There's Always a Chess Game Playing Out in the Basement

 Something New I Learned and Can’t Wait to Share…

Well, I’m not sure if it’s brand new.  It’s always brewed below the surface.  However, what I have come to understand more and more everyday is that there’s always more than meets the eye.  Whether it’s workplace politics, the publishing industry, the entertainment industry, education politics, domestic politics, geo politics, etc., there’s always more than meets the eye.

Sometimes I wonder why I can’t connect with coworkers. Sometimes I wonder why a manuscript won’t gain traction even when the notes I receive are positive (from multiple editors or my agent.) Sometimes I wonder how and why a movie gets made or a concert is performed that seems under par. Sometimes I wonder why the school board and/or the superintendent makes policy that seems counter to common sense and works against the best interests of children. Sometimes I wonder how anyone can observe this current presidential election without some hesitation and/or acknowledgement of the absurdity playing out right before our very eyes. And in regards to geo politics, I indulge myself in an analogy that there is always a chess game playing out by the powerbrokers (both corporate and their elected government representatives) in the basement while the rest of us are busy running around playing Chutes and Ladders with zeal as if our very lives depend on the outcome of that boardgame. There’s always more than meets the eye.

Image Credit www.pngmart.com/image/19220

Chutes and Ladders

Children know this.  It is perhaps why I choose to spend my day with 4 and 5-year-olds. They intuitively understand that there is a bigger picture and they wonder about it.

Years of experiences have brought me to these conclusions:  Experiences as an activist in electoral politics, direct action, grassroots organizing, policy work, campaign work, lobbying, and international travel as a delegate.  Slowly, pieces have revealed themselves. A peek into a world that operates beyond most of our day-to-day existence. I’m not advocating for conspiracy theories.  I am supporting healthy skepticism. Question and hear multiple sources. Be curious.  

I’m at an age that I remember what life and access to information was like before social media and 24-hour streaming news stations. I can remember a time before the information age took hold and dictated how we interact with information, giving the illusion that we have access to all information whenever we ask for it. I began my journey in journalism when the news had a few broadcasts a day. CNN was in its infancy. (Then, I made a left-hand turn into education and writing/entertainment.) 

Before we had 24-hour access to “news” and everyone potentially was the truth keeper of information, we knew that we never had the full story.  And, that facilitated wondering. The illusion of unlimited access has made us blind believers.  We believe that we have the ability to know everything whenever we want.  We think it is a mere click away on the tiny computers that we hold in the palm of our hand.  I am certainly guilty of sharing posts without checking all the facts, pretending to be a reliable news source.  A confession that I must admit is embarrassing for a former journalism student who believed that I was going to join the 4th arm of democracy. I believed that the newscasts/newspapers that I wrote, was news that would give viewers/readers the information they would need to make informed decisions about their everyday lives. It was never the whole picture but I think we knew it wasn’t. And now, the genie is out of the bottle.  Artificial Intelligence is coming in fast and hard, taking us potentially deeper down the rabbit hole.  Will we ever return to wondering?  Will we ever return to knowing that we don’t have the full, expansive, and everchanging picture? Will we ever think about that chess game in the basement while we play Chutes and Ladders upstairs? There’s always more than meets the eye.  Never stop wondering.

By Zeena M. Pliska

Something New About Turtles and Micro-tensions

 Teaching Authors starts a new topic, our “Something New I Learned and Can’t Wait to Share!” It’s been a long minute since the planets aligned just right, allowing me to take a writing class. And this one is a doozy, sponsored by Lorin Oberweger and Free Expressions. This six-week course -- The Breakout Novel Intensive -- explores the principles outlined in Donald Maass ‘ book, Writing the Breakout Novel (2001). As a story nerd, I thrive on taking deep dives into the story engineering process, and this is as deep as it can get. This class is bloody brilliant. The lectures offer a deep dive into concepts. I so appreciated the discussions into creating emotionally complex characters. The one-on-ones took a further dive into my work. I had so many "ah-ha" moments when everything came together. One of the best ah-ha moments explored micro-tensions.

This type of tension isn't in the action itself, but in the psychology underscoring the action. To make this happen, the narrative uses dialogue and exposition to highlight the emotive presence, build tension and expand the plot that leads to an emotional payoff.

As a working writer, I consider my job is to write. As such, I dutifully and gleefully do my job, sometimes hours at an end. I LOVE my job (writing, that is)!

Except, unexpectedly, these days I find myself rather spent after only an hour or two. It's not just writer's block. And not just exhaustion. Something else bubbling just beneath the surface.

For example, I went about doing some errands. I kept squirming because my running shorts didn’t seem to fit. O no, I bemoaned. I already have enough old lady fat. Turns out, I had put my britches on inside out AND backwards. And yes, I went out in public like that. (You can’t take me anywhere.)

And it’s hot outside. Too hot to sleep. My garden is decimated. Bees are dropping off the petals, their little wings burned. I even feel sorry for the wasps, those evil little buggers. The heat index has reached over 100 for several days, and there’s no end in sight. Combined with the high humidity, I feel like a toad swimming in boiling water. And toads do not like to swim.

You may remember that I am the ultimate Doctor Who superfan. I’ve been watching the show since it first aired in 1963. In other words, my relationship with the Doctor has outlasted two husbands, four dogs and three cats. And yet, when the finale for the Fifteenth Doctor finally aired, I fell asleep. What? What? WHAT?

You may also remember that I live in the middle of Red Hat County. Politics are posted everywhere. I’ve learned to ignore it. Mostly. True, one neighbor did rant on about 800,000 dead people who voted illegally. I had to admit that zombies are just the worse. Another neighbor railed about how we are a republic and not a democracy. I told him that he reminded me of some of my good friends. Perhaps he knew them: John Adams, James Madison, my personal favorite John Jay, and that upstart Alexander Hamilton, who all argued the very same thing for years. I told him, he could read all about it in the Federalist Papers. Granted, with 85 long-winded essays, it’s thicker than a comic book.

The stakes are rising. Everyone brags about how many guns they collect. One man rants about shooting a coyote (in the middle of a neighborhood?). Meanwhile, the school down the road had gone on lockdown a couple of weeks ago. And a couple blocks away, a high school student shot his neighbor.

You may remember, too, that I’m counting the days to when I no longer have to teach. At long last, I can choose which classes, and when, to teach. Or not. After forty years, it’s a daunting decision. By the way, I hate WorkDay, with those online forms you have to fill out, all those fecking buttons and columns, and rows and arrows and … it took longer for me to fill out one spleeny form than to grade two weeks of class. (Yes, it’s God’s greatest joke to the universe that I teach online classes. But I am not laughing. I remember that movie when computers took control. It didn't end well for most folk.)

By the way, the water pipe burst. What a MESS. And it’s messing with my internet.

I think I'll go for a walk, and get some ice cream. Chocolate. Better yet, chocolate fudge, with chocolate sprinkles. I'll go to the local pond and count the dragonflies and watch the turtles. At least turtles make sense. And no worries, I will put my britches on the right way. Not that the turtles will care. And when I return, I’ll get back to that bothersome scene.

By the way, see what I did there? I used micro-tensions to illustrate how micro-tensions can be used to add tension to an otherwise very ordinary, if not downright bland scene.

And of course, you want a big emotional payout at the end of such a scene. Take this, for example:

 

For more information about the BONI and many other excellent seminars, webinars and classes at Free Expressions, check out their website. 

 Thank you for putting up with my micro-tensions!

--Bobbi Miller