The personal blog of C.D. Huntemann...
         I retired from the aerospace profession after helping land men on the moon, testing ICBM components, creating some of the original PC operating systems and running large complex computer installations. They were all great engineering challenges of ingenuity and creativity. Now I'm attempting to do something really hard. I'm learning how to write with emotions.
         Story telling is much harder than designing a rocket. Stories need to be told with/through emotions. They aren't worth reading if they don't reach the emotional level. It requires the writer to dig for emotions from people he doesn't (and probably will never) know, to plumb the emotional depths of the everyman/woman and connect with the reader beneath the logic level.
         That's not rocket-science. That's tough.
         Come along with me as I explore writing. I'll attend conferences, writing groups, courses, workshops, eavesdrop in bars, write a little and generally look for my limitations. Help me find them. And if I don't see them, tell me so.

That's great that you've got writing groups that meet face-to-face. But it is hard with the holidays to meet very often. Schedules get so busy.

Good luck with your book!

6 adults, 2 cats and a shy dog. That was our writing weekend on the 5th and 6th. Ab-fab wonderful.

I usually write during readings as the writing flows... But, this past Sunday the reader had a story that was riveting (and almost horrifying). The bar, the audience was as quiet as a tomb. I listened.

I dread holidays as everyone assumes I have a life because they have one! (I have no family in the state of Montana.)

The one writing group meets tomorrow Friday and the other Dec. 1st. I find them helpful.

I'm hoping when I'm in Costa Rica this winter that the writer's group will be meeting every Friday as usual. There are no holidays on Fridays coming up.

Hey - this sounds like a cool idea! Shame I live across the pond - have a waffle on me!!!!

Hi there Clint!
I think that fictionalizing a memoir would be defeating the purpose, don't you? I mean, a work is either a memoir (a personal account of events in one's own life) or a novel (made up events, characters and settings.) I don't think your readers will expect to know what your other characters are thinking because you, in real life, are not omnipotent. Therefore, your memoirs should not display others' thoughts. Unless of course, they TELL you that they were thinking x way. You could always create a dialogue whereby the other person tells you "Hey, I was thinking that you looked good in green. It made me feel like ..." But then, I wouldn't add fiction to a memoir. If it didn't happen, I would leave it out. You would be grasping a slippery slope argument if someone to whom you referred in your book confronted you and said, "I never thought that way." See what I mean?
HTH,
Crissy

...and everybody has an opinion... hopefully. Sometimes I'm not moved to speak in our group.

To do a good poem about a current event or popular figure is difficult. To do it well? Even less likely... kudos to Connie.

Lucky you! On a winter's day, you got to go to Sicily!

Is this one of the 200 Borders that will be closing end of January? Concord/Nashua/Rochester were on the "possibly closing" list. 56er here at WdC will be losing his job in Bflo, and here in Missoula, MT we lose one too.

Pilot pitches sounds like a good idea. Look into video trailers for your stories too.

I guess name versus profession depends on what is most important. In Real Life we abbreviate and label too. Unless the character is major... profession may be easier, more concrete, more salient.

I couldn't help myself... used the prompts to write a short silly ditty I posted in my blog:

""Three sacks of leaves" Turnips, turnips, turnips" 

Slice them neeps, peel some onions and weep!

...and comment, please.

Winch, leaf, turnip... nice words!

I like the sentient building... I've given voice to many things over the years. It helps to explore a different p.o.v.