Creative Writing Corner

Photo of the Week

, originally uploaded by Jon,.

The moody bluish cast on this lake view is simply stunning. Will it inspire you this week?

Poem of the Week: "Lunchcounter Freedom"

This week's poem is by Thylias Moss.  It's copyrighted rather specifically, so I'm directing you to its location via a link: Lunchcounter Freedom.  Do take a look at this stirring poem, which captures the fear and desire for freedom that must have been felt by the first civil rights activists who staged sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in the 1960's.

Photo of the Week

the green mile, originally uploaded by 3PASSA.

This hall's eery greenish color makes it seem mysterious. Can you imagine who is living in the room off to the right? Maybe there's a story for you to write about it this week.

Poem of the Week: "A Green Crab's Shell."

This week's poem is by Mark Doty.  I especially enjoy the bright, clear details of this poem, emphasized by the carefully short lines.

A Green Crab's Shell
by Mark Doty
Not, exactly, green: closer to bronze preserved in kind brine, something retrieved from a Greco-Roman wreck, patinated and oddly muscular. We cannot know what his fantastic legs were like-- though evidence suggests eight complexly folded scuttling works of armament, crowned by the foreclaws' gesture of menace and power. A gull's gobbled the center, leaving this chamber --size of a demitasse-- open to reveal a shocking, Giotto blue. Though it smells of seaweed and ruin, this little traveling case comes with such lavish lining! Imagine breathing surrounded by the brilliant rinse of summer's firmament. What color is the underside of skin? Not so bad, to die, if we could be opened into this-- if the smallest chambers of ourselves, similarly, revealed some sky.

Photo of the Week

Llwyngwril Sunset (attempted version) :), originally uploaded by Krazy_Jo.

I'm always a sucker for a good sunset. Hopefully it will get you in a thoughtful (and creative) mood for your writing this week.

Poem of the Week: "The House Slave"

This week's poem is by Rita Dove.

The House Slave

The first horn lifts its arm over the dew-lit grass
and in the slave quarters there is a rustling-
children are bundled into aprons, cornbread

and water gourds grabbed, a salt pork breakfast taken.
I watch them driven into the vague before-dawn
while their mistress sleeps like an ivory toothpick

and Massa dreams of asses, rum and slave-funk.
I cannot fall asleep again. At the second horn,
the whip curls across the backs of the laggards-

sometimes my sister's voice, unmistaken, among them.
"Oh! pray," she cries. "Oh! pray!" Those days
I lie on my cot, shivering in the early heat,

and as the fields unfold to whiteness,
and they spill like bees among the fat flowers,
I weep. It is not yet daylight.

Do You Deny or Accept Obstacles?

One fascinating thing about both observing people and creating characters is the wide variety of ways that they can look at the world. Some people are realists, some pessimists, some hopelessly naive. These sort of differences become especially clear when obstacles are thrown in people's paths. Some crack under pressure; some become stoic and taciturn when confronted with grief. Others collapse in tears and guilt, while still others immediately start blaming the situation on everyone around them.

When writing your story, it's crucial to have a good understanding of how your character encounters obstacles and conflict. After all, your story, almost by necessity, will put your character under stress and throw a few curve balls at him. How will he react? Does he pretend that the obstacles don't exist, or blow them out of proportion? Does he run away, or rise to meet them? Try imagining how you would meet the kind of challenge you're throwing at your character. What would you do if you had to face a cheating spouse or financial ruin? Then think about the ways your character is different from you, and imagine how his or her reaction will differ. Keeping the character close to a real person in this way will ensure that you stay in touch with reality, with your finger on how real people react to challenges.

Make it your writing exercise this week. Write a few notes on how your character is likely to react to an obstacle you have in mind. Then try writing that scene where he or she meets it face to face.

Photo of the Week

We click..., originally uploaded by madalena.leles.

I love the dynamism of this shot. It really captures the business and clamor of a typical New York street.

Poem of the Week: "How Things Work"

This week's poem is from Gary Soto.

HOW THINGS WORK

(1985)

Today it's going to cost us twenty dollars 
To live. Five for a softball. Four for a book, 
A handful of ones for coffee and two sweet rolls, 
Bus fare, rosin for your mother's violin. 
We're completing our task. The tip I left 
For the waitress filters down 
Like rain, wetting the new roots of a child 
Perhaps, a belligerent cat that won't let go 
Of a balled sock until there's chicken to eat. 
As far as I can tell, daughter, it works like this: 
You buy bread from a grocery, a bag of apples 
From a fruit stand, and what coins 
Are passed on helps others buy pencils, glue, 
Tickets to a movie in which laughter 
Is thrown into their faces. 
If we buy goldfish, someone tries on a hat. 
If we buy crayons, someone walks home with a broom. 
A tip. a small purchase here and there, 
And things just keep going. I guess.

Photo of the Week

The soldierOriginally uploaded by LukeOlsen

This is a US war memorial that bears a distinct but modern resemblance to Stonehenge. The lighting is both eerie and reverent. Happy Friday, readers!