March Writing Challenge: Historical Writing

For the March challenge, write a poem, prose poem, or short-short story from the point of view of an historical figure. The phrase "historical figure" may be taken broadly -- anyone from Nicholas I to Nellie Bly's mom is fair game. Be as creative as you'd like.

So far we've had a huge range of responses:  a story based on a little-known episode from WWII, a humorous presidential portrait, and a letter "From Sigmund to Mother," to highlight a few. The challenge will be open until March 31, so take some time in the next few weeks to give it a shot.

March Writing Challenge: Historical Writing originally appeared on About.com Fiction Writing on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 at 08:35:00.

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Reader Question: An MFA at Age 42?

Last week, I heard from a 42-year-old writer who was applying to MFA programs and having doubts about it. He wrote, "I hear this stuff about how conventional writing and publishing is dead, that even really good young writers can't break out because the industry is closing down or morphing into something more media-oriented. And I wonder, what's the point of getting an MFA now? Will any book I write ever get distribution?"

In response to his first question, about the publishing industry, I answered, "Books will continue to be written and published, but the publishing world is in crisis right now, and until they figure out how to resolve it, it will be harder for us writers. Even ones who do publish will be keeping their day jobs -- but then, hasn't this been the case throughout history? How much did Jane Austen make from her books, for instance? We might have it better today, even with our current problems."

But is an MFA program worthwhile, if publication is the goal, especially if it means taking time out from a paying career? "If you can afford to take a few years out of the workplace and focus on your writing within an MFA program, especially one that offers funding, then do so -- but don't expect it to lead to quick or easy success. If publication is your main goal, you could also take classes outside of a degree program and assemble a good writing group who can help you finish and revise your novel. Subscribe to Poets and Writers magazine; start sending your stories to literary magazines.

"On the other hand, MFA programs do provide support and give you the chance to be around writers, both the professionals who come to teach and unpublished colleagues. It's an opportunity to exist in a world in which literature and writing is the most important thing. If you think that one day you might want to teach at the college level, an MFA will be necessary. And you'll come out of it a bit savvier about the publishing world. You'll be more serious about your craft. But you can't really think of it as a financial investment, as you would an MBA or a law degree, or even a teaching degree. It would have to be something you're doing for yourself, because you want this time to write."

But these are very hard questions to answer, and I can only speak from my own experience. What do others have to say? For those of us in the middle of life who aren't living on a trust fund, for whom an education requires a degree of sacrifice, is an MFA worth doing? Or are there other routes to literary success that make more sense? What advice do you have?

Reader Question: An MFA at Age 42? originally appeared on About.com Fiction Writing on Monday, March 15th, 2010 at 10:22:36.

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Pros and Cons of Writing for Young People

In the past few years, a number of excellent YA/middle grade books have come my way, via a Nick Hornby column in the Believer and a YA-author friend. After meeting Weetzie Bat and the Penderwicks, and reading The House of the Scorpion and Chasing Vermeer -- and taking into account the fact that young people actually buy books -- it suddenly made a lot of sense to write a YA novel rather than the coming of age novel I'd been planning. In doing so, I discovered that writing for a younger audience is a tremendous amount of fun. Setting aside pretensions to being a serious writer was seriously liberating: suddenly I could just tell a story. I could get lost in my own prose, the way I'd done when I was first starting to write.

But when I raised my head out of my happy YA-novel world, I discovered to my naive dismay that other adults generally didn't get it. When I answered the question "What are you working on now?" I met puzzled or stony looks. I found myself having to justify the book, and in justifying it, I felt as though I were patronizing the genre. I found myself saying things like, "I think the experience is really going to help my adult fiction."

So I was pleased this week to have both sides of my experience validated by an L.A. Times article. They quoted Lizzie Skurnick, author of Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading "YA authors are able to take themselves less seriously. They're able to have a little more fun, and they're less confined by this idea of themselves as Very Important Artists. That paradoxically leads them to create far better work than people who are trying to win awards." And author Cecil Castellucci attested to the downside: "As a YA author, I get tired of being asked, 'When are you going to write a real book?' As if a YA book is not a real book."

To a certain extent, I understand why people react the way they do. In many cases, YA novels are less demanding than novels for adults. They tend to have fewer plotlines and they're often shorter. But neither of these things is always true, especially in today's marketplace. I suspect that many writers choose this audience because there's a great deal more freedom in writing for this audience than in writing for increasingly cautious editors of American fiction for adults. And YA readers, who switch easily between adult novels and novels written specifically for them, are up for more challenging work.

As a neophyte to this world, however, I'm interested in hearing from other people who read or write YA/middle grade fiction. What's your experience in writing for this audience? How do you handle skeptical adults? What do you think of their charge that YA novels aren't "real" books?

Pros and Cons of Writing for Young People originally appeared on About.com Fiction Writing on Friday, March 12th, 2010 at 09:38:52.

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April Contest Deadlines

There are some very cool opportunities in April -- and some I'd never heard of until recently, such as the Lake Forest College Emerging Writer's Residency (April 1) and the New Michigan Press / DIAGRAM Chapbook Contest (April 30). Old standbys include the Thurber Prize for American Fiction (April 1), the Crab Orchard Review Literary Contests (April 30), and the Dylan Thomas Centre Dylan Prize (April 30), and more. Check out the full list for other contests and residencies.

April Contest Deadlines originally appeared on About.com Fiction Writing on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 09:26:41.

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Plot 101

For some people, plot does come naturally, but more of us benefit from studying the basic elements -- which, sadly, most fiction workshops don't seem to cover. By mastering the basics of plot, you deliver a satisfying experience to your readers and arm yourself with the tools you'll need to tell more complicated stories. Begin thinking about plot with this short article on the subject.

Plot 101 originally appeared on About.com Fiction Writing on Sunday, March 7th, 2010 at 09:55:26.

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How Do We Establish a Sense of Place?

This week I've been corresponding with a writer about settings. She had asked for feedback on her wedding cake story, and my initial response was confusion: I didn't know where the characters were. It got me thinking about the importance of setting, and the difficulties of establishing it in a very short story. How do we successfully establish a sense of place without writing something that sounds contrived?

Fortunately a few stories from last month's challenge came to mind as examples. In his story, George Belezos just laid it out in the first sentence: "Costas Sepervides sat in an old lawn chair under a tired oak at the edge of his property on Ledra Street, a narrow road in the Midwestern bedroom community of Centerville." For his story, which involves a family feud that began in Cyprus decades before, it was crucial that he make the present-day setting clear from the outset: otherwise, his readers would get confused as he went back and forth in both time and place.

Other writers could be less specific, using small details to communicate a sense of place. "They pulled into the gravel drive of her daddy's old farmhouse late that September morning," is the sentence that grounds Janette McKinley Long's story. A few sentences later, she refers to an "old Chevy," which reinforces our sense of being in the rural United States. Cassandra Barclift likewise relies on telling details to signal a suburban location (though she does become more explicit later): "All five of the neighborhood children were gathered around the mysterious confection. Their bikes were carelessly thrown on Mr. Green's manicured lawn."

For other readers, the setting was a more important element of the story, and thus described in greater detail. For John E. Abel, the protagonist's story is intimately tied to two landscapes, and especially to that of the Southwestern U.S.: "But the most distinguishing feature of the scenery is its hills and buttes and mountains that offer shades of rust and purple-gray. Their silhouette against the hazy Southwestern sky triggers images of faraway elephants lumbering through the arid heat."

How much do you think about setting when you're writing or revising a story? How do you make sure it comes through in a way that seems natural to the story you're telling?

How Do We Establish a Sense of Place? originally appeared on About.com Fiction Writing on Friday, March 5th, 2010 at 12:13:29.

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Ten Rules for Writing Fiction

If you like lists -- and the Guardian's book section -- you'll definitely want to see the dos and don'ts for fiction writers they collected from authors such as Margaret Atwood, Colm Tóibín, Jonathan Franzen, and Neil Gaiman. While it can be a bit overwhelming to read so many admonitions at once ("Don't have children." "It's doubtful that anyone with an internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction") some are instructive ("You see more sitting still than chasing after"), and others downright funny ("Stay in your mental pyjamas all day." "If you have to read, to cheer yourself up read biographies of writers who went insane"). It's worth taking some time to browse through them, especially if you're taking a snow day today, as many are in my area. Then share: what's on your list of dos and don'ts?

Ten Rules for Writing Fiction originally appeared on About.com Fiction Writing on Friday, February 26th, 2010 at 10:34:33.

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