Day: June 25, 2018

#UpbeatAuthors: Pollyanna vs Eeyore

There is a children’s classic book called Pollyanna. Disney made a movie based on the book, which I remember seeing on TV when I was a child. Pollyanna was the eternal optimist. She always tried to find something about which to be grateful. She changed a town full of curmudgeons into a pleasant place to live. The name Pollyanna has come to mean someone who is excessively optimistic.

Eeyore is a character from the classic Winnie the Pooh books. He’s pessimistic, gloomy, and depressed.

I recall a local TV documentary entitled In Defense of Pollyanna. Imagine having to defend optimism. But we do. Being a Pollyanna takes work, especially with the world the way it is these days. Optimism is frequently mistaken for naivety.

But who would you rather be around: someone who smiles or someone who whines?

And the funny thing about focusing on the positive is that it will improve your mood.

P.S. Today is Leon–Christmas is in exactly 6 month.

Clean Out Your In Box Week

This is National Clean Out Your In Box Week.

I try to clean mine out daily. The longest I go is weekly. I dislike clutter; leaving old emails hanging around in my inbox is a form of clutter.

What I really need is a “Clean Out Your Email Server” week. Once a month. It’s usually one of my goals, but I’m not very good at staying current. Because my website server doesn’t not have the option to delete incoming mail after a certain amount of time, I need to do it manually. When the server gets too full, my email isn’t forwarded to the program I use to manage my email.  And that is a bad thing. Truly.

 

Happy National Greasy Food Day!

I love greasy food.

Years ago, I discovered greasy fast food helps with hangover queasiness. Maybe the grease protects the stomach lining from alcohol burn.  (Not drinking to excess really helps protect the stomach. And the head.)

The human body needs fat to function. In moderation, of course.

So indulge in your favorite greasy food today.

Nat’l Opposite Day

It’s National Opposite Day. It’s supposed to be a day for kids being silly.

But opposites is an interesting concept. It’s a tool writers use to keep their stories interesting.

Romance authors are often told, “write the firefighter and the arsonist.” Opposites create conflict. Conflict is what keeps a story interesting.

One tool authors use is called the List of Twenty. Write down the problem at the top of the page then come up with 20 solutions. The first five answers will be obvious. The cliches. The tried-and-true. The next five will be ridiculous. Supposedly the next ten will work for you because you’ve gotten the cliches cleared away and jumpstarted true creative thinking.

I used the List of Twenty with success while writing And Jericho Burned. My problems was what kind of trauma would my heroine have suffered as a child that would turn her into a claustrophobic. I think I came up with a great answer.

I read another interesting exercise the other day: write down nine things that wouldn’t work. Just the opposite of the above. This has the mind approaching the problem from the opposite angle.

In The Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook super agent Donald Maas suggests reversing motivations. Another of his exercises consists of figuring out what a character would never do, then have the character do that.  His standard advice on almost every aspect of writing is “do the opposite.”

In my February 28 release, Mask of the King, I made sure my hero reacted to something in a way my editor didn’t expect. That’s a twist. I think most readers will expect him to react in a certain manner, which is one of the reasons I didn’t write the scene that way.

Opposites. They don’t just attract, they rock.