Saturday, November 24, 2012

Historical Fiction/Poetry



Writer’s Thought for the Week: Sit down and put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it. ~ Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

Historical Fiction

Although I write mostly nonfiction and flash fiction, I have a historical novel on the back burner. One of the problems I wrestle with in that book is dialogue.

I don’t want to use contractions, at least not as often as we do today, and I certainly avoid modern slang, but when I try to write the way people spoke in 1910, the dialogue seems stilted. Instead of adding to the feel I want for my book, the dialogue distracts. I sought advice from other writers who gave me two ways of solving this.

One advised having your main character speak in a more natural (to us) sounding voice, but have supporting characters use speech of the period. After experimenting with that approach, I felt the different styles of speech coming from characters who shared the same time period would jolt the reader. Not that I wanted all my characters to sound alike, but they should be believable as contemporaries of each other instead of one sounding like a time traveler from the future.

Another writer gave me an approach that worked better: instead of trying to mimic the speech of the time, create a sense of the past. Convince yourself and the reader that you are in the time period through other means such as clothing, customs, and standard of living, and your characters will fit right in.

THE PEDESTAL MAGAZINE is open for poetry submissions until December 13. You may submit up to six poems. Pays $40/poem.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Can a Hippo help your writing?



Thought for the Week: The sages do not consider that making no mistakes is a blessing. They believe, rather, that the great virtue of man lies in his ability to correct his mistakes and continually make a new man of himself. ~ Wang Yang-Ming, Chinese Philosopher

Have you discovered Word Hippo? It lets you look up synonyms, antonyms, word meanings, rhyming words, words that start with a certain letter, pronunciations, and translations.

The month of November is an open reading period for Black Lawrence Press, an imprint of Dzanc Books. They specialize in contemporary literature and creative non-fiction: novels, memoirs, short story collections, poetry, biographies, cultural studies, and translations from the German and French.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Compound words/Poetry market




Thought for the Week: Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the danger of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of 'crackpot' than the stigma of conformity. ~ Thomas J. Watson, Sr.

COMPOUND WORDS

Compound words can be confusing, especially since they appear inconsistent. Is it "everyday" or "every day"?

When you describe the “everyday” use of something, such as “that is my everyday watch,” “everyday” is an adjective modifying watch. If you wear that watch “every day” those words are not an adjective.

Both of the following sentences are correct:

The waterproof watch is my everyday watch.
I wear my waterproof watch every day.

It is incorrect to write:  I wear my waterproof watch everyday.

WORDTECH COMMUNICATIONS LLCis open to submissions of book-length (48 single-spaced pages minimum) poetry manuscripts from now until December 15, 2012 from residents of the United States. All chosen manuscripts are published under a royalty contract. Publication of selected manuscripts will occur in 2014. Their books are published through six imprints, each with a different focus. Details and samples are on the web site.



Sunday, November 4, 2012

Writing advice/Short story contest



Writer’s Thought for the Week: It's like building a stone wall without mortar. You place the words one at a time, fit them, take them apart and refit them until they're balanced and solid. ~ W.C. Heinz

Lisa Gardner, New York Times bestselling author of suspense, has some wonderful free resources on the Toolbox section of her web site. The articles are downloadable in PDF format – no videos to wade through. The first group deals with advice on craft, the second group with the submission process, and the third with romantic suspense. Well worth a read.

THE FLYING ELEPHANTS SHORT STORY PRIZE

Deadline: November 30, 2012
No entry fee; one entry per writer

Theme: “AndWeWereHungry...”
Theme for the top prize: “And We Were Hungry for Nature...”

This international prize is meant to showcase the work of short story writers published or emerging. The top prize is $2,000; three other writers will receive $1,000 each. Eight stories will be short-listed and published online in their winter 2013 issue along with the winners. The top prize is reserved for the story that connects the theme with nature or the natural world. “No length restrictions, but longer manuscripts (8,000—10,000 words) or shorter manuscripts (less than 2,000 words) will have to be truly exceptional to be shortlisted.”