writing Archives - Page 3 of 83 - Trisha Sugarek, Author, Playwright & Poet

Eat And Get Gas ~ Book Review

4 out of 5 stars ~~ Book Review

A story of the tangled threads of a family. Complex in its strife but always with familial love. Like any other family, the threads are co-dependency, love outside of wedlock, unrequited love, addiction, illegitimate kids, and secrets. Do you know a family without secrets? I don’t.

The only real villain in this story is the Vietnam War. When young men or old boys (depending upon how you look at that war) were sent to their deaths or returned, alive but damaged beyond repair. PTSD wasn’t a thing yet and was pretty much left untreated.

Despite the sometimes heavy subjects, J.A. Wright’s writing is superb. Easy-going, light, a delight to read. I highly recommend this book to my readers.
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A few BOOKS BY TRISHA SUGAREK

From ‘no book’ to ‘finished book’? What does it look like?

Recently a fellow writer and friend asked me this question: “What does the process of going from “no book” to “finished book” look like? I asked other authors to answer that question in my monthly author interviews. Having also completed 16 novels I’d like to add my two cents:

I sometimes used my play script (by the same name) as my book outline/treatment. As the scenario was so current (because it was a play), I found that flashbacks were a great way to flesh out each woman’s story and it served me well. It took me a year and four months to write and edit it. That equals 72,000 words.

I did not have a deadline and it probably would have really helped. I was my own deadline setter and that didn’t work out so well. On the other hand, I think having a publisher breathing down my neck would have stifled my creative flow. When life got in the way I wouldn’t work on it for weeks but then I would get inspired and work on it for days, weeks, non-stop, sometimes 10-14 hours a day. So I guess it all evened out. Whatever you do, don’t beat yourself up if you don’t write for a few days… although I preach that you should write something every day. But if you hit a dry spell, you’ll make up for it with better, more relaxed creative writing.

Because I inherently ‘rush’, I found that I had to watch-dog myself and be careful not to leave out important roads of the story. I was in early proofing of the final product of my novel and realized (in a countless re-read) that I had never described my female negotiator’s physical appearance. (Yikes!). Again, (if the writer tends to rush) go back and re-read your work to see where you need to flesh out a chapter or a character.

I am not structured at all. I write a new project in my head for days, weeks and then when my brain is about to burst I begin putting it down on paper (computer). I also write out of sequence and I think that’s okay. My novel’s last chapter was completed months before the middle was written.

Some writers have actually written whole books while blogging; they found it less daunting by writing in segments. At the end they had a book and then they published. If you need a deadline the days that you commit to writing a blog would serve. For me this wouldn’t work; I would feel too exposed having my rough draft out there for the world to see as I am a writer who slams it down the first time around and then edit, edit, delete, edit. Did I mention that the lettering is worn off my ‘delete’ key?

Frequently I will begin a story that has inspired me, not knowing much about the subject. It has sometimes stopped me dead in my tracks while I researched (example: hostage negotiations or building a cabin in the 1920’s). I had 8 pages of a new play about Winston Churchill written and had to stop to do research. I find that it can be done while I am writing and that is what I prefer. It’s more fun and keeps me interested. I don’t think I would do well having my research all done before I put my story down. I find that the research itself inspires my story line.

And then there is that unseen, unheard phenomenon where, with any luck, the characters take over and you become the typist. . This has happened to me time and again, and while I resisted at first (being a control-freak) I now embrace and welcome it. In Women Outside the Walls my character Alma, at sixteen, is abandoned by her promiscuous mother. Alma is befriended by the ex-girl friend of the man Alma had a teen crush on. They end up being room mates. I could never have dreamed that one up; but my characters got together and decided that this was what they would to do.

I don’t think that there is a right or wrong way to go through the process. Each writer should be unique in how they work. Instead of thinking of it as a project/deadline ‘thing’; think of it as a work of art, created just for you and by you. Where possible, let the characters lead you. They will never steer you wrong!

well, there you have it…the process such as it is for me and how it works.

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A few BOOKS BY TRISHA SUGAREK

Poetry.com Honors My Poetry

Dear Trisha,

Congratulations, this is just a quick notice to let you know that your poem Twenty-Five is one of the poems being featured on the PoetrySoup home page this week.

Thanks again and congratulations.

Sincerely,
PoetrySoup

Twenty-five by poet, Trisha Sugarek

25 seconds: the time it
takes to fall in love….

25 minutes: into rehearsal
we have our first kiss….

25 hours: I am dreaming of
you….

25 days: I know it is just the
beginning….

25 weeks: we are having
“make up” sex….

25 months: stranded in
Tucson, I’m sling’in hash
and you’re ropin’ steers….

25 years: Best friends, still in
love, comfortable in our
own skins, at ease and
amused by each other’s
quirks.…

….shoring up each other’s
desires, choices, and
judgments, good or bad….

sustaining each other no
matter what…
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A few BOOKS BY TRISHA SUGAREK

Do You Doubt Yourself…your writing?

I ran across a description of one of my enemies….DOUBT! And it got me to thinking. Author, Jacqueline Winspear wrote: “Doubt. Was it an emotion? A sense? Or was it just a short stubby word to describe a response that could diminish a person in a finger snap?”

I wrote earlier about my being in good company. Regardless if we writers are obscure or famous, we all doubt ourselves and our work. What if Henry Charles Bukowski, or Ernest Hemingway, or John Steinbeck had let DOUBT win? Put away their pen, dumped their scribbles into a shoe box and made a trip to the attic, got a day job and never wrote another word? It doesn’t bear thinking about.

J. Michael Straczynski: “When in ‘doubt’, blow something up.”

F.Scott Fitzgerald: “All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.”

Image result for f. scott fitzgerald

E.M. Forster: “How do I know what I think until I see what I say?”

Tapani Bagge: “Everything that doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. And later on you can use it in some story.”

Maya Angelou: “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”

Elinor Lipman: “Critics have been described as people who go into the street after battle and shoot the wounded.”

Leo Rosten: “The only reason for being a professional writer is that you just can’t help it.”

Let’s see …..when were my worst moments? DOUBT clawing at me, whispering in my ear, crawling up my spine. Telling me that I’ll never make it, I’ll never finish a whole novel, that I don’t know the first thing about writing poetry. Writing play scripts was relatively easy for me. After all I had been in theatre reading scripts for over thirty years. And the stories simply fell out of the sky and into my brain when writing a script.

But other genre?

When I could no longer resist the urgency of writing about the women who wait outside prison walls, I researched the length of the average novel; number of pages and words. Yikes! Over 300 pages and 70,000 words. DOUBT was screaming in my ear: ‘you’ll never be able to write that many pages.’ ‘you’re a playwright; not a novelist’, ‘who do you think you’re kidding?’ But I had a true story (several of them, in fact) and all I needed to do was flesh those stories out. Write one page at a time…or even one word.
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A few BOOKS BY TRISHA SUGAREK

Book Review ~ The Physics of Relationships

2 out of 5 stars ~~ Book Review

Even though this narration was supposed to be from the Mom, the author’s masculine voice frequently leaked through. I can’t quite put my finger on the whys or hows but there is a definite masculinity to her/his ‘dry’, analytical tone. And I never discovered her name.

The narrator is the Mom figure in the story. Unfortunately, she is just that. A talking head. Her deeper feelings aren’t explored. The narrator talks at the reader with conclusions rather than a true exploration. Is Chas guilty of ‘man-splaining’?

Early on the family unit fell into being a clique. Two husbands, one divorce, 1 male child, 1 female child, 1 best friend.

Speaking of the BFF. Amy moves in with Mom for awhile. She also is having troubles in her marriage. They end up sharing the same bedroom and bed and eventually Amy makes tentative sexual ovatures to her good friend. (This is an 8 on the ‘ick’ scale.) First of all, middle-aged BFFs would not share a bed. Except at a hotel, on holiday, and there was only one room/1 bed available and they were desperate for lodging. (Guilty!)
Why do most men think that if two women are very close friends, they must have lesbian tendencies just under the surface of the friendship?

This might have been a better book if the author had written in his own voice (as narrator) and told the story from the three men’s point of view. Greg, Lawrence, and Phil.
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A few BOOKS BY TRISHA SUGAREK

Book Review – Catherine Ryan Hyde’s latest book

5 out of 5 stars

One of the most delightful things about this author is the reader NEVER knows where she is going with her story-line. And A Different Kind of Gone is no exception.
Catherine Ryan Hyde starts us off with a search and rescue for a missing girl. And ends us…..well…….I’m not known for my ‘spoiler alerts’, am I?
“This was my favorite.” Wait! I say that every time I set one of her books down, finished. Until the next one comes out (grin).

I can’t give my readers even a short synopsis because no matter what I write, it would give something away. But the story has everything! Norma, Jill and Wanda are incredibly brave. The horses and dogs (two of my favorite things) swirl through the story and add such color and flavor.

I recommend all books by Catherine Ryan Hyde but my top three favorites are this one and Allie and Bea and Have You Seen Luis Velez?

Did you miss my interview with this author?
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A few BOOKS BY TRISHA SUGAREK

Writer Is Hacked (8>((

Well, as is everyone’s nightmare that owns a website (or even a computer) ,
I GOT HACKED!!
THEY DESTROYED MY WEBSITE!! #@@%%$$!!

It’s taken me weeks to get rid of the Malware. Mostly because I didn’t know where to start.

Then it took us weeks to redesign (and fix the destroyed pages) my website. That was mostly because my website is heavy on viable content, so we wanted to try to recover as much of it as possible. Mission accomplished!!

Here’s the good news! And ain’t it grand that in this life there’s always some good news if you look hard enough?
My website’s appearance got a fresh face lift. I’m so pleased with the more modern, fresh, look with lots of white space.
I hope my subscribers and new visitors enjoy it!

So, dear subscribers, visitors and fans, WE ARE BACK!! I hope in the weeks to come we will offer you book reviews, author interviews, and tips about writing, editing, and storytelling.
Love, Trish

A Good Writer is a Good Observer

A good writer is always observing and watching other people and their interpersonal relationships with others. Relationships are complex and rarely resemble yours. And of course…listening. Everyone speaks differently, with a different word choice and a varied cadence to their speech. This can translate to your writing and add another layer of ‘flavor’ to your dialogue.

I also recommend watching movies or series to learn dialogue writing. But, not just the ‘bad’ movies, poorly written, poorly directed, and poorly acted. Watch the good ones too…ones you liked.

I recently was binge-watching an older series, “Six Feet Under“. One which I had loved when it was new and couldn’t wait for each episode to air. I began watching for the simple pleasure of re-watching it. But three or four episodes in, I began to critique it. Especially the character of Ruth; the mother of the Fisher family. She had a hot temper and I am certain that was ‘written’ in for the character. However, the actor, (Frances Conroy) went from 0 to 10 when the script called for temper. There was no layering. At first I blamed the writing…then the director. My final analysis was that the

writing (without seeing the script) was hardly at fault. Or maybe a little bit not having enough blocking written in. Don’t forget, emotion can be written as part of the blocking.

Then I laid some blame at the director’s feet for not noticing that his actor had only two levels; calm and yelling. And the yelling came out of the blue and was all the same. Why didn’t the director catch this? Well, he did have a huge cast to direct and watch over. So mostly the responsibility lay with the lazy actor. An actor who wants to get as much as possible out of a part would look for those layers, subtle though they may be. Ed O’Ross (Nikolai, the fiery Russian florist) was excellent at layering his character’s emotions.

No script or production is perfect. You can watch ANYTHING and learn from it. Same with reading. I’ll give you an example; when I noticed a couple of authors using the same word or phase over and over in their work of fiction, I realized I might suffer from the same curse. My nemeses is the word ‘just‘. My guard dog is the feature (in any word processing platform) ‘find’ or ‘replace’ and I use it to root out the 300 times I used ‘just’. (hahaha)

If you’re a screen writer, visuals are more important than diaglogue. Your blocking can include the silent dialogue. Write in the non-verbal speech of an actor. In ‘Six Feet Under‘, actor, Lauren Ambrose (Claire) and Jeremy Sisto (Billy) were superb with their non-verbal dialogue, using facial and eye expressions and body language. This credit I give to the director and the excellent actors.

When writing stage plays the playwright should keep ‘action’ simple. Write some emotional blocking in but always remember the director is going to have their own thoughts about how the scene should go. Be careful not to do the director’s job for them. It won’t be appreciated.

If you are a screenwriter or writing fiction you probably think you have no interest in theatre. One of your best sourses to learn about writing dialogue is the theatre. Live stage plays are the Mecca of good or bad dialogue. Go there, observe and learn!

Another link on the subject of over-usage of words.
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A few BOOKS BY TRISHA SUGAREK

I am the daughter, sister, wife and mother of a Veteran!

Members of the military impacted my life in many ways. My life was certainly changed by members of my family serving in the armed forces. So what better time than on this Veteran’s Day to honor them….those who keep us SAFE and FREE! And to honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for us and their country.

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Gerald Guyer (cousin) US Marines**WWI – gave his life in Normandy, France ** Son of Gladys; nephew of Violet, my mother.

William Jay Woods (father) US Navy ** WWII – South Pacific – PTSD. He met my mother in San Francisco, where she owned a bar and grill. He returned from war an alcoholic, experienced rages and had a parrot named Butch.

Johnny Cable (step-father) US Army/Infantry ** WWII Southern Pacific. Lost an eye, suffered from jungle rot and PTSD. At five years of age I remember not being able to run in and jump on the bed in the mornings to ‘wake up Daddy’. He would awaken ready to fight the ‘Japs’ and in those first few seconds he was back in the jungle. He was a wonderful father but the horrors of the South Pacific battles were never far from the surface. He later served on a ship in the Korean War as a meat cutter. He was instrumental in serving the troops a HOT Thanksgiving dinner on the beach that year.

family histories, family secrets, story telling, writers — my mother, Violet

Violet Guyer (mother) US Armed Forces ** Wife, sister, and mother of members in the military. My mother, who I write about, was auntie to Gerald. She married Jay (active Navy) and Johnny (active Army) and was a military wife for two decades. She was mother to Jack (US Air Force) and Doris, (US Marines).

Jack Borden (brother) US Air Force ** Loaded B52 bombers – hot spots around the world – 20+ years of service. My brother would come home from far away places like Germany, Iceland, Africa, Panama and because he didn’t have a hometown girl, he would take me, his teenage sister, ballroom dancing.

Doris Borden (sister) Joined the US Marines, Reserve and was upgraded to active duty when the Korean War broke out.

Jack Henderson. (first husband) US Air Force * While in the military, he was on a ship in the Pacific
and witnessed one of the first A-Bomb test explosions off Enewetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

Robert Berry (second husband) US Navy Seals, US Coast Guard ** 20+ years of service. Robert was a Navy Seal, underwater demolition during the Viet Nam years. He later served as a warrant officer aboard an icebreaker and was certified to scuba dive under the Arctic ice.

John Sugarek (husband) US Marines ** Viet Nam – John was my husband for 30 years. He was kind-hearted and funny and everyone loved him. I witnessed two of his flashbacks from battle in Viet Nam (twenty years later) and he suffered, untreated, from PTSD. Partially due to the PTSD (I believe) he died at his own hand in 2006. His fellow wounded warriors celebrate him at the Whiskey Battery Reunion, once a year.

We are all grateful to our military for their unswerving bravery, service, and loyalty and we honor those who have come home, battered but alive.

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New 10 minute Play for Teens

This is my newest 10 minute play for teens and the classroom.

Synopsis: What does a girl do when her best friend’s boyfriend hits on her?
Teen breakups are messy. Most teens haven’t done it very often and they consistently get it wrong. If Rob wants to be with Kelly, she has some rules about that happening. After all, Rob’s soon-to-be ex-girlfriend is Kelly’s best friend.
1 m. 3 f.

This new play is part of a series, ‘Short N’ Small’. Over 30 short plays, wonderful for the classroom. No sets, no costumes, no props.
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A few BOOKS BY TRISHA SUGAREK

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