Today I’m out to capture fact in originality and originality in fact. Thinking of the cool effect I got with the iridescent plastic disc, I wondered what would happen with a small piece of aluminum foil on the colored clear plastic filters. I thought it would maybe black out the shape of the aluminum foil but with a light shimmer or stretch around the edges. What actually happened really surprised me. It created a window in the colored plastic. I’m so excited about today’s discovery. It makes no sense to me, but it’s very exciting.
I appreciate the fact that originality is not always appreciated that tradition and repetition make people feel safe doing the same thing adhering to expectation breeds calm contentment And though I appreciate this fact, originality is what I am thankful for It fuels me, is my battery lights me to glowing makes me appreciate each morning where ideas await exploring
I appreciate that it’s open link night at dVerse Poets Pub so I can link up my poem and read and appreciate the poems people have chosen to link up.
Stubbornness in Irresolution by Maria L. Berg 2023
Today I’m out to capture the stubbornness in irresolution and irresolution in stubbornness: Determination not to change one’s attitude of uncertainty and hesitation and uncertainty about determination not to change one’s attitude or position on something. I think I can capture that in the mirrorworld with the denial filters I made yesterday.
Irresolution in Stubbornness by Maria L. Berg 2023
It’s become a cliché, the idea of small town simple life like baseball, apple pie, and fireworks on the fourth of July This small town lives in its people as much as the people live in it They may be as stubborn as the hills, immovable or the river carving its path, irrepressible Or they may be irresolute as the hawk watching from a post along the highway or the deer in headlights But they must work hard like the beaver building its den in the gold-green light through the cedar and fir They must have steel constitutions to raise families in the shadow of a volcano in a small valley town with nowhere to go but uphill
Today’s poetry prompt got me thinking about my story’s setting. I’ve been playing around with the idea of a bad storm knocking out all the power for a few days—long enough for all devices’ batteries to run out. How would this affect my small town in crisis?
I read a passage in The Uncomfortable Dead(assoc. link) by Paco Ignacio Taibo II and Subcomandante Marcos that inspired my poem and how I am thinking about setting. Here are the parts I found inspiring:
It’s already becoming a cliché, this notion of being tied to the city by an umbilical cord, trapped in a love-hate relationship. . . . There is no hatred. Just an immense, infinite sensation of love for this ever-changing city that he lives in and that lives in him, that he dreams of and that dream of him. A determination to love that goes beyond all the rage, possession, and sex, and dissolves into tenderness. It must be the demonstrations, the golden hue of the light at the Zócalo, he book stands, the meat tacos, the currents of deep solidarity, the friends at the gas station across the way who always say hello when he passes. It might be that marvelous winter moon. It might be.
Paco Ignacio Taibo II
There’s so much I like about this paragraph. It got me thinking: what are the clichés of a small town? Who would talk about a small town this way, in my poem? In my novel? What things about the small town would my speaker(s) list?
Then I asked myself: What about a small town is stubborn? What is irresolute?
Today, as I write, I want to find places in my novel for three of my characters to talk about the town like this from his or her POV.
Today I’m trying to find the credence in denial and the denial in credence. Credence being the acceptance of something as true and denial that it is false.
Denial made me think of the word no, of stop signs, a circle with a line through it; things being X-ed out. So I cut all of those filters. Then, for the shoot I did something different. I took pictures of a security light left on all day through my office window. One half of the window had a screen which also added an effect.
Denial in Credence by Maria L. Berg 2023
2023 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 21
Today is the Two-for-Tuesday prompt:
Write an introverted poem, or…
Write an extroverted poem.
The poetics prompt over at dVerse Poets Pub about letter writing is a good fit with both an introverted and extroverted poem. Punam of Paeansunplugged challenges us to write letters in poem form or write a poem about letter writing.
Today I’m trying to find the rashness in resignation and the resignation in rashness. Resignation is also a janus word: a word that means its own opposite. Resignation as opposed to rashness means the acceptance of something undesirable but inevitable. However, it also means an act of retiring or giving up a position. Where both the acceptance of the inevitable and retiring or giving up take time and thought, rashness is a quality of acting hastily and without due consideration. Perhaps if one’s nature is rashness, one would eventually become resigned to being rash.
Rashness makes me think of colorful movement. I’ve been thinking of trying different colors on the LED net to see if they separate with movement. I got out too late and it was light out. However, I tried movement with the LED net on different color settings and didn’t find as drastic a separation with any other color. I saw a bit with yellow, and with a purple color, so I headed into the mirror world and tried the different color settings with my fairy light LEDs. There I found the color separation without movement.
Today I want to go deeper in a scene I started yesterday. I found this post “5 Ways to Add Depth to a Scene” by Janice Hardy at Writers in the Storm Blog. A few things stood out that I’ll explore today:
Character body language: “Does their body language not match what they’re saying?”
Use the setting: What can characters use to defend themselves, or attack that is specific to the setting? “How does the setting emotionally affect the characters?”
Use all the senses: “Can one sense suggest the opposite of what the rest of the senses are saying?”
I think these suggestions will help me dive deeper into my MC’s experience in this chaotic scene.
Today I worked to capture the importance in unimportance and the unimportance in importance. For my images I revisited one of the filters I made yesterday out of junk I found in the bottom of my fabric closet. Here’s a picture of the filters:
The one I focused on today is the one on the top left. I love the effect the light hitting that plastic disc makes. It’s exciting how the small discarded bits of unimportance, glued together have become something of great importance to me.
Today’s prompt is to write a customized poem. Customized means: modified to suit a particular individual or task. Since I am exploring the importance in unimportance and the unimportance in importance, I will have to modify this poem to fit me doing that.
Finding Importance in Unimportance
Among the detritus gathering
on the floor I grabbed a fistful
of the fallen and discarded:
cheap costume boa feathers and a plastic disc fallen off of fabric
given away because it shed plastic iridescent discs
with white glue so old it came out clear
I pressed these items together
hoping in time they would adhere
to a thin plastic lens filter
And it took time, stole time, most of a morning, but not wasted time
and not my important time, as I used that for other things
And when these items of no importance
fused and bonded sat upon my lens
a universe of beauty exploded
and in awe I explored
bursting galaxies, dying and birthing stars
I captured every one
so all could admire this exaltation
And this filter, my new favorite, a gift of lint
must be carefully preserved locked away
untouched, encased and saved
for it holds creation's power
that takes me to ecstasies
Today’s focus on finding the importance in unimportance and the unimportance in importance inspired a good look at my character arcs. The most important person to my main character will become the least, and the least will become the most. My main character’s world view will need to completely change for this to happen. Her wants and needs will be completely different by the end.
I’ll need to make sure I’ve shown her ideas about importance and unimportance at the beginning, and write scenes that show her questioning these ideas and then show how her new needs change her views on importance.
Since I’m writing a supernatural horror, in each of the moments she is afraid, the person she sees as most important will not be of help to her, and the person she finds least important will. She will come to doubt the importance of the one, and the unimportance of the other. And finally she will accept the unimportance of the first and value the importance of the other.
Over at EADeverell.com there’s a Character Change Worksheet to get us thinking about the internal and external changes in the character due to certain plot points. I’ll be going through this worksheet with my main character exploring her attitudes about importance and unimportance to help me brainstorm the scenes showing how she changes.
Today I’m trying to capture ingenuity in materiality and materiality in ingenuity. Materiality, though as an abstract noun it means: of substantial import; of much consequence; important; pertinent or essential; it made me think of physical materials, especially fabric. So today’s images were an exercise in cleverness or skillfulness of conception or design with material and other materials.
Today I’m trying to capture resoluteness in disinclination and disinclination in resoluteness. Disinclination made me think of a steep incline and having no energy to climb it, where resoluteness made me think of walking up the down escalator. Resoluteness in disinclination made me think of a round ball going up the incline, but continually rolling back down. Or a square shape trying to make it up the incline, but toppling back down.
It’s amazing to me how these very simple shape combinations can be so expressive. The slanted line with the circle made me really uncomfortable with the circle at the bottom left. It took on humanistic properties as I rotated it, looking like a slouching, depressed person when the line was vertical. Definitely a resolute disinclination.
Disinclination in Reoluteness by Maria L. Berg 2023
I need a reboot; time to refresh I’m tired of the same old refrain Disinclination needs a reframe This sketch reveals more when seen less
With a new resoluteness and a green dress this mantra must be rephrased I need a reboot, time to refresh I’m tired of the same old refrain
The repressed now expressed as be best distresses my depressed referee who attests to blinders being refuge which progresses to a request for flesh I need a reboot; time to refresh
This morning I was reading the opening chapter of an odd but interesting book called The Uncomfortable Dead(assoc. link) by Paco Ignacio Taibo II and Subcomandante Marcos. The opening note from the authors says that the odd numbered chapters, thus this first one that I was reading, were written by “Insurgent Subcomandante Marcos.” When you read about a novel having “voice” this is what they’re talking about. The character speaking in first person to open the novel jumps off the page.
Here’s an example that really stood out to me:
“Since we spent some time getting the horse to go where we wanted him to go, Don Manolo and me got to talking and I think we even became friends. That’s how I found out he don’t like to be called Manolo, but me, you know, all you gotta do is tell me something is “no” for me to go “yes,” and I don’t do it outta being ornery or nothing, no sir, it’s just the way they made me, or that’s the way I am, you know, contrary: Contreras. That’s what El Sup calls me, “Elías Contereas,” but not cause that’s my name. “Elías” is my fighting name, and “Contreras,” well, that’s what El Sup named me cause he said I had to have a fighting last name too, and seeing as how I was so contrary, a last name like Contreras was just right for me.”
Subcomandante Marcos
He does so much in that self-introduction. Through learning a fact about another person, he expresses his defining characteristic. He also expresses that he feels this part of his nature is out of his control, showing his outlook and attitude. He also shows that he has a superior who has renamed him, and he feels comfortable in his role as a fighter for him. The paragraph also shows how he speaks, familiarly with grammatical errors.
This got me thinking about my main character. What one word would she use to define herself? How would that come up in relation to something she learns about someone else? What is specific to her speech patterns that is different from everyone around her? What is she most excited about, emphatic about in the telling of her story?
Since I decided to write my main character’s chapters in first person, I’m going to spend some time thinking about how to make her voice this vibrant and how to make her come alive the moment she starts telling her story.
Today I’m trying to capture invalidity in validity and validity in invalidity. Invalidity being without foundation or force in fact, truth, or law; logically inconsequent, and valid meaning appropriate to the end in view: effective having the example: “every craft has its own valid methods” made me think about the validity and invalidity of methods I’ve created for my craft. I started by bringing pool noodles and reflection balls into the mirror world to explore if my valid outdoor methods are valid or invalid in the mirrorworld. But then I thought about looking at the word VALID. I haven’t done any vispo in a while, using the the symbols of the letters themselves to show their meaning.
Today’s prompt is to write an animal poem.Sounds like a good reason to enjoy the pictures in my copy of Woop Studios’s A Compendium of Collective Nouns(assoc. link). Wanting my collective nouns to be alliterative I had to get creative with some of them. I used https://www.collectivenounslist.com for inspiration as well.
This cold is an alphabet of aches
an army of ants
a battery of barracuda
a cauldron of crows
a doom of dragons
an electrocution of eels
a family of ferrets
a gallop of greyhounds
a herd of hippopotamuses
an intrusion of iguanas
a judgement of jackals
a kinship of koalas
a lounge of lizards
a mischief of mice
a nuisance of nags
an orchestra of orioles
a prickle of porcupines
a quip of quails
a rumba of rattlesnakes
a shiver of sharks
a terror of terriers
an unction of urials
a violence of vipers
a wriggle of worms
a xylophone of xeruses
a yolk of yaks
a zigzag of zokors
This cold doesn't feel like
an armory of aardvarks
a bike of bees
a comfort of cats
a dropping of ducks
an exaltation of egrets
a fancy of flamingos
a glint of goldfish
a hedge of herons
an imposition of ibex
a journey of jaguars
a kindle of kittens
a loveliness of ladybugs
a movement of moles
a network of newts
an observance of owls
a pulchritude of peacocks
a quandary of quokka
a raucous of reindeer
a swoop of swallows
a truelove of turtledoves
a unity of unicorns
a vanity of vultures
a wailing of whales
a x-ray of xolo
a yearning of yapok
a zeal of zebras
It’s Open Link Night at dVerse Poets Pub, so I’m linking up this poem there. If you can make it, there’s also an Open Link Live on Saturday (Nov. 18) at 10am Eastern.
Today I’m going to explore what my characters tell themselves to validate their actions and points of view. Is there validity in their thinking? What would invalidate their actions, goals, and motivations? How would they react to this invalidation?
I’m also going to brainstorm the six kinds of twists presented in Novel Writing Blueprint Workbook(amazon assoc. link) by Jill Harris:
Identity Twists: How could my characters turn out to be someone or something other than they seem?
Death Twists: Which of my main characters can I kill off in a surprising way?
Motive Twists: Who actually want the opposite of what they say they want? How is that revealed?
Perception Twists: How do my characters realize that their realities are different than they think?
Fortune Twists: When my characters appear to have good fortune, what or who snatches it away?
Fulfillment Twists: When my characters fulfill their desires and reach their goals, how can that cause unintended disaster for themselves or others?
Once I’ve brainstormed at least five for each, I will choose one or two of my favorites to outline as scenes and then I’ll write at least one today.
Today I’m trying to capture composure in disquietude and disquietude in composure. For this morning’s shoot I colored a plastic filter in red, orange, and yellow squiggly lines to represent disquietude, and created three different cut filters with groups of shapes meant to represent composure.
Today’s prompt is to write a poem without pronouns. The prompt inspired me to play with my invented “Jar and Janus” form. I talk about the form in the “Draft” section of my post Revising Poetry: Creating a process.
To Find and Temper Quiddity
Composure wishes for singularity in the obsessive invention of disquietude hacking gravity’s properties like jelly and glue yearning to find quiddity disquietude glows allegro zing in the tin flute of composure
Disquietude flashes nutmeg tension at dragonfly elbows of composure drowning in neon-green spirals of daisy intonations descending to temper the pod-person bite composure conquers evil robots in the rhapsody of disquietude
I absolutely cannot believe we are already halfway through the month. It feels like we just started. This week I got a terrible cold. My face is a mucous factory and it hurts. But maybe this is a good thing. I should have no problem turning my mind off and just letting the words flow, as long as my fingers will keep moving through the fog.
I hope your writing is going well and you are enjoying your novel.
Today I’m trying to capture purpose in uselessness and uselessness in purpose. As I made my shape cuts this morning, I was thinking of tools that are created for a specific purpose, but are useless for anything else.
The Poetics prompt at dVerse Poets Pub is in celebration of Spicy Guacamole Day. Melissa provided a list of words and asked us to choose at least four to mix into our poem.
Spicy Guacamole Heart
love is like avocado always too mushy or too hard mixed with the right ingredients it may give some days a little spice feel ripe with purpose and mash uselessness but after squeezing and forking leaves an empty shell
This morning when I opened the kindle on my tablet, the audiobook function on the Creature Feature stories from Amazon started working. I had thought that was a fun idea, but for some reason the audio button wasn’t showing up for me before. I liked how I could read the story, and then when I was doing something else, like looking at my morning’s photoshoot, I could switch it to audio, and then when I was done picking my images for the day, I could go back to reading, and it kept my place switching back and forth. I wonder if they have that functionality for any horror novels in prime reading. I found a couple of Jeffrey Deaver thriller short stories, but I’ll keep looking.
Experience Writing 