Crafting Poetry One Syllable at a Time
Posted on September 29, 2019 by Colleen M. Chesebro
Hello everyone! This week, I’m thrilled to bring you author, Susan M. Shuman. I asked her to pick three or four questions from my huge list HERE. We all aspire to be successful authors, and the best way to learn some tricks of the trade is to ask questions.
First, please meet my guest, Susan Shuman:
Susan Marie Shuman is a freelance writer and editor who currently resides in the wilds of Birmingham, AL. She shares her life with four spoiled cats, several friends (not all of them imaginary) and one husband. When she’s not working, Susan enjoys horseback riding, reading, taking her cats for a spin in their pet stroller, and taking naps.
Amazon.com
An ex-bartender, recovering crash test dummy and all-around late bloomer, Susan graduated from the University of South Alabama in 2004 with a BA in English. She minored in Russian.
Long-range goals include visiting Israel, the Czech Republic and Liechtenstein. Susan is also planning to launch a micro-nation which would be called either Suzannistan or Eastern Suzanorovia.
Hi, Colleen. Thanks so much for this interview. I’m looking forward to our chat.
Character naming is one of the most important aspects of writing in my opinion, as well as the most fun. First, I get an image in my mind’s eye of the character, then I assign certain attributes & personality traits.
Next, I get my character naming sourcebook and look for a name that matches my character and his/her attributes. Or sometimes, just the sound of the name as it rolls off the tongue makes for a good fit.
For example, in the story In Pursuit, the main character’s name is Dagmar Bezhumanka. My intention was to provide the reader with an image of a woman searching desperately (dangerously?) for true love.
Yes, and I’ve developed a healthy respect for it. In my case, it usually happens when I try to avoid writing something that I know must be written.
Other times, I think my muse simply gets lazy or wanders off. To goose her into action, I find that finger painting is a great way to get back on track. You use the other side of your brain, which somehow gets the creative juices flowing again. Plus, it’s fun.
Also, I find that when I wear bizarre color & pattern combinations, mismatched socks, and/or wild make-up, it helps me tap into parts of me previously unknown. Some of my best writing happens when I’m wearing plaids & polka dots and blue metallic eye shadow.
No, I don’t leave the house like this.
Without a doubt, it would have to be François and Sebastian Limbourg of The Wild-Ass Series. These are two adolescent brothers, a year apart in age, who have extremely high IQs and wild wild imaginations.
It all starts when their grandmother sends them a Homunculus Hero kit for Christmas. The boys incubate a homunculus, name him Pendragon and present him to their mother for her birthday. In another instance, they transform their cat Phydeaux, into a dog, and then back into a cat after remembering that their father is allergic to dogs.
I’m thinking of turning the series into a novel. As it is now, The Wild Ass Series begins in Gutter Ball: A Collection of Short Stories. It continues in Eddie’s Underwear & Other Shorts. I then continued it in Humannequin, but I unpublished the book because I wasn’t happy with it. My latest effort, Bad Meringue & Other Stories, doesn’t include The Wild-Ass Series.
Yes. I am in the midst of writing one right now. It’s called Belles Lettres to my Damn Self.
Writing a memoir differs from other writing because it rips my guts out. This memoir forces me to be brutally honest with myself, which is much easier said than done. For me, it means poking at painful memories and reliving them to convey the absolute essence of the experience to the reader.
Why write it if it’s that painful? I’m hoping to circumvent someone else’s devastation — nip it in the bud. If sharing my story helps just one person, then it’s all worthwhile.
Plus, I find it to be cathartic in a Roto-Rooter-ish kind of way.
Thanks for the invite, Colleen. I had a great time.
Amazon Author’s Page: https://www.amazon.com/Susan-Marie-Shuman/e/B06X9ZY4D2
Blog: https://theabjectmuse.me
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanshuman/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/swp59/
Thanks for stopping by to meet Susan. I’ll see you all again!
Category: author interviewsTags: Conservations with Colleen, Gutter Ball: A Collection of Short Stories, Susan M. Shuman
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“A good poem is a contribution to reality. The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it. A good poem helps to change the shape of the universe, helps to extend everyone’s knowledge of himself and the world around him.”
—Dylan Thomas
Click: What is a Rhyme Scheme?
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Colleen M. Chesebro is an American Poet who loves crafting paranormal fantasy and magical realism, cross-genre flash fiction, syllabic poetry, and creative nonfiction. Colleen sponsors a weekly syllabic poetry challenge, called Tanka Tuesday, on wordcraftpoetry.com where participants learn how to write traditional and current forms of haiku, senryu, haiga, tanka, gogyohka, tanka prose, renga, solo-renga, haibun, cinquain, Etheree, nonet, and shadorma poetry. Colleen's syllabic poetry has appeared in the Auroras & Blossoms Poetry Journal, and in “Hedgerow, a journal of small poems.” She’s won numerous awards from participating in the Carrot Ranch Rodeo, a yearly flash fiction contest sponsored by carrotranch.com. In 2020, she won first place in the Carrot Ranch Folk Tale or Fable category, with her story called “Why Wolf Howls at the Moon.” Colleen is a Sister of the Fey, where she pursues a pagan path through her writing. When she is not writing, she is reading. She also loves gardening and crocheting old-fashioned doilies into works of art.
I enjoyed this interview with, Susan, Colleen. Here idea about incubating a homunculus is fascinating.
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Isn’t that the coolest? I love these interviews. We learn so many fun things about each other. ❤️
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Fantastic interview!
I’m off to finger paint..
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Yay! Sounds lovely ❤️
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🥰
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Thank you, Colleen! I appreciate you and this opportunity. 🙂
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You are so welcome. I’m glad we had some time together. ❤️
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Reblogged this on The Abject Muse.
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Thanks for sharing. ❤️❤️❤️
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You do realise that you have just given permission to every writer in the land to do the most outrageous things in the name of creativity… Pity that most of them will never be revealed…
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Love this interview, but will probably pass on the ways to avoid writer’s block. Love the homunculus idea. I wrote a blog post years ago where my assistant and I tried something like that, but it turned out more like meatloaf.
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LOL! I love it! That’s hysterical, Craig. 😀
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I love Susan’s idea of dressing up or putting on metallic eyeshadow as a way to get into a different place for some creative writing. I’d never thought of that and, of course, will try it. And the Wild Ass series sounds delightful. Thanks for the intro to Susan and her writing, Colleen. Happy Writing to both of you. 🙂
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Thanks, Diana. Wasn’t that a brilliant idea? It’s like getting into your character the way an actor does. ❤
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Thank you for the interesting interview, Colleen. For the book link too. Have a nice start into the week. Michael
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Thank you, kindly, Michael. I’m glad you enjoyed. ,3
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How wonderful to meet Susan! I loved what she said about why she would bother to write something terribly painful in her memoir and her answer was to help others. That says a lot about this writer! Thank you, Colleen!
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You’re so welcome, Jan. I love these interviews. We all learn so much. ❤
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Excellent interview. Thank you.
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You’re welcome.
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I enjoyed the interview. Susan sounds like a writer who marches to the beat of her own drum!
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What fun! Glad you enjoyed, Liz. ♥️
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Enjoyed meeting Susan thank you Colleen.. very interesting and entertaining.
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Thanks, Sally. 🥰
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Thanks for sharing. Did you see the WordPress Press This button below the like button? ❤️❤️❤️
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