“ I must know! How was the conference?”
Vikki Perry asked this of our google group regarding the 2008 SCWW Conference.
“I had a blast. Learned a lot! I definitely know for next time which sessions to go to and which to avoid. There were a couple I wish I would have attended and a couple I wish I hadn’t, but for the most part it was very enlightening. I got to hang out with James O. Born at the bar Saturday night and got hit on by Michael Connolly's publicist. Can't expect much more than that, right?”
Brian Butler
“Great. You would have loved it.”
Bonnie Stanard
“It was fantastic! And Meredith had orange cupcakes. We missed you!”
Leigh Stevenson
"Meredith and I worked the conference (free registration), so we missed some of the presenters and sessions, but at the same time we got a chance to mingle a little with agents and authors who we checked in at the registration desk, helped at the silent auction, or helped with their session.As for me, I had a chance to get to know Jeanne Leiby, editor of The Southern Review. She is a hoot! She also gave great tips on how to make your stories compelling and what she is looking for. Agent Jennifer Jackson gave some pointers on what to look for in finding the agent that's right for you -- very helpful! I saved extra handouts from her session for our next group gathering. A small press publisher, Charlotte Cook, who is looking for first-time authors/emerging writers did some fun interactive role playing to illustrate how to make your writing sing (she also told us only 2.75 percent of people who read also want to write, so 97.25% of readers do not want to write). I got some great feedback from an agent on my first three chapters -- she wants to see more!Meredith & I also had a chance to get to know folks from the other SCWW chapters -- what a fun group! Carrie McCullough will chair next year's program. They'll be looking for more volunteers (you get free registration, the complete package but not free room).”
Lisa Lopez
Friday, October 31, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Impressions of the 2008 SCWW Conference
By Laura P. Valtorta
Leaving the 2008 SC Writers Workshop conference, after downing the last glass of iced tea and listening to another New York agent, I felt inspired. The inspiration came first from my fellow writers at the conference. Bonnie, Janie, Beth, Lisa, Meredith, Mike, Ilmars, Alex, Leigh, and Jody. Compared to us, the keynote speakers were all little people. Rock on. Write on. And keep laughing it up.
Some of us think that Meredith could have a lucrative career as a stand-up comic.
The conference at the Hilton Plantation Inn was even better than last year. With succinct speakers and more meeting space for the 420 odd attendees. And I do mean odd. Michael Connelly had a point. We need to write like sharks. Keep moving forward.
Two highlights for me were agents Dave Forrer and Alexandra Machinist. They gave informative lectures and gentle critiques. Bonnie, Mike, Beth and I ate dinner on Saturday evening with Dave Forrer, who was generous enough to answer hundreds of questions and treat everyone at the table with interest and respect.
The tribute to Carrie Allen McCray, from one of the little people, made us wish Carrie was still with us.
As for Lee Goldberg: I don't believe he really has a French wife.
Leaving the 2008 SC Writers Workshop conference, after downing the last glass of iced tea and listening to another New York agent, I felt inspired. The inspiration came first from my fellow writers at the conference. Bonnie, Janie, Beth, Lisa, Meredith, Mike, Ilmars, Alex, Leigh, and Jody. Compared to us, the keynote speakers were all little people. Rock on. Write on. And keep laughing it up.
Some of us think that Meredith could have a lucrative career as a stand-up comic.
The conference at the Hilton Plantation Inn was even better than last year. With succinct speakers and more meeting space for the 420 odd attendees. And I do mean odd. Michael Connelly had a point. We need to write like sharks. Keep moving forward.
Two highlights for me were agents Dave Forrer and Alexandra Machinist. They gave informative lectures and gentle critiques. Bonnie, Mike, Beth and I ate dinner on Saturday evening with Dave Forrer, who was generous enough to answer hundreds of questions and treat everyone at the table with interest and respect.
The tribute to Carrie Allen McCray, from one of the little people, made us wish Carrie was still with us.
As for Lee Goldberg: I don't believe he really has a French wife.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
T.I.N.A The Challengers
By Bryce H. Smith
Taurus Research Systems, Inc., a specialty aero mapping company that is just getting by is owned by two brothers, ‘Safari’ and Jack Smith. For years while in college, these two sought the ‘Holy Grail’ of computing, a truly uncrackable computer encryption code. Safari receives a degree in computer science, just as they make their breakthrough, and heads to Japan for active duty as an officer in the United States Air Force where he works alongside National Security Administration (NSA) employees.
Meanwhile, Jack marries Sue, who graduated at the same time as Safari having earned a business degree. Together with Jack, she makes the mapping business thrive. With Jack’s somewhat suspect death in an automobile, Sue becomes president.
Alerted by his contacts in the FBI, NSA, CIA, KGB, and others of the uncrackable communications between Taurus and Japan, Roland Dees suddenly starts giving Taurus Research more mapping contracts than they can handle, to get his foot in their door.
Mr. Dees, a well known international arms dealer, wants a fool proof system to communicate business transactions between all his friendly contacts, buyers, and of course terrorists.
When Safari returns with his active service time complete, he is faced with the dilemma of having his sister-in-law, Sue, as CEO of the company he was the driving force in founding. Before the pending showdown between these two over control of Taurus, Roland Dees summons both of them to his Rocky Mountain retreat, a secret presidential cavern complex under construction.
In true gangster style he makes the two an offer they cannot refuse, and introduces them to the Wizard, his enforcer. He is sure Sue is lying to him when she claims no knowledge of a secret code. Safari however smiles and says, “Let’s talk about it.” Sue sees the company she had spent so much time building with her deceased husband slipping like sand through her fingers.
Roland Dees ends up marketing the resulting T.I.N.A. system to his best customers; politicians, heads of state, CEOs and stock manipulators eager to own these notebook computers. Little does he know that one group Americans he sold 50 T.I.N.A. computers to is planning the “Mother of All Terrorist Attacks.”
If not stopped, their assault on the core of American political and business leadership will result in the death of 3 million Americans and the splitting of the United States into three separate countries. The only thing standing between them and success is a deeply embedded undercover agent of the NSA, Safari Smith.
Taurus Research Systems, Inc., a specialty aero mapping company that is just getting by is owned by two brothers, ‘Safari’ and Jack Smith. For years while in college, these two sought the ‘Holy Grail’ of computing, a truly uncrackable computer encryption code. Safari receives a degree in computer science, just as they make their breakthrough, and heads to Japan for active duty as an officer in the United States Air Force where he works alongside National Security Administration (NSA) employees.
Meanwhile, Jack marries Sue, who graduated at the same time as Safari having earned a business degree. Together with Jack, she makes the mapping business thrive. With Jack’s somewhat suspect death in an automobile, Sue becomes president.
Alerted by his contacts in the FBI, NSA, CIA, KGB, and others of the uncrackable communications between Taurus and Japan, Roland Dees suddenly starts giving Taurus Research more mapping contracts than they can handle, to get his foot in their door.
Mr. Dees, a well known international arms dealer, wants a fool proof system to communicate business transactions between all his friendly contacts, buyers, and of course terrorists.
When Safari returns with his active service time complete, he is faced with the dilemma of having his sister-in-law, Sue, as CEO of the company he was the driving force in founding. Before the pending showdown between these two over control of Taurus, Roland Dees summons both of them to his Rocky Mountain retreat, a secret presidential cavern complex under construction.
In true gangster style he makes the two an offer they cannot refuse, and introduces them to the Wizard, his enforcer. He is sure Sue is lying to him when she claims no knowledge of a secret code. Safari however smiles and says, “Let’s talk about it.” Sue sees the company she had spent so much time building with her deceased husband slipping like sand through her fingers.
Roland Dees ends up marketing the resulting T.I.N.A. system to his best customers; politicians, heads of state, CEOs and stock manipulators eager to own these notebook computers. Little does he know that one group Americans he sold 50 T.I.N.A. computers to is planning the “Mother of All Terrorist Attacks.”
If not stopped, their assault on the core of American political and business leadership will result in the death of 3 million Americans and the splitting of the United States into three separate countries. The only thing standing between them and success is a deeply embedded undercover agent of the NSA, Safari Smith.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
DIALOGUE on ETHNIC PERSONA
By DiAna DiAna and Vikki Perry
The Question
I'm revising a slave's story and recently read in the NYT's Book Review about the maelstrom that surrounded William Styron's publishing The Confessions of Nat Turner (1968). What I got from the article is that whites can't understand the slave's life, and for one to try to write about it is insulting African Americans. I don't know what to think about that. —Bonnie Stanard
DiAna
I agree that it would be almost impossible to write as a black person without living the black experience and being black. Maybe a focus group on cultural sensitivity would help people to understand the "other side." This could also help in writing and style and connecting with your audience.
One person who pulled this off was James Patterson with his Alex Cross character. In reading his books, I was impressed that he “got it." But, I don't know how he got it, but he did.
Vikki
If you say that a white author can't write well from an African American perspective, does that mean conversely that an African American can't write well from a white perspective? I think writers can cross the cultural divide successfully if they navigate the waters very carefully.
There are a number of authors (in addition to Patterson) who have crossed the cultural divide and seemed to do it well. Three that I can think of are: Suzanne Brockmann, a New York Times bestselling author who is white and has written from an African American perspective; Brenda Jackson, a bestselling author and African American, who has written from a white perspective; and I don't remember the name of the white writer at the SC Book Festival last year who won a Newberry Prize for her children's book about an African American Little League team in the Jim Crow South.
I write from the male perspective occasionally, and when I bring my stuff to workshop for critique, I hope the group tells me where I'm going wrong and how to make my character more real. With one story, you told me that my 13 year-old boy should be a 13 year-old girl. That is honest and exactly the type of critique I look for.
Perhaps the same applies to writing from a different culture's perspective. Find people from that culture who will react honestly and tell you how to improve. Maybe this is where cultural sensitivity training comes in. Understanding how and what other groups think can only improve our writing.
I want my writing to reflect the real world (at least somewhat, since I like to write about supernatural beings) and it can’t do that unless I include people of other cultures. When I was writing my paranormal for the first time (I'm on my second version), a sexy male immortal witch, who happened to be African American, appeared unexpectedly in my story. I had to cut him because he was subverting my heroine, the vampire queen (she liked him too much), and she had to be the vampire hunter for the purposes of my story. I'm thinking that he is going to hook up with a merperson, but I'm not sure yet. I would be disappointed if I couldn't attempt to write his story.
DiAna
My comments were based on past experiences with other groups where individuals spoke up for people they knew little or nothing about. For instance, in an AIDS focus group, a white woman volunteered to represent the black, gay male perspective. I asked her what part of the black, gay male experience she could relate to. Was she black? Well, no. Was she a gay male? Well, no. And I asked her, "What part of the experience are you comfortable identifying with?” Naturally the discussion was wide open since the group had several white people who wanted to represent not only black, gay males, but Asians and Hispanics, with no point of reference to their experience or culture. We found this offensive and insensitive and presumptuous.
If Patterson can write about blacks, so can others. My point is that when you bridge cultures, you can not judge your success with your own peers. Since this is a writer's group, it might be nice to give yourself an edge and expose yourself to how others feel. My comments are for blacks who write as whites, as well as whites who write about being black.
I am of mixed cultures, but even with this birthright, I will never be black enough or Hispanic enough to fully speak up for either. And since I was raised in a town that was mostly white, my cultural exposure is very mixed and limited. I can probably relate to whites more than my own races.
Since my grandfather came to this country unwillingly, my thoughts may be different from those who owned him. You can't see something from another person's point of view and live through what they lived through. You can only write about what you think it was like, and that is what some people might find offensive.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Moonlight and Magnolias
By Vikki Perry
I know that I need to learn more about writing. I know that I will never learn all there is to know about writing. I know that my work will never be perfect.
I just used a rhetoric device called anaphora. Anaphora is emphasizing words by repeating them at the beginning of neighboring clauses; and I discovered it at Moonlight and Magnolias, a writers conference in Atlanta that is put on by the Georgia Romance Writers. I learned so much this weekend.
Friday Morning: Pitch Workshop – The pitch workshop was designed to allow you to practice your pitch before the agent and editor appointments begin.
Friday Afternoon: Intensive Workshop with Margie Lawson – Margie has created the most awesome system for analyzing and editing your own fiction.
Friday Evening: Plotting workshop – This may have been my favorite workshop of the conference. Three wonderful members of GRW showed us three different plotting techniques: collaging, clustering, and storyboarding. Collaging is taking pictures and words from magazines and arranging them on a large piece of paper until you have an idea. This would be great to use during those times when the idea well has run dry. The second method is clustering. Clustering is writing an idea in the middle of a page and webbing out from that idea, never letting your writing utensil stop moving. This is what I do, and it works! The third method is storyboarding and is borrowed from the moviemakers. By drawing pictures of key scenes and writing a short blurb underneath each one, you are able to write and visualize your story.
Saturday Morning Workshop: Deep Edits with Margie Lawson – Margie talked about using rhetoric devices to punch up your fiction.
Saturday Morning Workshop: The Hero’s Journey – This class was based heavily on the book, The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler. It outlined a 12-stage framework that can be used when creating any story.
Saturday Morning Workshop: Why Gone with the Wind Wasn’t Set in Poughkeepsie. (What a great title!) The instructors talked about how sensory details can add to your story and how where you set the story can impact the plot.
Saturday Luncheon: The keynote speaker was Teresa Medieros, one of my all time favorite writers. I don’t remember the exact title of the speech, but I remember that it was really funny.
Saturday Afternoon Workshop: Revisions –The speaker reminded us that the goal is to get published and that it is ok to make changes to your story based on editor’s comments.
Saturday Afternoon Workshop: Backstory – The presenter talked about how information dumps were bad and how to “show” your backstory instead of “tell” your backstory.
Saturday Evening: The Maggies – Moonlight and Magnolias invited unpublished RWA members to submit manuscripts to be judged by agents and editors. On Saturday evening, they held an awards ceremony. It was fun, and I will submit next year.
Sunday Morning: Cold Reads – Two of the most informative hours of the conference because agents and editors gave their unfiltered reaction to query letters, synopsizes, and the first few pages of novels. Their comments were somewhat brutal, but we got insight into the brains of the people that we want to buy our novels and that is priceless.
Next year, I plan to return to M & M and take full advantage of all the opportunities that are offered.
I know that I need to learn more about writing. I know that I will never learn all there is to know about writing. I know that my work will never be perfect.
I just used a rhetoric device called anaphora. Anaphora is emphasizing words by repeating them at the beginning of neighboring clauses; and I discovered it at Moonlight and Magnolias, a writers conference in Atlanta that is put on by the Georgia Romance Writers. I learned so much this weekend.
Friday Morning: Pitch Workshop – The pitch workshop was designed to allow you to practice your pitch before the agent and editor appointments begin.
Friday Afternoon: Intensive Workshop with Margie Lawson – Margie has created the most awesome system for analyzing and editing your own fiction.
Friday Evening: Plotting workshop – This may have been my favorite workshop of the conference. Three wonderful members of GRW showed us three different plotting techniques: collaging, clustering, and storyboarding. Collaging is taking pictures and words from magazines and arranging them on a large piece of paper until you have an idea. This would be great to use during those times when the idea well has run dry. The second method is clustering. Clustering is writing an idea in the middle of a page and webbing out from that idea, never letting your writing utensil stop moving. This is what I do, and it works! The third method is storyboarding and is borrowed from the moviemakers. By drawing pictures of key scenes and writing a short blurb underneath each one, you are able to write and visualize your story.
Saturday Morning Workshop: Deep Edits with Margie Lawson – Margie talked about using rhetoric devices to punch up your fiction.
Saturday Morning Workshop: The Hero’s Journey – This class was based heavily on the book, The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler. It outlined a 12-stage framework that can be used when creating any story.
Saturday Morning Workshop: Why Gone with the Wind Wasn’t Set in Poughkeepsie. (What a great title!) The instructors talked about how sensory details can add to your story and how where you set the story can impact the plot.
Saturday Luncheon: The keynote speaker was Teresa Medieros, one of my all time favorite writers. I don’t remember the exact title of the speech, but I remember that it was really funny.
Saturday Afternoon Workshop: Revisions –The speaker reminded us that the goal is to get published and that it is ok to make changes to your story based on editor’s comments.
Saturday Afternoon Workshop: Backstory – The presenter talked about how information dumps were bad and how to “show” your backstory instead of “tell” your backstory.
Saturday Evening: The Maggies – Moonlight and Magnolias invited unpublished RWA members to submit manuscripts to be judged by agents and editors. On Saturday evening, they held an awards ceremony. It was fun, and I will submit next year.
Sunday Morning: Cold Reads – Two of the most informative hours of the conference because agents and editors gave their unfiltered reaction to query letters, synopsizes, and the first few pages of novels. Their comments were somewhat brutal, but we got insight into the brains of the people that we want to buy our novels and that is priceless.
Next year, I plan to return to M & M and take full advantage of all the opportunities that are offered.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
THE LATEST ADDITION
Meet A New Writer
DEBORAH W. YOHO
Deborah is the Director of Turning Pages (http://www.proliteracy.org), a non-profit program that helps adults improve their reading skills. She serves on the National Governance Council of ProLiteracy, the world's largest literacy organization (http://www.proliteracy.org/). She has been published in Reach Out Columbia and in a number of professional journals related to adult literacy.
DEBORAH W. YOHO
Deborah is the Director of Turning Pages (http://www.proliteracy.org), a non-profit program that helps adults improve their reading skills. She serves on the National Governance Council of ProLiteracy, the world's largest literacy organization (http://www.proliteracy.org/). She has been published in Reach Out Columbia and in a number of professional journals related to adult literacy.
THE LATEST ADDITION
Meet A New Writer
TIEM WILSON
I'm Tiem (pronounced “T.M.”). I am a Children's/Young Adult author, specializing in picture books and middle grade novels. In my other life, I am a lab rat. While I have always enjoyed my career in the field of biology, writing has been a long slumbering passion just waiting to be awakened. Now, my life is like a sponge, soaking up all the sights, sounds, & smells and digging for exciting plots. To add to the excitement, I also host a youth book club. The group offers very fascinating and insighful discussions. Our first book was Heaven by Angela Johnson.
But my life doesn't stop there. As a single mom of two (one boy, one girl - a complete set) I also wear the hat of storyteller. Every Friday I spend the morning reading books with my daughter's class. Their absolute favorite: Precious and the Boo Hag by Patricia McKissack & Onawumi Jean Moss.
And even after all that…I still try to find any unused time to complete at least one page of scrapbooking. Finally finished the “ABC's of a Grandma” scrapbook in under three years. Hooray!!!
LivLuvLaf & Write
P.S. check out my website: http://www.tiemwilson.com/
TIEM WILSON
I'm Tiem (pronounced “T.M.”). I am a Children's/Young Adult author, specializing in picture books and middle grade novels. In my other life, I am a lab rat. While I have always enjoyed my career in the field of biology, writing has been a long slumbering passion just waiting to be awakened. Now, my life is like a sponge, soaking up all the sights, sounds, & smells and digging for exciting plots. To add to the excitement, I also host a youth book club. The group offers very fascinating and insighful discussions. Our first book was Heaven by Angela Johnson.
But my life doesn't stop there. As a single mom of two (one boy, one girl - a complete set) I also wear the hat of storyteller. Every Friday I spend the morning reading books with my daughter's class. Their absolute favorite: Precious and the Boo Hag by Patricia McKissack & Onawumi Jean Moss.
And even after all that…I still try to find any unused time to complete at least one page of scrapbooking. Finally finished the “ABC's of a Grandma” scrapbook in under three years. Hooray!!!
LivLuvLaf & Write
P.S. check out my website: http://www.tiemwilson.com/
Monday, October 6, 2008
My Memoir
By Deborah Wright Yoho
Why would somebody like me want to write a memoir? After all, I don’t have any progeny who might be interested in the details of my life story. Neither am I ready, at age 57, to succumb to the luxury of spending hours in blissful nostalgia for the good ‘ol days.
My good ‘ol days weren’t so great anyway. Yet after forty years, my mind still ponders the significance of just 24 months.
In 1967, I found myself living in the closest proximity to the Vietnam War that was possible for an American of my age and gender. I was sixteen, the daughter of a military career man, a baby boomer whose brothers were slightly too young for the draft. Not that Dad spent any time in Vietnam. Instead we were stationed at a huge Air Force base in the Philippines.
The memories are disturbingly vivid: a roaring flight line clogged 24/7 with screaming jets; the coffins loaded each day onto the C-141 Starlifters; the time I was in the emergency room at the hospital with a North Vietnamese prisoner under heavy guard on the gurney next to me; the nurses who came to our school weekly to line up anyone over 17 they could coax into giving blood; the painful cholera shots we endured every six months.
Most of all, I remember the young, lonely airmen who hung out at the base swimming pool when they were off duty to talk to any American girls willing to listen to them. Eventually, I married one of those airman.
These were the years I learned about sex, death, the power of unquestioned authority, and the disconcerting embarrassment of living in an underdeveloped country. By the time I returned to the States to attend college, I was no longer an American teenager but a citizen of the world.
Perhaps the experience seems worth writing about because I believe this country has never come to terms with the shadow of 50,000 lives squandered in a lost cause. Not only I, but an entire country seems confused, struggling to identify and affirm basic values we once held to be uniquely American. Vietnam was the watershed.
Much has been offered about those days by politicians, retired generals, disillusioned veterans, Hollywood producers and cynical professors on college campuses. What might be learned through the eyes of a 16-year-old girl?
Why would somebody like me want to write a memoir? After all, I don’t have any progeny who might be interested in the details of my life story. Neither am I ready, at age 57, to succumb to the luxury of spending hours in blissful nostalgia for the good ‘ol days.
My good ‘ol days weren’t so great anyway. Yet after forty years, my mind still ponders the significance of just 24 months.
In 1967, I found myself living in the closest proximity to the Vietnam War that was possible for an American of my age and gender. I was sixteen, the daughter of a military career man, a baby boomer whose brothers were slightly too young for the draft. Not that Dad spent any time in Vietnam. Instead we were stationed at a huge Air Force base in the Philippines.
The memories are disturbingly vivid: a roaring flight line clogged 24/7 with screaming jets; the coffins loaded each day onto the C-141 Starlifters; the time I was in the emergency room at the hospital with a North Vietnamese prisoner under heavy guard on the gurney next to me; the nurses who came to our school weekly to line up anyone over 17 they could coax into giving blood; the painful cholera shots we endured every six months.
Most of all, I remember the young, lonely airmen who hung out at the base swimming pool when they were off duty to talk to any American girls willing to listen to them. Eventually, I married one of those airman.
These were the years I learned about sex, death, the power of unquestioned authority, and the disconcerting embarrassment of living in an underdeveloped country. By the time I returned to the States to attend college, I was no longer an American teenager but a citizen of the world.
Perhaps the experience seems worth writing about because I believe this country has never come to terms with the shadow of 50,000 lives squandered in a lost cause. Not only I, but an entire country seems confused, struggling to identify and affirm basic values we once held to be uniquely American. Vietnam was the watershed.
Much has been offered about those days by politicians, retired generals, disillusioned veterans, Hollywood producers and cynical professors on college campuses. What might be learned through the eyes of a 16-year-old girl?
Sunday, September 28, 2008
National Novel Writing Month
By Vikki Perry
Can you write a 50,000 word novel in a single month?
Last November, I did.
I participated in the ninth annual National Novel Writing Month (otherwise known as Nanowrimo) for the first time. Nanowrimo’s mix of peer support, “let’s finish it” philosophy, and my own desire to succeed allowed me to complete a 52,000 word novel in 30 days.
Yea!
You see, even though I’ve written short stories and poems galore, the ability to finish a novel eluded me. Nanowrimo changed that. I can now call myself a novelist. Yea again!
Nanowrimo was a learning experience. The “let’s finish it” philosophy is revolutionary to a writer like me who worries about getting each word right the first time around.
Here are some tips to having a successful Nanowrimo:
Some of the events that we are planning:
For more information on the National Novel Writing Month, visit www.nanowrimo.org. The boards will open up on October 1. If you have questions, email me at purpleprose78@gmail.com. I hope that some of you guys will join us.
Can you write a 50,000 word novel in a single month?
Last November, I did.
I participated in the ninth annual National Novel Writing Month (otherwise known as Nanowrimo) for the first time. Nanowrimo’s mix of peer support, “let’s finish it” philosophy, and my own desire to succeed allowed me to complete a 52,000 word novel in 30 days.
Yea!
You see, even though I’ve written short stories and poems galore, the ability to finish a novel eluded me. Nanowrimo changed that. I can now call myself a novelist. Yea again!
Nanowrimo was a learning experience. The “let’s finish it” philosophy is revolutionary to a writer like me who worries about getting each word right the first time around.
Here are some tips to having a successful Nanowrimo:
- Turn off the internal editor. Do not worry about making it perfect. Get it down on paper now. You can fix it next month.
- Write. Do not read over what you’ve already written. Look over the last sentence or two (without changing anything) to get a feel for where you stopped and then start writing again.
- If you get stuck, stop writing that scene and move on to another scene. One of my fellow participants titled one of her chapters “Chapter 4 – A chapter in which the author has no idea what happens.” She moved on to Chapter 5 and finished the book.
- Affiliate with your region if you have one and participate in the group activities. Last year, the Columbia, SC region held a plotting bash, a kickoff, several write-ins, a lock-in (at my house), and a thank-god-it's-over party. We held each other accountable, and we also had lots of fun!
Some of the events that we are planning:
- Noveling 101 – (October) On the basic structure of novels and how to use this structure when writing.
- Creativity Kicker – (October) Exercises to kickstart our creativity and get ready to write.
- Plotting Bash – (October) Different ways that we can plot out our novels and then talking about our ideas. Both Plotters and Pantsers (those who write by the seat of their pants) are welcome!
- Kickoff – (November 1) We’ll have a few word wars and we’ll socialize.
- Write-ins – (November) Held in various places all over the Columbia area at various times. Last year, we held them at the IHOP in Lexington, the Richland County main library, the USC campus, and the Sandhills mall. The area message boards on www.nanowrimo.org provide information throughout the month of November.
- Lock-in – (November) A tremendous success last year. For one whole day (from 8:00 am until midnight), we “locked” ourselves in and wrote. Some participants wrote over 10,000 words.
- Thank-God-It’s-Over Party – (early December) The final event of Nano. We’ll celebrate the success of completing 50,000 word novels.
For more information on the National Novel Writing Month, visit www.nanowrimo.org. The boards will open up on October 1. If you have questions, email me at purpleprose78@gmail.com. I hope that some of you guys will join us.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
How Do You Find the Time to Write?
By Tiem Wilson
You’ve probably heard the saying, “Writers write.” Or, you’ve heard the advice that you should write everyday. Well, how do you find time to do that? Take a schoolteacher, for example. After teaching three or four classes a day and then grading homework, exams, etc., where is the time to flesh out the next chapter of your thriller? Suppose you live in a large city with a sixty-minute commute to work. You are fighting traffic to and fro (struggling with road rage), finally get home and the kids are screaming for attention. After helping the kids with their homework and spending quality time with the spouse, how much character development can you get through before falling asleep atop the keyboard?
I have tried several time management tips to become more organized. At first, I set aside time in the mornings. I attempted to awake before the rest of the house to give myself some quiet, uninterrupted time at the computer. The problem with this was, I’m not a morning person. Getting out of bed that early consumed the energy I needed to focus on my writing. So, I switched to writing at night.
I waited until the kids were in bed and the house was quiet again. You can already tell how that worked out, right? After homework, after-school activities, cooking dinner, and preparing for the next workday, I was too exhausted to concentrate.
I tried writing while traveling on a couple of family vacations this summer. I figured a six-hour drive to Disney World would yield some great make-up time. Unfortunately, I suffered from motion sickness. Needless to say, a long ride in the backseat was not pleasant for me. It definitely was not the creative juices that were flowing!
My next attempt was writing during my lunch hour. This worked a little better because I was able to focus enough to flesh out maybe a page or two, at the most. A downside was the limited time frame itself. Just when I was on a roll and my fingers were flying across the keyboard, “the bell rings.” Creativity is interrupted, and it's not always easy to pick up again the next day.
So, how do I find the time to write? I use a combination of timesaving techniques. During the commute between dropping the kids off to school and pulling into a parking space at work, I sometimes record my thoughts with a mini recorder. I listen to it during a break to keep the idea fresh in my head for when I sit down during lunch. I also keep a small notebook with me at all times. I use it to jot down any brainstorming ideas as I’m waiting for the kids during their extra-curricular activities. Before, I would use the children’s reading time to fold laundry. Now, I use it to sneak in some writing. Yes, the clothes are piling higher. But, I feel better sacrificing the chores at night for a little extra writing time. Any slice of time is gobbled up in the name of fiction.
You’ve probably heard the saying, “Writers write.” Or, you’ve heard the advice that you should write everyday. Well, how do you find time to do that? Take a schoolteacher, for example. After teaching three or four classes a day and then grading homework, exams, etc., where is the time to flesh out the next chapter of your thriller? Suppose you live in a large city with a sixty-minute commute to work. You are fighting traffic to and fro (struggling with road rage), finally get home and the kids are screaming for attention. After helping the kids with their homework and spending quality time with the spouse, how much character development can you get through before falling asleep atop the keyboard?
I have tried several time management tips to become more organized. At first, I set aside time in the mornings. I attempted to awake before the rest of the house to give myself some quiet, uninterrupted time at the computer. The problem with this was, I’m not a morning person. Getting out of bed that early consumed the energy I needed to focus on my writing. So, I switched to writing at night.
I waited until the kids were in bed and the house was quiet again. You can already tell how that worked out, right? After homework, after-school activities, cooking dinner, and preparing for the next workday, I was too exhausted to concentrate.
I tried writing while traveling on a couple of family vacations this summer. I figured a six-hour drive to Disney World would yield some great make-up time. Unfortunately, I suffered from motion sickness. Needless to say, a long ride in the backseat was not pleasant for me. It definitely was not the creative juices that were flowing!
My next attempt was writing during my lunch hour. This worked a little better because I was able to focus enough to flesh out maybe a page or two, at the most. A downside was the limited time frame itself. Just when I was on a roll and my fingers were flying across the keyboard, “the bell rings.” Creativity is interrupted, and it's not always easy to pick up again the next day.
So, how do I find the time to write? I use a combination of timesaving techniques. During the commute between dropping the kids off to school and pulling into a parking space at work, I sometimes record my thoughts with a mini recorder. I listen to it during a break to keep the idea fresh in my head for when I sit down during lunch. I also keep a small notebook with me at all times. I use it to jot down any brainstorming ideas as I’m waiting for the kids during their extra-curricular activities. Before, I would use the children’s reading time to fold laundry. Now, I use it to sneak in some writing. Yes, the clothes are piling higher. But, I feel better sacrificing the chores at night for a little extra writing time. Any slice of time is gobbled up in the name of fiction.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Eat Spicy Food Before Going to Bed
And 7 Other Ways to Work on a Story
When You Aren’t Actually Writing
by Janie Kronk
Don’t call it procrastination.
We read stories, and we write stories. Even when we aren’t technically at work, we are busy watching, noticing, and remembering details of the world around us. We are busy enjoying elements of story in everyday life. Often these elements creep up in our own work over time.
Jack Kerouac’s Book of Dreams is exactly what it sounds like -- a record of each night’s dreams, meticulously recorded for mood and detail. A table in the front of the book lists the characters from his dreams, alongside the names of characters in The Dharma Bums, On the Road, and other works that originated from these nocturnal personas.
Aside from enjoying some spicy food at bedtime and keeping a pen handy to record the vivid dreams that ensue, here are my seven favorite ventures (mostly) unrelated to writing that help me better understand the art of storytelling:
1) TAKE AN ACTING CLASS (backstory, character)
This activity encourages thinking about a character’s objectives and motivations; it promotes thinking with your body, to explore a character’s actions and expressions
2) TALK TO PEOPLE IN THE STREETS (character)
Everyone has a story to tell: the homeless woman who believes she was used by the government for 25 years; the guy from Chicago who has been driving in circles for hours and can’t seem to find the museum; the old man walking a pot-bellied pig through the park, hoping to be noticed.
3) MAKE THINGS (detail, craft)
Creativity yields creativity. Working in a visual medium is another way to stretch the right side of your brain. Visual arts communicate ideas using many of the same devices found in the writer’s toolbox: metaphor, evocative details, pattern and motif, form and structure.
4) READ WRITING LIFE STORIES by Bill Roorbach (remedies for writer’s block)
Wait…wasn’t this supposed to be a list of activities unrelated to reading and writing? Several exercises in this book actually fit that criteria: drawing maps, making diagrams, and other unconventional ways of finding stories which are important to us.
5) HEAR DAVID SEDARIS SPEAK (voice)
Simply put, it’s a treat. And while on the topic of stories being read and told aloud, I highly recommend the following: thisamericanlife.org, themoth.org, storycorps.net. Listen enough and you may unleash an inner narrator that travels with you throughout your day.
6) DO ANYTHING STRESSFUL WITH YOUR FAMILY (conflict, resolution)
I’m being facetious, yes. Still, any time you find yourself a little too close for comfort, just consider yourself an impartial observer of human behavior.
7) TRAVEL (plot, setting)
Some sources say that all stories adhere to one of seven basic plots. Other sources say there are ten. Even others say, “There are two basic plots: A man goes on a journey… or A stranger comes to town…” So if you think about it, travel plans are stories waiting to happen. The journey can take on many forms. A friend of mine applied to live in a Mennonite boarding house outside Manhattan, even though she is a Catholic-raised agnostic from Pittsburgh. Another friend once ran with the bulls in Pamplona.
In the end, it is curiosity--about people, places, and experiences--that is the crux of what storytelling is all about. Why else would we keep turning the pages?
When You Aren’t Actually Writing
by Janie Kronk
Don’t call it procrastination.
We read stories, and we write stories. Even when we aren’t technically at work, we are busy watching, noticing, and remembering details of the world around us. We are busy enjoying elements of story in everyday life. Often these elements creep up in our own work over time.
Jack Kerouac’s Book of Dreams is exactly what it sounds like -- a record of each night’s dreams, meticulously recorded for mood and detail. A table in the front of the book lists the characters from his dreams, alongside the names of characters in The Dharma Bums, On the Road, and other works that originated from these nocturnal personas.
Aside from enjoying some spicy food at bedtime and keeping a pen handy to record the vivid dreams that ensue, here are my seven favorite ventures (mostly) unrelated to writing that help me better understand the art of storytelling:
1) TAKE AN ACTING CLASS (backstory, character)
This activity encourages thinking about a character’s objectives and motivations; it promotes thinking with your body, to explore a character’s actions and expressions
2) TALK TO PEOPLE IN THE STREETS (character)
Everyone has a story to tell: the homeless woman who believes she was used by the government for 25 years; the guy from Chicago who has been driving in circles for hours and can’t seem to find the museum; the old man walking a pot-bellied pig through the park, hoping to be noticed.
3) MAKE THINGS (detail, craft)
Creativity yields creativity. Working in a visual medium is another way to stretch the right side of your brain. Visual arts communicate ideas using many of the same devices found in the writer’s toolbox: metaphor, evocative details, pattern and motif, form and structure.
4) READ WRITING LIFE STORIES by Bill Roorbach (remedies for writer’s block)
Wait…wasn’t this supposed to be a list of activities unrelated to reading and writing? Several exercises in this book actually fit that criteria: drawing maps, making diagrams, and other unconventional ways of finding stories which are important to us.
5) HEAR DAVID SEDARIS SPEAK (voice)
Simply put, it’s a treat. And while on the topic of stories being read and told aloud, I highly recommend the following: thisamericanlife.org, themoth.org, storycorps.net. Listen enough and you may unleash an inner narrator that travels with you throughout your day.
6) DO ANYTHING STRESSFUL WITH YOUR FAMILY (conflict, resolution)
I’m being facetious, yes. Still, any time you find yourself a little too close for comfort, just consider yourself an impartial observer of human behavior.
7) TRAVEL (plot, setting)
Some sources say that all stories adhere to one of seven basic plots. Other sources say there are ten. Even others say, “There are two basic plots: A man goes on a journey… or A stranger comes to town…” So if you think about it, travel plans are stories waiting to happen. The journey can take on many forms. A friend of mine applied to live in a Mennonite boarding house outside Manhattan, even though she is a Catholic-raised agnostic from Pittsburgh. Another friend once ran with the bulls in Pamplona.
In the end, it is curiosity--about people, places, and experiences--that is the crux of what storytelling is all about. Why else would we keep turning the pages?
Sunday, September 7, 2008
The History of a 5,000-Word Story
by Ilmars Birznieks
CadillacCicatrix is a semi-annual journal for writers, poets, and artists.
My story, The Long Journey to Freedom (over 5000 words), just happened to have the kind of plot the editor was looking for--adaptation.
The Long Journey to Freedom was born from my first novel, Baltic Amber, that's been gathering dust on the shelf since 1987.
The story tells the plight of a young American woman who was unjustly accused of espionage in communist Hungary and sentenced to hard labor in Siberia. I describe her return from the Gulag to East Germany.
If you want to read the whole story, all you have to do is click www. CadillacCicatrix. com or .org on the Internet and you will have it in the features.
CadillacCicatrix is a semi-annual journal for writers, poets, and artists.
My story, The Long Journey to Freedom (over 5000 words), just happened to have the kind of plot the editor was looking for--adaptation.
The Long Journey to Freedom was born from my first novel, Baltic Amber, that's been gathering dust on the shelf since 1987.
The story tells the plight of a young American woman who was unjustly accused of espionage in communist Hungary and sentenced to hard labor in Siberia. I describe her return from the Gulag to East Germany.
If you want to read the whole story, all you have to do is click www. CadillacCicatrix. com or .org on the Internet and you will have it in the features.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
BOOK NOTES
by DiAna DiAna
Topic
I try to write about something I am familiar with. It makes research much easier. My first book was about how I started doing AIDS education in my beauty salon. I was the first hairstylist to do outreach on what they call a “grassroots level.” I tried to make it informative by giving advice on how to replicate my prevention programs. I tried to entertain people at the same time with how my work in the salon crossed over to educating people.
Motivation
I was at a conference years ago and had done interviews on TV and radio and had been misquoted many times. I met a woman who said that I should tell my own story instead of having reporters and interviewers do their take on it. She went on to say that many times history was one person’s take on what happened, and that was all that people had to go on. I thought about it for a long time and, after reading another incorrect story about my work, started to write.
Process
I purchased an ibook computer so I could take it on the road with me and I added to the story as things unfolded. It took me eight years to write the book. Every time I thought I had an ending something in the world of AIDS would unfold and pull me back into it.
At the time, I worked in my salon and did my writing on weekends or at night, usually after 12:00 am, but not after 2:00 am. I would start to get a little sleepy by then.
End Result
Looking for a publisher for a few years was getting annoying, so I looked into self-publishing. My biggest problem was that the company charged me to professionally edit my work and then announced that they had a hard time translating from my ibook to their PC. I did not see that as my problem after paying them $1,000.00. The book got published, but there were errors in it. I am not sure how to warn people about this process, but editing is just as important as the book itself. The company was bought out and went out of business.
If you're interested in writing, I suggest that you find something that is of interest to you and enjoy what you write about.
Topic
I try to write about something I am familiar with. It makes research much easier. My first book was about how I started doing AIDS education in my beauty salon. I was the first hairstylist to do outreach on what they call a “grassroots level.” I tried to make it informative by giving advice on how to replicate my prevention programs. I tried to entertain people at the same time with how my work in the salon crossed over to educating people.
Motivation
I was at a conference years ago and had done interviews on TV and radio and had been misquoted many times. I met a woman who said that I should tell my own story instead of having reporters and interviewers do their take on it. She went on to say that many times history was one person’s take on what happened, and that was all that people had to go on. I thought about it for a long time and, after reading another incorrect story about my work, started to write.
Process
I purchased an ibook computer so I could take it on the road with me and I added to the story as things unfolded. It took me eight years to write the book. Every time I thought I had an ending something in the world of AIDS would unfold and pull me back into it.
At the time, I worked in my salon and did my writing on weekends or at night, usually after 12:00 am, but not after 2:00 am. I would start to get a little sleepy by then.
End Result
Looking for a publisher for a few years was getting annoying, so I looked into self-publishing. My biggest problem was that the company charged me to professionally edit my work and then announced that they had a hard time translating from my ibook to their PC. I did not see that as my problem after paying them $1,000.00. The book got published, but there were errors in it. I am not sure how to warn people about this process, but editing is just as important as the book itself. The company was bought out and went out of business.
If you're interested in writing, I suggest that you find something that is of interest to you and enjoy what you write about.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Thoughts on Writing
By Alex Raley
Faced with the frustrations of writing, I ask myself, "Why write?" Does anyone care that I write; aren't there legions who write better; is there anything new to say; shouldn't craft be perfected before writing is attempted; and what will become of all those printed words anyway? Shouldn't trees be saved and this nonsense of words on paper be stopped? The simple answer is that I cannot stop. My writing is not an addiction. Writing is my sustenance. I write to sustain life, to assure myself that I am here, that something in my life has meaning, if only for me.
My writing comes primarily from my own experiences or observed experiences, though one soon learns that writing stalls if it only retells the facts. Even memoirs need the emotional impact of the writer's imagination in pulling facts together in an interesting, cohesive manner. This is clearly demonstrated in Antoine de Saint-Exupery's Wind, Sand and Stars and Francine du Plessix Gray's Them. These authors' imaginations construct such powerful words that we flip pages as much for the writing as for the story.
Fictional writing is not so much a retelling of experiences as it is the creative reconstruction of experiences, often experiences not related in any way. Recently, I began a story with a prompt given to workshop participants. The prompt related to nothing other than the dialogue that arose from working it out. Later I tied the prompt dialogue to a fictional situation, one all of us have experienced or witnessed many times, in which the protagonist angers his wife by flirting with a beautiful female at a party.
When the wife reacts negatively, the protagonist decides he will do the walk if he is going to get all the talk, but then I was stuck. Where would the story go from that point? A visit with friends caused me to remember a situation in which the wife of a guy we knew left him for a woman. So I finished my story by having the beautiful girl take off with the protagonist's best friend's wife. In some manner, each element of the story is from my experiences. I tried to bring them together in a new way.
Writing poetry comes from my love of word sounds. From the time I was old enough to remember, there has been a word of nonsense syllables that rings in my ears. The word, if it is a word, seems to have no origin, except in my head, but I love the sounds. They excite me.
Poetry wants to clip along with interesting sounds, creating rhythms and cadences of their own, but poetry also wants to speak to that indefinable something deep within us that makes us who we are. I struggle to bring these elements together, most often without success, but the need for sustenance is strong. I cannot stop writing.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
A Joke
From Ilmars Birnieks
Why do agents whine and complain about the volume of queries they receive? It's their work. If they didn't receive any, they would be out of work.
Why do agents whine and complain about the volume of queries they receive? It's their work. If they didn't receive any, they would be out of work.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Virtual Pitch Fest
by Laura Valtorta
People who have a finished screenplay should try out Virtual Pitch Fest. It's a way to send your pitches (2-3 paragraphs about the screenplay) to producers in Hollywood and New York. Having done this for about 4 months, I can testify that it works, and it's legitimate. The writer chooses her target producers, agents, or managers from a list describing who they are and what they want to read. I advise writers to buy the Hollywood Creative Directory to double check who these people are. In about 3-5 days the writer gets a response. "No, thanks," or "Yes, email me the screenplay right away!" From about 30 pitches I have sent in, 12 or so asked to read the entire screenplay. Each pitch costs about $10. This pitching is fun and it's fast, and it beats flying to LA to make your pitches. Well, maybe not.
People who have a finished screenplay should try out Virtual Pitch Fest. It's a way to send your pitches (2-3 paragraphs about the screenplay) to producers in Hollywood and New York. Having done this for about 4 months, I can testify that it works, and it's legitimate. The writer chooses her target producers, agents, or managers from a list describing who they are and what they want to read. I advise writers to buy the Hollywood Creative Directory to double check who these people are. In about 3-5 days the writer gets a response. "No, thanks," or "Yes, email me the screenplay right away!" From about 30 pitches I have sent in, 12 or so asked to read the entire screenplay. Each pitch costs about $10. This pitching is fun and it's fast, and it beats flying to LA to make your pitches. Well, maybe not.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
SELF-PROCLAIMED WRITER
by Bonnie Stanard
Only in the last several years have I thought of myself as a writer. Somehow it always seemed pretentious to admit to writing, especially in the fields of fiction and poetry. In the past when working with newspapers or magazines (albeit small, regional ones), I could own up to being an editor—after all, my name was printed on the masthead. But as a writer, I’ve yet to see a book with my name as author.
Apart from that, years ago I read Tombee, the diary of Thomas Chaplin, who inherited a plantation on St. Helena Island in the 1840s. He described the crops he planted, his slaves and their work, talked of disputes with his sickly wife, castigated himself for drinking too much, and grieved over the death of his young daughter to marsh fever. The tone and detail make it apparent that he wrote the diary for himself. Theodore Rosengarten, who edited Tombee, provides an introduction that goes into the nooks and crannies of Chaplin’s life.
About five years ago, I reread Tombee. More recently, I went to Beaufort and found the plantation house, now privately owned. Looking on it and the landscape that was once Chaplin’s fields where his slaves tilled the soil was a near religious experience. Thomas Chaplin wasn’t a literary man and was undistinguished in his day. Yet he lives on in his house. His day-to-day existence persists in his diary. That it survived the War and was saved from oblivion seems more than serendipity. Maybe it was fate. I can’t seem to escape the notion that his fate and mine are connected some way. So I’m writing a story about a plantation owner on St. Helena Island, one who would have known Thomas Chaplin.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Writers
By Ginny Padgett
Recently I was asked, “Who is your favorite writer?”
“William Faulkner,” was my quick, word-association answer. I do think that is always the most accurate answer.
Afterwards, I asked myself if that answer was really accurate. After a brief mental review I came up with my three favorite authors: William Faulkner, Lillian Hellman and John Cheever.
Then I asked myself if that list was accurate. (I guess I talk to myself quite a lot!) After all, it had been quite a while since I had read any of them. So I embarked on a reading adventure.
I began with what I thought to be my all-time favorite book by my all-time favorite writer, Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury. Yes, it still tops my list. His writing and characters are as rich and fecund as the Mississippi land he immortalized.
I read The Sound and the Fury for the first time in my late teens. It was the experience that dropped me to my knees to worship at the feet of the novelist and his calling. The skill of transporting a reader through space and time to that of the writer’s choosing via a bit of ink and moldy paper seemed like alchemy. That first reading impelled me toward writing.
Next I read Pentimento: A Book of Portraits, by renowned playwright Lillian Hellman. Superb! Probably my all-time favorite passage comes from this book. It’s a description of what the word pentimento means, which is an artist’s alteration in a painting. If you’re not familiar with this beautiful language, I urge you to seek out this book to see for yourself what a prose poet Hellman is!
Then, I read all of John Cheever’s short stories, for which he is most famous. I began with a slim volume entitled Thirteen Uncollected Stories by John Cheever. I discovered the reason they had remained uncollected for so long! I next launched into The Stories of John Cheever, a 700-page tome of beautifully crafted, laser-sharp commentaries of post-WWII middle-class America.
The adage about the power of the pen is as true as ever. In my opinion, the exigency to write should be the eighth addition to Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Seven Basic Needs. Man has been compelled to record his experiences and their impact on the world around him since prehistoric times. Writing is what makes us human; that’s why we have opposable thumbs, for goodness sake…to hold a writing tool!
Writers hold up a mirror for self-examination. Writers grind the lens to sharpen our myopic vision. Writers have the power to change lives. Writers are gods among mortals.
So, now I’ll ask the question of you, “Who is your favorite writer?”
Recently I was asked, “Who is your favorite writer?”
“William Faulkner,” was my quick, word-association answer. I do think that is always the most accurate answer.
Afterwards, I asked myself if that answer was really accurate. After a brief mental review I came up with my three favorite authors: William Faulkner, Lillian Hellman and John Cheever.
Then I asked myself if that list was accurate. (I guess I talk to myself quite a lot!) After all, it had been quite a while since I had read any of them. So I embarked on a reading adventure.
I began with what I thought to be my all-time favorite book by my all-time favorite writer, Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury. Yes, it still tops my list. His writing and characters are as rich and fecund as the Mississippi land he immortalized.
I read The Sound and the Fury for the first time in my late teens. It was the experience that dropped me to my knees to worship at the feet of the novelist and his calling. The skill of transporting a reader through space and time to that of the writer’s choosing via a bit of ink and moldy paper seemed like alchemy. That first reading impelled me toward writing.
Next I read Pentimento: A Book of Portraits, by renowned playwright Lillian Hellman. Superb! Probably my all-time favorite passage comes from this book. It’s a description of what the word pentimento means, which is an artist’s alteration in a painting. If you’re not familiar with this beautiful language, I urge you to seek out this book to see for yourself what a prose poet Hellman is!
Then, I read all of John Cheever’s short stories, for which he is most famous. I began with a slim volume entitled Thirteen Uncollected Stories by John Cheever. I discovered the reason they had remained uncollected for so long! I next launched into The Stories of John Cheever, a 700-page tome of beautifully crafted, laser-sharp commentaries of post-WWII middle-class America.
The adage about the power of the pen is as true as ever. In my opinion, the exigency to write should be the eighth addition to Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Seven Basic Needs. Man has been compelled to record his experiences and their impact on the world around him since prehistoric times. Writing is what makes us human; that’s why we have opposable thumbs, for goodness sake…to hold a writing tool!
Writers hold up a mirror for self-examination. Writers grind the lens to sharpen our myopic vision. Writers have the power to change lives. Writers are gods among mortals.
So, now I’ll ask the question of you, “Who is your favorite writer?”
Sunday, July 20, 2008
On Being a Hack
By Vikki Perry
I’m a hack: a writer of poorly formed sentences, underdeveloped characters, and plots that make very little, if any, sense. I admit it and accept it. This is a problem I face each time I put pen to paper or open a document on my laptop.
What does it mean to be a hack? I think being a hack is a little like being an addict--you can’t do anything about it until you admit you have a problem. Unfortunately, there are no “Hacks Anonymous” groups to help writers overcome this problem. The good news is that there are some things a writer can do to conquer this issue.
Write and revise. Accept yourself as you are, and let yourself write a really bad first draft. Spending a lot of time trying to write a perfect first draft is counterproductive for me. I find that I never complete anything if I worry about getting it right the first time around. Revision is the place where I fix the bad writing. I bet it will work for you, too.
Read books about craft. There are many books on craft out there and each one has a nugget or two of wisdom to impart. I’ve learned things from those books that I would have never learned on my own.
Join a professional organization. I joined RWA (Romance Writers of America) back in March, but if you’re not a romance writer, there is probably another organization out there for you. RWA offers online courses on craft and a monthly seminar at their meetings. I’m sure other professional organizations offer similar things.
Join a critique group. Last, but certainly not least, join a critique group like the South Carolina Writers Workshop. I have learned so much from bringing my work to be critiqued and from listening to others being critiqued. Everybody in the group brings something different to the table, and I’ve found the diverse opinions to be valuable when trying to improve my own writing.
What do you guys do to improve your writing?
I’m a hack: a writer of poorly formed sentences, underdeveloped characters, and plots that make very little, if any, sense. I admit it and accept it. This is a problem I face each time I put pen to paper or open a document on my laptop.
What does it mean to be a hack? I think being a hack is a little like being an addict--you can’t do anything about it until you admit you have a problem. Unfortunately, there are no “Hacks Anonymous” groups to help writers overcome this problem. The good news is that there are some things a writer can do to conquer this issue.
Write and revise. Accept yourself as you are, and let yourself write a really bad first draft. Spending a lot of time trying to write a perfect first draft is counterproductive for me. I find that I never complete anything if I worry about getting it right the first time around. Revision is the place where I fix the bad writing. I bet it will work for you, too.
Read books about craft. There are many books on craft out there and each one has a nugget or two of wisdom to impart. I’ve learned things from those books that I would have never learned on my own.
Join a professional organization. I joined RWA (Romance Writers of America) back in March, but if you’re not a romance writer, there is probably another organization out there for you. RWA offers online courses on craft and a monthly seminar at their meetings. I’m sure other professional organizations offer similar things.
Join a critique group. Last, but certainly not least, join a critique group like the South Carolina Writers Workshop. I have learned so much from bringing my work to be critiqued and from listening to others being critiqued. Everybody in the group brings something different to the table, and I’ve found the diverse opinions to be valuable when trying to improve my own writing.
What do you guys do to improve your writing?
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Who Am I to Write Fiction?
By Mike Long
Columbia II Writers Workshop
I don't think I've ever felt that just anyone could write fiction. It seemed to me (still does) that a writer should have impeccable credentials to be taken seriously, either through training or experience. Therefore, an English professor running a creative writing course has a shot, but so does an ex-detective, even if he isn't as polished or articulate as the academician, and especially if he'd been involved in a few sensational cases.
Likewise, survivors of multiple marriages, shipwrecks, combat, and mind-altering drugs might be able to write well about love, hopelessness, fear and science fiction--not necessarily in that order. A twenty-five year old certified public accountant from East Bayonne, N.J., however, is probably going to struggle doing a bi-racial love triangle in Savannah in the 1870s, especially if he flunked U.S. history and never traveled. The same CPA easily could have a runaway hit on growing up on the fringe of The Mob. The lesson seems to be that drawing on one's own experiences is a step in the right direction.
That being the case, what the heck is a South Carolina stockbroker doing writing about Confederate soldiers going home to Texas? I'm not sure. Sometimes I feel like that CPA, and wonder if I will be taken seriously. On the other hand, I don't feel that I ever had much choice about writing this. You see, I'm a history buff, a gun collector, and I spent a couple of years in Vietnam. This started when I began to fantasize about what weapons I'd have carried if I'd lived in the 1860s, and then wondered what would have caused me to upgrade as the technology changed, and then figured how I could have afforded the upgrades. As possibilities presented themselves at all the wrong times, I found myself jotting down notes while driving, or at two in the morning, or, more often, at six a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. As it became more than a gun book, it really "cooked," and I finished it, 400 pages double-spaced, in about six months.
Afterward, I bought books on writing fiction, joined the South Carolina Writers Workshop, and have spent the last year polishing it and reading form reject letters from agents. One of the "How To" books suggested paying for a formal editorial review, so I contracted with an editor in Charleston, S.C. For about one penny per word, the editor allegedly cleans up your grammar/spelling and points up your manuscript's strengths and weaknesses. My review isn't finished, but in the meantime my editor has been hired as the acquisitions editor for a small publisher in Charleston. She's asked if she can "submit" my manuscript to the publisher for possible publication in 2009, and of course I agreed.
More recently, she said the publisher "loved the premise" but has not read the manuscript, and that if it's accepted, I'll need an agent (the publisher will help with that), and I'll have to agree to a book-signing tour.
So, I still don't know if I'm being taken seriously. That line, "loved the premise," appears in several form letter rejection notices.
Guess I'll keep my day job.
Columbia II Writers Workshop
I don't think I've ever felt that just anyone could write fiction. It seemed to me (still does) that a writer should have impeccable credentials to be taken seriously, either through training or experience. Therefore, an English professor running a creative writing course has a shot, but so does an ex-detective, even if he isn't as polished or articulate as the academician, and especially if he'd been involved in a few sensational cases.
Likewise, survivors of multiple marriages, shipwrecks, combat, and mind-altering drugs might be able to write well about love, hopelessness, fear and science fiction--not necessarily in that order. A twenty-five year old certified public accountant from East Bayonne, N.J., however, is probably going to struggle doing a bi-racial love triangle in Savannah in the 1870s, especially if he flunked U.S. history and never traveled. The same CPA easily could have a runaway hit on growing up on the fringe of The Mob. The lesson seems to be that drawing on one's own experiences is a step in the right direction.
That being the case, what the heck is a South Carolina stockbroker doing writing about Confederate soldiers going home to Texas? I'm not sure. Sometimes I feel like that CPA, and wonder if I will be taken seriously. On the other hand, I don't feel that I ever had much choice about writing this. You see, I'm a history buff, a gun collector, and I spent a couple of years in Vietnam. This started when I began to fantasize about what weapons I'd have carried if I'd lived in the 1860s, and then wondered what would have caused me to upgrade as the technology changed, and then figured how I could have afforded the upgrades. As possibilities presented themselves at all the wrong times, I found myself jotting down notes while driving, or at two in the morning, or, more often, at six a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. As it became more than a gun book, it really "cooked," and I finished it, 400 pages double-spaced, in about six months.
Afterward, I bought books on writing fiction, joined the South Carolina Writers Workshop, and have spent the last year polishing it and reading form reject letters from agents. One of the "How To" books suggested paying for a formal editorial review, so I contracted with an editor in Charleston, S.C. For about one penny per word, the editor allegedly cleans up your grammar/spelling and points up your manuscript's strengths and weaknesses. My review isn't finished, but in the meantime my editor has been hired as the acquisitions editor for a small publisher in Charleston. She's asked if she can "submit" my manuscript to the publisher for possible publication in 2009, and of course I agreed.
More recently, she said the publisher "loved the premise" but has not read the manuscript, and that if it's accepted, I'll need an agent (the publisher will help with that), and I'll have to agree to a book-signing tour.
So, I still don't know if I'm being taken seriously. That line, "loved the premise," appears in several form letter rejection notices.
Guess I'll keep my day job.
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