I volunteered at an adult writing conference with 826Michigan this weekend. I was able to sit in on a short story workshop with Jack Driscoll, a novel writing workshop with Barbra Shoup and a lecture entitled: How to plot a novel (or at least attempt to)? told by Margo Raab. I also had the pleasure of driving Margo Raab to the airport Sunday morning, and I must say she is a delightful person.
All three teachers gave great advice that tied together so well I thought that they had collaborated with each other, but it turns out they didn't and in the tricks of the publishing trade they have faced the same challenges. I think the three of them are so lucky, I would love to make a living as a writer. All three of them said the same thing, becoming a writer is all about persistence.
Margo Raab even connected finding the right places to publish your work and finding an agent that you trust is kinda like dating to find a mate...oh great I hope I'm better at dating for business than for finding a husband for myself. She shared her process of writing a novel, which sounded excellent, though in my opinion there are two types of writers, those who plan and know exactly what they are going to write and those who write as they go along. Margo Raab is certainly a plan before you start writing kind gal. She calls it "coffee shop time" where you go into a coffee shop and try to see the whole novel go through your head like a movie and simply take notes on it, then go back and write it down. I have tried both methods, write as you go and planning before starting. I think that I would get more accomplished if I used Margo Raab's method, but when I was a little kid I NEVER planned out a story ahead of time unless the teacher made me.
Rabb said one of the best ways to write a novel is to know your ending and then start the beginning at the opposite point, this especially will work for mysteries. That is a writing exercise I am not going to let pass me by, because when you think about it most great stories end exactly at the opposite of the beginning. So I guess another good exercise may be to start with a beginning and end at the opposite. She gave 20 general guidelines to writing a novel, which I am not sure I am allowed to post without getting sued...just know it was a very well though through workshop.
Barbara Shoup had similar advice when critiquing people's novels she said "Begin as close to the end as possible," which makes since because if people know what is going to happen within the novel, they'll want to know the rest of the plot as to how the character got to the point they end up in at the end.
A comment from Jack Driscoll's workshop that really stuck with me was when he said "really it's not about reading at all, but it's about seduction." Meaning a writer has to entice the reader to continue to read, they have to like it so you want them to want more. It is so true, I mean isn't that why it is important to put twists within our stories. I've been told that Jack teaches at Interlochen and I wonder if he was at the writers retreat this summer, but I just cannot remember.
So of course there is nothing like a writer's retreat/conference to see people who are living my dream of a published novelist and inspiring me to try and make it happen again. I've started applying to graduate school MFA programs, there is no saying an MFA will get me anywhere that I am not now, but it would be a great excuse to do nothing but write for at least a few years and immerse myself in my dreams a bit longer. The challenges I have come across in applying for MFA programs is #1 I have no confidence in my writing ability right now and I'm really nervous and #2 still screwed when it comes to letters of recommendation since most of my creative writing teachers have left Eastern or do not respond to my requests for a letter of recommendation, but it's got to be possible somehow eventually.
On the ride to the airport Margo Raab told me that it's hard because once she was on an MFA college admission board and it's so subjective what the different people favor. She went to the University of Arizona and it does not sound like she has had much struggle becoming a writer to be honest I don't know if she ever thought about or made a living any other way. Although, once she submitted a piece to the Atlanta Review and they rejected it, only for her to submit it again and have it win first place in the same magazine that had rejected it.
I do not think I will be happy without earning my MFA so here's to hoping I get over the whole nightmarish letter of recommendation nonsense. Also, I would have to find a way to pay for it...Margo Raab had a fellowship, but honestly I read one of her short stories last night, I googled it and it was really good, made me think about how I need to write more in hopes or producing some more amazing stuff.
So tonight, I did accomplish some things as a writer. I wrote a new short story entitled: A Selkie's Lost Love. I am taking the tale of a Selkie and scrabbling it up to match however I feel about love at the time which means I took this Selkie and had her sitting on the shore where no one wanted her skin, which makes her powerless, a very rare thing for a Selkie. The story then trails back to a man who truly loved her and therefore refused to hide her skin from her, meaning she lost him because a Selkie's skin is supposed to be more important than any love she will find, but this Selkie doubts her decision now, but it's too late...don't worry I'm working on the bitterness thing I promise.
When I felt a lull in working on that I remembered what all of the writer's at the conference kept saying about persistence and so I decided to send out as many e-mail submissions as I could find off my submission list. Of course, I still did not get through the whole thing and I was being lazy and only doing e-mail submissions. I ended up sending about ten submissions out total, but while doing so I continued to realize I need to work a bit harder on having more work to choose from to submit. If ever I found a publication where I did not have a piece to fit into it, I went ahead and made a list of prompts.
Finding time to write is going to be a challenge because I just took a full-time job at the library, but hopefully there will be a lot of downtime to work on writing. However, I also am stupidly working on my non-profit management degree, which I am hoping will lead me to a job with a hours at a normal time that also carries meaning. I want to eventually become a grant writer I decided...so I probably should have just taken a grant writing course, but we all know we need to open more options up in this economy and it's something to do while I look for an MFA program. So, I will work, do homework, apply to MFA programs and write on my spare time, I get tired just thinking about all I need to do, but it's gotta be done. After all as I heard many times this week the key to being a writer is persistence...and we all know that persistence is hard work.
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