My Haiga Published in Daily Haiga

Recently, my poetry-and-photography combo art was published at Daily Haiga: an edited journal of contemporary & traditional haiga.

"What's haiga?" you wonder.

Glad you ask! See below. 

My haiga

I have another haiga in a forthcoming issue. Stay tuned!

"Haiga (俳画, haikai drawing) is a style of Japanese painting that incorporates the aesthetics of haikai. Haiga are typically painted by haiku poets (haijin), and often accompanied by a haiku poem. Like the poetic form it accompanied, haiga was based on simple, yet often profound, observations of the everyday world. Stephen Addiss points out that 'since they are both created with the same brush and ink, adding an image to a haiku poem was ... a natural activity.'"    Source/Learn More:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiga

Craft Article: "Three Qualities of Good Short Stories.."

My fiction craft article appeared at Women on Writing today. Ta-da! Hope it inspires, and enjoy the prompt at the end. 

"Three Qualities of Good Short Stories (and Why You Need Them in Your Own Stories)"

By Melanie Faith

 

 

"The cat sat on the mat is not a story. The cat sat on the other cat's mat is a story."

--John le Carré

 

 

We've probably all had that experience where we read the latest edition of our favorite literary magazine and thought, Meh. What was so great about that piece? Editorial tastes aside, there are some key elements to making good fiction that transcend the names on the masthead. Let's take a look at a few elements that make a good short story.

 

There's enough conflict. Readers get invested in stories that have something at stake, both for the protagonist and for the reader. As in the John le Carré quote, merely having a character in a scene doing something isn't enough to generate and sustain interest. Just as our actions or refusals to act create ripples of effects in real life (Wonder about that? Don't pay your taxes, show up at your child's recital, or buy groceries: the reactions are sure to pile up speedily), your characters live in a setting populated with other people, places, and things and whatever they do or don't do has consequences aplenty. Consequences create the potential for conflict and increase tension in a story. Conflicts and consequences are good. Characters who do something (anything) in a vacuum: boring city!

 

We know who to root for and who not to. Ever read a story where there were so many characters that you weren't sure who you should focus on or what was the point of all of these characters being in the scene? Good stories might have a few characters, but it's clear who the protagonist is and isn't. Same goes for the antagonist, which may be a person but doesn't have to be (in man vs. nature stories, for instance, a storm might be the antagonist). Every action/reaction, snippet of dialogue, and description must support the reader knowing who the main character is and who works against the main character. All other details (or characters) can either be edited out of the story or need to be pared back to supporting status for the protagonist's journey.

 

They have a clear setting--which just may prove significant to the character's quest. Just like us, your characters exist in time and space. A character typing in a coffee shop in Smalltown, USA probably has a different life and set of goals than a character in a coffee shop in LA, Tokyo, Milan, or the moon (hey, this could be science fiction, right?). Remember that storm example a few sentences ago? Some settings, such as a character outrunning a tornado in Missouri, might be significantly impact by where the action of the story happens. Other times, the action of the story might have little to do with the conflict but it's important to create a scene in which your character breathes and moves through a landscape just as we all do. Keep in mind: characters don't have to like where they live (be that their city/town or their living conditions, such as apartment/condo/house/basement/friend's couch), but good stories need a place for all of the action of the story to take place. Otherwise, characters can become mere talking heads, doing a lot of thinking that could easily alienate readers who want to be grounded in place and time.

 

Try this prompt!

Take a draft of a story and let's flip the script: write a new story, making your antagonist your protagonist. What is the main conflict your new protagonist must confront? Who creates obstacles for this new protagonist? What do they want? Where does your protagonist spend most of their time? Make that the setting. How does the setting either support your new protagonist or work against them? 

 

Care to write more short stories?

Check out my May short-story class .

My Photos at Nunum

I'm very pleased to announce that three of my photos appeared at Nunum's blog and Instagram this week, along with this insightful description of my photos: 

"Melanie Faith's photography captures the complex beauty displayed through the transitory play of light through the spaces in which we most often find ourselves alone with ourselves."

They also kindly made a mention of my book, In a Flash, and its release! 

Check out more of Nunum's awesome flash fiction and art and consider submitting! 

Orson's Review Publication and Artist Interview :)

Such a pleasure to have seven of my photographs in the current issue of Orson's Review .

They asked me a few awesome questions about my creative process in an interview as well. Enjoy! 

Interview with The Wire's Dream :)

What do creativity tips, photography, and a giant gorilla balloon have in common? They're all part of this fun interview I did with The Wire's Dream. 

Author Interview at Tapioca Dance

I had the joy of being part of Nicole Chilton's artist interviews recently at her website, Tapioca Dance. 

We chatted about books, favorite tools for staying productive, recent projects, something I've learned this year, and more.

An excerpt: "Schedule unscheduled time. It's essential to renewing and nourishing art and artist alike. Sounds ridiculously simple, but it's actually the most difficult thing to do."

Check out the full convo here:

Meet the Author

Image by: Hipster Mum

My Photographs Published in The Borfski Press, Issue III: Winter 2017

Three photos from my Crave Series were published in the latest edition of The Borfski Press, a full-color, glossy, gorgeous magazine of photography, poetry, and prose. 

For more about The Borfski Press or to order a PDF copy for a few dollars.

My three photos are food themed. Here's a sneak peak. This photo is entitled: "Streaming." My photos are on pages 45-47, but the entire magazine is inspiring and lovely.

"Shopping for Images: 3 Tips for Finding Poetry Topics"

Here's a craft article of mine that was just published today. Enjoy! 

"Shopping for Images:

3 Tips for Finding Poetry Topics"

By Melanie Faith

 

Ever have a day where you woke wanting to write, but the ideas were murky or not arising at all? Or maybe you've just finished writing a poem that felt like magic a few days ago, and now any idea feels filled with false starts? What about an afternoon where you finally sit down to write and, thinking of your day, nothing jumps out at you as worthy of verse? Or, after the to-do list is tackled and the wobbly mountains of laundry washed, you open your writer's notebook and stare at a blank page, too tired to focus?

 

You are not alone. These are common quandaries most writers have at one point or another. Good news! Try one or more of these ideas that have worked for me and my poetry students to release that stuck feeling and get our pens moving once more.

 

1. Not-so-common Commonality. Certain places and experiences are so ingrained into daily life that whole populations of people share them. Yet we sometimes overlook them as topics for verse. One of the great facets of writing about shared events is that readers will experience their own aha! moments from what you write. You also have the wonderful opportunity to tighten focus on one part of the communal experience that resonates with you and which will make your poem distinctive. 

 

In Alan Ginsberg's prose poem "A Supermarket in California," he takes a mundane trip for groceries and turns it into an event for celebration: "What peaches and penumbras! Whole families shopping at night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes!--and you, Garcia Lorca, what were you doing down by the watermelons?" Many people have written about food, but none in quite the same playful, exultant way as Ginsberg. Don't think it's all been done before; whatever the topic, no one has written a poem about this topic with the exact diction choices, tone, and images you will. Go ahead, write your own supermarket, food, cooking, gardening, or eating poem! You'll bring something unique to the table [pun intended].

 

2. The Running List. Sometimes, there's a lot of pressure when we sit down to write to pick a topic out off the top of our heads like a rabbit out of a magician's hat. Lower the pressure with a little list. Try keeping your writing notebook with you as you go about your day or start an email list of topics in your phone (I sometimes quickly email myself ideas before I forget them). We often see interesting ideas all day long but infrequently have time to stop in the moment to write a whole poem, but it only takes a minute or less to jot a note about the image or idea. Begin a running list of topics for the future, and add to it as you go. Then, when you sit down to write, either pick one at random from your list or work chronologically, so you'll always know what your next topic will be. Like a game, it becomes more fun the more topics you've listed, and you'll train your mind to notice imagery that could spark poems more often everywhere you go. 

 

3. Get out of Your Own Skin, or: The Conversation. Sometimes we forget that poetry can include dialogue and/or use a conversation as a sparking point. We also sometimes forget that poems don't have to be centered on our own experiences. Go ahead, have a conversation today with a longtime friend, the clerk at the post office, someone in the waiting room, your frenemy, your children or grandchildren, your coworkers, whomever. Something someone else is struggling with or happy about or angry about might just spark your next poem. Of course, you don't have to stay with the circumstances as they are in real life. Re-imagine your conversation partner's circumstances or trials through the eyes of a made-up character. How would another person deal with these events? What would their actions be? What would their thoughts be? Feel free to make up what that person might say in certain circumstances. The point is to get another person's POV on life and to write from there. 

Looking for an online poetry workshop in February? I'd love to have you in The Joy of Poetry Writing.  

My Photographs Featured in The Wire's Dream Magazine :)

Happy New Year! 

My photos and a brief interview about the photos in this series were just published at The Wire's Dream Magazine, 3rd Collection. My work appears on pages 122-131. 

 

My Photograph in Light: A Journal of Photography & Poetry

Wonderful news! A black-and-white photo collage of mine appears in the current issue of Light : A Journal of Photography & Poetry, the Reflection[s] issue.