My Favorite B Words

      I love words as does any writer. However, I have some words that are my absolute favorites, either because of how they sound when I say them, the feeling or picture they produce, or what they intuitively mean to me. 

     Today I thought I would share my three most favorite B words. These three words pretty much govern my philosophy of life. They provide a paradigm that I live by. Interestingly, I think they also apply to the writing life.

      Believe  A belief in yourself, a belief in the benevolence of others, and a belief that there is something larger than all of us. I'm not sure the specifics of what that is is as important as the belief that we are part of something greater, part of a power that governs the universe in which all living things play a vital role.

      Balance  Living and growing is a chaotic process. When we are in balance we see things clearer and make better choices. Our daily choices of how we spend our time are rarely between good and bad. They are about balancing our precious time between our families, our work and ourselves.

     Be     This is the hardest of the three. This is the word that tells us to slow down, stop and listen. To be is about learning to accept ourselves. Being allows us to stop the treadmill in order to hear our better self and appreciate who we are. It is about enjoying the moment. Being present in our lives.  

What are your favorite words?

Why I Write For Middle School

Tweet There are many reasons I have chosen to  focus on middle school writing.  Each reason plays a vital role in my development as a writer and I hope you find them interesting. Since there are too many for one blog post I will be giving you small glimpses into my paradigm in hopes that you will share yours with me. 

     Some of my earliest memories are my mother as she read to us. I remember the way she brought each character to life with only the sound of her voice. I think that's where my siblings and I learned to create voices. Get all of us in a room and you quickly learn that we have a unique way of communicating; we love to imitate inflection and sounds of voices other than our own. We seem to have a knack for putting words in other peoples mouths by imitating not just what we think they would say but how they would say it. This often is confusing for people that don't "get us". (Sometimes mistaken for multiple personality disorder.) In any event, we have all become expert observers of behavior and communication. 

     When the Harry Potter series first came out, I immediately began reading this to my children. This was long before Hogwarts was a household word.  I found her characters easily brought to life by my repertoire of voices. So distinct were my voices that when the first movie came out, my children complained that the voice of Dobby was all wrong. These characters changed and grew up with my children which made them incredibly compelling. 


     The huge changes and growth that occur during the middle school years are ideal for creating characters with conflict.  

 Do your early memories play a role in your writing? Does anybody else create voices for their characters?

   

Why Wednesday: Seeing the World Like A Four-Year-Old

     When I look back on raising my children I can pick out ages that I especially liked and some that were not so enjoyable.  I would say some of the hardest were the ages of 12 and 13. Interesting enough when I think of my own childhood, those were some of my most difficult years. (More on that in another post)  One of my favorite ages was when my children were four. Everyday, almost every hour an innocent little face would turn to me and ask why. 

Let me tell you about my four year old grandson, Luke. Like most children his age he is interested in the why, what and how of everything around him. He can't learn and experience everything fast enough. One day when he was playing with some children the familiar question of size came up. "I'm bigger than you," said the big kid. Luke looked hurt but then quickly quipped, "Well, I'm smarter." *stifled laughter* It was then that we realized we had a live one and he was ready to hit the world head-on.

Four-year-olds don't miss a thing. Every nuance, every detail is absorbed and stored, only to come out later, hopefully not in an embarrassing way. (You know, the cuss word yelled at the top of their lungs or a detailed description of last nights argument to a complete stranger) If they don't get something they question it.

Somewhere along the way, we lose that intrinsic curiosity and confidence. We become complacent observers.  As writers we need to tap back into this mindset. We need to ask why our character wants what they want. What is it that makes this character so mean? How come he's afraid when he sees a spider? The real challenge is how do we train ourselves to see the world as if we are seeing it for the first time?

What tools do we have to get us to that paradigm?