Author Insides - Christopher McKittrick

Christopher McKittrick was born in Long Island, New York and currently lives in Queens. His short stories range in style from fantasy to literary fiction and have appeared in The Adroit Journal, Burnt Bridge Literary Review, and the By Mind or Metal and Powers anthologies from Static Movement Press. His nonfiction work has appeared in Newsday and Good Times Magazine. He also contributed an essay on director Terry Gilliam to Roman Catholicism in Fantastic Film from McFarland Press and he is a regular contributor to MovieBuzzers.com, a website focused on the film industry and DailyActor.com, a website focused on acting in all media. He has spoken about literature, film, and comic books at various conferences across the country.

His novel, Montauk, is available on Amazon.

When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
I grew up being a voracious reader, which was thankfully encouraged by my parents and my older brother. At some point – I’m not sure when – I went from devouring all the books on my bookshelf to coming up with stories on my own. Even when I used to play with my action figures I would write down – in my little kid handwriting, of course – what happened during this playtime session so I could continue the story the following day. I’m not sure if any other child was as obsessed about playtime continuity as I was!

Why do you write?
I’ve always been encouraged to do so. As long as people keep complimenting what I write I am going to keep writing. Actually, even if people trash my work I’m sure I won’t stop. I feel compelled to always write down a funny bit of conversation I overhear on the subway, as if it deserves to be recorded by someone. I might as well keep being that somebody.

What was the inspiration for Montauk?
It seems as I was growing up in the mid-1980s to the late 1990s a new approach to parenting developed in middle and upper class society that told children that they deserved nothing less than the pinnacle of success because everyone is special. I’ve seen people use that as a driving force to realize their goals and people who sit around expecting success to come to them – after all, it has been promised to them all their lives, so why work for it? Reality shows teach us that anybody can be a star no matter how talented or untalented one is; social media promotes the idea that everything one does is important and worth bragging about. For many people the fantasy lives they construct and promote online are far more important to them than what happens in the living, breathing world. I wanted to write a character that came to a moment in his life when he realized that real-world success was not guaranteed and is not often fulfilled by the instant gratification expected in today’s society. While we should celebrate the accomplishments of an individual, it’s far more meaningful when it is well-deserved and earned, not because we feel compelled to boost self-esteem for someone whose accomplishments are remarkably average. Why reward mediocrity as if it is the equal to success?

Do you see any of yourself in your character and his struggles?
I’ve had people who had read parts of this assume we’re one and the same and that the story is autobiographical – I even had people express sympathy in regard to the death of my father, who, thankfully, is very much alive! However, I definitely see the character and myself sharing the same DNA, except that perhaps the character has, for one reason or another, not had some of the more positive experiences that I have had. I guess you could say that I created a character very much like me but I made his life a bit more tortuous. Since I created him, I can put him through the wringer, right? No hard feelings, I hope.

Do you have any siblings? If so, how would you compare your relationship with them to the one of your main character and his sister?
Unlike my protagonist, I am the younger of two brothers. Since I’ve never had a sister – or a younger sibling for that matter – I thought it would be fun to explore a totally different relationship than the one I have with my own real-life sibling. I just hope it came off genuine.

Your character does some emergency thrift store shopping? Have you ever done the same? If so, what’s the most unique item of clothing you’ve found in a thrift store?
Never in an emergency, but there was a magnificent thrift store right by my college (and later my first apartment) that had a fantastic selection of oddities. I have to admit that one of my favorite purchases were the white Levi’s I mention in the story, which were about as fashionably out of it as you’d expect. But that’s why I bought them!

What do you think makes a good story?
A character worth reading about. Plot is obviously important, but a rich character will generate the plot. I taught literature in college for four years, and I would frequently point out to students that the plot of The Catcher in the Rye is actually rather pedestrian – but Holden Caulfield and his cocktail of inner conflicts makes the novel one of the best ever written, and the more interesting aspects of the plot come from his character. I hope that my protagonist is someone readers will connect with, which will engage them in the plot.

What's your favorite genre to read?
I’m actually more of a non-fiction reader than a fiction reader, which drove one of my creative writing professors insane. I just find that there are so many great stories stemming from real-life experiences that are more interesting than anything anyone could have made up. I guess that’s why when I do read fiction it tends to be more genre-based. For example, I read a lot of comic books (both superhero and non-superhero), simply because the stories in them often take great liberties with reality.

Who is your favorite author or poet? What books or stories have most influenced you the most as a writer?
The one book which has continued to influence me, even though I first read it a decade ago (and about a half-dozen times since), is The Great Gatsby. I explained before how important character was to creating a story, and with Gatsby we have one of the most fascinating characters in fiction. We often look at Ahab as an example of a character driven by his obsessions, but I don’t see Gatsby as any less obsessive. I also connect with it because I grew up on Long Island and have spent my adult life fascinated by New York City, and I think this region offers writers the richest potential of settings and scenarios to work with. I frequently find myself completely engaged by Fitzgerald’s work.

What books or stories have most influenced you as a person?
The earliest non-children’s books I can remember reading are adventure stories like Robin Hood and Jules Verne and Superman and Batman comic books. While they didn’t inspire me to jump off of buildings or go on incredible adventures, I feel they shaped me in a certain mindset to explore the unexplored in life.

Where/how do you find the most inspiration?
It sounds cliché, but I honestly find the most inspiration in the world around me. A personal character quirk that I gave my protagonist in Montauk is that I am a huge music fan but I’ve never owned an iPod because I don’t want to cut myself off from the world around me when I ride the subway or walk down the street. There are dozens of potential story that surround me wherever I go, and why deny myself that?

What does your family think of your writing?
I think my parents wonder where it comes from. They’re both very intelligent, but neither has a creative knack in that way.

What is your work schedule like when you're writing?
Generally I write most of my work longhand first. I feel more creative with a pen in my hand. After I have accumulated a few paragraphs or pages I type it up, and not only do I edit my work while I do that but I tend to continue where I leave off. I gradually become immersed in the story – perhaps for a week I might only writer two or three paragraphs, but a few weeks later I’ll find that I suddenly can’t stop myself. Of course, the more I write, the more than needs to come out in editing later, because I get carried away when I am on a tear.

Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
I have several jobs that all involve writing, so by the time I have some free time to work on my own writing I’ve probably have already written at least a thousand words during my day jobs. There’s no switch inside me to go from "work writing" to "creative writing," so sometimes I’ll sit down to write but I’ll find myself writing in a style that’s very dry and inappropriate for fiction.

What are your current projects?
I have about four short stories in various states of incompletion. At least one might grow into something longer, but we’ll see how it plays out.

What are you planning for future projects?
I’d like to tackle a project that is about double the length of Montauk, but I haven’t found the right character yet. Obviously the longer the work, the stronger the character I’ll need to sustain the narrative. I’m sure he/she is out there, somewhere; I just have to find that character.

Do you have any advice for other writers?
I was hoping they would have some advice for me! I’m no expert, but the best advice I could give is to keep reading. See how other authors write, but don’t consciously try to copy their style. I’ve read too many awful Hemingway pastiches to know that the only person who ever could really write like Hemingway was Hemingway himself. Anyone else seems like they’re just forgetting words.

Where else can we find your work?
Check out http://amazon.com/author/chrismckit

Author Insides - Laury Egan

Laury A. Egan is the author of Fog and Other Stories, published in 2012 by StoneGarden.net, and two books of poetry, Snow, Shadows, a Stranger (2009) and Beneath the Lion’s Paw (2011), issued by FootHills Publishing. Her poems and short stories have appeared in over 30 literary journals and numerous anthologies. Web site: www.lauryaegan.com

Laury's highly regarded LGBT suspense novel, JENNY KIDD, is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Powell’s Books.

What inspired the idea of Jenny Kidd?
I’ve visited Venice on three occasions, the last for over two weeks while teaching a photographic workshop. Focusing on the visual aspects of the city made me acutely aware of colors, textures, architecture, the changing light, as well as the behavior of its inhabitants. Venice is sublimely romantic and ephemeral, yet if you wander into a dark street at night, it can suddenly shift into a claustrophobic and frightening place. I loved this dichotomy and wanted to portray it in the novel, exploring a similar duality in the characters.

Did any of the characters surprise you while writing?
The reader may find that Sebastiano Barbon and Randi Carroll transform into somewhat different characters by the book’s end. Although I didn’t have strict intentions regarding them, I was a bit surprised how they changed. And Jenny Kidd also showed unexpected strength and growth.

What other writers do you read?
I’m an avid fan of Donna Leon’s series set in Venice, which allows me the pleasure of "returning" to the city. For mysteries, Patricia Highsmith and Martha Grimes are favorite writers. Other much admired titles are Michael Cunningham’s The Hours and Jim Grimsley’s Dream Boy; Virginia Woolf has always fascinated me and is incorporated, in a minor way, in my newest manuscript, Wave in D Minor.

Will there be more Jenny Kidd books?
There might be a spin-off story featuring Randi Carroll, one of the more interesting and quirky characters, but at the moment, other manuscripts are in process.

Who is your main audience?
Good question! I love to explore the spectrum of sexuality and to create characters who struggle to define their orientation, sometimes decisively coming to grips with which gender they love, and sometimes remaining fluid. Most of my novels have strong psychological elements that appeal to mainstream readers, though gay and bisexual readers might find sympathy with some of the protagonists. However, I prefer not to write for a specific market because labels feel restrictive.

What was it like seeing your book in the bookstore for the first time?
Perhaps the better question starts earlier in the process: what is it like to read a bound, typeset copy? Even though I edit and polish my work over and over—sometimes reading a manuscript and proof 75 times or more—it is a different experience having a book in hand. Very much like someone else wrote the novel. When I do readings from my two poetry books, Snow, Shadows, a Stranger and Beneath the Lion’s Paw, for example, I am frequently struck by the bizarre sensation of foreignness, of quiet surprise to find a new poet that writes much like I do!


Do you find writing novels different than short stories? And poetry?
In many ways, I feel freer to take chances, to experiment with style, characterization, place, and plot in a short story because there is less commitment. My collection, Fog and Other Stories, is very diverse and allowed me to play in ways that a novel doesn’t. That said, it feels great to bear down and immerse myself in a long work, to achieve an arc and final closure after so many pages and so much effort.

As for poetry, it is difficult to switch from prose to poetry or vice versa within a close period of time. Because I am also a fine arts photographer, I’ve noticed it’s hard to go out and spend time making images and then later sit down to write poetry, though what I see and capture on camera frequently inspires me to try. The verbal/visual processes don’t usually flow together very well.

What is your writing process?
I tend to work all day, most days, combining new writing with the tasks of editing, proofing, and assisting in a book’s publicity, a demanding job for authors these days. My ideas come from many sources. As in the case of Jenny Kidd, the setting of Venice was a dominant inspiration—I am frequently seduced by place. Other times, a character or a character’s name might pop into my head and demand attention, sometimes entering my mind almost fully realized.

Why are you a writer?
I began writing poetry at seven, and a first novel was begun at twelve, so the urge to create was strong at an early age. As an only child who lived in a spectacularly beautiful place with views of the ocean and forests, I was deeply sensitive to my surroundings. In many ways, nature was my friend—there weren’t many children who lived nearby and my family was essentially limited to a triangle. I became an observer, like many only children are, and found that writing was my strategy to make sense of an often complicated world. As an adult, I spent my career in publishing, but only in the last eighteen years have had the opportunity and means to devote myself to the craft of writing fiction and poetry.

Author Insides - Nicholas Carter

Nicholas J. Carter is a UMass Boston alum, currently living in Massachusetts with his wonderful wife. He credits his mother, a librarian, with his love of words, and his father, a smartass, for showing him how they don’t always mean what they should. Outside of his family, nonsense and chaos are the two things he loves most. His blog may be found at http://adequategusto.blogspot.com.

His tongue in cheek dystopian, JAM DON’T SHAKE, is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
It didn’t really strike me until I was about halfway through college. I had all the usual boyhood dreams: fireman, comedian, post-apocalyptic barbarian chief; but I’ve always read a lot and writing felt like the next logical step.

Why do you write?
I needed a creative outlet and lack the steady hands of an artist, the keen eye of a sculptor, or the massive balls of a comedian (can I say that here?). My mother is a librarian, so we always had books in the house. My father is a smartass so there was always someone around to show me the many-faced aspect of words. I felt like I was most prepared to write, if I was prepared to do anything creative.

Is being a writer/poet anything like you imagined it would be?
It’s more work, and not just on the stories themselves. The search for places to publish that work never ends.

What do you think makes a good story?
I like a story that begins halfway through the wringer, or even all the way through. A story where the farm boy finds the magic sword, defeats the troll and saves the princess can get boring. One where the sword breaks and then the troll marries the princess and beats the farm boy until he’s so disfigured his own people shun him, is interesting. That is to say, I find the motivations of ruined characters make for great stories, because why should they do anything when they have nothing left?

What's your favorite genre to read?
Fantasy, typically. I like to see things that I can’t find in this world. Anything a little left of reality works for me.

Who is your favorite author or poet?
Terry Pratchett. I think he doesn’t get as much respect as he should just for being a fantasy author and a humorist, but no other writer comes anywhere near his understanding of human behavior. His characters feel very real. You can open up a Discworld novel and say "Hey, I know somebody like that!" even if said character is eight feet tall and made of stone. If we want to go a little more mainstream, gotta go with Kafka. I empathize with the anxiety and absurdity in his stories.

What books or stories have most influenced you the most as a writer?
Most recently I was heartened to hear the story "Toaster of the Gods" by Randall Coots. It came at a time where I wondered if I should write a little more "normal," and ditch the stories about ghostly dogs and UFOs made of cheese, and convinced me that there really are people who want to read strange fiction. Stories about sentient toasters will do that I suppose.

What books or stories have most influenced you as a person?
That’s harder to say. There was a time in my life where I was reading books on Zen Buddhism, and I read in one that if you read books on Zen you learn about those books, but not how to live. I put them down and can’t recall what the book was, which I think was for the best. I like to believe that the best way to learn anything is by direct experience.

Where/how do you find the most inspiration?
Music. Which probably sounds like a cheap answer, but is the truth. I have plenty of ideas but I find that the best ones come as little flashes of light when listening to the right words and the right instruments at the right time.

What does your family think of your writing?
My parents are proud, though I think only my father enjoys my stories. Mom reads a lot but isn’t much for odd or dark fiction. My wife is willing to read anything I write but usually just comes back with a playful "What is wrong with you?" My extended family has been pretty supportive too.

What is your work schedule like when you're writing?
Well, sad to say I’ve only been sporadically employed since graduating college. This means I can usually get 3-4 hours of writing done per day. If my attention span allows, these will be consecutive. If it’s acting up, it’ll be in 10-30 minute chunks scattered through the day.

Do you have any writing quirks or rituals?
None that don’t involve pig’s blood.

Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
Figuring out characters. It’s incredibly hard to make a character psychologically real, and I envy those who can manage it.

What are your current projects?
Taking up most of my time lately is a project with the tenuous title of "Up in Hell", which is a full-length novel about the adventures of several puppets in, you guessed it, Hell. It’s my first attempt at a full length novel, and a first draft is only a scene or two away from completion as of this moment. I’m both excited and terrified about it. Other than that, I recently realized I have an enormous backlog of half-finished short stories that could stand to be fattened up and sent to market.

What are you planning for future projects?
In the works is a side story for "Up in Hell," and possibly a sequel if it seems worthwhile. As I’ve said above, there are a number of stories just sitting on the metaphorical shelves of my hard drive. Some of them were from several years ago and I’d love to revisit the ideas in each and give them full rewrites.

Do you have any advice for other writers?
The usual things: read a lot and edit often. Also, don’t get too attached to your story as it is or how you think it should be. There’s always something that needs tweaking but if you never stop you’ll never finish anything. Be ready to go where the story takes you.

Where else can we find your work?
Most recently on the podcast Escape Pod, where my story "Wheels of Blue Stilton" took second place in their flash fiction contest. I’ve also been in Dog Eat Crow, Antipodean Sci Fi, Everyday Weirdness and a few other places, and I occasionally show up in Flashshot.

Strange Blog – or how I stopped worrying and learned to love blogging - Guest post from J.S. Watts

Strange Blog – or how I stopped worrying and learned to love blogging

By J.S.Watts

Blogging hasn’t come naturally to me. My website may be hosted by Blogger, but it’s first and foremost a static website, rather than a chatty blog. My posts tend to be brief news items and updates, not opinion pieces or diary entries. Until 9^th June last year I had never actually written a real blog post.

My first post, written for a writers’ online colony that I belong to, actually focussed on my blogging virginity and the losing of it. It was fun. I enjoyed writing it, but it didn’t exactly unleash a torrential flow of pent-up blogs.

It was a month until I managed another post. In fact, spurred on by an imminent trip to the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival to read some of my poetry, I managed two posts in July and one in August. Then my usual blogging lethargy returned and I didn’t write another post until December.

Almost a year later and by the beginning of October 2012, I had written the grand total of just six blog posts. That’s less than one piece every two months. I clearly wasn’t at risk of writer’s cramp, or its modern equivalent, RSI, when it came to blogging. So what was the problem?

Obviously, it’s not that I don’t like writing. I’m a poet and author; it’s what I do. I love writing, but blogging somehow worried me. It seemed to require an opinion, something factual to comment on and I didn’t think I had that much to say that would interest readers in the Blogverse. Plus, with so many blogs already out there, why write even more?

I was happy writing book reviews for various literary and genre magazines. There were my poems, poetry books and short stories and a brand new novel. I wasn’t exactly short of things to write and publish. Blogging was a worry I didn’t need.

It was the novel that finally propelled me into the world of blogging: the novel and its publisher, Vagabondage Press. Thanks guys…

There I was, hard work done: novel written, edited and about to be published. I was looking forward to putting my feet up for a bit when Vagabondage effectively said, "Great book, J.S. We love A Darker Moon and want others to love it too. You’ll help getting the word out, won’t you?" What could I do, but say, "Yes". The next thing I knew, there was a growing pile of interview and guest blog-post requests and an enthusiastic publisher telling me how great it was that we’d got so much upfront interest.

The interviews were fine. All I’d got to do was answer the questions provided and chat about A Darker Moon. The blogs, however, were another matter. They were blank, structureless pages waiting to be filled with comment and opinion. Yes, I wanted to promote A Darker Moon and talk about its mythic literary fiction qualities. As a result there was bound to be some similarity between posts, but I couldn’t churn out the same thing. I needed to do original pieces, find original things to say, write from different angles and do it differently over and over again: I needed to become a regular blogger.

I hesitated, dithered and worried and then I realised something so obvious that I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of it before. I am a writer. Writing, laying down and shaping words is what I do. Blogs are written pieces, collections of words laid down on the page and shaped. So where is the problem?

I picked up my pen (I always do first drafts in long-hand. I think better that way) and then I moved to the keyboard. I adored the stunning cover of A Darker Moon that the talented Art Director at Vagabondage had come up with. I loved the glowering, wide-eyed owl, the full moon and the black yet moonlit water because they are visually awesome and because they are brilliantly selected key motifs from the novel itself. I wrote about this and the importance of book covers in general. One blog post successfully completed.

The next piece looked at the significance of the novel’s London location (that’s London, England to anyone reading this in The States. I’m a British writer). Then came writing about myth and fantasy, followed by my personal take on the modern horror genre and another piece on the range of myth and legend I had drawn on to shape the dark psychological fantasy of A Darker Moon.

In a little over one month, and including this piece, I have written six full blog posts. That’s as many as I had previously written in sixteen long months. And I haven’t lost the urge to blog. Indeed, the more I write, the more I find I have to write about: the importance of fine art to A Darker Moon, the essence of memory, writers writing about writing (my anti-hero, Abe, is a compulsive writer), the psychology of religious delusion, the impact of family and the implications of writing both poetry and prose. Such is the joy of a multi-layered story: there’s always another topic to pontificate on. I’m seemingly on a roll and if any blogger out there is looking for someone to write them a guest post , I’m your woman! So thank you, Vagabondage, for releasing my inner blogger. I just hope the Blogverse is ready and braced.

　

J.S.Watts is a British writer. She was born in London, England and now lives and writes near Cambridge in East Anglia. In between, she read English at Somerville College, Oxford and spent many years working in the British education sector. She remains committed to the ideals of further and higher education despite UK governments of assorted political persuasions trying to demolish them.

Her poetry, short stories and book reviews appear in a variety of publications in Britain, Canada, Australia and the States including Acumen, Envoi, Mslexia and Fantastique Unfettered and have been broadcast on BBC and independent Radio. She has been Poetry Reviews Editor for Open Wide Literary Magazine and, until its demise, Poetry Editor for Ethereal Tales. Her debut poetry collection, Cats and Other Myths and a subsequent poetry pamphlet, Songs of Steelyard Sue are published by Lapwing Publications. Her novel, A Darker Moon, is published by Vagabondage Press Further details of her books can be found on her website:
www.jswatts.co.uk . You can also find her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/J.S.Watts.page

Author Insides - Jon Hartless

Jon Hartless was born in the 1970s and has spent much of his life in the Midlands and Worcestershire, England. He is the author of three bleakly humorous science fiction books under his own name, and two even bleaker works under the pen name Barnabas Corbin.

His humorous historical satire, Jack The Theorist, is available on Amazon.

When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
About the only time I was happy at school was when I could write a story, so I suppose it grew from there.

Why do you write?
I simply enjoy it enormously.

Is being a writer/poet anything like you imagined it would be?
I never imagined the attitude of most publishers and agents, who simply reject your work out of hand without even bothering to read it. In the past, I’ve sent stuff off via snail mail on a Monday and get it back by Wednesday with the claim it ‘wasn’t right’. The quickest rejection, however, was by email; just under ten minutes.

What do you think makes a good story?
Simply ask: does it work by its own logic? If the answer is no, it has failed.

What's your favorite genre to read?
Probably murder mysteries, but recently I have been drifting more into factual works.

Who is your favorite author or poet?
Arthur Conan Doyle, for his brilliant style, characters, and ideas. EF Benson, for his wit and satire.

What books or stories have most influenced you the most as a writer?
Probably a mix of the above, plus some of Oscar Wilde’s work. I also enjoy the 1890s as a period, so the fin de siècle is bubbling about somewhere in the subconscious. Certainly my one book, Romanticism Lost, was inspired by popular figures from nineteenth century literature; Sherlock Holmes, the Phantom of the Opera, Frankenstein etc. I just wondered how such characters would fare in today’s grey, bureaucratic, health-and-safety world…

What books or stories have most influenced you as a person?
I’m not sure I could isolate any; we’re all a product of so many influences…

Where/how do you find the most inspiration?
Sometimes from a direct source, sometimes from years of seeing things, reading about a subject, hearing things etc, until they all mesh together. My YA novel The Wolves of Androcolus combined both these elements.

I was watching a documentary about BBC children’s television from the 1950s to the early 00s, and Jacqueline Wilson popped up to explain the concept behind her Tracy Beaker series.

As often happens in the modern media, where the audience is treated as a brain dead entity, we were only given a brief snippet of Miss Wilson before we jumped to another scene, so all she had time to say was that the story revolved around a girl in a foster home that nobody wanted, and then the scene shifted to something else.

This, however, left me with practically the whole plot laid out in my mind for my story. Why would no one want a girl from a home? Because she was an ex-junkie. Who would want her? Someone with very dark intentions. Who are these people with dark intent? Religious werewolves. Why religious werewolves? Because of what I’ve seen and read on religious fundamentalism over the years. It was all there, laid out, ready to be written…

What does your family think of your writing?
My big brother is very proud.

What is your work schedule like when you're writing?
Hectic. I work full time, so I have to snatch whatever time I can to write. My latest project has been mostly written in my car between jobs.

Do you have any writing quirks or rituals?
The nearest thing to a ritual I get involves getting distracted from doing any work…

Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
Good grammar. I have to edit time and after time to get the prose flowing.

What are your current projects?
I’m writing a YA novella that reworks the Pandora myth. In it, we see what the world would be like if the moral minority were to attain supernatural powers that enable them to recreate the world as they think it should be.

What are you planning for future projects?
I must try and get started on the sequel to The Wolves of Androcolus, but it is finding the time.

Do you have any advice for other writers?
Edit ruthlessly, get some input from someone who knows what they are talking about and who will give a truly honest opinion, and keep trying.

Where else can we find your work?
At Double Dragon Ebooks, and also third party retailers such as Kindle, Nook, Fictionwise etc. I am also published under the pen name Barnabas Corbin.

The Importance of Being Ruthless - Guest Post from Corinna Weyreter

The Importance of Being Ruthless

Corinna Weyreter

The problem with entering stories into competitions, or submitting them to magazines, is that most editors lack either the time or the inclination to enlighten the unsuccessful writer as to where she’s going wrong. If the rejections keep rolling in there comes a point when, clearly, she needs to know.

When I found myself in this situation, a search of the web led me to YouWriteOn, a peer review site for writers. Members can upload a short story, or the opening chapters of a novel, and receive one critique in return for each they write, with assignments allocated by the system at random. It’s an excellent way to improve your writing, not only because people highlight the weak points in your work, but also because you learn from seeing the weak points in theirs, which can often be the same. To be a good writer you need to be an avid reader, but high quality novels are written by experienced authors and have been edited several times before publication. They make writing look easy. So it’s extremely useful to also read the work of aspiring authors, where problems with plot, pace, characterisation, clichés, similes, overused adjectives and adverbs abound, because if these things are sabotaging your own manuscript, you’ll be primed to root them out.

Inevitably some critiques are less valuable than others, usually because the writer is keener to receive a review than produce one, but by the time you’ve amassed ten or so, valid criticisms start to recur. In the case of my stories, these were of dialogue that didn’t sound realistic, and a lack of description that prevented the reader from being fully drawn into the story. I was told that one character was too much of a caricature, and that another behaved in a way that seemed inconsistent with his nature. There were also some positive reviews that made me feel good but ultimately left me no wiser, and others that simply disliked the plot, but what could I do about that except write a completely different story? No writer can please everyone. It was the hardest reviews to read that were usually the most useful, and once the dejection started to wear off, I could see that the criticisms were valid. In fact, not only were they valid, I’d actually been aware of them myself but had chosen to ignore them.

I realised that the main reason for this was I hadn’t always trusted my instincts when I was editing. A devilish voice had persuaded me to spare those clichés that caused a twinge in my gut the instant I reread them, insisting they really were sentences of poetic beauty. Not trusting my instincts prevented me from cutting out words that I’d spent hours writing, and from investing even more time knocking others into shape. It was only when reviewers confirmed my suspicions, and after I’d seen similar mistakes in others’ work, that I learnt to stop listening to that fiendish voice. Reading the stories aloud proved to be a great help in doing this. Any problems with the flow of the prose quickly became apparent, and unrealistic dialogue in particular was impossible to ignore.

It’s sometimes hard to see what’s going wrong with a story when you’re so involved in it. Only an outsider can tell you if it’s really working the way you want it to. Other writers helped me face up to aspects of my writing that I needed to work on; I wasn’t going to get away with not putting more effort into it. I began to examine my writing with a more critical eye, to be on the lookout for common mistakes, and to edit it more ruthlessly before being satisfied. Because it didn’t matter how much time I’d invested in it up until then, if I didn’t really believe it was perfect, why would anyone else?

Corinna Weyreter won the 1998 Bridport Prize and has had several short stories published. She worked in the oil business for fifteen years before resigning to sail around the world with her boyfriend. Her book about their trip, Far Out: Sailing into a Disappearing World, was published this year by Sunpenny Publishing. 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/far-out-corinna-weyreter/dp/1907984097

Why I Write Sad Stories - Guest Post from Darci Schummer

Why I Write Sad Stories

Darci Schummer

On 1st Avenue and 28th Street in Minneapolis, a house catches fire.  Fire trucks arrive in a blur of lights and a wail of sirens as flames cut the early morning sky. In housecoats and slippers, the neighborhood watches from living room windows and front yards.  Sweat gathers on its lip.  Smoke fills its nostrils.  Its children, woken from their dreams, point at the flames and vibrate with terrible excitement.  A group of firefighters battles the flames from outside while another group walks into the fire to save those who can be saved.  They rescue one person from inside the house and then another.  Then, they rescue two more people from a second story window. 

But by the time they rescue Jenny, it's too late.

           

My stories have been called bleak, brutal, depressing. And I have been asked why I write such sad stories. 

I have a one-word answer:  Jenny.

           

I write sad stories because of ghosts, ghosts of the living and of the dead. I write sad stories to give voice to ghosts and to give voice to those who live with the ghosts of their dead, and the ghosts of their former lovers, estranged children, chances not taken, aborted opportunities. I write sad stories because they are the adhesive that binds people to ghosts.  I write sad stories because the stories themselves are my ghosts that, as Edna O'Brien writes, "are like dogs that bark intermittently in the night." 

Moreover, sad stories prepare us for futures we are too brittle to imagine or too ignorant to recognize as possible.  They allow us to experience death and loss and desperation with only a modicum of actual pain.  They are precursors to seasons not yet lived. 

           

I write sad stories because I want to live in the past, present, and future simultaneously.

                                           

On a perfect July morning, I am walking down 1st Avenue in Minneapolis.  In front of a burned out 2 and 1/2 story house near 28th street, an empty mailbox gapes like an open mouth, it's red flag 90 degrees in the air.  Mylar balloons tied to the front gate bob in the breeze. Affixed to the gate as well is a red sign that reads, “Hi Jenny, All students at Magic Beauty School miss you!”  On the front stairs at the foot of the gate, a plate of spring rolls sits untouched among bouquets of chrysanthemums.  An open bottle of water and an open can of juice wait among burning candles and incense.  And in the middle of these funereal offerings is a picture of Jenny, of beautiful olive-skinned, black-haired Jenny.   

The air still smells of fire.

I stoop down and leave a dandelion between two candles that will burn for her until their wicks are spent.  Then, I walk home on my strong, good legs, the breeze whipping all around me, a new ghost whispering in my ear.  

At home, I will work on another sad story—a story where there aren't neat explanations, a story where calculations and probabilities all prove incorrect. 

And Jenny, my beautiful olive-skinned, black-haired Jenny, this new story, a story where in the space of one night the whole world trembles into darkness, this is the story I am writing for you.

Darci Schummer lives, writes, and teaches in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Links to her work can be found here:  http://darcidawn.blogspot.com/.