Writing Project

Ok, since only two of us were at the last meeting we are doing the long term writing project ourselves. Those of you who were not there, it's ok. We will be going other things during the first hour. Some of the things we will be doing at a lot like what we are doing in the project but there is no commitment to a bigger project. Because of this some of the characters that were listed on this blog will no longer be open for those in meeting projects. Actually, now that I look at the list of characters, all but Wilson are off. I'm not saying that you can't get some ideas for your own characters from these, but at the meetings please refrain from using them.

If someone really wants to join the long term writing project, please talk to me after the meeting on Monday.

Character summaries from Jan 8th's meeting

In no order other than this is how they were sitting on my desk:

Character One:
Sally - 22 year old college student (Notre Dame) - does as much as is needed nothing more - she is dating someone but it is more fun the serious - her parents are divorced living in Jesup, GA - has two sisters (one older, one younger) - gets along with everyone - thinks she is over weight, not really - drinks socially - was raped in her freshman year of college, no one knows about it - She was prom queen in high school

Character Two:
Kerry (male)- 53 year old musician - grew up in Dublin, Ireland - Now lives in Midwest USA - Can play almost instrument - dose not like people - drinks too much - He wants to go back to Dublin - very poor work habits if it has anything to do with anything but music - a widower (wife died of cancer) - has a brother who lives in France (Michael), parents are dead - fears he will be stuck in US - best experience was playing in front of Queen Elizabeth II

Character Three:
Wilson Butler- unemployed 57 year old Vietnam Vet - good at electronics - unreliable when it comes to work - not married, dad is dead, mom lives with sister, brother was killed in Vietnam War - has to good friends both Vietnam Vets - does marijuana - fears being dependent on anyone - was wounded in Vietnam - loves his ham radio and Indian motorcycle - Hard core Democrat

Character Four:
David "Diamond" Jenkins, Jr - 31 year old convict (almost done with 3-5 year term, paints when he has a job) - Street smart - has little self control or concern for others - obsessed with fast cars - Parents live outside of Huntsville, AL - has 2 kid, but knows nothing of them or wants to - fears cops - does about any kind of drug - had two dogs before he was put in prison

Character Five:
Samuel Hite - 27 year old Asst Professor of Music at Northwestern University - Gifted musician, loves viola and plays classical - wants to tour as a World renown viola player - plays basketball (with a bad knee from his college days)- parents live in Peoria, IL (both teachers)- married to Megan and has a daughter, Kayla (and one on the way)- younger bother Paul lives in also in Peoria - eats only health foods - fears he will not be able to leave teaching and end up as a nobody

Character Six:
Amber Slomski - 18 year old high school grad (Taco Bell for the summer) - Complete computer geek - obsessed with fantasy baseball - plans to attend Indiana University in the fall - parents are remarried, and she has a little sister Katie - her only good friends are online (fantasy baseball league) and has never met them in person - her mom is an alcoholic and Amber does not want to be like her - the girls from her high school teased her about being fat and ugly in PE class

Jan 8th meeting

Ok, so I'm a little late in getting this out, sorry.
So here is the list of things to think about when coming up with a character

List of questions to answer for what/who your character is:

Name
Age
Place of birth
Residence
Occupation
Appearance
Dress
Strengths
Weaknesses
Obsessions
Ambitions
Work habits
Hobbies
Illness
Family
Parents
Kids
Siblings
Friends
Pets
Politics
ticks
Diet
Drugs
Favorite Kinds of
Coffee
Cigarettes
Alcohol
Erotic History
Favorite books, movies, music
Desires
Fears
Most traumatic events
Most wonderful experience
Major struggle: past & present

Ok, I feel silly

Ok, onward to something new. Now as a group we are going to work on a story together. At the next meeting (which is Jan 8th) bring two character sketches with you. From there we will work out an outline and give people chapters to work on. Hopefully this work better this year than last year. :)

For the next couple of months

Ok, so we are done with the scheduled topics for awhile. For the next couple of months we will be working on improving our own writing by actually writing, what a novel idea :) Anyways, the next meetings will be on May 1st, May 15th, skip Memorial Day weekend, June 12th, June 26th, July 10th, July 24th, Aug 7th, and Aug 21st. Then we will talk about where we want to go from there.
At the meetings we will still have time for people to work on their own stuff after the critique. At the first meeting of critiquing (or sharing if you don't like the idea of critiquing) I will hand out an outline on how critiquing should be done in our group. This will hopefully give people a sense of what we are looking for and what we are not looking for in responses to our writing. If you are going to bring a piece of prose please limit the number of pages that you are bring in to 5 for now. If we find that that amount is not enough we can talk about upping the amount to 10 pages. When you bring in something to be critiqued please bring 8 copies. We have been averaging 7-8 people a meeting. If there are more people we can always make copies at the library.
I'm hoping now that we are moving into this phase we will use this place (this blog) to bounce ideas on pieces we are working on.
Good luck on all your writing.

Publishing

April 17 – The Next Step

Publishing

“If your stuff isn’t ready for a real publisher, then it’s not ready to be published. Keep working at your craft until what you write is ready for real publication. There are exceptions, but not enough to be mathematically significant. Trust me.
“Yes. There are exceptions. And good reasons to self-publish. There is no shame in being self-published if you’re great: Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway were self-published at first…
“So there are good self-published books. Some are great and positively affect the lives of millions. Most books in this category are ahead of their time. Publishers don’t ‘get’ them yet. …
“The exception that make you self-publish shouldn’t be based on impatience. You will end up publishing junk at worst, and (if you don’t mind me mincing some metaphors) unpolished diamonds in the rough that no one will wade through to find the gold at best….
“A cogent argument can be made for self-publishing. There is a good chance that self-publishing my novel helped me, directly or indirectly, to get other book deals. Writing is a long, strange trip. It really is a lifelong journey. I mean, my third book just came out, and it’s still trickling out to the public. I’m just starting to get some e-mails and reviews. Books have a long life. It’s not overnight like with other stuff.
“Don’t panic. Try to have less desperation, more inspiration, and more determination, and work steady over a long timeline.” pp. 266-268 (1)

Cost and Expectations
“I had my printer make 1,000 copies of my 304-page novel. It looked good, looked like a real book, and cost about 4,000 dollars. It took me four years to get rid of the books. I sold about half (for between 5 and 13 dollars each) and gave away the rest or traded them for favors or other people’s art. (Alternately, my first book with a major publisher, $30 Film School, has sold 8,000 copies, at 30 bulks a pop, in eight months.)
“I sent copies of my novel out to magazines. They took up to a year to get reviewed. $30 Film School started getting reviewed a month after it came out. Part of this is that it’s easier to grok the idea of a tech book without reading the wholes thing. Also, people take stuff more seriously when it comes from a major publisher.” P276 (1)

no-budget self-publishing – chapbooks (made at home), zines (stands for magazine for fantics), E-zines ( online zines), Blogs (web log – cross between diary and an e-zine done by one person)

“How Scams Work
“Publishers: They’re called subsidy, or “vanity” publishers. They recruit authors through display ads in writer’s magazines, spam sent to online newsgroups or even though unsolicited letters and brochures sent by regular mail. ‘ATTENTION: WRITERS WANTED’ they trumpet. When you respond with a query or manuscript, you receive a letter awash with praise for you writing and chock full of promises of success and exaggerated claims of all the wonderful thing the publisher will do for your manuscript, from printing to promotion. Then when the contract comes, you notice the clause that states how much your manuscript, from printing to promotion. Then when the contract comes, you notice the clause that states how much YOU are expected to contribute, usually a significant sum of money. For this you will receive X number of books out of X number printed, your book will be widely distributed and promoted and you will all live happily ever after.
“Don’t bet on it. These kinds of publishers make profits from the fees they charge writers, not from sales of the books they produce. The finished books are often of dubious quality, there’s actually little or no promotional effort expended by the publisher at all and you’ll be hard pressed to find your book in major bookstores (or even small ones). The publisher may not even print as many total books as promised. Without sales there are no royalties, and the hoodwinked writer ends up with little to show for a considerable investment except stacks of unsold books.
“Literary agents and book doctors: Shady agents recruit writers much as subsidy publishers do-through ads, online spam and direct mail. When you submit a manuscript, the agent responds that the work isn’t up to standard and could use some editing. And, see, publishers no longer take the time and trouble to edit manuscripts but expect polished, ready-to-print work. But don’t despair! The agent gives you the name of an excellent book doctor who understands just what that agent, and today’s publisher, are looking for.
“For an inflated fee, the book doctor works his ‘magic’ on your manuscript. You resubmit the work to the agent, but wouldn’t you know it? In the meantime the market for your book has changed, or the agent represents an entirely different genre of writing, or … Well, the end of the story is you wind up with an unpublished manuscript that wasn’t even particularly well ‘doctored,’ you have no representation in the marketplace and you’re out a big chuck of change.
“Anthologies: You see an ad calling for poets or announcing a competition that offers thousands of dollars in cash prizes. You submit a poem and, lo and behold, you receive a heartening letter: Your poem didn’t win but it’s so good it’s been chosen for inclusion in a special anthology of only the best poems submitted. What a feather in your cap! Now, you don’t have to purchase an anthology if you don’t want to; but should you wish to see your poem among this treasure trove of literary gems, it will cost you only $25 (or whatever –could be more). Deluxe hardbound edition, mind you. Won’t you be proud to show it to your family and friends? Why, they’ll probably want to buy copies for themselves.
“When you receive this grand volume you may be disappointed in the quality of the other poems ‘chosen’ to appear in this exclusive publication. Actually, everyone who entered was invited to be published, and you basically paid cash to see your poem appear in a book of no literary merit whatsoever.
“These are the most common scams out there, although enterprising con artists are devising new ones all the time (modern technology, from ‘display’ sites on the Internet to print-on-demand schemes, have opened up lots of fresh possibilities for being ripped off)
“How do you protect yourself? It’s important to learn the warning sings common to most publishing scams. Spotting even one of these danger signals should be enough to make you pause and ask some appropriate questions.
“Here’s what to watch for:”
Request for money
Referral to a specific agent, publisher or book doctor
Phrases like ‘joint venture agreement’, ‘author’s contribution’ and ‘co-parnership’
Extravagant praise or unrealistic promises
Vagueness about details
Broad, inaccurate statements about the publishing industry
Display ads for agents, publishers, contests and anthologies

“These are just a few of the basic tip-offs to scams that prey on writers. When searching for an agent, publisher or book doctor, apply the same common sense that you would to finding a good mechanic, caterer or carpenter. Request a resume and references. Check with the Better Business Bureau. Talk to clients past and present. Search the Internet. You can even generate a professional background check (fees for this vary, so be careful here, too).
“Writers serious about their craft should never be so impatient for publication that they rush into dubious business arrangements. Unscrupulous publishers, agents and book doctors understand the vulnerability of unpublished authors who feel anxious-desperate, even-about ever seeing their work in print.
“If you’re good enough to be published, you’re good enough to be the payee rather than the payer. On the other hand, if you really are not ready for publication, paying someone to rush things along isn’t going to earn you the reputation and success you desire. So put away your checkbook and credit cards and dig out your manuscript. Concentrate your energies into making your writing the best it can be. If you work deserves an audience it will find one, without the process draining your bank account. pp 101-103 (2)


1. Dean, Michael W. $30 Writing School. Thomson Course Technology. 2004.
2. Bowling, Anne Editor. 2001 Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market. Writer’s Digest Books. 2001.

Plot From March 6ths Meeting

March 6th – Plot

“Plot grows out of character. If you focus on who the people in your story are, if you sit and write about two people you know and are getting to know better day by day, something is bound to happen.
Characters should not, conversely serve as pawns for some plot you’ve dreamed up. Any plot you impose on your characters will be onomatopoetic: PLOT. I say don’t worry about plot. Worry about the characters. Let what they say or do reveal who they are, and be involved in their lives, and keep asking yourself, Now what happens? The development of relationship create plot.” pp. 54-55 (1)

“Lastly: I heard Alice Adams give a lecture on the short story once, one aspect of which made the writing students in her audience so excited that I have to passed it along to my students ever since. (Most of the time I give her credit.) She said that sometimes she uses a formula when writing a short story, which goes ABCDE, for Action, Background, Development, Climax, and Ending. You begin with action that is compelling enough to draw us in, make us want to know more. Background is where you let us see and know who these people are, how they’ve come to be together, what was going on before the opening of the story. Then you develop these people, so that we learn what they care most about. The plot – the drama, the actions, the tension – will grow out of that. You move them along until everything comes together in the climax, after which things are different for the main characters, different in some real way. And then there is the ending: what is our sense of who these people are now, what are they left with, what happened, and what did it mean?”p.62 (1)

“Plot is the plan – the design – of your story. Or, to put it less architecturally and more organically: Plot is the nervous system of your story. In the same what that nerves connect your brain and muscles so you can move and live, plot interconnects and moves the elements of your story.” P.71 (2)

“Plot clearly depends on basic values. What do your characters treasure most? Put it at stake. Let them fight for it. Let them fight for life, love, money, jobs. If your characters care about nothing, the actions around them might become random. Without passion, forget about plot. Even Albert Camus’ The Stranger – in which a man is sentenced to death not so much because he committed murder as because he did not cry at this mother’s funeral – would not work if it did not rely on a framework of expected passion, against which the character’s indifference draws meaning.” P. 72 (2)

“You don’t need much to make up a plot. Work from a conflict. The conflict suggests escalation of struggle into a climax – so follow the potential for a story that the conflict suggests. Once you know what happens in your story, you can organize the rest. If you have a clear conflict between two or preferably three or more characters, everything else with follow – even the beginning! You introduce the fight – and to make it intelligible, you introduce the fighters and the ring…. If you can manage to clearly define the contested territory in a story, you will have a powerful focus, out of which the story may flow with surprising ease.” P.75 (2)
“What gives significance to actions is taking them toward the resolution of some king of predicament the character is facing. The predicaments fictional characters might face are infinite in their variety, form trying to light a lifesaving fire with just a few matches, to finding who killed Roger Axelrod, to coming to terms with some inner devil such as self-hatred, loneliness, or the silence of the gods.
All plotted works of fiction are not born equal. Some are intended to be more entertainments, and others are intended to be serious works of art that attempt to shed some light on the insanity of the human condition – or to point out that there is no light to shed and we might as well stop whining about it. But, in all of these stories, the plot is what the characters do in overcoming obstacles in a progression toward a resolution.” P. 5 (3)

“At one time of another, all writers – beginners and seasoned professionals, big talents and bad hacks - seem to have problems plotting. The most common problem is that the characters refuse to do what the author has planned for them. Whatever the author does to straighten this out, whatever action she pushes the characters to take, just doesn’t seem right. The old sheriff won’t strap on his gun as he’s supposed to. The heroine won’t go up to the hero’s loft to see his etchings. The knight in shining armor won’t enter the cave and do battle with the dragon.
This problem occurs because the author often identifies too strongly with the protagonist. The author is thinking of how the author would handle this problem, not how the character would handle the problem. The author is plotting her own story, not the character’s story.
Frequently, however, characters lie dead on the page not because the author is pushing them to do what is not in them, but because they aren’t well orchestrated. Plot arises out of opposing forces – forces that come out of the characters.”p.9-10 (3)


Six Tips for Plotting
-Chart each major character’s development through the actions
-In a work of entertainment, chart each major character’s actions and indicate his or her motivations
-Spend some time brainstorming.
-Conduct interviews with your characters of write diaries in their voices.
-Follow the “Would he really?” test for believability.
-Make sure your characters are well orchestrated.
p. 10-11 (3)

(1) Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Anchor Book. 1995.
(2) Novakovich, Josip. Fiction Writer’s Workshop. Story Press. 1995.
(3) “The Philosophy of Plot”. James N Frey. The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing. Writer’s Digest Book. 2002

Feb 20 - Structure

Feb 20
Structure

“Structure is about timing – where in the mix those elements go.”(1)

“There is something fundamentally sound about the three structure. As Buckminster Fuller taught, the triangle is the strongest shape in nature (thus it is the foundation of the geodesic dome he invented)….
In a novel, we must get to know some thing in Act I before we can move on in the story. Then the problem is presented, and the Lead spends the greater part of the book wrestling with the problem (Act II). But the book has to end sometime, with the problem solved (Act III).”(1)

“Beginning are always about the who of the story…. The entry point is the Lead character, and the writer should begin to connecting the reader to the Lead as quickly as possible.
….
Middles
The major part of the novel is the confrontation, a series of battles between the Lead and the opposition….
This is also where subplots blossom, adding complexity to the novel and usually reflecting the deeper meaning of the book.
The various plot strands weave in and out of one another, creating a feeling of inevitability while at the same time surprising the reader in various ways. In addition, the middle, …, should:
Deepen character relationships.
Keep us caring about what happens.
Set up final battle that will wrap things up at the end.
Ends
The last part of the novel gives us the resolution of the big story…. The best ending … also:
Tie up all loose ends. Are there story threads that are left dangling? You must either resolve these in a way that does not distract from the main plot line or go back and snip them out. Readers have long memories.
Give a feeling of resonance. The best endings leaving a sense of something beyond the confines of the book. What does the story mean in the lager sense?”(1)

Patterns
Quest
“-The Lead is someone who is incomplete in his ordinary world
-The thing searched for must be of vital importance.
-The must be huge obstacles preventing the Lead from gaining it.
-The quest should result in the Lead becoming a different (usually better) person; a fruitless quest, however, may end in tragedy for the Lead.”
Revenge
“-The Lead should be sympathetic since revenge is usually violent business.
-The wrong done to the Lead or to someone close to the Lead is usually not his fault; if it is, the wrong is out of proportion to fault.
-The desire for revenge has an effect on the Lead’s inner life.”
Love
“-Two people have to be in love.
-Something has to separate them.
-They either get back together or tragically do not.
-One or both of the lovers grows as a result of the pattern.”
Adventure
“-The Lead sets out on a journey. Rather than a quest for some object, this is a desire for adventure alone- to experience what’s “out there.”
-There are various encounters along the way with interesting characters and circumstances.
-The Lead usually has some insight into himself or his life after the adventure.”
Chase
“-Somebody has to be on the run for a strong reason.
-The Chaser, who can be the Lead or the opposition, must have a duty or obsession (or both) with catching the person he’s chasing.
-Often the chase is based on a huge misunderstanding.”
One Against
“-The Lead embodies the moral code of the community.
-There is a threat to the community from the opposition, who is much stronger than the Lead.
-The Lead wins by inspiring the rest of the community.
-The Lead’s inspiration may come through self-sacrifice.”
One Apart
“-The Lead is an anti-hero, one who does not wish to be associated with a larger community but rather lives according to a personal moral code.
-Something happens to draw the Lead into a larger conflict.
-The Lead must decide whether to take a stand or not.
-The Lead either retreats to his own, self-enclosed world again; or he decides to join the community.”
Power
“-The Lead usually begins in a position of weakness.
-Through ambition and the gaining of strength, the Lead rise.
-There is a moral cost to gaining power.
-The Lead may experience a fall or be willing to sacrifice power to regain morality.”(2)


Master Structures

“Traditional Structure has a clear beginning, middle, and end that happen in clear three-act sequence.” p28

“The Roller Coaster Ride is just that-a story that takes the audience on a ride of tension and suspense, never letting up on the gas.
Instead of having one major Climax at the end of the story, as with Traditional Structure, this structure has several Climaxes throughout the story. Each one builds upon the previous one, holding the reader in its thrall until the very end.” p34

“The Replay is defined as having two to three versions of events in one story. These versions may come from the point of view of one character over and over again as in Run Lola Run and Groundhog Day, where one character lives out the events in her life several times, or from several characters, one after the other as in He Said, She Said and Rashomon where there are two to three characters who related their version of the same story.” p39

“In the Fate structure, the Climax takes place at the beginning of the story as well as at the end. What follows from the Opening Climax is a flashback, or two, of events that led to the Climax just seen. Following the Final Climax is Resolution, which is what reader has been waiting for. “What happened to the character after the Climax?” is the real question that keeps the reader reading.” p44

“The Parallel plot structure is defined as having two or more stories going on at the same point in time. They are not flashbacks or subplots but two distinctly different plots with a complete beginning, middle and end all their own. The Parallel plot is a simultaneous multi-plotted story that eventually intersects all plots presented.” p49
“The Episodic plot structure is made up of a series of chapters or stories linked together by the same character, place, or theme but held apart by their individual plot, purpose, and subtext. In fact, the chapters or stories could be shuffled around and placed in a different order because there is no overall beginning, middle, and end to the book or story as a whole.” p55

“The Melodrama plot structure is sometimes referred to as “women’s fiction” as soap operas and television movies fall into this category, but this is not entirely accurate.
While both women’s fiction and Melodrama primarily focus on women’s lives, relationships, family, and the female point of view and are emotionally engaging, they differ in that women’s fiction also encompasses books such as Bridget Jones’s Diary, which is not considered Melodrama at all and has a fairly a fairly traditional plot structure to it.
Melodrama is at its core just that – melodramatic. In fact there are two types of Melodrama – the Female Melodrama and the Male Melodrama. This is why Melodrama is not considered women’s fiction.” p60

“The Romance plot structure is defined as having a structure around two Main Characters who are falling in love. This structure focuses on the content of the structure rather than on structure design.” p66

“The Journey plot structure is defined as having one Main Character either go it alone through a major internal growth experience – as with the Feminine and Masculine Journeys – or go it alone through a major series of events that courage and resolve – as in the Joseph Campbell model. This structure focuses on the content of the structure rather than on structure design.” p73 (3)



Bell, James Scott. Write Great Fiction: Plot & Structure. FW Publications. 2004. pp 22-25.
Bell, James Scott. Write Great Fiction: Plot & Structure. FW Publications. 2004. pp 181-191.
Schmidt, Victoria Lynn, Ph.D. Story Structure Architect. Writer’s Digest Books. 2005.