Blog for Writers in Los Angeles and Beyond: The Official LAwritersgroup.com Blog

Article on how to be funny when writing comedy

2012-01-17T17:56:00.000-08:00

It's not very often I come across an exceptional blog article that helps aspiring comedy writers improve their craft. Comedy writing often presents as easy to write because usually the writer or speaker makes it look so damn natural and easy. It seems like magic. On more than one occasion, I've found myself gazing admiringly into a writer's eyes who just wrote something that lead my writers group into unexpected gasping and snorting fits of laughter. My many stand-up comedian friends used to say, "Comedy is serious business." So naturally, comedy writing must be REALLY serious business. Today Writer's Digest published an article called, 10 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR WRITING WHILE THINKING LIKE A COMEDY WRITER helps simplify it just a little bit, and every little bit helps. The article lists ten excellent tips on penning with a more comedic angle. Do you know of any other good comedy writing blog posts or articles floating around on them there interwebs? If so, please post them in the comments for our other readers to check out.

Our February Writing Craft Book Club Selection

2012-01-07T17:13:00.000-08:00

Many thanks to everyone who showed up to our writing craft book club meeting today at NextSpace in Culver City to discuss: Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them (P.S.). We were lucky to have a fantastic and intelligent group of writers attend, making the discussion both informative and interesting. If you read the book but were not able to attend you can visit the message board and participate in an online discussion about the book.

Our February writing craft book club selection is:

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print

If you'd like to participate, join our free meetup group.

Love letters written to Brenda Ueland, a new book called Brenda, My Darling

2011-12-29T11:27:00.000-08:00

For those of you who are eternally devoted fans of Brenda Ueland and her book, If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit as I am (if you are not, then you should read it immediately), then the new book release, Brenda, My Darling: The Love Letters of Fridtjof Nansen to Brenda Ueland edited by Eric Utne and published by the Utne Institute might be your next purchase.

Love letters to a writer? A brave task indeed. One that apparently, Ueland's lover, Fridtjof Nansen did with exceptional talent.

The book reprints love letters written to (not from, sadly) Brenda from the Norwegian explorer, humanitarian and winner of the 1922 Nobel Peace Prize Fridtjof Nansen from the time they met in New York City in 1929 until his death a year after their brief love affair.

Here is a link to Brenda, My Darling on sale from the publisher (the hardcover is not available yet on Amazon.com).

Here is a link to the kindle edition of Brenda, My Darling: The Love Letters of Fridtjof Nansen to Brenda Ueland on Amazon.com.

20 places you can submit your creative writing to before the end of the year

2011-12-13T16:49:00.000-08:00

1.
Arroyo Literary Review is an award-winning national magazine with a West Coast orientation. Looking for: fiction, flash fiction, poetry, essays, and translation for our fifth issue. Reading Period / Deadline: Open reading period from December to May 31st.

OccuPoetry is seeking poetry about economic justice/injustice, greed, protest, activism, and opportunity. Submissions need not be limited to Wall Street’s greed nor US-based poets; we consider the Occupy Movement a world-wide movement for a more just world. OccuPoetry accepts formal and free-verse, mail art, and collage poetry.

3.
Silver Boomer Books seeks submissions for an anthology on the widowhood experience. They are interested in all aspects of widowhood—grief, memories, glitches, triumphs. Either prose or poetry is acceptable. You can even send a 6-word memoir if you like. Submissions will be read between December 1, 2011 and January 31, 2012.

Street Stories is looking for stories under 1000 words. They will publish one great story each quarter. Pays $20 upon publication.

5.
GOT TRUTH? THE TRUTH ABOUT THE FACT International Journal of Literary Nonfiction is looking for literary nonfiction essay, memoir, commentary 1000-5000 words, literary nonfiction narrative poetry, black & white art and photography. Submission Deadline December 31.

Crate is looking for fiction and non-fiction (up to 7500 words), poetry (up to 5 poems) and short dramatic works (10 minute plays). Submission deadline is January 1, 2012. Deadline for all submissions is Sunday, January 1st.

LQQK Magazine is a new science fiction magazine currently looking for new writers. They are interested in stories that speculate about the future of contemporary phenomena like social networking, mobile devices, filesharing, hacking, and online lifestyles. They are also interested in far-out, surrealist, or anarchic stories in general, with or without lulz.

Peripheral Surveys is a monthly literature and arts magazine with assorted pieces focused on a certain theme. Deadline: December 20. They are looking for poetry, prose (fiction and nonfiction) and photography submissions.

The anthology, Submitted: Women Finding and Leaving Extreme Religion (to be published by Seal Press in Spring, 2013), will chronicle the lives of women from a variety of restrictive religious backgrounds who chose a religious path only to eventually reject it or alter it in whole or in part.

They are seeking contributions from women of all faiths, as well as all ages and backgrounds.

10.

Mandala Journal is open for poetry, nonfiction, fiction, and art submissions from October 15 through February 15. Please refer to the submission guidelines on their website for information about this year's theme.

11.

The Meadowland Review will be considering submissions of poetry, fiction, photography and art pieces from December 1-February 1.

12.

burntdistrict is now accepting poetry submissions for our inaugural issue to be published Winter/Spring of 2012.

13.

The Indian River Review is currently soliciting submissions for its inaugural issue slated for publication in late spring 2012. The theme for this issue is "Time and Place." The deadline for submissions is

January 15, 2012. Genres include short fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, critical essays, black and white photography, and book reviews.

14.

CavanKerry Press will be having an open submission period from January 1-31,

2012 for its Laurel Books imprint. LAURELBOOKS are collections of poetry or prose memoirs that explore in depth poignant and critical issues associated with personally confronting serious and life-threatening physical or psychological illness. CavanKerry seeks work written from a personal perspective by the individual who has experienced the illness or by the individual personally and deeply involved with the person who suffered from the illness.

15.

Little Patuxent Review call for Submissions: Audacity Issue. LPR invites you to explore the various aspects of audacity ("audacity defines the best and worst within us. It is boldness or daring, accompanied by confident or arrogant disregard for personal safety, conventional thought or other restrictions. It is also effrontery, insolence or shamelessness") for their Summer 2012 issue. Submit well-crafted poetry, prose, artwork or photography between December 1, 2011 and March 1, 2012

16.

Valparaiso Fiction Review, which has just released its inaugural issue, is now seeking works of short fiction for its upcoming Spring and Fall 2012 issues. VFR publishes two editions a year, in December and in May, and it features fiction from established or emerging writers.

17.

straight forward is a new online poetry journal looking for clear, concise, emotionally honest poetry. They are taking poetry submissions, with no restrictions on form, length, or style, for our debut March 2012 issue.

18.

The Vermillion Literary Project (VLP) is now taking submissions for our Spring 2012 issue of the annual VLP Magazine. This is a student-produced journal sponsored by the VLP, the University of South Dakota's only student literary and creative writing organization. We are seeking submissions of poetry, short fiction, essay, and black & white art. The deadline is 12/30/11, and there is no reading or submission fee.

19.

Conclave: A Journal of Character is a literary and arts journal that focuses on great characters. They strive to print the best poetry and fiction submitted by emerging and established writers.

20.

cream city review is a non-profit literary magazine devoted to publishing memorable and energetic fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, and comics that push and undermine the boundaries of stable definitions of “literature”. The magazine also features reviews of contemporary literature and criticism, as well as author interviews and artwork.

Jobs for writers

2011-12-06T16:36:00.001-08:00

Many people come to LA Writers Group with writing jobs looking for writers to hire. Sometimes they are corporations looking for in-house writers or freelancers, sometimes they are individuals looking to hire a writer. To that end, we've decided to create a database of the writers on our list so that we can screen them and then connect our writers with those who want to hire them.

Once you join our database of writers, your information will stay within LA Writers Group and won't be passed on to anyone unless we contact you first.

If you are interested in getting part-time, full-time, contract, or freelance writing jobs, please enter yourself into our database so we can submit you for future jobs.

Get in our jobs for writers database here.

2012 Writing Workshops Scheduled

2011-12-06T09:55:00.001-08:00

We have some writing workshops for January 2012 are now scheduled and open for enrollment:

West Hollywood writers group
Glendale / Glassell Park writers group
Hermosa Beach writers group

Have questions? Leave a comment or email us at lawritersgroup@gmail.com

Poetry Book Review: A Journey Taken in Grace Toward Love Where Bodies Again Recline by Harry Northup

2011-12-03T14:45:00.001-08:00

A review by Sanora Bartels

Where Bodies Again Recline by Harry Northup takes up where his last volume of poetry Red Snow Fence left off. In 2006, I reviewed that volume and wrote this about the last section of the book:

While the first two thirds of the book is grounded in the physical daily realities, the last third of Red Snow Fence takes us on a journey of night visions, which seem to me to be part memory, part premonition.

In Where Bodies Again Recline the premonition is realized and we are taken to the next level of evolution. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the title poem where bodies again recline:

in the primacy of law, the bootleg

version, there will be no superiority

of money, of celebrityhood, of

loss, lack, ignorance, rigidity, simple

down home rootedness

there will be listening to one another

recognition of brotherhood, a will-

ingness to see past vertical mobility

Straightforward enough — but that is always the way of spiritual truth. The ideal is simple, the practical application, more difficult. This yearning for kindness, for meaning, for a way to hold on and let go all at once, plays out in much of Northup’s poetry as in gifts:

it rained as it always does for a

funeral — careers die, youth dies,

trust dies, money decays brotherhood

all holiness must die & be reborn

in new roads, new rains, — memory

remains blackness itself

memory strengthens kindness

The voice is one that has lived a life full of love, full of connection, both to friends and family, knowing that loss is often necessary for growth. In the second section of the book, titled “white bird above fire”, that loss is no longer limited to the individual. It is a communal loss that may feel overwhelming, where recovery feels nearly impossible as expressed in single white bird above fire:

fires burning, crowns across the

sea — plane, with burning wing, flies

a star hoisted, props the plane,

cradles it — through all our arms,...

…we elect parts of ourselves & deny

blessings; the golden city on an island

does not include our neighbors’ vote

should he be less wealthy, less like our

desire — we measure hearts with ring

sizes — for often hearts are rubble…

…knives of light surround our descent

what was killed remains hidden — it

tears at freedom — columns fall,

tumble, & a long crescent, like

antlers, forms a cradle around the

blue light moon — …

The poem ends with:

deliver me, white bird, white house

forgive the ache, the one long sharp

arrow on fire, cross, field burning

It hints at an America that, years later, is still reeling from attack, steeped in cynicism, in a defensive posture and Northup asks for the ability to move forward with grace.

What struck me throughout the volume were the sweeping images, the visuals soaring and then swooping along the horizon of the reader’s imagination. If Red Snow Fence invoked passing memory, then Where Bodies Again Recline lifts that memory into what can only be called a collective consciousness that kindles spiritual epiphany, as in what was lost, gained:

all ways everlasting, revelations,

glory, earth, river — sky with golden

explosions — one turning diamond in

fire, body compressed, human-like,

with propellers, triangles turning

spinning out most of blackness, stars

The repetition of arrows, of light, of wings, and always the spinning activity, lifted me into ether, that moment of possibility, that snapshot of motion — the eternal “now” in like a breeze the final caress:

a crown, nest revolving, upward

path shoots & two horizontal half-

circles meet, waterfall wings

tree-like motion spins

red grapes, clusters around golden

center, night with stan getz playing

“alfie,” breeze, no high humidity,

“what a difference a few degrees

make”

This poetry is a balance of memory and that certain future we visualize, forget, but then somehow hold dear - figure, human-length rises:

white light above many figures

heart, soul, words, real gold, sorrow

nowhere, death nowhere, nothingness

white light out of opened coffin

sprinkling gold dust, death joy

A word of warning, I have not taken you step by step through each section, I have not stayed true to the path of the poet in his manuscript. Instead, I have been like the hawk in blue final

hawk flies, white propeller moves

like shark in blue waters, smooth

& turns quickly — long white wings

in wind’s lit path — hurries home

The poet takes us on a spinning spiritual journey, populated by wings & arrows & stars and then turns toward home. Harry Northup ultimately leads us to Where Bodies Again Recline, toward grace and joy and most important, toward love.

Where Bodies Again Recline by Harry Northup is published by Cahuenga Press and is Harry Northup’s 10^th book of poetry.

Sanora Bartels received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from North Dakota State University and her Masters of Professional Writing Degree from University of Southern California. She is a co-founder of www.LAwritersgroup.com and runs a weekly writers’ group. Her chapbook of poetry is titled The Order of Things.

How to Participate in Real-time Storytelling

2011-11-29T19:27:00.001-08:00

The weekend draws to a close, and you don’t want to watch the same shows with the same plot and the same characters: A moody, down-on-his-luck dude meets a gorgeous manic pixie dream girl. One or both of them are photographers. They find themselves stuck in an elevator, and hilarity ensues. Boring!

Well, what to do on a Sunday night? Answer: Go watch Writer Monkeys! A Literary Improv Show this Sunday, December 4 at 7:00 PM. This is our last performance of 2011! The Monkeys will be playing at Mission Improbable’s Westside Comedy Theater on 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica. This mad experiment in theater is the creation of our own Nicole Criona and J. Keith van Straaten, who produced and hosted the Fix-Up Show and performed in programs like Beat the Geeks, Sit ‘N’ Spin, The Liar Show, Pinata, Rant & Rave, Tongue & Groove, and Word Salad.

“Improv?” You ask. “Like Who’s Line is it Anyway?” Nope. Even better. The writers take audience suggestions and compose literary pieces on-stage while the comedy rock band Throwing Toasters entertains the audience. After the writers read, improv actors create scenes, taking inspiration from the pieces. Sometimes the results are funny, dark, or poignant. Rinse, repeat, and you have a full, entertaining night of stories you have never seen or heard. Even better, you had a hand in creating them. If you always wanted to hear tales about Russian circus bears advancing science as furry NASA engineers, go to the show and shout out those suggestions. We can realize your dreams that easily. Until then, be our friend on Facebook. We promise not to judge your drunken photos.

Writer Monkeys! A Literary Improv Show
Sunday, December 4, 2011 @ 7:00 PM

Westside Comedy Theater
1323-A 3rd Street Promenade
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(the alley between 3rd and 4th Streets)

January 2012 writing workshops schedule coming soon!

2011-11-27T20:34:00.001-08:00

Photo of our West Hollywood writers' group

Our 2012 writing workshops are coming soon!

We've already scheduled the West Hollywood January 2012 writers group.

We are also in the process of restarting our writing craft book club. Our first meeting will be in early January so be sure to click over to our meetup so you can buy the book and join us either in person or virtually via our message boards!

Vonnegut Advice: Writing Short Stories

2011-09-15T11:02:00.000-07:00

Global Graffiti seeks pieces about Music

2011-08-02T14:51:00.000-07:00

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

“Without music life would be a mistake.” ~Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Global Graffiti is an online journal dedicated to world literature, arts, and culture. Our first four issues have featured creative pieces and interviews with both well-known and up-and-coming local and international authors, along with cutting-edge scholarly work.
We are excited to announce the theme of our fifth issue: MUSIC. We are interested in receiving submissions that explore the cultural impact of music (of all kinds--popular, experimental, classical, contemporary). We seek scholarly work (academic articles, reviews), creative pieces (poetry, stories, essays, creative nonfiction), music journalism (interviews, essays), and artwork, that creatively explore music’s indelible influence on life and culture throughout history. Some motifs to be considered are lyrical poetry, ancient and modern drama, music as political activism, global music trends, musical genres, and the influence of contemporary technologies on musical distribution and influence.
Please send English-language submissions (foreign language works translated into English also gladly accepted) and your bio/c.v. to globalgraffmag@gmail.com by September 15, 2011. We do not have word count limits because of the digital format, but we do request that you send your work as an attached .doc or .rtf file; otherwise, it is also acceptable to cut and paste your work within your e-mail.

Write a Radio Play for Children - No Fee Contest

2011-06-21T13:32:00.000-07:00

This just in...

THE PIG and THE TRACTOR' COMPETITION
OPEN TO ALL Writers!
NO ENTRY FEES
Competition Open June 15th to August 15th, 2011

You're probably a Film, TV or Documentary Writer; a Playwright or maybe even a Novelist, BUT....
Would you be interested in a very different, challenging NEW writing experience?

WRITERS - email for sign up instructions

This fun competition is open to ALL writers to write a short Radio Play Story script for children, ages 3-10. The Winning title is 'The Pig and The Tractor'. The story is about a pig and a tractor. Use your own ideas and imagination to make this story idea come to life as a RADIO PLAY Script.

One CASH PURCHASE PRIZE to be awarded to the winning writer or writing team for the Winning 10 page Radio Play Script Radio Play Story Templates, instructions, entry forms and competition Rules and Regulations are supplied. Email to request sign up instructions

http://www.audiomoviesclub.com/competition.html
Young Children 3-10 years old

This fun competition is open to ALL writers to write a short Radio Play Story script for children, ages 3-10. The Winning title is 'The Pig and The Tractor'. The story is about a pig and a tractor. Use your own ideas and imagination to make this story idea come to life as a RADIO PLAY Script.

One cash purchase prize to be awarded to the winning writer or writing team for the Winning 10 page Radio Play Script. Radio Play Story Templates, instructions, entry forms and competition Rules and Regulations are supplied.

-------------------

A few books on writing for radio, in case you're interested:
Writing for Radio: How to Write Plays, Features and Short Stories That Get You on Air (Successful writing)
Writing Dialogue for Scripts: Effective dialogue for film, tv, radio and stage (Writing Handbooks)
Radio comedy: how to write it: Including the mathematics of humor How To Write a Radio Play
How to Write a Radio Serial Drama for Social Development: A Script Writer's Manual.
You Can Write: Techniques for Television, Radio, and the Theater. Gathering and Organizing Material for Fiction, Essays, Feature Articles and Newspaper Editorials.

Why it's important to support your local independent bookstores

2011-06-03T11:34:00.000-07:00

It's more important than ever to support your local bookstores, because the possibility that they may go away is quite real. Here is an article in today's LA Times about two more independent bookstores closing their doors.

We've picked a book for our Book Club!

2011-06-01T18:47:00.000-07:00

http://www.meetup.com/West-LA-and-South-Bay-Writers-Book-Club>
We've picked a book for our new Writing Craft Book Club!

Finding your Writer's Voice by Thaisa Frank, Dorothy Wall

If you are not local or can't make our meetings, feel free to read along with us and discuss it online on our Meetup group page.

Miracle Mile / Koreatown Writers Group starts Thurs June 2nd, 2011

2011-05-26T12:17:00.000-07:00

Our Koreatown / Miracle Mile writers group starts next Thursday! Register now to reserve your spot.

Thurs evenings beginning June 2nd
Moderator: Andrew McFayden-Ketchum
7:30pm - 10:00pm

Read a detailed description of our writers groups

Register now to reserve your spot

Twelve Places Looking for your Fiction & Poetry

2011-05-26T08:55:00.000-07:00

The Postcard press seeks prose of 100 words or less and 10-line poems (needs to fit on a postcard) of theme THAT'S NOT FUNNY.

Deadline: May 31st, 2011

Asymptote is looking for translations of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama, we also take original English-language critical essays and book reviews, essays about relatively unknown authors writing in a language other than english.

Deadline: June 1st

Creative Nonfiction is currently seeking experimental nonfiction for their "Pushing the Boundaries" section

Postmark deadline: June 13, 2011

Insolent Aardvark is reading poetry, fiction, non-fiction submissions for their inaugural issue.

Deadline: June 24th

Blast Furnace is looking for poetry

Deadline: July 15th, 2011

Weave Magazine is looking for literary fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, drama, and visual arts that transfix, transport, and inspire.

Submit via: http://weavemagazine.submishmash.com/Submit

Deadline July 31, 2011

Yeast of Eden, an anthology of stories inspired by beer, is looking for fiction and nonfiction submissions

Deadline: September 1, 2011

Fiction Fix seeks fiction and artwork

for their Fall 2011 issue

Deadline: August 1, 2011

Printer's Devil Review is currently seeking submissions of fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and visual art.

Reading period ends August 1

Valparaiso Fiction Review is seeking submissions of original short fiction for its inaugural issue.

Palooka is a print journal, seeking works of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, plays, and graphic stories and essays.

Year-round submissions accepted.

Colorado Review is now reading nonfiction year-round. Submit essays via coloradoreview.submishmash.com

Go forth and submit.

The LA Writers Group blog doesn't publish contests or calls for submissions that charge writers a fee to read their work.

Article on MFA Programs and American Fiction

2011-05-18T17:15:00.001-07:00

Another interesting article on the ongoing debate about the worth of MFA programs and their effect on American fiction: Are MFA programs ruining American fiction? - Writers and Writing - Salon.com

How to publish your own children's picture book

2011-05-17T11:09:00.000-07:00

We're pleased to have a guest post today from Kirby Timmons, indie author, speaker, and television writer who published his first children's book in 2009:

The Unopened Stocking: A New Holiday "Yarn" For Dads & Families Who Love Them

One of the great things about being a writer today is that you don't have to wait for a publisher to decide to accept and publish your work. You can publish it and market it yourself with the help of the internet, the great equalizer. It's easier than you might think to get your children's picture book out into the world. What's the worst that can happen? No one buys it? What the best that can happen? You create a grass-roots movement and sell copies of your book, or perhaps you get the opportunity to decide whether or not you want a publisher involved when they come knockin'...

CHILDREN'S BOOKS, NOT JUST FOR KIDS

by Kirby Timmons

One of the pleasant things I remember about 2009 was that it was the year I published my first children's book, "THE UNOPENED STOCKING". Thinking back, it seemed like a pretty daunting challenge. But once I broke it down into some manageable steps, it actually came about rather easily. And it could happen for you just that way also.

YOUR STORY

I chose a holiday story I'd written years ago, one in which my twin boys teach me a touching lesson about Christmas spirit. Whether you're adapting a story or essay you've already written, or writing something original for kids, focus upon something simple and personal that could appeal to young minds. If it's universal, it will appeal to adults, as well.

BREAK IT DOWN

A children's book is really just a small artbook which mixes text, pictures and white space in an engaging way. So, take your original story and break down the text into self-standing, manageable bites. A good way to think about this is to look at individual sentences to see what is "illustratable". That will help you to define which text and pictures will live together comfortably on a page.

LAY IT OUT

Each set of facing pages of a children's book really needs to be designed almost as a single page, so that, together, you can lead your viewer's eye down and across the left page and onto the right page. For those of you who have up-to-now been primarily formatting text only, this will take a little trial and error to achieve a pleasing flow.

OUTPUT TO PUBLISHER

For formatting, you can utilize writing programs you may already be familiar with -- Microsoft Word and PowerPoint both allow you to mix text and pictures. There are several online book publishers that will allow you to input your book online. When completed, you'll be able to print one-at-a-time copies for a very reasonable price.So, whether it's a children's book, a small art book for adults, or some other project you decide on, there are lots of advantages to starting small.

Not the least of which is that you'll be able to mark the passing of a very special year -- the year you became a published author.

Kirby Timmons is a professional writer, trainer and speaker who has written scripts for some of TV's most enduring series, including THE WALTONS, THE LIFE AND TIMES OF GRIZZLY ADAMS, and THE INCREDIBLE HULK. Kirby has also written, produced and directed hundreds of training programs, including THE ABILENE PARADOX, named one of the 5 best business videos of all time by Fortune Magazine; GROUPTHINK, winner of the American Psychological Associations Award for Best Training Program; and TEAMWORK IN CRISIS: The Miracle of Flight 232, now used in disaster programs worldwide, including Columbine High School in Colorado. While he has concentrated in scriptwriting, Kirby is also a published author, and has contributed articles to THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS, THE HERALD-EXAMINER, MARRIAGE & FAMILY LIVING Magazine, among others. Kirby taught Scriptwriting For Informational Media at California State University at Northridge, and has lectured at Los Angeles Valley College. He has also taught high school screenwriting workshops with the Writer's Guild Foundation.

Also Kirby Timmons is the Moderator of our upcoming Santa Clarita Writers Group Group and Creative Writing Workshop.

Call for Submissions: phati' tude Literary Magazine wants your stories from the 1960's

2011-05-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

Call for Submissions:

phati’tude Literary Magazine announces its SUMMER SIXTIES SPECIAL, which takes a look at the 1960s through the lens of today’s art, culture and politics. We want poets and writers to share their stories from the 1960s or how they equate to contemporary experiences.

Deadline is June 27, 2011.

Pays 2 copies. phati' tude Literary Magazine is available on Amazon.com and other online outlets. Check out submission guidelines at http://tinyurl.com/phatitude-guidelines.

http://phatitude.org

phati'tude Literary Magazine, established in 1997, is a internationally-acclaimed magazine published by the Intercultural Alliance of Artists & Scholars, Inc., a NY-based non-profit organization that promotes multicultural literature and literacy. A themed, quarterly publication, phati'tude Literary Magazine is an 8" x 10" perfect-bound book that ranges from 130-160 pages. It is a collection of the best poetry, prose, short stories, articles and interviews along with literary criticism, book reviews and biographical profiles by established and emerging poets, writers and artists with a focus on writers of Native American, African, Hispanic/Latino and Asian descent.

Follow phati' tude magazine on twitter: @twitforlit

Five L.A. Ways to Plant the Seeds of Inspiration

2011-05-14T15:10:00.000-07:00

Inspiration strikes randomly. Can you plan to to be inspired? Probably not, but you can certainly plant the seeds for it by getting out and experiencing life. Going to lectures, museums, nature walks, whatever gets your mind into that state of pensive equilibrium that you can later draw on. The key is to expose yourself to new ideas, places, things, and gain new perspectives. Bring your camera and take images that you can later pull up and use as inspiration, or bring your writer's notebook (you know, one of those 20 notebooks you have lying around words, phrases, story ideas, and even to-do lists in them). Here are five ways to plant the seeds of inspiration for your future creative productivity:

1. Buy a spoken word series at UCLA Live:

Buy a spoken word series for the upcoming UCLA Live Series and see:

2. Plan to go on an art walk.

3. Sign up for a walking tour of downtown Los Angeles with the L.A. Conservancy.

The LA Conservancy conducts some really fascinating tours of the historic buildings and sites in downtown Los Angeles. You'll come away from these informative walks just a little more in love with your city and full of Los Angeles-based setting descriptions. Don't forget to bring your camera.

4. Plan to visit a neighborhood you haven't been to for a while (or ever):

South Redondo Beach, Riviera Village - From the moment you pass the Redondo Beach Pier, air passes through you that makes you feel like you're suddenly on vacation. By the looks of this little town, you'd never know you were still in Los Angeles. This charming little beach side community is rife with comfy-couchy coffee shops, as well as bars, restaurants, and shopping, and is an easy two-block walk from the shore.
Agua Dulce - Home to Vasquez Rocks, the place where The Flintstones Movies were filmed, this teeny-tiny western-themed town is one of the best kept secrets within driving distance of Los Angeles, and even has it's own winery. You'll find more nature than art here, but it's worth checking out, visiting the local parks, and dining with the local cowboys.
Ojai - A totally doable day trip from anywhere in Los Angeles. Cute arty little town and if you take the back roads there (via the 150) it's a gorgeous drive, too. If you're a motorcyclist, then you'll love the drive even more and there are some biker enthusiast stops along the way where you'll see 50 - 100 bikes all lined up while the weary come in for a bite to eat.

5. Sign up for some upcoming lectures:

WritersBloc - Conversations with writers
The Griffith Observatory - Many free astronomical lectures
LACMA - Free and ultra-low cost lectures and films
The J. Paul Getty Museum - Many free lectures and workshops
Jet Propulsion Laboratories - Lectures, open houses, tours
AloudLA - Free lectures from the LA County Library Association, usually takes place at the Los Angeles Central Library's Mark Taper Auditorium in Downtown LA and is subway close.
Zocalo Pulic Square - A bounty of free and often LA/California-based talks and lectures but be prepared to pay for parking.

Christian Marclay's The Clock: 24-Hour Free Film Screening

2011-05-13T12:06:00.000-07:00

For something free, fun, and arty to put on your calendar, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and KCRW are co-presenting round-the-clock screenings of a new art film, Christians Marclay's The Clock:

From the LACMA website:

Join us for the West Coast premiere of artist Christian Marclay's The Clock, a 24-hour single-channel montage constructed from thousands of moments of cinema and television history depicting the passage of time. Marclay has excerpted each of these moments from their original contexts and edited them together to create a functioning timepiece synchronized to local time wherever it is viewed—marking the exact time in real time for the viewer for 24 consecutive hours. The sampled clips come from films of all genres, time periods, and cultures, some lasting only seconds, others minutes, and have been culled from hundreds of films, famous and obscure, into a seamless whole. The result, a melding of video and reality, unfolds with a seemingly endless cast of cameos. This free screening will allow The Clock to be seen in the way Marclay intended, by making it available in its entirety.

Monday, May 16 | 11:00 am

through

Tuesday, May 17 | 11:00 am

Bing Theater | Free, no reservations | Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis | Parking: Free from 6:30 pm to 11 am at the parking garages at Spaulding and 6th Street | The Plaza Café will be open continuously throughout the screening | Ray's & Stark Bar will remain open until 2 am | May not be appropriate for all ages.

More Christian Marclay creativity:

Search Amazon.com for christian marclay

Ten Places Looking for your Fiction & Poetry

2011-05-03T13:02:00.000-07:00

Hello you literary types! Here are ten places to submit your poetry, fiction, essays, and creative non-fiction that don't make you pay to submit your art (the only kind we support):

Call for Short Poems and Prose: Inch

iO: A Journal of New American Poetry is currently reviewing poetry submissions

NO FEE flash fiction contest: Silk Road Magazine

SWITCHBACK is now accepting submissions for poetry, fiction, nonfiction, critical essays, and art

THE WHISTLING FIRE is accepting poetry submissions

Prime Number Magazine is looking for DISTINCTIVE work in all genres: flash fiction (under 1000 words), short stories (under 4000 words), essays (including craft essays and narrative non-fiction under 4000 words), poetry (all shapes and sizes), book reviews, interviews (query first), short drama, and cover art

Interrobang?! Magazine is accepting submissions for stories, pictures, music, and oddball esoterica.

Generations of Poetry: The eZine for Genealogists is accepting submissions for Poetry should either be biographical about one or more ancestors/kin, or concern genealogy, the research, the rewards, and the pitfalls.

Conte, A Journal of Narrative Writing is accepting submissions of high quality narrative writing through July 1st.

(un)remarkable magazine is currently seeking unpublished fiction and non-fiction creative writing, high-quality photography and artwork for the Fall 2011 issue.

Excellent Articles about Writing from the Blogosphere

2011-05-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

Here are some excellent articles we've come across while stalking the blogosphere. And one video:

Why We're All Capable of Writing Shitty Screenplays

Eight Things To Keep In Mind When Naming Characters

Open Letter to Pushcart Nominated Folks

The Interminable Agency Clause

5 Tips for Writing Better Settings

Guest Post: 5 Ways to Combat Writer's Block

If you're a writer, read this.

Video: Use a Question to Create an Unforgettable Opening Chapter - Lessons From Elizabeth Gaskell:

We stalk the blogosphere so you don't have to.

Our Book Club Selection:

2011-05-01T16:55:00.000-07:00

If you'd like to read along with us, you can join our Writing Craft Book Club Meetup and participate in online discussions on our discussion board.

Writer's Groups and Critique Workshops: What's in it for the Critiquer?

2011-04-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

Aside from the obvious, "Because I get MY story critiqued," what exactly do the writers giving critique get out of a critique session?

While eating Mexican food at The Farmers Market other day pre-interviewing a potential writing workshop leader, we were talking about our approaches to our workshops and she said to me, "Well, that's the point of the writing workshop, to get to the point where you don't need it anymore and can self-critique." While I don't entirely agree with that statement, that is partly where where the value lies for the writers who are giving critique to another writer.

Critiquer

In the workshop (or writers group or critique group or whatever you name it) setting, when you are listening to other writers review someone's writing and point out a piece's strengths and weaknesses, you are not just sitting there biding time until it's your turn. You may not realize it, but you are learning how to improve your own writing.

For newer writers, this process is invaluable when it comes to understanding how to cohesively construct a story (structure and continuity). If it is a group like our writers groups, where all genres are welcome, reading a wide variety of genres and skill levels and listening to the feedback helps you to understand what is good and why it is good and what isn't working and why it isn't working so you can go home and apply what you've learned to your own stories or poetry. You learn why character and theme are the most important story elements, regardless of genre. You start to see how much the use of subtext adds to a description or a character, or how important it is that each scene move the story forward in some way. You begin to see the difference between a plot-driven story and a character-driven story. You will notice how another writer constructs beautiful, poetic prose, or you will notice when the writing is so ornate that it actually distracts from the story or feels out-of-sync with the character.

If you are a screenwriter, you learn how to enter and exit a scene efficiently, how to write for a totally visual medium, and how story structure works for a screenplay, which is a completely different and a mostly formulaic process and can be quite different than writing a novel or short story or even a memoir.

For more experienced writers, you gain exposure to new and interesting voices, unique prose, new story ideas. You find new ways to approach your new or existing stories. Your critique of the others' stories teaches them how to critique your stories. In a way, you are training someone to critique your stories the way you want to be critiqued. You may learn how to critique poetry even if you are an essayist. You might learn how to critique a novel if you are a screenwriter, which will come in handy when you try your hand at a novel, and you will one day. You also get the great pleasure of mentoring another writer.

The list is nearly infinite. The more you critique, the more you learn, the better writer you become, the better critiquer you become, the better the other writers become, the better the other writers become helpful critiquers. You elevate each other. Your learning process becomes their learning process.

Submitter

It doesn't matter how experienced writers are, they are frequently handing their work to someone they trust to look it over. Not all artists do this. I'm pretty sure that painters don't send first draft paintings around for critique, so does that mean that we as writer/artists should be able to judge for ourselves when our 'art' is finished? If you've read in your genre and are an experienced writer, you have to have faith that you will know when your story is its best possible version. Unlike painters, we can't just walk out of the room then walk back in with a fresh pair of eyes. We have to set it down for days, if not weeks, then we have to go back and read it all over again, pretending we're reading it for the first time, which takes a while if you've just written a novel or book-length memoir. We create entire beings and all their complexities (character), their world (description, genre), their life situations (crisis / situation) and their reactions to those situations (conflict) and attempt to transfer that epic inside our heads and put it into a readers' head exactly how we have envisioned it. It is our job to get that reader to see what we see, experience what our character experiences and sometimes that requires a fresh pair of eyes, yours or someone else's who can speak your literary language.

Evaluating our own writing is sometimes like being a therapist and evaluating yourself. It's usually better to get another person's perspective, because we're often too close to look at ourselves objectively. Writers, regardless of experience level, are sometimes too close to their own work to check for inconsistencies or to know when a reader might be pulled out of the piece while wondering how the main character seemed to magically teleport from one scene to another, or when a character is doing something 'out of character'. Some writers can pull off this kind of self-critique, but most can't.

You have sole creative control over your writing. You will know what critique advice to take and what not to take. Here's a hint: if you cringe a little when you hear it, it's probably something you need to reevaluate and your ego knows it, hence the cringing. Just give the feedback some time to marinate and soften your ego's automatic reaction.

I've had writers who've written for television, writers who've sold multiple screenplays, and writers who've had multiple stories and poems published ask me to review a new story. This isn't from a lack of confidence or experience, it's from wisdom. Wise not because they chose me, but because they are seeking several different perspectives, and have the wisdom to know that sometimes even the creator doesn't have all the answers. This is the value of a writing workshop or writers group. Several different third-party reader perspectives, readers who can talk your literary language and help you improve, and by asking them for feedback, you are helping them become better writers as well.

The critique workshop, especially in a professionally moderated environment with someone who is an experienced leader and experienced in giving positive and constructive feedback is an incredible learning opportunity. It may not be a writing class or a lecture environment, but you will be more learned for the experience.

If you'd like to participate in one of our creative writing and critique workshops, check out our schedule. We run our groups throughout Los Angeles, including Hermosa Beach (scheduled), El Segundo (new workshop coming soon), Miracle Mile / Koreatown (scheduled), West LA (scheduled), and Glendale / Glassell Park. Santa Clarita critique workshop coming soon!