When it comes to writing, fiction or scripts, I am a planner. I don't plan everything, but enough for me to go by as I am in the process of writing. In other words, I know where my story will go. For me, it's like driving. If we know our destination, we can take as many detours as we want and will get back to where we want to go. Otherwise, once we are sidetracked, we'll get lost, wondering whether we should continue on the current route or we should return to where we come from and keep on going. That's where a writer's block sets in.
As far as I am concerned, I have not run into such a problem: because I know where my story will go and how to get to the endpoint. That's right: endpoint. While writing, I have made some changes here and there as I see fit; however, I have never lost sight of my story's endpoint taking a detour or detours.
I have come across quite a few articles in writing journals about how to cope with a writer's block. Fortunately, I haven't had any since I started writing. The reason? I always plan my story, but just enough. Planning too much would stifle our creativity and spontaneity.
My conclusion: know thy endpoint. That is my "weapon" to ward off a writer's block.
Monday, March 31, 2014
Friday, February 28, 2014
Structural Problems
Every form of writing has its own structure. Say, for example, haiku has a phrase and a fragment, and tanka has a lower verse and an upper verse. A stage play, a screenplay, and a novel? They have a much more complicated structure.
I always think of writing a long work the building of a house. With the foundation, which is the story idea, we build a play or a novel. In the building process, we might be blind to the structure. That happened to me while working on my memoir. Rewrites, which I did more than twenty times, did not help. Finally, I put it away for a while. Then, I looked at it again. Aha, I saw the big problem! Its structure was not sound--alas, I'm not Bill Clinton, but I'm writing an autobiography. And it's too colossal a building to tear down and to rebuild. I decided to save the material for a novel, or novels, I will write someday. It won't be an autobiographical novel.
It is a lot of headache and heartache to tear down the "house" and rebuild it. However, it is worth the efforts.
How to detect the structural problems? Simple, set the writing aside, whatever it is, for at least a couple of months. Then, look at it with a pair of fresh eyes. Yes, fresh eyes. I touched on this topic before.
You may argue that you don't care about structure when you write. That is fine, too. However, look at all the significant buildings in the world. Don't they all have some sort of structure? Even non-structure does have structure.
I always think of writing a long work the building of a house. With the foundation, which is the story idea, we build a play or a novel. In the building process, we might be blind to the structure. That happened to me while working on my memoir. Rewrites, which I did more than twenty times, did not help. Finally, I put it away for a while. Then, I looked at it again. Aha, I saw the big problem! Its structure was not sound--alas, I'm not Bill Clinton, but I'm writing an autobiography. And it's too colossal a building to tear down and to rebuild. I decided to save the material for a novel, or novels, I will write someday. It won't be an autobiographical novel.
It is a lot of headache and heartache to tear down the "house" and rebuild it. However, it is worth the efforts.
How to detect the structural problems? Simple, set the writing aside, whatever it is, for at least a couple of months. Then, look at it with a pair of fresh eyes. Yes, fresh eyes. I touched on this topic before.
You may argue that you don't care about structure when you write. That is fine, too. However, look at all the significant buildings in the world. Don't they all have some sort of structure? Even non-structure does have structure.
Friday, January 31, 2014
Beginning and Ending
Today is the first day of the Chinese New Year of the horse; also, it's the end of January 2014. The beginning and the ending fall on the same day. I found it interesting and thought-provoking. It seems that beginning and ending are two separate things. But, are they? Anyone who has paid close attention to nature knows that they are two-in-one and one-in-two. It's a very profound concept. A concept that I come to understand deeper and deeper as I grow older.
I will make this--beginning and ending--a writing prompt for myself. Wait a minute. Didn't I say earlier in my blog that I seldom write to writing prompts? This one is created by myself, so I should be able to write something about it.
What comes to your mind when you think of a horse? Kentucky Derby? I've thought about it, too. And, of course I've thought about all the Chinese sayings about a horse.
Have a happy Year of the Horse! Hope your horse will get you to the finish line fast!
I will make this--beginning and ending--a writing prompt for myself. Wait a minute. Didn't I say earlier in my blog that I seldom write to writing prompts? This one is created by myself, so I should be able to write something about it.
What comes to your mind when you think of a horse? Kentucky Derby? I've thought about it, too. And, of course I've thought about all the Chinese sayings about a horse.
Have a happy Year of the Horse! Hope your horse will get you to the finish line fast!
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Where Would You Like to See Yourself in Five Years?
I remember one of the questions my supervisor asked me during the review session in the company I had my day job: "Where would you like to see yourself in five years?" I don't remember what my answer was as a worker whose job failed to define me--a playwright at the time. As a writer, though, I do have an answer to that question, and I have had the answer since I graduated from WMU. Five years is a reasonable length of time to reach a goal, and it's not too far a distance to see things around us unless an emergency happens that completely upset our plan. It did happen to me in 2010.
That said, I am glad to be able to return to be a story teller again. I can tell a story in a tanka sequence and a haibun; however, it's a different kind of story telling. I have enjoyed writing them and will continue to write them. Meanwhile, I will be working on my long writing projects. Where would I like to see myself in five years? I got the answer.
What about you?
Happy 2014!
That said, I am glad to be able to return to be a story teller again. I can tell a story in a tanka sequence and a haibun; however, it's a different kind of story telling. I have enjoyed writing them and will continue to write them. Meanwhile, I will be working on my long writing projects. Where would I like to see myself in five years? I got the answer.
What about you?
Happy 2014!
Saturday, November 30, 2013
My Winning Haibun
I've been sick for more than a week and am still quite sick. So I'm going to post here my haibun that won a second place of Jerry Kilbride Memorial 2012 English-Language Haibun Contest. This haibun has just been published by Haibun Today Volume 7, Number 4, December, 2013, which comes out today.
Leaves Falling to Their Roots
A sunny autumn day. Wes and I are driving through territory new to me.
“Remember where I want to be buried?” I ask.
“Have your ashes scattered into the Pacific from a promontory on the Oregon coast,” he answers. I told him that during our trip there.
I smile sadly. “Yes. So, a bit of me might flow back to the coast of Vietnam.”
Hours later, we arrive. He holds her urn as we walk towards the designated spot.
Calgary
his grandmother rests
at home
| contents page | next haibun |
Leaves Falling to Their Roots
A sunny autumn day. Wes and I are driving through territory new to me.
“Remember where I want to be buried?” I ask.
“Have your ashes scattered into the Pacific from a promontory on the Oregon coast,” he answers. I told him that during our trip there.
I smile sadly. “Yes. So, a bit of me might flow back to the coast of Vietnam.”
Hours later, we arrive. He holds her urn as we walk towards the designated spot.
Calgary
his grandmother rests
at home
| contents page | next haibun |
Thursday, October 31, 2013
My Published Poems
These days, we can read almost everything on the Internet for free. However, if the printed magazines and books that don't go digital, we are out of reach of them unless we purchase a copy.
For those of you who don't have a copy of the in-print journals that have published my tanka, here I'd like to share them with you.
The following tanka are about war in general, the Vietnam War in particular:
Memorial Day
the bagpipes' lyricism
on the screen
I recall the Tet Offensive
in Saigon and Cholon
(bottle rockets, no. 29)
For those of you who experienced the war in either Vietnam or America will remember the Tet Offensive that escalated the war. This tanka of mine is not only about the Vietnam War but about other wars as well.
maple leaves
spray red on the ground
I stand
on the blood-soaked earth
contemplating peace
(red lights, June 2013)
"War and peace" seems to like to pair up with each other. When the war ends, comes peace. Right? Wrong. For us South Vietnamese, peace did NOT come until . . . You fill in the blank.
Happy Halloween!
For those of you who don't have a copy of the in-print journals that have published my tanka, here I'd like to share them with you.
The following tanka are about war in general, the Vietnam War in particular:
Memorial Day
the bagpipes' lyricism
on the screen
I recall the Tet Offensive
in Saigon and Cholon
(bottle rockets, no. 29)
For those of you who experienced the war in either Vietnam or America will remember the Tet Offensive that escalated the war. This tanka of mine is not only about the Vietnam War but about other wars as well.
maple leaves
spray red on the ground
I stand
on the blood-soaked earth
contemplating peace
(red lights, June 2013)
"War and peace" seems to like to pair up with each other. When the war ends, comes peace. Right? Wrong. For us South Vietnamese, peace did NOT come until . . . You fill in the blank.
Happy Halloween!
Monday, September 30, 2013
Humor in Poetry
We run in some sort of problems, frustration, and indignation. Humor is the best way to drive them off in order to keep our emotional balance. There's humor in all kinds of writing, even in poetry. In Japanese short form poetry, such poems are called Kyoka, another version of tanka.
Among all my published tanka, two of them, just off the top of my head, have humor in them.
Here is one published in Fire Pearls 2:
instantly
I become a beauty
when my sister says,
"your mouth is as big as
Sophia Loren's"
In this poem, I poke fun at both myself and my sister who unwittingly mocks her own sex by embracing the idea that degrades women. In traditional Chinese culture, there's a saying, "A man who has a big mouth (its physical size and thus has nothing to do with the American idiom) will have a feast everywhere he goes. A woman who has a big mouth will eat too much to impoverish her husband." How unfair is this saying! My old-fashioned sister fails to see the sexism in it. Oh, well. She's entitled to what she thinks and what she believes in.
Here's another one published in Atlas Poetica's special feature of "All Hallow's Evening : Supernatural Tanka" :
Halloween Party . . .
wrapped in a green sheet, a foam crown
with a paper torch
I strut like Lady Liberty
who comes from Saigon
This poem is about my partaking of a company's Halloween Party. I had a lot of fun, playing Lady Liberty.
It adds another level of meaning to a poem, be it tanka or free verse, if we inject humor into our poems; the same is true to the other kinds of writing.
Among all my published tanka, two of them, just off the top of my head, have humor in them.
Here is one published in Fire Pearls 2:
instantly
I become a beauty
when my sister says,
"your mouth is as big as
Sophia Loren's"
In this poem, I poke fun at both myself and my sister who unwittingly mocks her own sex by embracing the idea that degrades women. In traditional Chinese culture, there's a saying, "A man who has a big mouth (its physical size and thus has nothing to do with the American idiom) will have a feast everywhere he goes. A woman who has a big mouth will eat too much to impoverish her husband." How unfair is this saying! My old-fashioned sister fails to see the sexism in it. Oh, well. She's entitled to what she thinks and what she believes in.
Here's another one published in Atlas Poetica's special feature of "All Hallow's Evening : Supernatural Tanka" :
Halloween Party . . .
wrapped in a green sheet, a foam crown
with a paper torch
I strut like Lady Liberty
who comes from Saigon
This poem is about my partaking of a company's Halloween Party. I had a lot of fun, playing Lady Liberty.
It adds another level of meaning to a poem, be it tanka or free verse, if we inject humor into our poems; the same is true to the other kinds of writing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
