THE LATEST ADDITION

Meet a New Columbia II Blogger

SAM GRIFFITH

Sam is an English teacher from the American southeast. He writes poetry, fiction, and, occasionally, song lyrics. An early reader of fantasy, his tastes now range from Russian epics to Japanese haiku. When he isn’t doing something related to literature, he enjoys playing disc golf or collectible card games with friends. As of August, 2019, he will begin a teaching position at a public high school in Qingdao, China.

Sam's first post on this page follows.

WRITING VULGARITY

By Sam Griffith

For the past couple years, I have experienced a growing fascination with vulgarity. As writers, how should we write coarse language on the printed page? Do we transcribe word for word and censors be, um, darned? Do we skirt the issue by using phrases like, “John cursed loudly…”? Obviously, we each must find our own style, but it seems to me the former strategy is becoming more and more the norm. I wanted to know what that says about us, both as individuals and as a society.

An article I found early in my search by Katy Steinmetz (written for Time) delved into the science of why we swear. She writes that swearing helps us quickly communicate the intensity of our feelings. Not only that, swearing can trigger physical changes in our bodies: increased heart-rate, pores opening, pupils dilating. Swearing, it has been scientifically demonstrated, can help us handle pain. It was interesting reading, but it didn’t speculate on why we appear to be swearing more, or what that might mean.

Digging deeper, I found stories by Simon Worrall (interviewing Emma Byrne for National Geographic) and Matthew J.X. Malady (writing for Slate). Both articles talked about how vulgarity is changing. Historically, our vulgar words have commonly fallen into two categories: bodily functions (and the privacy of those functions) and religion. For centuries, religious vulgarity contained some of the most shocking phrases you could say (that’s why it’s called cursing). Today, we still have those phrases, but fewer people care. Meanwhile, a rise in the concept of personal privacy (which is really not more than a few hundred years old) saw an attendant rise in the power of swear words associated with those things that happen in private. These words took up the slack of our waning religious zeal, but even they are today being supplanted. Both articles mention a new category of vulgarity emerging: the vulgarity of sociological abuse, the language of bigotry.

Imagine two people. One goes around using the F word regularly in public. Another regularly uses racial slurs. Perhaps you feel neither is positive, but which of the two would you feel more comfortable being seen with? And it’s not just racial slurs. Malady’s article points to words like “retarded” or even “fat.” They pack a more powerful punch than they did even 20 years ago. People don’t often say them publicly without at least glancing about to see who may be listening.

So maybe it’s not that our society is more vulgar. Maybe our vulgarity is changing. As a writer, I’m sure I’ll continue to wrestle over what I want the printed page to say and how to best capture the language of our time. I encourage you all to check out these articles yourselves. There is a lot of interesting material I didn’t get the chance to go into at all, like how casual vulgarity among friends builds trust, or how chimpanzees taught themselves to curse.

Coach Your Characters to Self-Discovery

By Raegan Teller

In a past work life, I was an executive coach. A coach facilitates discussions with others to help them gain self-awareness, clarify goals, achieve their objectives, and unlock their potential. Rarely does a coach “tell” someone what to do or offer direct advice. Instead, she asks insightful questions that lead to self-discovery. While professional coaching requires many hours of training, any writer can employ simple coaching techniques to develop characters.

I can’t take credit for creating this writing technique, but I have used it for years and can say it’s truly magical. My readers have said things like “your characters literally jump off the page” or “I feel like I know these characters personally.”

What I discovered was that the typical character profile is the equivalent of “telling” characters who they are, what they believe, and how they are supposed to behave. If you have flat characters, it may be because you don’t have enough insight into what drives them to act or react when faced with your plot. Through a coaching-type process, you can gain a deeper understanding of characters than you can with typical writing techniques.

Here’s how it works. If you are further developing an existing character, or creating a new one, as I was this week for the fourth book of my Enid Blackwell series, simply coach that character to self-discover who he or she is. You do so by asking the character a series of questions. For example, ask your character to respond in first person to the questions below. You simply answer as though you are that character. Write stream-of-consciousness style for a full five minutes. If you run out of steam, simply reply, “I don’t know what else to say,” over and over until you can resume. Set a timer on your phone or computer and don’t cheat by stopping early. Some of the most revealing character revelations come near the end of the five-minute session.  

Here are some examples of character-coaching questions:

· How would you finish this sentence: Everything will make sense when . . .?

· What do you see when you look in the mirror?

· What was the most defining moment of your life?

· Who was the most influential person in your life—why?

· What are five things you want to do before you die?

Note that these are “deep” questions, not superficial ones like, “What’s your favorite color?” There’s nothing wrong with asking easy questions, but you won’t learn much from them.

Remember that when you are writing in first person as your character, you must resist the urge to force the answers. You are merely the conduit—the reply should come from your character. While it may seem weird at first, close your eyes and try to hear your characters talking to you. If you can push your preconceived notions about them aside for five minutes and just let them talk, you’ll be amazed at what they have to say. 

SURFING THE 3 LEVELS OF CRITIQUE

By Kasie Whitener

I’ve been moonlighting with Columbia III, being very strategic about how I get feedback from my two different critique groups. I take half the short story to Cola II on Monday, I fix the story with their feedback and take the updated six pages to Cola III the following Tuesday. I repeat the process for the second half of the story and at the end of the month I have a well-polished short story.

Then I send it to my long-time critique partner, Jodie, and get her take. Then I send it to my publishing friend and get his take. Finally, I fix what Jonathan said was broken and submit the piece for publication.

I speak frequently on the importance of seeking feedback and on how difficult it can be to take criticism on something you are sure is your best work. So when one of our Cola III writers brought romance novel pages that the rest of the group said needed some serious work, I confidently said, “I can fix this.”

Two things about that: 1) I’m a serial romance novel reader, I’ve already finished over 100 romance novels this year and read about 150 last year; I know the genre, know the formula, and generally know what makes a good one and why some of them just stink.

But, 2) no one can “fix” your work for you. Not even me.

I should have said, “You can do these three things which may address the challenges here.” To suggest I can “fix” the work is both arrogant and presumptive. I honestly just got so excited about helping a romance writer.

There are levels to feedback and you should know, as the submitting writer, what level you’re looking for.

Level 1

People who know you and love you and will encourage you to keep going. This is my Cola II group and I frequently bring them stuff that may or may not be a real story.

Level 2

People who don’t know you but do know writing and are willing to tell you (compassionately), “This needs work.” This is my Cola III group and I only bring them the polished stuff.

Level 3

People who may or may not know you but it doesn’t matter because they’re judging the work as professionals. This is Jodie and Jonathan. They have serious writing chops of their own and know I can take the line-by-line “this works” and “this doesn’t” or the overall “this story bored me” or “you really have something here.”

Critique should always, always be about the words on the page.

If you’re new at critique, work with your Level 1 people for as long as it takes to build up the calluses you’ll need at Levels 2 and 3. It’s safe to assume a critique group is not Level 1 unless you’ve been with them a while. And even then, the good ones will push you like a Level 2. 

Writing Makes Speech Come to Life

By Nick Rolon

Recently, I was fortunate to attend the graduation ceremonies of two of my wonderful nieces, Nicole and Tori. One ceremony was outside with the sun shining bright and the other inside with university banners hanging from the rafters. As a proud uncle, I sat with family and friends eager to see my nieces receive their diplomas and to experience the planned commencement exercises including the inspiring speeches. Written words now brought to life.

  

As I listened to the speakers, who ranged from the Valedictorians and Salutatorians to the keynote speaker (who included a state Commissioner of Education), I heard brief comments on what inspired them to write their speeches. Each had put a lot of thought into the writing of their speech, the message, and how they would present it to the audience. The words they spoke were written by them and you could hear the passion in their voices.

There are many types of speeches with some informative (educating a group of medical students on new procedures), persuasive (emphasizing company goals, missions, plans, and expectations), and some for special occasions (recognizing achievements at graduations, wedding toasts). In many cases, particularly graduation ceremonies, the speaker shares experiences, values, and offers advice.  They seek to motivate, recognize, and inspire students.

I reflected on some key points:  

1) Know your audience- take time to understand your listeners.  You can write your notes to have emotional appeal to that specific audience.

2) Know the message that you want to convey to your audience – what will be the takeaway, what is the key point you want to the listeners to know; save the most important message for the end.

3) Begin with an impactful, enthusiastic introductory statement that defines your speech and quickly captures the attention of your audience.  Remember, you want to have fun writing the speech; feel confident.  You Got It!

4) Tell a personal story that engages listeners.  Use storytelling to make your point and let your personality come through.  This will help bring your written words to life.  If the listeners feel comfortable with you, they will listen more closely to your message.

5) Speak Slowly – no need to rush; factor your provided time limit into writing the speech.

6) Speak with feeling – No one likes to be bored; show your passion for your words.

7) Memorize your speech – don’t read unless you must; you may have a copy of your speech but avoid simply reading word for word.

8) Thank someone- recognition is good; it creates a good feeling throughout the audience.

9) Conclude with your most important message – reiterate the key takeaway; we want listeners to walkaway informed, inspired, happier, and healthier.   

10) Thank everyone for listening.

Many of us, have the same fears expressed by one of the student speakers when she said, “My principal told me I have good news and challenging news – the good news is you were selected class valedictorian and the challenging news is now you have to write a speech and give it.”

Have you ever written and then given a speech? Leave a comment and tell us about it.