I joined a writers group some months ago. Four women, including me, and one man. We had one other woman in the group briefly but she needed to drop out because of a job conflict. I'd love for her to return because she's had over twenty years of writing as a newspaper reporter. The one short story she submitted to the group for review and critique was so good everyone thought she should submit it for publication to some magazine.
I've been searching for a writers group - needing one actually - for years. It's difficult to write alone without feedback. Even reading all the guidelines that are available, taking writing courses, joining writers organizations and attending writers conferences are simply not enough. A writer, especially one who is not yet published and does not have an agent or editor to turn to, needs other skilled writers to read ones work and provide feedback.
Sometimes I get so involved with telling the story or getting to what I think is THE STORY I forget to bring the reader into the story by showing it.
I also have to admit that after going back, over and over and over, to re-write a section or chapter or some component, either to make a point more clear or to shorten a narrative or to sharpen an impact - I get tired and impatient. (Patience has never been a strong point in any of my siblings and I'm no role model either.) Sometimes I have to get up and walk away from the computer. Sitting and being frustrated when something isn't working doesn't work for me. That's when I try, actually need to force myself, to go outdoors. Weather permitting, I try to get into one of my many gardens to pull weeds or plant something. That's when I can usually work out a storyline "problem."
Of course, I have worked out some of the best dialogue problems in the shower. Unfortunately, I can not write down those gems under water. So I try to repeat the key lines over and over in the hopes I will retain them once I am out of the water and inside a towel at least.
So, back to the writers group. This is the place where I submit one section at a time and then one week later, patiently, listen to the review and critique from the others about what they think works, what they don't understand (and sometimes I want them to not understand something at that point in the story IF it keeps them looking for the answer - not if it makes them turn aside and lose interest - because I do write mysteries, thrillers, police procedurals) and their suggestions as to what I could do to improve the writing. Better yet, my fellow writers remind me of the "show the story - don't tell the story" rule. Which, for me, means - slow down and exercise Patience.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Saturday, September 5, 2009
WRITING UNDERCOVER
I'm working on a novel right now, the first one in a series. I've actually written two in the series but, having joined a writers' group, I wanted to go back to the first one and apply some of what the group is teaching me.
I have to admit it's not always easy to go back and re-work the same story over and over, especially when you think it's as good as you can get it. Except, sometimes after time has passed and batteries have re-charged, you can make it better - make it tighter. And yet, this morning as I was working on a particular chapter involving the dialogue exchange between my protagonist (main character who evolves throughout the story and is the central character throughout the series) and several patrol units, I found my heart racing probably as much as when it was back when I was in that position myself years ago. I can still hear the sirens, feel the way they intensify everything inside a squad car enroute to a high adrenalin call never knowing how it will turn out and always hoping for the best. I don't know if my reaction was the result of my writing or my memories or maybe a combination of the two. I'd like to think it was my writing since that part of my experiences happened a long time ago.
I love my stories. I write for many reasons, but, while the process can be exhausting and often frustrating, I write mostly because I care about the stories I have to tell. And the people who lived and died for them.
I have to admit it's not always easy to go back and re-work the same story over and over, especially when you think it's as good as you can get it. Except, sometimes after time has passed and batteries have re-charged, you can make it better - make it tighter. And yet, this morning as I was working on a particular chapter involving the dialogue exchange between my protagonist (main character who evolves throughout the story and is the central character throughout the series) and several patrol units, I found my heart racing probably as much as when it was back when I was in that position myself years ago. I can still hear the sirens, feel the way they intensify everything inside a squad car enroute to a high adrenalin call never knowing how it will turn out and always hoping for the best. I don't know if my reaction was the result of my writing or my memories or maybe a combination of the two. I'd like to think it was my writing since that part of my experiences happened a long time ago.
I love my stories. I write for many reasons, but, while the process can be exhausting and often frustrating, I write mostly because I care about the stories I have to tell. And the people who lived and died for them.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
PAROLEE SUPERVISION AND CASELOADS
The national news media is fully involved with the kidnapping and long-term hostage and abuse or Jaycee Dugan in California. There are so many fingers pointing in so many directions regarding who is to blame for this atrocity. It is commendable that the county sheriff is taking some responsibility for not following through more thoroughly on a 911 call two years ago, but the problem goes much deeper. The issue goes all the way back to why the perpetrator was released far shorter than his original sentence - money. Money is also why there are not enough parole agents at either the federal or state level to supervise high risk parolees regardless of whether or not they are wearing GPS monitors.
Any citizen outside the correctional system will be unable to find out accurate (translate that: truthful) information as to how many parole agents there are in his/her state-county who specifically (translate that: exclusively) supervise high-risk parolees (translate that: violent sex offenders, serial violent offenders who can be domestic violence offenders and child molesters). Even in California's current "wrestling match" with the courts as to how the state will reduce the number of inmates in its over-populated prisons, the state is promising to reduce parole agent caseloads from 75 (parolees per agent) to 40. In truth, that promise was made back in 2001. It never happened. Caseloads increased. And it won't happen now either considering the state's financial position. Positions cost money. And parole agents are required to have more education and experience because they have more authority and work more independently (translate that: usually without a partner or caged vehicle - translate that: it's dangerous work!)
In truth, an agent cannot supervise 75 parolees. It will be challenging to supervise 40 - especially if the parolee is considered high-risk in any category.
To adequately supervise a parolee, an agent needs to be vigilant - and irregular. Irregluar means showing up at the parolee's residence and employment at all times of the night and day - weekends, too. An agent needs to know the parolee's regular associates as well as his (or her) family members - if only to be able to identify someone who's "new" - someone who doesn't belong in his company, around his residence.
An agent needs to know what does (and doesn't) belong in a parolee's closet, his car, his refrigerator, his medicine cabinet, needs to know everything that's "normal" in order to spot something that's not normal. An agent can't do that with a once-a-month visit that lasts a couple of hours or less. But that's all an agent has time for with a caseload of 40 parolees. Why?
Because you have to factor in driving time to and from the various locations the agent has to go to find the parolee (and it takes longer in high metropolitan/high traffic or remote areas), observe from a distance sometimes, prepare all the paperwork the agent has to write and sometimes submit for every visit/observation/neighbor or employer contact. And then there are unit meetings and mandatory training and briefings regarding new parolees. Add in mandatory office hours for each of your parolees to report each month and give some form of a drug or alcohol test in the form of a urinalysis. Each agent is usually assigned one or more days a month to be the "Unit Agent on Call" which can mean handling whatever walks through the door or whoever calls on the phone for anything (from police agencies requesting information to mothers complaining that their sex offender registrant sons are being harassed by neighbors).
As a former state parole agent, I can verify that there are few weeks that went by that I wasn't the recipient of a telephone call in the wee hours from a uniformed officer on the streets requesting some form of information regarding a parolee who had just been the recipient of a vehicle stop. These, too, require attention and, sometimes, additional paperwork if not an immediate get-up-and-meet-the-officer-at-the-scene(or local jail). This is just the "normal" workload. Nowhere here have I provided an example of a parolee who has created a false fenced backyard to hide the kind of buildings and environment we are learning about that has been existing in Antioch, Calif.
I feel for everyone... except the perpetrators. And I'm so glad I wasn't one of those people who are now wondering "Did I miss something?"; "Should I have seen something?" That kind of guilt is suicide-making and there's nothing for it. Except smaller caseloads and more agents and a prison system that doesn't let that kind of an individual out early - EVER. It requires a more effective supervisory system with better priorities for who should be going to prison and who should be staying there and how we fund justice system components in the first place.
Of course, this requires an educated public. Which is why I write.
Any citizen outside the correctional system will be unable to find out accurate (translate that: truthful) information as to how many parole agents there are in his/her state-county who specifically (translate that: exclusively) supervise high-risk parolees (translate that: violent sex offenders, serial violent offenders who can be domestic violence offenders and child molesters). Even in California's current "wrestling match" with the courts as to how the state will reduce the number of inmates in its over-populated prisons, the state is promising to reduce parole agent caseloads from 75 (parolees per agent) to 40. In truth, that promise was made back in 2001. It never happened. Caseloads increased. And it won't happen now either considering the state's financial position. Positions cost money. And parole agents are required to have more education and experience because they have more authority and work more independently (translate that: usually without a partner or caged vehicle - translate that: it's dangerous work!)
In truth, an agent cannot supervise 75 parolees. It will be challenging to supervise 40 - especially if the parolee is considered high-risk in any category.
To adequately supervise a parolee, an agent needs to be vigilant - and irregular. Irregluar means showing up at the parolee's residence and employment at all times of the night and day - weekends, too. An agent needs to know the parolee's regular associates as well as his (or her) family members - if only to be able to identify someone who's "new" - someone who doesn't belong in his company, around his residence.
An agent needs to know what does (and doesn't) belong in a parolee's closet, his car, his refrigerator, his medicine cabinet, needs to know everything that's "normal" in order to spot something that's not normal. An agent can't do that with a once-a-month visit that lasts a couple of hours or less. But that's all an agent has time for with a caseload of 40 parolees. Why?
Because you have to factor in driving time to and from the various locations the agent has to go to find the parolee (and it takes longer in high metropolitan/high traffic or remote areas), observe from a distance sometimes, prepare all the paperwork the agent has to write and sometimes submit for every visit/observation/neighbor or employer contact. And then there are unit meetings and mandatory training and briefings regarding new parolees. Add in mandatory office hours for each of your parolees to report each month and give some form of a drug or alcohol test in the form of a urinalysis. Each agent is usually assigned one or more days a month to be the "Unit Agent on Call" which can mean handling whatever walks through the door or whoever calls on the phone for anything (from police agencies requesting information to mothers complaining that their sex offender registrant sons are being harassed by neighbors).
As a former state parole agent, I can verify that there are few weeks that went by that I wasn't the recipient of a telephone call in the wee hours from a uniformed officer on the streets requesting some form of information regarding a parolee who had just been the recipient of a vehicle stop. These, too, require attention and, sometimes, additional paperwork if not an immediate get-up-and-meet-the-officer-at-the-scene(or local jail). This is just the "normal" workload. Nowhere here have I provided an example of a parolee who has created a false fenced backyard to hide the kind of buildings and environment we are learning about that has been existing in Antioch, Calif.
I feel for everyone... except the perpetrators. And I'm so glad I wasn't one of those people who are now wondering "Did I miss something?"; "Should I have seen something?" That kind of guilt is suicide-making and there's nothing for it. Except smaller caseloads and more agents and a prison system that doesn't let that kind of an individual out early - EVER. It requires a more effective supervisory system with better priorities for who should be going to prison and who should be staying there and how we fund justice system components in the first place.
Of course, this requires an educated public. Which is why I write.
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