…as a writer you keep building the upside down pyramid. You start with words. The right word. You think of what the word means to you or how it sounds. Words are more than just meaning, they can be picture like beach, or lake or hideaway. They can be memory like mother or father.  They can be fun like onomatopoeia: boom, cuckoo, zap. But they don’t make sense. So, next are phrases, grouping words to make some sort of unit but unable to make sense because they are just a part of a whole. So, clauses, the next level up, the words strung together to express an idea and, more importantly, to put an idea out there that others, those not privy to what’s inside your head, can understand. And, then, once you’ve sequenced the words in the order that makes you feel you have a valid idea, Voila! you have a paragraph. 

Makes you wonder, well, makes me wonder.  Word. ORIGIN Old English , of Germanic origin; related to Dutch woord and German Wort, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin verbum ‘word.’

Then phrase. Apparently, it took us a bit of time to get to the next step. ORIGIN mid 16th cent. (in the sense [style or manner of expression] ): vialate Latin from Greek phrasis, from phrazein ‘declare, tell.’

But a phrase doesn’t declare or tell, it sort of relates, because then we have a clause. ORIGIN Middle English : via Old French clause, based on Latin claus-‘shut, closed,’ from the verb claudere. So, closed? as in done? Or closed as secure, finished?

Paragraphs may be my favorites. ORIGIN late 15th cent.: from French paragraphe, via medieval Latinfrom Greek paragraphos ‘short stroke marking a break in sense,’ from para– ‘beside’ + graphein ‘write.’  LOL, to write beside?  I like the Greek better, making a break in sense. According to the Writing Center at UNC Chapel Hill, the unity and coherence of ideas among sentences is what constitutes a paragraph. That works really well for a non-fiction, essay, scholastic paper, but fiction? Creative fiction?

For me, a paragraph is what takes the words that evoke memory and pictures, put them together in phrases where the words are surrounded other words giving direction, then formed into clauses that are each finished in their own way, grouping into a paragraph that moves your forward into your story. Because story is ALWAYS the end result.

so, no, I didn’t write on Monday. Brain overload, well, no, not that. It’s more like processing. I need to process the information. Sort of like marinating meat, i.e., marinate |ˈmarəˌnāt|verb [ trans. ]soak. Yep. That’s it. Soak. Soak in, through, around and go deep.

One of the best things about the workshop with Cheryl Klein was the opportunity to focus on my own WIP and by that I mean think about what she was saying in relation to my own writing.

What a gift! Made me think that even though there were fifty people in the room, it felt very intimate and personal. This workshop, co-sponsored between SCBWI Carolinas and SCBWI Midsouth,  gave new meaning to plot, both action and emotion.

There were two teaching methods she provided, making this possible. One, via the pre-conference assignments, I worked so intimately and completely with my story that as Ms. Klein made comments about types of plot, or the inciting emotional event of the story, I was able to *know* exactly where that was in mine. And, two, by telling us right up front she would be giving us access to her presentation, all 82 pages, it was not necessary to take notes about anything other that what jumped out in relation to our story.

So. I’m off to marinate some more. Soak, souse, immerse, bathe. And end up with a superior work than I ever imagined.

Off to Asheville, North Carolina this morning. Home of the largest private house in America, Biltmore Estate, the Grove Park Inn with a world class spa, UNC Asheville, the only liberal arts college in the UNC system, and some of the funkiest stores downtown as well as a vibe that is straight out of 1960 Northern California :-).

But. I will be doing none of those things this weekend. I will be sitting in a windowless, over air-conditioned room, with 50 other writers, listening to Executive Editor Cheryl Klein attempt to push into my brain Plot! The first definition of plot is a plan made in secret by a group of people to do something illegal or harmful which I kind of, sort of like, because I’m writing a mystery. The second definition is more apt, the main events of a play, novel, movie, or similar work, devised and presented by the writer as an interrelated sequence for the work we will be doing in this self imposed eight hour exile from the real world.

Ms. Klein’s book, Second Sight , An Editor Talks On Writing, Revising & Publishing Books For Children and Young Adults, is a primer for those who want to write well for children. And. I think that’s a huge distinction. For children. I know when I returned to children’s books with my own girls, I was enchanted by the way the story was told. In adult books, we allow authors to use short cuts; a brand name for a car to denote wealth or near poverty, a high profile school to infer privilege, or even a famous name to identify a style or attitude. No can do with kids. They’re definitely not as tolerant as children. Although I do believe the most popular of adult books are basically written to an eighth grade level. And sometimes that’s demeaning…to an eighth grader!

So today I finalize my book map. I make sure my spelling is correct and that I’m on top of the material request, although, in truth, I almost feel like I’m drowning in a sea of possibilities and my ears will be too clogged to listen. So. Probably it’s for the best that I am in a totally sterile environment. And, I’m guessing, I’m not alone in feeling overwhelmed!