Good writers must also be good business people. Organize. Follow the rules for each contest or magazine.
Ensure that you have now entered all of the contests and submissions.
Today, I collected the BCTELA entries.
Make sure you have completed the Claremont Review contest (25.00) and the Claremont Review submission (the envelope one). You will have time next Wed. to complete Aerie International and Polyphony's electronic submissions.
If you prefer to do these two at home, great. Show me your sent file so you get the marks. Here is the link to my blog page that has all of the submission and contest links:
Entering Contests and Submitting Work
Next Thursday: A minimum of two pages are due. Create a scene. Use the books you are reading and the stories we read in class as your text books. How do these authors make a scene work? What are your favourite scenes? Why?
We will be working with scene creation over the next week. I handed out a how to punctuate dialogue sheet today and prompts for scenes. If you were absent, be sure to ask for these.
Template for a Scene:
Conflict (create a reason for the scene) The character has to pee but doesn't like to use the bathroom without buying gas, plus he is in a bad mood as he has just broken up with his girlfriend.
It has a beginning, a middle, and an end, but the size of each one may vary.
There is a new conflict at the end so the scene ends by opening up rather than by closing down. For example, the narrator in the gas station leaves with the fishbowl of matches and the stolen five bucks in his pocket. Say less. Show more. We know he is heading for trouble. And he forgets to pee.
Ending with a new conflict creates more tension.
Dialogue (Most scenes have dialogue) Keep it short. Keep it real. Keep it fragmented. Interrupt it. Doesn't have to be logical.
Variety, rhythm, style: Your syntax and rhythms are the artistry and craft of your work. Entice us with language that is fresh and rhythmic. Avoid adverbs. Use adjectives sparingly. Don't say, He laughed convincingly. Reword it to show convincing.
"You're late," she says.
He wasn't convinced she meant it.
Vary the paragraph length, the sentence length, the sentence type. Have fragments, have one word sentences, use commas, dashes, brackets, colons. Have some complex sentences: Despite the rain, George figured if he ran, he could get to the station without getting wet. George's certainty pissed her off. Soaked by the time they reached the train, George, aloof, headed straight to the men's room, stopped at the kiosk, bought a towel, flirted, paid.
Try eliminating words. Do you need I think or I thought? Do you need It was ... or There are . . .
Purpose of a scene: To reveal character. Show us who we are by getting your characters into a scene and get them out.
Use key verbs: lunged, coughed, choked, spat, riffed, spooned, flopped, flipped, dangled.
Today: Fiction Reports were due.
