Light Bulb Moments

There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.



                                —W. Somerset Maugham

We all have them. Aha moments. Epiphanies. Breakthrough out-of-the-box thinking.

We break the code, come up with an untold story, or finally just ‘get it’.

A lot of what writers write about writing is overwritten. Much has to do with writer’s block. All is well-intended guidance, but the pieces of advice I find most valuable are about staging and observing.

If I need to write a dark scene I set MY scene, first. I shroud myself in darkness. The music might by George Crumb’s Lux Aeterna. The ambient lighting is austere. If it’s a lusty sex scene to write, the candles are lit [even in daylight] and I might choose the sultry notes of Ravel’s Bolero to fill the air. Staging is a valuable tool in order to feel and live the scene before you write it. Music and lighting are a good start, but think about all the senses you have, because when you write, you want to WRITE all the senses.

The second profound bit of advice is to always keep your notepad, be it loose leaf paper or electronic device, within reach, then get yourself out in our world. For people-watching, head for an airport, a coffeehouse, or a crowded beach, and just plain eavesdrop. Maybe you'll only walk away with a unique name you overhear, or a good title for a plot unknown. Sometimes, Holy Moly, you’ll walk away with a well-rounded character, a full scene, or even an entire outline. For me, another important element in getting out into the world is to get out alone. Find quiet and solitude. Convene with nature. Just be. You’ll see!

I found myself troubled to read an interview with Sue Grafton, upon nearing the end of her alphabet series. She’s likely to name her last book, “Z is for Zero”. [Writer’s Digest, Feb, 2010] How sad. I’m sure it’s not writer’s block, per se, as much as dealing with the pressure of turning out 26 books. Grafton is known for her dry wit, and much to her credit her newly released Undertow is some of her best work, but still…

With or without deadlines, remind yourself that the filament is always attached. The light bulb is forever connected to the omniscient source of creativity. Sometimes it just takes a little bit of nourishment and effort to pull the switch.

Today I wish you a shatterproof light bulb, promising you effervescent light, and the shadows that come with it.

Just Be. You’ll See.

A Isn't Always About Apples

"The most important things are the hardest to say,
because words diminish them."     — Stephen King



How are those New Year resolutions working for you?


Here’s a quick exercise I developed to help me stay on my writing path. It also helps me stay on my ‘me’ path. With repeated use I:

• Stay on track with progress

• Identify roadblocks

• Document the inevitable evolution of goals

• Evaluate my platform, strengths & weaknesses

• Solidify my visions & values

• Understand ‘ME’ and my journey

Lala’s Ladder is simple to climb!

1. Identify the area in your life you would like to explore. It might be your career, your marriage/relationship, your financial or physical well-being.
2. Write out the letters of the alphabet, single-spaced. twice.
3. Take your first alphabet list. Using the area you identified in step one, go through the alphabet [I encourage you to do this quickly] and assign the first word that comes to mind starting with the letter A, B, C... Write down all the good stuff. What you value and are trying to achieve.
4. Take your second sheet and write down your No-No's as they relate to your focus area.
5. Date and save your answers.
6. When the time is right for you—in a month, this summer, next year... do your alphabet words again BEFORE looking at your saved history. What has changed? What is currently on your mind, and what stands the test of all time for YOU?

No rules. Add sentences, alliterations, or multiple words as you like. It’s YOUR list.


Here’s a quick peak at my latest relationship ladder. JK! Here’s the start of my writer’s ladder:


My Good Alphabet

A Accuracy


B Boldly [go where no man has gone before]


C Cutting edge


D Determination

E Editing, evermore



My No-No Alphabet:

A Anonymity. Get myself into the scene or I can’t take my readers with me.


B Buts


C Criticism


D Delusions of Dialogue. Make it real.


E Ego. Get rid of it.




You get the idea.

Admittedly, X’s are tricky. I’ve heard rumor Sue Grafton is still hoping there will be a new crime that starts with X by the time she gets to it in her Alphabet Series. The only X words on my list are the good: Xanadu, and bad: Xeno, which is a good word for me when writing suspense. Go figure.

Golden Storms

Last evening I sat in awe of the setting sun. Shrouding the mountains, inky menacing storm clouds commanded the northern sky. Twilight came consumed in darkness.
Until I really looked.
And then I saw.

The setting sun cast filtering golden streams of light. The glint of yellow lined the blackness. It presented itself in layers, both in front of the dark ominous clouds, and beyond them. It lived, symbiotic within the storm. It wasn’t bright. It didn’t pop off [the page].


Nature is in conflict.

Life is in conflict.

A good read is in conflict. Evil and goodness coexist as do despair and hope. Under the scrutiny of those who see, they will be in every scene.

For 2010 I wish you
the full vision in your first version,
and winnowed vision in your final version.
Merry Christmas to you & yours!


'Colors fade, temples crumble, empires fall, but wise words endure.'
                                                                          -Edward Thorndike-

John Hancock and The Kindle

Who can forget the elegant penmanship of John Hancock, as evidenced by his famous signature on the Declaration of Independence?


The art of calligraphy has gone the way of the windmill, except for a few formal invitations one might receive each year. Kids graduating college can hardly write. I know my own printing and cursive skills have deteriorated to mere chicken scratches to make room for the keyboard.


A good friend, the director of the music department at the University of Arizona, equates the loss to something like our children growing up in a world changed from analog to digital sound. Many will never hear a ‘real’ note played.


And reading? Librarians confirm that fewer and fewer children are checking out books. The publishing industry has been snubbing and resisting the inevitable, kicking and screaming all the way into their own red books. And the debate is a worthy one. The Kindle and its relatives are certainly more inviting when it comes time to move your 1,500 book library. And you don’t have to run out in the morning rain to pick up your soggy paper. You can instantly look up words, translate paragraphs, and highlight. Heck, now you don’t even have to read your books. They’ll read to you.



The argument? Let’s talk about the senses.

Olfactory comes to mind first. We won’t smell the rich tang of leather and yellowed papers in an electronic reader library.

Moving on to vision. They say the new generations offer glare-free viewing. Outside, in the desert or with blinding sun on snow? [Although everyone can agree the optional enlarged print is nifty if you’re fifty!]

Touch is easy. If we argue that lighter is better come moving day, what about weight being better, just because? The feel of that leather, and the sometimes crimping binding. Soft gilded or sawn edges of the pages. Dog ears. REAL dog ears that pop up.

I’ve mentioned you can have your books and newspapers read to you, so will young parents drop their Kindles off at their toddler’s bedside to read them a story?

Next comes taste. And I guess it really is a matter of just that. Where would John Hancock stand?


Gotta go. I’m running low on batteries. Is that a problem, anyone?

Memory Mountain

Every man's memory is his private literature. ~Aldous Huxley

I'm submerged in memories today. When writing, I must rely on memories to get at real emotion. Joy, shock, love, rage, hurt, pain. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Many years ago, I decided to create what I call Memory Mountain. Each side of the mountain is built-up with good memories on one side, and the bad on the other. Every time I have a flashback that stirs me, I put it on the mountain. If my mountain starts looking more like a cliff, it's time for me to push myself to build up the other side. I share this with you because I think it is a great tool for everyone, especially if we find ourselves having little pity parties. It works equally well when our bubbles get too big.

My characters must have memories in order to live. It's my job, before writing 'Once upon a time', to climb their Memory Mountain. Stamina and fallibility coexist, as do perfection and flaws, goodness and evil. We are humans, and my characters are humans, too. They are multi-dimensional. Think about the Tooth Fairy [played by Ralph Fiennes] in the movie Red Dragon. [Adapted from the novel by Thomas Harris] He's an insane and ruthless killer, and yet he takes the blind Reba [Emily Watson] to 'see' the sedated tiger. We are plucked from his evil world and into the poignant moment as Reba strokes the tiger's lush coat, touches his cold, moist nose, and feels the power of his rib cage.

What does your Memory Mountain look like? Is it a cliff or a rolling hillside? Maybe it's in 3-D, with several layers of peaks, valleys, and plateaus.

"Our bad memories our like land mines. Unfortunately, we are the ones that step on them. Over and over again." ~Lala Corriere

I wish you to walk upon plenty of cotton candy.

Writing to a Market

My opinion. Don't.

Upon the sage advice of a well-respected agent, I invested over a year in writing to the series market. He liked the protagonist I created. I liked her, too. And publishing houses like series.

Several well read authors follow the series blueprint successfully. Clive Cussler has Dirk Pitt. For James Patterson, it's his detective Alex Cross, and Janet Evanovich writes Stephanie Plum.

The second manuscript in my to-be series featuring the same protagonist has only one slight problem. It sits, unfinished.

I use the tool of character boards. I have a plot in mind, and maybe even a detailed story outline, but before I can proceed to write a single page I must first have intimate knowledge of the characters I'm writing about. I have to love them and hate them before I can share them with my readers, or they aren't going to love them and hate them. I need to know my characters so that my readers can see, hear and touch them as I do. It has taken you a long time to find the forever-friendships in your life. You have spent years growing these friendships into a deeper existence of 'Namasté' . I need to speed things up a bit.

The process goes like this. First, I paste a barrage of photograph clippings from old magazines that closely resemble the physical attributes of each character. Then I interview each character, even secondary ones. I need to know where they went to school, where they've lived, what they graduated in, what their hobbies are, and what they like for dinner. I drill down further. I learn their quirks, their regrets, their nightmares and dreams. I need to know despicable things about the sweetest girl in class. Only then have I dug deep enough to discover the authenticity of GMC [goal, motivation, and conflict].

It doesn't take long to discover your enemies, does it? But to truly understand their GMC, the writer must treat them with the same amount of authentic intimacy. Sometimes that means finding a thread of tenderness in evil.

The parting of ways with a beloved or despised character is always bittersweet. But, as when I moved from my home state of Colorado, I took my beloved friends with me in my heart and soul, and all of what is me. Namasté .


'No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.'

                                                                                                                       -Robert Frost-



For me, I lose an element of surprise and emotion when I continue with the same characters facing new sagas.

Then again, there's my second humble opinion. Never say never.

The Critic and the Creative

I’m not an idiot. I’m not going to bite off the hand that feeds me. This blog is not about dissing critics and reviewers. Believe me, I have a boatload of my own not-so-humble opinions that I’m happy to divulge, and oddly, not everyone agrees with me.

Critics and reviewers have their place, rightfully. Judgment raises its voice every day, in the art world, the cinema, and in every written word. Even your inner critique engages you when you make your choice. Will it be Rice Crispies or Cocoa Puffs?

One of my manuscripts went before several ‘outside professional reviewers’. One person wrote, “I would read anything by this author”. Another wrote that he couldn’t get through my first chapter of crap. Hard to believe they were reading the same material!

It’s curious to me, this large percentage of C&R’s that have never pitched their own finished creations. Because they have none!
It’s curious to me, what power they yield. A critic sees a red vertical line painted on a black canvas and says it’s crap, but when he sees the red horizontal line on a black canvas, he knights it as genius. A star is born. Stephen King received the following critique/rejection for his bestselling novel, Carrie: “We are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias. They do not sell.”

I was lucky. My mother and father both fostered my creativity. I would run to them and say, ‘Look what I did’, and always, I did GREAT! Imagine my surprise when I found out that some of what I did was crap.
To take a blank canvas and turn it into emotion, that’s the hard work. Hard work is taking an empty stage and creating life, and turning a ream of paper into comedy and tragedy.

For you, today, I wish creativity. Perhaps it’s the rock you position in your garden, just right. Maybe its adding a few lines to the store-bought greeting card you send out. Perhaps creativity is only a glimpse of inspiration today, that stirs you when you take a hard look at a crooked tree in silhouette with the inky skyline. You may not go home and paint it. You may not journal about your sighting. But your heart , somewhere down in there, has taken notes, and if you listen to it, may it sing.

Oh yeah. I still wait in judgment.