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December 2017 Editor’s Picks

Today marks our last batch of Editor’s Picks for 2017. Throughout the past twelve months, we’ve seen our writing community grow, not only in size but in spirit. More writers than ever are reviewing each other’s work and leaving a steady stream of encouraging words in the comments sections. Your brilliance and individual growth has not gone unnoticed! And the proof of how amazing all of you are can be seen in the responses to three of our recent prompts: “Fernweh,” “Ten Words to You,” and “My December.”

“Fernweh” asked you to think about a concept that can not quite be expressed by a single word in the English language. The word fernweh, for instance, is German for being homesick for a place you’ve never been to. In the pieces below, you’ll find a bevy of words that writers created to describe the (currently) indescribable. And who knows, if we all start using these words, they might become part of the official English lexicon!

“Trepsomnis” by AJ Robinson (Canada)

“Tacitagrim” by JCWriter (US)

“Yatra” by sKRUwriting (India)

“New Words!” by WhiltiernaWolfLord (US)

“the words I need” by Shanti (India)

The final month of the year brings with it a palpable feeling of nostalgia. In your responses to the prompt Ten Words to You—which asks writers to pen a piece about their home country in only ten words—we could feel the weight of these final few weeks of the year. Some writers, like the ones below, used this prompt as an opportunity to reflect upon  their home country, covering topics like social injustice and economic inequality.

“United States of American Contradictions” by abigailholder (US)

“Surroundings” by Jacob Hickman (US)

“Winnipeg, Manitoba” by Gabe Krawec (Canada)

“Albania” by Patt (Albania)

Other responses were lighter, reading more like love letters, resplendent in rich descriptions of landscapes and musings about weather patterns:

“Jersey, Darling” by Rachel A. (US)

“Home” by raindrops (South Korea)

“Japan” by IzzyRE (Australia)

“Just a grey town in Wales” by Rosie (UK)

“Embrace” by darlingdrizzle (UK)

To round out our Editor’s Picks, we’re thrilled to share a few of our favorite responses to the “My December” competition. This December, writers from around the world wrote about the rituals and traditions that define the final month of the year in their corner of the globe. We learned about December in the sweltering heat from our friends in the tropics, and December in sub-zero temperatures in places like Canada. Despite the differences in physical location, however, a constant theme prevailed: December is about family and friends and setting goals for the new year. Here, we’ve listed some fabulous “My December” pieces, as well as photos to accompany each piece from the authors themselves.

“A Christmas Far Away From Home” by theMGCpage (Netherlands)

“Quickly” by nd360 (US)

“The End of the Old The Soon to be New” by Natalieshift13 (Malaysia)

Wishing you a happy and healthy New Year from everyone at Write the World!

#writetheworld #wtweditorspicks #happynewyear

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Featured Writer: Holly Richardson

At Write the World, our hope is that all of you find the strength and support necessary to thrive as writers and as people. And if you end up pursuing a degree in a writing related field, well, that’s just a bonus! Canadian writer Holly Richardson, a second year English major, is committed to making her last year on Write the World a memorable one. In her Q&A, Holly offers advice on pursuing English at the university level and discusses her goals for carving out a career in the writing industry.

In your profile you write, "Because my nineteenth birthday is coming up, I won't be here much longer, and I'm trying to make the most of the time I have left on the site." What do you hope to gain from the rest of your time on Write the World? What have you gained thus far?

Write the World has helped me gain confidence as a writer from other young writers' comments and peer reviews. Compared to other sites I have used to interact with other writers, Write the World feels like a closer community where people truly care about helping one another as writers. I am hoping to both contribute to this community as well as receive more feedback in the time I have left.

You’re a second year college student studying English. What’s different about studying English at the university level?

English at the college level is much more open than high school English courses; instructors urge you to pick your own topics to write on and the essay format is looser giving you more room to argue your position on a subject. In addition, choosing specific English courses such as Detective Fiction or Children's Literature allows students to focus on their interests. And finally, college instructors provide feedback to help students improve as much as possible, so my writing has benefited greatly from that.

What advice do you have for young writers who are interested in pursuing English beyond high school?

First of all, I would say that an English degree does not lead to the most jobs. However, if you want to write professionally, or want to pursue a career in an English-related field, then it is a great way to start. Once you enroll, it is important to prioritize your classes so you get instruction in the type of writing you’d most like to explore. If you write poetry, be sure to enroll in a poetry workshop, and so on. Just don't expect too much course diversity until your second year.

Where do you see your writing taking you in the future?

This is a tough question because I am just starting to learn how to develop my writing. I would, however, like to publish a book with a fairly large publishing company. I have a long way to go, but I am willing to work for it. I am especially interested in writing to help people struggling with mental illnesses—whether that means helping people find refuge in fiction, or to provide support through nonfiction self-help books.

What is your hometown of Red Deer, Alberta, Canada like this time of year?

Around the holiday season, the stores are full of people and everywhere is busy. Even eating out on a weekday is difficult. The trees downtown are wrapped in colored lights, and the grass is covered in fluffy snow. Usually, it is much colder than this, but we're lucky this year, and it's hardly been below -10℃. It gets dark very early (about 5 pm), but it can be nice because I get to see the sun set almost every night, and the neighborhood Christmas lights turn on earlier.

About Holly

My name is Holly Richardson, and I’m from the city of Red Deer in Alberta, Canada. I am 18 years old and currently in my second year of college earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. Writing has had a big impact on my life since middle school, when I first started to write stories. I’m so passionate about writing that I even switched my major to pursue it. Besides writing, my interests include music, films, and baking. When I’m not too busy with school work, I mostly spend my time with my fiancé and the friends I have made at my church. No matter what, I still find time to work on any story ideas I have floating around, or I at least jot down any ideas I may have for a new one. It can take me a long time to be happy with a story or poem, but the important thing is to keep writing. When it comes down to it, I’m a quirky college student hoping to touch others with words.

#writetheworld #wtwfeaturedwriter #canada #alberta #ela #edtech #englishliterature

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From My Desk to Yours with Michael Lydon: Making Up Words

by Michael Lydon

Mirst kon chargin, plastopus flander, ita bastrip songrap plam gosnat…

Oh, excuse me, for a moment I forgot that today I am writing for an English-speaking, not Tradonian-speaking, audience. Tradonia, as I’m sure you know, is an old and proud nation that lies northwest of Smooland in South Heptrador, and everybody there speaks Tradonian. My grandparents came to America from Tradonia many years ago, and since I heard Tradonian all around me as I child, I sometimes fall into it without thinking…

Oh, excuse me again: what I just wrote is me goofing around with “fernweh,” Write the World’s latest prompt that encourages us to make up new words. I love this prompt because I’ve been making up words since I was a kid. My brother Johnny and I often walked along crowded sidewalks in downtown Boston, conversing in ordinary tones of voice, (asking questions, interjecting comments, etc.), but inventing all the words:

“Berf, da, naccoseen picar?” “Charn, charn!” “Peerkell didobas, Cartoph.” “Sasstozan boda, kerrope” (Laughter).

Certain phrases we kept coming back to, among them “scullabada” and “gully galloo gallee.” Of “Gully galloo gallee” I have one distinct, embarrassing memory: walking in a flood of people headed to 4th of July fireworks at a county fair, Johnny said excitedly, “Gullee galloo gallee!” Just as excited, I answered back, “Gullee galloo gallee!” A little girl in the crowd heard us and sassed us back, “Gullee galloo gallee!” as if our saying was the stupidest thing she had ever heard in her life. We stopped saying “Gullee galloo gallee!” for a few months after that.

My favorite phrase was “Kuncee bungratcee cheena,” which I always declaimed in a rapid-fire monotone:

Kuncee bungratcee cheena, kuncee bungratcee cheen, Kuncee bungratcee cheena, kuncee bungratcee cheen.

I never forgot my silly chant, but I gave it no meaning until, years later, I put it in a song as a space creature’s message of peace and love to our troubled planet.

So why do people make up words? First of all because it’s fun!

You Write the Worlders, however, have taken things a step further than Johnny and I did, and have imbued your made-up words with meaning in your delightfully imaginative responses to the fernweh prompt. From the Philippines, Suit of Swords sent in “stagre” meaning: “feeling the need to do something though quite not knowing why”:  “She has been feeling a little stagre ever since their classmate announced that their teacher couldn't come to class.” American Rachel A, like most of those submitting, built her word, “latonic” on a well-known word, “platonic”; latonic, she declared means “love in which you would give your all to someone.” Sentenced, another American, submitted “vaccor,” latonic’s opposite, that she built on Latin roots, vac meaning empty, and cor, meaning heart, and giving as a possible use of it in a sentence, “What once was a heart bursting with love and emotions, turned vaccor.”

Kanigi7 tells us that “zonify” means being able “to space out in order to be more aware of one's atmosphere.”  JCWriter declares that her new-born “tacitagrim,” pronounced tah - si - TAY- grim, is born from Latin roots, tacitus (silent, secret) and aegrimonia (sorrow, melancholy, grief”), is and means “a deep sorrow/grief/anguish that is kept hidden.”

Inventing new words, however, is more than fun and games. Languages in every corner of the world are constantly morphing so that they can faithfully describe the constantly morphing realities of daily life—the roots of morph, for example go back to ancient Greece, but morph was not a noun or verb a century ago. When motion pictures became popular around 1900, people started calling them movies; when those movies got sound and actors began speaking their lines, people started calling them talkies.

Notice, however, that people didn’t pull the new words out of a hat; in most cases, new words get built from old words. In the last few decades, for instance, people needed to find a new name for the marvelous modern machines that could store ginormous amounts of information ready for instant retrieval and analysis. Nothing like these devices had ever been seen before, but people didn’t name them mersflads or pargzebs, they went back to a good old Latin word, compute, that suggested the machine’s essential ability to solve problems with mathematical accuracy. Sometimes I’ve wished computational pioneers had called computers abracadabrers, a name that would have suggested both their mathematical and magical aspects.

Computers are perhaps the most fertile source of modern new words: what would we do today without upload and download, kilobytes and megabytes, google and algorithm, internet and interface? Note, by the way, how the face of interface suggests the nearly human quality of today’s computers. We relate to older machines less personally, and our language matches that relationship: we don’t call an old-fashioned saw a cutface or a hammer a strikeface.

The fun of neologisms (the fancy term for brand new words) persists because writers like to be silly, to surprise, bewilder, amuse, and baffle their readers with slangy expressions and brand new uses of old words. Years ago, when I started playing guitar with a jazz band, I got a big kick out of calling my apartment “my crib,” my guitar “my axe,” and a job “a gig”. Not all of these words were brand new, but the informal spirit behind them was new for me, and pretty soon I felt like a true jazz cat respected by the other cats because I had the chops to blow some burning changes, man, over mean root-reet rocking rhythms.

Or as they like to say in Tradonia, tarn spocket increll, panta zo partin, quarndalic so cran plateer!

About Michael Lydon

Michael Lydon is a writer and musician who lives in New York City. Author of many books, among them Rock Folk, Boogie Lightning, Ray Charles: Man and Music, and Writing and Life. A founding editor of Rolling Stone, Lydon has written for many periodicals as well, the Atlantic Monthly, New York Times, and Village Voice. He is also a songwriter and playwright and, with Ellen Mandel, has composed an opera, Passion in Pigskin. A Yale graduate, Lydon is a member of ASCAP, AFofM local 802, and on the faculty of St. John’s University.

#write the world #michael lydon #fernweh #wanderlust #amwriting #linguistics #wordplay

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My December Competition Winners Announced!

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of starting a new year. There’s a palpable energy in the air. People begin exercising, buy stacks of books they intend to read, and start taking those piano lessons. But right before this flurry of activity and good intentions, there are a few precious weeks where things start to slow down and people take time to celebrate with family and friends—to reflect on all that’s happened in the past twelve months. To mark this special time of year, we host our annual My December Writing Competition. As always, we received a huge number of entries and today, Guest Judge Melissa De Silva is eager to share her favorites from the bunch. Read on for Melissa’s commentary on the top pieces.

From Melissa:

BEST ENTRY ‘Tomorrow’ by Laika

For me, this piece shone for so many reasons. The freshly imagined expressions that never veered toward cliché or stock phrases, like the ‘wake-up-in-the-morning-and-there-it-is present’ (we all know those!) and how the writer ‘shot up in a rush and tangle of limbs’, the vivid image and rush of words both conveying the growth spurt.

There were also the delicately observed details so important in bringing creative nonfiction to life. While there were many examples, my favorites were ‘the kind of misty rain that’s like standing near a waterfall’ and ‘heads dipped by guilt’.

And while it is often tempting for us writers to get overly effusive when it comes to description, the writer of this piece shows remarkable restraint with deft, succinct descriptions: the store lady’s ‘crisp white bob swishing, nose wrinkled like a prune’, the bike that ‘shone with electric beauty’.

As a reader, I always appreciate getting a hint of a writer’s sense of humor, even when a piece is about a sobering subject. This makes the writer come across as an even more fully dimensional human being. And this is just as important in creative nonfiction, when we the writer become the ‘I character’ in the work. Laika did a fantastic job here through her observations of the cats patrolling the bike shop and by relating, in excruciating comic detail, the bike topple incident. Her emotional reactions to the domino-ing bikes ('my cheeks burned hot', ‘felt like 'a five year old') took us right there with her, in her very shoes even.

The tragic unfolding of health crisis symptoms related with factual distance again demonstrated masterful restraint and had the effect of making the reader feel more dismay and empathy at what the writer went through, rather than a more emotive telling might have.

I was struck by the incredible strength and resilience of the writer, her emotional maturity:

‘I just have to make it to tomorrow. And I do. It hurts and it’s messy, but I always make it to tomorrow.’

As I read about how she’s undergoing treatment, I would have loved to know more about what the treatment involved, the small and big triumphs that are making things look more hopeful than they have in a long while.

The simple line: ‘I’m starting to live again’ made my heart swell with rejoicing for her, with her, after all she has suffered.

‘Maybe next Christmas I’ll be riding that bike.’

I loved how the piece ended on this beautiful note of hope and optimism. Thank you Laika, for sharing your incredible story with us, allowing us the privilege to witness a little of what your journey this past year has been.

RUNNER UP ‘Christmas Day’ by Michael Leahy

The lovely warmth of this piece sang out to me immediately. The earnest anticipation of the writer –‘I wait all year long for Christmas’– sets the tone of this wonderful account from the beginning.

There were so many delightful details and observations: the teachers who seem ‘more relaxed, even jolly’, Grandma in her ‘Christmas bling’ outfit complete with candy cane earrings, the dogs leaping and barking over the mess in the living room.

I found especially striking the beautiful picture the writer painted, replete with sensory detail, of how he and his sisters race into the stillness and silence of Christmas morning:

‘The house is dark, yet the Christmas tree is glistening with red and green lights, as if beckoning us to come in.’

The love and joy of a family and extended family coming together over succulent food were conveyed with such unselfconscious charm and honest observation:

‘It is one of those moments where we are just living in the present, enjoying every morsel of food, laughing and being happy to just be together.’

And I love how the piece ended with an account of the elaborate family project of everyone pitching in to make Christmas dinner and the gentle beauty of the result:

‘I quietly take in the scene. Our house is full. Everyone is happy. No one fights. We laugh, we eat, and we cherish every single moment of this amazing day.’

BEST PEER REVIEW Camryn’s Review of ‘Snow Day’

This was a great peer review. Camryn put in so much effort to provide helpful suggestions for the writer. And the comments were also very thoughtful—usually a suggestion with examples or constructive critique followed by an explanation of why that would be important or helpful, such as: “Can you make this active tense such as ‘closed’ and begged’?  It will make the piece more interesting.” I liked that the reviewer was also quick to enthuse about whatever was going on in the story (“This is hilarious! Good detail!”). This showed the reviewer’s emotional involvement in the story, which is always encouraging to a writer. I think all of us take feedback better from those who also make it a point to tell us what they enjoyed about the piece, as well as what they thought could be improved. To me, this is what makes the best feedback-givers for writers. And the last thing that stood out about this reviewer was that they weren’t afraid to ask difficult questions about the work that might nudge the writer into examining more uncomfortable emotions, such as “Why was this heartbreaking?. . .why did you feel this way?” A critique partner who isn’t afraid to push us to make our work the best it can be is a treasure indeed.

#write the world #wtwcompetition #melissa de silva #amwriting #winter #december #young writers

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Soo Young Yun on Winning our Novel Writing Competition

In her commentary on “Ankh”, Guest Judge Cath Crowley marveled at Korean writer Soo Young Yun’s ability to make “the reader feel as though, in a very short space of time, she has been taken through history and shown the future.” In our interview with Soo, she talks about how a trip to Egypt in the sixth grade made a lasting impression and inspired her prize winning piece. Soo also takes us through her editing cycle which includes a process of self-editing as well as enlisting the help of her friends, family, and the Write the World community.

What inspired you to write your piece, “Ankh”?

I actually visited Egypt during my sixth grade year. After touring the temple in Luxor, I became really interested in the hieroglyph “ankh,” which symbolizes life and eternity. There are so many aspects about Egypt—that go beyond photographs and documentaries about the pyramids and the Nile—that I became aware of only after visiting the country. I wanted to convey this revelation through “Ankh”.

Is “Ankh” part of a larger work?

It’s not currently part of a larger work, but I would like to extend this piece into a full-length novel, with each chapter named after a hieroglyph.

What was your process for editing this piece?

After vigorously editing my writing, I tend to let my work sit for a few days in order to read it again later with fresh eyes. For “Ankh”, I also asked some of my friends and family members to read it and give me their feedback. Even after I submitted it to the competition, I saw that AwkwardCrow had reviewed “Ankh”. I really enjoyed reading her comments on my piece.

Guest Judge Cath Crowley called your story, "a travel guide of Egypt." What steps did you take to make sure the story felt authentic to that area of the world?

It really helped that my story is based on a real-life experience. Although it was quite some time ago, I was able to pull out some pictures I had taken of memorable engravings and hieroglyphs during my trip to relive the experience again in my mind. Also, I did some research on Egypt to make the dialogue appear more realistic.

You're from South Korea, who are some of your favorite writers from your home country?

Some of my favorite writers are Krys Lee and Shin Kyung-sook. I especially loved reading Krys Lee’s “Drifting House” and Shin Kyung-sook’s “Please Look After Mom”. Also, one of my favorite novels is “Native Speaker” by Chang-rae Lee.

#wtwfeaturedwriter #wtwcompetitionwinner #amwriting #cath crowley #nanowrimo2017 #egypt #south korea #write the world

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Antonia Harrison on her Winning Peer Review Entry

As a Peer Ambassador, young writer Antonia Harrison dedicates time each week to helping her fellow Write the World members improve their drafts. Last month, Antonia’s stellar review earned her much acclaim from guest judge Cath Crowley who deemed her the winner of Best Peer Review in our Novel Writing Competition. Today, Antonia reflects on the editing process and what she’s learned about her own writing from serving as a Write the World Ambassador.

What drew you to Becky H's piece?

I'm really attracted to pieces with a distinctive tone—maybe the writer is using descriptive phrases that I haven't heard before or conveying aspects of character through their voice. For me, this shows that the writing has genuine meaning to the writer and that they can project their own quirks and individuality onto the work. It's also refreshing to read something that nobody else could have written in the same way—it's more inspiring as a writer to be exposed to freshness and something new. This is what drew me to 'Suspicion'—the way it was written didn't stray into conventionality or cliché, but sustained a really personal element throughout.

You're one of our Peer Ambassadors. What does the role consist of and what has being an ambassador taught you?

As a Peer Ambassador, I write a set number of reviews per week in a fairly professional capacity and discuss with others what we have learned from such exposure to the review process. It's taught me a lot, partially because it's been really interesting to hear how others approach this and partially because the volume of reviews we write makes it possible to really evaluate how people respond to feedback and what's helpful. One thing that strikes me especially now is how important it is to encourage writers to keep at it. I frequently get responses to my reviews from people who haven't had their work acknowledged or commented on before and who have felt disheartened by this. As writers, we can all recognize this feeling, which is why it's so essential that we all encourage one another to keep going.

How has being a Peer Ambassador changed the way you view your own work?

The exposure I've had to lots of different styles of writing, and the way different individuals craft their work, has been so useful to me. You can only really consider how you want to articulate or scribe your thoughts when you've seen how others' emotions are manifested on the page. I'm more likely now to try to apply an original voice, for instance, because I've learned how engaging that can be to a reader and how it can make a piece stand out.

If you could get feedback on your work from any writer in history, who would it be and why?

This is so difficult to choose! There are a million people I could choose, but I'll say either D.H. Lawrence or Dylan Thomas because they both have a really unique, unmistakable style of writing that nobody can quite mimic. I'd love to be able to write in such a vivid way. Lawrence was also a stern social critic and offers really interesting social commentary, which I find very important!

You're a self described "activist, feminist and socialist." In what ways do your morals and/or political leanings influence your writing?

I'm a firm believer in the fact that, as a writer, you can't remain distanced from the world around you. Especially in this day and age, it's so important for writers to strive to make a change. Writing without critiquing society is missing one of the key functions of being an artist. As an activist, I've been on the streets trying to make changes in small ways, and it's made me realize the momentous impact that words and language can have on a listener. That's why I think it's always important to use your words to right some of the wrongs we see everyday. Otherwise, why are you doing it?

#writetheworld #wtwfeaturedwriter #cath crowley

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The Write Place: ‘Tis the Season - My December

by Lisa Hiton

Looking for the right advice on pursuing the writer’s life? You’ve come to the write place!

My family is Jewish. We don’t celebrate Christmas. And yet, isn’t going to a movie and eating Chinese food while the rest of the world closes down for a day a kind of ritual—its own kind of made-up holiday? I’m sure that these details seem usual as well. But, dear writers, a lot more is there than meets the eye. Your family’s traditions, rituals, and habits—no matter how ordinary they seem—can be made extraordinary by turning them into words.

Family Hanukkah with multiple Hannukiahs! These are different than menorahs as they hold nine candles instead of seven.

PANNING FOR GOLD

An easy way to describe your holiday season to someone else (and kickstart your writing process) is to make a list of traditions and rituals that you think of when this time of year comes around. Mine looks something like this:

Tuesday before Thanksgiving

take a train into the city

to go to the Art Institute with my mom

followed by shopping for new art supplies

and a nice dinner

and train ride home

Thanksgiving Eve and Day

prepare spinach balls

set table

cook cook cook

eat eat eat

play games with cousins

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

hang Hanukkah stockings

attend Cathy Nathan’s x-mas party

cook a big breakfast including eggs, fresh squeezed OJ, and bacon

open stockings

hang out

go to a movie at the theatre

cook a nice dinner (Chinese food takes too long in my hometown since we live in a pretty Jewish part of Chicagoland)

watch holiday movies with mom and brother, especially The Family Stone

Winters in Chicago can be brutal; there’s no better antidote than playing in the snow! Here I am enjoying the snow with my first friend, Rebel.

Are you bored yet? This isn’t even counting Hanukkah since it doesn’t always fall near Christmas! All of these things may seem pretty usual. That might be true if you make your list of traditions as well. You might decorate a tree, hang twinkle lights, go caroling, go to the same person’s house every year to celebrate, leave out cookies for Santa, etc. Most neighborhoods and cultures have their usual lists of traditions. Part of your goal as a writer is to pan for gold among them.

Looking at this list, I began to ask myself, Why is it that my mom, brother, and I do these same things every single year? Some of it seems like the larger culture, but some of it was made by us. As I think about why, it’s clear that a lot of these rituals are in some way related to my parent’s divorce. Through that lens, I might start panning for my own gold—to sift through this litany to find something that might be worth more than meets the eye. Each of these seemingly usual bullet points, in fact, triggers different memories for me. In that field of memories, where might I find a scene that begins a longer story? How might I organize these scenes and memories into something cohesive for myself and my readers? I’ll begin with my freshman year.

My freshman year of high school marked the first year of spending winter break with divorced parents. While breakfast time was never particularly special in my house, Christmas day posed a dilemma: what would my mom, brother, and I do in this new situation, just the three of us? Especially since nearly everything is closed on Christmas day and people are with their families, filling the time posed some anxiety for my mother and me, especially with my young, shy brother.

To be sure, I already had thrown one tantrum about adjusting to these new circumstances. It was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. In elementary school and middle school, I normally had that day off as part of my holiday break. In high school though, this was not the case. It was second period when I received a pink slip during chorus to report to my advisor’s office. As a self-proclaimed academic, I was not used to be in trouble. With a room full of eyes on me as I left the choir room, my angst only increased.

It seemed my senior leaders had gone to my advisor worried about my general sadness. In my humiliation that anyone had noticed such negative energy, I proceeded to have the first of many tearful conversations with my advisor about adjusting: to high school, to a new home situation, and more. My mom came and picked me up from school so we could play hooky and keep our one ritual of going to the Art Institute of Chicago. I knew it was a temporary solution to a larger problem, and that this was just one of many adjustments I’d have to make. Yet, the gesture helped me persevere despite my pain.

That choir room would continue to serve as a literary backdrop for growth and tough love throughout high school. It was also a common community I kept throughout high school while everything else changed. For our annual fundraiser, we sold grapefruits and oranges by the box. When the trucks pulled up to the high school, we passed the boxes one by one down the line, just like the who’s down in Whoville, singing all the while in the face of another frigid Chicagoland winter.

While I’m more of a night owl than a morning person, and certainly not a big breakfast eater, this introduction to ripe grapefruits became my exception. Cut in half with a little bit of sugar was all I needed to jump-start my day with a jolt of Vitamin C. And so when the week of Christmas came around, my mom picked up a citrus juicer. The morning of Christmas. My brother and I sat on the island in our kitchen cutting oranges in half. We took turns pressing oranges onto the machine as it whirred and whirred. In an absolute mess of pulp, we finally squeezed enough halves for three cups of juice, just as our bacon was coming out of the oven. It was a new tradition, mundane as it may seem now, and a way of lightening the day and passing the time on a holiday that is not ours.

Christmas may not be our holiday, but it would be a boring day without our own tradition of “Hanukkah stockings”. My brother, Merrick, and I still give each other socks and chapstick as a ritual!

AMONG THESE ROCKS

Among the rocks in the river, there are some that are worth spending time with as a writer, and others that probably don’t add much to the larger story. The larger story in a personal essay is not always about a narrative arc. In the passage I just wrote about making orange juice, the larger story is about recasting the family unit as three instead of four, connecting to my younger brother, and trying to lift my spirit despite how hard it was to start high school with divorce at the forefront of my thinking and feeling. While all of that may not have come out precisely, writing this little passage is a signal that with time and effort, I could write that longer essay. Now as a writer, it will be up to me to describe these anecdotes as scenes, make characters out of my self and my family members, and reflect on the meaning. If this can all be done well—the showing and the telling—then it’s likely the reader will feel a similar sense of nostalgia.

The house where I grew up is on a hill whose swale leads to the north fork of the Chicago River. My fondest memories of winter are sledding down that hill and walking on the frozen river. Here I am teaching a new friend, Miriam, about these prairie-land games.

That is, perhaps, the most important way to approach material. If something is significant, memorable, or worthy of reflection to your own sense of self or personal narrative, there is probably a way to translate that to your reader in writing. Take for example Vani Dadoo’s My December piece from last year, “December in Delhi”, about waiting for the train:

Winter is not good for a polluted city like mine. December, being the main month of winter in India, is always the coldest.

All things in nature huddle together in winter, trying to find, or steal, some warmth from the other.

The clouds creep towards the ground. The fog and the smoke meet and embrace, and together try to steal the little sunlight before it touches the earth. The smog becomes denser, trying to wrap the earth in a heavier, grayish blanket, like the people sleeping in woolen quilts in their homes.  Evening darkness approaches faster than before, as if the smog did succeed in robbing the sunlight. Even after twilight, the smog refuses to diffuse. The air becomes thicker, but the world puts on an old, dull, sweater and wraps a muffler around its neck and walks on.

Some evenings, it coughs and some mornings, it can see its breath. But most days, it can’t peer into the distance.

This year, my father decided to travel to escape the harsh winters. “Migration over hibernation,” he called it, and, “better to get the sun somewhere than get closer to that old, rusty heater at home,” is what he said. We decide to journey to the western coast around Mumbai by train. Indian Railways was a part of family, as all cross-country trips; from Himalayan foothills to the Rajasthani deserts, were made by train.

As we take a cab to the New Delhi railway station, the moon is rising. The moon is a blurred piece of white in the black sky, clouds and smog. The street lights, though, filter through this, illuminating every speck of dust. The cars zoom past on the highway.

One can rarely see stars in my city.

Dadoo wavers between a present-tense meditation on December, and a swell of memory related to waiting for a train in Delhi. While these may be ordinary in another context—waiting for a late train or reflecting on the season—Dadoo weaves these two threads together, a double helix, to arrive at grand statements of the human condition: that like waiting for a train, we wait for a season’s end so that we may be carried into a new one.

Dadoo also brings us Delhi in her sensory details. From the opening passage about all things in nature “huddling together”, Dadoo mirrors her descriptions to match the crowded and polluted city around her. Just as Dadoo was able to give the details of December in Delhi while waiting for a train, you can give your own details as you think about your family—their traditions and rituals, the personalities of each member, and the things that make you nostalgic.

A reader gets a clear sense of a train station in Mumbai from this piece. If you’re familiar with such a place, you will get swept up in a shared nostalgia. If you’re unfamiliar with this land, you may find these descriptions to be exotic. In both cases, the very things that are both familiar and new bring the reader into a shared sense of the human condition with the writer herself. That shared humanness is the the entire point of sharing stories! And all of that came from writing about waiting for the train!

So, dear writers, as you think of Decembers past and enjoy your current December, what memories and rituals are for keeps? What gold will you find in waiting for the train, cooking with your grandmother, visiting a museum, playing in the snow? Show us your favorite places, traditions, and people at this time of year by tagging your stories and images with #MyDecember on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

About Lisa

Lisa Hiton is an editorial associate at Write the World. She writes two series on our blog: The Write Place where she comments on life as a writer, and Reading like a Writer where she recommends books about writing in different genres. She’s also the interviews editor of Cosmonauts Avenue and the poetry editor of the Adroit Journal.

#writetheworld #amwriting #lisahiton #mydecember

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December Spotlight: To Show and to Tell

by Lisa Hiton

My birthday is July 4th. A celebratory day in the USA, filled with fireworks, parades, and family BBQs. And since my birth, every year on July 3rd, my mom sits with me and tells the story of how I chose my own birthday as we look through a photo album from that time. It was clear to the doctors that my mom would likely need a C-section, as I would weigh in at 10lbs 4oz, but being my mom’s firstborn, she didn’t want to choose my birthday. Nearly ten days past her due date, it might surprise you that she swiftly attributed a “stomach ache” to a pie she’d eaten at a July 3rd party...

Thirty years later, she still tells me the story of how I chose my birthday—how she missed the fireworks that year, and how firework displays now hold so much symbolism for both of us. And she shows me the photos—my lithe mom carrying a huge baby. Though it’s not written on paper, the story feels written—I know the order of events, the timing of the jokes, and how the fireworks have literal and symbolic meanings throughout the telling.

We often think of our first encounters with stories in books. And yet, our lives are writing themselves all along. And if we are lucky, we have great storytellers around us who not only remember the plots and scenes of a life, but can tell them with panache. As writers, we must do that on the page. Especially when we want to make something permanent and beautiful from our own experiences. Personal essays take these parts of our lives and weave them into something artful and literary—helping us make sense of our experiences here on earth.

TO SHOW AND TO TELL

A common phrase used to critique or edit a writer’s work is “show, don’t tell”. For example, if you’re writing about a character who is sad she received a rejection letter from her first-choice college, you might be tempted to write:

“Juniper was devastated to be rejected from NYU.”

Now, at face-value, the sentence isn’t terrible. It’s grammatically correct, well punctuated, and likely true. However, I might suggest to a writer that they “show, don’t tell” the reader about the scene. Instead of telling the reader that Juniper is “devastated”, the writer might instead give the whole anecdote:

“Juniper raced to the mailbox after school. As she grabbed the pile of envelopes, the one letter she wanted sat right on top: a small envelope from NYU. She stared at the school’s crest in the corner, which turned to a blur, as she ripped it open, knowing full-well what it said inside.”

Sure, it’s longer. But this depiction shows the moment of devastation without ever having to state how Juniper feels. When writing personal essays, it’s important to do both of these things. Though you might not want to state outwardly how Juniper feels, you might follow up a scene like this one with some connective tissue that help the reader weave this real-life situation into something a bit more artful. In this sense, to show is to paint the scene, to tell is to confess something to your reader—to draw for the reader connections they might not be able to make outside of the experience of your own life.

AN EARL [OF ESSAYS] AMONG US

Nonfiction is often remarked as the “stepchild of serious literature” by critics and literary snobs alike. Personal essays seem like the antithesis of serious reading and writing: they show and tell, they don’t follow formal rules of structure or narrative arc, and they can sound as colloquial as my mom telling my birth story. But it’s precisely these traits that make writing personal essays so very difficult to write. In order for a reader to feel as though they are sitting with my mom, listening to her tell a funny, heartfelt story about her firstborn child, a lot of work must be done.

Phillip Lopate, director of Columbia University’s creative writing program and one of the most celebrated, living personal essayists of our time has explored this phenomenon deftly in his anthology on personal essays, The Art of The Essay, and his follow-up book on crafting personal essays, To Show and to Tell. In To Show and to Tell, Lopate grapples with the rules and boundaries of essays. As an example, an entire chapter is called “The Essay: Exploration or Argument?”. Especially as we look at different essays, this question can help frame our understanding of the genre. Sometimes, essays make a case for a particular idea or belief. But other times, telling a story can lead the writer astray, to something unplanned. Think about it: even within the world of nonfiction, there are different subsets—biography, autobiography, memoir, personal essay to name a few. And each of these has its own set of goals, rules, and structures. In The Art of the Essay, Lopate paints the core values of the genre for the reader:

The hallmark of the personal essay is intimacy.. The writer seems to be speaking directly in your ear, confiding everything from gossip to wisdom. Through sharing thoughts, memories, desires, complaints, and whimsies, the personal essayist sets up a relationship with the reader, a dialogue—a friendship, if you will, based on identification, understanding, testiness, and companionship.

At the core of the personal essay is the supposition that there is a certain unity to human experience. As Michel de Montaigne, the great innovator and patron saint of personal essayists, put it, “Every man has within himself the entire human condition.” This meant that when he was telling about himself, he was talking, to some degree, about all of us. The personal essay has an implicitly democratic bent, in the value it places on experience rather than status distinctions.

(Lopate, xxiii)

Lopate’s books help writers decipher the work before them and approach each story with both anecdotes and a sense of artful organization. Unlike other genres, personal essays allow us to show and tell—meaning we can give an anecdote and reflect on what has happened. That sense of reflection can allow us to think of our lives and the people in them as we might with a work of fiction. We can, in a personal essay, show what has happened and offer forgiveness, love, compassion, and the like as the narrator is also the writer.

To Show and to Tell: The Craft of Literary Nonfiction by Phillip Lopate: To Show and to Tell weaves Lopate’s trade secrets with anecdotes about teaching writing and life. From turning yourself into a character, to understanding what kind of personal essay you might be writing, this craft book is useful to writers at every level.

The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present ed by Phillip Lopate: Covering over 400 years of personal essays, Lopate’s anthology brings readers into the lives of Joan Didion, James Baldwin, Gore Vidal, Virginia Woolf, Jorge Luis Borges, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Adrienne Rich, Henry David Thoreau, George Orwell, Samuel Johnson, Plutarch, Ou-Yang Hsiu, Michel De Montaigne, and more. With arrangements by theme and form, readers and writers can begin to see the breadth and depth of this genre across time and nations.

PERSONAL FAVORITES

As far as personal essays go, there are so many I love that it is hard to select just a few. From different writers, to different subjects, there are just so many thoughts and feelings about how we interact with the world around us that I’ve decided to honor a handful of essays available to you online. Here is a mini-anthology of essays to read, with prompts to pair. As you write your own personal essays, think about how these essays mirror their main subjects and characters—how the writer chooses to honor and champion their subject and why.

And so, dear writers, as you go into your own Decembers, remember that every detail, no matter how mundane or extraordinary, is part of our common human experience. And we look forward to reading all about it in the pages to come.

About Lisa

Lisa Hiton is an editorial associate at Write the World. She writes two series on our blog: The Write Place where she comments on life as a writer, and Reading like a Writer where she recommends books about writing in different genres. She’s also the interviews editor of Cosmonauts Avenue and the poetry editor of the Adroit Journal.

#write the world #lisa hiton #wtwspotlight #amwriting #writingtips #essay

[blogwritetheworld]

Author Melissa De Silva on Writing Creative Nonfiction

For many of you, our My December Writing Competition presents a new milestone in your writing careers: penning a piece of creative nonfiction. According to Lee Gutkind, founder of Creative Nonfiction magazine, “Creative nonfiction writers do not make things up; they make ideas and information that already exist more interesting and often more accessible.” Today, Guest Judge Melissa De Silva expands upon Gutkind’s ideas about the genre, shares with us her own experience of writing creative nonfiction, and offers tips for drafting a strong competition entry.

You recently published your book, 'Others' Is Not A Race. Can you tell us more about this work and why you decided to share this collection of stories?

This collection is a combination of creative nonfiction, fiction, literary food writing, and family memoir. These stories are tied together because they all center around my journey to reclaim my Eurasian heritage. Eurasians are those of both European and Asian ancestry, and in Asia, there are Eurasian communities in various countries due to European colonialism in this region in the past. I reached a point when I realized I didn’t ‘feel’ very Eurasian. I didn’t eat our traditional foods, speak my mother tongue, or practice any Eurasian traditions. So I set out to reclaim these—by starting to learn my mother tongue (a creole of Portuguese and Malay called Kristang, which originates in Malacca, Malaysia), by cooking various traditional foods and by traveling to Malacca to document the traditional livelihood of our community there: fishing.

I also wrote 'Others' Is Not A Race to raise awareness about our Eurasian community’s history and culture. Even though we are Singaporeans, many Singaporeans do not know much about us, because we are a micro-community, of less than one percent of the country’s population. It doesn’t help that in official national categories of race, Eurasians are classified under the vague and meaningless ‘Other’ category (Singapore’s three other official racial categories are Indian, Malay and Chinese). So I wrote this book as a statement: that we Eurasians are not ‘Other’, we are a distinct culture and people with our own unique heritage and traditions.

Some of your essays are works of creative nonfiction, which is of course the genre for this month's competition. What is your advice to our young writers who haven’t tackled this style of writing before?

It’s a fantastic genre to experiment with, because so much material is already there for us to play with, in the form of our real life experiences and our reflections on the events that are happening around us.  For me, what has been very useful is recording all the details of events and experiences as they occur.  I can then refer to these things later when I am writing, and use them to enrich the stories and bring them to life. And I think that while in fiction, there is often a consciousness of the need for tension to keep the reader reading, what I find liberating about creative nonfiction is the genre gives ample room for a writer to delve into reflection in the process of making meaning. So I'd say, don’t hold back with your musings in your nonfiction writing. They are the key to making an already competent piece really soar!

Do you have any tips for writers on how to approach the editing process?

I keep editing my work until I can say what I need to say with the least amount of words. Also, I try to keep in mind what the reader knows, and doesn't know. Often I've found I might have something in my head, but it's not on the page—where it needs to be! And my third tip, also related to the reader, is to be as clear as possible. . There’s no point in writing the most beautiful sentences if the overall meaning of them is unclear to the reader. This is something I have to constantly work at in my own writing.

What are you looking for in a winning entry?

I would love to read pieces that move me—whether they make me smile or laugh, or feel the pain of loss or regret. I also love getting insights into places I hadn't known before, or a new perspective on something.

What is December in Singapore like?

It is relatively cooler than rest of the year (perhaps 29 degrees Celsius on a cool day), and more rainy. Singapore has a tropical climate so it's hot and sunny (about 31 degrees Celsius during the day) most of the time. There’s not much temperature variation throughout the year with a tropical climate. In December it often rains every day, though thankfully, not all day! And because it's tropical, our trees and plants remain green all year round, even in December :)

About Melissa

Melissa is a writer,  journalist and editor from Singapore. She is the author of 'Others' is Not a Race and is published in The Wilderness House Literary Review, the Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, and Cha: An Asian Literary Journal. This year, her short story, 'It Happened at Mount Pleasant' was selected for the anthology Best New Singaporean Short Stories Vol. 3. Melissa likes trees, clean white spaces and well-mannered rabbits.

#MyDecember #Melissa De Silva #wtwcompetition #amwriting #writing tips #creative nonfiction #fiction #lee gutkind

[blogwritetheworld]

From My Desk to Yours with Michael Lydon: Writing a Novel

by Michael Lydon

So you want to write a novel? Well, as the coolly cynical cats in my high school gang used to say, “Better pack a lunch!”

Seriously, writing a novel is a major undertaking, and you may learn, as I learned on my first try at the form, that you’re not cut out for the job—even though a novel is, in essence, a story, and we all read and tell stories every day. A joke sketches a quick story; an anecdote relates a slightly longer one. Then come short stories, ten to thirty pages long, after that novellas, fifty to a hundred pages. Only then do we reach full novel proportions, anywhere between two hundred to eight hundred pages. Taking on such a ginormous task may be a bridge too far for most beginning writers. Don’t let that discourage you however! If you have a novel inside you eager to be born, start writing it today—you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Here’s a suggestion I hope will help you get your pen flying: you don’t have to start on page one! Write a few pages to describe your central character, his or her house, his or her childhood. You can even write an ending. Most of these scribbled efforts may not make it into the novel, not word-for word at least, but the freedom such experiments encourage will surely enrich your story’s subtext.

From that improvisatory suggestion I’ll leap to a more disciplined one: see if you can find your novel’s beginning-to-end arc. Your scribbling may have given you one, two, or a half-dozen detailed scenes; great, they’re your raw material. Now start looking for the framework those scenes will hang on.

Next, why not try to divide your story arc, even if only in your own mind, into writing’s three classic sections: beginning, middle, and end. The beginning introduces the novel’s people and places; the middle describes their conflicts, the end describes how those conflicts get resolved. Yes, I know that sounds boringly cut-and-dried, and many fine novels will never fit this formula, but thinking of your novel in terms of these three immortal chunks will help illuminate the areas of your story that need attention in your next draft.

You still need to get your opening sentences down on paper, the sentences that, you hope, will hook your readers. Sarorah (US) grabbed me with her lively opening portrait of her heroine Charlie:

“Charlie, Charlie,” my dad calls out to me hysterically. I laugh to myself: he probably thinks I ran away again but in reality I was hiding under my bed. He hears my silent giggle and peeks under, his sullen expression turning deadpan when he discovered me. “Charlie why are you hiding, do you know how much of a fright you gave me young lady?" Blah, Blah, and more Blah is all I think to myself while I fish around my head for an excuse…”

That sparky beginning wakes me up! I’ve just got to find out where this lively gal will be going for the next two hundred pages.

The middle of your novel is the meat of your story and probably the longest of the three sections. Here in many tales the “protagonist” faces a trial of some sort, helped (or hindered!) by an array of “supporting characters.” A mid-length novel may have twenty or more named and described characters, and it is of utmost importance that these be as true to life as the writer’s skill and insight permits.  “Novels hinge on well-developed characters,” says the prompt introducing Write the World’s current novel-writing competition. “All the rest of it—the plot, the setting, the language—mean little if the reader doesn’t experience the fictional world through a character who feels real and relatable. The reader must detect a beating heart—feel that human connection—to care about the rest of the story.”

No wiser words have ever been written about the art of writing novels. To succeed as a novelist, a writer must make his or her characters human beings readers can believe in, humans who could be our next-door neighbors, the lady sitting next to us on a bus, the man behind the counter at the hardware store. Some years ago when in bed with the flu, I tried to pass long boring hours reading best-selling detective novels. In one the hero, gets a serious brain injury.

A few hours sleep and he’s back on the case despite a wicked headache. “How is it now?” asks a friend. “Better” says the stoical detective. And went on that same afternoon to solve a major crime.

“Wha..?” said I to myself, “this guy’s not human! Nobody could do all that the writer is making him do! I simply don’t believe it!” And with that, I flipped the book into the wastebasket; I’ve never read a novel by that writer again. Millions of readers may still be reading such thrillers, but I say, “Nonsense! I won’t read novels when I can’t believe the central character is human.”

The best novelists do more than make their central characters believable, they make the novel’s whole world believable. The great English novelist Anthony Trollope prided himself on being able to map each novel’s world, here his fictional county of Barsetshire:

I had it all in mind, its roads and railroads, its towns and parishes, its members of Parliament, and the different hunts that rode over it. I knew all the great lords and their castles, the squires and their parks, the rectors and their churches.... There has been no name given to a fictitious site, which does not represent to me a spot of which I know as though I had lived and wandered there.

With the end of a novel writer and reader say goodbye to each other and to the characters they have come to know and, often, to love. Endings can be comic or sad, noisy or quiet, agitated or calm; what matters most is that the reader closes the book with a sense of satisfied finality. Perhaps the ending I love best of all from the countless books I have read is the end of The “Genius” by Theodore Dreiser. The “Genius” tells the story of Eugene Witla, an adventurous American painter who lurches from one affair to another, from commercial hackwork to great art, from obscurity to fame. After describing such a tumultuous life, Dreiser surprises us by leaving his hero with a hushed ending of unmatched poignancy. In the novel’s last sentences, Dreiser describes Eugene tucking his daughter into bed and stepping outside to look up at the Milky Way:

“Where in all this—in substance,” he thought, rubbing his hand through his hair, “is Angela? Where in substance will be that which is me? What a sweet welter life is—how rich, how tender, how grim, how like a colorful symphony.”

Great art dreams welled up in his soul as he viewed the sparkling deeps of space.

The sound of the wind—how fine it is tonight,” he thought.

Then he went quietly in and closed the door.

About Michael

Michael Lydon is a writer and musician who lives in New York City. Author of many books, among them Rock Folk, Boogie Lightning, Ray Charles: Man and Music, and Writing and Life. A founding editor of Rolling Stone, Lydon has written for many periodicals as well, the Atlantic Monthly, New York Times, and Village Voice. He is also a songwriter and playwright and, with Ellen Mandel, has composed an opera, Passion in Pigskin. A Yale graduate, Lydon is a member of ASCAP, AFofM local 802, and on the faculty of St. John’s University.

#write the world #nanowrimo #amwriting #michael lydon

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Novel Writing Competition Winners Announced

Each November, thousands of aspiring novelists embark on their NaNoWriMo journey with the goal of finishing an entire novel by the end of the month. We got in on the action here at Write the World with our third annual Novel Writing Competition. Some of you (who at this point have just hurled yourselves across the NaNoWriMo finish line!), shared a favorite excerpt from your novel. Others used our competition as a way to think more broadly about how a smaller work might fit into a larger piece some day. The quality and range of excerpts we received meant our Guest Judge, YA Author Cath Crowley, faced a particularly difficult task in choosing the winners. Today, Cath shares which pieces stood out amongst the rest and earned the awards for Best Entry, Runner Up, and Best Peer Review.

From Cath:

BEST ENTRY “Ankh” by Soo Young (Soo) Yun

“Ankh – life, eternity”, begins this beautifully crafted piece by Soo Young. The line reminds me that a story’s beginning is a promise to the reader—a promise of characters and ideas, language and change. Ankh promises us a glimpse into history and time. Not an easy task to pull off. But from that first line—controlled, staccato—I had no doubt that Soo Young would deliver.

This is a piece that delivers on many levels. It’s a travel guide of Egypt, and the journey of a character. I see what the narrator sees because Soo Young’s descriptions are concrete and concise. I can imagine the high-heeled woman taking photographs in the sand dunes. I can feel the dusty smooth surface of the walls.

The dialogue is real, yes, but more than that, it explores theme. And the themes of this piece are subtly and confidently conveyed.  History is a huge place. But the beauty of this piece is that we’re taken into the small moments of it. We’re with the narrator in the past, as we imagine the painstaking process of etching each mark under the scalding Egyptian sun, and at the same time we’re in the present, feeling insignificant in the face of the towering walls that depict past battle scenes. We’re also in the future, as the writer directs our eye to a photograph being taken, a moment captured for later.

At the end of the piece, when the narrator tries to recall the temple and its endless wall of chiselled hieroglyphics—yet is only able to find the angel-like figure of eternity—the reader feels as though, in a very short space of time, she has been taken through history and shown the future. Like the narrator, I feel insignificant in the face of history, and awed by it.

Beautiful.

RUNNER UP “Graveyard” by Laika

This piece had me from its first lines: “Orthadai Bloom was fond of graveyards. They were neat, quiet, and they took things seriously.�� I felt a tensing sensation in the back of my neck, which I get sometimes when I read. It means I’m jealous. It means I wish I’d written it.

I couldn’t have written this piece. I couldn’t have thought up the details—wonderful details—of a character granted life by a graveyard, a character with “the odd tendency to never show up in photographs.” I’m a sucker for a great voice that can surprise me. I’d happily spend a novel with Orthadai Bloom.

The sentence structure of this piece is striking. There’s a song-like quality to it, created by the repetition of the lines, the alliteration in the lines: “A graveyard contained the lives of countless people, countless stories; stories with happy endings and sad ones.” It’s a pleasure to read aloud. As all good writing should be.

BEST PEER REVIEW ALanford’s Peer Review of “Suspicion”

This is a wonderful review. Commenting on a writer’s work is hard. An editor, or a reviewer, needs to adopt the right tone, one that lets the writer know the work is respected, while at the same time that it could be improved. This reviewer does a good job of phrasing comments. There are clear examples and good suggestions for improvement. I love that there are insightful questions included. All writers need an editor that asks the right questions. It pushes you off in interesting directions.

#cath crowley #write the world #nanowrimo #amwriting #national novel writing competition

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November Editor’s Picks

This National Novel Writing Month, we received an unprecedented number of Novel Writing entries. Some of our favorites include American writer Maybeeso’s suspenseful tale set in an eerie country town, while Ellen W’s piece transports us to a melancholic hospital waiting room. Inspired by our “Birdsong” prompt, writers used onomatopoeia to describe the calls  of birds, as well as the sounds they emit as they fly. Our Write the World community was also treated to a number of stunning responses to prompts like “The Art of Specification”. Maggie Mills, for instance, used realistic descriptions of a man’s face to illustrate the hardships he’s encountered throughout his life. Read on for more of our favorite pieces from the past month.

“Raven’s Hurrah” by Skyward Bound

Cheep-cheep ceases, Birdsongs fade, Throbbing-thumping-thunder, Oaks-and-Pines swayed.

In “Raven’s Hurrah”, Skyward Bound uses onomatopoeia to deftly describe a “bleak-black-bird” also known as a raven. But what makes this piece so captivating  is Skyward’s use of alliteration—“Throbbing-thumping-thunder”—which gives the poem a tangible burst of energy and rhythm.

“Hummingbird” by Aspen Gray

Trill! Tremble! Trace the starving air with all the force of a tiny hurricane! Thirst! Thrash! Thread the air with rhythmic dance! Heartbeat thrumming—like thunder never pausing for breath.

Aspen’s vivid descriptions capture   the ferocity of the hummingbird’s flight, it’s tiny heart beating“like thunder, never pausing for a breath.” Reading Aspen’s piece is like watching a David Attenborough  documentary on the big screen—a miniature world magnified for us in brilliant technicolor.

“The Falcon’s Flight” by HollyDays

Sweep and zing—Falcon snatches squealing prey, swept away, eagle zips

through high skies, and searing sunlight blinds— Falcon lands— nest scratches, rustles, and what scuttles inside: soon to be fierce hunters, in their first homes squack and hack—prey slips off Falcon's claws and beaks snap-shuts, a drip-drop,   blood-stained earth.

HollyDays dabbles in the macabre with her thrilling snapshot of a bloodthirsty falcon, mid-flight, trying to snatch its next meal. HollyDay’s piece both thrills and delights in its palpable darkness and doom.

“Old Man” by Maggie Mills

The man’s shoulders had thinned along with his hairline, and his face drooped like stretched taffy. Even the shadows under his eyes looked different, deeper, and dark enough that, from a distance, the man had no eyes at all, just blackened sockets.

For our “Art of Specificity” Prompt, writers were asked to describe something three times, getting more specific with each description. Maggie Mills’ piece starts with, “The old man looked very tired.” She then works her way up to the stunning description above. Zooming  in on the finest of details of her character’s face, Maggie gives the reader a clear picture of not only how tired this man is, but how utterly exhausted every fiber of his being had become, so much so that he was barely alive.

“Unresponsive” by Ellen W

The smoky yard, devoid of life apart from a mother uttering reassurances to her sobbing toddler and a row of solemn, faded yellow ambulances, filled her with a strange comfort that she couldn’t quite place. She told herself again that it was merely the echoes of other grieving families that made her hate the waiting room so much, and not the uncertainty of her own affairs. She was not quite sure she believed it.

Ellen W lands us in a hospital waiting room, its atmosphere thick with uncertainty and agitation.Ellen expertly sets the stage for a larger body of writing. As the scene unfolds, the reader is left hanging off every word, trying to figure out what’s next for this cast of characters.

“The Odd Adventures of Leo Wyle” by Maybeeso

“...Leo’s uncle lived far out in the country, with nothing but farmland and trees for miles around. In short, it was picturesque, and Leo had never hated it more.”

In The Odd Adventures of Leo Wyle, Maybeeso employs the use of a sarcastic, third person limited narrator. The narrator’s tone mimics that of the main character, Leo, who is less than thrilled to be visiting his uncle out in the country. The action is slow burning but comes to an eerie halt when, at the end of the piece, Leo’s uncle says something that confirms Leo’s suspicions. We love how Maybeeso uses tone and suspense to draw in the reader.

“With my Last Breath” by Flower Petals

On the last day of the world   I will walk   till my feet ache I will fall to the shaking ground   only then will i look up   at the stars their gentle light   pulsing goodbye   and with my last breath   I whisper   thank you

“With my Last Breath” is hauntingly beautiful in its simplicity and depth. The piece is both a lovely ode to mother nature’s majesty and a soulful exploration of what it means to say goodbye to a world that’s given you so much.

#wtweditorspicks #write the world #nanowrimo #national novel writing month

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The Write Place: The Everywriter’s Desk

by Lisa Hiton

Looking for the right advice on pursuing the writer’s life? You’ve come to the write place!

The summer before my junior year in high school, my soon-to-be teacher, Ms. Tanimoto, assigned two books to incoming AP students: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White. The Scarlet Letter was forgotten as soon as it was finished; I instantly detested Hawthorne’s penchant for moral allegories surrounding evil and sin, finding it all a bit too on-the-nose and heavy-handed. The Elements of Style, however, became an instant mainstay to my writerly temperament.

It seemed strange to be assigned a reference book to read cover to cover. I’d only ever used reference books like dictionaries, thesauruses, and encyclopedias as touchstones during reading and writing assignments—brief interruptions to expand my knowledge and/or revise my work.Upon reading Strunk and White’s masterpiece, however, my understanding of reference books changed entirely. Though the book is a mere 87 pages, my peers seemed to begrudge the assignment or blow it off entirely. I, on the other hand, found my attention rapt.

The Elements of Style is a reference book on the rules of English rhetoric, yes, but the attitude and dogma of its writers, Strunk and White, make it as much a manifesto as a convincing collection of laws governing the way we (ought to) speak and (must) write. The seriousness of tone and voice in these pages presents us with far more than a reference for grammar and usage, but rather, a true understanding of style in and of itself—that rhetoric is more than grammar and syntax, but a true translation of our consciousness into clear, material words. Such gravitas became most apparent to me when I arrived to page 52. Amid the section on misused words and expression, Strunk and White lay out the difference between nauseous and nauseated as follows:

Nauseous. Nauseated. The first means “sickening to contemplate”; the second means “sick to the stomach.” Do not, therefore, say, “I feel nauseous,” unless you are sure you have that effect on others.

Besides thinking of the many times I had misused “nauseous”, I actually laughed out loud. Amidst the seriousness in the rule there was a deep sense of snark. From the seriousness came a great deal of humor.

Since that first reading encounter with The Elements of Style, my well worn copy has remained with me. Whether I’m writing an academic paper, a cover letter, an author’s bio, a poem, a book review, or anything else, Strunk and White are there reminding me to be as clear as possible.

MY ELEMENTS OF STYLE

As I continued to grow in my writing life, I found that other books became constant sources of aid and knowledge, so much so that my desk had its own section of books at the ready, for whatever obstacles befell a given blank page. And over the years, the kinds of references have grown to fit my own writerly needs. And as I visit my friends who are writers, I notice some trends from desk to desk.

Here’s my working writing desk, fit with all I need! I’ve got my laptop, notebooks, pens, reference books, books to review, and some of my favorite books that I keep near me for inspiration. In the drawer of my desk, I keep mailing materials for my stack of chapbooks to sign and send to those who request it.  

Regarding reference books, every writer’s desk seems to contain The Elements of Style by Strunk and White, a dictionary, and a well-worn thesaurus. My desk currently has my hardcover copy of The Elements of Style, The New Roget’s Thesaurus in Dictionary Form, and Soule’s Dictionary of English Synonyms. Especially for those of you dreaming up holiday wish-lists, Maira Kalman’s illustrated version of The Elements of Style may be just the special book to add to the collection for you.

While I used to keep a desk-sized Merriam-Webster Dictionary on hand, I find the synonyms and thesaurus more useful these days, perhaps especially as I revise my first book of poems. When I find myself overusing the same verbs and adjectives, I can quickly reach for one of these books and get some inspiration. I’ve converted, these days, to using apps for dictionary and etymology. I especially like the free dictionary.com app, which allows you to click on a word three times and open up its dictionary page. The app also offers audio pronunciation.

Dictionaries are important resources, ones which can’t quite be replicated online. Each nation has its favorite, from the Oxford English Dictionary, to Merriam-Webster’s, to the Macquarie. While I don’t keep Merriam-Webster on my desk at this moment, I do keep it at my fingertips, using their online resources when I’m in need. Further, I’ve found the Merriam-Webster twitter to be a source of great comfort and comedy amidst America’s dire political landscape. While it is easy to look up a word online, the physical books—dictionaries, thesauruses, etc.—encourage more meandering through the worlds of words. Without the instant gratification that comes from looking up a word, you may stumble upon an etymological note that takes you to another page, and so on, until you’ve learned new things about words and perhaps found an even better way to say whatever it is you set out to put on the page.

These are my three most used reference books right now. I’m really excited about this new, hardcover copy of The Elements of Style, especially!

Another particularity of a writer’s desk seems to be a given writer’s tools. Do you do most of your writing on a computer? In a notebook? With an old refurbished typewriter? I personally use multiple tools to get my writing done. Certain parts of my writing process involve pen and paper, while others are done on my laptop. Many writers have a kind of obsession with their objects. For example, I only write with fine point uniball pens in black or purple ink. I use fine point, black sharpie markers for my writing to-do lists. And, as you'll see from a glimpse at my desk, I'm as particular about notebooks as I am about pens!

I keep a few different notebooks with different purposes going at a time. Here you’ll see two Shinola notebooks, which I love because they engrave your name for free—a great holiday gift, indeed!—my Moleskine planner, my to-do list pad, and a grey notebook where I keep notes on books as I read them. 

Another important element of a writer’s desk is its proximity to field guides. In my dream writing room, this might include specific maps, atlases, and encyclopedias. Currently, I’m working on poems and essays about my time spent in Greece on the island of Thassos and in the city of Thessaloniki. To that end, I have acquired field guides that can help me re-orient myself to that location. Names of trees, fish, flora, fauna, and foods are different in other places. I’ve also become a collector of field guides, including one that has images and names of specific kinds of lighthouses. What field guides might help you with a particular piece you’re working on right now?

As a field guide collector, these are some of my favorite possessions, found in random parts of the world, flea markets, and antique stores. Right now, I’m revising poems about my time in Greece on the island of Thassos. These field guides help inspire precision in describing water, fish, beaches, shells, and the like. 

Besides reference books and field guides, it seems that craft books or books about writing and reading are a mainstay on my desk too. Some of my absolute favorites are:

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

The Writing Life by Annie Dillard

Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose

Blue Pastures by Mary Oliver

Having these books on my desk is a reminder of my own intellectual inheritance as a writer, as well as a great source of guidance and inspiration to me.

EXPANSIVE FIELDS

There are of course many other must-have books, tools, and resources that writers need to have at the ready. A comparative study of writers’ desks would be ideal. In the absence of access to the likes of desks by Dr. Seuss, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Stephen King, JK Rowling, and the rest, here are some starter ideas by genre that you might consider as you expand your own writer’s desk. And of course, send us picture of your own desks and favorite desk necessities on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter by tagging us or using the hashtags: #everywritersdesk.

A Poet’s Guide to Poetry

Poetry has its own rules and vernacular that may give writers pause. From reference books, to prompting books, there are many craft resources for poets looking to understand lines, stanzas, and the soul of poetry as they grow their own volumes of poetry. Here’s a wishlist of some of my most beloved/ragged/well-loved books on poetry:

A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver

The Triggering Town by Richard Hugo

Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

A Poet’s Guide to Poetry by Mary Kinzie

A Poet’s Glossary by Edward Hirsch

The Art of the Poetic Line by James Longenbach

A Little Book on Form: An Exploration Into the Formal Imagination of Poetry by Robert Hass

Rules for the Dance by Mary Oliver

The Sounds of Poetry: A Brief Guide by Robert Pinsky

ABC of Reading by Ezra Pound

Keeping Things Novel

For all you novelists, there are also a whole host of books to guide you in the writing of fiction.. Here are a few additions you might want to make to your #everywritersdesk:

How Fiction Works by James Wood

Brevity: A Flash Fiction Handbook by David Galef

The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers by John Gardener

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose

Mastering Suspense, Structure, and Plot: How to Write Gripping Stories that Keep Readers on the Edge of Their Seat by Jane K. Cleland

Nonfiction

If creative nonfiction is where your writing practice is focused, there are all kinds of books available for your #everywritersdesk too! Nonfiction is a huge category, which could include journalism, biography, autobiography, and more. This list is focused on the literary spirit of creative nonfiction:

Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg

To Show and to Tell by Phillip Lopate

On Writing Well by William Zinsser

You Can’t Make This Stuff Up: The Complete Guide to Writing Creative Nonfiction by Lee Gutkind

Writing True: The Art and Craft of Creative Nonfiction by Sondra Perl and Mimi Schwartz

Inside Story: Everyone’s Guide to Reporting and Writing Creative Nonfiction by Julia Goldberg

Crafting the Personal Essay: A Guide for Writing and Publishing Creative Nonfiction by Dinty W. Moore

As these books serve the writing life, there are also those books that are so well-loved that they seem to live on our desks. Right now, the collected works of Sylvia Plath and Frank Bidart have been near me at all times, just like a security blanket for my authorial heart. What books do you find stay off the shelf? Tag them in your #everywritersdesk photos.

Of course, there are many other books that may guide you on your journey. Many craft books and writers’ resources can also be found on my series blog, “Reading Like a Writer” where I recommend specific craft books in conjunction with the genre of Write the World’s monthly writing contests. We can’t wait to see your additions to #everywritersdesk by tagging us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook!

About Lisa

Lisa Hiton is an editorial associate at Write the World. She writes two series on our blog: The Write Place where she comments on life as a writer, and Reading like a Writer where she recommends books about writing in different genres. She’s also the interviews editor of Cosmonauts Avenue and the poetry editor of the Adroit Journal.

#the write place #everywritersdesk #the elements of style #lisa hiton #amwriting #writing tips

[blogwritetheworld]

November Spotlight: Novel Times and Novel Minds

by Lisa Hiton

Our readerly obsession with novels has led to many books about fiction–how it works, why we’re drawn to it, how we might engage with it in classrooms, etc. And yet, the novel still remains an enigma. For at the center, there is that inexplicable, unexplainable, unrepeatable genome that belongs only to the writer.

A novelist, unlike other writers, must endure a long affair with their characters, narratives and landscapes. A study of interviews, craft books, and craft essays on the subject will dredge up many different interpretations on what it takes to finish a novel and what it means to be a novelist. Like any other practice, serious writers must, in fact, practice. If scales and arpeggios are foundations for a musician, reading and writing are central techniques for the writer. But the harder skills and talents come from the latter interest—the writing life itself. It is this ideal—that being a writer is a way of living, not a vocation—that I first understood from reading Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life. In writing a book—especially one of fiction, which requires years of dedication to particular characters, landscapes, and themes—The Writing Life singularly imparts the importance of endurance in approaching the whole of life as a writing life.

The Writing Life

Essential to every writer (of any genre) is The Writing Life by Annie Dillard. Dillard is a writer known for fiction and nonfiction. Perhaps more pointedly, Dillard is known for her understanding of writing in relation to transcendence—writing as a spiritual endeavor. Her nonfiction narrative, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1975. Dillard’s nonfiction narratives and essays since have gone closer and closer to the source about how living and writing are symbiotic—at least through her interpretation of the world.

In The Writing Life, Dillard presents the reader with both a concrete understanding of the writer’s task (as a writer), as well as the kind of living one must cultivate in order to write. It is one of the most widely read books on writing of our time. From the onset, Dillard establishes writing as an act of building:

When you write, you lay out a line of words. The line of words is a miner’s pick, a woodcarver’s gouge, a surgeon’s probe. You wield it, and it digs a path you follow. Soon you find yourself deep in new territory. Is it a dead end, or have you located the real subject? You will know tomorrow, or this time next year.

You make the path boldly and follow it fearfully. You go where the path leads. At the end of the path you find a box canyon. You hammer out reports, dispatch bulletins.

The writing has changed, in your hands, and in a twinkling, from an expression of your notions to an epistemological tool. The new place interests you because it is not clear. You attend. In your humility, you lay down the words carefully, watching all the angles. Now the earlier writing looks soft and careless. Process is nothing; erase your tracks. The path is not the work. I hope your tracks have grown over; I hope birds ate the crumbs; I hope you will toss it all and not look back.

The line of words is a hammer. You hammer against the walls of your house. You tap the walls, lightly, everywhere. After giving many years’ attention to these things, you know what to listen for. Some of the walls are bearing walls; they have to stay, or everything will fall down. Other walls can go with impunity; you can hear the difference. Unfortunately, it is often a bearing wall that has to go. It cannot be helped. There is only one solution, which appalls you, but there it is. Knock it out. Duck.

(Dillard, 3-4)

While a poet may view a word choice or line break as an excruciating revision, a novelist may find themselves taking out entire chapters, erasing characters, and starting over in various ways throughout the process of an entire book. As Dillard so astutely names: “the new place interests you because it is not clear”. So much of writing is becoming a conduit for a voice or a story that is other to the authorial You. So for example, the part of you that is the author is like a lightning rod. This means that you are  responsible for carrying attracting and capturing lightning—in this case: ideas, images, and trials of the imagination—and putting it on paper so that these stories can be shared with readers.

Let’s say you set out to write a story about a little boy climbing a willow tree. But as it turns out, when the boy reaches a high branch, he sees a robin building a nest in a tree across the creek. The authorial You who set out to write about a boy in a willow tree may decide to have him climb another branch. But the You that is a conduit—who, like a lightning rod, must wait for a storm’s magic and channel it into a story—must tell the author to get out of the way.

It is, perhaps, the bird that is more compelling, more mysterious—the more vivid story to follow. If you get out of your own way and instead, consider the other details that you didn’t plan on putting into a story, everything in the world of the page might expand. And in that openness, there is no limitation on your imagination. So you can always return to the boy climbing in the branches, but you might challenge yourself to follow those other visions too before you limit what your story could become. And so, dear writers, as you work on your fiction this month, keep your eyes and ears open within your pages and your imagination for utter discovery.

November Novel Picks

Our longest affairs with fiction (as readers and writers) come in the form of novels. In novels, we can find those universal truths and questions that help us understand humanity in all of its complexities. Here are some writerly questions to keep in mind as you read some of the world’s favorite novels:

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: A classic of American literature, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird continues to be one of the most studied texts we have. Lee takes on racial inequality, the American justice system, the American South, and rape through the eyes of a six-year-old girl. The protagonist, Scout Finch, sees how her small town in Alabama reacts as her father, Atticus Finch—an attorney—defends a black man accused of raping a white woman. As you read or re-read the novel, here are some prompts to follow that can help your own writing process.

How would you describe the plotlines of the novel? What tools does Lee employ to present these different stories in one landscape?

What is the meaning of the title? What does the title bring to the reader as a frame to the whole novel?

Who is the hero of the story? Why?

Why is this novel told from Scout’s point of view? What elements of fiction would be different if it were told from a different character’s point of view (narrative, tone, dialogue, etc.)?

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice depicts a romantic story between protagonist, Elizabeth Bennet, and her love interest, Mr. Darcy. This 19th century novel uses comedy in depicting the manners and mannerisms of well-to do British people of the time. But beneath such snark, Austen’s characters challenge and change the reader’s (and characters’) understanding of love, individuality, gender, and social norms.

Look at Austen’s sentences. What do they have in common? How does the sentence structure imitate themes in the plot?

What expectations do the characters have about human interaction? What are your expectations about each character? How do those expectations stay the same or change? What does Austen do to invoke a change of heart (in the reader and in the characters)?

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erica L. Sánchez: In Erica L. Sánchez’s debut YA fiction, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, protagonist Julia finds her role in her family changing as her sister, Olga, is killed in a tragic accident on a busy Chicago street. As Julia’s family grieves, she begins to learn what role her sister played in her family’s dynamic, and wonders if her family’s perception of this “perfect” daughter was true. This book is a meditation on family, loss, and coming-of-age.

What roles do each family member play in this novel? What role does the family as a whole play in the cityscape around them? In your own notebook, answer these questions about your own family and its members.

Why is this story told from Julia’s point of view? What larger claims can we make about Sánchez’s choice to present the world through these eyes?

All of these books contain characters who see the world around them a bit differently. They—without being writers—are embodiments of the writing life. And through the visions of these authors, the way we see these characters and get inside their minds adds to our own writing lives. So dear readers, as you get writing for #NANOWRIMO, don’t forget to get reading as well!

About Lisa

Lisa Hiton is an editorial associate at Write the World. She writes two series on our blog: The Write Place where she comments on life as a writer, and Reading like a Writer where she recommends books about writing in different genres. She’s also the interviews editor of Cosmonauts Avenue and the poetry editor of the Adroit Journal.

#wtwspotlight #write the world #lisa hiton #nanowrimo #national novel writing month #amwriting #annie dillard

[blogwritetheworld]

Featured Writer: Lei Mesina

Language enthusiast Lei Mesina is on a quest to become a bonafide polyglot. Lei already speaks Japanese, Dutch, and American Sign Language, and has set herself the ambitious goal of learning ten different languages!  Imagine being able to speak to and understand people from all around the world?! As president of her school’s English Club, Lei also hopes to strengthen her grasp of English  while also expanding her knowledge of English speaking countries like England and the United States. Today, Lei talks more about why she gravitates to languages and the inspiration behind her stunning piece about seeing her very first snowfall.

You speak a number of languages including Dutch, Japanese, and American Sign Language. What do you love about learning new languages?

Learning another country's language makes me feel like a part of their culture. It's almost like a trip around the world. And I've always had an interest in words. I find it a curious process to be able to understand a certain combination of sounds and gestures and to be able to communicate with other people through them. 

You're the president of your school's English Club. Can you tell us more about this club and what a typical meeting is like?

My English Club has a variety of activities such as: watching English movies, eating foreign foods, and playing American games. I even played my first game of Monopoly and Scrabble in the English Club! The main goal is to be able to experience life outside of Japan. The things I enjoy most about English Club is  being able to speak freely with our American teacher and having fun with my friends. At the moment, my club only has four members which is the minimum number of members before the club is disbanded. One of my jobs as president of the club is to introduce our club to the school and  get new members. But other than that, my main duty is to borrow the keys to the Science Room where we usually do our activities.

Your Flash Autobiography response landed a spot in last month's Editor's Picks blog! Can you tell us a bit about your process for writing and editing this piece?

When I first read the description for the Flash Autobiography prompt, I ransacked my mind and knew that I would end up writing about that moment. My first encounter with snow fulfilled a lifelong dream of mine. Coming from the Philippines, I grew up in a warm climate where the closest thing to snow was rain. So when we moved to Japan, seeing snow was one of my most anticipated moments. I mindlessly typed what I saw and suddenly realized I was remembering things I didn't know I felt or thought at the time. The writing and editing process took about 45 minutes. It was one of my best experiences and I hope that other people find their own snow globes!

Who are some of your favorite writers?

Rick Riordan and Sabrina Benaim are two of my favorite writers. Rick Riordan has a gift of being able to continuously intertwine his writing with his great sense of humor. I honestly think he should write our textbooks! I've seen lots of his Youtube videos and he has taught me to never be afraid of rejection or criticism. There may be a time in a writer's life when they'll have to write a manuscript fourteen times. The most important thing about being a writer is to keep the passion burning.

Sabrina Benaim is a wonderful poet who made me realize my love for writing poetry. My first poem was written an hour after I watched her video, "Explaining My Depression To My Mother: A Conversation". Something about seeing her read her poetry out loud makes poetry less of a mythical thing to me. It turns fairy tales into flesh. And for that, Sabrina Benaim will always be a special writer to me. 

Where do you see writing taking you in the future?

I've only started writing last year, and I have yet to explore its tiniest corners. There's plenty of room to strengthen my prose, my sentence rhythm, and expand my vocabulary. I can see myself writing novels and poetry, but I can also see myself as an editor. As young writers, we have time to explore and discover our strengths when it comes to words. We also have many chances to discover new things but I can always see myself coming back to the one thing that’s come so naturally into my life.

About Lei Mesina

My name is Lei Mesina. I'm almost 14 and barely 4'9. I used to live in the Philippines but I moved to Yamanashi, Japan about two years ago. On most days you can find me hanging around with my best friend Delilah (a pink badminton racket that I like to twirl around when I'm brainstorming for writing ideas) and listening to country music. I've been reading for as long as I can remember and my hobbies include dissecting patterns, taking photos of the sky and my cat, and dancing. I have a passion for metaphors and all things artistic and abstract. Some of the things on my bucket list are to reach 5'3, and become a polyglot who knows ten languages. I am trilingual and currently studying Dutch and American Sign Language (ASL). I'm also the president of my school’s English club here in Japan. Writing is the best thing I've ever come across. It's a great feeling to discover a passion at such a young age and I plan to continue living through words inside and outside my mind. My go to writing beverage: Ginger Water.

#wtwfeaturedwriter #polyglot #languages #rick riordan #sabrina benaim #amwriting #write the world

[blogwritetheworld]

YA Author Cath Crowley on the Novel Writing Process

Cath Crowley didn’t decide to become a novelist right away. She did some traveling, studied, and taught, all before enrolling in the class that changed her life—Writing for Young Adults at RMIT in Melbourne, Australia. It was there that Cath would write her first novel, The Life and Times of Gracie Faltrain. Since then, Cath’s gone on to write a number of books including her most recent work, the award winning Words in Deep Blue. Today, Cath takes us through her writing and editing process as well as her tips for choosing the best excerpt to submit to our Novel Writing Competition.

For this competition, writers are asked to submit an excerpt of a larger work. What advice do you have for writers who are trying to choose the best excerpt to submit?

This is difficult. But my advice would be to choose your top three excerpts, and then read each one aloud, imagining you’re in front of an audience. Even better, actually read the piece to an audience. Choose the piece that people enjoy, or the piece that you love to read aloud.

Can you tell us about your own personal editing process?

Editing saves me in the end, and it’s also my downfall.

Some weeks I don’t write anything new because I’m editing one paragraph. I’m doing this because I love it. And because it’s important. But I also think (for me) it’s procrastination. So now I have a rule that I write for at least two hours without editing myself.

In the editing process (after the first draft is finished) I look through my work for the obvious things—word repetitions, sentences that sound wrong in terms of rhythm, spelling errors.

But I also look for descriptions that are clichéd, for dialogue that could be inner dialogue because it’s not serving a purpose, or it doesn’t show conflict, or it doesn’t sound natural. In terms of character I want to make sure that each person has a strong character arc.

After I’ve edited, I send it to my editor. I want my editor to be kind but ruthless. I want her to tell me what’s working in my manuscript, because often I can’t see what’s good in there! But I want her to point out the flaws in my manuscript, too—word repetitions, unnatural dialogue, characters that don’t have strong arcs, descriptions that don’t work because they’re vague or clichéd.

I never take offense during the editing process because if a person takes the time to really read my work, I take it as a sign of respect.

Many of our young writers are aspiring novelists. How did you decide to become a writer? What can young writers do now to help guide them toward a career in writing?

I didn’t choose writing for a long time. I studied, traveled, taught, and then I enrolled in RMIT’s Professional Writing and Editing course. It was during my Writing for Young Adults class, that I wrote The Life and Times of Gracie Faltrain, my first novel. That course helped me decide that I wanted to be a writer.

If you want a career in writing, you have to write. (Sounds obvious, but not everyone does it.) You need to work at the craft, and that means making it part of your everyday. It means writing good pieces and bad pieces. It means reading as much as you can. Read for pleasure but also read to learn. Ask how did this writer make me feel like this? Or, why didn’t the reader make me feel like this? I think a career in writing also means noticing details. I go for long periods not bothering to notice the color of the fence, or the way a person moves—and this shows in my writing. Notice the details of life. Write. Read.

When writing a novel, do you have a sense of the overall arc of the story before you start? How different (or similar) is the finished piece than what you originally had in mind?

My process changes (a little) from novel to novel. With Gracie Faltrain and Charlie Duskin, the character came first, and it took a lot of writing to find their stories. With Graffiti Moon and Words in Deep Blue, the setting arrived first and after writing page after page of describing the artwork for Graffiti Moon and the bookstore for Words in Deep Blue, the characters arrived. So no, with my previous books, I haven’t had the arc of the story before I start. I do a lot of writing about character and then later, usually when I feel completely lost, I go back to basics and (try) to find their ordinary world, inciting incident, first act turning point, so that I feel as though the first act is working. Honestly, my writing process is a bit of a muddle. It works best when I don’t think about it too much!

What are you looking for in a winning entry?

Things I love about a good piece of writing: an original voice, dialogue that shows conflict and character, descriptions that put me into a setting, strong verbs, a great idea.

Having written that, though, there’s always the entry that gives me nothing of what I thought I was looking for and it’s brilliant.

I think the most important thing to remember is to write the piece you need and want to write.

Your most recent book, Words in Deep Blue, won the Indie Book Awards 2017 Young Adult prize. What can we look forward to next?!

I can tell you that I’m writing again and loving it. I can tell you that the idea came to me while I was walking through France. But I can’t tell you exactly what it’s about because once I put that into words, it won’t be fun for me anymore.

About Cath Crowley

Cath Crowley is an award-winning author of young adult fiction. Her novels include The Gracie Faltrain trilogy, Chasing Charlie Duskin, Graffiti Moon, Words in Deep Blue and Take Three Girls. Graffiti Moon won the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Young Adult Fiction, the Ethel Turner Award for Young People’s Literature, and was named an honor book in the Children’s Book Council, Book of the Year Awards. Words in Deep Blue was recently awarded the Gold Inky for 2017 and the QLD Literary Award for a Young Adult Book. Cath lives in the country with her husband, her dog, Inca, and her cat, Mew.

#wtwcompetition #cath crowley #words in deep blue #ya books #young adult fiction #amwriting #nanowrimo #national novel writing month