My characters don’t “say”, they proclaim…

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Okay, it’s a silly title for a blog post. My quandary is rather comically illustrated, though, for I take issue with repetitive language. A past crusade was against the word “was”. This indicative can so easily become a crutch, I think. An early original series of mine received a serious purge, then I subsequently encountered “was” so many times on the first few pages of a book that I refused to read this popular author’s entire series!

Later, a friend kindly pointed another tendency I had to overuse “had”. Yikes. Thanks, Nikki! The kind pointers from artists like you and other dear colleagues really help my craft and improve my tales.

Now, as you’ve surely guessed, I’ve moved onto dialogue tags. The ideal goal is to not need to blatantly indicate the speaker. An author should aspire toward the reader determining who is talking without such aids. Other times, we unavoidably need them, especially when inserting a descriptive paragraph in the middle of the exchange. In those instances, I’ve become obsessed with avoiding “says” or “said”.

A big part of this is just me being picky. And yet I listened to a book on tape that would have been pure pleasure except for the constant “he said” or “she said” sprinkled liberally throughout. The phrase actually came to annoy me and my captive spouse during the long car ride. Whether or not “said” blended into the written page, I physically flinched as time went on.

Considering this, let’s agree that my beef against the word is somewhat founded. Still, I face a quandary. How often am I harming my stories by using a fancier alternative? Apparently my proclivity is not rare among this generation’s new storytellers. In my Oxford American thesaurus for writers I discovered a warning that the creative ways we folks avoid repetition makes the tags jump off the page. That’s not good, either. These little verbs should blend in behind the all-important character exchange except when portraying something specific regarding the speaker, the listener, or their situation.

The best solution is to just keep writing. Eventually, I’ll come up with a satisfactory balance. So I have to ask, what do you have to say? Is my obsession founded or is it flotsam?

Just Breathe

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In…and out…and in….and out…

Whew.

I did it.

I think.

I have actually created an online presence under the name I plan to use for writing, Nicole Gordon. Nicole Gordon now has a gmail address (nicolegordonfiction@gmail.com), a blog (http://nicolegordonfiction.blogspot.com), and a facebook account.

(and in…. and out….and in… and out…)

I have hemmed and haahed about this like you would not believe, and I still feel a little ridiculous since I don’t have anything even close to being ready to submit, but it just seemed time to take as step forward.

So now I’m going to take one more deep breath, open a bottle of wine, and see if I can work on the actual fiction part of Nicole Gordon Fiction.

Wiley Wednesday: Sustainable Change

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I’m reminded recently of how change becomes sustainable, and how to set oneself up for failure. I thought I’d talk about that a little here, in the context of writing, but it applies to any changes one wishes to make in one’s daily round.

A young colleague of mine recently decided to chuck it all, move home to another state and live with his mother, and “get in shape.” Then , once he’s down below the weight requirements, he plans to apply to Officer Candidate School of whatever branch “will accept him.”

He had a lot to say about patriotism, and hypocrisy of those who sit on the sidelines during war and refuse to participate. On the other hand, he’s a brilliant young mathematician with a shot at contributing to the field of economics or finance.

But all of that aside, all the question ns of whether t his is the “right” choice at the “right” time during a two-front war that shows every sign of being a generational problem, let’s focus on the most critical part of his statements as they relate to us as writers: he’s going to move home, “get disciplined,” lose the weight, and apply to OCS.

As any of us who have attempted any long-term marathon change, such as weight loss or writing a large project, or even writing small projects consistently, we know that it’s little increments that add up to a larger whole. It’s rarely the grandiose gestures that make success, it’s the small accumulation of baby steps toward a goal that create the foundation for sustainable change. After all, one cannot cram for weight loss the way one crams for a test.

Which makes a side point – education in the institutional model does not prepare us for reality, because we believe that cramming and writing papers the night before can lead us to success long term. Really, that’s a way for short-term success, but how much to we really remember of the test we crammed? How deeply did we mine our acre of diamond to come up with a paper we wrote in one night?

Sustainable change must be perpetual, hence the word sustainable.

From Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, page 1189, “sustain: 1. To give support or relief to; 2. To supply with sustenance; nourish; 3. Keep up, prolong; 4. To support the weight of; prop, also: to carry or withstand (a weight or pressure)” etc.

None of those definitions describes something immediate or transitory. None is ephemeral; one is rather minded of bricks or a scaffold, something with permanency or providing support in order to build that which is permanent. Long-term.

We need to set up a sort of perpetual motion machine that feeds itself over time – but this is not something that can be done overnight. It is said that a habit is formed over 21 days, which is hardly an overnight cram session, wouldn’t you say? That’s three whole weeks of sustained effort. Steven Covey talks about escape velocity, and I think that applies in this case – but after escape velocity is produced, what then? After we’re in orbit of our new plan, what then? How have you changed, and how have you set up scaffolding to support your new self?

Buddy, can you spare a dollar?

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I’ve never thought I would be in a position to ask a total stranger for money. The other week, I put myself smack dab in the middle of that prospect.

A series of careless actions found me 200 miles from home with $3, some odd change, and a handful of useless plastic. Smart, huh? My credit issues revealed over time, the whole scenario came together like the proverbial perfect storm.

To start, the travel didn’t come as a surprise, but a new edict by my credit union did. Apparently, members are now required to plan ahead for travel as funds may we be cut off from out-of-area usage. While I appreciate the new security precaution, personal notification of such an important change would have been nice.

The same could be said about a very different surprise. For the first time in my life, I accidentally skipped a credit card payment. The night a dinner bill was declined didn’t alarm me, for I ironically assumed that to be a glitch because I roamed from my usual haunts. So what did I do? Nothing! Rather than call, I forgot about the incident until a repeat performance occurred at a gas station. It was my wise partner that suggested trying the card again on the day of the trip, and this finally got me motivated to contact customer service.

Imagine my embarrassment when the kindly representative had to move up the payment thoughtlessly scheduled for the upcoming due date. You’d think I would have noticed my error in the process of scheduling May’s payment, or, better yet, in the process of verifying that charges were legitimate. And how did I not question the larger balance? While I’m puzzled as to why I received no warning, the fault is ultimately all my own.

At any rate, the Visa rep explained to me that the card would remain on hold while payment could be verified, but waiting twenty-four hours for reactivation seemed a small inconvenience. After all, I carry a second credit line for just such emergencies. Everything was peachy, or so I thought.

Unfortunately, there happened to be a very different issue with my Mastercard account. Some time back I was issued a new card and, out of sheer laziness, failed to activate the thing. Now that I needed to do so, I learned of a stipulation. Yet another security precaution requires the cardholder to call the company from a home phone! Trying to call from my cell phone accomplished nothing.

Effectively broke, I would have ended up washing dishes somewhere to pay for a way home if I’d been alone. Fortunately, my wiser travel companion had called the credit union and also carried viable credit cards. And bright side was the calm patience my concerned mate displayed in the face of such utter irresponsibility. I suppose I kicked myself hard enough for both of us, but this calm reaction was greatly appreciated.

So to the identity thieves responsible for all these new security procedures, I’d like to kick you in the behind. Actually, that’s putting it very mildly, and this suffering was undeniably self-induced. I can’t imagine having my financial identity hijacked. I’m also grateful for the insurance we have in place for such an emergency. Let’s hope we never need it.

How about you? Ever paint yourself into a corner like this? Or maybe you can share an experience with identity theft. I’d like to hear your story…

Neuroses in Little Japan

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A while back I read a book that made such an impact I wanted to share the experience of reading. In this age of e-books, that’s ridiculously easy to do while keeping your own copy but I just can’t do it. Call me silly if you wish, but before you shake your head and click to leave this crazy person’s rant, know that you’ll find a brief review if you keep reading. ~dangles cookie~ Okay, I am admittedly neurotic.

However, I don’t condemn those who download music, and buying used paperbacks has a decidedly positive impact upon the environment. All the same, I actually purchased the e-book a second time before sending a friend the file. Then I tracked down the authors’ contact page and let them know.

So, whatever your stance on this, do me a favor and give artists feedback whenever you can. You’ll both be glad you did. You might spend a minute to email a note that can brighten another person’s entire day exponentially. Lecture over, the review follows.

“Little Japan” centers on host boys living high in Osaka, their Dotonbori nightlife overflowing with expensive champagne and extremely generous admirers. For those of you who don’t know, hosting is sort of the masculine version of the geisha, often entailing thinly veiled prostitution.

Interested yet? I sure was. Co-authored by Reno MacLeod and Jaye Valentine, “Little Japan” features two of my current favorite things: androgynous, over-stimulated, homosexual Japanese males and true love expressed through copious and energetic coupling.

Enter a sexy, tortured, older American businessman named Gabriel and you have magic. The story is not fluff, though, by any means. That becomes apparent in the first few pages from what my friend already reported!

Very real evil underlies all the lush and steamy interaction. And our compelling protagonists join to combat the source. Sharing my same fixation, Gabriel comes to discover that his self-condemned desire for host boys like the lovely Kuri is downright benevolent. While seeking one-night-stands to remind him of a long-lost love, he also pays royally. Other men of wealth and power are not so honorable. It’s up to Kuri, Gabriel, and another host boy to rescue Kuri’s lover from a horrible fate far from home.

Writing this, I realize a need to check out some of the other titles by MacLeod and Valentine. If you happen to purchase “Little Japan”, tell ‘em Darla hooked you up.

Darla’s published — still exciting even if it’s unpaid…

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Well, it’s self promotion instead of a true flash fiction for today, but dear A Catherine Noon encouraged me to put this on the group blog. If you like gay reads and care to check out excerpts from my story, a different one can be found on each of my blogs.

Darla M. Sands

Sand Castles – m/m slash warning stronger here

If you would like to support Mel Keegan’s GLBT Bookshelf with a visist the whole e-book can be downloaded. In addition there are many other great reads to be found here:

Free-Gay-Ebooks