Remington Roundup:
First Drafts, a Book Festival, & Forest Avenue Press

1960's photo of woman at Remington typewriterI’m fresh off of teaching my online course, Flash Nonfiction I, and spending four weeks with an awesome group of women writers, so this week I’m recalibrating, recalculating, & settling back into story ideas and studio time. And, I’ve curated a fresh collection of links for this month’s Remington Roundup on first drafts, your next book festival, and Forest Avenue Press.


First Drafts

It feels like ages since I’ve written anything entirely new and of worth. Even after leading a group of writers through writing prompts and first-draft exercises, the pull at the back of my throat when I consider the blank page brings pause as my pen hovers over my notebook.

So I am especially grateful to folks like Allison K. Williams, Brevity’s Social Media Editor who posts often on Brevity’s blog. I love every word she’s written lately, all of them wise: on getting down to the work, on celebrating tiny successes, and yesterday’s post on first drafts.

As a writer, no-one wants to let our weak sentences out into the world before we’ve muscled them up and trimmed them down. But there’s value in a a sloppy, disorganized, poorly written first draft. It’s not a failure, it’s a necessary first step. It’s barre exercises before ballet, scales before singing, charcoal on newsprint before oil on canvas.

I’ve never taken ballet and I’m not much of a singer (though I do like to torture my kids with a little operatic tune once in a while), but man do I know the sloppy, disorganized first draft. The key to remember is that these early pages are always perfect in their own right.


A Book Festival

For all you writers and readers and general literary world lovers, you will want to check out the UntitledTown Book and Author Festival in Green Bay happening April 19-22, 2018.

Sign up for their newsletter, because (while they haven’t posted the full schedule yet) you’re guaranteed a whole weekend of *free* gatherings and activities.

Last year they hosted Margaret Atwood and Sherman Alexie (left, with me!) for their big Saturday night event. I bought my VIP ticket as soon as I could–okay, the big event isn’t free but it’s well worth your money–and sat just two rows back from literary greatness. I can’t wait to see who they bring to Green Bay this year!

Plus, among the long list of anticipated workshops and readings, I’ll be teaching one on Flash Nonfiction: The Art of the Short Essay and participating on a panel about The worst writing advice I ever got. I’ve marked my calendar and booked my hotel. If you go, shoot me an email. I’d love to see you!


Forest Avenue Press

Today in particular is a big day if you’re a novel writer with a manuscript at-the-ready. Forest Avenue Press opens up for submissions from now until March 14th. They’re on the lookout for novels that “subvert the dominant paradigm.”

We are intrigued by genre mashups, especially those with magical elements; our fall 2018 title, The Alehouse at the End of the World by Stevan Allred is a comic epic set on the Isle of the Dead in the fifteenth century. That being said, it’s quite possible that we might fall in love with a contemporary, non-magical novel.

If you’re a long-time reader here, you will recognize some of the books Forest Avenue Press lists in their publications: Liz Prato’s edited anthology of short stories The Night, and the Rain, and the River, Ellen Urbani’s Landfall, Michael Shou-Yung Shum’s Queen of Spades. Their catalog continues to grow with stories that dig deep and impress, and I’m honored to participate on the committee of readers for them again this time around.

So click here, read more, and Submit!

Dog-Eared Pages on First Drafts

cron“But remember, there’s a huge difference between ‘trying hard’ (which you want to do) and ‘trying to make it perfect from the first word on’ (which is impossible and just might shut you down). The goal [with first drafts] isn’t beautiful writing; it’s to come as close as you can to identifying the underlying story you’re trying to tell.”
~ Lisa Cron in WIRED FOR STORY

Join the conversation (today is the last day to sign up).

The Art of a Rough Draft Leads to Lessons of the Day

10906529_10205987025983758_5218993930413556726_nI haven’t spoken much about it lately, but I still meet monthly with a group of senior citizens for a creative writing class. The size of the group ebbs and flows, but the energy remains constant (we have a third anthology in the works and another reading scheduled for January). I continue to be amazed not only with their stories but often with their methods.

IMG_2123One woman always types her pieces on thin paper in cursive script. Another brings essays revised using old-school tactics: sissor-cut passages scotch-taped over an earlier version of a draft. But last Saturday when I sat next to the oldest member of the group, I witnessed a new kind of “rough” draft (don’t think “tactile,” think abbreviated).

This writer is 95 years old. Her hands shake, but that doesn’t stop her from putting pencil to paper. She often comes with a handwritten draft, but this time I noticed something different about her copy: words in struggling script on the top half of the page followed by row after row of loops and curved lines, right angles and tiny circles. Like Arabic but not.

IMG_2403I worried at first, thinking she’d fallen into scribbling and had not noticed. But as she tapped her pencil along each symbol in quiet study, as if she were reading word by word, I realized she’d written her draft in shorthand. When I asked her about it, she said she can read her shorthand easier than her own writing these days. Determined to do the work, it didn’t matter how she got the story down on paper, just that she got it down.

Shorthand is a lost art, I am sure, and I wish I had taken a photo of this draft with its transformation from writing I recognized to short, succinct strokes that illustrated storytelling in a magical way. Still fascinated by the image the next day, I did what any writer would: research.

IMG_2406Here’s where I am ever grateful for libraries within walking distance and for compact shelving that houses old books. I found a shorthand dictionary with a list of 19,000 “most popular words” in 1930 correspondence, like festoon and quinquennial (!) and another book entitled Thomas Natural Shorthand.

I can’t imagine trying to learn shorthand, (though I wonder if that might up my word count in a single day of noveling). But after reading just a few pages of Natural Shorthand, it’s clear that Mr. Thomas understood the challenges of writing in general. His five “Suggestions for Mastering Shorthand” fit right in as good advice for writers today.

1. “Be systematic. A single week of planned, systematic study is worth a month of haphazard endeavor.” My flawed efforts revealed: some days “haphazard” is systematic.

2. “Select good equipment. Use the best writing materials available. A good fountain pen is preferred [and] good, quality standard notebooks.” So, I will always take a detour down the aisle of school supplies in the grocery store in the name of good study.

3. “Form correct writing habits. Sit erect, with your feet flat on the floor….” As slouching on a couch during mid-afternoon hours encourages…well, haphazard study.

4. “Develop reading ability. Practice reading…material until you acquire the skill that permits you to give your listeners the meaning intended. To be an expert shorthand writer, you must first be a good reader. This ability is important.” I repeat: to be a good writer, be a devoted reader.

5. “Decide now to be an expert. Your future lies in your own hands. If you want it, you have to work it.

Sometimes you show up at class as the teacher, but you leave as the student.