MY STORY FOUND a HOME

 

By Raegan Teller

If you write short fiction for publication, you know that sometimes placing your story is as challenging, if not more so, than writing it. My editor told me she wrote a story she tried to place for more than eight years before it was published. Her point in telling me was to say every story has a home—you just have to keep searching for it. Of course, it goes without saying the story must be well written, but many great stories go unpublished because they are homeless.

My editor’s words stayed with me during the past year. Like many writers, I found it difficult to stay focused during the pandemic. At times, I couldn’t work on my fifth book, and I even had trouble reading a full novel. Determined to keep going, I turned to reading and writing short fiction. Perhaps, I thought, these stories would be a better fit for my shortened attention span.

During that time, I wrote a story that came to me in a dream. The following morning, I quickly scribbled the outline so I wouldn’t forget it. Later, I sat down and wrote it, and then edited and polished it over a couple of months.

Not to digress, but another problem I’ve found publishing short stories is that if you write on speculation without a specific publication in mind, finding a home for your story is even harder. One successful short story writer advised to write only stories specifically requested by publishers. Typically, these calls for stories focus on a theme for a publication or an anthology. Her advice was to treat stories as an assignment for which you’re writing. Her sage advice made sense, but just the thought of an “assignment” gave me chilling memories of schoolwork. So, I do the opposite: I write a story and then look for its home.

So, back to my dream story. It could be classified as paranormal or sci-fi, or as one of the many sub-genres, which made the search for its home even more confounding. (Amazon has more than 16,000 genres!) Luckily, I found an online publisher calling for themed stories for an anthology. From their description, my story seemed to be a perfect fit. I eagerly submitted it and waited for the publisher to agree with me.

Obviously, I wouldn’t be writing about this story if it had been accepted. It was rejected, and I was dejected. So, I put the story aside for a while. Then this week, I was meeting with a friend who recently lost her granddaughter in a horrific accident. Since my story’s theme is life-after-death, I took a copy to her in hopes she would find comfort in it.

As she read it, tears streamed down her face. When she finished, she looked at me and said, “Thank you. It’s beautiful. I can’t wait for my family to read this.” At that moment, I knew my story had found a home.

FINDING WORDS to PUT MEAT on the BONES of a STORY

By J Dean Pate

After fifteen years writing radio and TV news copy (way back in my 1960’s smoking and drinking days) my default style years later still is bland, plain vanilla language mainly emphasizing activity. In working on my book, this default setting results in telling rather than showing characters and scenes. It may be good for radio newscasts but not for novels.

My storytelling is forthright but not exactly richly detailed.

Recently, I picked up a book I’d read in college, The House of the Seven Gables, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I was impressed with the words Hawthorne used to set the scene and describe his characters. The variety of word choices also had me using my laptop to find definitions to understand what he was saying.

Tracking down Hawthorne’s words set me to thinking. It might be useful to use the web or dictionaries, etc. to create a list of words specific to my story. From that I developed a thirty-minutes-a-morning routine of searching for words to help characters and events come alive.

As I worked along, the list grew into sections: descriptions of character, behavior, facial expressions or movements, desires, fears, habits, and thoughts. The exercise has been a helpful tool for identifying words I may have misused and replacing them with those more appropriate.

Now part of my routine includes reviewing the entire list each morning, which helps jump-start my writing.

The web, to me, is an easier resource than flipity-flipping through dictionaries or thesauruses, which I resist, especially if I'm unsure what I'm looking for. It’s easier to Google How do you say…than thinking of what you want to say then turning pages in a thick book for a word you think might work, discovering it doesn’t and being left with where do I look next?

If only Hawthorne had access to Google. Perhaps his phrases might have been forthright and accurate instead of rich but obscure.

Hope this is helpful.

MAKING the STORY COME ALIVE

By Sharon May

A friend of mine, who has read much of my novel in progress, loves the main character Lafe Yates. Once, he told me he saw a man whom he imagined looked like Lafe. My friend said, “He dressed just as I imagined he would. If only I could have heard him speak, I know he would have talked just like you wrote his words.” Ironically, I don’t describe Lafe in detail. But I have given readers enough to have a clear image of him.

Description is crucial but needs to be woven into the story, not plunked down wherever the writer remembers to add it. In my early writing, I would find myself describing for a while, particularly at the beginnings of chapters, only to realize paragraphs or even pages later I had left character development and plot behind, so I would stop describing. Thus there was no clear structure nor flow in the writing.

Realists believed everything and everyone should be described in minute detail if reality is to be recreated in words. Thus, 1,000 page novels. Most readers don’t need or want that much detail. At times when reading another author, I find myself skim-reading hunks of description that seem to go nowhere nor add to the story. Detail overload can be confusing and a mite boring, particularly for the 21^st century reader.

When describing, try for a balance in how much you guide readers to see the world your way and how much they are expected to rely on their imagination.

If you give lots of attention to an object or character, then the reader will place an equal amount of value on that aspect of the story. Readers can finish a work and wonder, “What happened with that teacup the author spent a page describing in chapter two?” If it has nothing to do with the story or theme, don’t give it much attention, no matter how brilliant your words.

Description also helps control the passing of time in a story. If you want the pace to be slow, more description can help create that sensation. Think Moby-Dick as Ishmael lures the reader onto the ship and out to sea, then dives deep into describing everything there is to know about whales and whaling. Hundreds of pages later, the story ends with a rush of plot. Melville’s pacing can make readers feel as if they have been on the ship for months looking for Ahab’s white whale. That is if the reader actually reads all of those words. Most don’t.

To 21^st century reader, every word matters. They usually expect concise but vivid details in a fast-paced read as they live in a world of sound-bites and media overload. Doesn’t mean you can’t describe all the teacups in your opus. Some readers love the challenge of lengthy books. I, for one, have read every word of Moby-Dick more times than I can remember. Just exposing my love of everything Melville.

PERFECT TIMING

By Kasie Whitener

In a central plot point to Thor: The Dark World, the nine realms align for a single moment and travel between them is made possible. There’s some electro-physics-movie-gobbledy-gook to explain the whole thing. But you get the idea: #Fate #Rare #SinglePointofLight #Fiction

You know how you get the sense that the timing is just right for a specific thing to happen? ::whispers:: I think I might be in one of those electro-physics phenomena right now.

Exhibit A: Last week I had a number of emails exchanged and a couple of phone conversations with a literary agent who is “very impressed” with what I’m doing. She means the radio show, the blog, the work with SCWA, and other sundry writing-related marketing suchness my family affectionately calls mom’s unpaid work.

Exhibit B: The third midday session of SCWA’s Writing Conversations last week was led by Barbara Evers, fantasy writer and chapter lead for Greenville. She taught us how to write “The Perfect Pitch” to prepare for, among other things, running into the perfect agent for our work in a hotel elevator somewhere.

Exhibit C: This past Thursday was #pitmad, that delightful internet funhouse wherein authors attempt to sum up their book in 280 characters and attract an agent who will “like” the pitch and thereby invite a query. (Using the appropriate hashtags on Twitter of course.)

Why do we feel like success must be the work of the cosmos? Why can’t it be the coming together of preparation and opportunity? That sweet spot where everything you’ve done to show your value, your talent, and your commitment leaves you gloriously prepared to answer the question perfectly. Like Final Jeopardy. Who knew there’d be a category on American Authors? It’s a good thing I read all those bestseller lists.

I wouldn’t be such a believer in superstition like universe alignment if my first book hadn’t found its  way to publication in pure serendipity. One Saturday in July, after finishing my radio show with my pal Rex Hurst, I said, “I really should get a book published to show I have some credibility around here.” Two hours later, in the swimming pool at Columbia Country Club, I was introduced to Alexa Bigwarfe. She’s a publisher.

It wasn’t instant. Alexa publishes non-fiction and while we had a lot (A LOT) to talk about, I didn’t think we were a perfect fit or anything. Then we started walking our neighborhood in the mornings and over a few miles each day we got to know one another better and then (boom-shaka-laka) we made a deal.

Publishing is business. And business is relationships. And relationships are not lotteries. You pursue them, forge them, nurture them. That’s how we find success.

So why would I think the universe might just align to put my book in front of the right people? Because when you put your book out there – when you put yourself out there – eventually someone pays attention. Just be sure to use the right hashtags.