Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Can you brag about your dog--for 10 pages?

I remember as a new writer how I wrote a 10-page-story about our brilliant German Shepherd dog, Max. He truly was smart—but 10 pages worth? You’ve all seen those dogs on TV who it sounds like they say Mama and Love you (or wov you).  Our dog would only say that for the girls and me. Therefore, I made a fool of myself when he refused to say it for the neighbors. Thirty years later, I still get teased about it.

So I signed up for a creative writing class at the local community college. I explained to the professor that 
I’d been out of school for 20 years and was clueless as to how I should write a story. I’ll bet anything he 
wished he hadn’t said to me, “Just write anything. That’ll get you started.” So I did. I wrote all those 
pages—which I never read again—about Max, the brilliant, wonderful dog. The dog who protected our 
children, who was a great judge of character, when hungry, shoved his bowl across the floor at me. I took 
countless pictures of Max, dressed him in T-shirts, sunglasses and hats. He really was a good sport for putting up with me. No wonder he favored the men in the house.

My husband was an insurance adjustor at this time. One of his claims was for Jackie Gleason. Jackie had 
been hospitalized when my husband first worked on his claim. When my husband had to make a second trip 
to his place, I made a get well card with—well? What else? Max’s picture with him in the T-shirt, sunglasses
and, um, reading a book while lying on the couch. He told my husband to thank me. Probably thought I was 
a lunatic.

At that time in my life I knew of two things: raising children and dogs. So my next stories all seemed to be on 
the Erma Bombeck side of life, or so my classmates said. I was always told to write about what you know. 
That was it.

I did take stretch-and-sew lessons, but I really don’t like sewing. I took guitar lessons to keep me sane when blizzards came our way. Never did learn how to play. Then I took belly dancing lessons for exercise. 
Should’ve kept that up, great for weight loss. That’s when my husband suggested I might want to attend 
college. I still didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up. Writing has always been the one thing I loved to do.

Since that time, I’ve had a lot of experiences, which gives me much more to write about.

 How about you? What did you first write about? How did you get started with your writing? What pushed 
you to start putting words on that page?



9 comments:

  1. I'm embarrassed to say that I had very negative reasons for starting to write. My problem is one of confidence, but when I read a "big time-big selling" author whose work was just crap, it was enough to make me think that I could do better.

    Of course it's much harder than it looks. I still think that particular author has written one or two good books and the rest is drek.

    My first novel (which now I don't even count) featured myself as the main character and a childhood friend as my "sidekick." Is that typical or what!

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  2. Sort of like EB I shared an office with another psychologist who wrote e-books. I thought if he could do, so could I. He is a good writer, though.

    PS So that's the doggie card Jackie Gleason kept talking about.

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  3. Robert Parker was a professor in the English Department where I went to college. There were also several published poets on the faculty. There was one woman who had tenure and Jews were the only minority represented. In small graduate classes, I could see that male students were being groomed to rise through the ranks and take the place of tenured faculty when they retired.

    I therefore wrote a series of stories featuring women. I never published them but learned about character development and conflict through those attempts.

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  4. Jackie Gleason talked about a doggie card for real or are you pulling my leg?
    My husband wouldn't let me go meet him--he's all business and wouldn't think to let me tag along, knowing I would be taking notes!

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  5. For real? Reality is overrated. As I writer, I'm interested in improving reality, as I did above.

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  6. I agree with Warren--reality is overrated. Reality is what I do when I have to.

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  7. The leader of one critique group I took used to tell us, never respond to a piece of criticism with, "but that's what really happened."

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  8. My first indication that I might be a good writer was for a piece I wrote about our Cocker Spaniel in 8th grade. The teacher read it to the class as an example of how to do the assignment correctly (describe something without telling what it was)! I turned bright red, but I WAS proud. Good ole dogs!

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  9. Well, I don't have a dog, but I did write several stories using my son and daughter-in-law's cat as a character, both in mystery and romance fiction. They sold and were published. So animals can inspire us to write good fiction. You would be surprised how many people love their pets more than their children!

    Best,

    Jacqueline Seewald
    THE TRUTH SLEUTH--published today by Five Star/Gale in hardocver

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