WEP - Moonlight Sonata - The Special Place

The Special Place

Tagline: Sometimes you need to get away for a bit to find some peace

Carol Anne crept through the reeds, her shoes squelching in the mud and shallow water. A twig snapped behind her, and she froze. Her feet sunk into the marshy ground, water seeping through her shoes. At least sinking was quiet. 

It was dark out here in the marsh, the moon not yet high enough to lend her much light. After a moment where no other sound occurred she continued on her way. She exhaled her held breath as she yanked first one foot out then the other. Mud sucked greedily at her sullied shoes, but relinquished each foot after a hesitation.

From a nearby tree, cicadas set up their raucous chatter. They'd let her know if someone was following her.

Soon, she was far enough to the east to step on solid ground and skirt the marsh. It felt strange to feel a steady surface beneath her. The squishy ground had eased the pain in her ankle a little, but now it throbbed from the workout and the hard impacts.

He hadn't meant to hurt her. It just happened.

She reached across her chest to gently press the bruise on her upper arm. Even though it wasn't visible in the darkness, its precise shape was burned into her mind. All five of his fingers were visible in the deep purple and black circling her upper arm. 

Another accident.

He always told her he was sorry. Not right away, but later. He made it up to her. Cruelty wasn't in his nature, but he was tired, stressed. He wasn't himself sometimes.

A small part of her knew this as the nonsense it was. After all, hadn't she seen cruelty in his eyes, the set of his mouth? She could tell the exact moment where his actions went from unconscious to purposeful. The moment he realized he was hurting her and squeezed a little harder.

This time, he'd kicked at her foot to trip her up, but he'd hit her ankle instead. The pain had blossomed, sharp at first, then subsiding to a dull ache, spreading up her leg and down her foot. He'd caught her before she could fall, grasping the meat of her upper arm.

That was when she'd seen it.

His eyes had narrowed, a hint of a smile twisting lips that could be so soft during the good times, making them look hard and, yes, mean. He'd thought about it before he squeezed. He'd held her eyes with his so he could watch every aspect of her reaction as his fingers tightened. 

She'd fought back, wrenching at his fingers and finally kicking him in the shin. She'd meant to kick him in the knee, but it was hard to aim when you were wrestling someone a good one-hundred pounds bigger than you. And whereas her weight was soft, his was all muscle, solid to the touch.

He was so angry he punched her in the face. That was something he never did. Marking her face was a mistake.

Carol Anne raised tentative fingers to her eye socket, felt the solid puff of the swelling there. It felt like something was broken, shifting around under the skin. It had sounded that way, too. She'd never heard a crunch quite like it.

The ground shifted once more. Lush grass softened her steps, a cushion between her pain and the soil. She was nearly there.

This time was different. She'd had enough. 

After he punched her in the face and knocked her to the ground, he stormed away, kicking a chair away from the kitchen table on his way past it. He went out the door to the backyard. The door had swung around and slammed closed behind him. It spoke of finality. A finality that woke her up.

While she waited for him to return, she cooked dinner. She was limping heavily and could barely see through the damaged eye, but she prepared his favorite grilled cheese sandwich, setting a handful of potato chips on the plate with it. There was a can of tomato soup, so she made that, too, throwing in a couple stale croutons and a pinch of shredded cheese. It all went to his place at the table, along with a glass of milk so cold bubbles frothed on the surface. She set his chair back upright.

With everything in its place, she left through the front door. He'd be in his shed, but she didn't want to chance him seeing her.

A slight hill stood before her. At the top was her special place. It took her longer to climb than usual, the pain in her ankle hindering her some, but she made it. Just as she reached the crown of the hill, the moon rose enough to push glowing fingers between the willow's fronds, illuminating the stump on which she liked to sit. Using her good arm, she pushed the branches aside and disappeared into the safety of her special place.

Settling on the stump, she breathed a sigh of relief at taking the weight off her ankle.

She closed her eyes and listened to the frogs singing their moonlight sonata in the marsh, joining with the chorus of the cicadas and other night insects. 

She wondered if he'd drunk the milk yet, and whether he would be a problem anymore.

887 words, NCCO

Writing Exercises for the Coronapocalypse

Hi, guys! I hope everyone is at least finding a "new normal" right now and hanging in there as much as possible. My husband has been playing with his 3D printer to make masks, and my sister-in-law made me a fabric one, so I have a variety to wear to work and the store.

I was able to do a Zoom call with my mom and three of my four siblings, which was nice. We're not big phone talkers, any of us, and Zoom is basically a phone call with pictures, but it's the best we can do right now, so we'll take it.

I've decided to do some simple prompts on my author Facebook page for people struggling with their creativity during this time. Starting tomorrow, there will be a basic prompt, such as describing a memory or a person you know, something that will hopefully get people to write a bit without making them feel bad about having trouble creating. If you'd like to take part, you can click HERE and "like" the page to get the daily prompts. You can also search for Shannon Lawrence - The Warrior Muse if clicking the above link doesn't work.

Note that I don't go to bed until about 5 or 6 AM, so I will be checking in on the page later in the day. I don't want anyone to think I'm ignoring them! I'm just sleeping. Hopefully. I will schedule the prompts to post first thing in the morning, though. Likely 7 AM MT since that's when I do my blog posts.

Speaking of sleep, raise your hand if you're having crazy, intense dreams. I have been. They're not nightmares, just vivid dreams, and since I wake frequently I also remember a lot of my dreams. Some of them are so seemingly normal that I almost struggle to tell the difference between things that didn't happen and things that did. Only briefly, of course, in that way people (women?) have of waking up mad at their spouse because they had an intense dream that felt so real that it hurt in reality upon waking.

We also have three new events arranged for Pikes Peak Writers. They're all free, so I'm going to list them here. If you want to see all of them, you can click HERE. The new ones aren't added on there yet, but I'm going to list them here, and if you're friends with me on Facebook and want me to send you an event invite, let me know. There are two events on there marked Non-PPW Events. Those are not run by us and are not virtual (and not free), but the others are!

Again, these are completely free. We don't make any money off these. This is purely a way to give back to the writing community and help people hang in there. All of the below speakers are also doing this for free, no honorarium, for the same reasons. If any of you are interested in doing a workshop in May, either on a week night or a Saturday afternoon, let me know, and we can see if we can make it work.

How to Become a Better Writer in Quarantine—Even If You Don’t Feel Like Writing
April 25, 2-4 PM MST, via Zoom *links will be up online in the next week
It sounds like a writer’s dream: hours of time at home, no expectations to go anywhere or do anything outside your house, so you can really dedicate yourself to your writing.

But during this rough time, many find their creative energy has short-circuited: With everyone stuck at home maybe your creative space and time has been crowded out. Maybe worry, uncertainty, and even fear make it hard to concentrate on your craft—the very sensitivity that makes artists artists might be working against your ability to create your art in such unsettled times.

But even if all you’re able to manage right now is curling up on the sofa with a book or the remote control, #stayhome can actually be the perfect time to train your editor brain. Analyzing other people’s stories is often the best way to learn to objectively assess your own, and using examples from popular TV shows, movies, and books, Tiffany will teach you how to objectively analyze and dissect the art you're taking in, the way professional editors do with manuscripts, to see how it accomplishes (or doesn't) major storytelling techniques. Using specific suggestions and questions, this hour-long presentation will help you gain the often-elusive skill of self-editing and effective revision to help you get your story onto the page with all the depth and richness and impact it has in your head.

Speaker BIO: Tiffany Yates Martin started in the publishing industry more than twenty-five years ago as a copy editor for the Big Six. As a developmental editor for the last decade, she works directly with authors as well as through major publishing houses, on titles by New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal best-selling authors. She holds a BA in English Literature from Georgia State University and is a member of the Editorial Freelancers Association.

Q&A with an FBI Profiler
May 2, 2-4 PM MST, via Zoom *links will go up this week

Pete Klismet, retired FBI profiler, will discuss his background and how he got involved in the FBI, then open up for questions. Want to know how profiling works? Have burning questions about serial killers? Ask away! He'll answer your questions and tell some entertaining tales.

Speaker BIO: Peter M. (Pete) Klismet, Jr. is a U.S. Navy Vietnam veteran and worked for the Ventura Police Department before entering the FBI in 1979. He was trained to be a Firearms Instructor, Hostage Negotiator, and was in the first cadre of Special Agents chosen to be trained in “Psychological Profiling.” Pete received extensive training in profiling over the years, and worked on numerous cases. He was named the 1999 International Law Enforcement Officer of the Year for solving a large multi-national fraud case. Following his retirement in 1999, Pete accepted a position as Department Chair and Associate Professor of the Criminal Justice Department at Pikes Peak Community College. Now retired from that, he continues to do training and consulting work for law enforcement and private companies and law firms. He has authored four award-winning books.

Story Breaking Monday
May 4, 7-9 PM MST

Wanna kick the tires of your story with a storytelling expert? Game to do it LIVE in front of a gaggle of writers? Ready to embrace this new world of Digital Creative Community?

Join Trai Cartwright for an evening of story development – we promise everyone will learn lots about story build and get inspired, and 2 (or 3!) lucky writers will be chosen through lottery to work through—and fix—their stories. Bring your screenplays, books, TV pilots, or web series.

Everyone is welcome to listen—maybe even give notes!
Stories will be chosen by lottery that night.

FREE -- but you must register: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0qduGtpzwr43sPYeVcIVZ-7PTK7b9Lhw

BIO: TRAI CARTWRIGHT, MFA, is a 25-year entertainment industry veteran and creative writing and business development specialist. She teaches, produces, and writes screenplays and novels. While in Los Angeles, she was a screenwriter, independent film producer, and story consultant and development executive for HBO, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios, and New Line Cinema. She was the Assistant Director of Leonardo DiCaprio’s online endeavors and the Manager for 20th Century Fox’s Mobile Studios. Trai currently teaches creative writing, screenwriting, and producing for Western State Colorado University, Denver University and CU Denver, conferences and cons, and one-on-one as a development and story editor. She is the screenwriter of Secret Ellington, and producer of docu-series Hidden Tigers, and short film Sundown Road.
www.traicartwright.com

How are you doing? Are you coping okay? What coping mechanisms have you found that help you? Have you been able to write? Having vivid dreams? Will I see you on my Facebook page or at any of the events?

May you find your Muse.

Never Forget, Never Surrender!

Alright, so that title is a little melodramatic, but it was what popped into my head, so I had to use it.  You understand, don't you?

When I'm talking to friends or anyone who says they want to write, but just don't have the time, or don't know how to start, or whatever other excuse happens to come up (hey, I've used them, too, so no judgment here), one of the first things I recommend is a notebook.  One little notebook.  Any kind.  Why?  To write down ideas as they come, take notes, get your mind used to writing words down on paper, organize your thoughts and spur your creativity.

Let's go back in time a bit.  I attended my first writer's conference three years ago now, I think?  I left that conference jazzed, but I didn't really know where to start.  I had a big idea in my mind of something I wanted to write about, but I just never had the time, and I didn't know how to begin the novel.  However, my mind was working overtime on the story.  I was stuck, though, unsure what was making me unable to just sit and write.  I would start the story, get stuck, give up, start it again.

Frustrated, I sat down with a composition book I had on hand (it had been a journal eons before), and I started writing down whatever I was thinking.  It didn't have to go together yet.  It was just a way to let my mind work through whatever was going on.

This really got the flow going, and I had a breakthrough that finally jump started Lonely Hollow: Synthesis.  I got to the point where I carried that composition book and a pen or pencil everywhere I went.  In less than a year, I'd written the novel (which is in edits), and I'd had ideas for several more, as well as short story and character sketches that came to me, but had no definite home.

Fast forward to now and I have several composition books, each for a separate novel I'd like to write.  I jot notes in them as they come to me.  These are in addition to the habit I've had for about two decades of writing down ideas that came to me.  However, those notes were disjointed before.  I have a little accordion file for index cards, because I tried to organize them at one point.  I had different colored index cards for character sketches, settings, then different genres of story ideas.

I wasn't consistent with that, though, so I also have ideas written down in various spirals, loose-leaf sheets of paper, mini-notebooks, napkins, torn pieces of paper, etc.  I kept telling myself that I would sit down one of these days and make that reorganization attempt again, but it wasn't happening.

Then I ran across an article on Lifehacker that led me to The Writer's Room, and an article about something called a Spark File, written by Steven Johnson.  He talked about writing every little idea in one single notebook then reading through it on a regular basis to "spark" your thinking and creativity.

Seems obvious now, but it was something I kept putting off, not getting to.  Now, however, organizing those thoughts into one place is a great help.  I still have my composition books, because it helps me keep organized by story, but anything not related to one of those novels I'm working on goes in my lovely all-purpose notebook.

Since reading this, I've spoken to other people about their notebooks.  One of those people was more than happy to show me her beat-up all purpose notebook, where she jots down notes and observations, as well as little snippets of writing.  She was nice enough to put together a piece for the blog I edit, Writing From the Peak, on the subject.

Here's the thing, writing all those ideas down in this way doesn't just record them for you to come back to later, though that's great, too.  For me, at least, writing those notes was a way to begin brainstorming, and it would escalate every time I recorded something in there.  Sometimes I'd end up writing for pages, because each idea would lead me to another.  And it's still like that.  The all-purpose notebook can be similar at times, where if I start writing something down it will encourage more brainstorming, but it isn't to the point of my composition books, yet.

Now, I'm old school on this, using actual notebooks made of paper, but Steven Johnson uses Google so he can access it from anywhere.  My phone is ancient, no internet access, so that's not an option for me, but I also prefer to use paper.  If I could find a typewriter that would keep up with my typing, I'd happily type along on that sucker when I write, too.  My point is, make this what you need it to be.  Use whatever form you're comfortable with, but do find a method that helps get you started.  I'm Queen Procrastinator, but writing down my ideas as they come has really helped me to stop what I'm doing and write it down right away, and that often gets me in the mood for taking it to the next step and getting words down on paper (or on the screen).

Do you have a notebook (or notebooks)?  How do you organize your thoughts?  What gets you writing?

May you find your Muse.