Just Ginger

When I aspired to become a published writer, I didn’t know the “writing experts” used different definitions of the same words and phrases. Or that their definitions wouldn’t always be listed in a normal dictionary. Beat is one such word. If you check a dictionary, you’ll find an extensive list of definitions. Since I took lots of piano lessons as a kid, I tend to think of beat in relation to music. Like in maintaining the correct beat which had been hammered into me by several piano teachers. Thus, to me beat had to do with the tempo of a piece of music. The rhythm. During my journey to published novelist, I went down the screenwriting rabbit hole. Imagine my surprise to see the word beat used interchangeably with plot points and turning points. Then I read Robert McKee’s Story and he had yet another definition: “A beat is an exchange of behavior in action/reaction.” Oddly, I can’t find a dictionary that defines beat in any of those screenwriting terms. Frankly, none of the...

I’m frequently asked how long it takes me to write a book and I’m never sure how to answer because I’m not sure what the person is asking. Do they mean the actual physical act of writing? Or do they mean everything involved from conception to finished product? Conception to finished product covers a lot of time because the imagination is triggered in countless ways.   What kind of things trigger a writer’s imagination? They can include song lyrics, historical events, a sentence in a book or magazine, a casual conversation, a new recipe or even a dream. Once an idea takes hold, I start a file. This is normally a physical file, but I also use computer files. I come up with a working title and when I run across photos, newspaper articles, reference books, possible character names, research about possible jobs for a character or snippets of information about the time period, I put them in the file.   During this phase, I collect possibilities that may be used to tell that story...

I recently realized I’m a genre snob. Literary works don’t do much for me. I realized this when I read the reader discussion at the end of a book I had just finished. The author admitted he has no message in that book. No message? No take away? Nothing that makes reading the book worthwhile for the reader? Actually, this pretty much summed up thoughts I’ve frequently had about literary fiction. Many “literary” books don’t seem to have a worthwhile message, some stories just meander from scene to scene without really going anywhere. Yet in all my years of study of how to improve my own writing, we are constantly told to have some sort of takeaway for the reader. That most people read a book to help them make sense of the world. Through the years, I have read countless fiction books written by countless authors. It may be shallow, but I often veer away from literary fiction because I have learned the stories often have an unfulfilling ending. At least to me. It took me awhile to realize ...

I gave my first Zoom class in the spring, “As You Wish: The Power of Dialogue,” for a writing group in California. Since I have two writing skills ebooks on that subject, I had resources for the script I wrote. That was a plus because I needed two hours worth of something intelligent to say about dialogue. I also needed a slideshow.               Hmmmm. My slideshow expertise rests solely on a long ago attempt to showcase my dogs in five slides. Since I used photos I already had, all I did was add the captions. This recent attempt needed witty captions that matched pertinent images that fit the content about dialogue. Whew! Script writing for a presentation and designing a slideshow was a new writing experience for me. My background is more of the “in person workshop.” I’ve presented at all types of writers’ conferences from local to national. In addition, I’ve given presentations about writing to every age level from first graders to senior ci...

Several years ago, I wrote this essay for another blog I have called “Beneath the Midlist.” I’m not as familiar with all WP’s bells and whistles and tend to “forget” to post there.   I really liked this blog and thought other writers might find it helpful to read so here it is. While it would be nice to make a living at writing, I never have. If I hadn’t married a Renaissance prince–a patron who shelters, feeds, and encourages me–I would never have had the opportunity to write. Sure, it’d be nice to rake in a lot of dough, but truth is, I’ve always written and I’ve never made a lot of money at it. But I have experienced a lot of joy. One of my favorite writing experiences occurred when I wrote a humor column for the local newspaper. I had a good friend who was an older woman who had worked tirelessly through the years to make our home town a better place. When I discovered, she had started the Girl Scouts organization in town and helped establish an arts alliance program, I...

Most of us have a general idea of many careers. Our paths have usually crossed those of dentists, nurses, bank clerks, car mechanics, postal carriers, and librarians, just to name a few. But we’re not always well acquainted with professions other than our own. This is where the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ handy dandy Occupational Outlook Handbook comes in handy for writers. Never heard of this handbook? Well, if your main character insists on being a biological technician and you know nothing about this career, then this is the website for you. The OOH is stuffed with details about this profession and thousands of others. First of all, what is a biological technician? According to OOH, biological technicians assist biological and medical scientists. They set up, operate, and maintain laboratory instruments and equipment, monitor experiments, collect data and samples, make observations, and record results. A biological technician may also analyze organic substances, such as blood...

On May 25, 2015, I posted a blog titled “The Ripple Effect in Storytelling.” I wrote about consequences in setting up a scene. I was reminded of this blog when I recently watched Ryan Reynolds’ latest Netflick movie, The Adam Project . As a longtime Reynolds fan (Two Guys and A Girl!), it was fun to follow his adventures as a pilot from the future who goes back in time and encounters his younger self. Reynold’s character is wounded while stealing an aircraft to travel back in time. Although the bullet supposedly exited, its path was through his body, not a graze mind you, a bullet hole through flesh and organs and blood vessels–and he bleeds a lot. While he spends some time early on tending the exterior of the wounds, he ends up in several physical encounters with no visible problem of an untreated bullet wound in his side. In The Adam Project , the screen writers forgot about the ripple effect. What’s the ripple effect, you ask? Well, once something is introduced into the story...

2021 wasn’t too kind to my blogging. I was a sporadic blogger to say the least. Not only was there the pandemic to live around, we had once told our daughter we would move and live near her when she retired from her career in the U.S. Coast Guard. Needless to say, she retired and held us to our promise. Cleaning out and packing up a home after you have lived there for 25 years is not an easy job. Either physically or mentally. One of the most difficult choices I had to make was which books to move and which to donate. It was a difficult task and here’s why: I’m a bookoholic. I love books. Big books, tiny books. Fat books, thin books. Old books, new books. Fiction books, nonfiction books. Mysteries, romances, cookbooks, history books, biographies. I love them all. I buy books, I borrow books. I check them out of the library. I dug through a dumpster to save them when an Army library in Germany tossed them. Whenever I visit another city, I check out local bookstores and buy some book ...