Hard vs Easy Parts of Writing

Parts of Writing: Dialogue: photo of two people conversing. — Dialogue: Talking Heads vs Meaningful Conversation

This week for our How I Write series, my accountability group asked, “Dialogue, narrative, exposition, or description? What are your favorite parts of writing and why? Your least favorite and why? What do you do to make your least favorite parts more attractive or easier?”

Deceptively Easy Parts of Writing

When I am able to completely turn off my internal editor, my writing defaults to dialogue. I end up with pages and pages of talking heads with the barest indication of what’s going on around them physically. The other trap I seem to fall into is INTERNAL monologues where the character will go on forever about what they think of a situation or mull over what to do next.

The dialogue runs are fun, because it’s like eavesdropping on a conversation and taking dictation. The trick is tipping the balance from talking heads to meaningful conversation between realistic characters. The introspective runs… they’re usually a good sign I need to stop, figure out where the story is going next and how to get the hero and heroine back on the page together. When I’m stuck, if I can get them in the same place and get them talking, things usually get moving again.

The Hardest Parts of Writing

I think the aspect I’m currently weakest on is using body language to convey emotion and character. Showing character is usually a little easier, but I find myself drifting back to my online roleplaying game days and relying on a small repertoire of actions: smiling, nodding, eyerolling, and various methods of fiddling with hair.

In the first draft, I do a bare minimum of actions. They’re more placeholders to remind me of the mood at the time. I have to go back and layer in emotion and variety. This is often done by adding in thoughts and reactions as well as other physical actions.

Description is another thing I find is either on or off for me. Usually, it’s something I have to go back and add in, unless it’s part of initially setting a scene. Oh, and I suck at describing clothing. I may have researched a fair amount on it, but I’m definitely not a fashionista for either the 21st or 19th century.

Strengthening the Weaknesses

So…how do I take the things I don’t like writing as much or don’t come as naturally and turn it into something that works? I’m apparently still working on that. For me, I need to make several passes and concentrate on one aspect at a time. My current pass is turning wooden, rote actions into something meaningful for the story that paint a better picture of the characters for the reader. Reading aloud helps find the stilted phrases and roleplaying the characters makes this more entertaining for me and often brings pleasant surprises with it.

I’d say the best thing to do is run with what you enjoy and comes easy to get down the story bones, but don’t be afraid to go back and add in more details even if it takes a few passes to flesh out that skeleton. Critical reading (to see how others pull it off) and practice also makes it easier. I don’t know if I’ve been successful at strengthening my weaknesses, but I know my writing process is going to be a work in progress for quite some time.

A Different Lens

I knew I used that phrase a lot in respect to my writing, but it had never really clicked before, why. I’ve been using the phrase long before I got my dSLR camera last year, but I get it now. I’ve mentioned before that photography has always been present in my life between my grandfather and my father. I frequently had a cheap little camera in my hands growing up and got a SLR camera as my high school graduation present. I loved to play with light, natural objects, and rarely took pictures of people or buildings.

With photography, my weaknesses are definitely still in architecture and people. I very rarely luck out and get something I love. But then again, deliberate practice on these two subjects is not something I have done very often. I think where I succeed with these is when I’m able to bring in elements of nature or at least let go completely and don’t think about it so much. But deliberate practice to explore what works and what doesn’t has been a huge part of this for me. Somehow, working with strangers is easier than people I know, maybe that’s a self-conscious thing. Although that’s my husband’s brother and sister in the photo at the top.

Sometimes, I just luck out.

YOUR TURN: How do you push through things you don’t like to do and can you turn your weaknesses into strengths?

And if you’d like to read about how the rest of my accountability group answered, you can find their blogs here:

* Alexia Reed * Kimberly Farris *
* Angeleque Ford * Danie Ford * Emma G. Delaney

2012 Photo Challenge: Week 18

Week 18 of our 365 Photo Challenge.

I’m still taking pictures, I just realized I forgot to post this summary of last week on Sunday. We were busy trying to watch Iron Man 2 before going to see The Avengers. Fun movies! Definitely worth a viewing. The Avengers was packed with lots of action and Joss Whedon’s signature evil that is soooo good.

The Super Moon was this past weekend as well. I went for more interesting shots instead of just trying to get a look at the craters. I got some of those too, just didn’t share them for this project since they’re remarkably like a couple of other shots I’ve already done. Preparation and intent is definitely something I need to work on as well. I find far too often I rely on instinct and luck.

What you see below are links to my flickr set for the photos I’m posting for this challenge. Click on any photo below to go to flickr and then you can navigate through the set with the “Previous” and “Next” arrows at the top.

Sun: Apr 29, 2012		Mon: Apr 30, 2012
Tue: May 01, 2012	Wed: May 02, 2012	Thu: May 03, 2012
Fri: May 04, 2012		Sat: May 05, 2012

2012 Photo Challenge: Week 17

Week 17 of our 365 Photo Challenge.

Honest, I did take pictures in landscape mode this week! I just didn’t like any of them as well as these. We’re almost at the 1/3rd mark and I definitely feel more comfortable with the controls on my camera. Now, it’s just going to be a matter of learning how to get the effects I want on purpose instead of through happy accidents. Although, I gotta say, I doubt I’ll ever lose my awe at finding those serendipitous shots.

Sun: Apr 22, 2012		Mon: Apr 23, 2012
Tue: Apr 24, 2012	Wed: Apr 25, 2012	Thu: Apr 26, 2012
Fri: Apr 27, 2012		$119/366 Refraction$ Sat: Apr 28, 2012

2012 Photo Challenge: Week 16

Week 16 of our 365 Photo Challenge.

Happy Earth Day! I don’t know what draws me to photos of nature. On one hand, they can be “easy” and don’t require much thought or patience, well ok, with animals it can! On the other, they can also be just as tricky to pull off well. However, compared to people and buildings, I’m much more comfortable with flowers and landscapes. I’m sure practice is part of it and I should spend some time this year really stretching my skills.

Sun: Apr 015, 2012		Mon: Apr 16, 2012
Tue: Apr 17, 2012	Wed: Apr 18, 2012	Thu: Apr 19, 2012
Fri: Apr 20, 2012		Sat: Apr 21, 2012

2012 Photo Challenge: Week 15

Week 15 of our 365 Photo Challenge.

This week doesn’t offer as much variety as last week’s set, but I was playing with similar subjects but different lighting. The rain made for some very interesting clouds in the evenings as well.

Sun: Apr 08, 2012		Mon: Apr 09, 2012
Tue: Apr 10, 2012	Wed: Apr 11, 2012	Thu: Apr 12, 2012
Fri: Apr 13, 2012		Sat: Apr 14, 2012

2012 Photo Challenge: Week 14

Week 14 of our 365 Photo Challenge. This week marks the 100th photo posted for the year.

As I mentioned, we were on vacation last week for the kids’ Spring Break. We flew across the country to Maryland and stayed near where I grew up. Last year, our daughter and I did the American History tour through her school and this year, our son decided he didn’t want to do that. Our daughter is very interested in history and totally geeks out over the Civil War. And since that’s part of the next section that the boy will be studying in school, it seemed a perfect opportunity given where I grew up to steep them in it for the week.

Sunday, we snuck up on the airport and flew across the country to Baltimore, MD, where our first stop was lunch: for some good ol’ Maryland Crab Cakes.

Monday, we went to Harper’s Ferry, WVa., home of John Brown, the abolitionist’s Fort. This historic town is all of about 15 miles from the house I grew up in. We also stopped off by my old high school on the way. Lots of additions, but much of it is still the same.

Tuesday, we went to the Antietam battlefield in Sharpsburg, MD. It was the scene of the single bloodiest battle in American history with 23,000 troops killed that day. My dad was a Civil War buff and I remember Antietam as the “Land of Obelisks” because of the monuments. Turns out, there aren’t quite as many as I remember. Distance from my mom’s house: 20 miles.

Wednesday, we drove part of the way to Washington, D.C. and then took the metro the rest of the way into the city. We got off late enough we didn’t get to do a bus tour of the city to see all the monuments, but did stop in at the exhibit “The Art of Video Games” at the Smithsonian’s Museum of American Art and National Portrait Gallery. We also made a stop at the Newseum and I managed to see more of it than 2 floors this time as I wasn’t the only chaperone willing to take a bunch of 8th graders out on the observation deck overlooking Pennsylvania Avenue. About 50 miles from where I grew up. Can we say all my major school trips went there?

Thursday, we went to Gettysburg, PA and took a guided tour of the battlefield after watching a movie narrated by Morgan Freeman and experiencing the cyclorama. Another 50 miles from my mom’s house. Getting the sense that I grew up in a historically rich area? It’s funny, Gettysburg was always the “Land of Cannons” to me, but they have WAY more monuments than cannon. They’re also doing an impressive job restoring the land to the condition/uses from the time of the battle. This means clearing trees in some areas and planting new ones in others.

Friday, we took the kids down to Chestertown, MD on the Eastern Shore, across the Bay Bridge for what was probably our longest trip of the week: 116 miles. Our destination was Washington College, where my husband and I met 22 years ago. I used to make that drive every week after I graduated and my husband was still in school until I gave up and moved back to the town. I’m not sure if the kids were impressed or not, but we did get to run into a few professors and staff that were still there. Which was a good thing since we won’t be able to make it back for his 20th reunion next month.

Saturday, we pretty much didn’t do anything at all. I dropped the family off at my mom’s and drove about 6 miles to meet another writer at a small coffee shop and spent about 2 hours chatting.

Sunday, we had a lovely Easter Brunch with my mom and then drove back to Baltimore to catch our flight home.

Anyway, that’s just a little bit of the history behind these photographs.

Sun: Apr 01, 2012		Mon: Apr 02, 2012
Tue: Apr 03, 2012	Wed: Apr 04, 2012	Thu: Apr 05, 2012
Fri: Apr 06, 2012		Sat: Apr 07, 2012

2012 Photo Challenge: Week 13

Week 13 of our 365 Photo Challenge. Hard to believe 3 months have passed and the 1st quarter of 2012 is over.

Lots of bees working the flowers this week while the sun was shining. You’ll definitely want to check out the larger views of the photo from Wednesday. I was amazed at how much pollen this one bee had gathered and stuck to his leg.

The last picture in this batch, I didn’t even remember taking. It’s one of those happy accidents. It turned out so much more interesting in every way possible than any of the others I took this morning intentionally working with my camera settings.

Next week, will have some more variety! We’re taking another big field trip, so I may not get pictures posted to flickr often during the week.

Sun: Mar 25, 2012		Mon: Mar 26, 2012
Tue: Mar 27, 2012	Wed: Mar 28, 2012	Thu: Mar 29, 2012
Fri: Mar 30, 2012		Sat: Mar 31, 2012

2012 Photo Challenge: Week 12

This is the twelfth week of our 365 Photo Challenge. Time’s really flying isn’t it?

Rough week. Especially Tuesday. I caught a nasty sinus infection and spent most of that day with a 102˚F fever. I nearly forgot to take a picture that day. Luckily, I had a doctor’s appointment already scheduled for Wednesday morning and a good dose of antibiotics has helped immensely.

Today was field trip day. Nothing regularly scheduled, but DS wanted to check out a retro gaming store down in Ocean Beach. So first up, we hit a good Peruvian restaurant that we’d never been to before, and headed down to OB. I got a few other pictures other than the kid running for the water, but I haven’t posted them up on flickr yet. And I’ll apologize now, if anyone noticed a radical shift in the earth’s axis either this afternoon or this evening. I had to “fix” the horizon by about -1.8 degrees on most of my pictures from today. I’m blaming it on the congestion messing with my sense of balance! Yeah, that’s the ticket. That’s my story & I’m sticking to it!

Sun: Mar 18, 2012		Mon: Mar 19, 2012
Tue: Mar 20, 2012	Wed: Mar 21, 2012	Thu: Mar 22, 2012
Fri: Mar 23, 2012		Sat: Mar 24, 2012

2012 Photo Challenge: Week 11

This is the eleventh week of our 365 Photo Challenge.

Not a varied week subject-wise, but my favorite picture this year so far is included in this batch. I’d been playing with the white balance settings on my camera and saw a dandelion gone to seed in the grass. I decided to take a blind shot (not looking through the view finder or at the display) and took a few shots of it. I’d forgotten to change the white balance which was radically different now that I was in a shady location, so I was kinda bummed to find several nearly black images when I downloaded my camera.

Luckily, I was able to boost the exposure in iPhoto and played around a bit with the saturation levels as well and the result was the dandelion below. Serendipity plays a HUGE role sometimes. Being in the right place at the right time, having the lighting just right, being in the right mood yourself even — all will affect what you see and capture. So go ahead… take those wild shots, experiment! You may just surprise yourself.

Sun: Mar 4 26, 2012		Mon: Mar 12, 2012
Tue: Mar 13, 2012	Wed: Mar 14, 2012	Thu: Mar 15, 2012
Fri: Mar 16, 2012		Sat: Mar 17, 2012

2012 Photo Challenge: Week 10

This is the tenth week of our 365 Photo Challenge. Hard to believe it’s been 70 days already!

Sorry for the seemingly repeats of the nearly, but not quite full moon. Can you tell I didn’t take any photos during those days and needed something — Anything! — before I went to bed? At least I got ’em. Oh, but look! I don’t always favor that top right quadrant for the moon.

I also remembered to take my camera along today when we picked up my husband from the airport and had lunch at Seaport Village. So there’s at least something other than the moon and the many flowers around my house. I had a hard time picking between the kites, sailboats, various birds, the silver robotic statue guy and the crab on the rocks at the water level that we saw today. It’s been a while since I’ve been down there on a Saturday, forgot about all the street performers who come out on the weekends.