July 24, 2012 - Guest Blogger Lynn C. Miller

Hi friends & writers,

I’ve been reading the mysteries of Susan Hill lately, a British writer who mixes psychological nuances with contemporary social controversies. She excels at parallel plots that deepen both the central situation as well as enhance the world of the novel. The result is that the landscape and cultural context of the book work in service to plot and character.

PROCESS:  CHARACTER BIOGRAPHY

As you develop your story or novel, open yourself to creating details of each character’s history that reveal or reinforce or connect to the core themes in your narrative.

Try this: Imagine what story each of your central characters would tell about themselves in a social situation. Then, write down a story about their past they hope to keep secret. In what situation might they reveal their secret story?

FEATURED VENUE: ALASKA QUARTERLY REVIEW

The journal accepts fiction, poetry, short plays, photo essays and creative nonfiction, both traditional and experimental. They also accept longer works (up to 50 pages). Their next submission period is August 15-May 15, snail mail only.

Submission guidelines:  http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/aqr/guidelines.cfm

PROMPT

“I have a secret to tell you.”  (10 min)

GUEST BLOGGER BIO: Lynn C. Miller is a novelist and playwright (www.lynncmiller.com). Her book “Find Your Story, Write Your Memoir” (co-authored with Lisa Lenard-Cook) comes out in Spring 2013 from the University of Wisconsin Press.  Email her at: lynn@lynncmiller.com

July 17, 2012- Guest Blogger Michelle Lee

Hi friends & writers,

I’m Michelle Lee, bosom buddy of Elisabeth McKetta and writer of short stories, poems, plays, as well as writer of academic whatsit as a professor of English at Daytona State College. When teaching writing classes and mentoring writers, I usually only suggest things I actually do myself as a writer, and this summer, I have been wading into dark water. I have been going into places that might be taboo, places that might spark my friends into thinking, “Could this be true?” even when it is not.

It’s difficult to wade into murk, where you call on emotions, ideas, or even experiences that are purposefully hidden, restrained, and/or painful – or even those that might seem dangerously shocking to admit (for you and for the reader). So my task for you, dear writers, is for you to wade with me. Write about something you dare not write about. You choose whether to fictionalize it or remain true.

Tread water, writers. See what keeps you afloat and makes you sink.

Michelle

PROCESS: EXPLORING THE CATALYST

As writers, we have the opportunity to counsel and heal ourselves through language. We can spill our hurt onto a page and, afterward, look at it from a distance. We have the opportunity to exorcise demons through imagery, then thumb our noses at them when they become nothing more than black letters in a file that we can easily close. But the key is the catalyst.

Try this: Write the name of something (a person, an object, a wish, a feeling, or a desire) that you cannot or should not have. Then, make a list of 5-10 reasons why. Then, next to those reasons, just down the way that makes you feel. If you are a poet, shape that list into a poem. If you are a fiction writer, shape that list into a rough idea for a short story. A non-fiction writer? Shape that list into a piece that reaches out to readers and says, It’s OK to feel this way.

FEATURED VENUE: SCYTHE LITERARY JOURNAL

Send Scythe 3 – 5 of your best poems, the ones that haunt you and stand by you and impel you to thrive. Send the poems that burn a hole in your hand when you cannot write them down fast enough. Send these poems in the body of an email to chenelle23@gmail.com. Online submission deadline: July 21, 2012

Submission guidelines here: http://scytheliteraryjournal.com/

PROMPT

“Taboo means ….” (2 min)

GUEST BLOGGER BIO: Michelle S. Lee is an assistant professor of composition, literature, and creative writing at Daytona State College.  She earned both her M.A. in Creative Writing and her Ph.D. in English Literature at the University of Texas at Austin. Her work, both poetry and fiction, has been featured in Tattoo Highway, Bateau Press, pacificReview, 580 Split, and Fickle Muses as well as other publications, but most recently has appeared in the journals, Sliver of Stone and Psychic Meatloaf.  Another poem is forthcoming this summer with Northwind magazine. You may contact her at leem@daytonastate.edu.

July 10, 2012 - Guest Blogger Nancy Napier

Hi friends & writers,

I was an Army Brat growing up so moving was just part of life. To remember the places I was leaving, I became good at taking “mind photos.” I still use the technique today (see below), especially when I write about a place.

I just returned from two weeks in Hanoi, Vietnam, and the morning I left I took a mind photo of the mannequins in shops selling skinny faded jeans or ethnic shirts or polyester business suits. The male torsos are big and square and the heads look like praying mantis heads without eyes, pointy and far too small in proportion to the torsos. They are shiny like black lacquer and since every store on Hang Gai uses them, the mannequin supplier in Vietnam must do a bang up business. The female mannequins are shiny white, with helmet hair heads and, if they are lucky, hands with long fingers. Too many, though, are handless, chopped off like thieves. 

~ Nancy Napier

PROCESS: MIND PHOTOS

A mind photo is simply that – a snapshot, usually small, that’s in your mind, not on a camera. Nothing big, nothing flashy, just a quick snapshot, tucked away for possible future viewing. For me, it was the narrow stone garage under our house at 15A Forsyth Avenue in Fort Riley, Kansas, made for an old car or horse carriage, not for a Chevy Impala.  Or, it was the school bus rocking back and forth in the morning when the older kids sang, “Under the Boardwalk.”  I imagined the bus step rocking away from me as I tried to step up.

Try this: Take a mind photo of something you see today and file it away for later use.

FEATURED VENUE: BREVITY

Brevity is an online journal that looks for short snappy nonfiction pieces, 750 words or less.  Good for reading, good in a classroom, and good examples for many of us.  

Submission guidelines here: http://brevitymag.com/submissions/

PROMPT

Take a mind photo of your desk and then write about one item on it that you forgot you had. (8 min)

GUEST BLOGGER BIO: I’m Nancy Napier, professor at Boise State University.  I study creativity a particular Gang…not your normal gang, but rather one of high performing, highly creative organizations that happen to be based in Boise, Idaho…..learn more from my books and blog:

My latest books....

 The Creative Discipline: The Art and Science of Innovation (2008)

 Insight: Encouraging Aha Moments for Organizational Success (2010)

My blog....
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/creativity-without-borders

July 3, 2012 - Guest Blogger Stacy Muszynski

Hi Tuesday Writers,

It's 93 degrees F in Austin, Texas. Not surprising. But the flowers outside my window here are standing tall and vibrant -- mainly because we had a quick, drenching surprise rain a few days ago. The flash lasted just long enough to make the sidewalks mirror-bright in the sun's reflection for about half and hour. Then it dried up, disappeared and was back to the mid-90s as if it never happened. Except for these gorgeous flowers.

People are like the weather. Complicated and surprising, much more moving invisibly beneath the surface of things than we realize. Whenever I'm surprised by people's behavior -- including my own -- I think to what an amazing writer and one of my favorite writing teachers told me: "People are never all just one way. Not even Hitler." I was reminded of this very thought a few hours ago when a friend sent me an email from that website cracked.com. In the email was a black and white photo of Hitler himself, moustached and winter booted, straddling a toboggan, in the snow, smiling his head off. If I didn't know better, he could have been anybody having some wintry fun and a really bad (facial) hair day. I never imagined him this way.

PROCESS: CUT THROUGH THE FACADE

When it comes to building realistic characters in our writing, having compassion for them is key, just as it is in our own human relationships. Nobody is all one way. Not even Hitler.

Try this: Consider a character or a person -- yourself, for example -- someone you know well. Jot down one or more ways what that character or person desires or wants in a situation conflicts with her/his actions or behaviors. How is what s/he says at odds with or opposite her/his behavior -- or how s/he wants the world to perceive her/him.

FEATURED VENUE: POST SECRET

Not all secrets direct a life of camouflaging behavior to distract from the secret, but a secret often remains a secret because, in hiding it, we act in ways to not be associated with that behavior. PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard. Submissions are open 24/7. It's also an excellent source for generating thoughts.

Submission guidelines here: http://www.postsecretcommunity.com/news-faq/mail-secrets

PROMPT

“Nobody knows I _____” (5min)

GUEST WRITER BIO: Stacy Muszynski is a writer and editor. You can find her in Huffington Post, The Rumpus and elsewhere.

June 26, 2012

Hi friends & writers,

I write this in a major June thunderstorm. My daughter’s stroller is drooping with puddles and my flip-flops are drying in a corner. I’ve opened all the windows to bring in that dusty smell of city rain.

The month of July will bring several guest writers to ‘The Tuesday Writer’ – I’m excited to introduce them and bring in their voices, venues, and prompts…

e

PROCESS: WRITING BEGETS WRITING

A wise teacher of mine, Hope Hale Davis, used to tell her students: “The more you write, the more you have to write; and the more you love, the more love you have to give. That’s one of the funny things about love and writing.”

I love these words and have treasured them over the years. How true! How true on both accounts! Generosity with words begets more words. You’d think you’d run out, but no.

Try this: Be decadent with your writing time. Write for too long, and write too much, more than you think you wanted to say, and see how much more comes out.

FEATURED VENUE: OPEN SPACES

An online quarterly giving voice to the Pacific Northwest, Open Spaces is interested, simply, in openness; they seek “thoughtful, well-researched articles and insightful fiction, essays and poetry on a variety of subjects from a number of different viewpoints.” Paper submissions only. 

Submission guidelines here: http://www.open-spaces.com/submissions.php

PROMPT

“The difference between lightning and a lightning bug” (8min)

June 19, 2012

Hi friends & writers,

Yesterday I arrived in Boston and am re-figuring my way around. I have lived here before and loved these streets and especially these bookstores, and since then much has changed and so I am learning it all over again. And of course I have changed, so I am learning to reconcile “my” city of now with “her” city of a decade ago. Strange how our old selves find ways to take the third person.

e

PROCESS: A CITY, TWO WAYS

Because we place so many of our own questions into what we observe, it is impossible to separate the viewed from the viewer. As Anaïs Nin said, “We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are.” This phenomenon is especially vibrant in descriptions of place. A town or city can be many conflicting things for us, simply because we are many conflicting people in it. The moodiness of this divide can make for incredible descriptive writing.

Try this: Describe the same city two ways: one from the point of view of somebody who has just experienced a great stroke of fortune, and the second from the point of view of somebody who has just suffered a tremendous loss.

FEATURED VENUE: GLIMMER TRAIN

In 1990, two sisters who loved to read founded Glimmer Train. Over twenty years later, the Portland-based literary journal stands as one of the most respected short story journals in print. Their stories are highly anthologized and frequently crowned with awards – and still Glimmer Train has a wonderful reputation for openness to new writers. Try them.

Submission guidelines here: http://www.glimmertrain.com/writguid1.html

PROMPT

“The art of losing isn’t hard to master” (7min)

June 12, 2012

Hi friends & writers,

I’m heading away in a few days for seven weeks in Boston! “The Tuesday Writer” will continue from there. Please keep me posted on your writing revelations & news … and send requests for anything you’d like to hear more about in this newsletter.

Talk soon,

e

PROCESS: SURPRISE FOR THE WRITER

Good writing, the stuff that really gets into our body, raising our heart-rate and giving us chills, forces us to discover something new – about ourselves, about our world. And this mirror-trickery, this discovery for the reader, begins with the writer. As a great writing teacher of mine often said, “No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader. No tears for the writer, no tears for the reader.”

Try this: Ask yourself a hard life question and then write for twenty minutes. Read back on it, looking for the parts that surprise you most or that elicit the most emotion from you. Focus on crafting those parts into a finished piece.

FEATURED VENUE: HIGH DESERT JOURNAL

High Desert Journal is looking year-round for quality literary work – poetry, fiction, memoir, interviews, book reviews, artwork – that illuminates the landscape and people of the interior West. Also check out their Obsidian Prize for Poetry, deadline August 12.

Submission guidelines here: http://highdesertjournal.com/submissions/

PROMPT

“The power of refusal” (7min)