05 Jan 2015
by janinedonoho
in A Change of View
Tags: big girl panties, blue funk, British Columbia, coffee, Grit, Janine Donoho, Mantra, Pavlovian conditioning, Penticton, persistence, pesevere, practice, real deal, resolve, setbacks, Snow, soapstone stove, Soundings, stamina, Vancouver, Water Elemental, writing hound
Where the world drops away.
Grit—those pebbles that irritate tender folds of skin during extreme hikes. Wildly enough, grit’s also the resolve to persevere through setbacks. In other words, LIFE, or as I call it, “Putting on the big girl panties.”
I’ve a confession to make. After a spin cycle of agitated road trips, firefly visits with friends, and the blue funk that rolls in after launching Intrepid Guy on another cross-global deployment, I’m less than excited about spelunking into my writing today. There’s the primal thrill over my coming launch of Soundings, Water Elemental, but I’m still a bit—well—flat.
Sparkling wine days are over for the time being. Ceaseless snow amasses across the highlands. Intrepid Guy sits in a lovely pink hotel room in Penticton until the airport connecting him to Vancouver, British Columbia, clears for flights, and I need to shovel the entryways and figure out why our faithful soapstone stove refuses to burn—yes, low oxygen, but why? Later, after I do my daily work…
In that vein, I brew coffee, a gift from a best friend and writer, before facing the blank screen. Pavlovian conditioning comes through and words begin to flow. Yes, I’m that writing hound. For what is this chosen pursuit other than goals set and pursued? Relentlessly.
Today’s mantra? Be brave. Gain stamina and persistence through practice. Show grit. It’s the real deal.
29 Dec 2014
by janinedonoho
in A Change of View
Tags: accounting, algorithms, apps, assembly lines, blockbusters, characters, creativity, Department of Robotics, downloads, driverless vehicles, Hollywood, indie bookstores, indie films, indie publishers, Intrepid Guy, Janine Donoho, law, mancave, Monday Blogs, New York, novel, plan, readers, reversals, robot, robotics, Skynet, software, stock market crash, structure, true emotion, vet robotic surgery, word processing, write, writers, writing software
For the last decade and more, makers of software have tried to lure writers into their electronic grasp. Their products fall far beyond our word processing needs. These programs claim to “unleash your creativity” with “programs to help you plan, structure and write your novel or…”
Your opus in an app or download. A quick search of “writing software” turns up 491,000,000 results—some free, but most? Not so much.
Since a law professor at my most recent alma mater raised a hue and cry for a “Department of Robotics”, I started thinking anew about how this tech has insinuated itself into so many areas of life. Vet robotic surgery, driverless vehicles, and algorithms fall into this general category. As do the aforementioned writing software/apps. Not quite Skynet—yet.
Does the trend explain the ongoing schlock issuing from the bastions of literacy in New York? And what of that oozing from Hollywood? Full disclosure: Intrepid Guy’s mancave hosts its share on our monstrously outsized screen. His love of all things tech issues from his ability to make inorganic electrons flow as he chooses.
Still… What elements imbue your favorite reads? Mine surprise me with reversals, hold characters that remain with me after I finish the story, and elicit true emotion. Yes, the opposite of the churning mill of boom, splat, boom that dominates blockbusters and movie screens. At risk of sounding cranky, I’m biased toward indie publishers, indie films, and indie bookstores.
Yet robotics has taken over the work of lower level accounting, law offices, assembly lines, and supposedly high level trading via algorithms. The results? Mixed. Hello, multiple stock market crashes.
Robotics is moving up our food chain, thus my question. Do algorithms trump the creative spark that makes us writers? Does the “boy meets girl by page 3”, “sexual sparks occur in chapter 3”, and so forth lend itself to this? And will we who write—and who begin that path as voracious readers—be satisfied with the results?
22 Dec 2014
by janinedonoho
in A Change of View
Tags: 10 Rules, compelling story, cultivate process, Earth Elemental, Elmore Leonard, hardiness zones, Janine Donoho, landscape design, natural features, problem areas, Process, pulp westerns, raison d'etre, review intent, seasonal light, stark settings, streamlined narrative, terraformer, witty dialogue
Don’t get me wrong. The late Elmore Leonard has much to recommend him as a writer: witty dialogue, stark landscapes, and streamlined narrative. His pulp westerns, then his crime and suspense novels exemplify the gritty, the bizarre, and characters with sociopathic tendencies. I’ve learned from him simply by reading his work.
You’re probably aware of Mr. Leonard’s famous—or notorious—“10 Rules”. These gems periodically fall from the electron cloud and into writerly spaces. While his method offers sage advice from a deft craftsperson, they also deal with writing process. Successful exceptions to each of Mr. Leonard’s thorny briars exist, yet I’d rather lift this discourse out of the specific weeds and into landscape design.
You see, every landscape designer favors a specific function when they plot growing areas. Variations depend upon available space, seasonal light, natural features, problem areas, microclimates, and hardiness zones. To be a successful terraformer, you can’t allow process to trounce purpose. The same holds true for writers.
For me, process develops through application. Yours may, too. Paramount to mine is that it advances my purpose. Usually, that means writing a compelling story that my readers will find irresistible.
When I say “usually”, I’m referring to those times when I let myself get stuck on process. I adore research—and venerate word choice—and equivocate over punctuation, especially during edits. However, there comes a time when I’m stuck in the quagmire and need to review my intentions. You may find that to be the case, too.
So by all means, use Mr. Elmore’s list to cultivate your process. Just don’t allow his or your methodology to overcome your unique vision. We’re caretakers of story—until it’s released into the world. Our purpose—my raison d’être—is to tell a %@_# good story. That entails keeping process in its place.
Now I’m off to my daily writing. How do you align process with purpose?
Yes, keeping purpose in mind leads to a sublime harvest—and terrific companions.
18 Dec 2014
by janinedonoho
in A Change of View
Tags: ancient rituals, boreal climes, infant, Janine Donoho, Janine M. Donoho, lush Tropics, natural connections, Newborn, singular event, Weather forecasters, Winter Solstice
A singular event—
Our sun hovers over lush Tropics.
The coy North Pole
Tips away.
Luminated hours shrink to an octet in
Our boreal climes.
Weather forecasters assess
Winter an infant,
Newborn upon December’s inception.
The bewildered prepare for end times while
Ancient rituals evoke
Natural connections—
Brief day
Morphs into prolonged night.
15 Dec 2014
by janinedonoho
in A Change of View
Tags: author, character sketches, colleges, computer, cool tech, craft, ear warmers, February 2015, future blogs, googolplex, GPS, hack attack, hacker, hacking, Intrepid Guy, Italian Greyhound, Janine Donoho, Monday Blogs, neck gaiter, oeuvres, plot devices, Process, pupsicle, Samsung, scenes, smart phone, Soundings, universities, writer's life, writing desk, YakTrax
No one who knows me would accuse me of being a computer hacker. While the scope of digital life offered by computer, GPS, and yes, the Samsung devices beloved of Intrepid Guy, offer benefits, I occasionally need to read manuals. Despite my ongoing lust for cool tech, a smart phone or tablet’s at least a year into my future, mostly given where we live and the coverage we don’t yet enjoy.
Yet living a writer’s life requires hacks, too. For what is hacking other than breaking a code and getting where you are most likely not invited? Allow me to share a few with you.
Life hack #1: Feeding the brain via two universities, three community colleges, and then working as a gasp! woman in male-dominated fields.
Why is any of this pertinent to a writer? You learn to finish what you start, often under less than stellar conditions.
Life hack #2: Winter version: Yaktrax, poles, neck gaiter, and ear warmers with the equivalent layering for the Italian greyhound. This gets us moving while preventing the dreaded pupsicle syndrome.
Yes, dear writers, we need to exercise our torpid bodies. Blood flow’s necessary to our hyperactive brains.
“Bleh, bleh, bleh. But what does it take to become an author?” you ask.
Life hacks #3-12: Write a bodacious novel—or a googolplex of stories—or whatever it takes to learn your craft. Here’s a glimpse of my current oeuvres. Plus there’s the forthcoming launch of Soundings, Water Elemental in February 2015.
It’s a circuitous trail into hacking a writer’s life. No shortcuts here. Luck is involved—along with learning craft, critical thinking, and long hours in the writing chair. Although another hack has been my standing desk…
So while the initial burst of creative juices might trigger that moment of ah-ha along with entire scenes, character sketches, and plot devices, as writers we hack our way to core story, into character, and through process.
And those, my friends, are the subjects of future blogs. I hope you’ll join me for them, too. Until then, I recommend a daily hack attack into your own writer’s life.
07 Dec 2014
by janinedonoho
in A Change of View
Tags: Alhambra, call to adventure, conflict, Egypt, entryways, gate, gateway, Greece, invitation or deterrent, Janine Donoho, Malaysia, Morocco, passageways, plot, portals, Portugal, restrict access, Spain, story arc, transitions, Turkey
While hiking in the snow today, a freestanding gate materialized from the mist. Not intended to protect livestock, this was another silly human attempt to restrict access. It clamored “mine, mine, mine” even as deer, coyote, and bobcat prints infringed on its periphery. My response? Gateways offer a way in—a transition between this side and the other. In other words, a call to adventure.
Written transitions elicit the same sense of excitement for me. No, I’m not talking about those boring, yet necessary, expressions that unify your opus via “and, whereas, because, yet, immediately…” Yawn. I’m more interested in the movement between one action and the next, which eventually develops as conflict, plot, and story arc. Those, I want to be dynamic, elegant, and somewhat imperceptible.
Now back to corporeal entryways. During international journeys, each culture’s approach to either invitation or deterrent fed my curiosity. Thus I’ve filled albums, both virtual and concrete, with photos of portals between one space and another. What insights I’ve gained animate my writing.
So enjoy this visual of portals. May they rouse your inquisitiveness and make you want to explore what’s on the other side. Our efforts as storytellers aspire to invite readers in, after all, and travels to the other side can enrich that experience.
01 Dec 2014
by janinedonoho
in A Change of View
Tags: angle trisection, character, cube doubling, Earth Elemental, Elementals, gradients, Janine Donoho, objectives, origami, pantser, permeability, plot, plotter, published novels, scene, setting, timelines
When it comes to storytelling, I view myself as a fusion pantser/plotter. There’s an inherent thrill with going where story takes me and once the first fold connects points 1 and 2, I’m hooked. Then inexplicable clusters, timelines, and abstracts recombine into more intricate patterns.
Still once I’ve developed basic folds and angles of characters, setting, scenes, and
Basic origami of what’s to come
plot, I know it’s time to begin shaping the work toward a final vision. Central shapes pleat in macro and then micro gradients with affinity for movement toward or away from certain objectives. The permeability of each segment changes the structure. Visualize folds bisecting lines and angles at various degrees in progressively complex ways through cube doubling and angle trisection.
One fold at a time, the next two Elementals have been forming into specific and recognizable shapes for years now. A few weeks ago, I pulled all accumulated files and references for the Earth Elemental before plunking them into a bag—my first clumsy origami of what’s to come.
Each story progresses through this cycle of fold, open, deconstruct, and reconstruct until it’s gone as far as I know how to take it. In that final stage it looks either like reams of stacked paper or a much less intriguing, yet substantial, electron file.
If I’m very lucky, it begins to look like this.
16 Nov 2014
by janinedonoho
in A Change of View
Tags: Bainbridge Athletic Club, elliptical machine, Gazzam Park, Iggy, Italian Greyhound, Janine Donoho, mango sorbet, Mt. Rainier, Okanogan Highlands, Okanogan National Forest, Puget Sound, pumpkin yogurt, rowing machine, Sawatdy Thai, soapstone fireplace, Soundings, Water Elemental
Mt. Rainier across the Sound
Over the Puget Sound and whitewater rivers—through coastal woods morphing into inland forests, we traveled home to the Okanogan Highlands—and temperatures in the teens. Brrr. Tears were shed as we left behind our temporary pack, lifelong friends and family.
Gazzam Park with Pack
Urban amenities I miss:
- pumpkin yogurt and Sawatdy Thai cuisine,
- the Bainbridge Athletic Club, and
- Gazzam Park’s needle strewn trails.
What I embrace instead:
- frozen mango sorbet,
- my elliptical and rowing machines, and
- Okanogan National Forest.
Okanogan Forest
Evidently both ambivalence and resilience describe me. Now I’m bending my mind around edits to SOUNDINGS, Water Elemental, along with other authorial tasks. Winter cave time approaches as flames crackle in the soapstone fireplace and Nina Sophia, Italian greyhound extraordinaire, stretches out on the rug with a sigh.
Iggy basking
03 Nov 2014
by janinedonoho
in A Change of View
Tags: charley horse, copper tubing, couture, creative source, Earth Elemental, Fire Elemental, house-sitter, Janine Donoho, joy, land, pup-sitter, sea, steampunk, writer's brain
In the process of writing, one crucial response to exhausting my creative source is to change things up a bit. This goes beyond conditioning body and mind into worthy tools. Instead it focuses on ways to rest the charley horse cramping my writer’s brain.
Going to my favorite hardware store can be fun. I like to visualize exotic applications for washers, pipes, flexible plumbing connections, faucet handles, copper tubing and flashing. Steampunk couture, anyone? Or maybe it’s the fabric store, where pet-able materials and unique frills relax the writing part of the brain…or a cook’s shop where gadgets rule. Then a more impactful fix offers itself.
Today I’m relishing changes in latitude and attitude. Joy is having writerly friends who travel – and who share their pack with you. My role as gypsy pup- and house-sitter presents opportunity to steep myself in local island culture even as I consider my new Fire and Earth Elemental projects. Along the way I check in with my BookTrope team, who are sailing SOUNDINGS, Water Elemental toward publication this coming February.
Enjoy these pictorial highlights.
Next Newer Entries
I’ve a confession to make. After a spin cycle of agitated road trips, firefly visits with friends, and the blue funk that rolls in after launching Intrepid Guy on another cross-global deployment, I’m less than excited about spelunking into my writing today. There’s the primal thrill over my coming launch of Soundings, Water Elemental, but I’m still a bit—well—flat.
Janine Donoho 