There's a lot to learn when it comes craft: world building, setting, dialogue, word choice, etc. There's a lot to learn about the publishing industry, too. It's competitive, challenging, and loooong. My understanding of both craft and the publishing world (self-pub and trad) has been (and is!) a line upon line process. I've accessed tidbits in a variety of ways: writing courses, blogs, YouTube videos, author readings, etc. Today, however, I want to give a shout-out to one of my all-time favorite affordable online writing conferences that has helped me tap into writing life, craft, and the publishing industry: WriteOnCon! What is WriteOnCon? It's an online writing conference--- a three-day weekend event--- focused on kid-lit, open to the public. Traditionally published or agented authors (as well as agents and editors!) do workshops, panels, discussions, podcasts, and blogs on a variety of topics geared for those of us wanting to write for kids. And it's all online, so no need to get a hotel, fly or drive to a conference center. As much as I love in-person conferences, I feel like a lot of writing conferences are often far away from where I live. It's also a perk that you can wear your pajamas! How much does WriteOnCon cost? Like I said, it's extremely affordable, ranging from $10-$25, depending on the membership you want to purchase. Personally, I feel like you get a lot of content for your buck! This year, I purchased a full admission ($15) and I was able to access all the content. The only thing out of my reach was content from past years, but I've attended the last three or more, so I feel like it's okay that I don't have that access because I don't plan on diving into those older videos, blogs, and podcasts. I know I have more than enough to go through for the current conference. What can I expect at WriteOnCon? Like I said, there are a variety of blogs, podcasts, panels and such, some live-streaming, others pre-recorded. And, yes, if you have the full-admission ticket, you can view the live sessions after they've happened as well as live. The advantage of attending live is you can ask questions! I always get a little tickled when my question gets answered. I'm like... whoa... they're talking to me! It's fun! There's also feedback sessions you can participate in, as well as the critique boutique, which is where you can pay for a specific professional to look at your work. I find, however, that I get more than enough for money by simply exploring the various blogs and podcasts and such. There are a variety of topics each year. I'll list some of my favorites from this year so you can have a taste of what you might expect if you choose to attend WriteOnCon in the future:
Again, these topics and titles are about 5% of the conference... this year! There's so much more. You usually get a week or two, so even though I try to take "time off" for the first or second day of the conference I always need another week or so to go through the rest of the content. And, honestly, I don't always get through all of it, which (in my opinion) is fine because WriteOnCon can feel a bit like drinking from a firehose. You can take notes, skip content that doesn't apply to you, and rewatch your favorite stuff. There's more to learn
I wish I could tell you I know everything there is to know about writing and publishing, but I can't. The truth is, I'm still learning and navigating the world as I write, revise, query, and daydream about signing on with a literary agent and publishing house. But does WriteOnCon make me feel like I'm a little closer to my publishing dreams? Absolutely! At the very least, I feel like I belong in the "writing" and "publishing" club even though--- I haven't published, yet. Attending WriteOnCon--- at whatever degree I'm able--- shows myself that I'm serious about this career choice, that I am getting closer to my dreams of traditionally publishing.
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I took courses on poetry in college a few years back but hadn't thought too much about being a poet because I knew I wanted to write prose fiction. That is... until I discovered and fell in love with verse novels like Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate, Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga, and Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai.
The year 2020 was tough on a lot of people, me included, so when it came time to think about the new year, 2021, I decided to keep my resolution(s) simple but worthwhile. This is when I came up with my "year of poetry" goal. I figured I wanted to write a verse novel, like the ones I'd read, but I did some other things as part of my year of poetry. I spent the past year reading as many Middle Grade verse novels as I could, and I started a poetry blog---a place where I can practice short poetry. I professionally published two poems this year, one of which was read from outer space. (lol) I also attended several poetry readings (mostly virtually) and attended writing workshops, including one about writing and revising Middle Grade verse novels with the amazing Rajani LaRocca (author of the verse novel Red, White, and Whole) and Chris Baron (author of verse novels All of Me and The Magical Imperfect)! I've made a lot of New Year's resolutions in my day, but I think this is one I will always remember. Maybe because it was so open? Maybe because I did so many cool things related to poetry? Either way, I finally consider myself a poet! I call that a successful resolution. What resolutions have you made? What resolutions will you be making for next year? I was cruising around on social media when my favorite local bookstore, Bookman's, posted something about a virtual speculative poetry workshop... happening today... in four hours. What is speculative poetry? I wondered. I'd never heard of it! I'm still in my year of poetry, so I decided I'd like to learn more. I know how our new world works, though. There's usually only X number of participants allowed in a zoom meeting. Was I too late to sign up? Would there be space for me? I found the registration email and asked. I received a reply instantly, and was told that (of course!) I could still join, and I was given the zoom link to jump in when it started, which I did! At first, I thought there might have been something wrong with my zoom. I could see the Bookman's dude, Todd, and someone else who must be the presenter, but where were all the participants? It turned out that I was the only one. ha ha! Well, y'all missed out! What inspires us? After brief introductions, the presenter asked us what inspires us to read. In other words, what keeps us reading a book? I said characters. I didn't say it, but I didn't finish Twilight because I couldn't stand Bella. I couldn't imagine going on an adventure with her, no matter how popular or engaging the plot premise was. Todd said setting, which is another great answer! Especially as we were talking about sci-fi and speculative fiction. Some of the best stories I know are those set in space or in fantastical worlds. The presenter agreed and said that the reason we read sci-fi or speculative fiction is because we want to be somewhere other than where we are. What is speculative writing? In short, it's asking speculative questions:
An example of the first one would be, what if there were a school for witches and wizards? (Harry Potter.) The second might be if only humanity could travel through intergalactic space (Star Trek), and the third might be if these games go on, we're going to be in deep sludge (Hunger Games). Writing Practice As you'd expect from a writing workshop, there were a few writing exercises. The presenter gave about 5 minutes for each and played some music while we drafted. Because I wanted to combine the speculative writing we'd just learned about with my poetry practice, I wrote poems for all the exercises! I posted my poems in the poetry tab, but I'll also include links to the individual poems associated with the exercises... Exercise #1 Write about a triumph or challenge. I wrote about finding a single Oreo in the back of the package. Exercise #2 What would that triumph or challenge look like 200 years ago? (I wrote about 2,000 years ago.) Exercise #3 Rewrite that triumph or challenge as though you were using a superpower and/or how that triumph or challenge will be described in generations to come. These were supposed to be separate exercises, but I combined them. We ran out of time, so after I read my last poem, we got disconnected. (Oops!) But I had a really fun time, and I think I might try these exercises out again sometime.
I'm glad I learned about speculative poetry because it makes me think about poetry in all genres. Poetry in sci-fi. Poetry in horror. Poetry in romance. Poetry in adventure. Poetry in... every day life! What poetry should I try next? Let me know in the comments. This post is based on my personal notes while taking the InkVoices course. All videos, power points, and other material from the class are purposefully left out to preserve course privacy. A couple months ago, I was scrolling through the social media and I found a post about about a verse novel intensive course. I stopped in my tracks. (eeeerrrr!) Verse novel? That's what I'm writing right now. Taught by Rajani LaRocca and Chris Baron? I've read their books. Great! I signed up right away... Who is Rajani LaRocca? She is a talented MG (Middle Grade) and PB (Picture Book) author. Most notably, she wrote the award winning Red, White, and Whole, a verse novel about balancing life as an Indian American and finding solace in a family member's illness. I liked her book because of the running metaphor (blood) throughout the book, but also because of the simple and beautiful poetry throughout. Who is Chris Baron? He is also a talented MG (Middle Grade) author and poet. He wrote All of me, a verse novel about teen weight and learning to accept yourself. He also wrote, The Magical Imperfect, which is another verse novel about a boy who is selectively mute and a girl who won't leave her house because of a skin condition. I enjoyed both of his books and recommend you read them, too! What was the intensive course? The intensive course was online. There were two live-online workshops, weekly activities, and included two or more bonus "office hours" where participants could ask questions either before or during times the two authors were available. There were also opportunities to post your own poetry, based on the activities within the course, and ways to critique and meet with other poets and writes of verse novels. Totally worth it! Workshop 1: Writing a Verse Novel by Rajani LaRocca The first live (and recorded) workshop was about verse novels in general and how to write them. For the record--- because I asked--- you can say in "Novels in Verse (NIV)" or "verse novels." Both are acceptable in the community, although I've noticed verse novel more often. That might just be me, though! We reviewed some "basic" poetry terms, such as
We also talked about how poetry is like music! We have:
How do you write a verse novel? This is something we talked a lot about in Rajani's workshop, in the course, and during the office hours. A verse novel, a story told in a collection of poems, can be drafted in a lot of different ways. In general, though, writing a verse novel is like writing any other genre. You need a character. You need a conflict. So, brainstorming and developing setting, background, etc. are important to the process. For Rajani, she said she had a metaphor (blood), and wasn't sure how to make it into a story, so she wrote a bunch of poems until she found her voice. I loved when she talked about having a "key defining poem," or a keystone poem that helps you see the heart of your story. This can be especially useful if you end up drafting poems "out of order." Workshop 2: Revising a Verse Novel by Chris Baron The second live session was taught by Chris. He talked about revising, and one of the things I liked that he talked about was--- in response to the question about how to begin revising--- he said that most of us have already begun. We know we're supposed to revise after drafting, but he says, "how do you not?" revise as you go? So, yes, we need to write without revising, but there may be a bit of revising along the way. Finding our "Why" He also talked about finding our purpose for why we wrote our stories that we're revising. Understanding our why can help us home in on our themes or messages we were hoping to share but didn't know we were saying them while we were drafting. Common Revision Techniques Chris also gave a list of techniques we can try as we revise our verse novels, things like:
Looking at the "big picture" and "ask big questions" I think the advice he gave in this section is useful no matter what you're writing. Looking at the big picture and asking big questions means deciding if
Making hard decisions Chris says he's often asked about how to cut or how to make the hard decisions about what can stay, what needs to go, and what needs to be added. He says for All of Me, he had drafted 70,000 words, which is ridiculously long for this genre! He had to make hard cuts. Of course, talking to critique partners, his agent, and other trusting people helped him make a lot of those hard decisions, but ultimately, he had to do them himself. He had to make the cuts. For his second book, The Magical Imperfect, he said he had (almost) the opposite problem. He had to add in. Basically, every manuscript is different. You need to ask the big questions and make the tough calls. It's the only way your story will get to where it needs to be. Final thoughts on the course
I'm glad I registered and took this course! Yes, there was a bit of time involved, not only watching the workshops and doing the activities, but I feel like my confidence in finishing my verse novel is growing. In fact, I feel like I'm on fire! I wonder if I really can finish before the end of the year. So, I'm rewatching one of my all time favorite early 2000s TV shows, The Office, the American version. Look, I don't watch a lot of TV, but when I do, it's the good stuff, okay? Anyway, my husband hasn't watched them in order, and I don't know if you're like me, but when I find out that someone I love hasn't seen something that I really like, I feel an obligation to make sure they follow through. Also, I really enjoy seeing someone experience a story that I love for the first time. So we've spent the last week or more binge watching Season One, Two and now Three every evening after dinner. I think it was right before we started Season Two that my husband came home and said, "So, you know Pam and Angela in the show? They're best friends and have a podcast about The Office." Draw drop. "Really, really?" I asked. "Really. Really," he said. After thinking about it, I remembered someone telling me about it, but I'm not a big podcast listener. I'm trying to be better--- ever since I was a semi-guest on Story Chat Radio, which is also an excellent podcast, especially for writers looking for storytelling techniques from movie watching. Anyway, I really love The Office Ladies podcast, and I'm anxious to catch up. I'm literally two years behind in the podcast.
I won't tell the story as great as the Office Ladies, so check out the podcast episode on "Basketball," but they told their life stories on that bench and became best friends. Afterwards, they are going back to their cars or whatever, and they're skipping and singing. Steve Carell (Michael Scott) is behind them, and when Jenna and Angela see him, they're (I imagine) a little embarrassed that someone saw them being goofy, and the star of the show of all people, but Steve Carell smiles and tells them that no matter what happens with the show (because they didn't know how long The Office would be on the air), this, their friendship is what they will take away from the experience.
When I heard this story, I thought about the various writing experiences I've had, like #PitMad and writing workshops (in-person and virtual), and I want to take this advice from Steve Carell. It's nice to get picked up by an agent (I imagine!) because you did a Twitter Pitch or rocked the showcase at the end of a mentorship. It's great to get good constructive criticism that helps your work get to where it needs to be, but what if those things don't happen? What will you take from these workshops? For me, it's the connections and relationships. I have made some near and dear friends because I joined a writer-thing. Behind the scenes The more I listen to these behind the scenes podcast for The Office, the more I realize and the more I think about the "behind the scenes" to my favorite books. I've talked about this before in other blog posts, but too often as writers, we compare our works in progress to published books that we love, and it's not right. The truth is that the media we enjoy from The Office to Because of Winn-Dixie, has been through a process and there are often hundreds of people involved in making the final product what it is. The Office Ladies often talk about the backstage help, from prop supervisors to hair stylists, to directors and writers and editors to set designers. It's not a one-person show, folks! And that's true for writing and publishing books. We have critique parters, beta readers, sensitive readers, agents, editors, publishers, book designers and more! Collaboration The Office Ladies often talk about the collaboration they had on the set. They had writers acting with them: BJ Novak (Ryan/ the temp), Paul Lieberstein (Toby), Mindy Kaling (Kelly) among others, which allowed the actors to pitch ideas, but the writers also pitched ideas to each other and they had a "candy bag," which was a bag of unused ideas. This hits home to me as a writer because I often feel like my writing journey is a solo journey. It's an introvert activity, but it doesn't have to be lonely, and it's okay to ask for help. I can't tell you how much I love bouncing ideas off my husband and friends! Successful writing is collaborative. Have fun! Some of the best shots for The Office, based on what I've learned from the Office Ladies, come from when they were "seizing the moment," "asking the right question," or when they were simply "having fun!" Some of the best comedic moments (for example the exercise ball that Jim stabs with scissors while Dwight is on it) were accidents, improv, or simply an idea that they didn't know would work or not, but did! This is a huge takeaway for me as a writer because I often get stuck in my own head. Writing is meant to be fun and a discovery process, but that discovery and play doesn't happen unless you try something new, if you do something brave or experiment. If not, you won't know what you're missing. So these are my writer takeaways (so far!) from rewatching The Office and, more specifically, enjoying the Office Ladies podcast. Are you a fan of The Office? Do you like trivia or backstage stuff? Tell me about it in the comments! As you may know, my 2021 goal is to do everything poetry. That means reading it, writing it, and learning all I can about it. It's been almost a full three months since I started, and I thought I'd share what I've learned so far about writing poetry.
Don't over think it Oftentimes, we think of poetry as a certain thing. We have an image of Dr. Seuss, for example, or we think we have to have a rhyme scheme (ABAAB or something!). Yes, those things you're thinking about are examples of poetry, but it's not the only kind! I learned from my creative writing teacher that most contemporary doesn't even rhyme! So once you know that it doesn't have to look a certain way, you have a lot more freedom, I think. Look for examples Over the past month, I've read eleven books with poetry from ten different poets, but I've also scoured the Internet for examples as well. I find that the more I read, the more ideas I get about structure, technique, and ideas for topics! I've seen poets use onomatopoeia, imagery, symbolism, personification, repetition and so much more. I love reading book in verses best because I like how several poems, collectively, can tell a story! (Also because my current work in progress is a book in verse.) You can also read craft books specifically about poetry as well. The two I've read so far are The Triggering Town by Richard Hugo and A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver. (I enjoyed the latter best!) Get specific and get personal I learned this early on (in my creative writing class), but it's something I think about every time I write a poem. I draft and then I think:
Practice play! Lastly, one of the most important lessons I've had in poetry so far is learning to be okay with play. Sure, I might write a crummy poem, but I won't know it's crummy until I write it. Most of the time, after I've written the "crummy" poem, I realize that it isn't that bad at all and/or that if I tweak it or switch a word or two, it gets better. The sky is the limit when it comes to poetry play, though! You can cut lines wherever and however you feel it makes sense. You can write in fragments, in lists, in bullets, in pictures. You can write a series of poems with the same title. you can indent. You can use italics. You can repeat the same phrase or word. You can combine subjects or ideas that aren't usually combined. You can write sounds, purposely forget to capitalize or never put any periods. Play. Play. Play! Practice. Practice. Practice! I still have a lot to learn, but I hope these first few lessons inspire you to learn to poetry or explore the poetry we have in our world. There's a lot! If you want to see my poetry, check out the poetry tab on my website. If you want to see what I'm reading, check out my Instagram posts. Happy poetry-ing!
I've been thinking about this a lot lately.
What expectations do I have for myself when I wake up? What will I do that day? I admit that sometimes I make big plans. Or I think about the goals I have for the month, week or year, like writing and publishing a book, for example. And I think about how I'm falling short. I was on Instagram the other day and another writer talked about setting manageable writing goals for yourself. She's a mom and admits that she has to often sneak small moments to write her book. She's constantly adjusting her goals. Flexibility. Flexibility. That's the key! I think that can apply to all of us, parents or not. It's easy to skip past the "small stuff" that we do and think that we haven't accomplished anything today. But I think if we start the day right--- by recognizing that we can't always control everything that happens--- we can see the small progress we are making each and every day. We can look in the mirror at the end of the day and say, "[Name], [age]. Today... I did the best I could." I'm taking Introduction to Fiction this semester, and my instructor gave us an interesting writing exercise to do. At first, I was hesitant to try it out, but I think it's now one of my favorite writing exercises ever! Here are the instructions: This writing prompt is to force you into thinking about and incorporating dialogue into your stories. First, read the small essay...about dialogue. [Attached below.] It should help significantly. Second, read "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemmingway. After reading the story, I want you to work on your own scene/story that is dialogue focused. You must put two characters into a setting and force them into communication. I want to see at least 20 lines of dialogue. Make sure you are following the crafting tips presented in the essay "On Dialogue."...This exercise should not be a full story, but only a scene of character exploration through dialogue... It was easy to decide which two characters I wanted to use, but I wasn't sure about what situation would force them to talk to each other, so I asked Hubby for a suggestion. "Seven minutes in heaven," he said. "You mean, put them in a closet?" I asked. "Yeah!" I carried my laptop over to him and sat next to him on the couch. "But it says here at the bottom of the instructions: Allow the actions of the characters and the setting of their locale to help tell the story. That means I need to describe a closet." "So?" "Okay..."
Unexpected World Building Using a closet unexpectedly made me learn more about the world these characters live in. The stuff in the closet told me about the weather outside (flip flops, versus umbrellas, versus skis and snow boots) and learn more about the person's home they were in. Yeah, I learned about a character that wasn't even part of the dialogue just by looking at what kind of stuff was in his closet. I didn't expect that! This made me think about what would be in my other character's closet. hmmm...
Long story short, Hubby and I went to LA a couple weeks ago as a last-minute-hurrah before school started back up. We went to Universal Studios, drank butter beer, rode the Jurassic Park ride (my first time! Hubby got soaked!), and just played around the park and had a lot of fun!
But... I also did some research for my book. Our hotel was two blocks from the LA Metro which takes you to not only Universal Studios, but also Chinatown, which is where a large part of my WIP takes place. Hubby was such a good sport, walking in humid 90 degree weather, letting me brainstorm and bounce ideas for my book with him. He even walked all the way to the Chinatown Branch Library (which is where the MC's dad works) with me, took pictures and did silly things like feel the walls of buildings, smell the air and observe people around us. I didn't have a lot of time (only one afternoon), but I did the best I could. I'm so glad I was prepared this time (I was in Chinatown in January this year, but didn't have a clue what I wanted to look at), which brings me to my short list of on-location research tips. Some of these came from my awesome Scribophile group! This blog post is more for me than anymore else right now. I just want to record some of my thoughts about being on-location, what I've learned and store some pictures that I took while I was there. I'm glad I did the following: Research Tips
I'm currently taking an online creative writing class at the community college I work for. It's called "Structuring the Novel." Along with lots of workshopping, we've completed a few writing exercises. This last week, we watch the short video below.
Anyway, I'm not quite half way through my first draft yet, and I've been struggling with my story structure for a while now. I'm hoping to complete it this month with NaNoWriMo, but as a part-time panster, I've been having a hard time getting words on the page. I admit right now that I spent far too much time on this assignment. After I plotted the ups and downs that I've already written, and then the ups and downs for what I want to happen, I wrote bullet points, explaining the progression of the story. As I did this, it solidified what I had in my head (and in my messy notebooks). It also helped me come up with some other ideas, too. And then I got more ideas as I shared my chart with my husband. I think the more ways we think about or explain our stories, the more real they become.
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