Is 2021 the year you’re finally going to buckle down and crank out that novel? If so, you’re in luck. Novelist and teacher Michelle Richmond has an online course designed to take you from inspiration to first draft, with help and guidance every step of the way.
Check out the details and get going! There’s a five-month and a nine-month option. Courses begin the first week of January.
Give yourself the gift of mentorship and invest in your writing this year.
–Karen
Summertime. The days are long and lovely, and the grill is fired up.
But what’s that? You say the time has come, at last, to write your novel. You’ve got a story. You want to tell it. You just have one question: how, in the name of all that’s sane and just, do you begin?
Good question. And you’re in luck. Best-selling novelist Michelle Richmond addresses this very thing in a recent blog post. I’m always happy to plug Michelle, because she runs the small press that published my debut a few years back, and because she’s a super helpful and compassionate human being. She’s also a true friend to writers, whatever their career stage.
A snippet from Michelle on diving into the novel waters:
“Get past thinking, ‘I’m writing a novel.’ Instead, tell yourself, ‘I’m writing a few words today’ or ‘I’m writing a piece of my novel today.’ Writing a novel is a daunting challenge and a major, time-consuming endeavor. Looking from the starting line to the finish line, miles away, can be mentally paralyzing. The only way to start your novel without psyching yourself out is to break it up into small, daily tasks. Approach each day as a mini-project, not a major project. The mini-project is your scene, your chapter, or your page for that day.” Read the rest.
Good luck, friends, and be gentle with yourself. You’re embarking on a courageous journey.
–Karen
Friends —
Novelist Michelle Richmond is living the expat dream in Paris, where she has temporarily relocated with her husband and son. It’s a long way from Northern California to Paris, France, and Michelle is candidly–and humorously–sharing her daily trials and triumphs. You can follow her exploits in a “beautiful but challenging city” on her new blog, The Reluctant Parisian.
Michelle’s indie press, Fiction Attic Press, published my debut novel in 2014, and she remains a source of support and inspiration. I’m loving her post-a-day on Instagram.
And yes, Michelle’s books have been translated in French!
Check back often and share Michelle’s journey!
–Karen
From Karen:
We’re giving our heartiest congratulations to first-time novelist Magdalena Waz whose novel, Return on Investment, won the Fiction Attic Press Debut Novel Contest this year. Fiction Attic, headed by founder Michelle Richmond, is publishing some of the most interesting new fiction out there today.
Magdalena’s smart new novel is a great example. Magdalena’s work has also appeared in Threadcount, The Collagist, and Rabbit Catastrophe Review. She is currently the Features Editor at Bushwick Daily.
Here, she discussed the uncertain journey to publication and the stuff you learn along the way.
Please welcome Magdalena to Write Despite.
Every manuscript has a different path to publication, and every writer has a slightly different battle to fight when it comes to choosing one or choosing to take any at all. Writing Return on Investment was far easier than coming to terms with the fact that it was getting published. This was the first novel attempt I had actually completed and the first time I had committed to some kind of story arc for more than 20 pages.
Some of these chapters are three and a half years old; some are two years old. Some of them have been edited four to five times and drastically; others have been tweaked in small ways that likely only matter to me. I could have lived in that limbo-y “it’s not quite done yet” stage for years.
But I was done with grad school, working odd jobs, having trouble focusing on new and old projects alike. The only logical solution at the time was to submit any writing and fill those free hours with something that felt like action.
Of course, anyone who has submitted stories, poems, or manuscripts to contests or journals knows how little action there really is. I was addicted to those short moments of exhilaration: the moment when I hit submit, and the moment when I saw an email notification from Submittable.
I had sent in my manuscript to Fiction Attic’s contest on a whim one summer soon after signing up for a weekly newsletter called “Sapling” which curates a short selection of submission opportunities, contests, and interviews with editors and publishers (I highly recommend it).
I found out over Thanksgiving weekend. I was admiring my mom’s new dining room table when I got the notification, and I read the email multiple times before I shared it. And then for months I did not believe it was real. There were whole days where the limbo voice woke up somewhere in me and insisted I was rushing, that I hadn’t sat on the manuscript for long enough, that I hadn’t written the whole story.
But this process has been very informative. This particular manuscript’s path to publication taught me that I am happiest when I am sharing what I write. Giving my writing a public life is what motivates me to write more. Without feedback in a workshop, I would have never finished the manuscript in the first place, and without taking the plunge and submitting, I would have never figured out what I need to do in order to keep writing.
If you have five minutes, sit back, close your eyes and listen to some audio advice from novelist Michelle Richmond. Her topic: simple tips on how to become a more effective writer!
Need some of those. Thank you.
Michelle is the New York Times best-selling author of The Year of Fog, and of Golden State, No One You Know, Hum, Dream of the Blue Room and The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress.
She’s also my publisher at Fiction Attic Press.
Now press play and close your eyes.
— Karen
If you find yourself in the metro D.C. area next weekend, please stop by for my reading at the Fall for the Book Festival. It’s a week-long fest hosted by my MFA alma mater, George Mason University. I’m reading at 1:30 on Saturday, Oct. 3, with two fellow alumni. All details on the Festival’s site.
Cathy, also a GMU alum, will be on hand. We were roommates for two-and-a-half years, and now we’re both hoping to reconnect with old friends and meet some new ones.
Check out this stellar lineup of participants.
Hope to see you there!
— Karen
Karen’s official book launch was this Saturday–a quiet signing at Breakwater Books in Guilford, Connecticut.
And damn it, I just had to be there.
I decided not to tell her I was coming, for two reasons: 1) I thought it would be fun to surprise her, and 2) If I had to back out at the last minute, I didn’t want to screw up her plans.
God bless my crazy friend who offered to tag along and ended up driving nearly the whole six hours from DC (I get a tad nervous in that NYC snarl, but she drives like a machine).
Much zaniness along the way, including a stop at the Pez Visitor Center. Yes, that’s the candy that pops out of the heads. Did you ever wonder what the World’s Largest Pez dispenser would look like? Wonder no more.
So anyway, we finally made it to Connecticut and headed for Breakwater Books. Now keep in mind that, although Karen and I talk via electronics frequently, we hadn’t seen each other in person in EIGHT years.
So I walked in, and this happened:
Fun, right? I thought so.
Karen invited us back to her lovely home afterward, and we all had breakfast with her husband and son the next morning, then hit the road before the snow started. Here we are outside the cafe at Lyman’s Orchard (a way cool farmer’s market store):
The whole trip was way cool, and I’m so glad I was able to do it. This Saturday Karen will be giving her first reading in Mystic, CT. If you’re local (or if you’re into crazy road trips), go get a book signed and hear her read from Homing Instincts. You won’t be disappointed.
Congratulations, Karen! Hope to see you again before another eight years passes!
-Cathy
Dear Friends,
My novel “Homing Instincts” is officially in the world today!
Please check it out and order a copy via one of the many venues carrying the book.
www.karenguzman.com can point you to a few.
I want to thank the entire Write Despite community for your enthusiasm and support. Reach out and let me know how you like the book and if there’s anything I can do to help you along your writing journey!
XO
Karen
Well, my novel is up on Goodreads. You can order it, review it, “add” it, so this must really being happening, after all.
And as if that weren’t enough, I also have a couple of readings and book signings scheduled at Connecticut bookshops in mid-November:
Breakwater Books — November 15
81 Whitfield Street
Guilford, CT
2 pm reading/signing
Bank Square Books — November 22
53 West Main Street
Mystic, CT
1 pm reading/signing
Local folks, please come out! Non-local folks, please find me online. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your support, and all the kind wishes I’ve received.
Hope to see or hear from you soon!
— Karen
A quick hello! I’m passing along some very handy tips from Collette Freedman, courtesy of the always inspiring Women’s Fiction Writers site.
More soon!
–Karen
P.S. My debut novel is scheduled for publication by Fiction Attic Press on Nov. 10. I’ve seen the cover. It’s beautiful! More to come…
Write Despite 