Workshop Space

UPDATE! Your’re also invited to check out the Wadadli Pen Prompts.

I’m calling this the workshop space for now. It’s where I’ll post links on craft and maybe writing prompts to help us hone our craft year round, not only at challenge time. Here goes (also check this out):

Check out what she says about “active description“.

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“For a story to work, there needs to be both consequence and agency…” so says novelist Joshua Henkin. Read more.

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“Active description requires the writer to think hard about the objective of the scene he’s writing, create conflicts based on the setting or other descriptive elements, and then write the conflicts INTO the description.” from this interview with author Holly Isle.

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Here’s another one

This is a prompt I came up with to encourage folks to start thinking of their Wadadli Pen Challenge (2013) pieces…or to just write. I got an idea for another one today; will be posting that soon. So look out for more. Meanwhile, how about attempting this one.

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This isn’t a quid pro quo for Andrew Blackman naming us one of the Caribbean’s top 20 book blogs, though that was pretty sweet. For some time now I’ve genuinely enjoyed reading his blog and it’s because of postings like this one in which he references things like “To write well, I need to spend less time writing, and more time staring out of the window… to think creatively, you need to let your mind wander, rather than trying to tame it” and “it’s less easy to concentrate when you’re tired, so it’s more likely that your mind will wander and come up with interesting ideas”. I’ll have to agree to disagree with him on the debilitating effects of coffee (“caffeine is bad for creativity”), however. Go read the blog…and then let your mind wander.

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I thought about adding this post to the Reading Room – its a written and audio presentation, though which, in the end, seemed more appropriate for the workshop space given that it breaks down how to construct (or the elements of) a blues poem. It is The Blues a Craft Manifesto by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers at the Kenyon Review.

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Here’s a whole list of writing prompts in different genres.

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I spent part of today working on a response to an online writing prompt only to realize I’d missed the submission deadline. But though this serves as a reminder to me to double check submission deadlines, time spent working on craft is never wasted. What the hell, since they’re never going to see it, I’ll share what I came up with with you. The prompt was to write a 100 word or less opening to a story about a guy overhearing something he didn’t want to in a workplace setting. Here’s what I came up with:

Late shift at the station, only a handful on duty; Dean’s bored stiff, and restless, which probably explains how his hand comes to flip the audio switch for studio one when he stretches to fix the picture on one of the monitors.

At first he doesn’t understand what he’s hearing, but his brain soon catches on and little Dean perks up. He quickly flips it back, but the sounds, sucking and heavy breathing, stay; though through the glass separating studio and control room, he sees only the shadows of tripods, cameras and set pieces.

But now he knows they’re there.

That’s 100 words on the nose, chopped down from nearly 300 words on my first try; if I keep working at it, which I might, it might turn out to be something. If not, it was a fun and challenging exercise. Doing these prompts is one way of not only winning prizes and recognition, but staying limber. Here’s the link to the next Writers Digest prompt, if you feel like flexing your muscles. It’s a visual prompt this time (and I know Wadadli Pen judge and organizer of the Just Write Writers Retreat Brenda Lee Browne is a fan of those).

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This is an exciting insight into the process of creating a story using visual prompts and one’s natural curiosity. If you haven’t read her book Girl with the Pearl Earring or seen the film you really should, and you’ll find yourself looking at the painting again and thinking, hmm maybe. Because it just could be. Stop and take in an image today and see what stories it reveals about itself to you.

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One True Sentence by Kendra Bonnett

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Memos to Poets by Kwame Dawes

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Processing Feedback by Joni B. Cole

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WADADLI PEN EXCLUSIVE! Diana McCaulay, Jamaican author of Huracan and Dog-Heart, and Commonwealth short  story prize winner for Dolphin Catcher talks writing, publishing, and more of particular interest to the Caribbean writer.

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A little perspective on “show, don’t tell”  by Jessica Strawser

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Take Your Readers Somewhere…The Importance of Place  by Kendra Bonnett

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Don’t be Afraid to Use Pronouns by Maria Murnane.

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PLUS

Recommended books on craft (here’s some of mine; feel free to suggest your own)

Writing Fiction by Janet Burraway

Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg

The 3 AM Epiphany by Brian Kitely

As with all content on wadadlipen.wordpress.com, except otherwise noted, this is written by Joanne C. Hillhouse (author of The Boy from Willow Bend, Dancing Nude in the Moonlight, and Oh Gad!). All Rights Reserved. If you enjoyed it, check out my page on Amazon, WordPress, and/or Facebook, and help spread the word about Wadadli Pen and my books. You can also subscribe to the site to keep up with future updates. Thanks.

But I don’t know what to write about?

Wadadli Pen 2012 has launched. And you have a vague notion of entering, maybe, if something comes to you before the deadline. The thing about writing though is something won’t always come to you, sometimes you have to go looking for it.

And it’s important to remember that while a competition has parameters – word limits, themes – there is within those parameters no limit on the imagination. And it’s always a good idea to write about what genuinely interests and concerns you. Don’t fake the funk.

As Gayle Brandeis, author of the book of Live Wires, says here, “When we write about the things that electrify us–either with joy or with fear–we bring a great zing of energy to the page. Energy that will propel our words forward; energy the reader will be able to feel.” Be passionate.

As for what makes a good short story, tastes vary of course, but there is some resonance in British author Bernadine Evaristo’s response that she looks for “Linguistic flair, something fresh and original, depth, re-readability, stories that explore new ways of seeing, being, that surprise, provoke and even shock.” Be original.

Finally, Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie who knows a thing or two about winning major literary prizes and critical acclaim, reminds that it’s never a good idea to copy another’s idea. You know, this is what this person did to win so this must be what they’re looking for. Uh-uh.  Like snowflakes and fingerprints, your story is a unique creature; each person has a different story to tell. So, tell yours. “Be truthful,” she said. “Don’t write what’s false, write what is true. Write the best story you can write; make it your story.” Be real.

So with those thoughts in mind, we look forward to receiving your entries for the Wadadli Pen Challenge 2012 being held this year in partnership with the Best of Books with support from several patrons.

WRITING TIPS

For Wadadli Pen Competition Guidelines go here; it’s important that you read and follow the guidelines when submitting

Draw on Caribbean lore, attitudes, values, environment, sensibility, and your own experience; feel free to make up a world with wholly new characters and/or creatures, to reflect your own world, to incorporate real life characters from the past or present, to invent your own characters, to have both invented and real characters play in the same pool. There are no limits on imagination.

Engage and amuse your reader; have fun with it.

Enrich your stories with detail, authenticity and sensitive treatment of issues. “Description is hard. Remember that all description is an opinion about the world. Find a place to stand.” – Anne Enright, author

Draft and redraft until you have it just right.

“I write, rewrite, add, delete, analyze and synthesize continuously until I feel a sense of satisfaction with the piece.” – Malachi Smith, poet  http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/2009/01/so-much-things-to-say-malachi.html

“Editing is everything. Cut until you can cut no more. What is left often springs into life.” – Esther Freud, author

Use proper spelling, grammar, punctuation – take the time to proof your submission or have someone do it for you.

Keep in mind that a story is more than just a chronology of events and pay attention to things like plotting, character development, pacing, tone, style, and rhythm – yes, rhythm. “A story needs rhythm. Read it aloud to yourself. If it doesn’t spin a bit of magic, it’s missing something.” – Esther Freud, author

Make it fresh.    “Beware of clichés (including clichés of response, observation, thought, conception as well as expression)” – Geoff Dyer, author

Show don’t tell…tighten it up…pay attention to pacing - http://www.unheardwords.com/tform.htm (The Problem of Form by Bill Manville)

Further reading:

Examples of past Wadadli Pen winners who’ve created close to the kind material desired are:

Stray Dog Prepares for the Storm by Gemma George (2004) http://wadadlipen.wordpress.com/2010/05/24/stray-dog-prepares-for-the-storm-by-gemma-george-2

Fictional Reality by Rilys Adams (2005)
 http://wadadlipen.wordpress.com/2010/05/10/a-nuclear-family-explosion-by-siena-k-margrie-hunt

and The Creation by Rosalie Amelia Richards (2006)  http://wadadlipen.wordpress.com/2010/05/24/the-creation-by-rosalie-amelia-richards

Also check out other winning pieces categorized by year elsewhere on this site and visit our Reading Room or check this Caribbean children’s literature site where perhaps you’ll find inspiration.

Of course, we think you can do better. Do not attempt to mimic these, dip into your own imagination and see what comes out.