When I was in college there was a hierarchy of artsy-ness. The fine artists looked down on the graphic designers, who looked down on the production people, who had to make do with looking down on people outside the art department. Web designers and Illustrators had to float around the edges and hope that no one eliminated their department before they graduated. I could never figure out why the fine arts students were so high and mighty – they were at a state school studying painting. It seemed wildly clear to me that their degree was a complete waste of daddy’s money. It was my opinion that the graphic designers were just as creative as fine artists; we just happened to be practical enough to want jobs after graduation. Such sentiments were far to mercenary for the art department where creativity only had to serve it’s own purpose and things like deadline’s, client needs, and money were all too, too pedestrian to be considered. Which seemed silly to me since even if you became a wildly successful painter you were going to come up against deadlines (we need 12 paintings for your gallery show in September!), client needs (the White House says the portrait can’t be a nude), and money (don’t worry your pretty little head about money!), why not learn how to manage these every day things? Wouldn’t that make you more successful? The resounding answer from the art department seemed to be that such thoughts would stifle the creativity.
And when it came to art, I had no problem shaking my head at their silliness. The only place I allowed myself that kind of indulgent largesse was in writing. I would be out tip-toeing through the tulips of my imaginary worlds for months at a time. But as I have gotten older and more experienced in the craft of writing I have discovered two problems with this. One – the product frequently is not what is needed. Too much wandering down unprofitable by-ways and I come back to the main plot of the story with about 100 pages of random stuff that don’t serve the story at all, but because I’ve just spent months on them, I love them too much to cut. Two – I don’t have the time. I now have a husband, a daughter, and a business to attend to and they all have a legitimate claim to my time. And how is the dog supposed to get any attention if I’m off typingā¦ again? (Hint: He has to look gosh darn adorable.) So, my solution? Schedules and outlines. Those two foes of creativity have become my friends. With a strong outline my writing is faster and more productive than the days when I sat down at the computer wondering what to write today. I’m not sure how anyone else manages (and I’d love to hear other people’s experiences), but I’m hanging my hat on a schedule and an outline.
https://bethanymaines.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Aug2016-Logo-op3-300x69.png00Bethany Maineshttps://bethanymaines.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Aug2016-Logo-op3-300x69.pngBethany Maines2014-08-13 01:06:052014-08-11 15:10:25Creativity vs. Time
Recently, I was ranting on Facebook about my hatred for the periods in a.m. and p.m as well as the comma between city and state in addresses (see what you miss by not being my Facebook friend?) and one of my friends posted a link to Weird Al Yankovicās new song āWord Crimes.āĀ As a long time Weird Al enthusiast and a Facebook friend to several editors and writers I had already seen the video (click here if you havenāt).Ā The video parodies āBlurred Lines,ā Robin Thickeās insanely catchy hit from 2013.Ā If you havenāt heard that one, then you probably werenāt living in America all of last year, but here you go ā Blurred Lines.Ā (Warning: may not be suitable for work and my cause you to get in arguments with your feminist friends over whether or not the song is ārape-yā.Ā Double Warning: If you use the word rape-y at me, I will smite you.)Ā But back to the story, as I watched the Weird Al version again (because why wouldnāt you?) I was caught by the line āYou do not use āitāsā in this case!ā
But why donāt we?Ā Yes, yes, the current rules state that āitāsā is a contraction.Ā āItā is not possessive; āitā cannot own anything.Ā But I say, āListen up English ā if youāre not going to provide me with a gender neutral pronoun, why canāt I use the defacto pronoun already in use in conversation ā it?āĀ Clearly, the language is lacking such a word. English should stop being stuffy and allow this clearly needed possessive to enter the dictionary.Ā Iād willingly delete ātweepā from the Oxford-English Dictionary if I could have āitās.āĀ Whoās with me?
https://bethanymaines.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Aug2016-Logo-op3-300x69.png00Bethany Maineshttps://bethanymaines.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Aug2016-Logo-op3-300x69.pngBethany Maines2014-07-23 12:30:202023-03-10 17:51:46The Case for It’s
The premise of my Carrie Mae Mystery series is that in the sixties, while other ladies were burning their bras and inventing Tupperware, Carrie Mae Robart founded a door to door / friend to friend cosmetic selling empire ā Carrie Mae Cosmetics. Her goal was to give women financial independence without having to work outside the home. However, the more women she met, the more she realized that there were some problems that couldnāt be solved with just money Āā some problems needed a fist in the face. So Carrie Mae set up the Carrie Mae Foundation. Financed by proceeds from the cosmetic sales, the foundation is part non-profit – working on pro-bono legal cases and lobbying government on womenās rights issues – and partly a women only, black-ops, elite fighting force. The heroines of my stories Nikki Lanier, Ellen Marson, Jenny Baxter and Jane Rozmarek are part of that force and they travel the world, fulfilling the Carrie Mae mission statement: helping women everywhere.
Now the thing youāll notice about this premise is that itās only partially based in reality. I mean, sure, itās possible for a woman in the 1960ās to found a peer to peer make up sales company. Not that I know of anyā¦ ahem. But sadly, it has apparently never occurred to anyone to found an elite fighting force for women as part their non-profit. (If someone knows of one, please email me immediately; I would like to join up.) The problem with all of this lack of reality is that I have to make it sound plausible when writing. And that means all the other bits have to sound real. I have to research the guns and the locations and I try to make sure that my characters emotions feel authentic. But if I spend too much time in reality, I suddenly look at my own premise and think, āThatās ridiculous! I canāt write that.ā
Thatās right; I tell myself, āI canāt.ā Those are some of the worst words in the English language. (Although, theyāre still not as bad as, āWe need to talk.ā) Iām two books and two short stories, and half a manuscript into a series, andā¦ I canāt? How does the Canāt Gremlin sneak into so many places? I thought I was well fortified behind the Walls of Fantasy; girded by the Armor of Gumption; defended by the Holy Force of Imagination. And yetā¦ I canāt. Why is it so hard to get that jerk of a gremlin out of the house? Canāt have an elite fighting force? You might as well suggest that a woman canāt write books. The cycle of Canāt can be extremely hard to break, so when I get too down in the Canāts, I like to read other peopleās books. Thereās nothing like a good trip through someone elseās imagination to leave the Canāt Gremlin in the dust. But still, I know heās just waiting around the corner to trip me up. Which is why I prefer to visit reality infrequently and for only brief periods of time. Feel free to visit me any time, but leave your gremlins at the door ā I canāt be bothered with Canāt today.
https://bethanymaines.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Aug2016-Logo-op3-300x69.png00Bethany Maineshttps://bethanymaines.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Aug2016-Logo-op3-300x69.pngBethany Maines2014-07-08 15:05:372014-07-08 15:05:37Don’t Feed the Gremlins
Iām sitting in my backyard listening to my neighbors complain about one of their roommates. Apparently, the miscreant roommate has three bags of trash sitting by the door to his room that he has failed to take out.
āI mean, thatās not a problemā¦ exactly.ā
Each of the guys carefully, and politely denote their own housecleaning failures.
āI never make my bed.ā
āYou never saw my apartment; I can get meh-ssy.ā
āI have empty bottles in my room too.ā (āNot like that,ā interjects the first guy.)
They each tiptoe up to the line of declaring the roommateās behavior an actual problem, but donāt cross it. Clearly, the garbage is still being contained in the room. But equally clear is that they all find the roommates sloth disgusting. Note to the miscreant: When 3 twenty-something dudes, who have only a tentative grasp on hygiene, find your housekeeping habits to sub-par on the rank of foulness, you just might have a problem.
All of which got me to thinking about villains and bad guys and wondering whether or not they realize that they are failing at their end of the social bargain. What if villains are just totally incapable of realizing that their 3 bags of garbage is offending the other roommates? Getting kicked out of the house will come as a total shock if you have no idea that a hazmat suit shouldnāt be required dress for your room. Maybe if Sauron had just been a little tidier maybe he wouldnāt have had to move in with the Orcs. If Darth Vader hadnāt grown up with Jabba the Hut as role model maybe he wouldnāt have gone to the dark side. If Voldemort hadnāt had to live on the back of some guyās greasy head maybe he wouldnāt have been so peeved all the time. What do you think? Do villains choose to deviate from the social norm, or do they just blow right by the stop signs without seeing them at all?
This past year I have been focusing on my graphic design business and having a child (see adorable picture of Zoe below) and itās been hard to give the time required to write a novel. Not that Iāve stopped writing or wanting to write, but the amount of hours I have available is not what it once was. Since I had shorter hours I decided to shift to shorter projects and Iāve spent the past year working on short stories. This has been both hard and rewarding. Hard in that Iāve always worked in long format and short stories are structured differently than novels. Short stories have made me practice new skills and work in new ways and it has been extremely rewarding to see these new skills bear fruit.
But as my life (and daughter) settle back into a routine, Iām looking forward to returning to the novel structure. In fact, I have plans for a third Carrie Mae Mystery, High-Caliber Concealer, and an as yet to be named mystery set in the San Juan islands. I canāt wait to share these new adventures with you, but today Iām releasing the last of my pre-daughter short stories. Power of Attorney a Carrie Mae Mini-Mystery is now available! I hope you enjoy it!
https://bethanymaines.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Aug2016-Logo-op3-300x69.png00Bethany Maineshttps://bethanymaines.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Aug2016-Logo-op3-300x69.pngBethany Maines2014-05-28 17:34:272014-07-20 17:41:39Power of Attorney
Creativity vs. Time
/in General WritingWhen I was in college there was a hierarchy of artsy-ness. The fine artists looked down on the graphic designers, who looked down on the production people, who had to make do with looking down on people outside the art department. Web designers and Illustrators had to float around the edges and hope that no one eliminated their department before they graduated. I could never figure out why the fine arts students were so high and mighty – they were at a state school studying painting. It seemed wildly clear to me that their degree was a complete waste of daddy’s money. It was my opinion that the graphic designers were just as creative as fine artists; we just happened to be practical enough to want jobs after graduation. Such sentiments were far to mercenary for the art department where creativity only had to serve it’s own purpose and things like deadline’s, client needs, and money were all too, too pedestrian to be considered. Which seemed silly to me since even if you became a wildly successful painter you were going to come up against deadlines (we need 12 paintings for your gallery show in September!), client needs (the White House says the portrait can’t be a nude), and money (don’t worry your pretty little head about money!), why not learn how to manage these every day things? Wouldn’t that make you more successful? The resounding answer from the art department seemed to be that such thoughts would stifle the creativity.
And when it came to art, I had no problem shaking my head at their silliness. The only place I allowed myself that kind of indulgent largesse was in writing. I would be out tip-toeing through the tulips of my imaginary worlds for months at a time. But as I have gotten older and more experienced in the craft of writing I have discovered two problems with this. One – the product frequently is not what is needed. Too much wandering down unprofitable by-ways and I come back to the main plot of the story with about 100 pages of random stuff that don’t serve the story at all, but because I’ve just spent months on them, I love them too much to cut. Two – I don’t have the time. I now have a husband, a daughter, and a business to attend to and they all have a legitimate claim to my time. And how is the dog supposed to get any attention if I’m off typingā¦ again? (Hint: He has to look gosh darn adorable.) So, my solution? Schedules and outlines. Those two foes of creativity have become my friends. With a strong outline my writing is faster and more productive than the days when I sat down at the computer wondering what to write today. I’m not sure how anyone else manages (and I’d love to hear other people’s experiences), but I’m hanging my hat on a schedule and an outline.
The Case for It’s
/in General WritingRecently, I was ranting on Facebook about my hatred for the periods in a.m. and p.m as well as the comma between city and state in addresses (see what you miss by not being my Facebook friend?) and one of my friends posted a link to Weird Al Yankovicās new song āWord Crimes.āĀ As a long time Weird Al enthusiast and a Facebook friend to several editors and writers I had already seen the video (click here if you havenāt).Ā The video parodies āBlurred Lines,ā Robin Thickeās insanely catchy hit from 2013.Ā If you havenāt heard that one, then you probably werenāt living in America all of last year, but here you go ā Blurred Lines.Ā (Warning: may not be suitable for work and my cause you to get in arguments with your feminist friends over whether or not the song is ārape-yā.Ā Double Warning: If you use the word rape-y at me, I will smite you.)Ā But back to the story, as I watched the Weird Al version again (because why wouldnāt you?) I was caught by the line āYou do not use āitāsā in this case!ā
But why donāt we?Ā Yes, yes, the current rules state that āitāsā is a contraction.Ā āItā is not possessive; āitā cannot own anything.Ā But I say, āListen up English ā if youāre not going to provide me with a gender neutral pronoun, why canāt I use the defacto pronoun already in use in conversation ā it?āĀ Clearly, the language is lacking such a word. English should stop being stuffy and allow this clearly needed possessive to enter the dictionary.Ā Iād willingly delete ātweepā from the Oxford-English Dictionary if I could have āitās.āĀ Whoās with me?
Don’t Feed the Gremlins
/in Carrie Mae, General WritingThe premise of my Carrie Mae Mystery series is that in the sixties, while other ladies were burning their bras and inventing Tupperware, Carrie Mae Robart founded a door to door / friend to friend cosmetic selling empire ā Carrie Mae Cosmetics. Her goal was to give women financial independence without having to work outside the home. However, the more women she met, the more she realized that there were some problems that couldnāt be solved with just money Āā some problems needed a fist in the face. So Carrie Mae set up the Carrie Mae Foundation. Financed by proceeds from the cosmetic sales, the foundation is part non-profit – working on pro-bono legal cases and lobbying government on womenās rights issues – and partly a women only, black-ops, elite fighting force. The heroines of my stories Nikki Lanier, Ellen Marson, Jenny Baxter and Jane Rozmarek are part of that force and they travel the world, fulfilling the Carrie Mae mission statement: helping women everywhere.
Now the thing youāll notice about this premise is that itās only partially based in reality. I mean, sure, itās possible for a woman in the 1960ās to found a peer to peer make up sales company. Not that I know of anyā¦ ahem. But sadly, it has apparently never occurred to anyone to found an elite fighting force for women as part their non-profit. (If someone knows of one, please email me immediately; I would like to join up.) The problem with all of this lack of reality is that I have to make it sound plausible when writing. And that means all the other bits have to sound real. I have to research the guns and the locations and I try to make sure that my characters emotions feel authentic. But if I spend too much time in reality, I suddenly look at my own premise and think, āThatās ridiculous! I canāt write that.ā
Thatās right; I tell myself, āI canāt.ā Those are some of the worst words in the English language. (Although, theyāre still not as bad as, āWe need to talk.ā) Iām two books and two short stories, and half a manuscript into a series, andā¦ I canāt? How does the Canāt Gremlin sneak into so many places? I thought I was well fortified behind the Walls of Fantasy; girded by the Armor of Gumption; defended by the Holy Force of Imagination. And yetā¦ I canāt. Why is it so hard to get that jerk of a gremlin out of the house? Canāt have an elite fighting force? You might as well suggest that a woman canāt write books. The cycle of Canāt can be extremely hard to break, so when I get too down in the Canāts, I like to read other peopleās books. Thereās nothing like a good trip through someone elseās imagination to leave the Canāt Gremlin in the dust. But still, I know heās just waiting around the corner to trip me up. Which is why I prefer to visit reality infrequently and for only brief periods of time. Feel free to visit me any time, but leave your gremlins at the door ā I canāt be bothered with Canāt today.
Right Villainy
/in General WritingIām sitting in my backyard listening to my neighbors complain about one of their roommates. Apparently, the miscreant roommate has three bags of trash sitting by the door to his room that he has failed to take out.
āI mean, thatās not a problemā¦ exactly.ā
Each of the guys carefully, and politely denote their own housecleaning failures.
āI never make my bed.ā
āYou never saw my apartment; I can get meh-ssy.ā
āI have empty bottles in my room too.ā (āNot like that,ā interjects the first guy.)
They each tiptoe up to the line of declaring the roommateās behavior an actual problem, but donāt cross it. Clearly, the garbage is still being contained in the room. But equally clear is that they all find the roommates sloth disgusting. Note to the miscreant: When 3 twenty-something dudes, who have only a tentative grasp on hygiene, find your housekeeping habits to sub-par on the rank of foulness, you just might have a problem.
All of which got me to thinking about villains and bad guys and wondering whether or not they realize that they are failing at their end of the social bargain. What if villains are just totally incapable of realizing that their 3 bags of garbage is offending the other roommates? Getting kicked out of the house will come as a total shock if you have no idea that a hazmat suit shouldnāt be required dress for your room. Maybe if Sauron had just been a little tidier maybe he wouldnāt have had to move in with the Orcs. If Darth Vader hadnāt grown up with Jabba the Hut as role model maybe he wouldnāt have gone to the dark side. If Voldemort hadnāt had to live on the back of some guyās greasy head maybe he wouldnāt have been so peeved all the time. What do you think? Do villains choose to deviate from the social norm, or do they just blow right by the stop signs without seeing them at all?
Power of Attorney
/in Carrie Mae, General WritingThis past year I have been focusing on my graphic design business and having a child (see adorable picture of Zoe below) and itās been hard to give the time required to write a novel. Not that Iāve stopped writing or wanting to write, but the amount of hours I have available is not what it once was. Since I had shorter hours I decided to shift to shorter projects and Iāve spent the past year working on short stories. This has been both hard and rewarding. Hard in that Iāve always worked in long format and short stories are structured differently than novels. Short stories have made me practice new skills and work in new ways and it has been extremely rewarding to see these new skills bear fruit.
But as my life (and daughter) settle back into a routine, Iām looking forward to returning to the novel structure. In fact, I have plans for a third Carrie Mae Mystery, High-Caliber Concealer, and an as yet to be named mystery set in the San Juan islands. I canāt wait to share these new adventures with you, but today Iām releasing the last of my pre-daughter short stories. Power of Attorney a Carrie Mae Mini-Mystery is now available! I hope you enjoy it!