From the IN Box

*****Congratulations to Roxie.  I read all the hook entries to a room full of Thanksgiving pre-guests without showing them the picture.  Many of the entries had votes and brought a lot of comments. Roxie’s hook had the most people wanting to keep reading and find out what happens next.

True, the results might have been different if I’d shown the picture, but like a book, I wanted the listeners to be influenced only by the words.

Thanks to everyone for playing, we’ll have more contests. So stay tuned.

By MykReeve

NanoWriMo is finished.

6 Chrysalis writers participated.

Here are some great thoughts from Ruth R. about the experience.

Once I set my mind to begin, the Nanowrimo discipline kicked in and I made a chose to write so many words a day until I completed. That was only a goal. As I met myself each day to write, discipline reinforced my attitude, attitude reinforced my discipline… and I was on a writing roll. Another plus of writing a story is that visiting there each day is like going on a vacation (an escape). I enjoyed going there each day to see what would happen, and reveled in the license I had as a writer to say and do what I wanted! (Sometimes a character told me different.

As I wrote I noted pieces I would revise.  In fact, my story was sandwiched between musings about starting nanawrimo and self analysis at the end. I have left it (anticlimatic) and will come back to it later. As for continuing writing I have set the goal of writing, revising, and accomplishing some stage of the writing process for poems and prose… each day.

I thank Chrysalis,again, for information about opportunities and encouragement.

Funny thing…after I hit 51,350 at 9:20PM on the 29th I decided NOT to send it to nanowrimo. I wrote my piece, set next steps and told my writing pals about it (I did it!)..what more did I need for gratification!

The cheering sound you hear, Ruth  comes from your fellow writers, applauding and saying, “Well done.”

Anyone else want to share their experience?

Winner Announced Next Chrysalis

Thanks everyone who posted.  We had some very clever hooks.

Some of you got hung up in the “pending file”, but you’re posted now and your entries are in the hopper.

Visit Chrysalis on Wednesday, (Thanksgiving Eve) to hear who the winner of the hook contest is.

What?

You didn’t think I’d tell you, did you?  right now?  You knew I’d keep you on the HOOK.

Everyone had their humor and brilliance shining. It was fun and we’ll have more contests.

From the Beginning…

Okay,  Put your thinking caps on.

Your job is to come up with a simple sentence. The beginning hook for a story. It must be based off the picture below. Funny, sad…whatever.

Post your one sentence hooks in the comments. Enter as often as you wish.

We’ll announce the winner in a couple of weeks. I’m not sure what the prize is yet, but you’ll have to come to Chrysalis to get it.

Have fun. Get Creative.

Keep Entering Those Contests

Congratulations to Chrysalis’s very own Rose L. (see members’ bio).

She won a prestigious poetry competion, and netted fame, honor, and best of all….

a by-line and cash.

Rose was gracious enough to share the site, so you, too can enter those contests.

Click here for the Winning Writers link that gives you numerous contest options.

Good Luck.

Writing Unblocked

How do you unblock your ideas and get them onto paper?

Here are a few things I’ve tried with varying degrees  of success.

• Typing with the  monitor turned off.

• That way I can resist the urge to go back and read what I just wrote.

• Typing with out editing

Same principle. My goal is to get it on paper anyway I can, then go back and fix it.

Writing a few pages from a great novel in longhand

Sounds weird, but if I’m really stuck, there seems to be a kinesthetic connection between handwriting movement and jump starting the brain.  It reminds me of my first VW.  Sometimes I had to get it rolling and pop the clutch with it in gear to get the engine to turn over.

Music

You’ll kick yourself if you haven’t used this technique. The trick is to use the right kind of music. I have to use tunes without words because I find the lyrics distracting, but you may not. If it’s an action scene I use wild flamingo music or rah-rah fight tunes. If it’s a  pensive piece, then Enya.

Read a good book

Well, you should ALWAYS be reading a good book. But do more than read. Pay attention to the things that make you sad, happy, interested.  (I’ve tried reading really crappy books, thinking that I’d come away feeling that I could do better, but mostly I was disgusted that I’d wasted my time)

Take a long walk

I’ve walked a lot of  my characters’ problems away.  Sometimes I carry a small recorder with me, because I have the memory of a gnat and the brillant solution I found at Mile 1 is unavailable to my brain cells by Mile 4.

Yoga

This is part of the  mind/body connection. But there is something about opening your body that will unclog creativity.

There are more…lots more…

What do you do to keep the words rolling onto the page?

When Did It Pay to Sing in The Rain?

So….

In a chapter that I’m writing, I have  2 characters gazing at  Orion at 2 in the morning.

Wait a minute.

Is Orion still overhead at that time?

I’d better go to:     http://www.wolframalpha.com/    and check it out.

This is a computational website. It gives you encyclopedic details that a writer would love to have, without spending hours in research.

No more plotting on old calendars. Now you know if April 14, 1982 was on a Wednesday or a Thursday. It will also tell you the weather on that day.

Do you need a growth chart for a child? Want to know the signal for “G” in morse code? Compare an SAT score?

How about some data on deaths for that murder mystery you’re concocting?

Need some research info for the freelance article you’re putting together?

Give it a try. It’ll have you “Singing in the Rain.” [ by Adlolph Green and Betty Comden; released 1952.  The Movie made $120,420]

Wolframalpha told me that computes to 235.1 million in today’s dollars (in case you wanted to know).

Information for Writers

gadl's thesis

Hi lady writers,

I’m copying and pasting some important information from Terripatrick.  She put it in a comment that got hung up in a post, and I don’t want you to miss it.

“Here’s two wonderful agents that blog – and they really do love writers.
Jenny Bent: http://www.thebentagency.com/ and here’s a link to her take on conferences: http://www.thebentagency.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=60

“Kristen Nelson: http://pubrants.blogspot.com/ There’s tons of great information on this blog, she’s been posting for a long time and covers all kinds of publishing business topics.

I agree with Terri.  I like to set aside a few moments to read agent’s blogs. It keens one’s ability to keep up with what agents/publishers are searching for.

And Yes, they are still looking for crisp language with an inciting plot and memorable characters. But with 10-30 seconds to review your submission, your brilliance may be overlooked unless you have some help.

Check this out. Does anyone have other helpful blogs they’d like to add to this share?

Sweating the Details Before You Get to An Agent.

For Anagram Bookshop in Prague (by Kaspen)

When I first started presenting my work for critiques, I slapped it on paper any way I could. Through the years, I’ve noticed the better writers seem to take great pains not only in their words, but also in their presentation for informal discussion.

Even for a critique group their documents are  double-spaced, formatted with 1 inch margins, and have appropriate head space above the chapters.  Of course, their headers contain page numbers, but the name of the novel and writer  is also ever present. In other words,  each week’ these writers present a reading in  ready-for-publication style.

When I asked why, they smiled and said it was easier to  do it right in the first place, rather than try to catch every formatting detail later.

Noah Lukeman, a literary agent who has read thousands of manuscripts, gives great advice about details in his slim but weighty book, The First Five Pages. He notes that agents draw conclusion about entire manuscripts from the presentation of the first 1500 words.  Inattention to detail:

“may signal carelessness, sloppiness, ignorance or defiance of the industry’s standards; that the writer doesn’t care enough to do the minimum amount of research to make a manuscript industry presentable. Often when a writer’s presentation is careless, his writing is too.”

Critique groups tend to be informal gatherings. We often print on the backside of used copies, in order to save trees and paper.  However, it’s worth kicking ourselves a couple of times to make sure the formatting on the front side is complete. It will allows our fellow readers to concentrate solely on the words and story line.

Now…if I’ll just follow this advice every week, I’ll get more than the  first 5 pages whipped into shape.

YooHoo! There’s a Contest Over Here

by athena

Is it worthwhile to enter contests?

Well, the folks that win them sure think it is. Besides, it allows you to stretch your writing muscles and step outside of your comfort zone of reading to your fellow critique members.  Here’s a contest that accepts fiction as well as other genres.

Visions, the literary journal of the NorthWest Arkansas Community College accepts submissions of poetry, short fiction, and digital artwork year-round. The only criterion for publication is excellence.

While there’s no monetary reward, it does build up your writing profile. And it doesn’t cost anything except the postage and ink.

Surely, each of you already have a something in your files to send off.

Good Luck!

Questions Your Dog Wouldn’t Even Answer

Photo on FunnyDogSite

When I’m doing research for a project, one of the things that I have to force myself to do is call people. I’ll google, go the library, even read microfilm first.

I’m not sure why I put off the inevitable. When I finally pick up the phone and stutter through an introduction, folks are usually happy to share information with me.  The only negative experience that I’ve had was when I called Junior High Schools and interviewed school secretaries to get the number of students who were taking international school trips over spring break.  I was writing an article on youth traveling without parents.

These secretaries must  haveworked for the NCIS because several of them considered this info part of national security and referred me to the district superintendent’s office.  I had to use different sources to write the article.

A newspaper editor once gave me a piece of advice that helps in these situations. “Prepare interesting questions. Not the run of the mill crap.”

When interviewing an interesting character, rather than ask questions like: “How did you get started?”

Ask Questions like: If you were just getting started, what advice would you give yourself?”  We all love to read advice from our older, wiser selves.

So it’s true. Polish your questions when you have to do research. Make the questions irresistible.

So tell me….

What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?