Z is for: Zoo

If I was an animal, this is how I'd look today, after 26 days of A-to-Z:

There's a reason they call it a 'challenge', right? Hope you had as much fun as I did...and now, back to regular programming.

Y is for: Yesterday

I'm not a big Beatles fan. As a Gen Xer, I've spent my entire life waiting for them to go away. And it's finally dawning on me that it's just not going to happen. For my kids and grandkids, maybe....but not for me.

Now before you get all indignant on me, there are a few songs that I like  - Twist and Shout, Imagine, Yesterday.

So here's a 1965 Paul McCartney singing Yesterday. Sweat is literally pouring off of him, he rushes the lyrics, he's got zero stage presence. He's so raw, so honest and unpolished that if he gave this performance in 2012's American Idol, I doubt he'd get picked to go to Hollywood.

Now, here's Toni Braxton's version of Yesterday. It's mixed to perfection; she's airbrushed, wears about 10,000 Victoria's Secret outfits and sits at a piano supposedly playing in a song that has zero piano melodies. No sweat, no camera shot longer than five seconds, lots of lip syncing and fake foreplay. Nothing in this video is real.

How far we've come, no?
Remember what I said about my kids and grandkids not knowing who the Beatles were?
That's too bad.
I'd take Paul's yesterday over Toni's any day.

X is for: Xerxes

I get a kick out of Edward Gorey's work...mostly because he did a lot with cats.

 He also did a series of artwork depicting each letter of the alphabet, proving he was the very first A-to-Zer, only with pen-and-ink instead of a blog.

He published these macabre little sketches in a book called The Gashlycrumb Tinies, the antithesis of a typical children's ABC book  because each page pictured a different way for ...well, go here to read the whole creepy thing.

But take a look at poor Xerxes before you do.

What is his unhappy fate? Guess in the comments before you hop away to see if you're right.

W is for: White Noise... or what you listen to while you write

Sarah Pearson over at Empty White Pages used to run a feature on her blog called Musical Impressions. She'd share a short story or writing sample from a friend and then match the music to the story.

Have you ever experienced the reverse - been inspired by a song to write a scene? This has only happened to me once with a lovely little instrumental by a Washington-based family ensemble called Magical Strings. It's called The Summer River and it's a lament. (I'd share the whole thing but I can't get Blogger to copy my music file off my player. *grrrr*It's too bad because the piece's harmonies really take off in the second stanza.)

Here's the clip: http://www.magicalstrings.com/samples/The%20Summer%20River.mp3

So...what did this bring to mind? Images, scenes, emotions?

What songs inspire you while you write? Does anything inspire you to write?

Share them in the comments, including links if you can!

V is for: Vicious

I queried a novel a year ago that was a huge FAIL. There were a number of reasons for this - a bad query letter, an over-used concept, first pages that never got critiqued like they should have. (I even hired a professional editor and paid an embarrassing amount of money to get my query package critiqued. Total noob mistake.)

I recently re-read this MS to discover the biggest reason of all for the fail: my MC's Mean Girl potential. In this scene, she's able to manipulate everyone around her to do something pretty vicious. (Just to set the scene, Brecken has just had a fight with Tina, her best friend, about Tina's boyfriend Peter.) 

Brecken pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. She looked more sad than mad. I frowned.

“I have a feeling,” I said carefully, “that Tina is wrong about Peter.”

“How?” my friends asked. Brecken just looked at me. Her thoughts, usually bright purple, were dimmed tonight.

“Tina thinks he loves her for who she is, right? Well, what if her look changed?”

“How?” Kaylee asked again but Chrystal narrowed her eyes. I thought of eyelashes, Tina’s long, curling lashes. An identical evil smile curled their lips.

“Not permanently, of course,” I continued, moving my gaze to Brecken’s. 

“Something small but huge,” Chrystal murmured. She leaned over to whisper in Brecken’s ear.

“Just a little trim,” I heard Chrystal say right before the screaming started again. Teens were getting slaughtered left and right on TV.

 Brecken went still and the color in her mind was exactly half grey, half purple. She needed a little push so I leaned forward.
            “It’ll be for her good,” I pointed out. “Both her and Peter. It’ll solidify their love…or not. Isn’t it better for her to find out now that he's shallow? If he fails this test and dumps her, you’ll stand by her. You’ll be such a good friend that she won’t ever drop you for a guy. Not after this. Not ever again.”

“You’ll actually be helping her,” Chrystal said.

Kaylee fumbled in her overnight bag and came up with a tiny pair of scissors. She held them in one palm so Brecken could see.

“Wait until everyone is asleep,” Kaylee said. “We’ll help you.”

“We promise,” I said.

“Snip, snip,” said Chrystal.

So...vicious. It drives the tension, makes us wince or gasp, throws our allegiances one way or another. But it's generally a behavior reserved for the baddies. Are there any stories out there where an MC can be vicious without losing your sympathy?

U is for: Utopia

Utopia: the perfect civilization, governed by humane and compassionate rulers whose aim is to nurture and perfect its citizens. (Term dates from the 16th century, when Sir Thomas More created an island by that name and then titled his book after it.)

If I could create a utopia, it'd look a lot like heaven because I'm kind of a Jesus freak; plus, we'd all have our own self-sufficient islands with jet skis to go visit each other. Lots of beaches. There would be an eternity to read, as well as teleport to various parts of the universe. And we'd eat brownies without gaining weight...even the kind with frosting and chocolate chips...

If you were going to create a utopia, what would it look like?

T is for: Time Management

My weekdays are pretty structured - in fact, if I posted a schedule, it would look like one on this clock with every minute accounted for. I have certain days I clean and do laundry, certain days I grocery shop, and keep a calendar for afternoon/evening kid activities so I'm not a slacker mom.
This spills over into my job as a teacher.  Since I teach PE for grades K-8, my weekly lesson plan looks like a spread sheet, with equipment and activities carefully planned so I have time to transition between say, an eighth grade class and kindergarten.
So I've always been okay at time management. Once I decided to start seriously writing again last summer, it wasn't a huge deal for me to set aside a few hours each day and stick to them. I knew that if I didn't, I'd never reach my goal. I don't have a word count goal per say - although I do have an average- but if I don't reach that average, it's not cause for disappointment. Any words are better than none.

I've also found that my enthusiasm for writing is in proportion to how much time I read for fun. Giving myself the reward of curling up with a great book (instead of doing something productive, like organizing the closet) keeps me motivated.

So how do you manage your time?   If you struggle with finding time, why?
How do you stay motivated to accomplish whatever goal you've set?