Playboy College Fiction Contest

For all college students out there, be sure to check out Playboy's College Fiction Contest. A fellow MFA student, Peggy Newland, took 2nd place in 2008 for her story, "Elf Boy".

For more info click here.

A humorous take on writing a bestseller

Check out this article, "How to Write the Next Twilight, Stephen King Book, or Critically Acclaimed Novel" by Cole Gamble on FunnyCrave.com. It makes for a good laugh.

Click here to read.

When real life influences your writing

One question that a lot of writers get is if what we write is based on any real experiences in our lives. The answer is usually yes, but how much can vary with each writer. Some very loosely base characters, places, or events on reality. Others may have one thing that has greatly influenced them to the point they can create a whole scene, chapter, or novel from it. Obviously, if a story is fiction, some things will be different.

On a personal note, I've been deeply affected by my own past and there are a lot of emotions connected to it: anger, hate, depression. I'm always asked why I don't write happier things, and I honestly reply that I just can't. I'm in a great place with my life now, but there are people who always desire to remind me what happened and how that made me feel. I choose to use that to fuel my writing. Channeling that energy has created some amazing prose.

I know there are writers out there who can identify with what I'm saying. Perhaps they are still in the middle of a less than ideal situation, or just coming out of one. Perhaps you are still being haunted by a person (like I am now) or experience that just won't go away. Our experiences happen, good or bad, to give us the chance to shape ourselves into something beyond what we are now. It's up to us to find the strength to move on and keep the words coming out.

Use your anger. Use your grief. Refuse to be broken. Create beauty out of pain. That is when writing is at its best.

Back online

I'm back online after going into hiding for my recent deadline -- and I'm proud to announce that I'm a quarter of the way finished with the draft of my novel. I had a conference call a few days ago with my mentor and he's pleased with what I've done so far, and eager to read more. This last round of writing had me bit nervous because I felt like I was losing creative energy. What was going on paper wasn't exactly spectacular. However, I was reminded that in the editing process I can cut and rewrite and tighten up shaky scenes. What's important right now is to keep moving forward and "get in the chair and write".

In the pipeline for upcoming posts will be a few interviews; some with authors that have deals and some with those who are still in the process.

What would you like to read about in future posts? Leave a comment below and please share your ideas!

10 Rules of Writing

Excerpt from Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing: Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle, from the New York Times Writers on Writing Series:

1. Never open a book with weather.

If it’s only to create atmosphere, and not a character’s reaction to the weather, you don’t want to go on too long. The reader is apt to leaf ahead looking for people. There are exceptions. If you happen to be Barry Lopez, who has more ways to describe ice and snow than an Eskimo, you can do all the weather reporting you want.

2. Avoid prologues.

They can be annoying, especially a prologue following an introduction that comes after a foreword. But these are ordinarily found in nonfiction. A prologue in a novel is backstory, and you can drop it in anywhere you want.

There is a prologue in John Steinbeck’s “Sweet Thursday,” but it’s O.K. because a character in the book makes the point of what my rules are all about. He says: “I like a lot of talk in a book and I don’t like to have nobody tell me what the guy that’s talking looks like. I want to figure out what he looks like from the way he talks. . . . figure out what the guy’s thinking from what he says. I like some description but not too much of that. . . . Sometimes I want a book to break loose with a bunch of hooptedoodle. . . . Spin up some pretty words maybe or sing a little song with language. That’s nice. But I wish it was set aside so I don’t have to read it. I don’t want hooptedoodle to get mixed up with the story.”

3. Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.

The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. But said is far less intrusive than grumbled, gasped, cautioned, lied. I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with “she asseverated,” and had to stop reading to get the dictionary.

4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said” . . .

. . . he admonished gravely. To use an adverb this way (or almost any way) is a mortal sin. The writer is now exposing himself in earnest, using a word that distracts and can interrupt the rhythm of the exchange. I have a character in one of my books tell how she used to write historical romances “full of rape and adverbs.”

5. Keep your exclamation points under control.

You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose. If you have the knack of playing with exclaimers the way Tom Wolfe does, you can throw them in by the handful.

6. Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.”

This rule doesn’t require an explanation. I have noticed that writers who use “suddenly” tend to exercise less control in the application of exclamation points.

7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.

Once you start spelling words in dialogue phonetically and loading the page with apostrophes, you won’t be able to stop. Notice the way Annie Proulx captures the flavor of Wyoming voices in her book of short stories “Close Range.”

8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.

Which Steinbeck covered. In Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” what do the “American and the girl with him” look like? “She had taken off her hat and put it on the table.” That’s the only reference to a physical description in the story, and yet we see the couple and know them by their tones of voice, with not one adverb in sight.

9. Don’t go into great detail describing places and things.

Unless you’re Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language or write landscapes in the style of Jim Harrison. But even if you’re good at it, you don’t want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.

And finally:

10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

A rule that came to mind in 1983. Think of what you skip reading a novel: thick paragraphs of prose you can see have too many words in them. What the writer is doing, he’s writing, perpetrating hooptedoodle, perhaps taking another shot at the weather, or has gone into the character’s head, and the reader either knows what the guy’s thinking or doesn’t care. I’ll bet you don’t skip dialogue.

My most important rule is one that sums up the 10.

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can’t allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative. It’s my attempt to remain invisible, not distract the reader from the story with obvious writing. (Joseph Conrad said something about words getting in the way of what you want to say.)

If I write in scenes and always from the point of view of a particular character—the one whose view best brings the scene to life—I’m able to concentrate on the voices of the characters telling you who they are and how they feel about what they see and what’s going on, and I’m nowhere in sight.

Becoming emotionally involved

Last night I experienced yet another phenomenon for the first time in my writing journey. I've spent the last 6 months or so really getting to know my protagonist, Miran (pronounced Meer-an),and she has undoubtedly revealed herself to me in some remarkable ways. It's almost like she has temporarily taken residence inside me and dictated her story as I go along.

A little after midnight, I was writing a scene of great importance in my novel, one where Miran struggles with insommnia and the pain of her mother's quite horrific death and, in a moment of desperation, swallows too many pills. What follows can be questioned by readers as either a journey into heaven/netherworld where she sees her mother again, or simple hallucination. The scene was extremely hard to write because Miran has reached the bottom.

Drawing from personal experience, I identify with many of the thought and emotions she was grappling with, and last found myself being immersed in her world, tears and all.

After I was finished I was unable to sleep. I lay on my bed and wept for her, for her loss. I was in awe of the experience. Mainly because I knew then that my writing has reached yet another level, and that my process of creating and crafting these scenes has benefited the quality of my work.

Now, I ask you, my fellow writers: Have you had similar experiences? Do you sometimes feel too emotionally connected to your writing? Or, is it something you feel is a good thing?

Flickr photo by: Okko Pyykko

Currently reading

I'm pleased to report that September's M.F.A. deadline was met early, and with awesome feedback from my mentor, writer Merle Drown. However, it's onward and upward with revisions and new prose for my October deadline. No rest for the weary writer indeed!

I also wanted to update you all on what I'm reading for the next three weeks: Runaway, a collection of stories by Alice Munro, and Felicia's Journey, a fiction novel by William Trevor.

Hope you all are well and the writing is flowing freely!

Image credit: Amazon.com

PostSecret

I find inspiration for my writing in all sorts of places. I've always been fond of PostSecret for it's real, honest confessions of everyday Americans. If you haven't heard of PostSecret, you should check it out — it's an ongoing community art project where people anonymously mail their secrets on the side of a postcard for the public to read. And many don't hold back. Affairs, homosexuality, abuse, dysfunctional families — there are a wide range of topics.

Some make me laugh; others are shocking. It's usually with the shocking or emotional cards that get the wheels turning in my writer mind. I imagine the senders and what their lives are like, how they grew up, what kind of people are in their lives. I can create mini stories in my head from one postcard with a few words. PostSecret is actually a nifty tool for writers, and I recommend taking a moment to head over to the site and see for yourself.

Image credit: Amazon.com

The Stuff of Fiction

I'm taking a break from essay writing (okay, I confess; I've been surfing the net and haven't actually started) to recommend an awesome book that I'm required to read this month for school. The Stuff of Fiction: Advice on Craft by Douglas Bauer has given me a stronger understanding of many elements that writers think are easy, but take a lot of effort to be successful at accomplishing. Bauer presents his teachings and advice in a conversational tone with examples woven in. I've had so many "ah-ha!" moments while reading this book and have highlighted the heck out of it so I won't forget. One of my favorite points is in the chapter about openings:

....The populated world of a story or a novel can be equated to a gathering of people in a room....And the reader who takes up a story can be thought of as the person opening the door to the goings-on....The question is, then, for the writer is always the manner in which you wish your readers to gain attention.

I highly recommend picking up a copy of this book. Bauer conveys his points in a logical manner with supporting examples that allow writers to strengthen their craft.

Image credit: Amazon.com

SNHU M.F.A. program

I've just spend ten wonderful days with my fellow classmates and writers at my M.F.A. residency at Southern New Hampshire University. I'm lucky to be taught by writers such as Diane LesBecquets, Merle Drown, Richard Adams Carey, Robert Begiebing, Kim Ponders, Gretchen Legler, and Katie Towler during the two-year program. Currently, I'm being mentored by Merle Drown, author of The Suburbs of Heaven.

At my most recent residency in July, I met and studied with bestselling author Francine Prose (best known for her novels Blue Angel and Goldengrove). I was also fortunate enough to have lunch with former CEO of Houghton Mifflin and now full-time author Joseph Kanon (best known for Los Alamos and The Good German -- which was made into a movie with George Clooney and Kate Blanchett). I attended workshops on honing the craft and met several literary agents who gave helpful advice on how to stand out in the slush pile, and what's involved in the agent/writer relationship.

I was sad to leave because I learned so much valuable information! But, I look forward to sharing what I've learned in upcoming posts. Stay tuned and keep writing!