Off Adventuring

I'll be away from the blog for a couple of weeks on a Great Adventure. Keep writing, and stay tuned.

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal

The Beauty of the Ordinary

“My life has been so ordinary, I don’t think anyone would be interested in reading about it.”

I often hear variations of this comment when people learn that I teach life story writing. I’m always sad when I hear this thought, because I don’t consider any life ordinary or uninteresting. I do realize that some lives may look that way at first glance, but with just a little digging, they take on amazing depth and dimension. Whether you think your own life is dull and ordinary or not, you may benefit from some of the thoughts I share with these people.

Document the ordinary. That which seems ordinary to you today may seem extraordinary and amazing to generations down the road. Just as I wonder how women a couple of centuries ago could keep their families fed without today’s ranges, refrigerators, plastic wrap and year-round produce supply, people a century from now may wonder how I managed without conveniences they will take for granted and I can’t imagine.

Dig a little deeper. Legions of people with outwardly ordinary lives have rich and colorful inner lives. This inner life may take the form of fantasy, for example, planning exotic trips they never take, always having the perfect come-back on the tips of their tongues, and so forth. It may take the form of personal ritual, for example, brewing a cup of tea with Spode china at the end of each grueling workday, or a special cigar on Saturday evenings. It may even lie in the future as you uncover unfulfilled wishes you’ve set aside so long you forgot you used to dream of them.

Change your perspective. Not long ago I sat with my tiny granddaughter as she explored a wooden bowl of small rocks I gathered from the banks of the Columbia River. At a glance a stranger may wonder why I keep this drab bowl of rocks around. Sarah found them fascinating. She tasted them. She noticed how different they look when they are wet. She poured them out and put them back in. She arranged them in circles. She fingered their smoothness. Infected by her enthusiasm, I took a few flat ones and made a Zen-type pile. The ordinary gains beauty when viewed through fresh eyes.

Perhaps those who consider their lives ordinary are crying out for reassurance and affirmation of their worth. I can think of no better way to get that assurance and affirmation than beginning to write about your life and sharing it with others.

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal

Let Your Tongue Be Your Guide

Few things are more detracting or confusing in a story than awkward word order. As an example I offer the following sentence from a book I recently read (out of respect for the author, it shall remain nameless):

“Burr buttercups grew between the grasses like snares, and in prairie dogs’ abandoned holes black widows, the size of succulent grapes, reigned.”

This sentence isn’t exactly unclear, but my eye stumbled as I read, and I had to go back over it a couple of times. My first pass had succulent grapes reigning. How much more smoothly it flows as

“... black widows as large as succulent grapes reigned in prairie dogs’ abandoned holes.”

Or,

“... abandoned prairie dogs’ holes were now home to black widows spiders the size of succulent grapes.”

We could probably find half a dozen more ways to tweak that sentence but most would leave the tone of the author’s voice. My primary emphasis here is on word order, not fine tuning wording. Let’s look at another example:

“At best it would be well over a year, realistically, assuming we were able to get the grant, before the funds would be available.”

Again, I had to reread to get the full drift of that one. Rearranging the components and a slight word tweak smooths it out.

“Assuming we were able to get the grant, realistically, it would be well over a year, maybe longer, before the funds would be available.”

Two important steps help ensure that your stories will flow smoothly. The first is to print them out. As you become increasingly comfortable writing on the computer, you become better at onscreen editing, but words always look different on paper. For the highest polish, print things out for final edits.

The other step is to read your work aloud. Any time your tongue stumbles, edit accordingly. Your tongue is the best guide to smooth reading.

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal

Keep a File of Word Pictures

Earlier this afternoon as I began to nod off with a book in my lap, my thoughts drifted to a friend and how sad she had sounded when she spoke of some problems involving her daughter. Suddenly, out of the blue, these words came to mind: "Telling a friend of our sadness is like putting a frame around it."

How true! I thought. That's just what friends do. By listening to our concerns, they allow us to draw boundaries around the problem. Their responses set off certain elements in our thinking and create a frame of reference.

As profound as that thought may be, it isn't worth writing a lifestory about. I mention it here because it is worth keeping, if not in a story. I have a file where I keep idea scraps like this. Sometime when I'm writing a story about something sad or angry, this analogy will be just the right way of putting things, so I'm stashing it in that file. If I never use it again, at least I won't forget it. I read through this file every now and then, and it's almost like reading haikus. Each thought is a little gem, filled with personal meaning.

If you haven't started such a file, I strongly encourage you to do so now. I keep mine on my computer, but a card file would also work well, or a list in a journal.

May your list grow long and deep, and may it bring you a thousand pleasures as you read over it in years to come.

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal

Writing With Courage

Every now and then someone asks how to handle a story topic that isn’t currently “politically correct.” I include an example of such material in The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing (to be released in July 2007 by Lighthouse Point Press). It’s about the time I ordered extra spicy food at a Chinese restaurant. I include the dialect of the immigrant Chinese owner in the story, introducing it at the top in the title, “Esstrah Spicy.”

The original version of this story included words like “evil gleam” and “sinister grin.” I would have used these terms to describe a blue-eyed, blond-haired Swede in the same situation — in my mind, they had nothing to do with ethnicity. However, as I read the story with an eye toward publication, I realized those particular terms fed into wide-spread stereotypes from decades ago that had nothing to do with the story. Other words serve the purpose equally well, and I edited accordingly.

I was aware a few people might be uncomfortable with the dialect, but it was as much part of the ambiance of that restaurant as the Asian decor. I would find a glibly American accent on the tongue of Chinese restaurant staff as jolting as French Provincial furnishings. I don’t think anyone would question using dialect if the character hailed from Boston — is China any different? The dialect is an integral part of the story. It stayed.

Where do you draw the line on political correctness? My personal rule of thumb is to tell the story as I understood and saw it, as long as I’m not being intentionally hurtful or mean. Within that determination, if I’m aware something is questionable, I work through this list as I make my decision:

• Is there another way of stating this without changing the meaning? If there is, I'll change it.
  
• Does this description or incident lend significant value to the story’s purpose? If it doesn't, it shouldn't be in there anyway.
  
• Do I have any underlying malice or spite toward the person I’m describing? Malice and spite turn a story bitter. Better to not tell it at all, or at least to wait until the edge is off.
  
• Does the benefit of including this material outweigh the risk of offending or hurting?
  
• Does this material express my own truth?
  

I would never advocate being purposely crash, disrespectful, or insensitive. However, scrubbing all questionable references to personal characteristics that define the uniqueness of others would sanitize the life out of stories, rendering them sterile and boring.

This same sanitizing can distort historical accuracy, giving a false sense of the times you live in. For example, in today’s culture, using the term “Nigger Town” is beyond imagination for most people. But if you grew up in certain parts of the United States in the early decades of the last century, that term was in common usage. It may have been a significant part of your mental map. While it will sound shocking, even offensive, you deny the reality of the times by writing around it. You can soften the impact by including a line or two to explain the cultural context of the times, and perhaps write about your own evolving vocabulary and attitudes. The explanations allow you to teach and witness in a positive way.

You’ll have to make your own decisions, based on your own sense of inner truth and personal integrity. Write with tenderness and courage. Celebrate differences, and don’t let the PC Police force you into hiding your reality and truth.

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal

Succulent Writing

Some people are deterred from writing about their lives because they feel more comfortable with a paintbrush than a pencil. SARK* is the poster child for such people, showing how to combine a few words with compelling images that enhance the message. I refer you to books by SARK and her Planet SARK website for examples of another way to express yourself. Click on the image of her latest book (to be released in April) to explore the wonders of her way with words and art. Even those of us who are artistically challenged can benefit from SARK's succulent views on life.

She breaks all the rules about typing and formatting in an extraordinary, unique, hand-written way. I’d never advise anyone to copy SARK's specific style, but I urgently suggest that you emulate her general approach. Her work spills directly from her heart and passion as it colorfully splashes onto the page. Unless you have the gift of drawing or painting, you’ll likely confine your efforts to colorful words, but hopefully they will come straight from your heart and your passion for life.

Should SARK’s example inspire you to experiment with embellishing hand-written sagas with your own art, turn to your scanner to electronically consolidate your output. Combining your scanned images into a PDF document (think Adobe Acrobat Reader) allows you to print all the pages at once, and/or share them as an e-book via CD or downloads.

The high-ticket way to do this is to purchase a copy of Adobe Acrobat (standard or professional, not the free Acrobat Reader). Most individuals will find Adobe's prices prohibitive. Fortunately there is an affordable alternative: The Pdf995 Suite. You can download and use this full-featured suite of pdf creation tools for free, without any time limit. If you want to avoid pop-up ads for their other products, you can purchase a key for a mere $9.99. I definitely recommend key purchase as a gesture of support for those who make such powerful software available at no charge.

With either of these programs, you can incorporate dozens or hundreds of pages of text and/or graphics into a single PDF document, suitable for sending to a Print-On-Demand (POD) publisher such as Lulu, or sharing as an easily viewable e-book.

I’m about to grab my Crayolas™ and some paper and try a little SARKish succulent writing. Will you join me?

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal

* It took some digging, but I discovered that SARK, the name this creativity maven always uses, is derived from Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy. Truthfully, I like the ring of SARK better than simply Susan, but remember, I'm partial to my own chosen moniker of Ritergal.

Anything You Write Is Better Than Writing Nothing

My husband's Uncle Walter died several weeks ago, at the ripe old age of ninety-six after an exemplary life. Walter had a rich spirit. He was a masterful story teller, and it's a shame that his stories were never written down. Or so we thought.

Earlier today I was looking through my computer files to find pictures of Walter for display at his upcoming Celebration Service. I found some wonderful old ones that will serve the purpose well. Besides those pictures, I found a folder of scanned images that I'd forgotten about. Several years ago Uncle Walter began writing about his early life in Ray, a mining town in the Territory of Arizona. He also wrote down some recollections of his father. He loaned the stories to me for scanning.

The whole collection spans fewer than twenty pages, but each one is precious. Our family genealogist met him once, but barely knew him. She was ecstatic when she received the collection, because they contain some valuable genealogical information as well as anecdotes of life nearly one hundred years ago.

This goes to prove once again, that it doesn't take more than a few paragraphs to thrill your family! His were chicken-scratch scrawls, but they are legible, and they are terrific.

Speaking of scrawls and scans, at the beginning of the new year, I switched to from Microsoft Word to OpenOffice, an open source office suite that is available for download at no cost. OpenOffice has a built-in utility for exporting documents as pdf files (think Adobe Acrobat Reader). I have discovered that I can compile a large collection of image files into a single pdf document rather easily. I open a new document and set the margins at zero all around, assure OO that I really do want to do this, and enter a couple of hard page breaks (hold down Ctrl while pressing Enter). Then I import existing documents, one per page, or scan new ones in. When I have them all in place, I export the collection as a pdf file.

You could do this with Word, but it is a bit more finicky about margin settings, and the pdf function isn't nearly as powerful. Another option would be to use the free, open source program PDF Creator. The ultimate solution is Adobe Acrobat Professional, but that costs almost as much as a new computer. I'll stick with OpenOffice!

This process of compiling scanned images into a single document allows you to keep handwritten documents intact in the original handwriting. Transcribing them is great, but if you have fewer than one hundred pages, it's nice to see them the way they were written.

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal