Writing Unleashed with Laura M. Harkins

It's been well over a year, 16 months to be exact, since I entertained the blogging world with my dazzling prose (hahahah!). Life. What a pain in the ass. She played with me like a cat with it's prey, setting off every one of my triggers. Grasped between her teeth, I went limp. I woke up on the ground. My face scraped up with pebbles imbedded in the cuts. Looking up, I saw her  standing above me, pointing her well-manicured finger in my face while her shoulders bounced with laughter. She takes pleasure in my pain. This past year, in particular, has been incredibly challenging. I know there's more strength hidden inside me. And it's time to look inward and recharge. During my hiatus, I kept busy reading fiction, reading craft books to improve my writing, and writing when my schedule and procrastination allowed. I burned sage to shoo away all the negative energy surrounding me and created some new goal: finishing my current WIP (stuck at Chapter 9) and researc...

It's 12 o'clock on a Thursday. The end of the week is almost here. I'm exhausted. All I want to do is crawl up on my couch and watch movies while the sun hides behind grey clouds blanketing the world with a moroseness, but I can't. I signed up for a writing contest with my first submission due on Saturday. I've been brainstorming all week, but have yet to get all those great ideas on paper in the form of a story. I work tonight. A double shift tomorrow. All day Saturday. There's not much time left.  Top it all off with craptastic Internet service courtesy of Comcast. Which is why I'm taking advantage of FREE WI-FI at the B&N with its rich people watching environment and swaying to Fiona Apple. The cafe is comfortably filled with people. How desperate I am to take a peek inside their heads to see what's really going while they munch on their "create your own combos", letting the caffeine course through their veins. What are they avoiding? ...

Source My road trip to Boston at the end of August arrived just in time to relieve me from the constant head banging on the wall between me and my writing, blogging and freelance career. The permanent knot on my forehead, bald patches and a jaw that clicks every time I open my mouth has transformed me into a monster you might catch in the dark alleyways of Gotham City. I overdosed on advice in writing magazines, on writing-related websites and blogs. If you peek through the windows, you catch me wandering around the house strung out, too jittery to sit down at my laptop. As an information junkie, I hoarded writing techniques, strategies and prompts. I shoved them into every available space in my writing toolbox, reminding me of an overly prepared-style of packing. Overstuffed. I would sit on the lid to force it shut if it weren’t for the motivational quotes spilling over the sides keeping me from latching the damn thing. Then I come across an article contradicting th...

Source Two weeks passed without a post on my blog. Two weeks of hiding. Two weeks of avoidance. The dark hole that swallowed me felt like falling down the long throat of some enormous whale. A bit frightening, yet comforting knowing no one could see me. I've since found a rope, tied a knot creating a loop at one end and lassoed it around anything stationary in an attempt to climb back into the warm sunlight. All part of the writing journey. Darkness and light. Grey skies and the tail end of Irene's distruction met me this morning, so I buried my face in a novel,  Erin Hart's False Mermaid .   The unforgiving winds finally died down, the water is receding back to the Delaware, and the Internet is back. I leave you with a passage from the very beginning that triggered memories of my own: She did remember a few things: hiding in the closet, face pressed into clothes of rough wool and soft fur, the thrill of being discovered, gathered up and rocked by someone with ...

Today is the second day of my Pennwriters Conference in Pittsburgh. While I learn everything I can cram into my brain, I want to leave you with a thought on dreams and writing from Neil Gaiman. I've written about the use of dreams to weave symbolism into your fiction and poetry, and I think they provide rich inspiration for writing. Dreams open a door to who you are. In Gaiman's introduction to Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders , he discusses how to use dreams in your writing. " I love dreams. I know enough about them to know that dream logic is not story logic, and that you can rarely bring a dream back as a tale: it will have transformed from gold into leaves, from silk to cobwebs, on waking. Still, there are things you can bring back with you from dreams: atmosphere, moments, people, a theme." Have dreams ever made it into your writing?

Source Readers look to novels to escape reality. An author’s words take them to distant lands. But a well-described location can do more than just take the reader on a trip away from home. It plays an important role in creating atmosphere and describing characters. The strength of location in a story transforms the setting into another character. Characters and setting rely heavily on one another not only to create images in the minds of readers, but also to describe each other.  A character reveals information about a setting. Their traits lead them to specific towns, cities, bars, schools, etc. A well-developed character personality can create the milieu. An uptight individual probably lives in a very neat and organized apartment. A character concerned with the environment might have a vegetable garden planted in the back with a recycling bin and compost heap. A young, single girl might feel stuck in family-oriented suburbia. Now, the...

qnntv.com   During this challenge, you and I will probably read through a thousand+ blogs. So many people, so many writers, it’s inevitable to find more than one person writing about the same topic. Our world is a kaleidoscope. The ideas, situations and events we experience make the loose bits of colored material in the telescope-like toy. When you twist the tube an endless variety of patterns emerges, very much the way each of us approaches our writing.  Each writer brings their interests, dislikes and influences to each topic.  Reading through all the posts can get overwhelming, but meeting so many different people makes it all worth it.  On the other hand, sometimes my fear of idea stealing keeps me from sharing my writing. Then I stop and think. They can’t steal my life experiences that influence my story.  A great quote from Stephen King in On Writing really put it in perspective for me. “But once your basic story is on paper, you need to think a...

Today, I want to talk about a house. Not my house, but WHAT the rooms in a house symbolize; using dream interpretation to strengthen writing by employing symbolism engages the reader. I’m using Dictionary of Dreams by Rose Inserra (paraphrasing) to help guide us through the process of understanding what each room represents.  blog.lamidesign.com ATTIC : It represents your memory, intellectual life or matters you’re burying. BALCONY : It represents the excitement and hardships of romance and aspirations. If the balcony is up high, you are detached. If you are in danger of falling, you might feel anxiety. BASEMENT : It represents your most secret fears or parts you’re hiding. BEDROOM : It represents how you “feel about your emotional and sexual life (i.e., privacy, relaxation and sensuality”). CHIMNEY : It represents how we deal with others emotionally, from inside to out. DOOR : It represents inhibitions or progress and how you are willing to deal with them. A closed...

123nonstop.com Growing up, Ms. Manners and my mother made sure I behaved in a polite manner at all times. I responded with eye rolling and my catch phrase, “For crying out loud,” which drove my mother crazy. The frustration got overwhelming when I felt expressing your individuality went against the grain.    So, I channeled my loud and energetic personality through my musical and artistic interests, while I stayed quiet. Liz Phair, Sylvia Ji and Chuck Palahniuk sing, paint and write about sex, sadness, darkness and nakedness. Their raw and gritty honesty captures the essence of humanity, breaking through the filters everyone uses to look, sound and act the same. As an adult, I still fell in line, holding back my true nature for fear of what people would say. It carried over to my writing. My voice and style felt empty and forced. I didn’t want to upset someone, but a writer expresses themselves through their writing. It looked like I didn’t have a clue. I re...

Let me start off by telling you what I am doing during this month of April, besides praying for warmer weather.  I've joined 1,000+ writers, authors, etc., for the A-Z Blogging Challenge .  Every day, except Sundays, I will be writing on a topic that starts with one of the letters of the alphabet, in order.   Yesterday, I kicked off the challenge showcasing Adele's song lyrics for my Prose from the Pros Friday.  ( FYI : Since April is National Poetry Month, so I will be showcasing poets every Friday.) I've made it to day two which is "B" for the building blocks of writing a story.   BAM!  An idea hits you in the head. You grab your phone or the closest piece of paper to scribble your idea down before you forget it. Then, you make it to your writing area, ready to write. What do you do next? You start building the world that will allow your idea to grow and flourish. Start with the basic literary elements.   Characters The characters are i...

library.creativecow.net “Write out of the reader’s imagination as well as your own. Supply the significant details and let the reader’s imagination do the rest.   Make the reader a co-author of the story."                                                                                             Patrick F. McManus One of the biggest challenges I face as a writer is balancing description and narration in my writing. You don’t want to get in the way of your story, overwhelming your reader with too many details, or provide the reader with too few details, leaving them incapable of imagining th...

Pen pals.   People you’ve never met in person.   Living in different states and towns.   You write back and forth sharing details of your life.   I still have the picture and letters from my pen pal from elementary school.   She lived in California.   Her name has faded from memory and the pack of letters is hiding in a box somewhere, but the experience has stayed with me for 19 years.    While I was teaching middle school English, I realized my students didn’t have a clue about writing a letter.   How could this be possible?   Students were guided through the education system, graduating with less knowledge than I had when I was 11-years-old.   This could be a teachable moment.   Through a pen pal project my students would learn the proper letter format and conversational skills to keep their pal interested.   Then the light bulb turned on.   Children—digital natives—have grown up immersed in technology. ...

adlandcreative.wordpress.com Story ideas run around my head all the time.  Usually, fear keeps them up there.  I'm dying to write something people want to read.  So, I joined a writers group hoping it would encourage me to write.  The first meeting was approaching and I wanted to submit. I got my ass into gear and wrote a short story NaNoWriMo style.  It was the only way I knew how.  Mistake number one.  I submitted the story.  The other two members returned it with a lot of constructive criticism.  I understood what they were kind enough not to say.  My story was crap.  It read like a 12-year-old wrote it.  I needed help.  After the meeting, the story went into hiding until the week before the second meeting.  Honestly, I just didn't want to face the fact that I can't write well.  I read over the story and feedback.  Ideas for improvements came to me immediately....

I braved the cold and traveled into Philadelphia to the offices of MetroKids Magazine last Thursday. I’ve been interning for them for the past two and half months. Since most of my time is spent at home updating attractions listings, I wanted a chance to see how a magazine was put together for publication. Little did I know, everything is done on computers, and unless I was in charge of a specific section, I wasn’t going to learn much. When I emailed my interest to observe the production process, the editors told me to bring in the attraction listings and article I was working on because they were fully engaged in preparing the January issue. I was a bit nervous about bringing in my article on the 10 Family Movies of All Time , since I hadn’t made much progress with it. I couldn’t get a list of 10 movies for ages toddlers to teens to save my life. Another problem I ran into was determining what movies would not only entertain children, but their parents as well and offer disc...

Current word count: 24,051 The weekends. A time to sit down, shirk all other responsibilities and write. Let’s be serious. Melting into the couch with my boyfriend Kevin is far more appealing. Although, I found time on Saturday morning while he worked to update 13 more attraction listings for my internship and scribbled a few drab words for my much-neglected blog, but still no NaNo writing. My goal was to reach 20,000 words by Saturday so that I could get myself back on track, but I fell short of my goal. BUT, I did manage to make it up today by writing over 5,000 words! I’m a writing animal. 3,200 of those words were written in two hours at my weekly Write-In at Borders fueled by Alex’s (fellow Wrimo) yummy brownies and chocolate chip cookies that smelled like Christmas and cold-brewed marble mocha iced coffee. As the Write-In came to an end, we discussed our concerns and dilemmas with our novels. Alex asked me and one other participant, Greg, to p...

Current word count: 13,061-17,341 One caveat for NaNoWriMo participants: Avoid bookstores. Seeing the shelves of new writers, wishing my name were there, is defeatist. It leaves you in a desolate place where doubt and fear swallow you whole. Crap. All I have written is crap. Literary junk food is the only level my novel might attain, and literary is overly optimistic. The dialogue is suffocating the narration. There is too much and it’s starting to annoy me. Lexi is a silent main character. No one, including me, knows what she’s thinking. Clearly, balance does not exist in my writing toolbox. Revision is an inaccurate word to describe the next stage once I’ve finished writing. Complete overhaul sounds better. Reading my words brings on fits of despair. Don’t even get me started on the lack of interesting in my sentences. You would have thought I was a first grader just learning to put words together to make sentences. Quantity over quality. Wait,...

Current word count: 12,197 I didn’t get any NaNo writing done until 10 o’clock tonight. I worked on my internship and web design class earlier. Theresa Hegel from The Intelligencer newspaper ( http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/the_intelligencer.html ) interviewed me regarding my participation in NaNoWriMo. I’m excited she’s going to plug my blog in the article. Since I waited until the end of the day, I only wrote about 800 words. Fear kept me from writing today. Fear of the words needed to get back on track. How silly. I am truly enjoying the writing experience and the creation of my novel. Fear shouldn’t be able to wiggle its way into my psyche. One attempt to block fear: I place index cards with statements and words of encouragement around my writing area to spur me on. It still finds a way to paralyze my fingers and confuse my thoughts. My inner editor has been whispering through the cracks in the box its been locked in, too. Apparently my charac...

Current word count: 8,076-9,985 Well, I spent an hour and a half completing the murder scene. The victim, Ken, is dead from multiple stab wounds. Those almost two thousand words came quickly. Now, I have to get myself ready to tackle the police investigation scene next. As a former English teacher, my crime scene investigation and police procedural skills are limited to what I’ve read and seen on T.V. It’s really important that it sounds realistic. Barnes and Noble has a set of books on the shelves of the writing/publishing section covering these subjects. I could always go to the police station across the street from me and do some research as well, but I think right now I need to focus on getting the story on the page. Research, although should have been done before the writing and outlining began, will need to be done during the revision stage. I need a break.

Current word count: 5,924-8,076 Well, I have slacked off for the last 3 days. The shame has latched onto my back, pulling me down. Luckily, I met up with a few other Wrimos at Border’s for a Write-In and got myself back on track. We all accomplished 2000 words in the two hours and earned the Socializing badge. Go Team! I find working independently with other writers motivating. It was comforting to share space and talk when moved to, and encourage each other to write. A more productive environment than what is set up at my house. None of us were tempted to putter around on Facebook or e-mail for fear of being caught. We enjoyed it so much we are meeting up again next Sunday. Unfortunately, I am still further behind that I would like to be. I might try to write a bit more tonight before I go to bed, but no promises.

Current word count: 3,269-5,924 I started my day off getting my internship work and web design class completed. Now, I have all day to NaNo write. I feel more rested today, and I have more motivation. I am not working at the moment (won’t last for long), which allows me more time to get my creative flow moving. The other day I went into to my seasonal job, Williams Sonoma, and filled out my rehire paperwork. I missed the warm holiday smells of mulling spices and pumpkin and talking with some of my favorite co-workers. Some of the characters and murder location of my NaNo novel are based on employees and the store itself. Although I might lose time to write, going back might prove helpful for development of details and scenes in my story, and I might earn another NaNo badge if I secretly write at work. So far this challenge has taught me novel writing is extremely hard. After spending two hours of typing, huge waves of exhaustion crash on top of me. Then, the days I can't mu...