Story Ideas – Some Writing Prompts

One might consider this week’s post lazy on the part of yours truly, but you could also look at it as a chance to get creative and share.

Here are a few random pictures. Does one of them spark an idea? Bring back a memory? Take you on a flight of fancy? Please share your stories! Jot down an idea in the comments, or even put a link to your blog if one of these images prompted a story!

Let me know where your story ideas come from!

a busy street

a busy street

An old gun

An old gun

Everybody likes a good crystal skull story

Everybody likes a good crystal skull story

Music

Music

Music Review: Vellamo

Posted in Music Reviews, Music, Movies, and other Muses by

Welcome a new duo to the world of modern Finnish folk music! The self-titled album by the band Vellamo was released earlier this year. Being a fan of Finnish mythology, I was immediately drawn in by the band’s name—Vellamo was a sea goddess in the old stories.

And it turns out their music is equally enchanting. A singer-songwriter style, with a little rock tossed in here and there, adds flair to the simple yet enticing tracks on this album. The clear, unadorned tones of singer Pia Leinonen are accompanied by the acoustic stylings of guitarist Joni Tiala.

This album may be in the folk genre, but Vellamo offers a lot of variety for your listening pleasure. There’s fast and folksy like “Juokse Frank Juokse,” or slow and melancholy like “Kaipaava.”

There’s a little bit of Finnish—“Oman kullan silmät” or “Ja se mies;” a little bit of English—“Lovebirds” or “Silver Dagger.” And even a little bit of Swedish—“Elin i Hagen.”

Vellamo’s sound—whether toe-tapping or soothing, Finnish or English—gives me that warm feeling of live music night at a local coffeehouse. Or that lazy calm of sitting on a boat out in the lake. I’m excited to see where this music from the mythical sea spirit goes in the future.

Vellamo on Facebook

Music Video – Suljen

The Nitty-Gritty of Writing: Good versus Well

Posted in Writings about Writing by

This is a word usage post that I’ve wanted to write for a while, but have hesitated doing so because I felt like a hypocrite. I am very aware that I constantly misuse these words and swap them around, mostly out of sheer laziness. However, in my defense, I attempt to be correct when I’m writing. When I’m talking, laziness prevails.

So what is the difference between these words, you ask?

Good: an adjective or a noun. It means to be proper, right, of high quality, morally excellent, full of worth.

Well: an adjective or adverb. It can also mean right, full of worth, etc; or healthy, thorough, or with positive intentions.

Let’s look at some examples. You meet a friend on the street, and he says: “Hey, Joe, how are you?” You reply with “I’m good.”

To be completely correct, you should say “I’m well.” What you are describing is your state of being, and well is an adverb that modifies the verb of the sentence (which is “am,” the first person form of our “to be” verb). Good is usually an adjective, and in this case would be modifying you as a person, not what you are doing.

“I’m good” in this case actually means that you are proper and right (as opposed to immoral or wrong). Of course, if that’s your intent – to communicate how morally superior you are at that moment – then saying you’re good would be fine.

For another example I’ll use Glinda the Good Witch. (Side note: I’ve seen The Wizard of Oz and Oz the Great and Powerful close to 5,324,658 times. Which has nothing to do with anything, but I’ve been wanting an excuse to say that).

Anyway, Glinda’s title, “The Good,” doesn’t mean that she’s feeling fine that day, or that things are going great in her life. In this case, good describes her as a right and proper person – the opposite of wicked.

If she were Glinda the Well, not only would this sound strange, but it would totally change the meaning. Well in this case could mean the opposite of inept or the opposite of ill. While Glinda is neither ill nor inept, she wants to emphasize her opposition to the Wicked Witches; therefore, she is Good.

So, in daily life – or at least in your daily writing – remember to differentiate between good and well.

Well = not sick, functioning poorly, or otherwise behaving negatively.

Good = not the Wicked Witch of the West.

And that’s good.

End of Summer Update – My Writing Projects

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So here it is, the end of the summer, and what have I accomplished? Well, more than I thought I would, and less than I thought I would.

To be fair, let me explain – I have no kids, and I do not work in the education field. Therefore, summer is no different from the rest of the year as far as my schedule or time commitments. All that changes is that it’s hotter. And humid. I hate humidity. But that’s another topic….

So, back to the current status of my writing projects. Here’s what I’m finding myself doing:

Editing

The current millstone around my neck is book one of my fantasy trilogy The Light-Whisperers of Kalevala. As I (slowly) progress through this editing/rewriting/more editing phase, I’m discovering that I’m very much a first-draft lover. I love cranking out that fine new tale, in all its roughness and over-verbosity, getting to know the characters and their shiny new world.

Editing, revising, and rewriting is a lot like mowing the lawn – an apparently never-ending task, boring, unpleasant in every way. But I like the results. Mowing the lawn is necessary if you don’t want your yard to look like an abandoned property, and editing and revising your story is necessary if you don’t want it to look like it was written by a second-grader with no talent.

But I’m happy to report that I’m past (most) of the parts of book one that needed the heaviest re-writes (I hope). Right now I’m doing more editing and revising that full-out re-writing; it’s a lot more like weed-eating the edges rather than mowing the whole stupid yard.

Writing

This is the stuff I enjoy. I’m working on the first draft of the second Light-Whisperers book, albeit sporadically. I’m trying to focus my time and energies on the revising of book one for the next month or so. I’m also still working out some major plot points of book two, and since I’m a big-time plotter, I’m not in a huge hurry to get to that blank spot in my outline.

I’ve also started working on a short story for a contest. It’s fantasy, of course. The challenge here is to keep it short. I’m one of those odd people who can bang out 100,000 words with (relative) ease, but I struggle when it comes to keeping it under 5,000 words. My “short stories” in my college English classes were usually small novellas.

In the blogging realm, I am feeling very accomplished because as of the time of this writing, I have several future entries done (full or in part). This saves me from that last-minute panic of “ohmygosh I publish every Wednesday morning and it’s now 11pm Tuesday and I have nothing written.” So now I can relax and publish panic-free for the next few weeks until I use up my back-stock and have to start writing again.

More editing

I am now also marketing myself as a freelance copy editor and proof-reader. I figure why not put my inner grammar nazi to good use? I’ve put up a page outlining what I do. Contact me if you’re needing a second pair of eyes for that last-minute polish, and please help spread the word!

So that’s been my summer. Writing, editing, heat, and humidity. And mowing the lawn. How was your summer?

ABC Book Challenge

Posted in Music, Movies, and other Muses by

I borrowed this idea from The Magic Violinist, a great writer and blogger who is always giving me good ideas.

This challenge is to list books that I’ve read, one for every letter of the alphabet (skipping words like A and The in the titles, of course). My list is a little bit of everything – fantasy, children’s books, classics, non-fiction. So here goes!

A – Aleutian Sparrow by Karen Hesse

B – Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary

C – The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

D – The Devil’s Horse: Tales from the Kalevala by Keith Bosley

E – Echoes of Mercy by Nancy Alcorn

F – The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

G – The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino

H – The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis

I – The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

J – Just-So Stories by Rudyard Kipling

K – Kirsten’s Surprise by Janet Shaw

L – Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

M – Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

N – Night Mare by Piers Anthony

O – Once Upon a Time in the North by Philip Pullman

P – Piercing the Darkness by Frank Peretti

Q – Q-Squared by Peter David

R – Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

S – The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

T – The Tailor of Gloucester by Beatrix Potter

U – Ultima Thule: Explorers and Natives in the Polar North by Jean Malaurie

V – Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

W – Wisdom by Bonnie Watson

X – X-Men: Empire’s End by Diane Duane

Y – Yertle the Turtle by Dr. Seuss

Z – Zero: the Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife

What about your reading list? Have you hit every letter yet? Please share!