A Tale of Two Memoirs~

So, quite by accident, I ended up reading two memoirs this year. Last spring I read Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson and now I'm reading I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. 

I picked them both as part of my diversity reading challenge. Caged Bird was published in 1969, when no one even batted an eye at the use of the word Negro. I had heard of it, but never really knew it was a memoir. Obviously, reams and reams have been written about it and my opinion hardly matters, but something has struck me about the book (and I'm not completely finished reading). 

As with Brown Girl Dreaming, there's a sense of drifting as a young child from grandparent to parent, back to grandparent.  Maya's story starts in the 1930's and 40's. Jacqueline's story is from the 1960's and 70's, but there's still the same upended life on the move, from place to place to place. Maya's description of parents she really doesn't know and finally meeting them is especially heart wrenching to me. I can't imagine how hard it was on those children to be shipped around. We think grandparents raising children is a new phenomenon, but obviously it's not. It will continue for as long as we refuse to educate children about sex and how to care for and protect themselves before they need to know.

Much has been made of the early rape and the later sexual experimentation in the book, but it is an honest, thoughtful portrayal of real life for these children. To ignore that is to ignore reality. Deny that it happens if you'd like, but that doesn't change the fact that these things go on.  The social outcome won't change until we can all have open, honest discussions about sex with our children in preparation for adulthood. I applaud Angelou for having the bravery to be so honest in a world where so many are still kidding themselves.

Welcome Scifi Author and #fantasychat Moderator Warren Bennett

Today, I've invited Warren Bennett to the blog for a chat about writing scifi and fantasy. Hi Warren.  Tell us a bit about yourself…where you’re from and how you came to be a writer…

I am from the great State of Arizona. I grew up in the desert near a city on the Colorado River called Yuma.  (Many know this place a place from films and folk legend, but I meet few actually from the area.)  I’ve been reading as long as I can remember, well before I entered Kindergarten.  I have an older brother that is Three and a Half years my senior, so I tended to be at his reading level instead of someone my own age because I read the books he read.  When my brother was reading Tales of the Fourth Grade Nothing in Fourth Grade, I was in Kindergarten.  As he grew in to Science Fiction and Fantasy, so did I.  I remember reading the Lord of the Rings in my own time in fourth grade and my teacher commenting that I just didn’t read on the same level as everyone else.   That came as a bit of a surprise to me.
Because I loved to read, I started to write.   I wrote my first real story as a freshman in High School and haven’t looked back.  I guess I’ve been writing for too many years to count, now.  (I could count them but it might depress me.)

 
What genres do you write and why?
 

I write mainly in Science Fiction and Fantasy.  I write in those genres because that is what I love to read and watch. I do have ideas for non ‘genre’ stories, but most of those seem to be screenplays I’ve written or want to write.   

What themes do you particularly like to use in your writing and why?
 

Hope is my favorite theme.  I believe there is always hope, even in the darkest of times.  People can come back from the brink of nothing and do well. They can make up for the evil they’ve done in their life.   In the darkness, there is a light, even if this light can only be seen beyond the veil of death.  I hope this theme resonates through everything I write, even if it doesn’t appear in a deliberate fashion.  We are living in a world of such uncertainty, I’d like people to see hope in my writings.  So many people get in to situations in their life and think they can’t change, or there is no reason to go on, but that isn’t true. There is always hope and that is what I pray resonates with people in my books, stories, and whatever else I write. 

Can you tell us about your current project(s)?
 

I have several irons in the fire. One is a Noir novel set on a Generation Ship. Think Hard Boiled Detective fiction in space. (Gotta have echo on that in space for full effect.)  I also have three or four short story collections based around different themes I am working on.  I also have a novel based on that Exodus idea that I’ve planned but haven’t started writing.

I also am going to start looking for an agent to sell some screenplays I’ve written. I haven’t tried to do this in about seven years, so I figure I should start trying again.  I have three screenplays written that I need to re-read and update.  I also have several screenplays I need to write treatments for and outline. 

My other project is a webcomic based around the truck driving industry.  I am going to both write and draw this sucker.   I haven’t really tried art in about 12 years, so this should be an interesting experience.  I wanted to have this going by September, but now I am aiming for January of 2014.  We’ll see how it works out.  I actually ran a webcomic for five years, but I had a really hard time keeping an artist around.  This is the main reason I am doing this one myself.

 
You moderate #fantasychat on Twitter. Tell me about how that got started and what your experience has been with that.
 

Well, Marilyn Muniz (@marikynmuniz on twitter) mentioned she wanted to start a fantasy focused chat for writers a few years back.    I encouraged her to start the chat and gave her a few suggestions about it.  She set everything up and ran with it. I believe that was about two years ago and the chat has been going every since.
When some changes came to her own life, Marilyn changed the day of the chat. 
She stopped being able to do the Fantasy Chat on Sunday evenings, as it has been since it started.   Some of the regular chat members couldn’t make it on the new night, so I offered to take over the chat every other Sunday at the old time.  I did every other Sunday because I wanted to leave room open for doing something on Sunday evenings with friends or family.  I think I’ve been doing this for four months or so? I can’t remember, to be honest.  I know Marilyn was able to start moderating the chat the opposite Sunday to me, so now we have it going every Sunday again.     

The Fantasy Chat experience has been amazing.  I love being a moderator, though sometimes I am not sure how good of one I am.  It’s interesting to see the clock tick by – when I ask a question and no one answers for five minutes, it feels like an few hours has crawled by. I am learning how to keep the conversation going without stepping on the subject. It reminds me of running a Pen and Paper RPG game: Nothing ever goes exactly as planned, but I can’t be so in love with the rules that I ruin the experience for the group.   No matter what the theme of the night is, the conversation always shifts back and forth along many parallel lines.    I’m just glad I haven’t had a night where no one has shown up yet.  I ran a Fantasy Game chat for a while where that happened.  It is a learning experience – I know I’ve overreacted at least once and maybe under reacted a few times.  However, I’ve really enjoyed being a moderator and hope I can do it for a long time. 

  

What advice do you have for a beginning fantasy writer or any indie writer?

Develop a passion for writing.  I don’t know about most people, but writing isn’t easy for me.  I have a little bit of Shiny syndrome (My relatives and friends will say I have much more than a little bit of that) so to stay focused on a project, I have to be passionate about it.  It’s a constant battle with my attention being drawn elsewhere and focusing on the page at hand.  Having a passion about a project also helps get me through those times when I don’t want to write and would rather be killing monsters in Final Fantasy XIV.

I also believe that Writer’s write, always.  Write everyday and treat it like a job.  Set a goal for yourself and stick to it.  You might have to give up a few things in life, like going out to a party or hanging out with friends for the night.  That is the way of a career since without those sacrifices, the eventual success won’t be as sweet.   True success comes with shedding blood, sweat, tears and moments of anger, depression, lunatic madness, and  times of ubergiddiness.  For me anyway, but of course I may measure success different than you. J

Is there anything else you’d like to mention?
 

Be Open to Critiques.  Not criticism, as in people just slamming your stuff to slam it, but thoughtful and helpful critiques.  I have friends and family that aren’t about just telling me that I’m a good writer. They will point out how I can make my story better or what they truthfully think of my work. Now, I’m not always in the mood to take that advice but I always end up thinking about it later.  I can be a bit surely but their opinions do penetrate, even if they don’t think so at the time.  Being open to critiques will also help you when you hit the real world of writing. Editors will tear your stuff apart, and then ask you to put the bloody mess of your manuscript back together before the deadline.  It isn’t easy but it is a part of the industry. 

Thank you for interviewing me. I’ve enjoyed answering these questions.  I hope to do it again sometime.   If people want to hear more from me, my blog is warrencbennett.wordpress.com and my twitter handle is @warrencbennett.

Blog 30 Goonies Never Say "Die"!!

Lately, I’ve noticed some of my writer friends are unhappy.  There are a variety of reasons, but most of it seems to revolve around criticism. Notice I didn’t say “critiques”, but criticism.  Opinions are like those other things everyone else has, right? They’re always going to be there.  The trick is to keep those criticisms or unhelpful opinions from bogging us down, or worse, stopping us from writing altogether.

When I first self-published Storyteller, it took a long time to get my first review. The jist of it was, “Meh, its ok.” At least, that’s what I took away from it. Needless to say, I was hoping for a little better than 'meh'. Actually, I was crushed.  And that was from someone who probably thought they were being kind. I can’t imagine what I would have done if that someone had been actually trying to hurt my feelings.  I’ve always been a sensitive person and I can take a lot of things to heart – way too many things- but I’m getting better at separating myself from criticism. At least I think I am. I guess we’ll see how I do when Hush Puppy is released and the first reviews come in.

A few years back, I facilitated a Dove Real Beauty Workshop for Girls. What’s that and what does it have to do with criticism? A lot actually. The workshop teaches girls how to deal with all the messages they get each day, both positive and negative, but the advice is excellent for anyone of any age. I love the message so I’m going to pass it along to you.

Imagine yourself in a giant bubble, everywhere you go. This is your personal space bubble. It protects you. You decided what to let into your bubble and what to keep out. Let in the good things around you: supportive friends and family. Reject the bad things, in this case: unconstructive criticism that only seeks to unsettle you or separate you from your dreams. We don’t want to completely shut ourselves off from constructive criticism, but we should be selective as to whom we let into our bubble.

My favorite writer about writing, Brenda Ueland, says this:

"The only good teachers for you are those friends who love you, who think you are interesting, or very important, or wonderfully funny; whose attitude is: Tell me more. Tell me all you can. I want to understand more about everything you feel and know and all the changes inside and out of you. Let more come out. And if you have no such friend,  -and you want to write, -well then you must imagine one."

If you haven’t read her book "If you want to write: a book about art, independence, and spirit" , I urge you to check it out. I’ve raved about it in posts before, so I won’t do it here. I’ll just say there are some lovely passages. Whenever I get discouraged about my writing, I open it up and quickly find comfort.

And if you find yourself the subject of unwanted criticism, decide what to accept and what to disregard. The choice is truly yours.

Blog 27 ~ Open Mic Night or “There’s Room Enough on my Soap Box for Two”

So I’ve been babbling on for nearly a month here. Now I’d like to extend an invitation to anyone who might like to post a guest post on my blog.  I have several guest posters already lined up, but I wanted to open the invitation to any of my readers.  Of course, every topic is subject to my approval, but in general, guest posts on writing, reading, and/or publishing would be most welcome. 

Author interviews or blog/book tours are welcome too.  I recently did an author interview for Gary Vanucci and it was a lot of fun.  Hop on over to Gary’s blog and check it out.  In short, I’m open to anything bookish J  I’m always interested in exchanging interviews or book promotions too.  Just shoot me an e-mail here – writerlisacresswell (at) gmail (dot) com .

I look forward to hearing from you~

Blog 25 ~ The Golden Rule

I recently signed up for a critique session through my local Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrator’s chapter. I live in a rural area and I don’t have many critique partners nearby, so when opportunities like this come up, I try to jump on it.  Now I have several manuscripts and synopses to review for a workshop in August.

Before I get started, I thought it would be useful to think about how I’m going to do this in terms of how I like to be critiqued myself.  I’ve had a rather brutal critique style in the past and I wonder if I might need to soften that. I witnessed a lot of verbal critiques last week and I came away with a better feel for how I personally would like to be critiqued.

First off, a critique is not proofreading. I don’t think focusing on grammatical errors is helpful at the early draft stage. It wastes valuable time on words that may end up being cut anyway. The only time to mention spelling, punctuation, and grammar is if they are so glaring as to be a complete and utter distraction to the reader.

For me, personally, here’s what I want to know:

Does it grab you? Intrigue you? Or is it confusing? Does it make you feel something? Anything?? Does it make you want to read more?

What words, dialog, or speech tags pop you out of the story? Where does it begin to bore you, or make your mind stumble over clunky, awkward language? Are there plot holes or things that don’t make sense?

Does the writing have heart? Does it have a theme, or at least a feel? Can you hear the author’s voice lecturing you or can you hear the voice of the characters? Do the characters seem like real people or card board cutouts that could be anyone?

Do you feel like you’re in “good hands”, as if the author has a sense of mastery that you’re comfortable with?  What parts to you love? What parts do you hate? How can I make it better?

Blog #24 Starting over~

Omigosh you guys!! Writing conferences can make you think about your writing in a whole new way - a fact proven to me once again in Oregon at the Oregon Coast Children's Book Writer's Workshop.  I submitted a first page for group critique. It was read aloud anonymously (which I love) and critiqued by the group of instructors in front of everyone.

I submitted a first page of a story that I knew needed work. I wasn't entirely happy with it and I couldn't really figure out why. I had written the book and decided it needed a better beginning, so I wrote a new chapter one and stuck it on the beginning of the book. It was a beautiful chapter one and I was very proud of it, but as it was read aloud and I listened to everyone's comments, I realized it doesn't match the rest of the book. The tone is literary, reflective, and somewhat sad, but the rest of the book is a silly, little paranormal romance I wrote for fun. I think I've come to the realization that this chapter one doesn't belong to this paranormal story at all, but to another sort of story.

I don't mind writing young adult (YA) contemporary. Hush Puppy is YA contemporary, but I seem to have to stumble into these kinds of books. The first chapter of Hush Puppy placed well in a contest and I knew I had to write the book. The first chapter of this book, written in contemporary style, got such positive feedback in the critique session that I think I had better write it too. Perhaps my strength lies in YA contemporary?

I know I probably worry too much about writing heavy subjects...I'm not sure why I hesitate to go there. Probably because I know it will be much work and will require much soul searching, some of it probably gut wrenching. I also know those are the kinds of stories I seem to do the best so I suppose I should listen to the universe and get busy writing.

But where to begin? Reimagining the entire story completely differently is a little daunting. I wish I could erase my memory!  Have you ever scrapped an entire manuscript to start off in another direction? How did you do it??

Blog #21 Homeward bound~

As much as I love to travel, I also love going home and it’s time. Dorothy said it best “There’s no place like home.” For me, it’s back to work and the heat of summer. I hope my tomato plants didn’t burn up in the greenhouse. L I guess I’ll know tonight.

I have a pile of manuscripts to critique for a group of people in Boise, due late August. I gotta get crackin’! I don’t have a regular critique group, for a variety of reasons, but I try to take every chance I can to get a critique. 

This last week has been a lot of critiquing for me, by several people. I met with an agent, a writer, or an editor every day of the week, to talk about my writing. Thank you, David Greenberg, for a great conference! I learned some new things and had some old things reinforced. And of course, I was able to meet with agents and editors I would normally never get the chance to meet. I’m always grateful for that opportunity. You are a perfectly delightful, gracious host beyond compare. :)

I’ve had my share of bumps and ego bruising in my years of critique, but they’re usually always pointing me toward something better. I do my best to take the critique in the spirit in which it was intended.  It sucks, but you have to take the experience and learn from it. You’ll know you’re improving when people are having a hard time finding anything negative to say about a piece.  If you keep at, it’ll come; I promise.