Let me start with a recap of the previous two years conferences. Year number one, the opening speaker was a flop. That was the year we had Russell Banks. That man can ramble with the best of them. We were all new and basically no one knew anyone else. Still you could see the hesitation after his speech. Oy. What had we gotten ourselves into? But the rest of the conference was beyond great.
Then last year, our keynote speaker was Tobias Wolf. Holy cow. He is one author who can write and speak. I'm beginning to think that's a rarity. But the rest of the conference wasn't so great. In fact, it was extremely political and there was so much spin that I had to keep reminding myself it truly was a writers' conference.
As you know, I wasn't impressed with last nights opening speech. With that said, I do find Maxine Hong Kingston a very personable woman, one on one. In fact, I'd even say she's charming.
I was very hesitant about what to expect today.
The first panel was THE PRACTICE OF PEACE. Arthur Sze was the moderator and Sherry Simpson (teaches creative nonfiction at the University of Anchorage, Alaska), David Bradley (Head of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Oregon) and Anne Caston (Assistant Professor of Creative Writing/Poetry at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks) were on the panel.
The next workshop I attended was PLOT: Part One with David Bradley. Oh my goodness. That session was worth the price of admission. What I think will be the most important information he gave us was presented at the end of the workshop, but I'm going to list it first for those who skim. He said, Do not change your ending to something you do not believe in. He did add that we can change our beginnings, middles, anything we want to change, but NEVER change the ending to something we don't believe in.
From my notes, plot is nothing more than a conspiracy, which is used for manipulation. I'd never thought of it that way, but that's exactly what plot is.
Before we can really have a solid plot we have to answer a few questions.
The structure of plot:
Situation: the condition necessary for story to happen. Once upon a time This is a was/is setting.
Impulse: what starts the story? Then one day
Peril: the terrible thing that will happen if we don't do anything. Something bad. What will be if something isn't done. Aversion
Limitation: every plot has a limitation, such as the time remaining on the time bomb. There needs to be some 'resource' that tells the reader the story is coming to an end.
Actions and Resistances: some type of opposition. It's our hero and villain. The biggest mistakes writers make is not embracing the dark side of our characters. There should be attempts and failures. We also tend to have trouble making good people lose during this stage.
Confrontation: Last thing Time is up How it comes out now.
Outcome: who won? Expression of what conditions produced.
Resolution: where are we now? The resolution is back to is.
The last session of the day: FULLY IMAGINED FICTION with John Keeble. The keyword for this session was feeling. Story begins with a feeling. The author must determine if the best form to take is a short story or a novel. A short story brushes against the big thing that caused this feeling. A novel encompasses the big thing.
I don't remember who said this, but I liked it. If you want to make a point, write nonfiction. If you want to give comfort, write fiction.
For every character, focus on one feature. He suggested we stay away from the eyes, since there's so much room for cliches with the eyes.
He won me over when he said he doesn't believe in outlines or character charts. He said they are too organized and they don't give the characters room to surprise the author. He repeated, all stories start with feelings and as we write the stories we are sorting out our own confusion pertaining to these stories, it does make sense that an outline and character charts would be very confusing.
The other area where I really liked what he said was using past tense or present tense. I really find reading present tense clumsy at best.
Stories should be retrospective, have narrative, looking back, and reconstituted by the narrator. In present tense the story lacks the retrospective and the reconstitutional. Present tense is lyrical, an outburst of emotion in the moment.
Saturday, June 19, 2004
ADDENDUM
The title of the workshop was FULLY IMAGINED FICTION.
It starts with a powerful feeling. Then the author discovers a way ot give the story shape. This includes the characters, story line, plot line and all of this is expressed through language.
As stated earlier, the short story is brushing against the big thing causing the feeling. A novel encompasses the big thing. A short story is usually limited to three characters, a novel can have twelve or more. A short story usually is limited to a 24 hour period, a novel can cover years. A short story has a simple plot, a novel has a complex plot. A short story usually has one setting, a novel multiple settings.
All of these are generalizations, but it gives you an idea what length is best for your story. And with all rules of writing, these are also available for crushing and breaking to your heart's desire.
Sunday, June 20, 2004
Day Three of the KBWC
The first session of the day was It's not right for our list at this time. Oh, how many of us have heard that one? The moderator was Lael Morgan (co-publisher of Epicenter Press) with Bill Sherwonit (Alaskan nature writer), Rich Chiappone (adjunct professor in creative writing at UAA's Kachemak Bay Campus) and Leslie Meredith (editor at Free Press a division of S/S owned by Viacom) on the panel. Basically it was a ninety minutes session pertaining to how hard it is to bet an agent and published.
They didn't toss this number around, but according to Bowker, who is in charge of the ISBNs, in 2003, 175,000 books were published. That's a lot of books, but the majority came from indie publishers, self-publishers and what typically get lumped into the dotcom/subsidy/vanity publishers. For the purest, yes, I know the difference, but this is about the over all picture of publishing. I'm not going to take the time to explain each and every one pertaining to this session. The point is, to get a large publisher you basically need an agent. And some agents are closing their doors and going to the literary magazines to find new voices.
Leslie Meredith did say the industry sold 20% less in 2003 than in 2002. Where did those readers go? She doesn't know and anyone who can find those readers has a bestseller on their hands. Or a future in marketing. She said normally when the hardcover editions have a decrease, the paper editions increase by that amount. Not so this last year. Those readers disappeared.
Then to add insult to injury, the large houses are having a hard time getting press for their books. Leslie said they put out a wonderful book about alzheimers. Barnes and Noble won't stock it. Even after they were able to get it some air time after President Reagan's death.
Yeah, it left most of us wanting to jump from the balcony, but the truth, that is the state of publishing. Even with these grim facts, books are being published, people are reading them (not all of them) and publishers and agents are still looking for new voices.
Rich Chiappone talked about when is the right time to get an agent. Of course, he really stepped into it, when he said he got his agent before he needed one, much like he got married before he needed to. Then he had to wait for the laughter to die and try to explain he wasn't talking about his current wife, but his ex-wife. His agent came to him. It didn't hurt when Tobias Wolff showed a story of Rich's to Tobias's agent. Rich also read us the names of agents who have approached him after finding his short stories in literary magazines. If the name Nat Sobel doesn't mean anything to you, then do some research. My ears perked up and I swear, I was drooling on the table.
But I think the most important message was early in the panel and it came from Bill Sherwonit. Bill admits, he's one of the few Alaskan authors who earns his living with his writing, so maybe his attitude is a luxury. I hope not. I hope it's one that we all can embrace. Bill reminded us that writing has two sides. There is the creative side and the business side to writing. He said that normally when the business side isn't doing all that well, the creative side is doing great.
I know I fall into the trap of thinking the whole thing is a waste of time and I'm failing if the business side isn't doing great. But yeah, most of the time, I'm still pleased with the creative side of the business. Now if I can remember that when rejections pour in, I'll be much happier.
The next session was THE ROAD TO PUBLISHING: When to Find a Guide, and When to Go It Alone. Take all the comments I had about Rich Chiappone and put them here. I got it confused. Oops. Lael Morgan was also on this panel, with Leslie Meredith and Ann Chandonnet (Alaskan poet, nonfiction writer, journalist, editor, book reviewer and sometimes writes fiction). The moderator was Marybeth Holleman.
I think this is the session when Leslie Meredith shared all the depressing information about the state of publishing, too. Lael Morgan did talk about self-publishing. I'm not going to say too much about it, because as she said, there are conditions when self-publishing is a serious option and other times when it's extremely risky.
A lady in the audience did state that one of their books was self-published and another one is with a publisher. Both are in the same field. The one with the publishers brings in 4K a year for them. The one they self-published brings in 170K a year for them. Caveat. Their books are nonfiction, in a technical area and they know their market and how to find their market.
The one thing they all agreed about was self-publishing does not carry the stigma it used to carry. My own warning: know what you're doing before attempting to self-publish. I've studied the business side of publishing for over two years now and I know one thing. I'm not qualified to attempt to do it at this stage. I don't know enough.
The next session was LIES, INFORMATION, FACT, NARRATION with John Keeble. Yesterday John presented the session on FULLY IMAGINED FICTION. Since I enjoyed that workshop, I passed up Susan Power's workshop.
Yesterday John came in with no game plan and winged his workshop. Today, he was prepared. He had notes, actually, a speech for us. Oh, John needs to wing it more often. His workshops are alive and full of information when he wings them. He was the one who said he doesn't believe in outlines or character charts because they are too organized. Yeah, I can see where he works best without too much organization. The one thing I took from this workshop is a quote he read, or thinks he read, but can't find again. The average American is lied to 400 times a day. This includes the spin from the news, advertising, billboards, etc.
Anyway, the workshop pertained to not bending the truth in either fiction or nonfiction. We talked about the implied contract between the author and reader. I wish I had come away with some great words of wisdom, but I didn't.
The last session was COMMON QUERY LETTER AND MANUSCRIPT MISTAKES with Lael Morgan. I didn't take notes. Since my query letters tend to get close to a 75% request for material, I think I've finally mastered the art of writing the query letter. There was very little about manuscript mistakes and most of those pertained to nonfiction. Still, it was nice attending a workshop where I didn't have to do a lot of thinking.
Monday, June 21, 2004
Day Four of the KBWC
My rear end is dragging in it's tracks. I don't remember the last time I was this exhausted.
Enough whining. On to day four.
The morning session was IS THERE AN ALASKAN LITERATURE?: THE VOICE OF ALASKANS. Anne Hanley (see previous days for a short bio on her) was the moderator. Lael Morgan, Bill Sherwonit and Dave Hunsaker (an Alaskan playwright and screenwriter) were on the panel. There were several ideas tossed around during this panel. Dave H told the story about a waiter in California (Dave lives in Juneau and So Cal.) who overhead Dave talking about living in Alaska. The waiter stated he couldn't live in Alaska. Dave isn't sure why he responded the way he did, but he said, I believe you're right. Well, what happened was each time the waiter returned, he had come up with a reason why he could live in Alaska.
I'm not sure how the outsiders felt about this, but those of us who call Alaska home, understood what was being said. It's the myth of Alaska. Those who don't live here tend to have formed an opinion about Alaska. Some use their image of Alaska long enough to dismiss the state and all of us who live here. Others use their myth to dream about whatever it is they dream about.
Lael Morgan told the story of an outsider coming up to report on our state legislature. Of course the local reporters were offended. What could this outsider tell the world that those living here and knowing all the players couldn't say better. The truth? The outsider brought a new perspective to what he saw. The local reporters were too familiar with the players. They were missing things an unknown could pick up on.
Which lead to the next question: Why aren't they listening to the Alaskan voices? There were many ideas tossed around. The one I remember is that Alaska is too regional and the large publishers and film industry won't listen to our voices unless they come to us.
My personal opinion is this is pure hogwash. I haven't been outside the state of Alaska since 1997, yet I was able to land an agent. I didn't have to go to New York City and knock on doors to get attention.
I think those of us who want to write Alaskan have to find something specific to our spot of the world, yet give it a broad appeal. It's easier said than done, but it can be done. Here's a quote I was given on a very old manuscript from an agent: This manuscript is interesting in that it follows an Alaskan community through different hardships (which are universal), resulting in a nice blend of the universal meeting this one particular Alaskan town—or the broad meeting the specific. With that said, I think there are too many broad, sweeping universal issues....
Or do as I did, take something with universal hardship/appeal yet show it through the lens of your Alaskan community. The point is, if you set your story in New York City, you still have to find a topic that will be universal outside of New York City, too.
After the panel was over, I did talk to Anne Hanley and told her my story, how I had found an agent without leaving Alaska and if I could do it, others could to. We had a really nice conversation and both of us agreed, the state of publishing is bleak, but it's not undoable, even from Alaska.
I skipped the next panel and met a friend for an hour, just to visit and unwind. I returned in time for lunch and the presentation by Ernestine Hayes. Ernestine teaches creative writing at the University of Alaska Southeast. Prior to her performance, we chatted for a few minutes. We discussed why the voices of Alaskans aren't being heard outside of our communities.
I gave her a quick rundown of some of my thoughts. I told her about the one book I'd written, what I'd tried to do and show. She really liked my concept and how I had executed it. Then I told her the changes I was asked to make. I think all of us who have had input from agents or editors from outside, have found this to be true. New York City thinks of Alaska as an exotic locale. What I learned was they really want to see the landscape. To those who live outside Alaska, they find the romance or exoticness in the glaciers, mountains, snow, midnight sun, northern lights, etc. To those of us who live here, we find the exoticness in the culture. I gave her a few examples of the characters in the book. We talked about some of the descriptions showing the Alaskanness about the character. Yet, for some reason, there are stereotypes in regards to what makes someone southern, but when it comes to Alaskans, unless you live or have lived here, you don't get these little things that show this character is Alaskan.
Ernestine wondered why there was such a market for southern literature, but not Alaskan. I told her that I think it's because right now, the gatekeepers are wanting more in the way of landscape and less on the culture. So, I see it that slowly we'll have to give them more landscape than we think is necessary, but slip in our culture.
After lunch, her preformance was Storytalking: Performing Your Words. She's a soft-spoken woman, but she held us all captive as she performed her words for us. I wish I could write the words of how powerful and alive her performance was, but I can't find the words to describe it. All I know, we have lost something in our culture when we lost the art of storytalking. While plays and films are nice, there are stories that benefit from the oral telling of them. If you get the chance to see someone 'storytalking' do so. You won't regret it.
The first afternoon session was So, What's It About with David Bradley.
Three of the questions were from his workshop on THE PLOT.
While these sound like very simple questions to answer, they really aren't. So many times, we get tied up in the details. He had several in the room tell him what they want to write about. Almost everyone told him details, but not what they were really writing about.
If I were to answer the first three questions about the manuscript I just finished (CoaAG) and the one I've just started (LatFB&G), they would be something like this:
WHAT DO I WANT TO WRITE ABOUT?
(CoaAG) I want to write about what happens when you discover most of what you believed was a lie.
(LatFB&G) I want to write about what makes a family a real family.
WHAT DO I WANT TO SAY ABOUT IT?
(CoaAG) I want to say you aren't alone. Many people learn at various stages in their lives most of what they believed as truth were lies.
(LatFB&G) I want to say that if you aren't born into a family beneficial to you, you can create your own family within your circle of friends and community.
WHY DO I WANT TO SAY IT?
(CoaAG) This is the part most writers won't admit. I wanted to write this fictional story to make sense out of something information I learned about my own life. Instead of writing about my own story, I found it was easier and fun to find lies for my characters and see how they'd react. Would they handle it with more grace than I did? It's ego. Okay. That's the ugly truth. Most of us get a germ of an idea because of something that we've observed in our own lives or those close to us and we want to explore the options through fictional characters. Much cheaper than therapy.
(LatFB&G) I wanted to explore families and what makes a cluster of people a family after I observed a friend of my husband hide in a bottle after losing his family. Maybe there was a part of me, that wondered if I wrote this story, I might be able to figure out why my kids biological father could walk away without looking back. But I'm not nice enough to come up with a storyline to redeem him. It's easier to redeem fictional characters.
The details to the first three questions come in the last questions. Anyone can steal these ideas and we'll have different stories at this stage.
WHY SHOULD ANYBODY ELSE CARE?
Well, I have to create interesting characters so the reader does care.
WHAT CAN I DO TO MAKE THEM CARE?
That's where our craft comes into play.
WHAT DO I WANT READERS TO DO, THINK OR FEEL?
There are scenes where I want the reader to laugh. Other scenes I'll want the reader to cry. An occasional scene I'll want the reader to get angry. But by the end of the book, I want the reader to have hope. I want them to feel they can overcome whatever it is they are facing in their own lives. I like happy endings. Endings full of hope and potential. So, that is what I want the reader to see and feel.
The last session was Writing From Intuition with Susan Power. Susan Power is the author of Grass Dancer and Roofwalker. I found her first book a few years ago and really enjoyed it. So, it was a treat for her to show up in Homer, Alaska.
The one thing she wanted all of us to take away from her workshop was the importance of maintaining your personal writing power.
That doesn't mean you should ignore all critical criticism, but to know what will help you and what doesn't. I know it's easy for me at times to second guess myself and think someone knows what's best for my writing more than I do.
We need to find the truth in our fiction.
Her tips for writing if you have a limited amount of time each day to write. First prepare yourself mentally and emotionally before writing. Remember the writing is not about you. Any draft can be thrown away. The writer is just a creative participant. If you're scared, write down your fears/insecurities and then set them aside. Ask yourself for help. Each of us has strengths and abilities that we aren't even aware we have. A lot of times these strengths and abilities will come to us when we are between being awake and sleep. Keep a dream journal. Use music to set the mood for your characters. Meditate and chant to get the benefit of rhythm. Take one of your characters and write using first person, "I remember..., I remember when..., etc. Visualize your hands open so you can recieve and fill them with words, ideas and stories.
Tuesday, June 22, 2004 Day Five of the KBWC
The first session was Setting the Hook with Rich Chiappone. The first thing we all hear is how we have to grab the readers attention. If we don't do that, we are dead in the water. There are some authors who can write pages of rambling nothingness and get published. Why? Because they've proven they can do it the way the rest of us have to do it. They're famous and considered the best of the best. John Updike can ramble if he wants to. Jody Pryor can't. It's that simple.
A little background history. Rich Chiappone writes short stories. He's got enough people harping on him to write a novel, I won't do it here. I have read his short story collection, Water of an Undetermined Depth. It's a great book. I'm not a fan of short stories, but after hearing him read one of his at last year's conference, I went immediately to the table our local bookstore had set up and bought a copy of his book. I've never regretted that purchase.
Rich is also an editor for Alaska Quarterly Review. I'm giving all this background, so you will understand how he knows all that I'm about to share with you. It's more of the grim part of publishing. Before you read any further, remember what Bill Sherwonit said a few days ago. Writing has two sides. The creative and business side. Just because the business side isn't going well, the creative side may be in perfect shape.
Literary journals. I believe all short story writers know this. It's getting harder and harder to place short stories. The number of magazines accepting them, are getting fewer and fewer.
Alaska Quarterly Review receives 3,000 submissions a year. They publish 30 short stories in the same time frame. Out of those submissions, 20% are killed from the first page. Rich is one of the first readers. He grabs twenty or so submissions at a time. He takes them home. He owns his business (a construction business), he teaches a few creative writing classes, he writes his own short stories, plus he has a family. I'm confident that Rich doesn't have to spend a lot of time shopping, not even for bait if he has his way, plus he wants to spend time using the bait he appears to be able to talk his wife into buying for him. His story is not unique. He is a typical reader.
Except he does one thing that I admire. If he's had a bad day, or a few drinks, he will not read any of the submissions. He wants to give the author the best advantage he can.
He opens the package, removes the cover letter and puts it to the side. Then he leaves the submission in the package, removing enough to read the first paragraph. If it's good, he reads more. If it's not, it's never completely removed from the package.
This is a small literary magazine. The old Story magazine used to get 25,000 submissions a year. They published 100 stories a year. Glimmer Train receives 36,862 submissions a year. They publish 50 stories a year. So, as you can see, the odds aren't great.
The two places to submit short stories is slick magazines which pay very nicely, but the competition is fierce. There's five or so slick magazines that publish fictional short stories. The other option is to submit to the little literary magazines, such as Alaska Quarterly Review, Ploughshare, etc. There are around 2,000 of those. Unfortunately, they don't pay. The smaller and newer the publication, the better chance you have to build your publishing credits.
So, there's the gloom.
Let's set the hook. How?
The content and/or language has to be interesting. Content is what happens and language is how you say it. If your language is gorgeous, the less you have to make things happen.
I don't write with flowery prose. So, I have to make things happen and right out of the box.
As an aside, he said to avoid titles that explain the theme of the story.
How do you keep the reader reading? Simple, the same way you keep your friends listening to gossip. Trouble. Trouble is interesting. It creates tension and uncertainty. We want to know what will happen. It doesn't matter if it's a story or gossip about your neighbor.
How can you create trouble? Change products conflict, trouble and uncertainty. He gave a first sentence to a short story and I'm paraphrasing, plus I can't remember the author. When my father turned 86, he started stealing. Now there's a change that intrigues, plus suggests conflict, trouble and uncertainty.
All of this creates mystery. The reader is asking, What then?
Another way to capture the reader is to set your story in an exotic location. This doesn't mean it has to be a tropical island or the Swiss Alps. Exotic actually means, not familiar.
Another way to hook the reader is to be comical. People want to be around people who are funny. Have funny narrator can go a long way to create empathy for the character.
And when all those fail, then learn how to write lyrical, so it doesn't matter how horrible the story is, the language is so beautiful the reader will follow you.
In the Art of Ficton by John Gardner is says the reader needs to remain in a vivid (lifelike) and continuous dream (make reader forget they are reading). Another suggested book was Writing Fiction by Burroway.
To finish up my notes on that session (I can hear all of you cheering :-)). Trouble helps to create empathy.
As the author you have to establish the main character and if it's written first person, creating empathy is extremely important.
Always remember, the more specific a detail, the more believable. He gave an example of a defendant at a trial. If the defendant states they couldn't have done it, because they were home that night, the jury probably won't be as likely to buy their story. But if the defendant states, I couldn't have done it, because I was home. I was watching American Idol and Bo Rex, my French poodle knocked my beer over, ruining my silk blouse, the jury is more likely to buy that as the truth. There's so many details to make it sound believable, even if it was made up on the spot, pretty much like I just did with the details here.
Your story needs plot (conflict), character(s) (people who are dynamic and interesting) and a setting (the more exotic the better).
Each of us knows which of these three is our strengths. Work with your strength and you should be able to hook the reader. Then all you have to do is reel them in.
The last session (it was a short day, which is normal for the last day) was WHICH LITERARY DOOR, with Rich Chiappone moderating. Leslie Meredith, John Keeble and Lee Gutkind (founder of Creative Nonfiction a journal, and author of several books) were on the panel.
They discussed how to determine if your story is best told through nonfiction, fiction, novel, or short article, or a haiku. As one of the panelist stated, a six generation saga wouldn't work as a haiku, but it could work as a fiction or nonfiction book.
The point is, no matter what you write, there must be a universal cord. Basically it's this big story that sells the book, but it's the personal story (your own or that of your fictional characters) that drives the book. As they were discussing some of the decisions they'd made on various works, it sparked an idea for me in regards on an old manuscript of mine that I'd never found the right angle to tell the story.
The vital message I took away from his speech was to never, ever give up. If you are knocked down nine times, get up ten times. I agree with him. It's not the best writers who are published. It's the ones who are most persistent and keep learning more about the art of creating and the business of publishing.
© June 2004 Jody Pryor
http://www.jodypryor.com