My Craft Article Published Today 🎉

Super excited that my article, “Hop on Your Horse and Gallop Back in Time: 4 Strengths of Historical and Time-Travel Stories,” was published today at Women on Writing.

Image courtesy of unsplash.com and Kayla Koss

Care to learn more and explore this fun subject as you create your own stories? Ta-da! My latest online class, Leaping Worlds, begins on Friday, September 30th and is is open for sign-ups now.

Read on for my article:
”Hop on Your Horse and Gallop Back In Time: 4 Strengths of Historical and Time-Travel Stories”

By: Melanie Faith

Creating characters whose lives take place in another time can be one of the most enlivening and meaningful writing experiences an author can have. Let’s take a look at four assets writing these stories can bring into the lives of writers and readers alike.

Historical fiction offers maximum flexibility in developing the protagonist. There is no one cookie-cutter image for who the protagonist of your story might be. There are historical fiction main characters of all ages, backgrounds, and nationalities. Protagonists can live in literally any place and time (or multiple places and times, should you choose a time-travel tale) that you can imagine and recreate. You even have the flexibility to braid the stories of multiple protagonists within this genre.

Historical fiction protagonists in all types of narratives must have a purpose for being in the story, and that purpose is to inspire change through their actions; to be changed by events, people, or the place(s) where they live; or (ideally) both. All you need to get started is a setting, a time, and a protagonist with a big obstacle to push up against that’ll impact them and the wider world for days, years, or perhaps even decades to come! 

This genre also offers great flexibility of era. Have you always had a passion for the Roaring ‘20s or an interest in ancient Rome? What about a predilection for the early days of TV? Or even (gulp!) the early days of the internet? All include history well worth exploring. Whether a story is set two thousand years ago or twenty-five years ago, the past is at the core and the story is literally limited only by any era or eras that suit your fancy. A great deal of the fun in preparing to write, drafting, and editing within this genre is researching music, clothes, expressions and idioms, and more from the epoch you’ve chosen.

Photo courtesy of Pixabay at Pexels.com

Historical fiction is not a one-trick pony when it comes to styles and formats. Variety, thy name is this genre! Whether you want to pen a magnum opus novel or a flash fiction of a mere 45 words, there’s a style and a format to fit every writer and every project. Great historical fiction time-travel stories, for instance, can be told within a chapbook of stories connected by character or by place or by era, in a novella of a few thousand words (I had a fun time a few years ago writing a Regency novella, Her Humble Admirer, which in the tradition of many historical romance writers, I pen named), or equally well in linked historical-fiction poems (I wrote a collection of thematic poems set in 1918 a few years ago called This Passing Fever ). Historical fiction and time-travel stories also lend themselves well to creating a series. Want to write books about three cousins during the American Revolutionary War: one a Loyalist, one a Patriot, and one a pacifist? A series is born; go for it. Historical fiction allows for great versatility in how stories can be connected, divided, and crafted for maximum reader (and writer) interest.  

At its best, historical fiction sheds a light not only on another time but also on our modern lives. These stories can make us reflect on how far our lives have come and on how far we might go. They can remind us of our own struggles and hopes and setbacks, and they have the power to entertain us as well. That’s a lot of reading happiness in one literary package!  

Try this prompt: Pick a place, a time, and a protagonist. Your protagonist can be a real historical person or a completely fictional person. You don’t need to know everything—or even a lot—about your main character at this point: a name and an initial detail or two will do, even if you end up changing these details later. What does the protagonist, place, or era need the most that it doesn’t have yet? Who or what is blocking positive change? What most excites you to write about this era? Write for twenty minutes. Go!

New Month, New Projects Popping ⏲️

Hello, September!

I’ve been thinking a lot about time lately: how we organize it, how we anticipate or dread it, how we save it through the things we make and the things we share, how it is ever-malleable—both jet-speed propulsion and gelatin slow and everything in-between.

So, I made this thematic pen-and-ink drawing. Writing the interconnected and interrupted “ticks” was relaxing. There’s something very meditative about making something by hand, even something imperfect, as this doodle most certainly is. 😁

Also, my new class about writing historical fiction and time-travel stories, Leaping Worlds, is accepting registrations and will start Friday, September 30th. Can’t wait! Clicky above for more deets. I’d love to work with you and a friend. 📝

📝My Article Published Today: "Fabulous Flash: Diving Headfirst into the Pool of Uncertainty"

Super excited to announce that my article, “Fabulous Flash: Diving Headfirst into the Pool of Uncertainty,” was published today at Women on Writing. I end the article with a fun prompt to take for a spin. 🌹

Clickety-click on the article title above to read more, and check out the many inspiring writing workshops in an array of genres available from talented published writers via the WOW classroom page .

My online class flash fiction workshop is accepting students between now and the July 1st start date. To learn more, check out: In a Flash Workshop. Flash is one of my favorite genres, and I’d love to work with you and your writing friends.

Copies of the text we’ll use, also written by yours truly, are available at Amazon and (for signed copies) at my Etsy page. Write on!

"Have You Seen These Characters?" Cool Project Sneak Peek

The ever-talented Jessie Carty , Instructional Designer and Content Developer and fellow writer, has been working her magic on developing an initial idea sparked from Writing It Real: Creating an Online Course for Fun and Profit into an interactive educational activity for writers, teachers, and readers to explore and learn about giving quality writing feedback.

Excited to offer a sneak peek of “Have You Seen These Characters? Taking the Scary Out of Giving Writing Feedback.”

I highly recommend Jessie for taking a concept and developing it into an imaginative and meaningful project that combines her fabulous tech skills with content in an engaging and fun way. Whether you’re in writing, education, or both, if you’re interested in developing an idea in a new direction for online media, Jessie Carty has got so much to offer to make your project shine! Contact her via LinkedIn or Facebook.

Upcoming Writing Class: Flash Writing! 📝

Super excited to offer my Flash Writing class this summer! Mark your calendars now, and I’d love to have you and a friend join me for this online workshop, starting Friday, July 1, 2022.

Sign-ups are now open.

More info: Featured Online Flash Writing Workshop: In a Flash!

I’ll be using the book I wrote on this topic, which is also available and handy-dandy for all writers, whether you’re in the market for a class or for a prompt-filled read to get those words flowing.

In a Flash book

In a Flash e-book

Signed Copies

It's Book Birthday Time! 🎉📚

I couldn’t resist staying up to ring in the book birthday of my next book: Writing It Real: Creating an Online Course for Fun and Profit! Woot! 🎉

Available at Amazon as well as signed copies at my Etsy shop, WritePathProductions.

Many thanks for celebrating with me and for all of your wondrous support!

"15+ Creative Methods for Outlining Your Novel"

Thrilled that my article was published today at WOW! Here are some awesome ways to do creative prewriting for your novel that could be great fun to explore.

15+ Creative Methods for Outlining Your Novel

By: Melanie Faith

As a writer, my longer fiction and nonfiction projects have been aided by prewriting. Outlining has numerous benefits that range from organizing initial ideas (which tend to lead to further ideas, like rabbits from a hat) so that they are not a jumble floating (and too-soon forgotten) in the brain to saving time because the story has a natural narrative arc rather than disconnected passages or entire chapters that veer off plot or point.

Just as writing your novel is a creative process, your outlining can be a creative and whimsical process. Feel free to dabble with a few outlining methods and to mix-and-match your prewriting styles.  

What could outlining your novel look like? Great news! There are oodles of formats for outlining. Outlines don’t have to be in the strict Roman-numeral format (unless you want them to be). An outline might be crafted in any of the following styles:

·        a hand-drawn map of your story’s setting(s).

·        a Pinterest or Facebook page or vision board you create of photographs and posts related to your protagonist or any other element of your narrative.

·        a collage (physical or digital) of images or dialogue.

·        a series of sketches or drawings for the first chapter. The sketches might be free-form, in storyboard form, or comics form, either hand-drawn or drawn using digital sketchpads/software.

·        an audio or video clip—or several—that mirror the rising action(s) or tone of various scenes.

·        a web of catch-phrases, dialogue, or verbal imagery related to your antagonist.

·        a chart with webpage links related to your conflicts and rising actions.

·        a color-coded chart of characters’ backstories.

·        a list in a bullet journal.

·        a free-write passage of dialogue between the protagonist and antagonist.

·        photos that represent the protagonist’s inner thoughts or conflicts.

Outlining is flexible and can include as much or as few details as you’d like, and you can add to the outline as new or different ideas occur.  It’s all a step in the right direction: seeing the big picture of your project.

More great news: you don’t have to plan every single element of a book before writing a single paragraph of the draft, although you could if you want to. Some of the best projects I’ve written (or read) began with enough planning for just a chapter or two at a time, if that. Sometimes, just a few short, scrawled sentence fragments about a character.

You can also outline after you’ve started some of your project, whether you’ve run into a snag or just want to plan for the next steps in your project.

A few more outlining ideas:

·        You could color code or date material on an outline to keep track of when and how your outline evolves.

·        You could outline on computer but also by hand (break out the highlighters, colored pens or pencils and markers, your favorite notebook, pieces of printer paper and stickers—whatever motivates you most).

·        Sometimes, my students have purchased dry-erase boards and erasable markers and put them around their office for ease of planning and adjusting initial ideas.

·        Other students have used giant sheets of brown-bag paper or butcher paper and permanent markers to chart their next narrative course.    

Outlines should be specific enough to encourage a pull towards your manuscript but open-ended and with enough wiggle room that it can be expanded, adjusted, or edited at any part of the prewriting or first-drafting process. It’s perfectly fine to have all or part of an initial outline and then veer away from the outline in your writing. Or to adjust your outline as you go.

Just because it’s written on the outline, don’t force yourself to adhere to your plans if it’s slow-going or if a better idea shows up. The latter happens to me all of the time, especially mid-novel; I just re-plan my next plans when it happens and see where the new ideas take me. In all of my first outlines for my current WIP, my protagonist was on his way cross-country to attend a writer’s colony—until I got a few chapters in as I drafted and it hit me that a storm would prevent his arrival. Take two: a little regrouping, a free-write, and a new list of phrases in my writer’s notebook, and away I went in the direction of the new plot. 

Nothing is set in stone, during or even after planning—and that should be encouraging.

Aim for making enough ground work to invigorate and flesh out your initial characterizations, settings, and plot, while remaining open to restructuring as you begin the writing process and as characters reveal more of their struggles and obstacles in the paths to reaching their goals.

View your prewriting as an exciting, ever-evolving map to where your novel likely might be headed, and enjoy the creativity of the prewriting and drafting processes as the pages of your story accumulate and ideas keep arriving.

Learn more via my online class, Outlining Your Novel with Ease, now taking sign-ups. Check out my fall/early winter online writing classes here.

Portable Muse Cards: Relaunch! 📓🖊

One of my fun summer projects has been this box redesign of my Portable Muse cards. This time, I used my own photography for the box front and back and chose another, clearer font. Ta-da! The Portable Muse.

Same great prompts to get your Muse moving! The perfect gift for you and the writers in your life.

More deets below:

“Are you a creative writer whose Muse has gone into a sputter? Wondering: "What should I write about today?" Or are you a teacher with a classroom or workshop filled with eager scribes who need fresh prompts? Wonder no more!


What are they?
• A series of 30 prompts on handy-dandy, beautiful cards. One varied prompt per card. Some include quotations, some situations, others a title or a setting.
• Sure to inspire fiction, essays, poetry, and more!
• Very portable! Slip into your pocket, purse, backpack, or tote and carry them with you to write in cafes, waiting rooms, on your commute, or wherever the day takes you!”

Check out these and other fine products at my Etsy store: WritePathProductions.

Photography for Writers Class 📸

Looking for a fun online class this month? I’m teaching Imagery Power: Photography for Writers that starts next Friday, July 16th.

Just a few spots left—reserve your place today. I’d love to work with you. 📸 Learn more here.

📚🖊My Flash Article Published Today🖊📚

It's a great news kind of day! My article, "The Inherent I: 4 Reasons for Using Fabulous First-Person POV in Flash," was published by Women on Writing today. Read the whole article below, as well as a free prompt to try. 😎

Interested in more? I’m taking sign-ups for my April Flash Fiction course: clickety!

“The Inherent I: 4 Reasons for Using Fabulous First-Person POV in Flash”

By: Melanie Faith

 

Both flash fiction and nonfiction often feature first-person narrators. What are the advantages of using I speakers when writing flashes?

 

First person is focused. A speaker in first-person narration showcases their own inner landscape, feelings, and outlook. Whether fiction or nonfiction, a first-person speaker follows one person’s tightly-woven motivations, blinders, opinions, hopes, and goals. There’s no head-hopping involved!

Since flash is so small, it’s helpful to have a narrow, beam-of-light approach rather than several POVs competing for the very limited space available under 1,000 words, but often much less.

First person is natural to the ways we think and already form stories. From the time we start to talk, I, me, and my are some of our first words we learn to speak or to write. When we tell friends about the picnic we enjoyed or the meal that went terribly wrong, chances are very strong we frame our anecdotes in first-person. It’s often our default mode when communicating via text, email, or video conferencing as well. Humans inherently express our own experiences using I statements. Why go against the grain in our writing?

First person includes room for surprises. Yes, it’s first-person narration, but in the case of flash fiction especially, that doesn’t have to mean the character presented has to share all of your own experiences, feelings, or beliefs. In fact, it might be more fun to play devil’s advocate and writing a character who is your polar opposite.

Say, you are a marathon runner who’s just had an injury and has been limited to moderate exercise and no training for the next six months during physical therapy. You’re itching to get back on the track, back to your passion for the sport, to your next race. Flip it and reverse that energy as you recuperate. What if your protagonist has never run a marathon in his life? What if he actually detests running?  What if someone dares or even bribes him to run a marathon or else there will be consequences? Yep, you can write this in first-person POV to see life from his perspective. Or perhaps from the perspective of his coworker, Meghan, who has issued the challenge/bribe. What’s her perspective like, and why is she making this request/demand?

First person could include any of these details, just not all of them at once. You never know what you’ll learn about yourself—or others—or your favorite sports, hobbies, pastimes, and more through leaping into another person’s eyes. 

First person includes promising limits.  Yes, first person can be limited, but that’s also part of its charm.

In a nonfiction flash essay, for instance, the reader does not get to delve deeply into the feelings or actions of many others, unless those are in relation to—and shed important light on—the first-person speaker’s journey. It’s all about the speaker, baby!

The reader gets to intuit and experience the speaker’s limits and foibles as well as their strengths and fears.

What a writer reveals in first person as well as what must be left out because it is told in first person provide a compelling insight into human behavior, both for the individual and for people in that setting or time period or group the speaker belongs to, or wishes to, or never will.

 

 

Try this prompt! Set a timer for fifteen or twenty minutes. Write in first person about a time when the I speaker—whether you or a made-up character—felt left out of a group. Do not use the word disappointed anywhere in the flash; instead, demonstrate it with the I statements the person uses, their astute observations about why they wanted this inclusion but it hasn’t come to be, and/or in their actions or refusal to act. Go!

Photo courtesy of Nathan DeFiesta on Unsplash.com