Tag: short story

Shameless Publication Plug!

American Fiction 14From Cathy

Hi everyone!

A quick note to announce that American Fiction Volume 14—edited by Bruce Pratt and Pulitzer Freakin’ Prize winner Elizabeth Strout—was released today. I’m thrilled a story of mine, which took second prize in their contest, is included.

The publisher, New Rivers Press, describes it this way:

“Twenty-one new authors evoke the painful and beautiful realities of life. Whether the struggles of a recent immigrant to support his family, a young daughter dealing with her mother’s mental health issues, or the slow decay of a once- sharp mind, this volume showcases the lives of these diverse American writers and characters.”

(Mine is the young daughter dealing with her wack mom—nothing to do with my own mom, by the way. She’s very sensible and almost never goes off her meds.)

Can’t wait to get my hands on a copy and see what worlds my fellow contributors came up with. Sure to be amazing.

Orders are happening now through Amazon, and through www.newriverspress.com.

Write well, everyone!

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Forget Me Not

(From Karen)

So, yes, I’m once again sharing a post from Women’s Fiction Writers. We should really pay them a royalty.

Like most writers, I struggle to stay organized and keep my lines from getting tangled when I’m working on a long piece of fiction—like my new novel. So many details, so many threads to remember and keep straight.

Outlines and notes help, but author Amy Sue Nathan relies on a handy method to index the issues.

Sometimes it’s the little tips that help a lot.

Read on

Attention-to-Detail-1

Ponder this…

I was lucky enough to attend the annual Writer’s Conference at the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Conn., a couple of weeks back. The Twain house is a fabulous resource for writers—and a pretty cool museum—if you’re ever in the area.

mark twain house

 

 

 

 

 

The conference featured workshops and discussions about aspects of writing from the creative process to marketing your book. I took part in two workshops led by Connecticut author Susan Schoenberger, whose new book is scheduled to appear this summer. Susan’s first novel, A Watershed Year, is a lyrical tour de force. Pick it up, if you haven’t.

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I want to share some spot-on tips from Susan. Now, stay with me. They’re all over the map—little fortune cookie notes on the writing process—but I think they’ll speak to you if you’re in the fiction trenches.

  1. Every scene in a novel or short story should contain three elements, or at least echo them: Desire, Action, Obstacle
  2. Write in scenes-between-characters, not chapters as “chunks.”
  3. If you find yourself writing a lot of “backstory” into your early drafts (like me) realize you’ve got some more drafts ahead of you. The goal is to internalize the backstory, so that you can deftly eye-dropper it in as you go along, not vomit “all the stuff the reader needs to know” in your first chapter. *I FOUND THIS ESPECIALLY HELPFUL!
  4. The subconscious mind is a treasure trove for writers. Tap into it. Dreams can be very instructive, as can the quiet voice that bubbles up when you turn down the volume on all the other crap in your life and de-clutter your mind.
  5. Good fiction is a window into a character’s interior world, where readers can also see themselves reflected. You want readers to say, “I’ve been there. I get that, but I’ve never heard it in that way.”
  6. If you’re publishing, balancing writing time with social media/website maintenance/agent querying, etc. is a huge challenge. Don’t get lost in the business end of things. Write. About 75 percent of your “writing time” should be spent doing just that: writing. The remaining 25 percent goes to hawking your work…or you won’t have any work to hawk.

The Long and Short of It

Taking a break from the book for a while because … well, because I’m stuck. Discouraged. Not feeling it . But you don’t want to hear my problems. Neither does Karen. She told me to shut up and quit whining and go write a short story. Okay, she was much nicer than that, but I got the message.

A short story!!??

CalvinandHobbesStory03-e1331337028749

This may seem like no big deal to you, but I haven’t written a story in years. How sad is that? I’ve been so caught up in the novel thing that the idea of shorter fiction hasn’t even been on my radar. If you want to switch gears and get a new outlook and rev up the energy again, though, I guess you really should consider going back to the basics.

I plan to start by reading stories, of course. I used to read short fiction all the time. Best American Short Stories is always on my Christmas list (thank you in-laws for making sure this is under the tree each year), but I confess I haven’t read a whole one in years. I’ll look through them now, though, since I’m one of those people who pulls inspiration from others (okay steals, if you like—I’m not too proud to admit it).

Best American Cover

Any other suggestions for where to find great stories? Do you read literary journals? The New Yorker? Alice Munro anthologies?

Anyone want to write along with me?

When we’re done, here’s a GREAT listing of pubs to submit to:

http://www.newpages.com/literary-magazines/complete.htm

So switch it up, hunker down, carry on, write it short–or long. Whatever moves you. As always, just write.

Oh, and I saw an amazing quote the other day. I’m not much for such things, but this one stuck with me:

“Imagine what you would do if you knew you could not fail.”

I know, right?

—Cathy