Monthly Archives: November 2011

Nov 4 2011

Short Story Contest

This information was found by David Price.

Lulu has a short story contest for the month of November.  Write a 600 word short story and you could win $500 cash, a B&N Nook, or a $100 B&N giftcard.  Full details can be found here.

http://www.lulu.com/blog/2011/11/01/lulu-short-story-contest/

Price is part of the NEHW publicity committee. He can be located on the web in a couple of places. Here are his links: www.authorwebpage.com/davidprice
http://davidpriceauthor.blogspot.com
follow him on twitter: DPAuthor or
find him on facebook: DavidPriceAuthor.

Nov 3 2011

Professor Writes about E-books and Short Fiction

This article originally appeared on the website, http://www.40kbooks.com/. Professor and author Daniel Pearlman is the writer of this article and is a new member of the New England Horrror Writers’ organization.

The e-book is the latest and best hope for the commercial viability of short fiction by Daniel Pearlman

Daniel Pearlman

“Daniel Pearlman‘s writing presents us with a rare multiplicity of unique voices. His unforgettable characters continue to whisper in the reader’s ear long after the final page is turned,” said Paul Di Filippo.

Novels can have pauses, faults: a long story wins by points. A novelette, as Julio Cortazar wrote, needs to win by knock-out. Do you agree?

I generally agree. Few readers read novels with the expectation that a dramatic climax will repay them for the time, often portioned out over several days, they invest in reading them. Readers of novels expect to be “repaid” continuously, with several dramatic high points making the long haul worth it–each such high point followed by the “pause” you mention, though I don’t see why your question seems to equate “pauses” with “faults,” like passages that are boring. Pauses should simply be the re-commencement of the narration at a necessarily slower pace if the novel is to build up toward a new high point. In contrast, the shorter form is naturally designed to build up to the one high point only, Poe’s “single effect,” the knock-out Cortazar mentions–and that takes special dramatic skill, a ruthless focus of attention, that many writers, known primarily as novelists, do not have the capacity for, or the interest in, pursuing. Many novels succeed without a knockout ending, but a short story simply fails of its purpose without one.

Is there a literary bias against the short form of fiction?

There may be a market bias. Short stories of literary merit demand a great deal more of mental focus on the part of the reader than do most novels. Novels draw the reader into a narrative dream that relaxes the intellectually critical faculties. Reading a short story demands constantly being on the alert for the “point.” Reading a novel relieves you of that tension until perhaps you reach the ending. Reading a short story also demands close attention to language–to metaphor, irony, etc.–the kind of attention to language that you would give to poetry. Few novels demand such attention.

In any case, I don’t see any “literary” bias against short fiction. On the contrary, the classics of short fiction receive enormous literary-critical attention. Unfortunately, the market tells us that novels sell well compared to collections of short fiction. My hope is that someday, perhaps via the e-book, writers of excellent literary short fiction will be able to make nearly as good a living as do many writers of merely mediocre novels. Nowadays writers of excellent short fiction are taught to think that short forms are merely exercises preceding truly meaningful accomplishment by way of novels. How many writers have been warped, I wonder, by such market prejudices?

Plot, setting, ideas. What are in your opinion the perfect ingredients of a novelette/novella?

The novella is a really tough form to do well. You don’t have the leisure, as writer, to develop sub-plots and more than one or two main characters, and yet the reader demands a sense of fullness in the development of the main characters and setting, so that the novella has to provide some of the primary rewards of reading a novel–and still provide the climactic “single effect” demanded of the shorter form. It’s too bad that market conditions discourage the production of novellas, but I hope that the rising popularity of e-books will create a greater opportunity for their publication. The e-book is the latest and best hope for the commercial viability of short fiction.

Would you suggest 3 must-read novelettes/novellas?

There are just too many to choose from. But what jump out at me right away are Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener,” Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis,” and Leo Tolstoy’s “The Death of Ivan Ilyich.”

 

Nov 2 2011

New England Horror Writers at the SouthCoast Toy and Comic Show This Sunday

Meet these New England Horror Writers at the SouthCoast Toy and Comic Show on Sunday! by Kristi Petersen Schoonover

If you’re up in Fairhaven, Massachusetts this Sunday, Nov. 6, you’ll have the opportunity to meet a few New England Horror Writers—and pick up a few of their books, as well as copies of my Skeletons in the Swimmin’ Hole—Tales from Haunted Disney World—at the SouthCoast Toy and Comic Show. The following writers will be on hand:

David Goudsward

Goudsward is co-author of Shadows Over New England and Shadows Over Florida, but has a myriad of titles in horror, archaeology, and short fiction out there. You can learn more about him at http://goudsward.com/dave/

Kasey Shoemaker

Shoemaker is the author of Silver Vengeance, an urban fantasy novel featuring werewolves, witches, romance and bloodshed. You can learn more about Kasey at http://kaseyshoemaker.com/

Rob Watts

Watts paranormal thriller, Huldufólk , was released just in time for Halloween! Find out more about Rob at http://www.robwattsonline.com/.

Stacey Longo

Longo has had several short stories published in various popular anthologies including the all-female-written zombie collection Hell Hath No Fury. Read more about Stacey’s work at http://www.staceylongo.com/

Writer Nathan Wrann (Dark Matter Heart) and I will not be at the show, but our books will be available. You can learn more about Wrann here: www.daltongang-productions.com, and, of course, you can find out about me on my own website (www.kristipetersenschoonover.com). In addition to Skeletons in the Swimmin’ Hole—Tales from Haunted Disney World, copies of In Poe’s Shadow — a Poe tribute in which my short story “Vanity” appears — will be available.

The SouthCoast Toy and Comic Show will run this Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Seaport Inn and Marina in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. For more information and complete details, visit www.southcoasttoyandcomic.com.

Nov 1 2011

NaNoWriMo: Some helpful hints and tools

This article originally appeared at http://www.tuaw.com/.

NaNoWriMo: Some helpful hints and tools

by Steven Sande

This morning, I noticed a tweet from @rvbelzen that said, “As a NaNoWriMo veteran, do you have any tips for this NaNoWriMo newbie, maybe an article you wrote about it?” Most of the posts that I’ve done about National Novel Writing Month for TUAW have focused on the tools, not on the technique. Based on the tweet, I thought I’d give you some hints from a three-time NaNoWriMo winner (that means you wrote a 50,000-word novel in the month of November) about how to prepare for the writing marathon.

Helpful Hints For Writing Your NaNoWriMo Novel

1) Make sure you have a broad outline of your plot and characters in your mind or on paper. This was the hardest part for me the first two years I did NaNoWriMo, as I had a story in my head but didn’t spend the time to think of characters or how the story was going to evolve. As a result, those first two novels were only about halfway through the total plot line when I got to 50,000 words. What I suggest is sitting down with your favorite writing tool — whether that’s TextEdit, Word, Storyist, Story Mill, Scrivener, or another other writing tool, and just write a quick outline of how the story is going to unfold. Come up with character names and a rough description, locations, etc., and write them down as well.

2) At some point on November 1st, sit down for an uninterrupted spell of writing. In order to write 50,000 words in a month, you’ll need to average 1,667 words a day. I find that setting aside time to write in a place where I’m not going to be interrupted by talk, TV, or tweets is essential. If you’re enthusiastic about your story, that 1,667 words is going to flow out of you, and you’ll find that some days you’re writing 2,500 words. Go for it on those days, because you’ll have other days when you need to take a break. My favorite place to write NaNoWriMo novels? The kitchen table. The chair is uncomfortable, so I need to write quickly so I can get out of it ASAP.

3) It’s all about words, not about tools. I’ve noticed over the last few days that I see more and more tweets about “which tool should I use?” There are debates going on about the merits of Storyist versus Scrivener, or using one of the many minimalist writing tools. Here’s my take on the writing tools: don’t go out of your way to buy a new app that has lots of bells and whistles, because they’ll get in the way of writing your novel. Many of the novel-writing apps have ways to write outlines, build character cards, etc. I found these tools to be so incredibly distracting that I finally just started using minimalist tools. You can easily write a NaNoWriMo novel in Pages or Word — you don’t need an “author’s tool” unless you really think it will help you. My second NaNoWriMo novel was actually written in TextEdit.

4) Have fun writing. If NaNoWriMo turns into a chore, you’re not going to make it. For me, writing fiction ends up being so much different from blogging and writing tech books that it’s an absolute joy. I love thinking up characters, putting them in odd situations, and then trying to get them out of those situations while moving the plot forward. Are they well-written novels? Probably not. But it’s been a blast writing them. To make writing fun, think about something that either excites you or makes you laugh, and then use that as a key launching point for your novel. This year, I’m resurrecting a character from last year. He’s a private detective in the near future (about 10 years from now) who gets involved in some rather bizarre situations like a locked-room murder on a space station and (this year) being injected with nano-particles that cause him to grow.

5) Start fast. Seriously, try to beat your 1,667-word goal every day for the first 10 days. That way, you might be halfway done with the novel by the time November 10th rolls around. What does that mean? You can take a break from writing if you absolutely feel like it, or take more time focusing on a key point of the plot. My wife was a NaNoWriMo winner last year and she totally amazed me by writing almost half of her novel in the first five days of November. I like to start fast and finish at a comfortable pace.

6) Don’t focus on spelling or grammar. Once again, this is all about word count. It doesn’t have to be perfect. You just want to get the story out of your system and onto the screen (or paper, if you so desire). When you’re done at the end of the month, you have a working rough draft that you can then spend time cleaning up. So turn off the spell and grammar check, or ignore the red underlines that mean you misspelled something. Chances are very good that you’re not going to publish your book anyway, so who cares if it is filled with misspellings and lousy sentence structure? As long as you’re happy with it, that’s what counts.

7) Keep your writing to yourself. There’s nothing worse than thinking that you’re doing a bad job when you’re writing. It will absolutely defeat you from getting your novel completed. One of the biggest mistakes you can make during NaNoWriMo is to let somebody else read what you’ve written. Why? Well, everyone’s a critic these days, and the reader will have no hesitation telling you that what you’ve written is horrible or pointing out mistakes. Wait until December 1, 2011, and let them read it then. Don’t even talk about your novel with other folks, unless you’re just telling them how much fun you’re having and how far along you are.

8) Work through writer’s block. Here’s something I had issues with the first year I did NaNoWriMo. I was about one-third of the way through the novel and just lost focus. I had thought a lot about the beginning of the book, but didn’t have a clue where I was going. Preparation (see hint #1) will help this, but realize that you’re going to have days where you just can’t get the brain to wrap around writing! What do I do on these days? Try to write anyway. If I need help, I pick up a favorite good book and read parts of it, carefully noting the way that the writer crafted certain phrases or created a twist that caught my attention. That’s usually enough to motivate me to write more. Also consider taking a walk or doing something to clear your mind. I find that walking is a great way to get my mind to focus on developing plot points or thinking about dialogue.

9) Back up your novel every single day. I’ve been lucky — I’ve never lost any of my writing. But can you imagine how depressing it would be to get two-thirds of the way through your novel and then lose the file? It would be enough to make you never want to write again! I highly recommend doing multiple backups of your novel file every day. My base document is always sitting in a folder on Dropbox, which means that it’s also downloaded to the Dropbox folder on both of my Macs. That’s three copies right there, plus I always have a Time Machine backup going. That’s four. Am I paranoid enough? Probably.

10) Keep your eye on the goal. That’s going to motivate you more than anything. Thinking about getting to that 50,000th word is a daunting thing, but you’ll be surprised just how quickly your words will add up. Take the writing one day at a time, try to stretch your daily total over the required 1,667 words, and you’ll be a winner before the end of the month. I have to admit that there’s no better feeling than wrapping up a NaNoWriMo novel, even when I know that nobody will probably read it. Having done this three times, I’m confident that I can write another novel, and I’m looking forward to that sense of accomplishment at the end of November.

Tools Of The NaNoWriMo Writer

When you’re thinking about which tool to use to write your novel, keep hint #3 in mind — it’s about writing, not about tools. I really do get irritated with the annual debates over which app is better than another, but then again I’m an antisocial curmudgeon. I’ve tried ’em all, but the two apps that I find work the best for me are TextEdit and Microsoft Word. Get a blank piece of digital paper and start writing. I haven’t tried Pages, although I’m sure it would work swimmingly in the “typewriter” Lion full-screen mode. Maybe this year?

Most of the writing tools that people spend their money on before tackling NaNoWriMo fall into two camps — the “Swiss Army Knife” apps that have all the bells and whistles, and the “Minimalist” apps that just give you a blank page and a word count. Here are some examples of both types.

“Swiss Army Knife” Writing Apps

I think I’ve tried each and every one of these apps at one point or another, and even though I’ve used them to start NaNoWriMo novels, I’ve always just transferred my text to another app within a day or two. Your mileage may vary, and you may make use of all of the many features of these apps.

I won’t go into a lot of detail about each of the apps; the developers have info for you and in many cases will let you download a trial copy:

Scrivener (US$44.49)

Storyist ($59.99 for Mac, $9.99 for iPad)

StoryMill ($49.95)

Manuscript ($39.99)

Ulysses ($19.99)

CopyWrite ($24.99)

DEVONThink ($49.99): Actually more of an outlining tool, but can be used for writing.

OmniOutliner ($39.99): Once again, an outlining tool that is perfect for writing. Also available on iPad for $19.99.

Minimalist Writing Apps

WriteRoom ($24.99): available for both Mac and iOS ($4.99)

Ommwriter Däna ($4.99): available for both Mac and iPad at the same low price!

Byword ($9.99)

Clean Writer ($0.99): available for Mac and iPad

Writer ($2.99)

Grandview ($4.99)

iAWriter ($9.99): also available for iPad ($0.99)

I’m sure there are a lot more tools available, but I’ll leave this as an exercise for TUAW readers to go out and do some research. If you find any, please let us know in the comments. Also, if you’re a NaNoWriMo winner and have some additional hints and tips, be sure to write a comment.

By the way, in case you’re wondering how long this post is, it’s 1827 words. That’s more than a person needs to write every day to be a NaNoWriMo winner. YOU CAN DO IT!