Tag: changing times

Categories
History in the Making

Behind the Doors of the Grocery Store: INEVITABLE CHANGE Part 2

History in the making

CHANGE —A Spark for Writers Seeking an Innovative Angle for Their stories.

Change can bring new life or dread to an unfolding plot, and it can affect characters in both positive and negative ways.

The grocery store setting can be such a catalyst, having experienced numerous changes throughout the 20th century.

  • 1930s-The rise of the all-in-one market. Excited shopper: The butcher, the baker, and the produce grower are all under one roof! Dejected business owner: My mom-and-pop shop can’t sustain itself any longer
  • 1937-The shopping cart arrived. Empowered shopper: I can choose products myself. Perplexed proprietor: Where do I fit?
  • 1950s-The “International Aisle” appeared. Inconvenience shopper: What are oriental noodles and refried beans? And what happened to my peanut butter and jelly? Controversial shopper: This looks like racial bias to me.
  • 1960s-Trading Stamps went wild. Grumpy shopper: Why does my favorite store offer green stamps when I want blue chips? Smiling shopper: My little girl wants a doll I can get with green stamps.
  • 1952-Bar code patented. Curious Shopper: What are these stickers with unique bars and numbers? Do I need to know? Do I even care?
  • 1960s-In-Store pharmacy. Recovering shopper: The pharmacist helped my husband find the best cold medicine for me. Pharmacist: It’s great to offer another convenience for customers.
  • 1972-The 24/7 grocery stores open. Tired shopper: I may have just put in a night’s work, but the quiet, uncrowded aisles are wonderful. Weary clerk: These overnight hours are hard on my body.
  • 1974-Price scanners. Delighted cashier: I don’t have to punch register keys anymore. I just slide the bar code across the glass plate. Disgruntled customer: The cashier made good money for accuracy in punching keys, now a child could do their job.

As the decades marched forward, stores designated seasonal space for specialty wares to celebrate New Years, Super Bowl, Valentines Day, Easter and Spring, and Thanksgiving.

Halloween grew in popularity and now holds second place in holiday sales. Fall shopper: In addition to the baker’s pumpkin goodies, I can find decorative squash, greeting cards, paper goods, knickknacks, and sometimes costumes. Wide-eyed child: Mom, look at all the candy.

Then there’s Christmas…everywhere you look…arriving as early as October. Even the grocery store climbs on board the marketing sleigh. Beyond celebratory meals and dessert items, the Plan-ahead shopper can choose Christmas cards, themed paper goods, and wrapping paper. For the Last-minute shopper, ribboned boxes of holiday candies and goodies, stuffed animals, and small toys fill the shelves.

Oops-don’t forget the poinsettias.

For the creative writer, change at the grocery store, good or bad, can enhance a scene. Or, if those creative juices are unleashed, the writer could employ market changes to unfold plot or subplots or reveal characters.

So, what plots and profiles might one bring to life at the grocery store?

Plots and Subplots: A kidnapped child or gun-toting robbers; pilfered green stamps or shoplifters; manager’s first store or the struggling mom’s second job. Romance on aisle 10. Characters: Store owner/manager, security guards, delivery men, cranky or curious children, harried shoppers, overwhelmed clerks, student baggers, late night shelf stockers.

So, creative writers, why not explore how the CHANGES behind the door of the grocery store might help you craft an atypical, entertaining story?

Click here for part one, Behind the Doors of the Grocery Store: The Early American Era.

Jeannine

Jeannine Brummett lives in South Carolina with her husband of nineteen years, Don, who shares his three adult sons and three grandchildren with her. Reading is big on her list of things to do, but she also thrives on TV crime dramas, NBA basketball, and marvels at the critters and fowl life that live at the pond behind their house. She loves to sing praise songs, attend Bible Study, and help at a local food pantry

Categories
The Intentional Writer

Staying Relevant

The intentional writer

As writers, our success is based on creating something others find useful or enjoyable. Which implies our success is based on staying relevant.

Is your writing as relevant as it could be?

Back in February, I was quite pleased with myself for having two months of blog posts written and scheduled. Then the pandemic hit and suddenly my insightful blog post topics didn’t seem so relevant.

I could have ignored current affairs and let my posts go out as scheduled, but would that have been the best value I could deliver to my readers? I don’t think so.

Such a drastic change in everyone’s lives demanded some changes on my part. So I wrote a few blogs that addressed the new issues my readers were suddenly facing, and tweaked my previously written posts to acknowledge the new reality.

Because I chose to adapt to the new situation I received some heartfelt thanks from readers. In other words, it pays to be relevant.

How can you stay relevant in your writing?

Traps to avoid

Ignoring what is going on in the world. Our message shouldn’t change with every headline, but we do need to be sensitive to the major events and social trends happening around us. Imagine a post on celebrating Mother’s Day that’s all about gathering the extended family at a favorite restaurant for brunch. It may be a beautiful piece of writing. It may be excellent advice. But right now that post is going to fall flat because it doesn’t apply to our quarantined reality.

Not listening to feedback. (Or not getting any in the first place.) We can’t predict how others will receive our words, but we can solicit feedback to see how effective our words are at communicating our message. What we think we are saying and what others are hearing may be very different, so don’t forget to check.

An inconsistent brand message. Readers become loyal to an author or blogger who consistently writes on topics that interest them or in a style they enjoy. However, if a writer’s message is inconsistent readers will lose trust and may abandon that writer altogether. Our writing will not appeal to everyone. The wise writer knows her niche and is consistent in delivering it.

Remaining stuck in the past. We all have certain topics and causes we particularly like to talk about. However, the big causes of yesteryear may no longer be relevant. In a similar vein, that blog topic that people raved about a year or two ago might no longer get the same traction, because A) too many others are writing about it now, B) it was timely back then but life has moved on, or C) the fates are fickle and Fortuna isn’t blessing that topic anymore.

Not keeping up with technology. Even if your message is relevant, you may not be delivering it in the most effective manner. Imagine how foolish it would be to only offer your podcasts on cassette tapes. Ditto if your only social media account is Myspace. The wise writer adapts his techniques to effectively reach his audience.

Tips for staying relevant.

Spend time with your target audience. In person. In Facebook or Goodreads groups. In internet forums. Wherever you can find them. Yes, it takes time to find these groups. Yes, it takes time to hang out there and listen to the conversations. Yes, we would rather spend that time working on a writing project. But in the long run hanging out with potential readers is a wise investment that can net future followers. Check out this blog post for a story of why it’s worth the effort.

Ask questions. Of your readers. Of fellow writers. Of mentors. The best way to know what topics are relevant to your readers is to ask them. Take polls and surveys. Ask questions in your CTA, in your emails, and on social media. We writers improve our work by getting feedback. This is true of our craft, but it’s also true of our subject matter. So ask away.

Research. Discovering what is relevant is easier than ever. Just google a topic and see what related terms auto-fill in the search bar. Or check what is trending on Twitter. Or read the latest Facebook post from that one friend who’s always up on the most current news. You get the idea. You may be like me, preferring to remain snugly in your writer’s cave, safe, solitary, and oblivious, but do yourself and your readers a favor by venturing out into the world now and then to see what’s happening.

Be flexible. Relevant writers know how to adapt to ever-changing circumstances. As Gabriela Pereira at DIY MFA says,

“Iterate, iterate, iterate.”

By which she means: Try something. Assess and adapt. Try again. History is littered with companies that died because they didn’t adapt with the times. Don’t go the way of Blockbuster and Toys R Us. Stay flexible.

Know when to quit. We need to discern when a topic, story project, or marketing tactic isn’t working and have the courage to set it aside and try something else. That doesn’t mean you must abandon it forever. It may be a perfectly good idea, but now isn’t the right time for it. Trust that when you let go of not-so-relevant ideas God will open doors for fresh inspiration.

You and I have an important and unique message to tell the world. If we want our words to make a difference and spread to those who need to hear them, we need to stay relevant.

What are your best tips for staying relevant?

Award-winning writer Lisa E. Betz believes that everyone has a unique story to tell the world. She loves inspiring fellow writers to be more intentional about developing their craft and courageous in sharing their words. Lisa shares her words through speaking, leading Bible studies, writing historical mysteries, and blogging about living intentionally.

You can find her on Facebook  LisaEBetzWriter Twitter @LisaEBetz and Pinterest Lisa E Betz Intentional Living.

Categories
A Lighter Look at the Writer's Life

Through the Years

lighter look at a writer's life

Has your writing training “ruined” you in some ways? Do you notice plot holes, awkward point-of-view changes, and overly-predictable twists? I experienced this phenomenon recently.

My pastor asked me to produce and direct our church’s Christmas play, which is nothing new. I have been doing productions in some form or another for years, and I was thankful for the early heads up, as opposed to waiting until November to try to throw something together. He asked me to look over a play from a drama service he had found, so I paid the fee and downloaded the sample.

I am not one to knock someone else’s work, but my writing training radar kicked in as I read–and not in a good way.

The play in question hit me over the head with the biblical message, with several “sermonettes” tacked randomly into the dialogue. How many workshops have I attended about avoiding preachiness and subtly weaving in the spiritual message? Too many to count.

Another important lesson I have learned over the years is the “Show, Don’t Tell” rule. In the scenes I write, my characters should be actively DOING things, not just talking about them. Having my character “shiver to the bone under his light jacket in the unexpected snowstorm” is better than having the character exclaim, “It’s so cold!”

This play had a lot of telling, with characters standing around talking about what they would do or what they had done. Long monologues about random characters were featured. Much talk with little action had me squirming in my recliner as a I struggled through the piece.

Once finished, I flipped back to the front and noticed the copyright date: 1977! That would explain the awkwardness, as well as the references to records and outdated phones.

We’ve come a long way, baby.

There were certainly some great pieces written during that time and before, but today’s writers—and readers—are different. Many expectations have changed, and we must meet them before audiences turn us off or put away our pieces before finishing them.

So what to do about the Christmas play? I found the very first play I ever wrote, circa early-2000s, and dusted it off. A few changes and updates here and there (Cell phones have changed everything, haven’t they?), and I think ’ll have a solid production. The story holds up surprisingly well, and I miraculously managed to do a lot of showing instead of telling, even though I was a greenhorn at the writing thing back then.

Here’s hoping my other pieces will hold up over the years!

Carlton Hughes wears many hats. By day, he’s a professor of communication at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College. On Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings, he does object lessons and songs with motions as Children’s Pastor of Lynch Church of God. In his “spare time,” he is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in numerous publications, including Chicken Soup for the Soul and several devotional books from Worthy Publishing—Let the Earth Rejoice, Just Breathe, So God Made a Dog, and Everyday Grace for Men. Carlton and his wife Kathy have two college-age sons, Noah and Ethan. He is on the planning committee for Kentucky Christian Writers Conference and is a year-round volunteer for Operation Christmas child.