The Confident Writer

By Mayowa Atte

Late at night, when sleep refuses my entreaties, I ask myself; what must I do to write the Truth? What must I do to write it well, to have it clench my reader’s heart in its fist and pump horror, laugher, lust, love, sorrow and joy within? The answer never comes. In the morning, I write.

Then there are other nights, when I am sure that I am a hack and a copycat. I am sure readers will pee themselves in laughter at my feeble prose. In the morning, I write.

Confidence, it is a writer’s secret weapon.

But how do we build confidence? By writing the right story and by putting in the work.

The right story always nags a writer, whispers to the writer at night, pinches the writer during meetings and dates until the writer writes it down. When a writer is writing this story, the writer can be confident in his/her creativity. This story is yours and yours alone, no one else can write it like you can. The words will come.

The other way to gain confidence is to put in the work. When a writer has studied the craft, has labored before the empty page and sacrificed free time for the story, the writer can be confident in his/her finished work. When a writer puts everything into a story, it is more than just words on a page. It is life.

So when doubt creeps into our hearts, confidence beats it back. When the empty page tries to stay empty, confidence fills it with words. When our writing is dull, confidence helps us break the rules and achieve the omnipotent power of voice. When a critique hurts, confidence soothes us. When another rejection crashes into our inbox, confidence makes us send out two query letters in its place.

We are confident because we are writing the right stories, because we put everything into them and hold nothing back.

Writer's Paradise

By Tiem Wilson

The school year is coming to an end. The kids are going to Grandma’s for the ENTIRE summer vacation. What shall I do with myself? WRITE, WRITE, WRITE!!!

There will be no kids to yank out of bed and hustle to the bathroom. Instead, I can sit at the table to sip coffee from my SC Writers’ Workshop mug. The travel mug can stay in the cupboard. No dog in need of a morning walk. I can sit with the laptop out on the patio. No inhaling breakfast while packing lunches. I can digest the motives for the antagonist’s behavior. No racing traffic to beat the tardy bell. I can cruise through the history of why my character resents her mother. No homework to check. I can study the landscape of the hilltop my character sits upon when trying to unwind.

I am so excited to get started, I can hardly wait. I will begin the very first week the kids are gone. Well, first I need to use this opportunity to clean the bedrooms, professionally clean the carpets and maybe touch up the walls with fresh paint. I’ll get that out of the way first. Then I can focus solely on my writing.

Now that I’m thinking of it, I might as well put down the new tiles in the kitchen. With no distractions, it should only take a couple of days. New plan: clean the kids’ rooms, paint, lay new tiles… all done in one week. That’s still nine weeks left dedicated all to writing.

Come to think of it, I did promise myself to finish that scrapbook. No problem. I can finish the scrapbook in a week and still have eight weeks left. This is going to be the best summer ever. I will get so much done… housework, scrapbooking, and most important, writing.

I now have my routine planned out completely. One week will be spring cleaning and redecorating. Another week is dedicated to serious scrapbook time. One week will be late hours at work to finish up some of those projects early and free up some writing time for later. Another week is for family vacation. Don’t worry… I’m taking the laptop. (smiles) That’s still six good weeks of writing. Not bad, right?

I have it all laid out now. The daily routine will be to start with a cup of Joe, using the time to get the creative juices flowing and thoughts percolating. I’ll get in about 45 minutes of computer time before heading to work.

In the evenings, I’ll start with an awesome calorie-burning workout. Next, I’ll add in a little bike riding or a run. Then I'll have a nice relaxing bath and put in a call to the kids. After eating a healthy, balanced meal, washing the few dishes, ironing the work clothes for the next day, I’ll sit down at the computer with a glass of wine. The perfect writing regime!!

Summer is almost here. The kids are going away for the summer. What shall I do with myself? Procrastinate, procrastinate, procrastinate…

Need a Good Story? Listen to a Country Song - A Lesson in Conflict

By Kimberly Johnson

Country music songwriters are some of the finest writers. They immediately assemble the basic building blocks to a good story; elements that perhaps novelists sometimes fail to fully develop: setting, plot, conflict, character, point of view and theme. What key ingredient makes a Nashville hit? Conflict. That quarrel, that squabble, that moaning and groaning between characters; it’s the reason why the listener stays tuned and taps his foot.

The lyricist chooses from internal or external conflict to build his composition, employing one of the following conflicts to create tension and a great song: man vs. man, man vs. circumstances, man vs. society and man vs. himself.

Willie Nelson’s "Crazy" is a prime example of a good story, a lesson in conflict. Nelson pens the internal struggle of a woman who is distraught because her man doesn’t love her. He’s left her for another woman. Nelson’s lines examine the grief that the leading character harbors. The late Patsy Cline brings the story to life as she woefully croons...

I’m crazy for feeling so lonely, I’m crazy, crazy for feeling for feeling so blue. I knew, you ‘d love me as long as you wanted, and then someday, you’d leave me for somebody new…Worry, why do I let myself worry, wonderin’ what in the world what I did I do, oh crazy, for thinking my love could hold you, I’m crazy for trying, and crazy for crying…

Another good story with a lesson in conflict is Dolly Parton’s 1970s chart topper "Jolene." In this narrative, a woman (Dolly), tells the other woman (Jolene) to leave her man (Dolly’s husband) alone. Jolene, a red head beauty, is a home wrecker. Dolly begs Jolene to stop using her womanly ways to seduce her man. Dolly, the songwriter, cunningly reveals to the audience the reasons, and conflicting elements, why her man is in love with the other woman.

Jolene. Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene. I’m beggin’ of you not to take my man. Please don’t take him just because you can…your beauty of is beyond compare with flaming locks of auburn hair…I cannot compete with you, Jolene. He talks about you in his sleep and there’s nothing I can do to keep from crying when he calls your name. Jolene I can easy understand, how you can easy take my man, but you don’t know what he means to me. Jolene. Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene . Please don’t take him just because you can…

Why Write, Indeed?

By Ginny Padgett

This blog spot is a great resource for aspiring writers, full of good counsel and information. Today I’d like to share a different kind of advice that has been balm to my frayed creative nerves. The source is Dan Albergotti, one of the submission judges for the 2007 Petigru Review. I hope this will bring you the sigh of relief I heaved when I read this.

Albergotti observes, “To present your own writing for the world’s judgment is…an act of courage…The only true gauge of you work lies in your own mind and heart. And if you give too much credence to publication and awards as indicators of your artistic achievement, you risk squelching that one true measure – that critic inside yourself who really knows the score.”

He goes on to cite an essay, “Why Write?” (The Cincinnati Review, 2.1, Spring, 2005), written by his teacher and mentor, Alan Shapiro. “Recognition through publication and awards is ‘like cotton candy: It looks ample enough until you put in your mouth, then it evaporates. All taste and no nourishment.’(106)”

Alborgetti cautions the aspiring writer about the danger of being too critical of her work. Again, this part really spoke to me regarding my sense of failing at my chosen art. “Do not succumb to that sense of failure. It is a natural feeling, but it is not true. If you ignore it – if you continue to write regardless of publication or public approbation or immediate personal satisfaction – you will not be failing. That ‘deepening sense of failure’ is what success feels like.”

Bless you, Dan Albergotti! These words helped put my fingers back on the keyboard and, in some strange way, gave me the courage to submit my work for publication again.

I want to leave you with this amazing fact. In her lifetime, Emily Dickinson saw only TEN of her 1600+ poems published. Write on, my friends.

The Latest Addition

Meet A New Writer

MICHELLE GWYNN JONES


Michelle Gwynn Jones has found a way to combine three of her favorite things: her enjoyment of researching just about anything, her ability to write and her fondness for the law. As a writer of legal mysteries it is Michelle’s hope to entwine compelling who-done-its with unique legal arguments.

Michelle would be hard pressed to name her favorite authors. Her taste ranges from Scott Turow to Nora Roberts, from Stephen King to Sophie Kinsella. If she were forced to go into seclusion and told that she could only take three authors, and no other books, she would pick Jane Austin, William Shakespear and JK Rowling without a doubt. However, if given the choice, Michelle would gladly trade the books for an unlimited supply of Pepsi.

As for how she spends her “me” time she has several hobbies. There is her love of crafting, just about any kind. Sometimes Michelle actually creates things that she is proud of and other times she…well let’s just say no one will ever see them. Cooking is also a passion. One of her favorite things to do is to try and recreate, or improve on, something that she had in a restaurant. Even though it is widely debated whether or not taking a bubble bath is a bona fide hobby, there can be no doubt that Michelle has mastered the art.

Michelle was born and raised on Long Island, New York. She completed her undergraduate degree in New Hampshire where she enjoyed all the snow it had to offer. At Ohio Northern University she obtained her law degree and learned how to tell the different kinds of corn just by glancing over the field. At present she resides in South Carolina and is the mother of a seventeen-year-old boy who aspires to be an attorney and screenwriter.

Michelle's first posting follows.

Some of my Best Friends Are Characters

By Michelle Gwynn Jones

When I began my novel, Daniel's Law, I concentrated on the mystery that would unfold and the legal issues that the book would cover. I didn't spend much time on the characters themselves because when I read a novel I never retain the useless information. It is not relevant, in most stories, whether the characters are short or tall, cook in a well-equipped kitchen or always do take-out, live on this planet or another. In real life I would never use race to describe a person, why should I do it in my writing? However, after I sent the first draft to a few trusted friends to read I was shocked to find out that many people, for some reason, think that the this information is important. Obviously what is useless to me is not useless to other readers, reluctantly I had to admit a serious weakness in my writing.

I set out to learn the art of character development. As with any need for knowledge I began with research, research and more research. Unfortunately there are so many books written on the subject, each offering their own bits of wisdom and/or practical exercises, I found myself on information overload. I weeded through all the suggestions and chose those I thought would best work for me.

While rewriting my novel, and planning its sequels, I have now devoted a lot of time developing the characters and their surroundings. I maintain a character sheet that lists their basic description, education and work history. For recurring characters I have taken the sheets further to include their living environment, personal history from birth and how their lives will unfold in the upcoming novels, always aware that their futures are subject to change.

In regards to the detective, I have fully designed his apartment. The floor plan has two bedrooms, two baths, and a laundry room hidden behind the kitchen. I have gone to furniture stores and picked out and photographed most the furniture, copied pictures of rugs, lamps and artwork which I found online. The decorations are contemporary. The color scheme is black and white with red as an accent color, why, because he is colorblind. However, the only thing the reader of Daniel’s Law really learns about his apartment is that he has at least two couches and a dining room table.

I have found that I really like most of my characters. I want to spend a day on New Grace Lake sailing with my protagonist Rachel Shorte. I wish I could have a dinner out with my detective Winston Spaulding and listen to him tell tales of his childhood. If only I could enjoy an afternoon sipping wine on the deck with Willa Bower I could learn much from her words of wisdom. These people have become some of my closest friends.

To the detriment of my writing time I have devoted many hours into the creation of my characters’ home surroundings, food and beverage preferences and even their choice of transportation. So my question to my fellow writers…and the universe in general, is this…how much time is too much time for character development?

Is It an Autobiography?

By Tiem Wilson

Have you ever read a novel and asked yourself: is this a real-life experience for the author? When you read about certain tragedies in a story do you find yourself wondering how much of it is a first-hand account? In your own writing, how much of yourself can you see reflected in the characters?

In a recent conversation with my nephew, this question was asked in reference to Blair Underwood, actor-turned-author. Underwood currently has two published novels featuring the character Tennyson Hardwick. Hardwick is a struggling actor. Thus, we pondered how much of Hardwick’s life is mirrored from Underwood’s own close encounters?

The same question was posed to Eric Jerome Dickey when he penned Between Lovers. It is a heart-felt story of a now bestselling author confronting the woman who left him at the altar early on in his career. The experience is so compelling you truly feel it is Dickey’s own broken heart bleeding on those pages. Based on the love scenes in all of his novels, my girlfriends and I have had many wine-induced conversations about the kind of lover Dickey must be in real life. We wondered when would he have time to write?

More recently, this question was answered by author Alice Sebold. I just finished listening to a production of The Lovely Bones on audiobook. In the author interview, Sebold revealed there is a common thread shared between herself and the main character, Susie. Sebold professed she was a rape victim at age 18. Although she obviously lived through her ordeal, she admited that a lot of herself came out as Susie’s character began to take form.

I have tried to pen an experience for a novel. I never get too far as I realize my life, at times, is quite boring. Therefore, I stick to characters that have exciting experiences I only dream of. It has been said that everyone has a story to tell. The quest then becomes turning that story into a never ending journey to pass down through the generations.

The Latest Addition

Meet a New Writer

JESSICA ROBISON

Jessica Robison teaches English in a local high school. Always an
obsessive reader, Jessica has recently channeled her creative energy
into writing a young adult Sci-Fi novel as well as numerous salacious rap lyrics. She plans to retire young after winning the lottery and/or tricking a wealthy man into marrying her.

Jessica's first entry follows.

Tips to Stay Hip While Writing

By Jessica Robison

Some people are writers. Some people are cool. Then there are the elite few that manage to write and be cool at the same time. Luckily, I’m one of the latter. Most of us are not born that way, but with a few tips and a lot of practice this skillset can be learned. Let me be clear: you too can be a cool writer.

1. The gear: The cool kids wear sunglasses at night. Cool
writers wear sunglasses while writing, even while in dark rooms, and
especially at night.

2. The locale: Most writers default to coffee shops to focus and
get a dose of caffeine. Lame. If you want to be a cool writer, take
that notebook or laptop and head to a bar with good dance music. Don’t
forget your sunglasses.

3. The groupies: Ditch your old friends and fellow-writers. If you
want to be cool, you have to work for it. Surround yourself with people
significantly younger than you are who don’t make much sense. It’s a
plus if they are good-looking.

4. The lines: If you’re truly going to follow your dream to be a
cool writer, you have to talk the talk. Integrate any of the following
phrases into conversation: “The other night while I was writing,” or “My
writing group said,” or even, “Oh, that’s my agent on the phone. I’d
better take this.” Constantly bragging to everyone you know is sure to
impress them with your overwhelming coolness. And men, ladies love
this!

5. The beverage: Put aside those lattes and protein shakes. Cool
writers are all heavy alcohol drinkers. So brush off that flask, pull
out that bottle, and forget moderation!

I hope these systematic tips help those of you who are interested in
becoming cool writers. It’s not for everyone, since it’s such a
specialized calling, but if you’re feeling that tug of desire in your
heart–that small voice saying, “I want that”–then this blog is for
you.

You’re welcome and Cheers!

Within Driving Distance, Conferences

By Bonnie Stanard

A good conference does more than remind us of the dos and don’ts of writing—it inspires us to renew our writing efforts. I dream of attending conferences in places like Mallorca or Italy. However, the list I’ve compiled of those closer to home is no dream. My expectation is that at some point in time I’ll send in my registration, write the check, and make the trips.

The SC Writers Workshop’s conference is one I usually attend. This year it will be held October 22-24 at Myrtle Beach and is one of the most professional and popular conferences in the area.

On occasion I have attended Sandhills Writers Conference, held in the spring at Augusta State University in Georgia. This conference describes itself as a gathering of authors, agents, and editors, though my experience has been that authors make most of the presentations. This isn’t a workshop format, but it provides a congenial atmosphere in which writers have a chance to meet and exchange ideas. The program may be really good or not, depending on the talents of the authors making the presentations. Housing is not provided, so attendees must find hotel rooms on their own. (http://www.sandhills.aug.edu)

I have also attended the Hub City Writers Project held in the summer at Wofford College in Spartanburg. Claire Bateman conducted the poetry workshop I attended and it was terrific. We were housed in one of the dorms at very reasonable rates. Every year I think I’ll return, but inevitably there’s a conflict with my calendar. This year it will be held July 30-August 1 and features writer Elizabeth Berg. (http://www.hubcity.org)

The Foothills Writers Guild’s conference has come and gone this year, and I didn’t go, not because I didn’t want to. For 21 years the Guild has sponsored a workshop at Anderson University in the spring (March 26-27 this year). I would like to have heard Jane Friedman’s ideas about the “Five Most Important Things About the Future of Publishing.” (http://www.foothillswritersguild.org/Writers_Workshop_-_2010.html)

Another writing event that has been around for a long time and which I have on my list is the Southeastern Writers Association’s annual workshop. It will be held June 20-24 at Epworth By The Sea, St. Simons Island, GA. The topic will be "Writers Helping Writers.” They’re on the web at http://www.southeasternwriters.com.

What looks like a day packed with writer information is the Carolinas Writers Conference, upcoming on April 17 at Wadesboro, NC. Michael Malone, a writer of literary reviews, novels, short stories, plays, and scripts for television, is the featured guest. I’ll miss this year’s conference, but I hope to attend sometime if not next year. See more information at http://www.ansoncountywritersclub.org/carolinaswritersconference.html.

I’ve had my eye on a couple of workshops in the North Carolina mountains—Wildacres (http://www.wildacreswriters.com) and John C. Campbell Folk School (http://www.folkschool.org/index.php?section=subjects&subject_id=47). Both of these are week-long residential workshops.

There are other workshops and conferences in our area but these are the ones I’ve been watching with the hope of one day attending. You can find others listed at writing.shawguides.com and http://writersconf.org/cal/fulllisting.php#2008.

The last three addresses are not live links. Please copy and paste them into your browser window. Apologies for the inconvenience.

From Idea to Novel

By Mike Long

A lot of people have asked why a stockbroker in South Carolina would chose to write fiction about Texans in the Civil War. Well, OK, two people asked, and only one of them really cared, but it still forced me to think about the question.

The catalyst for my novel, No Good Like It Is, was an article on Terry’s Texas Rangers in Blackpowder Annual Magazine from Dixie Gun Works. Doing more research, I learned that the Rangers performed both the first and the final cavalry charges of the Army of Tennessee, and tried to stop the slaughter of Negro prisoners at Fort Pillow. I was hooked.

The story came together quickly. I put a couple of fictional characters into the Eighth Texas Cavalry, took them through the war in Book One, and followed their trip home in Book Two. Sort of like Butch and Sundance enroute to Cold Mountain.

The draft took about six months to finish. It drove me. Made my wife and office partners crazy. I’d wake up at 2 AM and have to get up and write; next day, made everyone listen to what I wrote. I don’t type; I hired a medical transcription service to get my scribbling from my legal pads into the computer.

In the two years after that I polished it and tried to get it published, or at least agented. I did everything backwards. I wrote the novel, then bought “How-to” books and joined our workshop, but I might have never finished it had I done it the other way around.

I’ve had almost no luck with agents or publishers. As a novice, you find that agents send you form-letter rejections (unless you’ve already published something), and publishers don’t even respond unless you have an agent (and have published something). Most traditional publishers won’t even accept a query except from an agent. They’re swamped. What a great system.

The exception for me was an acquisition editor at Oklahoma University Press who read the whole manuscript. He explained why he couldn’t accept it, and then encouraged me to try several other publishers by name, even gave me some contacts, and said he thought the work should be published. Nicest rejection I’ve ever received.

If you ever wake up and want to be a writer of Western fiction, roll over and go back to sleep. If that doesn’t work, add a heavy dose of history and change your genre to Historical Fiction. Or join the Western Writers Association and network through them. You can also sell your un-published book through Kindle. Trust me – the folks in Manhattan have never heard of Lonesome Dove, Open Range, 3:10 To Yuma, Last Stand At Saber River, Appaloosa, Broken Trail, Hondo, Valdez Is Coming, Hombre, Will Penny, The Missouri Breaks. They might know the authors.

So, read, write for fun, enter contests, join a writers’ group, get an editor, go to book festivals, research, keep your day job. Forget about Manhattan. It’s a figment of our imagination.

An Outsider Asks: What Is Southern Lit?

By Janie Kronk

“You learn a lot about where you’re from by learning about someplace new.”

These words were spoken to me by my boss in Ohio, shortly before I transplanted myself south for graduate school. Taking this statement to heart, I’ve done my best to be a good pupil while living here, learning about “The South” and trying to piece together what it teaches me about the north.

There are many aspects of Southern living to hold up in comparison to what I knew back home: Southern Architecture, Southern Cuisine, Southern Literature. This last item on the list is of particular interest to me. While it is easy to see the influence of climate and history in the buildings along the coast, and hard to argue with the zeal for barbeque that permeates the region, I have a little more trouble recognizing what makes writing “Southern.” Is it literature that takes place in the South? Written by Southerners? Or is writing made Southern by the presence of certain thematic elements? If so, what are those elements?

The tradition of southern literature includes greats such as William Faulkner, Truman Capote, Harper Lee, Mark Twain and many others. There are anthologies published to highlight the work of contemporary Southern writers. I must admit, I have not witnessed quite the hype over a tradition of Midwestern literature, even though Ohio alone claims authors such as James Thurber, Sherwood Anderson, and Paul Laurence Dunbar.

For a time, I thought this may have something to do with my home region being part of “Middle America” – thus having no distinctive character of its own around which to form a literary culture. Still – and this may just be because it is “home” – I do find something unique about the blend of farm and factory, rivers, cities, and cornfields. But the sense of identity with the place is more subdued than what I have witnessed in The South.

So far, the thing that strikes me as being most unique about The South is not its food, its cities, or its literature. It’s not the manners, and it’s not the hot summers. It’s the sense of being Southern that Southerners seem to have.

This sense of uniqueness is there even though modern life has erased many of the boundaries that define one place from another – throughout the country we see the same strip malls and the same sprawl; we have the same food shipped to us in our grocery stores; we have access to the same information over the internet and in our libraries and bookstores. Despite everywhere becoming more and more the same, there still seems to be a consensus: something is different about The South.

This different-ness holds up as writers continue to fabricate stories. But what makes these stories different? Maybe Southern Literature in the 21st century is itself a fabrication – not in the sense of being false, but in the sense of being a built thing – an identity constructed again and again with each telling of a new tale while other distinctions vanish with the shift to a global culture.

My Muse in an Unlikely Place

By Kimberly Johnson

When I was in high school, I thought a muse for an artist or a writer was a zaftig, round-eyed lady lounging, semi-nude, on a chaise lounge. And for a female artist or female writer, the muse was a wooden bowl of fruit.

When I was in college, I considered the source of inspiration flowed from art history books and tales of Joyce and Keats accompanied with popcorn-filled nights of foreign films. Then I realized that a 500 year-old statue, a 200 page novel and a black-and-white reel did not motivate my fingers to dance on a keyboard.

When I was a journalist, I discovered that country music motivated me, period. It’s not because I live in the South. It’s not because country stations dominate the FM dial. It’s not because I watched Hee Haw on Saturday nights. It’s because the Nashville sound helps me in character development and plot structure. Think about it: that snake in Carrie Underwood’s "Cowboy Casanova" is a writer’s dream (or nightmare). I definitely dig Martina McBride and George Strait. I want to give literary shout-outs to South Carolina natives Josh Turner (Pamplico) and Darius Rucker (Charleston), formerly of Hootie and the Blowfish.

Below are some muse-worthy lines from songs that I downloaded to my iPod. By the way, that bowl of fruit, I ate it.

Tim McGraw, "Real Good Man"

Girl, you'll never know no one like me, up there in your high society. They might tell you I’m no good, Girl, they need to understand just who I am. I may be a real bad boy, but, Baby, I’m a real good man…I might have a reckless streak at least country mile wide, if you gonna run with me it’s gonna be a wild ride.

This is an awesome portrayal of a roguish male antagonist in a romance novel. Move over Fabio.

Waylon Jennings, "Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line"

Everybody knows that you been steppin’ on my toes, and I’m getting pretty tired of it, cause since you were a little bitty tiny girl… you got the only daddy that will walk the line…I’m comin’ unglued at your funny little moods.

This country legend is best known for the Dukes of Hazzard theme song. Waylon is a master of the visible description; he does a fantastic job in lamenting about a woman who doesn’t appreciate his love. After listening to this, I would dash to the computer and bang away another chapter or two.

Marshall Tucker Band, "Can’t You See"

Gonna take a freight train down at the station, don’t care where it go…what that woman, oh, she been doin’ to me…Gonna find me a hole in the wall, gonna crawl inside and die.

This blues-inspired song gets me to focus on structuring my chapters into coherent masterpieces. I mean, really, this man’s in pain. I understand it - I’m in pain because I can’t get the chapters quite right.

Trisha Yearwood, "Wrong Side of Memphis"

I’ve been living on the wrong side of Memphis, really breaking away this time full tank of gas and a '69 Tempest takin’ me to that Nashville sign no turnin’ back come too far headed down Forty with my old guitar…I’ve been living on the wrong side of Memphis gonna bronze these blue suede shoes, these cowboy boots looking kinda restless, they ain’t gottta single thing to lose.

This is an inspirational song. Trisha’s from Georgia. I’m from South Carolina. She’s dreaming of the Grand Old Opry. I’m dreaming of New York. She made it. I will make it, too.

Fleetwood Mac, "Dreams" I know. It is not a country song.

Listen carefully to the sound of the loneliness of your heartbeat… to the stillness of your memories of what you had, what you lost…thunder only happens when it’s raining; players only love you when they’re playing.

Can you sense the agony that Stevie is singing about? I’m not a big Fleetwood Mac fan, but, after hearing this song, I believe in the power of words.

The Latest Addition

Meet A New Writer

SUZANNE ROBERTS

I didn't begin writing until around a year ago when I retired. I had taught English as a Second Language. I loved the job because I enjoyed my students, was able to know people from different countries, and learned about their homelands and their traditions. Best of all, the students were very motivated. As one of my students said, "I have a passion to learn English!"


I've always loved reading, so I decided to try writing. By writing I discovered an entirely different world, a world where I could escape from reality by creating stories and characters that came alive to me. I used memories to invent these people. Some stories were okay while others were awful, but the thrill is in creating the stories, and, hey, I can't stop now!

Favorite authors and books:
Atonement by Ian McEwen
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
March by Geraldine Brooks

Other favorites activities:
Snorkeling, Hiking, and Llama Treks

Suzanne's first posting follows.

How Memories Can Provide Writing Material

By Suzanne Roberts

When you are searching for writing material, think about your childhood. Memories of your youth can supply a myriad of events to be used as topics. What uplifting experiences did you have when you were a child, and what are some of the sad events? List the happenings and think about which ones are the most important in your development as an adult. If you kept a journal or photos, these might help jog your memory.

If you plan to use your memories in a novel consider your goals. Do you want to describe a life that will inspire your reader or, perhaps, illustrate the effects of abuse and neglect?

I try to picture the happening completely, the sights, smells, sounds, my feelings, the unusual qualities of the event. I want to capture the moment and the essence of the people or animals. For example, after my cat, Squeaker, died, I thought about what an unusual but wonderful animal she had been. I wrote the following poem.

ENIGMA
Is her vision a hallucination?
Daringly bold or unbalanced?
Images of the unknowable
Waging war on her enemies,
Using her sixth sense to disclose danger,
A courageous crusader.
Her view of life
Fighting fearlessly against the norm,
Resisting the rational,
A regular Joan of Arc
Yet she exists
Cleverly as a cat.

Perhaps it seems strange to compare your cat to Joan of Arc, but to me, the poem captured Squeaker, a cat who showed affection for me but was so opposed to strangers that she frantically hissed at them, viewing them as enemies. To many of my friends, she was an unbalanced scary animal.

Consider the people you loved as a child and how they might inspire the reader. Make a list of their attributes. What made them special to you? How can you convey their essence to the reader?

I have a wealth of memories from my Uncle John and Aunt Bess’s farm, which thrilled me as a child. The farm had acres of land and a pond. Some of my memories include riding a large farm horse when I was eight-years-old; taking a bath in a bucket in the back yard with water pumped from a well; and getting chased by a bull.

Think about the years of your young adulthood. When I was in my early twenties, I was a social worker in the rural Georgia mountains, a job which enabled me to meet men and women who made illegal whiskey, people who seemed to be right out of the pages of James Dickey’s Deliverance, and some very wonderful individuals.

So, when you’re looking for topics, you can find so many happenings from your childhood. Think about your younger years and write!

Revising & Whatnot

By Lisa Lopez Snyder

I’m at that stage of revision where I’m taking workshop feedback on my short fiction and making decisions: Do I cut this sentence? Should I move this part up, move that back? What’s a better, stronger word? Does this make my character more authentic?

Revising can seem like trudging up a long hill you just slid down. But does it always have to feel so daunting? I guess it means you need to feel the pain to get to the joy.

Writing always seems so much easier, and with a few handy mantras by my side, I usually feel spurred forward. There’s the straightforward Nike slogan, “Just Do It.” Another one is my own: “It doesn’t write itself.” I admit, they are admonishments, but they work for me. So…why not put together something to help with revisions?

Here are a few ideas. See what you think, and if you have any more, please comment. I need some help up the hill!

• Start in the middle and see what happens.
• You’re more than halfway there.
• Tell me what it’s like to be that character in that scene.
• Read it aloud.
• At least there’s a story to work with.
• That wasn’t so hard.

Advice Is Where You Find It

By Alex Raley

I recently attended a lecture by Claudia Brinson, a senior lecturer in English at Columbia College. A journalist for 30 years, Brinson’s accomplishments include an O. Henry award for her short story “Einstein’s Daughter” and a Pulitzer Prize finalist with her State newspaper colleagues for Hurricane Hugo coverage. What I remember most clearly about Brinson’s writing as a journalist is that it read like a good story, perhaps even a section of a novel. Nevertheless, its purpose was to report.

As she talked of her approaches to journalism, I realized that she was giving advice for all writers without regard to purpose or genre. High on her list is to write for the readers. As you write, keep in mind what the readers would want to know. Put them in the center and help them see and know what you see and know. Also important is to do thorough homework. Know the facts and figures that surround what you are going to write about. I suspect that when we begin writing fiction we are too often guilty of beginning the writing without thorough preparation.

Brinson cautioned us to observe in detail the surroundings of an event. She told us of an interview with a well-known politician in his home. She observed that the room’s bookshelves were filled with religious books. She learned that many persons in his family died early deaths. He felt that he was living on borrowed time. This information from observations and questions gave her a unique insight as she pursued her story. You may ask how this relates to fiction writing, but I suggest that we might consider constructing in-depth knowledge of our characters before we begin writing our story. We might even do a scenario of the home or place of work of a character to give him a firm setting. This could help as we develop that character throughout our writing.

As Brinson read portions of her articles, we became well aware that the stories had an emotional impact on her, as well as the listeners. During the question period of the lecture, she was asked how she handled emotions during her writing. She admitted to us that she often had deep feelings about situations as she pursued her stories, but when she sat down to write, she put her emotions aside. In writing fiction, we often work with stories that are rooted in some specific event we have experienced. We should be careful to take Brinson’s advice and put our emotions aside as we write. Perhaps we do that best when we write what readers want to know rather than what we want to tell.

I did not attend Brinson’s lecture for a review of writing skills, and I suspect that she did not intend to give such a review, but there it was, clear as a bell. Have you had such an unexpected experience? They just happen, don’t they?

The Latest Addition

Meet a New Writer

COURTNEY DILES

When Courtney Diles was seven years old, a teacher observed her imaginative tendencies and asked her mother to make sure she, the teacher, was invited to the girl’s first book signing. Her mother passed on the message, and soon Courtney set the bizarre goal of become a writer while she was still a kid.

At the age of fifteen, she completed the first draft of Sunrise - a young adult fantasy novel she designed by piecing together compelling dreams from throughout her childhood. Sunrise has since earned second place for the SWA Juvenile Writing Award and first place for the M. L. Brown Award for YA Lit. As a freshman at the University of South Carolina Honors College pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing, she still hopes to be on the shelf before her pre-frontal cerebral cortex completes its development.

Fun facts: She is a boy scout Venturer, a synesthete, and possibly a full quarter Native American. She has had three broken wrists resulting from incidents involving airports, tiny bikes, and plastic ninja swords. Her blog is www.courtneydiles.wordpress.com.

Courtney's first posting follows.

The Rules of Writing

By Courtney Diles

Do you ever sit down at the computer and open up the document you were working on until two in the morning last night, only to read something like the following?

The November snow was thin and slushy - almost as if the angels in heaven were brushing their teeth and dribbling toothpaste over the earth.

Mary Catherine Weir

Do you ever find yourself losing your audience?

The bone-chilling scream split the warm summer night in two, the first half being before the scream when it was fairly balmy and calm and pleasant for those who hadn't heard the scream at all, but not calm or balmy or even very nice for those who did hear the scream, discounting the little period of time during the actual scream itself when your ears might have been hearing it but your brain wasn't reacting yet to let you know.

Patricia E. Presutti

Do you make the mistake of writing moments of horror while you’re hungry?

The corpse exuded the irresistible aroma of a piquant, ancho chili glaze enticingly enhanced with a hint of fresh cilantro as it lay before him, coyly garnished by a garland of variegated radicchio and caramelized onions, and impishly drizzled with glistening rivulets of vintage balsamic vinegar and roasted garlic oil; yes, as he surveyed the body of the slain food critic slumped on the floor of the cozy, but nearly empty, bistro, a quick inventory of his senses told corpulent Inspector Moreau that this was, in all likelihood, an inside job.

Bob Perry

Does an excessive Shakespearean influence pervade your love scenes?

O glorious pubes! The ultimate triangle, whose angles delve to hell but point to paradise.... The fig, the fanny, the cranny, the quim - I'd come close to it now, this sudden blush, this ancient avenue, the end of all odysseys and epic aim of life, pulling at my prick now, pulling like a lodestone.

Christopher Rush

Well, there is always hope! The Edward Bulwer-Lytton Award goes out to the worst first lines of novels submitted every year. Go to www.bulwer-lytton.com for details on submitting and also to visit a link to an article about the 2007 Bad Sex in Fiction Award Winners!

Okay, okay, enough with the advertising. What do we really learn from the Edward Bulwer-Lytton Award, “Where WWW means Wretched Writers Welcome?” That the industry is going to hell.

Wrong! It means there are no real rules! At several of our critique meetings, I have heard people remind us: “You don’t have to change anything." "We only offer suggestions." "In the end, your writing is your writing.”

And I think that’s just swell. We have so many genres. We need to be open-minded. It’s important. I’ve personally had to open my mind to several genres and writing styles.

This blog is also the script for a video that can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fc2eSOUk34

Conferencing

By Debbie Yoho

In the late '70s, I was lucky to participate in USC's First Draft of the Writing Project for teachers. The graduate course lasted only two weeks, but the Project met all day, every day. We learned by doing, striving to become better teachers by first developing our own writing skills, then stepping out of the process to track and discuss our personal journey. We learned how to transform writing instruction in our classrooms from a battlefield of grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and bleeding red ink, to a nurturing laboratory for communication and self-expression.

Our work was noisy. When we weren't writing, we were paired up reading our stuff aloud to each other. We called this "conferencing."

Conferencing is the key! We learned that published authors always have at least one partner to reflect on the writing, so that the written word can coax two minds closer and closer together in the direction of an intimate, shared experience—writer and reader developing a mutual understanding of what the words mean.

Our Writing Workshop meetings offer one way for writers to conference with one another. However, I find that the bi-monthly meetings are not enough for me. So I have enlisted a friend. She reads my manuscript a few chapters at a time, and then meets with me once a week to talk about it.

We don’t discuss the challenges of point of view, continuity or the need for more dialog. Instead she re-tells the story back to me, reflecting what stands out to her, what conclusions she is drawing, what she "sees between the lines", what strikes her as unusual or confusing, contradictory or distracting.

I am free to ask questions to draw her out: "What picture do you have of the mother?" "How do you think the boyfriend felt?" "What do you think will happen next?" "Describe the interaction between these two characters."

If what she tells me matches what I meant to convey, I have crafted a piece of writing that achieves my purpose with at least one reader.

I chose my conferencing partner carefully. She is analytical, articulate, brutally honest but constructive, and she is interested in tracking and contributing to my growth as a writer. My friend functions as my writing teacher by communicating with me about her experience as a reader, a thrilling process.