What Does The Power Club Have to do with Poetry?

Photo by Morning Brew on Unsplash

 . . . well, not much. But all writers should write a variety of things, so I've been exploring my poetic side of late.

Poetry is a very different form of writing than fiction. Whereas a short story or novel can go on for pages describing and explaining what happens. poetry tends to be short, to the point, and more oblique. Poets try to capture a mood or a feeling or an experience and condense it down into a few words. Some poems can be more straightforward and long, but it's been my experience that poetry exercises a different part of the brain than fiction--it stimulates our capacity to create images and derive meaning from them. In this way, poetry seems, to me, at least, to be a close cousin of art.

(And no, I'm not an expert on brains or even poetry, so don't hold me to the above.)

I've published several poems on Medium.com. Here is a link to one called REM Diner. Check it out and let me know what you think. 

3 Steps to Boost Your Writing by Thinking Like a Kid

I haven’t been to a comics convention in about seven years.

There are reasons for this—lack of money, nothing in particular I want to buy, and little interest in current comics. 

But since comics formed the foundation of much of The Power Club™ , they remain close to my heart.

This weekend, the biggest comics convention, Comic-Con, is going on in San Diego, CA. Thanks to updates and even a live feed from friends who are there, I can keep up with all the excitement.

The con was also featured on this morning's news. The report spotlighted a middle-aged woman dressed as Ma Hunkel, the original Red Tornado, complete with a cooking pot with eye hole cutouts for a helmet.

Even when I went to cons, I didn't dress in costume—but not because I didn't want to. Costumes can be expensive, and I also couldn't decide which character to go as.  

(My ideal costume would have been Lightning Lad's 1960s outfit, complete with robot arm.  There's something inherently exciting about a blue cape and lightning bolts as a chest insignia.)

Going to cons and dressing in costume is something a lot of people do not understand—to them it looks silly (no sillier, I would argue, than dressing in costume or wearing war paint to go to a football game).  And yet such silliness—acting like a kid, if you will—can be a vital part of being a writer.

Last night, coincidentally, I watched a program on the National Geographic channel that encouraged adults to do just that: think like kids. The program, Brain Games, explores how our brains function and how we can boost memory—“use it or lose it,” as put by the program’s oft repeated mantra.

In one segment, both adults and children were shown a series of simple abstract drawings and asked to generate ideas for what the drawings could be. Guess what—the kids generated more answers than the adults. We’ll get to why later on.

Thinking like a kid, however, can also boost writing, which involves doing several kid-like activities: creating something out of nothing, combining ideas that at first don’t seem related, and thinking outside the box—the very processes Brain Games suggests can boost memory.

Here are three suggestions for how thinking like a kid can improve your writing:

1. Play, play, play.

Quick question: What’s the difference between work and play?

Both can involve the same types of activities, effort, and even rules (if one is playing certain games).

One difference is that, in play, there are no serious consequences if you fail. Sure, you may lose the game and whatever rewards go along with winning, but that’s all. Play, in its purest form, does not affect your income, social standing, or future prospects.

Kids usually don't worry about these things when they play; neither should you.

Playing is important to writing. If you’re not having a good time writing a piece, why would your audience have a good time reading it. (You always want your audience to enjoy your work, even if you’re writing about a serious subject.)

2. Don’t worry about whether it’s right or wrong.

Remember those kids who were more creative than the adults in the Brain Games segment?  Why was that?

Kids, according to the program, do not have the experience or context to know whether an answer is right or wrong. They do not self-edit or judge their answers.

Do not self-edit or judge your work, either. Save that for the revision process.

3. Change your writing routine.

While most writers find keeping a routine helpful—such as writing at the same time every day, writing in the same space, or even drinking the same type of tea while writing—it’s a good idea to shake things up once in awhile.

It doesn’t even have to be a major shake-up.  For example, I used to write these blog posts while sitting in a particular restaurant. But the last few, including this one, were written in a different restaurant.

A small change, yes, but a significant one. This particular restaurant reminds me of the places my family and I used to go to for breakfast while on family vacations. There’s even a view of traffic cruising along a busy street, as if I were next to a highway.

Mentally, being in this place puts me back in those childhood vacations. The result (after starting out with no idea what I was going to write about) is the post you are now reading.  (And if you don't like this post—well, maybe you're not thinking like a kid!)

Doing something new or something that reminds you of the best parts of your own childhood can put you back in the fame of mind to create, create, create.

If all else fails, put on your cape and fly.

To Copyright or Not to Copyright?

© is the copyright symbol in a copyright notice (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

File this under: Just when you thought it was safe to use social media . . .

Two days ago, The Kansas City Star published an article entitled “Digital Era Puts Your Photos in Odd Places” by Judy L. Thomas, which describes the thorny issues of copyright protection in the modern era of photo sharing, file sharing, and social networking.

The thrust of the article: Items you may not think of as needing copyright registration probably do.

The article begins with the story of a bride who was shocked to discover one of her wedding photos had been used by the diocese in which she was married for an ad in a bridal magazine. The photo had been stored on the church’s computer, where the bride’s mother worked at the time of the wedding.

The diocese justified its use of the photos because the bride had never filed for copyright protection of the photos.

Copyrighting wedding photos? Who would think to do such a thing?

And yet Thomas drives home the point that anything you publish (e.g., put on social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter) may be used in ways you don’t want them to be used unless you file for federal copyright protection.

Facebook Can Use My What?!?

Facebook, Twitter, and other social media outlets offer writers an enormous avenue to reach prospective readers, network with other writers, and promote their work. But even these sites may stake claims to using whatever you post for their own purposes.

Facebook’s “Statement of Rights and Responsibilities” (which you can access at the bottom of your FB homepage by clicking on “Terms”) specifies that, by using Facebook, you give the site license to use any intellectual property content you post, such as videos and photos—a license that ends only when you terminate your account (though backup copies of posted material may continue to exist, the site says).

If you think it’s unlikely that Facebook would use your photos, artwork, or posts for its own ends, you’re probably right. However, the material we post online can wind up in the unlikeliest places. What if your child’s high school graduation photo shows up on a billboard? That really happened to a woman, according to her Ohio attorney quoted in the Star article.

Copyrights and Copywrongs

Copyright is widely misunderstood. Basically, it is a form of legal protection for “original works of authorship” created in “a tangible medium of expression,” according to the U.S. Copyright Office’s website. Furthermore, a work has copyright protection the moment you created it.

But don’t rejoice just yet. In one of those legal-loophole type things, you need to actually register your work in order to sue for infringement, according to the site. The benefits for registering your work include having a public record of your registration and possible eligibility for statutory damages and attorney fees.

Registering a copyright can be done online at the site above. Fees are $35 for a basic registration and $65 for a group of photographs.

So, should you copyright everything you post on Facebook and Twitter?  Probably not—unless you’re insanely wealthy and paranoid. But knowing your rights and making informed decisions can help you avoid the risk of that brilliant piece of art being used to promote tobacco-flavored cheesecake without your permission or compensation.

3 Steps for Moving Beyond the Rules of Writing and Saying Something New

By popular demand (okay—one person requested it; to me, that qualifies as popular demand), here are some more thoughts on when to break the rules of writing and when not to.

When people become too concerned with the rules of writing, they seem to be focusing on the wrong things. Sure, rules are important and writers must know them well enough to know why they exist, when to break them, and when not to.

If you don’t know the rules, writing can seem like bumbling through a landmine: a single comma splice or POV shift can blow your story apart.

But too much concern about the rules can distract you from the deeper purposes of writing and inhibit you from exploring what your story is really about.

The deeper purposes—the questions you should focus on—are these: What are you saying and why are you saying it? Who will be reading your story? What do you want them to get out of it?

Writing a story is fundamentally not much different from writing a college research paper: You still have to narrow your topic, expand on what others have written about that topic, and say something new about it.

A lot of writers fall into trouble by simply regurgitating what’s already been said. Their story (or paper) adds nothing new or says nothing different. It aims at merely recapturing the experience the readers had in another and probably better story (or paper).

But readers want new experiences.

Don’t you?

Here are three steps for moving beyond the rules and saying something new:

Step 1:  Get the Reader to React

How can you say something new when everything has been said before? A good example can be found in the textbook The Writer’s Way by Jack Rawlins and Stephen Metzger.  One of the student essays in the book is a brilliant piece, “Lucy, You Have Some ‘Splainin’ to Do” by Nicole Benbow.

Benbow does what I like to call connecting the dots. She takes seemingly unrelated sources such as the 1950s television show I Love Lucy, the country band the Dixie Chicks, and Dove's 1990s "Evolution" commercial, finds their common ground, and weaves them into a compelling essay with an original point.

Her point (or thesis):

Classic television sitcoms tend to depict the same story over and over again. Women belong inside cooking, cleaning, sewing, etc., while men are supposed to be out working and bringing in the money. (336)

Why pick on I Love Lucy, one of the most beloved television shows of all time, one that is often considered ground-breaking for featuring an unconventional female lead in an unconventional mixed marriage, and whose comedy continues to hold up decades later?  

Without disputing any of Lucy's achievements, Benbow examines the content of the show: “What is unfortunate . . . is that when [Lucy and Ethel] try to go out and get a decent job they fail miserably. Once again the show was subtly hinting that women did not belong in the work force” (340). Think about the famous chocolate factory episode.

Is Benbow right? 

It depends on your point of view.

Is her thesis arguable? 

Absolutely.

And that’s fundamentally what any research paper or story should do: Make an argument. State a case. Get the reader to think, feel, or react.

Step 2: Use Your Topic to Address the Reader's Present Concerns

If all Benbow did was challenge our perceptions of a beloved sitcom, she would have done her job. But she goes further by suggesting that modern TV shows aren't much different:  

On Desperate Housewives, Susan writes children’s books (note that her office is in the home). Lynette is a working mom, and there have been several episodes where she has taken the brunt from family, friends, and strangers for not taking enough care of her family and working too much. (337)

Such attitudes, Benbow argues, spill over into other expectations of women in the media. The scorn heaped by former fans upon the all-female Dixie Chicks serves as an example. After one of its members criticized President George W. Bush in 2003, the band became the target of hostile Internet postings. Benbow claims that such reactions show how our society still frowns upon women with strong opinions.

Instead our culture continues to favor images of women as homemakers and beautiful models, the latter idea challenged by the Dove commercial.

Step 3: Get Over the Notion that You Have to Say the Last Word

As I said, though, Benbow’s point is arguable. When I ask students to identify positive depictions of women in the media, they mention Oprah Winfrey, characters from the Law & Order franchise, and even Lara Croft, Tomb Raider as examples of strong, independent, and competent women.

None of these examples diminish Benbow’s argument. Rather, they highlight the fact that she doesn’t have to say the final word on the subject. All she has to do is get her audience thinking about how women are portrayed in the media. The reader can agree or disagree, but the reader must react in some way.

And that’s what you have to do as a writer of stories, as well.

Sounds easy enough, but it ain’t. In many ways it's easier to focus on rules instead. Errors are usually easy to spot and fix.

It’s much harder—and riskier—to think about how your readers will respond to your work. What if they don’t like it?  What if my point of view is wrong?

But writing soars when it takes those risks and gets the reader fully engaged in the work. Instead of walking through a minefield of rules, the author becomes like the Wright Brothers, boldly pioneering new and dangerous ideas . . . flying.

Work Cited

Benbow, Nicole. "Lucy, You Have Some 'Splainin' to Do." The Writer's Way by Jack Rawlins and Stephen Metzger. 7th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2009. 336-41.

How to Facilitate a Writers Critique Group

At a recent business meeting of the Kansas City Writers Meetup Group, the topic of conversation was critique groups.  Every week, the meetup’s organizer gets four or five requests from writers who want to join critique groups.  As the facilitator of one such group, I have had to inform several writers we're full.

And yet the opportunity to start new groups has never been greater.  The KCWMG provides a ready forum for connecting with other writers and announcing meetings.  If you want to join a critiquing group and are tired of waiting for openings, there's an easy alternative: start your own.

While every group operates differently, here are a few suggestions which have worked for the group I facilitate, the Monday Night Writers:

1. Be open to different genres.  Some critiquing groups focus on a particular genre, such as science fiction or children’s stories.  While such a focus can keep everyone on the same page, the Monday Night Writers Group benefits from being as diverse as possible.  Our writers have submitted screenplays, high fantasy, Young Adult, thriller, flash fiction, and gay romance. 

This diversity helps us focus on two things: the qualities common to all stories and broadening our audience.

And, really, don’t you want your work to reach the widest possible audience?

2. Create a supportive atmosphere.  Guides for offering and receiving feedback can be found everywhere, but the bottom line is this:  Be honest but respectful   If you are critiquing a story, tell the writer how it reads to you.  Never make absolute statements (“This story is bad.”); instead, frame your comments as suggestions coming from a reader who might pick up the author’s book (“I think you can get to the meat of the scene quicker.”). 

And writers: practice the art of distancing yourself from your story.  Just because someone criticized it does not mean you are a bad person.

3. Be willing to incorporate non-critiquing activities and events into your group.  By all means, stay true to your purpose (to critique each others’ work), but be receptive to other writing-related events. Members of the MNWG have held joint book readings, participated in events such as Author Extravaganza, and attended book launch parties.  

Our group also holds a monthly meeting called P&L (sardonically, "Plans and Lies"), in which we share our goals for the upcoming month and report our progress of the previous month.

Accountability and community are essential qualities in sustaining any group.

4. Share responsibility.  Just because you're the facilitator doesn't mean you have to do it all.  Let others contribute skills they are particularly good at.  One member of our group recruited new members.  Another is a whiz at setting up events and networking. If you feel yourself getting overwhelmed (as I did recently), ask for help in even mundane tasks, such as responding to requests from potential members.

5. Most importantly—have fun!  This is sometimes harder than it seems.  As facilitator, you have to be responsible for keeping the group on focus and (occasionally) making decisions.  But let conversations drift where they want to go, let people be people, and don’t forget to laugh.  If you’re not having a good time, why would others?

The above merely scratches the surface of how a critiquing group can work.  If you approach starting a group with firm goals in mind, a willingness to be open, and a sense of commitment, you can create what you seek: a nurturing, supportive team to help you realize your dreams as a writer.

Because, after all, you’ll be helping them realize theirs.

If you like this article, you may also like:

• What I've Learned from My Critique Groups
• A Blast from the Past: Top 10 Tips for Writers