Writing a What If about The Greatest and The King

By Annette Cole Mastron, Communications Director for Southern Writers Magazine

As a member of a writer's group, each year, we write a short story and are published in an anthology book. It's a great opportunity to be published annually. The writer's group has covered a number of different topics. Our last published book was a fictional dinner with a historical figure entitled, Dinner with Destiny.

Our new anthology book subject is "What If." Take a true fact and write a "What if" this happened instead of what did happen and write 1800 words. It sounded easy at the time we voted on the subject of the book, but we have a deadline to email the editor on our specific scenario. The purpose is to commit to your topic so there is no duplication of facts. With the deadline looming, I've been wracking my mind as to what fact to use. This is hard. What fact would you use?

Frankly, I was stumped. I had written and rejected several ideas as too complicated to explain within a word count of 1800 words. Then, I found inspiration via an article in our local paper, The Commercial Appeal. I get a lot of story ideas from reading the daily paper. With the recent death of Muhammad Ali, numerous articles were everywhere about his humble beginnings, controversial stands, talent for the sport of boxing, self-proclamation of being "The Greatest," etc. 

However, not one article connected Muhammad Ali (The Greatest) with Elvis Presley (The King) until I read Geoff Calkins column in Sunday's paper. Half way through the article I knew I had my "What If" story idea for my fictional piece. I'm writing a story about Ali and Elvis with an interesting spin. 

What inspires your writing? Do you keep an inspiration file? Do you log what inspires your published work? 

But…I Just Want to Write!

By Vickie Carroll 

Why can’t I just write? Why do I have to market my work, blog about it, talk about it, maintain the social media sites? So-much-work, we whine. Every writer knows this pain even if we have stopped saying it out loud because we do know better. We can’t “just write” because we have to bring out all our other non-writer personas to take care of business. 

Someone once wrote that Elvis had a favorite mantra, TCB (taking care of business) and he lived it. No matter what else he had going on in his personal life, he rehearsed with his backup singers, talked to his manager, visited his venue, approved his wardrobe, and he prepared to do his job. His job didn’t start and stop at stepping up to the microphone and singing. I suppose if it was good enough for Elvis I can’t complain. 

To be honest I am a bit of a control freak and that can paralyze me. It is hard for me to be satisfied with my end product. Like most writers I can rewrite forever and not be happy with the outcome. It is only those deadlines that set me free. If I had nothing to do but write with no deadline to meet or promises to keep, website to maintain, blogs to post—well chances are I would never finish anything. I would write it to death, plodding on and on until I got sick of my story, my characters, and myself, and there would never be a final product.  

Sometimes I dream of being one of those multi-millionaire writers who have “their people” to do their marketing, maintain their webpages, handle all the social media, taxes, and the boring paperwork. This sounds like heaven until I remember that I would then be all alone with my laptop (that I have named Calamity) and with nothing left to do but (gulp) write.  Shiver. 

Off to work on my new webpage now. TCB.  

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Vickie lives in the Atlanta area, is a native Georgian, and works for a major university.  She has written and published many articles and done a few short stories and loved doing it.  More recently she has ventured into the world of fiction, and her first fiction book, The Ghost of Kathleen Murphy, will be available on Amazon April 1st, followed by her second book, The Witches of Half Moon Island in late June. Connect with her on her new blog page just up and a work in progress athttp://vickiecarroll.wordpress.com New web-site and Writers Face Book page coming soon:  Vickie-Writing-by-Moonlight

  

Royals in Memphis, a Southern Wedding and Writing

By Annette Cole Mastron, Communications Director for Southern Writers Magazine 

According to various media sources, this weekend a number of Royals will come to Tennessee. Reportedly, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (aka...Prince William, Duchess Kate Middleton) Prince Harry, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie and Harry's long-term girlfriend Cressida Bonas will be in "little old river city," Memphis for a three day wedding event. "Memphis Southern Royalty"-born and raised here, granddaughter of Kemmons Wilson, who founded the Holiday Inn hotels, is getting married May 3rd, 2014. Elizabeth "Lizzy" Wilson is engaged to London nightclub owner Guy Pelly, a close friend of the princes. The Princes are to be ushers in the wedding. To my knowledge the only Royalty that has come across "the pond" to Memphis were "The Beatles" on August 19th 1966 and they were music royals not titled Royals. Will Kate attend? Who else will attend the wedding? Only the bride knows.

The Wilson-Pelly outdoor wedding will be held at the Memphis Hunt & Polo Club if you can depend on international and local news reports. Or will the announced wedding venue be a rouse and the real wedding occur at another beautiful secured locale, perhaps "The Dixon Gardens?"

The wedding will kick off a three-day party, and may include a private visit to the former home of the "King of Rock and Roll"(Elvis Presley), Graceland. Will Lisa Marie host a dinner for them like she did for Oprah and Gayle King? But where else will the Royals go? Sun Studios? Gibson Guitar Factory? Eat ribs at Charlie Vergos' Rendezvous resturant and pitcher of Ghost River brew? Tour St. Jude Cancer Research Hospital? Tour Brooks Art Gallery? See the Pink Palace? 

What do I know, as a local that might benefit the Royals? Memphis in May, a month long celebration begins today. The whole city springs to life to highlight a country. Panama is this year's country. Memphis and the Mid-South area are clearly known for music. Memphis is after all, The Home of the Blues. This weekend Music Fest begins on Friday on the banks if the Mississippi River, a three day musical event. Music stars have roots in the Mid-South and love playing at this event on the River. 

Will the bachelor/bachelorette party start on Beale Street and make their way to Music Fest? Who knows? Who will be the entertainment for the wedding? No idea...but Memphian, Justin Timberlake is on tour in Germany so it won't be "JT." Of course, Nashville, the country star capital, IS just two hours away.

I'm not the "chase the celebrity type" of person. However, it is really fun to think that I might actually see them in and around East Memphis. Will they make a snack/beverage run to the Kroger grocery store, I frequent? Naw, probably not.

Will they stay in one of the stately mansions on the same street of the wedding venue? Recently, a squatter and her children lived inside a foreclosed multi-million dollar mansion-home on Shady Grove Road for nearly a week resulting in her arrest and is currently in jail awaiting trial. Heads up, Scotland Yard, that mansion may be available and connects to the Hunt and Polo grounds which could be a security plus. Or will the Royals stay at the famous Peabody Hotel and play duckmaster of the ducks that live in the penthouse?

What does the "Royal Memphis wedding of the century" have to do with writing? All this activity made me realize I needed to make a "scene settings" notebook on my town, Memphis. It is a valuable tool to keep your scenes fresh and move your characters forward throughout the story you weave. Just like character sheets writers use to keep up with their various characters. We need to do the same thing for our scenes settings in our stories so we don't get lost in travel blogs researching the internet for scene options. When looking for a scene setting to have your characters interact, all you have to do is pull out your scene settings notebook. Your stories may not always take place in your domicile town but you can use your town to get your notebook started. This is in keeping with the adage of write what you know. 

Your notebook doesn't need to read like a AAA tour guide but rather a "what only locals know" notebook, including pictures and local stories that are different. You can write a short description of something you might have seen at a particular setting and then include it in your scene setting notebook to use later. For example, when I heard the wedding was to take place just down the street from the mansion that the now jailed squatter had lived in just last summer, it got me to thinking. What if the Royals all end up being housed in that gated mansion? Fictionalized twist of real news events will be of intrigue for readers and set your story apart from others who write books and clearly have never been to the location of their stories setting.

If you're creating a fictional town, you definitely need to create a scene setting notebook to "build" your setting. Consider drawing a rough map to give you a sense of what the reader will see as your characters move through the story. Authenticity is the goal even though you are writing a work of fiction. The goal is to keep readers reading from the first sentence until The End. 

I've been to Cotton Carnival parties at the Hunt and Polo Club. Although not invited to this weekend's "Royalty" wedding, my imagination is working overtime. I may decide to write a fictional scene using this setting. How about you? Have you put together a scene settings notebook?