2020 countdown – readers’ favorite posts, day 4

 Continuing the countdown of top posts for 2020, here’s: 

Never write alone – there’s a critique group for that! 

Has anybody else ever been in this situation? I found an adorable premise for a story – actually, stole it, but that’s a tale for later – only to have critique partners shoot it down. And thank dog they did! 

It seemed so lovely. My fingers flew over the keyboard until the workshop members at the Writers Guild of Texas said, in the politest possible way, really? Would anybody in the character’s situation think like that? Part of the problem, I realized, was that the style wasn’t a good fit for me. The rest of the problem was that my eyes willingly overlooked whatever I didn’t want to see. Hello, rewrite. And a much happier me with the resulting version. 

But what would have happened without those other sets of eyes on my story? And how can a writer find those other eyes and voices in a time when writing workshops probably aren’t included in our states’ list of “essential” activities? 

If there’s a bright side to a global pandemic, it’s the plethora of online activities it’s given rise to. Once, writers in places without in-person workshops were isolated from their peers. Now those peers are little more than a click away. 

I live in North Texas, home to WORD (Writing Organizations ’Round Dallas) whose site includes a map of member groups, including those with critique and discussion groups. You’ll need to contact groups that catch your attention, because not all websites have been updated to show which offer online activities. But for those that do, distance is no problem. 

I’ve even joined another critique group since first writing this post, at the DFW Writers Workshop. 

Image: Pixabay

Or maybe you’ve decided your writing skills could use a brush up during this time of sheltering at home, but cost, distance, or safety prohibit in-person classes. Hello, internet again. Besides WORD’s interactive map, check out the likes of Writing Workshops Dallas, a brainchild of multi-published short story author Blake Kimzey, for its online offerings. And don’t overlook the Writers’ League of Texas for ongoing, online classes. 

Yes, I am partial to Texas events, but again, with the internet, residence is not an issue. Writer’s Digest, for instance, offers its own school of online courses, as does The Write Life (which also helps with finding critique partners). There are also many other online courses listings that I haven’t had an opportunity to vet but would welcome reader feedback on.

New Year's countdown of readers’ favs of 2018: day 1

What – 2018 is almost over? No worries – for this final week of the year, I’m rerunning a sample of readers’ (and my) favorite posts, starting with a post first published January 26, 2018.

*** 

There was a full house at Interabang Books this week as Dallas’s newest independent bookstore and the Writer’s League of Texas hosted a panel discussion about community building for writers. And we hadn’t even known there would be cupcakes! (Those arrived courtesy of irrepressible panel member, author and community organizer, Arianne “Tex” Thompson, decorated with the names and logos of local writers’ communities.)

No, we were there because, despite the Hemingwayesque stereotype of writers as antisocial loners – possibly hard drinking ones at that – the local authors on the panel –Thompson, Kathleen Kent, Melissa Lenhardt, and Blake Kimzey – extolled the necessity of connections.

“It is so important for every industry to own its issues,” Thompson said. “For football, it’s brain injury. For ballet dancers, it’s eating disorders. For us it’s –”

“Hemorrhoids,” an audience member shouted.

Well, at least anxiety, Thompson acknowledged, when the laughter had died down. “You writers, there’s something seriously wrong with you!” (More laughter, some slightly self-conscious.) “It’s important that we need a counterbalance to the word hamsters running around in our heads. You need a writing community if you’re going to stay healthy and stay in the game.”

l-r, Lenhardt, Kent, Kimzey

And that, if in more chaste language, was the tone of the discussion moderated by the League’s member services manager, Jordan Smith. 

“Why is it important for writers to be in a community?” Smith asked. “And how do you find a community?”

Kimzey agreed. Now a prolific short story author and founder/director of Writing Workshops Dallas, he confessed to starting his writing career as an alternative to his day job.

“I was nodding off in a cubicle 10 years ago,” the author of “a lot of vignettes,” but no completed stories until he found a creative writing workshop at Brookhaven Community College. 

“It was transforming for me. There I was, getting feedback for the first time.”

He and the other students – mostly college freshmen and sophomores years younger than he was – took a second course together because they formed such strong bonds. (Kimzie would even take the course a third time, and end with nine completed stories.) “Now I have my gang of four, all at different stages. It’s important to have a cohort.”

“I started by going to the DFW Writers Workshop,” Lenhardt said, where she was able to grow her Stillwater mystery series and award-winning historical novels. “They ‘got’ me in a way my family didn’t.”

The stay-at-home mom went to her first workshop meeting and thought, “Oh, my God, nobody asked about my kids.” It wasn’t that workshop members didn’t care about her kids, she said, but that her relationship with them was being built as a comrade, not on the family connections which had previously dominated her life.

Kent, on the other hand, already completed the manuscript that would become her New York Times bestseller, The Heretic’s Daughter, on her own. She has said in other contexts that she kept her writing a secret from almost everyone except her mother, fearing the eyeball rolls if she confessed to it, with another career and well into middle age. “I wish I’d had a group like that.”

Which doesn’t mean it’s ever too late to start, either with writing or finding a community.

“Unlike, for instance, downhill skiing, writing is something you can begin at 50,” she quipped.

Weather frightful? Online classes & contests still delightful!

‘Tis the season – for ice, snow and crazy holiday traffic. Never mind, there’s plenty for writers to do during these wintry days. Instead of fighting the weather, try a sampling of contests – not to mention craft-sharpening online classes. (And wouldn’t they make great gifts for the fellow writers on your ‘nice’ list. . . )

I’ll start with contests, because they’re coming up as fast as blizzards on the prairie.

From Writer Unboxed blogger Arthur Klepchukov, check out the winter 2018 version of “Fiction Writing Contests Worth Your Time.” (Worried that 2018’s fast coming up in the rearview mirror? Klepchukov kindly includes contests through February 28, 2019.)

Yes, I’m behind on some of these (see my December 8 post for excuses), but these are currently open: Nowhere – Fall 2018 Travel Writing Contest, with a December 31, 2018, deadline. Fee: $20, cash prize and publication. International writers welcome! See the site for details.

Before Columbus Foundation – American Book Awards. No cash, but a chance to support a noble, inclusive cause. No fee, but you’ll have to submit two copies of the book to the foundation by December 31, so make tracks for the post office! See the site for details.

Boulevard – Short Fiction Contest for Emerging Writers, $16 entry fee, cash prize and publication in a prestigious journal. (And did I mention it’s emerging writer-friendly?)

And – final on Klepchukov’s list for December 31 – River Styx – 2019 Microfiction Contest. Entry fee: $10-$20, publication and cash awards.

mage: pixabay

Want more? Keep reading down Klepchukov’s list for January and February! Or take a look at these listings from New Pages including:   Tartt First Fiction Award for writers who have not yet published a full story collection. Deadline: December 31, 2018. Entry fee: $20. See the site for details.

StoryQuarterly Nonfiction Contest, with a January 12, 2019, deadline. Cash prize and publication. See the site for entry fee.

2019 Colorado Prize for Poetry, for book-length collections of poems. Cash and book publication. Reading fee $25 (plus $3 for online submissions). Due date: January 14, 2019.

Also from New Pages – Rattle Chapbook Prize, Palette Poetry Spotlight Award, Kenyon Review Inaugural Short Nonfiction Contest, and more. See the New Pages site for details.

Oh, you say, you’re more of a genre writer? Check out the contest listings at Ralan.com for horror, science fiction, fantasy and mystery.

Or the previously mentioned, but still open manuscript and book contests from the Writers’League of Texas for works in a variety of genres. There’s a January 31, 2019, deadline for the manuscript contest, which doesn’t even require a completed manuscript, only the first 10 (or so) pages plus a synopsis, and offers a chance to win entry to the League’s 2019 Agents and Editors Conference. Entry fee for the manuscript contest is $55 for WLT members, $65 for nonmembers (includes written critique). Or opt to skip the critique and pay only $25 for members, $35 for nonmembers. WLT’s book contest (for books published in 2018) closes February 28, 2019. See the site for rules for both book and manuscript contests.

And, sharpen your writing skills with online classes and seminars at the likes of the Writers’ League of Texas  (no state residency required!) and Writing Workshops Dallas.

You can attend in-person classes at both the WLT and Writing Workshops Dallas, but check out Writer Workshops Dallas’s array of 8-week long online classes beginning January 14, 2019, in personal essays, crime/suspense writing, kidlit and more at $495 for new students, $470 for returning students. (Writing Workshops Dallas also offers gift certificates, hint, hint.)

Not ready for an eight-week commitment? Try the WLT’s lineup of one-day (usually three-hour long) online classes for $49 for members/ $109 for nonmembers. And check out the limited time offer, four-class packages for $160!

A path through the wilderness of literary publication

Blake Kimzey felt a strange sense of homecoming when he addressed this month’s meeting of the Dallas chapter of Mystery Writers of America on “Writing Out of the Wilderness: Surviving Rejection & Forging a Path to Publication.” Yes, he was a writer speaking to other writers, but the feeling also stemmed from the meeting’s location – an Olive Garden restaurant – a Texas twin of the one in Iowa where he honed his writing skills while working as a waiter.

“I would write stories in the wait station,” he told his audience, while observing his customers.

He came to know the regulars, in many cases, “well, there’s not really a nice way to say this – meth heads –” while dishing out their favorite order, minestrone soup, “because it was all they could afford and all many of them could eat,” given the toll their drug habits had taken on their teeth.

Some of them would inspire his stories.

Sure, Kimzey would go on to take creative writing classes, earn an MFA, see scores of his short stories published, and founded Writing Workshops Dallas  – among other literary accomplishments. But he was standing in front of a group of writers and would-be writers to tell us that if he could practice writing as a chain-restaurant worker, we too could find our way through the writing wilderness. 

 “I think there’s far too much pessimism when it comes to writing and publication,” he said, attempting to demystify the process of publication with “practical steps you can take in the face of insurmountable rejection.” 

image: pixabay

Yes, rejections will come, but the good news is there’s a way through them, and “you can start this journey sitting in the chairs you’re in right now!”

How? Just as when we write, our characters must have both an overall goal and lower-order goals, so must we as writers. 

“It’s a mystifying process to go from dreaming about being in Barnes & Noble to actually getting there, but that was my goal when I realized I wanted to be a writer,” Kimzey said. (And admitted, “I’m still trying to get there.”)

So, the overall goal is being published in a major brick and mortar bookstore, but the lower-order goals are simpler:

·       Read diversely

“Reading out of your genre shows you so many ways to do it.” (Although Kimzey recommends “more novels and less how-to books, for examples of craft he teaches Benjamin Percy's volume Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction.)

·       Write regularly

His daily goal is a modest 250 words – approximately one page. “By the time I get there, I can blow past that!”

·       Study the process

“Who is your favorite author? What publisher would be best for your work? Check your favorite authors websites, Twitter accounts and Facebook pages What replicable steps have you identified? Apply them before you’re ready for publication.” Make yourself “findable” via your own website and social media accounts. “Twitter is a living resume. If you’re not using it that way, you doing it wrong.”

·       Reach out to other people trying to do the same thing

And, oh yeah:

·       Welcome rejection

“Rejection slips are your receipts,” proof that you’re trying. “Everybody’s goal should be to get 100 rejections over a year.”

And how to collect those rejection receipts (as well as some acceptance receipts)? 

Check out the possibilities, he advised. Publications such as New Pages and The Review Review, which can review stories you do manage to publish, as well as Duotrope  and agent listings in Publishers Marketplace and Poets & Writers. 

***

As always when I post about wonderful writing seminars and workshops, this is only the barest dip into Kimzey’s discussion. For more, consider signing up for some of the many workshops he directs at Writing Workshops Dallas. Or ask your writing group’s program leader to bring him onboard for smaller group presentations.

Ready for a summer writing reboot? Crayons optional!

This week, I dropped off a shiny new backpack full of notebooks, paper, pens, pencils—and crayons--for my church’s annual school supply drive. It made me want to go back to school. OK, not to go back to the boring parts of school. Just the parts where you show up for awesome instructors, in classes full of wonderful people who are all excited about the very same thing – writing!--that excites you. Maybe even with a fistful of bright new crayons in hand!

August 5: Writers in need of readers? Writing Workshops Dallas offers a seminar this Sunday, 3-5:30 p.m., on how to build a wildly-engaged readership (with more joy and less stress!), led by multiply-published author Mary DeMuth. Cost is $60 ($45 for current and former WWD students), at Writing Workshops Dallas. Oh, you’re out of town and don’t want to travel to hotter ‘n’ hell Dallas for a writing class? Check out the live stream option to beat the heat. 

Want more classes about writing? Check out the Writing Dallas Workshops site for August and fall classes for all stages of writing in fiction, nonfiction, screenwriting and more! 

August 7: Wondering about the SMU Writer’s Path program? Registration for fall classes in the program opens August 8, but in the meantime, check out a free information session next Tuesday, at 7 p.m., in Room 115 of Dallas Hall on the SMU campus. See the site for registration.

image: pixabay

August 11: Rail Riders -- Deep Ellum Blues. If you thought writing classes were only for kids, adjust your attitude. Here’s one with a minimum age requirement – 21 years. This is a reboot because the first Rail Riders (August 4) sold out so fast. Hop aboard Dallas’s DART rail as poet/singer/teacher Lisa Huffaker guides a group of writers through the complex history of Dallas’s Deep Ellum neighborhood. 

Participants will venture on foot into Deep Ellum’s cafes, bars and cultural venues, tour its visual art and historical locations and more, while writing poetry and performing impromptu readings. This Dallas Writer’s Garret event is free, but space is limited, so sign up now at Writer’s Garret. Rail Riders are responsible for buying their own tickets, food and drink expenses. Meet at the Mockingbird Station (5307 E. Mockingbird Lane) promptly at 3:30. Additional questions? Call 214-828-1714 or contact Emmy at gen@writersgarret.org.

August 24-26: OK, this is not a class, but it’s definitely bookish – Dallas Public Library’s semi-annual sale. Billions and billions of books. Or at least, thousands, maybe tens of thousands of books for all ages, audio and visual materials, and more from the library’s vast warehouse. Hours are 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. Friday, August 24; 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. August 25 (Saturday); and (Friday), from 11 a.m. – 6 p.m., August 25 (Saturday); 1-4 p.m. August 26. At the library’s Central Branch, 1515 Young Street, Dallas. 

August 25-26: Take your book-length story from premise Story 360, with author/editor/instructor/agent Lorin Oberweger. Early bird pricing now available: one-day (August 25 or 26) $139; both days, $249. Sorry, Dallas, readers, you’ll have to travel for this one, at eConsortium Offices, 2401 Fountain View Dr., Suite 920, in Houston, Texas. Classes run 10 a.m. -4:30 p.m. daily. Cost includes lunch and all workshop materials. For registration and additional information on this and other Story 360 workshops, including September’s Breakout Novel Intensives in Tampa, Florida, and San Antonio, Texas, see the Free Expressions site. 

October 13-14: Wait – that’s not still summer, is it? Officially, October is fall, aka, State Fair season, but don’t wait too long to get your tickets to this year’s Writers in the Field, a hands-on research opportunity for writers. At the Amber Inn Academy of the Arts, Mansfield, Texas. Cost of a weekend pass is $65 (fully refundable through August 13). See the Writers in the Field site for details.