Showing up

“Notes of encouragement to new writers” is the theme this month at Smack Dab in the Middle, a blog by/for/about writing for middle grade students that — surprise! — has lots of great advice for writers everywhere. Sunday’s post by Chris Tebbetts makes some wonderful observations about showing up: for the work, for the community, and for ourselves.

Here are some of my favorite bits:

“In my experience, the people who make it in publishing are the ones who manage to give sufficient energy to both halves of that dichotomy [the art and the business of writing].”

“I was showing up, and showing up, and showing up, not so I could score a distinct win every time, but so that I could eventually find myself in the right place at the right time.”

“. . . persistence is everything in publishing. It’s also the one thing you can control.. . .”

Give it a read and take away whatever encourages you.

http://smack-dab-in-the-middle.blogspot.com/2019/04/showing-upand-upand-up.html

 

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Rethinking critique

 

Beth Nguyen’s thoughtful article on writing workshops appeared at Literary Hub this week. She describes how her approach to critique changed when she began teaching nonfiction, work in which the integration of context and author with the text is more obvious than is sometimes the case with other genres.

Especially interesting to me was the way this reshaped feedback (emphasis mine):

The workshoppers, in turn, are asked to do less prescribing (I want to see more of this; I want this or that to happen; I didn’t want that character to be here) and more questioning. Why did you use first-person? How important is the sister character supposed to be? Instead of a typical old-school workshop comment such as “I want to see more about the mother,” there’s a question: “We don’t see much about the mother—how important of a character is she?” The former is a demand; the latter is an opening.

Even in settings where time or other constraints make full-blown conversation among participants impractical, feedback phrased this way invites reflection rather than defense. We best serve one another when our comments encourage thinking about the art and process of writing, from choices and techniques to audience and intention.

Implementing this in our own critique practices will require some adjustments, for both respondents and authors. But it seems like work worth doing if it allows each writer “to leave feeling heard and feeling motivated to keep working and revising, with ideas (rather than demands) in hand.”

“Unsilencing the Writing Workshop,” by Beth Nguyen
https://lithub.com/unsilencing-the-writing-workshop/

 

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What’s a write-in?

I suspect this is the most frequently unasked question for visitors to this site.

A recent blog post by Erica Goss (https://ericagoss.com/2019/02/25/writing-at-a-non-writers-retreat/) describes beautifully what goes on at our monthly write-ins. Granted, we’re not at a lovely beachside house, but we are in a quiet, well-lit space set aside for us. We don’t do guided meditation, but the opportunity does exist for limited sharing and conversation.

Write-ins are a way to support each other in the most solitary aspect of our craft: the actual work of writing. Seeing another person writing can inspire us to write ourselves, and writing in the same space with others generates a kind of creative energy. Like parallel play in children, our loose awareness of what the others are doing helps us focus on our own work.

Think of a write-in as a micro-retreat, a brief period of withdrawal to cultivate the writing part of your life. If this interests you, check the schedule at the top of the page and join us.

 

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What’s in a line?

“Call me Ishmael.”
– Herman Melville, Moby Dick

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
– Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Here we have two of the most famous literary first lines in the English language (and quite possibly both the shortest and longest). First lines are first impressions, and we’ve all heard that a great first line is the best way to hook readers. But a first line can also do more, as Ginger Rue points out in this post at Smack Dab in the Middle, about one of the best first lines that most people have never read but will immediately recognize.

That brings us to the point that a well-crafted first line can reach beyond the readers to connect with the wider culture. A great many people who’ve never read either Moby Dick or A Tale of Two Cities can identify those opening lines. So when you’re working on your first lines, don’t just think about how they can engage the audience; think also about how they can project what – or who – the story is truly about.

Photo by Caio Resende on Pexels.com

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New calendar

Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and transitions, was depicted with two opposing faces because he both looked back over what had transpired and forward to what was to come.

Think back over the past year of writing. What can you count as successes? They may be as small as discovering a pen you really like to use or as huge as seeing your work in publication. Forming a consistent reading habit, finding a new writing group, starting a blog, clearing off your desk — all of these are successes.

Which successes do you want to build on in the year to come? What new things would you like to explore? Be sure to include both big things (such as taking a class) and little things (such as finding a notebook to go with that pen).

Celebrate the ways you have matured as a writer throughout the past year, and allow that momentum propel you into the next!

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Field trips aren’t just for kids

Thanks to technology, today’s writers are able to research almost any topic without leaving their chairs. The internet may be a terrific resource for knowledge-based information, but nothing beats a good old-fashioned field trip for experience-based information.

In a recent post at Smack Dab in the Middle, a blog by and for middle grades authors, Nancy Cavanaugh reflects how important (not to mention down-right enjoyable) field trips are to writing. Unlike school trips you may recall where someone else set the agenda and the schedule, you are in charge. You can invite (or join with) other writers, or go by yourself. You can arrange to meet with local experts, or see who you find when you get there. You can spend an hour, a day, or a week.

Reading Nancy’s description of research she did at Okefenokee Swamp Park reminded me of a wonderful book I read when I was in the middle grades, Swampfire by Patricia Cecil Hass. It also reminded me of the ways in which places inspire us, both as readers and as writers. When we went up in the Gateway Arch on a family vacation to St. Louis, my children were beside themselves with excitement because that was where Percy Jackson had battled the Echidna in The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan.

 

So do yourself a favor and plan a writer’s field trip. Whether it’s brief and local or grand and far away, your writing will be better for the experience.

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New year, new events and publications

The new year brings with it new opportunities for writing, publishing, and networking. Here are a few that have shown up in the ECWG in-box:

Call for personal essays
Word limit: 750
Deadline: 17 Feb. 2018
Description: Kentucky and North Caroline writers are invited to contribute to a collection of essays to be printed in spring 2018. Publication will coincide with the 250th anniversary of an event in the life of Daniel Boone. Selected essays will resonate with the theme of making do/bearing up/overcoming adversity and should be about true-life experiences of the writer or someone the writer knows personally.
Cost: $6 reading fee per submission
Information: http://www.danielboonefootsteps.com/in-the-classroom

Writing conference
Date: Saturday 24 Mar. 2018
Deadline: early registration 20 Mar. 2018
Description: 7th annual conference sponsored by Women Who Write. Open to all genders and genres. Program includes workshops, publishing panel, personal writing time, book fair, and optional pitch session with a literary agent. Keynote address by George Ella Lyon.
Location: New Albany IN
Cost: $55-80 (includes breakfast, lunch, and optional pitch session)
Information: http://womenwhowrite.com

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Avoiding the dump

Whether you write long or short forms, one of the trickiest things about fiction (and some non-fiction) is conveying background information. Too little information loses the reader through confusion; too much loses the reader through sidetracking (or boredom).

Once again, Jami Gold comes through with some concrete suggestions (complete with examples) for finding the difficult balance between “Huh?” and “TMI!” The technique discussed in her July 4 blog post has to do with point of view, which is brilliant because readers experience stories through the characters. Even a story with an omniscient narrator connects with readers via the characters.

So take some notes and tuck them away for the next time you’re revising or beta-reading. As helpful as it is to know what’s wrong, it’s even more helpful to have an idea about how to make it better.

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The three Rs

With Earth Day looming, it’s only fitting that Maja Todorovic of Business in Rhyme should remind us of the Three Rs of Writing:

Reduce: Take an old draft or something that doesn’t quite work; cut out all the stuff you don’t like; make something new out of what remains.

Reuse: Take old books, magazines, junk mail, grocery receipts – anything with words; cut or tear out words or phrases that strike you; arrange them into a poem, a paragraph, an outline, whatever.

Recycle: Find something you wrote a long time ago, when you were in a different state of mind; turn prose into poetry (or vice versa), rewrite it in a different voice, change 1st person to 3rd (or vice versa), revise the bejeezus out of it – use your old work to inspire something new.

(Reminder: There are still ten days left in National/Global Poetry Writing Month. It’s not too late to get your poetry on!)

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To edit or not to edit: what was the question?

Irish novelist Catherine Ryan Howard (a.k.a. Catherine Caffeinated) is nearing the end of a blockbuster blogging bonanza to generate excitement for the North American release of her suspense/thriller, Distress Signals, on 2 February. Her blog is an excellent source of information and ideas about getting published as she has experience with both traditional and self-publishing.

Earlier this week she posted a thoughtful discourse about receiving and responding to editorial feedback, which led me to search the blog’s archives for previous posts about editing. To save you the trouble of a similar search, here’s an annotated list of relevant links.

Why hire an editor?
https://catherineryanhoward.com/2013/03/28/why-hire-an-editor/
Guest post that explains how editing is not about whether your writing is good but about making sure you put your very best work out there.

Structural editing for self-publishers
https://catherineryanhoward.com/2013/04/04/structural-editing-for-self-publishers/
Guest post with useful information about structural (also called developmental) editing and suggestions for how to stay on budget without forgoing necessary feedback.

Copy-editors: what they really do
https://catherineryanhoward.com/2013/10/15/copy-editors-what-they-really-do/
Guest post that describes copy-editing as both comprehensive and indispensable in preparing a manuscript for publication.

Proofreading explained
https://catherineryanhoward.com/2013/10/17/proofreading-explained/
Guest post that explains how proofreading differs from other stages of manuscript preparation, with tips about ways to make the most of this highly specific editorial function.

How do you know when editorial feedback is right?
https://catherineryanhoward.com/2017/01/23/how-do-you-know-when-editorial-feedback-is-right/
A frank discussion of the joys and agonies of the editing process.

Be sure to look through the comments that follow these posts as well, because they contain pertinent questions and further discussion.

Here’s to always putting forth the very best work we can!

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