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WOW! Women On Writing is an e-zine that promotes the communication between women writers, authors, editors, agents, publishers and readers.
Our blog (AKA: The Muffin) posts about women and writing, publishing industry news, and updates for our quarter
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Good day, Muffin lovers! Today, we will be chatting with Elizabeth Maggio, 3rd place winner in the Fall 2012 WOW! Flash Fiction contest. If you haven't had the opportunity to read Elizabeth's story, Extant, Not Extinct, head over to the contest page. Then return to join us for a great interview!
Elizabeth Maggio parlayed a geology degree and her facility at explaining science to lay audiences into an award-wining science writing career. I twas an ideal fit, affording her a front-row seat at the cutting edge of research. Of all her experiences as a science writer, a few hold special memories: interviewing Carl Sagan about water on mars and hearing him say "torrents and torrents of rain" long before he became a science super star; snagging a one-on-one interview with Gene Roddenberry during the start-up days of Star Trek (after convincing hr newspaper editor that the assignment did fall within the bonds of the science beat.) Her career even led to adventures in Italy where she used both her science writing and Italian language skills working for an aerospace company and an astronomical observatory.
Now semi-retired, Elizabeth is transitioning into a second career as a fiction writer. She started writing flash fiction about two years ago and discovered it has helped her write her first novel, an archaeological mystery set in the Alban Hills outside of Rome.
Elizabeth lives with her husband in northern Virginia.
WOW: Elizabeth, congratulations and welcome to The Muffin. After reading your story, I felt such a sense of wonder. The science tie-in hooked me! How did your science writing background lead to the story, Extant, Not Extinct?
Elizabeth: What led to Extant, Not Extinct, indeed, to my entire approach to fiction, came about when I was pursing my geology degree. While doing geological mapping in the limestone mountains of southern Arizona, I sat down on an outcrop of rock to eat lunch, but it soon became terribly uncomfortable. I got up to see what I was sitting on and was amazed to find a fossilized coral reef…exposed on the top of a mountain... in the desert. For the rest of the day I couldn’t get out of my head that I had been sitting on something that once lived on the ocean floor, and the only dimension separating me from the live coral reef was time. My character Mona felt this too when she ran her finger over the 300 million year old fossil that Professor Millington had handed her, saying “Imagine what it could tell us if it were alive.”
WOW: I like the personal connection you included in the story. It added so much to the overall effect. To me, there's a double layer of meaning in this story: the scientific background/research element and then the application of science to real life. When you write fiction, do you try to combine these elements or was this a "first" of science principles and fiction?
Elizabeth: I definitely try to combine both science and fiction. The boundary between the two is often blurred, and I want my writing to take science one step beyond what is perceived as the limits to reality. My first introduction to this genre was reading Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain. Crichton included so much convincing scientific documentation, including a bibliography of scientific reports, that I often had to look at the book cover to make sure it said “novel”.
WOW: I've read The Andromeda Strain and can relate! I like reading stories like this that include scientific research yet they are fiction. A line from your bio piqued my interest. You mention that confronting the challenges of flash fiction is helping with your novel writing process. Can you give an example and how it's made your fiction writing stronger?
Elizabeth: For my science non-fiction writing, I do a lot of research on a topic. When I write fiction, I still do a lot of research but I have a hard time restraining myself from including all the fascinating facts I find into my story. What I really need to do is zero in on only those elements that move my story forward. Flash fiction forces me to do this; to write sparingly, to choose only enough background information to move the action along, and to slip background facts into dialogue or scene setting.
WOW: Great example! I've found that writing flash requires the writer to fine tune and tighten every element in a story. Naturally, that should carry over into fiction! Elizabeth, you have a varied writing background. You've written science non-fiction, flash fiction and fiction. Which do you find most challenging to write and why?
Elizabeth: Both flash fiction and fiction are challenges because I’m still uncomfortable making up the facts after decades of building a reputation on the factual accuracy of my science stories. Flash fiction, though, is the hardest because of its format restraints. I really have to focus on scene, characters, and plot as well as on the word count. But surmounting that is so rewarding.
WOW: As a journalist who also dabbles in fiction writing, I understand being uncomfortable making up facts when your primary job is to relay only facts. Sometimes, I find it difficult to transition from writing non-fiction into fiction. Still, I never seem to have trouble finding ideas. I'm wondering what you need to feel inspired to write?
Elizabeth: Inspiration hits me at the most unexpected times: reading the newspaper, day dreaming on the Metro, and of course in the shower. I wish I could control it to a certain degree, but I’ve learned to be ready. I carry lots of notepaper, and if need be, I’ll sit at my computer dripping wet in a towel to write down inspiration that hit during my shower!
WOW: Yes, you never know when an idea will emerge. My kids used to make fun of me for the "hopping out of the shower to take notes" routine, too. I'm fascinated with the breadth of your science writing career. You met a lot of famous and influential individuals. Writing fiction must have presented a new set of challenges. What has been the greatest challenge in your professional (writing) life?
Elizabeth:Discipline, definitively. I’m still new to this second-life fiction career. Unlike my science writing career, I haven’t yet been able to set up a daily routine for fiction writing. It’s still pretty much hit or miss.
I’m working on that.
WOW: A routine is extremely important for a writer! You'll nail it down and then, watch out! :) One last question, Elizabeth. What would you want to hear from readers after they have finished reading one of your stories?
Elizabeth: “I want more!” I aim to end a piece with not-quite-closure, that is, to write a satisfactory ending but one that leaves a bit of room for the reader to imagine “what if…”, or for a book club to debate if something really happened or if it was a dream.
WOW: That's the perfect way to end a story...such a great discussion starter! Once again, congratulations, Elizabeth and thank you for spending time with our readers.
By Laura Davis1. Writing retreats lead to deep transformative experiences, cracking us open and awakening us to new possibilities. Nothing is as powerful as walking away from our daily lives to enter a safe, sacred environment solely focused on enhancing and supporting our creativity. One of the things I love most about retreats is seeing people’s faces change from the first day to the last. They often look scared and uncertain on the first day—but by the end of the retreat, their faces are gleaming with love, connection and openness.
2. You leave behind all the things that distract you from your writing. When we are freed from our to-do lists and the relentless pressure of the “undone,” we are free to focus on our heart’s desire: connecting with the deep place the truest writing comes from.
3. You leave behind your excuses. Making a conscious choice to commit to your writing for an intensive period of time focuses the mind and leads to breakthroughs in your work—and in your life.
4. You step away from the routines and obligations that weigh us down and lead us to crave escape, rather than vibrant engagement in life. Escaping the habitual opens the doors to awakening and creativity. When we put ourselves in a beautiful place where the conditions are designed specifically to support and nurture us and our creativity, we hone our focus toward what we really want.
5. Traveling is transformative and enables us to leave behind old, tired identities. As Joseph Dispenza says, in
The Way of the Traveler: “When we move out of the familiar…we set in motion a series of events that, taken together, bring about changes at the very root of our being.”
6. Seeing a new culture awakens our senses and enables us to perceive the world with fresh eyes. What makes great writing “pop” is rich sensory detail. Traveling to a new place lets us see, smell, hear and taste a myriad of new experiences. When we enter a brand new environment, we continually notice the kinds of unusual, quirky details that make writing vivid and memorable.
7. Taking risks in life enables us to take risks in our writing. When I brought writers to Bali last year, I asked them to make the commitment to take a new risk every day. These ranged from tasting an unfamiliar food to starting a conversation with a Balinese person, from climbing under a waterfall to bartering in the market. We kept a log of our daily risks, and they got more brazen each day. These daily risks paved the way for us to take greater risks in our writing as well: approaching a previously taboo subject, trying out a new voice, reading a vulnerable piece out loud.
8. Traveling with an intention and a focus creates a far more meaningful vacation. When you travel with a purpose, your vacation is much richer than when you are simply go to relax or see the sights in a new place. And the fact that you are writing about your experiences guarantees a rich, lasting record of your adventures.
9. Living, working and playing with other writers quickly creates an intimate writing community. When you write intimately with other writers, you are deeply inspired by their stories. When another writer in the group is gifted at dialogue—able to evoke a vivid setting—or a memorable character—or is particularly brave about putting herself on the page—you learn to do the same through osmosis and example.
10. The new habits and friends you make at a writing retreat enrich your life for months and years to come. Students at writing retreats share a profound, life-changing experience. The bonding that happens at a retreat leads to lifelong friendships. People return home feeling refreshed, renewed, and deeply connected—both to themselves and to an amazing creative community.
***
Since she published her first book,
The Courage to Heal, in 1988,
Laura Davis has been teaching and encouraging other writers. If you’d like to experience the transformative power of Laura’s writing retreats, there are still a few spaces left in Laura’s “Write, Travel Transform” summer retreat:
in Bali, from June 21st-July 5th, and
in Scotland, from August 14th-24th. You can reach Laura at lauradavis[at]lauradavis[dot]net or call her at 831-464-9517.
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By: Crystal Otto,
on 4/6/2013
Blog:
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by Crystal Otto
I lost sight of my goals. I don’t know exactly when it happened, but sometime between college and 2012 I became so busy doing what I had always done, because I had always done it, that I created a life that was totally the opposite of my dream. My novel sat with 27,256 words, my children knew their nanny more intimately than they knew me, and I had to drag myself out of bed every day. The fun had been drained from my life and I hadn’t even noticed.
I’ve learned from my past and now I relax and assess my life. I do this often (daily, in fact) to ensure that I haven’t lost focus on what is important. I have a goal to blog three times a week, work on my novel, be involved in the community, volunteer at my children’s schools, and cultivate a healthy relationship with my spouse. When I relax and assess, I can see that there are things getting in the way of these goals. I then need to decide how to eliminate the distractions. Is an organization no longer aligned with my goals? Have I taken on too many volunteer opportunities? Do I have a friend who is monopolizing my time and sucking the life out of me? I ask myself these questions and then act accordingly.
I know I am nearing the ‘danger zone’ (reverting back to the previous me) when I am doing things just for the sake of doing them. My right brain is saying “this isn’t fun” and my left brain is responding with “but you’ve always done it, so just keep doing it” and that is when I know it’s time to sit down with a tall glass of water or short glass of wine and assess what and who is taking up my time and talents. When I assess and make the necessary changes I reach my goals more quickly and find that life is so much more rewarding.
“I’m a writer.” When I tell people this, I automatically know what is going on inside some of their heads.
I pad around in my jammies, free as a bird, with occasional bursts of brilliance as I nibble on chocolate and mainline coffee. The words? The words just flow out effortlessly. At least that’s what some folks think.
They also assume my mailbox is full of checks and my email box is full of acceptances. In their brain, I’s sure they imagine me skipping down the driveway every day (in my PJs, remember?), cradling a stack of envelopes from publishers and agents, and they’re all full of contracts.
First off, I should explain that writing is not my full-time job. During the day I teach third graders, and as much as I’d like to be able to say to my students, ”Guys, I’ve got my critique night tonight, and I’ve got nothin’ to share with them. Would you all mind working on something independently while I work at my computer?” I can’t. Teaching is my mission; writing is my love. Writing is crammed in during the evenings and sometimes during the weekends; it only gets a portion of my waking hours.
And coffee is too bitter of a drink, in my opinion. But if you were offering up a bottle of Bolthouse Farms Vanilla Chai Tea, I’d start tapping away at my laptop with a frenzy.
We’re making scads of money, you say? Anyone who writes knows that only a few of us are getting rich. We often get more rejection than praise, yet we continue to plug away. We become excited if we get into an anthology and get $10. I could make more money—per hour-- running the hot dog machine at Costco than I do at writing.
Furthermore, those who are not obsessed with a well-turned phrase can’t even fathom why writers contribute to markets that pay absolutely and positively nothing. Sometimes we have a publisher who was responsible for our first acceptance. Out of loyalty and gratitude, we will send them a story or an essay when they have a new anthology they’re developing. They supported us, and now we’re just returning the favor.
Sometimes, we just want the opportunity to have our writing out there. The joy is not in the money or the possible fame. No, the joy is in the process. It’s exhilarating to be able to see a piece of writing evolve from a steaming pile of poop into something that is capable of moving others. We don’t always need a monetary reward for the job we do. (However, it is delightful when it does happen.)
So when you say, “I’m a writer,” to someone, be prepared to share a bit of your “reality” with them. Or, let them hold onto their delusions.
‘Cause sometimes, fantasies are nice to entertain, if only for a moment…
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Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Do you try to impress your readers with fancy-pants words? Do you use “arachnid” instead of “spider”? Or perhaps you’ll throw out a phrase like, “wandering eight-legged spinner” instead of “spider.”
It’s a lovely phrase, “wandering eight-legged spinner.” But most of the time, using the simple term will keep your reader focused on your story, rather than your pretty writing. Packing your writing with purple prose phrases and fancy-pants vocabulary is a sure road to rejection. So why not just use spider?
Yes, there are times when our writing should have an impressive slant. But it should never be so impressive that a reader gets lost in our words. For most of us, writing in the everyday world, that means we need to keep our words and sentences clear, simple, and focused. We need to think about readability.
That’s where readability
tools come into play. Once you
enable these gems in your writing tools options on a Word document, I’ll bet you’ll wonder how you ever managed without them. With one
click, you can see whether your text is highly readable—or not so much.
The basic statistics (like words per sentence) will give you a good idea of whether you’re over-writing. I tested a couple passages from a contemporary best-selling novel,
Angels and Demons, using paragraphs packed with dialogue to those heavy on description. The average count came to 14 words per sentence. Fourteen words per sentence seems like a good standard. I mean, if it’s good enough for Dan Brown, it should be good enough for the rest of us, right?
Next, I thought it would be fun to try an experiment, to compare my writing against a best-selling novelist’s writing. So I used passages of similar word counts (300-ish) from
Angels and Demons and my humble blog post here. Let’s see how I did, shall we?
The words per sentence came to 12.2 in the
Angels and Demons sample. And my blog post? 13.9. That’s in the Dan Brown ballpark, so I’m happy.
Next, I can see whether I’m overusing that pesky passive voice. Dan’s passage weighed in at 4%, and my lowly post came in at 0%, thank you very much.
Now it’s time to check out the
Flesch Reading Ease score. The higher the score, the better the readability. High scores (A long-ago editor of mine required scores in the 70’s) mean that your fancy words are few, that your sentences don’t run on, and that your text is broken into a couple paragraphs.
So, let’s take a look at Dan’s passage: 69.4 (Impressive). My blog post: 69.6 (So there.).
Finally, I checked the grade level. Brown’s novel sample comes in at 6.6, while my blog post sample comes in at 6.8. I think sixth grade is a good target for any adult market, and 6.8 is pretty close.
In fact, my numbers, overall, are pretty darn close to best-selling novelist’s Dan Brown. And now it’s your turn. Compare your writing against work in the field you’re trying to break into and see how your numbers stack up. With practice and an eye to readability, your writing will improve for your readers.
And then together, friends, we shall take over the writing world. Bwahahahaa!
~
Cathy C. Hall
As the popularity of creative nonfiction increases, the genre brings up an interesting debate: is every word supposed to be true? If events are recorded in a memoir, were they supposed to happen just that way? If a writer is investigating a true crime, is it okay for her to make up dialogue between the criminals if she gets really close to what was probably said? Recently, I read the book:
You Can't Make This Stuff Up by Lee Gutkind, who is the editor and founder of
Creative Nonfiction magazine. The book discusses what creative nonfiction is, provides popular examples done well, and instructs writers how to create a nonfiction piece.
Creative nonfiction is a nonfiction story that is told with fiction elements: dialogue, setting details, scenes, characterization (of real people), and so on.That's where the creative part is
supposed to come in--not in the facts but in HOW the facts are revealed.
Part one of Lee's book would be interesting to anyone who loves to read and discuss what they read. The author writes about some of the most infamous cases of writers who claimed to write a true, nonfiction account of their lives; when in all actuality, it was false—sometimes the entire story made up.
The account most people know about is James Frey and his book,
A Million Little Pieces, since Oprah chose it as one of her book club selections. Because of her recommendation, two million copies of his book sold, and Frey became a household name. Then it was discovered that most of his story was completely untrue. He did more than make up some dialogue or create a composite character for simplicity sake--Frey lied.
This is one of the extreme examples that Gutkind discusses in his book during the ethics section; but there are actually more writers (more than I realized!) that fudge the truth just a bit. But still, they claim that they write creative nonfiction. For example, David Sedaris admits that because he writes humor based on his life, that sometimes he must exaggerate or make up dialogue to get a laugh. Some of the funny lines in
Naked? Completely fabricated!
John Berendt made up dialogue and rearranged the story chronology in
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil! Several people from Frank McCourt's home town claim that he didn't exactly tell the whole truth in
Angela's Ashes, and they state they've found over 100 discrepancies.
 |
| A good example of the genre |
On his blog and in his book, Gutkind writes that he can accept some "exaggerating an event or situation, or compressing time periods, or creating composite characters" and that it "may possibly help a nonfiction writer make his or her point more effectively—although I believe this is only rarely truly necessary."
It’s a crucial decision for writers to make if they are going to tackle the genre: are they going to tell the truth without embellishments?
Personally, I was disappointed when reading this section of Lee's book--so many writers don't stick to the 100 percent truth. But then I thought maybe it's really difficult to do this--I don't write much in this genre, so maybe I don't know. I have written some essays, and I have included dialogue, and I think I have the dialogue right; but it's as I remember it--so who knows for sure?
How do you feel about this issue? How much of a creative nonfiction piece is it okay to "make up"? If you write memoir or creative nonfiction, do you create dialogue or make up characters, etc, to smooth transitions? As a reader, how do you trust the writer?
I started thinking that perhaps books should say on the cover: Based On a True Story--just like many movies do. . .
Margo L. Dill edits, blogs, writes, and teaches for WOW! Women On Writing. To view her upcoming classes in spring and summer (writing for children/teens, writing short fiction, writing a children's/YA novel), please visit the WOW! classroom: http://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/WOWclasses.html
Congratulations to Kelly Dycavinu for her second place win in the Fall 2012 Flash Fiction contest. She won for her story, "Duplicity." If you haven't had a chance to read this winning entry yet, then you can
click here.
Kelly is currently in her thirties, but feels twenty and wishes she was fourteen. Well, that’s mostly true. Except that she wouldn’t trade life with her husband and two children for anything. So the fourteen-thing doesn’t cut it after all.
Based in Vancouver, Canada, Kelly has a BFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia. She writes primarily for children and young adults; however, her stage play,
Red Wolf, brings the world of fairytales to an adult audience. She also writes articles and personal essays that explore parenting, faith and social justice; and she writes academically in the area of literature, with a particular focus on intertextuality.
Kelly’s especially interested in classic literature, mythology, folk and fairy tales, trickster narratives, biblical narratives and creation accounts. She believes that how we view ourselves and others around us is largely impacted by the stories we hear/see and the stories we tell. This link between
story and
identity fascinates her. Her blog,
Popcorn with a Spoon, may be found at:
http://kellydycavinu.wordpress.com/ WOW: Congratulations, Kelly, on your second place win for your story, "Duplicity." What inspired you to write this flash fiction story?Kelly: Thank you. There are a few strands of inspiration that wove their way into "Duplicity." The first is a moment when, for some reason, I was musing about the expression "two-faced" (used of someone who doesn't mean what they say or who says two different things depending on who's listening). I imagined the expression from a literal perspective and from there crafted a character who has the ability to see (physically) when a person is being two-faced. I thought this would be interesting. The second inspiration comes from reading a friend's short story. She unintentionally wrote the story in a way that could be read as either magical realism or as metaphor. The two ways of reading it co-existed perfectly, and I wanted to try writing a story like that. Can Shelley actually see the two-faces (magical realism), or has she psychologically snapped? I hoped to craft the story in a way that both could be equal options. A third inspiration comes from another friend who had only recently introduced me to flash fiction. In the end, I borrowed my two-face seeing character from a YA novel I'm writing and Shelley's story from a short fiction piece that had been left unfinished and made my first attempt at writing flash fiction.
WOW: What an interesting concept to explore. Great idea! Why did you decide to enter it in to the WOW! flash fiction contest? What benefits do contests give writers?Kelly: I stumbled upon a link to the WOW! flash fiction contest. I may not have given it any consideration except that, days earlier, I came from a writing retreat where a friend had introduced me to flash fiction. To be honest, the minimal $10 entry fee is why I chose to submit the story. I personally hesitate with entry fees, as they add up fairly quickly (and don't all of us emerging writers dream of being in a place where our writing makes us money rather than costs us?). That said, without the motivation of the contest, "Duplicity" would still be an unfinished short story rather than a completed flash fiction piece. Contests are good for enforcing external deadlines. If you're like me, the self-inflicted deadlines don't hold as much authority. Also, in winning 2nd place, I gained confidence in my writing (a sense of validation, really), kudos from my friends, an award/publication to list on my CV, and some decent prize money. You can't win if you don't enter.
WOW: I completely agree that contests are a great motivator in getting pieces finished and submitted! And look at all the benefits winning gave you! What themes did you want to explore in "Duplicity"?Kelly: Trust is a major theme. I wanted to explore the psychology of what happens to a person (in this case Shelley) when intimate trust is broken. Is Shelley's ability to see/hear the second face a reflection of how she has been scarred? She is no longer able to trust. Or is it a reflection of her enlightenment? No one is truly trustworthy. Deception is another theme. Darren is not the only deceiver. Shelley's actions are also, ironically, duplicitous.
WOW: You have a BFA in creative writing. Do you think this has helped you with your writing career? How?Kelly: Both yes and no.
Yes. Entry into most writing programs is usually competitive. When I inform a publisher (or whomever) that I have a BFA in creative writing, I feel that it shows, on a very basic level, I'm skilled enough as a writer to have gained acceptance into a program and that I'm serious enough about my writing to have invested the time and money.
No. Ultimately, degree or no degree, it's one's writing that speaks for itself.
Yes. Like contests, a degree in creative writing provides those external deadlines. Many programs also require you to write in more than one genre, so a writer may be pushed beyond her comfort zone. I write mainly for children and young adults, but my experience was broadened into writing stageplay, nonfiction (personal essay, memoir, op ed), manga, short fiction, and so on.
No. My personal opinion is that there are also potential pitfalls to degree programs (such as cookie-cutter methods/approaches to writing that may stifle uncharted territory in the creative process). I recall one occasion when I should have forged ahead with a story rather than attempt a re-write.
Yes. I learned a lot about building a career in writing... all the little details about query letters, the dos and don'ts of manuscript submissions; I met publishers, agents, authors, instructors, fellow writers and built some great networks. I feel the degree helped me establish a solid foundation in my writing career.
No. All of the above can be learned or established outside a degree program. Even with my solid foundation, I feel I'm learning the most in the real world by writing, submitting to publishers, facing rejections, writing, meeting with my mentor, writing, winning a contest and more writing, writing, writing.
WOW: Thanks for taking the time to answer that for us. I know many people really struggle with whether or not to pursue a degree. So, what are you currently working on?Kelly: A literary fiction novel based on the biblical character of Rahab, the prostitute. I'm telling her story prior to when we meet her in the biblical narrative. As it's a fairly large and research-intensive project, I'm also working on a number of children's picture books. Finishing a shorter story helps me to keep encouraged when there seems to be no end in sight on the longer project. And I'm working on finding a home for some of my completed picture books. It's amazing how much work remains after a story has been written!
WOW: No doubt! Tell readers what they'll find on your blog, Popcorn with a Spoon, http://kellydycavinu.wordpress.com/Kelly: Reflections or personal essays on parenting, motherhood, writing, books, art, faith and social justice.
WOW: Thanks, Kelly, for letting us pick your brain today! Congratulations again, and best of lucky to you with your short-term and long-term projects!
& giveaway contest Judy Mandel’s story begins years before she is born. A horrifying accident begins the string events ultimately leading to Judy’s birth and her story
Replacement Child. A plane crashed into the family’s home, leaving one daughter severely burned and another dead. The death of the child leaves a hold in the family that threatens to tear it apart. In an attempt to fill the painful gap, her parents give birth to Judy, their “replacement child.”
In this powerful story of love and lies, family and hope, Judy L. Mandel tells the story of being the child brought into the world to provide “a salve for the burns.” As a child, she unwittingly rides the deep and hidden currents of her family’s grief—until her discovery of this family secret, years later, changes her life forever, forcing her to confront the complex layers of her relationships with her father, mother, and sister.
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Seal Press; Reprint edition (March 5, 2013)
ISBN-10: 1580054765
ISBN-13: 978- 1580054768
Twitter hashtag: #RCmandel
Replacement Child is available as a print book at
Amazon and
Barnes and Noble.
Book Giveaway Contest:To win a copy of
Replacement Child, please enter using the Rafflecopter form at the bottom of this post. The giveaway contest closes this Friday, April 5 at 12:00 AM EST. We will announce the winner the same day in the Rafflecopter widget. Good luck!
About the Author:Judy Mandel's writing life began as a reporter. She later worked in public relations and advertising and somehow found herself in corporate communications at various insurance companies, where she earned a living for 20 years. Her memoir,
Replacement Child, grew out of early essays and the promise she made to her family to tell the story.
Find out more about the author by visiting her online:
Judy's website:
http://www.judymandel.com/Home.htmlReplacement Child website:
http://replacementchild.com/Home.htmlJudy's Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/judy.mandelReplacement Child Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/ReplacementChildTwitter:
http://twitter.com/judymandel-----
Interview by Crystal OttoWOW: Judy, when you originally started writing your memoir what was your goal for the project? Were you initially intending to write a book for publication or did you think of it more as a personal exercise or capturing family history for your children? Judy: I always thought of it as a book that would be published. At the same time, I looked at it as a way to give my son an understanding of who I am, and a view of how his life may still be effected by his family history.
WOW: Geneology is popular right now, what advice would you give to others as they piece together their own family histories?Judy: I didn’t happen to use any of the geneology tools that some use, but I would say that stories emerge from the details of a family history. The general facts are usually not that interesting, it’s the individual stories of relationships that I think make for the best family histories.
WOW: What made you decide to seek publication for your story?Judy: People have always been intrigued by the story. You read headlines like this every day. Shootings, accidents, plane crashes like the one in my book. But those people disappear from our view after a day or two. The news marches on and we lose track of the lives that have been changed forever by that news event. I felt that the long view aftermath of a tragic event, and how it changes the lives of those involved, possibly for generations, was an important story to tell.
The story of my parents struggling through the grief of losing their seven-year-old daughter, nursing their two-year-old back to health and then through years of reconstructive surgery—that was part of the story I knew would give others hope. My sister Linda, who survived the plane crash and fire, but suffered for much of her life as a result, is a story of courage that I felt a responsibility to tell. As with any courageous tale, it gives us all strength.
Then, after making the connection to being a replacement child, I also realized that my story could be helpful for other replacement children who have had no clue to the origins of some of their own personality traits and life choices. There truly is no support group for replacement children, or much recognition of their issues.
WOW: Judy, how do you feel about your place in the family after having written Replacement Child? Judy: It is comforting to realize through the writing that I was indeed some kind of healing force, especially for my mother. My relationship with my father was complicated, but I have found peace with that as well as I understood more about what he went through. Since my sister’s Linda’s death, who died in 2009, I think I relate most to the quote from Job in the bible: “I alone am left to tell you” the story.
WOW: Was it difficult to face emotions and truths about your family while writing Replacement Child or did you find it healing?Judy: Both really. It was almost like a magic trick that I would write my memories of certain incidents and would see a new truth emerge. When I had just begun writing and understanding some of my complex feelings toward my father, it was painful when I realized that in some way he resented me for not being his first born daughter. It was definitely a journey to come out the other side of that hurt. My mother’s secrets were not as unsettling as you might imagine. Writing through some of our times together was a pleasure that kept her with me through that part of the work. I was actually sorry to let it go.
WOW: The memoir genre is experiencing a boom in popularity. Why do you feel so many readers are drawn to memoir? Do you enjoy reading memoir and if so, do you have any favorite authors or books?Judy: Real life is still fascinating. As they say, “you can’t make this stuff up.” In fiction, if you told some of the stories that are actually true, people would say they were too far-fetched and could never happen. In memoir, there is no arguing whether it could have happened or not, because it did! I do enjoy a good memoir.
The Liars' Club by Mary Karr is my favorite. I love her down to earth, quirky voice.
WOW: You started out self-publishing your memoir. Could you tell us why you decided to go that route? Was it difficult marketing your book on your own? If you could give our readers a bit of advice you learned while marketing your book what would you tell them?Judy: I self-published
Replacement Child after I had no success finding an agent to represent it after a year of queries. There were very nice rejection letters, mostly saying they liked it but didn’t think they could sell it. I felt strongly about the book, and its potential readership, and went ahead with self-publishing. The best thing I did was to hire a professional editor. I have thirteen full revisions of the manuscript still in a cabinet in my office. And, yes, marketing a self-published book is not easy, although it’s getting easier. Since I first self-published in 2009 things have changed quite a bit. More and more are being picked up by traditional publishers, and more reviewers are open to them. My biggest piece of advice is to be persistent and pursue all avenues available for marketing a self-published book. Do your own book tour, start a blog, be engaged on Facebook and Twitter, do as much publicity as you can, or hire someone to do it.
WOW: How did you eventually hook-up with a traditional publisher?Judy: My eBook picked up speed and sold around 14,000 copies in three months and was still selling steadily when I reached out to an agent I had met four years earlier at a writers conference. She had been receptive to the manuscript but didn’t take it on at that time. Now, with the sales coming in, she took a fresh look and sold it quite quickly.
WOW: Do you have a preference for self-publishing or traditional publishing?Judy: Given the option, I would prefer traditional publishing. There is still a measure of credibility, still an easier road for reviews and being present in bookstores. And, I’ve had a wonderful experience with my publisher and my agent.
WOW: What are you writing now?Judy: I’m working on a couple of projects. One is a novel, and the other non-fiction concerning replacement children.
WOW: What words of encouragement would you give someone trying to put together the pieces of their family’s history? Judy: Start with the stories you know. If you are lucky enough to have members of your family around, pick their brains for family history details and follow the breadcrumbs. Start writing the memories that resonate with you the most. You can put things in a structure later. Write every day and revise and edit each piece until you are pleased with it as a stand-alone section or chapter.
Give yourself time. Let chapters sit for a week and then go back and look at them with a fresh eye. Read your pieces out loud. You’ll be amazed at what you find that you don’t see on the printed page. I always proof my work in hard copy and then read it out loud.
Also, try to see the arc of your story as early in the process as you can, but be patient. It may take time for it to emerge.
WOW: What or who was most helpful as you put your memoir into print?Judy: That’s an easy one. By far, it was my husband who encouraged me and believed in me. He was my first reader for everything, even though people warned me against that. I am positive that I would not have had the faith in my writing if it hadn’t been for him. Of course, there were others who were instrumental, like my sister Linda. She had some of the information I didn’t know.
WOW: What's the most useful piece of writing advice you've ever received?Judy: Not to expect your first draft of anything to be great. It takes editing and revising to create good writing.
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Blog Tour Dates Monday, April 1 (today!) @ The MuffinStop by for an interview and book giveaway!
http://muffin.wow-womenonwriting.com/Thursday, April 4 @ Words by WebbStop by to find out what Jodi has to say about
Replacement Child, a memoir about complicated family dynamics, by Judy Mandel.
http://jodiwebb.comWednesday, April 10 @ CMash ReadsDon't miss Cheryl's take on
Replacement Child, a memoir about love, loss, and family by Judy Mandel and a chance to win your own copy!
http://cmashlovestoread.com/ Monday, April 15 @ ChoicesToday is your chance to hear from Madeline about her thoughts on
Replacement Child, a memoir of growing up as the replacement child by Judy Mandel.
http://madeline40.blogspot.com/ Wednesday, April 17 @ Tiffany Talks BooksDon't miss Tiffany talking about her thoughts after reading
Replacement Child by Judy Mandel. This is a great memoir about family and loss.
http://tiffanytalksbooks.com Tuesday, April 23 @ All About AudryStop by to learn more about Judy Mandel, author of the memoir about family,
Replacement Child.
http://www.allthingsaudry.blogspot.com Thursday, April 25 @ Mrs. Mommy BooknerdFact or Fiction? That's the topic today with memoir writer Judy Mandel, author of
Replacement Child.
http://mrsmommybooknerd.blogspot.com/Thursday, May 2 @ White ElephantsEnter to win a copy of
Replacement Child by Judy Mandel and find out what Chynna has to say about this memoir about life, loss, and love from a child born into a family that had suffered the loss of a
daughter.
http://www.seethewhiteelephants.com/Friday, May 3 @ Memory Writers NetworkEnjoy an interview with writer Judy Mandel and discover why she felt the need to write her memoir,
Replacement Child.
http://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/Tuesday, May 7 @ National Association of Memoir WritersStop by to learn more about a riveting memoir,
Replacement Child, and its author Judy Mandel.
http://www.namw.org/ To view all our touring authors, check out our
Events Calendar. Keep up with blog stops and giveaways in real time by following us on Twitter
@WOWBlogTour.
Get Involved!If you have a website or blog and would like to host one of our touring authors or schedule a tour of your own, please email us at blogtour@wow-womenonwriting.com.
Book Giveaway Contest: Enter to win a copy of
Replacement Child! Just fill out the Rafflecopter form below. We will announce the winner in the Rafflecopter widget this Friday, April 5.
a Rafflecopter giveawayGood luck!
My first parenting clip
Back in 2005, I noticed a local parenting magazine ran a monthly feature called "Parent to Parent." I wrote up a fun column called "How I Became a Domestic Goddess," submitted it to the editor and was surprised when a friend told me she had seen it in the magazine a few months later. The publication didn't pay for that particular column at that point, but I had my first parenting clip. I was ecstatic.
From there, I brainstormed other ideas from articles, taken directly from my own experiences, because that is what I felt most comfortable writing about. This inspired me to write one of my first published parenting articles, "Meal Solutions for New Parents," which has since been rewritten and reprinted for other publications.
Like many aspiring parent writers, I also sent off a few article ideas via snail mail to the big parenting publications like Babytalk, Parents and Parenting. For the most part, I never got any responses back. However, I took some of those same queries and sent them out to a few local regional parenting publications, and within a few months, had made several sales. Eventually, I took a job as an associate editor at the regional parenting publication that gave me my first break, where I made a startling discovery—there was a lot more opportunity for publication in regional parenting magazines than I originally thought.
Regional parenting publications may have a much lower pay scale than the nationals, but most writers have a better shot of getting published in these magazines, and if they market themselves properly, they can generate a steady reprint income. But when I mention this fact to some of the writers I know, they have no idea of the amount of publishing opportunities out there in regional parenting pubs. It is possible to publish an article in Atlanta Parent, even if you don't live in the area. You just have to know how to find sources in that area and relevant tie-ins. Some editors don't even ask for that, and evergreen articles suit them just fine. These days, I'm writing more about social media safety for tweens than how to pacify a whining toddler, but I still haven't run out of ideas for the parenting market, and neither should you.
Read more about this topic:
Tap Into Your Family: Parenting Publications
Personalize Your Parenting (Writing)
Renee Roberson is an award-winning freelance writer and editor who blogs at Renee’s Pages.
You love books. You want to involved with the whole process in some way. There are many, many careers possible in publishing.
Editor
Publisher
Publicity
Literary agent
Fact checker
Copyeditor
Photograph researcher
Graphic designer
Printer
Bookstore employee or owner
Writing teacher or coach
Book doctor
Book reviewer
Within each of these, there are so many sub-genres and specialties that it is impossible to list them all. You could take each genre—chick-lit, horror, mystery, literary nonfiction, cookbooks, etc.—and repeat the list because in this industry, people tend to specialize.
When you think about where you fit and where you want your career to go, remember that in America, most people change careers multiple times (Not just a job-change, but a career-change). You may be an editor at a well-respected publishing house, until the economy tanks and you find yourself on the street, in need of a new career. Many editors make the career switch to becoming a literary agent.
I find myself at a crossroad these days, with projects taking off in multiple directions: teaching, blogging, writing how-to books, publishing, children's picture books, and even graphic design. Yesterday, someone asked what I would charge per hour to work on a website. As opportunities shut down, others open up.
In some ways, this is hard: my real love is writing fiction. But selling manuscripts to a publishing house is a struggle for each and every manuscript. I want to write fiction! But as I look around the industry, I see so many other ways my writing skills could be put to use. And I've done many of those things, from writing nonfiction, editing, blogging, publicity/PR and more.
In some ways, the opportunities available make it easy: if selling fiction is hard, selling nonfiction right now seems easier. Obviously, I need to work on publishable stories and am moving more toward the nonfiction side. It's an easy leaning-in that makes sense. And dollars.
Does this represent a different career? I prefer to think of it this way: I am working in the publishing industry and my current focus is nonfiction. That attitude keeps me flexible for the next time the industry twists off into a different direction. Ebooks—in all their variety, blogging, small or large publications—the key for me is that my career will always be in writing and publishing. My specialty or my current focus must change to keep up with current opportunities, but I will only look at opportunities that involve words. I am in this for the long haul.
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Darcy Pattison blogs about how-to-write at
Fiction Notes and
blogs about education at CommonCoreStandards.com Follow
Darcy on Pinterest.
My mentor says that a writer is someone who can’t not write, and I’ve certainly found that to be true. While we must write, the question always arises, “What should I write about?” As a historical novelist, I love nothing more than to find some obscure person and expose them. My first novel was about Anna Kingsley of Kingsley Plantation in Florida. No one had really told her story and she was an amazing woman, a role model of strength and inner courage for all of us. Anna was born of royal blood in 1793 in Senegal. She was captured at the age of thirteen in a tribal raid, survived the horrific Middle Passage, and was brought as a slave to Spanish East Florida. I tell her story in
Freedom Bound, which won an award from the Florida First Coast Writers Association.
After releasing two more historical novels–
Sisters of Valor, which won a Military Writers Society of America Award, and
Beyond the Dream, based loosely on my great-grandparents, I struggled with my next book subject.
For years, the story of the hundreds of black children who left school to march with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement had captured my attention. I knew that 2013 would be the 50th anniversary of their pivotal march, so I decided to write about it as a tribute to them.
As with most things, the more I delved into their stories, the more impressed I was with what they had accomplished. In the 1960s Birmingham, Alabama was considered the most racist place in the country. African-Americans were completely segregated from the white population. The schools were segregated, the churches, the clubs, the waiting rooms and water fountains–everything. Blacks could not use the downtown public library; to get food from the few restaurants they could use, they had to go in the back door to order, then take their food outside. Overseeing and enforcing all this was the ruthless “Bull” Connor, Commissioner of Public Safety.
When Dr. King entered the scene with his non-violent protest, the adults in the black community were not interested in marching with him. They had too much to lose–their jobs, their homes, maybe even their lives. But the children weren’t afraid.
On the appointed day (known to them by secret code words from the local dj) thousands– literally thousands– of children left school and flocked to the 16th Street Baptist Church to march with Dr. King. Some came from as far as eighteen miles away.
And, yes, they were arrested, some even as young as eight years old, and yes, on the second day they were hosed and had police dogs snarling at them. The pressure from those hoses could tear bark off trees, and yet the children came back and marched again and again.
How could I not write of their courage?
* * *
JC Penney Award recipient Rosalie Turner has been writing for almost 30 years. Her sixth book, March With Me, released this month marking the 50th anniversary of the Children’s March. Visit Rosalie at www.rosalieturner.com.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lately I've been wanting to write, but I keep stacking my schedule against writing. And, for the first time, I can't blame a messy desk. (I usually claim that one...and then a cleaning frenzy follows, negating any desire to write creatively.)
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For once, a messy desk isn't the scape goat.
I love this picture for its motivational
"Happy Day" card. Photo | Flickr: mrsdkrebs |
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Too many projects. Too many kids' school events. Too much life. As many of us do, I plan and plan, but then something "better" gets in the way.
Admittedly, my writing is in a rut. For April, I am making a pact with myself to sit down, take the time, and write more. I'm testing what has worked in the past when my motivation seems lacking, such as starting on a creative endeavor means I buy a new notebook. Lately, that hasn't worked because most of my writing is done on the computer. So I guess I'll have to throw out the concept as a motivational technique.
This time I need
more substantive motivation.
I have some ideas of how to accomplish it (see below), but I'd enjoy hearing from readers—what do you do to find more time to write? How do you shake up your routine to bring your writing to the forefront of your day?
Here are my top ideas:
- Wake up fifteen minutes earlier (I'm fresher in the morning, but do others stay up later to get their writing done?)
- Write in the bedroom, before I enter the family zone and kids make their daily demands
- Schedule time with myself, maybe every Friday morning for an hour of solid writing
- Pack a lunch and use a lunch hour to write in a different setting
- Pack all my time into a mini-retreat, which I have found gets me moving forward on a story
- Front-load my desk with books on craft or books that inspire me so that my desk screams "Write!" ... and I feel obligated to comply.
That's what I've tried before and what I plan to do start...uh, in April. (Maybe I should add "Stop procrastinating!" to my list?)
What is your plan for re-motivating your writing? What has worked for you? Or, are you someone who needs no help staying motivated? (If so, what is your
secret?)Elizabeth King Humphrey, MFA, edits and, when not motivationally challenged, writes. She is also looking for book recommendations for an upcoming vacation...but only to support her writing challenge. :)
You write a book, you begin to market it to agents or publishers, and then, zero. Nada. Zilch. In other words, the story you poured your heart and soul into sits in the document file of your computer or is shoved to the back of a filing cabinet.
If you find this happening to a piece of your writing, take another look at what you've put on paper. More than likely, the story has a flaw that can be fixed, and in the long run, these edits will make it a stronger piece of writing.
- No action, no reaction. Without a catalyst for action, a story sits - and will more than likely never sell. It's a basic notion of physics, and in this case, literature: Something must happen that causes a reaction from characters. Now, the action doesn't have to be major, but a single event or non-event acts as a turning point for a story.
- Whoa, Nellie! Have you ever started reading (or writing) a story that has too much exposition and by the time you reach what should be the beginning, you've lost interest? I find this a lot when I edit stories for a publishing company, and it always reminds me of lines from The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. "Begin at the beginning." "The beginning?" asked my mother. "The beginning of the story." Readers don't want to get bogged down with information that does not impact the storyline.
- Repetition. I'll plead guilty to this common flaw. I find I overuse certain words or phrases. They are everywhere! A few weeks ago, I was reviewing several poems I have written to submit to a contest. That's when it struck me: I have a pet phrase that showed up in all five poems. It's the same principle when you write fiction or non-fiction: tell us what you want to tell us. Readers don't need to be constantly reminded of something that happened.
If you have a manuscript stuck in a drawer, give it a second perusal and see if you can apply any of these fixes.
Have you committed any of these story flaws?
by LuAnn Schindler
By: MP,
on 3/26/2013
Blog:
WOW! Women on Writing Blog (The Muffin)
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Jeanne Lyet Gassman lives with her husband and son in the desert west of Phoenix, Arizona, but she dreams often of snow-covered mountains with pine-scented breezes. She believes in the power and beauty of language and loves helping other writers. When she isn’t writing, she works as a freelance editor and teaches creative writing workshops to writers’ groups and individuals in the Phoenix metro area.
She holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She writes creative nonfiction, poetry, and fiction, but her first love is fiction. Her work has appeared recently in
Switchback, Barrelhouse, and
LQQK, among others. An excerpt from her unpublished novel, The Blood of A Stone, is forthcoming in
Assisi: An Online Journal of Literature and Arts. Her awards include fellowships from Ragdale and the Arizona Commission on the Arts. She is currently working on a novel about a family of downwinders who were adversely affected by the radioactive fallout from the atomic bomb tests in Nevada in the 1950s and 1960s.
To learn about opportunities for writers, including contests, grants, and calls for submission, please visit Jeanne’s blog,
Jeanne’s Writing Desk. To get to know Jeanne and her work, please visit her
website or connect with her on
Twitter.
interview by Marcia PetersonWOW: Congratulations on winning first place in our Fall 2012 writing contest! What inspired you to enter the contest?Jeanne: I follow WOW! on Facebook and am a great fan of all that you offer for women writers. When I saw the announcement for the 2012 Fall Flash Fiction Contest, I had just finished a draft of "Haboob Season" and thought that it might be a good candidate for the competition, so I revised the story and entered the contest. I'm glad I did!
WOW: Can you tell us what encouraged the idea behind your story, "Haboob Season?" It’s a chilling story, despite all the heat.Jeanne: The story has its origin in several truths: My husband did retire recently, and our children have just graduated from college. A close friend of mine also lost her husband last year. Although his death wasn't unexpected, she suddenly became a very young widow, which changed her lifestyle in dramatic ways. The summer of 2012 was one of the hottest summers in Phoenix on record with weeks of 100+ degree days and numerous large and small dust storms. The press began calling the big dust storms "haboobs." It's such a wonderful word, so much more evocative than "dust storm," and it made me think about what these massive storms could represent in one's personal life, how everything is so transient. Despite our best intentions, one swift change can sweep everything away, much in the same way a "haboob" sweeps through a metropolitan area, leaving devastation in its wake. The final stroke of inspiration came from a casual comment from a friend, who asked me how we coped with the dog days of summer in Phoenix. I put all of these elements--dust storms, sudden loss and change, the misery of summer in Phoenix--together, and "Haboob Season" was born.
For those of you who have never seen a haboob, I've enclosed a link to a video of one passing over Phoenix:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYnuzoH5oBAWOW: Fascinating video, thanks for sharing! Since you write in several different genres, including fiction, nonfiction and poetry, how do you decide what you’re going to work on at any given time? Do you find one type of writing more challenging than the others? Jeanne: Well, fiction is my first love. If I have no pressing deadlines from editors or publishers, I spend my time working on my novels or a work of short fiction. I've written some creative nonfiction, which bears many similarities to fiction, but the straight nonfiction I write is usually solicited work. For several years, I wrote a column on the craft and business of writing, "Jeanne's Writing Desk," for an e-newsletter called
Mike's Writing Newsletter. The column had fixed deadlines, so I had to write my nonfiction on a schedule. If someone contacts me and asks me to write a blog post or nonfiction piece, I discuss their needs and adjust my writing projects accordingly.
I'm currently finishing the edits on my first novel,
The Blood of A Stone, for a publisher. Since I have a deadline to turn in the edits, that is my top priority at the moment. Once those edits are complete, I plan to return to the work on my second novel,
The Double Sun, a more contemporary story about a family of downwinders, people who suffered adverse effects from radioactive fallout from the atomic bomb tests in Nevada. I don't have a publisher for that book, but I do have an internal deadline/goal for the first draft. In general, I work well with deadlines, and if I don't have real ones, I like to create personal deadlines.
Poetry is definitely the most challenging genre for me. It requires not only precision of language but a strong sense of rhythm and motion. I adore good poetry and wish I were a better poet, but I would be the first to admit that writing poetry is not my strength.
WOW: Describe a typical day spent writing. Do you have any unusual writing habits?Jeanne: I start every day by filling out my day planner. I use this time to prioritize my writing goals and organize my schedule. Then I walk the dog. Good writing takes place in the mind as much as it does on paper or the computer screen, and during our walks, I think about scenes, snippets of dialogue, resolve plot issues, etc. Once we return home, I sit down at my desk and begin work on my writing project of the day.
As I mentioned earlier, I tend to be very goal and project oriented. Rather than focus on a minimum daily word count or a minimum number of hours at the keyboard, I find I'm most productive when I concentrate on reaching specific milestones by specific dates. For example, if I'm working on my novel, I may set a goal on Monday to complete the next two chapters by Friday. This allows me to break my daily goals into smaller units, writing sections of those two chapters every day. If I'm planning to enter a writing contest or have a deadline for submitting a story to a literary magazine, I set a deadline for the first draft and a deadline for the revisions of that draft. Of course, if an editor has asked me to write a nonfiction piece, I usually have a fixed deadline and have to work toward that. I write five to six days a week for approximately 3-4 hours a day. This may not seem like a lot, but the steady effort makes it possible to accumulate a fair amount of material over time.
My daughter said I should also mention that my home office has a residential cat who contributes his editing advice. Our cat eats on the corner of my desk, sleeps in a special chair behind me, and reminds me that petting a kitty is the best solution to writer's block.
WOW: We talk a lot here on the blog about walking as a great tool for writing inspiration. I like how you focus on specific milestones by specific dates too. That seems like a great strategy! You mentioned that you’re currently working on a novel. How is that project going?
Jeanne: Actually, I'm working on two novels right now. I'm editing my first novel,
The Blood of A Stone, a historical story set in first century A.D. Palestine, and I'm finishing the first draft of my second novel,
The Double Sun, the story about a family of downwinders. Both projects are coming along nicely. I will be turning in my final edits to the publisher for the first book at the end of March and hope to be able to announce a publication date shortly thereafter. I have 4-5 chapters left to write before I have a complete draft of the second book. My goal (that word again!) for the second book is to have the first draft completed by the end of this summer.
One tool I've found particularly useful for writing novels is the story board. In fact, I have a story board for the second book, since it's still a work in process, and a revision board for the book I'm currently editing. I use a large bulletin board, but some people pin notes to a wall or even write on the wall. I've enclosed a picture of my story board for
The Double Sun to give people a visual representation of how this works. This photo was taken earlier in the process of writing the book, so I now have more scene cards than what you see here. Since The
Double Sun spans over 30 years, you will notice there are dates for each section. Beneath those dates are chapter titles. Under each chapter title I've posted an index card with a one-sentence description of each major scene in that chapter. On the right-hand side of the bulletin board I've posted photos of locations, events, and inspiring articles. This story board, or inspiration board as I like to think of it, provides me with a wonderful big-picture view of the novel-in-progress. By studying this board, I can easily see where I may need an additional scene, where there are too many similar scenes, where I need to cut the flab, etc. Interestingly enough, I've been writing the chapters in this book out of order, drafting specific chapters as they come to me rather than plodding along from the beginning to the end. The story board makes that possible.
WOW: Thanks for sharing a visual of your storyboard process, and for chatting with us today, Jeanne! Before you go, do you have any advice for beginning flash fiction writers?Jeanne: I'm flattered that you'd like my advice on writing flash, as I consider myself a novice in this genre! However, the best advice I can give is to read flash fiction--lots of it. Study why the author leaves something out, how the author uses dialogue, how description moves the story forward, etc. I like to think of flash fiction as building a doll-size version of a real house on a small patch of real estate. Just like a full-size house, you have all the necessities: bathrooms, living space, bedrooms, etc., but they're smaller and limited in scope. Every single word must count. There's no room in flash for meandering or tangents. This means that the words you select carry a lot of weight; they need to develop character, set the scene, move the plot forward, or do several of these things at the same time. It also helps to have a destination in mind. If you know where you want your story to end, you can push toward that ending. My final piece of advice is to target your markets and submit your work. You'll never get your writing published if you don't send it out.
Thank you so much for inviting me to share my thoughts on the writing life. It has been such a pleasure to work with WOW!
***
The Spring 2013 Flash Fiction Contest is OPEN!Find out more:
http://wow-womenonwriting.com/contest.php***
You know how you can make one of those ridiculous professional mistakes, and you’re all set to kick yourself in the pants, but then you figure out something terribly important from the mistake? Yeah, that happened to me the other day.
It all started a year ago, when I’d accidentally disabled the publicizing feature on my personal blog.
But then last week,
I realized the mistake and got to work, getting all my promotional tools up and running again. That’s when the terribly-important figuring out began. (I mean, besides the terribly important thing I figured out about checking the status of your publicizing tools on various social media.)
First, I noticed my blog post titles. When I double-checked my blog feed on the afore-mentioned various social media, and saw my blog title pop up, I had this moment where I thought, “Would I stop to read this blog post based on that boring title?”
Well. It was a humbling moment, friends. I’m a
creative writer, for crying out loud. I should be coming up with extra-oomph-y titles, right? But I’d been taking the lazy route, falling back on same-old, same-old title patterns.
To be honest, I suspect my faithful blog readers would probably read my posts no matter what I titled them. And yours probably will, too. But do you really want to get in the bad habit of penning ho-hum titles? That’s a writing skill you need to hone whether you write fiction, non-fiction, poetry or blog posts.
And for bloggers like me, there’s another reason strong titles are important. I’m in the business of bringing new readers to my blog. Maybe you’d like to build
your subscribers, too. But how can we expect to pull in new readers with ordinary titles? After all, we’re competing with a ton of information (not to mention a ton of cute cats) out there amongst the social media. We’re going to need a title that will grab a reader’s attention—and fast!
Then there’s the first line of the post, the line that also comes up in the blog post feed. I was not too impressed with my first sentence hook. If I were actually fishing with that hook, I’d starve to death.
In the end, I realized that if one is going to go to all the trouble to publicize one's blog posts, it’s terribly important to put one's best foot forward. A strong title can get the casual reader to stop scrolling. A first line with a hook can get that reader to a blog. And if the rest of the post offers something of value to that reader, one is very likely to land a subscriber.
Which is way better than getting a kick in the pants.
~
Cathy C. Hall
One of the things that I look for when rewriting any piece of fiction is character emotion. That said, my understanding of character emotion and what I look for when I rewrite has changed over time.
As a new writer, I learned that I had to provide a varied emotional experience for my reader. My stories couldn’t be all plot even if that was the part that I most enjoyed writing. My character had to change and grow and part of taking the reader along on that trip was communicating emotion. One emotional note expressed over and over again would bore anyone to tears.
Number 1. Vary emotion throughout the story. Check.
After I mastered that, I learned to make sure that each character experienced multiple emotions. This kept me from creating card-board characters with no emotional depth. Sure, my story as a whole had a full range of emotions but I still had a perky, upbeat side kick, a brooding hero and a very angry villain. Ho hum. Boring.
Number 2. Vary emotions for each character. Got it.
Then I had to learn to express this emotion in a variety of ways. I knew better than to tell everyone time and time again that my hero was worried. I had to show them. But to do this well still required variety. My character couldn’t simply chew on his lip and sigh throughout the entire story. He could but it would still be boring. I had to learn a variety of ways to express each emotion. Fortunately, I stumbled across the Emotion Thesaurus with its many lists. Now I could show worry 35 different ways.
Number 3. Vary ways of expressing emotion. Done.
My latest lesson? Emotional intensity. Some types of stories require pulse pounding emotions. Others are quiet, more sedate and measured. In most works of fiction you need to vary the intensity of the character emotions you serve up to your reader. If your characters experience only mild emotions, you risk boring your reader with the monotony. If your characters experience only extreme emotion, you may exhaust your reader. For a truly satisfying experience, the emotions need to cover the full range, peaking when things get really bad (or really good) but also having calmer, moderate moments.
Number 4. Vary the emotional intensity. Roger.
For the moment, that’s where I stand in my understanding of character emotion and reader appeal. I suspect that sooner or later a new understanding will sneak up on me and work its way into my writing. My readers will, I’m sure, be grateful.
–SueBE
Read more of SueBE's writing at her blog.
If you write for young children, as in the preschool to first grade range, you know that this is often more difficult than writing for adults. Writers who have never attempted this can't believe it when I say how hard it is. "How can that be? There are hardly any words. The stories are so simple."
I challenge anyone to try it, and you will see. The reason why it looks so easy is because the authors who write for our favorite little people are just good at it. They have it down to a science and can find creative, new ways to introduce the big, wide world to three-year-olds while not boring them or talking over their heads. Trust me, it's not easy to do.
Besides picture books, which are also very difficult (and I'm not even going to get into how a writer can work on a picture book manuscript for a year or more!), what markets exist for 3 to 6 year olds?
Ladybug is a popular one and
Highlights for Children also has some stories geared toward this younger audience. Besides these two well-known magazines, you can also get your fiction (and possibly nonfiction) for the young child published in
Turtle,
Humpty Dumpty, Appleseeds, Knowonder, and
Guardian Angel Kids to name a few
. These are all paying markets with clear guidelines on what the editors want to see and don't want to see.
If you want to write for this audience, where do you start? I always recommend finding back issues at the library or online archives and reading as many stories as you can from that magazine. This is the best way to take the ideas you have and craft them into a format that works for the magazine--today. Most of us remember
Highlights for Children from our pediatrician and dentist's waiting rooms, but it's different today--kids are different today, and so make sure to check out recent issues and stories. Study the stories: how long are they? What are the topics? Are they written in first person or third? How many characters? How much dialogue compared to narration? It's my experience that once you are familiar with the market, it will be easier for you to write your idea for this audience.
Next, go online and READ THE GUIDELINES. Some editors and publications go to great extremes to write down what they want and what they don't. Don't ignore these. For example,
Knowonder wants stories in third-person limited, so you don't send them the first person story you just wrote last night. Either change the point of view or write a new story for this market.
Stories for this age group are usually under 1000-words and tend to average about 500 words. You don't have a long time to establish a setting, characters, problem, and solution. This is why writing for this age group is so hard. It's like poetry and picture books--every single word counts--you don't have any space to waste on "pretty writing."
Have you ever seen a preschooler enjoy a story or book? Their smile lights up their whole face. They will read it again and again and ask to have it read to them a million times. They carry it around, read it to their dog or cat, and fall asleep with the book or magazine in bed. This is why people write for this age of child. It's an important job, and don't let anyone tell you it's easy--because we know it's not.
Margo is teaching a short fiction class for children's and YA writers online, starting on April 11. To view the syllabus and sign up, please go to this link: http://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/classroom/MargoDill_WritingChildrenTeensShortFiction.php
The best piece of writing advice I ever got came from Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. It had to do with accepting the idea of “shitty first drafts.” The second best piece of advice came from a professor whose teaching assistant I had been in English graduate school in the 1960s. He had struck me, when we first met, as incredibly brash, an effect that he was deliberately seeking to achieve. He’d barge into the classroom, send the blinds crashing up or down, and lie on the desk with a cigar between his teeth. “I’m Smith,” he’d say to a wide-eyed class. He went on to become a rock star of literary criticism, publishing countless books, writing regularly for the New York Times, becoming an internationally famous intellectual. He even appeared as a character in a well known novel.
His advice? “Always recycle.”
“First,” he said, “I write a talk. Then I give it in several times. I turn the talk into an essay and publish it. Maybe it becomes part of an anthology edited by someone else. Then I use it as a chapter of a book or include it in a collection of my essays.” I remember him chewing on a cigar when he told me this. But I may be making up the cigar.
I feel comfortable with Lamott’s advice. I am perfectly capable of producing “a shitty first draft” and of feeling, as she does, that I’d just as soon not die while it is lying on my desk, lest someone read it and assume my death was suicide. But following the guidance of my brash professor was another matter. Who me? I thought. I’m allergic to cigars. But, in the end, I tried his system. As an academic I wrote talks, wrote them into essays that I published, saw them anthologized, and gathered them into a book. I did not become an academic rock star or take up smoking, but the method served me well. I published, and at each stage became a better writer.
When I retired and began taking classes in creative writing, I fell into the system out of habit. I wrote pieces for my writing classes. I turned the pieces into blogs. I posted them on a collective site. Then I posted them on my own. Eventually, I did guest posts with the same materials. After four years, several posts have been anthologized and most of them are chapters in my memoir. Others are beginning to look a lot like a collection of essays on food and place. Good job, I told myself, thinking this would be the end, but then I hired a publicist who told me “No.” Now I had to link my book to larger issues. So, in preparation for the memoir’s launch, I began to write some essays that made those links. One is to be published but, even better, I have begun to see more clearly what the book is all about, and I have a new set of ideas to explore. So recycling? I’m a fan and I’m passing on my famous professor’s advice to you. Because once you’re past the stage of “shitty first draft,” it’s not just about recycling. It’s about revisioning and writing better as well.
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Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I’ve heard writers speak of a muse who whispers inspiration in their ears and opens the floodgates of creativity allowing beautiful prose to flow onto their tablets as they write at their desks. Not me. My muse lives in a shampoo bottle and she waits until my hair is fully lathered before she pops out and lands in my soap dish. She may be a genie, but she’s no Barbara Eden. Think Roseanne Barr wrapped in a ratty towel and her head adorned with a terry cloth turban. Smacking bubble gum, she dispenses writing advice in addition to soap.
She says things like, “Hey, sis, chapter five is a real snoozer. You need to juice it up with some action, like a fight in the pub, or kill off that wallflower, Mary. She’s not adding anything anyway. And while you’re at it, kill off those adverbs. Geez.”
So it goes until the water turns chilly and my skin becomes pruney. But when I shut off the shower, she flies back into the bottle and takes her advice with her. No matter how fast I towel off, I can’t get to a notepad or keyboard fast enough to capture all of her ideas. Did she say I needed a fight in a pub…or was it a tub?
When the monthly water bill arrives, my husband shakes his head. He’s heard the shampoo genie/muse explanation before. He sighs and asks how close I am to finishing my novel. I smile and shrug. I don’t have the heart to tell him my muse thinks it should be a series.
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Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Recently, I’ve taken to browsing through the book sections of my favorite thrift and consignment stores. Quite often, I find copies of bestsellers in both paperback and hardcover that I wouldn’t mind purchasing for my home library, but those aren’t exactly what I’m looking for. In the past year, I’ve revisited a love of writing and reading children’s literature, and part of that rediscovery includes searching for copies of the books I read and loved as a teenager.
My journey started when my daughter started reading more advanced middle-grade books, and it hit me that I could probably write one of my own with a little research. I began scanning the juvenile fiction shelves at the library, where I picked up the vaguely familiar
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. After spending a tear-filled afternoon reading it, I was hooked. I whooped with joy when I found a used copy of
Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret? by Judy Blume at the local Habitat for Humanity ReStore. (I hid that one away for now, as my 9-year-old daughter is not quite ready for the subject matter yet!) It even had the same cover I remember from reading it as a child. I posted a photo of my find on Facebook and it sparked many comments from girlfriends, who all had a personal connection with the book. The first e-book I bought on my new Kindle a few weeks ago was
Daughters of Eve, written by one of my all-time favorite authors, Lois Duncan.
Daughters of Eve was one of the only books of Duncan’s I had never read, and I was surprised to find out that it had been updated to have a more modern feel, as have many books in her catalogue of titles.
When I was a teenager, I had stacks of paperback books by both Duncan and Christopher Pike, my two favorite suspense YA authors, along with a weathered complete collection of the Trixie Belden mystery series that my grandmother discovered in storage and gave to me. I carried them all with me for years, but somewhere along my many moves they were lost. It makes me sad to think that I probably donated them, not knowing how much I would want them back one day as I pursued my dream to become a published novelist.
I’m not sure why I’ve been feeling such a sense of nostalgia regarding these lost books lately. It might be because I first dreamed of becoming a writer while reading those treasured books, and after their loss, I spent many years thinking that becoming published wasn’t in the cards for me. Now that I’m finding success as a writer, the memory of all those stories continues to provide me with hope and inspiration, so I’ll keep looking for my old favorites in secondhand bookstores every chance I get.
Who were some of your favorite young adult authors?
Renee Roberson is an award-winning freelance writer and editor who blogs at Renee's Pages.
By: Crystal Otto,
on 3/17/2013
Blog:
WOW! Women on Writing Blog (The Muffin)
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by Crystal J. Otto
I’ve enjoyed sleeping for as long as I can remember. My mom may tell a different story about childhood naps and early bedtimes, but as far as I am concerned, sleep is a very necessary and enjoyable activity. I sleep, therefore I dream, and in recent years I’ve incorporated my dreams into my journal. Journaling my dreams has provided me with fabulous material for short stories and blog posts and has also given me ideas on how to enhance my writing to make it more vivid and exciting for the reader.
I’ve suggested dream journaling to those who have diagnosed themselves with ‘writers block.’ I personally have found that dream journaling is a great way to stop those recurring dreams or those that end too soon. Recurring dreams and those that end in the middle seem to have one thing in common—something needs attention or closure. I’ve found that by writing down what I remember about the dream and then adding the unfinished details I can find the closure my sleeping self was looking for. This may not come naturally at first, but the more you journal the easier it gets.
My most recent example was a dream where I was visiting the doctor and he was about to give me some important news, and my alarm starting blaring and I woke up. I had that unsettled feeling, and I grabbed my journal later in the day and wrote a happy ending in which the doctor explained that I was expecting a child. I went on to write about a textbook pregnancy, quick delivery, and gorgeous baby girl with blue eyes and blonde hair. Those unsettled feelings were quickly replaced with joy, pride, and excitement!
There are only two more weeks of National Women’s History Month. What have you done this year to celebrate women this month? Party? Parade? Pep rally? Nothing, not one little event to celebrate women’s contribution to the world? Well, don’t feel bad. You still have time to commemorate National Women’s History Month with a little help from an old friend of WOW, Nava Atlas.
WOW: The last time everyone at the Muffin heard from you, Nava, it was for your blog tour. For those who missed it the first time around could you tell us a little about your book?
NAVA: The wordy title reveals a lot about the book: The Literary Ladies Guide to the Writing Life: Inspiration Advice and from Celebrated Women Authors who Paved the Way draws on the journals, letters, and other first-person writings by classic authors of the past. These personal narratives illuminate these writers' paths, from finding their voices and the discipline to write, to dealing with children, lack of money and insecurities; and finally, to enjoying some measure of success. In short, our literary foremothers, including Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Louisa May Alcott, Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and others all faced the very same challenges as any of us who write and aspire to an audience face in our journeys.
In my annotations, I discuss these parallels; I include other quotes and passages by other female authors, past and present (the twelve main Literary Ladies are deceased). And I wrap the whole thing up in a highly visual presentation, as, among the other hats I wear, I'm also a visual artist with a penchant for design.
WOW: And now to celebrate the anniversary of your book as well Women's History Month you're launching a complementary website. Tell us what we'll find at your new website and what made you decide to launch it.
NAVA: The first Literary Ladies site was mainly about the book. It's still there in its original form, at http://book.literaryladiesguide.com. The new site is now at http://www.literaryladies guide.com and is much expanded from the original site. There's a mini-biography of many significant female authors from the past, with the roster going far beyond who I covered in the book. Each mini-bio contains links to more information, including the authors' homes or archives, plus great quotes. There's also a filmography page — it was fun to collect and list some of the numerous films made from the books by classic women authors, plus, some films about the authors themselves. "Miss Potter" (about Beatrix Potter) and The Hours (part of which is about Virginia Woolf) are among my favorites!
Also central to the site are featured essays, some of which are by me and some by contributors. These reference at least one classic author and/or her work and are geared both to readers and writers, providing inspiration and insight. In fact, I'm looking for submissions in this category. See http://www.literaryladiesguide.com/category/essays/ for examples of essays already on the site.
I made the site because in all my research I didn't find a comprehensive site about female authors of the past that was easy to navigate, organized, and thorough. So I hope that this site is off to a running start, and I hope to add more in the months and years to come. I need to add more of the great poets, for example.
WOW: I remember you were nervous when I initially met you because The Literary Ladies Guide to the Writing Life was quite a genre jump for you. Although you were well-known for your cookbooks this type of non-fiction was definitely something new for you. Was it as difficult as you anticipated developing a new audience for a new type of writing?
NAVA: Yes, it really has been a challenge. Building a site on the subject, starting a Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest pages, connecting with the writing and literature community — are all things I should have been doing while writing the book, if not much sooner, not two years after its publication! It's simply a reality of the publishing world these days — once your book hits the shelves, your audience should already know about it and be anticipating it. Scrambling to find a market from scratch once pub date hits, or just hoping someone happens upon your book in a bookstore, are old-school strategies.
WOW: So are you still genre jumping? Cookbook author? Nonfiction author? Both?
NAVA: I’ve already had two new vegan cookbooks published since Literary Ladies came out in March of 2011. Vegan Holiday Kitchen was published in November of 2011, and Wild About Greens in June of 2012. Both are well into their third printings, so that audience at least, remains intact, and growing. There's so much interest in plant-based diets these days, and I've been building that platform for, shall we say, decades ...
I've been trying to write and design a visual dual biography, and I have another idea for a non-fiction book on women's issues, but the lessons I've learned from my experience with Literary Ladies is fresh on my mind. As tricky as it has been, it hasn't discouraged me from genre-jumping. I really enjoy producing the vegan cookbooks and they do make me a nice living. But I just don't want to be confined to one subject area!
I'm working on a new food-related project for Harper One (the SF division of HarperCollins). They came to me with a fully formed idea that I thought was a good one, so I said yes. That's actually the first time that has happened, so it's kind of a nice change of pace from having to sell an idea to a publisher.
WOW: Do you have any advice for writers who are considering genre jumping?
NAVA: Don't do it!! Just kidding. Seriously, if it's in your heart, you've got to express yourself however you wish. If you do want a book's to succeed, at least modestly, you need to pre-build your audience.
Some of the authors in the book jumped literary forms all the time, and some jumped genres. Edna Ferber wrote novels, screenplays, Broadway shows, and memoirs. Madeleine L'Engle wrote novels for adults and children, as well as memoirs about her spiritual life and her writing life. Louisa May Alcott was the biggest genre-jumper of all — she wrote gothics and thrillers under assumed names, memoir (Hospital Sketches), her well-known "girls' fiction" that she thought so little of at first, and much more.
So us genre-jumpera, just can't help ourselves, nor should we, even if we do so at our own peril!
WOW: What do you hope readers will take a away from a visit to your new website?
NAVA: I'm actually not a big part of the picture in the new website. It's really about the authors, their legacies, as well as what they teach us about the writing life that I wish to showcase. It's wonderful and amazing how relevant their words and ideas have remained. Some of them are still very much in the forefront — the world never seems to get enough of Jane Austen, for instance — while others have become more obscure, for example, Charlotte Perkins Gilman. She was saying things 100 years ago that Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook is saying in her new book, Lean In.
WOW: Is there anything the readers of the Muffin can do to help ensure the success of your new website?
NAVA: How very nice of you to ask! I would appreciate inbound links, of course. And contributions of repurposed content, posts that make reference to classic authors and their works. Maybe even pieces on how certain fictional heroines or classic works resonate with you or inspire you. Who doesn't love Jo March, Elizabeth Bennett, and Anne Shirley (of Green Gables)? And please join the fledgling Facebook page for daily inspiration from the greats: http://www.facebook.com/LiteraryLadiesGuide
WOW: Well, you heard her writers! Do you have a favorite literary lady? Has she inspired you? Taught you? Helped you set goals?
By Jessica BellAs a co-founder and editor for
Vine Leaves Literary Journal, I have read my fair share clichéd submissions. And I'm afraid to say, that most of the time, they make me wince.
As a writer, it is likely hard to comprehend how overwhelming these clichéd submissions can get. You are only one person after all, with one cliché in front of you, and it's logical to think,
Oh, it'll be all right, surely there won't be any other subs like this. But you would be surprised. What you need to think is: Am I
really going to be noticed amongst an inbox full of 300-400 other submissions if I'm writing about the sea breeze, and quiet dark nights?
Vine Leaves Literary Journal has been around for more than a year now. And the clichés (especially in poetry) that most frequently overwhelm us are:
- gardens/plants (pretty red poppies, bees, roses and Eden)
- sun/moon/stars (shining, glistening on sand or water)
- beating hearts (oh I love you so much my heart is racing)
- quiet nights (as I caress your cheek, as soft as a baby's bottom)
- gentle breezes (I close my eyes and feel your presence)
- oceans/beaches (my toes dig into the warm sand)
- weather/seasons (birds chirping in spring, heat waves rising off the road)
However, if you are sure that you have written about these things in a unique way, we're totally open to reading about them. But trust me, we will be extra critical.
For an example of one unique way to write about gardens, take a look at
The History of Dirt, by Allie Marini Batts, from Issue #03, page 37. This WOWED me.
So
how can we twist the above clichéd topics into interesting reading?
For starters, use objects as metaphors for emotions or personality traits; plants in a non-garden context to attract attention and intrigue; give pretty things ugly qualities, and vice versa; compare love to a simple gesture that isn't saccharine; instead of talking about the quiet night, find a quiet detail to draw attention to, an elderly man kicking a newspaper in an abandoned street perhaps, and his echoing grunt. Think opposite, think unpredictable. Tweak a common feeling with a unique bent, experiment with poetic prose.
Sure, clichés exist because they come from real life, and you may argue that they are 'relatable.' But the way in which one experiences things isn't always the same. As writers, it's your duty to make your readers see through a unique pair of eyes. Tell me, which of the following excerpts is the most clichéd? And which is more interesting to read?
As I step foot onto the sand, I realize I'm ready to wipe the slate clean, to start again in a new town where I no longer feel the weight of regret on my shoulders, or the desire to runaway; a place where I can accept who I am.
As I step foot onto the sand, I realize I’m ready to wipe this regret from my skin; to immerse myself in a new ocean, where my desire for fleeing this emotional cage hides like a mermaid ambivalent about growing legs.
What other clichés can you think of that you persistently see in writing? Or better still, what have you read that uses a cliché in a unique way?Need more help with your writing? Why don't you try Jessica's pocket guide, Show & Tell in a Nutshell: Demonstrated Transitions from Telling to Showing?About the Author: If
Jessica Bell could choose only one creative mentor, she’d give the role to Euterpe, the Greek muse of music and lyrics. This is not only because she currently resides in Athens, Greece, but because of her life as a thirty-something Australian-native contemporary fiction author, poet and singer/songwriter/guitarist, whose literary inspiration often stems from songs she’s written.
She is the Co-Publishing Editor of
Vine Leaves Literary Journal and annually runs the
Homeric Writers’ Retreat & Workshop on the Greek island of Ithaca. She makes a living as a writer/editor for English Language Teaching Publishers worldwide, such as Pearson Education, HarperCollins, MacMillan Education, Education First and Cengage Learning.
Visit Jessica's blog,
The Alliterative Allomorph, and connect with her on
Facebook and
Twitter.
In
Who's (...oops!) Whose Grammar Book Is This Anyway? All the Grammar you Need to Succeed in Life, C. Edward Good wrote a chapter entitled "Word War III: Active vs. Passive." Last week, I waged my own war against the passive voice. A client asked me to exorcise the passive voice from his manuscript.
If you've ever taken a writing course, you've heard that you need to always use the active voice, not passive voice. Is passive voice really so bad that we should strike it from
all our writing?
No, not all, but the passive voice is, well, weaker (in many instances) than the active voice. Active certainly brings the reader into the story. But, in my experience, a writer can get into caught up in a scene and write in passive voice until the characters are no longer actively participating. Sure, we can all be lulled into a rhythm of using the passive voice and its hard to snap out of it.
That's where I entered this passive-voice manuscript, knowing that some passive voice is acceptable, but too much can wear down the reader. I was only being asked to tweak the author's use of passive voice. So, I tried a approach you may want to try. On a second reading, I used the "Find" function of Microsoft Word and went to work.I spent several hours massaging a manuscript to use a more active voice.
I searched for the trigger words you might look for when rooting out the passive voice. Those words include:
- be
- was
- have
- had, and so forth...
After I found the words that screamed
PASSIVE VOICE, I read (and re-read) the sections. Then I started rewriting the sections. (Another common word in many passive sentences is "by." You may find that an easier word to search for.)
If you are wondering how much passive voice I cut, this may interest you. During a search of the manuscript, I found 1191 instances of "was" and after my second-pass edits, there were only 547 instances of the word.
Are you a passive voice or active voice writer? Or both? How do you find and edit your passive voice? Elizabeth King Humphrey is a writer and editor. She strives to be more active, but right now is feeling a bit passive.
Do you enter contests? Five years ago, I would have said that I never enter a contest. In the writing culture I was part of, it was unheard of to enter contests because an entry fee was frowned upon. I was told, "Never enter a contest that requires an entry fee because it's not worth it."
Since I have recently won a couple writing contests, let me tell you the benefits of entering a contest.
First, there is a deadline which means you must get a piece of writing done by a certain time. If nothing else comes from a contest--and certainly, you won't win every writing contest you enter--this is valuable. You have a finished piece of work to market other places besides the contest. And, if it never sells anywhere else, it was a valuable practice piece.
Second, winning a contest can bring unexpected benefits. When the movie, THE HELP, was just coming out, they ran a children's story contest--and I won. It was a piece that I had tried to market and there was no interest anywhere. But the story fit the theme of talking about people who make a difference in your life. It's the story of a young girl whose father is stationed overseas for a year with the military. She decides that while her father is away, it is NOT a family photo album and she won't let any of the family photos turn out right until he comes home. The prize for winning "The Help Children's Story Contest" was professional illustrations.
While I had been indie publishing how-to-write books for while, I had never ventured into fiction--would never venture into it, because it was too risky. But--I had these great professional illustrations of my story. And really, what good are illustrations, if you don't use them? I learned how to prepare digital files for printing a full-cover picture book, and the result is 11 Ways to Ruin a Photograph. No, the book hasn't sold tons of copies, but it was a very, very low-risk entry into the children's picture book market for me. I also learned how to turn a children's color picture book into a Kindle version.
Once you know how to do something, well, it's easier to do it a second time, right?
With my illustrator friend, Kitty Harvill, I decided to do a picture book about Wisdom, the Midway Albatross, the oldest known wild bird in the world and how she survived the Japanese tsunami in 2011. With Kitty's amazing nature illustrations, the picture book came together quickly.
It seems that illustrators often enter contests: Kitty recommended that we enter the Writer's Digest Self-Published Contest. And we won! That turned into more attention and publicity and we are exploring further distribution. For self-published books, it seems that a slow build of momentum works better than the traditionally published tactic of bursting out of the gates. And the momentum is coming from winning that contest.
Will I enter other contests? Certainly. But not every one. I will look at my writing and career goals and carefully pick and choose those that will enhance my other efforts.
Find information on WOW-Women on Writing's Flash Fiction Contests here.
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Darcy Pattison blogs about how-to-write at
Fiction Notes and
blogs about education at CommonCoreStandards.com Follow
Darcy on Pinterest.
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Great interview. I once read some advice about avoiding putting too much "research/facts" in a fiction novel. Don't do much research until after you've written a skeleton plot and get that all down, and then fill in the research that you need to tell the story only. Okay, so the person, who I can't remember, had a much better way of saying it, but hopefully this makes some sort of sense. :)
Congratulations on placing in the top 3, Elizabeth! We know you'll do great things with your "second-life fiction career." :)