C.S.Lakin will present a workshop on “The fatal Flaws of Fiction Writing” at the next luncheon meeting of the Mt. Diablo Branch of the California Writers Club (CWC) on Saturday, March 12, 2016 at Zio Fraedo’s Restaurant, 611 Gregory Lane, Pleasant Hill, California.
Ms. Lakin will discuss the following common flaws: overwriting, weak construction, POV violations, telling instead of showing, too much backstory, and description deficiencies and excesses.
C.S.Lakin is the author of twenty-two fiction and non-fiction books and is an award-winning blogger at LiveWriteThrive. She works full-time as a writing coach and book copyeditor, and is passionate about helping writers see success.
Check-in is from 8:30 to 9:00 am. The workshop is from 9:00am to 12:00pm, followed by a luncheon. The cost is $40 for CWC members, $50 for guests.
Reservations are required, and must be received no later than noon on Wednesday, March 9th. Contact Robin Gigoux at [email protected], or phone 925-933-9670. Expect confirmation only if you e-mail your reservation.
The California Writers Club Mt. Diablo Branch web address is: http://cwcmtdiablowriters.wordpress.com/
https://lizbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/elizabeth-koehler-pentacoff-header.jpg00Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoffhttps://lizbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/elizabeth-koehler-pentacoff-header.jpgElizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff2016-02-23 17:43:182022-12-07 05:42:34The Fatal Flaws of Fiction Writing Workshop/SF Bay Area
https://lizbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/elizabeth-koehler-pentacoff-header.jpg00Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoffhttps://lizbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/elizabeth-koehler-pentacoff-header.jpgElizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff2015-10-23 16:16:322022-12-07 05:42:35Writers! Win $1000 for your short story, essay and poem!
Today we visited our local animal shelter to donate clean rugs and towels. My husband and I could feel the sadness as we walked inside. People held or stood near their beloved dogs. All were cloaked in an aura of grief.
What were their stories? The dogs weren’t puppies. These owners weren’t dropping off a holiday pup just because they didn’t want to go through the bother of house training. As we walked passed the cages, dogs made eye contact with me, their tails wagging, as if crying out, “Hey, look at me! See how cute I am! Take me home!”
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered. “We can’t.” Zoie, our nearly eighteen-year-old Yorkie, wouldn’t put up with it. And we’re having our hands full giving her what she needs as she copes with her dementia, loss of hearing, sight, and other health issues. We must wait.
These dogs can’t.
On the way out of the yips, barks, and crying, I see an Australian shepherd sitting next to two men. I knew the answer to my question before I asked it. “Are you adopting?”
They shook their heads no. I bent down and scratched the dog, who repaid me with kisses.
“My sister is on dialysis, and can no longer keep him. There’s been a lot of sobbing and goodbyes. It’s breaking our hearts,” said the man holding the leash, slumped toward the dog. His anguish spilled out.
“I’m so sorry,” I said.
Before I could say another word, an official came over. “It’s time.” He grabbed the leash, and the shepherd knew. He pulled back, alarmed with fear.
With tears in my eyes, I beat a hasty retreat.
Writing Prompts
Saying goodbye to animals, people and even places may be emotional and heartbreaking. Do any of the characters in your writing say goodbye? In your own life? Write a story with a character or yourself in this situation.
I know it won’t be long now before I must say goodbye to Zoie. Although I’m trying to brace myself, I know I’ll be bereft when it happens. I’ve lost friends, relatives, and my parents. Each experience filled me with grief, but later, with time, became moments of memories. Write a scene showing those moments of joy and memories.
How does the loss affect you today? Create a poem, song, story, or another genre of art which expresses you.
Living through tough times may be helped by keeping a journal. Write about what you and your loved ones are going through helps you survive, appreciate the special moments of joy, and be creative.
https://lizbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/elizabeth-koehler-pentacoff-header.jpg00Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoffhttps://lizbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/elizabeth-koehler-pentacoff-header.jpgElizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff2015-01-20 22:28:492022-12-07 05:42:35Aussie Makes Me Cry: Saying Goodbye & Writing with Heart
The photos above are from actual real estate agents attempting to sell their properties.
But wait! What’s the story BEHIND the story?
Writing Prompts:
1. Using humor, choose one of the photos above to show the story behind the story.
2. Create a poem or story utilizing an unusual point of view. Who is the narrator?
3. Read Terrible Estate Agent Photos by Andy Donaldson. Allow yourself to draw on these to create stories in various genres: mystery, science fiction, romance, nonfiction, etc. Play with styles!
Visit terriblerealestateagentphotos.com for more ideas.
https://lizbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/elizabeth-koehler-pentacoff-header.jpg00Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoffhttps://lizbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/elizabeth-koehler-pentacoff-header.jpgElizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff2014-10-22 20:02:352022-12-07 05:42:36What WERE They Thinking?
“A man’s reputation is what other people think of him; his character is what he really is.”
~ Jack Miner
Reputation vs. character. How can they differ? Perhaps the story behind the reputation differs from who your character is.
In the television show Burn Notice, Michael, the protagonist, is a spy who discovers he’s been removed, “burned,” from the CIA. Cut off from financial resources, a web of support and contacts, he has unseen enemies within the organization and outside of it. As he works on private cases, attempting to untangle the mystery and get back into his old job, his goal is helping innocent people while earning a living.
Through it all, his encounters with government agents allude to his past: he’s a ruthless killer. Is Michael’s character, as we know him, different than his past? What’s the story behind the story? Was he set up to be the fall guy?
As the story behind the story is revealed, suspense with the audience, or with a book, the reader, grows.
Writing Prompts:
Create a character who acts one way while shields his true self.
Take your protagonists and put her/him into a situation where reputation, beyond control, is cast in a negative light. What is the story behind the story which casts the character differently?
Now write the opposite. An antagonist takes credit for everything good, while acts deviously behind the scenes.
In the photo below, write what happens when this dog’s family arrives home. Next, write the story behind the story. How can the pooch’s reputation differ from his true character?
https://lizbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/elizabeth-koehler-pentacoff-header.jpg00Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoffhttps://lizbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/elizabeth-koehler-pentacoff-header.jpgElizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff2014-10-05 18:52:062022-12-07 05:42:36Writing: Reputation Vs. Character
How can you write a scene with emotional impact, reader involvement, and suspense?
Author Jordan Rosenfeld spoke to the California Writers Club, Mt. Diablo Branch and shared valuable tips for writers of all genres.
With every scene you create, ask yourself, what is the point of the scene? Does it move your story forward, or is it just a block of setting description? In showing setting, make your character interact with her surroundings.
Great advice! I critiqued manuscripts at one conference where a writer created a lovely Victorian Christmas which dominated the first chapter. I suggested she weave in the setting elements as the character acted and reacted, foreshadowing the mystery ahead.
She said, “Great idea! But this house doesn’t play a role in the rest of my story at all.” So why include it? Once she began writing with her plot and character in mind, her character acted, reacted, and experienced the setting through sensory images. It wasn’t overblown this time, and she created a reason for her scene to be there: she introduced characters and hinted at the mystery coming.
Rosenfeld advised writers create tension through emotional complexity. Characters can experience more than one feeling at a time. The uncertainty can be showed through their thoughts and dialogue, the writer’s word choice, how a word sounds, and imagery.
For more information, read her book, Make Scenes, published through Writer’s Digest, and visit her website: www.jordanrosenfeld.net
Writing Prompts:
It’s your turn! Create a scene by involving your character in the setting shown through the elements above. Make sure your scene moves the story’s plot forward. Ask yourself: Why must it be here?
Tony Serra, attorney for Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Cow, at a federal court appearance said, “Law enforcement is supposed to investigate crime and criminal activity. In this case, they created crime and criminal activity.” (Source: Heather Knight, San Francisco Chronicle.) Use this quote to create a scene employing Rosenfeld’s advice.
Write an article, nonfiction piece, or essay with a scene focusing on the tips above.
https://lizbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/elizabeth-koehler-pentacoff-header.jpg00Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoffhttps://lizbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/elizabeth-koehler-pentacoff-header.jpgElizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff2014-04-14 17:39:502022-12-07 05:42:37Make a Scene with Jordan Rosenfeld
I turned the page of my book, soaking in the story, silence, and reveling in peaceful solitude. Not total solitude, since my Yorkie, Zoie’s rhythmic breathing relaxed me as she slept in my lap.
MOO!
Straightening up with a jerk, I woke my deaf dog.
What was a mooing cow doing INSIDE this room?
Could it have been from an electronic device? Perhaps my husband neglected to take his phone with him. I smiled at the irony of this sound in my suburban California home. Maybe Dad was saying hello from the other side? He spent the first half of his life farming with dairy cows in southeastern Wisconsin, and as a baby and toddler I lived on that family farm, too. Hi Dad, I thought, glad he’d retained his sense of humor.
As I settled back into my story, Zoie, reassured by my calm demeanor, snoozed again.
MOO!
The realistic animal sound came from our family room cupboard. I got up to investigate. Nothing in the stacks of paper, pens, and recipes gave a hint to the mystery. Old video tapes didn’t look as though they’d moo, either. But when I reached Zoie’s dog toys, I knew the puzzle’s answer. A black and white fabric ball must contain the noisemaker. Although it hadn’t worked in years, and I didn’t know it had held a noise device when I threw it in the washing machine, that process could have reactivated it.
Or.
Dad greeted me.
I prefer this answer.
Whenever we try to make this ball produce sound effects, nothing happens. But on its own . . .
MOO!
Writing Prompts:
1. What signs or symbols can you discover within the book you’re reading? Through their repetition, what is its underlying meaning?
2. What sign or symbol can you develop within the project you’re writing? Through carefully placed repetition, your motif may strengthen your theme, characters, and/or plot.
3. Create an artistic representation of your symbol. How does it relate to you? Perhaps this may become another layer of its meaning.
https://lizbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/elizabeth-koehler-pentacoff-header.jpg00Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoffhttps://lizbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/elizabeth-koehler-pentacoff-header.jpgElizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff2014-02-11 15:18:172022-12-07 05:42:37Deepen Your Writing with Symbols
1. Hook your readers with a vivid scene right away. How? Read on.
2. Specific senses will get your reader to experience your story.
Example: Gary D. Schmidt’s Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy begins like this: Turner Buckminster had lived in Phippsburg, Maine, for fifteen minutes shy of six hours. He had dipped his hand in its waves and licked the salt from his fingers. He had smelled the sharp resin of the pines. He had heard the low rhythm of the bells on the buoys that balanced on the ridges of the sea. He had seen the fine clapboard parsonage beside the church where he was to live, and the small house set a ways beyond it that puzzled him some. Turner Buckminster had lived in Phippsburg, Maine, for almost six whole hours. He didn’t know how much longer he could stand it.
3. Show the protagonist’s problem right away. Turner’s is shown in his feelings shown in the last sentence.
4. Character dialogue must move the story forward. If it’s just talking back and forth to talk, remove it.
5. Use adverbs sparingly. Change them to verbs.
Example: He said loudly. Change to: He shouted.
6. Create suspense with tension. Author Steve Mooser employs the element of time. He says, “If the bad guys are due into town at sunset, if Friday is the day of the school play – that’s the easiest way to build tension.” In Frank L. Baum’s The Wizard of Oz, the hourglass shows how much time Dorothy has to live.
David Almond created atmosphere with action verbs and specific images in Heaven Eyes: Mud. Black, sticky, oily, stinking mud. It was January who dared to lean out of his raft first. He dipped his hand into what should have been water. He touched mud, black mud. It oozed and dribbled from his fingers. The raft settled, and mud slithered across its surface, onto our clothes. It seeped through to our skin. It seeped through the tiny gaps between the doors. I took my flashlight out, switched it on, saw the doors disappearing as they sank . . . saw that we were being slowly sucked down into the sodden earth . . . Our feet, our hells, our knees were caught in mud . . . I grunted, whimpered, groaned. I slithered forward. . . My head filled with the mist and darkness.
7. Everyone loves humor. The unexpected is funny. Two unlike characters or objects placed together can be funny.
8. Read your piece out loud. Is it balanced? Not big chunks of description or pages of pure dialogue, but evenly paced?
10. What has the protagonist learned or how has your character changed in some small way?
After several drafts, put away your manuscript for a while. When you return, read it aloud with fresh eyes. Are you having fun? If not, rework the story until it’s just right. You’ll feel that tingle of excitement when it works!
https://lizbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/elizabeth-koehler-pentacoff-header.jpg00Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoffhttps://lizbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/elizabeth-koehler-pentacoff-header.jpgElizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff2014-01-27 16:55:332022-12-07 05:42:3710 Tips for Winning Writing Contests, Scoring an A, or Attracting an Agent/Editor
One Teen Story is a literary magazine for young adult readers of every age. Each issue will feature one amazing short story about the teen experience.
Contest submission will be accepted from May 1st to June 30th, 2014.
One Teen Story will consider original, unpublished fiction written by teens ages 14 – 19. We are interested in great fiction of any genre — literary, fantasy, sci-fi, love stories and horror. What’s in a great short story? Interesting characters, a unique voice, and of course, a beginning, middle and end.
The winning story will be published in the May 2014 issue. Contestwinners will receive $500, 25 copies of the magazine featuring their work, and a 28″ X 20″ poster of the cover featuring their story. The winner will also have an opportunity to edit his/her story for publication with a One Teen Story editor.
*To enter, you must be between the ages of 15 and 19 as of May 31, 2013.
Short stories should be between 1500 – 4000 words and be the writer’s own original, unpublished work.
Previously published stories and stories forthcoming at other publications cannot be considered.
No entry form or fee is required.
Only one submission per person.
One Teen Story reserves the right to publish the story in the form we choose. A parent must sign a consent form for One Teen Story to publish the names of the winner and honorable mentions on our website.
You must submit through our online Submission Manager.
Questions? Visit oneteenstory.com for more information.
__________________________ YARNis an award-winning literary journal that publishes outstanding original short fiction, poetry and essays for Young Adult readers, written by writers you know and love, as well as fresh new voices . . . including teens!
YARN is of particular interest to and for young adult readers, 14 years and up. We have no restrictions for authors (fogies over the age of 18 write YA too) and no genre restrictions. (if you’ve got a story set in 2060, bring it on!) We only ask that the writing you submit be original and publishable, with some literary merit. (In other words, if you’ve written a slasher thriller with lots of smooching and slaying, we recommend sending it to Hollywood and not to us.) Send us only your very best.
Submit online to the email address appropriate to your genre. For information on how to do this, visit yareview.net/
___________________________
And finally, for your holiday entertainment, this video promoting books and bookstores by Arthur A. Levine, an editor at Scholastic:
https://lizbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/elizabeth-koehler-pentacoff-header.jpg00Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoffhttps://lizbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/elizabeth-koehler-pentacoff-header.jpgElizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff2013-12-10 17:09:162022-12-07 05:42:37Teens Get Published Now!
I love this writing advice from Elizabeth Sims in her recent Writer’s Digest article, “Miscalculations & Missteps.”
In both children’s and adult writing contests, I’ve read many short stories that try to become novels, and writing that someone identifies as a novel but it REALLY should be a short story. How to tell if your characters/theme/plot is suitable for which genre?
“Take two unrelated heart-clutching moments, or two unrelated story points, or even two unrelated characters, and challenge yourself to come up with a way to link them.”
Do you have enough complexity to hold a reader’s interest for a novel? This exercise will help you discover the layers or depth you need for a longer work of fiction.
https://lizbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/elizabeth-koehler-pentacoff-header.jpg00Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoffhttps://lizbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/elizabeth-koehler-pentacoff-header.jpgElizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff2013-12-05 13:31:532022-12-07 05:42:38Are You Writing a Novel? Or Should it be a Short Story?
