Lines in Time: June 2010

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Wednesday, June 16, 2010
The Swamp
A few weeks ago, I took a look at my workplace. Disastrous! I promised myself I would do something about it -- separate the wheat from the chaff, dig for gold amidst the clutter. In the process of progress, I took time out to create a "found poem" that I want to share. First I took my original blog and cut it in half, then in half again. The idea was to save significant words and phrases, rearranging them until I had the essence of what I was trying to say. In other words, I "found" a poem in the midst of all those words. Here it is:

Lines in Time is a place where I will share my thoughts on writing. Sometimes I will be a dreamer, other times a pragmatist. Occasionally I will expound on the joys of syntax and the peskiness of incorrectly placed punctuation.But most of the time, I will talk to you from my heart.

This means you will get glimpses into whatever I'm currently working on -- or what I want to be working on. I'll talk to you about how I'm trying to make my characters come alive; about plots that tend to meander; about setting and voice and dialogue and how sometimes the words flow and other times they seem stuck to the end of the pencil and won't come out.

Now and then, I'll tell you a little about the family stories that I'm trying to record. I'm collecting them, little by little, by linking together strands of memory and weaving them into tales to be remembered. These are as true as I can make them. But I do use fiction techniques to tell them, so the dialogue is, by necessity, the way I imagine it would have been. For who on earth can remember half a century of words coming out of people's mouths?

I invite you to visit me here and share in my joys and struggles with the lines that I write in segments of time. I welcome your comments and promise to answer any questions I can. Consider this an open forum. The only rule is that we talk about writing -- which, of course, is what changes everything!
I want these columns to be sometimes helpful, often humorous, and always inspiring in the sense that they make YOU want to pick up your pen and get going!

To all of my Schmooze friends: check in with me regularly to let me know what you need in the way of discussions and programs. Share what you are writing about. Ask questions. If I don’t have an immediate answer, I’ll do my best to find one asap.

To members of my writing groups: this blog offers a quick and easy way to spread the good news among other writers. You are already experts in the field. Perhaps you would like to write a guest column!

To Inland Area Writing Project Fellows: drop by and say, “Hello!” Share with us the ways you are using writing in the classroom. Let us hear how your own writing projects are developing

Lines in Time

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

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