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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Things I am surprised by

• Seattle natives being taken off guard by excessive rain and flooding
• Lack of city planning for rain and flooding (c'mon, really?)
• Complaints about the rain made by long-time locals (all my neighbors bitch about the rain and cold)

And perhaps most important:

• Bad coffee served in Seattle

The other day, I went to this little coffee shop in my neighborhood and I got the worst coffee I've had in a long time. It was burnt, bitter and smelled off. I asked for a refund; they said no because I'd already sipped from it. What the hell? Business didn't look like it was booming; I have a feeling that they won't be around long.

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It's that time of year

The time of year where women decide whether to start shaving their legs more regularly or wear pants all summer. Given a choice, I'd much rather not shave. I've had one too many razor accidents. But I do like wearing shorts and skirts on occasion. And I do not enjoy the sensation of leg hair waving in the breeze.

Ah, isn't genetics great? I've been very fortunate to be endowed with a lush thick yet silky brown mane, and a healthy dose of hair on legs comes with the territory. They're not as thick and dark as some people's are, but they do get long. And after three or four months of not shaving, boy are they long.

Blogging about shaving the legs. Am I oversharing?

Maybe. But really, I think people - particularly men - should be educated that women's legs do not naturally come smooth and silky. It might surprise many of you, but I do know men who were not aware of this fact.

A good friend of mine's ex went to eastern Europe a few years ago and was traveling through the less touristy areas when he ran into women who did not shave. He later confessed to his girlfriend, who in turn told me about this while laughing hysterically, that he thought they were lycanthropes (the clinical disease/mutation type, not werewolf -- I hope).Or that they'd been too close to Chernobyl. He wasn't sure what to think.

In college, I knew a guy who didn't understand why women needed toilet paper to go "number one."

Seriously!

It shouldn't surprise me anymore that there are people like this out there. But somehow it still does.

Anyway. Spring. Skirts. Shaving. Suckage.

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Seattle Police's Reputation

The Seattle Police's rep is pretty much in the toilet. We've had a spate of police using excessive and sometimes fatal force when dealing with criminals. The latest incident that made the news is when they shot and killed a man brandishing a machete knife. News article here I personally do not believe it was warranted - knife versus guns. Who'd win here?

As a new transplant to Seattle, I'm pretty concerned. I've lived in DC and Denver where gang warfare and crime are rampant. And yet, I rarely heard about a police shooting that ended with fatal results. Yes I'm sure there were an occasional incident, but not to the same degree as Seattle. In the year I've lived in Seattle, there have been numerous incidents where there were fatal shootings or excessive force used.

What gives? Are the Seattle police simply not trained well enough to deal with the criminal element?

After this latest incident, families of these policemen decided to conduct anti-negativity rallies this week; a news reporter interviewed one of the high ranking policeman about these rallies and the reporter asked about their negative image, his comment was: "We are not concerned about it." (No link, sorry: I couldn't find a copy of the interview online).

My response when I heard that on the news was: they don't care that they have a bad rap? They think their actions are warranted? Fine, even? There are a number of ways to interpret his statement, true, but that was my gut reaction. Some days I feel like we're just a few steps from LA's pre-Rodkney King or "Chicagoland" of the old days.

This, while also considering the past year, left me wondering: How many other incidents weren't reported? Many of the nonfatal excessive brutality incidents came to light only because bystanders happened to have a camera phone that recorded it and contacted the local news agencies. What if nobody cried foul? If people are afraid of the police, they might not report problems with the police. Who could they talk to?

The police are supposed to be the good guys. If people are afraid of them, who can they turn to?

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Intro to Fiction Writing

Writing sounds easy, doesn't it? Just plop down in front of a computer, typewriter or if you're old school, pen and paper, and start writing. But that blank page is pretty intimidating. How to start your first sentence? How to draft a manuscript (ms) that will be well received and hopefully published? How to write a smart story full of clever quips and lively banter and plot twists?

That white page is intimidating. If it were so easy, everyone who ever said, "if I had the time, I'd write," would've written a book or five, and we'd be suffering from a paper shortage. Anyone can find the time to write. Got 20 minutes for lunch? Jot down notes or start your novel. It's very easy to find excuses to not write. Harder to actually do it.

I've been writing on and off for a few years now and am currently working on a ms. Right now the ms is such a big disaster that I'm half tempted to chuck it out the window, but I keep plugging away because I see potential in it. It's super rough, but it's there. I admit, the recent news about Amanda Hocking's spectacular Kindle success was one of my reasons for trying to finish this book and I'm sure I"m not alone in that. Note: I have not read her books, I have no idea if her success is warranted.

Now I've got my "cred" established, I'll share some advice:

• First and foremost, write for yourself. Write because it's fun and you enjoy it.
• Don't worry too much about plot devices, plot arcs, the dialogue and so forth. You can polish that and if necessary, rewrite in your second, third and fourth drafts.  When you're just starting, focus on writing. Get the words on the page. Keep going.
• And on that note, don't look back! No going back to edit. If you get in the habit of editing every time you sit down to write, you'll forever be editing -- and not writing. I've been guilty of doing this, and have vowed to not edit unless absolutely necessary. If I write something that might be a problem with an earlier section of the story, I just make a note and keep going.
• You will definitely get bored with it. There will come a point where you're just plain stuck or tired of writing about this particular story. This is not an uncommon problem for longer ms. If you're absolutely stuck or unmotivated, take a break. Do some short writing exercises. Write blog entries. Essays. Short stories. But above all...do not start another ms. If you do, you'll very likely end up with a number of unfinished novels. You've heard the term, nonstarter? In this case, it's "nonfinisher." Or its uglier cousin: quitter.
• Get comfortable with this maneuver: nod and smile. Once people get wind that you're working on a ms, they'll start offering you unsolicited advice and criticism. Even the ones that haven't read a book in the past decade.

That's about it for now. Keep an eye out for more thoughts on the writing process.

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False starts

I initially started this blog with the intent of commenting on news, politic and ongoing in Seattle and elsewhere. But as I quickly found, I have little interest in doing that. I felt like I was just regurgitating news and not really creating original content.As a result, I have a number of drafts I never published.

So. For the time being, I'm going to write about what interests me, and we'll see how this blog develops over time. It'll probably center around writing, photography, perhaps coffee and whatever else strikes my fancy.

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