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The Way to a Character’s Heart
Confession: When I’m diving into characters and trying to get at the heart of them, I sometimes write poetry as my characters to get inside their heads. For example, if a character faces heartbreak or loss or a hardship, along with character sketches, I may write a little poem or two from various characters’ perspectives. It would be as if they would write the poem themselves. I’ve always written poetry for fun, and I enjoy writing poems that uncover emotion. And while I’ve only published one small collection of poems to date in The Postcard, I continue to write them and keep them to myself…just for these purposes. Today, I’m…
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A Little Milestone
A Little Milestone: I finished editing the short stories today for The Postcard and Other Short Stories and Poetry. It is almost done being formatted. This project–a couple of years in the making–contains 22 short stories I’ve written over a span of time. I have so much love for this collection for these particular reasons: they remind me of fragments of people I’ve met along the way in my life; they remind me to take the time to tell a story the way you think it should be told; and they remind me to never stop going for your dreams even when it takes baby steps and months or years…
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Playing With Book Covers For An Upcoming Collection
I’ve started the editing process for my upcoming book entitled, The Postcard and Other Short Stories & Poetry. So far, I’ve organized the stories and made a comprehensive list of what will be included and what is getting pitched. It looks like the book will feature 15 longer short stories, 25 pieces of flash fiction, and about 20 poems. Along with the organization comes the idea of what the cover of the book might look like. As a visual person, I need to have this in my head as I work toward completion. For me, the whole creative process of putting a collection together encompasses so much—the storytelling is at…
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Saturday Sonnet: Cracking
I wrote this poem years ago and thought I would share it here today. I’m putting together a collection of short stories and poetry that will be in book form soon. Here’s a sample. Cracking, A Sonnet By Stephanie Verni Forlorn, the faltering heart has no reason to fill you with false hope and pay mind to your sanity; whether there is heat or cold, it disregards season, and pays no attention to matters of formality. It breaks nonetheless whether anyone can hear the silent scream, the muted moan— inside, aching, but on the outside appears calm; the whisper of a desperate groan. Why is it a breaking heart…
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Five * Seven * Five
Five. Seven. Five. That’s the typical length of a haiku. Five syllables make up the first line, seven make up the second, and five again make up the third. When you write novels, you have pages and pages to tell a story; in a short story, you have much less time, and in poetry, you have lines. I’m posting three haikus I’ve written that I like best. I hope you like them, and even more so, that I inspire you to write one of your own. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Haiku: BlizzardWhite winter blizzardcovers moonlit landscape, still;boots thaw by the fire. * * * Haiku: One with VeneziaHeels tap streets, click, click—gondolier sings…
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WHY I WRITE, Part I
George Orwell started it. His famous piece, “Why I Write,” has inspired writers of all walks of life to talk about whey they write. I’ve never done this before, and on this snowy day, I decided to take a little time to critically analyze why I write, the process, and why I enjoy doing it. It’s been something I’ve wanted to take the time to do, and after speaking about this very topic yesterday with one of my students, I decided to set out upon the task. * * * WHY I WRITE Part I—The Early Years: My Bad Poetry All I can tell you is that I remember writing…
