Kind of like "The Sopranos" meets "50 Shades of Grey"

By Dennis Lowery

The past couple of fiction writing projects, and one's I'm working on now, I've taken to writing the concepts and many of the scenes out longhand on a pad of yellow paper. For some reason the settings and dialog develop and flow much easier and I find it amazing how fast I can write them the old-fashioned way with pencil and paper.

I have to admit while writing recently, in the zone and the words pouring onto the paper and digging it because some of it is really good--one part of my brain paused and thought, "I need to be sure to save this." As if I was looking for the Control-S command on the pad!

The scan below is of the first page of handwritten notes for a story idea (working title, Maid Man) about a Mafia hit man who has a sex-change operation, with kind of a twist up of The Sopranos meets 50 Shades of Grey. I've planned this story for further work in early 2014. [You can click on the following image to expand if you'd like to read the notes.]

Posted by Dennis Lowery on 17 May 2013 in In Development, Stories, Writing & Publishing | Permalink | Comments (0)

Technorati Tags: 50 Shades of Grey, by Dennis Lowery, fiction. the Sopranos, longhand, writer, writing

The D'Inja...

By Dennis Lowery

If coarse words or profanity bother you -- then don't read this particular post.

I have my work pad out and I’m handwriting scenes for one of my writing projects (and getting some good stuff down, too). And I’m trying to enjoy my beer (something to help with the lengthy wait for my flight).

But there’s a problem…

I’m going to destroy that god damn, fucking, little rolling dog toy souvenir gadget, that laughs every 10 seconds that the freaking New England Travel Mart is selling next to where I’m sitting at Locks Landing (a bar near gate 12) at Bradley International Airport.

It’s annoying beyond measure.

It would be easy but probably useless to ask the shop owner to shut it up.

So I’m going to kill it. Slowly. And laugh while I do it. Hahhhhahhahhahaaaa………….

I must be stealthy and swift. Little does this thing... this Chuckle Buddy know of my wrath. It will soon, though… it will soon learn. I am the shadow no one sees. The wind no one hears.

I am the D’Inja.

Posted by Dennis Lowery on 15 May 2013 in Stories | Permalink | Comments (1)

Technorati Tags: aggravation, airports, by Dennis Lowery, layover, writing

When...

By Dennis Lowery

When you're quiet.

I know you're still there... in the moment with me.

When I travel.

Your heart is still with me... where I am.

Posted by Dennis Lowery on 14 May 2013 in Poptimism (About Life) | Permalink | Comments (0)

Technorati Tags: by Dennis Lowery, life, love

Everything is relative...

By Dennis Lowery

That glass half empty may be half full.

What's harsh to some may not be so bad to others.

What we feel we don't have enough of may be more than others ever had.

All of life is dealing with circumstances and events... trying to keep our footing on an uneven playing field and damn it if the rain isn’t coming down then the wind is blowing us off our feet. The sun is too hot or it’s too freaking cold. And we so love those days when everything is fine and beautiful. We appreciate the contrast. It’s relative.

Now, my life as a child and teen was not cookies and cream and rainbows and ponies—we had mostly hard times, difficult family situations and my relationship with my father was problematic and not much better with my siblings (I bear some responsibility for that because of how I think and feel, which was and still is not always an accommodating temperament).

But it’s relative.

I'm helping a client write her life story and as I have done with other clients (past and present and no doubt will do in the future) it gives me pause for self-reflection on my own life. Here’s the opening to chapter one in her story:

My mother used to tell people that I was born the day before Easter in 1938 while she sat on the toilet. I must have heard her say it a hundred times.

With that statement you know that my childhood was not filled with love. Not with laughter. Not with dreams of a future. It was filled with spite. With hatred. With cruelty. And I hated my life then for what it wasn’t and ached for the things I knew other kids had but I did not. What I cried for most wasn’t the good clothes they had or the nice homes they got to go to at the end of the day. I cried most for the love their parents showed them. Their kindness and simple gestures of affection, caring and warmth. A mother’s smoothing of her child’s unruly hair with a gentle hand. A father’s embrace as he picked his child up... each happy with the sight of the other. That’s what I didn’t have and didn’t get but so desperately wanted and needed.

It didn’t get any better for her after childhood. There is more tragedy to come in her life, interspersed with only the briefest moments of happiness. Despite her sorrow and regrets and the burden she carries to this day (possibly the heaviest a parent could ever bear); a responsibility she can’t relinquish because there is no one to help her. Despite the loneliness that eats at her in silence. She has a beautifully kind soul that all the pain and suffering haven’t suffocated.

Through her story I find a stronger appreciation for my life. A deeper love for my wife and children. The people who read her story will see the good and bad of her life. They’ll read of her mistakes and missteps (she admits them and acknowledges they shaped her life... it is what it is)… but also see her spirit in the face of adversity. Perhaps the reader will find contrast or a different outlook when thinking about their own life that frames it differently and hopefully in a good way.

Appreciate the good things in your life. Love back, in equal or greater measure, those who love you. Never doubt the goodness and beauty in our world.

Remember. It’s all relative.

Posted by Dennis Lowery on 01 May 2013 in Poptimism (About Life), Writing & Publishing | Permalink | Comments (0)

Technorati Tags: by Dennis Lowery, faith, life, love, memoir, story, writing

How to Plan & Organize Your Memoir or Life Story

By Dennis Lowery

I'm an author, writer and developer of creative nonfiction and original fiction stories that has helped many clients turn their knowledge, experiences and life stories into compelling and interesting books (as their ghostwriter). So I've learned how to effectively plan and organize writing a story or book about people's lives.

I've had many people ask me if I would collect some of my posts and details on my own methods for getting started on a memoir or life story project and put them into a concise guide. I've done that and if you want to write your life story and are looking for how best to get started this can help you. (It's only 99 cents... the lowest price I can set at Amazon for the ebook.)

Order the ebook now for only $0.99

This is not a guide to teach you how to become a writer. There are countless books, courses, articles and websites that can help you with that. They can teach you proper grammar, structure and even how to format your manuscript for publication. Those are all things that come with having a rough draft to polish and make pretty.

This IS a guide to help you make actual progress and do what needs to come first—the most important step you must take if you want to write your story. Creating a first draft (the rough draft you can then begin to make pretty and polished).

This guide is approximately 9,000 words (which is about thirty 8.5 inch x 11 inch pages). It is to the point. If you follow what I share with you in this guide, you will make progress in creating a draft of your story and will accomplish three important objectives:

1) Your story will become real and tangible. All the memories and knowledge in your heart and head from all of your life’s experiences become more concrete for others—it’s no longer just a verbal account.

2) It is the very first step for refining your story further; making it more fully fleshed so you can improve the things I mentioned above that make your story more polished and presentable.

3) It gives you something to provide to a professional writer that will lower the cost of their assistance (whether as a ghostwriter or developmental editor/re-writer).

There is a fourth important benefit and it's personal:

I have worked with many people on their stories and helped them create a book that captures the story they want to share with family, friends, and for some, the public. Each client has told me how great it felt to tell their story. How they felt about accomplishing a significant goal in their life and the process had either made them heal or strengthened them in ways hard to describe.

That reward and benefit is there for you, too, with making your story come to life in writing and as a book. What you read in this guide has helped and inspired others. I hope it does for you, too.

Order the ebook now for only $0.99

Posted by Dennis Lowery on 20 April 2013 in Writing & Publishing | Permalink | Comments (0)

Technorati Tags: autobiography, by Dennis Lowery, memoir, nonfiction, story, writer, writing

I’m a better writer than E L James...

By Dennis Lowery

Though I know there’s room for my own improvement and no doubt she’s becoming a better writer or working at it driven by her success. But she’s sold 65,000,000 copies worldwide of the books in her trilogy, 50 Shades of Grey.

So, while my opinion doesn’t matter a lot to anyone but me, it’s important because I know if I keep writing and working on discoverability—helping readers find my work—the quality of my writing and stories will develop an audience. And that’s starting to happen. My stories like, The First Werewolf and Rising Sun ~ Setting Sun and others have received great comments from readers, As have these stories in work that readers have seen excerpts from: Waiting for my Witch, The Devil's Writer and The Forbidden Journals.

Back to 50 Shades of Grey. An article I just read (link to follow) looks at the first book in the trilogy and points out the shortcomings in the writing. Which I agree with but the books success shows how the power of storytelling, even if written poorly, can make a book a bestseller if it is a hot topic or taps a hungry niche/genre market. (As ELJ did with sex/erotica.)

http://writerunboxed.com/2013/04/18/flog-a-pro-50-shades-of-grey-by-e-l-james

If you are a writer or someone who wants to become one… I suggest you read the article and give it some thought.

Do you strive for literary greatness?

Do you write for commercial appeal?

What about me?

I don’t have literary pretensions. I’m working on that sweet spot somewhere between where my writing is appreciated for the quality and readers have voted on the story appeal by buying my books and stories.

Posted by Dennis Lowery on 18 April 2013 in Poptimism (About Life), Writing & Publishing | Permalink | Comments (0)

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The best piece of writing I've ever read about life...

By Dennis Lowery

The best piece of writing I’ve ever read about life and the single-most influential to me personally. It covers many of the challenges we face in life and in-hand with that, gives a word of advice on how to deal with it.

I’ve lived every line that Kipling writes in “If”.

I would bring this up to modern-day propriety by stating that in the last line “man” equally means “woman”, and “sons” equally means “daughters”, as well.

IF by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you

are losing theirs and blaming it on you

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you

but make allowance for their doubting too

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

or being lied about, don’t deal in lies

or being hated don’t give way to hating,

and yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master

if you can think – and not make thoughts your aim,

if you can meet with Triumph and Disaster,

and treat those two impostors just the same

If you can bear to hear the truth, you’ve spoken

twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools

or watch the things you gave your life to, broken

and stoop and build them up with worn-out tools

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

and risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

and lose, and start again at your beginnings,

and never breathe a word about your loss

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

to serve your turn long after they are gone,

and so hold on when there is nothing in you

except the will, which says to them “Hold On”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch

if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

if all men count with you, but none too much

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

with sixty seconds worth of distance run,

yours is the Earth and all that is in it,

and – which is more you will be a man, my son.

Posted by Dennis Lowery on 08 April 2013 in Poptimism (About Life) | Permalink | Comments (0)

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The Simple Elements of True Success

By Dennis Lowery

Great writing's ability to move me is a never-ending joy (thankfully). Emerson had this right about what true success is! It's another of my favorite pieces of writing about Life:

To laugh often and much,

to win the respect of intelligent people and

the affection of children,

to earn the appreciation of honest critics and

endure the betrayal of false friends,

to appreciate beauty,

to find the best in others,

to leave the world a bit better,

whether by a healthy child, a garden patch…

to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded!

~ Emerson

As a reader I appreciate the simple words and beautiful phrasing Emerson used. They're powerful in their meaning and impact as you read and can't help but acknowledge their truth..

As a writer those moments with my own writing, where someone shares with me they were moved by something I wrote, are better than any other reward. That is the beauty and power of writing well.

Posted by Dennis Lowery on 01 April 2013 in Poptimism (About Life), Writing & Publishing | Permalink | Comments (2)

Technorati Tags: beauty, by Dennis Lowery, Emerson, life, success, writer, writing

Draft Opening from "The Forbidden Journals | Book One"...

From a story idea by Dennis Lowery ...

I'm sure you know how it is--something sparks an idea and you just have to jot it down and put a pin in the idea (holding it so it doesn't get lost). That's what happened here.

A couple of years ago I put a one line note in my idea book, "The Forbidden Journals", and even registered the domain name with thoughts of what I could write with that theme in mind: A series of stories that all start when someone finds and reads something they shouldn't have. It becomes a trigger event that literally changes their life in a scary, painful but ultimately positive way--they become more than they ever thought they could be.

While I was working on something else, an idea popped in my head and I stopped to type it out and felt it a small but good piece that could be developed further for the opening of, The Forbidden Journals | Book One. Here's the draft opening:

I read of places I’ve never been and would never go to and some that never were. Enduring the boredom of being between the here and there of my father’s routine courier route everything was the same—always. I’d been taught to pilot manually but also taught what buttons to push and what instructions to give the ships computer—and when to do so.

Life was a checklist and between the tick marks I read.

And dreamed.

And endured my existence.

Until the day I read something my father had hidden from me but kept as if a secret treasure (or curse) held close to the breast. Perhaps it was because it was seemingly all he had left from his father… from his [my?] family. Something more than the vague and all too brief stories he would share with me when I pressed to learn more about my family.

Who we were.

Where we came from.

Why we lived as we did.

He wouldn’t tell me. Never explained why. And I never knew who or what I was… until that day, laying on the gray decking mat in my room, I read what I shouldn’t have.