Music and Writing Quiz: The Results, Part One

The responses from my latest quiz are in, and the results are surprising. (At least for me!)  I cut off the responders at 100, which makes percentages easy for my mathematically-challenged right-brain self. :)

Here's the breakdown:



So over 50% of writers write more than 500+ words a day. That's awesome.



No, answers weren't rigged...it was a complete half and half split. This totally surprised me. I would have thought far more people wrote without music.


About the 50 that wrote with music....



This also completely surprised me. I like some ambient noise, but nothing like lyrics can be floating around in my head if I'm trying to drill out a word count. This 38% ROCKS to be able to do both.

For those who listen to music with lyrics, here's the breakdown of what genre was preferred:



I'd LOVE to know the 80% of "other." Seriously....what do you think? I thought I hit the big genres there. 78% of those who listened to music with lyrics said they did so because it gets/keeps them in the "mood" to write. 30% said they thought they wrote more words with it.

For those who said they listened to music without lyrics, here's the breakdown by genre:



Again, what's the with "other?" What other kinds of lyric-less music are out there? 67% of the responders said they listened to music with no lyrics said they did so to get/keep in the "mood" and 33% said they thought they wrote more words because of it.

FUNNY: I did have 3 folks say that they like to "sing along" with the lyric-less music. Do you suppose they meant they hum along?

Stay tuned for next week when I divulge which group actually was more productive according to average words per day.

Let's Analyze: What about the results surprised you? Didn't surprise you? Which group (those who listen to music v. those who don't) do you think will more productive?

Treatment Tuesday: Lillian Harris--When Our MCs Aren't Like Us

I've got Carol's character Lillian on the couch today. Lillian is a 15-year-old, light-skinned black girl living in the Jim Crow South in the 1950s. Her father owns a funeral home and her mother was the first colored hat check girl in their town. She heard about her older cousin's "passing" (crossing over into the white world) and wonders if she should try it, but she's scared she won't belong in either the black or white world completely. She wants what white girls her age have, but doesn't want to pretend to be someone she's not.

Carol wants to know: How do I write Lillie's story as a white author?

Carol -

I think this is such a great, honest question...and one you should be commended for asking. It's great to acknowledge up front that you come from a completely different background than your character and you are at a loss as to how to give her voice of her own, authentic and organic to who she is.

Plenty of authors, though, venture out into this unknown, and I'll be opening up the comment section to them to give their pearls of wisdom to you as well.

So while this isn't my most therapeutic mini-assessment, I have a couple of suggestions. First of all, I'd research. The best type of research is first-hand. If at all possible, schedule an interview or two or six with black women who would be willing to open up to you and talk about their experiences. If you can find light-skinned black women who might would have faced the opportunity to "pass" into the white world, even better. There are plenty of women around who grew up in the 50s and would probably welcome a dialogue.

Second-hand retelling is better than nothing. Read autobiographies by black women (or men, even). A cursory Google search lit up my screen with possibilities. Read newspaper accounts in your library (fun times ahead with microfiche for you!) from that time period to give you a flavor of the social constructs and period issues dealt with back then.

A guided imagery exercise might be beneficial. Finding common ground to write from might be easier than you think. First of all, you and Lillie do share the same sex, and once upon a time, you were 15 years old. So I'd encourage you to mentally go back in time to think about the kinds of things you enjoyed as a young girl back then. Aside from concerning themselves with lack of equality and segregation, black girls back then were probably just as into hair styles, boys, religion, books, and media influences (movies, etc) as white girls. Lillie might have different worries and concerns from you, but she still had similar interests.

When I'm in session with a woman whose gender is basically all we have in common, I try to find similarities with which to approach her, whether that's the fact we both have a child or we both have lost our grandparents or we both shop at the Target dollar aisle...anything to connect and get her to start talking.

You've got to connect with Lillie...and she'll start talking to you.

Best of luck with this story!

Let's Analyze: Any suggestions you authors out there have for how to write a main character who is fundamentally different from you?

Acting Therapy: Bring Joy to Kids with Cancer

I've got a treat for you today. Allison Brooks, a recent biomedical anthropology graduate and self-proclaimed avid health nut wrote a compelling guest post for my readers today on a new kind of therapy....or at least it was new to me.

Show Allison some comment love after reading about some of remarkable things acting does for emotional health. I'm sure that one of you, if not more, will find a way to work this kind of information into your stories.

Without further ado, here's Allison:


When a child gets the diagnosis of cancer, it's the beginning of a new, and often frightening, emotional experience. Kids undergoing cancer treatment--and their families--begin to experience an entirely new range of emotions. Anxiety, fear, worry, and anger are just some of the new feelings kids find themselves having, and it's important for them to have a positive way to release these emotions.



Kids Acting Against Cancer (KAAC) is one such organization that provides this positive opportunity for children. KAAC helps kids undergoing cancer treatment find a creative outlet for their emotions. 

KAAC was founded by two sisters, Jaclyn and Whitten Montgomery, whose mother fought non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma more than nine years ago. The girls turned toward acting to deal with the emotions brought on by their mother's diagnosis, since this cancer is very aggressive and is normally diagnosed to have a low life-expectancy.

Along with other children affected by cancer, the sisters have put on a variety of productions for charity which have not only been successful in raising money, but also help provide kids and families undergoing cancer treatment with a creative outlet for their emotions.



KAAC isn't the first group to recognize how acting can be a therapeutic tool. The ancient Greeks recognized that "acting therapy" was helpful in healing emotional and physical sickness. KAAC continues in this tradition by providing a platform for kids to find emotional fulfillment during what is typically a very stressful time. The creative process of playmaking and performance gives these children an emotional outlet through which they can release their fears and worry. Kids might not always feel like "talking it out" with an adult, and performing in a play and taking on a creative role can be the ideal way for them to positively express and release their emotions.

Acting not only helps improve the moods and attitudes of kids undergoing cancer treatment, but it helps the families and audiences who are entertained by their plays. KAAC travels from hospital to hospital, entertaining cancer patients and inviting them to participate. The theatrical performances bring joy not only to the performers--the kids undergoing treatment--but to their families as well, who are indirectly but still profoundly affected by the cancer treatment. 



KAAC has been a successful model of how bringing the theater experience to children can provide a stimulating way for kids and their families to stay active and emotionally positive during their cancer treatment.  It is like the saying goes, “A laugh a day, will keep the doctor away.”


Thanks for the guest post, Allison. If you want to connect with Allison, you can find her on Facebook. You can also "like" KAAC on Facebook as well and show your support for these amazing kids.

Let's Analyze: Had you ever heard of "acting therapy?" In what ways has participating in acting (either as an actor or an audience member) helped you express yourself?

Weekend Funnies: Pavlov's Dog

 

I don't care who you are....that's FUNNY!! Animal lovers unite!

Friday Free Association Chain

The word is........

QUARTER.

First commenter free associates with the above word. Second commenter takes the first commenter's word and free associates, and so on.

Remember -- FIRST thing that comes to mind. GO!!

Comic Relief in Life and Writing

I cringed happily received an email forward from a friend the other day that made me laugh. It wasn't an astoundingly funny joke or link to a youtube video, but it was funny. The idea behind the email was simply to ponder why some things are the way they are. And it made me do just that.

Hope it does the same for you. Here goes:

My favorite comic relief on Body of Proof:
Dr. Curtis Brumfield, played by Windell Middlebrooks

How important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered?

How is it that we put a man on the moon before we figured out that it is a good idea to put wheels on luggage? [Seriously!]

Why is is that people say they "slept like a baby" when babies wake up like every two hours?

Why are you IN a movie, but ON television?

Why do toasters always have a setting that will burn the toast to a horrible crisp that no decent human would ever eat?

Why does Goofy stand erect and Pluto remain on all fours?

Do the Alphabet song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have the same tune?

Why did you just try singing the two songs above? [GOTCHA!! I totally did too...and laughed at myself!]

Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are going dead?

Why do banks charge a fee on "insufficient funds" when they know there is not enough money?

Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard?

Why is it that no matter what color bubble bath you use, the bubbles are always white?

Why do people constantly return to the refrigerator in the hopes that something new to eat will have materialized?

Why do people run over a piece of thread a dozen times with a vacuum cleaner, reach down, pick it up, examine it, and then put it back down to give the vacuum cleaner one more chance?


If no one else has done that last one, then I guess I need to sign up for therapy myself, because I certainly have. WHY do I do that? Makes no sense.

Characters should have moments like these, too, and that could bring some comic relief to the reader, perhaps at a much needed time. Have a character sit back and examine something they've done or thought time and time again. Chances are, it's something the reader has done or thought too, and the character's internal dialogue might just make your reader laugh out loud.

When things resonate, as hopefully some of the above did with you in this post, it just makes it funnier to realize that other people have wondered the exact same things. 

Let's Analyze: What was the last funny thing that you read in a novel that made you laugh out loud? Was that because you related to the event?