Work in Progress

Feminism and the vampire novel

2009-09-12T10:27:00.001-07:00

In a continuation of our general discussion of all things Twilight, here's an interesting article that summarizes the feminist argument against Twilight, among other things (race, sex, etc.). The author, Caitlin Brown, basically argues that, although the generic vampire novel itself has inherent problems, those problems offer tons of opportunities for subversion, complexity, and individual choice. Furthermore, while Stephenie Meyer, the author of Twilight, defends her writing by claiming that Bella (protagonist) makes choices, which makes her a feminist. However, these choices align Bella, and Twilight as a whole, with all of the failings of the vampire novel, and produce no interesting or empowering twists on the format. Far be it for me to dip my toe into the "does making anti-feminist choices mean you're not a feminist" argument. But the article makes good points about genre and audience and expectations, all in a readable way. Read it!

FAQ about publishing your work online

2009-08-25T17:53:00.000-07:00

Hi, all! If you're not already reading the Editorial Ass blog (featuring blogger Moonrat), you should be. Make it happen.

One of Moonrat's posts is about the sticky issue of what to publish online, e.g. on a blog, if you want to eventually publish that work in real life. We have had this discussion before -- it's kept us from doing more with the blog, or from creating an online mini-magazine (maglet?). But Moonrat answers the question well, and with great perspective, since she's an acquisitions editor who has to worry about issues like this routinely.

Here's her thought: if your blog doesn't have a ton of readers, and if you take the work down later, there is absolutely no problem with posting your unpublished work online. Make sure that you don't post the entire MS in one post, of course. But, on the whole, posting your work online is a good way to 1) get constructive feedback and 2) build a fan base.

With that in mind, maybe I'll start posting my own writing on my blog!

Have a great rest of your summer, and I'll see you all in Chicago this fall.

For the Twilight mockers

2009-07-31T12:37:00.000-07:00

I just found a completely hilarious Twilight thing online and I thought maybe some of the anti-Twilight WiP people might appreciate it.

Apparently this blogger got word of a Pride and Prejudice and Zombies thing called Mr. Darcy, Vampyre. I know - really?? But here, children, is Mr. Wickham, Vampyre. In which Lydia falls down a lot, Wickham sparkles, and there is a naughty little Regency romance joke at the end. Pity this girl doesn't go to UC; I think she knocked our Twilight challenge all hollow.

Incidentally, I got to meet the editor of the Twilight series, and she's actually a very nice, very smart, very not-creepy woman.

Summer publishing opportunities

2009-06-29T11:34:00.000-07:00

Hi, all!

While cruising Craigslist's writing jobs, I came across this post, from a poetry chapbook publisher looking for submissions. The publisher, Big Table Publishing Company, is made up of writers who promise not to reply with form letters. They sound like nice people, and this could be a great opportunity to get your work out there, especially if you have a collection of poems that could make up a chapbook. Find out more information about their submission guidelines here.

Another post offers an opportunity to submit fiction or nonfiction up to 5,000 words. It's from 10ktobi.org, a.k.a. 10,000 Tons of Black Ink, run by the Literary Writer's Network. Looks like 10ktobi publishes lots of work on their website, then puts together a print edition of the strongest online work at the end of every year. Be sure to check out 10ktobi.org's "About" section, as well as their submission guidelines. No payment available, but exposure is a great thing. As Lisbeth said in her intro to agents and publishing, having any kind of audience or exposure is a plus when you're trying to sell your work.

If you have the time this summer, consider submitting to either of these places. Let us know how it goes! And even though WIP is on summer hiatus, you can always send your work to the listhost for feedback.

Summer reading list

2009-06-04T07:54:00.000-07:00

Long overdue, here is the open post for our summer reading list. I'll include a few here; leave your suggestions in the comments.

Intruder in the Dust - William Faulkner
Trickster's Choice - Tamora Pierce
The Greenlanders - Jane Smiley
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card

Tamora Pierce rocks.

2009-05-06T06:33:00.000-07:00

A few of us went up to Skokie to see Tamora Pierce last night. And it was a blast! She started out reading veeeeeeeeeery slowly and quietly, then had a coughing fit, then laughed and said, "Got you, didn't I?" After that it was loads of fun. She talked some about her experiences (getting started, getting published, continuing to write), and then opened it up for questions. Lots of interesting ones, and she had great answers for all of them. We all agreed that she inspired us to write. Yay.

I'll be drawing from this event -- including her brilliant but unobvious declaration that she borrows/steals from real people and cultures regularly -- for many weeks, but for now, here's a quote from her website about how to deal with writer's block.

How do you deal with writer's block?
Here are some fixes I use when I get stuck:
Introduce a new character, a strong one with an individual style in speech, dress and behavior--one who will cause the other characters to review their own actions and motives to decide where they stand with regard to the new character. Don't forget that with me, at least, new characters include animals: most characters will react to an animal intrusion of some kind in an interesting way.
Have something dramatic happen. As Raymond Chandler put it, "Have someone come through the door with a gun in his hand." (My husband translates this as "Have a troll come through the door with a spear in his hand.") Machinery or vehicles (cars, wagons, horses, camels) can break down; your characters can be attacked by robbers or pirates; a flood or tornado sweeps through. Stage a war or an elopement or a financial crash. New, hard circumstances force characters to sink or swim, and the way you show how they do either will move things along.
Change the point of view from which you tell the story. If you're doing it from inside one character's head, try switching to another character's point of view. If you're telling the story from an all-seeing, third person ("he/she thought") point of view, try narrowing your focus down to one character telling the story in first person, as Huckleberry Finn and Anne Frank tell their stories. If down the road in the world you've created someone has written a book or encyclopedia about these events, insert a nonfiction-like segment (that doesn't give the important stuff away) as a change of pace. Try telling it as a poem, or a play (you can convert it to story form later).
Put this story aside, and start something else: letters, an article, a poem, a play, an art project. Look at the story in a day, or a week, or a couple of months. It may be fresh for you then; it may spark new ideas.
If you have an intelligent friend who's into the things you're writing about, talk it out with him/her. My husband often supplies wonderful new ideas so I can get past whatever hangs me up, and my family and friends are used to mysterious phone calls asking about things seemingly out of the blue, like what gems would you wear with a scarlet gown, or how tall are pole beans in late June?
Most important of all, know when it's time to quit. Sometimes you take an idea as far as it will go, then run out of steam. This is completely normal. When I began to write, I must have started 25 things for each one I completed. Whether you finish something or not, you'll still have learned as you wrote. The things you learn and ideas you developed, even in a project you don't finish, can be brought to your next project, and the next, and the next. Sooner or later you'll have a story which you can carry to a finish.

That'll never happen

2009-04-15T07:25:00.000-07:00

Last night's meeting was a return to form for WIP. We discussed upcoming events, and did an extended free-write on an interesting prompt.

Events to note:

This Thursday: RSO Fair for prospies! We'll be tabling from 7:30 to 9:00 in Hutch. Consider volunteering for a shift (even fifteen minutes would be helpful). All you have to do is sit there and talk to excited eighteen-year-olds about creative writing. BEST JOB EVER. Anyway, if you can't do a shift, please do stop by and show your support for WIP.
Next Thursday: another RSO Fair. Same time and place. Again, please volunteer or stop by if you can.
Tuesday, May 5: the second annual WIP reading! 7:00 p.m. in Hallowed Grounds, with great food and hip music. This time we're adding Sliced Bread to the list of sponsors, and are opening it up to all kinds of writing. It is tentatively titled "Close/Open," referring to the closing of old worlds and the opening of new ones through epiphany; if your work doesn't fit this mold, though, you are still welcome to read. An official call for submissions is to come, but if you have any work you'd like to share, please contact me. It only needs to be a couple of pages long. And if you're stressed about quality, you can submit it to the workshop for feedback. There's still plenty of time. We will also need volunteers to be present, but details are to come. And if you know of singers or guitarists who'd like to perform, pass on the word, and have them contact me. We have two or three slots for performances.

Last night's meeting:

The prompt was: "Write about an event you are fairly sure you'll never experience. Write it in the first person, and include as much detail as you can. Make it believable. Let your imagination flesh out the scene."
Over half of us wrote about death. What does this mean?

For next week:

Continue writing your scene. Those of you who weren't present, respond to the prompt. Polish/rewrite as necessary. Submit two pages to the workshop by Sunday night. We'll discuss them on Tuesday.

A time-travelling...swizzlestick??

2009-03-10T21:08:00.001-07:00

Because this needs to be shared with everyone and because we all need a laugh before finals.

Here is a link to the review we were talking about in the meeting today.

Do be warned that the reviewer is writing about erotica - and bad erotica at that. If you are at work, easily shocked, disturbed by metaphors that have gone so far into bad they're coming out near silly, or just freaked out by a time-traveling toilet stall, I wouldn't read this. If you're fine with all of the above (and are at home or have a tolerant boss), go right ahead. Highly entertaining.

Newness

2009-03-10T15:02:00.000-07:00

During the summer of '07, I needed a good beach/commute book, so I picked up my roommate's copy of Company, a "late capitalist novel" by Max Barry. It sounded like a ripoff of Palahniuk, but it ended up being really fun and fairly interesting. The twist at the end was good -- I'm always delighted when authors plot suspense well.

Somewhat less surprisingly, Max Barry (also author of Syrup and Jennifer Government) is also a decent blogger. And one of his nuggets of writing advice, from an older entry, is posted above my desk:

I reacted to my Syrup rejections by writing a standard, genre thriller. It was terrible. And I learned that you never improve anything by making it less original. It’s the opposite: the worst thing writing can be is not new [bold mine -RP].
I’m convinced this isn’t just me. I think everybody wants newness. Editors, agents, readers: we all want new plots, new ideas, new ways of looking at the world. Nobody wants to get twenty pages into a book and know where it’s going, or even feel too much like they’ve seen all this before. Even within a genre’s iron-clad conventions, we want twists, surprises, and reinventions.
Young writers in particular can sometimes try to crawl inside a pre-conceived box labeled “novel” or “screenplay,” and end up with something far less interesting than if they’d forged their own path. I’m not saying you want to hit the other extreme, and pursue a lone, bizarre vision with no regard for how it reads. But you must nurture the things that make your story and your writing unique—that make you unique, since writing is letting people crawl around inside your head. Billions of people can write a sentence. Why should I bother reading yours, unless they’re different?

I read this whenever I'm tempted to give up on writing smart fantasy because I'm afraid it won't sell. First of all, I need to shut up and start writing. But more importantly, Barry makes the point that editors and readers want something new, even if the bookshelves don't suggest that. The more cynical (and publishing-savvy) among us may respond that, yes, they're looking for something new, but what they really want is the new Next Big Thing that will sell millions of copies and have midnight releases.

That said, it really is good advice. I don't want to read the same short story (or fantasy novel!) over and over again. I don't want to write the same story, either.

Any thoughts?

(Cross-posted at I'm Writing)

Back Online

2009-03-08T20:59:00.001-07:00

Hi all.

Some of you were (questionably) lucky to be around for my semi-coherent discussion of what I did with my summer when I was interning with a literary agent. I think at the time I promised to post the useful, non-rambling bits to the blog, along with a few links.

I have done this - sort of. Meaning, I put together a lot of information about what I do as an assistant in an agency, what an agency actually does, and how that relates to the publishing industry in the first place. Only thing is, I didn't post it here.

What I actually did was tinkered with the code on my other blog so that it would accept expandable posts (look, there were like six pages of material...you did NOT want to see that all posted at once) and stored all of my notes there. You should mosey on over and check it out.* Maybe at some point in the future I'll see about getting some more specific examples of Bad Query Letter/Good Query Letter if anyone's interested.

Because, you know, reading about publishing and/or messing around with HTML and style sheets is a lot more fun than finals.

*If I figure out how to modify the style sheet for this blog, I will move everything over here, I promise.

Writing Contest

2008-09-10T17:51:00.000-07:00

I saw this postcard story contest and I thought I should pass it on to all you fine Workers (do we have a collective plural yet?). It sounds entertaining.

You find a postcard you like, write a 500-word story - fiction OR non-fiction, interestingly enough - and send it in. The deadline is November 1. Could be fun, especially if any of you go in for very short. Or it could be a good prompt/exercise/activity; who knows?

And an FYI on the industry and contests in general (for those of you who don't know, I spent my summer interning with a literary agent, so I got to paddle in the murky waters of the publishing pond. It was fantastic): part of writing is getting published, and one thing that will help you get published is placing in contests. It's not a guarantee someone will pick you up just like that, but it will get their attention and, hopefully, make them look twice, remember your name, and maybe even ask to see pages. So if you feel good about something and are seriously thinking of trying to get published at some point - especially in the short story line - it might be worth the $20.

Yesterday's meeting

2008-08-26T06:29:00.000-07:00

A few of us met last night, and talked about the chapter Lisbeth had submitted from her project, "Fortunate Ones." We talked a lot about worldbuilding, which is more relevant to some of you than to others, as well as about how to apportion information for readers without making it feel like backstory is being heaped on them. To that end, the workshops this fall will focus less on getting ideas and getting started than on how to put those ideas into action -- in other words, how to get past Chapter 1.

You guys also missed an extended clash about the merits of Frank Herbert's Dune. Very entertaining!

There might be a meeting next week; please mention in your comments which day and time would be best for you. We're also taking submissions for next week; otherwise you guys will have to put up with reading my project.

Also, would anyone be interested in having another reading this fall? It would be in mid-November or later. We would need to have people sign up to read their work, as well as any musical acts you guys can get your hands on.

Lastly, keep thinking about NaNoWriMo. It's not as far off as you think!

Tuesday's meeting; recs and NaNoWriMo

2008-08-16T06:54:00.000-07:00

Sorry to have been remiss in posting! Here's what we talked about this week.

Recommendations for reading:
+ Wonderboys (Michael Chabon)
+ Riddlemaster of Hed
+ The Name of the Wind (LeGuin)
+ Bleak House (Dickens)
+ The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (... am I the only one in the world who hasn't read this yet?)
+ books by Wilkie Collins
+ books by A. S. Byatt
+ The Shadow of the Wind (Sara, help me out on the author!)

We also talked about the upcoming November, which happens to be National Novel Writing Month. I quote: "National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30."

Even if you're writing a BA this year, take a stab at writing for NaNoWriMo. Remember, "the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output," so you can write whatever you want and rewrite it later. A lot of you have mentioned that it's hard to just get started, so take this as your chance to put pen to paper (or fingertips to keyboard) and write whatever comes. You can revise it later.

To that end, it's important to start NaNoWriMo with a fresh idea. Don't bring preexisting characters or plots into it. I'll be starting with the kernel of an idea I already have, but not with the complex world I've built around another project in the works.

Having primed you, here's the prompt for this session.

---

Write a scene in which a character's body, as well as his mind, is engaged in doing something. Here are some possibilities:
+ repairing something
+ playing solitaire or a game involving other players
+ doing exercises
+ painting a canvas or a wall
+ cutting down a tree
+ giving someone a haircut

Explore how various activities and settings can change what happens within a scene. For example, what happens when characters are planning their honeymoon while they are painting an apartment, or while one of them is cutting the other's hair. Pay attention to body language and choreography.

(adapted from What If: Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers, by Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter)

---

Last, but not least, the next meeting will be Monday, August 25, at 7 p.m. at my apartment.

"...all writers, novice or professional, have to get our hands dirty."

2008-08-13T11:33:00.001-07:00

So I'm in this blogging phase right now, right? And I just started my own blog, wherein I'll diligently chronicle my thoughts and actions about writing... someday soon. In the meantime, I'm still reading the blogs of writers I like. At the blog of Shannon Hale, who's a great (and successful!) YA fantasy author, there's a new post up about the point of rewriting. I especially like the following quote:

"Every writer's process is different. Ann (A.E.) Cannon pointed out that most writers either start with character then find the plot, or start with plot then find the character (and of course it's the combination of those two, character and plot, that make story). ... Whichever you are, it becomes the work of rewrite to find the other."

I found this really helpful, since I'm a last-minute writer when it comes to everything but fiction, and I usually rewrite too heavily to even consider my products drafts of the same story. Ergo I'm terrified to revise real projects I'm invested in. But fear is not the answer.

Summer WIP, II

2008-07-17T16:19:00.000-07:00

I decree it to be time for a new post to work out scheduling for said summer meeting.

To wit:

Kat has a standing Wednesday conflict
I am happy to host
Although I too have a conflict this Wednesday (that's the 23rd for the calendary types)
And I'm not available Thursday nights either

I'd be up for something any day of next week that isn't Wednesday or Thursday though. ;)

Comment at your leisure. What day is good? What time is good? Who's here anyway? I assume we all have a similar 9ish-5ish work schedule? Would 7 be a good meeting time?

Summer WIP

2008-06-16T07:20:00.000-07:00

Since a few of us will be in Chicago this summer, I thought it might be fun to hold a few meetings or just hang out and talk about writing. If you're down for that, let me know. The first meet-up probably wouldn't be until July. And just so you know, all of you will have to listen to me agonize over my B.A. at least twenty times. Hope that's okay with you.

Printers Row Book Fair -- this weekend

2008-06-03T13:00:00.000-07:00

If you're interested in publishing, be sure to check out the Printers Row Book Fair, in the South Loop, this Saturday and Sunday. Publishers from across the Midwest will be there.

An alum hinted that this was a good chance to put resumes in the hands of your dream employers, especially smaller local presses, so keep that in mind, too! And watch your e-mail: if enough people are interested, a few of us could meet up at the fair and see what we can find.

RHINO poetry

2008-05-22T14:17:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine works on RHINO, a poetry magazine based in Evanston, IL. They're reading submissions now through October for the '09 issue. They're looking for poems, short-shorts/flash fiction, and translations. They also have a new contest with a $10 entry fee and $300 prize.

If you guys write any of the media they accept, definitely check them out, for copies of past issues and for a shot at publication. Ain't nothing like supporting a hometown magazine before you really get famous.

www.rhinopoetry.org

BA reading tonight

2008-05-22T12:13:00.000-07:00

There's a reading of ENGL and CRWR BAs tonight! For all those of you interested in writing BAs next year, or if you're interested in writing longer projects in general, I strongly recommend that you stop by, at least for a while.

The details of the reading are as follows:

BA Reading
4:30-7:30
Ida Noyes Hall, Third Floor Theatre

Contact Amy Schulz (aschulz@uchicago.edu) with any questions.

Baring It All

2008-05-21T20:48:00.000-07:00

Come share your creative writing work at a year-end reading next Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. in Hallowed Grounds. All work is welcome, including poetry, short stories, segments of longer fiction, plays, screenplays, and mixed media.

Co-sponsored by ENGL, SGFC, and Sliced Bread, the event will also feature campus music: Saturday Realism, and Claudie and Miles.

Uh, and there's going to be amazing catering from Fox & Obel. So you should go. Seriously, what could be better than listening to awesome writing by your peers (which you may have helped to critique), hearing great music, and noshing on upscale pastry? Come on now.

Make sure to bring friends, since a strong showing will indicate support for the creative writing community here, with which everyone is dissatisfied. Please also sign up to read as soon as possible, and if you can, include a short description of your piece, so that we can group pieces by theme.

Finally, what's the prevailing opinion on concluding the reading with an open mic?

Event details here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=41168560206

Thanks

2008-05-07T13:58:00.000-07:00

A huge thank-you to everyone who came and helped out last night. We had a great turnout, and lots of good questions. Let's do more of these!

Stay tuned for details about next week's meeting.

WiP Presents: Nic Pizzolatto

2008-05-05T02:55:00.000-07:00

As I'm sure you already know, either from the listhost or Facebook or those nifty green fliers, or good, old-fashioned word of mouth, we of Work in Progress are lucky enough to have UC creative writing professor Nic Pizzolatto joining us for a Q&A session this Tuesday.

Don't know about Nic? Pity. You're missing out.

Nic Pizzolatto received his MFA from the University of Arkansas in 2005, where he was awarded the $10,000 Walton Foundation Fellowship in Creative Writing two years in a row and received a Lilly Peter Fellowship in Poetry. His stories have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The Oxford American, The Iowa Review, The Missouri Review, and various other literary journals. In 2004, his work was among the finalists for the National Magazine Award in Fiction. His first book, Between Here and the Yellow Sea, was published in May, 2006. It was long-listed for the International Frank O’Connor Award, and named by Poets & Writers Magazine as one of the top five fiction debuts of the year. He is currently at work on novels and stories.
---

To put it bluntly, this is good. Really good. How often do you get the chance to sit down with someone who really knows the ropes and ask all the questions - from the smart ones to the really stupid ones?

We spend a lot of time at our meetings working on copy: where do I get my ideas and how can I make the ideas I have better? These are all well and good, but eventually you want other people to read your ideas, right?

Right. That's where Nic comes in because he, unlike most of us, can speak not only to ideas, but to diseminating them. Questions like, how to navigate submissions, how to write a query, how to deal with rejection (hint: I suspect this is not the way to go about it), and how to actually sell what you've created and perfected. Even if you think of yourself as a closet writer, you probably have the odd daydream about Getting Published - and what better way to Get Published than to go out and ask questions?

So, please join us on Tuesday, May 6 at 6:30 PM in Rosenwald 405 for free food, free chat, and, most importantly, free advice.

Hope to see you there!

What we did, and what we'll do

2008-04-23T17:28:00.000-07:00

In our last meeting, on April 22, we did a free-writing exercise that consisted of the following:

+ Write the sketch of a character.
+ Write the sketch of a character who is opposite to your first character in at least one significant way. It doesn't have to be obvious.
+ Write a scene in which these two characters interact.

For many of us, this exercise made us think differently about characters we'd already been working with.

And for next week, choose your response to one of the three prompts to read aloud. We'll talk more about character development and realistic scenes at the meeting.

Additionally, please spread the word to your classmates and friends about Nic's Q&A, which will be at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 6, in Rosenwald 405. There will be food. In case you're debating whether or not to attend, refer to Sara's account of an after-class talk with Nic, in which he decried UChicago's lack of support for writers who really would like to use their skills practically. A kindred spirit, he.

Some recommendations

2008-04-08T19:37:00.000-07:00

In our meeting today I mentioned a couple of books. I just wanted to get the names and authors out there in case anyone was interested in actually looking them up or looking for them. With bullet points and Amazon links for convenience!

The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss.

An author dealing with the fact that most epic fantasy is recycled tropes.
It's a self-conscious novel, sometimes to the point of irritatingly so, but it's interesting to see Rothfuss blend "fairy tale comfort food" with more main-stream character treatment.
There are some neat plot ideas and spins on the genre (did I mention the vegetarian dragon addicted to narcotics?) and the logic of the magic is really solid.
In all honesty, Terry Pratchett and even Peter David do this better, but Rothfuss is more epic than Pratchett and less bleak than David. And sort of fun on his own terms.

Odd Man Out, Sarah Ellis

Raia's Nathan made me think of this one.
Kip gets stuck staying with his cousins while his mother and new stepfather are on their honeymoon. When he finds his father's old journals in the attic, Kip gradually begins to uncover the disturbing truth about the father he has never known.
It's technically a kids' book, but fun to read anyway. The writing is a good reminder on ways to tell a story plainly and how to integrate humor into a more serious "grown-up" issue.

Notes from Week 1 Meeting

2008-04-02T05:42:00.000-07:00

Here's another minutes post, because you all love them so much.

+ meetings every week!
+ two or three submissions per meeting
+ Nic's talk, tentatively sched. for 4/22/08 at normal meeting time and place
+ we need publicity for this event! and funding!
+ we need someone to talk to ENGL and CRWR departments/committees to ask for funding and build networking, as well as sending out an e-mail to the listhosts ([ugrad-english] and whatever the CRWR one is, sent out by Julia Klein)
+ let's get started on the online magazine: if anyone has ideas for the website or the magazine itself, or about lj-style cuts to excerpt works on this blog, let me know
+ weekly writer's journal: blog about the problems and successes of everyday writing (this will rotate)... who's first?

And the prompt: write a piece that could only take place in a particular season. Explore the effects of setting on your action and characters.
----

Notes from Week 9 Meeting

2008-03-05T07:06:00.000-08:00

Last meeting of the quarter!

We discussed the stories by Sara and Matt. For Sara we suggested a number of ways in which the story could develop; for Matt we offered ideas on how to populate an unfamiliar world with fully human, fully realized characters.

We also talked about ways the group could grow, and plans for next quarter. We'd like to bring in a speaker, and go to various festivals in the spring. If you have any ideas, please post them! It would also be good to do something with FOTA, even in a tiny capacity. We should get involved with the English Department and Committee on Creative Writing, too. Would anybody like to be the liaison between us and those departments?

There was no prompt assigned, but I'll get one up as soon as I can. If anybody has ideas on a good technique to practice, let me know. Catalina suggested writing something from the point of view of a character with some kind of mental limitation, like being high or feverish. This could become a stream-of-consciousness narrative. If this appeals to you, go ahead and rock it!

Best of luck with finals, and have a great break.

Submission Opportunity

2008-02-21T17:25:00.000-08:00

I know that most of us are oriented around the short story/novel, but if you're at all interested in theatre (or film, performance art, whathaveyou) and want to be involved in this, there's still time to submit something for UT's New Work Week. Basically, UT devotes a weekend of performances to staged readings of student written or devised work. Note the exciting bit about half way down - what you submit doesn't have to be finished. This tends to be a pretty neat experience, so if you've ever dreamed of seeing your writing staged, or have a play or screenplay stashed under your bed, this is a great chance to dust it off.

The deadline is close, but I literally just remembered this yesterday. E-mail me if you want the submission form.
Cheers
Lisbeth
--

Spring Quarter 2008

New Work Week
4th Week

University Theater is seeking submissions of new work including:

Stage Plays
Screen Plays
Situational Comedy
Poetry
Fiction
Musical Compositions
Dance
Performance Art

Work does not have to be in finished state for submission, and
portions of work can be staged.

We are interested in showcasing and developing the immense
range of creative talent at the University with small time
commitment.  Writers/Performers would work collaboratively
with matched directors, with brief initial meetings beginning
at the end of this quarter.  Rehearsals would range from 1-3
meetings over the first 3 weeks of Spring Quarter.

New Work Submissions:
Submission Requirements: 2 copies of work, contact
information, and what stage you are in the process (# of
drafts, prior readings, stagings or concerts)

Directors:
Those interested in working with writers/performers, please
submit a short paragraph detailing current interest and/or
prior experience as well as current contact information.
Directors are matched with playwrights and all will be
notified at the same time.  New Work Week will audition with
all UT shows during first week of Spring Quarter.

Deadline Friday, Feb 22 by 5pm
Reynolds Club #301

Notification of selection: March 7th
For more information, please contact Heidi Coleman
(coleman@uchicago.edu).
Heidi Coleman
Director, University Theater
Director of Undergraduate Studies, Theater and Performance Studies

new prompt

2008-02-21T07:15:00.000-08:00

The prompt for our next meeting:

Write a scene whose forward movement is propelled by a character’s belief in something: a tale such as the one in Alice Hoffman’s White Horses, a religion, astrology, the I Ching, winning the lottery, etc.

FYI

2008-02-16T15:27:00.000-08:00

(Am I allowed to post to this thing? Well, here goes. I guess if I'm not, Raisa will block me or something.)

I'm not sure I'm going to be able to make it to this week's meeting, and my response to the prompt has wandered off somewhere else anyway and I don't have quite the time to get it back on track. But I have realized that my google mail account gets me registered here, so I'm taking advantage of that and starting a personal blog where I'll be dumping all the writing that, for whatever reason, doesn't get workshopped.

In other words, things will be available on my other account and if you're
a) bored
b) a glutton for punishment
c) a compulsive editor
d) a blog addict
e) all of the above
you should feel free to wander over and read whatever I've got up there (and if you're c, leave a comment, s'il vous plait).

OK. Over and out.

Fifth-Week In-Meeting Prompt

2008-02-10T16:29:00.000-08:00

Here's the prompt we worked on fifth week:

"You've just received bad news. Show your reaction to the news by describing your surroundings with concrete details. One object in particular catches your attention, and reminds you of a memory. Describe this memory concretely. When you emerge from the memory, your experience colors the way you interact with the object you noticed earlier, as well as letting you deal with the news in a different way. Describe emerging from the memory and reacting to the news, again choosing concrete details."

Sorry this was late guys. Hope you enjoy!
(remember you're always free to workshop pieces that are entirely unrelated to the prompts- the prompts are just there to give the creative juices a buzz).

5th-week meeting

2008-02-05T21:27:00.001-08:00

Yo kids,

A meeting went down tonight! If you missed it, here's the deal:

+ We responded to a prompt RIGHT THEN AND THERE. The content of the prompt will be posted tomorrow. This prompt, in addition to the prompt from last week (describe the same event from different perspectives), will be discussed in the meeting in two weeks.

+ Changes to the structure of WIP!

- meetings will now be Tuesdays at 7, every other week
- stay posted for a location, soon to be made permanent (and on campus!)
- three/four people will be workshopped at each meeting
- submit your work by Sunday at 8 p.m. before the meeting, if not earlier
- we are now an RSO, but I think this is the twelfth time I've said this

+ Daniel, Catalina, and Matt will be submitting pieces for the workshop in two weeks. If you would like to be the fourth submitter, let me know.

Meeting specifics

2008-02-01T21:06:00.000-08:00

A few people have told me that Tuesdays are inconvenient for meetings. However, others have said that Mondays are equally bad. I'm only free on Mondays and Tuesdays, so half of us will have to be slighted.

What are your thoughts on this? Should we alternate between Mondays and Tuesdays? Or should we break into smaller sections, with half of us meeting on M and the other meeting on Tue? Would someone be willing to lead a smaller section, if it meant that you could attend a meeting after all?

As always, e-mail me with suggestions. And as it stands, next week's meeting will be on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Stay tuned for location details.

Notes from Week 3 Meeting

2008-02-01T20:55:00.000-08:00

I've sent out a few e-mails already, but here are the most recent news:

+ RSO status! This means we'll be holding meetings on campus, as well as making good use of ORCSA resources and funds. I need a member to accompany me to the RSO orientation next Friday at 1:30. We can talk compensation.

+ Reduced workshop loads. Expect to workshop two to four pieces per week. If your piece will be workshopped at the upcoming meeting, please e-mail a copy to me by Monday at 8 a.m. This way, everyone will have more time to read and comment on your piece. It'll also save you from staying up until 3:00 a.m. on Tuesday to finish your material. (Quit breakin' my heart, you guys!)

+ General guidelines on how workshopping will work, from now on: feel free to bring in whatever you're working on. Respond to all the prompts, but don't submit everything. Show us the things that you're most committed to, because if you don't believe wholeheartedly in your characters and scenes, we won't, either. What does this mean for future workshops? It means we'll be seeing a lot of cigarettes.

Annnd the prompt for 2/12/2008:

Since each of us has her own favorite point of view and voice, it's worth pushing our boundaries to see what different perspectives can do to a piece. In light of this, please describe a moment or short interaction from at least three points of view. While the same actions will take place, the voices you use to describe them will change from scene to scene. In addition to playing with first/second/third person, present/past/future, and regional diction, break out of your comfort zone by writing from the opposite gender's perspective for at least one of your iterations.

Notes from Tuesday's meeting

2008-01-25T06:46:00.000-08:00

For those of you who missed Tuesday's meeting, here's what went down.

+ Cat led the meeting!

+ Sara brought in a piece she'd been working on as a staff submission for Sliced Bread. It was read aloud, and then we offered our critiques. Continue to bring in the material you're working on!

+ We talked about the differences between writing for class/workshops and for yourself.

+ Daniel opened to us the world of Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" (text here). Although I was thinking about doing a prompt based on setting, we agreed that the story was a better example of the possibilities in simple wordplay. I was also intrigued by the ways Poe shows us that his narrator is unreliable.

+ The prompt this week: Write a piece which prominently features wordplay, ambiguity, or some kind of misunderstanding. Yeah, it's nebulous -- but that gives you lots of room to do what you want. Give some thought to the way Poe uses wordplay and double meanings to show that his narrator has some serious psychological issues, giving us clues for how to interpret the story. You, too, can use subtlety to reveal your character's secret flaw.

And that's it! The meeting will be at my house next Tuesday at 7:00. Please bring the work you've done with the cigarettes prompt, and anything else you've been working on. In order to have your material workshopped at the meeting, please e-mail it to me by 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning. I'll then e-mail it out to everyone on my list for the meeting. (Please also send me your e-mail address, if you haven't yet, so that you'll be in on the workshopping.) When you receive the material, please look it over and be ready to workshop it at the meeting.

How's work with the prompt?

2008-01-20T07:13:00.001-08:00

I finally sat down in earnest last night to start responding to the prompt from last week's meeting, about the girl with the cigarettes. I had been wanting to work with a particular set of characters for a few weeks now, and this was my chance! So I started writing. The first scene presented itself to me fully formed, and I dutifully recorded it. But the next scenes -- not so much. I'm having trouble deciding what exactly this story is about, and so I can't be economical with my language just yet. The story is running in circles. I don't know what kind of progress to expect for my main character, and it's frustrating me. He's frustrating me. I can sense him wanting a bigger role, a more richly detailed humanity, a set of needs and expectations and disappointments all his own. If I keep working at it, I hope all this will come to him.

What kinds of problems are you encountering, as you sit down to give this prompt a serious look?

On the Use of Imagery

2008-01-19T13:57:00.000-08:00

From a Potebnya quotation in Victor Shklovsky's seminal essay on Formalism, "Art as Technique":

Since the purpose of imagery is to remind us, by approximation, of those meanings for which the image stands, and since, apart from this, imagery ins unnecessary for though, we must be more familiar with the image than with what it clarifies.

The statement above comes from a supposition that the purpose of art is to present the unknown in terms of the known. Shklovsky objects that actually the opposite happens frequently--for example, one writer's comparison of the sky to a garment of God, in which an image that is difficult to grasp is used to describe an object with which everybody is familiar.

This may seem like an obscure and irrelevant excerpt, but as writers I think it's useful and important to think about how and why we use images and the specific relationship we invoke between the image and the object to which it points. At the worst, images become a way to avoid mentioning something directly in order to sound high-brow or delicate, but with some work put into them, you can create structural and thematic interplay and all kinds of other fun things.

P.S. This part is not even the main brunt of a really groundbreaking essay. If it seems interesting to you, I'd love to discuss it or point you to where you can find it to read on your own.

intermeeting post!

2008-01-17T19:39:00.000-08:00

Hey, all. The next meeting will be at my place at 7 p.m. next Tuesday.

The agenda for Tuesday:
+ talk about your work on the prompt so far
+ discussion of material? (bring in what you're working on!)
+ "The Cask of Amontillado" and setting as a key element of a story
+ ideas for the blog: weekly posts, random journaling, posting material to the blog

As always, e-mail me or the group with questions, suggestions, and comments.

First things.

2008-01-15T19:09:00.000-08:00

Thanks to everyone who came to the first meeting of WIP. It rocked... and there were five of us. Please try to make it to the next meeting! We are awesome, and you want to hang out with us. Trust me.

Here are the conclusions we've reached about meetings:

+ I'll introduce one new prompt at each meeting. We'll spend fifteen minutes working on the prompt during the meeting, and then take it home to work on it more. Give each prompt two weeks, so that at any given time you'll have two ideas to be working on. Do bring what you've done to meetings, so that we can workshop this material.

+ We'll be workshopping material each week. Given the number of people involved, and since we want to give pieces the attention they deserve, workshopping will be on a rotational basis. Details to come. However, it's certain that, in order to workshop your material, you must send it out to group members at least six hours before the meeting, preferably twenty-four. To do this, e-mail your piece to thisworkinprogress@gmail.com. This way, your piece will be distributed to the mailing list. Do this with both the material you're currently developing and the pieces that grow out of your responses to prompts.

+ We'll bring in writers to speak about the craft, the business, and other relevant, fascinating things in later weeks. Feel free to suggest potential speakers. Please note that, if we do host a speaker, you should be at least cursorily familiar with the speaker's work.

+ Prompts will include anything and everything. Send ideas along. If the prompt is not a specific sentence or passage to be incorporated into your work, it'll serve as a kind of springboard. For example, "Poe's 'Cask of Amontillado,' which could not have been so effective had it not been set in its particular time and place; write a scene which derives its movement and meaning from its setting."

+ Everything is currently in flux. At each meeting we'll try something new and see if it works. This means that your attendance is important! Please come to meetings; if you can't, contact a member in the group (before the meeting) to make your ideas heard.
-----------------------------------
And now, concrete things.

The prompt from this week's meeting is:
"She was on her third cigarette, and it wasn't helping."

Write a scene that continues with this character. Feel free to change the gender and tense. Consider who she is, where she is, why she's smoking. Why isn't it helping? What has just happened prior to this first sentence? What's around her? Who's around her? Who/what isn't? Has she always smoked? Answer these questions through action and interaction, not narration.

Also, I'll bring in Poe's "Cask of Amontillado," possibly for use as a prompt, next week. Start thinking!