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Writing, Reflection & One Resolution for 2013

By on December 31, 2012 in creative writing

Additionally, forgive me for talking about me me meeee.

Here we are: the finale of 2012. Despite numerous prognostications and my own nerves, the world didn’t end. Just like when I turn to the last page of a journal, I love to look back and ask what the hell happened?

When I scroll back through the posts of this year, I discover an interesting inversion: though the year began with lonely weekdays and little connection to the outside world, you, dear reader, kept my spirits high. Then, as the year progressed and I began to write more (and sometimes for money!) I began blogging less.

The switch occurred for two major reasons. First, I learned that any work I posted on my blog could be considered “published” and therefore ineligible to submit to contests. Second, I began introducing myself as a Marketing Communications Consultant and actually won projects, which necessarily ate up quite a bit of my time. Rather than focus on creative work every day, I began writing and learning how to make money.

Another 2012 discovery came in the form of my preferred genre. When I undertook November 2011’s NaNoWriMo, I wrote about half of a fiction novel. As my sci-fi gears ground to halt, I revisited my MFA portfolio and realized my favorite pieces were true. I loved to write about real life and welcomed the challenge of elevating the authentic through art. Writing true stories, I discovered, also relieved my fear of the endless horizon. Real life offers  a temporal beginning, middle and end, constraints that offer the structure I need. I took my first creative non-fiction class in the spring.

Since that first course I’ve taken two more class, several day seminars and read onstage (from memory!) twice. I’ve written short and lyrical essays, chapters of a startling long-winding work, and blog posts for artists across Charlottesville. Between growing groups of writer friends and discovering new literary mentors, I built a community to surround my effort with the love and attention my extroversion craves. I’m proud of my progress, such as it is, and feel ready to take great strides in 2013.

My only major resolution: finish 15 essays (or one very long piece) by June 30th.

While January 2012 saw me sitting lonesome in an armchair in my new living room, writing fiction and banging my head against an emotional wall, January 2013 looks completely different. I’ll be working full-time at my old scent company while my replacement enjoys her maternity leave. As I bounce back and forth from Virginia to New Jersey, and I’ll revisit a life I thought I’d left: corporate by day, writer by night (and early morning). I’ve got ten weeks of classes, a writer’s retreat, and a book of ten-minute prompts to get me moving. I’m really excited to go all-in, and I’m grateful that, as always, you’re here by my side.

I’d also love to hear your goals, to know the dreams and writerly passions you plan to fuel in 2013. How will you there? Any big dates in mind?

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Publishing Person of the Year: Whoever Wrote Fifty Shade of Gray

By on December 18, 2012 in art, creative writing, humor

Personally, I did not read Fifty Shades of Grey (nor do I intend to), but I was delighted to hear the hilarious lowdown from Ron Charles, a book critic for The Washington Post. After Publisher’s Weekly announced author EL James won 2011 Publishing Person of the Year, Charles put together his take on the je ne sais quoi that made the British writer so noteworthy.

YouTube Preview Image

Thanks to Poets & Writers for sharing this.

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3 Ways to Expand Your Literary Network

By on November 26, 2012 in creative writing, inspiration, quarter-life crisis, true story

Note: this post originally appeared on Cville’s WriterHouse blog.

When I moved to Charlottesville a year ago, I spent my first three months holed up in my townhouse, writing furiously. Four hundred pages and zero social interactions later, I knew something had to give.

Writing is a solitary endeavor, but the extrovert in me was losing it. I clung to the salespeople at Belk because they sounded so genuine when they asked how my day was.

“Great!” I sobbed, clawing at their sensible lapels. “I just moved here from New Jersey, and it’s really great to be in this mall with all of these people and bright lights!”

I’d moved to Charlottesville to get uncomfortable, to shift out of my corporate routine and into a creative one. But I discovered something in those first months: writing without company felt less like a kick in the ass and more like a blanket of isolation and despair.

I shook my post-verbiage shell shock by connecting with my local literary community.  In this season of Thanksgiving, I’m grateful to be surrounded by caring, supportive writers, and I want to share three easy ways you can do the same.

1. Take a Class

Nothing gets conversation moving like shared experience. In-class prompts, readings, and homework assignments not only sharpen your skills, they also offer weekly connections to like-minded writers.

Classes at Writerhouse gave me a respite from the dark and lonely places in my mind, the fear of the hours it takes to get a few words peppered on the page. I’m a real addict—I just finished my third non-fiction class—and the people I’ve met have been just as special as my education. Some of us even meet outside of class to continue writing together. Bonus!

2. Get Social

November is winding down, but NaNoWriMo is still in full swing. National Novel Writing Month is the perfect time to introduce yourself to writers in Charlottesville and across the country.

Twitter is a lonely writer’s paradise in November, when @NaNoWordSprints challenges writers to write as much as possible in given time frames. Take on their prompts, including key words and plot twists, and you’ll get involved in the conversation fast.

You should also search #NaNoWriMo on Twitter. You’ll discover a list of writers who encourage one another, and you can follow and engage with those who share your interests. I recommend starting with @CvilleWrimos.

3. Share Your Story

The easiest way to expand your literary network is to simply introduce yourself as a writer. Too many people hesitate to share their interest in writing, defeating themselves with ideas like “I have a day job, so I’m not really a writer,” or “I haven’t published anything yet, so my work doesn’t even count.” Self-criticism comes standard with a writer’s temperament, but it shouldn’t stop you from owning your art.

As soon as you say to a new acquaintance, “My name is _______, and I am a writer,” a world of connections will open to you. Everyone knows someone who is a writer, especially in Charlottesville, and once you share your passion with the world, the world will come to you.

Your Community Is Waiting

One year ago, I faced a long, dark winter without many friendships and too much angst about my work. Now I meet for weekly lunches with a tight-knit group of women, and we hold each other accountable to our writing goals. I’ve met journalists and essay writers, storytellers and poets, and I quietly thank the passion that binds us. If you’re reading this piece, I suspect you share it too, and once you start looking, you’ll find us everywhere.

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Audio September: Scheherazade

By on September 7, 2012 in art, creative writing

I love the sound of my own voice, and since the sages say to do what you love, I’m getting in front of a microphone again.

If you’re looking for a wordy way to spend $5 on Sunday, come to the Bridge at 7PM. The lovely ladies of Scheherazade, a storytelling series, organized an open reading where, to quote the group’s PR blurb:

artists in different genres present original, 10 minute works to an audience. September’s theme is “Soundtracks”: hi-fi/lo-fi, screeching, skreeling stories of lyrical pleasure and pain; heartbreaking tales that make you want to sing along.

This month’s theme is a nod to Audio September, a month of sound-inspired artworks including radio, poetry, music and installation art.

Check out the Bridge PAI website to see the entire line-up. Or if you’re free on Sunday swing by–I know it’ll be excellent, if only because other people probably finished their pieces already.

Cue my exit music. (Hint: it sounds like this.) Happy weekend everybody!

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What’s the Point? (or How I Learned to Chill the Heck Out About Writing on a Theme)

By on September 6, 2012 in creative writing, notes

Note: this post originally appeared on Charlottesville’s WriterHouse blog.

After a week of furious scribbling, I passed my newly minted story off to a group of writer friends. “I’m excited by the idea,” I wrote over email, “but I’m not sure if it goes anywhere.”

Feedback trickled in over lunch. “I like the images,” one girl said.

“Nice use of dialogue,” offered another.

During the lengthy pause I picked at my fries. “Do you think that it, um, lacks…a point?”

The poet murmured something unintelligible.

The fiction writer looked at me sadly. “I never know what my point is either.”

“You know,” said the woman who straddled poetry and prose, “I never even know if I’m finished.”

We shared a brief silence and pondered the obvious: if we couldn’t identify our stories’ themes, how the hell could anyone else?

*

Fortunately my writing class met once a week. We broached this very subject while workshopping a classmate’s story about her grandmother’s interest in insects.

“What’s your theme?” the instructor asked her.

“Bugs.”

He looked at the rest of us. We nodded vigorously.

“My grandmother? And bugs?” She raised her eyebrows.

He sighed as though he heard that a lot. “Bugs are your subject.” We all looked at each other. “Your subject is separate from your theme.”

Cue the collective forehead slap.

“Your theme is the broader issue you cover—the universal idea, the heart of your story. It’s what your audience can immediately connect with, and until you articulate it, no one else will.”

Oh.

As we talked it out, I came to realize that theme is a culmination of analysis and synthesis, the result of a clinical approach to  a creative work. It may feel like an Oprah ah ha! moment, but it’s nearly impossible to experience while we write.

One barrier to enlightenment is that a work in progress remains unfinished. We need to examine all the pieces before we attempt to solve a puzzle, an idea that has roots in modern psychology. In a recent newspaper article profiling psych professor Tim Wilson, Wilson’s UVA colleague summarized human thought as follows: “The reasons we give for our choices, even when accurate, are not so much insights as after-the-fact constructions.” No wonder we struggle to identify theme as we script choice after choice in the nascent stages of plot development. Thematic analysis, like all human reasoning, might be a study of after-the-fact.

*

At lunch the next week, I shared my discovery. “We don’t have to panic,” I proselytized. “We don’t have to know theme until after we’re finished.”

I’d been waving my hands, so the waitress stopped by. “Can I get you something?” she asked me sweetly.

“I’m good for now.” As she walked away, I turned to my friends. “But I might know more later. Riiiiiight?”

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Blogging: Show vs. Tell

By on August 10, 2012 in creative writing

This post originally appeared on Charlottesville’s WriterHouse blog.

I slide into my seat at 9:10AM, avoiding the smiles of freshly scrubbed classmates. I’m late, per usual, and my brain moves like molasses.

Deep in talk of the Terry Sullivan drama, the instructor parses literary details from a synopsis in The Hook. He speaks with journalistic intensity, poking the chest of the classroom with adamant phrases: take a note, write that down, yes, and who can tell me…?

Someone passes me a handout. “Tom Wolfe’s New Journalism,” the teacher announces. “Did everyone read it?”

I recall the article’s gist as I scan it. In the ‘60s and ‘70s, a wave of journalists abandoned the traditional newspaper ‘voice’ for something distinctly…literary. “[I did] anything,” Wolfe wrote of the time, “to avoid coming on like the usual non-fiction narrator, with a hush in my voice, like a radio announcer at a tennis match.” At the New York Herald Tribune, Wolfe massaged the truth to produce stories that read like art.

“What elements are at play here?” The instructor adjusts his Lemtosh frames and taps his sheet with a pencil. “What components identify this as creative non-fiction?”

I clutch my coffee. My classmates call out perfect answers: sharp details, real dialogue, well-cast characters. I stare at lopsided blinds in the window and turn over the concept of change in my mind.

*

When the cowboys of New Journalism explored taboo frontiers, they launched a stylistic gold rush. Creative non-fiction infiltrated the popular consciousness and became a laudable genre for novelists.

Forty years later, the landscape of journalism changed again. Blogging ushered the great democratization of storytelling, empowering anyone with fingers and an internet connection to publish themselves on the world wide web. As blogging became an increasingly viable form of journalism (largely due to readers’ consumption and click-throughs), countless articles were written that explain the “right way” to engage readers’ average 96 seconds of attention. As a marketer, I’ve read dozens of such articles and can boil the “rules” down like this:

  • Make lists.
  • Structure content so it can be scanned.
  • Include pictures, especially of faces.
  • Be pithy and brief.
  • Use bullet points.

In other words, don’t write—build searchable content. As Darren Rowse of ProBlogger writes: “In the end you need to find your own way on this… I try to write at least one longer post per day that gives readers a bit of meat to chew on (whether it be a tips post, a review post, a rant etc) but I also throw in ‘newsy’ posts throughout the day.”

No doubt Rowse—and my shortlist of rules—speaks to bloggers who view themselves as reporters, crafting short, informative articles on subjects within a certain field. But I can’t help but wonder what Tom Wolfe would think. From my perspective, these rules encourage a writer to sound like nothing so much as “a radio announcer at a tennis match.”

Another type of blogging exists, however. Writers like Jenny Lawson and Heather Armstrong keep blogs that carry the New Journalism torch: a unique voice, keenly observed details, and emotional import. Most often, these are the bloggers that achieve literary book deals.

So every blogger, it appears, has a choice to make. Follow the standards of the internet newsroom and gain a content-oriented audience? Or strike out alone and attempt to build a readership with only your voice as a guide?

To me, it’s the question of tell versus show. At its most fundamental level, blogging, as a form of non-fiction, reflects how we see and process the world. Some people prefer easy answers, sensory handles on straightforward solutions. Others prefer more oblique lessons, to tread between metaphor and sweeping ideals and let the truth find itself in the art.

*

I take a sip of lukewarm coffee and blink my way back to the classroom. It’s eerily silent. No student voices. Everyone’s looking at me.

The teacher peers with half-moon eyes over the rim of his glasses. “Sorry,” I stutter. My butt has gone numb. “Can you repeat the question?”

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Call Yourself a Blogger and What Do You Get?

By on June 13, 2012 in creative writing, notes, true story

The chance to guest post!

DeeDeesLivingWill is the journal of DeeDee Stewart, the creator and performer of Dirty Barbie. She began the playwriting process through entries on this site, which is an awesome read for anyone who enjoys storytelling, humor, Southern childhoods, or  wonders what it takes to prepare for an international theater festival.

In yesterday’s post, 3 Things I Learned While Shouting ‘It’s Awesome and Dirty But Not Like You Think!’, I shared some highlights from our PR campaign for DeeDee’s one-woman show, Dirty Barbie and Other Girlhood Tales.

WriterHouse is Charlottesville’s home for everybody who wants to sharpen their craft, drop in on writer talks, seminars, or connect to the creative community. It’s a wonderfully intimate space (complete with coffee machines and classrooms), and the non-profit encourages writers of all abilities to share feedback and company in this often lonely craft.

Authors, editors, and other accomplished creative folks offer their insights on the WriterHouse blog, so I brought my A game for my guest post, 5 Free Virtual Tools to Help You Keep Your Focus. Needless to say, my A game includes anthropomorphic squirrels.

Also a lot less sleep.

I went to bed at 3:30AM. Because I wanted a new site design.

As much as I liked the minimalist aesthetic of my last site facelift, I had a few problems with the landing page and couldn’t resolve them in my chosen theme. As a result, I decided to choose a new one. As I learned in March, this process can take as long as a secondary education. On the bright side, I will share the upshot of this hair-raising process in a tutorial soon.

I woke up half an hour later because I had a dog on my legs and a cat on my head.

Boyfriend and I are pet sitting, so our normal animal-to-human ratio (1:2) is way out of whack (3:2). Technically this doesn’t relate to blogging, but you can bet I’ll blog about it soon. (Hint: it might sound like this.)

In sum, dear reader, check out those excellent blogs, and I apologize for any visual weirdness on mine. I promise I’m losing sleep over it.

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PR Is What Happens When I’m Making Other Plans

By on June 5, 2012 in creative writing, true story

Once upon a time a girl fell in love and quit her job and moved 300 miles to live with the boy with whom she fell in love. She kept her blog and her couch and four boxes of books. She made plans with broad strokes: to sleep in a few days, then fix up her office and write her first novel. She envisioned a parade of clamoring agents.

After reorganizing their house with corporate comedown neurosis and nurturing fear of blank Word documents, the girl questioned her original “goals.” She still loved her boyfriend and enjoyed her new city, but artistic impulse stalled like a broken current. She began to suspect it might never come back.

Then the girl’s birthday rolled around, and her boyfriend bought tickets to see a play. “The playwright’s a blogger, just like you, and I hear she’s pretty funny,” he said. The girl closed her computer and suppressed a yawn; she’d wished for a bowl of brownie mix.

A few days later, they went to the show. The girl found herself chucking, then laughing, then crying. She felt the words moving under her skin, a story hot and cold and told by a master. When she stood up to applaud, she heard gentle buzzing, like stage lights or a far-off generator.

“You’re smiling,” he said when they left the theater.

“I want to go home and write.”

*            *            *

Seven months later, the girl knows a few things. She knows she needs people to feel well adjusted, and she knows that great novels are hard to complete. She talks of herself as a writer/consultant, a marketer who likes great ideas and design. She says these things and knows there’s no knowing. She tries not to worry about it.

At the gym one day, she recognizes a woman: blonde hair and big eyes, a megawatt smile. It’s the playwright from the show.

They talk a little and sweat a lot. The girl learns the show will come back to town. She decides she must see it again.

Then a stranger thing happens than two almost-strangers bumping into each other in a very small city. The actress hears that the girl is a freelancer, and she needs someone to promote her show. Would the girl be interested?

*            *            *

And that is the story of how I came to be the publicist for DeeDee Stewart’s play, Dirty Barbie and Other Girlhood Tales. The show goes up in just two weeks, and we have some really fun stuff planned. I am SO excited to be part of the process, and since the world of PR is new to me, I plan to blog about it. In other words, prepare for the deluge–and if you’re in C’ville, you should buy your ticket before they sell out. :)

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My (Recent) Life in Pictures

By on April 13, 2012 in creative writing, true story
Lest you think I’ve died (or forgotten my promise to make some changes around here), I haven’t! I am deep in the midst of a professional makeover. Think Princess Diaries or Mean Girls or She’s All That but imagine the main character keeps her glasses and eyebrow hair and geeks out about marketing in cyberspace. It’s like that!
Soon enough I will reveal a pretty, polished website, complete with snappy blog posts and hip consultant services to boot. Until then, allow me to share some special moments from these past two weeks.
1. Road trips.

I visited my family in New Jersey for the holiday. Not only did my car survive the scary rattling sound in its engine (bless you, Shell station service man!), I discovered a scenic route with vineyards, verdant fields, and a significant number of cows.
2. A tricked-out Easter.
As Jon Stewart recently noted, Easter kicks ass. This year, my Peeps obsession skyrocketed when we discovered these beautes in unopened shells from 2010.

Later, I hid and hunted Easter eggs with three twenty-somethings and my mom. Before scouring my childhood backyard, we took a sentimental picture:

3. Guest visits.
When I returned to Virginia, I brought a dear friend with me. We spent the day at Yogaville, an ashram nestled in the hills of Buckingham county. In the LOTUS Shrine we meditated on religious synchronicity and the eight limbs of yoga.

We also ate butter cream frosting by the spoonful. Thank goodness for innovative cupcakeries.

So that’s the scoop. For now, I’m back to copy and coding—beauty is pain, as they say. I wish you a weekend as happy as a dog in sunshine!

(That’s really happy, by the way.)
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Right Brain, Meet Left

By on January 31, 2012 in creative writing, quarter-life crisis, true story

It’s a gorgeous day in Charlottesville, and I’m sitting in front of the window worrying about the future. The conversation in my head goes like this:
RIGHT BRAIN: Let’s go skip in the sunshine!
LEFT BRAIN: What will that accomplish, exactly?
RB: Fun!
LB: How is that going to further your career as a writer?
RB: Sun!
LB: …
RB: Yaaaaaaaaay!
LB: No one wants to read babble about daylight. Let’s think about how you can build a name for yourself.
RB: …
LB: What if you wrote something fun and amusing? Something people would want to tell other people about? Then you could justify your existence for another day.
RB: …
LB: What?
RB: : (
LB: Come on. Careers are about working hard and proving yourself over and over and over again.
RB: : ( : (
LB: Oh, it’s not so bad. We just need to set some goals and eventually be louder and smarter and faster and more creative than everyone else on the internet.
RB: : ( : ( : (
LB: Look, we’re not going to have a pity party about it. You knew this would be hard.
RB: I want a nap.
LB: You can’t. We have things to do.
RB: : (
LB: OK, we aren’t getting anywhere. Look, maybe we just need to get the blood flowing. Move around a little bit.
RB: Can we go for a walk?
LB: Sure.
RB: And skip in the sunshine???

And we did. 

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