Tag: Monica Stoner

It’s About Time by Monica Stone, Member at Large

Time is a four letter word. No matter how hard we work, we never have enough time. We can save time, waste time, lose time, make time, but we can never create time. We can kill time, find time, steal time, juggle time but still time gets away from us. Somehow twenty four hours just don’t seem to be enough time yet I suspect if we could create thirty six hour days we’d still not have enough time.

As writers we seem to constantly need just a little bit more time. Time to write of course but also time to perform those every day miracles that seem to need our time and no one else’s. Somehow only we can plan meals, sort laundry, mop floors. And if we add more commitments to our time all too often we find time for those commitments and not our writing.

When good causes come calling I find it’s easier to commit myself to a donation than to time but of course they’d rather have some of my precious time. How can we put a monetary value on something we can’t touch and never have enough of?

Then there’s the whole sleep thing. We’re told we need more sleep but again there just does not seem to be time for eight hours of doing nothing but recharging our bodies. Of course this is one of the places where we really do need to make time or we’ll find ourselves running out of time.

I understand there are some time management blogs and courses available. I’ll look into them as soon as I can find the time.

Monica Stoner

tsent@ix.netcom.com

You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something.
-Winston Churchill

Come on Down and Join the Fun

Monica Stoner, member at large

The time is NOW to make space in your schedule for the LERA conference. Afterwards we can introduce you to green chilis, the most perfect food in the world.

2009 LERA Write From The Heart Conference

Come join LERA, Dianna Love, and Mary Buckham (with special guest Sherrilyn Kenyon) as they present their innovative, day long workshop:

From Thought To Plot
This interactive workshop will be held on Saturday, November 14th, from 8:30 to 5:00 at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center,2401 12th St. NW Albuquerque, NM, just five minutes from Old Town Albuquerque.

Book signing after the conference: location TBA. Authors will include Sherrilyn Kenyon, Dianna Love, and Mary Buckham!

Monica K Stoner
tsent@ix.netcom.com

What to write VS How to write

Monica Stoner, Member at Large

Years ago I had the great good fortune to attend a weekend workshop with Paul Gillette. In the process of having our work analyzed, he brought up the concept: “I can teach you HOW to write but I can’t teach you WHAT to write.” It sounded quite wise, and as he was saying this in praise of something I had submitted I tucked the concept away to consider later.

Come forward through years of writing and not writing, into a time when of new experiences. I’ve had the great good fortune of judging contests. I am amazed at the quality of work entered. Even though not everything is ready to submit, it’s clear these people have put a lot of thought into their work, and have the principles of formatting, sentence structure and basic usage down pat.

Every now and then, though, I review an entry lacking in all those basic writing skills but so rich in story I’m stunned. Just as rarely I read something perfectly crafted, showing great skill in word choice yet totally lacking in imagination. Finally, I understand what Paul Gillette was telling us. Anyone can learn to write with an acceptable level of skill but not everyone can come up with a story that grabs at the reader and demands we drop everything else to finish the book.

Who would have the easier task for improvement – the person with the excellent skills but ordinary story, or the person with the great story but little idea how to organize her thoughts into words? I’m not really sure, both have a hard road ahead of them. A lot will depend on how badly they want to write, and how much it means to them to finish the book. Then the next book.

Happy writing

Staying Grounded While in the Air

by
Monica Stoner, Member at Large

Since the end of May I have been in four states, flying back and forth from my New Mexico home. I’ve visited three new towns and encountered four new airports. I wonder how people can do this month after month, I’m certainly looking forward to staying in one spot, sleeping every night in my own bed and eating New Mexico food. There truly is no place like home. The supporting thread in all of this is, guess what?, books. I check for book stores in every airport – there’s actually a used book kiosk in the Raleigh Durham airport. Every airport has at least one chain book store, some stocked better than others. Looking around in the waiting areas and on the planes, in every row at least one person has their nose firmly planted in a book. Yesterday I watched a professionally dressed gentleman at the courtesy vehicle stand with his attention firmly on the hard backed book in his hands.

Certainly the first thing I pack is reading material, and I often make a trip to the local book store to stock up for a trip. At one time I tried to bring along an “important” book, thinking this was an opportunity to read something I “should” read. But I also bring along books I want to read, and those are the ones I reach for first. After a while I decided to save the weight.

This is a thankyousomuch to all those who get their books finished and published. They keep us going through times bad and good. Their imagination takes us away from ourselves for at least that brief period of time, and often beyond that. I was reading the Mercy Thompson books while in Washington state, and found a connection to the dense forests I drove through. Of course this also means I plot scenarios in new locations. If you hear about bizarre things happening to people forced to spend the night in an airport, there’s a possibility I finally stopped long enough to finish a thought, finish a book and get it to a publisher. Keep writing!

Is it Romantic?

by
Monica Stoner, Member at Large

We throw around titles of the most romantic books, plays, movies, stories. Gone with the Wind is a major favorite, along with the tales of King Arthur’s round knights. Mustn’t forget some of the musicals – My Fair Lady, Camelot (Arthur again) and of course Phantom of the Opera. I find Weber’s music helps words come through my fingers and often ignore the words for the tunes.

Recently I listened to Phantom when I wasn’t writing and could pay attention to the words. This is romantic? We have a lovely young woman terrorized by a mysterious man yet when she tries to tell her story, she’s told he doesn’t exist. Even the man who will become the love of her life insists she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. According to him she needs to forget her fantasies and let him make all her decisions. Supposedly they live happily ever after but one wonders how often Christine is encouraged to ignore her own thoughts and blindly follow the man’s.

Camelot, that classic tale of love is actually about an inconvenient marriage and a woman who can’t keep her word. Yes, Lancelot betrays his king but Guinevere is the woman who made an advantageous marriage then got restless when someone cuter came along. This is romance?

Gone With the Wind doesn’t do much for me as romance, though as a tale of living through a social upheaval it’s marvelous. I’ve never found Scarlet to be a sympathetic character.

How much of what was once thought extremely romantic can stand up to current thinking? For years the pattern of popular romance was a domineering male and the pure, honest, but plucky virgin. Of course the male was a prince or knight or lord of the manor, later a captain of industry. Quick – how many of those books can you remember as individual stories instead of one in a group of many? Right, same here. But how many of the books that stay with us are about the domineering male who gets taken down a peg or ten by the plucky heroine?

My most romantic book? Probably Mary Stewart’s “My Brother Michael.” Without deep soulful kisses or heavy breathing clinches, at the end of the book there is no doubt these people have made a commitment to each other. But Sharon and Tom Curtis’ “Lightning that Lingers” is right up there. Anyone else? I could use a good classic romantic read right about now.

Monica K Stoner
tsent@ix.netcom.com