Today's unfinished story: The Pyro

Vash managed to roll her eyes and glower at her parents at the same time. She sat on an easy chair, watching her parents alternate between pacing and shouting. They were quite simply being annoying. She came home with her first ‘B’ paper today, and this was their reaction. Lectures. Weeping. Hysterical accusations of drug addictions. Satanic music. Sex.

“Look, you don’t understand.”

“No, I understand!” her mom shouted, “you’ve never brought home a B before! There’s something wrong with you!”

“That’s not mature,” her dad intoned as he wagged a finger, “you need to manage your time better.”

Vash sighed, and tried again, “Listen—“

Her mom interrupted, “Vash! I don’t understand! How could you get a B?”

Totally irrational. Insane. Vash pinched the bridge of her nose.

“We’ll get her a tutor, Pam.”

“I don’t need a tutor. If you’d just let me explain—“

“Vashana is smart. She doesn’t need a tutor. Maybe a psychologist?”

“Mom, dad! I don’t need help!”

“She’s been argumentative.” Dad looked over his spectacles at her, “and surly. Backtalking.”

“I was not!”

“Ah! Ah! Don’t interrupt!”

Vash groaned, running her fingers through her straight black hair in frustration. She rarely got angry, but she would lose it soon, she knew.

“I’ve heard of this, but I didn’t think it’d happen to Vashana!”

“What, dear?” he indulged his wife.

“The teen angst!”

Vash struggled to keep a straight face.

Her mother continued her rant, “It’s the music she’s listening to! It’s a bad influence.”

Exasperated, Vash groaned, “Mom!”

“George, reason with her!

He fanned himself, then loosened his tie, “it’s getting warm in here. Why don’t we take a break, and cool down…” He paused to chuckle at his own pun, “We can talk about this more later.”

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Mold, pollen and spores oh my

Probably interesting to nobody: I have different allergy symptoms in different parts of the country. Here, my eyes feel so itchy and dry and I just want to close them and keep them closed forever and forever. Ok, not that long, but at least until the itchiness abates.

Makes it difficult to get work done.

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Photographing Families: Tips

It can be a challenge for people to think of how to photograph their families in a creative way and get near-professional results. How many of us have photos like this one (below)?

Disclaimer: not my family

I remember my own family photos as a kid. My mom felt they were important and forced us to go to a studio annually. I didn't quite understand why we had to do it. Why did I have to smile so much? And my clothes, in which my mom made us dress up, were so itchy! My siblings and I always squirmed and fidgeted and quarreled and ended up pissing off my mom and the photographer. Eventually they'd say "Ok, whatever, that'll be the picture." And we'd invariably get a picture back from the photographer where one of us was making a funny face, not looking at the camera or having fits.And me looking like a maniac deer in headlights with my eyebrows as high as they could go, grinning madly. I made the same face Every. Single. Year.

With the advent of digital cameras, photographing people has gotten easier to screen before printing. That's awesome. But people still have trouble getting great family photographs. It's usually because the parents still insist on posing their family the way they had experienced it when they were children.

There's nothing wrong with the traditional family portrait, but most of us won't remember much about that day, aside from a sense of discomfort. The truly stellar family photographs are the ones where everyone is their true self and enjoying the experience.

Here's some tips on how to achieve that.

• Bring the camera along on a family activity. You're much more likely to cherish this memory than a stiffly posed one.
• Do consider the other elements of the photography - rules of thirds, distractions in the fore or background, and so on (more on that another time.
• Expect to shoot many many photos and choose only a few - most pro photographers do this anyway. Don't be afraid to ask everyone involved to repeat an event. Make a game out of it. If need be, bribe them.

• Shoot from an unexpected angle. Side, above, below, behind.
• When shooting small children, try getting down to their level, and shoot straight on. This is often an overlooked angle with children.

• Do lightly pose your subjects. Ask them to sit in a certain location, facing a certain direction, and then encourage them to interact with one another. 

• Pay attention to the light and time of day
• The above picture is great because it was taken during the "golden hour" - early morning or very late in afternoon when the light is warm and soft. 
• Overcast days are also an excellent light condition
• Midday photo shoots when it's bright and sunny are the worst because people will squint in strong light, and the shadows are unflattering.

Credits: All photos are from Stock.xchng.

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Hooks

I can't find the file where I save my practice hooks, so I whipped up a few on the spot. As my interests tend toward fantasy, supernatural and the weird, these reflect that.

As Doreen walked down the aisle next to her father, she looked at the love of her life, and saw Death's superimposed over his face.

Ok. Little wordy, could be better.

Doreen looked through her gauzy veil and saw Death's face instead of her fiance's.

Shorter, stronger, better. But the usage of look and saw weakens it.

 As Doreen lifted her veil, her eyes met Death's face in place of her husband's.

This is much better. It uses different, stronger action verbs, and is more interesting overall. It tells the reader that a wedding is taking place, and begs the question of what's going on. Is she marrying Death himself who had been posing as a mortal man? Or is this some kind of omen she's seeing? What's going on?

This hook needs editing and polishing, but if I were going to start a story, I'd go with this.

Another set of hooks.

Yvonne ran down the path.

And??

Yvonne was out jogging and ...

Passive verbs - avoid them if you can! It takes practice to break the habit of using passive verbs.

Yvonne jogged down a path through the woods and a dog tackled her.

Better. But kinda boring. However, it's ok to have two or even three sentence hook sometimes.

Yvonne jogged through the wood and something tackled her. She crashed with a yelp, and then heard, "I need help!" There was nobody else around, except for a big red dog.

More interesting. Yvonne is out jogging, gets tackled by a dog and it apparently talks. It still needs polishing, but this is the best hook out of the bunch.

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Oh and: OMG, another cop shooting!

That makes 10 in the year I've been here in Seattle.

 Suspect attempts to elude police, gets shot and killed. Details fuzzy

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Literary Hooks

You know how when you first crack open a book and read the very first sentence? Oftentimes that single sentence is what "hooks" you onto the book. It's what keeps you reading the next sentence and the next and ... It can be the deciding factor of whether to purchase and continue reading the book.

That's why it's important for a writer to start off a book with an effective hook. The old cliche made infamous by Peanuts' Snoopy, "It was a dark and stormy night," came from a real life book. It was written by English Victorian novelist, Sir Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton in his book, Paul Clifford, in 1830. It was such an effective phrase that it was borrowed from, reused, reinterpreted and quoted for the next 200 years.

As mentioned in a previous blog entry, one of the exercises I use to bust writer blocks is involves writing hooks. At very minimum, it flexes your creative brain. And sometimes a hook you've written in this exercise can spawn a new idea for another story. Challenge yourself to write 10 hooks in under 10 minutes, and then take 15-20 minutes to examine each one and ask yourself this: Is the hook effective? Does it make you want to read more? What can you do to improve it?

Check back here tomorrow for a sampling of hooks I've written.

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Short story about rock climbers

Another (unedited) unfinished story:

She strained to retain her hold on the plastic rock while her other hand fumbled to clip the quickdraw to the d-ring three feet above her head. But no matter how heavily she chalked up her hands, the combination of a damp, humid basement and her own sweat worked against her. As her hand slipped off the rock, for a split second she had time to realize what was happening. “Oh shit,” Rose thought, oddly casual. No time to panic.

And Rose fell. She plummeted nearly fifteen feet when the rope, attached to her nylon harness, arrested her fall. The slightly elastic cord stretched a few inches, and brought Rose to a stop safely, and she smiled, nonplussed.

Fortunately, she had been trying to clip the d-ring on an arete, and instead of falling against the fake rockface, she fell straight down into the midair. Rose heard a startled yell over the pounding rock music, and grinned down at her friend, Kris.

Kris shouted over the music, “Are you okay?” She looked worried.

Rose laughed and shouted, “Fine! I’m going to try again!”

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Waiting for inspiration to strike you? Five tips for defeating creative blocks

Waiting for inspiration to strike you? That doesn't work. I know all too well. When I'm stalled on writing or photography, "I'm so uninspired" and other variations like "I lack the motivation" is commonly heard in this household. But I'll be honest, they are lame excuses.And laziness is not a good trait to have.

Yes, getting stuck on a project is understandable. But there are ways to get past the block and get your creative juices flowing.

1. Do a 365 days photo or writing project. 
• Challenge yourself to learn and utilize a new technique each month. For example, if you've always been interested in HDR, learn about it and utilize it. And further, challenge yourself to photograph with the goal of telling a story. Don't just snap pictures randomly and call it a day. Take your time, think about what you're photographing.
• Write a down an idea for a story every day. Or take it a step further and write a short story daily. Do a timed challenge to write a certain amount of words in a short time frame.
2. Write short stories. Challenge yourself to write an entire story in 1000 words or less. And then step it up by decreasing the word count to 500...and then 250. And forth. This is a wonderful writing exercise because it retrains your mind to use words with precision.
3. Make a mind map. This is a great visual tool that helps you brainstorm ideas. For example, if you're writing a story and you're stuck at the point where your lead character might shoot someone. You could then jot different outcomes and then go with the one with the most interesting result that will best continue your story.
4. Do something else time-consuming but simple enough to let your mind wander. Oftentimes I get my ideas while working completely random and usually boring tasks like scrubbing the kitchen floor. Going for a long drive is a good trick as well, but with the rising costs of gas, perhaps not a viable one anymore.
5. Ask yourself weird questions while doing ordinary stuff. It's an odd tip, but it works for me. For example, while I'm grocery shopping, I'll wonder things like:
   
   • What would happen if zombies invaded the store?And I'll imagine chaos, whether people would fight or run, and how I could capture that on the metaphorical film (I use a digital SLR - no film).
   • What happens if all these eggs hatched chicks? And I'll imagine that there's some sort of chicken conspiracy back at the hatcheries where one of the inspectors was murdered and a batch of eggs got through because of that. And ... 

The benefit of these exercises is it gets your creative juices flowing, and you'll work up a few ideas for stories, photos or artwork.

Bonus tip: don't get in the habit of doing something like surfing the web or checking twitter, emails and Facebook regularly; it's very easy for time to slip through your fingers if you get caught up on interweb. Make it a rule for yourself that you will check only every 2 or 3 hours.

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Possible blog feature: short stories

One thing I do to flex my creative brain is write short stories. They are sitting in my file rotting away, which is a waste. I've decided I'll start sharing some short stories and writing exercises, such as "hooks" - the first sentences for a fiction story.

I'll explain the hook exercise another time. In the meantime, here's an intro to a short story I wrote a few years ago. I have no idea where I originally intended to go with this story, it's unfinished.

Nightmares (working title)

High above a deep blue bay, a woman stands on a cliff. She leaps out, soaring in the air. More graceful than a sea gull, faster than a hawk, with more flair than a dolphin. Majestic! Then as she begins her descent, reality sets in, and she lets out a horrified squawk that echoes off the cliff walls. Instinct instructs her to curl up in a ball, and she hits the water at terrifying 62 miles per hour. Gravity wins.

"Dana? Dana? Are you awake?”

“What happened?” Dana mumbled into her pillow.

“You screamed.”

“I died.”

“Again?”

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