My Article, "4 Epic Takeaways from Myths, Fairytales, and Folktales to Apply to Your Writing," Published Today! 🎉

Splendid news: I’ve had a craft article published today at Women on Writing. The topic is a very fanciful and fun one: “4 Epic Takeaways from Myths, Fairytales, and Folktales to Apply to Your Writing.”

Ta-da!

“4 Epic Takeaways from Myths, Fairytales, and Folktales to Apply to Your Writing”

by Melanie Faith

Stories based on myths, fairytales, and folktales have interested readers and have seen a remarkable resurgence in popular fiction and bestselling novels in recent years.  Authors like Sarah J. Maas of A Court of Thorns and Roses series fame and Madeline Miller’s Circe are household names.

First, let’s explore some exciting reasons why writers and readers alike find these stories compelling and inspiring.

·         They reignite our childhood imaginations. Most writers and readers fondly remember their favorite mythic characters. We grew up on their adventures, and it felt like we grew up with them, too.  Whether it was Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, The Frog Prince, or other Brothers Grimm fairy-tale protagonists or Hans Christian Andersen’s Thumbelina, The Little Match Girl, The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Ugly Duckling, The Wild Swans, or The Snow Queen, these stories populated library shelves and bookshelves in our rooms that take us back to our earliest days of being read to and reading on our own.

·         They connect us with timeless stories of human emotion. All of those bedtime stories influenced us as creative thinkers and helped us to learn empathy. I remember a Little Golden Book copy of Hansel and Gretel my dad used to read to us for bedtime stories that I begged to hear over and over, even though it also completely freaked me out with its tender, lost brother-and-sister duo, the gingerbread-house-residing scary witch, and that terrifying oven. I also remember well the beautiful, far-less-frightening treasury of children’s folktales with Rapunzel’s long, long tresses descending and dangling from a fortress tower.

·         They represent our heritages. Myths, fairytales, and folktales are popular throughout the world and in every culture. They feel embedded in our DNA almost. They transmit the values and customs appreciated within a culture. Whether these stories are translated into many languages or remain in their language of origin, they often share commonalities in theme, tone, and plot. Human nature explored with drama and humor and warnings and hope against all odds. These stories can sometimes offer well-paced and satisfying closure we seldom get in everyday life.  

·         They give us other worlds to retreat to and to savor in the midst of turbulence and turmoil. They are epic recreations of stress and struggle with protagonists with whom we can identify. They also give us deeper insight into our own times and our place within them. These are some of the many reasons why stories based on Greek and Roman myths as well as entirely new world-building settings continue to flourish.

What can we take from fairytales to apply to our own writing? Try these four tips:

·         Every protagonist needs a sufficiently powerful antagonist to contend with. If the antagonist doesn’t unleash enough consequences and trouble, the protagonist won’t need to rise to the occasion to protest and triumph. Make sure your antagonists cause enough conflict in your narrative. This is one of the most common reasons for ho-hum fiction that gets rejected. What is your protagonist’s worst fear? That should inform your antagonist’s next moves.

·         When the chips are down, they are never completely defeated. Make sure the larger implications of the conflict are explored in vivid detail so that your readers can imagine the anxious situation and feel it as they read. Embed a small foreshadowed detail to maintain the hope that eventually will prevail.  

·         Setting is significant. Nothing should happen in a vacuum. Where and when a story takes place are vital elements to good storytelling. Add visual images, references to music and art and books and important popular culture of the time, and landscape or architectural details to flesh out scenes, especially near the beginning of a longer work to create vibrant context. Research settings and eras with an eye towards intriguing tidbits to share in your tale. Readers really want to feel like they, too, are stepping into and roaming around the protagonist’s authentic world.   

·         Protagonists don’t need to say a lot at once to have a big impact. Actions and reactions are just as important, if not more so, than dialogue. Definitely write conversations into your tale, but keep dialogue as direct, pertinent, quickly paced, and resonant as possible. Protagonists don’t have time for long-paragraph speeches and explanations before springing into action. The clock is tick-tick-ticking! Show their determination and concern with their actions, rather than their pronouncements.  

The next time you open your draft-in-progress, consider applying these tips to create more vital, vibrant prose. Also, join us for my new upcoming course with further tips about crafting your own riveting protagonists and worlds that will keep readers returning again and again.

Want to learn more? Writing the Mythic: Penning Prose Exploring Myths, Fairytales, and/or Folktales starts on Friday, April 18th. I’d love to have you join us. 😊

Beautiful illustrations courtesy of Women on Writing.

My Poetry Published Today at Little Notes Lit Mag 🎊

Super excited to have poems published today at Little Notes Lit Mag! Check it out!🎊

Free-stock photo courtesy of Cristian Escobar at unsplash.com.

They’re great to work with and a nice place to share your latest writing; consider sending some poems, fiction, or essays. More details at: clickety-click.

Without further ado, my poems!

“Raccoon”

My happiest moment

last month

was when I splurged

on a vinyl sticker,

3 x 3 inches: the raccoon

rollerblades

while staring stun-gunned

over his right shoulder

asking

What is even

happening? It’s a question

I feel like we’re all living.

The raccoon’s tail

is lush in the sketch,

his two paws with claws held out front

of the holographic backdrop:

a sleepwalking move

or about to bust into dance,

it’s hard to tell which.

But I’m here for it, I’m here

deciding where to put it.

 ***

“What to Call It”

blobby bubbles

of dye in water

I’m not sure what

to call it, this hour-

glass toy made of

plastic, but

the purple separates

into pink then

into blue

then back to viscous purple

the pink slightly

less than bubblegum

the blue slightly

more than bluebird

they blend

how do they blend

what makes them but a hand

that upends them

from the bottom pan to float back

into watery figure-eight space, satisfying

as marbles clacking on tile

or boot-crunch on packed snow

the short-lived pleasure somehow

prolonged, brought back anew

each time

there is a niece and the niece says

she had one a few months ago

that broke and the aunt’s mother

also had one before the millennium  

so we both buy one again, this trinket

under five dollars at the big-box store

but it’s just a palm-held toy  

the niece and aunt spot together

in an unassuming cardboard box

on a bottom shelf

something tiny, over-simple technology

really, this is now remarkable,

this gets to us

this toy now sits on my desk

between my modem and my desk lamp

and I think each time I twirl it

end over end and then see

bubbles spin and descend

as I know they’ll spin and descend

of my niece’s, of my niece,

I think of how pleasing it is

to have a niece and then,

huzzah!, a little over

two years later, another,

not babies anymore, now tweens

I think how pleasing this toy

that does one thing and

one thing only: it’s tipped over,

it’s turned upright again,

the blobby bubbles part

then accumulate without haste

like all the unhurried hours

of childhood brought back 

 ***

“Slow Living”

The caption sentences onscreen

read charmingly like the analogies

I remember studying nervously

from a thumb-worn paper workbook

as a teen studying for SATs:

The window is a frame, the sky is the masterpiece.

There is balance that slows the mind as my mind

rereads it as if yanking on a piece of speckled yarn

though nothing unravels, no sleeve comes apart

instead

there is faint, jaunty piano music.

Generic jingling, not to step on any toes, but also

quite perfect: medium blue and a spillage of scattered

clouds you could almost scoop up in your arms

if you opened the diner window

where clear, freshly-washed cups await 

overturned on bisque saucers, perfect in their patience.

This window never made for stepping right into, of course,

this life that is someone else’s life on a screen

and yet so warmly ours—for ten or fifteen minutes,

as wide, welcoming, and chosen

as a pair of open arms after coming in from brusque cold

before pressing some buttons, before walking back out again.

My Dramatic Monologue Published! 🎉

Excellent news! A poem of mine with a new character in a historical poetry series I’ve been working on was just published today at Songs of Eretz!

Check out the poem, and then head over to the issue to read my complete notes about the poem, to see a historical photograph of an iron lung, and to read the work of the talented fellow poets in the issue, which is dedicated to dramatic monologues. 🎉

Flora in the Iron Lung and the Mirror

Melanie Faith

I don’t want to be a complainer. It’s good,

it’s exceedingly good that you’re here. You

came all this way. You look well. You look

so handsome, but then, you always did. I wish

I could reach out of this machine and touch you

after all this time. I wish… well,

let me dwell on something

easier. Let me tell you something nice

Sister Mary Joseph, the afternoon nurse, did.

She’s the young one who wrote to you. Yes,

her penmanship is impeccable. Well,

she sat reading to me. One day,

out of nowhere, she stopped

mid-sentence, and she looked over

and something like sunlight broke over

her face: You know, I see no reason why

we couldn’t jimmy-rig a mirror

right up here. She put the book

upside-down on her seat. That’s how

my machine grew this mirror. She left the room,

came right back.

Sister Mary Joseph’s the tall one—

you haven’t met her—

it didn’t take much for her to reach up and

add it to my machine. You could call it

a fancy modification for my entertainment,

my instant twin and constant company.

I make faces at myself now

into the long hours when there’s nobody

and nothing else.

You’d be surprised on

an endless stretch of days, how many faces

you can pull—butterfly-pinned as I am

inside this darned machine—with just a nose,

two lips, a tongue, and two eyes that

never stop seeing.

Poet’s Notes: This poem is a part of a recent collection I’m working on writing about (among other things): an iron lung, a librarian, and a love triangle. This poem explores polio patient Flora, whose childhood flame, Harry, visits her sickbed. This visit sets off the conflict between Harry and his current love, Helen (the protagonist librarian).   

Read the rest at Songs of Eretz, Winter issue.

My Article Published: "Finding Your Fiction Draft’s Best Beginning" 🎊

Thrilled that my article, “Finding Your Fiction Draft’s Best Beginning,” was published today at Women on Writing. Read the article below, and take the exercise for a spin.

Also check out this link to my new online class, FROM BETTER TO BEST: Writing Fictional Beginnings that Hook Readers, that begins Friday, January 24th. 😊

Without further ado: ta-da! 🎊

“Finding Your Fiction Draft’s Best Beginning”

By: Melanie Faith

 Here are three things that share a commonality: home renovation, finding a supportive life or business partner, earning a degree. What’s their similarity? 

While you think about it, let’s ponder our attention spans, which have grown quite a bit shorter in recent years. Think about how quickly we move onto the next book, song on streaming, or post on social media if it doesn’t grab our attention and hold it. Add to that the fact that publishers receive thousands of manuscripts a year, all vying for attention, and it’s pretty staggering.  

So, what do our initial three examples have in common? They all require a big time investment (often much longer than anticipated) and tend to test our patience at various steps until we reach our goal. If there are consistent through lines in life, it is that most of our efforts require regrouping, refining, and numerous revisions.

With so much streaming content and instant entertainment available and so few minutes of free time each day, it’s even more important than ever that we writers intrigue our readers from the start or else there’s a world of other options they’ll choose from. Gone are the days of the slow-burn build-up of a few pages. While it takes more time and effort to rewrite opening pages, it’s well worth it to hook our readers.

What should we do to ensure that our beginnings make a positive, have-to-keep-reading-this impact?

·         Bring in the Buddies: Have you looked so often at your draft that your brain is tired? Or are you moderately sure your opening is fine, but then again… An external reader can be invaluable, either way. Props if they are another author, but they don’t have to be. Give your first pages/chapter to willing friends or colleagues and ask what one passage they liked best; this is the element that should front-end your next draft.  Feel free to get the opinion of another reader or two, but don’t ask so many readers that you get numerous conflicting opinions, which can be confusing. In my own experience, asking between one and three readers is a sweet spot to get the perfect amount of feedback on whether my current opening works well. If your readers are also writers, make sure to return the favor for them sometime. Another option: send just the first page and have them note what they think is the most interesting or important line. This really zeroes in on whether the current opening lines flop or fly.   

·         Heed the Hunch: You know that line that made you smile when you wrote it? That line that sort of shimmered from the page or made you stop and feel surprised?  That little jolt of wow or that little tickle of hmmm is your inner writer letting you know that something impactful has just landed on the page. If that passage is already on your first page, great! Leave it there. But if it’s not, what if you moved it forward? I’ve often moved favorite lines forward and then either cut out the original opening and written transitions to the latter parts of the chapter or merged the original opening into other parts of the manuscript. Either method can work well, depending on the story’s needs and your own preferred editing methods.

·         Skip Ahead: Newsflash: your first chapter doesn’t have to be your first chapter. Let me rephrase that: the chapter that’s currently first may actually not be the best final-draft opener. Instead, a second, third, or even later chapter might hold a more compelling way to open your narrative. Feel free to move a scene or a whole chapter forward.

Try this exercise! Reread your draft’s current opening page or two and answer these questions (or ask a friend) to see if you might have a better opening that’s currently much later in your draft:

·         Is there action in the opening scene?  

·         Is there immediate conflict for the protagonist to struggles against?

·         Is it clear from the first page or two who is telling this story?

·         Is the protagonist compelling in this first chapter?

If the answer to any of these questions is “not really” or “not as much as there could be,” then it’s likely you have a faster-paced, more absorbing opening scene that you could move forward. Remember that editors, agents, and readers need your opening hook to grab their attention on page one or else they could stop reading. Sharpen the imagery, characterization, dialogue, or setting that will keep those pages turning.

Photo courtesy of Eilis Garvey and Unsplash.com.

Happy Holidays & a Year of Daily Doodles 🎉

Happy Holidays! I hope this season finds you all inspired, resting, and excited for 2025 ahead in less than a week.

I’ve worked on a doodle project for the past year that I’m set to complete on Tuesday. I’d love to share about it now, with some coordinating drawings. Without further ado:

“13 Things I Learned from [Almost] a Year of Daily Doodling”

It just feels good to draw. Period.  I knew this intrinsically as a child, and I got to relearn it this year.

The less pristine, the better, the more confidence. During January to around March, I frequently made a soft under drawing in pencil, which I would then trace with a pen or marker before erasing my guiding lines. By around April, my confidence had grown so that I rarely grabbed a pencil first. From July onward, I can’t remember grabbing a pencil to start at all. 

Ink-feel is a thing. Some days, I wanted slippery, twirly gel ink or a smooth ballpoint or the gentle flutter of wooden colored pencils while other days I liked either the blunt ooze of a thick marker or highlighter or the waxy appeal of crayons that slowed me down. Just like picking hues to use, my mood could dictate the material I grabbed. Once or twice, I bought new markers or pens to play with. There’s something very affirming and soothing to the nervous system about making marks on paper, even if the drawing doesn’t turn out. Okay, especially when the drawing doesn’t turn out.

Limits open you up. The most time I spent on a drawing was 20 minutes, but that was mostly in January-February. After that, my daily doodle journaling tended to be less than 10 minutes, including any coloring with colored pencils/markers/coupy pencils/crayons. The more I intuitively trusted that I could make good marks, the easier it got to increase my speed.

Phones are great for reference photos:  Sometimes I could draw using my mind’s eye, but for other days, a quick image search on my phone yielded many options for reference photos that really helped as I considered various angles and shapes and details to pick and choose from for my own doodle. I reminded myself that professional artists have long used references to research, prepare, and/or draw. No shame in the game.

Yeah, this is drawing, but feel free to combine with captions whenever you want to: Sometimes, I drew little captions or a sentence or two of explication or just arrows and words to label my drawing. I’ve read a few artists’ (published) notebooks and drawing how-to craft books since 2020 that show other artists who integrate small bursts of prose as well, which gave me the idea (and the permission) to mix and match.

Prompts are magical: I have two or three sketchbooks I’ve made intermittent doodles in over the past two or three years, but having a daily page with a specific prompt on it took the what-should-I-try-to-make decision away and opened me up to whatever the prompt asked for each day. After drawing, I made it a ritual to mark the next day’s prompt with a page marker, but I didn’t read the prompt until it was time to draw each day.

Ditch or amend prompts whenever you want to: Now and again, I didn’t know how to make what the prompt asked or didn’t feel like following the prompt, so I didn’t.  Like the day I decided to draw a bunch of stars. I just made something else up on the spot. Also liberating.

Some drawings can’t be improved with more focus or more effort—that’s fine, let it go, and you’ll draw more tomorrow and the next day.

 Some drawings can bloom with more effort or focus. You’ll know the difference. One day, I skipped a space and labeled the new drawing as “take 2.” If you want to keep trying, then keep going.

Watching the pages accumulate, even if most of the drawings are still not braggable or even what you’d hoped, is one of the best feelings ever. Before starting the daily doodling, I had more of a when-the-mood-struck drawing practice. Not exactly the best way to grow one’s art.  Becoming stronger at an art requires more than just dabbling when the mood strikes. I knew this from my writing, and I had the chance to relearn this with my drawing.

Imperfect? Who cares? The journey was for the fun and for the growth in it, both of which have paid back handsomely. 

Drawing every day makes me want to draw more. Once I finish the year this week, I know that I’ll want to continue to draw regularly. Paging through my daily doodles from January 1st to late December, I can see how my drawings have gotten more secure, more space-taking, and also more okay with the mistakes in perspective. Here’s to more doodles ahead!

Path of Discovery: An Interview with Literary Titan! 🥳

Recently, I had the great pleasure to speak with Literary Titan about my writing path, what inspired me to write my latest poetry book, what I hope readers will take away from my work, and what I’m most recently working on.

Path of Discovery Interview at Literary Titan Clickety-Click!

Looking for a riveting read and a great holiday gift for the readers in your life? Copies of Does It Look Like Her? are available now at Amazon or for signed copies, check out my Write Path Productions Etsy page.

My Poem Published in Dulcet! 🦄

Thrilled to announce that my poem. “Legacy,” was published today in Dulcet! My poem is on page 44. The theme is “Moonglades: A Reflective Issue.”

It’s also a great joy to be publication twins with my talented friend, Terri McCord; check out her amazing poem, “the world turns pointillist,” on page 21!

Dulcet is open for submissions. Check out their theme calls and submission guidelines at: clickety-click.

Photo courtesy of Camille Brodard at Unsplash.com.

My Craft Article Published Today: "Build Better Beginnings: from Throat-Clearing to Motor-Running Fiction!" 🎃

Splendid news! I’m excited that my craft article, “Build Better Beginnings: from Throat-Clearing to Motor-Running Fiction,” was published today as part of the WOW! Women on Writing Market Newsletter.

Also, check out the amazing interview with Paula Munier (by Donna Judith Essner), the literary markets actively seeking submissions of writing, and so many more literary resources to spark your writing.

I also had the chance to contribute two seasonal photos to the article, including this one.

Here’s a fun excerpt. “First drafts of narratives frequently gain momentum a few pages or a chapter in, but readers must be entertained from the start or else they don’t continue reading. Let’s take a few looks at some splendid, sure-fire ideas for building beginnings that reel in readers.

• Don’t hold off. Want, want, want, immediately! Unmet desires and needs give the protagonist something to act on and to react against from the get-go. Instead of leading up slowly to the protagonist’s struggle, show the character already struggling in the first scene. Even better if they struggle from the first page.

• Limit your number of characters in the first pages. A deeper dive into one character—rather than a slower, cocktail-party-style, round-robin introduction—gives your readers a chance to shadow your protagonist and to feel firmly situated into their life and limitations before meeting the entire cast of characters. It’s great to introduce the antagonist early, though, as pushback motivates the protagonist’s need to act.“

Read the rest at: the WOW! Market Newsletter. 🎃

2 of My Poems Published in October Hill Magazine's Fall Issue: Volume 8, Issue 3! 🥳

Photos by yours truly. 🤗

Splendid news to share: two of my poems, “Yellow,” and “Listening to a Grandfather-Clock ASMR Recording after Reading a Short Poem by Lorine Niedecker” were just published in the latest issue of October Hill Magazine!

Check out the opening lines of “Yellow” below, and clickey-click on this link to read the two full poems at the issue, as well as the work of many talented fellow authors as well. Also, consider submitting your own work—they were wonderful to work with.

“Yellow”

today it feels exceptionally good

to use this yellow

marker, to draw it across

the lightly lined page,

just to run as heavy as possible a line

with the fine nib

pressed into the thinner gray line

to mark it off that I’ve already

answered early work emails, had

lunch, cleaned up after, organized

my desk, sorted through a stack of books

for donation, and it feels good, too,

to hover in the air above the page

to think about drawing a sun with wavy rays,

the petals of a sprightly daisy, a compact car

negotiating a curvy road, but then…

[continued at October Hill Magazine: clicky]

In Conversation: Flash Fiction ✍️

I recently had the joy of meeting fellow fictionist and flash writer Jason Brick for a delightful conversation we shared via messages about this art form we love.

Read on for a few excerpts of our lively conversation about flash fiction—including the coolest place Jason’s newsletter has gone and Jason’s bio. Then, check out his newsletter and submit your flash fiction.

Also, my In a Flash craft book from Vine Leaves Press is the perfect holiday gift for yourself and your writer friends for the upcoming holidays!  Buy In a Flash! Writing & Publishing Dynamic Flash Prose  by Melanie at: Vine Leaves Press website

or at: Amazon

Or, for signed copies, Melanie’s Etsy page

Without further ado, the discussion about flash fiction:

Q: What drew you to flash fiction?

Jason: It’s the variety. For the reader and the writer, you’re not committing to a long narrative, so you get to play with genres, styles, crossovers, characters, languages, tropes you otherwise wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pencil.

Melanie: Flash is super flexible—it combines the narrative and action elements of fiction with attention to poetic language. It’s also compact and helps writers learn compression (which I always need!), integrating language like dynamic verbs and precise imagery, which I find exciting.

Q: What makes flash special or stand out from other literary genres?

Jason: Sort of what I mentioned above. It’s super-short, so there’s more room for variety and creativity than with other lengths of fiction.

Melanie: It combines the best elements of fiction and poetry and yet brings its own special qualities to the table, including a variety of formats and styles.

Q: Tell us about your book in a sentence or two, as if it were a birthday present you were describing.

Jason: Flash in a Flash is just the coolest gift, because I get to open it twice a week! It’s a literary newsletter that puts a super short story - under 1,000 words - in my mailbox every Monday and Thursday! All kinds of genres. All kinds of styles.

And it gets better! I’m a writer, and they’re seeking submissions. So with a little luck I can have my own micro-stories get out into the world. They’re a paying market, too!

Melanie: Very cool. Always great to learn about writing markets, especially those which pay.  My book, In a Flash, sizzles the pen and sparks a thunderstorm of dazzly new ideas that have never crossed your mind before and will continue to deliver awesome exercises and fabulous flash examples that you can return to again and again, at any season of your writing life ahead. You’ll want to keep it handy and gift a friend interested in the genre. 😊

Q: What’s the coolest or wackiest place(s) your book has been read OR where would you like your book to be read? 

Jason: The easy answer is that many people tell me, because of the short time commitment, they keep and read their copy in the bathroom. Besides that, I compiled the first volume in the series while living in Malaysia, so I read several of the submissions while on a boat in a river in Borneo.

Melanie: Wow! Malaysia and a boat in Borneo—so awesome! My favorite place readers have told me my book has traveled is in a gift bag to encourage a friend who has hit writer’s block or who isn’t familiar yet with the joys of flash. Writers are incredibly supportive and kind friends, and I love hearing that my book resonated with a reader so much that they want to gift it to a friend.

Q: Does your book contain exercises for writers? If so, what’s your favorite one that you’d like to share now?

Jason: Not exactly, but anybody can submit…and there is no better writing exercise that finishing a story and submitting it.

Melanie: I love what you say about finishing a story and submitting it. Very encouraging! My book contains a bunch of exercises that writers can use on days when they’re not sure what to write and how to even begin. I love hearing that someone used my exercises to draft a story, submit it for publication, and subsequently received an acceptance letter.

Q: What’s your favorite flash story? Or a flash story that you remember reading and being excited about exploring more in your own writing?

Jason: As of this writing, my favorite remains “The Apocalypse According to Dogs” from my first anthology. It just tickles me.

Melanie: I look forward to checking out that story you mention. The first flash I remember reading and thinking about how amazing it was and wanting to explore more in my own writing was the one often attributed to Hemingway: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”  That just hits me in the gut. As a poet as well, the imagery just says it all. That so very much emotions could be contained in six short words is super inspiring and challenging. Every time I read it, I both get the chills AND want to write something that eloquent and that compact.

Bio:
Jason Brick is the skipper at Flash in a Flash, a biweekly newsletter delivering fiction to mailboxes all over the world. When not writing and editing, he travels, cooks, practices martial arts, and spoils his wife and two sons. He lives in Oregon. 

Connect with Jason:

https://www.facebook.com/brickcommajason 

Contact Jason: brickcommajason@gmail.com

Jason’s books and projects