Journals Archives - Trisha Sugarek, Author, Playwright & Poet

New Release ~ Creative Writers’ Journal and “How To”

Bigger and better. Revision 2021 newly released Journal/Handbook.

How To Begin To Write
How to Create interesting Characters
How To Write Fiction
How To Write a Stage Play
How To Write Poetry
How To Write Haiku Poetry

275+ lined, blank pages for your writings. Each page with an inspiring famous quote from actors, authors, playwrights, poets.

Review: Midwest Book Review

“Creative Writers’ Journal and Handbook begins where so many writer’s guides should: with the basics of how to pursue a dream job as a writer. The problem with most writers’ guides is that they assume some prior degree of excellence or experience; but this handbook poses something different: the opportunity to begin with no prior skill level or experience. All that’s needed is the desire and passion to be a writer, and everything flows from there.
So if you ‘scribble’, if you like words, if your stories ‘find’ you, and if you aspire to be something more (say, a published blogger); then here’s the next step in the process. From how ideas begin to how they are nurtured and written down, there to be refined until they see the light of day (i.e. other readers), this journal offers support, insight, and ideas for jump-starting the creative process and linking it to action.

White, lined journal pages offer a workbook approach that augments white space with inspirational quotes on the process from other, successful writers. So while you’re staring at the usual journal blank pages, inspiration can spark from others’ experiences and insights.
This isn’t just about prose, either: Sugarek includes sections on different formats, from Haiku Poetry to writing a stage play. Each section offers inspirational insights into format, structure, and writing challenges – then uses the journal/quote format to encourage readers to put something down on paper.
So if it’s nuggets of information spiced with the encouragement of fresh lined, white space that is needed, Creative Writers’ Journal and Handbook offers a success formula beginners can easily absorb, all packaged in a survey that assumes no prior familiarity with writing.”
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BOOKS BY TRISHA SUGAREK

A Little Poetry and Where It was Born

I was sitting, late one night, at a ferry landing, waiting and watching the boats ferry back and forth until it was my turn to board. Fog horns, misty fog, reflections on the black water, the screech of the gulls, and the silent hunting of the pelicans.

The wet air, the silence, the sound of a lone fog horn warning vessels of danger. The fog smearing everything I looked at… I was inspired to write poetry. But the scene could have inspired a murder mystery writer to write about a body, weighted down, being slipped into the water; or it could have inspired a romance writer to write about two lovers parting as the boat docked. Never to be together again. For me, it was poetry. Here is an excerpt of what came out of that black night……..

FOGGY NIGHT ©

The white orb, saturated with tidal flows

peers through the veil,

a ghost ship slips up the fog laden channel

Night gulls’ sing with strident cries

fog seeps in, the tide rolls out,

day is gone, the night creeps on

Trees, dressed in ebony, drift by

water glistens, gold and wet

Night is soft and tender, edges blurred

damp seeps into cloth, hair, bone

Fog casts tents of light over the landing

Hunters of the sea know not day nor night

Fishers all, white feathers stark

against the night shadows

Palm trees, silhouetted against the ochre gauze,

brushes hardened with black paint……

I raced home as I had nothing to write with in the car. Opening my front door, I dropped my keys and purse onto a chair, tore off my coat as I sped down the hall to my studio. Waking up my computer, my fingers flew across the key board, lest I forget the words that were born in the night.

To read more click here for the books, Butterflies and Bullets and Moths and Machetes
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Book Review ~~ Haiku Journal

Book Review D. Donovan, Midwest Book Review

Haiku Journal acts as both an inspirational collection of diverse haiku by master writers such as Matsuo Basho and Masaoka Shiki and an encouragement for readers to fill in their own blank books with haiku creativity. It pairs lovely black and white drawings with examples of the diversity that can be incorporated into the traditional haiku form.

Where creative writing books might focus on the three-line stanza approach of its poetic structure, Trisha Sugarek provides a deeper interpretation of what makes a haiku piece stand out: “A haiku is a way of looking at the physical world and seeing something deeper, like the very nature of existence. It should leave the reader with a strong feeling or impression. Traditionally the natural world is mentioned.” She also includes works by master poets which didn’t always strictly adhere to the 5/7/5 haiku foundation because “They were too beautiful to ignore and not be included.”

This note advises readers that there is an attention to excellence, here, that goes beyond strict regimentation. Any poem that is uplifting, beautiful, and an example of unique expression is included, such as this: “Well, what must we think of it?/From the sky we came./Now we may go back again./That’s at least one point of view.” –Hôjô Ujimasa

These works appear alongside lined blank pages that encourage readers to become writers through example. The poems are juxtaposed

haiku, poetry, pen and ink art, poems, Japanese haiku, — Haiku Poetry

with tips on how Sugarek chooses to write, including creative writing and history information that supports various approaches (i.e. producing a complete poem in three sets of three lines, known as Renku).

Sugarek’s own poetry is juxtaposed with verse and free verse from others, adding just the right blend of encouragement and a flavor of diversity to a haiku journal that serves as both an encouragement and an example.

Wannabe haiku writers looking for inspiration could not find a better wellspring of support than in Haiku Journal. Its format and presentation lend to not just inspiration, but creative effort. Purchase here
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NEW Haiku Journal

Just published. A NEW journal for your Haiku poetry. Some instruction and tips to help get you started. 190 lined, blank pages for YOUR poetry. Poetry is imbedded in the margins of the pages to inspire your writing.

An old silent pond
A frog jumps into the pond,
splash! Silence again.
Matsuo Basho

morning sun dapples
trees in a polka-dot dress
shines soft green and light
~ T. Sugarek

Light of the moon
Moves west, flowers’ shadows
Creep eastward.
Yosa Buson

Black, gnarled branch
green leaves blush
droop in autumn rain
~ Unknown

angle of fall’s sun
so different from spring’s rays
dapples the sun porch

end of hot summer
the crisp, sharp tang of fall’s breath
smokes the air about

a waiting for sleep
under the blanket of snow
until spring sun beams ~ T. Sugarek

Whether one passes on
or remains is all the same.
That you can take no one with you
is the only difference.

Ah, how pleasant!
Two awakenings and one sleep.

This dream of a fleeing world!
The roseate hues of early dawn!
Tokugawa Ieyasu

Perfect size to fit into backpack, handbag, tote or briefcase.
Available NOW. Purchase. Click here
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My weekly BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! June: Mike Maden writing for TOM CLANCY. July: Guest Blogger Desiree Villena, August: Carolyn Brown
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New Journals ~~ New Instructional Sections

These two new journals are revised. The Creative Writer’s Journal looked a little stale to me (its author) so I added more pages, more quotes, and more writing tips. Over 300 lined, blank pages for your ideas, writing, and thoughts. I hope you enjoy !

www.amazon.com/Revised/2020

www.amazon.com/Journal/Boys/Men

A Slice of Time….How to Write a Ten Minute Play

I always see the script (for a 10 minute play) as a slice of time. ‘I Can’t Breathe’ was a slice of time before the event that prompted me writing the play. ‘Parkland Requiem’ was during the event, that is the massacre that happened at Parkland’s high school. We all know what happened immediately after the shooting and not much before the shooting other than it was a normal day of families getting ready for the day and hopeful young people hurrying off to school.

For me, the writer, it’s like walking into a room where people are having a conversation (without you) and you are plunged into the story from there.

None of the rules of writing change when writing a ten minute play, just because it’s short. You must still have a beginning, an arc, and an ending(of sorts). You have to introduce the characters through dialogue quickly and concisely. You must attract the empathy of the audience with record speed. Remember, you only have ten minutes.

How do I know when I have ten minutes? Here’s some tips: The typical rule is a page equals one minute. If a page is heavy with blocking, (movement) it will usually go longer than a minute. If you have a page that is solid with dialogue and movement you can rely on the 1 page = 1 minute. And leave lots of white space; an actor will need some space to write in blocking, from the director, and notes while in rehearsal.

Check out my many “Motivational Moments for Writers” in past posts.
Want to try your hand at writing a ten minute play? This journal is a great place to start.
Want to see more of my ten minute plays? Click here

Do you need help Formatting a Novel?
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My weekly BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! May: Joram Piatigorsky, June: Mike Maden writing for TOM CLANCY. July: Guest Blogger Desiree Villena, August: Carolyn Brown
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Look Inside ~~ How.To.Write.A.Play/Journal

Introduction

I created this journal/workbook to encourage other playwrights to pursue their dreams. It doesn’t matter that you are just beginning your journey as a writer. Whatever your level of writing may be I have tried to create a journal for the playwright inside all of us. Perhaps you have been journaling for years and want to try your hand at a stage script. Or you are a more experienced writer and need a little inspiration to get you started on your next project. Regardless of your experience, I hope you find this journal encouraging and a safe place to store your characters, your story outlines, and your private ideas for future plays.

Only when I began to write seriously did I come to realize that I had been writing my entire adult life. But back then I considered it just ‘scribbling’.

A thought I didn’t want to forget, or a feeling I had to capture. Or a phrase that I was inspired by. I have written over fifty plays of all lengths. 30 of these are short, often ten minute, plays for teens in the classroom. No sets, no props, no costumes. Being an actor and then a director (in a past life) I have read hundreds of scripts and I urge you to do the same. It’s great research on being a better playwright.

But most important, have fun. Stop to enjoy the process. You will stumble and fall. If you write something that is bad, remember, that’s what re-writes are for!

Table of Contents

Section 1…How to Begin…

Section 2…How to Write a Play…

Section 3…Creating Rich Characters…

Section 4…Story Telling

Section 5… Protagonist, Antagonist, Conflict

Section 6… How to Block…

Section 7… Snappy Dialogue…

Section 8… Set Design…

Section 9… Formatting your Play…

Section 10.… Terminology…

“The difference between the right word and the nearly right word is the same as that between lightning and the lightning bug.

Mark Twain

How to Begin

To stare at a blank page or screen this is the scariest thing of all and sometimes causes a writer to give up before they have begun. Ray Bradbury said, “Writing is supposed to be difficult, agonizing, a dreadful exercise, a terrible occupation.” Forget for a moment about writing a Tony award winning stage play. Begin with the first outline of your story. Don’t let people tell you it starts with the first word that’s just silly. Practice writing that first piece of dialogue. For example:

SAM. (Pulling the stranger out of the street.) Watch out! Didn’t you see that bus bearing down on you?

JANE. (Clinging to his arm.) No. I wasn’t thinking I didn’t see thank you.

And…

BILL. (Sitting at the steel table.) What the hell am I doing here? What was I thinking visiting a convicted killer?’

And…

VIOLET. (Laughing and clinging to the hand strap.) Slow down, Al! You’re gonna kill us. BUTCH. Shut your pie-hole, Vi. That Sheriff is hot on my bumper.

And…

BRITTANY. (Sitting in a waiting room and muttering.) My first audition since I hit Hollywood and what if I fail?

BRET. (Standing in the doorway.) Ms. Jones? We’re ready for you.

And…

TONY. (Cringing behind his desk.) Don’t read that, Mr. Nelson. The poem’s not finished. JOANIE. (Sighing, murmurs to herself.) He’s so handsome. He doesn’t even see me. I wish I was as pretty as Mary Jane.

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You have an idea for a play in your mind. Write down the first idea. Write two ideas that are different. Now choose the one that is your best idea. Ideally, the first few lines of a play should capture the audience from the first utterance. This will launch your writing and your play.

Be certain that the main characters are well developed before you get too far into the dialogue (See Section 3.)

This is the chapter for ‘character building and character analysis. Use this chapter to not only develop your characters but to jot down your observations of real people that you’ve seen and heard.

Listen to people. Notice how they speak; the cadence of their speech, the slang that they use.

I can only tell you how my stories come to me. I’m certain it’s different for everyone.

An idea will pop into my mind. For several days it will germinate and then it starts to write itself. When my brain is full of ideas, dialogue, and people I have to sit down at my keyboard and transfer it.

Do not feel as though you must have a whole script ready to write. I’d never get anything written if I put that kind of pressure on myself. My hope is that you find this work book/ journal helpful in that way.

Now, write the first few lines of dialogue for your first or newest script here:

“A will finds a way.” Orison Swett Marden

Following each section are blank, lined pages for you to write on, experiment with ideas, and practice dialogue. Each blank page is embedded with a famous quote to inspire you on the road to becoming a playwright.

“When I’m hungry, I eat. When I’m thirsty, I drink. When I feel like saying something, I say it.” Madonna

“An actor without a playwright is like a hole without a

doughnut.” George Jean Nathan

To See More Pages, Click Here

There’s another journal/handbook for creative writers, covering fiction, playwriting, poetry and much more.

LOOK Inside

Maybe you journal and are looking for a simple, easy to use journal for your daily entries. Blank, lined pages with inspiring quotes from famous people to keep you writing.

Look Inside

(MORE)

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How To Write Poetry (Isolation Series)

Poetry is created in much the same way as other genres of writing. Something will trigger my poetic side. It might be a crushed carnation on a hot, asphalt parking lot or the combination of smells from the biting snow air to a bonfire. The call of a wild bird or a memory from childhood. I begin with the first line of the poem. Duh! Perhaps I won’t write the second line for several days. I can’t stress this enough; it’s okay if that happens.
Nothing else in the writer’s world is more from their soul than poetry. Yes, there is structure that should be adhered to (Haiku) (Sestina) but the creation of words should originate from the soul. Flowing like life’s blood from the heart.
I include here other types/forms of poetry and their disciplines. What is the difference between a sonnet and an epigram? A canzone and a narrative? Every poet is attracted to different styles. Why don’t you try one?
All of my poetry is limited to free verse or Haiku and Renku. This is where my soul sings and my heart beats.
Start with free verse so you are not hindered by strict rules of construction, (see below).

ABC: A poem that has five lines and creates a mood, picture, or feeling. Lines 1 through 4 are made up of words, phrases or clauses while the first word of each line is in alphabetical order. Line 5 is one sentence long and begins with any letter.
Ballad: A poem that tells a story similar to a folk tale or legend which often has a repeated refrain.
Ballade: Poetry which has three stanzas of seven, eight or ten lines and a shorter final stanza
of four or five. All stanzas end with the same one line refrain.
Blank verse: A poem written in unrhymed iambic pentameter and is often unobtrusive. The iambic pentameter form often resembles the rhythms of speech.
Burlesque: Poetry that treats a serious subject as humor.
Canzone: Medieval Italian lyric style poetry with five or six stanzas and a shorter ending stanza.
Carpe diem: Latin expression that means ‘seize the day.’ Carpe diem poems have a theme of living for today.
Cinquain: Poetry with five lines. Line 1 has one word (the title). Line 2 has two words that describe the title. Line 3 has three words that tell the action. Line 4 has four words that express the feeling, and line 5 has one word which recalls the title.
Couplet: This type of poem is two lines which may be rhymed or unrhymed.
Dramatic monologue: A type of poem which is spoken to a listener.
Elegy: A sad and thoughtful poem about the death of an individual.
Epigram: A very short, ironic and witty poem usually written as a brief couplet or quatrain.
Haiku: A Japanese poem composed of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five morae, with three sets. Usually containing a season word.
Horatian ode: Short lyric poem written in two or four-line stanzas, each with its the same metrical pattern, often addressed to a friend and deal with friendship, love and the practice of poetry. It is named after its creator, Horace.
Idyll: Poetry that either depicts a peaceful, idealized country scene or a long poem telling a story about heroes of a bye gone age.
Lay: A long narrative poem, especially one that was sung by medieval minstrels.
Limerick: A short sometimes vulgar, humorous poem consisting of five anapestic lines. Lines 1, 2, and 5 have seven to ten syllables, rhyme and have the same verbal rhythm. The 3rd and 4th lines have five to seven syllables, rhyme and have the same rhythm.
Narrative: A poem that tells a story.
Ode: A lengthy lyric poem typically of a serious or meditative nature and having an elevated style and formal stanza structure.
Pastoral: A poem that depicts rural life in a peaceful, romanticized way.
Quatrain: A stanza or poem consisting of four lines. Lines 2 and 4 must rhyme while having a similar number of syllables.
Rhyme: A rhyming poem has the repetition of the same or similar sounds of two or more words, often at the end of the line.
Rondeau: A lyrical poem of French origin having 10 or 13 lines with two rhymes and with the opening phrase repeated twice as the refrain.
Senryu: A short Japanese style poem, similar to haiku in structure that treats human beings rather than nature: Often in a humorous or satiric way.
Sestina: A poem consisting of six six-line stanzas and a three-line envoy. The end words of the first stanza are repeated in varied order as end words in the other stanzas and also recur in the envoy.
Shakespearean: A 14-line sonnet consisting of three quatrains of abab cdcd efef followed by a couplet, gg. Shakespearean sonnets generally use iambic pentameter.
Sonnet: A lyric poem that consists of 14 lines which usually have one or more conventional rhyme schemes.
Tanka: A Japanese poem of five lines, the first and third composed of five syllables and the other seven.

Terza Rima: A type of poetry consisting of 10 or 11 syllable lines arranged in three-line tercets.
Verse: A single metrical line of poetry.

Free verse by yours truly:

Windstill ©

Subtle silence
Windstill
trees await the next
message on the air

Windstill
not a whisper of birdsong
not a leaf-rustle intrudes
it falls
fluttering to the ground

The wind has departed
beyond the next hill
leaving in its wake
Windstill

Will it return? The breeze
dancing amongst the leaves
to the tune of the forest

Shall the still wind haunt
amongst the trees?
or come roaring back, shrieking?
Windstill

Renku

Ruin © (Haiku)

The barn, sad and old
forgotten still standing strong
cob webs in sun beams

recycled boards raped
floor torn away, back bone gone
dust haze dance in light

the barn sad, noble
survives the last season proud
the roof falls, barn death

Did you Miss my Other Isolation Writing Ideas?
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MY BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! March: Olivia Hawker, April: Dan Sofer, May: Joram Piatigorsky
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Books by Trisha Sugarek

How To Fill Your Time….Ward Off Cabin Fever (4 of 4)

You’ve been cooped up for weeks now….trying to fight off ‘cabin fever‘ which is a real thing. The term originated during the long, confined dark winters in the Yukon and Alaska during the turn of the 19th century. Gold miners and fur trappers would be confined to their cabins for months on end. Usually with their business partner, another male, (seldom was a woman around during these early days of panning and trapping.) The hardiest of these men would go slightly crazy and had even been known to kill their partner in a fit of crazed rage.

Another writing exercise I would like to suggest is to write a letter to your dad, mom, your child. Write the truth. It might even spark the beginnings of a story as you remember the good times, the hard times growing up, the view of a new world through your child’s eyes.
Cabin fever sparked the trivia part of my brain as I remembered this little snippet of fact and started me writing this post.

Did you miss the rest of this series?
Self-Isolated. What Do You Do with All this Time?
What To Do with Isolated Time. Write a Short Story
What To Do with all Your Isolated Time? Journaling
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MY BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! December: Dervla McTiernan – January: David Poyer, March: Olivia Hawker, April: Dan Sofer
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Books by Trisha Sugarek

Ideas to Fill The Time….Writing

You’ve been self-quarantined for weeks now…..Running out of ideas to fill your time?

Try writing something!

Did you read these most recent posts?

Self-Isolated. What Do You Do with All this Time?

What To Do with Isolated Time. Write a Short Story

What To Do with all Your Isolated Time? Journaling

Some ideas on how to start and keep writing. We all have at least one story inside us. Why not try?
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MY BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! December: Dervla McTiernan – January: David Poyer, March: Olivia Hawker, April: Dan Sofer
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Books by Trisha Sugarek

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