Hullo!

I have returned my fellow co-patriots!
I'm so giddy with being back and all the writing I've been fiddling with that I'm about to burst with joy. Firstly, a big thanks to all you lovely people who didn't abandon me. :)
Secondly, a promise to be much more steadfast in my posting. I've learned so much from the writing books I've been perusing that I want to share it with the world! (The Art of War for Writers and Save the Cat to name just a few.) But I've also learned some stuff on my own--the hard way.
I know I haven't posted since...what, February? Yikes.
I've been attempting to balance my writing with a few realities (Like staying up to 1 in the morning plodding through an essay you don't care about or getting back in touch with family you haven't seen in years.)

But that's all over and done with, for now. I'm marvelously impressed with some of you guys's blogs and how regularly you post. I'll follow your shining example.

See you soon! (figuratively speaking)

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Guest Post: Maria Rainier on Reading Poetry to Improve Your Fiction

In my first year of college, my idea of a poem was a Mother Goose rhyme.

In my second year of college, I studied abroad in Italy under the tutelage of modern (dead) poet Ezra Pound’s daughter. I grew so frustrated with Pound’s style that I could often be found talking into his huge volume of poems, The Cantos, in the library. No, Ez, I don’t care about or even know that random guy you met on a train to Venice, and why are you talking to me like I should? and Sorry, Ez, could you write in English? Or, maybe Italian or Spanish? I don’t know seventeen dead languages like you do.

In my third year of college, I took only fiction and creative nonfiction classes.

In my fourth year of college, I resignedly signed up for all 5 poetry classes my Creative Writing major called for that I’d skirted for three years. I learned more in that year about writing than I had in all of my previous education.

Poets Don't Waste Words

Well, the great ones don’t. Even back in the days of Alfred, Lord Tennyson and others known for their lengthy works, poets still made their words count. This is doubly true today; modern poetry like modern writing in general must appease the stunted attention spans of recent generations. Certainly, writers like Gregory Maguire with enormous vocabularies and wandering imaginations write successfully at length—even if some might call it “purple prose”—but you can be sure that poetry helped them, too.

Poets don’t have whole books to express a point (unless his name is Ezra Pound). They must choose just the right word. You will find few mundane terms like “got,” “good,” and “sleepy” in accomplished poetry. Take, for example, an excerpt from one of my favorite poems, “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owens.

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

Come gargling from the froth corrupted lungs,

Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory,

The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est

Pro patria mori.

Can you think of a word more vile, horrifying, and bone-chilling than cancer? The word stands out from this stanza, chocked full of Owens’ memories from WWI.

Poets are Painters

They paint with words. Not only are the words themselves the most evocative they can muster from their vocabularies, they paint pictures of them through uncommon turns of phrase, similes, and metaphors. Take Langston Hughes’ “Suicide’s Note”:

The calm,

Cool face of the river

Asked me for a kiss

You don’t even need to read the title to know what Hughes is talking about. This is the essence of showing, not telling, since poets don’t have time to tell us every minute detail. To this end, a fiction writer who has studied poetry exercises restraint. He or she allows the reader to assume certain things or use his or her own imagination. A good writer cannot be a control freak.

Maria Rainier is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at First in Education and performs research surrounding online degrees. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop. Read more of Maria's work at the Online Degrees site.

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Writer's Life

Writing is an agonizing life. You love your family and your characters pretty much the same (although I don't stay awake at night thinking how best to torture my family). You pace in your bedroom/office, despairing over your sloppy writing and eating Lindor Truffles like popcorn.

You can't afford to sit around and wait for inspiration, which is about half as reliable as weed killer. And when inspiration does hit, you're in a darkened movie theater with no access to paper, and all you can do is whip out your cell phone and jot notes while people behind you kick your seat and tell you to stop texting.

If writing is such a miserable life, why do so many people do it?
We're writers. We crave misery. It gives us good ideas for our books.
I will always be a writer. I couldn't change that now, not even if I tried. You might as well suck the soul out of my body.

But that's just me. Why do you write?

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Trying Too Hard

So many great ideas strike you when you're just sitting and thinking.
I was thinking, as I usually do, about writing.
I've been struggling, unsure what to write, how to write it, and finding no enjoyment in bringing characters to life.
Then I realized the answer to writing.

Don't try too hard.

What seperates a good artist and a bad one? The good artist donesn't try too hard, doesn't let the lines get too stiff, or the color too vibrant.

Write the book you most want to read. That's all there is to it. The stories I most enjoy writing are the freewrites, the ones that "don't matter".

Cyril Connolly said it's "better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self."
I think that's true.

So here goes, I'm writing the post I want to write. And tonight, I'll work on my neglected story. I pull up a chair, switch on the computer, and let go.

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Naming Your Character: Numerology

I stumbled on something called Arithmacy (more commonly referred to as numerology) while reading The Sorcerer's Companion. Yes, I'm a major nerd.

Anyway, according to this numerology, your name can reveal great secrets about you and your personality. naturally, being the writer I am, after figured out my arithmancy, I immediately did my characters.
Like I said. I'm a nerd.

So here's a lovely diversion for writers; Does your character's name match up with their personality?
What the heck, it's Friday. Do something spontaneous.


The first step in analyzing a name is to convert it to a set of numbers. Each letter of the alphabet is assigned a numerical value between 1 and 9, according to the following chart:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
A B C D E F G H I
J K L M NO P QR
S T U V WX Y Z

As should be clear, the letters A, J, and S have the value of "1," B, K, and so forth. To analyze any name, write it down, and beneath each letter enter the corresponding numerical value. As an example, we'll analyze the name Nicholas Flamel:

N I C H O L A S F L A M E L
5 9 3 8 6 3 1 1 6 3 1 4 5 3

When you have all the numbers written down, add them up. In this case, the result if 58. According to the procedures of arithmancy, when a total exceeds 9--which it usually does-- it must be "reduced" to a single digit by adding the component numbers together, more than once, if necessary. Thus, 58 reduces to 13 (5+8=13), which reduces to 4 (1+3=4). The final result is known as the Character Number. This number indicates the general personality type of the individual.

The next number to be derived is the Heart Number, which refers to the individual's inner life and is said to indicate desires and fears hidden from others. The Heart Number is the total of all the vowels in the name, reduced to a single digit.

The third number to be derived is the Social Number, which refers to the outer personality. The social number is determined by adding up the value of the consonants in the name.


One: This is the number of the individual. Ones are independent, focused, single-minded, and determined. They set a goal and stick to it. They are leaders and inventors. Ones find it difficult to work with others and don't like to take orders. They can be self-centered, egotistical, and domineering. They are often loners.

Two: Two represents interaction, two-way communication, cooperation, and balance. Twos are imaginative, creative, and sweet natured. Peace, harmony, commitment, loyalty and fairness are characteristic. But two also introduces the idea of conflict, opposing forces, and the contrasting sides of things: night and day, good and evil. Twos can be withdrawn, moody, self-conscious, and indecisive.

Three: Three represents the idea of completeness or wholeness, as in the trios "past-present-future" and "mind-body-spirit". The Pythagoreans considered three to be the first "complete" number because, like three pebbles laid out in a row, it has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Three indicates talent, energy, an artistic nature, humor, and social ease. Threes are often lucky, easygoing ,rich, and highly successful, but they can also be unfocused, easily offended, and superficial.

Four: Like a table that rests solidly on four legs, four indicates stability and firmness. Fours enjoy hard work. They are practical, reliable, and down to earth; they prefer logic and reason to flights of fancy. They are good at organization and getting things done. Like the cycle of the four seasons, they are also predictable. They can be stubborn, suspicious, overly practical, and prone to angry outbursts. The conflicts possible with "two" are doubled in four.

Five: Five is the number of instability and imbalance, indicating change and uncertainty. Fives are drawn to many things at once but commit to none. They are adventurous, energetic, and wiling to take risks. They enjoy travel and meeting new people but may not stay in one place very long. Fives can be conceited, irresponsible, quick-tempered, and impatient.

Six: Six represents harmony, friendship, and family life. Sixes are loyal, reliable, and loving. They adapt easily. They do well in teaching and the arts, but are often unsuccessful in business. They are sometimes prone to gossip and complacency. The Pythagorean regarded six as the perfect number because it was divisible by both two and three, and was the sum as well as the product of the first three digits (1+2+3=6, 1x2x3=6).

Seven: Perceptive, understanding, and bright, sevens enjoy hard work and challenges. They are often serious, scholarly, and interested in all things mysterious. Originality and imagination are more important than money and material possessions. Sevens can also be pessimistic, sarcastic, and insecure. Seven is sometimes considered a mystical or magical number because of its associations with the biblical seven days of creation, and the seven heavenly bodies of ancient astronomy (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter).

Eight: Eight indicates the possibility of great success in business, finance, and politics. Eights are practical, ambitious, committed, and hardworking. They can also be jealous, greedy, domineering, and power hungry. Eight is said to be the most unpredictable of numbers and can indicate the pinnacle of success or the depths of failure; the potential to go either way is presently from the beginning.

Nine: Represents completion and achievement to the fullest degree, as is the "complete" number, three, expressed three times (3x3=9). Nines dedicate themselves to the service of others, often as teachers, scientists, and humanitarians. Strongly determined, they work tirelessly and are an inspiration to others. However, they can also be arrogant and conceited when things don't go their way.

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