A Rose by Any Other Name... or Title

What makes a good title?

I've read about this in numerous books, blogs, and articles. But, just like every aspect of good writing, I don't think there's any secret formula. There can be trends, tips, and personal trademarks. But, in the end, maybe it all comes down to Providence.

This morning, I was thinking about my WIP (surprise, surprise), and my thoughts centered on a word. I LOVE having not one but TWO (print) copies of the Oxford English Dictionary in the house. Words are so exciting. Opening up the OED is always a rich and enlightening experience.

That being said, I leave you with but one more thought. Did you know that "autumn" could be used as a verb? ;)

Words to Live By

I am indebted to AdviceToWriters.com.

I love quotes. I've been collecting them a long time. In fact, I started my own tumblr project just for them. (There's a link over there to your right.) Ever since I was a girl reading American Girl books and learned about commonplace books from Felicity (please tell me some of you know what I'm talking about?!), I was fascinated. A place to record all the clever turns of phrase and little bits of wisdom you come across? Brilliant! I have a very pretty book I started years ago in real life. But, when I saw just how groovy tumblr can be, I wanted to try my hand at it. A commonplace book made perfect sense.

But, I try to not let ALL of my quotes in the commonplace book be about writing. I suppose it would be excusable, considering I'm a writer, but there are lots of other amazing quotes out there as well. So, you'll find a large portion of writing or artistic quotes at A Commonplace Book, but it's not exclusively about that.

Today, however, I was catching up on my dose of encouragement from AdviceToWriters.com, and they've had some good stuff there lately. Now, I don't take every quote every writer says as gospel, because you can find enough good advice out there which directly contradicts other good advice, and in the end it is all just that—advice. I am not the first to realize this.

But, I'm glad I have realized it, because it makes me also realize that I am free to be me, which is, in fact, all I can be. As one of my favorite old folk songs reminds us, “Nobody else can walk [that lonesome valley] for you, you've got to walk it for yourself.”

That being said, I just had to share a few of the quotes that really spoke to me and where I am in my own journey as an author right now. So, I hope any of you fellow writers out there will enjoy as I did, or at least they will help you understand the story behind this blog a little bit more:

“The writer learns to write, in the last resort, only by writing. He must get words onto paper even if he is dissatisfied with them. A young writer must cross many psychological barriers to acquire confidence in his capacity to produce good work—especially his first full-length book—and he cannot do this by staring at a piece of blank paper, searching for the perfect sentence.”

— Paul Johnson

“There is neither a proportional relationship, nor an inverse one, between a writer’s estimation of a work in progress and its actual quality. The feeling that the work is magnificent, and the feeling that it is abominable, are both mosquitoes to be repelled, ignored, or killed, but not indulged.”

— Annie Dillard

“We have to accept ourselves in order to write. Now none of us does that fully: few of us do it even halfway. Don’t wait for one hundred percent acceptance of yourself before you write, or even eight percent acceptance. Just write. The process of writing is an activity that teaches us about acceptance.”

— Natalie Goldberg

And, a parting quote that wasn't from the same source but which pretty much sums up the heart of this post:

“Most good things have been said far too many times and just need to be lived.” — Shane Claiborne

Salary.com's Archetypes Career Test

In case you didn't already know, I'm kind of a quiz addict. I love learning more about the unique individual I call “me.” (Narcissism? I prefer, “self-awareness.”) And, I like to share the love.

So, you should know about Salary.com's Archetype Test. I've been seeing a lot of talk about this very old idea of “archetypes” lately, and this is a free quiz that actually rates you on twelve different types.

Not terribly surprisingly, my top archetype I seem to be living out is that of the “Creator.” I scored a whopping 100% match with it. A little more surprising was that my second highest archetype was the “Jester.” Of course, maybe it shouldn't have been such a shock, considering that Sheryl Crow's mantra of “all I wanna do is have some fun” was probably a little too influential on my psychological development as a child in the 1990's.

My results to this very cool “archetypes” quiz are here!

You may follow the link above in the second paragraph to find your personal breakdown. Let me know, are you a “Creator” or a “Jester” type, too? Or, are you something I'm much weaker in? My “Ruler” was only 25%.

(After you find out about yourself, you could always use this for your characters, too. I bet John Nagna would have “Explorer” near the top of his profile.)

Grandparents Are for More than Just Baking Cookies and Explaining Baseball

Well, believe it or not, I have been writing a lot lately! It's just been in my novel draft and not here in my blog.... My apologies, faithful readers.

But, you will be happy to know that as of this morning, I have composed over 53,000 words in this particular project. And, things are getting exciting, as I have reached the climactic scene of the first part of the novel! It has been both fun and challenging to write. Over in Part II, wherein, as I reported to you in my last post, I have been dabbling, the infamous day of December 7, 1941 is about to dawn. (I don't think I'm really giving away anything to you by telling you that Pearl Harbor happens in the course of the plot. This is 1941. If you didn't know it was coming, then maybe you need to brush up on your history.)

But, how do I write about one of the most tragic and incendiary days in American history when I wasn't even born?! I have asked my grandparents about their personal accounts of that day in the past, but I think I am going to take the time to ask them again, and pay a little more attention this time. I want to know as much as possible about how they really felt that day. After all, that would be a little bit of how my characters, who are actually a little bit older and therefore even more impacted by the war, would be feeling.

I know that I could probably find many accounts on the internet, and maybe I will look into some of them. But, getting to talk to someone face to face, who is comfortable with sharing their emotional memory with me, I think will be much more helpful as I try to absorb that emotion into my writing. And, really, I like any excuse to listen to my grandparents' talk about their lives. Or anything at all. My grandparents rock. Yours probably do to.

So, here's your assignment:  Go talk to your grandparents this weekend! If you can't visit them in person, call them on the phone. Maybe they're lonely. I'm sure they miss you. And, if you take the time to listen, I can almost guarantee you'll learn something. At the very least, I hope you feel the love.