Yesterday, I looked ahead at week ten of ModPo and was inspired by the work of Erica Baum. Specifically her collection “Dog Ear.” I’ve complained in the past how surprised I am that almost every book I get from the library has dog-eared pages. Who would do that? How hard is it to use a bookmark? However, I was fascinated by how Baum saw the combinations of words from the folded corner of a page and the next page as poetry. I dog-eared one page in my copy of Ken Follett’s Eye of the Needle (affiliate link) and felt like I had done something terrible. But then I remembered all the literary magazines I have. It didn’t feel bad at all to “ruin” a copy of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine(affiliate link) in the name of poetry.
Varialalia by Maria L. Berg 2021
November PAD Chapbook Challenge
The prompt is to write a health poem. I thought it would be fun to type a poem from the lines from lines that have to do with “health” from my folds.
Live Fast: Die Young
cigaret Corinne feels tempted and then there’s the kids who leave her younger sister with gunshot wounds . . . and go upstairs and falling off their clothes trying their old room, but then to run a line and you inside of her, know previous gunshot going to be their shut. Hard to do here in the old and consider lost count, or and Dad thing like they whelming each in the off
Corinne by Maria L. Berg 2021
NaNoWriMo
I had a lot of fun dog-earing those pages. Now to find some motivation for my novel. I checked out How to Write a Damn Good Mystery (affiliate link) by James N. Frey from the library. I think I’ll read that for a while and see if that gets me going.
When Painted Emerald by Maria L. Berg 2021
November Daily Prompts by Maria L. Berg 2021 Please leave your links in the comments. I hope you will join me.
Today I thought about The Usual Suspects(affiliate link), the line-up on the cover. Then I thought about Clue(affiliate link) and the color names of the suspects. I also thought about “suspect” as a verb and I suspect that led to some introspection about what I find suspect about my suspicions.
Looking Suspect by Maria L. Berg 2021
I don’t generally like this in-camera “Poster” effect, but I’m glad I’m in a use-everything phase. It was a great choice for my criminal crayons.
Stream of Consciousness Saturday
Today’s stream of consciousness prompt is fun: Close eyes and point. I imagine myself closing my eyes and pointing all day. It could be dangerous. It says to use the closest print material which for me is A Compendium of Collective Nouns(affiliate link). I’m closing my eyes, opening the book to a random page., I point, and open my eyes . . . L. I got a full yellow page with a big black capital letter L. I tried again and got the letter P. Tried again got the letter E but at least there were some eagles on the page. The collective noun for eagles? A convocation. Finally I landed on a word, “generally.” Generally, I wouldn’t find that very exciting, but since I worked so hard to get to it, I guess I’ll journal “generally” for a while this morning, take a look at generally’s relationship to the usual suspects.
Generally speaking I don’t use generally a lot. Usual has unusual, general has no ungeneral. It has specific. I’m into specifically. Generally accepted, that sounds drab, muddy, generally acceptable sounds judgy and mundane. What is a good aspect of generally? Generally not toxic, not harmful leaves open specific incidents of possibility. Generally understood as convenient, yummy, a good book, those work. People have different tastes, but a general consensus of yummy or convenient is usually worth a risk, so . . .
I thought it would be good exercise to ride my bike the three miles to practice I bought a back-pack style padded case for my bass, lights for my bike, velcro reflector strips that tied the cuffs of my pants a safety orange vest with reflectors for my chest riding with my bass wasn’t that hard but that road, that road was treacherous.
No twisting, two-lane road should have that much traffic no sidewalks and barely space between road and railing. And those hills, three miles shouldn’t have impossible, winding hills with blind turns, and trucks. No matter how many times I rode that road, I always had to hop off and walk to the top of one of the hills, it wasn’t a hill but a small mountain or technically the other side of a valley within a mountain. Riding a bike is not easy around here. And fenders didn’t do much in this rain.
I thought it would be good exercise to walk the three miles from practice it was a bit scary without sidewalks and barely any room between the road and the hillside when it got dark, but I had a headlamp, and reflectors, and there wasn’t as much traffic I never suspected a large abandoned property. Don’t even know how you got there from the road. Never saw the burned out mobile home or the fallen carport by the house. But she was there the whole time. Inside a garbage can, tossed away, abandoned decomposing alone among nature’s reclamation I rode by. I walked by. I listened to the music I was learning to play, and would perform soon at the bar down the hill. I focused on not getting hit.
Burning Suspicions by Maria L. Berg 2021
NaNoWriMo
I’m keeping steady at 2,000 words each day. I’m not quite in the story yet, but I’m getting there. This morning I was so happy that my Scrivener set-up is working for me because I had a few ideas for each section and just jumped in and wrote a little bit before “writing time”. It’s great to not have to search through and waste time, but get where I want to be while the thought is there.
While I was doing my timed, wild, stream of consciousness morning pages, I happened upon an interesting way to make yesterday’s scene more important to the novel. It treads a fine line of really working, or not working at all, but I like how it could tie some things together, so I’m going for it.
November Daily Prompts by Maria L. Berg 2021 Please leave your links in the comments. I hope you will join me.
Today I was inspired to continue my ribbon and shadow experiment. I thought about how a “little white lie” can turn into a big lie. I also thought about how each time Pinocchio lied his nose grew.
For today’s poem I revisited the mesostic method I first tried on Tuesday. I thought it would be a fun way to explore what I find special. I typed my journal pages from this morning into the Mesostic Poem Generator using SPECIAL as the spine word. I had it come up with seven mesostics hoping seven would be lucky, then selected and arranged the lines into my poem.
Today's Special
the iSsues that will
come uP with
pEn to page working through gore
i started Cold
and whIle up there tried
hAven't had what
spine my toiLet
at random momentS common
day caPturing
thE have in my head
and pain i Could do
when source Is my own word
there Are seven seasons it brings
the garden my Lunch from the joy
Spotting the Lie by Maria L. Berg 2021
NaNoWriMo
Today I’m starting a new chapter. I’m going to play with a zoom in, like the beginning of a film when the view starts really wide and flies toward a city, then into the city, then zooms in on the main character in action. I’m going to play around with doing that with words: starting with an omniscient POV, then zoom closer and closer until the reader sees what my character sees, experiences his perceptions, and then gets inside his head. It should be fun.
Spotted by Maria L. Berg 2021
November Daily Prompts by Maria L. Berg 2021 Please leave your links in the comments. I hope you will join me.
Today I was inspired to try a shadow effect inspired by images I’ve seen on Pinterest. Pareidolia combined with tricks of light and shadow made for some interesting house guests.
It hides behind the fancy ribbons the glitter, the streamers it hides in plain sight behind white-toothed red-lipstick smiles is obscured by laughter and music
but then a sudden light– headlights through the window sweeping the far wall, someone leaves the bathroom or enters from the hall– and the shadows shift and I see it so clearly and then it’s gone covered again in laughter and the next song’s major chords
It hides under every plastic cup and every paper plate under every chair used to fasten a balloon I can taste it in every bite of cake there it is in the flicker of candles I smell it coming in the smoke when extinguished
It lingers longer this year as it lurks in the shadows and leaves a clingy film after the guests have gone
My days are flying by. Every day I think I’ll get more done than I do, but I’m enjoying putting extra time into this initial set-up with the intent to have everything come up again later. I started hopping around a little bit yesterday, and that helped me get motivated to go back and continue the scene from the day before.
How’s your writing going? How do you get and stay motivated?
Why the Long Faces? by Maria L. Berg 2021
November Daily Prompts by Maria L. Berg 2021 Please leave your links in the comments. I hope you will join me.
So far, so good. My prompts are inspiring me to hop out of bed, grab my camera and try new techniques. When I woke up, I made a quick list of things found in the wild that I forgot to put on my abandoned property description yesterday. This included: spiderwebs, spiders, huckleberries, salmon berries, ferns, maple trees, etc. The list of these details made me think of a set of screw-on macro lenses I bought a while ago and only tried once or twice. I set my camera to macro, grabbed the 10X lens and the 4X lens, and set out into the wild.
The world was very cooperative. It temporarily stopped raining and a little morning sun peeked out from the clouds occasionally. The leaves held lovely droplets. I was hoping to find one little shriveled up huckleberry clinging to the tree, but instead found many tiny huckleberries hanging on. They were delicious crispy, juicy treats. What a nice surprised.
Today I am wild as wild as a huckleberry after the first frost a crisp, tart-sweet burst as wild and fresh as raindrops collected in the yellow petals of a buttercup among ferns as wild and fresh and vibrant as light breaking through the thick gray to reveal threads of spiderwebs from sori dot to sori dot as wild and fresh and vibrant and dangerous as thorns hiding entwined on blackberry vines weaving through it all like sharp fangs behind plump, closed, smiling lips ready to prick any bit of vulnerable bare skin that comes too near today I am wild
a huckleberry after the first frost a crisp, tart-sweet burst raindrops collected in yellow petals of a buttercup among ferns light breaking through the thick gray clouds to reveal threads of spiderwebs from sori dot to sori dot thorns hiding entwined on blackberry vines weaving through the underbrush like sharp fangs behind plump, closed-smiling lips ready to prick any bit of bare skin
In the Light by Maria L. Berg
Veins by Maria L. Berg 2021
NaNoWriMo
Yesterday I made the Miso and Squash soups I had been planning, so my meals are only a matter of quick warming for a while. I had forgotten all about my word count sticker sheet and bingo card, so I have some fun stickers to put on things today. Hopefully that will get some fun motivation started.
Writing Exercise: As my warm up today, I’m going to keep Chekhov’s gun in mind today and make a little map of everything I’ve set up in my opening scene: All of the props, sounds, people, etc. that have been brought to the reader’s attention as important and brainstorm how they may be revisited and build toward the climax of the story.
Yesterday, during the BARN writing group, a new member mentioned Wild Writing with Laurie Wagner, so thinking of today’s photo prompt, I looked it up. It consists of 15 minute hand-written writing sprints, writing as fast as you can. Sadly, I press hard even when I try not to, and do not write very quickly. But I do write faster when hearing the tick of my kitchen timer, so during my morning pages this morning, I will attempt to write as fast as I physically can and hope it leads me to bi-passing my inner critic and get to my intuition and instinct.
Whiskers by Maria L. Berg
November Daily Prompts by Maria L. Berg 2021 Please leave your links in the comments. I hope you will join me.
This morning’s photoshoot was fun and successful. For “startle” I thought about the way the body jerks when we’re startled, and played with camera motion with some bokeh of my neighbors’ lights across the lake. I love the color palette created by the security lights in the dark
Shudder by Maria L. Berg 2021
November PAD Chapbook Challenge
Today is two for Tuesday. The prompts are: Write a ready poem and/or a not ready poem. Not ready fits well with my photo prompt “Startle.”
I’m Not Ready–Wait!
It’s not that you were unexpected or unwelcome, or unwanted It’s that I had a few more things to do
It’s not that those things can’t get done later or tomorrow morning, or never It’s that I had a plan, I had seen a picture of an order of events
It’s not that the picture of events can’t be altered painted over, gesso-ed back to blank canvas It’s that I wanted–needed more time
But, here you are as planned interaction already began the shifted space from one to two What are we waiting for?
I also took a look at week 9 of ModPo this morning and was challenged to try my hand at a Mesostic Poem. Mesostic poems are a type of acrostic structure used by John Cage with the spine word (the name of the dedicatee) down the center. He would identify words from a source text then use chance operations based on the I Ching to select which words to use and the amount of text to use on either side of the spine word. Since I’m reading Criminal Investigations for my NaNoWriMo novel, I thought the chapter I’m reading, “The Crime Scene and Its Associated Procedures” would make a fun source text. I typed some of it into the Mesostic Poem Generator program, using my character’s name.
Writing Through Criminal Investigation ~after John Cage
evideNce
individuAl confesses to
wrOng the contributions
are diMinished
prImarily by
unwillingneSs or
suspeCted of
Having committed
improper concLusions from
Its analysis also
evidence cannoT speak for
iTself
propEr value
can alteRed incomplete
eyewitness or tHe innocent
locAtion at
the seaRch
of The crime
Disembodied by Maria L. Berg 2021
NaNoWriMo
How was your first day? I hope you had fun with your opening scene. I was not at the top of my game (bad tummy, distracted), but I still wrote 2,000 words. I think I’ll dive back into the scene today and add all that description and sensory information I said I was going to write, but didn’t. I want to create a visceral wrongness given off my this abandoned property, the moment my character gets there, from the moment she sees the turn onto the driveway. I think I’ll really dive into that this morning. I kind of skipped over it yesterday as I attempted to create a new journalist character and bring the assistant coroner into the opening scene as well. There’s a lot to set up in this opening scene. I did manage to get the deputy sheriff to state the theme (or something close, I haven’t quite worded it the way I want to yet) which felt good when it happened organically.
The first prompt for this challenge is to write a correspondence poem.
Soon You Will Be Me
To me in thirty-one days, I look forward to you smelling the eucalyptus salts of success, tasting the frozen plums of completing every day’s test. Escaping the heavy pile of soft blankets to roam free in the fresh air I admire your tired, sore eyes, your gnarled fingers, stretching, lengthening. What attraction pulled you past the murky middle What repulsion twisted and turned you in surprising directions? Did you notice the gravity pulling you into orbit while it was there, or only after it was gone? Did the words sound like popping corn, or a haunting train in the fog? Celebrate your fortitude, your determination You smile at my amazement then get back to work.
Cold Blue by Maria L. Berg 2021
NaNoWriMo
I did not stay up. I was discordant as ever, got mad at Discord, and went to bed. However, a few children came to take my candy and I got some cool pictures with my lights before I turned them off, so it was a nice Halloween. I have all the words ahead of me, but I’m excited to introduce my setting and my detective today. I usually under write and have been told I need to describe my characters physically, let reader know what everyone, and everything, looks like, so I am going to pour on the descriptions. I’m gonna play with all the senses for everything! I hope you all have a great day of writing!
I really enjoyed starting each day jumping out of bed and grabbing my camera, so I made this November prompt calendar to keep myself inspired. I hope you will join me and leave links to your prompt-inspired posts in the comments.
November Daily Prompts by Maria L. Berg 2021
OctPoWriMo
Here it is, the last day of OctPoWriMo and NaNoWriMo eve.
Today’s prompt, “Goodbye train,” is an interesting prompt. I’ve ridden many, many trains in Europe and the United States throughout my life. Reflecting on each of these train rides may lead to some interesting poems. However, today only evokes the strange, ghostly train whistle I hear sometimes in the house. I assume it’s the freight train along the tracks at the bottom of the hill, but that is so far away and it creeps in randomly, sounding so close. A moaning siren traveling like fog over the lake, seeping through the windows in the dark.
Or is it? It could be It has been so many times but usually a good- bye means I’ll see you later in a time or place I haven’t imagined yet, but you know better, whether you will wish to see me again, or speak to me when you need as if I was always there, sitting next to you on the train while I read and pretended not to feel me next to you an entire world of unknowns that you might accidentally fall into if you said hello and wanted to.
Rhododendron Dressed Up as Ghosts by Maria L. Berg 2021
NaNoWriMo
Whose staying up until midnight to write their first sentences? I’m going to see where the day takes me. My regional group has a Halloween movie watch and then a countdown virtual party, so I might join in. Hopefully, I can get my mind around Discord better this year. It hasn’t been a great platform for me in the past. I’ll keep trying since that’s how my region does events.
So are you all prepped up and excited to get started? Last year I was so prepared and it paid off. This year, doing a re-write, I feel less prepared, but I think I’m over-thinking. I’ve done some important prep and I’m still really excited by the idea, so let the craziness begin!
Here’s the November daily prompts calendar I mentioned on Thursday. These words are much more abstract than the Halloween Challenge, but I’m hoping they will challenge me to create photographs that represent and inspire the feeling of these words while I work on my novel. I hope you will join me and post your links in the comments each day. I look forward to seeing how you interpret these prompts.
Everyone Came to the Party by Maria L. Berg 2021
For Tourmaline .’s Halloween Challenge, party, I made two different balloon filters. Then I made a vampire face on my single balloon. My world is a party because the sun came out, and my decorations get to go outside!
Party Ghosts by Maria L. Berg 2021
OctPoWriMo
Today’s prompt, “Diary,” is a great prompt for a Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Today’s #SoCS prompt is “boo.” The prompt says to choose a work with boo in it and of course my mind screamed “BOOK!” which also brings me back to diary. These days I don’t keep a “diary,” I do morning pages in a journal. I once had the horrible experience of someone I loved and trusted, reading my diary and becoming angry at me–judging my personal, emotional, private thoughts–from what they read there. I tore out the pages and burned them on the back stairs. I never kept a diary again. My morning pages are about writing process and random mind clearing. I doubt they would make much sense to prying eyes.
Boo! Did I surprise you? I would laugh that you shook but you’re looking at my book which you must have mistook for anything other than my diary because I know you wouldn’t do that to me.
But my eyes don’t mislead: I’ve been forsook, or you took me for a rube or a boob. I am no newb to a rude goon rooting through my room for loot. You took so much more than my words you broke my trust. I am mute.
Like a kick with a steel-toed boot my stomach fills with doom as you hoot like a baboon, head a hot-air balloon. I feel a swoon but red heat is a boon. I grab my book from your grasp and get to task.
As I tear the pages, your anger is moot, its root in forbidden fruit A taboo you zoomed past without booze. As a lit fuse I set each page aflame, and dance in my moonlit release. I won’t make this mistake again.
Vampire Balloons in the Grass by Maria L. Berg 2021
The Sun Comes Out and the World is a Party by Maria L. Berg 2021
For Tourmaline .’s Halloween Challenge, scream, I made a new filter to visually symbolize the horrible screams my skeleton candles made all night. I’m afraid they were traumatized by yesterday’s photoshoot. But then I went out to get the mail, and nature really made me scream. This is a real warning, I will be sharing a very very gross horror of nature I screamed at this morning. After taking pictures, and going back to my bokeh, I was reminded why fake horror is so much better than the real thing.
“Scream” also made me think of the great sound at the beginning of Purple People Eater. I have the original 45. It was my mom’s. While finding this video, I saw that Neil Patrick Harris was in a Purple People Eater Movie when he was a kid (and Screech was in it too),so my day has changed. Today is full of all sorts of surprises and twists and turns.
and the Wilhelm scream:
The first Wilhelm scream was recorded during an alligator attack in the film Distant Drums in 1951. So my alligator will be expected at today’s photoshoot.
He Bit a Witch and Made Her Scream by Maria L. Berg 2021
Yesterday, I had Toy Story (affiliate link) playing in the background, but did not notice the Wilhelm scream. I have it on again now to see if I hear it this time. And here’s the gross discovery nature used to make me scream:
Nature is a Horror Show by Maria L. Berg 2021Invasion of the Slimy Fungus by Maria L. Berg 2021
OctPoWriMo
Today’s prompt, “Paris,” made me think of cathedrals and stained glass rose windows. Which made me think of one of my fabric glass pieces. A long time ago, I was inspired by the cover on the box of The Old Dark House (1932). I used fabric dyes to paint the face on treated spandex and created a series. My bather in her vintage swim-cap always looks so spooked. She’s still one of my favorite creations. I’m actually wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt with her on it right now. However, she also looks spooky as Medusa.
Today’s suggested form, Rhopalic Verse, a poem in which each line increases by one syllable, also fits well with the 2018 prompt, “By the Numbers” which me think of The Count. I checked my Sesame Street Fever record and that happy little vampire counting and laughing is featured on the song Sesame Street Fever. “I’m counting in disco. I love it. Get down! That’s one get down. Ah Ha Ha!”
So how does all of that become a poem? Let’s find out. Should be a scream!
Silent Screams
Screams in dreams silent a threat approaching horror of no sound light through the colored glass at a slant casts blood red hues against long shadows contrasting expanding along the floors and walls like fingers or tentacles or vines crawl closer as I breathe out and begin to count: my heart beats pounding my breaths fluttering the hairs on my arms standing upon the goosebumps on my skin the danger comes closer, I can’t count it away so I scream and scream again but nothing comes out: no sound, no release I curl up tight like the cat and think of the poor nested squirrel tossed in the storm, left with an empty orbital socket for me to see and scream at nature’s horror, unaccountable cruelty, and I scream silently to no one, no one hears me as if I’m facing fear in a dream
Experience Writing 