Here are your informal writerly learnings for the week!
This is October now … and so you know what those of us who do the crazy of NaNoWriMo are doing. Yup. NaNo prep (not to be confused with those other preppers). For the month of October, therefore, I will be posting lots of tasty NaNo prep materials, which can be pretty useful even if you don’t participate 🙂
Lisa Cron digs deeper into the response to her last Writer Unboxed post, in which she posited an alternative to the plotter/pantser dichotomy. It’s hard to own what you believe.
This is a weird story from the MFA world. Steven Galloway, chair of UBC’s creative writing program, was fired after an investigation, but under mysterious circumstances. Nobody’s willing to say exactly why. I think anyone reading the articles can infer, but . . . I’ll let y’all judge for yourselves.
Chuck Wendig’s inimitable writing advice: what exactly makes a damn good story? Terribleminds. Now when this was shared on the listserv of one of my writing associations, the following was quoted: “A man catches a fish isn’t much of a story, because his problem isn’t a problem.” And responded to: erm, Old Man and the Sea? Moby Dick? Yeah, well. Read it in context.
With Pooh’s demise last year, I’ve been missing the distinct feline voice in writing craft. Welcome Harper Hodges to The Write Practice: Seven steps to write more.
Controversial writing post of the week: For me, traditional publishing means poverty. But self-publish? No way. Ros Barber for The Guardian. I should have known when Kathy Owen tagged Kristen Lamb, asked her to read the article and respond to it in a blog post, that this was going to raise a few eyebrows (and a few hackles).
I posted it because I wanted to engage people in thoughtful, engaged conversation (which I’m happy to say it did). I share posts and articles for writers on traditional and self-publishing sides of the creative divide. I’ve made my decision after a lot of consideration. Please do me the courtesy of respecting that position. And hella yeah, you know I’ll respect yours.
Also, a kind reader pointed me to this response by Paul St. John Mackintosh: an open letter to Ros Barber (less balanced, perhaps, but worth a read). Teleread.
Jo Eberhardt asks, are you a writer or a storyteller? Admittedly, it’s not such a polarizing question as planner vs. pantser, or literary vs. genre, but in recognizing the spectrum of this apparent dichotomy, could we not find our way to a more balanced view of the more fraught debates? Food for thought. Writer Unboxed.
Tracy Hahn-Burkett wonders whether to TK or not to TK? Writer Unboxed. I did this with my most recent NaNo project. Nothing I left out was critical to the story. It’s all pure research.
Jami Gold (with Angela Quarles) weighs in about writer truth: we’re making it up as we go. I’ve recently said this to a writer friend, and as I mentioned in last Saturday’s update, my process is in continual evolution. We try things out, decide what works (for us) and what needs to be set aside. It can be tough when you learn from established/well known authors. My advice? Do you have to tell them it didn’t work for you? Really? 😉
I’ve posted this before to great controversy. None of us like change, but we can’t prevent it from happening by ignoring it, especially when there are very good reasons for it. Why you should never, ever use two spaces after a period. Farhad Manjoo for Slate.
Always Looking Up 