Need some Portlandians! discussion

Hey there, so I was thinking, we could maybe share the struggles we face in our writing. For me, it's obviously writer's block, but sometimes I forget about how dialogue should sound, instead of narrating or being a descriptive book, so my area of focus is to really get into being the dialogue. Knowing the dialogue. Embracing the dialogue. What I was taught in one of my higher level creative writing classes was to get a notebook and pen, go to a coffee shop or event, and jot down real life dialogue from real people, the individuals who talk amongst us. Now we don't want to be obvious, but I found that this helps me a lot with having realistic dialogue instead of artificial dialogue. Although imagination is key, sometimes it's hard to pull something magical, dialoguewise out of our heads, and sometimes it's better to hear actual dialogue around us for a more realistic effect.

I'm from Anchorage too!!!!
What a coincidence? What do you think of Portland so far? I've lived here over a year now and love it :)

Hi! I am Pat and lived in Portland area for most of my life until seven years ago. I am writing a memoir about overcoming my fears and how life events prepared me for a move to Russia. I look forward to participating in this group!

Here is one of my struggles in writing a memoir. My themes guide my writing but to follow a theme, that doesn't always jive with my chronological age at the time. Any suggestions?

Hi Patricia, This is just a thought, but you could have flashbacks and forwards kind of thing to stick to a theme that doesn't fit chronologically. Then you could return to your current place in your timeline, to tie it back in to the next episode.

Thanks, Rod. This helps. Gives me more food for thought. Writing a memoir is really an art! My hat off to those of you who have made it all the way through!

I've been struggling with my memoir too because I have so many things going at once to talk about, it becomes a bit overwelming and I want my memoir to pan out smoothly rather than tons of info splatted on a page.

Emily, one thing that helps me is to outline what I have written and include also what I still hope to include. If something is "out of place" the outline helps me spot it, especially as my manuscript gets longer.

thats a good point

I'm a local indie mystery writer. If your trying to motivate yourself to produce a complete book you might try NaNoWriMo.com. It's a website devoted to writing a compete novel in the month of November (50,000 words). October is a perfect time to outline and build characters. There will be local events, in November, where everyone writes together at coffee shops or where ever, even in Beaverton.

Nice, hey Richard. Do you know of any local writer groups that get together and read eachothers story and gives advice and constructive critisizm in order to scuplt one's book? I would love to join a group where we discuss eachother's stories in order to improve my own works and make new friends

Emily wrote: "I'm from Anchorage too!!!!
What a coincidence? What do you think of Portland so far? I've lived here over a year now and love it :)"

I am from Ketchikan and sitka. Welcome to Oregon

How's it going everyone? I didn't realize I had received a notification from November lol and that's awesome Debra!!!
:) I still have never been to Ketchikin or Sitka.

I actually just wrote a bunch on my iPad, for a new Aussie friend. I wanted to know if it was a story worth the reading. (I know I have to write it)

It's emotionally heavy as a tank.. I decided to break it up into segment headings, similar to a book I'm reading (Mind Over Ship by David Marusek.) I think it'll work.

I decided where to begin, and just wrote it, it spilled out. Needs fleshing but it's written in first person... But it's certainly not an outline.

I decided to straight up make it linear. That could change a bit of course. My mom's part will remain a mystery for a long while, just as it was for me. It will help with conveying the desperation I felt from age 9 3/4 to 12 1/4...

How will we help each other? Meet to read? That could take hours. I live on the east side. As we know, rush hour traffic could take longer than reading in a coffee shop ;)

Man, I thought this thread was dead.

My problem with writing my autobio-- I have no idea what tone I want it to take. I have experimented with SO many styles, from poetry to plays... none of them really seem to be able to convey what I want. Also, I don't think I want to be alive if I ever publish this. I incriminate people with money and no consciences. If they kill me, I want it to be when I have less to lose.

I agree with all the struggles on this thread >,<

My problem is I have so MANY stories to tell because my life was so outrageous that it would be hard to talk from day 1 as a kid to now in just 300 pages. It's been a massive struggle

Emily wrote: "I agree with all the struggles on this thread >,<

My problem is I have so MANY stories to tell because my life was so outrageous that it would be hard to talk from day 1 as a kid to now in just 30..."

Oh, I know! I have this thing I'd like to write about-- it's the recovery of repressed memories... but I really don't know if I should write it out in chronological order or if I should try to recreate it based on what I remember? Agh.

Oh, and it doesn't help that major organizations and subcultures (which have to be explained) are also implicated and that saps my motivation because I'm afraid of being lynched if I publish.

I'm dividing mine.

The book is titled The Monster and the Liar.

The first chapter is The Abduction. It begins when me and my 5 siblings were taken from my mother by subterfuge. She was forced to bring us all to a court hearing about my truancy (I'm oldest. She was turned in as an unfit mother by worse parents across the street. She had no idea.)

We were taken "to get ice cream" by the "court babysitters". Except they separated the two infant age children from us immediately. (I knew. She did not)

They told her in the hearing. She threw a fit and spent the night in jail, not knowing where her kids were or what was going on. No lawyer. We were beyond dirt poor.

It was 2 1/2 yrs before she could get us back. It was Jan 1963, Ohio. I was 9.

The book will end when I walk in the door of my mother's new house. I was the last released. We weren't all returned; we lost the youngest, 4 months old at the beginning.

I figure, to tell the story of my first 30 yrs will take 3 books.

My mother, two brothers, the Monster are now dead. I don't talk to any of my family, but they will figure very little in the book. Besides, this is MY memoir. I'm not changing names. I'm 62. If it's published, they can sue me.

In the process of covering my truth, I'll be submitting court records, hospital and foster home records, police records, town paper articles. Yes, they're all there. It's going to be hell to relive it.

But I wrote a very quick first chapter. It poured out of me. The worst part will be having to spend the time in that city to read the microfiche records.

I may never be published. Don't care. I showed the first (abbreviated - it's amazing how memories are layered. Scrape one away, and you feel the strata under it) to a new friend. He said "this story needs to be told".

Ohio's Child Care dept may be blown sky high. It deserves it.

Being 62, by the time this one is published, if it is, I'll be down the road further. And the book will become a history of sorts.

So, lynch me. I've already been thru many hells in that 2 1/2 yrs, as were the 399 other children that Monster "fostered". I'm prepared.

Be brave. It's YOUR history. If you must, publish under a nom de plume. And put a note that names were changed to protect you from the guilty.

I wanna read your memoir !!!! That sounds intense !!!

I don't wanna change names either but if I absolutely have to, I would only change it by a letter

Really? I keep hearing that. It was ~horrible to live thru.
I know what it was like to live in the concentration camps, or to be a slave, escape, and you're returned, and whipped. There was even sexual abuse of 4-11 yr olds.

It will be intense.

I have a first, very rough draft of the first chapter. Is there a place to post? I'm very curious if people would truly want to read it. It puzzles me why. I may ask some honest questions as to why.

Thank you VERY MUCH for the encouragement. I'm waiting for the "bullshit flag" to pop up, with the few people I've talked to, but I haven't seen it yet

Yes u can post in the short story section


I think it's under tool button on tab, a few under the list a giveaway section
I would love to read it

Emily, I can't find that. There seem to be only two topics going, nothing else.

It's a very short piece, not expanded. This first writing, after I put it down, revealed a whole new layer underneath. I won't mind revising to add some of it, but I want the first chapter, and most after that, to be on the short side, partly for reader take-a-breath spaces.

Meran wrote: "Emily, I can't find that. There seem to be only two topics going, nothing else.

It's a very short piece, not expanded. This first writing, after I put it down, revealed a whole new layer underneat..."


At the top of the page where it says "Home, My Books, . . . Explore" there's an arrow pointing down. Click that, and you'll find a "creative writing" option. The "my writing" link is in the upper right corner, and it looks to be pretty easy to load a story. (Haven't used it myself so I can't say.)

Hope that helps! Let me know if you succeed.

Sorry I didn't direct right lol the website can get confusing lol

Emily, mermaid, found it, looks easy enough to do, but now I want to clean up the punctuation. Lol

My birthday is Saturday, so it's not happening until next week, and it's really very short, almost a blurb, on my rereading! (These things are easy to write, really, but so ~hard! A sentence should be a paragraph! So, maybe it's really just a teaser? Wasn't meant to be one though.)

When I load it up, is there a thread we normally post so others can know? At this point, I'm not really looking for criticism (though that request will come). I'm just wondering if or why others would read it. Also, I won't be having any religious conversion messages, or even morals preached. I will, however, be exposing what most trusting citizens think happens in the case of child protection to be untrustworthy. These questions are NOT black and white, nor even shades of gray (not a reference to the recent BSM works).

They are beyond complicated, maybe even beyond a politician's right to make laws concerning families' and children's rights.

Hmm. Writing THAT just brought some ideas out. I can see I'm going to need to copy and paste some of my posts here into a text file ;)