Clint's Blog

Writers and the Media Workshop

4/11/2012

I am making time to post this because it looks like a particularly good workshop with a focus that isn't common for these types of workshops. So if you are interested in a wide variety of genres of writing, particularly journalism, life story writing, and other forms of non-fiction--including non-fiction narrative--this is a rare opportunity. Carol Lynch Williams and Carolyn Campbell are particularly great. So check it out.

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LEAGUE OF UTAH WRITERS SPRING WORKSHOP

PROVO CITY LIBRARY at ACADEMY SQUARE - APRIL 21, 2012

WRITERS AND THE MEDIA

WELCOME: Irene Hastings, LUW President-Elect

12:15 – 1:15 KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

ROBERT KIRBY: Columnist, Writer, Salt Lake Tribune. Popular Speaker.– Well-known for his observations on life with all its variations. He has an uncanny knack for finding the absurdities of things we take too seriously.

2:30 - 3:30

CAROL LYNCH WILLIAMS: Award-winning novelist, with an MFA in writing for children and young adults. As a mother with seven children, she is well-qualified, not only for superb writing, but for down-to-earth experience in her writing genre. She holds the prestigious PEN/Phyllis Naylor working Fellowship. Award books include: The Chosen One; Glimpse; Miles From Ordinary.

3:30 – 4:00                                     *REFRESHMENT BREAK*

4:15 – 5:30                                            WORKSHOPS

CAROL LYNCH WILLIAMS: “Getting Your Novel Where It Needs To Go”   Maeser Room         214

CAROLYN CAMPBELL “Making the Most of Marketing”
PATRICIA G. STEVENSEN, “Fleshing Out Characters—a Standalone Book”
N. KAY STEVENSEN, “Designing Your Book From Cover to Cover.”
       Book Wording, Arting, Pitching                                                            Young Events Room 201

PAULETTE STEVENS, “Profit By Preserving Life Stories, Using Memoir Writing and Audio-Visual Techniques.”                                                                                             Young Card Room 308

DOOR PRIZES following workshops. It’s been our pleasure to host LUW’s Spring Workshop. Remember ROUNDUP, September 14, 15, the Yarrow, Park City. For more information see: www.luwriters.org

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I Am Not a One-trick Pony

2/22/2012

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But I am by nature a one-trick-at-a-time pony. By this I mean I like to work on one thing at a time creatively, from beginning to end, without stopping or interruption if I can help it. My preference is to start a book and write it to completion without dividing my time between projects.

I do all my research and planning and thinking and rethinking and note taking and outlining. Then I sit down and write the first three chapters, as a rule. I then write a synopsis, my first comprehensive treatment of the story. Using that synopsis, I write the rest of the novel, beginning to end, outlining each scene or chapter about a day before I write it. Once the rough draft is done, I usually give it a little time to cool before starting revision. I then do my three or five or eight revisions until I feel I can't see any changes that clearly make the book better. Then I write the proposal package, research agents and publishers, and submit. Only then do I move on to another project.

Recently, I haven't had the luxury of focusing on one project at a time. Instead, I've been bouncing around every which way. I made it about 70% of the way through my latest novel (a middle grade fantasy based on Babylonian dragon mythology) when I received the opportunity to contribute to the Writing for Charity anthology, available next month. More details here. So I put that off as long as I could to keep working on Babylon then put the book aside and wrote and revised the short story over the course of three days. I'd been thinking about it in odd moments well before that, of course, and I'm fairly pleased with the result. Not sure if they'll use it for the anthology, but I think so. If they do, look for the legal deposition of the troll from The Three Billy Goat Gruffs. That's mine. While I'm on the subject, I'd like to plug this event again: $45 ($25 half day), excellent workshops by fantastic authors such as Shannon Hale, Tracy Hickman, and Dan Wells, among others, writing critiques from these same authors, as well as a meal and silent auction on everything from manuscript critiques to dinner with authors. You should be there. More information at the site listed above.

Back to the jumble of my last few work weeks. Stopping the newest novel for the short story wouldn't have been that bad--if I hadn't received a request for a manuscript revision from one of my dream agents at the same time. That, of course, took priority, so using her comments and some very kind and rapid feedback from some great writers and better friends, I revised the entire manuscript and resubmitted. Still waiting on the result.

So that catches us up to the present. Right now, I'm finishing off a polish on my literary Korean ghost story, the manuscript revision requested in partial by the agent, and about to transition to a final revision on my latest completed work with a focus on a few specific localized issues. Then I'll write the proposal package and start submitting. And then, finally, back to my Babylonian story.

This is not my preferred method of work. But having been through it, I think it maybe should be, at least in certain ways. I'm getting a lot done very quickly, and I like that rate of production. Plus, an unexpected benefit has come from revising texts after they've cooled for weeks or even months, which I've never done before. I'm finding added perspective has come from that amount of time away from the texts, which isn't surprising in theory but is still startling to experience for the first time.

So here's what I'm thinking for the future. I still want to work on one thing at a time, as that is clearly how I do my best work. But I think I'll abandon my dedication to one work in process straight through the entire process without diverting my attention. When I finish a rough draft, I may set it aside while I pre-write and draft my next novel. I'll then go back and revise and send out, then revise and send out the second, then repeat the process. Or I may do an initial revision to address obvious problems I'm aware of after drafting before giving the text time to cool and moving on to my other project. Not sure yet. But I'll work it out.

So ten books in and my process is still evolving. Apparently, necessity is the mother of invention. Who knew?

And as you certainly did not notice, my font size on the blog is now legible.

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Writers and the Media Workshop

I Am Not a One-trick Pony

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