The Write Spot Blog by Marlene Cullen

Category: Guest Bloggers

  • Guest blogger Carol Cassara serves grammar on plates . . .

    . . . and offers prizes.

    This contest has ended. Thanks for everyone who participated.

    Excerpted from Carol’s January 16, 2014  Blog Post .

    Carol’s Grammar Plates

    I’m not a perfect grammarian but I do have most of the basics down. And so should anyone who calls him- or her–self a writer, or you lose credibility. For this complete blog post (where the plate photos are clearer), please go to Carol Cassara’s blog post, Grammar Served On A Plate.

    I’m not a perfect grammarian, but I do have most of the basics down. And so should anyone who calls him- or her–self a writer. – See more at: http://carolcassara.com/?s=grammar+on+a+plate#sthash.VHOqzU5K.dpuf
    I’m not a perfect grammarian, but I do have most of the basics down. And so should anyone who calls him- or her–self a writer. – See more at: http://carolcassara.com/?s=grammar+on+a+plate#sthash.VHOqzU5K.dpuf
    No one wants to use the word “me” any  more. I don’t know why that is – See more at: http://carolcassara.com/?s=grammar+on+a+plate#sthash.VHOqzU5K.dpuf

  • Guest blogger Nina Amir brainstorms how to go from idea to book.

    The following is from Nina Amir’s Blog, Write Nonfiction Now. Nina posts writing prompts on Fridays.  I really enjoyed Nina’s Prompt #10 and thought you might like it, too.  These ideas can also work for fiction writing.

    Create Book Ideas to Support Your Goals: Nonfiction Writing Prompt #10 by Nina Amir.

    Nina writes:

    If you want to write and publish books, the first step involves developing ideas. You may be a nonfiction writer with just one book idea or with many. However, if you have nonfiction writing goals, your book ideas should support your goals.

    I have many book ideas. Despite the fact that some of them really excite me, I have put quite a few on hold. I have them queued up in a logical order, one following the other so they help move me toward my goals.

    Sometimes those goals could be simple, such as get a traditional publishing deal. That may not sound “simple,” but, for example, I put aside some projects of mine that were outside my area of expertise to pursue that goal. I used my expertise to accomplish it. With traditionally published books under my belt that have performed well—a track record—I can move into other categories more easily, should I want to pursue traditional publishing for my other ideas. I can also pursue self-publishing now more successfully.

    Your goals could be to:

    • Attract more clients
    • Make more money
    • Develop authority
    • Tell my story
    • Serve others
    • Teach
    • Build a business around a book
    • Get more freelance assignments
    • Become a professional speaker

    Whatever your goals, it’s time to develop book ideas that support them.

    Write down your top two or three nonfiction writing goals. For each goal, also write down one or two reasons why you want to achieve that goal. Here’s an example of what that might look like:

    what are your writing goals

    Next, brainstorm tentative titles or subjects for books that would support those goals. Come up with at least one, preferably two for each goal. Prioritize them based on which will help you achieve your goal fastest. Here’s an example (without actual titles or subjects):Books for NF Writing GoalsIf you come up with other nonfiction book ideas you’d like to write during this process, write them down as well, but put them away for later. That’s what the “Other Books” category is for.  

    Nina’s newest book, The Author Training Manual is now available.  Be one of the first to own a copy of The Author Training Manual : Develop Marketable Ideas, Craft Books That Sell, Become the Author Publishers Want, and Self-Publish Effectively.

    Nina Amir Nina Amir, author of How to Blog a Book and The Author Training Manual, transforms writers into inspired, successful authors, authorpreneurs and blogpreneurs. Known as the Inspiration to Creation Coach, she moves her clients from ideas to finished books as well as to careers as authors by helping them combine their passion and purpose so they create products that positively and meaningfully impact the world. A sought-after author, book, blog-to-book, and results coach, some of Nina’s clients have sold 300,000+ copies of their books, landed deals with major publishing houses and created thriving businesses around their books. She writes four blogs, self-published 12 books and founded National Nonfiction Writing Month, aka the Write Nonfiction in November Challenge.

     

  • Guest Blogger Lynn Henriksen asks, “Who is this woman you call Mother?”

    Guest Blogger Lynn Henriksen invites you on a journey.

    Who is she, really—this woman you call Mother? What could be more important than looking at your mother as an individual unto herself? Come along with me on a journey into the heart of the Mother Memoir to write a true and telling tale by answering this question:

    “If you could tell just one small story that would capture your mother’s character and keep her spirit alive for years to come, what would it be?”

    Moving your ego aside and searching purposefully for your mother’s intrinsic character can take some time to put into practice, but it is so worth your energy to discover valuable insights. Do you know what makes (made) her tick? What buoyed or drowned her hopes and dreams? What inspired her joy, tugged at her heartstrings, or thrilled her to the depths of her soul? What enlivened her spirit or dashed it to smithereens?

    As The Story Woman, I’m here to encourage you to find the answers to these questions and create a stirring bio-vignette. My mother died several years ago, but afterwards I wrote my short memoir honoring her, and I believe she felt it. I know my family appreciated it; it provided them a glimpse into her spirit that only I could pass on from my vantage point—one that could never be portrayed in mere photographs.

    It could be that you don’t even like your mother. Ouch! Perhaps, on the other hand, she’s so special to you, you’re so close to her, that you can’t bring yourself to see her as someone distinct in her own right—someone separate from you. Maybe you don’t want to look…too scary, too sad, too poignant, too intimate. As I see it, these are all valid reasons why it is essential for you to write a true story about Mother—one that embraces a special kind of memoir that peers into the heart and soul of your very first relationship.

    The beauty in writing the Mother Memoir is about honoring this most basic relationship. Whether your connection with your mom was good or bad, filled with light and happiness, or misery and regret, it is an avenue toward better understanding in all its forms. Through the process of writing your telling tale, a multitude of feelings and emotions are to sure surface. Be prepared for tears and laughter, while experiencing joy, sadness, anger, thanksgiving, angst, relief, or forgiveness and appreciate this process as a path toward healing and/or a forum for celebration. With an open heart, give thanks for the wisdom you will come to realize as the journey unfolds, since history lives within us despite the passage of time.

    Although her character is multifaceted and her inner make up complex, you’ll look for certain aspects of her personality that stand out and echo her distinct qualities. Begin by locating that one memory or cluster of events that in the telling would impart a genuine impression of the character and spirit of your mother as seen through your eyes. What aspect of her being, what specific quality, action, or anecdote can you draw upon to bring the essence of her character to light in a short memoir? You won’t trace her history in this bio-vignette or look for earth-shaking events as a basis for your story. It’s the real-life, day-to-day occurrences that connect us and often bring us to our knees.

    Once you have found the memory you want to shape into memoir, take a good, long reflective break from the well-formed picture you have formulated about your mother as it relates to this happening or string of events. Let go your assumptions—all of them—as you look for truth and honesty and discover buried under layers of façade the reasons why she acted or reacted as she did. You may be surprised by what you see and how you feel. You may experience an awakening or a shift in perception after distancing yourself from the event and applying maturity mixed with the willingness to look at your mother as an individual in her own right, from the inside out.

    Although the idea of writing a memoir can be overwhelming, remembering Mom through writing your Mother Memoir is doable. It calls for memories to be energetically crafted into words to make her spirit come alive in just a few pages creating a short, true story that has the power to reveal her essential spirit. You will come to understand its impact as you move through this process and join the ranks of TellTale Souls.

    Henriksen photoLynn Cook Henriksen, The Story Woman™, is the founder of “TellTale Souls,” an enterprise promoting writing memoir creatively through workshops, classes, speaking presentations, and her award-winning guidebook, TellTale Souls Writing the Mother Memoir: How to Tap Memory and Write Your Story Capturing Character & Spirit.  As an intuitive leader, Lynn discovered a profound way to keep spirits alive after witnessing Alzheimer’s disease ravage her mother’s mind. As an author, teacher, and entrepreneur, she has helped hundreds of people from 9 to 90 capture the memories and feelings they never thought they could record.  Lynn is a member of California Writers Club, Marin and past president of the Women’s National Book Association, San Francisco.

    Lynn will be the April 17 Writers Forum Presenter in Petaluma, California..

  • Guest Blogger Hal Zina Bennett – Transforming Your Inner Critics

    Guest Blogger Hal Zina Bennett writes about our inner critics.

    Most of us writers are plagued by inner critics, those still small voices that speak from within, asking unsettling questions such as: “What makes you think you’re a writer?” Or, “This is drivel.” Or, the classic, “Don’t leave your day job.” Everyone has these inner critics, though some of us find their voices louder or more cutting than others. In their most insidious form, we feel these inner critics as our own self-judgments, not truths that we must accept. The author Storm Jameson put it well: “There is as much vanity in self-scourgings as in self-justification.” We write a few lines or pages that upon our review are “just terrible.” Instead of just rewriting or editing them, we point to them as evidence that we really can’t write.

    It’s difficult to accept that these inner critics, who stop us in our creative tracks, are within us; they may have originated through events that happened in our past but today exist only in our minds. To free yourself of these inner critics’ influences only when you own them, fully acknowledging that you yourself are creating them today. If you can own your inner critic, you have a choice — to cling to their judgments or not. Try to push them away and they only grow stronger, arguing like willful children or belittling parents. You can let them go, let go of your attachment to them. How? Start by making them characters in a story or in vignette you write in your journal. Describe them in detail, the more detail the better. Give the color of their eyes, the color of their hair, their body type, their voice, their stench.

    C. G. Jung encountered a form of inner critic in what he called the animus. His experience, reported in Memories, Dreams, Reflections, was that the animus, or inner critic, has its most powerful impact on our emotional life only when it remains unconscious and unnamed. As long as it is unconscious and unnamed, we experience it as inseparable from us. We can feel quite attached to their harsh criticisms.

    Jung found that by “personifying” them we essentially “strip them of their power.” They still exist in our psyches but are better able to take their harsh judgments with a grain of salt. As writers, we can even use them as seeds for characters in our stories.

    If you’re plagued by a particularly bothersome inner critic, recreate them as a character in a story. Satirize them, if you wish. The more you’re able to give them a reality on paper, the more you will be able to accept them as having a right to own opinions, their own distorted pictures of you. The more real they become on paper, the greater will be your choices about accepting or rejecting what they say about you. I’m convinced that some of the world’s most memorable villains were created in this way—and in the process their creation has defused their power as inner critics.

    Hal Zina Bennett is a bestselling author of more than 30 published books, including Write Starts: Prompts Quotes and Exercises to Jumpstart Your Creativity, from which this article was excerpted.

    Bennett.Write Starts

    Permission has been granted for use of the requested passage from the book Write Starts. Copyright © 2010 by Hal Zina Bennett. Reprinted with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA. www.newworldlibrary.com.

  • Guest Blogger Meredith Bond – create historical fantasy

    Guest Blogger Meredith Bond writes about creating beautiful history.

    I love history and reading about how people lived. And I love writing historical romance. But one doesn’t have anything to do with the other and rarely do I use very much of what I read in my novels. Historical novels—all, although romance is certainly the most guilty—takes history and makes it beautiful. That’s wonderful, except for one minor fact. History is not beautiful. Life before electricity and toilets was really not pretty or comfortable. And yet when was the last time you read a historical novel which actually made you aware of that?  Or mentioned it at all?

    There are, from time to time, mentions of some villains awful breath. But the scent of a hero or heroine is always something wonderful—flowers or leather. But is that accurate? Did people in the 18th century really smell that way. Highly unlikely. If they bathed, it wasn’t often.  In medieval England the monks of Westminster were required to bath four times a year. That’s it. And we’re not even certain they bathed that often. So, now how are people supposed to smell so nice? If they did so, it was due to the liberal use of perfume.  The next time you read that a hero smelled like “musk”, it was probably his own personal musk that the heroine is smelling because the guy hasn’t bathed for a while.

    Of course we all know that people in novels rarely use the toilet. Why? Because it was a disgusting experience. The wealthy might have a pot which would be cleaned out by some poor servant (sometimes by simply throwing the contents out the window – be careful how closely you walk next to a house). If there was an outhouse—well, you can imagine how lovely that smelled.

    And then there were the animals. Yes, horses which leave what wherever they’ve gone? And no, there was no one picking it up. There were also pigs, rats, goats and all manner of other animals living in cities, eating whatever waste lay about on the streets—and there was definitely enough of it to feed them well.

    So where is all of this lovely detail in historical novels? Nowhere. Are you surprised? No, I didn’t think so.

    And what of women? People who read romance novels love a feisty heroine. A woman who will stand up for herself. Who rides as well as the men. Or thinks nothing of engaging in some witty, sarcastic repartee with our hero. But did girls, especially unmarried young women, really behave so boldly? I don’t think so. Not if they wanted to get married. And if they didn’t get married they became nothing but a burden on their family. They had no other option.  Women were quiet. Submissive. Treated like children—who only spoke when spoken to. The brave young souls of the modern romance novel bears no resemblance to the actual women of time. It is a sad story, but true nonetheless.

    So enjoy your romance and other historical novels, but especially enjoy the fantasy that they create—that’s why it’s called “world building.”

    Meredith Bond is an award-winning author of a series of traditionally published Regency romances and indie-published paranormal romances. Known for her characters “who slip readily into one’s heart,” Meredith’s paranormal romances include Magic In The Storm, Storm on the Horizon, and the short story “In A Beginning.” Her traditional Regencies include The Merry Men Quartet of which An Exotic Heir and A Dandy In Disguise have recently been republished. Her new series of New Adult Medieval Fantasy Romances, will be coming out beginning March 18th, 2014 with Air: Merlin’s Chalice, followed by Water: Excalibur’s Return in April and Fire: Nimue’s Destiny in May. Meredith also teaches writing at her local community college. If you want a taste of her class in book form, Chapter One is available at your favorite e-retailer.

    Want to know more? Visit Meredith at her website, or chat with her on Facebook  or Twitter (@merrybond). If you’d like to be one of the first to know of Meredith’s new releases, join her no-spamming email list by clicking here.  

    Thanks so much!  Meredith.

    Meredith Bond book

  • Guest Blogger Nina Amir and writing goals

    The following is from Nina Amir’s Blog, Write Nonfiction Now. Nina posts writing prompts on Fridays.  I really enjoyed Prompt #10 and thought you might like it, too.

    Create Book Ideas to Support Your Goals: Nonfiction Writing Prompt #10 by Nina Amir.

    If you want to write and publish books, the first step involves developing ideas. You may be a nonfiction writer with just one book idea or with many. However, if you have nonfiction writing goals, your book ideas should support your goals.

    I have many book ideas. Despite the fact that some of them really excite me, I have put quite a few on hold. I have them queued up in a logical order, one following the other so they help move me toward my goals.

    Sometimes those goals could be simple, such as get a traditional publishing deal. That may not sound “simple,” but, for example, I put aside some projects of mine that were outside my area of expertise to pursue that goal. I used my expertise to accomplish it. With traditionally published books under my belt that have performed well—a track record—I can move into other categories more easily, should I want to pursue traditional publishing for my other ideas. I can also pursue self-publishing now more successfully.

    Your goals could be to:

    • Attract more clients
    • Make more money
    • Develop authority
    • Tell your story
    • Serve others
    • Teach
    • Build a business around a book
    • Get more freelance assignments
    • Become a professional speaker

    Whatever your goals, it’s time to develop book ideas that support them.

    Write down your top two or three nonfiction writing goals. For each goal, also write down one or two reasons why you want to achieve that goal.

    Next, brainstorm tentative titles or subjects for books that would support those goals. Come up with at least one, preferably two for each goal. Prioritize them based on which will help you achieve your goal fastest.

    If you come up with other nonfiction book ideas you’d like to write during this process, write them down as well, but put them away for later.

    How many ideas did you come up with? Tell Nina in a comment by clicking here.  Scroll down to the bottom for the comments section. 

    Note:  Nina’s original post includes a chart and examples. . . to view the complete post, click here.

    Nina’s newest book, The Author Training Manual is now available.  Be one of the first to own a copy of The Author Training Manual : Develop Marketable Ideas, Craft Books That Sell, Become the Author Publishers Want, and Self-Publish Effectively.

    Nina Amir, author of How to Blog a Book and The Author Training Manual, transforms writers into inspired, successful authors, authorpreneurs and blogpreneurs. Known as the Inspiration to Creation Coach, she moves her clients from ideas to finished books as well as to careers as authors by helping them combine their passion and purpose so they create products that positively and meaningfully impact the world. A sought-after author, book, blog-to-book, and results coach, some of Nina’s clients have sold 300,000+ copies of their books, landed deals with major publishing houses and created thriving businesses around their books. She writes four blogs, self-published 12 books and founded National Nonfiction Writing Month, aka the Write Nonfiction in November Challenge.  Nina will be the November 20, 2014 Writers Forum Presenter.

    Nina Amir

  • Crafting scenes a reader can see—and sense by Constance Hale

    Crafting scenes a reader can see—and sense by Constance Hale

    Place looms large in all the work I do—whether in travel writing (when I’m trying to capture the essence of another country or culture), or in narrative journalism (when I often begin with a scene to draw my reader into the story), or even in Facebook status updates (when I try to sketch a place with a few poetic images).

    When crafting scenes, many writers make the mistake of loading up adjectives. But, as always, nouns and verbs do the best detail work. Take for example this description by the Indian writer Arundhati Roy, in The God of Small Things:

    “May in Ayemenem is a hot, brooding month. The days are long and humid. The river shrinks and black crows gorge on bright mangoes in still, dustgreen trees. Red bananas ripen. Jackfruits burst. Dissolute bluebottles hum vacuously in the fruity air. Then they stun themselves against clear windowpanes and die, fatly baffled in the sun. The nights are clear, but suffused with sloth and sullen expectation.”

    Roy doesn’t shy from adjectives, but she starts out by grounding us in a specific time and place (May, Ayemenem). She fills the scene with concrete things (crows, mangoes, dustgreen trees, red bananas, jack- fruits, bluebottles), and she uses nouns to give us big ideas (sloth and expectation).

    William Finnegan relies on verbs in his 1992 New Yorker opus on surfing, “The Sporting Scene: Playing Doc’s Games.” He fills his entire story with sentences that use active verbs to make inanimate things animate, like this one:

    The waves seemed to be turning themselves inside out as they broke, and when they paused they spat out clouds of mist—air that had been trapped inside the truck-size tubes.

    These passages are taken from the all-new edition of Sin and Syntax, which also contains exercises and writing prompts.

    Laconic landscapes, and not so laconic ones

    In Bad Land, a book about the settling—and abandonment—of the Great Plains, Jonathan Raban uses extended metaphor to sketch a scene in Eastern Montana as he drives along in his car:

    A warm westerly blew over the prairie, making waves, and when I wound down the window I heard it growl in the dry grass like surf. For gulls, there were killdeer plovers, crying out their name as they wheeled and skidded on the wind. Keel-dee-a! Keel-dee-a!

    Raban recasts the plains as a seascape, with the wheat making waves, the wind growling like surf, and the killdeer plovers crying out like seagulls.

    To practice your own scene-writing muscles, try two of my favorite exercises. First, describe a vast and empty landscape—or a deserted street. Can you write about the scene so that it does not seem static or dead? Can you make it bristle with energy, even if human action is long gone?

    Second, situate yourself in a place that offers a symphony of sound. (A busy street corner? A screeching subway? A quiet courtyard in which each footstep registers?) Tune in to those sounds only. (Ignore the panhandlers, the change of the traffic lights, the people looking at you askance.) Find words that are onomatopoeic in some way, that suggest the sounds themselves. Write sentences whose rhythms evoke the sounds you are hearing

    The Raban passage and these writing prompts appear in Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch, which is now out in paperback. If you’ve given these prompts a try and like what you wrote, please post your quick scene sketch in the comments section below. [After you register, posting can be done with a quick log-in.]

    Places that inspire

    For an opportunity to find inspiration in a scenic setting, and to be guided through exercises that will develop more of these muscles, join me at the Mokule’ia Writers Retreat from May 4-9, 2014. With the Waianae Mountains of O’ahu at your back and the blue ocean before you, learn from the masters, write in the shade of ironwoods, wander along the beach, salute the sun in morning yoga, and come to understand the essence of Hawaii through evening programs led by island composers, dancers, and musicians. The program includes daily workshops, private writing time, and one-on-one meetings with faculty. The theme, nā wahi ho‘oulu, acknowledges that a sacred spot like this will inspire us to explore other places— whether in the heart, in memory, or in the moment.

    If you live in the Bay Area, I’d like to invite you to the Petaluma Writers Forum on March 20, 2014. I will be appearing with my friend and travel-writing colleague Michael Shapiro, who has written a book titled A Sense of Place: Great Travel Writers Talk About Their Craft, Lives, and Inspiration. Needless to say, we’ll be digging into the craft of scene writing in our remarks.

    Finally, if you’d like more of this kind of thing, come visit my Web site, or sign up for my mailing list. (I also post on Facebook via the Constance Hale Scribe page.) I post regularly on how to straighten out your syntax, how to make your sentences sing, and how to survive and thrive in this sometimes difficult but always enriching writing life.

    CONSTANCE HALE is a fiend about the craft of writing and covers it at sinandsyntax.com. She also writes about style and language in her books: Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch (the most recent), Sin and Syntax, and Wired Style. She has been an editor at the Oakland Tribune, San Francisco Examiner, Wired, and Health; her journalism has appeared everywhere from The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times to The Atlantic and Honolulu. She directed the narrative journalism program at the Nieman Foundation at Harvard and edits books, turning narratives about serious subjects into serious page-turners. She also runs writing retreats in Vermont and Hawaii.
    Hale, Constance

     

  • A roundup of freelance writing tips from Guest Blogger Michael Shapiro

    Guest Blogger and expert travel writer Michael Shapiro reveals his success with freelance writing.

    Every June, Michael Shapiro marks the anniversary of leaving his full-time job at CNET in SF. It’s been 15 years with lots of highs and lows, and he’s never regretted the decision to walk away from the rigidity of full-time work and hang his virtual shingle. Here are some tips that have helped him succeed in the world of freelance writing, especially travel writing.

    Making a Living as a Freelance Writer

    It’s not just an adventure, it’s a job: Travel writing can be romantic, but recognize it’s a job — don’t start out writing grand epiphanies about your summer vacation. Focus on service (consumer or advice) pieces, such as a story on five little-known museums in New York. You don’t have to be a superb writer to be a competent reporter.  By providing service pieces, you can develop relationships with editors that lead to more interesting assignments, including destination stories. A good way to break into magazines is by writing “front-of-the-book” features, which can be as short as a couple of paragraphs.

    Stick to a routine: Get up in the morning; take a shower, get dressed (including shoes), have breakfast and go to work. Slippers and a bathrobe don’t cut it. You can tailor your schedule to fit your personality. Be sure to carve out work-free blocks of time. I find it essential to take at least one full day off each week. Part of the attraction of freelancing is flexibility, so I give myself some leeway, for example to spend a couple of weekdays on a river trip or to take an occasional afternoon off.

    Accuracy first: Be a thorough and accurate reporter above all else — then strive to be an excellent writer. Clear and concise prose is important because editorial space is tight. You don’t have to write with the lyrical beauty of Pico Iyer to get published. You do, however, need to get the facts right. An editor will hesitate to give you another chance if you make significant errors. Most newspaper travel editors are too busy and don’t have the resources to fact-check, so double-check your facts before submitting. Use online resources to fact-check but be aware that not all info online has been vetted or updated. Confirm by phoning or seeking multiple sources for corroboration.

    Find a niche: Develop an area of expertise and work it. Only after choosing Internet travel as a niche was I able to make it as a full-time freelancer. My goal was to get editors to think of me as the Net-travel guy, so when they needed a story on this topic they’d contact me. This opened the door to more literary destinations stories. Because the Washington Post had run my Net-travel pieces, the editor there knew my work and published my Cuba by bike story.

    You don’t always have to travel: Not all travel writing involves travel. My SF Examiner story on frequent-flier programs won a Lowell Thomas award, and I didn’t leave the house.

    Send tips to editors: Help editors by sending them information or advisories without expecting compensation — keep yourself at the front of their minds —  they’re more likely to think of you when they need a story done. Think of it this way: You’re a brand and your own PR agency.

    Read editors’ stories: Read everything you can that’s written by prospective editors. When John Flinn became travel editor of the Examiner-Chronicle travel section, I read his work to get a sense of his style and what he might like. I even asked him who his literary heroes are (Tim Cahill and Bill Bryson) and read most of their books. Don’t try to copy another writer’s style — that would be a weak imitation. Be yourself, but tailor your stories to fulfill that editor’s requirements.

    Consider new publications: New magazines are generally more open to new writers because they don’t have a stable of regulars. Even if you don’t get in before the first issue, scan the magazine racks for new publications and query them.

    Pitch to a specific department: Your odds of success increase if you target a magazine’s regular department. Pitching a story for a department shows you read the publication, especially if you understand the requirements of the department. As a first-time writer for a magazine, don’t expect to land an assignment for a 2500-word feature. Your odds are much better if you try to write a short “front-of-the-book” piece or 750-word story for a department. Finally, pitch to a specific editor, not the editor of the magazine but an associate or deputy editor who’s more likely to read your query.

    Consider non-travel magazines: Travel stories appear in more than just travel magazines – you can often place articles in lifestyle and food magazines, to name just two examples. The wider you cast your net, the better your odds.

    Know when to pitch: Though this is not etched in stone, I usually pitch to newspaper editors on Thursday afternoons or Friday morning — this is after they’ve put the Sunday section to bed.

    Self-syndicate: Major metro newspapers typically pay $250 to $600 (sometimes you can earn more by selling photos) for travel features. It’s nice to get one newspaper to accept your story but before you pop the cork, send it to several newspapers as long as their circulation areas don’t overlap. If you submit a story to the Chronicle, don’t send it to the San Jose Mercury News unless the Chronicle rejects it.  Several newspapers, such as the Washington Post, require first national rights. So try to sell to them first and then to newspapers in Dallas, St. Petersburg, etc.

    Keep it tight: Editors have always appreciated brevity, but today space is tighter than ever. Try to keep stories under 1,500 words, 2,000 tops. A 750-word story has a much better chance of selling than a 2,500-word piece.

    Promote yourself online: Create a website featuring your published work, expertise, photos (if you shoot) and contact info. It’s essential to be able to refer editors to your site and much easier than sending them a sheaf of clips (though some editors may request hard copy). If you don’t have published work, you can publish online to show editors how well you can write. And be active on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites to build a community of interested readers.  * Please see note from Marlene at end about online publishing.

    Join a writers group: At best, a writers group is a supportive community offering honest feedback. Members also share strategies for getting published. But don’t take all criticism as gospel – listen to it, incorporate what feels right, but remember it’s your story.

    Consider joining a professional organization: During the first few years I tried making a living as a freelancer I shunned professional groups such as the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW). I figured that all they did was schmooze and booze – I wanted to be roughing it in Guatemala or Cambodia. In 1998 I was invited to lead an SATW workshop during the group’s annual convention in Jerusalem. I found that schmoozing could lead to story assignments.

    Define your goals: Do you want to make a living as a freelance travel writer or simply publish a story now and then? Either way, even if you don’t have an assignment, pick a destination, write a story with a narrow focus, and send it out. Be realistic about the time commitment required – you can’t make a living by viewing travel writing as a casual endeavor. Then again, you may not want to make a living; some writers want to keep their day jobs and write an occasional story. That’s probably a wise decision in the current journalistic climate.

    Rule of fives: Jack Canfield, author of Chicken Soup for the Soul, credits the Rule of Fives for his success. His theory is to do five things every day to sell or market your work. Start now and don’t expect instant results. Though it sounds hokey, this type of perseverance can help you succeed and make a living

    A final thought: Malcolm Margolin, a naturalist best known for The Ohlone Way said his ideal in his 20s was to be a poet and playwright. Early on he realized his chances for earning a living as a poet were slim, so he turned to natural history books because he thought they would sell reasonably well. Native American history and nature guides were his passion – he wasn’t writing them just to earn a dollar. Margolin, now the publisher of Heyday Books, said that his few attempts to create books for sales potential were flops and that the books he’s passionate about have sold better. Follow your bliss and be willing to sweat — the rewards make it worthwhile.

    Michael Shapiro’s article on Jan Morris’s Wales was a cover story for National Geographic Traveler. He also writes for American Way, Mariner, Islands, and The Sun – and contributes to the travel sections of the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle. Shapiro is author of A Sense of Place: Great Travel Writers Talk About Their Craft, Lives, and Inspiration and wrote the text for the pictorial book, Guatemala: A Journey Through the Land of the Maya.

    A student at the first Book Passage Travel Writers Conference in 1992 and a 13-time faculty member, Michael has developed a productive freelance career by employing the techniques listed above. He has also worked with writers to develop, polish, and edit stories. He can help writers place articles in top publications.

    Contact Michael Shapiro for more information.

    *Note from Marlene: A way to publish online is to post your writing on this blog:  Post your writing in response to the Prompts. Contact Marlene if you want to be a guest blogger or book reviewer.  

    mcullen – at – comcast.net

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  • Guest Blogger Amanda McTigue — The Power of Place

    Guest Blogger Amanda McTigue — The Power of Place

    Writing is setting. Indeed, to write is to place (that’s “place” as a verb).

    We writers place readers in worlds. We set them into circumstances, stories, imagery, facts, memories, actions, fantasies, and so on.

    Setting in this sense isn’t mere background. It’s the sum total of every last word we write. And yet, so often we think of place as scenery. What a mistake!

    Place shapes voice. I’m not talking dialect here. I’m saying the ways we writers situate ourselves in imagined (or remembered) worlds give rise to the ways we convey those worlds to others.

    Our first task, then, is to place ourselves so fully that our readers go with us.

    “All well and good,” you say, “but how can we interrupt our action-packed, conflict=drama, page-turning flow to squeeze in some detail of setting? We’re writing to keep readers reading! There’s no room! There’s no time!”

    I feel your pain. We writers are in such a rush. Determined to finish-and-publish, we worry about where to put the “where” in our text before we even know where “where” is.

    But place gathers power when we slow down.

    In my writing process, “where” has a time and pace (that’s not a typo). I do everything I can to remind myself that plot points can wait; endings will find themselves. Meanwhile, when I’m lost, I get more lost. I schedule time for sheer exploration. We’re talking undirected (but focused!) wandering accomplished through short sessions of stream-of-consciousness writing.

    So often, our best work is discovered, not planned. When’s the last time you ambled through your worlds with no agenda? How about sitting still? How about nosing around for nothing in particular? Try leaving your map at home. Paddle. Search. Listen. Taste. Sniff. Find a new vantage point. Marvel. Take a nap. Unpack a picnic, etc.

    Forget writing. Just notice and take notes. The bird watcher doesn’t agonize about her style when she’s out in the field. She scribbles as fast as she can. Who cares if there’s a better word for “red?” She keeps her eye not on the page, but on that tiny splash of color hidden in the branches. She tries to capture everything, knowing the bird will fly off any minute, taking the moment with it.

    Lately, I find such field trips invaluable. I schedule them not only as I’m drafting but also right through my editing process.

    Let’s say I’m polishing a chapter for the umpteenth time and it’s still god-awful. Sometimes I know what’s missing. Sometimes I have no idea why it stinks. Either way, I set the manuscript aside, put on my boots and step out into a wet garden or a fetid alley or a crater on the Planet Zarn with absolutely no sense of how that’s going to help. I just give myself a half-hour and go.

    I take field equipment along to sharpen my observations: binoculars, a camera dolly, a satellite, a cloud boat, a microphone, a microscope, my tongue. I grab every writer’s prompt I’ve ever enjoyed and bring them too—questions or novel points-of-view—to keep myself playful and curious.

    I place myself—and things happen. Setting always brings more than static landscape. Worlds always world, even the quietest of them.

    When I return to editing, I bring the fruits of my wandering. Suddenly an overlooked shoelace suggests a murder weapon, a tree branch holds a charm, or the stitching on a pillow brings a character to life.

    Does that mean that I use every word I write in such sessions? Not even close. But nothing is wasted. What I don’t use leads me to what I do use: richer passages—even new storylines—far fresher than anything my editor’s brain could cook up.

    There’s nothing like a road-trip. Whether staring at a blank page, or yet another re-write, schedule time to explore. Place yourself first (pun very much intended). Shake off your worries about the where of where; you can figure that out when the where is there.

    Go.

    Slow down.

    Forget writing.

    Take notes.

    Amanda-McTigue-112x150Amanda McTigue’s debut novel, Going to Solace, was selected as one of four “Best Reads of 2012” by Gil Mansergh on KRCB’s “Word by Word.” 

  • Guest Blogger Elizabeth Beechwood – Write From An Animal’s Perspective

    Elizabeth Beechwood shows how to create animal characters on her Blog, “When I write, strange things happen.”

    Here’s an excerpt:

    Anyone who knows me knows that I love animals. When I was a kid, I was always bringing home stray dogs and baby birds. After I got married, my husband had to deal with opossums in the backyard, baby goats running through the kitchen, and let’s not forget the epic night he came home to find a loon in the bathtub!

    It seemed natural, then, that when I began to write, I included animal characters in my stories. I quickly realized, however, that writing from an animal’s perspective had its own particular challenges, whether my characters were cats or pigeons or griffins or giant moths. I discovered that, by focusing on four main elements, I could portray all sorts of animals – from the realistic wolf surviving in the cold north to the fantastic mouse going on a quest. If you imagine these four elements on a sliding scale with ‘realistic’ to the far left and ‘fantastical’ to the far right, where you, the writer, place these elements determines the type of animal character you will create.

    These elements are:

    • POV
    • Senses, including intelligence and emotional range
    • Behavior
    • The Wilding

    To find out more about creating animal characters, please go to Elizabeth’s blog.

    Elizabeth Beechwood writes about herself:

    I wrote and self-published my first novel “The Brown-Eyed Trio” when I was nine years old. Unfortunately, the only copy was lost so you’ll have to take my word when I say it had a killer plot and tons of adjectives. It also featured a nine-year old girl, a dog, and a horse. Now, years later, I continue to write novels and short stories, striving for killer plots and as few adjectives as possible. Animals figure prominently in most of my work.

    I’ve lived all over the United States, including Alaska, but presently make my home in the Pacific Northwest. I’m pursuing my MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast program. My work has been featured in Every Day Fiction and Beyond Boundaries.

    Chickens