Story Tellers

A few days ago I attended an interview with Indigenous writer and CBC host of Up North, Waubgeshig Rice. I had recently read his latest novel, Moon of the Crusted Snow, and was looking forward to hear the writer discuss his dystopian saga set in the Rez, after the sudden crash of electricity, internet, and all communications. By coincidence, my nonfiction Book Club’s selection for this month is Waub Kinew’s biographical work, The Reason You Walk. 

 Both books deal with what the writers term the native apocalypse. Kinew relates the effects the institution had on his own father and his ensuing inability to be a father to Waub and his siblings as a result.  Rice, meanwhile, has created an allegorical apocalypse, which, the way the climate crisis is progressing, has the chilling tinge of real possibility all through its narrative. 

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Creating Mood in Storytelling

A prologue that I read recently has provided endless inspiration for me.

I’ve studied it many times, deconstructing the composition and trying to pinpoint what impacted me so strongly. The scene that is depicted seems innocuous; a sunny day in a park, families milling around, but the narrator is focused on several individuals apart from the seemingly ordinary setting. Ever so subtly, the narrator describes an almost imperceptible pall that comes over the scene, creating an uneasy dread in me. In less than four hundred words, the author had set the mood and rendered this reader unable to resist turning the page. Read more

Food for the Writer’s Soul

Tanya Neumeyer performs at Words Aloud

I have a confession to make, I haven’t been writing much at all. I was, once again, making progress on my novel re-write after my last writing lull. I even had a moment of epiphany on how to make a nice transition between scenes. This is why it’s important to always make note of your scene ideas, or any ideas: You never know when life will happen and you can’t get back to it as soon as you’d like. Which is me, I’m in the gap and I hope I can pick-up where I left off.

I’ve had a few life events to deal with, like we all do, but my two major distractions have been politics and Words Aloud. Politics has just kept growing in intensity as every moment feels like history is being made.  It’s like a big story unfolding in front of us. The only good thing I have to say is, at least it’s all being laid to bare. And it’s pretty darn ugly. And I can’t look away. Somehow I feel I have to bear witness to what is happening. And a part of me always longs to understand–so I read more. Read more

Snippets of Conflict at Mudtown Station

Ascribe Writers visiting Mudtown Station in Owen Sound

Storytellers know ALL the best pieces of a story are usually built around conflict. Sometimes it is hard to find or figure out what the conflict is.

Where does your story start?

Where does it end?

Both are difficult questions.

The easiest way to decide where your story should start is to assume you only have two minutes to tell the story. Two minutes is being generous, because EVERYONE at the table has a story they are dying to tell too, and they want to cut in and interrupt your exciting tale, so they can start on their own story. It’s a competitive world out there, so how do you compete? Read more

Under the Influence

Under the Influence of Nick Petrie ~ Photo by Lori Twining

As writers, our job is to create stories. Unique stories. It doesn’t matter whether they take shape inside poems, short stories or novels, because either way, we are still developing distinctive characters and a plotline. We are telling a story from beginning to end. The question is, how do you come up with the uniqueness of the story, when there are already billions of stories in existence. How will your story stand out from the rest? It may not be that unique after all. Or is it? Read more

A Fool for Stories

Last night I did something I hadn’t done in a while. I laid out some tarot cards and gave myself a reading.

I’m not great at knowing what each card represents. I still need the companion book to decipher what the Four of Cups is trying to tell me, or why the Queen of Pentacles is upside down. After all thirteen cards were translated, I realized they all fit together and told a little story. A story of my life; the recent past and what the future might hold, and right in the middle – the present – was The Fool. Me. Read more

FADE IN – Scene One

Exterior: southern Ontario countryside, winter blizzard conditions… interior of a very old pick-up truck. Woman behind the wheel is not dressed for the weather. She’s wearing a dress, light jacket and high heels. Through the windshield a deserted rural airport and runway are barely visible. She appears anxious, her cell phone sits on the dashboard. The phone rings… Read more