Welcome to the World, Photography for Writers!
At long last, it’s release day for my new book, Photography for Writers!
Buy your copy today at Vine Leaves Press. Signed copies also available, via my WritePathProduction Etsy Shop or via pm.
Photo by Adi Goldstein on Unsplash .
One Week until my Book Birthday for Photography for Writers!
Super excited for the release of my latest book next week: Photography for Writers! Check out this awesome video trailer for my book. Get your copy today at: Vine Leaves Press .
A NaNoWriMo Interview with Christin Rice :)
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash
Happy Week Two of NaNoWriMo November!
After clocking in my writing this morning, my tally is holding steady at 8,181 words and counting. I’m 100% certain that I wouldn’t have written half this much without the daily writing practice.
But don’t take my word for it: I’m thrilled to introduce fellow novelist, MFA graduate, mom extraordinaire of a super-cute baby daughter, and all-around awesome friend, Christin Rice, who kindly talked with me earlier today about her NaNoWriMo 2019 journey.
*What inspired you to take part in the challenge?
I really like a short term challenging challenge, especially for writing. It propels me and a project forward to have a short-term focus, knowing I can work at a pace that would be unsustainable in the long-term. In my pre-baby life, I could do back to back challenges like that, but with a nine-month old I am focusing on just the month of November.
I also was realizing how good the timing was: December writing is always interrupted by holiday stuff. I travel in January whenever possible.
And my baby turns one in February which is my self-imposed deadline to figure out when/how/what to go back to work. Which means if I want some pages of first draft, November is my best bet. That's good motivation to just get going and keep going.
*What project are you working on?
It's a new novel, and man it feels GREAT to work on first draft fiction. I haven't done that in a year because I've been focused on revising a novel, then writing some creative nonfiction, and oh yeah, having a baby.
The novel is not about IVF and infertility, but that plays a big part in what is happening in the character's lives.
It's really fun to mine some of my direct experience, but put it in a very different context and explore how complicated it can all be through two complicated female characters (I looooove complicated female characters).
*Anything else you'd like to share about the NaNo process?
Don't revise while writing!
Don't let yourself read more than one paragraph back, and that's just to ground yourself on where to go next. You can revise in December, but no editors in your head in November.
Check out more of Christin’s amazing writing at her blog: Invincible Summer.
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Taking your own NaNoWriMo 2019 journey? I’d love to talk to you about your project. Email away.
Photo by Tim Mossholder at unsplash.com .
My Photography in The Moving Force Journal
Great news: six of my photos have been published at The Moving Force Journal’s latest issue. Read the entire journal here: The Moving Force.
Like Writing down the Bones and The Artist's Way?
Just in time for NaNoWriMo! If you liked Bird by Bird and other craft books, check out In a Flash and these nifty videos my awesome publisher created.
Writing down the Bones style
Writing coach and publishing advisor style
Invest in your writing today. All three titles in my Flash Writing series are now available, including the pre-order for Photography for Writers.
"Big Shot"
Pleased to share the latest poem from my Particle collection, with illustrations from the talented @annabelle_fern .
Write Flash Fiction and Flash Nonfiction that Sells! :)
Learn how to write and edit flash that catches editors’ eyes! Super cool video at: Check out In A Flash.
Signed copies available at: Write Path Productions.
E-copies and print copies available at: Amazon, In a Flash .
Pre-Order Photography for Writers Today!
Thrilled to share the news that my next book, Photography for Writers, is now available for pre-order! Check out this AWESOME video that Vine Leaves created, featuring my book and some of my photography.
Pre-Order Video
"Four Tips for Writing Fantastic Flash"
My article about flash-writing was published today. Ta-da! Give the writing exercise a spin.
“Four Tips for Writing Fantastic Flash”
by: Melanie Faith
Good things come in small packages. Chocolate truffles. Earrings. Me—okay, that last one is wishful thinking since I round my height up to 5’2”, but you get the picture.
Flash is the mighty genre that could and no exception to the small-packages rule of thumb. In both fiction and nonfiction, flash stories tell a narrative, develop a character and setting, craft conflict and tension to a surprising ending, and more—all in just 1,000 words or less. Pretty impressive!
Use these four tips and the accompanying exercise to craft some stellar flash.
· Set two characters against each other. Ever lived in a dorm? Then you know that very rarely do even two people (much less a whole group) view similar experiences the same way. Such conflict is a key component of good flash. Whether your characters compete for the same person, place, or thing or just have opposing personal, political, or ideological views, one sure way to maintain conflict within a flash is to pair two characters in a clash of goals. When I judge flash contests, one of the key disappointments is when a good flash character or concept doesn’t have enough tension to sustain the flash, so the prose falls flat.
· Ready, set, action! Your protagonist or speaker must DO something. Flashes aren’t as dynamic if the character is inert or has things done to her or him. Detail your protagonist’s physical actions and responses. Many promising flash drafts I’ve read go off the rails when they include a character reflecting on something that has occurred—which is fine for a sentence or two, maybe, but for a flash to really zing off of the page, the character must push back in deed. In real life, I need a fair amount of reflection time, but in my flash writing, I avoid it. Wind those characters up and let them move on the page! Which brings us to our next tip:
· When in doubt, include (a little) body language. Sometimes, jokingly, I’ve referred to dialogue without any speaker tags or visual imagery for several paragraphs as “floating heads,” because the characters seem to exist in outer space, without a clear physical presence. Readers don’t need to know every single cough, sneeze, or hand on the hip, but if your readers can’t imagine how characters are reacting to each other—whether through vocal tone, rolled eyes, tapping toes or shifting uncomfortably- then they probably won’t have as deep an investment in characters’ struggles. Much of what real people communicate in everyday life is demonstrated through body language; sprinkle a few well-placed images between the dialogue to show the conflict between what the character says and how the character or others physically react.
· Contradictions make better flash characters. In other words: we’re all a mess, so why not mine it? Another problem in some flash I see are characters who are one-sided, with a single personality trait that is not-so-awesome for flash: they are too agreeable. Something bad happens, and they accept it as the way things are or they make a decision to ignore it entirely. Strong writing brings us characters who have a main trait—kindness, enthusiasm, anger—and an opposing trait that rears its head now and again—selfishness, mercurial moods, humor at the wrong moment. As F. Scott Fitzgerald once said: “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” Guess what—we all have these two opposing sides and must function, which creates the kind of exhaustion and frustration that doesn’t always make life easy but which makes for fantastic conflict, tension, and character development in flash.
Try this exercise: Your speaker or protagonist has always reacted to injustice by ________________, but today, a different side of their personality is going to shine. Instead, they will _________________. Include inner thoughts of the character or speaker right before they decided what to do, during, and after. Include at least a line of dialogue in your flash where a person with a different opinion or view tries to stop your speaker or protagonist. What happens next? Go!
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