RadioWritingJournal

To see the radio drama books I have, and the ones I am studying to put together the radio drama, click here:

I am setting up this page January 23, 2015.

[August 10, 2015... If you want to, you can familiarize yourself with the characters I speak of on this page, by visiting, the "Lums Chapel Family Tree," page and the "Who, What, When, Where," page.]

I am thinking about writing a radio drama for the, "BBC World Service -- BBC World Drama -- International Radio Playwriting Competition". According to their website, "The competition will open again in October 2015." It is usually a few months after the opening that the competition closes. This means that I should have enough time to write something. And I should also have enough time for revisions. The page you are currently reading is a journal of my radio writing efforts. The reason I am sticking the, "Radio Writing Journal," with the Lums Chapel stories, is because I am thinking of writing something with my Lums Chapel characters for the competition.

I am working on a novel already. I will continue to take notes and keep that story, "in mind". I need to keep up with some house work. I also need to do a few things in the computer room in order to make the room an even better working environment. I have a goal of making room in the living room for an indoor bike. Another goal is to actually ride the bike. Then I hope to get out more this summer to ride my outdoor bike. One of the writing books I have talks about how to stay healthy so you can be freed up to write. I also need to get around people more during the day. Yet another goal is to ride the outdoor bicycle, to do the writing at the library this summer. I had planned on doing that last summer but never managed to get there.

I want to keep praying about this. I need to know if I should embark on such an ambitious project. And I need to know what to write. I have some ideas, but I want to do what God wants. I don't want to do what I want and then try to fit God into the story some how like an after thought.

June 22, 2015

From a note of, June 18, 2015...

There is a theme to this story, of having your priorities in order.

"There comes a time when you have to (let go?)---- realize that there's only so much, 'stuff,' ya'll can (keep up with)". [Fix, "keep up with".]

From a note of June 17, 2015...

I also thought of the Cooper, "ancestor," "Colonel Beauregard Sumter Cooper," June 17, 2015. He is an, "alleged," ancestor. The, "family story," is that they have this Confederate Colonel for an ancestor. When Josephine finds a sword at her grandparent's house, she imagines it to have been the Colonel's. But when her mother points out the Masonic symbols on it, Josephine is disappointed. Come to find out the sword belonged to Nana's father the mason and not Colonel Cooper. The family story probably originated with Grandpa Josh's Uncle, Lemuel Cooper, who was a known teller of tall tales.

From a note of June 13, 2015... (from an earlier note of an unknown date)

Aunt Margaret is starting a, "writer's critique group". With Josephine and possibly some ladies from her book club. There could be other writers and aspiring writers in Lums Chapel.

From a note of June 11, 2015...

Josephine: (about Texas-- someone asked her opinion of the difference between Michigan and Texas) "I think the sun shines brighter, and the sunsets are longer".... ...."There's a difference between how things are and how they seem".

June 22...

There's a theme to this drama of the difference between how things seem and how they actually are.

From a note of June 3, 2015...

The sound of a freight train off in the distance.

June 22...

I am remembering hearing the trains at my grandmother's old house. In the bedroom that was my adoptive mother's teenage bedroom, you could faintly hear the freight trains at night. We hear freight trains and passenger trains at night here in Dearborn. In the summer with the windows open you hear them better. Sometimes when the atmosphere is just right, you hear them even louder. The bedroom at my grandmother's, was the one nearest her front porch. The street light on the corner would shine in through a window that looked out over the porch. (At least that's my memory.) Before I was in school, this was the bedroom that had the piano in it. And my older cousins and I could sleep three in that bed at one time. That wasn't long after the extinction of the dinosaurs. Ha!

June 22, Cont...

I was wondering why the train sound was different here in Michigan, from what I remembered of the sound at my grandmother's. The distance of the trains (volume of sound) sounds very different. There's many factors of course. Dearborn is more humid. Littlefield would be hotter and dryer in the summer months. We open our windows in this house. My grandmother's windows did not open after a certain point. They relied on air-conditioners. I always thought that the distance from my grandmother's old house to the railroad tracks was farther than the distance here. I am pretty sure it is, but wasn't sure.

I went and had Google Maps do the distance calculations. Douglas says that it might be around 1.15 miles from our house to the railroad tracks up behind, Michigan Avenue. Douglas is figuring that we would take the direct route via Outer Drive to reach the tracks. I didn't know how to tell Google Maps to give me directions from my house to the railroad tracks. I told it to go from here to Mich. Ave. So, Google Maps says that we should take Outer Drive to Military and then to Michigan Ave. Google Maps is not very direct and seems to be giving me, "the long way". They did not give as an option, directions via Outer Drive. Anyway, Google says it is 4.4 miles from our house to Michigan, Ave. Which is NOT entirely accurate. On the other hand, Google Maps says that it is 2.1 miles to the railroad tracks from my Grandmother's old house on, West 12th Street in Littlefield, Texas. I went down West Side Avenue to Tronson Road via Google Maps Street View. Tronson Road looked like a dirt road. It is just on the other side of the railroad tracks. (I had never heard of Tronson Road before. Is it a railroad siding? Not sure what a, "siding," is.) I didn't get a good look at Tronson Road. I just wanted the name of a street or road, so I could have something to type into the, "Directions," on Google Maps. They also said that it was 8 minutes to drive to Tronson Road from W. 12th Street, if there was no traffic. The odds of there being traffic of any consequence is slim. You would hit some traffic at Waylon Jennings Blvd. But West Side Avenue is usually pretty clear.

Ok, I am very tired. I want to see what is on the Perry Mason episode in a few minutes. We have been watching lots of those. Will write more as it comes up.

June 24, 2015...

The reason I was writing about the sound of trains....

There is something comforting about the sound of a train off in the distance. Also, the sound carries an emotion with it of coziness, maybe homesickness, and wistfulness perhaps. Yes wistfulness! Google has in it's definition of, "wistfulness," "regretful longing". I don't know about, "regretful," but, "longing," I get. This reminds me of two, "foreign," words. The first word is the German word, "Fernweh". According to Google translations, it means, "wanderlust". But there is also a meaning of, "homesick for a place you have never been before". There is a song about this type of homesickness that Christians have. It is by, New Song. "Don't It Make You Want to Go Home". I discovered the second, "foreign," word in an episode of, "My Grandmother's Ravioli" on, "Cooking Channel" . (The episode that originally aired, January 29, 2015.) It is the Danish word, "hyggelig". (Hyggelig is apparently the adjective of, "hygge".) There is another German word, Gemütlichkeit. It has a similar meaning to, "hygge". Gemütlichkeit, and hygge have meanings of comfort, coziness etc. We don't seem to have just one word which means anything like these. It takes a whole phrase to equal one word in Danish or German.

I was very happy to find these words. I have been hunting and hunting a way to convey in my writing, this emotion that I get. Hyggelig, and Gemütlichkeit, with some Fernweh thrown in, come close. I have this term I use with my husband Douglas, "shag carpety". I use it to describe things like, "chili cheese fries". He will ask what I want for dinner and I will sometimes reply, "something shag carpety". He will smile and almost laugh at my eccentricity.

From the September 17-18 2012 entry of my novel writing journal....

"Shag Carpety---

How do I convey the concept of, "shag carpety," in my writing? "Shag carpety," is the name I give a specific emotion or emotions that I feel. It is a title that stems from childhood. A place we once lived had shag carpet. The apartment wasn't the most pleasant place we lived. Yet I associate certain comfort foods with that place. (chili cheese fries for example) It isn't because we ate them there. I felt the emotion there that I feel when I eat certain foods."

"Shag carpety," isn't just felt when I eat certain foods. It is that emotion on would feel curled up by a fire reading or watching a good tea cozy murder mystery. It is that sensation of being, "snug in a rug," or curled up on the sofa under a blanket while the snow, rain, or wind happens outside. You are warm, cozy, safe and relaxed while there might be cold and wind outside.

July 10, 2015 [August 10, 2015 this section updated and corrected today. Longer edits in [ ].]

First off...

Got distracted yet again, am reading, (on and off) "Conversations with Texas Writers," Edited by Frances Leonard and Ramona Cearley for Humanities Texas.

I don't know when I started, but I have been making a list of surnames, (last names) to have as potential character names. I am using as my source the, "Appendix," "Purchasers of Littlefield Lands," from the book, "Littlefield Lands Colonization on the Texas Plains, 1912-1920," by David B. Gracy II. I find it really interesting how many names I recognize because I knew descendants of the early settlers listed in this book. They were either friends of my grandparents or I heard the name some how.

Ideas, ideas...

I was looking at a comb bound notebook of, "inspiration" pictures that I put together. Many years ago, I did a Google Images search for, "Radio Drama". I made a scrapbook of some of the pictures I found. There was a photo that I found of a stack of books with a subject of, "Drama and Writing". This photo was a, "thumbnail" photo (very small). I remember it being on a website to do with writing radio drama. I could be misremembering. The photo is so small, that I can't make out the titles of the books. I even printed a full page version hoping to try to make out what was in the pile. I have always wanted to know what was in the stack, so I could put the relevant books on my wish list. Last night, I did a Google Images search via an iPad. I was hoping to find a copy of the photo so I could try to blow it up on the iPad and get a better look. I did not find the photo I was hunting. I did find a couple of things that have sent my brain in another direction as far as this radio drama story goes.

Not entirely sure I am going to run with this idea. All along, as I think and take notes for the radio drama for the competition coming up, I keep thinking of, "Eleanor's Story". That was going to be the third or fourth story in the Lums Chapel series. It was going to be the character, "Eleanor's", life story. I eventually started a notebook for notes to this story, so I could write it, "some day". I eventually changed the name of, "Eleanor's Story," to, "Part of a Large Family". As I began to think of a story for this drama, I kept dismissing the ideas I had about how to tell, "Eleanor's Story". I even have a good two pages of, "start," (beginning) of a story about Josephine. I can't seem to get Eleanor out of my mind. I may have to incorporate some of my thinking about Josephine et. al. into a story about Eleanor.

The, "start," I have so far begins with Josephine reading, "Darkened Passageways" by ???? (I need to find a name for the author). It is the book selection of her Aunt Margaret's book club. Wanda the detective in the story, is about to discover the murderer. Josephine's mother wants her help in cleaning out Josephine's grandparent's house. This would be an opportunity for Josephine to learn family history and bond more with her mother. Margaret, who is trying to write a novel, wants to get a writer's critique group started. Josephine wants to join that too. Eleanor was supposed to work for a local newspaper writing a column about Lums Chapel. The editor wants her to get an interview with her brother in law, Arthur Miles, "The Author". Eleanor has some anxiety about doing that. There is a history there. The more I think about it, the more I can't seem to find any, story or drama in focusing on Josephine- with this present story anyway.

As I was trying to find my picture last night, I found a how to write blog. There was a post on there about writing historical fiction. It inspired a title, "Historical Fiction". It would be great for a story about Eleanor and her family, including Josephine and Aunt Margaret. It could include family history; family secrets; events in Eleanor's childhood and young life that she wants to find answers about; and all the related things along this line.

I have been thinking for a while about a story where Eleanor's mother dies or has to go into a home. After her father has grieved a while, he wants to downsize. Which would mean that Eleanor, her sister and brother, -- and their father of course-- would go through the house discovering family history, etc. They might learn things they didn't know about their wife/mother. They would relive memories. There could be disputes about those memories. ("Why are you always adamant that you are right, and it's everyone else that misremembers?")

The title, "Historical Fiction" would fit with some of that type of stuff. I could explore what people remember vs. how it actually happened. And people believing one thing while in reality something else actually happened. In the midst of this, could be Eleanor's job of having to interview her brother in law. She is a member of her Aunt Margaret's book club and is thinking about joining her writer's critique group.

Then there was a story on the BBC News website about fairly modern novels that take place in London, (England). One of the novels profiled started with preparations for a party. Eleanor and her sister etc. could prepare for a large family gathering of some sort. A big meal maybe. There would be a chance to talk, discuss things, argue, come to grips, whatever,-- i.e. lots of drama could happen. I have always imagined a gathering of Eleanor's extended family around a table for some occasion.

Another thing I keep thinking of....

The family story like Eleanor's reminds me of, "pull and push". For some reason, thinking of a family drama with it's varied emotions, reminds me of this. I get a mind picture of a taffy pull, or maybe working bread dough. I am also reminded of an animal in the original, "Dr. Dolittle," a pushmi-pullyu. There was once a merry go round at a park in Graham, Texas. It was like a rail road hand car in a way. Two people would be at the controls. As one person pushed the other one pulled. The contraption went around and around. Children had seating around it. It was evidently called a, "Pull-A-Way Merry-Go-Round". At least the one I found has that name. The one in Graham was similar. [Another reminder: the pull on a door that says, "push". The push on a door that says, "pull".]

One last thing for today...

I feel like I am way behind on this story. I wanted to be much further along than I am. I wanted to have pages and pages done rather than just two. Maybe things will come easier if I quit trying to stuff Josephine into something that Eleanor belongs in.

August 10, 2015

I had scribbled at the end of my hand written edits to the above text the following... [I edit it and ad to it as I go along so that it makes sense.]

"Eleanor's Story," was going to be after the movie was made, not before. Maybe Eleanor's Mom doesn't die, the couple [Eleanor's mother and father] decide to downsize. These upsetting letters that Eleanor finds, "after her mother dies," could be found as she helps her parents move."

I am pretty certain that I am going to have Eleanor and Josephine as the main characters in this radio drama. Their mother's are next. Josephine and Eleanor talk a lot about Aunt Margaret and Arthur Miles, but I doubt they will actually be in this. I could put a conversation with Eleanor and Arthur possibly. Arthur would be a token male I guess.

Josephine has moved back to Lums Chapel. She is living with her mother temporarily. She is about to move into an apartment. [Probably in the one of the only purpose built apartment buildings in Lums Chapel.] It would be a temporary dwelling until she found a suitable house to buy. Josephine's father would be wanting her belongings out of his barn as soon as possible. Josephine gets a job at the Lums Chapel Mercantile. Eleanor goes in there for something, and finds Josephine as a cashier. They agree to have lunch where they catch up on their lives. Josephine's children are nearly teenagers if not in their early teens. She works part time at a newspaper in the nearby, "big city". She is supposed to get an interview with her brother in law, Arthur Miles. There is some history there. She is reluctant to talk to him. Josephine is helping her mother clean out her grandparent's house. It is the long time family seat. Eleanor is helping her parents downsize. There are family issues with both of them. Anyway, you can read more about it here.

Today, I have been starting a page for a synopsis of all the Lums Chapel Stories. I want to write up a brief synopsis to all the stories I have thought of so far.

January 29, 2016 Hiatus...

I will not be writing to the story, "Historical Fiction," aka., "We Find Ourselves Returning to Find Home," for the time being. The opening of the radio drama contest has come and gone. The deadline is nearly upon us. Sometime in early November 2015 I decided to use the, "Writing Map," I bought. ("Write Around the Bookshop") The first entry in the notebook was from November 7, 2015. I thought that since the opening of the radio drama competition came and went, I would put my radio drama on hold in order to concentrate on the work I needed to do around the house. We always have lots to do getting the house ready for a Christmas guest. I was tempted and distracted by the Writing Map. I figured that it would be something simple to keep me from getting involved in a major project that would detract from the house work. The writing map was indeed simple. There was more room left in the notebook when I was finished. So I downloaded more writing prompts. Around the time I did that, I had started a notebook for notes to a fully fledged story. Please look at the index page for, "How I Learned to Read a Book," in order to learn more. There is also a Journal for that story as well. I will write more to this journal when and if it becomes relevant.