Tag: imported from old blog

Writing

Err on the Side of Audacity

Chrys Buckley

secretlifeofbeesindexToday I was perusing Sue Monk Kidd’s website (and discovered that The Secret Life of Bees is being made into a movie and will be out in October), and came across this little tidbit she posted in a list of advice she’d give to writers. Here was number seven:

“Err on the side of audacity.

One day it occurred to me that most writers, myself included, erred on the side of being too careful in their writing. I made a pact with myself that I would quit playing it safe when what the story really wanted… what my heart really wanted, was to take a big chance. The best writing requires some daring– a little literary skydiving. Look at your idea and ask yourself: how can I make this larger? The novelist E. M. Forster once said that a novel should deliver a series of small astonishments. After I finish each chapter, I read it with an eye toward figuring out where I’ve played it safe, where I backed off, where the small astonishment was lost.”

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TV

I have been so ON lately

Chrys Buckley

Ihouseindext’s strange because I have felt kind of out of touch lately. I haven’t wanted to read tarot for people because I feel sort of detached, disconnected from whatever it is – universal energy, the collective unconscious, cosmic forces, whatever deeper, nonverbal thing I usually tap into while reading cards. I feel almost out of touch w/myself. I know I’m coming out of it, but it’s still there, residually.

So I feel off, inaccurate, scattered and out of touch when it comes to things like tarot, but give me movies and TV and I am ON IT, figuring out all the plot twists way ahead of time. The other weekend, a friend and I went to see 21, which is based on a true story about some MIT kids who counted cards. I liked the movie a lot, it was a great story, and I happen to really love numbers, and also anything about geniuses. I mean, that’s a huge part of why I love House. So I was really fascinated by the whole concept of counting cards, kinda wanted to learn how to do it just to see if I could, if I have the mental capacity to be able to do it. So we’re watching the movie and I kept leaning over and telling my friend what was going to happen. It wasn’t a wholly unpredictable movie, so it’s not like super impressive, but still. I can’t really explain it, I just feel kind of on top of my game, really noticing subtle clues.

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Writing

Feeling as bland as the weather

Chrys Buckley

blandweatherimagesI’ve been sick for the last week or so. It’s been no fun at all. On the good side though, it’s given me a lot of time to think. It’s funny how when an illusion shifts, there’s really no going back. Once you see something, it’s hard to pretend you never did.

So, while sick in bed, watching old episodes of The Office and (of course) House and coughing up a lung, it kinda became clear to me that my current life isn’t really working for me the way I wish it was. I’m not really happy with where I’m at. It’s a sobering realization.

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Writing

"Ribbons Undone" – Tori Amos (Chapter One Title Explained)

Chrys Buckley

ribbonsundoneimagesI’ll just preface this by saying that there are two sections of my book. The first is called Eclipses, with four chapters about childhood and adolescence before I left for college. These are not named after songs. The next section, Waxing Crescent, is the main body of the book, and I still think of the first chapter in this section as chapter 1. This section (the bulk of the book) is where lyric-as-title comes into play.

In this post I decided to go through my chapters that are named after song lyrics and say why I picked the lyric with the chapter, because I picked them all for such varied reasons.

Chapter One is titled “She’s A Girl Rising From A Shell” from the song “Ribbons Undone” by Tori Amos.

Some songs I picked because that’s what I was listening to at the time I’m writing about. This was not the case this time. I titled this chapter about leaving for college with a line from a song that I didn’t hear until six years after the fact.

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Music, Writing

My Table of Contents Looks More Like the Song List on a Soundtrack…or Something

Chrys Buckley

call her moonchild

So, all my chapters (except for the first four that cover childhood), are named after song lyrics. In fact, I’ll just put the list of songs on here, to give an idea, and then I want to talk about the general motivations. Some songs come up more than once, (“Moonchild” by Chris Cornell, for example), different lyrics are used in each chapter. That song is the repeating refrain of the story, for sure. Anyway, for now, I’ll just give song title and artist.

Here’s the current table of contents:

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Writing

Pausing to Say…

Chrys Buckley

expansionyoimagesBefore I get into the subject at hand, I just want to say that I know my posts here have been pretty sporadic. Sadly, that’s probably going to continue for awhile, possibly through October. This is the busy season at work, and I’m working full-time, and working on my book (reading it through again), polishing the manuscript and the proposal in preparation to send to agents, taking a yoga class, going to a writers group, and oh yeah, having fun.

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Writing

Published Again! In Shark Reef!

Chrys Buckley

beyond_smallWhen I got home from Hawaii, I had a message about this acceptance on my machine. Trying to figure out which was better was a total toss-up – tropical paradise or publication is always a tough call.

Shark Reef is a local online literary journal, part of the Writers Guild on Lopez Island. I was especially excited that my piece made it in for two reasons.

The first is, I’ve heard that Shark Reef is difficult to get into, that they’re pretty choosy with what they publish, so it felt pretty good to get in.

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Writing

If You Write It, It Will Come

Chrys Buckley

IMG_0055Alluding to Field of Dreams there, if that wasn’t already obvious.

I actually meant to write this post before my trip to Hawaii, but didn’t have enough time, and this post definitely would have been more timely if I had.

So, maybe because I’m a writer, I believe in the power of written words, but not necessarily in the typical way, like that people can read something and be affected by it. Yeah, that’s a huge thing, but I also think there’s a much more invisible power, something ethereal and unseen, subtle.

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Writing

Moonbeams Over Paradise

Chrys Buckley

Full Moon Over Coconut GroveSo here is my totally unconventional Hawaiian vacation. I’m calling it that b/c when I think of Hawaiian vacations I think of big resorts or scenes from MTV’s Maui Fever, and thankfully, this was nothing like that.

Tallie and I left the island super early last Wednesday morning and talked the whole ferry ride and the whole drive down to the Seattle airport. We’d both had kind of shitty/crazy weeks, so we got it all out of our systems as much as possible. We flew to Oakland first, which surprisingly wasn’t that warm. Then we flew to Lihue. An eclipse took place when we were on the plane and so I didn’t see it at all.

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Writing

On Not Writing (Or, Of Fear and Fond Memories)

Chrys Buckley

IMGP6957eCAMP_ORKILA_ROAD_ORCASA few winters ago, I lived with my friend Tracy in a house at camp, and I’ve probably written about this winter before, and I’m sure I will write about it a million more times because I was so freakin’ happy that winter.

The house at camp where I lived (called The Dispensary because in the summer, the medical staff lived there) looked like a cabin, with wood walls and this real “old” feeling to it, like living there was actually a time warp, in a nice way, back to something ancient, even though we did have modern conveniences there. I also loved the lights, they had a soft glow that on the wood walls just somehow reminded me of something primal. It actually had a feel that brought to mind my grandmother’s house, probably the only other house I’ve loved as much as I love the Dispensary. Something about that house was just like IV nutrition for my soul.

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