| Having problems writing? I don't know why. San | | | | or one phrase, instead of using a high school |
| Francisco Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll writes up to | | | | book-report technique.WHERE does your story or |
| five columns a week. After all, if he can write five | | | | poem take place?Knowing the setting can allow you |
| columns, you should be able to write a five-lined | | | | to be a bit more descriptive with your work. Does your |
| poem-but that does not seem to be the case.How | | | | poem or prose take place in Alaska? Florida? China? |
| does he do it? Carroll claimed to recite lines from | | | | Yugoslavia? Hawaii? Kentucky? Each of these places |
| Rudyard Kipling's "The Elephant Child":"I have six | | | | is, perhaps, equal opposites of the next. To know your |
| humble serving menThey taught me all I knewTheir | | | | setting you have two choices-- 1.) Be a good |
| names are whatAnd where and whenAnd why and | | | | researcher; collect pictures and read as much as you |
| how and who."I'm more than sure that two incentives | | | | can about the location, or 2.) Take a road trip! Nothing |
| for Jon Carroll are 1.) Creating deadlines and 2.) His | | | | can be grander than to spend your weekend visiting |
| salary! Yes, we writers DO get paid every now and | | | | unknown territories.WHEN did the events take place in |
| then!Basing my philosophies on those few lines of | | | | which you are writing?If you're doing factual |
| Kipling's "The Elephant Child", my advice is to "Simply | | | | reporting-this is especially a MUST-DO. For instance, if |
| Ask Questions". Rummage through some old work | | | | you read a news article a reader wants to know |
| (whether it be poetry, nonfiction, or fiction) that you've | | | | when Ms. Johnson's house was burglarized. Did it |
| written and use the following techniques to enhance | | | | happen June 20, 2001? June 20, 1984? Did the events |
| your skills. And, then, ask yourself the follow | | | | take place when it was winter with ten inches of |
| questions.WHAT is the underlying theme?Try to come | | | | snow? Or, better still, did the events take place at |
| up with a single-word or phrase to describe your story. | | | | Virginia Beach mid-August?WHY did the events take |
| Perhaps one reason your story has not been | | | | place?Is there a conflict within your character? A lot of |
| effective in the past is that you have too many | | | | times character's (and real people too) have problems |
| intertwining stories. This, in turn, can cause confusion | | | | only because their conscious is "eating them away". Is |
| for the reader. So, ask yourself, "What is my story | | | | this the case? If so, why does your character feel so |
| about?" And, give yourself answers such as: | | | | guilty that he made such decisions? Perhaps the |
| Desolation, Lost Hope, Self-Confidence, Racism, | | | | events that take place are only cause-effect. Most |
| Attained Dreams, etc. If you can KISS (keep it simple | | | | always people cause their own mental downfall and |
| stupid), then your readers won't MISS your point.As | | | | breakdown. Always know why your characters |
| practice, read some of the great contemporary | | | | complete every task and why the events take |
| writers and ask yourself the same question-"What is | | | | place.How did the events happen? |
| the underlying theme?" Describe the book in one word | | | | |