Today We Say Farewell

Six years ago we started this blog as a way to share our writing journeys with others. Armed with humor, anguish and a lot of hope, we’ve posted numerous essays on craft and the publishing business, interviewed countless rock-star authors, and visited with editors and agents. Developing and thriving in this community has been so rewarding and we have each grown as writers and humans, developed life-long relationships amongst ourselves and with others we’ve met along the way.

We are not alone in finding the commitment of regular blogging as both a reward and hindrance to our real writing time. We are primarily novelists here – published and as-yet. And as with many time commitments, we had to weigh the joys of writing for this blog and (hopefully) helping others as we’ve been helped along the way. 

We’re sad to say goodbye to this page, but we are not saying goodbye to each other, our critiques, our community, definitely not our annual retreats.

We are ever grateful for your reading our words, for sharing your stories and comments, for traveling with us as we celebrated the joys of personal and professional milestones, comforted us in our rejections and tragedies.

Our posts will be there for you to peruse – a list of authors we’ve interviewed is on the right panel. And if you want to see what we’re up to, please visit us on our individual websites or pages. (links below)

Kim Bullock

Pamela Hammonds

Susan Ishmael

Julie Kibler

Elizabeth Lynd

Joan Mora

Farewell, all.

Telling Stories

By Pamela

Let me tell you a story. It starts with a main character, our protagonist, and ends with his overcoming a storm of conflict. Along the way, the other characters bend and break and rebuild him so, by the time you reach the ending, he will have evolved into a transformation of himself, a guy who sees the world differently. It's a pretty simple formula that's used in most works of fiction. At times it's man vs. man, man vs. beast, man vs. weather, or man vs. himself.

If you study writing, you learn words and phrases such as:

• conflict / resolution
• story arc
• character arc
• dialog 
• setting

What you might not learn is the myriad ways to tell a story. Literary devices can be used to make your story original and when it works, it's fabulous. Here are some novels that employ their own unique methods of storytelling. I'd recommend each as required reading, especially if you want to devise your own unique path to take the reader from 'once upon a time' to 'the end.'
(NOTE: Text in italics is from the publishers.)

Defending Jacob 

by William Landay

Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney for two decades. He is respected. Admired in the courtroom. Happy at home with the loves of his life, his wife, Laurie, and teenage son, Jacob. Then Andy’s quiet suburb is stunned by a shocking crime: a young boy stabbed to death in a leafy park. And an even greater shock: The accused is Andy’s own son—shy, awkward, mysterious Jacob. Andy believes in Jacob’s innocence. Any parent would. But the pressure mounts. Damning evidence. Doubt. A faltering marriage. The neighbors’ contempt. A murder trial that threatens to obliterate Andy’s family. It is the ultimate test for any parent: How far would you go to protect your child? It is a test of devotion. A test of how well a parent can know a child. For Andy Barber, a man with an iron will and a dark secret, it is a test of guilt and innocence in the deepest sense. How far would you go?

Throughout the book, we read transcripts of a trial that reveal the testimony of Andy while being questioned by ADA Neal Logiudice. Those transcripts help tell the story of how Andy continues to defend his son even as the line between guilt and innocence becomes increasingly blurred. It's a method of storytelling that works in this tale of paternal devotion at all cost.

Gone Girl

by Gillian Flynn

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer? 

It took me a while to warm to the storytelling device of this novel--hearing Nick's side as told in typical novel formatting (i.e. action, dialog) and hearing Amy's voice, at first, through the pages of her diary. But as the story progresses, you understand why we're getting to know Amy this way. And it works masterfully.

Where'd You Go Bernadette?

by Maria Semple

Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.

Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle--and people in general--has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic. To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence--creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world.

As the publisher reveals here, the story is told through Bee's piecing together her mother's correspondence. I honestly didn't expect to get sucked into the story the way I did, but maybe because I have a fascination with people's private lives (What's more private than reading someone's mail?) and am a bit of a snoop, this novel was purely entertaining. My thinking is, though, that had it not been so masterfully crafted, it would have fallen flat. In Semple's hands, it was a treasure.

Reconstructing Amelia

by Kimberly McCreight

Kate's in the middle of the biggest meeting of her career when she gets the telephone call from Grace Hall, her daughter’s exclusive private school in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Amelia has been suspended, effective immediately, and Kate must come get her daughter—now. But Kate’s stress over leaving work quickly turns to panic when she arrives at the school and finds it surrounded by police officers, fire trucks, and an ambulance. By then it’s already too late for Amelia. And for Kate.

An academic overachiever despondent over getting caught cheating has jumped to her death. At least that’s the story Grace Hall tells Kate. And clouded as she is by her guilt and grief, it is the one she forces herself to believe. Until she gets an anonymous text: She didn’t jump. Reconstructing Amelia is about secret first loves, old friendships, and an all-girls club steeped in tradition. But, most of all, it’s the story of how far a mother will go to vindicate the memory of a daughter whose life she couldn’t save.

Similarly told as Gone Girl and Where'd You Go, Bernadette? in Reconstructing Amelia, we learn the back-story of Amelia Baron through her text messages and the blog posts of her classmates as her mother tries to piece the story of her daughter's life leading up to her death.

Big Little Lies

by Liane Moriarty

Big Little Lies follows three women, each at a crossroads: Madeline is a force to be reckoned with. She’s funny and biting, passionate, she remembers everything and forgives no one. Her ex-husband and his yogi new wife have moved into her beloved beachside community, and their daughter is in the same kindergarten class as Madeline’s youngest (how is this possible?). And to top it all off, Madeline’s teenage daughter seems to be choosing Madeline’s ex-husband over her. (How. Is. This. Possible?). Celeste is the kind of beautiful woman who makes the world stop and stare. While she may seem a bit flustered at times, who wouldn’t be, with those rambunctious twin boys? Now that the boys are starting school, Celeste and her husband look set to become the king and queen of the school parent body. But royalty often comes at a price, and Celeste is grappling with how much more she is willing to pay.

New to town, single mom Jane is so young that another mother mistakes her for the nanny. Jane is sad beyond her years and harbors secret doubts about her son. But why? While Madeline and Celeste soon take Jane under their wing, none of them realizes how the arrival of Jane and her inscrutable little boy will affect them all. Big Little Lies is a brilliant take on ex-husbands and second wives, mothers and daughters, schoolyard scandal, and the dangerous little lies we tell ourselves just to survive.

While maybe not quite as devoted to employing a device to tell story, Big Little Lies does feature the police interview transcripts of a Greek chorus of unreliable witnesses to a crime that Moriarty invokes to keep the reader enthralled in a seemingly everyday tale of parents behaving badly that ends in the death of one of the major players. It's humorous and yet compelling as we make our way through the story of lies--both inconsequential and life-changing.

Dept. of Speculation

by Jenny Offill

Dept. of Speculation is a portrait of a marriage. It is also a beguiling rumination on the mysteries of intimacy, trust, faith, knowledge, and the condition of universal shipwreck that unites us all.

Jenny Offill’s heroine, referred to in these pages as simply “the wife,” once exchanged love letters with her husband postmarked Dept. of Speculation, their code name for all the uncertainty that inheres in life and in the strangely fluid confines of a long relationship. As they confront an array of common catastrophes—a colicky baby, a faltering marriage, stalled ambitions—the wife analyzes her predicament, invoking everything from Keats and Kafka to the thought experiments of the Stoics to the lessons of doomed Russian cosmonauts. She muses on the consuming, capacious experience of maternal love, and the near total destruction of the self that ensues from it as she confronts the friction between domestic life and the seductions and demands of art.

Offill tells the story of a two people in a stream-of-conscious form of writing that's both extremely lean and exquisitely crafted. Part aphorisms, part reflections, part meditations, it's a quick read that you'll either embrace or dismiss. I'm betting you'll embrace it.


The uniqueness of these books' compositions is fraught with the gamble each author took to tell the story in a way that could have been perceived as gimmicky but instead bordered on genius. Do you have one to add to the list?

50 Shades of Motivation

By Pamela

This past weekend marked the release of the film adaptation of the titillating best-selling novel Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James. Full disclosure: I did not read the trilogy, other than a sample of book one on my Kindle, so I refuse to comment on the quality of writing other than to say the opening was fairly unremarkable. It's been a while and I can't recall anything noteworthy about it. So there's that.

Mr. Grey will read to you now!
Flickr image by Mark Hillary

But, when you sell greater than 100 million copies of your books, no one can deny that you've done something right. From what I've read, James wrote a piece of fan fiction based on her adoration of the Twilight series and fans responded so encouragingly, she gave them more; first self-publishing her book before landing a publishing contract.

I've never met James nor read her interviews, but I can't help but wonder if she's at all bothered by the criticism her works have received. Does the phrase 'laughing all the way to the bank' fit her take on her publishing journey? Or does it sting a little to be so widely panned as a writing hack that parodies and mock readings abound online?

We've all read books that make us wonder why publishing gatekeepers felt moved to offer a book deal to the author, and how many readers prior to publication kept their collective pie-holes closed regarding the content. But like any viable industry, publishing houses are in business to turn a profit and if the readership seems poised to purchase, they print.

As writers, we have options for how we respond when we see authors achieve greatness we perceive to be based more on luck than talent. We can virtually flog them with our criticism. We can join in with praise we say but don't feel. We can leave our 'helpful' reviews on sites such as Amazon or GoodReads. We can keep our own pie-holes shut and say nothing at all.

Or we can see their success as motivation to keep plugging away at our own manuscripts. Because, to me, 100 million copies in sales means people are reading, and as long as we haven't lost that, we've all won.

In Praise of Libraries

By Pamela

As a kid, I felt pretty envious of my cousins' lifestyle. A real-life city mouse/country mouse saga was being played out with me as the mouse who lived next door to farmers and rode my bike down dangerous asphalt roads without a sidewalk to separate me from oncoming cars. Our trees and flowers grew without much thought or attention, and dogs ran loose and free. My nearest playmates, Connie and Brenda, lived over a half-mile away. But I really never labeled myself 'deprived' until I realized my cousins had library cards and, to me, that was almost akin to royalty status. Well, the library and access to a neighborhood pool.

I did have wonderful school libraries and count those librarians as some of my most treasured teachers. In fact, I stayed in touch with Mr. Wray, my elementary school librarian, up until my 20s--and that was before Facebook! But without access to a library in the summer, I was left to my own wiles and had to read whatever books we had around the house or I could borrow from friends.

Now as a certified city-dweller, I have a library two miles from my home. Not only does it have free Wi-Fi, study cubicles and meeting rooms, one can also borrow books, movies, audio books, children's learning kits and more. Plus they host a Friends of the Library used book sale four times a year and, if you happen to miss one, there's a bookcase of remainders with hard cover books a mere $2 and paperbacks for 75 cents. At my library, a teen writing group meets every month and so does a book club for adults. The local master gardeners put on talks quarterly and, if chess is your go-to stress reliever, the second-Sunday afternoon of each month is devoted to you.

I'll admit, since my daughter and I no longer attend the story time events (remind me to tell you about the one time she waited until I was unbuckling her from her car seat in the parking lot to announce she wasn't wearing any underwear) or puppet shows, I don't take advantage of all my library has to offer me. Like indoor plumbing and my dishwasher, it's a luxury I take for granted. But yesterday, I was in need of a book for one of my book clubs and hated to spend the money on a download if I didn't have to. So, I ventured to the library and there the book was, waiting for me to take it home. In fact, I had a choice--paperback or hard cover.

As I was waiting in line with my book (and three to buy from the leftover sale), I almost got teary-eyed watching a young mother and her toddler check out their stash--books and few that came with accessories that had to be contained in important plastic pouches. What memories they are making of spending time together, choosing stories that, no doubt, will mean time snuggled together side-by-side as they explore the imaginations of Seuss and Dahl and Eastman and Peet.

This made me realize that, while my girl has a stash of books that would be the envy of many and a Kindle, too, I need to get her back to the library. Maybe she'd even like to join that teen writing group.

What's waiting for you to discover at your local library?

About Us, six years later

by Joan

Elizabeth, Julie, Joan, Kim, Susan, Pamela

This June will mark six years since we began this blog. We kicked off on Monday June 8, 2009 and since then have shared 850 posts. Chances are if you’re reading this you’re familiar with what we do, probably a little bit about each of our styles. We've interviewed authors, agents and editors as well as posted about our highs and lows over our many years of writing. We get excited about attending author events like others might for concerts or live theater. 

Here are just a few of my favorite interviews and guest posts from over the years. 

Amy Einhorn stops by for a chat

Dani Shapiro on Devotion

Mollie Glick on what she looks for in a submission

A conversation with Alyson Richman

Karen Harrington's favorite rejection

Kathy Louise Patrick (The Pulpwood Queens)

An interview with Naomi Benaron

We’ve updated our “About Us” page, so check it out. 

Characters Matter

By Pamela

Over the winter school break, my two college boys were home quite a bit and, in addition to loving their being here, I enjoyed movie marathons (John Grisham titles this time around) and they spent some time catching up on their favorite TV shows via Netflix.

Because I wanted to be where they were, I generally watched what they watched. And while I could appreciate the jokes in their favorite sitcoms, I had a hard time enjoying them at the same level they did. Later I realized it was because I had no idea who the characters were. I knew the actors but not the roles they played. I wasn't invested in their lives at all.

The same can be said for books. If the author doesn't do his or her job developing the characters, you can't invest yourself in the story. Try watching a TV series you're unfamiliar with. Even if it's award-winning and everyone you know loves it, my bet is you'll not feel the same passion if you pick up a random episode in the middle of a season. You'll want to ask, Who is she? Is he married to her or do they just work together? Did she used to be with someone else? And is she not over him? Questions abound and make it nearly impossible to become interested in the story.

As writers, we have to develop characters. And not just stock characters or puppets that bend at our commands. We have to love them first (or hate them just as passionately) and figure out how best to communicate that passion to the reader.

In order to create characters that resonate with your readers, you must develop them fully. Several books on my shelves can help:

Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook by Donald Maass

Page after page of examples of characters in novels as well as ideas for creating multidimensional characters and taking them through the paces in your story.

The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman

Because one of the first things your story does is introduce main characters, this book by Lukeman really helps hammer out the essentials for getting off on the right foot. My copy is highlighted pretty extensively and I need to reread this ASAP.

Escaping into the Open by Elizabeth Berg

One of my favorite authors gives us her take on how to write good fiction. In the chapter "The Good Lie," she talks about creating empathetic characters your reader will relate to. Berg also has a lot of great exercises in this book that will get you stretching those creative muscles.


In closing, think back to television shows you loved. Chances are the characters stayed with you long after you turned off the TV. My list will probably be different than yours (and will date me) but I can think of Rhoda in the Mary Tyler Moore Show, Quincy, M*A*S*H, Carol Burnett, Cheers, Designing Women, Friends, Seinfeld, and the list goes on and on. Great characters I couldn't wait to watch week after week. The challenge is to create memorable characters on the page as well.

Ten Tips to Help Aspiring Writers Stretch their Fiction

By Pamela

I was on GoodReads.com not long ago and came upon a list of writing tips by best-selling author Chris Bohjalian, that previously appeared on his blog in January 2006. I found them to be timeless and he graciously gave me permission to share them here. Chris is the author of Midwives, The Sandcastle Girls, The Light in the Ruins, and Skeletons at the Feast, among others. His most recent novel, Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands, was published this summer. 

Ten Tips to Help Aspiring Writers Stretch their Fiction by Chris Bohjalian

Chris Bohjalian, photo by Aaron Spagnolo

I'm asked on occasion what advice I might offer aspiring writers. Here are ten random suggestions--the last a reference to the fact that I was told by a creative writing professor when I was in college that I should become a banker. 

1. Don't merely write what you know. Write what you don't know. It might be more difficult at first, but--unless you've just scaled Mount Everest or found a cure for all cancers--it will also be more interesting.
2. Do some research. Read the letters John Winthrop wrote to his wife, or the letters a Civil War private sent home to his family from Antietam, or the stories the metalworkers told of their experiences on the girders high in the air when they were building the Empire State Building.

   

   Photo by Lewis Hine

   Good fiction is rich with minutiae--what people wore, how they cooked, how they filled the mattresses on which they slept--and often the details you discover will help you dramatically with your narrative. 
3. Interview someone who knows something about your topic. Fiction may be a solitary business when you're actually writing, but prior to sitting down with your computer (or pencil or pen), it often demands getting out into the real world and learning how (for instance) an ob-gyn spends her day, or what a lawyer does when he isn't in the courtroom, or exactly what it feels like to a farmer to milk a cow when he's been doing it for 35 years. Ask questions ... and listen.
4. Interview someone else. Anyone else. Ask questions what are absolutely none of your business. Ask about their childhood, their marriage, their sex life. They don't have to be interesting (though it helps). They don't even have to be honest.
5. Read some fiction you wouldn't normally read: A translation of a Czech novel, a mystery, a book you heard someone in authority dismiss as "genre fiction."
6. Write for a day without quote marks. It will encourage you to see the conversation differently, and help you to hear in your head more precisely what people are saying and thereby create dialogue that sounds more realistic. You may even decide you don't need quote marks in the finished story.
7. Skim the thesaurus, flip through the dictionary. Find new words and words you use rarely--lurch, churn, disconsolate, effulgent, intimations, sepulchral, percolate, pallid, reproach--and use them in sentences. 
8. Lie. Put down on paper the most interesting lies you can imagine ... and then make them plausible.
9. Write one terrific sentence. Don't worry about anything else--not where the story is going, not where it should end. Don't pressure yourself to write 500 or 1,000 words this morning. Just write 10 or 15 that are very, very sound.
10. Pretend you're a banker, but you write in the night to prove to some writing professor that she was wrong, wrong, wrong. Allow yourself a small dram of righteous anger. 

Your story's voice

By Pamela 

Every week I talk to strangers. It's part of my job. As a freelance writer, I interview folks on the phone--from designers to dentists and everyone in between. While we talk, I try to picture the person on the other end. I'm only hearing his or her voice, but I can imagine an approximate age, nationality, and even appearance. At times I can detect an accent that seems native Texan or transplanted New Englander. I can also tell if the person seems agitated or at ease, distracted or focused, pleasant or gruff--all by the sound of his or her voice. 

However, when I'm writing, my reader doesn't have the luxury of hearing the words on the page. And that's true for any reader (unless they happen to be listening to an audio production of a story). The reason the narrative voice is so essential to the story is your reader will keep its company for the duration of the book; it better be interesting. That doesn't mean it has to be lovely or even pleasant but it has to be entertaining. 

So, when we talk about voice in story, it's not your characters' voices--it's yours. How are you telling their story?

Flickr image by Duncan Hill

In a recent Huff Post article, "Breaking In: Voice," Karen Dionne writes: Voice is difficult to define in the abstract, but agents, editors, readers, and writers know voice when they see it. The voice of your manuscript needs to feel fresh and authentic. 

How you do you find your voice? At first you read and read widely. Pay attention to how the author uses phrasing and word choices, sentence structure and pacing to tell the story. Does it feel familiar? If you read one Jane Austen novel, can you pick up another and tell it's also by her? If you read Stephen King, are you likely to connect with every one of his books by his unique voice? If you pick up a book by a new author, are you drawn in? It's likely the author's voice that's hooked you from the start. 

A handful of writers with unique voices include:

Dave Eggers
JD Salinger
Kurt Vonnegut
Mark Twain
Jane Austen
Rick Bragg
Jan Karon
Adriana Trigiani
Fannie Flagg
Cheryl Strayed

Next you must write. And write. And write. If you don't feel you've found your unique voice with the story, perhaps its the POV. Tell the story from another character's perspective and see if that helps. Maybe the setting needs to be changed. Telling a coming of age story in a southern town in the '60s will require a different voice than one told in the Midwest in the '80s. It's hard to know if you've found your voice and you'll likely only know when someone tells you how much they love your story. 

So while a good story is ultimately about the story (even a unique voice wears thin without plot), a unique voice can enhance the experience for the reader. Do you feel you've found your voice? And do you think some authors use different voices for their novels? It's a tricky thing, voice, but once you spot it, you've got it. 



 

The Most Interesting Man on the Plane

By Pamela

I'm not a frequent flier by most people's standards, but I do love to travel. After one trip, I told my husband about a conversation I had with my seatmate. His response was: "People don't like to talk on the plane. That's why I wear my headphones and pretend to fall asleep--because I don't like people to talk to me."

U.S. Air Force dog Venice and her handler. 

Humbug, says I, but from then on I applied the "do not speak unless spoken to" rule when flying. Usually. Last year on a flight, I was seated next to an Air Force soldier and his bomb-sniffing dog Venice. So, of course, I had to talk to him--and he allowed me to take a photo. On a flight this time last year, after leaving my gravely ill mother's bedside, I was grateful for a lighthearted conversation with my seatmate. I can't remember what we talked about, but he was exceedingly kind for not mentioning that I looked like an emotional wreck.

Then earlier this month, I traveled to Denver to visit my niece. On the way there, the guy next to me completely ignored me and I returned the favor, catching up on some reading and attempting to complete the Mensa challenge in American Way magazine. On the return flight, my new seatmate had his headphones in, so I took that as code for "don't talk to me" and I didn't. Then as I unwrapped a sandwich I knew I'd only eat half of, I noticed he was headphone-free and so I offered him the other half. Over the next 45 minutes, we talked over our shared sandwich.

After the perfunctory "why are you headed to Dallas?" exchange, he started telling me about his recent discovery: At the age of 45, he found out he's adopted. I won't share all the details about his story because I'm hoping to see it in print one day, but what I took from our conversation seems pretty profound. Along with "everyone has a story to tell" being a generality, the circumstances surrounding his adoption, upbringing, revelation, reunion and reconciliation were nothing short of amazing and made me appreciate how real life is often more compelling than any novel.

Our encounter made me excited about storytelling. Years ago after a trip to meet his mother's extended family in India, he returned with photos. His wife said then, "You're adopted. You look nothing like these people." It would take a health scare and subsequent blood test to reveal a genetic condition that led him to ask his father if he was adopted. His father held fast and denied it, even when my seatmate said he threatened to submit a DNA sample for testing. When the results confirmed he wasn't even the same race as his parents (his mother was now deceased), his father finally acquiesced with "I guess the cat's out of the bag now." Apparently his adopted mother made his father swear to take the news to the grave.

Having discovered his birth-family only within the past few weeks, his enthusiasm was palpable, and it reignited in me the notion that you can have extraordinary circumstances in a story as long as you can tell it so others believe it could happen. I'm a huge fan of a well-told memoir. This time, I got to hear someone tell theirs to me in person. The next time someone has a story to share, will you be a good listener? The next time you have a story to share, will you be a good writer?

Updating the blog

By Pamela

Several weeks ago, we decided it was time for a face lift here at WhatWomenWrite. The group photo from 2012 was feeling a bit stale, plus Julie was going on hiatus and it felt wrong to take her out of the photo or attempt a new one without her.

I offered to spruce up the design and when no one challenged me for the right, I forged ahead. If you'd like some pointers for updating your blog, read on. While some of these steps are exclusive to Blogger, I came across a helpful resource that can make you a design pro, even if you're a relative newbie.

My first step was checking out other blogs I follow. Most I found had opted for a clean look, so I began by setting our background to white. On the main page at the top right hand side, I clicked on the design option that allows me to change our blog and view stats. From there, I chose 'template' and then 'customize.' The template I chose is appropriately called 'Simple.' (It's also the template I used to update my personal blog.) From there I selected the 'Advanced' option to customize our fonts and colors of text, backgrounds and lines.

To change out our heading, I went back to the design menu and selected 'Layout.' This is also where you can add gadgets to your sidebar and make your blog as custom as you'd like. I clicked the edit button on header and removed our photo. But how to replace it?

I searched online for a way to make a logo and found a cool site called Canva.com.

Once on the home page, you can use templates already sized to fit social media, but I started with the option on the top right to 'use custom dimensions' and then set our header at 3000x1000 px and hit the 'Design!' button. From there I searched their vast library of images for a 'path' and ended up paying $1 for the photo above. Once I had it in place, I clicked on 'text holders' to design a logo for us. (In the screen shot above you can see the original version on the top far left.) The graphic was free and I was able to change the text and the colors to best complement the photo.

After getting the blog heading how I liked it (and after my fellow WhatWomenWriters gave me the go-ahead), I went back to Canva and used their templates for Twitter and Facebook so our look was consistent across social media. (In the screen shot above, you can also see in the middle bottom image the banner I created with Canva for my personal blog, and I wound up spending $10 for 11 images so I can have them for future projects.)

Putting the design on Blogger was simple. Under the 'layout' option, I clicked on 'edit' next to the header and uploaded the image, choosing the middle placement option:

Instead of title and description

and then hit 'save' before closing.

I'm a huge fan of Canva now. It's so user-friendly and an extremely affordable way to create a custom look for your online presence. In fact, there are free images available as well, so you can even spend nothing, if you're able to find something you like.

If it's time to update your blog or start a new one, I highly recommend Canva.com as a great place to start. Let me know if you do! I'd love to see your results.

Writing conflict in your story

By Pamela

If you're like me, you avoid conflict at all costs. You see someone at Target you'd rather not speak to, and you dash over to another aisle and head the opposite direction. You exchange terse words with your spouse, and you conveniently find another room in the house to hang out in for a couple hours until the tide shifts. As sensitive human beings, we tend to avoid conflict, but as writers, we have to learn to embrace it for the sake of the story.

My girl had a homework assignment last week. She had to write a few paragraphs and part of the instructions included making sure the story had conflict. She asked me to read through it and then we had a long talk about the conflict missing between two best friends, hanging out on a gazebo roof talking about how they spent their summer apart. "Where's the conflict?" I asked. She shrugged her shoulders. "Well, what is it these two girls want?"

"They want to be themselves," she said.

"Who is keeping them from being themselves?" I asked.

"The popular girls."

"Why would the popular girls care about them?"

"They just do," she said.

And then we talked about true conflict, and I tried to boil it down as simply as I could. Conflict = someone wanting something and an outside force (e.g, person, elements, situations, disease, poverty) is keeping them from it. Conflict in a story also paves the way for a character to step forward and save the day--maybe the main character, maybe someone else.

So we talked about books she had read. Harry Potter, Wonder, The Hunger Games. What did the character want and who/what kept him or her from getting it? It's as simple as that and yet we sometimes struggle to put our characters through the battle. Suppose Harry Potter had been this beloved boy wizard who was the star of Hogwarts and no one ever tried to stop him from being the best student ever to cross the threshold. No Lord Voldemort. No Draco Malfoy. No Dursleys. How many pages of that story would you want to read? Probably not very many.

My first manuscript suffered from a case of conflict deficiency, and even though I attempted to put my two main characters through a series of tests, I never made them too uncomfortable. I mother-loved them so much, I couldn't bear to make them unhappy. Boring stuff that went on for 80,000+ words.

The manuscript I'm writing now is different and not nearly as easy to write. No one is very happy. The marriage is failing. The teenagers are being forced to make grown-up, life-changing decisions. Quite honestly, I find it difficult to see them suffer. But, unlike an early reader, I know where I THINK these people will end up. And while I don't have to wrap it up with "And they all lived happily ever after," I do have to write a resolution. The characters need to have come out on the other side as changed individuals whose lives will go on to even new conflicts. It's up to me, the writer, to guide them through it but not shield them from it.

Yesterday I finished reading Defending Jacob by William Landay--a wonderful story filled with conflict and twists and turns. You should read it. For other books with conflict abounding, I'd recommend Wild by Cheryl Strayed, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, The Giver by Lois Lowry, to name a few. You don't have to read mysteries, sci-fi or any genre that's heavy on action to experience conflict. It should be present in every story including Charlotte's Web. What does Wilbur want? To live to be an old pig. Who's keeping him from it? The farmer who raised him for his meat. What role would Charlotte play in the story if there is no conflict for Wilbur? She's just an old spider in a dirty barn. The conflict allows her to step forward as a heroine to save 'Some Pig' so Wilbur can see himself as 'Terrific' as she does.

So, embrace conflict in your story in a way you don't in your real life. Don't steer your giant red cart in the opposite direction to avoid a messy confrontation. Put your characters through hell and love them enough to let them suffer and grow and change and come out on the other side as changed people. Your reader will thank you for it.


Images from Flickr; fighting wolves by Tambako The Jaguar; mad couple by Ed Yourdon; Target cart by Daniel Oines.

DIY Writing

By Pamela

Linus the cat keeps a safe distance from the Roomba.
Photo by Eirik Newth.

As I write, the TV is on (louder than necessary, I might add--actually, the fact that it's on right now and NO one is watching it is annoying), and I can hear a commercial voice-over telling me that my dishes wash themselves, my clothes wash themselves ... and of course, if I buy a Roomba, my floors will vacuum themselves. Tempting, I suppose, for some but not really for me. Even though I don't wash my clothes in a stream or against a rock, I do sometimes wash dishes by hand. I even like the process of ironing a garment (but don't do it often) and always mix cookie dough with a wooden spoon over my electric mixer. There's something about using my hands and seeing the result of my effort I find extremely fulfilling.

I suppose it's true with most writers.

But what's also true is that unlike clothes that wash themselves, dishes that wash themselves and floors that vacuum themselves ... books do not write themselves. They take work and effort and planning and plotting and rewriting and editing and more writing. And some of the most effortless reading you'll enjoy, I'll bet resulted from a writer who worked very hard making each word in every sentence just-so.

Joan, Elizabeth and I heard Ron Rash read aloud a portion of one of his short stories at a recent signing in Dallas. Lyrical, wonderful, seemingly effortless prose that he later admitted he had rewritten about 30 times.

His confession made me think of the short story I wrote during our most recent writing retreat--one that flowed with very little effort. In fact, I was in awe of myself, really. That from start to finish, this piece just came out. So smitten with the result, I immediately submitted it to a contest. Guess what? It didn't place. I made a few edits and sent it off to another one. And, drum roll ... nothing!

In hindsight, I can admit I didn't do the work. As much as the story seemed to flow, it didn't write itself. And while it might not need to be written 30 times, I can admit ... it's not quite there yet. Each word in every sentence isn't just-so.

Until someone invents a 'Bookba,' a device that will write books all by itself, it's up to each writer to work hard, hone his or her craft, and produce stories worth reading and sharing. Besides, I wouldn't want to read a story that didn't have the heart and soul of a real person invested in it. Those are the stories I want to read. And write.

Best-Selling Books to Blockbuster Movies

By Pamela

Two of my favorite pastimes are reading books and watching movies. So when those two passions collide, it's a good thing--somewhere between chocolate/caramel and Dubliner cheese/apples.

Last week I saw the movie Begin Again and today I'm already aligning my calendar and commitments so I might see it again.

Yes, it's that good and, as a writer, I could relate to the underlying current of artist vs. business that runs throughout the movie. I'll not spoil the ending, but it's a must-see for any creative spirit. During the trailers, we got a look at some upcoming movies which prompted this post: three books that I've LOVED are soon-to-be movies. If you haven't read these titles, I encourage you to read them before seeing the movie. If, like me, it's been years since you've read The Giver, reread it.

The Giver | Opens August 15

Over 15 years ago, I read Lois Lowry's Newbery Medal winner The Giver and have reread it a few times. In anticipation of the movie's release (what took them so long?), I'm reading it again with my book club at the retirement home. My sons read it for their English class, my 10-year-old read it recently and my 30-year-old niece said she reads it every few years. So, I'm really jazzed to see Meryl Streep step into this project of a dystopian society that has such a mass readership. 

Gone Girl | October 3

I read Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl over a year ago and spent days contemplating the story. How does her husband sleep next to her? I thought of the author. Why did she end it like that? I wondered. After I mulled the story around, I knew it was a perfect telling of a marriage where one spouse is a sociopath. I learned recently that Flynn not only wrote the screenplay, but she changed the ending! I'm not sure if that's in response to readers' reactions or simply it better fit the parameters of telling the story on the screen, but that makes me want to see the movie even more. Which could likely be the real reason she changed the ending!

Wild | December 5

I read Cheryl Strayed's captivating memoir Wild last year, too, and at the time never thought about the prospects of making it a movie. In April last year, Susan, Joan and I went to see Cheryl at the DMA and learned more about Reese Witherspoon's production company making the story a film with Reese portraying Cheryl. Last week I watched the trailer for the first time and thought Reese the perfect person for the role (which I didn't at first, even though I thought she did great in Mud).

 I'm almost giddy with anticipation. Aren't you?

Saying no

By Pamela

I'm not sure if you're like me, but I have a hard time saying no. I tend to be a people-pleaser and hate to disappoint others. But the other day, I said no and it felt great. I decided then to be better at determining what I can handle and what needs to be turned down.

I had accepted a freelance assignment I felt was fine--the money was okay, the deadline was reasonable and the scope of the work seemed fair. Then that changed. The two experts I was told to contact grew to eight and I began to panic. I had other assignments. School was already out and that meant even less time with my girl. I mulled it over for a bit and then called the editor and politely asked him to reassign the story. I briefly mentioned my going out of town for the weekend, and he said, "Oh, so you don't have time." I started to give in and then reconsidered. "I am leaving, but I'm really not willing to do the assignment now given the number of people you need me to contact," I said. Before calling him, I decided that even double the pay wouldn't entice me to keep the story. It simply felt overwhelming, and I knew with that many people weighing in, it would be difficult to write a cohesive article.

I did worry that I might possibly get fewer assignments in the future, but ultimately decided if future assignments were of a similar caliber, it was worth the risk. And maybe the editor would respect my desire to be treated fairly.

So, when should you say no to writing work?

• if the compensation isn't fair--the pay, the reward, etc.
• if it compromises your beliefs, ethics or principles
• if you're not qualified to produce the end piece (a tough one to admit!)
• if you don't have time to produce your best work
• if taking on the job causes you undue stress
• if you have to neglect other, more pressing projects to complete the work

I recently had a friend message me with a similar dilemma. She had submitted a fee for a writing project for a new client, and then realized the workload was more than what she anticipated and she had underbid the work. My advice to her was to reach out to the client ASAP and explain. I've yet to hear how that turned out for her, but I hope she was able to renegotiate the contract.

Whether you've taken on contract work or been asked to edit the family cookbook, write the neighborhood newsletter or proofread a friend's manuscript, you should speak up if you feel overextended. I think few people realize the time involved in writing or editing. You need to be fair to yourself and to those who have to live with your cranky self whenever you get stressed out.

Just say, 'No!'

Or, 'No, thank you.'



Image by Christian Guthier, Flickr Creative Commons.

The Blog that Binds Us

By Pamela

A few months ago the six of us gathered to discuss this blog to determine whether, in a sea filled with other bloggers, we should keep paddling along or abandon ship.

Last week marked the fifth anniversary of this blog and in those years we've collectively written over 760 posts. We originally set up a schedule that divvied up the duties between the six of us, so we'd post M|W|F each week with each of us posting once, every other week. Back then, I don't think any of us looked too far into the future; certainly I never thought that we'd rarely deviate from our original schedule over the next five years. But here we are, hundreds of posts later, still blogging about the writing life--the ups and downs of writing first drafts, editing second drafts, rewriting entire manuscripts, querying, researching stories, researching agents, entering contests, attending conferences, joining Facebook, Tweeting--and sharing it all as a team of six.

Our first retreat

We've now gone away on five annual retreats--with all six of us in attendance! Sometimes, in the planning process, it seems a little dicey that we'll all be able to make it (and this year, we weren't sure we'd get home after being iced in an extra day), but we always manage to make the retreat a priority and my hope is this year is no exception.

So, obviously, that lunch several months ago ended with all six of us still committed to keeping What Women Write out in the blogosphere. We'll continue to review books and interview authors and agents and editors. We're committed to encouraging each other and other women who write--whether she's pursuing publication, keeping a journal, working as a freelancer or just starting to find her voice.

My wish for every writer--male and female alike--is that you have a community of support as we do. That you surround yourself with sources of encouragement. That you pick yourself up whenever you feel like giving up. That when you think, 'there's got to be an easier way' you remind yourself that 'easier' isn't 'better' and if writing were easy, everyone would be great at it. That you take the time to reread your words and marvel how no one can turn a phrase the way you do. That you forgive yourself transgressions including misplaced modifiers and POV confusion. That you commend yourself for caring about the difference between pallet/palette and complement/compliment and stationery/stationary and understanding when others do not. That you love yourself enough to keep writing when doing just about anything else makes more sense.

We're so glad you've joined us on this five-year excursion--at whatever stage you stepped into the boat. Here's to the next five years! Bon voyage!

Why you should fail

By Pamela

No one brings home a report card eager to show Mom and Dad a bad grade. No one puts in hard work only to hope it doesn't pay off. No one shows up expecting to quit. No one likes to fail.

But as writers, we have to expect to fail.

To fail means we've put forth the effort to accomplish something just out of reach. To fail means we've attempted a feat only to fall short. This time. Even if we didn't get an agent or didn't get a publishing deal or didn't win the award for best debut novel, in that failure is the attempt and the realization that next time the outcome might be different.

If you have 12 minutes--maybe not today but maybe in the near future--you should watch Markus Zusak talk here about his brushes with failure, as an 8-year-old and again as a 28-year-old. (It's listed as The Failurist on the bottom of his blog or you might find it on YouTube.)

What we glean from his words--and the words of other failurists such as Thomas Edison and Winston Churchill--is that quitting is the only downside of falling short. When your short story gets rejected or your early draft of your novel doesn't get the praise you feel it deserves, choosing an easier path doesn't mean your life will be better. It just means you've decide to pursue that which is easier. What's safer and gentler on the ego. What will cause you the least amount of stress yet possibly result in a lower level of satisfaction.

“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." ― Thomas Edison

But eventually he found more than one way that DID work. Call it a light-bulb moment, if you will.

“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”― Winston Churchill

But it's hard to not lose your enthusiasm, especially if others around you seem to have an easier go of it. Perhaps you write and rewrite, only to get rejection after rejection. Chances are your writing isn't the problem. You just need to find the right story. Or the right character to tell your story. Make sure you have beta readers you trust to tell you the truth (that's not somehow influenced by their own failures) and listen to constructive criticism.

“Don't spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door. ” ― Coco Chanel

Perhaps you also need to take a class or attend a workshop or seminar to help you work on craft. You can't transform the wall into a door without the proper tools. Figure out what might be lacking in your skill set and work to improve upon it.

Plenty of writers--if not all GOOD writers--have experienced rejection. And we can all be thankful they didn't quit. Be thankful you're not a quitter, either. Learn from failing and fail less next time.  

Bookgifting

By Pamela

Bookgifting--finding the perfect book for someone special.

It might not be an actual thing, but for me, it is. And since Mother's Day is six days away and kids are graduating left and right, I thought I'd throw some ideas out there for gifts.

I've been on a bit of a Kelly Corrigan bender ever since watching her TED talk on literacy. Fortunately for me, I found TWO of her titles already on my shelf--gifts from my sister that I hadn't yet read. In a text two weeks ago, same sister announced Kelly's latest book was on its way to me. (No, you can't have my sister--she's mine!) So, in a week's time I read: Glitter and Glue, The Middle Place and LIFT, all by Kelly Corrigan.

I'd recommend them all as Mother's Day gifts but, because not everyone's tastes are the same, let me say: Glitter and Glue is great for a younger mom or any woman who appreciates a grown-up's view on how she was mothered. The Middle Place is the perfect title for someone who's gone through a struggle with cancer--her own or with someone she loves. In Kelly's case, she was battling breast cancer during her father's recurrence of bladder cancer--while they lived on opposite coasts. LIFT is a very short book (I read it one morning before church) and is a heartfelt letter to her two daughters--great for a mom who's not a big reader OR even if she is and would love a book to make her laugh and cry. I've already given LIFT to two dear friends who both lost teenagers. That's all I'm saying about it here.

If your mom (or a mom you love) lives by the credo: I brake for yard sales, then this book by Lara Spencer is a must. I first wondered what she could possibly teach me that I didn't already know (having visited my share of tag sales, estate sales and thrift stores), but I learned a lot of insider secrets from reading this book. (I loaned mine out, too, and can't remember who has my copy, so I probably need a new one--it's that good!)

For an older mom--perhaps your own--I'd recommend Home by Julie Andrews. I'm reading this now for the book club I run at a retirement home and had purchased the audio version for my mother last year. (It's read by Julie Andrews.) The book begins at Ms. Andrews' childhood and ends right as she gets her first break in the role of Mary Poppins. It's readily available in large print, too, so that makes it a good gift for an older mom or grandmother. Plus it's a wonderful story about an international treasure.

A few books make the grade as both good for moms as well as grads, in my opinion. Last year I purchased several Listography books as graduation gifts and later wished I'd snagged one for myself. They come in a variety of subjects. If you're in doubt as to which would be most fitting, I'd recommend My Future Listography: All I hope to do in lists for graduates.Think of it as a bucket list in overdrive. There are also Listography titles for parents, music fans, travelers and readers, too, which could be great for Mom. I love them all.

For the male graduate, I can't recommend Tony Dungy's Uncommon: Finding Your Path to Significance enough. I read the first few chapters of this book, but my younger son is reading it and has been known to bring up parts of it in conversation with me--proof it's making an impact. What struck me as I read the beginning of it was: Wow! I wish my husband would read this. In fact, I wish every man would read this. Tony Dungy is a former Super Bowl-winning coach whose life now is about sharing "what it means to be a man of significance in a culture that is offering young men few positive role models."

Finally, if you need a book for anyone on your gift list--young or old, male or female--a friend recently gave me Jesus Calling, a daily devotional I now keep by my bedside. It's a handsome leather-bound small book that can easily be tucked into a handbag or portfolio, one that can bring the reader great comfort in good times and bad.

Enjoy Bookgifting with me, won't you? And while you're at it, please support your local bookseller and let them know a good book you've read recently, so they can pass that information along to their customers.

The Healthy Writer

By Pamela

I read an article the other day that offered up some pretty grim news for us writers. Assuming you sit while you write and haven't sprung for a treadmill desk, you likely spend extended hours a day in a chair, pounding away at the keyboard. Unfortunately, you're putting yourself at risk for not only obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes but also certain types of cancer.

Because I don't want you to die before you're at least 100 and have written every word you wanted to pen to page, here are some tips for helping you stay healthy as you write.

Snack smart:

Avoid candy, chips and crackers and instead reach for healthful snacks such as nuts, raisins, edamame, berries, yogurt, bananas, carrots, light string cheese, granola, etc.

Decaffeinate:

I'll admit to keeping a tall glass of green tea within reach nearly every waking moment. It's actually a step in the right direction from the black tea I used to drink. At least my teeth stay whiter. Today I'll begin in earnest to alternate a glass of water with my tea. If caffeine is your source of fuel—coffee, tea or, God forbid, RedBull—then make a commitment to drink more water.

Move more:

If hours go by before you get up and move around, then set a timer to go off at least every hour and get up and move around. Walk around the block, eat lunch while standing, do some yoga stretches. You don't have to clock a 6-minute mile to improve your health, but get up and get the blood flowing. If you're so inclined (and you have a fat advance on your book), you can always spring for that treadmill desk. I'm sure they're wonderful if you're a boss at walking and typing. I'm going to stick to regular stretching, eating lunch while standing and taking the dog for walks around the block.

Find peeps:

If you're trying to finish a book, searching for an agent, vying for time to devote to your writing or wrestling with ideas for your next project, I feel your stress. I give 100 percent credit to the five women on this blog for why I still write. While friends and family members can be a great source of encouragement, only a fellow writer truly understands why you write and can empathize when the going gets rough. If you don't currently belong to a writing group, then look for one at your local library or book seller. Draw inspiration from an online group if a local one doesn't fit your schedule. Don't fret if the first group you find doesn't work for you. Keep looking. At the very least, join or start a book club to learn what your peers look for in a good book.

Kick crap:

If you smoke, please stop. If you drink more than you can readily admit, curb your urge. If you engage in any other behavior that inhibits your joy, your creative fire, your passionate you, find a way to quit. We want you to do whatever it takes to produce your best work for many years.    

Give back:

Volunteering not only forces you to get your mind away from you and your current project, but it also has been shown to lower your blood pressure and reduce stress. About a year and a half ago, I started a book club at a retirement home. This has allowed me to share my love of books, while giving me so much joy to spend a couple hours each month with incredible women with a wealth of life experience. It's also helped fill a hole in my heart that came last November when I lost my mom.

Joan has taught ESL, served as treasurer of Writers' Guild of Texas and volunteered at her son's school as well as sponsored his artistic endeavors at college. She also supports the Parent Encouragement Program.

Elizabeth  has long volunteered at her children's schools. She especially enjoys directly supporting teachers with the unexpected. She also worked with an organization that provides dental care to at-risk children.

Susan's work with International Book Project has helped ship books to orphans in Ghana and to nuns and monks in Nigeria. She's also busy putting together a prison literacy program in her home state of Kentucky while collecting books to distribute to at-risk families in eastern Kentucky.

Kim volunteers at her daughters' dance studio—particularly during Nutcracker. She loves watching not only her girls but the other children she's seen grow and develop as dancers over the last few years. Seeing others pursue their passions inspires her to pursue her own.

Julie, after selling Calling Me Home, was able to donate a portion of the proceeds to an organization that serves at-risk youth and, by virtue of that, help single parents, too. She also had the opportunity to visit with English classes at her high school in Denver—an inner city school that has struggled to stay afloat for years—and participate in some literacy fundraisers.

We all attend as many author book events as possible—not only because it gives us a chance to get together while drawing inspiration from talented authors, but it also feels good to support our fellow writers.

Recharge:

It's no secret that adults needs seven to eight hours of sleep each night. If you aren't getting your allotted amount, try to get more. Nap if you have an opportunity to. Your brain and your other organs need downtime to replenish themselves. Make sure you take care of you.


Image by Pacific Cat Ragdolls on flickr.