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This is Dani Smith

 

I am Dani Smith, sometimes known around the web as Eglentyne. I am a writer in Texas. I like my beer and my chocolate bitter and my pens pointy.

This blog is one of my hobbies. I also knit, sew, run, parent, cook, eat, read, and procrastinate. I have too many hobbies and don’t sleep enough. Around here I talk about whatever is on my mind, mostly reading and writing, but if you hang out long enough, some knitting is bound to show up.

Thank you for respecting my intellectual property and for promoting the free-flow of information and ideas. If you’re not respecting intellectual property, then you’re stealing. Don’t be a stealer. Steelers are ok sometimes (not all of them), but don’t be a thief.

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    Entries in Inspiration (62)

    Friday
    Oct152010

    10 Things: Backpack

    10 Things participation has been very low lately. Apparently everyone has been Working when they should be Writing 10 Things. We must put a stop to this productivity right now.

    Stop what you’re doing.

    Take out a writing implement.

    Write the first 10 Things you think of when I say BACKPACK!

    Write yours first. Read mine if you want to. Put yours in the comments. Or put them on your site and link back here. Whatever floats your pack. Go go go go go. 

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    My 10 Things for BACKPACK

    1. You need to know what’s in your BACKPACK. If your friends put things in your BACKPACK, then you must be able to trust your friends. Better yet, don’t let anyone else put anything in your BACKPACK.

    2. A tiny Sonar, in a sweatshirt, sleeping in the kid BACKPACK on Partner’s back, while Partner washed clothes at the laundromat and I read dusty books, and wrote 20 pages treatises that were only ever read by two people. 

    3. BACKPACKing across Europe. A Euro-rail pass and a change of clothes. Can anyone over 30 or with children do this?

    4. BACKPACKs filled with books and lunch, on a kid, on the way to school.

    5. BACKPACKs for kids, a school-supply charity drive.

    6. BACKPACKing in the mountains with extreme-weather gear that weighs mere ounces, and carrying tiny tubes of gourmet spices. 

    7. A jet-pack on your back. No, not on YOUR back, on Connie Chung’s back at the Republican National Convention, circa 1984.  Am I remembering that right? Who remembers this? Political conventions are apparently good opportunities for weird stunts. 

    8. Rolling BACKPACKs are nuisances in schools.

    9. BACKPACK as euphemism? Anything can be euphemism. There must be a way to spin BACKPACKing as euphemism for something. It should include a monkey. Like a monkey on your BACKPACK. But NOT a monkey BACKPACK.

    10. The BACK PACK, a lesser-known cousin of the Brat Pack. Who would you put in the BACK PACK? People with hairy backs like Robyn Williams? Or perhaps quarterbacks and fullbacks?

    Some weeks are harder than others!

    What’s coming out of your BACKPACK??? It must be better than mine. Share it. Now! 

    Wednesday
    Oct132010

    Programs, phone books, obituaries: where I find names for my characters

    I look for names everywhere. Partner is so aware of this search for names that he regularly tells me about interesting names he hears at work.

    Anyone can look in a baby name book, but those names feel so sterile. They’re connected to definitions, but they lack life, they feel too contrived sometimes. The telephone book is a great source of names, of course, but they tend to feel like lifeless words on a page too. I like the phone book best for the name of a minor character. I use it like a random name generator. Flip it open to any page and point without looking. Do it twice, once for first name, once for a last name. Bam. Bam. Colleen Figueroa. That can be the name of my character’s workplace friend. A minor character involved in one important conversation.

    If I want to find names that feel more rich, that feel like they have history and messiness, my favorite place to look is the obituaries of my daily newspaper. Go ahead and think it’s weird. You may think it’s morbid. But those obituaries are printed there for a reason. They are remembrance and celebration of lives that have ended. Friends and family want the obituaries read or they wouldn’t put them in the paper. They want their loved ones to be remembered. I live in a small town, so I’ve never used a whole name from the obituary section; I tend to look for just first or last names. The style of names sometimes sound more old-fashioned, but characters come in a whole range of ages. These names, attached to real people, feel alive to me.

    The stories in the obituary section can also offer other kinds of inspiration. Need ideas for how to build an extended family for a character? Want to have a range of causes of death for your mysteries? Want to consider the range of euphemisms for dying to help build honest-sounding dialogue? Sometimes the obituaries include very detailed biographies of different life experiences and activities, clubs and accomplishments. You never know what might inspire you in there.

    I intend absolutely no disrespect by reading the obituaries for inspiration. It’s a way of celebrating and reviving bits of a life lived.

    If I’m looking for names for very young characters, my favorite source is school lists. Each spring, the newspaper prints a list of high school graduates, but with a high school administrator in the family, we also tend to accumulate programs from different events. I skim through them for interesting first and last names and rearrange them until I find things that work for my characters.

    How do you come up with the names for your characters? What is your favorite character from a story you’ve written or read?

    Friday
    Oct082010

    10 Things: TIPS

    Okay everyone. Stretch your fingers. Take out a blank page. It’s time for 10 THINGS!  I give you a prompt, and you write down or type out the first 10 Things you think of. Be serious. Be silly. Just play with the words for a few minutes. There are no wrong answers, and no one will take away your birthday if you think of something absurd. In fact we might just love the absurd things the best. Put your 10 Things in the comments and then read mine.

    Ready? What are the first 10 Things you think of when I say…

    TIPS

    Go!!!

    ~This space left intentionally blank to limit my influence on your 10 Things~ 

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    My TIPS

    1.  From the TIPS or your nose to the TIPS of your toes. All of you.

    2.  “TIPS” written on the side of the jar, on the counter, in the sandwich shop, decorated with multi-colored squiggles by the guy wearing the rainbow cap over his unwashed hair. 

    3. The TIPS of the fingers. FingerTIPS touching each other. FingerTIPS on the window, watching someone leave.

    4.  The TIPS of hair. The ends.  TIPped, to be a different color from the rest of the hair, like the lead singer of Berlin in the video for “Take My Breath Away.” That’s what it was called, right?

    5. TIPS over. When the little cup of water is filled by the fountain, it TIPS over to drench the giggling child standing underneath. 

    6. TIPSy. A little drunk. I’m wondering if he’ll fall on his butt when the chair TIPS over.

    7. TIPS from Crimestoppers. Bits of information given anonymously to the police, to help solve crimes. 

    8. TIPS about stocks. Sometimes legal. Sometimes called Insider Trading.

    9. TIPS off. Warns that something unexpected is about to happen. 

    10. Steak TIPS. No, beef TIPS. What recipe would be good for beef TIPS? Would it involve gravy? How about onions?

    11. Bonus TIPS (Full Disclosure: some of these acronyms are real. I know because I looked them up. Some of them aren’t. I know because I made them up.) T.I.P.S. An acronym for something, but what? Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, Training for Intervention Procedures (for servers of alcohol), Tobacco Information and Prevention Source, Trevor’s Inevitable Party Syndrome, Tots Inciting Pickle Stomping, Terrible Innovations in the Postal Service, True Incidents in Parrot Singing) 

    Add your 10 Things or your T.I.P.S. in the comments. Right now. 

    Wednesday
    Sep292010

    So Jimmy, tell us what your story is about

    In the 1991 movie The Commitments, a bunch of Irish kids form a band to sing soul music. Their fearless leader, a sort of organizer, manager, teacher, and inspirer with a singular ideal, is Jimmy Rabbitte.  It’s a brilliant movie.  Go watch it (again).  It’s based on a book of the same name by Roddy Doyle. The Snapper and The Van (also good movies) finish the so-called Barrytown Trilogy.  

    Throughout the movie, Jimmy conducts imaginary interviews with Terry Wogan. In the bathtub, in his bed, wherever, Jimmy imagines looking back over the career of his band and explaining the rise and fall of The Commitments.

    So looking back, what did you learn from the time with The Commitments, Jimmy? – That’s a tricky question, Terry. But as I always say: We skipped the light fandango, turned cartwheels across the floor. I was feeling kind of seasick, but the crowd called out for more - That’s very profound, Jimmy. What does it mean? – I’m f#$%ed if I know, Terry!

    Watching the movie, you know you’re hearing about important transitions when Jimmy pretends to be interviewed. But from the standpoint of the character, Jimmy is in the middle of making the band. He doesn’t yet know what will happen, what will be profound and what won’t. He doesn’t even know if this crazy idea is going to work, but these interviews are his way of imagining the fulfillment of his dream.

    Just this morning I thought of Jimmy because I was talking out loud myself. Not talking TO myself, mind you.  I don’t talk to myself. That would make you think I’m crazy. I talk to imaginary people. Because that won’t make you think I’m crazy.

    When I’m working on my ideas, I talk out loud, imagining how I would explain my story to other people. You’d be surprised how useful it can be to try to summarize your story out loud.  And my story still sounds terrible. Oh, there are some bits of it that I really like, that sound really fun, but as a whole story that anyone would want to read, it’s just not working yet.  But as I tried to talk my way through it, to make my imaginary audience GET my idea, I untangled a bit of a knot, and changed two things about my main character. I think the changes will make the story better.  

    Only time will tell, Terry, whether this will be the breakthrough moment in my plot, or how this dream of a writing career will turn out.  But rest assured, I’ll keep talking to you while I figure it out.  

    Tuesday
    Sep282010

    10 Things: Unchained

    The inspiration for today’s 10 Things came out of the Tim Horton’s coffee can, so it’s a little bit coffee flavored.  I’m itching to make a snarky comment, but I don’t want to influence YOUR 10 Things with my witty banter.  

    Join me and play with some words.  

    I’m going to prompt you.  You’re going to write down the first ten things that pop into your head when I give you the prompt.  Then you’re going to scroll down to read MY 10 Things, as well as adding yours to the comments, so we can steal story ideas from each other.  Uh, I mean, you know, so we can be INSPIRED by each other.  Yeah, that’s the one.  

    Today’s prompt is UNCHAINED. 10 Things. Now.

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    MY 10 Things, in no particular order.  

    1. My high-school best friend and I calling the oldies radio station over and over, trying to get the DJ to play “Unchained Melody.” Then recording it and singing along with it at the top of our lungs.

    2. A monster breaking free of chains in a video game or movie or something. Yeah, vague, I know.

    3. Unchained > unhinged > undone > let loose > free > removed from bondage > released

    4. A horror movie sequel: “Famous-horror-movie franchise UNCHAINED.” As if it wasn’t bad enough the first ten times.

    5. Chains pulling a car, loose and crazy-dangerous looking.  If it came unchained, without steering or brakes, it would careen crazily and crash.

    6. Chains in a dungeon.  That scene in Aladdin where he’s held prisoner alongside an ancient man and escapes with the help of Abu the monkey. Chi chi chi chi chichichi

    7. The Tale of Despereaux.  Isn’t someone chained down in the castle dungeon in that one?

    8. A crochet chain, slowly popping each stitch loose, one-by-one to unchain the yarn.

    9. When a necklace or bracelet breaks, it becomes unchained.  The pieces and charms fall free, lost or jumbled.

    10. The ball and chain.  An unlinking of things connected.  Distance, divorce, death, dismemberment.  The fracture of the weakest link sundering the connections between otherwise strong parts.  

    Whuddya got?