic sank at midpoint.) What are the four energetic markers? Plot on a six foot long sheet of paper, make a scene tracker. Oh yes, what is the theme? What is a scene? What is a summary?
Am I going halfway? Can I go full out? Do I feel inadequate? Do I honor my creativity, exuberance, sense of adventure?
“I believe,’ writes Alderson, “that the fragment of a dream or wisp of inspiration that urges you to sit down and write offers you the exact right story to activate not only your own personal transformation but the reader’s as well.” I’m holding that to be true.
“Endure the fear of appearing foolish—achieve your goals, actively pursue them…” Okey dokey.
My head is spinning.
