Retreat to Advance, Redux

Photo by Therese Walsh, a bit of silliness outside of the House of the Seven Gables

I just returned home from a week-long writing retreat with a group of writers I first 'met' online on the Writer Unboxed blog. I had the opportunity to meet many of the individuals who ran and participated in the blog last year at the first WU 'Uncon' that took place in Salem, MA.

This smaller gathering consisted of a subset of the folks from the blog and the event who shared an old, rambling, Hogwarts-esque house in Salem for a week of writing, laughter, music, and conversation.

Getting to the 3rd floor 'garret' was interesting. 1 of 2 twisty staircases to navigate.

Many odd doors and closets to nowhere

This door led from the attic down three stories - a straight drop. Good thing it had the bar.

There were about 12 of us who stayed at the strange house, and another handful of folks who stayed at local hotels or B&B's or were local enough to stop by for a write in and hang out time. Despite the quirks of the house - which included the deathtrap stairs, a shower that was out of commission (leaving 2 showers for a dozen folks), barely enough common room for any 6 of us to congregate at any time (as long as we didn't mind being cozy), and entire floors where you had to duck, even if you were of average height - it was a sacred space.

Those of us who live and play inside our own minds have a strong need for solitude, but we also have a strong need for tribe. It can be almost impossible to explain to non-writers how a character is being slippery, or a word isn't working, that creating is both incredibly hard work and play, or how an empty page can terrify. And no one understands the demons of doubt and despair like fellow travelers.

And, while creating is individual work, being able to do so in the company of other creators is supportive, inspiring, and motivating.

Having the week away, where we were all caring for one another and ourselves as well as nurturing the spirit of our mutual creativity was, as they say in the TV ads, priceless. Priceless, too, were the bonds of friendship reforged, the laughter, shared meals, wine, whiskey, music, and bedtime stories.

Most of the merry band at a local restaurant

There was even arts & crafts time and a singalong

There were breakthroughs, epiphanies, and triumphs. I was able to add over 12,000 words to my SF novel in progress and powered through the 'muddle of the middle' and well into the place where three major plot threads converge. The end is in sight.

I'm not sure I would have gotten to this point - certainly not in a week of writing - without the support of the retreat and my fellow writers.

I return to the world tired, but energized, fed in a deep way that had little to do with the communal meals (though they were wonderful!) and everything to do with spending a week away from the concerns of the everyday while being nurtured in creativity.

As a dear friend reminds me often, you have to water the roots if you want to harvest the tree.

I suspect my soul had been thirsty for some time. This week I was well and truly watered.

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A Haven of Writers

Everything I need: my computer and my community

I spent this past week immersed in the amazing community that is Writer Unboxed. If you are a writer and are not familiar with it, then you are missing out on some of the best people on the ‘net. The WU blog is a repository of wisdom on living the (often chaotic, lonely, and difficult) life of the writer. Articles on craft sit side by side with ones on the publishing business and nurturing the creative spirit.

And along with the blog, there is a FB community that supplements and extends the WU world.

This past week, writer-mama extraordinaire, Therese Walsh, spearheaded the first (of what I hope and pray will be more!) Writer Unboxed UnCon, 5 days of boot camp/encounter group/summer camp for writers who have been part of the WU community.

In many cases, being there gave us the chance to meet ‘IRL’ folks we have grown to know and love through the magic of the internet.

Like the blog and FB page, the conference was a safe space. A no-false-drama or inflated ego space, where all of us were there to push ourselves and support one another.

Is this heaven?

No, it’s Iowa the UnCon.

I started out the con determined to take as many pages of notes as I could, but became quickly overwhelmed and inspired, letting myself just listen and absorb all the wisdom around me. What follows is a compendium of what notes I did take, and what I took away from simply being there, participating with my whole self in this magical week.

Meg Rosoff kicked off my UnCon experience with a talk about ‘Through-ness’, a term from dressage riding. She linked it to the connection between the conscious and unconscious minds.

"What’s in your head is the most important thing about you."

"I’m a dark person at heart."

Throughness is a supple, elastic, unblocked, connected state which allows unrestricted energy between the horse and rider. Now swap rider for the consious mind and the horse for the unconscious mind and you have the concept of throughness for writing.

The unconcious is ‘a dangerous and scary place.’ But Meg urged us to "Be open to living at the edges of your experience." And that ‘voice’ comes from the quality and connection through to your unconscious mind. I loved the concept that we should be the leader, not the bully of our unconscious.

And the concept of throughnes is not just for the writer; as writers, we want to have our readers feel that same connected experience.

In a later talk on voice, Meg told us to "Write as fiercely as you can possibly write." And to help us get there, she asked us a series of 40 questions, designed to help us find the connections to our own dark and ‘dense’ places in our unconscious minds. That session was intensely powerful, and I was able to speak about a very personal, very difficult experience – my own turning point, if you will – in the group and felt supported and validated in my vulnerability.

If this sounds more like group therapy than a writing con, well, maybe that’s what it was. But group therapy for creative people to help free their creativity.

The session on ‘Story vs Plot’ with the powerhouse team of Lisa Cron, Donald Maas, and Brunonia Barry kicked off my Wednesday. It was the perfect counterpoint to the intensely personal/internal/character work from Tuesday’s sessions.

What happens in the narrative = plot

How it effects the protagonist in the pursuit of a goal AND how they change as a result = story

Story is nothing but emotion.

Story is about the why.

The events of the plot are the externalization of the internal journal of change.

We must write specifics. No one does anything in general. A story is only universal because of its specifics.

"The past is the decoder ring for what’s happening in our present." Lisa Cron

In crafting story, the writer must balance the inner and outer journeys of the characters. We must uncover the meaning of what happens – the personal meaning of events for each character. And any event you choose can have meaning for the character.

The true beginning of your story is when the character knows something is changing that won’t change back.

In "Wired for Story", Lisa Cron talked about the neuroscience behind the human brain’s affinity/necessity for story.

"We turn to story to navigate reality."

Story silences our analytic brain.

The stories we believe become part of our identity.

Lisa presented her 5 steps/5 layers to writing powerful story. These are 5 elements that we should have explored before we write forward in the story.

1. What if, the surface area of our story. Story is really about our expectations being broken
2. Who: explore your characters. Know what they come into the world wanting, and what misbeliefs they cling to.
3. Why: why does this all matter.
4. World view (this was the piece Lisa focused on, among the 5 layers). Your character’s world view is very particular, very specific. Before you write, you need to know what’s RELEVANT to the character because we never do anything in general.
5. When: This is your ticking clock. It is up to the author to force the issue and ‘sink your character’s boat.’

I stopped taking notes by Donald Maas’ talk on micro tension, but the takeaway for me was how every element on every page can ramp up the emotional experience for the reader. These include:

1. dialogue: microtension comes from the conflict between the characters. In dialogue, bring out the opposing needs and wants of your characters in relation to one another. No bland ‘tea or coffee’ scenes!
2. action: Remember, tension is inside, not in the external plot events. An explosion is exciting, but isn’t on its own tense.
3. exposition: present emotions in conflict, ideas at war.

Don recommended that we print out our drafts, throw the loose pages into the air, then gather them in random order and read each page with an eye toward increasing micro tension in every one. (And he said the same thing, albeit in a less messy way, can be achieved using a random number generator and reading your work in that random order.)

The rest of the conference passed through me in a blur of conversations, readings, lectures, workshops, and laughter. I have pages of notes from Donald Mass’ 21^st Century Fiction talk (which, unfortunately, I had to leave midway through) and what I appreciated from the workshop was that he posed questions that each of us needed to answer in relation to our own stories in progress. His questions helped me deepen and extend the conflicts and tension that I had sketched out for DERELICT’s sequel in a way that will create a far richer story. I am both exhausted and excited about the prospect!

And those were the formal sessions. A great deal of the UnCon happened in the liminal spaces between and around the sessions. Conversations in the library, over breakfast, dinner, and walks, in the bar. I met such amazing people and reconnected in person with ones I had interacted with virtually. I got to meet one of the women in my virtual critique/support group for the first time! (Hi, Amanda!!!!) Now, I have her voice in my head when I read her posts and messages.

Meeting Therese was a highlight of the UnCon for me. She is a gracious and lovely human being. I can’t imagine the amount of work – hard work – that went into putting this together. I know she had the back up of her ‘mod squad’ and other volunteers, but she set the tone. I have been to many workshops, retreats, and conferences; I’ve never experienced anything like this one.

To all the wonderful writers I met: thank you. We laughed, cried, wrote, and played together for nearly a week. It was woefully short and went by far too quickly. I hope that this is not the end, but the beginning of a grand and singular tradition.

Readercon 2013: A Round-up

A lovely and unexpected acknowledgement

I've been to Readercon for several years now, but this year was the first time I've been on the program. It was an outstanding weekend and I am extremely grateful to the programming committee for giving me this opportunity. Over the course of the con, I participated in 3 panels, a reading, and a signing, including one where I was moderator.

I've done tons of public speaking before; in my capacity as a physical therapist, I've spoken in front of national conferences with an auditorium full of medical people without blinking an eye. While I have also done some other cons as well as bookstore readings and open mic nights, this felt different. I definitely had the pre-con jitters Friday morning as I got ready to drive to Burlington.

Predictably, my first panel was the one I needed to moderate. Nothing like diving into the deep end of the pool, right?

The Chair Became the Suit: Expressions of Disability in Speculative Fiction. Gwendolyn Clare, Lisa Janice (LJ) Cohen (leader), Shira Lipkin. Disabled characters have gradually become more common in SF/F, including entities as different as Batgirl/Oracle, Nahadoth, Toothless, and Hodor. In genres that offer the possibility of writing out or eliding disability using technology or magic, what do we see when authors choose to feature it prominently instead? How do authors and characters handle questions of access—to physical spaces, to assistive devices, to therapeutic treatment, or to participation in the community?
Suggested by Sarah Pinsker.

My panelists, Gwendolyn Clare and Shira Lipkin couldn't have been more gracious and helpful. We pulled in Sarah Pinsker and our unofficial/stealth third panelist because she had suggested the panel and had helped us brainstorm for it.  The conversation was wide ranging and thoughtful, as were the audience questions. It's an important subject and one I'm thrilled got presented at Readercon. We could have talked for at least another hour and I hope this is something we can revisit in future years.

A little later Friday, I reprised the eBook formatting panel I had done for Boskone and had a ton of folks come find me afterwards to thank me for demystifying the process.

On Saturday, I gave a 30 minute reading of about 2 chapters from DERELICT, my SF novel currently on submission. Apparently, I did not stumble or mumble excessively. :)

On the advice of my writing mentor and friend, Jeff Carver, I put out a bowl of dark chocolate as 'con-bait' for my signing Sunday morning. At 9 am. I was certain I would sit stiffly for a very lonely hour. Fortunately, I was paired with the interesting Ben Loory (we did a book trade and I'm looking forward to reading his short story collection, "Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day") and (huzzah!) folks did wander over for interesting chats and to buy my YA Fantasy title. :) I blame the chocolate.

I participated in one final panel on Sunday--writing for the YA and MG audience.

Writing for Younger Readers. Lisa Janice (LJ) Cohen, Jordan Hamessley, Alaya Dawn Johnson, E.C. Myers (leader), Phoebe North, Shveta Thakrar. How do middle grade (MG) and young adult (YA) authors and editors write for children and teen readers? How do they make science fiction more accessible for kids, build complex fantasy worlds, and 

develop authentic characters with diverse backgrounds? This panel is ideal for anyone writing MG or YA or interested in finding books with plots as rich and complex as any novel targeted to adult readers.

Eugene Myers did a fabulous job of moderating, posing interesting questions to us and keeping the conversation flowing. It was an odd moment, as I looked at my fellow panelists, when I realized I was old enough to be any of their mothers! It gave me an interesting perspective on how YA/MG has changed in a generation.

So that's the 'official' Readercon stuff. The unofficial part of the con was in connecting with old friends and new, and in the book launch of an anthology of short stories, written by graduates of the Ultimate Science Fiction Writing workshop. 

One of the most proud moments of this past year was when I handed each of the contributors, my co-editor, and our writing mentors, Jeff Carver and Craig Shaw Gardner, their copies. Seeing the excitement and pride in their eyes made the last weeks of insanity completely worth it.

Thank you to Prime Books and Paula Guran and Sean Wallace for agreeing to place Pen-Ultimate on their table in the dealer's room and then to donate the full purchase price to the cause. (All proceeds are being donated to the SFWA Medical Emergency Fund)

And that bring me to the screen shot at the top of this page. The talented and gracious Chuck Wendig wrote a blog post about the anthology that he tweeted about. That tweet was then re-tweeted by THE Margaret Atwood. :swoon:  I found this out Friday--just before my first panel.

If you want to see the famous cover she admired, or want to have 11 great stories to read while supporting a great cause, purchase links and info are here.

Pen-Ultimate!

Original artwork for the Pen-Ultimate cover by Chris Howard

 

A year ago at Readercon 2012, I was sitting in a hotel restaurant with several years of my fellow graduates of the Ultimate SF Workshop taught in the Boston area by Jeff Carver and Craig Shaw Gardner. As I looked around the large table, it struck me how talented a group of writers we were and I mumbled something about how we really should put together an anthology.

So I guess that meant I volunteered myself and along with my partner-in-anthology, Talib Hussain, (another hapless volunteer!) began to organize what would, a year later, become PEN-ULTIMATE: A SPECULATIVE FICTION ANTHOLOGY.

After a several month submission/reading period, the eleven stories that make up this anthology went through a cross-critique and revision process that very much honored the workshop model that we practiced with Jeff and Craig.

The project is coming together because of the work of many talented and hard-working individuals and I am proud to have my name associated with it. We are working towards a July 11th official publication date, to correspond with the start of Readercon 2013 and all proceeds from the anthology sale (both print and eBook) will be donated to the SFWA emergency medical fund.

Stay tuned for links and more information!

Writing Update

It's been a while since I've done a writing round-up post, so here is what I'm up to:

1--I'm in the frenzied ending phase of co-editing a short story anthology. The idea emerged from a dinner I attended last year at Readercon with a bunch of the 'graduates' of a local SF&F writers workshop called The Ultimate Science Fiction Workshop, run by Jeff Carver and Craig Shaw Gardner. When I looked around the table at all of the marvelously talented writers sitting there, I decided we needed to showcase our work. So I said something and no one told me it was a dumb idea. :) (This is how I end up involved in projects--no one around me talks me out of them!)

PEN-ULTIMATE: A SPECULATIVE FICTION ANTHOLOGY will be out in paperback and eBook mid July. And all the proceeds are being donated to the SFWA emergency medical fund.

2--I'm currently serializing an alternate-world fantasy novel called OATHBREAKER'S PRICE. It represents a deep "renovation" of a trunk novel I wrote several years ago. I've been working with developmental editor par excellence, Rebecca (RJ) Blain 

What is posted represents a pen-ultimate revision before the final edits that will be incorporated into a final draft for publication. (Any errors that remain will be due to my stubbornness, not any fault of Rebecca's) You can follow the serial--new chapters posted every Monday and Friday--in two places:

Blogger (easy to subscribe via RSS or email, send to kindle button on each chapter, TOC right sidebar)
Wattpad  (easy to follow, read on multiple devices)

3--DERELICT, The SF novel I serialized earlier in the year, has been revised and is with my agent in preparation for submission. You can read the draft version on Blogger or Wattpad. There are other stories waiting to be told in Ro Maldonado's universe and I can't wait to get to them!

4--I'm in the planning stages (at long last!) for the sequel to THE BETWEEN, my YA Fantasy debut title. I might even be persuaded to serialize it, as I'm writing it. :) Though that does feel a little like high wire walking without a net.

So, what are you working on in your corner of the universe?

A Year in the Life

2012: A Review

I find it extremely useful to look back at the year that has just passed as a way to move forward in setting goals for the upcoming year.

I've written these year-in-review posts for as long as I've been blogging and I find a curious thing: while I almost never actually meet my yearly goals, I accomplish an enormous number of things. They're just not necessarily the items I had anticipated.

Perhaps this is not quite the problem or failure it might seem to be. Life throws curve balls. If there's one thing I have learned in the past several years, it's to be flexible in the face of the unexpected. (Now, stop laughing, I didn't say I enjoyed it, or even did it gracefully. . . )

So in that spirit, I offer this restatement of the goals I set this year for 2012:

In 2012, I intended to:  

1. Shepherd THE BETWEEN to its ideal readers

My first major goal for 2012 was to get THE BETWEEN in the hands of its readers. I spent a lot of time in the beginning months of 2012 working on obtaining reviews, doing guest blog posts and giveaways, and crafting a marketing plan that felt authentic and not sleazy. I think I accomplished that and made authentic connections with readers and potential readers.

2. Generate enough support and interest to write and release its sequel.

In terms of working on the sequel, I have a bare bones structure for when I return to that world. But I realized that raising awareness for one novel while trying to kickstart another was a way to burn out.

3. Finish the first draft of the "YAGSIP"

Goal number 3? I was all over that. I *owned* that goal. It was an excellent writing year, actually. Now if only I could find a name for the %$#!! novel.

4. Return to my poetry roots

Poetry. I filled several small notebooks with lines, stanzas, and drafts of poems. I also participated in the annual August Poetry Postcard fest, where I wrote 31 original postcard poems and sent them all over the world to 31 different poets.I also got to attend the 2012 Dodge Poetry Festival, which always fires up my soul with the sheer beauty of language.

5. Focus on my physical wellness

Well being? Well, that was a major fail. I know this has been on my list of goals for several years now and I need to do something about it. I'm healthy, but in poor physical shape. I could berate myself for laziness, but it's also that I've had to cope with some significant personal and family stressors in the past year, including the death of my mother and my father's multiple hospitalizations. 

So, what DID I accomplish in 2012?

• In addition to completing the first draft of the Ghost Story, I also started and am set to finish a Science Fiction novel (DERELICT) that I project to come in at 100,000 words. (As of last night, it's at 92K) That represents 1 1/2 novels written in 2012. 
• I revised FUTURE TENSE with feedback from both my agent and some wonderful beta readers (shout out to the lovely gals of the #SWFG and Rebecca Blain from G+)
• Approximately 100 new blogposts, the majority of them here at the Once in a Blue Muse Blog, but also as part of several blog tours, including the Merry-Go-Round Blog tour and the Black Ink White Paper group blog.
• Speaking of DERELICT, I decided to do something different with my work and serialize it as a novel in progress. I've been slowly garnering a wonderful community of interested readers and have really enjoyed the process of being accountable to them during the process.
• At Readercon last July, I had dinner with my fellow graduates of Jeffrey A. Carver's and Craig Shaw Gardner's Ultimate SF&F Workshop. Sitting around the table, it struck me that I was in company with an enormously talented pool of writers and suggested we put together an anthology. I'm thrilled to say that this project is moving forward and my co-editor and I will be meeting to review our submissions over the next few weeks with a plan to have the anthology ready in time for 2013 Readercon.
• I released a slew of new short stories to subscribers of BlueMusings, my newsletter.
• I got to meet my agent, the lovely Nephele Tempest of The Knight Agency, for the first time during a recent trip to L.A. We are working towards the same goals and in the same direction, weathering the vagaries of the publishing industry.
• I applied for, and was invited to run a panel with the estimable Tamora Pierce at 2012 ConBust, a small SF&F con run at Smith College in Northampton, MA. It was a wonderful experience, one I will treasure (especially since I got to meet and stay with the utterly wonderful Jane Yolen!!)

In 2013, I Intend to Accomplish:

• Revise/edit the ghost story (which really, really needs a title) and DERELICT
• Brainstorm with Nephele regarding what to write next/continue to align goals with the aim of publication
• Complete and publish the Ultimate SF&F Workshop Anthology
• Write 4-6 new short stories

To my reader and writer friends: May the New Year bring you joy and peace.

. . . But I play one in the classroom

If baseball players can have home and away games, why not bloggers? :) Once a month, I have the opportunity to do an 'away' blogpost for the wonderful group blog "Black Ink, White Paper."  I hope you enjoy it.

We all wear a lot of hats in our lives. The newest hat I’ve squeezed on my head has writer written along the brim. While I’ve been writing novels for close to nine years now, it’s still a relatively new role for me, and it’s only been recently that I can comfortably answer ‘writer’ when someone asks me what I do for a living.

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to meet with a group of 6th grade students in our neighborhood middle school for a Q&A session about my young adult book, THE BETWEEN. Their English teacher had taught my now college-aged son and I’ve always held him in extremely high regard. Mr. D is an enthusiastic, creative, and wonderfully supportive teacher who helps his students discover their own love of literature and language. When he asked me if I would be willing to speak with his students, I jumped at the chance.

(Read more about my adventures as a visiting author in the classroom.)

A Multiplicity of Voices

L to R: Wheel thrown mug and bowls, slab built pitcher, hand built salt/pepper shakers

A few years ago, I started to take ceramics classes at a local studio. I've never thought of myself as any kind of artist--my patients used to laugh at the stick figures I would draw to help them remember their exercises.  I don't have a good eye for balance or color and take pretty mediocre photographs. But I've always been good with my hands, so I figured I could take a chance on playing with clay.

I spend all of Monday mornings at the studio getting covered head to toe in terracotta clay. It's taken me several years of classes, but I'm finally at the stage where I can sit down with an idea in mind and create it.

But I don't just do one kind of work.  I'm too scattered for that.  Or maybe I just like to try too many different things. I feel the same way about my writing and working with different points of view and different genres. I'm not sure I'll ever have only one kind of writing voice.

 The photo is an example of some very different work I've done. It represents both hand building and wheel throwing, functional and more sculptural pieces.  Each type of piece takes a different mindset, but what I hope I bring to all my clay work is a sense of playfulness and exploration.

I do the ceramics because I find it meditative and fun, and love the inspiration I get from my fellow classmates.  I'm not interested in selling the work or getting into production pottery.  Mostly, I like to find happy homes for pieces and hope the people I've given work to enjoy using it.

It's also a joy to practice an art form without the kind of pressure I put on myself about my writing.  Precisely because it's simply a hobby, I can be freer with experimentation and not place so much importance on the outcome.

And today, for the first time in years of classes, I reached one of my goals: throw a large bowl starting with 5 pounds of clay. Yay!

Dispatches from Dodge '10, Day 3

Saturday

This morning I let Galway Kinnell's reading of the Duino Elegies pour through me. I didn't try to hold them. I just let the river of words sweep me into the great sea of collective unconscious, mortality, death, and longing. I am shaken. It was as if Rilke returned from the dead to speak to my heart, hijacking Kinnell's voice.

How does he do that?

How does he use language to lull me into some almost hypnotic trance only to choose a word or phrase, a line that arrows its way to strike a bulls-eye in the hollow of my throat. It leaves me gasping, drowning in my own heartache.

Rilke. He undoes me. I need to write about butterflies and puppy dogs if I'm going to be able to breathe again.


Poetry as Prayer, Poetry as Curse

"prayer is always aware the darkness is close at hand." and "There is a thin line between poetry as prayer and poetry as curse." -Hadara Bar-Nadav

Words are a way to solidify intention -Tara Betts

Meanness never makes sustaining art -Matthew Dickman

The talks and the readings are only part of the magic at Dodge. The people you meet, talk with, discover as family are another.

Tonight I met a long-lost-never-met-before friend. (Hi Diana!) She joined my friend Sue and I for dinner and we had such a wonderful evening of conversation, laughter, and sharing that none of us noticed we took the shuttle outbound instead of inbound to the Performing Arts Center and ended up late to the evening readings as a result.

It didn't matter. The long, rambling, full of laughter conversation was just right. Balm for the mortal heart, calm for an overflowing mind.

Tomorrow this diaspora will close down its tents, pack its bags, and leave town, words scattered in its wake. And it will be a long two years until it comes again.

Readercon Roundup

This was my first real Readercon experience.  Although I was able to attend about a half day of last years con, this year, I was there for all three days.  Readercon takes place in Burlington, MA, which is only about 35 minutes from home, so on the convenience score alone, it's a win.

It was also an excuse to put on my 'writer' hat in public for 3 days.  For most of the time, I'm toiling at my craft in solitary obscurity.  It's certainly a treat to be a writer amongst a group of writers.

I met some lovely people (waves to Natalie and Gen!) reconnected with a group of writerly folks from several workshops (waves to the Ultimate folks and our teachers, Jeff and Craig!)

Had an energetic conversation about Doctor Who in the con suite sunday afternoon revolving around 'who is your favorite Who' with surprising disagreements.

A shout out and thanks to Kimball Rudeen of Eyrie House Books who found me a hardcover copy of "Shockwave Rider" after a conversation we had before one of the panels. 

Another shout out to Nightwing Whitehead and her fabulous overshirts.  I'm not normally a 'girlie girl', but the colorful, flowing shirt made me feel graceful and elegant all weekend long.

There were a few panels at Readercon that I found most interesting and personally useful:

Writing Realistic Speech focused primarily on dialect and invented language, and the panelists emphasized the importance of listening for the 'music' in speech and to make sure use of dialect did not stereotype.  One of the panelists reminded us that writers are always going to get something wrong. We need to approach the work respectfully and try to minimize the damage.

Orphans of the Time Stream was a fascinating conversation about time travel tropes in writing.  John Crowley opened the conversation with a quote that has stayed with me all weekend.  "Grammar will prove time travel is impossible."  I know there is a story waiting for me in that concept.  Another concept from that discussion was that in a self-healing timeline, the universe will tie itself in knots to avoid paradox.  I hadn't ever really considered writing a time travel story, but that quote keeps pestering me. . .

This morning, I attended a workshop on freelance writing and realized I have a skill set that might lead to some solid freelance editing work.  With my health-care/scientific background and my skill at understanding the typical issues of non-English speakers writing in English, there may be opportunities for me in medical/scientific circles.  If anyone out there knows of leads, please do let me know.  I would be much obliged.

I would be remiss in my Readercon roundup (nice alliteration!) if I failed to mention what was the absolute highlight of my weekend.  The Kirk Poland Memorial Bad Prose Competition.  It's part performance art, part literary schadenfreude, part stand up comedy, where the audience must vote on the real continuations of really bad pieces of published and obscure prose.  I haven't laughed that hard and for that long in quite some time.

All in all, a good weekend. 

Validation

This is not a post about the youtube video the title links to, but it's about the concept of validation, which reminded me of it. I blogged about the video a few months back here. If you haven't seen it yet, go watch it. It's only 16 minutes long. I'll wait.

:)

So, validation.

The feeling you get when you're doing something you know is right; when everything confirms that you are where you're supposed to be.

I experienced that acute, wonderful 'rightness' the end of last week when I was a guest poet in our local elementary school's 4th grade class. I ran a 90 minute workshop which resulted in 21 engaged 10 year olds, 21 rich and varied poems, and one extremely happy poet.

I've done workshops like this before, and I always experience that incredible sense of validation. Yes, this is where I'm supposed to be. Yes, this is something I'm meant to do.

When I start planning for a workshop, I am often overly optimistic about what I can pack into a single lesson. It doesn't stop me from believing I can get it all done. This one was no exception. I had initially planned 75 minutes to introduce myself and the lesson, have the students choose words that would create the subject matter, brainstorm with a worksheet, work through a first draft, and get feedback.

Phew.

This is the lesson I brought to the class. It's adapted from several sources, including this one, as well as from the weekly creativity challenges posted on Wild Poetry Forum.

Listen up!
Lisa Janice Cohen

So much of what we describe and notice is based on what we see. In this exercise, we will focus on what we (or an imaginary character) might hear.

1. Choose an object and a place. The list on the board shows examples and suggestions, but you can pick your own if you like. Please title your poem:

What the ________(Object) in the ________ (Place) Hears

2. List at least 10 things your object might hear.

A. Think about where your object is

In this example poem, I imagined the car parked in the driveway on a rainy night. I could have parked the car at the beach or a ball game. What different kinds of sounds would the car have heard then?

B. Give your object ‘ears’

Cars don’t normally hear things, people do. But use your imagination. I thought that a cat’s purr might sound like a little engine to a car.

C. Find words that have good sound to describe your sounds

In the example poem, I used rumble thump because I liked the way it sounded.

3. Arrange your ‘sounds’ into a poem in any way you like.

4. Revise, revise, revise! Move lines around, swap in strong or surprising verbs for ordinary ones, add new sounds, etc.


What the Parked Car in the Driveway Hears

A cat's engine song as it purrs beneath still wheels.
The plip plip plip of rain drops from a swaying
maple tree. The rumble thump of a rusty
pick up truck. Splish plunk as it hits
the flooded pot hole at full throttle. Sigh

of a storm ending. The echo of a train
whistle howling with a stray dog. A siren
sending its ambulance away. The click
of a porch light, jingle of keys in a lock.
The silent moon shredding clouds.

---Lisa Janice Cohen, 2007

When I am in front of a class, I always experience that momentary dread: this is not going to work. The kids are going to hate it. I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm wasting this teacher's time. And the first 15 minutes of the workshop seem to intensify my fears. The kids are struggling with the concept. They are staring at my worksheet and little gets written down. Several of them write, then quickly erase.

But some brave soul asks a question. It leads to a discussion about what it means to write something 'good.' And I tell them that each of them has an original voice and something different to say. That if they ask me 'Is this good?', I'll respond with 'Do you like it?' That breaks the ice.

Pencils scribble furiously.

In another 10 minutes, they have the raw materials for their poems.

20 minutes later, I am reading first drafts that stun me.

The students are asking me for feedback. They are drinking it in like water. They are returning to their desks and their pencils and working through revisions.

75 minutes are quickly coming to an end, but the students want to share. I ask the teacher about stealing a little more time and she graciously agrees. Most of the students are not comfortable with reading their own work aloud, but they all want their poems to be heard, so I read almost all of the 21 poems to an attentive, rapt audience.

A few brave souls decide to read their own.

It is a magical experience. No fidgeting, no cross talk, just 21 students listening intently, savoring these words on a page. The applause at the end is spontaneous and goes on for some minutes.

When I leave, I feel as if I have left a little part of my love of words with each of these 21 students. I have given them some of my time, and a structured lesson to follow. But they have given me so very much more.

Thank you, 4M, and thank you Miss. M. Being in your classroom was an honor.

Where Challenges Take You

I've blogged before about Wild Poetry Forum, my poetry home on the 'net.  It's somewhat of a rarity for online poetry workshops in that it is large, inclusive of poets with all levels of experience, and doesn't subscribe to the 'American Idol' ethic of viciousness, while encouraging open and honest feedback.  It's not a perfect community--like any other gathering of individuals, there can be conflict and personality clashes, but for the most part Wild works.  Much to the credit of my fellow moderators and the site admins.

One of the parts of Wild that I love is the weekly challenges posted by our Administrator, ~M~.  An extraordinarily talented poet in her own right, she also works tirelessly to help the members improve their own writing and stretch their creative muscles.

I turn to her challenges, culled from a huge library of poetry books and lessons, when I feel stuck in my writing.

Writing to a challenge or a prompt is an excellent method to get out of your own way.  Challenges also take you to places you might not ever get to without the little push away from your comfort zone.

Here is a piece one of ~M~s recent challenges provoked.  It was a fun write, and a bit sideways from my usual voice.

Storm Warnings
after Rebecca Hoogs

My dear, you are the meteorologist and I,
I am the weather, a cyclone churning off shore,
skipping across carefully plotted points
on well creased maps. To hell
with ratings and reputation. It's not
like you cause the tempest or the cold
shoulder, the run on milk and bread,
eggs. Still, it would always be best
if you waited for me to declare my intentions,
stick your head out the studio window
and agree. Yup, she's a doozy. That's right.
Right as rain. The rain I fell in
this morning while you flirted
with long range models, certain
tools in uncertain systems. No pressure,
but the superintendent's on the line, baby,
and my winds carry the fervent prayers
of schoolchildren everywhere, homework undone.
If you smile into the camera, bet
on a solid six to ten, I'll pout
and head off to sea or maybe just sit tight,
ignore the curses of weary plow drivers hours
from sleep and warmth, strand even you
at your desk. But once in a blue moon, I promise
to track exactly the way you expect.

--LJCohen

The original prompt is here.  If you give this one a go yourself, feel free to post your poems in the comments.  I look forward to seeing what you create.

Attention local writing peeps. . . Readercon!

I'll be attending (part) of Readercon this year. I'm planning to be there for Thursday evening and all day/evening Friday.

If you're going to be there, give a shout out in comments or shoot me an email.

There's a possibility of squeezing in a bit of Saturday morning as well, but sadly, I made a prior commitment to the rest of my family before I realized it was Readercon weekend.

Sigh.

The things we do for family. LOL.

This is where I'll be Saturday and Sunday. Watching my husband get filthy, grimy, and sweaty while driving around in circles. My teenage boys, of course, are thrilled.

4 hours of Poetry Workshop

I have this problem. It's called volunteering.

I let my son's 7th grade Language Arts teacher know that I was a writer and that I was available to come into class to talk about poetry, if she was interested.

Well, she was interested.

What I forgot to take into account, was that she teaches 4 sections of 7th grade Language Arts and it wouldn't work unless I did the same lesson for all of them. Hence, the 4 hours of poetry workshop.

It was wonderful. The teacher has spent the past few weeks teaching the kids the language of poetry. I was able to come in and do a revision workshop because the students all understood the poetic tools of alteration, consonance, assonance, metaphor, simile, personification, meter, and rhyme. I could build on what they already knew and show them how to look at their work in progress with an eye toward refining and strengthening their poems.

7th grade is such an interesting year. The students, between 12 and 13, are at such widely divergent developmental levels. Some are clearly still 'kids', others just as clearly young adults. Yet they are still young enough to be willing to take a risk with writing and sharing poetry.

My experience reinforced what I have often said: teachers work hard, and teaching (especially in middle school) must be one of the most difficult jobs there is.

"The Between" at 44K

I don't really like to share more than snippets of a novel in progress. It feels too much like shifting from creative mind to analytical/critical mind and that can derail the writing process.

But, I also had the opportunity to move large sections of the novel through a small critique group of writers whose process I respect. So I'm doing something with "The Between" that I haven't done with any of my previous novels--critiquing as I am writing.

I tried to do this with an earlier group, with a poor outcome--I got frustrated and stopped writing the story. But that was moving much earlier, much more raw work through a different group of writers. Neither the writing, nor I were ready for that analytical mode. Now with a far clearer sense of the story and its characters, I'm finding great value in this process. And rather than go back to address my fellow writing group members' critiques, I am noting where I need to make changes and continuing, hoping that I am able to incorporate the spirit of their commentary into new writing.

So far, so good.

I spent yesterday's writing time roughly sketching out where the story needs to go in the next 3 chapters, approximately the next 10K worth of words. That should bring me to the novel's climax. I'm pretty excited about the way it's all coming together. Lydia is at a crucial decision point in her journey--one that will define the outcome of the story. There is little better than writing when the stakes are so high for your characters.

Yes, this is a changeling tale, and yes it uses many of the tropes common to fairy tales. This is material that many writers mine, but there are many elements in "The Between" that are different in this treatment of the changeling story, particularly in how the protagonist feels about her Mortal upbringing and her struggle to get back to the life she lost, and the fact that there are two points of view to mirror the differences between Fairy and the Mortal world.

Back to the writing. . .

Attention: Poets in the Portland, OR area!

A public service announcement from me. :) I know the organizers of this conference (waves to M and Steve!) and if I were anywhere near the left coast, I'd so be there!

Please spread the word!

OREGON STATE POETRY ASSOCIATION
SPRING 2009 CONFERENCE

April 24 & 25, 2009
Portland, Oregon

Come by car, train, bus, or plane, but do come to the OSPA Spring 2009 Conference in Portland on April 24 & 25. Our theme is Open Roads. There will be poetry workshops, guest readings, open mic poetry readings, the Spring 2009 Poetry Contest winners presentation, and more.


___________________________________________
LOCATIONS

Friday, April 24
Powell’s City of Books
Burnside & 10th, Portland
6:30 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Mistress of Ceremonies: Sage Cohen, Author of Writing the Life Poetic

Saturday, April 25
The Native American Center at Portland State University
710 S.W. Jackson Street, Portland
8:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.


__________________________________________
CONFERENCE WORKSHOP LEADERS

Paul Hunter
Author of Breaking Ground, 2004 Washington State Book Award Winner

Workshop: Liftoff & Touchdown – Oral Poetry in Public Presentation
Borrowing some ruthless thinking and timeless tricks from the theater, we are going to discuss how to pick what to read, how to gauge your audience, and how to serve up your work so that it makes the greatest impact. How to help the poem and the whole reading take flight and land right where you want it. This will be a frank discussion, offering useful tips, with practical implications for all working writers who read in public.


John C. Morrison
Author of Heaven of the Moment, 2008 Oregon State Book Award Finalist

Workshop: Models, Memories, & Mayhem – The Play of Generating Poetry
What might be a few sure-fire ways to ignite the imagination and generate juicy, compelling drafts? Jumping from prompts presented by sample poems, trolling a guided memory for inspiration, and engaging in a frenetic wordplay exercise, we'll explore and refine pathways to a poem. After an open, dynamic exchange, you will leave the session with some enticing beginnings you'll want to pursue at your desk.


Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge
Author of poemcrazy and Foolsgold: Making Something From Nothing

Workshop: Poemcrazy – Freeing Your Life with Words
Dipping into our hearts as well as diverse books of poems, we’ll bring forth a colorful group word pool (using every color ink). From there we move into “dreamsense” and our own gatherings of words to explore who we are, where we come from, and where we’re going.


__________________________________________
CONFERENCE SPECIAL EVENT

Sharon Wood Wortman
Author of The Portland Bridge Book
will lead a Portland Bridge Walking Tour
Friday, April 24 at 2:00 p.m.

Tour the operator’s tower in the 1926 Burnside Bridge and walk to some of the city’s big Willamette River bridges, with stops at ODOT Region 1 to visit a hands-on bridge museum. We also ride MAX, conduct a test for synchronous vertical excitation on a very flexible tied arch, and more. Participants are invited to bring a favorite bridge poem to share. Total distance walked: ½ to 1 mile on level ground (ADA accessible).


Registration & Details at: www.oregonpoets.org

$45 Members
$55 Non-Members
$25 Students
$20 Bridge Walking Tour

The Kindle--not just for reading books

Last month I bought the first generation Kindle. I knew I would enjoy the ability to have a personal library at hand at any given time, and that is definitely true. After finishing several ebooks, both fiction and non-fiction, I can definitely say that for me, content is king. Not that format isn't part of the deal, it is, but if I can get books easily and store them simply and without killing trees or using up all the shelf space in my house, that's a good thing.

Does it mean I'll stop buying and reading physical books? Not a chance. The local library and our indie bookstore are still some of my favorite places to be.

Now, the kindle is more than just a way to read books. I discovered how easy it is to use the kindle to annotate a file for critique yesterday. I will be participating in an advanced critique workshop for SF&F writers that begins sunday evening. In advance of sunday's first session, we are expected to read and comment on the synopses/pitch and first chapters from our classmates' 5 novels in progress. Typically I would do that either on my computer or through printing out the texts.

The former is hard on my eyes. The latter, expensive and hard on trees. I also knew I would have 4 dedicated hours to read and comment, trapped in a car repair purgatory, waiting for my husband's new hybrid truck to be fixed. (The perils of being an early adopter.) So I paid Amazon the princely sum of 10 cents and emailed 5 sets of documents to my kindle. Within 30 seconds, they arrived, formatted for the device and off I went.

The kindle isn't designed for annotating files, but it can be used that way. It's easy (though not completely efficient) to highlight and comment on text, using a combination of the scroll wheel and the small keyboard. I wouldn't want to write the great american novel this way, but adding comments and questions worked quite well. And with the wireless radio off, the battery life on the kindle far outstrips what my laptop can do. One more bonus--I'm less likely to be distracted by all the goodies available on my computer or on the web when I'm working from the kindle.

Sure it has the experimental browser and sure I can check email, but it's just inconvenient enough that I tend to not do it. When it comes to writing discipline, this is a *good* thing. (Who knew, the kindle as an efficiency device.)

When I got home from the car dealer (sans hybrid truck, as it needed to stay for emergency surgery), I connected the usb cable to my computer, copied over the txt file with all my annotations, and I'm ready to discuss the documents on sunday night.

Plotting, PS

Surf over to Writers Unboxed--their february theme is plotting and there have been some wonderful posts about different processes along with links to a bunch of resources for writers of all styles.

A valuable lesson about my own process

After completing 4 novels, I thought I knew a lot about my own writing process.

--I am a partial plotter, needing to know the beginning, the end and a few major waypoints in order to write a novel. As much as I would like to do something completely by the seat of my pants, my nature is not that spontaneous. I have been able to experiment with letting the story spin without any preplanning in the short story form, though it's still difficult for me.

--I am not a fast first draft writer. The thought of racing through something like NaNoWriMo fills me with dread. Letting it go and fixing it in the second draft is just not me. What does work for me is light editing of previous writing while working on pushing the story forward. Writing is a recursive process and as I write, I get to know the characters more fully which changes the writing I've already done. I know this doesn't work for a lot of writers and a lot of 'common wisdom' is that letting yourself edit as you write is a sure way to never finishing anything. That's just not been my experience. With one big caveat. . .

--I can't share what I'm writing other than in generalities. With my latest project "The Between"--a YA urban fantasy, I made the mistake of bringing the first few chapters to my critique group. It utterly derailed me from the story. While I'm writing/planning, I have to maintain that complete love affair with the new work. That's staying in my creative head. Even the light edits I do, don't take me away from the creative mindset. When I turn the work over to someone else, something in me shifts to editing mindset. That's an analytical, critical place that is at odds with the creative mindset. Bringing an unfinished story to a critique group is a bad move for me. It's taken me 3 months to find the necessary distance from my internal editor in order to return to creating story. Based on past experience, I *can* share the writing when I'm about 2/3 through the story. That seems to give me enough momentum that I won't lose the creative thread.

I'm sure I will continue to learn lessons about process as I continue to grow as a writer.

What are some of your lessons learned?

The Art of Critique and the Problem of Ego

On Wild Poetry Forum, the poetry workshop I help moderate, we are having a discussion (actually a series of ongoing discussions) about critique and what is appropriate in response to critique.

Wild has been around for a decade (ancient history for internet venues) and is a robust workshop board with hundreds of active members. It has separate sub-forums for workshopping, light, and heavy critique, and in general, polices itself quite well. In all the years I've been a participant there, there have been relatively few incidents of overt snarkiness or ad hominem attacks.

Much of that has to do with a history of close moderation and an expectation within the community that that is not what we value. Nor do we condone vanity critique. Hearing that your work is the best thing since sliced bread is as useless to growth as a writer as a personal attack.

In the past several months, we have had an influx of new members who don't seem interested in participating in the community, rather, they react defensively to critique and spend too much time and energy justifying their work and not enough time critically examining their own process. There is a small sub group that posts, essentially, for one another's admiration and argues with anyone who thinks otherwise.

I don't understand that kind of behavior.

When I ask for feedback, it is the critical, thoughtful response I crave. What I need to know is what isn't working for the reader and what is. If there is consensus among a large number of voices, I can be more certain of my path to revision. This is not to say I write by committee or agree with every critique. BUT, I do listen. I do take it in. And without defensiveness.

If I can't hear critical feedback with an open heart, then I am denying the creative process. Even critiques I do not agree with are valuable. They tell me how a reader has interpreted a piece of writing. I write, not for my own ego, but to be received by a reader. It is an interdependent process, for the most part, separated by space and time. If I put a poem or a story out into the world, I rarely get feedback from the reader. But in a workshop model, I can bring that interaction into real time.

I am also part of a in-real-life critique group for fiction writing. At our last meeting, one of the members prefaced his comments with an apology for being so 'tough'. To my way of thinking, no apology was needed. What I received from him is what I seek: honest feedback, given in the spirit of improving the work.

In order for critique to provide that essential feedback loop, there needs to be authenticity on both sides: both the writer and the reviewer need to understand that it is not about ego, not about proving oneself smarter or better, or snarkier, but about honoring the creative process.

In that kind of environment, true artistic growth can and does happen.

And isn't that what we seek as artists?