Still Moving.....Murky sky this morning and I'm perched in my new office which overlooks a giant stand of Douglas Firs at a nearby park. My desk, which I wanted to toss out anyway, was damaged a bit in the move and like the desk, I'm feeling worn.  New sounds here, including lots of crows chattering away now as I write this--a family with chicks living in a tree across the street. But I'm missing the songbirds in my old neighborhood and am going to work on attracting some to our yard. Of course crows are predators....  About 90% of my belongings are in the new house. Still cleaning and packing up the dregs in the old place, then I need to dig out more plants, and replant.  Lots to do.

Just for laughs here's the winning sentence from the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest
"Cheryl’s mind turned like the vanes of a wind-powered turbine, chopping her sparrow-like thoughts into bloody pieces that fell onto a growing pile of forgotten memories.”  Sue Fondrie

This prize is part of an annual bad writing competition that began in 1982 at San Jose State University. The contest was named after Victorian novelist Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton  an author famous for writing the opening line: “It was a dark and stormy night.”

If you need a laugh, check out the site.

Keep writing, keep dreaming, have heart

"Good girls like myself need subversion. Being solemn, I aspire to comedy. Being a novelist, I aspire to the musical. Being organized, I aspire to luminous chaos. Loving the power of grammar and the fine distinctions of language, I seek the part of the mind I didn't know was there, the part 'sheer,' 'no-manfathomed,' 'cliffs of fall."  ~ Janet Burroway

"Why am I compelled to write?... Because the world I create in the writing compensates for what the real world does not give me. By writing I put order in the world, give it a handle so I can grasp it. I write because life does not appease my appetites and anger... To become more intimate with myself and you. To discover myself, to preserve myself, to make myself, to achieve self-autonomy. To dispell the myths that I am a mad prophet or a poor suffering soul. To convince myself that I am worthy and that what I have to say is not a pile of shit... Finally I write because I'm scared of writing, but I'm more scared of not writing." ~ Gloria Anzaldua

Join me Portlanders:

Audrey Braun is at Powells on Burnside tonight at 7:30  reading from A Small Fortune. You never know what the mysterious Ms. Braun is up to.....

Quick Tip: Subtext
Dawn skies look uncertain here. Extending good wishes and cooling breezes to those of  you sweltering in parts of the country where summer has become dangerously hot.

In my book Between the Lines I described subtext as a river of emotions that flow beneath the dialogue/scene. It's also the meaning beneath the conversation. Subtext creates depth and nuance. I just read a great example of this from When Harry Met Sally. In the final scene Harry says, "I hate you." However, the viewer knows he really means, I love you, but cannot say it out loud, admit the truth yet. That's how it works. Your secret self revealed.

Keep writing, keep dreaming, have heart

Quick Tip: Nix to kitchens
And drawing rooms. What I mean is that typically when writers stage scenes in kitchens soon the characters are pouring tea and chatting. Yada, yada. On and on. About the past. About their bunions. About how Junior is impossible.  Now tension and conflict can happen in kitchens and even drawing rooms. But you gotta work it. As in your heroine steps into the kitchen and slips on a pool of blood. No chit chats. Fiction leaves out the boring parts of life. Cannot say that often enough.

"We must stay drunk on writing so reality does not destroy us." Ray Bradbury

Writing Opportunity

I was so tired from my garage sale activities and various trips to charities to unload stuff (more slated for a woman's shelter tomorrow) and picking up necessities for the new house that I conked out at 9:30 last night. And was awakened at 1 A.M. by someone picking through my neighbor's garbage for bottles and other returnables. Which is why I'm up working now for a bit in the middle of the night--the world black and dense and mysterious. Our garage/moving sale, which three of my friends joined in on, was a big success. Lovely, and I mean truly lovely people stopped by and carted off various items. One young man was so excited about the set of cast iron pans I sold him; another woman who has just moved to Portland to attend grad school bought 3 antique suitcases that she's going to turn into a table; a charming man who lives in my new neighborhood bought my chopping block; and a reader of this blog stopped by with stunning roses from her garden with a fragrance that is almost celestial. And in the lulls  between shoppers, my friends and I chatted and told stories as if we were around a campfire; my granddaughter Paige dressed up in various items and sold lemonade, and it was just a sweet experience. I was reminded again and again of the goodness in people. And man, am I glad it's over. Now on to the hard part--the actual moving.

Meanwhile, even though it's summer in the North or winter Down Under, we should all be looking ahead toward our writing goals. With that in mind, here's another chance to get published. I'll keep them coming and also I'll be adding more interviews here--sorry for the lag in getting to them.Here is the info and link:

Send us your BEST poetry (4-6 poems), short stories (1-2 stories max, 500-3000 words), artwork, and photographs. We prefer that you copy and paste your poetry into the body of your email or send as ONE attachment in word.doc format. Send ALL short story submissions as a word doc. attachment. Any poetry or short story submissions sent as multiple attachments or not in word.doc will NOT be read. DO NOT submit your work as a docx file. It will NOT be read.

If you have a novel/poetry book, a poetry/music cd or dvd that you're interested in having us review, please email us your query to thetorontoquarterly@hotmail.com with REVIEW REQUEST typed into the subject box. BOOK and MUSIC REVIEWS submitted will be considered for publication.

Send us your ARTWORK and PHOTOGRAPHY. Send in high resolution (jpeg file). We will consider all artwork submitted for the COVER of TTQ8.

ALL SUBMISSIONS should include a short biography (5-6 lines MAX) stating town/city you reside in, previous publishing accomplishments, educational background if so desired. Please DO NOT send us a novel about yourself. Make it interesting and promote your books and/or webpages if desired.

PLEASE: ONE submission per issue. Multiple submissions will NOT be read. Be sure to send us your BEST work the first time or wait until the following issue to submit again.

We DO NOT publish previously published works.

PLEASE NO SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS

ALL RIGHTS and COPYRIGHT upon publication in TTQ8 remains with the author.

PAYMENT: Each contributor to TTQ8 will receive a FREE e-book of TTQ8 as payment. It will be emailed to the contributor as a pdf file.

ALL SUBMISSIONS should be emailed to: thetorontoquarterly@hotmail.com

From an Editor's Desk: Lewis Lapham on Voice
A writer’s voice lies behind  his or her words. Lewis Lapham, editor of Harpers magazine has this advice: "On first opening a book I listen for the sound of the human voice. By this device I am absolved from reading much of what is published in a given year. Most writers make use of institutional codes (academic, literary, political, bureaucratic, technical), in which they send messages already deteriorating into the half-life of yesterday’s news. Their transmissions remain largely unintelligible, and unless I must decipher them for professional reasons, I am content to let them pass by. I listen, instead, for a voice in which I can hear the music of human improvisation as performed through 5,000 years on the stage of recorded time…..As a student, and later as an editor and occasional writer of reviews, I used to feel obligated to finish every book I began to read. This I no longer do. If within the first few pages I cannot hear the author’s voice….I abandon him at the first convenient opportunity."

Writing Opportunity: Speculative Fiction

Well it's raining here in Portland this morning on day 2 of my garage sale. Up early trying to figure out how to reconfigure this stuff (treasures all) to fit into the garage since yesterday we had spilled out onto the driveway and yard......will figure it out somehow. Corner of 19th and Harney for those of you living in Portland, Sellwood neighborhood.

From the Speculative Literature Foundation  (with thanks to Portland writer Camille Cole) Here's the link and an excerpt:

The Gulliver Travel Research Grant

SLF travel grants are awarded annually to assist writers of speculative literature (in fiction, poetry,drama, or creative nonfiction) in their research. They are not currently available for academic research, though we hope to offer such funds in the future. We are currently offering one $800 travel grant annually, to be used to cover airfare, lodging, and/or other travel expenses.
Our travel grants will be awarded by a committee of SLF staff members on the basis of interest and merit. Factors considered will include:

• a one-page written description of the project in question, including details on the travel location and an estimated completion date (no more than 500 words)
• a writing sample in the proposed genre (up to 10 pages of poetry, 10 pages of drama, or 5000 words of fiction or creative nonfiction); please note that the writing sample must be a solo work (work completed only by the applicant).
• a bibliography of previously-published work by the author (no more than one page, typed); applicants need not have previous publications to apply.

If awarded the grant, the recipient agrees to write a brief report of their research experience (500-1000 words) for our files, and for possible public dissemination on our website.

Writing Prompt:
What do you fight for?

On writing stories, Faulkner revisited

The sky is undecided today, but we're having mild temperatures around here. Good luck to all who are sweltering away in other parts of the country.  This morning a friend was talking about the William Faulkner interview in the Paris Review so it seemed a good time to post an excerpt or two. It's been years since I read Faulkner, but his stories have still left a mark in my imagination and memory. They reside in memory where rich language, potent images, and complicated people all live. They always held some kind of difficult truths and moral themes--the kinds we'd sometimes rather avoid. And then there was the general jigsaw puzzle nature of his stories--they required patience and trust while reading, because the stories were also full of blemishes and geegaws. But I have a soft spot for writers from small towns, especially those prone to radical experimentation.

Here is perhaps his most famous comment during that interview: "The writer's only responsibility is to his art. He will be completely ruthless if he is a good one. He has a dream. It anguishes him so much he must get rid of it. He has no peace until then. Everything goes by the board: honor, pride, decency, security, happiness, all, to get the book written. If a writer has to rob his mother, he will not hesitate; the “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is worth any number of old ladies."

INTERVIEWER

How did The Sound and the Fury begin?

FAULKNER

It began with a mental picture. I didn't realize at the time it was symbolical. The picture was of the muddy seat of a little girl's drawers in a pear tree, where she could see through a window where her grandmother's funeral was taking place and report what was happening to her brothers on the ground below. By the time I explained who they were and what they were doing and how her pants got muddy, I realized it would be impossible to get all of it into a short story and that it would have to be a book. And then I realized the symbolism of the soiled pants, and that image was replaced by the one of the fatherless and motherless girl climbing down the drainpipe to escape from the only home she had, where she had never been offered love or affection or understanding.

I had already begun to tell the story through the eyes of the idiot child, since I felt that it would be more effective as told by someone capable only of knowing what happened but not why. I saw that I had not told the story that time. I tried to tell it again, the same story through the eyes of another brother. That was still not it. I told it for the third time through the eyes of the third brother. That was still not it. I tried to gather the pieces together and fill in the gaps by making myself the spokesman. It was still not complete, not until fifteen years after the book was published, when I wrote as an appendix to another book the final effort to get the story told and off my mind, so that I myself could have some peace from it. It's the book I feel tenderest toward. I couldn't leave it alone, and I never could tell it right, though I tried hard and would like to try again, though I'd probably fail again.

 Keep writing, keep dreaming, have heart

From an Editor's Desk

Last night I was falling asleep with the window open, listening to the far-off sounds of a train rattling past. First, a train whistle, then the thwack, thwack of the cars rolling along. Another whistle, another train. Then rain began, pattering down, gentle as a breeze. This morning dripping against the pavement, water running in the gutter, the sound of the workmen sorting through tools, metal on metal.

If  you want to grab a reader's attention use sound. Our brains are programmed to respond to sounds as a survival mechanism, so when you especially want to scare someone, arrest someone insert harsh sounds--a slap, a gasp, a raven's cry,  tense dialogue, nature unleasing. Like a scream in the night, car brakes squealing, mourning at a funeral. Of course not all sounds are meant to scare--there are early morning bird calls, giggles on the playground, bedroom sighs.

And writing tips gleaned from Thrillerfest on writing a smart thriller:

1.Don’t try to show how smart you are as an author. Instead, create a smart protagonist and ensure that readers want to spend time with your hero.
2. Try to surprise yourself while you’re writing; if you can surprise yourself, there is a good chance you’ll surprise your reader.
3. Ensure that there is a feeling of authenticity whenever you are presenting interesting information.
4. Anticipate where the reader thinks the story is going and then give them something unexpected.
5. Don’t neglect the details–they can make all the difference

Keep writing, keep dreaming, have heart

Why I Write

Glorious blue skies this morning. If I ever have doubts about my profession I need to only visit my email in box where lovely notes, success stories, and thank yous arrive from readers. Here is one that I thought I'd share:
Dear Jessica,

I've been meaning to write this message for months. About two years ago, I was writing a fifth draft of my memoir 'Our Man in Orlando', which describes my time as the British consul in Florida. I was having problems with the work, and I wasn't sure how to resolve them. I found, perchance, your book 'Thanks, But This Isn't For Us' in a bookstore in Orlando and a careful study of it took care (to the best of my ability) of the problems I was having.

My book was published late last year and has done modestly well. A British television company is now attempting to adapt it for the BBC. Most importantly - thanks to you as much as anything else - I am proud of the book and I think I did the best job with it that I was capable of doing.

So, this is just a brief message of thanks and encouragement to keep up your great work.

Very best wishes,

Hugh Hunter

The link below will take you to the Our Man in Orlando's readers' reviews on the British Amazon site:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/1906308152/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_recent?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

 Keep writing, keep dreaming, have heart

Writing Prompt:
Write about a dying breed.

But how powerful, how stimulating to the very faculty that produced it, was the invention of the adjective. ... The mind that thought of light, heavy, grey, yellow, still, swift, also conceived of magic that would make heavy things light and able to fly, turn grey lead into yellow gold, and the still rock into a swift water. If it could do the one, it could do the other; it inevitably did both. When we can take green from grass, blue from heaven, and red from blood, we have already an enchanter’s power. ~J.R.R. Tolkien, “On Fairy Stories”

"Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
I am haunted by waters."~ Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

“Advice to young writers? Always the same advice: learn to trust our own judgment, learn inner independence, learn to trust that time will sort the good from the bad – including your own bad.” ~ Doris Lessing.

“Let the grass die. I let almost all of my indoor plants die from neglect while I was writing the book. There are all kinds of ways to live. You can take your choice. You can keep a tidy house, and when St. Peter asks you what you did with your life, you can say, I kept a tidy house, I made my own cheese balls.” ~ Annie Dillard.


 Quick tip: Don't spell forward, backward, homeward, afterward, downward, toward, earthward, and heavenward with a final s.

Quick Tip:

Take risks as a writer—go where the pain, the shadows, secrets, obsessions, embarrassing moments and buried memories lie.  I am endlessly fascinated by how the people and situations that we avoid in real life make such compelling fiction and memoir. How our secrets and regrets and what ifs shape us and also make for engrossing stories. Visit the gloaming, the cellars, the recesses. Explore.

Quick Tip: Scavenging knows no season.  For writers, scavenging is a necessary habit because good subjects aren’t just lying around waiting to be scooped up or alighting like a golden dove on the page.  Thus you need to keep a stockpile of images, sensory details, memories, bits gathered from eavesdropping. Scavenging teaches us awareness and this noticing will  make your writing more alive.  A stockpile of images and bits can be helpful for all sorts of reasons. My gathering can trigger a poem, be the source code for an article or story.  Scavenging can become a kind of writing practice or you can slip small the details you gather into fiction.  Trust me, if you start gathering, keep gathering, you will use the material.

You may be able to take a break from writing, but you won't be able to take a break from being a writer. ~ Stephen Leigh

Pale blue skies this morning in Portland. I've been out watering and gardening early before the construction workers arrive--which should be any moment. Such a change to be out taking care of plants in the morning instead of at my desk. And I don't know why, but these soft summer nights make me feel like I could live forever. Especially when there's a thin, crescent moon in the sky and I've spent most of the day outdoors.Especially when I've been bedazzled by a fireworks display and the nearness of life.

I turned in my monthly column on Saturday and was quoting author Steven Pressfield. If you haven't read the War of Art, I recommend it. 
I like this thought from him:  
"The part we create from can't be touched by anything our parents did, or society did. That part is unsullied, uncorrupted; soundproof, waterproof, and bulletproof. In fact, the more troubles we've got, the better and richer that part becomes."
I'm going to be moving this month so if my posts become erratic, I wanted you to know the cause. Meanwhile, keep writing, keep dreaming, have heart

"At least twice a week, I pause in the rush of work and have a meeting with myself. (If I were part of a team, I’d call a team meeting.) I ask myself, again, of the project: “What is this damn thing about?” Keep refining your understanding of the theme; keep narrowing it down." ~Steven Pressfield (Do the Work)

"A work-in-progress generates its own energy field. You, the artist or entrepreneur, are pouring love into the work; you are suffusing it with passion and intention and hope."  ~ Steven Pressfield (Do the Work)

"A child has no trouble believing the unbelievable, nor does the genius or the madman. It’s only you and I, with our big brains and our tiny hearts, who doubt and overthink and hesitate." ~ Steven Pressfield (Do the Work)

"Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It's a gift to the world and every being in it. Don't cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you've got."  ~ Steven Pressfield

July

Summer temperatures are rumored to be on the way although as I write this, the skies are changing and sometimes dark, shot through with sunset, sort of the color of whale bellies.....Of course, I've never seen a whale belly close up--just some cruising the Pacific in the distance; then there was a spout or two spotted off a catamaran near Kauai, but still this image is stuck in head.

But mostly I'm wondering,  how can we now be in the seventh month of 2011 already? And for all you sweltering in the heat in other climes, around here, it hasn't much felt like summer. May you find an air conditioned oasis, I'll be happy for a bit more sun, followed by the usual sweet arrival of marine air that wafts in just before dusk.
A few notes for you as you're about to launch into your 4th of July weekend:

First, the estimable Garrison Keillor delivered a graduation speech that will make you laugh, sigh, and recall your youth. Or your children's youth. Here's the link.

He advises: "You have to be independent if you want to be somebody and have a real life. You've pleased your teachers and your parents, and now you have to do something harder, which is to please yourself and to do things that you in your heart know to be right and that you're proud of.

You have to be independent because it's your own opinion of yourself that matters now. Scores don't matter that much. Prizes don't matter. You're all above average, but so what? This is not a nation of great intellects. According to one survey, about half of the American people cannot tell you how long it takes the earth to make one revolution around the sun. Most Americans can't speak English very well. They, like, go, like, "Huh?" y'know, and you go, like, "You know," and they, like, go, "Oh." So if you can write a term paper, you're way above the average, but don't be too proud of it.....

Be better than you need to be. It's easy to have an opinion, it's hard to tell a story: to be able to look at things and describe them accurately; to describe action, chronologically, in a way that conveys the reality of experience to another person. You were there during your childhood. You saw us and the clumsy things we did and the terrible dumb things we said--- you saw what happened ---- and now it's your story to tell and we can't tell you what to say. But if you can tell that story truthfully and with humor and with a little forgiveness, then you're on your own. If you're coasting along on your personal charm and your sweet smile, learn how to be honest. Learn to look people in the eye and tell them what you think. This will come in handy someday. If you're fearful, master your fear so that you don't have to think about it. Afraid of the water: jump in. Afraid of people, what they might think of you: go talk to them. Afraid of making mistakes, afraid of looking foolish: learn a foreign language and speak it with people for whom it ain't foreign. It's an education in itself...."

Summer Reading
I've been listening to Alan Cheuse on NPR talk about books and fiction for years so want to suggest his latest picks for summer reading. 

Then there are also Three Critics Picks for the Best Books for Summer Reading.

And finally, from NPR, suggested YA books for summer reading. And they're designated for all ages.

I'm sitting here writing this, trying to recall where I read in the summer when I was a girl. Summer and childhood is so associated with the outdoors that I can smell the giant honeysuckle that grew near the dining room bay window, and see the world beyond our yard.  And can recall with such clarity the thunderstorms that swooped in like crazed thunder gods from on high, shaking the earth, changing the air. I can remember reading away in my bedroom as rain fell, tucked onto my Hollywood twin bed. My windows on the second floor were level with giant  maple branches (and I've loved second story rooms ever since). In this room was my small maple desk with the somewhat rickety legs that I was so proud of (the desk, not the legs--and I wish I still owned it). Beyond our front yard lie the creek and the young forest on the far side of its burbling banks. It's summer....let's all slow down and read more and spend time under the sky dreaming.

"I get up every day and work in the morning. I have my coffee and get to work. On good days I look up and it's dark outside and the whole day has gone by and I don't know where it's gone. But there's bad days, too. Where I struggle and sweat and a half hour creeps by and I've written three words. And half a day creeps by and I've written a sentence and a half and then I quit for the day and play computer games. You know, sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you." George R.R. Martin

"The best fantasy is written in the language of dreams. It is alive as dreams are alive, more real than real ... for a moment at least ... that long magic moment before we wake.

Fantasy is silver and scarlet, indigo and azure, obsidian veined with gold and lapis lazuli. Reality is plywood and plastic, done up in mud brown and olive drab. Fantasy tastes of habaneros and honey, cinnamon and cloves, rare red meat and wines as sweet as summer. Reality is beans and tofu, and ashes at the end. Reality is the strip malls of Burbank, the smokestacks of Cleveland, a parking garage in Newark. Fantasy is the towers of Minas Tirith, the ancient stones of Gormenghast, the halls of Camelot. Fantasy flies on the wings of Icarus, reality on Southwest Airlines. Why do our dreams become so much smaller when they finally come true?

We read fantasy to find the colors again, I think. To taste strong spices and hear the songs the sirens sang. There is something old and true in fantasy that speaks to something deep within us, to the child who dreamt that one day he would hunt the forests of the night, and feast beneath the hollow hills, and find a love to last forever somewhere south of Oz and north of Shangri-La.

They can keep their heaven. When I die, I'd sooner go to middle Earth."  ~ George R.R. Martin

It rained last night so the air feels new and the sky is still overcast. A week ago I was awakened at 6:45 by what sounded like German Panzers rumbling into the neighborhood. Since then it has been nonstop chaos as the house that was situated about 12 feet from my back door has been wiped out. As have the pines and grape vines, and a back yard studio. My charming patio and flower beds have been coated with dust and such no matter how often I wash them clean and I feel invaded by all the thunder and bedlam and constant crunching of machinery. It reminds me of a scene from Jurassic Park when the dinosaurs are battling to the death. And I hate needing to close my windows in the summer time, don't you?

But this morning I woke at 7 and the neighborhood was quiet. I'm going to take advantage of the lull to nap all afternoon and putter around here. And it's supposed to rain today which is just fine with me.  

Summer in Words was a big success--the speakers were so knowledgeable and deep and passionate and fun  I felt honored to be in the same room with them. And the attendees were great too. Thanks, thanks, thanks to everyone, especially my instructors (Cheryl Strayed, Deborah Reed, Bill Johnson, Randall Platt, Emily Whitman)  Mary Drew and Jay Collins. As they say, couldn't have done it without you.

The dates for Summer in Words 2012: June 15-17 and it will be located at the Hallmark Inn that overlooks Haystack Rock. People are already signing up for next year, so please don't wait too long to register since the space is limited. Registrations will be open on March 1, 2012


Keep writing, keep dreaming, have heart

"There are mountainous, arduous days, up which one takes an infinite time to climb, and downward-sloping days which one can descend at full tilt, singing as one goes." ~ Marcel Proust

“It’s this simple. The writer is the person who stays in the room. The writer wants to read what she is in the process of creating with such passion and devotion that she will not leave the room. The writer understands that to stand up from the desk is to fail, and to leave the room is so radical and thorough a failure as to not be reversible. Who is not in the room writing? Everybody. Is it difficult to stay in the room, especially when you are not sure of what you are doing, where you’re going? Yes. It’s impossible. Who can do it? The writer.”

     A writer is a person who stays in the room. So you do your work, and when you’re tempted to leave, you don’t. You push on, even if it’s for just a few minutes. On one level, it’s about you, the person, being along with your writing, away from all the temptations of the marketplace, away from all of the fun you’ll have with your friends, and away from all of the terrible noise on e-mail….The world is addictive. It wants us away from the desk, and a writer is a person who likes her work so much, wants her work so much, that she’s going to go get it. You’ve got to go upstream. It’s against the tide to get this kind of work done.
      The second level is, as you’re writing the story, don’t hurry. When you come to a scene, stay there. Stay there long enough to find out what might happen. I’m just pleading for patience, because people do not sit still in a place anymore. There’s almost no here and now in our country, because of the computer, because of cell phones, and because of iPods. We’re all someplace else.” ~Ron Carlson

photo by Jonathon Strong

Subtlety
I've been mulling this over awhile and have concluded that subtlety is the hardest aspect of writing to teach. After all, it's subjective and it's difficult to explain. So I want to write a series of musings on the topic here and at my (recently neglected) site.{You'll find a post on Subtlety here.}

As a starting point, here are a few suggestions:
Be able to justify every word on every page. Especially modifiers.
Be able to justify every time you slip into a character's thoughts. Can the reader already imagine what he or she is thinking?
Generally don't state a character's motivations. They should be organic to the story, not spelled out as in the huge SURRENDER DOROTHY letters.
Generally don't state your story's themes. You often don't need to state them in a synopsis either. Themes whisper beneath a story, they are like invisible threads that bind it together.
Avoid "on the nose" dialogue--characters or people always saying exactly what they mean. Sometimes when you write dialogue it might be helpful to imagine wresting words from the mouth of a teen--when he or she is at the age when he mostly mumbles and won't answer questions directly.
How was school today?
Fine.
What did you study?
The usual stuff.

TIP: Present a story as mystery unfolding, not a yellow brick road from point A to point B.

I feel that you take from your life experiences, but to make it fiction, you take it to a deeper level. You transform the mundane disappointments or the joys to make it true storytelling. You have to go much farther. You have to be a kind of spy and listen carefully. ~ Elizabeth Brundage

Quick Take:
For those of you who are writing historical fiction, try writing while playing music from the era you're writing about. (Good luck to those of you who are writing about the 16th century)

Whether we are describing a king, an assassin, a thief, an honest man, a prostitute, a nun, a young girl, or a stallholder in a market, it is always ourselves that we are describing. Guy de Moupassant

First day of summer and sky is finally blue, full of promise. I've been working on my conference these past few days while thinking about this change of season. About how I'm longing for time outdoors, to spend days in nearby forests and wandering along mountain-fed streams.  I especially love being outdoors on soft summer nights and early mornings. I’ve learned that life is best when dawn  and nightfall are witnessed in all their etchings and fadings, and birdsong is the backdrop to it all. That falling asleep near a burbling stream is one of life’s simplest pleasures.

Writing Prompt
Write about a summer memory, making certain that you weave in all the senses.

Summer

The new season feels like it's a long time arriving here since the La Nina weather system seems determined to stick around. Of course, it's the farmers who have more to worry about, not urban flower growers such as myself. Tonight I was meeting with a friend, helping her to unmuddle a rewrite of her manuscript. She sold it to a major publishing house awhile back and the whole thing has turned into a morass of rewrites and dare I say, heartbreak. She's digging herself out of a version that went awry and trying to rescue her  novel, which might I add, is quirky in the best sense of the word, beautiful and meaningful.

When we emerged from the coffee house where we'd convened for hours the sun was blasting down, the air so softened and refined and changed since yesterday that it scarcely seemed like the same place. I arrived home, longing for a night on my patio but knowing I needed to work, so I'm playing Townes Van Zandt songs on YouTube. Remembering the time years ago when I sat in a small club and heard him perform only feet away,  his heart pouring into the room, after meeting him in the hallway before he went on and he flirted with me and I flirted back, but then stopped myself. And the YouTube songs just don't do him justice. What a writer.

I know how these summer days and nights  are in the Northern Hemisphere---you'll be busy gleaning sunshine and stealing every moment of green and sky. But you can still write, you can still write. While the flowers bloom and tomatoes ripen and fireworks explode. Keep writing, keep dreaming, have heart 

What makes a story? Well, you have to have movement, right? Some people call it plot. Plot is movement that is extremely deliberate. So I would say that I'm for movement, but I'm not for terribly deliberate movement. And at some point, you come to the end of what you have to say. There's pleasure, also, and play. Something different makes every story. Sometimes you like tying up the knot. Sometimes you like to leave it wide open, for people to imagine and to do what they want with it. ~ Grace Paley

From an Editor's Desk: 
If you're struggling while plotting, keep asking yourself about cause and effect. How does the inciting incident unbalance the story world? Does the first plot point create a point of no return for the protagonist? Is it the threshold through which he or she must move forward to confront the main conflict in the story?  When a scene ends does it cause a natural push toward the next scene because it has introduced a complication, a dilemma, or problem? 

When I think of plotting I tend to think of rivers and how rivers keep moving south (or north in the case of the nearby Willamette River) the current pushing along objects and swimmers and boats. How rivers are a source of moving energy. Lapping against the shores on which trees and vegetation grow from its nourishment. The mysterious life that floats and swims beneath the surface, the secret depths. How when you stand near a river you always wonder what lies downriver. How many rivers join larger bodies of water. How they contain rocks and boulders and hidden dangers as well as forks and waterfalls. I can remember canoeing the Wisconsin River where it joined the wide Mississippi and how  difficult it was to fight the current there. How the Mississippi wanted to pull us along, send us far from home. And I've stood near the mouth of the Columbia River dumping into the Pacific in a dangerous, roiling roar, amazed at the power of all that water and movement.


So keep planning for downstream, keep looking ahead.

If something in your writing gives support to people in their lives, that's more than just entertainment-which is what we writers all struggle to do, to touch people. ~ Dean Koontz

Academics love to make theories about a body of work, but each book consumes the writer and is the sum of his or her world.~ Jeanette Winterson

Writing Prompt:

What did your father teach you?

The 'Don Knotts Golden Donut Short Story Contest' Seeks Entries

This week, the Writers' Police Academy (WPA) announced that the Don Knotts Golden Donut Short Story Contest is open for entries.

The contest is seeking short stories of exactly 200 words (including the title) about the photograph published here and on the WPA website. The photo was taken by Sunday Kaminski, a Maryland-based photographer whose work has appeared in shows, exhibits and publications including Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.

The entry guidelines:
-Use exactly 200 words, including the title.
-The image in the photograph must be the main subject of the story.
-The story must be polished and complete (with a beginning, middle and a twist of an ending).
-All stories must be submitted electronically.
-The submission deadline is midnight, August 19, 2011.
-A $20 entry fee must accompany each entry. The proceeds go to the Writers' Police Academy fund to benefit the Guilford Technical Community College criminal justice foundation.
For detailed submission guidelines, go to the WPA website and click on Short Story Contest in the blue menu ribbon at the top of the screen.

The contest winner will receive the Don Knotts Golden Donut Award sponsored by the High Point (North Carolina) Public Library and Krispy Kreme. The award will be presented at the Writers' Police Academy banquet on Saturday, Sept. 24.

The contest is open to everyone. Registration and attendance at the Writers' Police Academy is not required to participate.

Advice from Jennifer Eagan: Read
A writer after my own heart.

"My advice is so basic. Number one: Read. I feel like it’s amazing how many people I know who want to be writers who don’t really read. I’m not convinced someone wants to be a writer if they don’t read. I don’t think the problem is that they need to read more; I think they might need to readjust their life goals. Reading is the nourishment that lets you do interesting work. To be reading good things. I feel that you should be reading what you want to write. Nothing less.

The second thing is, I feel like getting in the habit of it is huge. I guess that was my one accomplishment of those two years [with the first failed novel]— making it a routine is a gigantic part of it.
One corollary of that— and this is probably the most important thing for me— is being willing to write really badly. It won’t hurt you to do that. I think there is this fear of writing badly, something primal about it, like: “This bad stuff is coming out of me…” Forget it! Let it float away and the good stuff follows. For me, the bad beginning is just something to build on. It’s no big deal. You have to give yourself permission to do that because you can’t expect to write regularly and always write well. That’s when people get into the habit of waiting for the good moments, and that is where I think writer’s block comes from. Like: It’s not happening. 

Well, maybe good writing isn’t happening, but let some bad writing happen. Let it happen!
I mean, when I was writing The Keep, my writing was so terrible. It was God-awful. My working title for that first draft was, A Short Bad Novel. I thought: “How can I disappoint?”

So, just write and be happy that you did it. You stuck to the routine. You’re kind of holding the place so that you’re present for when something good is ready to come.

And then it’s all about rewriting. Re-visiting, re-visiting and re-writing. I think it’s a mistake to be too precious about one’s words. I feel the same way about the criticism. You’re not going to break! It’s pretty tough to stick it out, to do this. So, get used to it! People are going to not like it. Okay! You’ll live. So, it’s bad. Okay. You’ll live! They said ‘no.’ You know what? Everyone gets said ‘no’ to a thousand times. If that is really something that you can’t tolerate, this may not work."

You can find the whole (really long) interview at this link
Keep writing, keep reading, keep dreaming

Contest Rosetta Books will host The Galaxy Project writing contest for science fiction novellas or novelettes. Entries must be received before September 2nd.

The digital publisher is running this contest to launch The Galaxy Project, a collection eBook reprints from the classic science fiction magazine Galaxy.

Here’s more from the release: “The winning writer will be guaranteed e-book publication as part of The Galaxy Project collection, a set of the top novellas that appeared originally in Galaxy, and will also receive a $1,000 advance against royalties of 50% of net receipts to 2,500 copies and 60% of net receipts thereafter for world English digital rights. The contest is open now and the submission deadline is Friday, September 2, 2011.”

Writers need to limit their novellas or novelettes in the range of 15,000 to 20,000 words. The judges for this contest include Nebula Award-winner Robert Silverberg, Locus Award-winner Barry N. Malzberg, and author David Drake. Follow this link for more details.

File Under: Great News
As I've mentioned before, I always like to keep up on the careers of my students and clients. So I was thrilled to learn that Deborah Reed will be featured on NPR's On the Media program. I'll let you know the date. You can read her interview here and find updates at her at her site. Her upcoming book, Carry Yourself Back To Me can now be pre-ordered at amazon.com. I'll let you all know the date of the broadcast. And again, Deborah will be explaining live at Summer in Words  (Friday night, June 24) how she landed her three-book publishing contract.

Last call to register for Summer in Words Writing Conference


When: June 24-26

Where: The Hallmark Inn & Resort in Cannon Beach

What: This year’s theme is Truth, Risk & Lies

Who: Our keynote speaker is award-winning author Cheryl Stayed

Why: It’s a great way for writers at all stages of their careers to hone their craft, network with fellow writers, and meet published authors and industry professionals with years of experience in their subject matter.

Expect: An emphasis on quality, not quantity; an intimate and welcoming conference so you’ll feel as if you belong; up-to-the-minute information on the publishing industry including how to land a book deal through a backdoor approach and what editors look for in submissions and queries; how to research publishers and agents; and then once you land a book deal, how to publicize your work.

Clincher: True value. The cost of registration ($245) includes workshops, three keynote addresses, two meals and Friday night's reception, Out Loud—a chance to read your work to an audience, a bonfire on the beach, all in a beautiful setting on the Oregon coast overlooking Haystack Rock. Single day rates are also available. And did we mention it’s fun?

Instructors: Bill Johnson, writing guru. Jessica Morrell, author and editor, Randall Platt, prolific, award-winning author, Cheryl Stayed, author extraordinaire, Deborah Reed, hardworking author of two upcoming novels, Adam O’Connor Rodriguez, Senior Editor at Hawthorne Books, & Emily Whitman, author and wise goddess.

For more information contact Jessica at jessicapage (at)spiritone(dot)com
Schedule and instructor interviews and bios are at http://summerinwords.wordpress.com/

Vintage Dave Fryxell:
"When editors talk about writers who are easy edits, they of course mean writers who get all their facts straight, answer reader's basic questions, take care of transitions and (let's not forget) follow the assignment. But when it comes to line editing--working with the nuts and bolts of copy--writers who are easy edits are writers who have mastered the sentence.
      I don't mean writing a grammatical sentence or a sentence in which all the words are spelled right. And I'm not talking about mere mastery of punctuation, knowing where to put a period to end a sentence. Those skills are part of the price of admission.
     But editors also demand sentences that work hard, that get maximum mileage for the expenditure of words. Ultimately, after all, an article is just one sentence after another--so it's vital to make each sentence as strong as it can be. If you're trying to make a living as a writer, sentences are your stock in trade. "

Quick Take:
Observe "word territory." Give key, multisyllabic, and unusual words plenty of space. Do not repeat a distinctive word unless you're intending to create a specific effect.

But how powerful, how stimulating to the very faculty that produced it, was the invention of the adjective. ... The mind that thought of light, heavy, grey, yellow, still, swift, also conceived of magic that would make heavy things light and able to fly, turn grey lead into yellow gold, and the still rock into a swift water. If it could do the one, it could do the other; it inevitably did both. When we can take green from grass, blue from heaven, and red from blood, we have already an enchanter’s power. ~J.R.R. Tolkien, “On Fairy Stories”

An author's style is his written voice, his spirit and mind caught in ink. ~ John Mason