From the Archives: When you think you're done, are you?

When we are new at something, sometimes all we can think about is that first goal.  Learning to skate doesn’t look that hard.  If  we can stay upright, feet on the sidewalk (or ice), body vertical, we’ll soon be doing figure eights and sailing backwards. The same goes for writing.  When we sit down at the keyboard to write a story, we figure if  we can get enough words on the screen, we’ll have a tale worth telling. 

In some ways, we need this attitude to get started.  If we knew we’d fall on our asses for the first twelve times we skated over a twig, a crack, our sister’s Barbie doll, we probably wouldn’t try.  We need that initial belief in ourselves to put the skates on in the first place.  The same is true for writing.  We picture ourselves  clacking away at the computer keys with lines of type building and building.  It is the only way to deal with our initial fear.

However, how we handle the results of those first attempts can dictate success or failure.  For many, a bruised butt and bloodied knees spell defeat.  “I don’t want to do this!  This is too hard” and they head inside to watch Saturday morning cartoons.  Others wear their scabs like badges of honor and take a moment to reassess their goals.  They realize they can’t jump from standing upright on skates to skimming down Devil Hill, carving eights in the liqour store parking lot, floating backward to the awe of the younger kids without blood and guts.

The same is true with writing.  Although there are those who have a natural talent for the written word can sit down and write it without too much angst.  But these are rare cases.  Most of us may write a story that has many strong elements, but as a whole it doesn’t work.  Not yet.  And we need to reassess and learn the craft.

This is the make-or-break moment for most writers, the moment of looking at a piece of writing as it might be read by others, readers who do not live in the head of that writer.  The ability to look at one’s own work with a critical eye does not come easily.  It is a skill that is learned with practice, patience, and awareness of what works and what doesn’t.  An expertise that evolves over time. 

Just as a young roller skater learns the sidewalk is smoother than asphalt, a writer learns clarity is more important that an obscure turn of phrase, but to do this, both must be willing to see beyond their first goals.  They must accept the reality that becoming good at something requires the understanding that learning is a process, that the large goal must be broken down into smaller goals because everything is more complex than we first perceive. 

There is a difference in skating and writing.  We teach different muscles to work harmoniously together.  In skating we train our bodies and our brain too, but most it’s about legs and balance and reaction.  In writing we train our brains–and our hearts. 

How do we train our brains to write?  We set up mini-goals, lots of them, beyond our first goal.  Here are a few I believe in, though sometimes I find it hard to actually do them all!

Mini-Goals for Each Story

• Create content by taking notes, brain-storming, writing a “shit” draft
• Write a draft
• Do research to understand the world you’ve created or the personalities
• Think about story structure
• Make certain everything in a story serves a purpose (especially in flash)
• Be willing to delete that which doesn’t fit into the structure
• Go through the story to improve the language
• Make certain everything that needs to be clear is clear
• Make certain that verbs are active, that nouns are specific
• Proof-read carefully
• Set it aside (this is one of the hardest mini-goals because usually at this stage we are sooooooo excited about what we’ve created, we can’t wait to send it out)
• Reread and make changes after it’s been set aside
• Ask a trusted reader to read it (trusted: gentle, supportive, yet honest, honest, honest)
• Decide what notes you agree with and what you don’t and make edits
• Set aside again, at least an hour or two so that when you proof-read for the final time, you have enough distance to find now what your eye skipped over before
• Send out and cross fingers

Mini-Goals for Personal Growth

• Read widely and deeply
• Talk to others about writing
• Be open-minded
• Try new genres
• Be a mentor

 None of this is necessary if a writer is writing only for himself.   Just as skating up and down the block might make one child happy, putting together a story for fun can work for the “Sunday author.”  But if your goal is roller-derby, you’d better to be willing to work.  And if you want to be published?  Guess what…

Republished here from an article by Gay Degani at Flash Fiction Chronicles, published Nov 22, 2009 

2019 Pushcart Nominees from Blink-Ink

photo of Mojave Train
by 

Rennett Stowe 

Here's the announcement from Blink Ink.

Awards Season is upon us and here we go first up with the Pushcarts. Congratulation to one and all.

Our 2019 Nominees are:

Claire Polders - Tabula Rose
Liam Pezzano - Dusty Angels
Gay Degani - Mojave
Steven Dunn - Shade
Nancy Stohlman - The Harpist
Francine Witte - Two years Later

Thank you Sally Reno and Doug Mathewson for this honor!

Tim Degani on Travel, Creativity, and Getting Out of Your Wheelhouse*

by Nancy Stohlman

Nancy Stohlman: I know you have done ton a lot of traveling-what have been some of your favorite destinations? Have you been to Costa Rica before?

Tim Degani: Yes, since I retired a few years ago Gay and I try to take at least one international trip a year.  One of my favorite places to visit was Peru, the food was fabulous and the vistas were unlike anything we have ever seen.  Machu Picchu is a place of stunning beauty and awe inspiring grandeur.  We were fortunate enough to stay at the Sanctuary Lodge which is the only hotel that borders the park, a place I would highly recommend.  There is a tremendous sense of tranquility and the orchids are just what one would expect in a tropical forest.  The altitude can be a challenge so take the oxygen and coca infused tea when offered upon arriving in Cusco.  The Inca craftsmanship and artistry cannot be ignored in their exquisite architecture and blanket weaving which can be found throughout the Sacred Valley.

We have not been to Costa Rica so I am looking forward to an amazing trip.

Nancy: Wow–I’m jealous! That sounds amazing. Creativity comes to people in different ways. How are you creative?

Tim: I spent my career in the aerospace industry working in various finance positions, so I am not considered a creative person and certainly not one as defined by the arts.  I am an engineer by education and my creativity, if it can be called that, is in solving problems and finding ways to accomplish projects that are functional as well as aesthetically pleasing.  I do enjoy all of the arts and am currently serving on the Board of Directors for the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach California.

Nancy: I DO think solving problems is creative–I would also put the sciences into the creativity basket as well. Now you are coming to Costa Rica with your wife, Gay Degani, who is a writer. What’s it like being married to a writer?  

Tim: As long as I give her plenty of room to do her own thing, we get along great after 44 years of marriage.

Nancy: Ha! Exactly. What are you most looking forward to about your time in Playa Negra?  

Tim: I look forward to several days of relaxing in a tropical environment and partaking of some of the many outdoor activities offered.  I am thinking maybe horseback riding, snorkeling, riverboat cruise, or visiting a rain forest.

Nancy: Sounds perfect. You know that Playa Negra has some of the best surfing as well, right? Now react to this quote by the (now) late Anthony Bourdin: “Without experimentation, a willingness to ask questions and try new things, we shall surely become static, repetitive, and moribund.”

Tim: I couldn’t agree more; in order to stay mentally agile you need to experience life and all it has to offer.  I don’t think I could or would go to the extremes he went to (like traveling to Iran), nor eat the more exotic foods he devoured.  I do enjoy going to and trying out new experiences that are outside of your wheel house.  It helps to put your life into perspective.

Nancy: I agree. Tell us something we don’t know about you?

Tim: Well just about everything I suppose.  I am a native of Los Angeles, Ca, attended Hollywood high school and tried out unsuccessfully for the Dodgers.

Nancy: Wow! Anything else you want to add?

Tim: By now, you probably have heard enough from me.

Nancy: Thank you for your time, Tim! I’m looking forward to meeting you soon!

Want to join in the fun and inspiration in Costa Rica? Kathy and Nancy have 1 little cabina available: Find out more!

*Tim is coming with me to Costa Rica and while I "retreat" with Kathy and Nancy and a terrific group of writers, he's going to take in the glories of beach and rainforest. 

Need a Pep Talk? Grant Faulkner Has 52 of Them

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I recently drove from LA to San Francisco with a friend, and we listened to 52 Pep Talk for Writers by Grant Faulkner from Audible. I am very glad we did. Many books have helped me stay the course in terms of writing, most of them in paperback and some in audio. These include all of Natalie Goldberg's work, Anne LaMott, Julia Cameron, Jerome Stern, Stephen King, William Zinnser, Gardner, Strunk and White, Ueland, Welty, as well books on movies such as Robert McKee, Syd Field, and Chris Vogler.

I found myself thinking as I listened "Oh, yes, that's true," and "Wish I'd heard this years ago," and "I should post one of these chapters on my computer for each week!" Grant Faulkner's "Pep Talks" should be added to the above list of books for writers.

What Faulkner brings to the bookshelf is a fresh way to inspire writers as well as offering good advice and encouragement, fifty-two flashes of wisdom. He covers each topic in concise, yet

10 Pep Talk Topics

thorough detail: How important it is to take yourself seriously, how to get out of the habit of feeling like an imposter, how to use obstacles such as "not having enough time" to your advantage, how to stay on task using goals and deadlines. As a holder of an M.A. in creative writing, an oft-published writer, a veteran of Nanowrimo (he's now the executive director), and co-founder of the journal 100 Word Story, Faulkner brings a vast amount of knowledge and experience to this handbook for writers.

 I am thrilled to have a piece in the anthology, NEW MICRO: Exceptionally Short Fiction (Norton, August 28, 2018) edited by James Thomas and Robert Scotellaro and equally thrilled by the shout out in a review at Heavy Feather Review, written by Bryan Jansing.

"Punch for punch, these micro fists hit at you hard and with life’s betrayals and losses. Gay Degani gives a knockout blow in “Abbreviated Glossary” when the termination of a pregnancy is also the loss of dignity at the hands of an unsympathetic, career-focused husband."

I'll be reading Thursday night in San Francisco, September 6, at 7:30 at The Bindery Bookstore along with Stace Budzko, Kirstin Chen, Jane Ciabattari, James Claffey, Grant Faulkner, Thaisa Frank, Molly Giles, Cadence Low, Melissa G. McCracken, Lynn Mundell, Pamela Painter, and Nancy Stohlman!

Here's the press release:

NEW MICRO

Exceptionally Short Fiction

Edited by James Thomas and Robert Scotellaro

“Reading these wonderful tiny fictions is like stealing food from the refrigerator before, or after, dinner. A sublime luxury.”

                                                                               —Frederick Barthelme, New World Writing

“These micro fictions violate the laws of geophysics by compressing whole lives / whole worlds / whole heartbreaks into something like diamonds: bright, riven, reflective, edged, wonderful, and hard enough to cut through glass.”

                                                            —Pam Houston, author of Contents May Have Shifted

 “New Micro’s quick, bright stories are, like our lives, as brief as lightning in the blinding dark.They offer us essential truth without the inessential facts.”

                                               —John Dufresne, author of Flash! Writing the Very Short Story 

Each story in NEW MICRO: Exceptionally Short Fiction [W. W. Norton & Company; August 28, 2018; $15.95 paperback original] comes in at fewer than 300 words. And each, according to the foreword by Robert Shapard, editor of Flash Fiction Forward, “hangs in the air of the mind like an image made of smoke.” Quick, surprising, demanding, unsettling—these shorts represent a new trend in contemporary fiction. With them, our finest writers achieve the power and range of much longer works in ever-more-brief and compressed spaces. Elusive, mysterious, deep and sudden as a sinkhole, they are sure to delight fans of flash fiction and novels alike.

Editors James Thomas and Robert Scotellaro spent years assembling the best examples of the form, drawing extraordinary stories from contemporary books, journals and smaller anthologies. The result is a collection of work by distinguished writers like Amy Hempel, John Edgar Wideman, Kim Addonizio, Richard Brautigan, Bonnie Jo Campbell, Stuart Dybek, Joyce Carol Oates, and James Tate. Works by less familiar names are equally thrilling and demonstrate the authors’ gifts and their abilities to test the limits of the form.

The stories in this anthology are as varied as they are indelible: a girl finds a job playing lookout for an adulterous neighbor; an old woman is robbed on a train; a child dies in a shooting; a family holds a barbecue. They deal with familiar fictional subjects—love and marriage, death, strangers coming to town—and yet make these canonical topics feel fresh.

There are subjects less familiar, and stranger, too. In a seventy-five-word story by Lou Beach, a character is shot in the arm by a thieving monkey. In “Furnace” by Kevin Griffith, a furnace repairman becomes stuck in a family’s ducts: “On certain nights, the children gather around the vent and listen to him tell fanciful stories about wolves, elves, and armless people.”

And others get yet more surreal. An unremarkable man finds a statue of himself in a park. A woman marries a breakfast cereal, then a cigarette, then a stone. An entire society of people decides to become hermits. An orgasm decides to take a selfie. Each story expands upon reading, hinting at worlds beyond the words. The stories “resonate in the silences,” write the editors, “like the last notes of a cello.'

With 89 authors and 135 stories, the anthology invites exploration. Travel time is minimal, but the destinations are far-flung. These stories instruct, enlighten, entertain, and, like the very best fiction, formulate new questions that resonate beyond their scope and length.

ABOUT THE EDITORS:

James Thomas has received a Stegner Fellowship, a Michener Fellowship, and two NEA grants. He lives in Xenia, Ohio.

Robert Scotellaro is the author of Bad Motel and Measuring the Distance. He lives in San Francisco.

TITLE:NEW MICRO

SUBTITLE: Exceptionally Short Fiction

EDITORS:James Thomas and Robert Scotellaro

PUBLICATION DATE: August 28, 2018

ISBN:978-0-393-35470-6

PRICE:$15.95 paperback original

PAGE COUNT:288

Contact: Caroline Saine

Publicity Assistant

212-790-4267

Giving Context to Structure

by Gay Degani

Content, structure, and language work together.

No one element can make a story work. Many writers use a series of steps—brainstorming, outlining, drafting, revision, editing, and proofreading—to juggle content, structure, and language. The order of each step is a matter of choice and fluctuates with story ideas.

 To create content: brainstorm, free-write, draft a first draft

 To apply structure: outline first draft, then draft second draft

 To perfect language: revise, edit, and proofread

Content refers to the subject matter of a story.

The who, what, when, where, and how of a specific idea.

A character (the protagonist) finds himself in a difficult situation at a certain time and place and must deal with that situation. 

How the protagonist deals with the situation depends on the protagonist’s wants, character, and the nature of the obstacles he must overcome.

Content provides the “story question or problem” that propels the protagonist through the plot and ultimately reveals a universal theme, a jolt, an epiphany, some small observance of life.

Content evolves from a premise, notes, a rough draft, research, observation, plus the attitudes and concerns of the writer.

Structure refers to the basic organization of a story. 

Just as a play is divided into three acts, most stories have three main segments

The opening (Act 1) gives a story focus and meaning by providing the premise, setting, and tone of the story as well as hints at the nature of obstacles the protagonist will face.

The main body of the story (Act 2) focuses on the protagonist’s actions to resolve the story problem.

The conclusion (Act 3) reveals the results of the protagonist’s struggle and infuses that struggle with meaning.

Each segment of a story has a similar structure: the overall story as well as each chapter, each scene within the chapter, each beat within the scene

Structure also involves other devices such as set-ups and pay-offs, sub-plots, and the shaping of structure specifically to content.

Structure evolves from outlines, note-taking, drafts or a combination of the three.

Language refers the diction and style used to express a story’s idea.

Diction refers the specific words that are chosen

Style refers to how those words are combined, the order, the length of sentences and includes the use of literary devices such as metaphor, symbolism, and allusion.

Grammar keeps writing clear and understandable.

Language evolves from revision and rhythm.

Process is what brings these three basic components of composition together.

Writing is a Process. Yeah, it is!

The rough draft is about content...
making it up.
The second draft is about structure...
making sense.
The third draft is about language...
making it clear.
The fourth draft is about perfection...
making it publishable.

Actually, the steps to the writing process bleed into each other like ink dropped from a leaky pen over one spot. The blotches don't land in exactly the same place, but they seep beyond each other's borders, and create a new kind of art.

Meet LAst Resort Author Georgia Jeffries "Little Egypt"

Excerpt from “Little Egypt” by Georgia Jeffries

Photo by Gay Degani

A scream came from somewhere.  Did it belong to her?  When she was in the maternity ward panting through twenty-two hours of labor, she never heard her own voice.  The other mothers were moaning, wailing, pleading for any painkiller the nurse could deliver.  Not her, not then.  When her boy was born she closed her eyes and transported herself to another planet far, far away where there was not a weak-willed woman in sight.  Another scream wrenched the air.  Deeper this time.  Primal. 

Herbie looked over his shoulder just as the young black man attacked, pummeling his body like a speed bag at Gold’s Gym.  Ginger fell back, smashing into a wall of fine spirits and fashionable cosmopolitan glasses on the mirrored display.  By the time she found her balance, Dante lost his.  Her son lay on the floor, his limbs jerking like a mad marionette.  

The first time Ginger saw such a sight was in Vegas when a high roller on a winning streak suddenly jackknifed into overdrive after tipping her five hundred bucks.   He whirled around like a spinning top then collapsed on the poker table.  Chips sprayed across a surprised dentist from Des Moines who held a full house, but thanks to Lady Luck, was about to win big because the guy with the royal flush suffered a seizure.  What were the odds?  

The second time she saw that same strange dance her only child almost died because she was too stoned to know what was happening.  Tonight, she knew.  Kneeling next to Dante, she turned him over just like they taught her. Grabbed the bar towel to elevate his head.  Pressed her ear to his heart to make sure he was breathing.  And then she felt her hair being torn by its roots as Herbie dragged her from her son’s side.

The Rochelle Staab Questions asked of Georgia

What was the weirdest thing that ever happened to you in Los Angeles?

My weirdest day in L.A. was my first.  Almost nine years old and burning to see Disneyland, I arrived in the back seat of my parents’ Buick on our first family trip west.  But Sleeping Beauty’s castle had to wait. The premier place on my folks’ travel agenda?  Forest Lawn Cemetery.  Early in the morning we were at the head of a long line to view the rainbow colored stained glass depiction of The Last Supper.  Afterwards we were ushered along with a million other tourists into a vast hallway to see “the largest canvas painting in the world”, The Crucifixion of Christ.  In the afternoon we made it across town to ogle the famous footprints embalmed in concrete in front of the Chinese Theater.  I wasn’t too impressed with the feet in the cement.  But I do remember a beautiful wild-haired woman sauntering down Hollywood Boulevard like she was the queen of the world.  She wore tight belted short shorts, ankle-strapped wedgies and the skimpiest midriff top I had ever seen.  Wow.  Jesus at dawn, Jezebel at dusk.  Peoria couldn’t hold a candle to the City of Angels.

Available at Amazon

Do you have a yet-to-be-realized L.A. dream?

More than one.  But dreams are like birthday wishes.  If you tell, they won’t come true.

Why write short stories?  Why write at all? What’s in it for you?

I love the short story form and those twisted cliffhanger endings that grace the best.  Why write?  Why not?  All those words are mirrors of our experience and hard-won survival techniques on planet earth.

What is the biggest challenge in writing to theme?

I don’t write to theme.  I write to character.  “Little Egypt”, my short story in LAst Resort, was finished several months before SinC/LA members were invited to submit our work to the anthology competition for consideration.  Synchronicity in action.

Are the characters in your story based on you or people you know/met? 

All the characters I write about are faceted reflections of people who have crossed my writer’s path.  Everything is story material.

Los Angeles is a patchwork quilt of different neighborhoods.  Why did you pick the area you used for your story, and how did the neighborhood influence your writing?

“Little Egypt” is set in Hollywood – as much metaphor as it is geographical location – until the protagonist decides to escape to a safer place.  The “neighborhood” moves with our main characters.

Are there scenes in your story based on real life – yours, hearsay, or a news story you read?

A little of each, leavened with a whole lot of imagination.  Plus I’d been wanting to write about a mother and son, each wounded by injustice, saving each other.

What came first, the character or the plot?.

Character always.  See above.

While you’re writing: music (what kind?), dead silence, or…?

I like to listen to birdsongs in the trees outside my writing room window.  Otherwise, silence please.

Favorite writing quote—yours or from someone else…

Mine: The writing life is a marathon, not a sprint.  Pace yourself.

William Faulkner: “The past is not dead.  It is not even past.”  

Your writing ritual begins with…

Tall cups of tea, Earl Grey with vanilla almond milk or cherry sencha straight.

About Georgia Jeffries

Photo by Maia Rosenfeld

Georgia Jeffries cracked TV’s glass ceiling as a writer-producer of multiple Emmy-Award winning series, the first individual woman writer honored with a WGA Television Award for Episodic Drama.  She created original pilots and movies for HBO, Showtime, ABC, CBS, NBC and is now adapting the NY Times best-seller, 72 Hour Hold.  In addition to her short fiction, she is currently writing the novel, Malinche for Adaptive Books.  A professor at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, she just completed a supernatural thriller based on the true events behind her aunt’s murder in the Illinois heartland.

Meet LAst Resort Author Laurie Stevens "The Ride of Your Life"

Excerpt from “The Ride of Your Life” by Laurie Stevens

Photo by Laurie Stevens

“What about you?” He swiveled his head toward her. “What's your name, anyhow?”

“Mary. Mary Fitzpatrick.” She let her eyes roam the mountains bordering the canyon road.

“Well, Mary Fitzpatrick. It looks like you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. You have a husband?”

The car fishtailed as it hit the bumps in the center.

“Please slow down!” Mary cried.

He evened out and decreased the speed.

“No, I don't have a husband,” she said, eyeing the road ahead of them with worry. The turns were tight, and they were still traveling too fast. The car tightly hugged the hills to their right. On the opposite side, the road bordered a sheer, steep drop to the canyon stream below.

Mary could swear that the last person they'd passed whipped out a cell phone and photographed the Buick as it sped by them. Surely, someone would have called the police by now.

“You have kids?” the man asked her.

“No.” Mary barely heard the question. Her mind mulled over some possibilities. “I live alone.”

“Los Angeles can be a cold and lonely place for a nice old lady.”

She cocked an eyebrow over her spectacles at him.  She smiled despite her predicament. With her gray hair, glasses, and dowdy clothing, Mary knew most people considered her much older than her years. That was okay with her. She wanted them to think that.

The Rochelle Staab Questions asked of Laurie Stevens 

 What is the weirdest thing that ever happened to you in Los Angeles?

What’s not been weird? I guess the time I exited a gym and saw an elderly woman walking aimlessly through traffic. I asked if she needed a ride and she told me “Quick! Take me to the Pink Turtle!” She instructed me to drive her to the Beverly Wilshire hotel and asked if I would wait with her for her friend. She bought me hot chocolate and spaghetti. No friend appeared, so I took her to her apartment in West LA. I helped count out her ration of medication/pills for the week and as a thank you, she insisted I take home a folding chair. I kept that chair for a long time.

 Do you have a yet-to-be realized L.A. dream?

I have not yet hiked to the Hollywood sign.

Why write short stories? Why write at all? What's in it for you?

Do writers really have a choice whether or not to write? We have to. Short stories give me a chance to make a quick commentary or take a snapshot of life that isn’t big enough for a novel, but delicious just the same.

What is the biggest challenge in writing to theme?

That you don’t stray from the theme.

Are the characters in your story based on you or people you know/met?

Without creating a spoiler, I’ll say that one of the characters is based on a nefarious and infamous person who, I believe, is still serving time in prison.

Los Angeles is a patchwork quilt of different neighborhoods. Why did you pick the area you used for your story, and how did the neighborhood influence your writing?

Well, if you read the story you will see the two characters travel all over. They start in the city, go through the valley, then end up in the canyons on the way to the beach. I myself like quilts!

Are there scenes in your story based on real life—yours, hearsay, or a news story you read?

Available at Amazon

I’ve read about embezzlement cases, so the man’s crime is not unusual, unfortunately. As far as the car jacking is concerned, I wanted to put a twist on that, and I’ve never heard of it happening before.

What came first, the character or the plot?

The plot came first. The twist came first… Then I added that character from the news story.

While you're writing: music (what kind?), dead silence, or…?

Silence while I write. Music while I walk between writing to complete those hard-to-complete scenes. I keep a playlist for each book or story I write.

Favorite writing quote—yours or from someone else…

If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.  Stephen King

Your writing ritual begins with…

A cup of coffee and a lit candle. A quiet space and for God’s sake turn the phone off!

Photo by Guy Viau

Laurie Stevens is the author of the Gabriel McRay psychological thrillers, The Dark Before Dawn and Deep into Dusk. The books have won twelve awards, among them Kirkus Reviews Best of 2011, the  IPPY for Best Mystery/Thriller, Library Journal's Self-E Award, the Amsterdam Book Festival, and Random House Editor’s Book of the Month. Laurie is an active member of MWA, ITW, and sits on the Board of Sisters in Crime/Los Angeles. She’s proud to have been included in two Sisters in Crime anthologies: Last Resort and Last Exit to Murder.