Writing Process Wednesdays, and, Plot vs. Character

Well, now I know where I stand on that famous debate, even though I was trying hard not to take sides while I plotted out my novel as I thought I was also getting to know my characters at the same time.  Wrong.  I find, personally, that it takes writing some scenes and bits of dialogue over and over again for me to understand how each individual character feels, behaves, speaks, and changes over time.   

This makes planning out such a complex novel as Who By Fire much less simple than I had imagined, and I find that it seems to be, currently, beyond my writing skills.   I continue to work on honing my craft, of course, and to work on plotting out this novel, while remembering that it         

comes based on all of my prior work.  Also, having the very positive experience of writing and getting surprisingly strong feedback both for this novel project idea that I developed from my family history research, and especially for my short short series (which I wrote completely off-the-cuff, and found both easy and pleasurable to write) more so but perhaps also with the help of the novel journaling process, in a different way than I had expected.  The series: (Ann and Anna) was so easy, and even fun(!), to write that it now makes me wonder how on earth I can keep slogging my way through Who By Fire, which is proving to be so difficult for me at the moment.  Every time I think I know my protagonist, Isaias (whose name will later change…), he changes!  He still looks mostly the same, sort of, but his way of thinking keeps changing on me, and I am having a very difficult time nailing down how he interacts with his two best friends (who were initially meant to be a mentor or advisor type, and a ‘particular friend’ as they used to say back then, or a best friend, who was also a rival for a love interest that has now turned into a cautionary tale subplot protagonist.  All of this with old scenes written that now need to be either altered or simply thrown away and rewritten altogether, which is hard to do, given that I am a person who values productivity and hates to see time and effort go to waste (yes, I know that that effort did not go to waste, but it feels like the time I spend writing initial scenes, voice journals, and novel journals, indeed are a waste of time since they do not end up directly in a publishable novel that I can immediately begin querying!!).   I think I am starting to realize that Who By Fire is currently biting off just a bit more than my writing skills to this point can chew, and I am itching to go back to Ann & Anna, make that series of posts into a prequel for a novel (especially since several people have called the series “#NovelWorthy” (which I had never heard of, many thanks, ladies) and just take off from there, if a novel based on an already blog-posted (and thus published, which I also did not realize back then serial can be shopped for publication?

 

Thoughts, Writing-Knowledgeable  Readers?

Shira

Action Items:

1.) Share your thoughts, please.

2.) Write a story, post or comment that uses those thoughts.

*****************

Click here to read, if you like:

B5, Hakan: Muhafiz/The Protector, Sihirli Annem,  Lupin, or La Casa de Papel/Money Heist Reviews

Holistic College Algebra & GED/High School Lesson Plans,

           or Long Range Nonfiction, or Historical Fiction Writing (with link to Ann & Anna serial…)

Thoughtful Readers, please consider reading about #ProjectDoBetter.  This novel is my personal way (as opposed to founding the Project, overall) of contributing to building tools that can help increase empathy and compassion in our world.  Story, as part of how we see our world, helps us make sense of and define our actions in this world.  And remember how important story is also as part of this project. Let’s Do Better.

Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil, MAT, BSCS

 

 

ShiraDest

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Writing Process Wednesdays, and, Yes, Do Plan That Scene!

I thought, initially, that a reaction scene should be short and easy, but in writing it, found that it is not as simple as it seemed it would be.  So, I always need to know what happened where in the scene before this one, what should happen, or at least where my main chars need to be in the scene after this one, and the time of day, which generally gives me a hint about the weather, since I also need to know what the weather is doing, but tend to imagine that as I am imagining the scene.  I personally find that the scene only comes to me if I relax long enough to let all of my senses get ‘in’ the scene, which is kind of like a visceral form of day dreaming, I suppose, as it really takes some concentration, for me.   This scene was made more difficult by the fact that I imagined it would be so easy or simple to write that I hardly bothered to outline it, and depended on my main outlines    and my initial book spine of ideas for each of the 15 most important scenes, sketched out as a sort of outline turned mind map, which only makes sense now, two years later, with the help of all my other outlines and scene cards!  So, taking notes on bits of paper, a spreadsheet, an app, and in random document files (as I had the habit of keeping various notebooks and online files open at the same time to deal with the excess of random ideas in popping into my head constantly, back then).  Now I use Google Calendar to set reminders, which I often then reschedule when they pop up!   Bad Idea, it turns out.

Hmmm…     

Also, trying to put too many subplot and scene notes in too many spreadsheets and online reminders, as well as on paper, is not helpful! 

 

 

Shira

Action Items:

1.) Share your thoughts, please.

2.) Write a story, post or comment that uses those thoughts.

*****************

Click here to read, if you like:

B5, Hakan: Muhafiz/The Protector, Sihirli Annem,  Lupin, or La Casa de Papel/Money Heist Reviews

Holistic College Algebra & GED/High School Lesson Plans,

           or Long Range Nonfiction, or Historical Fiction Writing

Thoughtful Readers, please consider reading about #ProjectDoBetter.  This novel is my personal way (as opposed to founding the Project, overall) of contributing to building tools that can help increase empathy and compassion in our world.  Story, as part of how we see our world, helps us make sense of and define our actions in this world.  And remember how important story is also as part of this project. Let’s Do Better.

Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil, MAT, BSCS

 

 

ShiraDest

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Writing Process Wednesdays, and How Not To Plan A Subplot

This is the third subplot, very poorly planned out, for this novel which is taking a third year, now, to get written.   Minnie, I believe, is the only main character that I have not introduced, although come to think of it, some of the characters that I have introduced do not show up nearly as often as she does. 

Hmmm…     

Also, trying to put too many subplot and scene notes in too many spreadsheets and online reminders, as well as on paper, is not helpful! 

 

 

Shira

Action Items:

1.) Share your thoughts, please.

2.) Write a story, post or comment that uses those thoughts.

*****************

Click here to read, if you like:

B5, Hakan: Muhafiz/The Protector, Sihirli Annem,  Lupin, or La Casa de Papel/Money Heist Reviews

Holistic College Algebra & GED/High School Lesson Plans,

           or Long Range Nonfiction, or Historical Fiction Writing

Thoughtful Readers, please consider reading about #ProjectDoBetter.  This novel is my personal way (as opposed to founding the Project, overall) of contributing to building tools that can help increase empathy and compassion in our world.  Story, as part of how we see our world, helps us make sense of and define our actions in this world.  And remember how important story is also as part of this project. Let’s Do Better.

Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil, MAT, BSCS

 

 

ShiraDest

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

When Frederick Bailey became Frederick Douglass, & Lesson Day 48/67

If today (September 3rd, 1838) is a lesson in history, let it honor our formerly enslaved ancestors, on Day 48 of 67 GED Lesson Plan Sets...

—

So, now my novel is back in planning mode.

And, it turns out that I can work him into my novel, as he is still in Baltimore at the same time that my protagonist is there.

Yassas,   γεια σας!    Salût !  Nos vemos!  Görüşürüz!     ! שָׁלוֹם

Action Items in support of literacy and hope that you can take right now:

1.) Share two different resources in your local public library on the life of any escaped slave.

2.) Write something that uses those thoughts.  Once published, donate one or more copies to your local public library, as I intend to do.

Dear Readers, ideas on learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning, on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind?

*****************

Click here to read, if you like:

B5, Hakan:Muhafiz/The Protector,  Lupin, or La Casa de Papel (Money Heist) or El Ministerio del Tiempo reviews

Holistic High School Lessons,

           or Long Range Nonfiction, or Historical Fiction

Thoughtful Readers, please consider looking up #ProjectDoBetter.

Shira

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Idea Inheritor (Converting Thoughts From One Mind To Another)?

        Have you ever been so tired, physically, that you could barely type, but had too many ideas spinning in your mind to rest?  Have you ever worried that you might pass on to whatever does or does not exist after this life before finishing the work of getting your possibly useful ideas out into the world where they can become tools for others?  Well, if you have, then you know how I feel right now.  So, in the digital remains part of my Last Will and Testament (or Living Will, as the case may be), I am looking for someone who is interested in carrying on the work of Project Do Better, and also for someone (else?) who is interested in sifting through my Ideas Notebook, which I began uploading some time ago, but never finished, or simply looking at some of my story, lesson plan, or other tool ideas, with an eye toward taking them on and running with them as your own.  Sort of like a non-mathematical Mind Meld, in that those ideas will go from being my thoughts, to your thoughts.  I am simply tired, and really wish I could know how much time I had left to finish my work.  Since none of us can know that, I am trying to make something of an ideas back up plan for myself, in the hope that none of these excess thoughts go to waste, and that some few of these thoughts might actually even be of use to others.  Sort of like the moment    in which Alonso de Entrerios holds La Tizona (the sword of El Cid) in his hands, and says that that moment alone

‘vale la pena haber nacido‘ / ‘is worth the pain of having been born‘

except that I’d prefer a less bloodstained result/item/tool to make my life worth having put up with the pain of living in this world.

Anyone interested?

Shira

*****************

Click here to read, if you are interested in already existing:

B5, Hakan: Muhafiz/The Protector, Sihirli Annem,  Lupin, or La Casa de Papel/Money Heist Reviews

Holistic College Algebra & GED/High School Lesson Plans,

           or Long Range Nonfiction, or Historical Fiction Writing (including Ann & Anna…)

Thoughtful Readers, please consider reading about #ProjectDoBetter.  This novel is my personal way (as opposed to founding the Project, overall) of contributing to building tools that can help increase empathy and compassion in our world.  Story, as part of how we see our world, helps us make sense of and define our actions in this world.  And remember how important story is also as part of this project. Let’s Do Better.

Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil, MAT, BSCS

ShiraDest

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Parashat Noach 5783, A short short Still emerging from song, and transportation

Stories are meant to transport us to other times and other places.  The audience for some of my more wacky story ideas, like this one, might need us to have a much more fully inclusive society for all of us.  I need someone to tolerate my short short trials!  🙂   Thank you for putting up with this one, if you read on…

–

I’ve had a song I grew up with circling in my head for days now, and also a story that I wrote, of which I posted a bit back a few years ago, as I pondered rewriting my first practice novel around this idea. What if some of the folks who didn’t get on Noah’s Ark stood outside the Ark as a way of protesting the injustice of destroying the entire world? I’m going to try this in 2nd person, to see how it reads: what do you think, Dear Reader?

The clear waters are lapping at her breasts. You can see the goose bumps on her flesh. The woman is shivering, looking right at you. She lifts her head, drawing a deep breath from her belly, and bellows these words out with her diaphragm:

“Soon and very soon,we are going to see the King!”

You’ve heard this song before, in a church, a long time ago. Now, the others join in, linking arms and responding to her call:

“Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King.”

The waters have reached the woman’s neck. You wonder what are they doing singing at a time like this. Then it hits you. Tears sting your face as you cry out to Shem, Japeth, and Ham:

“Get them in here! Now! Drag them by their idiotic hair if you have to, but get them in this boat! Right now! They …”

Your words are drowned out by the woman´s next call,

“No more crying!”

The others, lifting their voices above the waves, respond:

“No more crying there, we are going to see the king.”

You lung at the side, one foot already hooked over the edge, but your sons catch you by each arm, the third clutching your waist, dragging you back inside as Noach closes the door. The last thing you see is the writing on a plank of wood held high; demanding an audience with the One who sent this Flood. Demanding land for everyone, and justice for all.

The writing looked like blood.

–

So, it turns out that this short short, which I wrote in March of 2019, still comes to my mind fairly frequently (I suppose I should post it during Parashat Noah…).

Painters of Sultan Murad III [Public domain] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Noah%27s_ark_and_the_deluge.JPG

last year’s Parashat Noach 5782 / פרשת נֹחַ

was Read in the Diaspora on 9 October 2021 (3 Cheshvan 5782).

Parashat Noach is the 2nd weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading.

I still wonder if the idea of protesting the Great Flood could have happened, somewhere back in the mists of time.

Last week was Parashat Bereshit, 5783, and Language Learning for Novels and Torture Prevention? …

Action Items:

1.) Share two different sources related to the Holocene Epoch and to the Holocene Calendar, as compared to the Hebrew calendar.

2.)  Share your thoughts on how knowing about different calendars might help, or hinder, inclusive thinking,

3.) Write a book, blog post or tweet that uses an alternate calendar, and once published, please consider donating to your local public library.

Dear Readers, ideas on learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning, on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  & achieve freedom for All HumanKind?

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport

*****************

Click here to read, if you like:

B5, Hakan:Muhafiz/The Protector, Sihirli Annem, Lupin, or La Casa De Papel/Money Heist Reviews,

Holistic College Algebra & GED/HiSET Night School Lesson Plans,

           or My Nonfiction  & Historical Fiction Serial Writing

Thoughtful Readers, please consider reading and sharing about #ProjectDoBetter.

Shira

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Last Early Draft Outlines: the later years of Phase III

This post is, though the book is now done,  the rough draft of  Chapter 10, section III. A. of my non-fiction WiP, Baby Floors.   This part of chapter 9 will introduce the later years of mapping out a path to get there for Phase III.

The overall objective remains that of putting a floor on poverty so that each and every baby born can have a safe childhood.

I was posting rough draft sections in order to compare with later drafts, but now I see that posting too much of the rough draft is just tiring, so this will be my last, unless I have scheduled some that I may miss.   I’ll be concentrating on drafting my novel in progress, Who By Fire, so this may get lost, and I ask your indulgence, Thoughtful Readers, if it does.

 

Once again, by way of disclaimer, the overall goal is now to explain why we need both equ. + justice, & why in 4 phases.  This chapter is part of showing what Phases I-IV could look like as potential roadmap for a fully inclusive society for all of us.  This vision is laid out in the hope that All HumanKind  will eventually have each person’s basic needs  met, without taking anything from anyone, and without violence, intimidation, nor coercion of any kind. 

(Chapter 10, section II. D. was last week)

Chapter 10, section III. A.

 

— (Next Wednesday: Chapter 10, section III. B. )

 

I’m considering this Rough Draft as the block of clay from which my book will eventually emerge, obviously, and some ideas for phases III and IV are still becoming more  fixed in my mind as I write, so the final version will likely look pretty different from this Rough Draft, and will need updating once I get to the very end.

 

And once again, yeayyy( !!)with regard to audience, I may have at least a couple of comps:  Walden Two meets The War on Poverty: A Civilian Perspective (by Dr.s Jean and Edgar Cahn, 1964).  I know that lots of people consider Skinner’s writing to be stilted, but I like the tilt of most reviewers, in that the idea is that a community should keep trying policies that members agree upon until they find what works for all of them.

As for genre, I’m still wondering:  clearly part of  Non-fiction.

Maybe also: System Change, Causes, maybe even Inspirational, but I doubt it.

Action Items:

1.) Consider sharing some ideas you may have on how our society can solve homelessness and child abuse, starting right now,

2.) Write a story, post or tweet that uses those sources and your thoughts.

*****************

Click here to read, if you like:

B5, Hakan: Muhafiz/Protector,  Lupin, or La Casa de Papel/Money Heist Reviews

Holistic College Algebra & GED/High School Lesson Plans,

           or Long Range Nonfiction, or Historical Fiction Writing

Thoughtful Readers, please consider reading about #ProjectDoBetter.

Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil, MAT, BSCS

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

The Writing Is Done, The Umbrella Project Has Begun

     I have finally published the Do Better manifesto as a manual for community organizers looking for a long term plan that they can modify for their own communities, and use to work together with other projects and communities to help build a unified movement for the Common Good.

     The book,  Project Do Better: Enough For All, in Four Phases, comes in various sizes of PDF, as an epub, and as a mobi file from the stores that would allow me to set the price to Free, meaning that Amazon and the library systems, which require a minimum price well above that, did not allow me to publish through them.  Note that I personally prefer the ePub, since most PDF readers on the phone are not capable of showing the thumbnails or bookmarks that bring up the left hand side Table of Contents in the published PDF, so if reading it on a mobile phone without an eBook Reader, one may prefer the draft 9 pdf, which has the Table of Contents inside the document (but it looks much better using the left side tab, in a desktop PDF reader).  I can download and send about 20 different sizes of PDF if needed, and copies are currently available:

  as a 212 pg. PDF here on WP, 

or as an epub from The Archive,

or via Draft2Digital’s Book URL, free of cost here.

    Draft2Digital says that the distribution will shortly also include Smashwords, so that should also make the epub and mobi versions more easily accessible in a few months or so.

    I still need a logo for the project, and help with getting the word out about this project, from all willing hands.  I plan to start sending a copy of the book to each person cited in the notes, page by page, and then to look for communities and organizers who might be interested in collaborating with the project, or using the book as a starting point for their own long term planning.  I will happily send the editable version of this book to communities wishing to modify it and publish their own versions of this plan.

Thoughts, Fellow Writers?

—

Shira

*****************

Click here to read, if you like:

B5, Hakan: Muhafiz/The Protector, Sihirli Annem, Lupin, or La Casa de Papel/Money Heist Reviews

Holistic College Algebra & GED/High School Lesson Plans,

           or Long Range Nonfiction, or Historical Fiction Writing

Thoughtful Readers, please consider reading about #ProjectDoBetter.

Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil, MAT, BSCS

Shira

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Do Better Writing Process, and Rm’d Non Sequiturs

  This was a section that an early Rough Draft reader noted did not go with the rest of that paragraph, or part of the chapter, rather, so I reluctantly removed it.  It was part of the Preface, I believe, or maybe the Introduction.

—

(                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        …Like Noam Chomsky.

Chomsky and others have written many books and articles detailing a variety of critiques of US and other current societies, in terms of the damage that governments of the United States and other developed nations allow to be done in the name of economic competition.                A just society must be just for its own citizens, and must also promote the ideals upon which it is founded in its dealings with other societies.                On that basis, Chomsky finds that US treatment of other nations is especially unjust, and that injustice is a reflection of treatment withing US society of the most vulnerable communities within US society, as well, such as Black Americans, refugees, and women of all races.                So, the treatment of citizens within a just society must also be mirrored by how that society treats those outside of its boundaries with whom it has dealings, as Chomsky points out on page 83 of his book Profits over People: unfairly vilifying and then crushing a nation for the sake of economic competition is unjust not only to those outside of a society, but even to those within the ‘winning’ society, as the reality of such behavior is evident even to small children, when viewed without the coloring of propaganda.                The effects within US society, for example, of the embargo against Cuba over the long term, have been to harden views in some quarters against any compromise or opening of discussion on the topic, while others in American society have come to see hard-liners insistent on the embargo as both anti-Cuban and even anti-immigration.)

   Draft 8 is done, and as of Friday, July 1st, a logo is needed for the project that can also be edited to act as the book cover for this manifesto.  Suggested images in the Public Domain are most welcome, whether drawn by yourself, Kind Reader, or an already existing PD image.

Shira

*****************

Click here to read, if you like:

B5, Hakan: Muhafiz/The Protector, Sihirli Annem, Lupin, or La Casa de Papel/Money Heist Reviews

Holistic College Algebra & GED/High School Lesson Plans,

           or Long Range Nonfiction, or Historical Fiction Writing

Thoughtful Readers, please consider reading about #ProjectDoBetter.

Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil, MAT, BSCS

Shira

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Do Better Wednesdays, Writing Process, & How looking at My Nonfiction Through Fiction Writing Eyes Improved Draft #Six

    The later drafts, 4th, 5th, and later, of a book can be exhausting (and now I’ve done Draft 7...), and it is tempting to want to just publish and be done.  I found, personally, that looking at my book, at that point, as if if were one of my fictional works, even a short serial story/novella, like Ann & Anna, helped:  I suddenly saw just how much could be cut away to make even the Table of Contents more interesting, and the entire book more readable, despite being in an entirely different category of writing.

I hope that this helps in your writing process, Thoughtful Readers.

Shira

*****************

Click here to read, if you like:

B5, Hakan: Muhafiz/The Protector, or Casa de Papel/Money Heist  Lupin Reviews

Holistic High School Lessons,

           or Long Range Nonfiction, or Historical Fiction

Thoughtful Readers, if you remain on Twitter, please consider following   #Project Do Better  on Twitter.

Shira

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.