Friend or Fiend

Oh my god! I have a new friend request and I can't think about what to say. I don't know this person and yet I want more friends. He's tall, blond and looks like he came out of a surfer magazine. I have this weird feeling that he is not real but he is so attractive. First thing I do is I go to his profile and see if I have anything in common with him. As I go through his profile I find out that he is 18 and lives in Westchester LA. there I have some family living. I still have this weird feeling that this guy is simply not who he is. As soon as i accept him I have this eerie chat box in the corner of my screen asking me about myself...but these aren't normal questions;they are questions asking me where I live, what school I go to, and some really personal questions. I can't think of what to say. It reminds me of when I was a little girl and m mom would always tell me not to talk to strangers and not to get into other peoples cars. (Even if they give you free candy and 20 bucks) And I can't but feel like I shouldn't of added this man whom I don't know and is creeping the hell out of me. Do I ignore him or delete him form my friends?

I proceeded to go back to his profile where I finally got to see some pictures of him, and after a while I get the feeling that I was tricked by the hot surfer on the front of his profile when he actually looks like an old man who ate too many potato chips and watched too many hunting channels on TV. He just never got to up off his butt and went outside. It creeped me out to no extent. That was the one thing that made me click on the little button at the bottom of my screen and continue to shiver with an upset stomach. I deleted him form my friends.

Writing Workshop 2010

Welcoming a new group of bloggers to the world of pro-blogging. We're not quite pros yet, but it's a start. The difference between what I've presented and what they remember blogging being I hope is clear. Blogging for pay is a lot less about journaling, though it has a lot to do with experiences and opinions. It's a place to have a presence, to write something that people might read and pay attention to. To voice opinions.

People have a lot of opinions.

Mark Cox seems to have a great on-stage presence. I've enjoyed his engagement of the students and their perspectives. And the no wrong answers. He's been doing this for a long time. Do what you like, he emphasizes. I like to teach, and blogging is about writing what you like. Writing what you don't like doesn't last very long, even if you like writing.

Sage advice.

Naming Characters (They are Your Babies)

When I start a story, the first speed bump I hit is naming my character. All of them sound lame and generic: Mary Wilson, Tom Johnson, Susan Williamson--everyone is a "son" when I'm in the midst of writing. I've named them, but they are boring.

So, I want more interesting names, the kind of names that will hook into my readers' heads and make them remember who my characters are.

I have plenty of sources for names. The phone book, of course, is a ready list of real names. Since I teach high school, I have class lists that go back for years. Some of the names are funny, like "Season Dees," or "Dusty Rhodes" (and his brother, Rocky). Some are cool sounding, like "Cheyenne Wells," or "Beau Trey."

One of my favorite place to find names is in the cemetery. I have to walk, of course, so I get the extra rush of blood to my head as I stroll among the stones, but I also get the moody, atmospheric feeling that is a part of the cemetery as I read about the "gone but not forgotten" and "father, husband and friend." I start to picture lives, and that's what I need to attach to a name.

My most reliable source for names, though, and the one I recommend to other writers, is a good baby name book. A baby name book will not only give me a gazillion choices, but will also tell me famous people in the past with that name, where the name came from, what the name means, how popular the name has been, etc.

My readers may not know all the information I gather, but I will, and that will make me write about that character even more convincingly.

After all, by characters are my babies.

When I'm not blogging here, I blog extensively at my own site on teaching, writing and how my teaching and writing are going at http://jimvanpelt.livejournal.com. You can see a table of contents of the writing related posts at http://jimvanpelt.livejournal.com/87625.html