tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-229651772009-05-31T13:32:52.711-05:00Everyday writing tips and inspiration from <strong><a href="http://workshopwriter.com">The Writer's Workshop</a></strong>Ron Seyboldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07658260199783682069noreply@blogger.comBlogger165125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22965177.post-23056612130875665872009-05-31T13:32:00.001-05:002009-05-31T13:32:00.766-05:00

I finished reading The Handmaid's Tale this month. Margaret Atwood's story about a future America dominated by religion and males, with women subjugated and forced to bear children, does contain love and passion, too.I was struck by the passage below, so beautiful that I made a note of it in my Kindle copy of the book. The writing shows off how loving Atwood is with words of love. Here, the

Ron Seyboldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07658260199783682069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22965177.post-82534752131163448942009-05-28T20:01:00.005-05:002009-05-29T13:43:35.902-05:00

I just finished reading a short story from Goodbye, Columbus, the collection that launched Phillip Roth's career 50 years ago this month. The gem included in the Norton North American Literature Anthology was Defender of the Faith, a tight, plainspoken tale about three Jewish Army trainees and the Jewish sergeant who both learns and teaches a lesson about the boundaries of faith.Roth has plenty

Ron Seyboldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07658260199783682069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22965177.post-49504098225113074932009-05-15T13:27:00.000-05:002009-05-29T13:31:26.841-05:00

We received word this week that Gordon Rives Carmichael has landed in the finalist pool in the Writer's League of Texas Manuscript Contest. Gordon's work has come past our manuscript table here for more than a year, with lots of evidence of polishing and extending his skills.Gordon, we congratulate you. Best of luck in the finals selection; the conference is June 26. Even being nominated, as the

Ron Seyboldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07658260199783682069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22965177.post-13943557499148331282009-05-05T09:45:00.005-05:002009-05-07T16:13:14.118-05:00

This morning I stumbled across Memidex, the free online "dictionary, thesaurus and more." If you ever need to know the difference between rhinoviruses and arborviruses, or what contiguous means, or a synonym for incipient, Memidex (memidex.com) finds it fast.What I liked about this online tool was its relentless linking. The definition for arborvirus is teeming with medical words all linked to

Ron Seyboldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07658260199783682069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22965177.post-80963194316437482202009-04-30T11:43:00.004-05:002009-04-30T12:09:33.435-05:00

The evidence in today's audience suggests the answer is yes. A fun article on Tim Bray's Ongoing blog suggests that our language skills are hard-wired to grasp conversational writing, because 90 percent of human language history used only talk to communicate.There’s nothing much on the Net that’s without precedent in spoken language. What’s new is that written discourse is becoming less like

Ron Seyboldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07658260199783682069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22965177.post-7958794729710172062009-04-20T17:45:00.003-05:002009-04-20T18:20:47.741-05:00

Short stories get short shrift. These gems of tales, usually less than 3,000 words, usually can't find a publisher or a publication, but everybody professes to enjoy reading them. Count among the satisfied the jury of the Pulitzer Prize, which awarded the 2009 fiction prize to a collection of stories by Elizabeth Stout, Olive Kitteridge.To be precise, this lovely book is a "novel in stories," a

Ron Seyboldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07658260199783682069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22965177.post-5399598323037529702009-04-18T11:29:00.003-05:002009-04-18T11:45:31.485-05:00

Over at the Boing Boing blog, the writers complain about the new online book search rights that Google just won in a class action suit settlement. It's a little tricky to parse out what this means, but it looks like if you have a book in print now, or ever did, Google can include its contents in a search result. This sentence kind of sums it up: "Google is the only company in the world that will

Ron Seyboldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07658260199783682069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22965177.post-35433044980938873642009-04-01T12:24:00.005-05:002009-04-01T12:42:30.824-05:00

There may be times when stepping back for awhile from a story or novel can provide a deeper understanding of what is vital to the tale. Up on the Web site for the literary journal Glimmer Train, the writer Erica Johnson Debeljak talks about writing her memoir twice, 10 years apart, first as journalism and much later as a novelization.An honest writer of either fiction or nonfiction has to admit

Ron Seyboldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07658260199783682069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22965177.post-84449258899827913452009-01-23T21:18:00.004-06:002009-01-23T21:25:42.050-06:00

Lisa Carroll-Lee, who's been in one of my writing groups for more than two years, has landed another short story as a Finalist in the Austin Chronicle 2009 Short Story Contest. The Chronicle has a really lean word limit, but Lisa has made it to the Top 10 with her story, Monsters of Nature.We saw Monsters in October at our manuscript group meeting and gave her our responses to her flight of fancy

Ron Seyboldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07658260199783682069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22965177.post-85061511675441742372009-01-13T20:15:00.006-06:002009-01-23T21:41:31.430-06:00

Early on in my writing life, I was sure that the synopsis was the key to earning a publishing deal. But a synopsis of 4 to 16 pages is too long for most agents to read. What these gatekeepers of the publishing world start with is a query letter. It's a business pitch, even if it promotes an artistic product.If you haven't sent off your query yet, here's the best description of every aspect of how

Ron Seyboldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07658260199783682069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22965177.post-62115472000916022752008-12-09T19:50:00.001-06:002008-12-15T20:01:56.410-06:00

From Making the Perfect Pitch, edited by Katherine Sands, this is Kristen Auclair's article about five crucial questions to answer before that query letter of yours goes into the mail or e-mail.1. Is the book polished, error-free and professional?2. Does the tone of your query letter reflect the tone of your book?3. Are you sure the agent you're pitching works on this type of project?4. Do you

Ron Seyboldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07658260199783682069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22965177.post-33875948574372274782008-12-02T09:00:00.001-06:002008-12-02T09:00:00.631-06:00

If you need a deadline to finish that long-malingering novel, Amazon provides one. In two months submissions start for the Amazon On-Demand publishing contest. Penguin Publishing Group and Amazon will accept up to 10,000 entries between Feb. 2 and Feb. 8. Sue Monk Kidd and Sue Grafton judge the finalists.The beauty of this contest is that there are no entry fees. Amazon's Vine Voices reviewers

Ron Seyboldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07658260199783682069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22965177.post-13643081143161194332008-11-29T17:23:00.006-06:002008-11-30T14:23:30.157-06:00

My good friend and fellow novelist Larisa Zlatic sent me an excerpt from a good writing book by Sol Stein. Her excerpts from Stein on Writing include these:The first step in revision is to make a judgment about your main characters. Character problems must be dealt with before beginning a general revision. This method of revision makes certain that you have humanized your characters.Do you think

Ron Seyboldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07658260199783682069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22965177.post-41534926829067970812008-11-10T17:13:00.000-06:002008-11-29T17:23:11.141-06:00

The Kristen Nelson Literary Agency has a helpful newsletter for the writer who's nearing a query letter date. That's the deadline I'm approaching for Viral Times, once the revisions are finished. One of the agents at the Nelson Agency offered this advice about writing the query.Advice of this type often tells a writer not to do silly things, like mail chocolates along with a letter. But at least

Ron Seyboldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07658260199783682069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22965177.post-5904075270711399662008-10-17T13:22:00.000-05:002008-11-13T13:33:53.978-06:00

The journey is the destination, but making a living as a writer requires you to arrive at a moment when someone else invests in your talent. You might be a fiction writer selling a novel, or a non-fiction writer getting a proposal picked up, or a screenwriter seeing a treatment accepted with the follow-on screenplay assignment.Of if you're looking at self-publishing, the PayPal purchase notices

Ron Seyboldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07658260199783682069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22965177.post-377111922866704292008-09-16T19:17:00.002-05:002008-09-26T20:01:53.111-05:00

Having a book published is a milestone for every author, no matter who does the printing and selling. But not all publishers are equal in the eyes of the professional writing guilds. I started to look into membership in the Science Fiction Writers of America. SFWA is a lot like the other pro writing associations: The Author's Guild, or the Writer's Guild of America (for film). These groups take

Ron Seyboldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07658260199783682069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22965177.post-77636929088310051722008-09-02T17:47:00.004-05:002008-09-02T20:27:50.257-05:00

The Austin Writer's League left behind its history, years ago, to become the Writer's League of Texas and have statewide reach. But way back at the start of the decade, the annual Manuscript Contest for the AWL caught a winner who's now won a book contract from Holt. From the League's newsletter, by way of the author:Jacqueline Kelly of Austin sold her first novel to Holt. The Evolution of

Ron Seyboldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07658260199783682069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22965177.post-73469143451303236822008-08-28T11:17:00.005-05:002008-08-28T11:23:01.879-05:00

Writer's Digest posts a Literary Agents blog with good advice. Today I got an e-mail that expanded the "pet peeves" of five agents."Most agents hate prologues. Just make the first chapter relevant and well written." - Andrea Brown, Andrea Brown Literary Agency"Slow writing with a lot of description puts me off very quickly. I like a first chapter that moves quickly and draws me in so I'm

Ron Seyboldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07658260199783682069noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22965177.post-69159514293678557942008-08-27T13:18:00.004-05:002008-08-28T12:42:05.178-05:00

At the Writer's Digest Web site, the article Opening Scenes: An Overview details a double-handful of building blocks for a novel or short story.It's a great list, full of wisdom, humor, specifics and examples.6. The Opening LineSpend an awful lot of time on this sentence. In fact, more effort should be expended on your story’s first sentence than on any other line in your entire story. No

Ron Seyboldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07658260199783682069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22965177.post-19590610294850839362008-08-21T20:58:00.005-05:002008-08-21T21:18:11.308-05:00

I've assembled a schedule to get me to the end of Viral Times, the novel project of my past six years. Two hours a day, five days a week, three or four chapters. Taking a carving knife to 129,000 words. Not so bad, if you look at science fiction standards, where 120K is the top end. I always wanted to start at the top, after all.It's especially educational to revise writing that you penned more

Ron Seyboldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07658260199783682069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22965177.post-81971118596811961002008-08-15T20:50:00.000-05:002008-08-21T20:57:48.248-05:00

One of my blogs — the day-job journalism — is hosted on TypePad, a combo of the Moveable Type blog engine and a hosting service. Great value at $15 monthly for up to five blogs. Recently they offered advice on blogging better, ten tips.I loved the first, words to live by as a writer:1. DO write about what matters to you.Blogging is a different kind of writing than most, except maybe the personal

Ron Seyboldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07658260199783682069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22965177.post-39766280927964190052008-08-10T18:53:00.000-05:002008-08-21T20:49:34.921-05:00

I've read two things of late which attribute a journalist's skill to writing a novel, and vice-versa. Details, handled with care, are what link these two approaches to writing.In Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler creates a world of 2025 with almost no technology advances, but terrible declines in safety, water supply and food. In her novel she lays out a California with so much detail that

Ron Seyboldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07658260199783682069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22965177.post-45023725362325466482008-07-30T21:26:00.003-05:002008-07-30T22:26:27.331-05:00

Take the suits and the corporate executives' notes out of the creative process, turn to the Internet and some very talented friends and relatives. Spin out the idea of a musical comedy of a "low-rent supervillain wannabe" and you get Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.I kid you not. It's wonderful, funny, sad and arch all at once. It's 42 minutes long and was made for a budget "in the low six figures

Ron Seyboldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07658260199783682069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22965177.post-23042116445936098262008-07-22T12:52:00.004-05:002008-07-22T13:02:57.445-05:00

Tor Books is giving away free SF novels through Sunday. I am a big fan of Battlestar Galactica (a SF TV series that is more well-crafted war drama than SF). Downloaded the novel that Tor has published, based on the series, to enjoy the story in print. Well written, indeed.The author of this Battlestar Galactica novelization, Jeffrey A. Carver, has a Web site with great advice on getting over

Ron Seyboldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07658260199783682069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22965177.post-63962465418258737182008-07-17T17:37:00.001-05:002008-07-21T17:45:01.076-05:00

The Amherst Writers & Artists practices form the foundation for what we do in the Writer's Workshop. The AWA group trained me in leadership, then sent me back into Texas to found my own personalized practices.Whether you participate in our community as a monthly manuscript member, or one of our weekly Tuesday night series writers, the AWA foundations still serve all of us who gather around the

Ron Seyboldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07658260199783682069noreply@blogger.com0