Rough
Draft
The Official
Propaganda Organ of the Cincinnati
Writers Project
Autumn 2009
Plain
Words
“... Dogs,” she added, in explanatory aside, “are
habit, I think.”
This line from the short story, Aunt Tatty, by British author Elizabeth
Bowen, aptly describes the portion of my life that runs like a backdrop, keeps
me normal. When I don’t understand what humans are trying to tell me, I look to
the pack to put it in simpler terms.
Our alpha male, Hunter, is ancient, creaky with
arthritis, mostly blind and just plain old tired. As we watch him take the last
tentative steps toward that big rabbit hunt in the sky, I can’t help but wonder
what he makes of the whole thing. Sometimes he stands, his nose almost touching
the wall, waiting. Mostly I think he’s confused and angry because his body will
no longer do what he asks of it.
Boy, does that sound like home.
I was thinking that death is probably like autumn
then--a splash of color, the last dramatic sigh before the leaves fall off.
Eventually, we all become humus for next year’s mulch because, as the title of
our earlier anthology pointed out, Somebody’s
Gotta Die before the cycle begins anew.
So we wait for Hunt’s leaves to drop and,
waiting, we enjoy the color, what there is left of it.
Marcia Eckstein, Editor-at-Home
meckstein@lys.org
Dying is an art, like everything else.
Sylvia Plath
2009 Membership
Party in November
This year’s membership party is tentatively
scheduled for the first Saturday in November at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in
Rookwood Plaza, Norwood. See Mary’s
article below.
Presidential Ramblings
Mary Fitzpatrick
It is that time of year again. CWP dues are due. Paying
dues is not mandatory, but your dues are the source of the seed money we use to
publish our anthologies. If being a CWP member has helped you become a better
writer, or if it has just kept you out of trouble on critique group nights,
please help support the group by paying your $25.00 either at the Member’s
party or by sending a check to the CWP PO Box.
(CWP, PO Box 29367, Cincinnati, OH 45229.)
It is also time for CWP elections. As things stand we have two elected offices,
president and treasurer. Rough Draft Editor, and Web-guru are appointed
offices. I’m willing to stay on as President for one more year. Although she
and her husband may be moving back to India sometime next year because of his
job, Saloni is willing to stay on as Treasure until or unless that
happens. As of the time I’m writing
this, no one has come forward to run for either office. If you are interested
please let a member of the CWP board know.
Both the
voting for the CWP board members and paying of dues usually happens in October
at the annual CWP member’s party. This
year’s member’s party is tentatively scheduled for the first Saturday in
November, which gives you a little more time to think about both. I had
really wanted to have the details on this year’s party worked out in time for the
Fall Rough Draft, but I’m still negotiating with the good folks at Jo-Beth. Keep
your eyes peeled for specific member’s party details in the near future.
And one last thing, we have around thirty unsold
copies of our Anthology, Not From Around Here, Are You? . Right now they are camping out next to my
writing desk in my dining room, all looking for permanent homes. I’d like to
try and set up some reading events over the winter where we could get positive
exposure for our group and sell some of the anthologies. If you know of a good
venue for a book reading and/or if you are willing to help organize one, please
let me know. Also, remember the gift giving season is not that far away and CWP
anthologies make great stocking stuffers.
Suddenly I realize
That if I step out of my body
I would break
Into blossom
A Blessing, James Wright
Prologue Pros
and Cons
Op-ed by Tom Groh
Novice writers, of which I am one,
sometimes come to rely too heavily on literary devices. We tend to fall back on
clever word play and other syntactical gimmickry in lieu of fully realized
characters, a well-developed plot and theme. While prologues don’t fall exactly
into the gimmickry category, it’s too easy for them to lean in that direction.
We’ve seen a lot of prologues come
through the Wednesday night critique group lately, and though I am not an
expert (that’s what Op-ed means) I thought I’d weigh in on the topic.
A prologue is introductory material set
apart in time, space or viewpoint from the main part of the story which nuances
and creates intrigue for the story to come. The good stuff of the prologue
should exist outside the framework of the main story at the same time providing
essential details, information and insight into the main story that cannot be shown in a better way.
A good prologue, while linked to the
main story, can stand alone. It is filled with drama and tension all its own.
Most of all, it entertains while casting an illuminating light on some aspect
of the story to come.
One of the main troubles with prologues
I’ve seen is that the writing is often back-story and nothing else. These
slow-moving, often backward-moving chunks of narrative don’t launch the drama
of the story. If you want folks to keep reading, launch.
I’m not anti-prologue. Honest! In fact,
if you still want to open with a prologue and you’re wondering, “How can a
prologue help my story?” the short answer is, In Many Ways. And to show you what a good
guy I am, here’s a brief list of Good Things Prologues Can Do which I’ve
borrowed and amalgamated from different sources:
A prologue can be used to...
1) Introduce essential facts about the
past or the future.
2) Spark the reader’s imagination and
get her primed to jump into your story. However, if this is really all your
prologue does, maybe it would be better suited as Chapter 1.
3) Establish a mood and atmosphere.
4) Provide back-story that can’t be told
in the main body of in a better way.
5) Create a hook or pose a question.
6) Introduce an imagined, strange and
confusing story world to your reader before launching into your narrative.
7) Establish who’s telling the story and
why. (Think Sherlock Holmes.)
8) Introduce a large cast of characters.
(This technique is a bit outdated.)
This list is not intended to be
comprehensive; certainly, the best prologues are multi-taskers. Just as you
should strive for in all your writing, your words should work for you in more
ways than one. So, too, the best prologues will weave several elements together
at once. You can introduce your protag, give back-story and create a somber
mood all with a sentence. Try it.
To balance things a bit, I thought I’d
give you some Prologue No-Nos:
1) Resist the urge to tell everything
you know. Don’t overwhelm and annoy (read underestimate) your reader by dumping
a bunch of information into the first five pages. This will only muddle things.
2) Don’t tip your hand. You dilute your
suspense when you give away too much too soon. If you’re going to tell me who
the murderer is, you better have a good reason for doing so, and the story you
develop better be absorbing and intense.
3) A good prologue has its own sense of
drama, but it must be linked to the
story. A prologue so far removed in place or time from your main story line
will be confusing and misleading to the reader, and it will not serve as a strong
opening for your novel.
4) Prologues should not be vague or
confusing. They should intrigue, and enlighten, and most of all, make things
cooler and clearer.
5) Lastly, a personal peeve, prologues
should never be written in the passive voice.
That’s my take on prologues. Use ‘em if
you have to, don’t if you don’t, but if you do, make them entertaining and make
them work for you.
Either he’s dead or my watch has stopped.
Groucho Marx
Greetings from
the Drake Writers’ Group
Marcia
Eckstein
On July 29th, Barbara Slavinski, the medical
librarian from Drake Center brought three members of the Drake Writer’s Group
on a field trip to CWP’s Wednesday Fiction Critique group. Drake’s focus has
changed over the years and it is almost exclusively a rehab center for brain
injury patients now.
Ms. Slavinski encourages patients and workers to
express themselves through the writers’ group. At the end of our session, the
Drake group was presented with a copy of Not From Around Here, Are You?
for their library.
Drake Writers’ Group meets on Tuesdays and Fridays
from 2 to 3 pm in the Drake Medical Library. Writers read their work and the
group offers support. Ms. Slavinski said, “We welcome your visit to us.” If you are interested, call Barbara at
418-2684.
We all go: only a few, first class.
Titanic, David R. Slavin
Paying for An
Editorial Review
By
James Montgomery Jackson
I heard the praise: “Clean writing.” “Great
characters and each an interesting individual.” “Fine dry sense of humor.”
“Terrific relationship between Seamus and Paddy.”
More importantly, the damning: “I really liked the
book once I got into it.” “It really perked up when I got to …” “Great opening
and I thought the ending was terrific.” “I wasn’t quite sure about…”
A niggling whisper in my brain said something was
not quite right, but no one could tell me exactly what or how to fix it.
After many agent rejections of Bad Policy the whisper became as loud as the Niagara River at the
falls. In one sense I believed my writing was better than many, maybe even
most, commercial mysteries. In another sense I knew it was a failure. Based on
their oblique comments, critique groups and individual readers sensed
something, but couldn’t provide me with enough insight so I could tackle the
problem. A sage once said the definition of being crazy is to do the same thing
over and over and over again and expect a different result. I needed to do
something different if my writing was to succeed.
I belong to the Sisters-In-Crime and their Guppy
Chapter (for the little fish swimming in the waters: the not-yet-published or
lightly-published). From a recently successful author I got a recommendation of
a professional to analyze Bad Policy.
Before signing on as a client, I traded a couple of
emails with Jennifer Fisher of JSF Editorial to make sure I understood her
process and she understood what I thought I needed. The estimated cost was
$750. It seemed like a fit, and I sent her a hardcopy of my manuscript.
What did I get for my money?
I got confirmation about both of my presumptions. I
can write a good sentence: “You are a very clean stylist and write with a sense
of immediacy which is great for a mystery. Typically your sentences are tight
and punchy and your word choice is right on target. And I applaud you for your
grammatical sensibility…” I had problems: “But as you well know a book needs
more than strong writing to hold it together…”
Her approach is to take notes as she reads the
manuscript, primarily focusing on problems or questions, but noting good stuff
as well. The advantage of these notes is to give you insight into her
impressions as a reader, albeit one with a more critical eye than typical.
After she completes the book, she summarizes her findings and makes general and
specific recommendations. She also gave considerable thought to alternative
strategies that would help strengthen my book.
Was it worthwhile?
My first reaction when I read Jennifer’s eight and a
half page, single-spaced critique was that I was a hopeless hack who could
write a decent sentence, but couldn’t be trusted with anything more than a
paragraph. Erica Jong once said, “Advice is what we ask for when we already
know the answer but wish we didn’t.” Amen. After a suitable mourning period, I
reread the letter and mined its gold. I had sensed Bad Policy had a saggy middle; Jennifer not only confirmed my
fears, she showed where I should apply liposuction and radical surgery. She
gave me insight into how I could add depth to the manuscript with additional
subplot and character development.
She challenged several of my deep-rooted assumptions
about Bad Policy, and I realized I
needed to hold a wake and wish them a wonderful afterlife. Starting with her
ideas I brainstormed others and developed some interesting approaches. The
thinking reenergized me, and I became enthusiastic to do the necessary work of
a complete rewrite.
After several weeks considering Jennifer’s feedback,
we spoke on the telephone for half an hour. I provided her additional insight
into my characters and their motivations and then suggested my new proposed opening,
additional subplot and what I thought I’d leave on the cutting room floor. We
batted ideas back and forth and improved them.
Should you consider paying
for a critique?
With self-study and critique group feedback I
continued to make incremental improvements, but my writing had essentially reached
a plateau. To be successful I needed to reach higher ground, and I needed a
guide to show me the way. There are other approaches that could work for you:
concentrated writing conferences, school courses, a mentor. Living far into the
Upper Peninsula of Michigan woods, none of those was practical for me.
I consider the $750 money well spent. What I learned
will not only assist me in improving Bad
Policy, it will affect the way I write in the future.
I guess I’d better get to it, eh?
I’m trying to die correctly, but it’s very difficult you
know.
Lawrence Durrell
Context Review
Mary
Fitz…
I know I’ve talked about Context in the past but I
went again this year and was even more impressed that usual in the quality of the
Context Writing workshops. Context is a Science Fiction Convention held every
year in Columbus, Ohio. Don’t let that spook you, it’s not the sort of Con
where you’ll run into chicks in chainmail in the elevator or members of the
fighting 501st in the hotel bar. Context is a small, low-key,
non-media oriented Con that focuses on writing and writers. They have a full
schedule of the sort of panels you might find at any Con, but they also have a
full schedule of mini writing workshops.
Although it is a SF Con, most of the writing workshops are geared to
anyone writing commercial genre fiction.
This year I did two workshops. One was on Conflict
and Plot and was lead by Tim Esaias who is one of the professors from Seaton
Hill’s MFA in the popular novel program. The second was called Improv for Writers.
This workshop taught us how to use the sort of “story spine” actors and comics
use to improve as an outline for longer works of fiction. Ellen Klages, who ran
this workshop, is both a published writer and an experienced improv performer. She
started the workshop by pairing us up and having us actually do some improv.
It’s far harder than it looks. After we had all looked silly doing that, she
walked us through the how-to use a - “Once upon a time…And every day…But one day…
And because of that… And because of that… And because of that…Until finally…And
ever since then…” Story Spine to plot out a story or novel. At first this formula
seemed off, but she showed us how work from everyone from Garrison Keller to
Charles Dickens follows this format. Using a story spine is a great way for
someone who is more pantster than plotter to chart out the flow of their work.
If you are writing commercial genre fiction and you
are looking for a nearby, not horribly expensive writing workshop you should
look into Context in 2010.
Published,the Few, the Proud
Tom Groh’s story, Little
White Bunnies, was published by Badlight
Magazine in July. His flash fiction story, Fork, was accepted and
will appear in the webzine, The Green Flash, this October.
Conferences,
Contests, Workshops, Gatherings
Celebrate Danny
Miller and Appalachian Writing
“Voices from the Hills”, a celebration honoring the life and work
of Danny Miller, will take place at NKU on September 26th with,
among others, Wendell Berry, Gurney Norman, Crystal Wilkinson and Frank X. Walker.
For details:
htt://English.nku.edu/people/dannymiller/voices.php
The Independence Inklings Writer’s Group is open to all writers, of
all skill levels and genres. The group is hosted by and meets at the Durr
Branch of the Kenton County Public Library in Independence, Kentucky,
on the first Sunday of every month at 1 p.m. Details www.dawnrinken.com or drinken@therinkens.com.
SinC Into Great
Writing! Sisters in Crime will
sponsor a writing workshop October 14, 2009 at the Hyatt Regency in Indianapolis, IN,
$50 for SinC members, $150 for nonmembers. Email Beth Wasson sistersincrime@juno.com.
Deadline: September 22, 2009.
Backspace Writers Conference, Nov. 5 & 6th, 2009 and May 2010 in
NYC with agent-author day and opportunity to be critiqued by minimum of 12
agents. Go to www.backspacewritersconference.com
Boucheron 2009, World Mystery Convention, Oct 15-18. Event run by
fans, for fans. www.Boucheron2009.com
www.sleuthfest.com Feb. 26-28,2010 in Deerfield Beach, Fla.
Sponsored by the Florida Mystery Writers of America. Short story contest.
www.Writersinparadise.eckerd.edu
Conference Jan. 16 – 24, 2010, St. Petersburg,
Fl. With Dennis Lehane, Laura Lippman, Anita Shreve, and others.
Ether
Tools
Links, Blogs, and Helpful Websites
for Writers
Brainyquote.com – fun; ssa.gov/OACT/babynames – trying to name a character?; ***urbandictionary.com – modern;
Nanowrimo.org – National Novel Writing
Month (November)
Book-in-a-week.com – Their motto: BIC HOK
TAM. Butt in chair, hands on keyboard,
typing away madly;
thestorystarter.com – need a kick start
Online Writing Groups and
Communities
absolutewrite.com – navigate at your own
risk.
ed2010.com - for learning about the magazine side of
publishing thwritingbridge.com –
Application process. If approved, you’re on probation and must keep up with the
required critiques/submissions
agentquery.com – Indispensible, free, and
all you need
duotrope.com – handy for finding markets
for short stories; writersdigest.com,
the magazine on-line.
Paid
subscription to writersmarket.com or
publishersmarketplace.com.
agentquery.com is free and has all you
need; jakonrath.blogspot.com –
Newbie’s Guide To Publishing
cbaybooks.blogspot.com –good glossary
Agent
sites: etreidliterary.blogspot.com and nathanbransford.blogspot.com
***bookendsliteraryagency.blogspot.com –Jessica
Faust of Bookends Literary Agency
pubrants.blogspot.com –agent Kristen Nelson,
chatty, useful ***rejectionqueen.blogspot.com
– if you want to feel better about your own rejections
anotherrealm.com/prededitors
- Preditors & Editors
literarylawguide.com/resources.htm
– the go-to
source for copyrights
QueryTracker.net – If you plan to send out
lots of queries
sfwa.org/beware – Originating from the
sci-fi crowd, watchdog site for all
armchairinterviews.com;
eighteenquestions.com; noveljourneys.blogspot.com; coolstuff4writers.com – Self-explanatory
writesideout.com –Custom book covers,
t-shirts, etc.
CWP Members blogs & websites:
www.joedriscoll.org
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CWP_Fiction/?yguid=177017700
Mary
Fitzpatrick, Prez CWP, http://maryfitz.typepad.com/my_weblog
Bob
Lewis, fiction writer, http://iaintsorry.blogspot.com
Amy
Purcell, fiction, www.amypurcell.com/blog
Chris
Specht www.cspecht.com
Madeline Izzo - www.pittsburghwritersproject.org
www.icecharades.blogspot.com
Classified Ads
Got something to market? Email meckstein@lys.org. It’s free.
Support Local Authors, shop at the BOOKBANK,
Cincinnati’s only local author’s bookstore, located at InkTank. Contact ann@inktank.org
if you are a published local author.
Writer’s Retreat
Southpointe
Villas Two-bedroom, ocean front
condo 12 miles South of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Bring your own
sheets, towels, toothbrush and bathing suit – everything else is provided,
including a pool, cable TV, full kitchen, 1.5 bathrooms, private balcony with a
great ocean view and sleeping room for six. $550-990/wk depending on time
of year. Call Linda 513.379.2094 or email linda_arnest@hotmail.com.
The Accidental Word
(overheard in CWP Fiction Writers Crit Group – Weds night)
“This writers’ group is different than ours,” she
said, her face a sort of apology. “Participants read their work out loud. Then
we all say how wonderful it is.”
“We use tough love here,” he answered, with a mean
grin.
Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind,
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.
Dirge Without Music, Edna St.
Vincent Millay
