Litesthesia

Time to Make the Donuts

2006-06-05T14:00:00.000-07:00

for the Summer issue. Sheesh, all those times you wonder why it's been six months and the editors of the journal you've submitted to haven't gotten back to you, it's because we're buried, under submissions, design, administrative tasks, promotion, all in the few hours each day when we're not working, working out, eating, spending time with our loved ones. It is never-ending.

But we wouldn't do it if we didn't love every minute of it.

Storysouth's Million Writers Award Nominations

2006-02-24T17:46:00.000-08:00

Check out JMWW's nominations for Storysouth's Million Writers Award 2006. Congratulations Michael Hartford, Kirsten Noelle Hubbard, and Penelope Horn!

Conference: The Write Stuff

2006-02-16T13:01:00.000-08:00

April 7-8, 2006, Allentown, Pennsylvania

One-page critiques, workshops, lectures, agents. For more information: http://www.glvwg.org/conference/

Baltimore City Lit Festival III

2006-01-30T12:48:00.000-08:00

April 8th, 2006 at: Enoch Pratt Free Library (downtown) from 10 am to 5 pm.

This year's guest is Paul Rusesabagina, whose new autobiography An Ordinary Man tells the real-life story of the hotel manager who housed more than one thousand Tutsi refugees during their struggle against the Hutu militia (as dramatized by Don Cheadle in "Hotel Rwanda,” which will also be screened at the festival).

This year's festival also includes:

Thomas Glave—a professor at SUNY Binghamton whose area of expertise includes the work of James Baldwin, Nadine Gordimer, Jamaica Kincaid, and contemporary work by African and African-American queer authors—will discuss his latest book, Words to Our Now: Imagination and Dissent...a powerful collection of essays on prejudice and injustice inflicted upon black gays and lesbians.

David Kipen, newly appointed Director of Literature for the National Endowment for the Arts, and Baltimore-born publisher Michael Cader (www.publishersmarketplace.com) will discuss the state of literature today during a session presented by the Maryland State Poetry & Literary Society.

Acclaimed Chicago-based performance poet Tyehimba Jess (recently named one of 18 new poets to watch by Poets & Writers magazine) heads up the poetry schedule reading from Leadbelly.

For mystery lovers, join Laura Lippman and some of the contributors to Baltimore Noir for the first public reading of this latest offering from Akaschic Books' cool city-themed series.

And others...

Contact Greg Wilhelm, President and CEO, CityLitProject, for details.

www.CityLitProject.org
Phone: 410-274-5691

Two Girls, Fat and Thin

2006-01-16T08:03:00.000-08:00

I just finished reading Mary Gaitskill's Two Girls, Fat and Thin. I had wanted to check out her newest, Veronica, but it wasn't at the library. I suppose you know what you're getting into if you check out Mary Gaitskill—tales of sexual deviancy and psyhological discomfort, which I'm admittedly not a big fan of, but I was able to get beyond that and really appreciate the amount of detail that she puts into her characters and their universes. (An ability in which I am deficient.)

That said, it was weird to read this novel, to delve so deeply into two women's lives (one "fat" [Dorothy], one "thin [Justine]," each of whom are connected in some form to the writings of a Ayn Rand-esque character) and to come away feeling empty, feeling I was no closer to understanding their present-day decisions, particularly Justine's (albeit whose story was written in third person and did not have the same painful immediacy as Dorothy's first person).

I suppose I was disappointed because Justine and Dorothy form a bond at the end not by individual, conscious choice so much as by circumstance and luck, especially when they both had opportunities throughout the novel to forge conscious connections with each other. Unless this is Gaitskill's point, that, much like their childhood, their ability to find healthy intimacy is based primarily on circumstance and luck and cannot be overcome by simple desire (as the realist guru Anna Granite [Ayn Rand] would have one believe). However, I don't think that is her point, and I do believe you can overcome the circumstances of one's upbrining, whatever it is, and find intimacy and sexual satisfaction. Although I'm not an Ayn Rand fan. Believe me.

Anyway, I think the idea of this book was intriguing but the execution was terrible. Such a waste for someone whose ability with details is far more suited to the novel form than the short story. However, this was her first novel, so perhaps they get better. Any Mary Gaitskill fans out there?

Phillywriters Net

2006-01-16T07:56:00.000-08:00

Check out Beth Ziesenis's Philly Writers Net when you get a chance. Whether you live in the city of brotherly love or not, the site has an active participation of writers (unlike ours), is ethestically pleasing, and reminds me a bit of the Poets & Writers speakeasy forums (at least in terms of the information exchange).

King of Mice

2006-01-05T09:36:00.000-08:00

I am presently about 50 pages into John Irving's A Widow for One Year, and I'm already hooked. The question, of course, with an Irving novel, is whether I'll stay hooked throughout the rest of it. All of his works are long--I've read critiques that compare him to Dickens, and I suppose the main difference between them is that, as far as I know, Irving is NOT paid by the word--and some books can be a challenge to get through. Irving is not a subtle writer; he explains pretty much everything, and he sometimes smacks you with symbolism until your eyes want to bleed and you want to scream, "Quit it! I get it already!"

But I really like him, although I haven't read much of his recent work. Aside from this one, I guess the most recent I read was A Prayer for Owen Meany, and I almost gave up on that one, for the reasons listed above. But I plowed through, and the ending definitely justified everything else. My favorites, though, are all oldies that I've read several times each: The Water-Method Man (arguably the funniest of his books), The World According to Garp (which is about a writer), and The Hotel New Hampshire (which, along with Garp, includes all the early Irving trademarks: bears, wrestling, New England, Austria, rape, death of a child). The 158-Pound Marriage is the only novel of his that I really disliked and would never recommend--the characters are all hateful, and the story was indulgent. Setting Free the Bears, his first novel, is flawed but interesting.

Thus far, Garp is my favorite. What's your favorite? Or, what do you think of Irving?

WordHouse Blasts Off

2005-12-21T07:18:00.000-08:00

Be sure to check out WordHouse, Sam Schmidt and Virginia Crawford's bimonthly e-magazine for Maryland poets and writers. Once fully operational, it will provide plenty of resources for the writing community, in addition to book reviews and poetry.

The Toughest Indian in the World

2005-11-18T14:54:00.000-08:00

I am currently reading this collection of stories by Sherman Alexie. I'd read a few of his stories before--he's one of the few Native American writers I'm familiar with. And I wanted to read this collection because of the title story. Geoff Becker had told my short fiction class about it. In a nutshell, it's about the clash between the Native Americans who more or less successfully escape the reservation and those who can't. And it's about guilt and ambivalence and desperation.

Alexie has got the goods. When you read one of his stories--maybe not all of them, but many of them--you can feel the magic happening. I don't know what creates it or how to describe it. It's just there. And I'm guessing it's one of those things that can't be taught. ;) I haven't read any of his novels, but I want to, although it seems rare to find an author who laces all genres with that magic. Off the top of my head, I can't think of anyone who does it. Can you?

Introducing Maktaaq and Nanowrimo

2005-11-04T09:24:00.000-08:00

I have never posted here so let me introduce myself.

My name is Maktaaq, I maintain my own blog and I am an amateur writer trying to get in with the big fish.

I am on Litesthesia to represent those of us who aspire to be writers, in other words, one of those people who is guilty of wanting more to have written a book than to actually write it.

Mind you, I have been prolific in my writing and I have been published.

Like most aspiring writers, though, my writing output consisted of childhood novellas, pompous teen poetry, adult-era press releases and final reports, and numerous first pages of epic novels.

I've been published on JMWW, a travel newsletter, in a teacher's handbook, and twice in my alumni newsletter.

If my press releases count, my publishing credits go way up. If my 'zines, comics, pamphlets, newsletters, handouts and blog posts count too, then I have been very busy.

But they don't count.

Last year I put my foot down. I was going to shape up my writing, be truly prolific and get published.

I had been doing National Novel Writing Month every November since 2002.

National Novel Writing Month (abbreviated to Nanowrimo) is when thousands of people attempt to write a novel. A novel in this case is 50,000 words in thirty days. Many succeed. Many more never get past zero words.

To write a novel in thirty days one needs to maintain a pace of 1667 words a day. Some Nano novelists churn out 2000 a day to make up for those days when they might need to slack off. Others attempt marathon sittings of 5000 words a day. Some nitwits even got past 10,000 words on November 1, but I sure wouldn't like to read the crap they're typing out.

That first Nano I got to 2000 words of a story about a unicorn called George the Turd that escapes from the Musée de Cluny. I read it out a few months later to a writing class and someone said, "I once wrote a story about a prissy unicorn too." That killed George.

The second Nano I began my novel about an orphan who kept lists of words hidden from a headmistress who used the orphans as slave labour. My orphan was to have run off with a black sailor called Tom, but as far as I know she still languishes in the dreary orphanage mending socks for seamen. I quit at 3000 words and my writing class liked that one better.

The third Nano got me to just over 15,000 words with the story of a travelling carnival, its vampire-zombie freakshow, an invincible heroine in a materialist country run by a militaristic chancellor, dozens of muskrats both living and taxidermied and a ten-year-old six-foot bearded little girl called Heidi. Genre writing must surely be easier for a first time novelist than literary writing, I told myself.

This year I am continuing my story from last year to its 50,000 word culmination and will try to add that 50,000 to the 15,000 from last year for a grand total of 65,000 words.

To combat the writer's block that always plagues me, I took a course in character development this summer at a local college, I read the Nano forums to see what others suggest and I am writing paragraphs and paragraphs of descriptions. I'll be writing more about those later.

Last night I picked up How to Write Tales of Horror, Fantasy & Science Fiction (edited by J.N. Williamson). What caught my eye was an article by Ramsey Campbell, "What's Been Done to Death."

Towards the end of the article, there was a fraction of a sentence that stood out to me: "If an idea or something larger refuses to be developed, try altering the viewpoint..." Ah ha!

I've been fixated on my main character's viewpoint, with brief dips into the private worlds of the other characters. Maybe it's time to expand those brief dips into plunges. Maybe it's time for the top taxidermied muskrat to come back from the dead.

If anybody else out there is doing Nano this year please comment on your experiences.

Thank you for reading.

Baltimore Writers Conference

2005-10-12T13:18:00.000-07:00

The Baltimore Writers Conference is coming up on November 12th. Hope to see you there!

Omniscient First Person

2005-10-07T15:27:00.000-07:00

I just finished Kent Haruf's Where You Once Belonged, and I enjoyed it--he's a solid writer. But I found his use of the omniscient first person slightly distracting, at least initially.

Reading any literature involves a leap of faith, of course--perhaps particularly regarding stories written in first person, because who exactly are they talking to, anyway? The reader, of course, but still, it's a total breakdown of the fourth fall--or it would be if there were a fourth wall. But still, is it believable that a first person narrator would know other characters' thoughts and exact words?

With the novel, I decided to believe it, since it was a story about a small town, and many of the characters were gossipy. But with a novella I read recently, there was also an omniscient first person narrator, and this person would describe scenes involving characters he/she (the person was just "I," that's all that was revealed) never met--as well as scenes involving a character who would forget what happened immediately. So I definitely found that distracting--in fact, I considered it a flaw.

I tend to believe that a writer should cast a spell, and if the reader gets distracted and begins seeing wheels turning, the illusion is over. But that isn't always the case. Occasionally when I'm reading something really great, I'll stop and try to figure out how the author did something, and that can be enjoyable as well. I guess it's just a question of whether or not you believe a certain technique works. And I think it's rare that using an omniscient first person narrator is a good idea.

What am I missing?

2005-10-03T12:26:00.000-07:00

I've had numerous sources recommend Donald Barthelme to me. So I picked up a copy of 40 Stories secondhand and eagerly started reading. I liked the first story, but I didn't care for the next few at all--they didn't make any sense to me. Now I have little interest in continuing on. But he's considered so great that I feel like I should.

So if there are any Barthelme fans out there, help me out. What makes his writing so brilliant? What about his style should I focus on?

People Who Piss Us Off

2005-09-29T19:07:00.000-07:00

Arrogant people who submit poems w/o bothering to read the guidelines (what part of "no rhyming" do you not understand?) then give us a hard time when we reject them, rather nicely, albeit in a rush and make a typo:

"as your reply doesnt make sense in any kind of way i will not be disheartened by the fact you dont want my poems, you fuckwits--Michael Duvall"

"go to www.allpoetry.com and check out the 35 poems and 32 contests won, fair play to you for your reply, it made me laugh, but i could pull a better poem out my ass than you could sweat over and create, and how does one suck ass? does it involve applying my lips to your face and breathing in? in which case, id rather not. twats."--Michael Duvall

"but please, read back what you are sending to people and wonder why they aren't bothered that your "suck ass" piss poor company isnt willing to accept submissions, i mean, i know there is no way my poetry can be considered poor, EVERYBODY who has read it loves it, but then, they have all mastered at least basic English, i guess there is a hint in your name you scumbag worthless immigrant."--Michael Duvall

Now, because Michael Duvall (and EVERYBODY who reads his poems) considers himself the second coming of Robert Lowell, we've decided to print one of his submitted poems here so you can decide for yourself (and so we can't be accused of not publishing genius):

Can I Kiss You?

Can I kiss you? But so gently, so our lips they barely meet
Can my fingers trace the back of your neck? Whilst I taste your breath so sweet?
Can we stare into each others eyes as we breathe into another?
Will you whisper oh so softly that I can take you as my lover?
Can I pull your head back slowly, my fingers in your hair?
Will you run your fingers down your neck while my wet lips kiss you there?
Is your breathing getting deeper as our lips again embrace?
Before we closed our eyes to kiss what was that look upon your face?
I hope that was a tremor as our tongues they do collide
You want me and I want you our kisses silently confide
I pull your hair as gently as I take my lips away
Our eyes they lock, a carnal look, I hold you in my sway
I turn you around, lift up your hair, on your slender neck I breathe
My view from here, your gentle breasts, a scene I can’t believe
I kiss your neck, some urgency as I move on to your shoulder
Your beauty is a sight for the sore eyes of this beholder
Across the room, a mirror spied, you watch your eager twin
As her dress falls from her shoulders, naked in delicious sin
I turn you round, your breath so hot; our wet lips lock once more
My jeans they strain against your love and I’m aching, almost sore
Our kiss it lasts, we don’t let go as we dance across the floor
My jeans they land, your nimble touch, onto my bed we fall
Our kiss it ends, I break it off, other lips I long to taste
I start my journey downward but not an inch I waste
I kiss your neck; I taste each breast, each tender bud I tease
As I slowly kiss your tummy is that a murmured please?
I take my time, I want you bad, this night I want to savour
You lift your hips as I get close, I anticipate the flavour
My tongue it snakes, I’m on your thigh your legs are now apart
I breathe directly onto you but on the other thigh I start
I suck your skin so softly I’m an inch away from pleasing
Is that a groan of impatience, oh please, I’m only teasing
You see what you don’t realise, I want to just as much
My tongue it gently flicks you, you shiver at its touch
My lips they wrap onto your bud, my tongue searches around
You’re biting on your bottom lip, stifling a sound
You taste so good, our juices mix, my fingers help explore
They slide into you easily, your body I adore
You’re breathing deep, your hands they grasp and squeeze upon my sheet
It’s time now for our union, our bodies ache to meet
I kiss goodbye your tender place, my hips push you apart
Electrically our eyes they lock, you long for me to start
A cheeky glint in my eyes as I hover just above
My end presses against you, on the entrance of your love
You wrap your legs around me and try to push me in
We both cry out, I enter deep it was a fight I couldn’t win
You kiss me hard, you taste yourself, and the thought drives me insane
I slam myself into you now, again, again, again
I look down upon you; your milky skin’s a dream
I never want to hurt you but I long to make you scream
You’re soaking wet, our pulses soar, and our hearts beat unified
We are so right wrapped together, our love won’t be denied
Your eyes they close, your breath you hold, you’re welling deep below
We’ll cross that line together, I get ready to let go
Your body shakes, my thrusts increase your knees they lift up higher
You start to scream as I explode, our bodies are on fire
We both erupt; we hold on tight, our bodies dance as one
Our choreographer our passion, hotter than the sun
Our breath returns, but slowly, our hearts beat glad relief
I look into the sated eyes of this beauty underneath
Can I kiss you oh so gently? May our lips they never part?
Can I hold you in my arms so safe? Will you hold me in your heart?

Folks, I think we've found the next Pushcart nominee.

Baltimore Book Festival

2005-09-28T12:44:00.000-07:00

I went for a few hours on Sunday. I saw TC Boyle read; I'd been pretty excited to see him, but at the end my impression was...eh. He was interesting and had a sense of humor (and he was fun to look at since he's one of those people who looks like an animal died on top of his head), but he used the environment as an excuse for just going through the motions. The festival took place outside, and the readings and panels were held in open tents. So noise traveled--for instance, there was some guy who kept walking around playing an instrument. And there was opera or something being sung in one of the tents. So there were multiple distractions. But Boyle assumed that his audience wouldn't be able to focus on him, so most of the session was just a Q & A.

Anyway, I had wanted to see the panel on online publishing, but for various reasons, I got there late. Two members of the forum were editors on http://www.thepedestalmagazine.com. They talked about the need for online journals to unite, and apparently there is some sort of organization, but it isn't very organized. Also, they talked about the struggle to find funding. One member suggested that the key was to find funding from nontraditional sources.

Did anyone catch the beginning of the panel? Or attend the festival?

The Writer's Almanac

2005-09-16T09:03:00.000-07:00

http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/

It's a public radio program hosted by Garrison Keillor, but also you can sign up to be emailed the transcripts each day. The program consists of reading a poem and sharing events in history about writers.

The Muddy Middle

2005-09-12T17:46:00.000-07:00

According to Hannah Wilson of the Northwest Review (ca. 1994, The Literary Review):

"Three problems seem typical of the stories that are often ably crafted but fall into the middle (in between very good and terrible) grouping:

Structure—In trying to avoid textbook structure (exposition, rising complication, climax, denouement), writers fail to create any line of tension along which the story can move.

Imagery—Writers learn that images matter but can't discover ones that emerge naturally from their material, so that images often seem slathered on for effect, especially at the story's end.

Characterization—Perhaps because they feel the need to get stories into the mail, writers create characters they don't seem to know very well or care much about. If the writer doesn't care, why should the reader?

I remember reading a note, I think of Richard Bausch's about a story of his; it may have been "The Fireman's Wife." He said he had the idea long before he could work through the story. Before he could finish it, he had to develop some compassion for an unpleasant character. That compassion seems missing from too many of the stories we read."

Fall 2005

2005-09-06T07:05:00.000-07:00

is up at http://JMWW.150m.com. Comments and feedback are appreciated!

Midnight Disease

2005-08-23T13:30:00.000-07:00

Currently, I am reading Michael Chabon's Wonder Boys. I saw the movie a few years ago and wasn't particularly impressed, but then last summer I read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which is, I believe, amazing indeed, so I've wanted to read everything of Chabon's that I could get my hands on. I am also reading his collection of short stories, Werewolves in Their Youth, which is very good, but earlier this year I was disappointed by his novella The Final Solution: A Story of Detection (it was good, but nothing special, in my opinion). So I don't know what I'll think of Wonder Boys.

It's about a writer, which is interesting. Books are often about writers, it seems, but I also know that some writers avoid writing about writers. Maybe because it seems too easy; maybe because it's too hard; maybe because it's too likely to become meta, I don't know. Anyway, the protagonist of the novel claims that writers suffer from "the midnight disease," which is

a kind of emotional insomnia; at every conscious moment its victim--even if he or she writes at dawn, or in the middle of the afternoon--feels like a person lying in a sweltering bedroom, with the window thrown open, looking up at a sky filled with stars and airplanes, listening to the narrative of a rattling blind, an ambulance, a fly trapped in a Coke bottle, while all around him the neighbors soundly sleep. This is in my opinion why writers--like insomniacs--are so accident-prone, so obsessed with the calculus of bad luck and missed opportunities, so liable to rumination and a concomitant inability to let go of a subject, even when urged repeatedly to do so.

It's a romantic view of writers, I think, even though it is unpleasant. And perhaps it's a clue that the protagonist isn't all that reliable--or that he has a tendency to romanticize everything. I haven't read enough to be sure yet. But when I read descriptions of writers, I compare myself to it, and I'm always tempted to be disappointed if I don't match up. That's silly, though, I know. Still, it's comforting to now have a rationalization for being a total klutz. ;)

Characterization

2005-08-16T12:06:00.000-07:00

I recently gave feedback to a friend on one of her stories in progress. She is a beautiful writer, in that her diction is often flawless. She knows how to pick interesting details to describe, and she words them delicately, with nothing less than grace--an enviable trait. She is creative, and her words seem to spill naturally onto the page, belying the obvious effort she must put into every sentence. And yet this story that I read did not work. That's the rub--isn't it?--that you can be a brilliant wordsmith and still not come up with a good story.

Her problem, at least on the surface, was her plot. Her plot was not believable. But her real problem was with characterization. At JMWW, we are most interested in character-driven stories. After all, if the characters aren't compelling, the story certainly won't be. Plus, the characters are what make the story, the plot, believable.

Readers don't need to know absolutely everything about a character. But we do need to have a feel for who they are and for what motivates them. Otherwise, their actions seem meaningless, random, and the plot has no momentum, no inevitability.

Also, it is important that characters actually do act. If all a story does is describe a character, then it is just a character study, a sketch. So, here are some tips (from a writing professor at Towson University) on characterization that could be useful:

* If you write in first person, it has to be the narrator's story.
* One way to define a protagonist is to say what he/she wants.
* If the protagonist knows something important, the reader should know it, too. However, if the protagonist doesn't know, then the reader doesn't have to either.
* A protagonist should make a choice, and should be responsible for what he/she does.
* A protagonist should be allowed to be vulnerable.
* If two characters are talking, one should want something from the other.

2005-08-08T16:53:00.000-07:00

Here is a handy Publications Guide listing all pertinent submission information on some of the bigger journals out there from Jeffery Bahr's site. I notice we haven't been included—yet. There are a couple of other interesting charts on the site as well, including the average response times for each journal broken down into accepted and nonaccepted submissions.

Writers Conference at Penn

2005-08-08T09:08:00.000-07:00

The Writers Conference at Penn during the first weekend of October looks like it has a lot of promising seminars. I'm interested in the class taught by Sam Lipsyte, "To Begin, to Begin." Although the class coincides nicely with our last editorial in JMWW about story beginnings, I mainly want to take a class with him because he sounds brilliant. Sam is interviewed in the latest issue of Failbetter. You also check out his interview with Suicide Girls. Unforunately, Sam's books are at the bottom of a long list I've been working my way through (no one gets a bump up, even the hottest authors), but I'll have to break my own rules and bump him up if I do indeed sign up for his class.

Has anyone ever attended a writer's conference? Are there any good tips on what to take and/or what to do?

Hello?

2005-08-07T18:59:00.000-07:00

So, I joined. I don't know what to do, so I'll say, hello. Hello.

-L

Writing Groups and Revision

2005-08-03T01:00:00.000-07:00

Jen and I have been sharing our work with each other for a few years now. We used to send it to each other through email, read it and suggest revisions (usually through Track Changes in Word), and then send the work back. And that was helpful for both of us. But now we are in a writing group together here in Baltimore, and that is even better. We all email our work to each other, and then we meet every two weeks to workshop each other's stories, poetry, and essays.

There are multiple benefits to writing groups. For one, it's great to be around people who write and who like to talk about writing. Writing can be a lonely business, so it's important--less isolating--to feel like you belong to a community of people who are on the same page. These people can provide support. But also, these people will give you feedback on your writing, and since everyone has different perspectives and styles, the feedback tends to be diverse and multifaceted. And in the process of giving others feedback on their work, you sharpen your own editing and writing skills.

Of course, sometimes I get feedback that I don't like or agree with. If I don't like it but do agree with it, I use it. If I don't agree with it, and I can objectively explain to myself why I don't agree with it, I disregard it.

At the last meeting, one of my stories got a lot of criticism. And that was frustrating, because I'd already revised the story three times in the past few months, and I felt like I knew my characters--not in details or even exactly in motivation, but in essence (which is conveniently vague)--so well. But the real truth was that I'd lost my objectivity--when I tried to edit my story, I allowed what I knew in my head to color what I read on the page, so I didn't see certain problems. My writing group had fresh eyes, so they could point out the holes.

Some writers love revising. I envy them, because I generally don't like it. However, I know that it is necessary, and I want my work to be as good as possible. I mean, some of the best writers revise their stories up to 30 times before they are published--which is depressing in a way, but also liberating. After all, writing is difficult. And it's rare to get it right the first--or second, or third, or tenth--time.

Revising is much easier, though, when you have the opportunity to get feedback from others.

Fiction Blogs

2005-08-01T06:32:00.000-07:00

I've never actually read a fiction blog but can't wait to get started. They're a fascinating way to get your work out there (and receive feedback as you're writing). Fiction Blogs has the most comprehensive list of blogs publishing serial fiction around.

Turn on the Bright Light

2005-07-31T17:58:00.000-07:00

Where most of my story ideas come from (in order of frequency):

1. Dreams
2. Other short stories or novels I've read
3. Stranges I see while I'm out and about
4. Fragments of childhood memories
5. Weird things that have happened to my friends (or to me, albeit less frequently)
6. Songs (sometimes the lyrics, sometimes the actual music)
7. Things people have left behind in books (notes, letters, train tickets, inscriptions)

Quotes on Fiction Writing

2005-07-25T16:20:00.000-07:00

Hemingway's Iceberg Theory:

"If a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water."

Raymond Carver:

"Abjure carelessness in writing, just as you would in real life."

"One of the things I feel strongly about is that while short stories often tell us things we don't know anything about--and this is good, of course--they should also, and maybe more importantly, tell us what everybody knows but what nobody is talking about."

"When a reader finishes a wonderful story and lays it aside, he should have to pause for a minute and collect himself. At this moment, if the writer has succeeded, there ought to be a unity of feeling and understanding. Or, if not a unity, at least a sense that the disparities of a crucial situation have been made available in a new light.... It should make such an impression that the work, as Hemingway suggested, becomes a part of the reader's experience.... In great fiction...there is always the 'shock of recognition' as the human significance of the work is revealed and made manifest. When, in Joyce's words, the soul of the story, it's 'whateness, leaps to us from the vestment of its appearance.'"

I'm presently reading Carver's Call If You Need Me: The Uncollected Fiction and Other Prose. The book includes several essays about writing. I strongly recommend them. I also definitely recommend Carver's stories. When I have questions about my own writing, he's usually who I read to find the answers. What writers provide answers--or at least food for thought--for you?

Short Fiction Endings

2005-07-20T16:10:00.000-07:00

In the Editor's Note for the Summer 2005 edition of JMWW, Jen discusses the importance of nailing the beginning of a story. It is essential that a writer hook the reader with the first paragraph--preferably with the first sentence.

For me, though, the end is far more difficult to write than the beginning. And from reading JMWW submissions, I think many writers share this difficulty. Maybe fairy tales have hurt us--made us more likely to tie everything together with a bow so our characters can live happily/miserably/lonely/whatever ever after. Or maybe some writers are so afraid of tying things together too neatly that they don't tie anything together at all, so the ending is abrupt and unsatisfying (from a technical/stylistic standpoint).

It is okay for an ending to be provocative, but it needs a context as well. A story is about some sort of conflict, and thus in the end there should be some sort of resolution--the protagonist has to learn or decide something; there has to be some sort of choice made or action taken, or at least strongly suggested. And it isn't necessarily bad for the reader to predict where the story is going, as long as the ride to get there is enjoyable and engrossing. After all, we know at the beginning of Romeo & Juliet what will happen at the end. But we read anyway to find out why and how it happens.

One more thing. Some writers have submitted sections of unpublished novels to JMWW. And that's great. But those sections must be able to stand alone. There are writers out there who don't believe that there needs to be an arc to a story--because it's more realistic not to arc and not to resolve. And that might be true. However, there needs to be a reason for a story--there needs to be something cohesive that ties the story together and explains why the story starts and ends when it does.

And, you know, as with poetry, we like endings that won't let us go. Often those endings lead us to wonder what exactly happens next or what exactly that final image means. Readers want to wonder--but they need to have some direction.

It's All About How You Leave Me

2005-07-16T18:10:00.000-07:00

Lately, I have been paying careful attention to the craft of ending a poem. I have found that the most obvious way to end the poem is almost always the worst way to end the poem. This is quite possibly true of fiction and non-fiction as well.

I believe good poems haunt us. It is when we are eating barbecue at a cookout, watching a French film for the third time, or changing a bathroom light bulb that it creeps back in, not allowing us to focus on our task at hand. I guess I just want to be left wondering, and, for me, that is what good poetry does. Don't say "goodbye" when leaving--it's done already. Do something amazing. Surprise me.

There is only what you do and what you don't do

2005-07-14T10:10:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about how I've read that a writer is like a god, creating his/her own universe. A god who perhaps tries to guide his/her creations, but ultimately has to let them run free. And it seems to me (or perhaps I read this somewhere; I probably did) that some writers are Old Testament gods, full of fury and vengeance.

I'm reading a novel by that sort of writer now. He created a character that I was able to love instantly--and almost as quickly he let me know that this character was going to suffer, and thus I was going to suffer. Which left me in a quandary--after all, I don't like suffering. So the obvious question is, why would a writer do this to his character and his readers? It isn't by accident.

The symbols in this book are obvious; the themes lack subtlety. And yet the novel is highly crafted and written with graceful force. There are no surprises--and that is the point. You are told something awful will happen, you feel the dread build up inside you, and then the thing happens, and perhaps the details of it are slightly surprising, but not much. What is shocking is how painful it is to read even though you know it is coming and how, even though you're reading about something completely foreign to you, you know that what you're reading is true and real--and how, even though you know better, you hope the god will step in and change the inevitable.

There are no gimmicks to this writing. And none are necessary. The writer just repeatedly kicks you in the stomach, and with each kick you realize that people are cruel, politics are ruthless, and fairness is nothing more than luck.

But why do people read such books? I considered shutting this one numerous times, but the blurbs on the back, all of which spoke of ultimate redemption, kept me reading. Also, there's guilt. I've been pretty lucky so far, and maybe I can choose my own penance for that: suffering vicariously (ah, catharsis). Readers, I suppose, are godlike as well. Plus, if I keep reading works like this, maybe one day I'll be able to write them.

I'd love to think that one day I might have the power to (metaphorically, of course) hold a reader's heart in my fist.

Best Advice

2005-07-09T07:50:00.000-07:00

The best advice I ever received about writing came from a grammar class I took a few years ago. Until that point, I had loved writing long, complex sentences. Whether writing fiction or even an e-mail, my sentences flourished like leafy elms, branching out into clauses, parenthetical phrases, and compound sentences. But when we read some excerpts from Hemingway, his use of the short sentence really stood out. The idea of placing a short sentence in a paragraph of long, weedy thoughts fascinated me. The short sentence can be used to symbolize so many things: a stark emotion, a jolt back to reality from a narrator's daydreamy prose, a sudden accident, an unexpected guest, a change in tone, a transition sentence. In fact, in addition to diction, the choice of sentence type is very important part of writing that often gets overlooked by inexperienced writers—any story, from any point of view or any character, tends to get written in the style in which they are most comfortable, even if it doesn't fit what they're trying to do. My advice for writers is to read s story once for plot and metaphors and then again, taking note of sentence length/type and diction (another entry for sure—anybody want to field this one?). Study the sentence structures established writers use—they aren't there by accident.

Author Services

2005-06-30T09:22:00.000-07:00

Has anyone ever tried one of these author services? If they have connections with agents or publishers for short stories, I think they'd be worthwhile, as I know from personal experience it's hard to find agents and publishers that are willing to look at short story collections. However, I'm wondering whether they're just a glorified Kinkos. Anybody know for sure? Anyone tried a similar service?

Writers are like....

2005-06-29T15:11:00.000-07:00

I recently read a personal essay by Russell Banks that he'd written about the writing process. At the end, he's talking to a guy, Jocko, he'd once been friends with, who was more or less a criminal. But Jocko had always hung out with musicians and poets. Banks asks him why, and this is Jocko's answer:

"Yeah, well, artists are a lot like gangsters. They both know that the official version, the one everyone else believes, is a lie."

An interesting analagy, don't you think? Writers can feel--or seem to be-- like outlaws, on the fringe of decency, normalcy. And some of them aren't above stealing and taking no prisoners.

But perhaps this metaphor is now belabored.

Welcome

2005-06-28T11:54:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Litesthesia, where literature is lived and breathed. Created by the editors at JMWW: A Quarterly Journal of Writing, Litesthesia is a place to read and discuss writers and writing, whether it be poems, fiction, and essays from other journals or JMWW; best-selling or unknown authors; articles and books on writing and publishing; or just commenting what being a writer means in these days of audiovisual formats and cross-platforms.

As a service to our contributors and readers, we've included several resource links and lists of journals accepting submissions; more are on the way as we finish setting up the site. We hope you will join us in maintaining a community created for and about writers.