CREATIVE WRITING: WEEK TWO

Q: What happens next? Emotion. Motivation. Don't describe. It's like a performance. Be a storyteller.

Is your story moving along? Do I care about what I wrote?

Drama is often negative. Conflict doesn't have to be unhappy though. Think of the truth in comedy. 

Think of Dave in Vinyl Cafe. Find a personality with problems, and they can become your conflict that moves the plot forward. Create a character we care about. 

Make discoveries. Follow the action. Make a treasure hunt, and keep leaving clues. Find a cue. Create a safe place, and then change a variable. 

Editing is like playing a Jenga game. How much can I take out and it still keep its integrity.

In 8 weeks, am I a better writer?

Reminiscences

Pay attention to the point of view, and don't change it unless you make another chapter.

Layer the interaction

PROMPT (last week I missed):

Wool

By the ocean

Accident

300 words

a couple of characters

----

for next week:

an unexpected phone call

holding hands

jump

THE ACADIA: 1227 SHERBROOKE STREET WEST

 

Across the street from the Ritz Carlton lays a building of incredible craftsmanship. It is not a building I have noticed before, lacking the larger more intricate marquis that usually commands all my attention when I walk by, nor the menu nor photos of specialty food at heartstopping prices, nor windows of Tiffany jewelry. It is, however, worth a few minutes of admiration itself.

According to the plaque placed by Heritage Montreal, the Acadia Apartments where designed by David Robertson Brown. It was the first apartment building  to take advantage of  a new municipal by-law that allowed buildings to exceed ten stories, following the standards and of apartment buildings in New York City at the time. It was built by 1925 in the Golden Square, with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Ritz Carlton already in situ. It is described to have been decorated with an artificial "cast" stone from Canadian Benedict Stone Limited, although I am not sure which if any stones apply.

From my perusal, The Acadia appears to be an apartment building with the intricate details above the entrance and near the top of its 12 story frame. There are elaborate corner extrusions that, on second glance, are not functional but represent a time when gargoyles drained the roof of water when it rains. The arcades repeat in the centre, above and below, with floral motifs and elaborate moldings that are almost too busy for my taste followed by faux arches in even numbers reminiscent of Venetian facades. 

When you take a closer look at the building, you see flawless brickwork. The shelf of Ventian arches are build out of cleverly cut out bricks, which leads you to notice a line of perpendicular bricks below that quickly becomes a stepping stone to discovering other patterns buried in the wall of dun coloured brick. 

Above each window is a simple interruption of vertical laying brick. Between two sets of evenly spaced window pairs is a wonderful upright herringbone pattern. At the top of these are another pattern of two stripes woven into long vertical rectangles.

Everything is to the scale of a humble brick, likely brought in by train in the era of the Golden Mild construction. The geometric balance of paired, and unpaired, is perfection.  A smaller brick woven in between other bricks of a varying neutral yellow colour that gives the aging building a patina worthy of praise and adoration.

Smaller brick layers (or are they just turned perpendicularly on end) are the "bonding courses".

My apologies to the Ritz Carlton, because the next time that I turn your corner, I may not be looking your way.

QUILTING

 I started watching a series called 3 Blocks, 30 Quilts to prepare for the sock quilt that has been cooling in a shoebox for too long. The instructor Kate Collaran is quite inspiring. She has a company that designs quilt patterns called Seams Like a Dream Designs.

She suggests colour families, and then pulls in an accent colour. She recommends a pop of colour, with the idea that if you have two complimentary colours, a third is necessary to bring in a contrast. She also sees colour families, or themes to pull colour together. If you have a beautiful complicated fabric, you can use it as an inspiration to pull the colours together for your quilt.

She suggests that you design patterns in a notebook with pencil crayons, which is what I like to do when I see a pattern that inspires me (the last one was from a scene from Shang-Chi). 

She talks about 1 block quilts, log cabins, four patch, and pinwheels! Start at a corner at bottom right, and at a strip to the top, then the left side, until your block is done.  

Don't forget to measure twice; cut once.

Use your iron, and "press" your fabric to start, once seams are sown, press flat, closed, then on the back, creating a four patch pinwheel to lay flat in behind, and then at each additional piece. 

She has a cutting mat that seems like a great size, and encourages the use of 2 rulers without turning your fabric. She uses a rotary cutter, and cuts multiple strips by multiplying and cutting a 6' strip before cutting it in half for 2-3' strips to minimize moving the fabric.

Sewing strips together, she gets a "good" quarter inch seams but starting the seam before she gets to her sewing foot with a guide. She recommends painter's tape as low residue. She recommends sewing slowly and steadily, don't "swing wide" at the beginning, and "following through" by getting all the way off before rushing the end of the seam.

Cross cutting units tidies up the edges to get rid of "wonky bits", of which I think I might have many.

Once you have 12, 24, or 48 blocks, you can arrange the setting of them all following all sorts of patterns. Each block is 12 inches. A large quilt is 48 blocks. A small quilt is 24.

If you are drawing on your squares (with half square triangles), you can glue a sandpaper on cardboard and draw without the fabric moving. 

The squares can be sewn as squares with centre seam allowances, then cut after the fact. Trim your dog ears before joining the next two triangles. This is advanced level!

Frixion pen ink disappears with ironing.

Another great resource is

CREATIVE WRITING PROMPTS: WEEK ONE

A rock is thrown through a window

Write a story about a character who interprets people's dreams

I told you so

INKTOBER

 In the month heading into NaNoWriMo, we have picked up a new daily habit of drawing and posting (to our fridge door) an ink sketch (preceded by a pencil draft), thanks to the prompts from Inktober.