a publication of The Virtual Writing Coach ^SM
 

 

"The Creative Process of Writing is a
Liberating and Therapeutic Experience"
 
www.virtualwritingcoach.com

December 2004
 
In This Issue:
 
1. Preview

4. Getting into Action
 

 

1. Preview
 
The Writer's Connection explores the creative process of writing and the interplay between thoughts, feelings, and actions. We are an interactive community of authors and readers who share ideas to enhance our knowledge, skills, and experiences in writing fiction in any genre, but our emphasis remains mystery and suspense thrillers.
Published monthly, the Newsletter offers writing tips for authors, coaching suggestions, editing, and marketing information.
 
Topics are presented from the perspective of Keith Barton and represent only his ideas on producing your first manuscript, and are provided to the general public. Because we are an interactive community of writers, other viewpoints are welcomed and may be printed in future monthly newsletters with permission from Keith Barton.
2. Publisher's Note
 
December, 2004
 
Dear The Writer's Connection ^SM Subscriber,
 
This month features suggestions for December reading.
 
3. December is a Time for Reading
 
I would like to end this year's newsletter on slowing down and enjoying quiet time for yourself. Our lives are hectic and between our work and family demands we usually leave little time for ourselves. Unless you have a writing deadline this month, I would suggest that you put your current project aside and return to some classics. Here's my short list:
 
The Poetry of Robert Frost, Edward Connery Lathem (Ed.), Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1964.
 
The Complete Works of O. Henry, Doubleday, 1953.
 
Simple Abundance, Sarah Ban Breathnach, Warner Books, 1995.
 
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, John Berendt, Random House, 1994.
 
Beach Music, Pat Conroy, Doubleday, 1995 (Also The Great Santani, The Prince of Tides, and The Lords of Discipline).
 
Robert Frost, more than any other American Poet, has captured the connection between humans and nature. In this season of reflection I would suggest you re-read from Lathem's generous collection of over 350 poems. I would like to mention just one so you can see our incredible connection with nature:
 
These pools that, though in forests, still reflect
The total sky almost with defect,
And like the flowers beside them, chill and shiver,
Will like the flowers beside them soon be gone,
And yet not out by any brook or river,
But up by roots to bring dark foliage on.
 
The trees that have it in their pent-up buds
To darken nature and be summer woods
Let them think twice before they use their powers
To blot out and drink up and sweep away
These flowery waters and these watery flowers
From snow that melted only yesterday.
 
I think Pat Conroy is America's greatest storyteller, drawing on rich and painful material from his past. Having spent time in the South as a youth, I identify with many of the rites of passage required for a boy to become a man, however flawed and misguided. A sampling from Beach Music.
 
A cab let us off near the Tiber and we joined that great, splendidly dressed crowd that made its way between the two encircling colonnades that led to St. Peter's. It was a slow-moving, reflective congregation, like some grazing flock of herbivores who fed on prayer and incense and unleavened bread.
 
What a great use of imagery and simile.
 
I enjoy self-help books and Sarah Breathnach's Simple Abundance is an epiphany of the grace we experience with a spiritual connection to someone greater than ourselves. Each daily meditation is a book in itself with a propensity to find ourselves before we find out what we want in life. An excerpt from "Joyful Simplicities for June."
 
Take a trip down memory lane by catching lightning bugs or fireflies on the lawn at twilight. Prepare a comfy hotel for them in a clean mayonnaise jar with holes punched in the lid and layered with grass. Be sure to let them fly away home after a brief visit to their "hotel."
 
I love mysteries and my favorite is John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which describes the lives of Savannah's upper and lower classes in the south, full of intrigue and the acute differences between those who have money and those who don't. Long before Grisham began his prolific career with legal thrillers, this is the first one to talk about the injustice in our legal system today. An excerpt follows:
 
As for the mysterious old lady who punched out Joe Odom's windows with a hammer, I never saw her again. I did learn, however, that there were quite a few people in Savannah who might have felt justified in smashing Joe's windows as a result of having done business with him. The ranks of such people included any number of old ladies.
 
More than any other writer, O. Henry captures the humor, irony, and tragedy of everyday life. He is perhaps our greatest storyteller. Maybe you can see why from the following excerpt from the Discounters of Money:
 
How properly to alleviate the troubles of the poor is one of the greatest troubles of the rich. But one thing agreed upon by all professional philanthropists is that you must never hand over any cash to your subject. The poor are notoriously temperamental; and when they get money they exhibit a strong tendency to spend it for stuffed olives and enlarged crayon portraits instead of giving it to the installment man. 
 

4. Getting into Action
 
"Getting in to Action" is a monthly feature of The Writer's Connection ^SM . In this section of our Newsletter, we will discuss action steps the writer can take to improved his/her knowledge base in writing novels.
 
This month's recommendations:
 

 

1. Re-read one of your favorite classics. Reminisce about what it was like for you the first time you read the piece and your experiences now.
2. Audit a college literature course for fun.
3. Read an author or genre that you've ignored forever because of preference.
 

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