How do I dig down and keep on writing in my rain storm?

Insecure Writer Support Group

April 4:  question from the IWSP Group

 When my writing life is a bit cloudy or filled with rain, what do I do to dig down and keep on writing? 

When it is pouring rain and melting my papers and blurring my penned words  --> I cry!  Look out the window of my eyes, wait and wait, sleep, or walk, work in my garden, pet my cats. Really - CRY! SOB! SCREAM!  These help!

writer telling a story

Or, I might organize the papers and the stuff around my computer and on the desk, or find where I am on other project, chose one, and start there. Then after a while when the rain stops, start the writing.

Thunder storms from my family, either wanting something or to check on me when I'm consumed by my project is my greatest turmoil. The stillness, maybe the noise, or the singing from my head spreads and causes wonder, even friends text. I ignor everyone and continue --> I can talk to them later.

IWSP's twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.

How do you celebrate when you achieve a writing goal/ finish a story?

ANSWER:

I yell, shout, dance, cry and post in all the places I can post. A written stream into the vast reaches of the web yelling out my success to shake the noise of this and that buzzing around. What is a story anyway but a long string of words reaching out to meet someone. The problem is the words get tangle in the light and music of all the rest and my celebration last only seconds.

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Interview, Part 10 - FIRE, the Hunger

Will we be able to hear or read FIRE, the Hunger?

Yes, I like to say, ‘coming to stores near you’. I do plan to e-publish Fire, the Hunger as part of a series, Telling Timeless Tales. to Smashwords into their many formats, as a paperback Print-on-Demand on CreativeSpace, and as a Kindle on Amazon.

The writing challenges at NaNoWriCAMP and Clarion Foundation Write-a-Thon helped me write these verbals stories into written stories for reading and for someone else to use and tell. You can read ‘FIRE, the Hunger’ at Wattpad and Bublish.com. I do post blurbs about the stories on the StoryRealm and interview here at BlobBlobandBlogging. So summaries of stories and a PDF will be available at my website, Bobbiekinkead.com. Also, I plan to tell the stories on my youtube BobbieTales Channel and Soundcloud, this is farther along on my path.

Interview, Part 9 - FIRE, the Hunger

The best question, how does the storyteller work up their stories.

First to find stories liked, then print them out, and read over and over to see if plots are suitable. Then I make what I called a ‘Summary Page’: how long the story is, my first sentence, my last sentence, a summary of the plot, and where I told the story, adding notes about the telling that I need to remember. 

If I have enough stories on a theme like the FIRE stories, I make a frame, bridge, or a segue through them. That means I plot out each story; have 'character bios' as on FIRE, humans, gods, hummingbird, beaver, Grandma Spider, monkeys, hunters, Bertha Digby. Then make a 'motivation sheet' on each character about their driving concerns that moves the plot forward to the next story. 

The beginning, the gods have FIRE and humans and animals want its warmth and light. So, the middle events: Hummingbird gives to the Pines, Beaver gives to all trees, Grandma Spider throws light to the night sky. Until the climax event, a hunter steals the FIRE from the monkeys to the final event, FIRE burns up the forest. The ending conclusion, Bertha Digby replants the forest for all of us.

If you join my newsletter called the EVENTING. . ., I talk about writing and storytelling. As a new subscriber, you receive the Story Charts used for plotting, character motivation, scenes, framing or the segue, with the bonus of the hero’s journey. There are 12 charts in all. The charts were compiled from storytellers, who shared how they organize their stories. I give this information to whoever wants to craft their best stories to tell or write, please honor this.

Interview - Part 8, FIRE, the Hunger

Have you verbally told or written any of the fire stories before?

The FIRE stories came about when I went to Feather River Family Camp, 2005, the first week of August when the outdoors is hot and very dry. I told the stories around the first night's campfire to children and parents. Later, I presented more FIRE stories at night on the Open Stage. And I have a spot for evening stories in the Crafts Circle just before dinner, what better than FIRE stories.

After telling at Feather Family Camp, I told stories for Oaklandish, 2006, who were building pride in Oakland and having a campout at Oakland's Chabot State Park. The FIRE stories went well with the crowd of young adults.

Next, I told the stories for a birthday party, 2007. Parents of a young girl called me about stories; I asked if they could have a fire; the parents said yes. I narrated the FIRE stories around the pit and related how we must constrain FIRE because of the horror of eating everything, and that now FIRE was held in candles on a birthday cake and blown out for a wish. The young lady liked the stories.

The last story, Bertha Digby was published in an anthology organized by the 4th Street Studio's Saturday Salons, The Livermore Wine Country Literary Harvest, ©2006. 'Saving the Woods' is on pages 67 to 69. My folktale honors a squirrel and all animals (a metaphor for people) who restore burnt forests that other humans destroy by one means or other.

The FIRE stories were bridged together by the desire for warmth and light and told monthly at a storytelling swap in 2008, which I helped run at the Orinda library.

The folktales were written out for the April 2017 NaNoWriCamp were enhanced, modified, elaborated and bridged together around one of the worst predator, who eats everything, 'FIRE, the Hunger.'

Now, the segued folktales are on wattpad, a great platform to connect with readers while writing and editing. Soon 'FIRE, the Hunger' will be posted on Bublish with 'bubbles' that appear on Twitter and Facebook for publicity.