Poor Carol

I have become the most unreliable blog partner. Carol and hopefully most of you are at WIFYR right now, one of my favorite places.

I am NOT at WiFYR, sadly.

Instead, I’m wiping down walls and stepping on spiders and trying to get my house ready to sell. Would you like to buy my house?

Here are a few things to think about this week–if you’re not at WIFYR. If you are at WIFYR, you will have plenty to do.

1. Listen to this podcast on fathers from This American Life. Different parts of this podcast jumped out at me.  One segment in particular, about a boy losing his father and seeing him in his casket (he used the word coffin which is a whole lesson on diction and how it can change a piece completely) made me think a lot about my own experience with bodies. And death. And parents. And how we are “supposed to” react to tragic events in our lives but yet things are so much more complicated than they seem.

Writing Prompt: Listen to this podcast and then write about your own dad. Write about he did or didn’t attempt to show you how he loved you. Did he say it out loud? Did he cook you breakfast every morning? Did he hug you and write you notes in your lunch? Did he dress up every day and wave to the bus? This could turn into a first chapter. It could be a short story. Or better yet, it could be a letter to your own dad, telling him how you love him.

2. Here are some summer reading programs to motivate your kids. Now we all need to think of some summer reading programs to motivate each other. How many books will you read these next few months? Why can’t i finish a novel? Why do my toes ache.

Writing Prompt: Make a list of books you’ve always wanted to read. Make another list of books you’ve heard about and possibly will read. Now make a list of books that are sitting on your side-table that you should read. Make a reading goal. The more you read, the better you write. Now tell me what to read.

3. Watch this show. Pay particular attention to the story-telling, the narration, the character development, the rising and falling action of each episode. This is based on a memoir. Are you keeping a journal? If someone was going to make a show of your life, what would the episodes be? What would have to change (to keep viewers interested), what could stay the same? A lot of times people will write stories and they will be unbelievable. I’ll tell them this. Then they’ll tell me that IT HAPPENED LIKE THAT IN THEIR REAL LIFE! And I’ll tell them: Sorry. It’s still unbelievable.

Life really is stranger than fiction. But we can use our life to make our fiction more rich. We just have to finesse it a bit.

Writing Prompt: Write a short episode–complete with hook, middle/climbing action, climax and ending–all based on an incident in your life. A small incident. Maybe something that happened today. While you were trying to cross your sweet child’s room to get a shirt and stepped on a lego and fell down on more legos and screamed out in pain and then someone called the ambulance and you were fine but you pretended you weren’t fine. You crossed your arms across your chest and waited for the men to come and put you in the back of the truck and people would be screaming and you’d be very very still and your kids would be worried so should you wake up? Or should you keep still. And let them learn about life and how sometimes people get hurt when they step on Legos. Write a story like that. Only different. And better.

That’s all for today. I think if I get five comments, I’ll give you more assignments tomorrow. If I don’t, I’ll know you’re all networking and laughing and singing and eating at WIFYR without me and definitely not reading this blog and I’ll just go back to acting like I’m going to paint walls WHICH I HATE.

The end.