The lovely orogeny posted the answers to these questions "What are your priorities when you write a short story? What's your mission?" as given by The Great and Glorious Oz, I mean Jim Kelly.

I find # 5 to be the thing that catches me most often. "5. Write at least one character who doesn't know she's a character." Sometimes it takes reading a simple list like Jim's to have the world click into place so that I can see one of my most common mistakes more clearly. My characters are all too often aware of the outside world.

I'm copying orogeny and adding this list to my writing wall.

I've been out of high school for about 17 years. During that time I always wanted to be a writer, but instead of writing, I got a job because I didn't know you could do both! Heck, I never really believed I could be a writer. So, it was off to the "high-tech" world where I worked sales, order processing, etc. All the while I had stories raging in my imagination like demons howling to get out.

By the time I was 29, I knew I had to do something about the direction of my life. Sure, I loved working at Sonic Solutions managing the order processing department and getting to talk to Sony, Warner Bros, Abbey Road, etc. I loved going to the conventions and hanging out with the kings of audio and video. And, I loved my night job as one of the only female DJs in the area, working in the clubs and spinning records. Getting a dead floor moving is one of the best highs. However, it all paled in comparison to the internal world of my imagination where pirates reigned supreme, dragons roamed the sky, and spaceships carried humanity to the farthest reaches of the Universe - and beyond.

So, at 32 I moved to Boston, enrolled at the Harvard Extension School, and completed my undergrad degree. After that, I seriously started to pursue my writing career. I went to VP, I'm attending Stonecoast, I'm making some terrific writer friends, and I am absolutely loving life. It's as if that little magical world that once lived only in my imagination is finally starting to come out and leak into the "real" world. It's a phenomenal feeling that only makes me more and more excited to keep pushing out the words, one-by-one and day-by-day.

I really don't know what will come of it all. But I can tell you that I am loving every minute of it. Pursuing your dream, even on a part-time basis, is the thing that makes life grand. So, I say go for it. Be relentess. Whatever your dream is, get on with it because this life won't last forever. What paths not taken will you regret when the shade is drawn? The clock is ticking.

My thought of the day is actually stolen from Neil Gaiman's page. It's one of those things that you've heard before, but it bears repeating, especially because it's said so plainly.

Books don't get written by thinking about them, they get written by writing them.

... and I will leave you with that thought while I go figure out what happens next in my short story. I wish you all a happy writing day filled with lots of adventures and compelling characters!

When I tell people that I'm getting an MFA the responses that I receive from them are mixed and varied. Some people have no idea what an MFA is while others have no idea why I would want one unless I planned to be a teacher. I can't tell you about the value of MFAs as a whole, but here's what I am getting out of my Stonecoast MFA.

Stonecoast is the working writer's MFA.

Most, if not all, of the instructors are working writers who find interesting ways to carve out a life for themselves with the words they put on paper. None of the instructors are one dimensional in that none of them only do one thing. They all work in different genres and story forms, which allow them to market their writing more widely and to produce a livable income. They write poems, short stories, novels, screenplays, plays, articles, memoirs, non-fiction, and teach - or some combination of these forms.

Not only am I learning to write, I'm also learning how to think creatively about my desired profession. How can I make this writing thing work for me? This question or theme is echoed in the residency programming with seminars like "Quit Your Day Job" in which a panel of our instructors told us blow by blow how they have made a living from their writing. In addition, the focus of many of the seminars and workshops is on blending genres in order to give Stonecoast students a wide, yet focused, learning experience. As a result, by the time I graduate, I feel like I will be able to take on any writing project.

So, when you ask me "What good is an MFA?", let me tell you that it has been the difference between learning how to write and learning how to be a writer. At least that's my answer and that's exactly what I wanted out of my MFA program.

I figure it's time for another reminder about a great LJ community called Thing in 150. This is a community that operates continuously and encourages people to write 500 words per day.

Thing in 150 evolved from its the desire of its members to do NANO, but we weren't able to commit to writing a novel in the month of November. It was more realistic for us to do the "500 words per day thing." So, Thing in 150 was born. The theory is that after 150 days of writing 500 words per day you will have written 75,000 words, which is the goal for NANO.

The thing that I love about Thing in 150 is that you don't have to feel pressured to write everyday or post your progress every day. It's a very comfortable community of writers who welcome and encourage any amount of new words or progress. I have a habit of posting 500-1,000 per day and then posting nothing while I'm editing, but the great thing about Thing in 150 is that I know it's there waiting for me to return. Plus, it gives me a great place to post daily writing progress without gumming up my personal blog with that info.

Thing in 150 is for any writer at any level. So, if you're interested in a welcoming, encouraging community of writers, you should come check us out.

It looks like I have given myself another month with a full schedule. I didn't quite pull everything off last month, but I got pretty close. I figure the more I shoot for this big goals, the more likely I am to achieve big things. So, here's what April 2008 looks like.

Stonecoast Work for April
Reading:

• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
  
• Beowulf by Caitlín Kiernan
  
• The Road to Xanadu: a Study in the Ways of the Imagination by John Livingston Lowes
  
• Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
  
• How to Murder a Man by Carlo Gebler

Writing:

• 10k of new fiction for Eighth Day
  
• Revise - Thomas Moore Fairy Tale
  
• Write - Blind Sight

Interviews:

• Chris Ryall, Beowulf comic book writer
  
• Neil Gaiman, Beowulf screenwriter

Other Items

A friend also asked me to write a few scripts for next weekends 48-Hour Film Project: Boston. I don't really have the time, but how could I say no? I have three ideas that I will turn into 4-7 minute scripts. Each script can then be "modified" to fit a couple different genres. That should give the team quite a few options with my scripts alone.

.... or at least it will be tonight.

I'm sending my March 27th Stonecoast packet of fiction and annotations to Nancy Holder today. I've hit my 10k mark for new novel fiction and annotations on "Beowulf" and "20th Century Ghosts" by Joe Hill. I think I may post a snippet from my annotation here on the Joe Hill book because I was so incredibly impressed by the richness of the worlds he creates.



Later today or tomorrow I'll be posting my schedule for next month, but not until I get this packet in the e'mail. ;-)


Also, a little warning to the kiddies out there who plan to attend Readercon. You might want to think about reserving your hotel room now before the hotel sells out. I think it sold out around May last year.

Cheers!

For those of you in the know, I've been driving a project to start up an online magazine that is run by the Stonecoast community. The name has just been confirmed as The Wolfe's Neck Review.

The first issue should be appearing online sometime during the summer of 2009, which means we have plenty of time to get this thing up and running. If you want to keep up with the Stonecoast happenings, check out the Stonecoast Journal since that's where I'll be posting future updates on this and other projects.

The Wolfe's Neck Review is going to be an amazing project once it's done. Stay tuned to learn more! Also, let me know if you want to be included on the E'Zine Team! If you're not a Stonecoast student or alum that's ok because this won't be an exclusive magazine, but it will reflect the general philosophies and work of the Stonecoast community.

I have the opportunity to spend one half of my workshop in Ireland doing poetry. I'm not much of a poet nor am I all that adept at poetry analysis. However, I am interested in learning more about poetry.

Do you think it's worthwhile to torture myself with trying my hand as a poet? Or should I just stick with fiction and focus-focus-focus?

Help!

So, I've given myself the task of writing a short bio. I absolutely despise this type of task because I have no stomach for talking about myself from this type of perspective. I'm just horrible at it.

Does anyone have any advice on how to write a bio other than "hold your nose, close your eyes, and type"?

There are a lot of writers out there who are able to write good first drafts that only need some cleaning up before popping the mss into the mail. So far, I am not one of these writers.

However, I'd love to work toward the goal of being able to write decent first drafts. Does the first draft process get easier with time and experience? Or is my multi-draft process the way I am hardwired to write and should I just embrace it?

Times are changing, but I really don't believe that people's desire for stories has changed. Heck, we love stories no matter what kind of package they come in: gossip, conversations, print, comics, video, and even audio. Humans are hardwired for story. Humans have told and listened to stories for as long as we have been able to communicate our thoughts to each other. So, when you ask me, if short stories are dead or in ill health, the only answer I can give you is "no". It’s an impossibility.

The problem as I see it is that our mechanisms for telling our short stories have not kept up with our high-tech, fast paced lifestyle. However, things are changing. Developments surrounding the combination of storytelling with new media are pointing to the future of the short story. This isn't to say that print media is coming to an end, but rather that a new medium is being born. Podcasting.

Podcast are audio recordings of stories (either long or short) that are downloadable to iPods or other media players. How can this be the future of short stories? Well, think about the millions of mobile media players that have been sold over the last few years. How often do you see people walking around town or running down the road while plugged into their iPod? I'd venture to say you see it every day; maybe even every time you leave your house, depending on where you live. Mobile media is the wave of the future.

Granted, print novels aren’t having the same trouble in the marketplace as short stories, so where's the strength of this argument? I'd venture that since these two story forms are not experiencing the problem of declining readership to the same degree that there is something about the printed short story people are finding increasingly more difficult to embrace. My guess is that it has something to do with the ease of use between novels and short stories.

Speaking from personal experience, I find novels a lot easier to read. I can set them down and pick them up at and time. I can read in short 5-minute spurts or sit down and read for hours on end. Novels are versatile story forms that people can squeeze into their day. Short stories do not enjoy the same luxury. Generally speaking, short stories are a little more difficult to read because every word counts, every word is packed with meaning. When I finish the last page of a short story, I can’t turn to the first page of the next story and just mow through the book without pausing for thought. This forces a slowness of pace that makes it difficult to read through a short story collection as quickly or as easily as people can plow through a novel.

This brings me back to the point, and value, of podcasts. Increasingly, popular short fiction has been finding a home in the realm of podcasts available through such sources as Audible.com, Escapepod, and Pseudopod. While most of the early podcasting sites seem to cater to genre/ popular fiction, other sites like the New Yorker Audio and Houghton Mifflin Poetry Podcast are now following suit.

Short stories fit perfectly as companions for thirty-minute walk or a summer hike. They work well for boring commutes to work or during those times when we need our hands free as we go about our business. Podcasting seems designed as much for the short story form as it is for the busy lifestyle of our high-tech, fast paced society. For authors and publishers who want to get more exposure for their works, it's worth taking a look at recording more short stories for download now, during the infancy of the podcasting movement.

There are quite a few new comers who are being published via podcast. However, there are also professionals like James Patrick Kelly who have been pioneering in this field for awhile. In the near future, you will see a growing number of short stories, novels, poems, etc available as audio downloads. As more new, previously published, and classic fiction is transferred to podcast, you will see a revitalization of the short story form via this new media. Mark my words.

For your reference, here are a handful of interesting podcast links:

PODCASTING

• Producig a Podcast With the Gear You Own Today
  
• Escape Pod - What is podcasting?
  
• I Should Be Writing - Mur Lafferty's blog on podcasting & writing
  
• Odyssey Writers' Workshop Podcasts - Lecture Excerpts from Guest Writers
  

PODIBLE/AUDIBLE FICTION, POETRY, & NONFICTION

• Audible.com
  
• Bound Off
  
• Drabblecast
  
• Escape Pod
  
• Fiction by James Patrick Kelly
  
• The New Yorker Out Loud
  
• PodCastle
  
• PodLit: The Podcast of Creative Nonfiction
  
• The Poetic Voice: Houghton Mifflin Poetry Podcast
  
• Pseudopod
  
• The Sci Fi Traveling Road Show
  
• SFFaudio
  
• Sniplits
  
• Well Told Tales
  

Hi Everyone,

I'm compiling a list of URLs for online writers' resources to post on the Stonecoast Community Journal. If you know of any great online resources, can you please let me know:

1. The name of the site
   
2. The URL for the main/home page
   
3. The category that it would fall under (i.e. publishing, communities, associations, tools, advice, etc.)

Thanks!
Erin

I know most people are familiar with NANO .... otherwise known as the month long torture session that writers inflict upon themselves to write a novel length manuscript during the month of November.

For those of us who can't manage to crank out that kind of a word count over such a short period of time there is Thing_in_150, which is an ongoing event. Thing_in_150 is a community of writers who post their word counts on a daily basis with a soft goal of hitting 500 words per day. The theory behind Thing_in_150 is that at the end of 6 months you will have achieved a novel length mss, a bunch of short stories, or whatever else you want to write.

This is an open community, and anyone is welcome to join. In fact, new faces are warmly welcomed. If you're interested, here's the link to Thing_in_150. I'll see you there!

A Stonecoast friend of mine, jpmccarty, posted a very thoughtful argument regarding the age old battle between genre fiction and literature. Not all of his arguments are new, but they are thought provoking. In addition, he addresses a few things that aren't often discussed. I thought you, too, might enjoy his Genre vs Literature rant that came out of a discussion about a recent NY Times article, "Great Literature? Depends Whodunit. If you haven't read that article, you should check it out. Whew!

The whole idea of an elevator pitch is terrifying and exciting all at once. Taking 75,000+ words of a novel and condensing them into no more than 150 words or 30 seconds of spoken prose to convey the essence of a novel - all while riding the theoretical elevator with an editor that will make your knees melt like butter - is once heck of a concept to tackle.

75,000+ words! Which ones to cut out? Which ones to leave in? How can a person be expected to condense the themes, drama, action, characters, and plot of a novel into such a microscopic amount of information?

It wasn't until I actually finished my outline and had nearly 12,000 words of fiction that I found I could even talk coherently about my novel - or even tell people that I'm working on a novel. The problem now is that people are asking for the quick pitch on the story and, honestly, I have no idea how to condense it all down into something that takes less than a minute to say.

I'd love to hear some of your elevator pitches.

Locus has just published its recommended reading list for 2007. It's a wonderful accomplishment to get on the list once. However, some of Stonecoast's instructors ( James Patrick Kelly, Kelly Link, and David Anthony Durham) have been listed multiple times!

Here's the link for the complete Locus Recommended Reading List for 2007.

So, I've been working on my novel in bits and pieces for about three months. Recently, I took a break from the novel to write on my short story "The Festival of Song". Now, it's time to get back to the novel with a serious intent.

Right now I have about 10,400 words written. This seems like a good start since Jim thought my novel would come in at around 75,000 words. Lately, I have been feeling a little overwhelmed by the complicated plot that I have given myself. I have tried writing without an outline and I feel like the story is all over the place.

Although I usually fight against using outlines, I think I need to try one since I am spinning my wheels. The problem with traditional outlines is that they concretize the story line in my mind and I don't feel like I can move anything around. I feel trapped. However, Nancy Holder said something at the last Stonecoast Residency that made me decide to give outlining another try.

As a result, I am using 3x5 cards to do my outline, which is liberating since I now have the ability to switch the cards around as much as I'd like. Heck, I have even thrown two of them out so far. I've got about 3/4 of the novel outline finished and I finally feel like I won't be wasting my writing time.

Right now I am feeling very productive:

• Novel: Eighth Day has 10,400 words and a flexible outline.
  
• Short Story: The first draft of "The Festival of Song" is finished.
  
• Short Story: The idea rework for "The Water Spirit" is done, and the story can now be rewritten.
  
• Research Project: I have finished reading the Beowulf Script Book and dozens of interviews with Gaiman and Avery, and compiled what I found into a nice pile of adaptation information that still needs to be organized.
  
• Submissions: I have two short stories out right now.
  

Plan for February:

• Write 10,000 words on the novel
  
• Revise "The Festival of Song"
  
• Rewrite "The Water Spirit"
  
• Read Caitlin Keinan's Beowulf adaptation
  
• Read Ursula LeGuin's The Lathe of Heaven
  
• Continue Reading The Arabian Nights
  

I've started my novel, which has a working title of Eighth Day. I anticipate that the finished product will be around 75,000 words, and if all goes well, it'll be completed by the time I leave Stonecoast in July 2009 - if not sooner.

4,434 / 75,000 (5.9%)

I've just arrived home after my first World Fantasy Convention. I had a really fantastic time attending panels, going to readings, and meeting new people. Originally, I wasn't thrilled about having the con in Saratoga Springs, NY. However, after seeing the town and the surroundings, I was sold on the location. The con hotel was easy to get to and parking was free. The main street filled with lots of little shops and eateries was right outside – perfect for stepping outside for a quick bite to eat or a caffeine reload. All in all, it was a fine location.

The number of people who attended the con was staggering. I am the girl who doesn't like crowds. Put me inside a building with 1,000+ other people and I'm the one that will slip out the back door unnoticed. But WFC was different. For some reason, it felt like I was just hanging out with a bunch of friends. It was great! I have never seen so many writers, editors, and publishers all in the same place at the same time. It was utterly amazing to be surrounded by everyone from newbie writers to top tier publishers and authors like Gene Wolf and Jefferey Ford.

I went to several panels, but thought the best panel was "The Legacy of Shirley Jackson". There was some panelist switching and I think the final mix was Charlaine Harris, Alexandra Sokoloff, James Frenkel, Kelly Link, and John Kessel (who ended up being the moderator). John Kessel gave a brief introduction of Jackson's history and posed a variety of questions to the panel members that ranged from "Which of Jackson’s short stories is your favorite?" to "How has Jackson's work evolved in the public mind over time?" There were an array of other probing questions that examined horror themes, point of view, feminism, humanism, and more – all of which the panel really sank their teeth into. The answers were thoughtful and full of content that continuously spawned more discussion. I was very impressed by this group and the insight they brought to the topic. I wish all panels could be as intellectually stimulating as the Shirley Jackson panel.

( Click Here for More of Erin's WFC Report. )