The Writing Bug

Regarding Writing Residencies

noreply@blogger.com (JC Lynne) — Wed, 29 May 2019 06:00:00 +0000

By Jack Matthews

What if you had almost a month of undistracted writing time? With a private studio. Physically isolated from family and friends. Limited internet access—nearly off the grid except for stimulating conversations over dinner with artists from all over the country, or even the world.

Room, board, and studio provided free of charge. No obligations. Heaven or hell? Could you do it? If so, what would you accomplish? If this sounds like heaven, then perhaps a residency is in your future.

After hours of work, relaxing in the Artists' Lounge.

Last February, I was fortunate to be one of seven resident artists at the Brush Creek Ranch near Saratoga, Wyoming. Funded by the Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts (https://www.brushcreekarts.org/), up to eight artists—musicians, visual artists, and writers—are selected each month for a twenty-two-day residency.

Brush Creek isn’t the only opportunity of its kind. An internet search yields hundreds of residencies available to writers. The details differ in what they provide and what they expect, but all have a common underlying objective: give the artists undistracted time to focus on their craft.

A residency of the Brush Creek kind (the limit of my experience) isn’t for everybody. To ensure the artists’ time is undistracted, visitors are discouraged and overnight visitors prohibited.

As noted, internet access is limited by bandwidth and location within the facility, so if your project is research-heavy, you may not realize the full potential of the opportunity. Family, school, and work obligations can be a problem for many.

You have to purge your schedule for the duration.

Brush Creek Artists, February 2019 (l-r), Natalie Obermaier, Johanna Mueller, Ben Ehrlich, Marsha Goldberg, the author, Suzanne Samuels, Robert Strobel.

So if you’ve cleared all those hurdles and are still with me here, then you may be asking, how do I get in?

All residencies have some form of an application process. A typical submission includes a sample of your work, a statement of purpose, character references, and a short bio.

The actual selection process is somewhat opaque, but this is what I know—the jurors change, so a rejection in one application window doesn’t mean you shouldn’t re-apply in the next window.

The work samples are judged blind. Your writing stands on its own merit. For Brush Creek and many others, you do NOT have to be a published author to be awarded a residency. They actively seek ‘emerging’ writers as well as published authors. Character references focus on your ability to get along with a variety of people in a working/living environment.

The following advice is based on personal observation and discussion with other residency veterans—

• The statement of purpose should be specific.

You probably won't impress with "the space and time to hone my craft." Every artist I spoke to had a specific project—an upcoming gallery opening, a composition to polish, or, as with me, to finish the character arcs and plot development of a second novel.

• Try to establish a connection between your work and the specific residency.

Both my first novel and my WIP are set in Wyoming. But perhaps you can find common ground with the Foundation’s statement of purpose or philosophy.

• Also, if possible, apply for one of the winter months.

Most residency appointments are highly competitive. I slipped through the cracks because I actually wanted a January or February award. Because of work and school schedules, the summer month awards can be super-competitive and harder to land.

My view from the studio.

The residency experience was one of the most productive and memorable experiences of my life. If the stars align and it fits with your life goals and objectives, I highly recommend you take a shot at it.

What's In Your Wallet? Or How Are You Defining Your Work?

noreply@blogger.com (Ronda Simmons) — Wed, 22 May 2019 06:00:00 +0000

By Ronda Simmons

We humans like to categorize things: friend or foe, sweet or sour, paper or plastic. When it comes to literature, a book has got to fit into a niche. Not only does it help the library or bookstore know where to shelve the piece, but it also helps the reader, who wants to know just what exactly he or she is getting themselves into.

What is a genre?

A genre is a category of literature characterized by similarities in style, form, or subject matter. In fiction, there are dozens of kinds, but for the purposes of this blog, let's focus on some of the most common:

Literary Fiction is all about the inner lives of characters and the human condition. It's hard to write and harder to sell. Literary Fiction writers always have a cat, or several, lurking around. They wear velvet, sigh a lot and look off into the distance in search of their muse.

Speculative Fiction is any story set in a world other than the real one. Those superhero movies you can't get enough of? Spec Fic. Writers of speculative fiction tend to be the poorest dressed at any writing conference, but they tell the best jokes.

Four Stormtroopers walk into a bar . . .

Science Fiction includes any story featuring scientific ideas and advanced technological concepts. Sci-Fi writers think in terms of entire universes when creating their masterpieces. These writers almost always wear glasses and wanted to be astronauts when they were kids, probably still do.

Fantasy stories deal with kingdoms, as opposed to the universes favored by science fiction stories. Myths and magic figure prominently. Fantasy writers wear lots of lavender, are vegetarians, and collect crystals.

Suspense/Thriller stories have a character or characters in jeopardy. They include pursuit and escape, and have either physical or psychological threats, or both. The authors of this genre are usually insomniacs, drink whiskey, and prefer their steak rare.

Can't you just smell the romance?

Romance stories are about romantic relationships between two people, or animals, or both. They are fraught with sexual tension and desire. Writers who write romance are mostly women who wear scarves, bangle bracelets, and dramatic eye shadow.

Action Adventure includes any story that puts the protagonist in physical danger. Lots of near misses and daring feats keep the readers of this genre turning pages well into the night. Action adventure writers wear khaki, know how to tie at least 20 kinds of knots and can drive a stick shift.

Mystery/Crime novels are also known as "whodunits" or "whydunits." These stories have an abundance of clues, red herrings, and twisty plots. Mystery writers wear jackets with satin linings and prefer a dry red wine like a cabernet sauvignon or perhaps an amusing pinot noir.

Horror/Paranormal/Ghost stories are the ones that give their readers nightmares. The protagonist is dealing with supernatural or demonic beings. These writers wear black and are always the first to show up at Happy Hour.

These last two aren't genres, per se, but rather, age categories. I include them here because they are very much in vogue and you need to know what they are.

Young Adult, or YA, is written for and about young people, usually ranging in age from 12 to 18. They almost always are coming-of-age stories. YA writers don't have to be teenagers themselves, but they should dress whimsically, know all the latest slang, and name their cars.

New Adult, NA, refers to stories in which the protagonist is out of his or her teen years and is facing the challenges of leaving home, starting a career, and making all of the mistakes that their parents warned them about. These books often have romance at their core and can slop over into erotica. NA writers dress in all black, like the writers of Horror, but are less likely to be wearing underwear.

Figure out what your genre is, write it to the best of your ability, and, for goodness sake, dress the part!

For more on all genre, here are a couple of websites to check out:

Do You Know What Your Book Genre Is?

The 17 Most Popular Genres in Fiction and Why They Matter

List of Writing Genres

Cards Against Humanity: Writing Prompts for Horrible People

noreply@blogger.com (Eleanor Shelton) — Wed, 15 May 2019 06:00:00 +0000

By Eleanor Shelton

On Shakespeare's 455th birthday the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust released a Trivial Pursuit Shakespeare Edition. While Bard buffs may have a leg up playing the game, it purports that anyone with "general cultural awareness" will have a fighting chance.

Linking literature with games is a fun way to celebrate the classics. So, I thought of using another game to help prompt me. Something a little less cerebral than Shakespeare Trivial Pursuit while still offering a myriad of possibilities.

Cards Against Humanity: The Writing Prompt Edition

They Get Better And Better.

For those of you yet to play, Cards Against Humanity is simple. There are black cards that are either statements or questions with blanks to fill. White cards have random phrases and odd quotes.

Put these cards together, and they often make hilarious, yet ridiculous complete thoughts. My thought was to pull three white cards to use as prompts to jumpstart my writing brain.

Author's note: Some of the cards are rated Mature Audiences Only. For the purpose of this PG-13 blog, I had to reject some.

Eating The Last Known Bison

Patrick hung up the phone, once again not telling his mother any of the things he had meant to say: I appreciate the piano lessons you made me take as a child, I lost the recipe you sent for sherry-laced chicken casserole, I’m gay and am in love with a man named Rufus who I’d like you to meet one day, the photo you posted on Facebook of your climbing roses was blurry. But regret is like eating the last known bison, once you realize what you’ve done it’s often too late. That moment of gilded opportunity when the time may possibly have been right slipped away because Patrick stammered and his mother picked up another thread to gloss over his suspected embarrassment.

Lumberjack Fantasies

I whistled a Monty Python tune as I vacuumed behind the couch, a floral hand-me-down from my recently deceased grandmother. In an apron and high heels, I looked more like the part of a French maid fantasy than a graduate student studying Green Criminology or crimes against the environment and barely making ends meet. This was my form of entertainment, vapid silliness while tidying. It kept those nasty demons in my head from chomping at my brain.

Cheating At Special Olympics

Once in a great while, when the clouds parted just long enough to see the North Star, and the emerald of Earth’s oxygen met the magnetic pull of gravity, and white needles of gasses pierced the hemisphere, there was a silence so austere that it hurt Gus’s head and made him wish he’d never cheated at the Special Olympics over fifteen years ago. Now, in a remote part of northern Finland, not far from the Arctic, winning at any cost seemed childish.

This Is One of The Cards, Just Saying . . .

There was no editing, no going back with a better, stronger idea. But in rereading those few sentences, I could see story potential for each one, (maybe).

Personally, I think Old Will would like Cards Against Humanity over Trivial Pursuit, but if the Bard can have his own game, perhaps all it takes for us to find that creative spark is in our own games closet.

The Plot Twist

noreply@blogger.com (dsharp) — Wed, 08 May 2019 06:00:00 +0000

By David E. Sharp

If you've read so much as a cereal box within the last decade, you're familiar with the art of twisting plots. Cheerios are gluten free!? I never saw that coming.

We don't want to read something we find predictable. We want surprises. We want the thrill of a literary sideswipe. Enter the plot twist. This is that unexpected development that jolts us from our doldrums and keeps us reading way past bedtime.

Solid plot twists can make a book. Think Fight Club, Shutter Island, or The Girl on the Train. Others feel a little contrived. Like the author changed the facts at the last minute just to fool you. How do you implement plot twists so they don't fall flat? Here are some thoughts.

No Deus Ex Machina, Please

The author's hand should not be visible. Characters should not suddenly develop talents or behaviors they haven't had before. Random events should not occur which have had no proper foreshadowing. In brief, readers should have no excuse to think things happened this way only because a writer made them.

A plot development must fit snugly into the narrative like a puzzle piece. Once revealed, readers must realize it could only ever have been exactly this. Of course, he's the origami killer! He's always nursing paper cuts! How could I have been so blind?

These won't lead to anything important, right?
I mean, how many serial killers have a thing for baked goods?

Leave a Trail of Breadcrumbs

Clues must exist or the reader will call foul when the reveal occurs. But clues must not be obvious until after the fact. If you play your hand too early, the twist will be expected and dull. Well, I kinda knew Dr. Vigo had to be a vampire when he started salivating at blood samples in scene three and ordered lasagna without garlic in the restaurant. I was just waiting for the story to catch up with me.

There are ways of doing this well. Such as:

The Devil Is in the Details:

Usually, you'll want to keep clues in the background. Mention them once or twice in a scene wherein your characters are focused on something else. Talk about the weird dog statue while Madeleine is in the middle of a nervous breakdown. Or when your protagonist is hot on the trail of the wrong suspect. Or whenever there is anything else interesting and unrelated going on.

Elementary My Dear Watson:

If the clues themselves are confusing, you can tease your readers by showing the spotlight on something. It's a little riskier, but it can pay off well when you get to your reveal. So there's a dog statue at every murder. Good luck figuring that out everybody! Oh, but the detective's partner, the one we've trusted through the entire novel, is Donovan Oswald Gestalt. (Though we usually just call him Donny.)

Misdirection:

Readers are clever. They've seen this sort of thing before. One way to surprise them is to give them something to figure out on the side while you're busy putting the real shocker together. That crotchety neighbor, Ed Herring, goes to a pottery class every Monday night, owns prize-winning pedigree rottweilers and gives our protagonist evil stares every time we see him. He's got to be the dog statue killer, right? Nope. Turns out, he just resents that our detective is a cat person. Donny and I still don't like him, though.

Twist in Moderation

I love a great twist when I read one. But not all twists are great. A friend of mine recently commented that she didn't care for unreliable narrator twists. It seemed to cheapen the story when she discovered she'd been lied to. I tend to agree, though there have been some very successful books that have utilized this technique.

Rot in jail, Donny! We both know that I am genuinely the dog statue killer!
Mwa ha ha! Mwa ha ha ha ha ha ha!

I've also read books where the final chapters are a long series of twists, each one completely changing the story as I had known it previously. Even when they're appropriately executed, my joy as a reader experiences diminishing returns. It gets old quickly like a worn-out soap opera.

So twist away! But twist with care.

For more advice on creating your plot twists, check out:

https://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/there-are-no-rules/4-ways-to-write-a-killer-plot-twist

https://nybookeditors.com/2018/02/all-about-plot-twists/

https://writersedit.com/fiction-writing/10-simple-tips-writing-clever-plot-twists/

So You Are A-Writering Or Known As The NCW Writers Conference

noreply@blogger.com (JC Lynne) — Fri, 26 Apr 2019 15:28:00 +0000

By

Ronda Simmons and JC Lynne

First, let us say for everyone at Northern Colorado Writers, YIPPEE! Whether this is your first conference or you are a veteran, buckle up for as much fun with people that some of us can stand.

The NCW Conference is an excellent place to observe the social habits of the everyday writer.

Note, these writers will not be in their native habitat. They may be a little nervous and slightly skittish, so best approach with optimistic caution.

The Approach

It's good to rehearse some useful phrases in their native tongue:

What genre do you specialize?

What are you currently writing?

Are you pitching?

What are you reading these days?

Of course, be prepared to answer these questions as well. Writers find comfort when they can parrot topics when speaking in person. If interaction begins to falter, writers find themselves at a loss to fill in empty gaps on the fly.

Identifying characteristics

Many writers exist in their natural surroundings in drab and often pantless attire. This springtime ritual provides a seldom social interaction that brings out the best in some.

Experts note when at the conference writers move into many different varieties from office casual to office formal. It isn't uncommon to see writers in anything from denim to pearls.

It's essential to feel well groomed, but comfortable as well. Also, the conference environment ranges in temperatures. It's vital to think about layering in case areas are too cold or too warm. Writers are delicate creatures and prone to the elements.

Existing In The Wild

It's common knowledge that writers are foragers. They will quickly identify water holes and coffee supplies in any new environment. Some writers find the specialized delicacy of a particular coffee chain and will find comfort in the lobby location.

Not only is there a lot of brain power and peopling occurring, but the very fact of being in a large group of strangers also drives the appetite.

It's critical to have access to high protein, low sugar grazing supplies to avoid friction within the gathering group. Protein bars, nuts, or trail mix are good examples.

Economic Expenditure of Resources

Writers will often succumb to brain freeze at one point or another during the days of the conference. You'll notice glazed eyes, the inability to form complete sentences or recurring sighs.

Gatherings like these are strenuous and take patience and pacing.

Books are a particular temptation to all writers. Like chipmunks on acorns, writers eyes are always bigger than their budget. There are so many varieties offering mouthwatering delights. No matter how determined, writers will buckle.

Writers are particularly attracted to signed copies of their favorite tomes and are often most excited when the autograph is written to them personally. They will form long lines and wait extraordinary amounts of time to grab their prizes.

Good luck observing the everyday writers at the Northern Colorado Writers conference. If you run into any problems, just look for a member of the NCW staff for guidance and encouragement.

We hope your excursion will be fruitful and can't wait to see, meet, or help you!

Get Thee To The Conference

How To Make The Most

Walking the Talk

Post-conference care

The Argument for Writing What You Know

noreply@blogger.com (JC Lynne) — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 15:11:00 +0000

By Eleanor Shelton

Writing and food are two of my favorite things. Many years ago, I decided to combine them and become a food writer. I pitched a few food-related articles to the local daily paper where I used to live, lo and behold, I became a food writer, just like that.

My articles were well written and on time. My editor was happy. Nobody was the wiser that I really had no culinary background. Then I interviewed a cookbook author, and when she talked about growing garlic I said, “oh, garlic is grown in the United States?” Apparently, I had the notion that garlic only came from Italy.

In case, you too were wondering.

The cookbook author paused, not knowing how to proceed with someone who was obviously so unqualified. It was a painful lesson for me. I was found out.

Write what you know, at least a little bit.

I am the last person to suggest any fiction writer stick entirely with what they have an intimate experience. If that were the case, I’d write about an educated, middle-aged, friendly white woman living in suburbia…blek.

No, what I’m suggesting (unless you write sci/fi or fantasy in which case you are making up every single detail), is that you use what you have some familiarity with and use it as a jumping off point. If you are a plumber, make one of your characters a plumber or have plumbing issues.

If you’ve spent many weeks on a cruise ship, you may want to set your novels on Queen Elizabeth II. (Pretty certain one of our colleagues wrote this book, or two).

Maybe we should write what we emotionally know? We’ve all felt heartache, fear, abandonment, (notice there isn’t happiness, joy, or invincibility because those emotions tend not to make compelling stories).

Perhaps we struggle with mental or physical issues. Chances are we’ve all longed for something or even gone to the next level of stealing it. That’s where great stories begin. Do you know these things? Of course, you do!

I have a friend who is determined to write a novel set in Afghanistan. She’s never been there and isn’t planning to go. But she has a friend whose Afghani. Is that enough? It feels a little dicey to me. If writers stuck to what we knew, we would have missed out on some of the most amazing pieces of literature ever written.

But did Virginia Wolff spend time as a young woman near a lighthouse? Yes, she did. Did Stephen King spend a night in an almost deserted hotel? Yup. And Earnest Hemingway spent years by the sea and in Europe witnessing war.

All I’m saying is that writing is hard enough. We imagine characters, settings, plots with twists, and compelling dialogue. Why not take advantage of our expertise, in something, anything, to use as a foundation, to let some details shine, and to allow our writing muscles focus on the magic of our artistry.

Writing about Place

noreply@blogger.com (Laura Mahal) — Wed, 10 Apr 2019 06:00:00 +0000

Laura Mahal circa 1979

By Laura Mahal

Often, when writing about place, authors tend to reach for descriptive language--adjectives and crafted phrases to conjure sights, sounds, and perhaps even tastes or tactile memories. We may dig into our own past to mine the sensory memories associated with a particular locale.

The idea being if we swirl these things together in the perfect way, we'll transport our readers by metro, plane, car, or canoe to that place we want them to know as intimately as we do.

My approach is a little different.

My goal is for the reader to understand why this place matters. Not just to me or to my characters, but to the “universal me.” What is there that we all can relate to, that allows the reader to know that they have, in fact, visited this place before?

Courtesy of http://www.brooklineconnection.com/history/Facts/ThreeRivers.html

I grew up outside of Pittsburgh in a rural area of western Pennsylvania. In 1979, Pittsburgh was dubbed the City of Champions after the Pirates won the World Series and the Steelers claimed their fourth Super Bowl win.

The pride of champions was not limited to the city. The entire western portion of the state exulted in sports glory. We wore black and gold to school, and belted out the Sister Sledge song: “We are family.”

But if I were to write about place, you wouldn’t necessarily need to know that the Allegheny, Ohio, and Monongahela Rivers flow through the heart of the city. You could find Instagram pictures of downtown Pittsburgh or look up unlimited sports statistics on the Internet.

My father in his teaching heyday.

You might be more likely to care if I told you about a man who taught high school English and math for three decades. He directed our school plays and musicals and took countless kids to New York City so they could visit Central Park and get half-price tickets to see Broadway shows.

He was brilliant until Parkinson’s usurped his body. Most tragic was my father’s loss of access to words. He shook with violent tremors, unable to grasp the language portion of his brain. He wanted to quote Lady Macbeth or to relay something interesting he read in the newspaper, but the words eluded him.

How can place connect these seemingly disparate parts?

If I were to describe my dad and me traveling through the Fort Pitt tunnels, countryside on one end, bright lights and big city on the other, each breath-holding journey resulting in a shared baseball game; an eat-a-pound-of-pasta, get-it-for-free meal; or a trip to the Carnegie Museum, you might have a better picture of that place.

I could tell you what a rare treasure it was for a fifth child to sit in the front of our wood-sided station wagon, rather than the back seat that faced the road we had left behind. I could relay to you the distinctive sound of Bob Prince or Myron Cope's voices on KDKA radio, and educate you as to how the Terrible Towel became a thing.

But when limited to descriptions, place is often nothing more than a static locale. As a writer, you want place to comprise a snapshot in time. It has to become more than a sum of its parts. You must get at the universal truth behind the sundry details.

I was a child whose father held her hand until he became a child whose daughter held his hand.

"We are family."

Pittsburgh has changed since I was a kid. Three Rivers Stadium was torn down in 2001. The new baseball stadium is breathtaking. The city has grown a little taller, the skyscrapers shinier. But it is still filled with meaning that extends beyond the skyline. Even if you’ve never been there, you have probably been to your own way station of aging and loss.

Take your readers to the dwellings of memory, never distant from our hearts, and you will find your way.

Check out this detailed article about setting and place.

Big Changes Coming to NCW

noreply@blogger.com (Ronda Simmons) — Mon, 01 Apr 2019 06:00:00 +0000

By Ronda Simmons

As most of you have heard by now, NCW's former director, the fabulous April More, has moved to New York City to begin her modeling career with the Ford Agency.

The also-fabulous Amy Rivera, former head writer for Saturday Night Live, has been crowned our new director. Amy was recently nominated for a Pulitzer for her novel To Inconvenience A Mockingbird, and we're so fortunate to have lured her to NCW!

The leadership changes don't end there! The Writing Bug editor, JC Linne, has recently sold the movie rights to her latest thriller, The F*cking Yoga, and will be moving to Hollywood with her husband, The Mustache, to begin re-writes. Reportedly, the studio has asked for a couple of car chases and a more whimsical finale. Not a problem for a pro like JC!

NCWs to Merge

In an exciting and unexpected move, the Northern Colorado Writers will merge with Northern Championship Wrestling. Both NCW organizations see this as a way to share resources and increase exposure.

Unisex Styling!

A team of designers has created a uniform that NCW members will wear to competitions, such as the Wrestling World Championships to be held in Kazakhstan in September where NCW hopes to qualify in the Under 2000 words class.

NCW members will be encouraged, but not required, to wear the official NCW singlet to the NCW Conference on May 3-4.

Sizes come in YA, Memoir, and Horror. Order yours today on the NCW website.

A New Pathway to Publication

Instead of pitching to agents as participants in the conference have done in the past, attendees will engage in a no-holds-barred, winner-take-all hand-to-hand combat. Officiating will be performed by members of the US Olympic Ballroom Dancing Committee. Categories will include:

Poetry
Short Fiction,
Greco-Roman, and
Screenwriting.

In addition to the outstanding slate of presenters already scheduled for the conference, the following sessions have been added:

Foundations of Wrestling
From the Page to the Ring - Making the Transition
Takedown Defense
Mixed Martial Editing

These classes will fill up fast so sign up early, especially if you have signed up to ~~pitch to an agent~~ compete.

For more information on how to improve your odds in the wrestling ring, check out these websites:

How to Begin a Wrestling Career for the Over 50 Set

The Best Holds to Take Down a Novelist

Longform Wrestling and Longform Prose - Differences and Similarities

Kathy Bates, new NCW member

What to Do with Minor Characters

noreply@blogger.com (dsharp) — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 06:00:00 +0000

By David E. Sharp

You've learned how to create a compelling character arc, how to imbue your protagonist with three-dimensional layers and how to shrug off the stereotypes. You've created main characters with compelling backstories, subplots, and nuance.

Lumiere Fans The Flames of Romance.

Now you're writing a scene where your protagonist is having a conversation with a waiter we will never see again. What do you do? Give him a full backstory, a family tree and a quest to retrieve the holy grail? How should we handle minor characters?

Majors and Minors

Minor characters fall somewhere between essential and mere set pieces. They're precisely on the bottom rung of significance like a crowd of movie extras. They may have names or dialog, but they lack development. Think the mad Hatter, Miracle Max, and Tiny Tim. Each of them has a critical role to play in the stories in which they appear, but those roles exist to serve the greater narrative.

A primary character, especially protagonists, should have depth. They should reveal multiple layers, and they should experience change.

Minor Characters Don't Have to Be Three-Dimensional

It's easy to develop a mindset that three-dimensional characters are good, and two-dimensional characters are bad. In the case of minor characters, this is not so. You would exhaust your reader if you gave every imaginary person who graced your pages a full dossier. You don't have time to give everybody a tragic flaw and a moment of recognition.

Embrace flat characters! Love them. Take them out to lunch. They are your friends. Being two-dimensional only means they won't experience growth during the story. And if they're only around for a scene or two, that's just fine.

In Addition To Being A Fashion Maven, Madame de la Grande Bouche Offers A Kind Ear.

Minor Characters Have a Purpose

Minor characters don't need to become principal. They don't need to have a complicated backstory. All they really need to do is:

Advance the plot
Provide insight into a major character
Set a tone

That's their whole job. If your minor characters do not fulfill one or more of these items, then another thing they don't need to do is be in your book.

But They Can Be Interesting

Flat characters don't have to be boring. And they don't have to fulfill stereotypes.

The Cheshire Cat advances the plot by prodding Alice along when she's dragging her feet. He acts as a foil, revealing insights about Alice by contrasting with her. And he most certainly sets a tone. Check, check and check!

He's certainly not dull! But he is flat. He doesn't change from one end of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to the other. He maintains his psychotic and disturbing status quo throughout. And can you imagine the book without him?

With a little care, you can use minor characters to great effect without letting them upstage your protag.

For more on proper use of minor characters, check out: Three Major Roles of Minor Characters

#metoo and The Writer

noreply@blogger.com (JC Lynne) — Wed, 20 Mar 2019 11:35:00 +0000

By Eleanor Shelton

As I work on my novel, there are days when I question my ability and sanity, followed by days I’m sure my inspiration is genius, and still, others when my muse has figured out I’m a fake and has packed up and left.

But eventually, after years of comments from writing groups, mapping plot twists on a wall-sized whiteboard, notations in various colored markers, and many compliments from my mother, I was done.

After the soul-sucking process of convincing a reputable agent, my story was worth her emotional investment, I was finally in front of a prominent editor at one of the Big Publishing Houses.

The editor said that my work was “very assured for a debut novelist” and she liked my flawed characters and storyline, but she couldn’t bring it to her editorial board unless I modified some scenes.

My story deals with human trafficking, and the sex trade in Thailand, a pretty uncomfortable topic. There are some detailed, intense scenes and in our environment of extra sensitivity toward violence against women, this wouldn’t fly.

My work was caught in the #MeToo Movement.

I support those who are active in the #MeToo movement, but I’ve been standing on the sidelines. I haven’t experienced sexual harassment, and I hope I have never harassed anyone. But now my characters were embroiled in it.

I had two choices: tell this prominent editor that my story wasn’t meant to make anyone feel good, as a matter of fact, it should make readers feel downright lousy and uncomfortable, or make edits that took some of the bite out of the subject matter.

As I considered what to do with the big name editor with Big Name House, I’m 50,000 words into my next novel. I’m grooving along and then, bam, a pivotal, nasty scene where my protagonist acts badly, very badly.

As I delve into the juicy details, my fingers falter on my keyboard. Is this too much? What would the editor say? Can I reveal my character’s flaws in a softer, more sensitive way that won’t produce nightmares for the new, fragile reading audience? Would my work still carry the same punch?

But what happens when I write a disturbing scene without all the details?

What would happen if I crafted the scene, so the reader has a clear picture of what’s at stake and then leave it at the greatest moment of tension with the rest up to their imagination? The scariest part of Jaws was the first two-thirds when the viewer never even saw the shark, but they knew it was there.

So I took some of the details out of the descriptions and put a frosted screen in front of the prurient window. But I never touched the emotion.

As a matter of fact, what happened was the rawness was erased from the page and rewritten into the individual imagination of the reader, which may prove to be even more horrifying. I like this version even better than the fully-loaded one, and I think I may have learned a trick to writing a richer story.

It Wasn't

noreply@blogger.com (JC Lynne) — Thu, 14 Mar 2019 14:46:00 +0000

By Brian Kaufman

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…”

~Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Much respect to Charles Dickens, who wrote great, sprawling novels that have entertained generations of readers, but the passage quoted above drives me crazy. It and was are a terrible pairing of words that have allowed even skilled writers to be lazy and confusing. Let me explain.

Pronouns stand in for nouns and refer to someone or something mentioned earlier in a prose passage. Any confusion is supposed to be mitigated by using the pronoun to represent the most recently mentioned noun. For example:

John had run the baseball bat through a wood chipper, so he was certain the police wouldn’t find the evidence they needed.

In the example, “he” clearly refers to the just-mentioned John. Unfortunately, pronoun muddling is common. For example, if two women are talking, which “she” does the writer mean? A skillful passage will drop names at the appropriate time or use action to keep pronouns clear:

Millie seemed worried and confessed her unease to Tillie over tea. Tillie sat listening, her hands folded neatly in her lap while Millie fumbled on. “Nellie would never miss an appointment…that’s just not like her. She is nothing if not…dependable. And you know how she is about her hair!” Tillie nodded. Nellie’s hair was her one vanity.

But “it,” the indefinite pronoun, is inherently confusing. Let’s look at a few examples to see why:

John sighed. It couldn’t be worse.

Here, the writer refers to an unspoken situation just described (as being the worst of all possible outcomes) but not named. The pronoun “it” dangles without a visible attachment. This sort of construction has an easy fix—replace the pronoun with the noun (“The situation couldn’t be worse.”)

It was a sunny day.

This example is self-referencing. In unpacking the meaning of the sentence, we discover that “The sunny day was a sunny day.” Edward Bulwer-Lytton immortalized this transgression in his novel Clifford (published in 1830) when he wrote, “It was a dark and stormy night…”

Those famous seven words became the basis for the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, which awards a prize for the worst possible opening line of a novel.

Multiple uses of the indefinite pronoun invariable lead to its that refer to different things. Consider the following example:

It couldn’t be! John had shredded the bat to sawdust. Could it be used for blood evidence? And would it yield other evidence? Surely, no fingerprints? It didn’t take a genius to realize it was bad news for John.

As Mr. Dickens demonstrated, “it” easily pairs with passive, to-be verbs. You’ll avoid that pairing if your goal is active, meaningful prose. When replacing “it” in my own work, I’m forced to come up with clear subjects and active verbs, which improves my writing.

I make an exception when writing dialog. People say “it” all the time when they speak. Precision and perfection aren’t realistic characteristics for flawed characters.

Try two things:

First, revisit the famous opening passage to A Tale of Two Cities and ask the question, “What does it refer to?” Then, pull up your latest work-in-progress and do a macro search for “it was.”

Then, cut “it” out.

To Read Or Not To Read: For Me There Is No Question

noreply@blogger.com (Eleanor Shelton) — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 07:00:00 +0000

By Eleanor Shelton

I assume that all of us writers enjoy reading. Maybe it was reading that provoked the idea that we could do this too. I didn’t like to read when I was a kid. I have dyslexia and reading was a frustrating chore. I’ve overcome dyslexia’s worst side effects and even though I read slowly, I’m addicted.

At any given time, I have one book I read during the day (usually non-fiction such as memoir, or a writing craft book), and one at night, almost always fiction. I have several on deck and at least two on hold at my local library.

I never fall asleep, no matter how tired I am, without reading and often wake up with an open book on my chest. I keep a list of all the books I finish each year, hoping to read more this year than I did the year before.

Do you read while you're writing?

The other interesting conversation that writers have is whether they read while they are working on their own project, be it fiction or nonfiction. Some say they never read while in the bowels of a project. They don’t want another’s voice in their head while they are concentrating on perfecting their own.

https://writerunboxed.com/2017/01/10/reading-while-writing

Others say they read, but only work that is diametrically opposite to what they are working on so they don't sully their inspiration.

I couldn’t imagine not reading whatever I wanted. But while I’m working I make a point of reading well-reviewed books in the same genre as mine, or novels that are spectacularly written.

Why would I spend my time reading badly written books when I can do that myself? No, I search out examples of great literature. Works where the language sings, the tension stays taut and the characters could jump off the page and right into my living room.

I purposely read above my writing level. I learn new words. The characters I am currently creating would never use words such as “cuspate” or “sprats” but someday one of my characters might.

I study sentence and paragraph structures that stop me cold. What was it that spoke to me and why? How can I try and recreate that structure in my own work?

How did that story inject emotional resonance? Was it word choices? Storyline development? Author choice in explaining or choosing not to explain?

Here are some of the books that I've read lately that have inspired me to up my game.

These books all inspired me to try harder, slow down, think creatively, and choose just the right details. There is a difference between imitation and inspiration. As we read (and surely we do!) use great published writing as a teacher and writing coach of what is possible in literature.

How to Be Awful to Your Characters

noreply@blogger.com (dsharp) — Wed, 27 Feb 2019 07:00:00 +0000

By David E. Sharp

Sometimes, writers develop proud-parent syndrome. Our characters are special to us, and we want good things to happen for them. We bond with them. We want them to be happy.

But happy characters make a lousy story!

And that is why we must torment them! We must be cruel. We must dangle hope in front of them, but we can't let them get hold of it until they've withstood the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and taken arms against a sea of troubles.

Here are a few of my favorite ways to be awful to my characters.

Give Them Flaws. REAL Flaws.

Characters have to be imperfect. Sometimes we give them job interview flaws. (You know, like: One of the things I struggle with in a workplace is that I'm just too dedicated to my work. It's a real problem.) Characters who are so amazing they can't relate to other people, don't have a real flaw.

It's time to make your character bad at something. Maybe she's clumsy. Maybe he's terrible at reading body language. Maybe you have a character who can't stay focused on the task at hand. It's okay to give your characters shortcomings. They'll be more interesting for it. And you'll only love them more.

These are externals, however. Which brings me to the next point.

Characters Need Internal Flaws.

With only rare exceptions, characters need to have an obscured worldview. If they don't, they have nothing to learn. How will they grow?

It's easy to inject your own values into your protagonists and opposing views into antagonists over whom they can triumph. Be careful about this. Your protagonist is now a mouthpiece instead of a person. Let your character be petty from time to time. Or envious. Or naive. Or short-tempered. Now that's a person.

Well, I'm the boss. And I say you do.

Let Them Contribute to Their Own Troubles.

Characters compound their own problems. External factors can jump-start the action, but after that your characters need to stick their own foot in it.

Like hovering parents, we want to help our protagonists make wise decisions and avoid the pitfalls of life. But how else will they learn? Only by understanding how they contribute to their problems, can they change. A tragic moment of recognition doesn't come without a tragic flaw.

That's when Jay realized that --indirectly due to his raging insecurities
and lingering sibling rivalry-- he was now out of gas.

Give Them Pain

Occasionally, I run into writers who struggle to leave their characters in a crisis. They pile up problems, but throw in solutions just as quickly. While that sounds great in real life, it doesn't work well in fiction. Characters need to stew in their troubles for a while. You should frustrate, humiliate, chastise, and torment your characters.

Pain, physical and emotional, is intrinsic to metamorphosis. If everything always works out for your protagonist, there is no drive to change. Without change, you don't really have a story so much as a sequence of related events. Your readers won't have anything to glean.

Yes, character. I did it. But only to help you become fully-realized,
and capable of deeper thoughts and feelings.

Plus, it was fun. Mwa ha ha!

Then Give Them a Happy Ending ...Maybe

The purpose behind driving them to the brink is so they can return in triumph! The lower they sink, the higher they soar when they bounce back. If you want your readers to stand up and cheer, you're going to have to load the spring.

Unless you're writing a tragedy or a cautionary tale. Then there is no spring.

What's the worst thing you've done to your characters? Let us know in the comments.

First Word Problems

noreply@blogger.com (Ronda Simmons) — Thu, 21 Feb 2019 15:39:00 +0000

By Ronda Simmons

Writers can get a little precious about their writing environments and accoutrements. Just the other day I couldn't find my favorite tea and thought my writing day was shot. I was able to find a reasonable substitute, averting tragedy.

My ice cream is melting!

I was feeling pretty good about being able to adapt, improvise, and overcome, as Bear Grylls teaches, but realized that instead, I had just experienced a First World Problem.

Have you heard of them? They are the petty frustrations and minor annoyances that, when contrasted with real-life problems, can make First Worlders look somewhat shallow.

Examples of First World Problems

My universal remote died, so I have to point the cable controller at the cable box like a Luddite.

I can't wear my hoop earrings and my AirPods at the same time.

My hand is too big to reach into my Pringles can, so I am forced to tilt it.

Writer's Have Their Own "First WORD Problems"

After pondering the situation, I decided that irritations unique to the writing community are a particular subset of First World Problems and should have their own moniker.

I call them: First WORD Problems. They are the flimsy excuses writers can come up with when the truth is, they are really just avoiding writing.

The opposite end of the spectrum can be exemplified by Stephanie Land, who wrote about her life as a single mother cleaning bathrooms and living in homeless shelters. Her book, Maid is now a best-seller.

I'm pretty sure she didn't worry too much about what kind of tea she had on hand.

I have heard many, many examples of First Word Problems in my years as a writer. Some of the best came from my own mouth. Here are a few:

First Word Problems

I can't write in this coffee shop because someone else is sitting at my favorite table.

I'd like to write, but my charging cable is all the way upstairs.

I have a deadline, but the new season of "The Norsemen" is coming out today, so . . .

Of all the tables in all the coffee shops in all the world . . .

They say that the first step in overcoming a problem is admitting that you have one.

Name your First Word Problem and write it out. Think about publishing it.

Then follow Bear's advice: Adapt. Improvise. Overcome.

What about you? Do you have any First Word Problems you are brave enough to share?

Here are a couple of websites to help you combat First Word Problems:

How To Write Whether You Feel Like it Or Not

When You Don't Want to Write

How to Get Out of the "I Don't Want to Write Funk"

And another one, just for fun:

People Post Their Horrible First World Problems on Twitter

Your My Won, True Love

noreply@blogger.com (Laura Mahal) — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 07:00:00 +0000

by Laura Mahal

Like most writers, I derive great joy from the written word. I’m happy to be home in my pajamas, creating new worlds (or sending super long emails. Some of my emails might contain entire universes.) When I’m working on my own stuff, I digress down rabbit paths. I saunter into lyricism and venture onto uncharted literary terrain.

*Cough.

Then the other side of my brain kicks in to save the day.

Editors are worth their weight in gold, platinum, and Supreme sweatshirts.

All of us need an editor from time to time. Whether this be a developmental editor or a copy editor depends on where an author is in the process. [Note. That last sentence needs work. Go back and revise it later.] [Okay, that last sentence also needs work. It’s kind of redundant.]

Our first drafts are messy. Full of creative ideas and characters starting to come together . . . A plot that might be eighty-five-percent ready, at best.

[Wait—Is eighty-five-percent hyphenated? Did I use that ellipsis appropriately? Is that comma really necessary?]

Copy editors are a go-to resource for answering obscure questions that require hours of research in a little tome called The Chicago Manual of Style. I mean, if you think its great fun to thumb through an odd and possibly archaic numbering system in search of Grammar, Word Usage, Military Terms, and Languages Usually Transliterated (or Romanized), then you should definitely rush out to buy the CMS. It weighs in at a respectable four pounds and may earn you back your purchasing price in short order.

I love copyediting. Give me a messy manuscript, or a poorly constructed blog post, and let me fix them. Please.

[This is so confusing. So, copy editor is two words, but copyediting is all one word?] So, aah, about that. Yeah. There’s this other guidebook. It’s called The Associated Press Stylebook. Whereas the CMS is primarily used for fiction and nonfiction, the AP is the preferred reference tool for journalism. These manuals don’t always agree. They flat out don’t agree. They actually like to dual in bars on trivia nights.

Copyeditor or copy editor, which is correct? Umm, they both are. It depends on whom you are referencing as your source.

Let’s talk about dictionaries.

If you live in London, then you aren’t too far from OXFORD, but the towns of Merriam and Webster are light-years away. The UK gold standard is the Oxford English Dictionary, which celebrated its ninetieth birthday in 2018.

In the U.S., Merriam and Webster are your good friends and Trivia Night partners. Not sure whether a word is hyphenated? Check Merriam-Webster. If you choose to flat-out thumb your nose at their recommendations, then here’s a useful takeaway: If you’re going to “go with your gut,” then be consistent about it. (Consistency is key.)

By the way—that dictionary programmed into your computer? It’s only as reliable as the person who programmed it AND it maybe a nefarious plot to offer you poor advice. It will say “hyphenate here!” and will do so with such cheer and colorful squiggly lines that you might be tempted. Lucky for you, the CMS has a ten-page handy dandy chart you can easily refer to when you want to know whether or not you should hyphenate “poorly-written blog post.” You are correct. This blog post is poorly written. But you do not want to hyphenate adverbs ending in -ly.

"Won, true love"

If a second grader sends a Valentine, scrawled with the message: “Your my won, true love,” by golly, that’s cute. If any of you does it, err, then you would probably benefit from hiring someone to proofread your writing.

Reward: The first person who points out at least fifty percent of my mistakes will earn a free hour of copyediting. Or a long email—you’re choice.

On why you need a copy editor

U.S. reference tool: Merriam-Webster Dictionary

UK gold standard: The Oxford English Dictionary

Typos, grammatical errors, and spelling mistakes

We Are Real Writers

noreply@blogger.com (Eleanor Shelton) — Wed, 06 Feb 2019 07:00:00 +0000

By Eleanor Shelton

Recently a friend took me to a reading party. A local writing group was celebrating their 15^th year together by publishing a chapbook. Each member contributed poems, a short story, or an essay. A hearty group of about 30 had collected to listen to the writers read their favorite work.

As we mingled before the event, my friend kept introducing me to these members of the writing group in a way that made me very uncomfortable.

“Let me introduce my friend, Eleanor. She’s a real writer.”

I knew she meant well, but I was mortified. Each time she said that I countered with, “If you put words together to tell a story, you’re a real writer.”

Each time I said that they would smile in a self-deprecating manner and defer saying, “Oh no, I’m just a hobbyist” or something to the like.

After the third time that my friend introduced me as a “real writer,” I asked her to stop. The only difference between the members of this writing group and me is I make my living from writing. I don’t make money from fiction (although I regularly sacrifice small chickens to the Gods of Writing that one day I will), but editorial and technical writing doesn’t fill my soul.

I have a completed novel, am editing my second novel, and have had some short stories published. But I am no more a “real writer” than any of those fabulous people I met.

What they had was something beyond writing. As the group introduced each other, I felt the genuine affection radiating between them. They cried tears of pride and joy for each other and helped those infirm get to the podium.

Writing had brought them together as a makeshift family. After 15 years they had stayed together longer than half of the marriages in the United States.

This writing family had birthed something that will never age, continuously give them pride, and won’t require college tuition. This book represents hard work, dedication, and rawness, all essential aspects of writing. They had committed to their craft and to each other. They had found their community of writers, their tribe. A connection for which I'm still searching.

While writing is usually a solitary pursuit, it takes a tribe to see it take shape. We rely on others to keep our motivation high, act as beta readers, and reconfirm that we’re not certifiable for thinking we can actually do this. They understand us, speak our language, feel our pain, understand our small victories, believe with us in miracles.

These locals were doing what they loved and had found a community that made them happy. It lit up their faces and in the timbre of their voices.

So, by the time a couple of hours had gone by, the readings were over, and the wine and cheese consumed, I wondered to myself, who here is the real writer?

Gotta Be Something Better than Once Upon a Time

noreply@blogger.com (dsharp) — Wed, 30 Jan 2019 07:00:00 +0000

By David E. Sharp

Storytelling is more than plot and character. It's communication. Somehow, you have to take all those vibrant characters and brilliant ideas and transfer them to the brain of another person. The straightforward path is to start spouting prose in an omniscient third-person, but that can get bland to modern readership.

Each story needs the right vehicle to make it memorable. Here are a few of my favorites.

Epistolary

An Epistolary novel is told through letters, journal entries or documents. With the era of technology, this can also include email, blogs and text messaging. Great examples include The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis, Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn, Griffin and Sabine by Nick Bantock and ttyl by Lauren Myracle.

Strengths to epistolary storytelling include opportunity to develop and contrast character voices and the intimacy of personal missives. For extra fun, Griffin and Sabine is told entirely through postcards that add a dynamic visual element to the story. Some books use epistles to tell an entire story; some use it as needed. Either way, it's a simple method to add some new perspective to your tale.

Case Study

While this is technically considered epistolary, I like to break it out. This is a story told in documents. It puts the reader in the place of an investigator putting together all the personal testimonies, newspaper clippings, files and even security camera footage (I've seen it done!) into a narrative. Examples include Dracula by Bram Stoker, The Supernatural Enhancements by Edgar Cantero and World War Z by Max Brooks.

As an obsessive researcher, I love a story that lets me feel I am piecing together the facts. This style grants a story the sense of a mystery waiting to be solved.

Multiple Perspectives

Books with multiple perspectives seem without end. Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin, Wonder by R. J. Palacio and One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus are a few examples that pull it off to great effect. The trick here is to have enough characters with perspectives worth following. Each has to add something different to the story without being redundant with the others.

A book I thoroughly enjoyed that took a twist on this style was The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton. Here the single first-person narrator lived the same day through the eyes of eight different people in order to solve a murder.

Unreliable Narrator

You remember this one. Think The Tell-Tale Heart. Modern examples include Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk and, of course, The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. As a writer, it takes some subtle maneuvering, but done right it pulls readers in by drawing on their suspicious nature.

The value to an unreliable narrator is an inevitable twist. This style is a lot of work, but if you want to turn the tables on your reader in a memorable way, this may be for you.

Or Something Else Entirely

House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski uses footnotes and page formatting to great effect as the narrator slowly loses his grip on sanity. William Goldman's classic The Princess Bride is written as though it were an abridgment. The Invention of Hugo Cabret consists of part narrative and part cinematic sketches. My own novel, Lost on a Page, is a series of excerpts of fictitious novels whose characters have come to life and are now bouncing from book to book in a series of misadventures that horrify their authors.

So… We're Talking Gimmicks?

Can we take this too far? Of course! But I wouldn't stray from variant forms of storytelling to avoid being gimmicky. Story is only part of storytelling. Telling is the other half. A world with only one style of telling would be as drab as a world with only one story to tell. All that plot development and characterization isn't going to do you any good if you can't pack them into an effective transport device.

The best rule of thumb: Fit the telling to the story, and the story to the telling.

Abandon All Hope: Sort Of

noreply@blogger.com (Eleanor Shelton) — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 07:00:00 +0000

By Eleanor Shelton

It’s not exactly like your parents dropping you off at summer camp or the television series you’ve become addicted to going off the air. Of course, these are letdowns, but your parents will come to pick you up at the end of the summer, and sure Northern Exposure was fun, but another show with loveable, zany characters will come along.

When I was twelve my closest friend, a classmate, sleepover pal, mischief-making ally, got sick. She was diagnosed with leukemia, and I was witness to her fading away. She died in the late spring.

Departures come in all different forms. It’s in the setting of the sun, and the receding of the tide. The process is natural and yet distressing nonetheless. It’s part of learning to be self-reliant and dealing with disappointment. As writers, we know all about frustration.

Abandonment doesn’t have the sharp but dissipating sting of a slap. It’s like a punch to the gut, bruising your skin and driving the precious air from your body.

Tayari Jones, Silver Sparrow

Writing is a lonely pursuit, but unless it stays in a journal we need help in giving our words an audience. We depend on teachers, beta readers, and then agents. For me, and for many writers, I hunted for an agent. A frustrating and soul-crushing process for sure. But eventually, I found someone who loved my story, signed me, and became my champion.

She and I had a plan, a pitch package, and a bowlful of hope. I was almost there . . . published and on my way.

After several months, a close call, and so many rejections, she sent me an email informing me that she was giving up agenting. With two children in college and the cost of living in New York City, she wasn’t making enough money. She was leaving me. I felt abandoned.

I felt lost. Mourning. Loss. A rudderless boat. Falling into a bottomless abyss. But we writers are resilient; otherwise, we would have stopped after our first rejections.

Humans, by nature, search for partners in life. When writers find an agent, we think it’s permanent—my success is her success. But just like in regular life, partners can come and go.

We aren’t married to our agents, and there is no messy dividing of assets. And just like a romantic split, maybe it happened for a reason, perhaps someone better suited to my needs is out there? Abandonment happens, and it scars the soul. Its impact lingers.

I didn’t take it personally; she wasn’t leaving me per se, just the business. But still, isn’t everything about writing personal? So, I might be jumping back into the agent dating world, AgentMatch.com or AgentHarmony.com where we see if our hopes and dreams pair nicely.

After all, isn’t there someone for everyone? Aren’t we writers worthy of love too?

Wants and Needs

noreply@blogger.com (Ronda Simmons) — Thu, 17 Jan 2019 12:34:00 +0000

By Ronda Simmons

In one way or another, all writers are storytellers, and all great stories boil down to the same essential elements: the hero or heroes want something, and to get it, they need something. Wants and Needs.

There are two parts to every story: the plot is the thing that is happening on the surface with concrete goals and challenges; the theme is the thing happening below the surface, the spiritual journey.

What the hero wants is the A Story: the orphan from Kansas wants to go home; the small-time boxer looks to beat the champ; the beach town's sheriff wants to catch the shark; Frodo wants to destroy the One Ring.

To achieve the A Story, our heroes need something, the B Story: Dorothy needs the Cowardly Lion, the Tinman, and the Scarecrow; Rocky needs Adrian; Sheriff Brody needs Hooper, the shark nerd; Frodo needs Sam.

Not that kind of Bee Story!

Put another way, the A Story is the external story, the plot. The B Story is the internal, or spiritual plot line, the transformation. The B Story runs parallel to and interweaves with the A Story.

The B Story is often times referred to as the Love Story, but it doesn't always have to be romantic love. For example, the B Story in Star Wars: A New Hope" the B Story is the relationship between Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

He could be her B Story

The B Story character is a "helper character" that will somehow assist the main character to learn or grow. The Hero cannot achieve his or her goal without something that only the B character can provide.

If your story isn't working out, consider whether you have fully explored what your hero needs to achieve his or her wants. Incorporating an effective B Story might be the answer.

For more on how the A Story and the B Story work together check out these websites:

The "A" Story and the "B" Story

What is the B-Story? And Why That Love Triangle Doesn't Cut It

Making your A, B, and C Stories Work in Your Rewrite

The Perfect Editing Strategy

noreply@blogger.com (JC Lynne) — Wed, 09 Jan 2019 07:00:00 +0000

By Brian Kaufman

Writing without revising is the literary equivalent of waltzing gaily out of the house in your underwear.

Patricia Fuller

Writers have ticks. Those little muscle memory problems our brain slips into our drafts without us noticing. We may share similar habits or those habits can be wildly disparate.

Editing is a difficult but crucial skill. Reportedly, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Louis L'Amour never edited. They are fine authors but sometimes writing is a craft, not magic. In a perfect world, we are channeling both.

Editing isn't sexy.

Beta readers are great for first round reads.

Beta readers are useful for that general impression read. They can spot plot holes. They dissect character development. Ideally, they are objective and from diverse backgrounds to provide the most useful feedback.

Asking the same folks to give you a deep reading on a revised passage often yields little more than a thumbs up or down.

Writing is fun. Editing is a chore.

One is pure creation, the equivalent of improvising a guitar solo. The other is…hard work.

Writers develop myopia.

After dozens of rewrites on a particular passage, you can no longer “see” what’s wrong (assuming anything is wrong in the first place).

Writers are entertainers.

Though most of us prefer to live and work with quietude. Having published a book or story, you are asked to do a reading. What passage do you choose for maximum impact?

There’s never enough time to write or edit properly.

Many actors never watch their own movies. We are our worst critics. No matter what those outlier reviews may say. We will always see places in our work to improve.

I write and edit textbooks for a living. Because the time available never matches the backlog of projects, I had to figure out efficient editing in a hurry. Unfortunately, people’s eyes are tricksters.

Rereading reveals rubbish and redundancy.

~ Duane Alan Hahn

The brain processes data so quickly that tiny flaws are smoothed over, a process that Carla Foote calls a superior form of “autocorrect.” Your writer’s groups can give you a fresh set of eye . . . once. We can do a large portion of the heavy lifting without eating up huge chunks of our time.

The answer is to read your work out loud. Every single word.

Rather than editing visually, you’ll do so auditorily. The process is completely different, allowing you to encounter your work for the first time . . . again.

Grammar is easier to manage when you hear a sentence out loud. A change of tense, the lack of punctuation, or a run-on sentence that begs for a pause all become clear during oral reading.

Repeated words make themselves obvious. If a sentence has inadvertent rhymes or sounds too choppy, you’ll hear it. If a paragraph needs a transition sentence, you’ll know.

Kate Kiefer Lee notes that dialog edited out loud ends up sounding more “human.” Stilted, robotic phrases sound silly when delivered orally. Voice out of character sounds wrong.

Audio books are becoming popular. Editing out loud helps ready a book for that medium.

Let’s assume that you buy my argument.

Edit out loud in private.

Read from a printed copy. It's easier to stop and make notes.

Ignore every reading teacher you may have had. Run your finger under the words as you read. It will keep you from skipping over anything.

Public speaking has two components—the delivery (have you written your prose so the piece can be read without tripping?) and the reception (can the listener absorb your prose?). The goal is understanding.

If you just can't do it. Technology can help. Text-to-speech applications can read your work

to you.

Adding an oral edit to your process will help your prose will sound good.

After all, your story is music. Make it sound beautiful.

Regarding Rockets And Writing

noreply@blogger.com (JC Lynne) — Thu, 03 Jan 2019 15:36:00 +0000

By Jack Matthews

We've reset the calendar. Writers, all of us, are making goals, ramping up projects, and looking to launch. It takes planning to make sure things don't blow up on take off.

We started with an idea and built a framework with all the necessary parts—a beginning containing a motor with enough thrust to drive the thing to apogee; a middle—or sustainer—to keep opening and end firmly in touch with one another; and an end containing all the ingredients necessary for a successful, satisfying, and perhaps surprising landing.

It might have flown then, but we decided we could do better. We modified it—adding detail and our own unique style. However, the modifications changed its balance and stability, introducing a fatal flaw. It wasn’t going to work, so we changed it again to correct the trajectory.

In our haste, we were careless with the modifications—the parts fit loosely and clumsily together. We weren’t satisfied, so we weren’t done. Working alone for weeks that turned into months, we tightened things up and smoothed the transitions until they were seamless.

This was our first one. We solicited opinions from masters of the craft. Their feedback was mixed, but the question consistently asked was—why were we doing this? Who’s our audience? Serious and knowledgeable practitioners?

The general, and less critical, public at large? Perhaps just friends and family, who love us unconditionally. Or were we doing it only for ourselves? If so, did we just want to see the infernal thing fly . . . Damn the outcome? Or did we want to polish it to perfection?

In which case, it might never get off the ground.

After serious soul-searching, we decided—fly or crash—we wanted to make it the best we possibly could. A superficial coat of paint wouldn’t hide all the flaws, so we started over. We listed the mistakes made in the first build (a long and humbling exercise), tore it apart—ripping our heart out in the process—and began again.

We used new techniques and tools to sand the rough edges and polish the transitions. We worked more efficiently and completed the second build in half the time.

It’s better now—not perfect, but our time on this planet is limited. We discover ‘the best we can do’ is not an absolute target, but changes as our life changes. We marry, get a paying job, raise kids, retire, and welcome grandchildren into our home. We get older. Death creeps closer. Time runs short.

The best we can do is constrained by the circumstances of living.

We step back and take it all in from top to bottom, beginning to end. It looks like it could fly. Are we done? Maybe. Maybe not.

The more important goal is to launch our projects, uh rockets. We are writers, and like those engineers at NASA albeit with less physical risk, we've worked, we've reworked, we've worried.

But it’s time to find a launch pad.

Jack Matthews lives in Fort Collins. He writes Creative Non-Fiction and Fiction. He still isn't sure what he wantsto do when he grows up. "I’ve tried professional student (8 years until the money ran out), science teacher (9 years until the money ran out), engineer (15 years until the spreadsheets fried the brain), and environmental consultant (12 years until I lost the war). Writing has always been a therapeutic avocation, and the clock is ticking."

That Pesky Fine Print

noreply@blogger.com (dsharp) — Wed, 26 Dec 2018 16:02:00 +0000

by David E. Sharp

Time to talk about some of the nitty-gritty side of publishing. I'm talking contracts! You've landed the deal, you're looking over the papers, and you need to figure out whether this is the deal for you.

Quick disclaimer: I am no expert in contracts, legal ins-and-outs or any of the "biz" side of publishing. Thank goodness for literary agents in a confusing labyrinth of the publishing world. I cannot offer any legal advice.

But I can talk about my own experiences.

Contracts are daunting to me. I recognize the words. I work with words. I should be able to handle this, right? But somehow, reading through all the minutia (heretofore to be referred to as contractese) and trying to make sense out of it all makes me like a first grader trying to pore through Tolstoy.

Here are a few valuable take-aways I've found.

No pressure, though.

It's okay to say, "This deal is not for me."

For someone trying to break into publishing, it's easy to feel you can't afford to pass up "opportunities" for publication no matter what the strings attached. After all, isn't it important just to get your work out there?

But standards are a good thing. If you want better for your writing than a vanity press, be sure you know how to recognize a vanity press. General red flags include any publisher that asks the author for money, publisher websites that seem more focused on attracting authors than attracting readers, and writer testimonies stating, "Don't sign with these jerks! They're a total vanity press!"

Probably a good idea to read the contract first.

Obvious? But it's easy to get swept up in the excitement and throw a signature on that dotted line without even thinking.

I was recently contacted by a publisher about including a short story of mine into their upcoming anthology. My story had placed in a contest they held several months ago, and publication was part of the prize package. However, I was bothered by the contract which requested a transfer of copyright for the duration of the book's publication.

Suddenly the prize, didn't feel like such a prize. All my previous contracts had statements specifically stating the author would retain all copyrights to the story. The publisher assured me this was necessary and common practice for an anthology, but a little research led me to believe otherwise.

This is where agents are so very valuable. (Seriously, if you have an agent, send them a Hallmark card!) But even if you have one, it's always good to read the fine print yourself.

Seal a deal you can still feel good about tomorrow.

Other writers are a wonderful resource.

When in doubt, hit up your peers. Writers who have prior experience can be great to compare notes with. Don't hesitate to ask your questions! Part of the perks of an organization like NCW is that you are not walking this road alone.

Nobody wants to take a sub-par deal. Your gut is telling you there's something odd, but you want to see if your fellow writers' guts are saying the same. Great news! We've got a lot of writer guts in Northern Colorado you can consult. Some of them may even speak contractese.

There are some terrific publishers out there! Small houses included. But you may have to sift a bit to find them. Here are some resources to help you find the right publisher for you and sign a contract you can feel good about.

http://www.writersmarket.com/

http://rmfw.org/protecting-your-copyright-in-anthology-contracts/

https://www.sfwa.org/other-resources/for-authors/writer-beware/

Jingle Bells, sort of

noreply@blogger.com (Ronda Simmons) — Tue, 18 Dec 2018 17:14:00 +0000

By Ronda Simmons

Writing Days

(sung to the tune of Jingle Bells)

(with apologies to James Lord Pierpont)

Dashing down some prose

On a three espresso day
To writer's group I'll go
Buzzing all the way

Bells on cell phones ring
Concentration's gone
How great it is to talk awhile
Pretending work is done!

Oh writing days, writing days
Writing all the day
Oh what stress it is to write
When the deadline is today.

Writing days, writing days
Writing all the day
Oh what stress it is to write
When the deadline is today.

A month or two ago
I thought I'd write a book
And soon my writing friends
Came by to take a look

The words were few and lame
The ending was no shock
They helped me with the plot loopholes
And now the story rocks!

Oh writing days, writing days
Writing all the day
Oh what stress it is to write
When the deadline is today.

Writing days, writing days
Writing all the day
Oh what stress it is to write
When the deadline is today.

Now the screen is blank
I haven't got a clue
What to write today
I think I have the flu

Or maybe I'm just tired
I think I'll take a nap
Tomorrow is another day
My muse will soon be back

Oh writing days, writing days
Writing all the day
Oh what stress it is to write
When the deadline is today.

Writing days, writing days
Writing all the day
Oh what stress it is to write
When the deadline is today.

Things you may not know about Jingle Bells

Great site for free downloadable images

The history of Jingle Bells

We are Us and They are We

noreply@blogger.com (Laura Mahal) — Wed, 12 Dec 2018 07:00:00 +0000

by Laura Mahal (She/her)

A short detour down a Rabbit Trail to a path called "Pronouns"

It’s okay if you don’t know who Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla, Rafaella Gabriela Sarsaparilla, and Albert Andreas Armadillo are, nor what their relationship is to one another or to a kangaroo, an aardvark, and a rhinoceros.

If curiosity is going to keep you up at night, a Schoolhouse Rock video will happily dance off your screen and into your ears, if you click here: Schoolhouse Rock--Pronouns.

Thank you, Schoolhouse Rock.

What you do need to know is: What are pronouns, and how have they changed since you were in school?

The 1977 Schoolhouse Rock explanation was catchy:

“WHO, WHAT, and WHICH are special pronouns that can ask a question

In a sentence where you do not know the name of the noun,

But I know:

I have MINE, and SHE has HERS,

and HE has HIS. Do YOU have YOURS?

THEY love US, and WE love THEM,

WHAT's OURS is THEIRS--

That's how it is with friends,

And pronouns, you are really friends, yeah!”

I won’t insult your intelligence by further explaining pronouns. You are writers. You’ve got the parts of speech down pat. In short, a pronoun stands in for a specific noun.

We are going to focus on one pronoun and one pronoun only. (For dramatic effect, you can imagine I’m saying this in a booming voice. Because what I’m about to say is important. All-caps important, except we may have a few too many all-caps in our lives already.)

The Singular They

The singular “they” is not new. We’ve been using it for years, though strict grammarians might have corrected us if they had overheard something such as this:

“Today, I saw someone walking their dog. They lost control of the leash when their dog started chasing a squirrel.”

We are talking about one person. Someone.

Someone who has a dog. (A lucky someone, no doubt.)

But that isn’t the singular "they" we’re talking about today.

We are talking about The Singular They that is here to stay.

The Singular They that is Here to Stay

I’m asking anyone who hasn’t been living under the Schoolhouse Rock for the last few years to think about how the pronoun they, along with its cousins their and them, has come to be a way of addressing those who do not identify as binary.

Pronouns are a form of language used in public spaces. As such, people get to choose which pronouns best represent the way they seem themselves. If someone says they prefer to be called by their, them pronouns, the respectful thing to do is exactly that.

"You don't have to understand someone's gender to respect it."

R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Find out what it means to me.

By the same token, when someone expresses their preferred pronouns, this should not be considered an invitation to ask probing questions. We all deserve privacy when it comes to our identities. Assumptions can be incredibly harmful. And our private lives are, well, private.

I don’t ever ask anyone what their pronouns are. Rather, I start conversations (in the right setting—probably not when I’m standing in line at the grocery store) by sharing my pronouns. I don’t have insight into anyone else’s life besides my own.

Misgendering someone can cause offense. This is true whether we use gendered pronouns (he/she) or even pronouns that are generally considered gender-neutral, such as they/them.

There may come a time when we move beyond narrow discussions of identity. Just as language is ever-changing, so is the broader culture where language lives. Where all of us live.

Helpful Links:

Your questions about gender-neutral pronouns answered

My Pronouns.org: They-them pronouns

How to be a better ally

Writing inspiration comes from the pigskin

noreply@blogger.com (Eleanor Shelton) — Wed, 05 Dec 2018 07:00:00 +0000

In the fall I have several literary routines:

1. Read my New York Times

2. Delve into one of the past issues of the New Yorker Magazine

3. Review my writing from the work week

4. Curl up with the novel I’m currently reading

5. Spend copious hours watching college and professional football

Number five may not seem like a writerly endeavor, but football has more to offer writers than an excuse not to write.

What’s in a name?

I’m terrible at naming my characters. The only names that come to my mind are plain, no interest monikers that provide nothing in the way of zip and zing, not to mention completely forgettable in a literary lineage. Can’t you just imagine the life of:

Jason Broadnax

Ha Ha Clinton-Dix

Ziggy Hood

Fair Hooker

Equanimeous St. Brown

Breeland Speaks

Briean Boddy-Calhoun

Shady McCoy

With names like these, any character would pop off the page.

A mother names her son Ha Ha, yet as hard as he tries he can’t develop a sense of humor. Shady McCoy, whose real name is Dexter, stole a comic book when he was nine and was given the nickname by the class bully. And Jason Broadnax is a skinny nerd who is trying to win the Mortal Kombat video game competition in Las Vegas.

These are surprising names that beg to have a world built around them.

Football Speak

The language employed by football is also fodder for fictive description or dialogue. Aren’t you just dying to use “explosive runs,” “Omaha, Omaha, Kill, Kill, Kill,” or “deep penetration by the tight end is definitely part of man coverage” in some story or other? “The runner got past the Nickleback and Dimeback and got fifteen, but the play was stopped by a horse collar.” Nothing is as full of hope as a Hail Mary!

Jargon and customs can have color and add texture and life to any story. As writers, our job is to listen and learn. Sometimes I imagine what the football players say in the huddle, or at the bottom of a ten-man pile. In my warped mind, they are sharing recipes or gossiping about the cheerleaders.

I’m pretty sure I’m wrong, but who knows?

The fourth quarter conclusion

In all good stories, protagonists must overcome obstacles to achieve their goals. It’s the same in football, but the obstacles are other players who stand in the way of touchdowns. The players who make it to the NFL are those who can skillfully maneuver past the defensive players.

It’s the talented writers who can craft a narrative with twists and turns, jukes, and fades, that hold our attention and win in the game of writing.

And then there is this; being a top-ranked athlete is hard work, takes daily practice, dedication, and sacrifice. A very few make it big, yet countless have the dream. Sound familiar?