Rx for Writers

Long Ridge Writers Group

November 17

Fall is not all about brilliant leaves and Jack Frost nipping at your nose.  Southern California is facing a horrendous fire season right now and the media is full of violent images of burning houses, as well as heart-wrenching interviews with people who have escaped from the fire.  Remember this when you’re writing a seasonal story, or a holiday story, or any story where the readers think ‘oh, I know what’s coming here’.  Sometimes the dissonance of going against reader expectations…hillside fires at Thanksgiving time, a hurricane at Halloween…can deliver a lot of power.  When you deliver the expected, the readers are already half asleep. They’ve been here, done this, they’re just along for a nice ride.  When you stand the expected on its head…those readers wake up.    

Never be afraid to toss a big rock into the scene that seemed too ‘usual’.   Carolyn and Al  are strolling hand in hand in the park, we all know the kiss is coming, he bends down….and then….?   What if that kiss doesn’t happen?  What if something utterly unexpected occurs?  A vampire?  A former lover ‘back from the dead’?  Of course you’ll have to go back later, while you’re revising, and make it all plausible.  But you can do that. Toss the rock first and then make it all work.  You can really surprise yourself with a much stronger story that way.   

Well, I can’t let you all find yourselves with nothing to do, so I guess I’ll have to post another  prompt.  My Thanksgiving prompt is up, you get 250 words, and you don’t have to have it to me until after the holiday, so even if you’re cooking for the Entire Family, you have time. 

I’m doing panels at OryCon our local Science Fiction conference, this weekend, so our next forum will on Friday the 28^th. By then you should have all the Thanksgiving leftovers put away and all dishes washed, right?  Join me for The Character Snapshot.  We’ll talk about how to reveal a non-POV character in a few sentences. 

Kevin Miller tells us what he’s been up to since he graduated from Long Ridge.  Let’s hear from more graduates. What are you up to? 

Our Spotlight this  week is, How About a Sidebar With That? By Phyllis Ring, Long Ridge instructor, will help you out with those useful sidebars that nonfiction editors want.    

And it’s particularly useful this week.   Rick Lovett, full time, self supporting freelance nonfiction writer is going to be answering your questions about just how to break into the nonfiction market.    Want to know how you go from writing nonfiction to earning money writing nonfiction? Here’s your chance to ask.   Head over to the  Post A Note Professional Connection and don’t be shy. Ask your question.  He’ll be available up until Friday.  He has been there, done that, and can give you some good tips.  Don’t wait until the last minute, since he’s also on panels at OryCon this weekend!

Donna answers Evan’s question about those pesky spelling and punctuation errors. 

Heads up, all you Nano writers struggling through the pages of that first draft.  I have a bit of motivation for you in Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Contest.  The winner gets published by Penguin with a $25,000 dollar advance.  Check the Markets section for details.

Quick, Words of Belief’s holiday contest closes November 21.  I know that’s soon but see if you have something that will suit.  It’s free and offers a cash prize.  

Judy King reviews The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Basics of Science, by Natalie Angier. 

Need a critique partner?  Looking for an online writers group?  Need some expert advice?  The Want Ads is the place for you!  Right now, J.A. Konrath is doing a nice job of marketing her new book, and enticing you with free books.  Go take a look. 

Keep track of your submissions for the  Most Persistent Writer Award.   It runs from September to September. Sending out your work counts, remember...not acceptances! You'll find the very simple rules in our 'Applause' section.

-- Mary Rosenblum, LR Web Editor

 

Remember: if you click on the index items below you will immediately skip to that section. Click on your 'back' button to return to the index. Happy navigating!

CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE

APPLAUSE!
GRADUATE NEWS: Kevin Miller
SPOTLIGHT ON –  Phyllis Ring  How About a Sidebar With That?

PROFESSIONAL CONNECTION REPORT: -- Rick Lovett:  Starting a Freelance Career in Post a Note now!
FORTHCOMING FORUMS – Friday After Hours Forum:  The Character Snapshot
DONNA IPPOLITO ANSWER OF THE WEEK
PROMPT – The Thanksgiving Prompt

MARKETS –  Amazon’s Breakout Novel Contest
CONTEST CORNER – Quick, Words of Belief’s Holiday Contest
THE WANT ADS:
REVIEWS AND TIPS:   The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Basics of Science, by Natalie Angier reviewed by  Judy King
REMINDERS

LOOKING FOR SOMETHING?

Article Index by Topic

Need help with characterization? You're faced with a query letter and you don't have a clue?
Now you can find what you need with a click of your mouse. (And if you haven't been using the articles on the website, you're missing some good information at a very good price -- like free!) Visit the article index and choose your topic at the top of the page...Christian and Inspirational Fiction? click Plotting? Romance? click No need to scroll through our ever-expanding list of articles. Take a look and click on those helpful articles.

 

APPLAUSE!!!

Don't forget to tell us when you get a yes or a no from the publisher. We'll cheer you either way! Send news of your sales, your rejections, and of course, links to that new book, story, or article to MaryRosenblum@forums.longridgewritersgroup.com And remember to keep a log of your submissions so that you can compete for Most Persistent Writer this year!

Most Persistent Writer Award Rules: Keep a log of all your submissions; the date you sent it off, the name of the market. Keep your fiction submissions separate from your nonfiction submissions. On August 31, 2009 count up your submissions sent out between September 1, 2008 and August 30, 2009. I don't want the number of acceptances, I want the number of submissions you sent out. Send me that number. It's that simple! I'll ask to see the logs of the winners, but you'll find that log is very useful for you, as well. Our Most Persistent Writer -- the one who has simply gotten the most stories or articles into the mail -- wins a prize. I will offer a separate Nonfiction and a Fiction award so don't forget to keep your fiction and nonfiction submission lists separate. Yes, contest submissions count, yes, NonFiction query letters count as well as complete submissions, yes, novel query letters to agents or editors count, no, poetry submissions do not count. The prompts here do not count, but any review you send me does. No, Nano drafts don't count either, unless you actually submit it to a publisher. And yes, if you get a rejection and send that piece to another publisher, that is indeed another submission. So if you send something to five publishers and get five rejections, you still have five submissions.  Oh yes…previous winners are not eligible to enter.  We know you’re persistent!

Pamela Vanden Bos tells us:  This week I was offered the Managing Editor position at Mom Writer's
Literary Magazine.  How cool is that?  It is VERY cool!  Congratulations and happy editing! 

Barb Goodwin’s romance No Time for Christmas is now available from Cerridwen Press. Just in time for someone’s Christmas present!  Nice going, Barb! 

So come on. Surely some of you are sending work out?  Remember…this is not just about sales. It’s about having the guts to put your wok into that mailbox without any guarantee that you’ll get anything but a rejection back. Go ahead and celebrate that mailbox moment with us!  Tell us what you sent out!

 Send me that news now at:  MaryRosenblum@forums.longridgewritersgroup.com

 

GRADUATE NEWS

Kevin Miller

It was a dark and stormy night...(Just kidding, Mary)  I graduated the Breaking Into Print course in late 2006, I think.  Anke Kriske was my wonderful instructor.  I hope she is doing well.

During my course I submitted an assignment to the Yuma Sun newspaper for consideration and their reply was a job offer as a freelance correspondent for their business and agriculture section.  I wrote and sold three stories to them (including payment for the photos) over the course of 2005.  I moved away from the area and lost that opportunity, but the experience was wonderful.  Also during that time, prior to graduation, I wrote and sold a flash fiction story to Alien Skin online Magazine.

Since graduation I have written and submitted several short stories that have all been respectfully rejected save one, a murder mystery that sold to Mouth Full of Bullets for their Spring 2008 print and online magazine.

I won NaNoWriMo in 2007 with a novel adaptation of the Mouth Full Of Bullets story, which now languishes in the quagmire, awaiting major revision and editing.

I completed nearly 40,000 words on another novel idea about modern Voodoo, which has stalled for the time being.

I regularly read and critique the work of several members of the LRWG and storycrafters web groups, and they graciously read and rip the hearts out of my pale stories. (Just kidding again.  Thanks everyone.)   I have also, as you well know, written a few reviews that were published here in the LRWG Newsletter and recently Reece prodded me into a new short story that has been written, reviewed, edited and submitted to Asimov's for consideration.

In between all that, life has stumbled me more than once, but this community never lets go, and I find myself returning here when I get the overpowering itch to feel the tender thump of Troll boots upon my backside again.

Happy Writing to everyone.

Keep it up, Kevin!  You’re doing all the right things. And if you don’t keep on doing this right things, the Troll will thump you!  So are you submitting something for this month’s prompt???

Let’s hear from our graduates!   Remember, you don't have to share news of lots of sales with us. Hey, if you took a long break and are just now getting back to writing, share that with us. What have you been doing meantime? And good for you for starting up again! Any news is good news. Send me your LR graduate news at:

MaryRosenblum@forums.longridgewritersgroup.com

 

SPOTLIGHT: How About a Sidebar With That?

Readers expect two things when they page through a magazine: worthwhile information they can access quickly and an appealing layout that makes that content easy to read. Editors count on writers to help provide each of these, and sidebars are often a very effective tool in the process.  Typically between 100 and 500 words long, these shorter pieces accompany and complement an article with supplementary information on the topic.

 

So how do you create a selling sidebar?  What should it include?  For some very useful tips on how to add this nice compliment to your article submission,  check out:  How About a Sidebar With That?   in Writing Craft – Boosting Creativity.   Phyllis Ring, Long Ridge instructor, has some excellent how-to advice for you.  

 

PROFESSIONAL CONNECTION POST A NOTE CHAT – Rick Lovett.

Richard A. Lovett is a full-time free-lancer with nearly 3000 articles to his credit. He's written in a wide diversity of fields, ranging from adventure travel to science (and also including food regulation, law, political analysis, humor, and sports). Publication credits include National Geographic News, New Scientist, The Economist, Travel & Leisure, Backpacker, Science, Nature, and dozens of large newspapers in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. He also writes science fiction (selected stories are available at fictionwise.com), and has won five  AnLab awards from Analog magazine. He has written six nonfiction books, all about sports or travel. A former law professor, he also has a Ph.D. in economics and a degree in astrophysics.  (If you visit fictionwise.com, you can search for ‘Lovett’ on the top left of the page to find Rick’s SF stories.)  He’s in the Post A Note this week, so bring your questions!

OPEN FORUM REPORT:

If you haven't tried the chat rooms yet, Visit our Using the New Chat Rooms for instructions on how to use our lovely new chat site! For the Forums, enter (you'll find yourself in the Lounge) and select the Auditorium from the pull-down menu at the top of the page. I'll see you there for our next Forum. 

OUR NEXT FRIDAY AFTER HOURS FORUM meets November 28.  The Character Snapshot:  Revealing Uncle Roger’s personality in a few sentences.      

The AFTER HOURS FORUM begins at:
5PM Pacific
6 PM Mountain
7PM Central
8 PM Eastern
9 PM Atlantic/Canada.

OUR NEXT TUESDAY LUNCHBOX FORUM meets Tuesday,  December 2.  First Person POV, Creating the Character Voice.     

The TUESDAY LUNCHBOX FORUM begins at:
10AM Pacific
11AM Mountain
12 Noon Central
1PM Eastern
2PM Atlantic/Canada.

All Forums take place on the Chat Site , in the Auditorium.

Check the Calendar Page and this newsletter for other dates!

And check out our archived Forum Transcripts.

 

FROM THE INSTRUCTOR'S DESK

Writing tips from Donna Ippolito, Long Ridge instructor.

Donna Ippolito has been writing, editing, and teaching others to write for more than 20 years. From 1985 to 2001, she was editor-in-chief at FASA Corporation, a Chicago publisher that packaged best-selling science fiction and fantasy novel lines for Penguin Books and Time-Warner. These included the popular BattleTech, Shadowrun, Earthdawn, and Vor series. So check out her websites at www.expert-editor.com and http://dreamscoop.blogspot.com/.

Prior to that, Ms. Ippolito was an editor at the Swallow Press, a prestigious publisher of both literary and commercial titles. Writers published by Swallow include celebrated novelist Anaïs Nin; Jungian analyst Linda Leonard; futurist Robert Theobald; Zen poet Lucien Stryk; and distinguished anthropologist W. Y. Evans-Wentz. She also worked as a senior editor for Consumer Digest Magazine and was a founding editor of Black Maria, a quarterly journal of women’s writing.  

·         Evan C: I want to write and get published, but I’m a hopeless with spelling and punctuation. Short of going back to school, what can I do?

 

As a writer, the English language is your medium. Your work may show style, flair, and panache, but if it’s full of errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar (SPAG), an editor won’t take you seriously. Don’t despair, however. You just need a plan.

Your first line of defense is careful proofreading, which does NOT mean proofing on the computer screen. Print out a hardcopy and read it slowly, word for word—not skimming to admire how wonderfully you write. Proofreading for errors is a whole other process than reading for sense, and once is not enough. Proofread at least twice, maybe checking just spelling or grammar the first time and then tracking every little period, comma, and apostrophe the second time. If need be, enlist the help of a friend whose SPAG skills are solid.

Next, learn from your mistakes. If you can’t spell, keep a list of frequently misspelled words at hand because even your spell-checker won’t catch them all. You’ll find such lists in any decent grammar book, but they’re online too. Try http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/misspelled.html  for a list of the “100 Most Often Mispelled, er, Misspelled Words”. With diligence, you’ll eventually correct even your own worst misspellings, er, misspellings.

For grammar and punctuation, start small. You don’t need to know every esoteric rule, but you do need to know how to punctuate dialogue, eliminate run-on sentences, and recognize the difference between a complete sentence and a sentence fragment. Start with just one of these and make it your mission to root out every misuse until you know the rule like the back of your hand. When you’ve mastered punctuating dialogue, for example, go on to the next bit of SPAG that needs attention

Also, get your hands on The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White. If you could have only one book on writing, this is it. In less than 100 pages, it offers enough substance for a lifetime. Strunk’s seven rules of usage and eleven principles of composition, combined with E. B. White’s delicious final chapter on style, make the book a usable, practical, true gem. You can buy it for a few dollars, but you can also access it for free online at http://www.bartleby.com/141/

Do you have a question for Donna? Here's your chance to ask her something. Email your question about all things writing to me and I'll pass it on so that she can answer it in the next Newsletter issue. You can mail your question to me at: MaryRosenblum@forums.longridgewritersgroup.com

THANKSGIVING PROMPT

 

You all did a very nice job with my dialogue prompt.  But I noticed a lack of visual detail in a lot of conversations. Remember that we’re a ‘visual’ species and what we see is very important when you write a scene.  Visual details set the scene, but they also give us tone of voice and the emotional tenor of the scene as we notice character body language. So let’s work on this!  It’s the Thanksgiving holiday…either US or Canadian.  The family is doing whatever your character’s family does .  Show us the scene and reveal the emotion of your main character without using more than minimal dialogue and no internal narrative.  No  “I really hate you,” Jack snarled, or I am so angry I could spit, Jennifer thought.  You have to reveal the emotion of your main character through that person’s actions, body language, the actions of others.  Make that emotion clear!  Being subtle rather than overly obvious (taking an axe to Grandma for example) will earn you points here.  Try for anger, grief, fear, melancholy, love, lust…whatever you can convey clearly.

 Use third person POV for this and you have 250 words.  I need to find it in my email box by Thursday December 4.  Remember…no attachments. It must be in the body of the email.  And if you don’t get a ‘got it’ from me within 36 hours, I didn’t get it.  But give me a little time!  I check email once a day.   Send it to me at:  MaryRosenblum@forums.longridgewritersgroup.com  

 

MARKET NEWS – Amazon’s Breakout Novel Contest    
Okay, all you Nano writers working frantically on that first draft.  Heads up all the rest of you with that novel draft sitting on your desk or on your hard drive.  Here’s a little motivation for you!  Amazon is doing their second Breakout Novel contest.  They have partnered with Penguin, a big NY publisher, to choose and publish one novel from all the submissions to the contest. That lucky author gets a $25,000  advance and a lot of publicity, I can guarantee you.  Thank you, Andrea Freese, for sharing this information with us!

 

You can find a lot of answers to a lot of potential questions on their FAQ page.   Open submissions for the contest begin in February.

SUZANNE LILLY'S CONTEST CORNER --

Suzanne Lilly is a writer, teacher, and graduate of the Long Ridge Writers Group. She blogs about teaching and writing at http://www.teacherwriter.net. Her complete bio is at http://www.suzannelilly.com Welcome to the Newsletter, Suzanne, and thanks for the contest tips!

• Words of Belief, Holiday Writing Contest
• Entry fee: Free
• Deadline:  November 21, 2009
• Guidelines: http://www.wordsofbelief.com/PromoPages/WOBContest.aspx

 

Okay, the eleventh hour deadline is my fault, NOT Suzanne’s.  I didn’t keep track of the due dates well enough. Sorry.  I’ll do better next time, honest.  But maybe you have something ready to go, eh?  Words of Belief wants fiction and nonfiction holiday stories for this contest. You may enter up to three stories between 500 and 5,000 words. The Grand Prize is $500, Editor’s Selection Prize is $250, and there will be thirteen finalists be published in the Winter Anthology. All winners receive a hardbound copy of the anthology, and all participants receive an e-book version of the anthology.

 

 

THE WANT ADS:

• I'm having a contest to give away some free books.
  The free books in question are hardcover and trade paperback copies of AFRAID by Jack Kilborn.
  Jack Kilborn is JA Konrath, and JA Konrath is me. AFRAID is being released on November 13 in the UK. It's a very scary book. The US version is coming out in paperback in April. It's also a scary book. In fact, it's the exact same book, except in England they use single quotes rather than double quotes for dialog, and they spell words funny like 'realise' and 'centre' and 'colour.' Also, if you ask for a fag in Britain you get a cigarette, and in the US you get something else entirely.
  For info about AFRAID, an excerpt, and the infamous AFRAID flash game, visit http://www.JackKilborn.com .
  For info about how to win free books in the Official Jack Kilborn Halloween UK Afraid Contest, visit my blog at http://jakonrath.blogspot.com .
• How many copies of your book have you sold in the past year? No matter who your publisher is, and especially if you have self-published, I would like to know how many copies you sold in the first year after you published your book. I am compiling a survey so that novice writers will have a realistic idea of what their sales will be with the various publishing options available, from NY publisher through self-publishing. I would like the name of the publisher and the number of books sold in the first year. I won't report your name, just the publisher's name and the sales. You can send your sales information to me at:

MaryRosenblum@forums.longridgewritersgroup.com Thanks!

Don't forget, if you need expert help, if you want a critique partner, if you're a publisher and you need submissions for your new contest, this is the place for your free ad! Send your want ad to me at: MaryRosenblum@forums.longridgewritersgroup.com and I'll post it here. Don't forget to include contact information so that people can reach you with their responses.

 

REVIEWS AND TIPS:

The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Basics of Science, by Natalie Angier
Reviewed By:  Judy King

 The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Basics of Science, by Natalie Angier has been praised by scientists and journalists with much loftier credentials than mine, but I can't help but want to add my own two cents worth. I think this is a brilliant book by a journalist who took a lot of science courses in school - because she liked it. Can you imagine that? And she must love her day job, writing a science column for the New York Times. The book is a delightful combination of playful word-smithing and plain, no-nonsense English explanations of the magical worlds of the sciences - all the sciences.

I liked the book as much for the author's frank admission, in the Acknowledgments, that she spent several days halfway through the project searching for an excuse to give up. "A persuasive, shame-retardant excuse that would allow me to return the advance, recycle the spiral notebooks, and reformat the hard drive without also having to abandon my family and move to Niles, Michigan." It shows that she is just like the rest of us who get overwhelmed by the occasional crisis in confidence, or the sheer size of a writing project. That she persevered and finished the book is our undeniable gain.

I suspect that aside from the urge to chuck it all at that one point, she mostly had fun writing the book. I decided to leaf through to see if I could find a few examples of what I meant about her word play. The problem became trying to pick just a few. For instance: "In biology, you should never believe your disbelief. There are so many species that arouse one's suspicions, that look too-too: too stagy, too silly, too gothic, too pastiched, too elegant, too composed, too momentous, too perfect..." (okay, maybe some of it is a little over the top) or, "...a male painted bunting, red of rump and nape, blue of head, green of backside - a prince of primaries, a fistful of Matisse. I once saw a painted bunting on a log, and I couldn't believe something so compact could fill my whole horizon." It made me think of a time when I could have sworn a fragment of a rainbow flew across the road in front of my car. It was a painted bunting.

It's true that nature has a way of bringing out the poet. Anyone who has read anything by Rachael Carson would have to agree with the application of the term "lyrical" to her writing. In fact, it has gotten almost too lyrical for me to enjoy any more. I can almost hear the Gregorian chanting in the background. Angier's writing, on the other hand, makes me think Herbie Hancock.

And Angier doesn't just write about nature - the charismatic megascopic world that moves us all. She also writes that way about all the stuff that's too tiny for us to see, or too enormous for us to get our puny heads around. As in "...between astronomical objects is lots and lots of space, silky, sullen, inky-dinky space, plenty of nothing, nulls within voids... Nature, it seems, adores a vacuum." See? Jazzy, punky, a little funky - Herbie Hancock.

It's all there. If you just like science, this book will entertain and educate you. If you like to study the writing craft, it will fill your head with ideas for how to use words. And if you like both, you'll enjoy it like a kid in a candy store.

Thanks, Judy! Very nice review! It sounds great. 

Send your reviews to me at: MaryRosenblum@forums.longridgewritersgroup.com Thanks!

 

REMINDERS

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LongRidge Writers Group 91 Long Ridge Road, West Redding, Connecticut 06896 Telephone: 1-800-624-1476 ~ Fax: 203-792-8406 Email: InformationService@LongRidgeWritersGroup.com