How Writers Reveal a Character through "Container"--The Environment of a Story

A memoirist was trying to write about the sadness she felt at her father’s death.  Her writer’s group gave her unexpected feedback:  while it was clear she was very sad, when they heard her speak of his death, her feelings on the page were abstract, hard to really grasp. 

“They don’t feel any of the sadness I feel,” she told me.  She cried when she wrote, so this confused her.  

When I read the chapter in our next online class together, I too noticed how distant the writing felt.  My take-away was an almost-intellectual sorrow, a wistfulness, rather than any strong emotion.

A very intelligent woman, this writer worked as a psychologist.  She knew people, she understood how they ticked.  But she hid her “character,” herself, behind her thoughtful prose, rather than revealing it. 

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Patterns of Change--How Do You Create Strong Conflict in Your Fiction or Memoir?

Most stories foster change.  Either change in the situation, in the character or narrator, or in the reader and their understanding of a topic.

Most writers know that change in story comes from conflict.  Conflict is a dilemma presented to a person and it forces action.  It makes a person realize a truth, right a wrong, change behavior or thoughts, move to a new city or job or relationship, do something different. 

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Making Your Own Book Trailer--Guest Blog by Authors Juliann Rich and Aren Sabers

You've seen them:  short, sassy movies, using imagery, themes or even text from a soon-to-be-published book.  A moving visual image to entice you--the reader--to purchase that book.  

Book trailers have come out in the last decade.  From novelty item to common device used by publishers and authors to pique interest, generate web presence and platform.  Even used in school classrooms by teachers to entice reluctant readers or prompt discussion, designed by students as part of arts-and-communications curricula.

Are you excited about making a book trailer?  Authors Juliann Rich and Aren Sabers, creators of their own successful book trailers, share their best tips in this guest blog.  Their websites and trailers are listed at the end of their post--be sure to check them out.  Fun, entertaining, and moving--and hopefully offering excellent reasons to read their new books!

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How'd You Do? Reviewing Your Year's Writing Goals--A Sure Way to Encourage Your Creative Spirit

Each month, I set goals with a writing partner who lives in another state; we used to be in the same writing group until I moved, and I value her feedback so we set up a monthly exchange by email or phone.  We look at what we've accomplished or learned in the previous month and think about what's next.

We also like to do this each December or January, reviewing our goals for the past year and thinking about how it went.  And what we want to bring into manifestation next.

Accountability is hard to come by.  It's easy to let writing slide to a back burner, rather than generating creative heat in your life.  These regular check-ins help me stay accountable. 

But they also show me--much to my own surprise--how much I actually grow as a writer!

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Your Writing Voice: How to Develop It, Recognize It, Not Copy Someone Else's

One of my long-time students asked a great question this week:  how does a writer develop voice?  Voice is the elusive uniqueness that comes out in writing over time, the signature of the individual wordsmith.  We would never mistake a passage by Flannery O'Connor with one by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 

What makes them different, distinctive? Each delightful in its own way?  That's voice.

The elusive hunt for voice is much discussed in writing books, classes, MFA programs.  One of

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Strange Alchemy: How Place, People, and Conflict Intertwine in Fiction and Memoir

Boston's legendary Cecelia chorus performs only a few times a year.  Their concerts are well worth the time.  Recently I heard them in an old church in Brookline, Mass. 

At this performance, a soloist with a particularly liquid voice sang a few pieces, then disappeared into the rows of the alto section.  I strained to hear her voice rise above the other altos--but it was impossible to distinguish.  She blended so well, the group became one voice.   Then she

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From School Principal to Thriller Writer--The Grassroots Journey of Andy Rose

In 1967, Andy Rose started working as a fifth-grade teacher in the impoverished Lower East Side of Manhattan. The children in his classes were predominantly illiterate and presented many learning issues.  Andy immersed them in daily readings of literature, used humor and passion to motivate them.  He found them wonderful to work with--their spirit was indomitable--and thirteen years later, he became principal of the Norwood Public School in Bergen County, New Jersey.  He served as its chief school administrator until 2009.

During the last decade of Andy's career, he read the works of Nelson DeMille, Dan Brown, and John Grisham. Their thrilling novels provided welcome escape from his 24/7 responsibilities as leader of a public school district. When he retired, images and stories about teachers and school children filled his mind. Characters and an inner city school setting began to emerge. It felt natural to write about schools and to portray teachers, instead of James Bond, as heroes.

But a major obstacle:  Writing fiction was very different from writing reports for a Board of Education, press releases, and analytical articles for local newspapers.  

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The Intriguing Structure of Claire Dederer's Poser--How to Link Different Topics, Timelines, and Themes in a Memoir

Author Claire Dederer came to book-writing after being a journalist for about twenty years, working as a reporter, critic, and essayist.  She began as a film critic then developed into a book critic and a writer on culture. Poser, her 2010 memoir, weaves together several disparate topics:  yoga, motherhood, the legacy of 1970s feminism.  I interviewed Claire this week to find out how she decided to structure Poser around all these themes.

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Pros and Cons of the Workshopping Method--And How to Manage Feedback So You Keep Writing

We all have war stories from bad feedback.  If you've been writing and attending conferences or classes for more than a few years, you know the range of possible reactions to workshopping your stories:  from annoying to devastating, from "Let's ignore that comment" to "I'll never touch that piece again."

We're all searching for supportive (but not coddling) and careful readers who respect our ideas yet offer good ones of their own. 

Where to find this kind of feedback?  Some people get it from a writers group.  Some get it from workshops and classes.  Some exchange writing with a feedback partner.  Whatever works!  As long as the comments open you to new insights, keep you writing, keep you enthused and engaged with your own writing, they are useful.

But all of these methods are based on vulnerability--sharing ideas and images and attempts with people who don't see the full vision you do.  And most of these employ something called the "workshopping method," which has its pros and cons.  How do you set yourself up for success?  For the best possible outcome with the least risk?  It's not easy--but there are definitely things to embrace and things to avoid when workshopping your writing. 

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Crafting Your Book's Visual Map--New Ways to Use a Storyboard

Storyboards are a fast and easy template to check the strength of a book's structure.  More and more writers use them.  I hear about famous authors who now "design" their books via a storyboard.  It's a classy idea whose time has come.

Filmmakers will be yawning here.  Storyboards are the basis of most films--they are like cartoon boxes that show the scenes and can be rearranged to create the best flow. 

But book publishers use them too.  Twenty years ago, I hired on every six months to an all-day storyboarding session for a Midwestern small press.  Eight "experts" gathered in their conference room, bolstered by coffee and snacks and catered lunch.  A facilitator drew the empty cartoon boxes of our blank storyboard on one wall, gave us our topic, and off we'd go. 

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