July Bunch O' Links

By Alex Villasante


This post by published author Roni Loren literally stopped me in my tracks. Blogger beware - those pictures you (and I) are populating our blog posts with could get us in to trouble.


Bloggers Beware: You CAN be sued for using Pics on your Blog.


What do you fellow bloggers think? Will this change how you blog? I know it's making me think. Greg is a photographer as well as a writer - Greg, what are your thoughts?


By Greg Hardin

http://www.audible.com/

Okay, so many are audiobook haters, but I find that there are so many moments in my day when I can listen to a book, when I couldn't read one.  While I'm driving.  While I'm cooking.  While I'm outside cutting the grass.  Immersing myself in good writing is a great way to become a better writer myself.  Instead of flipping the radio on in any of the above scenarios, get a good audiobook.  Not only do you gain time in your day to "read", but by listening to the pacing and rhythm of a piece, you can gain a better understanding of subtler aspects of writing.  If you don't want to use audible, no problem; check out your local library.  Libraries have tons of great audiobooks.  My recommendation is to listen to a book you have read already and were thinking about revisiting.  Listening to it will allow you to enjoy it in a completely new way.

http://www.world-english.org/stories.htm

Here are a number of free short stories by very respectable authors, (Joyce, Dickins, Conrad, Irving, etc.)  When you need some inspiration read one or two.  :)

By Laura Campbell

Glimmer Train Literary Journal

-       Very Short Fiction Award: up to 3,000 words

o   First Place Prize: $1,500, publication in Glimmer Train Stories, and 20 copies of that issue

o   Deadline: July 31, 2012

o   Details here 

-       Short-Story Award for New Writers (unpublished): 1,500-12,000 words

o   First Place Prize: $1,500, publication in Glimmer Train Stories, and 20 copies of that issue

o   Deadline: August 30, 2012

o   Details here 

Writer’s Digest Magazine

-       13^th Annual Short Short Story Competition

o   Summer Tales or Summer-Themed Fictional Stories 1,200 words or less

o   First Place Prize: $3,000, publication and a trip to the Writer’s Digest Conference

o   Deadline: November 15, 2012

o   Details here 

Narrative Magazine

-       Spring 2012 Story Contest

o   Fiction & Literary Nonfiction: 15,000 words or less

o   First Place Prize: $2,500 and considered for publication

o   Deadline: July 31, 2012

o   Details here

WOW! Women On Writing

-       Summer 2012 Flash Fiction Contest

o   Open (any style; any genre): 250-750 words

o   First Place Prize: $350, $25 Amazon Gift Certificate, publication on WOW! Women On Writing and an interview on the WOW! Women On WritingBlog.

o   Deadline: August 31, 2012

o   Details here 

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

 New Purlieu Review

o   Seeking Essays, Short Fiction, Artwork, Photos, and Poems

o   Theme: Family

o   Deadline: August 31, 2012

o   Details here

Head-Hopping: Confusing Readers

Source

Who here finds themselves stuck in the head-hopping trap when they write a story with multiple points-of-view? It's OK. Raise your hand. This is a judgement-free zone.


I admit. I am one of those offenders. My critique partners, Alex and Greg, needed a neck brace after they recently read one of my submissions from the rapid whipping from one character's thoughts to another within the same scene. Once the embarrassment faded, I decided to put my mistake on display to help my fellow writers.


I'm going to use a small section to show you where I went wrong and share the solution that will eliminate the problem in future submissions.


For the sake of time, I'm going to fast forward to the first instance of head-hopping. It's important for you to know that the scene begins with the narrator describing a bar from Jack Ackerman's POV.


 Tonight Jack planned to stick around longer to keep his eye on McCrea. The drunker McCrea got to more he talked about Maryanne. He didn't let one minute go by without bringing her up in conversation, which pissed Jack off even more. 


McCrea could still smell Maryanne's sweet lilac perfume from his visit during lunch with her at McGregor's Grocer where she worked. 


As you can see, the first paragraph is from Jack's POV. Then all of a sudden, BAM! Now, the narrator is in McCrea's head in the second paragraph. Mass confusion ensues.


And here I thought I was smoothly transitioning from Jack's POV to McCrea's POV by introducing McCrea in the previous paragraph and sliding into his head in the following paragraph.


Not so much. I'm sure I even confused you just trying to explain my thought process.


Anyhow.


The research I found explained that head-hopping is a common error. Novice, experienced, and published writers have been found guilty of head-hopping. I felt a bit better knowing I wasn't alone. Next, I realized that it wasn't the decision to tell the story from multiple POVs that failed, it was how I went about it.


You know that a chapter is built on multiple scenes tied together. To avoid reader confusion, I need to stick to just one POV per scene, which means I can have multiple POVs within the same chapter, I just need to smooth out my transitions.


So, back to the scene above. What you don't see here is the scene ends when McCrea exits through the back of the bar. What I should have done was allow the narrator to continue observing McCrea through Jack's eyes until the scene ended when McCrea exited the bar. Then, begin the new scene inside McCrea's head as the whiff of Maryanne's perfume triggers the memory of their lunch date.


The solution appears so simple that I could kick myself. Unfortunately, all reason and natural law is locked out of my head when I'm in the writing zone. The great part is that my intention to tell this story from multiple POVs is still possible, and the solution won't be hard to incorporate during revisions. Alex and Greg will be thankful for the lack of confusion and neck pain the next time I submit.




How do you avoid head-hopping when you're writing a story from multiple POVs? 

What You Put in the Hopper

This is a hopper:

Your brain is also a hopper.

There's a lot of conventional wisdom about what you should read while writing and a lot of it conflicts. Some say that you should read widely in your genre or read books like the ones you want to write - I heard one agent at a conference say that you should read 3000 words in your genre for every 1000 words you write. Others say to read outside your genre, to stay away from reading books or writers you admire because you could inadvertently (and badly) imitate those books.

I do both these things. I read in my genre - the kinds of books that I like to read and I also read books that are polar opposite to what I usually read and write. I don't write or normally read contemporary YA - so I've recently read 13 REASONS WHY and the (incredible) the FAULT IN OUR STARS.

But there's another thing I put in the hopper. Non fiction. I gravitate towards science based narrative non fiction, especially when it's about storytelling. I like to know how this thing, this writing thing that I'm compelled to do, works. Why do people tell stories? How do humans create narrative? Is it of any evolutionary use, or is it just a by product of being human? How does imagination work? Why does writer's block happen - I mean, what happens in the brain to cause a creative block?

These are the questions I've been considering in my reading life and they have nothing at all to do with what I'm writing. You could see this as a waste of reading time, I guess, when there are so many books to read. But I find these kind of books crucial, not to writing but to thinking. And usually, not always, I like to think when I write.

Here are two books non fiction books I'm reading now:

 


What do you read when you are writing?

Cliche vs. Archetype

By Greg Hardin

I was watching a new show on television with my wife the other day. It was about a heroine with a secret life as a crime fighter.  She wasn't a super hero or anything really fun like that; she just couldn't tell anyone what she did for a living, which was bumble her way through covert operations somehow remembering how to be a trained agent at just the right moment to save the day.  Or whatever.  I felt like I'd seen the show a thousand times.  There are some ideas and story lines which are constantly being repeated. Many of these are cliches.  They are repeated until we are sick of them.  There is no nourishment left, and there was never really enough meat in the first place to make a meal.

Then, there are the archetype story lines and characters.  These can appear to be indistinguishable from their cliche counterparts.  However, in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing, they can be an endless source of inspiration.  There is a thin line here.  Very thin.  Many of these archetype characters and plots are still overdone by unskilled hands and become tiresome. It is worth differentiating, though.

A good rule of thumb is strip away all the details.  Simmer a story down to its essence.  That story of the secret government agent -- it can be boiled down to a story of someone with a hidden life they cannot tell others about.  That is an archetype.  That can be made into good fiction. It has become a cliche because the secret life that everyone seems to want to portray is that of a sexy but bumbling crime fighter.  The tv show, Weeds, is popular in part because they put a different spin on this archetypal story: a suburban mother who can't tell anyone about her secret life as a drug dealer.  A unique spin on the same basic idea.

Story archetypes are everywhere.  Find ones that resonate with you.  Identify the current cliches coming from misuse of these and think of ways to make the plot fresh and fun again.  

June Bunch O' Links

Yikes! Is it that time already? 
June is coming to a close and I still haven't taken the swimsuit out of mothballs. I want to remind everyone that WriteOnCon is fast approaching. I attended this online conference last year and was frankly blown away. Just from posting on their query forum board, I got a full request from a fab agent. While it didn't pan out with that agent, it was a great experience and I made a heap of awesome friends. 


Check out our WriteOnCon widget (right) and get ready for August awesome.


Here are some cool writing links to entertain you in the dog days of summer.




Greg's Links
http://jimbutcher.livejournal.com/  

Jim Butcher is one of my favorite modern writers.  His Dresden Files series releases tend to be highlights of my reading lists.  He doesn't update his livejournal often, but if you read back through his posts, he gives great tips and insights into the workings of a successful writer.  Check it out.

http://dailysciencefiction.com/month    

And in honor of Ray Bradbury's passing, here is a Daily Science Fiction website. It's not all great, but there are some fun stories here, that are updated regularly and can be good inspiration for those slow writing days.

Laura's Links

Glimmer Train Literary Journal

-       Fiction Open Award (all themes): 2,000-20,000 words

o   First Place Prize: $2,500, publication in Glimmer Train Stories, and 20 copies of that issue

o   Deadline: June 30, 2012

o   Details here http://www.glimmertrain.com/fictionopen.html

-       Very Short Fiction Award: up to 3,000 words

o   First Place Prize: $1,500, publication in Glimmer Train Stories, and 20 copies of that issue

o   Deadline: July 31, 2012

o   Details here http://www.glimmertrain.com/veryshort.html

Writer’s Digest Magazine

-       13^th Annual Short Short Story Competition

o   Summer Tales or Summer-Themed Fictional Stories 1,200 words or less

o   First Place Prize: $3,000, publication and a trip to the Writer’s Digest Conference

o   Deadline: November 15, 2012

o   Details here http://www.writersdigest.com/competitions/short-short-story-competition

-       Write It Your Way Competition

o   Open (any style; any genre): 1,500 words or less

o   First Place Prize: $25 to spend at Writer’s Digest Shop, FREE entry into next month’s contest and promotion on WritersDigest.com.

o   Deadline: July 15, 2012

o   Details here http://www.writersdigest.com/competitions/write-it-your-way

Narrative Magazine

-       Spring 2012 Story Contest

o   Fiction & Literary Nonfiction: 15,000 words or less

o   First Place Prize: $2,500 and considered for publication

o   Deadline: July 31, 2012

o   Details here http://narrativemagazine.com/node/172227

-       4^th Annual Poetry Contest

o   All poetic forms and genres: up to 5 poems

o   First Place Prize: $1,500 and considered for publication

o   Deadline: July 17, 2012

o   Details here http://narrativemagazine.com/node/172228

WOW! Women On Writing

-       Summer 2012 Flash Fiction Contest

o   Open (any style; any genre): 250-750 words

o   First Place Prize: $350, $25 Amazon Gift Certificate, publication on WOW! Women On Writing and an interview on the WOW! Women On Writing Blog.

o   Deadline: August 31, 2012

o   Details here http://wow-womenonwriting.com/contest.php

Description: Too Much, Not Enough or Just Right?

By Laura M. Campbell

The whole concept of proportion, proportion of description in your writing, reminds me of The Story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Cliché? Yes. On the other hand, it provides a familiar image everyone can picture no matter if you’re 16, 34 or 65. Is there too much description, not enough description, or is it just right?

When you sit down to write that story clawing to get out, it’s your job as the author to do it justice. Write the best story you can. Will it happen during the first draft? No, of course not. That’s what revisions, editing, critique groups and 2^nd and 3^rd drafts are for. 

For example, you can tell which stories favor heavy description. They’re the ones that describe the hell out of something creating a very concrete image. Unfortunately, the interaction with the reader falls flat. They don’t have to include their own imagination because the story doesn’t leave room for it.  It’s still a great story, but it can make it hard for the reader to really connect.

Some stories are so sparse with description that the reader spends more time trying to conjure up an image to help picture the scene they’re reading that they fall out of the narrative. The reader can easily put the novel down and do something else, like read someone else's novel.

Then there are those stories that balance the proportion of description. It’s just enough to trigger your memories or imagination so you can connect and feel like you’re part of the reading experience.

The latter is the hardest of them all to master. I’m all over the place. One minute I’m in a scene typing everything I can see in my head to the very last detail. Then my critique group reads it, and they feel a bit overwhelmed. On my next draft, I hold back on the description so much that my critique group can’t get into the scene. 

Hair pulling commences and possibly a tantrum. I just keep telling myself to sit down to write everyday and keep in mind that I’m not going to find the perfect balance without trying everything first.

So, on your 1^st or 2^nd draft how do you handle description: too much, not enough or just right?

Re-evaluation- Even When Things Are Good

I've been thinking about this topic a lot in my writing life and my other life. Reevaluating how I do things - not because anything is going wrong, but because I'm reaching some milestones and I have space and time to do that thinking (unlike the state of near-frenzy I usually find myself in.) It's instinct, I think, to stick to something that is working (if it ain't broke, don't give yourself a hernia trying to fix it) and it makes sense in this hyper anxious world to not fall into the trap of over analyzing every little thing.

But, it's not a bad thing to evaluate your writing from a place of strength - rather than waiting until you hit a brick wall or something goes wrong with your work in process. Notice I didn't say 'if' something goes wrong. You and I both know that it will.

Here's what I'm thinking about with my own writing. Word count, while important in the past, is meaningless to me now. I came to the realization while editing my last book (seven months of intense editing and re-writing) that slowing down a bit will help me be more cohesive during the drafting process, instead of having to inject cohesion later on (which is harder and more painful.) To be fair to myself, my last book was started in the flustered shenanigans of NaNoWriMo, so it makes sense. I just don't want to do it the hard way again. I aim to be the turtle, not the hare.

This time I'm taking my time doing research, building my characters and world, and living in that space for a while.

Last time, I also purposefully did not read any writing books. I was afraid that they would unduly influence me, get me off track, make me lose my momentum. I'm notorious for seeking a 'magic bullet' in how-tos - it's as if the For Dummies books were written with me in mind. But, while that kind of blinkered focus worked for getting BOOKEND out, (and hey, I'm not complaining, it got me agented) it also added to the heavy lifting in the editing stage.

This time I'm using the Breakout Novel Workbook during the drafting process. This book, if not all writing how-tos, is perfect to read while drafting (and not before) because it's expanding. It takes the story you think you have and stretches it in lots of different directions.

So, how do you reevaluate your writing process? Is the best time to look closely at that process right now?