God speaks through Jackson Browne?

For those out there who believe God doesn't have a sense of humor, spend some time with me and He'll have you rollin' on the floor in a matter of moments.

Here's just one example:

The guage clearly pointed downward this morning as I climbed into my vehicle. Actually, it rested just above "E."

I usually don't try to squeeze more than 310 miles from my tank. My odometer read 301. Fifteen miles of wide-open space separated me from the office. I'll let you do the math to calculate my stupidity.

Yes. Like a redneck pumped up on liquid courage, I fooled myself into believing I could make it. (No, I wasn't drinking.) I pulled onto the highway, thinking: All is well. The warning light hasn't even flipped on yet.

Three miles later, a worm of doubt began wiggling its way through my head. What if the light is malfunctioning? What if it blinked on and off 10 miles ago and I was so busy flipping through radio stations I didn't see it?

Then the low-gas light flipped on. Instead of blinking on and off like it had in the past, it taunted me by blazing solid red for several miles.

At this point, I started praying: "Lord, I know I'm a fool, wanting to push my luck as far as I can. I probably deserve to run out of gas. But if I need to stop and fill up at the one station between me and town, please send me a sign. Thanks in advance, Kat."

Now, some might call it coincidence. Some might call it luck. Some might even call it synchronicity. I call it divine communication because less than a minute later 94 Rock began playing Jackson Browne's "Runnin' on Empty."

You can't ask for a better sign than that, unless of course it's planted in the ground and posted at the side of the road.

:-)

Chain: Do you YOU! feel like I do?

Christine started this chain. Kate posted before me (and boy does it stink to be the last link).


So anyway, this time we're talking about emotions. Christine wants to know: How do you add emotional depth to your stories? How do you know when you have enough emotional content? And how do you keep it authentic?

I first read this question and thought: "This is like taking something intangible, plucking it out of thin air and holding onto it for dear life." But in a way, that's what fiction writers do.

Kind of.

We create characters from nothing, give them emotions and, hopefully, make our readers rejoice or laugh or cry or grieve over events that never really happened.

But how do I do that? Well, after taking my sweet time to mull the answer to that question, I came up with a list.

Here it is:

1. Know thy characters.

Certain people react certain ways to certain situations. (How many times can you use the word "certain" in a sentence?) By knowing the personalities of your characters, you give authenticity to their emotional reactions.

2. Conflict makes the fictional world go round. So, hey, what's the worst that could happen?

To answer this question, I close my eyes and let my brain scan the scenarios. When I get to one that makes my gut burn and my fingers tingle, I know I've found the answer.

3. Show me the emo.

Kate said it before me, and many have been saying it all along: Show, don't tell. Using strong verbs and vivid imagery, authors must pull their readers into the depths of a characters soul and make them feel exactly what the hero/heroine is feeling. Since writers don't have any other medium to accomplish this task, the correct words must be used.

4. Peel and onion, discover the layers within.

This goes along with Tip 1, knowing your characters. Revealing backstory (be careful) and subplots helps the readers understand the place from which those emotions are coming. This can help turn the emotional response factor of the reader from a minor surface wound to a massive hemorrhage.

5. Don't stop till you get enough. (As if we haven't had enough of MJ lately, huh?)

Others in the chain have mentioned this, too, but this is where the crit buddies come in. No matter how brilliant an author may be, it is impossible to accurately judge one's own work. It is imperative to get feedback from crit partners on whether or not your characters are responding appropriately and whether or not you've overwritten a scene.

So, there you go. Those are my responses. How about you? Do you feel the way I do?

Fenced in

Every now and then I feel guilty because of the amount of time I don't spend spreading my writerly wings.

A roadtrip in the country last weekend, however, supplied ample inspiration for other projects.

Here's a piece of one such endeavor, sparked by this photo I took on my Sunday drive.

* * * * * * * * * * *

I plant my foot on the ground. A cloud of dust curls upward, leaving a heavy layer of earth on the toes of my boots.

"I don't think you should do this." His voice sounds out-of-place, like a wrong note in the symphony of nature.

I shield my eyes, squinting as I raise my face to him; he's no more than a shadow against the backlight of the afternoon sun.

My response lodges in the back of my throat: He told me I have to. I turn my back.

Heat rises from the sleek coat of my mare as I gather her reins and hand them over.

Forcing a rough breath, I ignore the squeal of the rusty hinge as the door sways in the wind.

"Promise you won't leave me here?"

His gelding stamps and grunts, nuzzling the neck of my horse. He leans forward, patting the animal as he says, "I promise."

I know it's a lie.

Have you been inspired recently?

Lee the Bandito

Brainfart: 1.) The body's way of emitting excessive amounts of nonsense.

I think that's what happened to my dad when he allowed himself to be photographed wearing this sombrero. It's perhaps what happened to my grandmother for allowing herself to be photographed with him.

Grateful: 1.) An emotion you feel when you realize the amount of time that has passed since such an incident (19 years); 2.) A degree of relief that rushes over you when you find out he only wore such an item because he was vacationing near the Mexican border; 3.) The knowledge that he long ago shaved his fuzzy nose neighbor and no longer looks like he belongs south of the border.

Yellow Banks

I wanted to show you so much more from this picture.



Really I did.


But Mother Nature ruined my expectations, as well as the lookout point for what I believe is one of the most beautiful places in Northeast Nebraska -- the Yellow Banks Wildlife Refuge.


Funny thing about Yellow Banks: Throughout all of my life my grandparents owned a farm less than five miles from the refuge. (In fact, you can see sections of their land from the road leading out there.)

But I never knew about Yellow Banks until I was in college; my husband -- who grew up in Sherman County -- told me about it when we were dating. I was 18 years old the first time I hiked the trails and enjoyed the beauty of nature at the edge of the cliff there.

I remember thinking: "Wow! How did I not know about this place?" The view of the river and valley took my breath away, and there was a nice little clearing at the cliff to sit and enjoy the scenery.

How could any nature-loving Nebraskan not like this place?

Unfortunately, neither my husband nor I had a lot of time to enjoy it. Before either of us realized, years had passed since we had last hiked those trails.

Then last weekend we decided to talk a walk.

In honor of our 15th wedding anniversary -- which is today, btw -- he and I drove out to the Yellow Banks and started hiking the trails. I brought my camera, intending to snap some pictures of the gorgeous view.

We should have known the old cliff wouldn't be the same when we entered the brush and saw the dead tree that had fallen over the path. We should have known when we saw the trails veer off in several new directions. We should have known not to continue on when a swarm of blood-thirsty mosquitoes attacked us.

But we pressed on, only to discover that the bank had eroded several feet. The clearing where we'd once enjoyed the scenery was gone and a treacherous drop off was all that remained.

Dejected, we returned to our vehicle, dodging worm-length garter snakes (ick) and suspicious stares from the locals who drove by.

Thankfully, the whole trip wasn't wasted.

As the old saying goes, getting there is half the fun. For me, that's truly the case when I travel the gravel in Nebraska.

the Heart of the matter

As a reporter, I probably knew before most people who was coming to my hometown last Saturday.

In fact, when the concert organizer told me "off the record" which artists they were looking at bringing for SummerFest, I had a really hard time keeping my mouth shut.

I mean, we were talking about one of the top three bands/musicians I wanted to see live. We're talking about the band whose song I refused to stop singing even after a dancing cowboy had broken three bones in my foot.

We're talking about Heart. The Wilson sisters. Ann & Nancy.

These girls set the stage for chick rockers everywhere. They proved that girls can rock as hard as guys.

Their music was part of the inspiration for me to make Heather a musician in Long Road. (That, and the write what you know thing...)

So, having these women play a concert in my hometown. Oh my goodness! I don't even have to travel to Omaha? Or Sioux Falls? Or Council Bluffs? They're coming to my hometown?

They did.

Last Saturday, I hunkered down in the back lawn at Divots with several thousand other excited Heart fans and caught their show.

Already primed from the opening acts -- Ivory Star and Eddie Money -- I knew from the opening bars of Barracuda that this concert was going to be great. And let me tell you, I wasn't disappointed.

Annie still has the pipes; Nancy still whips out the licks.

They displayed an incredible amount of talent, pounding out original classics like "Mistral Wind," "Never," and "Straight On." They also wowed the audience with ripping covers of old Led Zeppelin tunes like "The Immigrant Song" (think Jack Black on School of Rock) and "Going to California." They slowed it down with "These Dreams" and an acoustic version of "Alone" and even gave the audience a taste of their new material by playing a song they dedicated "to Michael." (I can only assume they meant Mr. Jackson.)

To close out the show, they hammered out "Magic Man" as pitch perfect as the studio version of the song. (What an awesome solo!)

My three sisters and I went home the happiest, most sunscorched music fans alive. They're already talking about catching the next act Divots brings to town.

I doubt anyone could top Heart.

Wrap it up

I just had to ask.

No, really. It was my turn to come up with the topic for the blog chain. So I asked about how members of the chain gang did research.

The actual questions were: How do you do research for your settings, your story and your characters’ quirks? What interesting tidbits about yourself and the world you live in have you learned along the way?

Here's a tad bit of what everyone had to say:

Christine said she wasn't prepared for the amount of digging she would have to do for her project.

"Then I thought that having one of them die at the hands of a serial killer would be cool – especially if there could be a paranormal twist to it. Considering the 1500’s was the height of the Inquisition, I figured this could be so easy to find.
Yeah…NO. It took a little digging. Sure, I found the serial killer/demon story easily enough. And found a setting. What didn’t count on was all the other information I would need to write a portion of the novel in 1589 Germany. Things like, what does village life look like, what did the German country side look like at that time, what was the political structue (a character has to report the murder), how was a trial conducted, how was the accused disposed of, etc, etc, etc. All of it required a lot of research."

Michelle said: I always start the easy way, with Google and Ask.com and any other search engine I can find. I have two small children. There is no way I can spend all day at the library anymore. But there is a lot of information you can find online. There are even many books online that you can search through. Or, you can usually at least look through the index or table of contents (Amazon is very useful for this). Then, if I need to get a book, I can request it from my library.



Elana told us how much she dislikes the 'R' word: I actually dislike researching so much I break out in hives if I have to do it. So you wanna know how I research for my settings and story and quirks? *whispers* I make them up. I might pick a place (the setting) that could be anywhere. Then I don’t have to know street names and stuff. I’m writing a novel right now that requires the characters to go to the beach. So I know it’s in California. But I don't know what city. I don't care what city. The setting is not that integral that I need to know what city. Or the name of the high school. And if I did, I'd simply make them up.



Annie pays attention: I research by trying to pay attention to what's around me and writing down my ideas (as opposed to thinking I'll remember them forever and then being sad in 10 minutes when they're gone). I would like to think that as I figure out Outlaw Song more, I'll get deeper into research if need be. But, I'm trying not to let research scare me right now so that I can just get my characters and the plot down firmly.



Sandra said she doesn't rely on research for character traits: I don't think I've consciously researched character traits, unless it's an illness like manic-depression. Character quirks tend to reveal themselves over time as I work with my characters. For instance, Paul's best friend goes by Scott, but that's actually his middle name. His first name is Oliver, after his mother Olivia; Paul started calling him Scott when he was too young to say "Oliver," and it stuck. I've always known that Yvonne likes flowers, but she told me on this draft that she'd rather study botany than psychiatry.



Carolyn sounds a lot like my kind of researcher, gathering knowledge in whatever way she can: Thanks to the fact that I research all kinds of crazy things, I have a lot of interesting tidbits in my head about unrelated things. But that also helps me understand the world better, and I like that.



Kate counts "living life" among her research methods: Yes, I count the very act of breathing as research! And this means that I am researching ALL THE TIME!!! With thirty years of experience under my belt, I have to say that I am getting rather good at this type of research.


Click on the links, and check out everyone's full, awesome-tastic responses. (I hope I haven't missed any links in the chain. Someone can lash me with a spaghetti noodle if I have.)

Tomorrow, it's back to my regularly scheduled programming. (Yes, I actually plan to post more than once this week.) I've got some interesting stories to tell. Be sure to catch tomorrow's post about catching a legend.