Reflections: Friends, Art, Creativity.

A friend is one of the nicest things you can have,  

Pampered Cowgirl's photo.

 and one of the best things you can be.

 ~ Douglas Pagels

Never lose curiosity. Stop every day to understand
and appreciate a little of the Mystery that surrounds
you, and, your life will be filled with awe and discovery
to the very end.

Earthschool harmony's photo.

Attraction For Life's photo.

deviantART.com's photo. Self-Desception

"I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library." - Jorge Luis Borges

“The idea is to write so that people hear it, and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.” —Maya Angelou

Art by Sue Morris

Art by Pablo Picaso

Art by Diane Robinson

Art by Dr. Seuss

Art by Dr. Seuss

May we always have friendship, art and creativity.

Visit my author's website: http://www.dragonsbook.com

Point Of View.

Illustration by Samantha Kickingbird

Point of View (P.O.V.) in a story depends on how the main character is presented.

In first person, the book is told directly by the main character:
I am a dragon. I entertain people. That is my destiny.

In second person, the story is presented as if the reader is the main character: 
You get dresses, you eat breakfast, you go wrestle a dragon---it's all in a day's work.

In third person, the main character is referred to by name: 
Petra wondered at this for a moment. "Really? Is it possible that a dragon could be turned into a frog? "


First Person Narrative
    First person point of view instantly connects the reader with the main character, but often results in too much "telling" and not enough "showing."
   In the First person point of view, it is difficult to write about the physical description of the main character. In older writings writer's reverted to the "looked in the mirror" description, which is shunned in modern writing.
   First person point of view does allow the humor and thoughts of the main character to come through and the reader connects more readily with the main character.

Second Person Narrative

Second Person point of view is the least used form of writing books. Second person P.O.V. is difficult to maintain throughout a whole book and can produce awkward prose. This point of view is best used in blog posts.

Third Person Narrative

 Third Person P.O.V. is the most common form of narration.

 --Third person restricted has nearly as much closeness with the main character as first person but it is easier to avoid too much telling. The challenge to third person restricted is to keep the views only of the main character and not getting into and telling the thoughts of other characters.

 One challenge with third person restricted is limiting the story to scenes where the main character is present. This often requires creative plotting; to write the scenes around the main character. But doing so usually works out better than switching viewpoint characters. Switching viewpoint characters can and is done, but the difficulty of sustaining alternative views is that the reader can get lost within the different character's identities.

--Third Person omniscient is the rarest form of writing because it tends to obscure the main character. This type of P.O.V. knows all, and the writer reads into the thoughts of both minor and major characters. The reader does gain obscure knowledge of  the other characters, but the more times a writer switches the P.O.V., the less the reader will care about the main character.

A few other points on P.O.V.
http://users.humboldt.edu/tduckart/PoV.htm

Visit my author's website: http://www.dragonsbook.com

Noteworthy Writing Advice.

Writing advice from famous authors is something I take to heart.

Illustration by Samantha Kickingbird

     I love quotes by famous writers. Probably because there is such basic truths in their advice: when the writer can't find a way out of their writer's block, dealing with--or not--the criticism of others, following your heart and sticking by your mission as a writer, and getting past your own self-doubt.

    Here are some famous author's quotes most worthy of the advice:

 "If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time--or the tools--to write. Simple as that." --Stephen King

 "Don't take anyone's writing advice too seriously." --Lev Grossman

"You can't wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club." --Jack London

"I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick hide." --Harper Lee

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." --Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"Wait, wait, wait, wait. Don't try to write through it, to force it. Many do, but that won't work. Just wait, it will come." --Toni Morrison

"True originality consists not in a new manner but in a new vision." --Edith Wharton

"The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt." --Sylvia Plath

I think that most writers find these truths the hard way--through practice, rejection, and the hair-pulling-out techniques that devoted writers go through.

The quote by Antoine de Saint-Exupery rings the biggest truth for me. When the writer can kill their own words, cut scenes, get to the core of the story, then perfection is achieved in that writing.

If you read, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, you will well see what concise writing is to a great book. The Little Prince is one of my favorite books ever, and it is perfection.

When I was in journalism school, most of my assignments were targeted to cutting words. I had to write a short story, of say 1500 words, send it in for grading ,then (for the final mark of that assignment) cut it back to 1000 words without loosing the essence of the story.

Killing of your own words is a tough business at first. But through practice, and some mourning, it becomes easier. And the outcome is a story worth the telling.

Then there's Lev Grossman's advice "Don't take anyone's writing advice too seriously." This is a mighty important message for writers. Don't let other people's criticism hold you back from telling the story you need to tell--what some will love, others may not. Hence, the thick hide comes in handy.

Visit my author's website: http://www.dragonsbook.com      

Illustration by Samantha Kickingbird

Hyphenation Woes.

Hyphen rules are about as meddlesome as comma rules.---meaning they are very, very meddlesome.

Most rules about hyphenating have to do with modifying a noun (the adjective or compound adjective before the noun).

Many words we tend to hyphenate could be one closed-up word, so it is always best to check The Chicago Manual of Style Hyphenation Table::
http://www.guumedia.com/the-chicago-manual-of-style-online-hyphenation-table/

Readability is the main purpose for using the hyphen, and hyphens are used to show structure and pronunciation, Here are a few of the rules:

- No need to hyphenate proper nouns (North America) or ly + adjective compounds before nouns.

                     Example: That is a wonderfully groomed dragon you have there.

- When adjective compounds come after the noun, hyphenation is usually unnecessary.

                      Example: The blue-eyed dragon becomes: The dragon is blue eyed.

- And even for compounds that are hyphenated in the dictionary, such as: ill-humored and well-read---they don’t need to be hyphenated after the noun.

                      Example: That dragon was certainly ill humored.

- Participle (a verbal that functions as an adjective) constructions are hyphenated before but not after the noun.

            Example:: the fire-breathing methods becomes: the methods of fire breathing..

.

But, age terms should be hyphenated in both noun and adjective forms, except in the last two examples.

Examples:

The three-year-old dragon

A ninety-nine-year-old dragon king

The dragon king's subjects of seven-year-olds

but

The dragon prince was nine years old

When he was nine years of age

So, now that we know some of the meddlesome hyphenation rules, lets have a care-free writing session or, a writing session that is care free.

Visit my author's website at: http://www.dragonsbook.com 

Illustration by Samantha Kickingbird

copyright, Diane Mae Robinson, 2013

The Ukrainian Writer.

By heritage of my mother's mother, I am of Ukrainian descent. My baba, Sophie ( Софія),was a wonderful baba---of the very round and jolly kind.  She passed away at the age of 96, eight years ago. In all her 80 years in Canada, she never learned much English and I never learned much Ukrainian, but we communicated with gestures and the few words we each knew of the other's language.

Baba Sophie came to Canada as a pre-arranged bride at sixteen years old, to escape the war. She left her family in a village near Hordenka, in Ivano-Frankivist Oblast, Ukraine to marry a man of Ukrainian decent , John Zaharko, whom she never met before coming to Canada.

Baba Sophie Pidwerbeski and Gido John Zaharko. 1924

Gido John had already set up a farm in Alberta, Canada, so this was to be her destiny---a farmer's wife in a strange land.

Baba Sophie would never talk much about what happened during the war, and she vowed never to set foot on Ukrainian soil again. Although, she did love Ukraine while growing up there and before the war. Throughout her life in Canada, she always kept in contact with the relatives in Ukraine, sending what money or gifts she could.

Baba Sophie Pidwerbeski taught me how to make many Ukrainian dishes. I still enjoy making these dishes and have them on all special occasion. These are my favorites:

Babka: another Easter bread, usually a sweet dough with raisins and other dried fruit.

Borscht (borshch) is a vegetable soup made out of beets, cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, dill

Varenyky (Perogy): Dumplings stuffed with fillings such as potato and cheese, often served boiled.

Cabbage rolls (holubtsi/holubchi): cabbage leaves (fresh or sour) rolled with rice filling and may contain meat (minced beef or bacon)

Mlyntsi: crêpes (blyntsi or nalisnyky), filled usually with cottage cheese, meat, cabbage, fruits, served with sour cream

Pyrizhky: Small potato filled buns baked in thickened rich cream and dill.

Kutia: traditional Christmas dish, made of poppy seeds, wheat, nuts, honey, and delicacies.

My mother and two of her brothers are all that are left of their immediate family. The three of them all converse in fluent Ukrainian, but I fear they are the last generation (in Canada) to do so.

Baba Sophie's 3 sisters and great niece, Ukraine, 1985

My way of keeping my heritage alive will be in preparing these Ukrainian dishes for our family gathering.

Baba Sophie and Gido John both passed away before my first book was published. They never knew that I became a children's book writer.

Visit my author's website at: http://www.dragonsbook.com

Boy In The Magical Forest.

The boy, Ethan, is a real, live, nine-year old boy, and the forest is a real magical forest. This is the story of how Ethan became my number one fan.

Ethan and his mother visited my acreage awhile back, and the first thing we did was go searching for gnomes.

We didn't find any gnomes, but we did notice gnome poop in the horse field. We did find some odd tracks, which could possibly belong to gnomes. And then, we found bones---most probably dragon bones. Ethan took several of these bones home.

I showed Ethan and his mother where Petra and Snarls, and                

all the characters in The Pen Pieyu Adventures (adventure kids books) live in my magical forest.

In the forest, we noticed several wavy, misty, glittering images that darted around---most likey fairies.

Suddenly,  a wild gust of wind that twirled leaves to capture us in its vortex. Then a mighty dragon's roar---or maybe a bellowing cow---that sent us charging, in the other direction.. Then, as if by magic, everything went deadly silent.

That's when we came upon something I'd never seen before . . .

This unique and awe-inspiring mud pie made with flowers and berries, and a horse ornament that has been missing from my house for months. Was the pie magic? Was it made for us? An offering from my story-book characters?

 We were still pondering where the mud pie could have come from when this giant, snarling, wolf-creature rounded the corner.

  Paralized with fear for only the briefest moment, our feet soon took flight. We headed for the safety of the castle gates and then into the castle.

 Once inside the safety of the castle, we made our way to the dinning room where we had lemonade and snacks, and chatted about our adventures of the day.

Since our day of adventure, Ethan has become my (or should I say, Petra's) number one fan. He writes to Petra regularly and Petra writes back. They often exchange gifts.

Ethan has his dragon bones mounted in a frame, although his mother wouldn't allow him to take home any gnome poop (this I don't understand since you don't come across gnome poop that often).

More on Ethan and Petra's blooming friendship in another blog.

Visit me and my fantasy kids books author's website at: http://www.dragonsbook.com

Redundant Again.

Redundancy. Something that is said over and over and sometime over again, and for the most part is just plain annoying. There are so many phrases that we write and say which say the same thing. The phrases have become so overused that, somehow, they have become acceptable. Believe me, I have been guilty of the "redundant act" myself. Here are two over-exaggerated paragraphs, but the point is to realize some of the redundant phrases we use far to often. Can you spot how many redundant phrases are used below?  As an author, he had a major breakthrough of paramount importance with an altogether new book. The final outcome has kept him out of serious danger from total annihilation with the publisher. The writer and the publisher worked in a joint cooperation to create a successful project that ended up being more than adequate enough.  This author is considered a trained professional, and his past history as a writer helped him plan in advance to eliminate altogether any misconceptions about the project. The final project should create successful prosperity for the author. Answer. There are 13 redundant phrases in the paragraphs: - major breakthrough - paramount importance - altogether new - final outcome - serious danger - total annihilation - joint cooperation - adequate enough - trained professional - plan in advance - past history - eliminate altogether - successful prosperity So, the lesson here is to become aware of these redundant phrases and to eliminate them. Doing so will make us better writers. Illustrations by Samantha Kickingbird Visit my author's website: http://www.dragonsbook.com copyright, Diane Mae Robinson, 2013

Creativity In The Forest.

Creating, imagining, daydreaming, and writing in the forest is one of my favorite summer

pastimes. I imagine all sorts of

Illustration by Samantha Kickingbird

fantasy creatures and then, just as I nearly catch a glimpse of them, they run and hide behind the trees, giggling at me and my human eyes that can't quite focus on them.

The forest is my inspiration for my writing about the fantasy characters that are featured in my fantasy/adventure children's books series (book two coming soon).

As I imagine and daydream, the trees turn into faces and then materialize as full bodies. They start to laugh and dance and turn into  fantasy characters doing all sorts of things (of course this is just the wind shape-shifting my perception, but we're in creative mode, right?)

This creative process was how Snarls, the dragon, and Petra, the princess knight, were created several years ago--they are the characters in The Pen Peiyu Adventures. And still, years later when I  look at the same tree formations I first saw them in, they are still etched into the bark of their tree homes.

Through the years, and with lots of practice at creative imagining,
I've trained my human eyes to be more preceptive to the

forest and the fantasy characters that live within it. I see gnomes,
fairies, witches, princesses, giants, and of course, a dragon.

Can you spot the dragon guarding my horses?

Creativity is a training process. The same process occurs when we stare into the clouds and make pictures.

I'm often asked at author visits how I get into creative mode. Well, creating characters within the barks and leaves of the trees is definitely a creative process for me. But what of those who don't have a forest?

I have suggestions.

-  Listen to music, especially classical music, to get your right brain stimulated--scientists have proven this.

-  Write and doodles with the opposite hand you usually write or doodle with.

-  Do an art project. I am an artist, so I paint while listening to music. This really stirs up my creative juices    and I can write wonderful things after a session of art.

- Meditate or deep breathing with your eyes closed for at least 20 minutes.

- Dress in a costume relevant to what you are writing about.

- Dance nude under the moonlight. Okay, this one I don't suggest if you live in a town or city. (Okay, I've never done this, but my writer friend swears by it).

This is me in my creative forest.


Creativity is a learning process, and for some of these processes it may be best to practice when you are alone so as not to be judged too harshly by those who do not know how creativity works. Find your creative muse by tying different things--creativity will come to you.

Visit my author's website: http://www.dragonsbook.com

Which Vs. That.

     That sentence, which has 'that' in it, is confusing me. So should we use that or which in a sentence?  

Illustration by Samantha Kickingbird

In British English, sometimes both are correct. 

Correct:   The dragon held out the paw which was hurt.

Correct:   The dragon held out the paw that was hurt.

     In the above sentences,  that and which are introducing what’s known as a restrictive relative clause.  This kind of clause contains essential information about the noun that comes before it. If you leave out this type of clause, the meaning of the sentence is affected, and it will probably not make much sense. Restrictive relative clauses can be introduced by that, which, whose, who, or whom.

     The other type of relative clause is known as a non-restrictive relative clause.  This kind of clause contains extra information that could be left out of the sentence without affecting the meaning of the sentence.  Non-restrictive clauses can be introduced by which, whose, who, or whom, but you should never use that to introduce them. Examples:

                 A scroll  listing all of the dragons, which live in the forest, is in the royal  library.

                 The librarian handed her the scroll, which she took.

     A non-restrictive clause is preceded by a comma to set off the extra information. A  restrictive clause  in not preceded by comma because the information is essential  to the meaning of the sentence.

Non-restrictive clause:      The dragon brought his new sword, which was  still shiny.

Restrictive clause:                 The dragon brought the sword that was new and still shiny.

     In the next two sentences, we look at the difference in the meaning of the sentences.

Non-restrictive clause:       All the scrolls, which are about dragons, are in the library.       

Restrictive clause:                All the scrolls that are about dragons are in the library.

     In the first sentence, we are saying all the scrolls are in the library. That they happen to be about dragons is extra information.

     In the second sentence, we are saying that all the scrolls about dragons are in the library.

So think about what you need to say and portray in the sentences you write. Write the sentences well and everything will become much clearer for the reader.

copyright, Diane Mae Robinson, 2013

Visit my author's website here.

Fan Mail: Um, About Your Dragon.

As a writer of dragon books for children, I understand that a dragon character can become as real to the reader as he is to me.  When this happen, the dragon character seems to get a life of his own, and strange things can happen.

Snarl is a dragon. He is a secondary character in my children book series, The Pen Pieyu Adventures. I quite love Snarls and he is usually a well behaved and lovable dragon.

Apparently, Snarls gets into his own mischief outside of the books he is in.

The readers of this blog will already be familiar with Snarls and some of the antics he has been up to. The only way I know of these instances is by the fan mail (or maybe in this case it's called non-fan mail) I receives from someone called "Anonymous".

Snarls visits "Anonymous" on occasion, and "Anonymous" writes me to tell me about the newest, um . . . adventure.

Snarls on his way to visit Anonymous? Not sure.
Illustration by Samantha Kickingbird

Here is the latest letter from Anonymous:

Dear author person,

I do not remember much, but the smoke is finally beginning to clear out of the building and hopefully soon out of my apartment. No one in my building has been talking to me. 

Snarls bragged about his fire-making capabilities and that he was a friend of mine. Now they blame me for the smoke-filled apartments they currently reside in. Management is looking the other way. They do not want to explain on television, or even in the local paper no one reads, how a dragon got into one of their apartments or that dragons still exist.

Tell Snarls to stop picking his nose. It is quite disturbing when fires shoot out. He's trying to gross me out while burning me down.

Sending your dragon back home. He is too much trouble!

Signed,
Anonymous
********************

Well gosh, Anonymous, I am truly sorry for the troubles my dragon causes you. He does not do these kinds of nasty things at home. I think this may just be the rebellion of his youth--he is only three, you know.

I hope you will not want monetary compensation for the damages he has done. You see, I am a struggling writer and cannot pay you with money.

I can, although, order him to go back and clean up the mess. Should he bring his pajamas? Will it take more than a day? Can he stay at your place while he cleans up the mess? Do you have kitties? He likes to lick kitties!

As soon as he arrives home, I will send my dragon back over there A.S.A.P.

Signed,
The Author

This is Snarls when he is at home. Seems innocent enough, right?
Illustration by Samantha Kickingbird

For more information about Snarls and the other characters of book one, Sir Princess Petra - The Pen Pieyu Adventures, visit:  http://www.dragonsbook.com/for-kids.html

Book two, Sir Princess Petra's Talent - The Pen Pieyu Adventures, forthcoming soon.