"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

How to Create a Platform

Folks, here's a great article by Christina Katz about creating a platform for fiction writers. That's right. Fiction writers. These days you need to bake your platform while you write your novels and short stories. I'm serious as a heart attack here. And Christina is a gal to pay attention to when it comes to platform-building.

Quick Take:
When telling stories, in all their many forms, remember that the story broadens our sympathy for a variety of characters by revealing how they're thinking, feeling, facing changes, acting and reacting  in their world. As you go through your days pay attention to the expressions on faces around you. If you could not hear the person's words, what does his or her face reveal?  Notice too posture and body language--so revealing, yet so difficult to express in words. Posture communicates--look closely, take notes, spy always.

Quick Take:
Remember that for many of us our goals as writers is to wake up the world.

10 Can't Miss Fantasy and Science Fiction Books
Chosen by the folks at the Kirkus Review.  I cannot wait for the new George R.R. Martin. It's been years George....
A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin

George R.R. Martin recently announced that finally, he’s nearly done writing the oft-postponed A Dance With Dragons, book five in A Song of Ice and Fire, a massive, multi-stranded and marvelously cynical epic chronicling the battle for the Iron Throne of Westeros. Given that the book incorporates story threads cut from the previous volume when it grew too huge, readers will be especially happy to hear from characters that they haven’t heard from since book three, particularly Tyrion, the much-maligned dwarf falsely accused of murdering his royal nephew and who actually did kill his monstrous father during his escape from the dungeon, and Daenerys, a pretender to the throne of Westeros who’s set up shop on a distant island, where her dragons and former slave subjects are becoming dangerously restive. As the months tick down to July (with the assistance of a countdown clock on the author’s site), anticipation will only increase, particularly after HBO’s adaptation of book one, A Game of Thrones, debuts in April. (Bantam, July)

The Sound of Water

There is blue laced in the sky today. A relief after yesterday with low clouds and the constant plink plink plink of rain. Everything is dazzling wet here with jonquils and daffodils sprouting in patches all over town and magnolias now joining the wet spring finery.

As writers we need a place outside our office, away from our laptop that restores us. I've always tried to live around water--a lake, a creek, an ocean. Some of the lakes were giants, white capped in thunderstorms, then amazingly frozen over in winter. Some were creeks running through northern prairies or rivers coming down off mountain ranges. When I was a girl in the summer most days were spent alongside rivers and creeks. Whole days of sun and water and rocks.

I'm in love the with Pacific and the rivers that run through the Northwest. So noisy and tumbling and pressing on this time of year. On Sunday I visited the eastern fork of the Lewis River in Washington. The Lewis and Clark expedition passed through the region in 1805 and commented on the water color--turquoise and the abundance of falls.When I first moved to this area I followed different segments of the Lewis into deep woods and climbed up to waterfalls, breathing in the wet, misty air. But I hadn't visited it in years, because I've followed other rivers since then.The Lewis begins on Mt. Adams and eventually joins the Columbia, which joins the Pacific at a dangerous stretch of water,  passing through forests and small towns and farm land. In spring the many falls that punctuate the Lewis are bellicose with abundance and you feel dizzy at the noisy flow.  Some days it seems so important that water pushes away your thoughts, that the sound of it takes up a lot of space inside you so inspiration is stirred or a deep quiet happens within. Some days it seems important to return to where you belong.

Where do you go for restoration? Inspiration? Where do you belong? Keep writing, keep dreaming, have heart

In honor of National Poetry Month:
"Here life goes on, even and monotonous on the surface, full of lightning, of summits and of despair, in its depths. We have now arrived at a stage in life so rich in new perceptions that cannot be transmitted to those at another stage - one feels at the same time full of so much gentleness and so much despair - the enigma of this life grows, grows, drowns one and crushes one, then all of a sudden in a supreme moment of light one becomes aware of the sacred." ~  May Sarton


“I loved them (the muses) in the way that one loves at any age, if it’s real at all. Obsessively, painfully, with wild exaltation, with guilt, with conflict. I wrote poems to and about them. I put them into novels, disguised, of course. I brooded upon why they were as they were, so often maddening. I wrote them ridiculous letters. I lived with their faces. I knew their every gesture by heart. I stalked them like wild animals. I studied them as if they were maps of the world and, in a way, I suppose they were. Love opens the doors into everything as far as I can see, including, and perhaps, most of all, the door into one’s own, secret, and often terrible and frightening, real self.” - May Sarton, from MRS. STEVENS HEARS THE MERMAIDS SINGING.

"I think the deeper you go into the personal, the more universal you are. I mean, if you can go deep enough and if it’s no longer a sort of ‘look at me, I’m in pain’ poem. And, of course, the image is what does it; the image is key. When you’ve got the metaphor, you’ve got it...I also think that you choose to be a novelist but you’re chosen to be a poet. This is a gift and it’s a tremendous responsibility. You have to be willing to give something terribly intimate and secret of yourself to the world and not care, because you have to believe that what you have to say is important enough...I would like all my work, in the end, to be transparent. Something that’s transparent can be very deep, like a well.”

My understanding of what poetry can, must, and will do always do for us: it complicate us, it doesn't always "soothe." Jorie Graham

From an Editor's Desk:

Take risks. With what you must say, how you say it, with characters, verbs, the secrets and longings you dare not express. Writing isn't a safe pursuit. It's a place you can return to again and again and even find solace. But from the powerful routine of a writing practice and your love of words and storytelling, step outside your comfort zone. Now I know that comfort zone is a cliche, but the best writing doesn't come from a writer typing away about pretty things. Write about the outskirts of polite society, the doomed, the damned, haunted among us. Explore what haunts you, memories you cannot leave behind. Keep asking yourself hard questions as you write. Do I dare say this? Do I dare tell the truth? 

Plugola

I met Jane Friedman years ago at a writing conference. She was attending my workshop called Between the Lines and came up to me and handed me her card. Which was cool because I had already scheduled a meeting with her and wanted to pitch some ideas for Writer's Digest Books. She told me she'd like to read a book based on my lecture, so I have her to thank for my writing Between the Lines. I'm proud of that book and I've come to realize that Jane is always one step ahead of everyone and has one of the keenest eyes and brains around. Which is why so many of us pay attention to what she says about the publishing industry. Which is why I'm suggesting you might want to check out her new e-book The Future of Publishing: Enigma Variations You can find it here.

Why I Love Books

Fun list for book lovers over at Algonquin Books blog 

including this one:  Practicality. Book-loving isn’t just fun and games; not all head-in-the-clouds mumbo jumbo, no. Here are 9 Cool Things to Do With Old Books. Make shelves or a wreath or a clock or a lamp shade. I keep my turntable propped up on two stacks of books and an old window pane … but that’s more a “poor” thing than a “cool” thing.

From an Editor's Desk:If your story contains a victim, particularly a murder victim for those of you writing suspense, make sure that we care about the victim. Faceless victims or massive body counts don't involve the reader. A typical mystery involves unraveling the victim's past and associations. Through this process, he or she becomes known, and we are sucked into the story because of empathy and curiosity. Through this process the protagonist also comes to care.

April!

Already. Still dark this morning, but I hear the sun is paying a visit here today. I've been cleaning up my flower beds a bit at a time and yesterday afternoon I was sitting at my desk writing my column for Willamette Writers while outdoors came the grind and chop of lawnmowers. One after the other, as neighbors pulled into their driveways after work,like an answering chorus. 

Reminders: It's National Poetry month. So read, devour, savor poetry this month noticing the craft and your emotions as you read. Ask yourself how the poet accomplished what he or she accomplished with words and images.  And April 14th is  poem in your pocket day.

You can now register for Summer in Words. Registration forms and schedule are at the blog and more updates will be rolling in. Besides the fabulous line up of instructors, it's going to be a whole lot of fun.

The Writer magazine is sponsoring a short -story contest. Prizes are worthwhile, including publication in the magazine. The details are here. 

 

Writing Prompt
If you wrote a letter to your younger self, especially at a vulnerable age (8? 13?) when you needed mentoring or guidance, what would that letter say?

Is it not astounding that one can love so deeply characters who are composites, portraits, or born of the thin air, especially when one has never seen or touched them, and they exist only in an imprint of curiously bent lines? ~Mark Helprin

Author Sell Thyself

You don't need me to tell you that the publishing world is in an upheaval. Salon.com book critic Laura Miller has written a must-read article Author Sell Thyself. It begins: Last week, the book world saw a particularly symmetrical bit of revolving door ballet as Amanda Hocking -- who famously became a millionaire by selling a series of paranormal romance novels as self-published e-books -- signed a contract with an old-fashioned publishing house, while the bestselling thriller author Barry Eisler walked away from a similar deal, preferring to self-publish his next book. Did I mention it was the same publisher (St. Martin's Press) in both cases? Like I said: symmetrical.

And here is the link to the NY Times piece about Amanda Hocking's book deal with St. Martins.

Why I Write

Lately I've been trying (or perhaps struggling is the precise word--why did I never study web building?) to build a web site for my Summer in Words conference. So I haven't written a lot this week and I'm finding myself a bit adrift without my writing routine. People sometimes ask me why I don't write fiction or why I don't write the story of my life or why I don't write children's books. I'm writing books for writers at this time in my career because it's a way to reach people. And I'm sort of a nerd who likes to figure out how stories and language works and how it all intersects with the human brain.

And I write because I receive emails like this one: 
I'm so happy I found your blog today.

I bought Between the Lines about five years ago, and it has done more to advance my novelcraft than any of the dozens of writing books I have acquired over the years.

Looking forward to your posts and further enlightenment.

One of my YA novels, November Knight, will available in paperback this summer, and I credit your teachings for helping me craft a multi-layered story that lives and breathes not only in the words, but in the subtleties and whisperings of the spaces between the lines.

Cheers,

  Michael J. Pollack

  http://michaelpollack.com

Keep writing, keep studying craft, have heart

From an Editor's Desk:

French historian and novelist Andre Malraux           said, "What is man? A miserable little pile of secrets."
Which leads me to ask: what secrets are your characters keeping hidden from prying eyes? What secrets will be revealed in your memoir? Your short story? Secrets incite curiosity and suspense; reveal so many hidden chambers in the human heart. Although we live in an age of compulsive exposure and tell-all gossip amid a 24-hour news cycle, many  people shroud their secret shames and obsessions and fears and desires within. When you write fiction, know the mysteries within  your characters. When you plot, figure out just how much you can expose and who  these confessions will be revealed to.
Keep writing, keep dreaming, have heart

Quote of the day:
"In my work there is no drum, there is no song, but the mask is the result of a transformation that occurred in my studio." Willie Cole

Where to Dump a Corpse and other Tips

The sun  just peeked out. I mean it. After raining most of the weekend. Which is why I attended two plays--and am still sort of basking in the images and brilliance I saw on the stage this weekend (Futura and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest). For those of you who are writing mysteries and thrillers and face that pesky task of disposing of corpses and such here's a helpful interview with best-selling thriller author Chelsea Cain at Northwest Book Lovers.

Here's a tidbit from that interview:Your writers group is replete with big wigs in the literary world. What’s some of the best advice you’ve gotten from your cohorts? They are all so smart and full of zingers. Chuck Palahniuk is great with objects. He taught me to use objects more and better. Archie’s pillbox in the earlier books, for instance. It’s such great shorthand for what’s going on in his head. How Archie interacts with and thinks about that pillbox ends up being way more revealing than anything he says. And Chuck taught me to go back to The Object at least three times in a chapter. “Don’t lose your objects,” he always says. This is a Dangerous Writer-ism, something Chuck picked up from his old mentor Tom Spanbauer and his Dangerous Writing workshop. Suzy Vitello taught me to take time to reveal a character’s emotional landscape. Don’t wallow in it. But take half a paragraph and unpack (“unpack” – that’s another Dangerous Writer-ism) the goods. Let the reader inside. I’m not talking about exposition. No telling. Just going internal and showing what a character has at stake emotionally. Lidia Yuknavitch teaches me words. She can use words like no one I’ve ever met. Monica Drake taught me to take time with dialog. Her gift for dialog and her sense of timing are amazing. Mary Wysong taught me the power of the smallest gesture. Describing how a character hunches his shoulders or holds a coffee cup can speak volumes. Erin Leonard taught me to embrace absurdity. Cheryl Strayed is incredible at creating small profound moments, and she is such a hard worker and so productive. They all make me feel like an underachiever.