The Real Writer

First Runner Up for 2012 Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award from Poets & Writers

A little horn tooting of my own:

I am thrilled to share that I am first runner up in fiction for the 2012 Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award from Poets & Writers!

Press release here.

The Real Writer Client Wins Novel Prize!

Excited to announce that Jen Michalski has won the 2012 Black Lawrence Press Big Moose Prize for her novel, The Tide King!

So happy to have played a role in the success of the book. It's a great story. Check it out:

The Tide King-Black Lawrence Press

 

Get Conflicted - Using Conflict to Make Your Story Zing

My lastest article in JMWW:

GET CONFLICTED

In my article last fall, we discussed character and what yours needs to sustain a reader's interest and incite their passion. Whether that is hate or love. Both will keep a reader reading.

Let's take on conflict, as that's the next biggie when building a story or book.

Conflict is what drives your plot and should be set up immediately. Ideally in the first paragraph (using "show," not "tell") when you're also setting up your character(s) and setting. Your inciting incident (what changes the status quo of the story and starts the plot rolling forward) may also appear right away. This is called starting in medias res, Latin for "in the middle of things." Your inciting incident may also start a few pages later but, for a novel, it should begin in the first five to twelve pages (your average chapter length). The sooner the better!

Agents and editors read the first two pages max (sometimes just the first paragraph) to decide if it's worth their time to keep reading. Make it pop from the beginning.

For a short story, conflict would have to show up much sooner. This is where in medias res comes in handy. It's just plain efficient and more interesting. Without it, you're in danger of beginning with too much exposition and killing the reader's interest.

Some ideas for the inciting incident that demonstrates conflict...

To read the rest of this post: JMWW, Spring

VCCA Residency: Getting into the Groove

I've been here at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts for four days, more than halfway through my allotted time, so I have a better sense of the place to share with you.

(Normally residencies are two weeks to a month, but I asked for a week (have a trip to the UK in the late summer and limited vacation time). So if a week is too short, in your mind, you can have longer.)

No place is perfect, so I'll tell you what I liked about VCCA, and what doesn't work for me. You decide for yourself whether you might want to apply.

I had a little trouble finding the place because there are about six different Route 29s out here, including a business route - they weave together in a very confusing manner and the signage doesn't quite do the trick. I went to Hollins University for my MA in creative writing, so the wiliness of Virginia backroads is not new to me (Maryland has them too). This and a couple of other directions issues (the turn for 6 East comes about 5 miles after the turn for 6 West - how that works is beyond me. I kept turning around thinking I'd missed it and stopped twice to check where it was) added an extra hour to my drive so I arrived about three p.m.

As I wound up the narrow drive, I met up the welcoming committee:

Six calves have been born recently, and on a trip out to WalMart (I needed a bit of civilization, for what's it' worth, and an electric teakettle - no kitchen in the cottage and I can't trek all the way out to the barn every time I want tea), I saw two of them. One a golden brown, the other very dark. Both playful, running along with my car as I crawled past. They then ran to press themselves against their mother.

It's very hard not to hug the cows.

I found the residence hall and picked up my packet at the mailboxes in the lobby. Inside were my keys, my room and studio assignment, a map of the campus, a  handbook, and about six papers I had to fill out (could have been mailed or emailed to me to mail back prior to my visit - more efficient).

Using the map I found the cottage to the right of the residence hall and hauled my suitcase, etc. down. The building is quite charming:

My studio is on the left.

I let myself in and stood, a bit perplexed, in the foyer. To my right was a door marked A, in front of me a door marked B. Between the two a flight of stairs.

I had the B key so I unlocked that door, thinking it was my room. It wasn't. It was my studio. No bed. No bathroom. Hmm.

The source of my confusion was the room and studio assignment on my sheet. Both said "Cottage B." I thought this meant my room was also my studio. Odd, but okay. I could live with that, since the cottage seemed like it would be quiet. I thought there were two other rooms/studios upstairs (see the windows at the top in the picture), or that the cottage was divided in half, like a condo, with the studio on the bottom and the room on the top. It sounds simple, and I don't know why I didn't get it, but I didn't. I would have taken the stairs up to see if the bedroom and bath were up there, but I heard voices up there and thought maybe the whole top floor was a studio and didn't want to make a fool out of myself by walking into someone else's living/working space.

So I called the office. They told me my bedroom was indeed upstairs. I'm sure they thought I was an idiot, but not knowing the layout of the house, I didn't want to make the wrong choice. All would have been easily fixed by adding a brief description to the assignment sheet, explaining the studio and bedroom arrangement. So if you come here and get the cottage, now you know.

The studio is terrific - just big enough and I love the layout:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I went back to the car for a few more things and on my return met my cottage-mate, Barbara, who came over to say hello. She's in her mid-fifties, I'd say, with a short bi-level hair cut and a penchant for hats. I've seen her in several, from a canvas hiking hat to a broad-brimmed white number you might wear at Easter. I dig it. She has a very expressive face, with an an enthusiastic child-like quality and a great sense of humor. She did tell me, though, that her studio had the kitchen, that the cottage used to be the VCCA offices. I wish they'd found a way to keep the kitchen separate. Ah well.

I sat down to fill out the 6 pages of paperwork, which I then walked up to the office. Surprise: there's a $20 deposit for your keys and the handbook, which was merely a 5 page color copy of the PDF you can print online (I'd done that and had a copy in my bag), clasped into one of those clear folders with the plastic spine you slide on and off, like you used to use for book reports in school.

A bit of the campups as I walked back to get some work done. Here's the residence hall from the back, and the gazebo:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the view from the balcony of the cottage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I spent the afternoon and evening after dinner writing up an outline of the end of the novel I'm working on from the pages and pages of notes I had. I came to VCCA with about 80 pages left to write.

Dinner is in the residence hall, where all the other fellows are (more about that later). The tables seat about 6 people. Dinner is buffet style and the food is excellent. The chef, Sarah, is a diminutive woman. Older, very pretty, with short white, flyaway hair. She carries out huge trays to replenish the buffet so she's strong. My first night there was salmon with a mild salsa made with plenty of avocado, sweet potatoes, swiss chard, candied carrots, and salad. Dessert was pecan pie.

I'm an old hand at the 'dinner with strangers' thing. At Bread Loaf, you're told on your first night that the best thing to do is sit at a different table for every meal. If you've been to BL, you know how huge the dining room is. So following this practice isn't a problem. I did this for lunch and dinner there, as breakfast was included in the price of the room at the Chapman Inn, where I stayed instead of in the Middlebury dorms (I had an adorable room at the top of the house for an amazing price; I think $50-60/night or something; highly recommend it).

So I chose a table and said, "Hello, may I join you?" (if you're not good at this or hate it, just say that and smile. If people don't respond or smile back, that's their problem. Most do, so don't worry.)

I sat next to Cheryl, a painter, who runs the VCCA residency in France (!) half of the year, and was in Virginia for a month off to work. She's very mellow and nice, and had an edgy haircut I liked a lot. She talked about how much work the France part takes and I offered to be her assistant for room and board but that didn't seem to amuse her. Perhaps too many have offered the same and she doesn't find it funny anymore. I can't imagine being sick of running a residency in France, but I suppose you can grow tired of anything.

On my right was Carrie Brown, a novelist, who teaches at Sweet Briar College, just down the road. She lived and wrote in Maryland for a number of years, and I'd seen her interviewed for the HoCoPoLitSovideo series. She is very friendly and asks lots of questions, which is what you need when you're first meeting people at a conference or residency. You need to be willing to ask questions and get to know people (even if you have to feign interest, do it!), and vice versa.

So the first half of the dinner was very pleasant. Many at the table already knew each other from previous residencies (most of the people I discovered, had been coming back for years, which I have to admit I found a little annoying. I'm all for putting a cap on the number of visits someone can have in a certain period so that more new people can have the opportunity. Maybe it's a money thing and they don't have enough applications for that, but I've always understood VCCA to be very well thought of and competitive, so...).

The conversation slipped into that sort of 'been there, done that' tone people have when they are over the bright and shiny newness of something. A catch up about past fellows and where they are now who I didn't know, then how most were there to revise a book for a publisher, who had published what recently, and I excused myself. I guess I'd been hoping for people to talk about their work, the process of it, the discoveries made, what they loved about their books or the poem they wrote that day, the experience of stepping outside of routine and how precious that is. Not New York City dinner party conversation.

After dinner Barbara and another woman, Ruth, gave a reading in the living room across the foyer from the dining room. Most of the fellows came so I got a look at those I hadn't sat with at dinner.

Ruth, a poet from Israel living in the U.S., wrote about place and had a very elegant and calm way of speaking and reading. I couldn't tell you anything substantive about the poems, it had just been too long of a day with too many things to adjust to, as any first day on a trip can be.

Barbara gave us a performance piece. It's a one woman show about her experience with a mentally disturbed sister who her mother clearly has always favored over her, no matter how well Barbara steps forward to help with her sister, and any time her parents need her. It's a great story, but the execution was so fragmented (she was trying out new writing and went from reading her pages to acting some out) I found it a little hard to follow. There was a lot of action on the phone, which I don't think is ever very engaging for an audience (unless you're Bob Newhart. Look him up  if you're too young to know him. He's famous for his stand up about one way phone conversations. His most famous are the air traffic controller and the driving instructor. They are hilarious.  Here's the air traffic controller on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour:

 

 

Granted, this was drama, not comedy, but if you're doing a phone convo, the dialogue/story has to be compelling and I'm afraid it wasn't.

Still, I respected her for getting up there and working it out in front of us! That takes courage.

Back to the studio for more work, then bed, where I killed the first of many stinkbugs. Sigh.

I made sure to step outside onto the balcony first, though, to reacquaint myself with all the stars I never see in Baltimore.

Tuesday I woke up really dizzy, fatigued, and nauseous. Don't you hate how, the minute you go on vacation you get sick? There's so much running around you have to do before you leave, anticipating every possible crisis that could happen in your absence, that you sort of collapse when you get somewhere and the body says, "Finally! A break! Now we can be sick."

Well, I wasn't having it. I got up and staggered to the bathroom to shower and dress, then went down to my studio. I turned on my computer, choked down a cup of tea. Eventually my head stopped spinning and my stomach settled.

I'd missed breakfast, which is at 7 a.m. Let me say that again: 7 a.m. Who eats that early? It's practically the middle of the night (you must know by now I don't rise early!), so by lunchtime, feeling better, I was hungry.

Lunch, the handbook said, is in the visual arts kitchen. I checked the map. No visual arts kitchen labeled. I called the office. "It's in the barn" I was told. "Where's the barn?" I asked (not on the map either). "On your map you'll see a block of buildings on the far right" I was told. "Yes," I said, "but they aren't labeled and there's no indication which of those buildings houses the visual arts kitchen." "When you walk up the hill, go straight ahead through a red door" I was told.

If I didn't think I'd lose part of my $20 deposit, I would label the map I have for the next person!

I found a back way from my cottage to the barn, a lovely road between hedges of boxwood, I believe:

 Lunch is leftovers from the night before, sandwich makings, salad, fruit, and yogurt. Also all good. You'll eat well here!

A few people were sitting at the table, eating and not talking, which I didn't find inviting, and the few who came in while I made up a plate just smiled when I said hello, but didn't really talk either, so I took my plate back to the cottage.

I learned from some of the women I sat near at the reading the night before, that it's a very serious group here right now. The packet says not to be offended if people don't want to enter into a conversation and don't socialize much beyond meals, which I totally get, but how hard is it to say hello and talk for a few minutes? I'm not socializing much either - I'm here to work - but I'm making an effort to be friendly and ask people about their work while we're in the buffet line or stop a say a few words if I pass someone walking around. It's strange.

Of course, part of it is that I'm isolated in the cottage. I'm not in the residence hall so there's no casual interaction there, and I'm not in the barn, where everyone else's studios are. Barbara and I are the only ones separated at the other end of the campus. I wish I'd known this ahead of time. I would have asked for another assignment. I think you should be asked if you'd prefer that arrangement (if you come here, let them know your preference; they won't ask).  Everyone else is running into each other in the hall and barn, having a chance to get to know one another. I can't sit in the visual arts kitchen in the barn hoping to run into someone to make conversation. Nor can I hover around in the living room or laundry room. So awkward!

Before you think I'm a loser or a wallflower, I'm also glad to have more quiet than those in the barn probably have (if you don't count the blaring radio from the nearby residence hall kitchen or the hundred and one pickup trucks coming and going as the staff and groundspeople do their work), so there isn't the distraction of other people to keep me from my work. And I do like the cottage itself, having my studio right here, not having to walk across a dark campus late at night back to my room.

I'm not here to leave with best friends, but I am used to meeting several people with whom I bond and keep in touch at these things, so it takes getting used to - how everyone is withdrawn into their spaces. I'm someone who needs regular breaks - for tea, for walks, for a quick chat, before I go back to work, but not everyone is like that.

And there is plenty of socializing at dinner. I've been lucky to pick tables where, aside from that first night, we've had light, fun, conversations and laughed a lot.

 So, what about the work?

On Tuesday, feeling ill, and getting used to my surroundings, meant I only managed about 7 pages. A far cry from the 20 I'd planned on every day! What was I thinking? It had been a month since I'd worked on the novel and I felt like I didn't know the characters at all any more. I'd lost their voices. Well, not lost, but they were pretty far away. I had to wander around for a few hours before I caught a trace of them. Even so, it was slow going.

Wednesday I began 'the turning point' chapter, where one character tells another a serious event from his past that starts the momentum to the end of the novel. I dug through all my research and discovered that the one group of papers I needed wasn't in my bag. I'd left them home. I just sat on the couch and felt totally defeated. I always forget something, but that was the worst thing to forget.

Then I thought, trying to be optimistic, that perhaps it was for the best, and I'd find a better way of writing the chapter by doing some new research. And that is, in fact, what happened. In the end, the chapter I wrote yesterday - 17 pages, hurray! - is much richer and more complex than the one I'd had planned. It absolutely flowed without me having to do much but keep up. I wrote from 10 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. and fell into bed, exhausted, but very pleased with myself.

Late start today. I have three full days left, a couple of hours on Sunday before I head home, and all the chapters ahead are intense and crucial to the story. I now am not sure if I will finish the novel here, but if I get through the next three chapters and have only the denouement chapter to finish once home, I'll still feel great about my time here.

If you do a residency, know that it might take you a couple of days to adjust. If that happens, be patient with yourself and keep at it. Keep your butt in the chair and keep writing. Even if you throw it out the next day. It's rare to have time to just write, without having to take breaks to grocery shop, let the dog out, do the laundry, have dinner with your parents, spend time with kids and husbands and friends. For the week, weeks, or month you're in this special setting, your job is to write, which is both thrilling and terrifying. It works and it doesn't, like anything else.

If you only write 10 pages over a week, you've accomplished something. One woman, BJ, said to me at dinner the other night, "Enjoy it. Even if you don't get much done. It's important to get away and have time with your work."

Wise words.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AUTHOR SALON: Where Writers Produce Publishable Work and Where Agents and Editors Find Them

I recently joined a website which I would categorize as a mix of online conference, peer critique, and matchmaking with agents and editors. Author Salon provides writers with the visibility and promotion necessary to get them “published by major players in the business.”  It's a Literary Social Network.

Why a site like this has taken this long to come into being, I don’t know, but thank goodness it's here!  It’s a terrific way to be part of a committed, talented group of writers, receive valuable critique, and make you and your book visible to the agents and editors looking for new work and new voices.

At present, membership is free because the site is in Beta testing, but only for a short time, then it’s $9.99 per month with a portion of the fee going to Smile Train, a charity created for children born with clefts. 

Once you become a member, you fill out an extensive profile, which takes a couple of hours (so don’t start this on your lunch hour at work). The profile includes details about your book such as word count, genre, comparables, synopsis, hook, conflict, protagonist, unique world, and climax/denouement. You also provide the first two pages, about 20 lines of your best dialogue, and two short prose samples. There is also a section for your bio and background, your writing life, what inspired the book, and what you’re reading. In this way, you give an agent or editor a sense of who you are, your work, and your platform.

That said, you don’t have to be an accomplished writer to join the site, but you should be committed to becoming one, which includes honing your craft and building your platform.

And you have to be committed to the Author Salon process because it is rigorous.

There are three phases: In Production, Editor Suite, and Marquee Lounge.

During the In Production phase writers friend each other and ask five people in their genre to critique their profile. Once they receive a certain rating or above, the writer moves to the Editor Suite phase where the same process takes place, and 50 pages of one’s work is also exchanged with another set of five reviewers. Each writer reads the work of five others he or she has agreed to work with and critiques and ratings take place again.

In the third level, the Marquee Lounge, the writer’s profile is now open to the agents and editors looking for work to represent or publish.

This ensures that only those who are committed to the process, not just of Author Salon, but of writing a great, marketable book, make it to the final level because along the way writers are told by their peers and Author Salon staff what works, what doesn't work, and what needs to be developed further - while they can still do something about it - and before an agent or publisher shuts the door in their face.

There are several wonderful aspects of Author Salon.

First: The people. I’ve met friendly, creative, determined writers on this site. Their critique comments are well thought through and demonstrate how seriously they take the process and how much they have engaged with my work. Every genre is represented here: young adult, middle grade, fantasy, sci fi, narrative nonfiction, general nonfiction, fiction (women’s upscale, literary, historical), thriller, mystery, detective, romance, paranormal romance. I know I’m missing some. Whatever you write – it’s in here and there are plenty of other people in your genre ready to sign on to work with you.

Second: It’s professional. The structure, the content, the feedback. Weak and poorly filled out profiles are not approved for membership. You can’t be half-assed here. You have to mean it. You have to more than mean it actually! This site asks you to be ALL IN. So you have to ask yourself: How much do I want to be published? Then give it everything you’ve got because the site requires no less of you and you should require the same of yourself. Otherwise you're wasting your time and everyone else’s.

Third: The tech factor. There is a forum for chatting and for the critique process. There are audio and visual components so you can post a book trailer or a recorded reading you gave (video or audio). You can send email via a profile link within the system, but also start private conversations in the forum itself. You also have a personal blog tab on your profile.

Fourth: Expert bloggers. There’s a whole section where writers, editors, agents, anyone and everyone associated with the biz have been invited to blog. You can find anything you want to know in this section. Recently, Author Salon itself posted an article on how to write the six act novel.

Did I mention that the biggest and best agents and editors are there? They’ve sold books to or work for Random House, Viking, Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Little Brown and more. Maybe they are looking for a book just like yours.

Convinced yet? Check it out yourself: Author Salon.

See you there. 

What's Your Writing Life or Writing Goal Theme for 2012?

I'd like to share a quirky little ritual I do every New Year's Eve.

I'm a writer so I'm imaginative. I love the symbolic and figurative. And this ritual is that!

You need:

- 15-30 minutes of undisturbed quiet

- Some pieces of paper or better yet, a journal

- Something fun to write with. This is not the time for the boring ballpoint pen (although I love them for writing in general). Get a colored marker or pencil or even crayon. Or that fancy fountain pen someone gave you years ago that you never use. Or a quill if you're into period dramas on PBS, like me!

- A drink. Something to toast with. That can be tea or wine or whiskey or water. Up to you.

- A fireplace or big spaghetti pot or ashtray, and matches.

You may have heard of this type of  'write it and burn it' thing but bear with me. I have some fun and important questions ahead.

And, it's really helpful to release a year. To 'complete' it so to speak. The good and the bad, in order to move towards the writing life and goals that are important to you. You can't do that dragging around your perceived inadequacies and failures from the previous year. 

Note I said perceived.

I always say there is no failed writing and I say the same for whatever you reached for this year: some contests, a fellowship, an agent. If you didn't get it either you're not ready and there's still practicing to do (don't you want to give your best?), or there's something better around the corner for you to receive. I tend to think it's both. So take heart!

(Pardon me, I'm feeling colorful today.)

Read through the process before beginning.

Take out your paper and write all the crazy, complicated, depressing, sad, frustrating, heartbreaking things that happened this year related to your writing. Just purge everything.

For me, the biggest thing was that I lost my 18 year old Westie, Keegan, a once-in-a-lifetime-extraordinary dog  and went through a period of considering giving up writing for a while. It just didn't feel important or necessary anymore. Here's my boy a month before he let me know he was ready to go:

He was as delicious as he looks.

Anyway, the LAST thing I felt like doing was writing. I talked this over with my writing group and they were very supportive. I kept going to the meetings and workshopping their pieces. And I didn't write for several months - about four. Usually I write to get through a sad time, but it didn't work for me this go round. I couldn't read either.

Eventually, in late May, I wrote some poems, then pulled out a novel idea I'd been wanting to start, and in a weekend I had the outline. I felt a glimmer of 'good' about writing again and decided to start slowly, about 10 pages a month. And now I'm in the last third of it and it's turning out really well.

How about you? Get it all out. Everything that makes you sad and mad about your writing and writing life in the last year. No time to write because of the kids? Lost your job so all your time was spent looking for a new one? No money to go to the conference you've been dreaming of? It all goes here.

Here are some questions to help organize your thoughts:

1) What were my biggest lessons and challenges in 2011?

2) What were my biggest disappointments in 2011? 

3) What am I ready to let go of from this past year?

 Now do the same for everything that went right. The goods, the surprises, the gifts of ideas and characters and images and poems. Maybe you were really disciplined this year about writing and kept your butt in the chair when you were supposed to. Maybe you won a scholarship to a writing conference or won or placed in a contest. Maybe your query letter garnered full manuscript requests from 75% of the agents you queried. Even if no one took it - that's a success. And they gave you feedback in their response, so USE IT to make the book better.

1) What am I most proud of in the past year?

2) What surprised me about myself?

3) What made me feel great about my writing and my abilities? 

My big 'good' this year was that I traveled to England for a Jane Austen pilgrimage, something I'd wanted to do for a long time (sad fact: I was only able to go because Keegan was gone - he'd been too old to board for many years so I hadn't traveled in long time).

Not the sites where the adaptations were filmed, but some of the sites related to her - her grave and the house where she died in Winchester, her portrait at the National Portrait Gallery, her home in Chawton, for example. It was marvelous, everything I'd wanted and more, plus I received an exciting novel idea on the trip that I quickly outlined so that's waiting for me after I finish the current one. Can't wait! (If you'd like the posts about the trip, I just put up #3 of 4 here: Jane Austen Pilgrimage)

Here's her beautiful home, now a museum:

I also took a class there called Writing the Ideal Heroine, taught by Austen's great-great-great-great-great niece, Rebecca Smith. To read about the class and the exercises we did: Writing the Ideal Heroine.

The best part: I saw a Westie the first day of my trip, within one minute of walking out of my hotel so I knew Keegan approved. :)

Now it's time to create a personal theme for your writing life and/or goals in 2012!

Using what you've just written for reference, answer the following questions:

1) What have you put off or avoided this year related to your writing?  What's the next logical step you're not taking because it scares you? Because you have to put yourself out there?

Has your novel been ready to go but you haven't written the query letter so you can send it to agents?   After all, if it's still in a file on your computer, it can't be rejected, right? It's perpetually a work of genius. :)

Or you need a critique group but you don't know if you can take their critique or where to find a group or how to run it?

Or you have lots of notes but haven't actually written the book you say you want to write? You could also have notes for poems or poems that need revising but you just haven't gotten to it so there's no collection to send to contests.

2) Write about how you have been feeling in 2011 and choose how you want to feel about 2012. 

Has this year been all about frustration because you didn't have enough time to write? Disconnection because you haven't been writing or your critique group disbanded and you need a new one? Or you haven't been attending events in your writing community?

Maybe it's been a great year and you've had lots of success - you did most of what you wanted to do. In fact, you worked your ass off, but now you want to slow down, take some time to do research, or just write flash fiction, send out the work you've written rather than write something new for a bit, or catch up on books on craft and try the exercises.

3) What do you want more of in 2012?

Time to write. Recognition. Ideas that flow easily. Getting out of your own way and letting the story through. Opportunities to read your work.

4) What is something big that would blow your mind if it happened in 2012? Blue sky this - no limit.

Remember, writing related. So you could win the lottery, but a portion of the funds should go to you renting a house in Italy for a summer so you can write. That sort of thing.

I don't suggest the lottery, though, I suggest being less specific in that case and saying, "I receive funds that would allow me to rent a house in Italy for the summer so I can write." That way you're not limited to the lottery!

Reread what you've written and write down five key words that jump out at you. Perhaps you've written 'recognition' somewhere, 'community' or 'creativity.' I'm talking abstracts here, not 'novel' or 'conference' or 'critique group.'

Pick the words that excite you and/or make you nervous (that's really excitement masquerading as fear, our ego getting in the way).

You can either choose one of the five words that really resonates with you, that you instinctively know is what you should claim for 2012 by completing this sentence: 2012 is the Year of ___________,

OR write a sentence that encapsulates the theme: Recognition for my writing. Or: Connecting with a supportive writing community.

Write this on several pieces of paper or Post Its and put them where you can see them - wherever you write, one in your car, one on the bathroom mirror.  It might make you feel silly but do it anyway, at least for a few months.

This is NOT a resolution, it's a theme for your life in the next year. You are writing the story of your life every day. Keep this word or sentence in mind and make choices accordingly.

You might want to go a bit further and write down three things you can do in January to get started on honoring this theme. To get recognized you have to get out there, so maybe the list looks like this:

 - research and write query letter draft and give to writer friends to critique

- look for critique group (make a flier and put it up in libraries, the local Whole Foods, church if you     go to church. Post it on Craig's List, or in the forum of your state writer's association).

- enter one contest a month (Poets & Writers is a great resource for reputable contests: Poets & Writers - Contests and Grants).

If you can only get one completed, start the next in February. The point is to KEEP MOVING FORWARD with your theme in mind.

It shouldn't bore or annoy you to do it because hopefully you were very clear and picked what excited you. That excitement will give you momentum.

If it doesn't, do the exercise again. Perhaps you knew which word you should choose, but you chose another out of fear.

Choose the right one now.

You don't have to know how it will be supported. Just know that if you commit to it, it will.

I'd love to know your writing life/goal theme. Share it in the comments section.

Mine is EXPANSION.

When I thought of what that would look like, being a very visual person, I got a picture like this:

The universe - which seems appropriate somehow. Find a picture that symbolizes your theme and put that up instead of the word if that works better for you.

Keep what you've written for your 2012 theme where you can refer to it whenever you like for inspiration. And especially for next New Year's Eve, when you do the exercise again!

NOW WHAT?

BURN IT. In a SAFE place, fold the list you made of the goods and bads in 2011 to symbolize completing them, place them in the pot or ashtray and burn the list (or throw into a fire if one is handy - that's the safest way). If you can, feel grateful for all you learned, struggled with, and received.

DRINK IT IN. Next - hopefully you've brought your drink outside so it's handy - raise your glass to yourself, your next year of creativity, and say the word or sentence that symbolizes your theme.

Happy New Year!

Writing the Wabi Sabi Way

My new article in the "MFA My Way" series at JMWW: Writing the Wabi Sabi Way.

Here's the beginning to get you started:

I’ll give you a second to laugh over the title of this column. No, it’s not a sauce or a type of sushi. It's not related to Star Wars. It’s an ancient Japanese aesthetic of imperfection, incompleteness, and impermanence that originated with Buddhist monks and then was integrated by masters of the tea ceremony in the 15th century. And if you keep it in mind, it’ll cut a lot of crap out of your writing and help you ignore your ego (the source of a lot of frustration and bad work), and bring out a beauty in your writing you didn’t know you were capable of.

Plus, winter is the best time to explore this concept. Wabi sabi is everywhere.

Click on the link to go to the full article, which includes several writing exercises to try (poetry and prose), including one that will create the perfect log line (elevator pitch) for your novel!

Writing the Wabi Sabi Way