Muse & the Marketplace 2018

Have you ever considered writing a young adult novel? Have you wondered what, exactly, makes a novel young adult? Does the idea of writing an authentic teen voice make you thrilled and/or terrified? How should you decide whether to make the leap? Join young adult author Jennifer De Leon for an informative session that breaks down some of the myths and mystery around this fast-growing publishing category. (Spoiler: it's every bit as challenging--and rewarding--as writing for adults.) They'll share their own reasons for pursuing young adult writing, offer an overview of today's YA industry, and--through creative exercises and discussion--help you discover the young adult novel in you.

Are you looking for more tools with which to create complex characters in your work? Do you find yourself having difficulty getting close enough to your characters to write intimately about them? Conversely, do you feel you understand something vital about your characters but can’t seem to bring it across on the page? In this seminar, we’ll look at examples of characterization in literature and consider how the authors were able to access and depict their characters’ essential qualities. We will do writing exercises as time allows. Please come with questions about problems you’re trying to solve surrounding characterization in your own work. You’ll take away a wider set of options and/or solutions for bringing your characters to life.

The first step to getting published is understanding how the whole process works. Publishing in literary magazines is a different ball-game than publishing a book, and successful writers ought to have a strong overview of the submission process for both. In this session, novelist Marjan Kamali and Fifth Wednesday Journal book reviews editor Angie Chatman will walk you through the similarities and differences of submitting work to literary magazines and to literary agents. We will cover submission ins and outs, pitfalls and preferences. You'll walk away with a realistic game plan for how to submit your work in both areas of the publishing business.

Do you enjoy reading humorous writing and want to make your own work funnier? What are the building blocks of humor? And how do we incorporate humor into our writing without making it too "jokey"? We'll look at examples from the masters in fiction and nonfiction, explore what makes them succeed, identify their techniques and learn how to incorporate these techniques into our own work. Come with a short excerpt of writing (500 words or less) that you'd like to improve. We'll do an in-class exercise then pick one or two to workshop as a group.

Vladimir Nabokov once remarked, “style and structure are the essence of a book. Great ideas are hogwash.”

This session will begin by posing the questions, “What is style?" and "How does the writer cultivate it?" Is style 'le mot juste,' the elegant turn of phrase, the startling epithet, the apt figure of speech? What about pauses, predicates, parallel structures, and punctuation? Is adherence to the "House style" a blessing or curse? How and when does style become manifest: through imagining, close listening, composing, or editing? What does it mean to the long form, the short? Can the writer 'improve' her style or only suffer the style she was born with? What is the role of influence-those authors we admire-and absorb, deliberately or unknowingly? If style emanates from your own being, as Katherine Anne Porter wrote, then variations are infinite.

We will examine some of the most vivid examples of prose style from the literary stars of our time, as well as the bright and wavering constellations of ages gone by; I’ll then introduce methods and exercises that writers can use to tease out their individual styles, when simple “emanations” elude us.

Dialogue is the human voice on the page. What purpose does dialogue have in prose? We will examine invented dialogue for fiction, interviews and quotes for nonfiction, and remembered dialogue for memoir writing. In this one hour session, learn tips and tools for writing effective dialogue in fiction and nonfiction.

Backstory and flashback can enrich fictional narratives in important ways, providing key context and motivation to main characters, underling the significance of themes and image systems, and adding texture and dimensionality to the story's world. Delving into past timelines can easily go wrong, however, which may be a reason aspiring writers are sometimes advised to avoid it altogether. In this craft session we'll analyze key passages from fiction in order to answer questions such as: What's the difference between backstory and flashback? Are there artful ways to use these techniques that help the reader understand your character's central motivation? Do you have too much backstory or flashback in your narrative—or could you use more? An on-the-spot writing exercise will give participants a way to use what they've learned to improve and deepen their stories.