Prepared by: Florence Cardinal Revised and posted on: 31 May 2009
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Exercise: In fewer than 500 words, show us a character trying to choose between two mutually exclusive goals.
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In this exercise, show a character torn by having to choose between two mutually exclusive goals. Show the struggle faced by someone who has well-defined, but incompatible, goals. For example, how might a mother feel who is torn between her desire to at stay home with her children and her urge to pursue her dreams? How will a young man respond when he wants to go mountain climbing with his friends, but knows that if he stays home he has a chance for a date with the prettiest girl in class?
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Exercise: In fewer than 500 words, show us a character trying to choose between two mutually exclusive goals.
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To critique: Note if the conflict is clear and understandable, and the character's actions show his or her inner struggle. Please continue to point out ways the writing in general may be improved through revision or editing.
These exercises were written by IWW members and administrators to provide structured practice opportunities for its members. You are welcome to use them for practice as well. Please mention that you found them at the Internet Writers Workshop. _____________________
This Day In Writing History On May 29th, 1906, the legendary fantasy writer T.H. White was born. Terence Hanbury White was born in Bombay, India. His father, Garrick, was a police superintendent and a drunkard, his mother Constance an emotionally cold and distant woman. They separated when he was fourteen.
White's unhappy childhood would have a lasting effect on his personal life. He was a bisexual who preferred men, but also had relationships with women, several of whom he came close to marrying. He was ultimately unable to maintain an enduring romantic relationship with anyone, writing in his diary that "It has been my hideous fate to be born with an infinite capacity for love and joy with no hope of using them."
As a student, White first went to Cheltenham College in Gloucestershire, then to Queen's College, Cambridge, where he majored in English and was tutored by L.J. Potts, a scholar and author who would become a lifelong friend. White referred to him as "the greatest literary influence in my life." While at Queen's College, White wrote his thesis on Le Morte d'Arthur, a 15th century compilation of French and English Arthurian romances by Sir Thomas Malory. Though he never actually read the book, White's thesis on it would play a part in his future writings.
In 1932, White taught at Stowe School, a coed boarding school in Buckinghamshire, for four years. In 1936, he published his first book, a memoir called England In My Bones. With the success of the book, White left Stowe and moved into a workman's cottage where he wrote, went hunting and fishing, and took up falconry. Two years later, White published his first novel, The Sword In The Stone, the first in his famous Once And Future King series of Arthurian fantasy novels.
The Sword In The Stone told the story of a young boy named Wart who befriends an old wizard, Merlyn, who becomes his tutor. Wart is actually the future King Arthur and proves himself so when he removes a magical sword embedded in a stone. The Sword In The Stone received rave reviews and became a Book Of The Month Club selection in 1939. That same year, White, a conscientious objector, moved to Doolistown, Ireland, and rode out the war years writing. He published two more Once And Future King novels, The Queen Of Air And Darkness, and The Ill-Made Knight.
In 1946, White moved to Alderney, one of the Channel Islands (where he lived the rest of his life) and published his next book, Mistress Masham's Repose, a children's novel about a 10-year-old orphan girl who discovers a group of Lilliputians (the tiny people from Jonathan Swift's classic novel, Gulliver's Travels) living near her home. The following year, White - an agnostic - wrote another children's book, The Elephant And The Kangaroo, a retelling of the Noah's Ark story set in Ireland.
In the early 1950s, White wrote two non-fiction books, The Age Of Scandal (1950), a collection of essays about 18th century England, and The Goshawk (1952), an account of White's adventures in falconry as he tried to train a hawk. In 1958, he completed his fourth Once And Future King novel, The Candle In The Wind. Around this time, White's troubled personal life led him down the same path as his father: he began drinking heavily. He also became a lecturer.
On January 17th, 1964, White's drinking caught up with him. While on a lecture tour, he died of heart trouble aboard ship in Athens, Greece. He was 57 years old. Later, in 1977, White's final Once And Future King novel, The Book Of Merlyn, was published posthumously.
T.H. White's fantasy novels were and still are venerable classics of the genre. In 1960, they were the subject of the famous Broadway musical, Camelot. In 1963, Disney released an animated feature film adaptation of The Sword In The Stone. J.K. Rowling cites the Once And Future King novels as a strong influence on her Harry Potter books, describing Wart as "Harry's spiritual ancestor." Critics have compared Harry's wizard mentor Albus Dumbledore to Merlyn.
Quote Of The Day "The only cure for sadness is to learn something." - T.H. White
Vanguard Video Today's Vanguard Video is Creative Writing Masterclass 4: Setting, the fourth in a five-part series of creative writing lectures by Keith Gray. For those of you who don't know, best selling and award winning Scottish writer Keith Gray is one of the hottest young adult novelists in the United Kingdom today. Enjoy!
This Day In Writing History On May 28th, 1940, writer Maeve Binchy was born in Dalkey, Ireland - a quiet coastal town just ten miles south of Dublin. Her father William was a promient barrister in Dublin. He and his wife both encouraged their children to be avid readers and to share stories at the dinner table, and nobody loved telling stories more than Maeve. She once quipped, "I had a very happy childhood, which is unsuitable if you're going to be an Irish writer."
Maeve Binchy went to University College in Dublin, majoring in history and French, and after she graduated in 1960, she became a schoolteacher, teaching history, French, and Latin at a Catholic grade school in Dublin. She spent her summer vacations indulging her passion for travel. Binchy became such a popular teacher that her students' parents chipped in to send her on a trip to Israel.
While in Israel, Binchy wrote long, detailed letters home describing her adventures there, the country, the daily life, and the people that she met. Her father was so impressed with her writing that he typed up the letters and submitted them to the Irish Independent newspaper. When she returned to Dublin, to her surprise, she found that she'd become a published writer.
Binchy also found that she was interested in journalism, and landed a job as women's editor for The Irish Times. In the early 1970s, Binchy switched to feature reporting and moved to London to be with Gordon Snell, a BBC broadcaster turned children's book writer and mystery novelist, whom she had met and fallen in love with during a previous visit. They married in 1977 and remain happily married to this day. In 1980, the couple moved to Binchy's hometown of Dalkey and bought a cottage, where they still live.
After returning to Dalkey, Binchy began her writing career, publishing two collections of her newspaper work and a collection of short stories. In between reporting assignments, she wrote her first novel, Light A Penny Candle, which was published in 1982. Set during the outbreak of World War 2, the novel tells the story of Elizabeth White, a young British girl who is sent to stay with a large Irish family, the O'Connors, whose daughter Aisling is Elizabeth's age. The girls form an inseperable bond of friendship that remains long after the war ends, as they write to each other frequently.
As a writer, Binchy has been described as a modern day Jane Austen. Her novels mostly deal with the trials and tribulations of Irish women in the 20th century. They are also steeped deep in Catholicism, though as the influence of the Church has waned in Ireland, so too has it waned in Binchy's writing. Eleven of her novels reached the New York Times bestseller list, and in reader polls taken in Ireland and England, Binchy has been rated higher than James Joyce, prompting her to joke that it was because most of her books were sold in airport bookshops and "if you're going on a plane journey, you're more likely to take one of my stories than Finnegan's Wake."
In 1995, Binchy's popular 1990 novel Circle Of Friends was made into a movie starring Minnie Driver and Chris O'Donnell. Unfortunately for fans of the book, in his adaptation, screenwriter Andrew Davies elected to give the film a completely different ending.
Binchy announced her retirement from writing in 2000, but it proved to be short-lived. She has written four novels since then. In additon to her novels and short story collections, Binchy is also a playwright, and her plays have been staged at the Peacock Theatre in Dublin. For over 30 years, she has written a hugely popular monthly column called Maeve's Week for The Irish Times which is part advice column, part gossip column, and part humor column.
Throughout her long career, which still continues, Maeve Binchy has proven herself to be one of Ireland's greatest writers.
Quote Of The Day "The Irishman, finding himself in another environment, outside Ireland, very often knows how to make his worth felt. The economic and intellectual conditions of his homeland do not permit the individual to develop. The spirit of the country has been weakened by centuries of useless struggle and broken treaties. Individual initiative has been paralyzed by the influence and admonitions of the Church, while the body has been shackled by peelers, duty officers and soldiers. No self-respecting person wants to stay in Ireland. Instead he will run from it, as if from a country that has been subjected to a visitation by an angry Jove." - James Joyce
Vanguard Video Today's Vanguard Video is Creative Writing Masterclass 3: Plot - the third in a five-part series of creative writing lectures by the acclaimed Scottish young adult novelist, Keith Gray. Enjoy!
This Day In Writing History On May 27th, 1894, the great writer and master of the hardboiled detective thriller Dashiell Hammett was born. Samuel Dashiell Hammett was born in St. Mary's County, Maryland, on a farm called Hopewell and Aim. Hammett's mother, Anne Bond Dashiell, was a descendant of one of Maryland's oldest families. When he turned 13, Hammett left school to work.
In 1915, at the age of 21, Hammett landed a job at the famous Pinkerton Detective Agency, for whom he worked for six years as an operative. This experience would plant the seeds of his writing career. Disillusioned by Pinkerton's role in strike-breaking and other anti-union activities, Hammett quit the agency in disgust. During World War 1, Hammett served in the Army in the Motor Ambulance Corps, but illness cut his tour of duty short; first he'd contracted Spanish flu, then tuberculosis. He spent most of the war in a hospital in Tacoma, Washington.
While in the hospital, Hammett met and later married a nurse, Josephine Dolan. She bore him two daughters, Mary Jane in 1921 and Josephine in 1926. Shortly after his second child's birth, due to Hammett's tuberculosis, Health Services nurses told his wife that she and the children should not live with him. So, they took an apartment in San Francisco. Hammett visited them on the weekends. Unfortunately, the toll of separation was too great on the marriage, and it fell apart.
From there, Hammett took to drinking and tried his hand at several jobs before beginning a writing career. His early work was comprised of a series of short stories featuring a detective with no name, referred to as The Continental Op. The short stories led to two novels, Red Harvest (February 1929) and The Dain Curse (July 1929). In Red Harvest, the Continental Op arrives in a coal mining town called Personville to meet with a new client, but finds that the man has been murdered. The client's father, a local industrialist, tells the Op that warring criminal gangs are determined to control Personville.
The Op solves his client's murder. With the Chief of Police totally corrupt, the Op cleans up the town by extracting and distributing the information he needs to set up a final showdown between the criminal gangs, manipulating them into wiping each other out. It has been suggested that Red Harvest was the inspiration for the great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's 1961 masterwork, Yojimbo. Kurosawa often expressed his admiration for hardboiled American detective novels, citing them as an inspiration for several of his movies.
In 1929, Hammett became romantically involved with mystery writer Nell Martin, dedicating his novel The Glass Key to her. By 1931, their relationship ended and Hammett embarked on a lifelong affair with legendary playwright Lillian Hellman. They never married.
Hammett's writing matured after the publication and success of his Continental Op novels, becoming more realistic and hardboiled. In 1930, Hammett published his classic novel, The Maltese Falcon, featuring one of the great detective characters of all time, Sam Spade. A bitter, sardonic character, Spade lets the police and other criminals think that he's a criminal while he works to nail the bad guys. The novel opens with Spade and his partner Miles Archer hired by a woman, Miss Wonderly, to tail Floyd Thursby, a man who allegedly ran off with her underage sister. When Archer and Thursby suddenly end up murdered, Sam becomes the prime suspect.
Later, a man named Joel Cairo offers Sam $5000 to retrieve a valuable figurine of a black bird known as the Maltese Falcon. Then suddenly, Cairo pulls a gun on Sam and decides to search Spade's office for the bird. The case leads Sam on a collision course with Cairo, rotund crime boss Kasper Gutman, and Gutman's bodyguard, Wilmer Cook. The Maltese Falcon was filmed three times, in 1931, 1936, (as Satan Met A Lady) and 1941. While the 1931 version wonderfully captures the grittier elements of the novel, the other two were sanitized as per Production Code requirements. (In the novel, Sam Spade is having an affair with both his partner's wife and his female client, Gutman and Cook are obviously homosexual lovers, and the effeminate Cairo is also gay.) However, the 1941 version, featuring Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade, is still the best of the three and rightfully considered an all-time movie classic.
Hammett's 1934 novel, The Thin Man, also turned out to be a classic. Set in New York City during Prohibition, ex-private detective Nick Charles and his clever, witty wife Nora - a wealthy socialite - spend most of their time cheerfully drunk in speakeasies and hotel rooms. Though he retired from the detective business, Nick finds himself investigating yet another crime, with Nora's help. As they try to solve a murder, Nick and Nora engage in snappy banter and imbibe a vast quantity of alcohol. The case leads them into the rough world of gangsters, hoodlums, and the grotesque Wynant family.
The Thin Man would inspire a series of movies featuring the characters of Nick and Nora Charles, as well as a Thin Man TV series. It has been suggested that Dashiell Hammett modeled Nick and Nora after the personalities (and drinking habits) of himself and his longtime lover, Lillian Hellman. The Thin Man would prove to be Hammett's last novel.
Hammett devoted the rest of his life to political activism. In the 1930s, Hammett, a ferocious and outspoken anti-fascist, joined the Communist Party and the League Of American Writers, a group of left-leaning activist writers. In 1942, Hammett, a disabled veteran of the first world war and ex-tuberculosis patient, pulled strings to get himself readmitted to the service. He spent most of World War 2 as a Sergeant stationed in the Aleutian Islands, where he edited an Army newspaper. He returned from the war with more lung trouble, this time emphysema.
Returning to political activism, Hammett was elected President of the Civil Rights Congress of New York (CRC) in June of 1946 and devoted most of his time to working for the CRC. In 1951, he would be brought to testify before a U.S. District Court judge about his CRC activities. He refused to testify to anything, pleading the Fifth Amendment to every question. Congress began a full investigation of Hammett, and two years later in 1953, he was brought to testify before the HUAC - the House committee on un-American activities. Hammett openly testified to his own activities, but refused to cooperate with the committee and inform on others. As a result, he was blacklisted.
Both trials took a toll on Hammett's already declining health. He died of lung cancer a few years later in 1961, at the age of 66. As he was a veteran of two world wars, Hammett was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Dashiell Hammett was one of America's greatest writers, a former detective turned author of hardboiled detective stories and novels whose iconic characters - and the classic films they inspired - will live on forever.
Quote Of The Day "You got to look on the bright side, even if there ain't one." - Dashiell Hammett
Vanguard Video Today's Vanguard Video is Creative Writing Masterclass 2: Characters - the second in a five-part series of creative writing lectures by the acclaimed Scottish young adult novelist, Keith Gray. Enjoy!
This Day In Writing History On May 26th, 1897, Bram Stoker's classic novel Dracula made its debut in London. Stoker's tale of handsome, seductive Transylvanian nobleman and bloodthirsty vampire Count Dracula's move to London in search of new victims to feed on and add to his army of the undead wasn't a huge commercial success, but it was very popular with Victorian readers and critics alike.
Readers described the book as "the most blood-curdling novel of the paralyzed century." In a review in the Daily Mail published on June 1st, 1897, Dracula was proclaimed a classic of Gothic horror, the critic stating that "In seeking a parallel to this weird, powerful, and horrorful story, our mind reverts to such tales as The Mysteries of Udolpho, Frankenstein, The Fall of the House of Usher ... but Dracula is even more appalling in its gloomy fascination than any one of these."
Dracula is a novel very much the product of its time, that being the late 19th century - the waning years of the Victorian era, as a new century approached. The book speaks both metaphorically and directly of the conflicts between science and religion and traditional versus modern life. Some have suggested that in Dracula, vampirism is a metaphor for uncontrolled sexual desire, the ungodly lust for blood equated with lust for the flesh.
The Victorian era was a sexual paradox; rigid morality and fear of the body and one's natural biological impulses ruled on the outside, with unwed motherhood a scandal worthy of suicide. But behind closed doors, Victorians rarely practiced what they preached. There was a thriving, seamy sexual underground in England at the time that included both female and male brothels catering to any and all desires. Some of the best literary erotica ever written was penned during the Victorian era and published in underground literary magazines and anthologies, all of which were distributed on the sly - usually under cover of darkness.
Though the suave and seductive Count Dracula's name was taken from that of the infamous Romanian prince Vlad Tepes, aka Vlad Dracul - dracul meaning devil in the Romanian language - the novel was partly inspired by Sheridan Le Fanu's classic 1871 novella Carmilla, which told the story of a lesbian vampire preying on lonely young women. Stoker added new aspects to the vampire mythos; in Dracula, for the first time, a vampire cast no reflection in a mirror, could be driven away with garlic, and could be destroyed by driving a wooden stake through its heart - through Dracula himself meets a different fate.
Though it wasn't the first classic novel to feature a vampire, over a hundred years since its initial publication, Dracula has inspired countless works of vampire fiction. Bela Lugosi's legendary performance as the Count in the first sound film adaptation of Dracula in 1931 set the stage for the vampire on film. But it was Stoker's novel that established the vampire as one of the most popular and intriguing characters in Western culture.
Quote Of The Day "Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious." - Oscar Wilde
Vanguard Video Today's Vanguard Video is Creative Writing Masterclass 1: Ideas & Inspiration, the first in a five-part series of creative writing lectures by Keith Gray. For those of you who don't know, best selling and award winning Scottish writer Keith Gray is one of the hottest young adult novelists in the United Kingdom today. Enjoy!
This Day In Writing History On May 25th, 1803, the great poet, essayist, philosopher, and orator Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Emerson's father, Rev. William Emerson, was a Unitarian minister who died two weeks before his son's eighth birthday, leaving the boy to be raised by his mother and other female family members, all of whom were both intellectual and devoutly religious. Emerson was especially close to his aunt Mary Moody Emerson, and they would write to each other frequently until her death in 1863.
At the age of 9, Emerson attended Boston Latin School, then at 14, he went to Harvard College, where he was appointed freshman messenger for the president. During his junior year, he began compiling a list of books he'd read and started keeping a journal in a series of notebooks, which he called the Wide World. In his senior year, he served as Class Poet and recited an original poem on Harvard's Class Day, though by all accounts, he was an average student.
After graduating Harvard, Emerson helped his brother run a school for young women originally run out of their mother's house. Emerson took over the school when his brother went off study divinity. Emerson hated running the school, as he was very awkward around women. But it gave him the experience that enabled him to work as a schoolmaster for a few years before going to divinity school himself.
Emerson was most likely bisexual. During his Harvard years, he wrote in his journal of being "strangely attracted" to a male classmate by the ironic name of Martin Gay, about whom he wrote sexually charged poems. Emerson also wrote of his other male infatuations, including the writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. However, in 1829, not long after being ordained as a junior pastor at Boston's Second Church, Emerson met a young girl named Ellen Louisa Tucker and fell love with her. He married her when she turned 18 - even though she was stricken with tuberculosis.
When Ellen died two years later, Emerson was devastated and visited her grave frequently. His wife's death forced him to come to terms with his simmering discontent with religion, writing in his journal that "I have sometimes thought that, in order to be a good minister, it was necessary to leave the ministry. The profession is antiquated. In an altered age, we worship in the dead forms of our forefathers." He resigned as pastor.
Emerson then toured Europe, writing of his travels in English Traits (1856). During his trip, he met William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Stuart Mill, and Thomas Carlyle. Carlyle was a strong influence, and Emerson would serve as his unofficial literary agent in the U.S., maintaining a lifelong friendship with him. In 1835, he bought a house in Concord, Massachusetts, which is now a historical landmark. He married his second wife Lydia Jackson in September, 1835, and she bore him four children: Waldo, Edith, Ellen, and Edward. Ellen was named after Emerson's first wife at Lydia's suggestion.
The following year, Emerson and some like-minded intellectuals formed the Transcendental Club, which held its first meeting on September 19, 1836. Shortly thereafter, he published his first essay, Nature. In this essay, Emerson puts forth the foundation of transcendentalism, defining nature - the very universe - as an all-encompassing divine entity that is part of us, rather than a kingdom ruled by a seperate divine entity. In pursuing his new philosophy, Emerson delved into the Bhagavad Gita and the Vedic Texts - all of which are the ancient, sacred writings of the Hindu religion.
A year later, Emerson delivered his famous Phi Beta Kappa Address at Cambridge, where he issued a declaration of literary independence from Europe, urging his fellow American writers to create a literary style all their own, free from European influence. Around this time, Emerson struck up a friendship with writer Henry David Thoreau and asked him if he kept a journal. Thoreau's fascination with Emerson's journal practice strongly influenced his own writing. He became Emerson's protege.
On July 15, 1838, Emerson was invited to Harvard Divinity School to deliver the graduation address at Divinity Hall. In what came to be known as his famous Divinity School Address, Emerson disputed biblical miracles and proclaimed Jesus to be neither God himself nor the son of God, but a great man and spiritual teacher whom organized Christianity had turned into a "demigod, as the Orientals or the Greeks would describe Osiris or Apollo." Emerson's address caused considerable outrage. He was denounced as an atheist and a corrupter of young people's minds.
Nevertheless, Emerson remained a popular lecturer in New England and throughout the country. He also toured England, Ireland, and Scotland. By the 1850s, he was giving up to 80 lectures a year. His earnings from the lectures enabled him to buy eleven acres of land near Walden Pond.
In 1845, Emerson published his essay The Over-soul, which is clearly influenced by the Vedic Texts and has a distinct tone of nondualism:
We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related, the eternal ONE. And this deep power in which we exist and whose beatitude is all accessible to us, is not only self-sufficing and perfect in every hour, but the act of seeing and the thing seen, the seer and the spectacle, the subject and the object, are one. We see the world piece by piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal, the tree; but the whole, of which these are shining parts, is the soul.
In 1847, Emerson published his first book of poetry, simply titled Poems. Among these is Threnody, a heart wrenching, dazzlingly lyrical ode to grief written after Emerson lost his firstborn son Waldo to scarlet fever in 1842. His second book of poetry, May-Day and Other Poems, was published in 1867.
In 1860, Emerson, an abolitionist, voted for Abraham Lincoln for President, but was greatly disappointed by Lincoln's initial inclination to allow the Southern states to maintain the institution of slavery in order to preserve the Union. On January 31st, 1862, Emerson gave a public lecture in Washington DC, declaring "The South calls slavery an institution... I call it destitution... emancipation is the demand of civilization." The next day, his friend Charles Sumner took him to meet Lincoln. He came away with a more favorable opinion of the President.
The decade of the 1870s marked the beginning of the end of Emerson's career. His Concord home burned down in July of 1872, and though his friends collected over $15,000 in donations to help him and his family rebuild, it added to the stress caused by the fact that Emerson's memory was failing. In 1874, he edited and published a poetry anthology called Parnassus. By the end of the decade, his memory had failed considerably, and in 1879, at the age of 76, he finally retired from lecturing. When asked by friends how he felt, Emerson would reply in classic form "Quite well. I have lost all my mental faculties, but am perfectly well."
On April 19th, 1882, despite having a cold, Emerson went out for a walk and got caught in the rain. His cold turned into pneumonia, and he died eight days later. Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of the all-time great American intellectuals - a poet, essayist, philosopher, and orator years, if not decades, ahead of his time. He will always have a place in the annals of literary history.
Quote Of The Day "Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned." - Anonymous
Vanguard Video Today's Vanguard Video features actor Wendell Refior as Ralph Waldo Emerson, performing a reading from Emerson's classic essay, Self-Reliance. Enjoy!
The IWW's "Practice" list continues to serve as a springboard for some of our members' publishing successes, and it's great to see those efforts paying off!
Also in this week's collection is a beautifully written piece about Memorial Day by Ruth Douillette. Given today's holiday, I'm deviating a little from our usual order and moving Ruth's tribute to the top.
Here's a hearty congratulations to this week's crew, and may you all enjoy many more writing successes!
Jody
Ruth Douillette
I have a Memorial Day piece in Camroc Press Review. It's accompanied by a photo of my husband (who's the subject of the piece) at the Wall in D.C.
Pamelyn Casto
I'm pleased to have an article in the [collective] book The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction -- hot off the presses just a few days ago. My article is on using myth to create flash fiction and it includes an example story by the fine writer Robert Hill Long. The collection also includes articles by Robert Olen Butler, Ron Carlson, Jayne Anne Phillips, Steve Almond, Stuart Dybek, David Martone, Deb Olin Unferth, Mark Budman, and others fine writers. Here's some info on the collection from the web site.
With its unprecedented gathering of 25 brief essays by experts in the field, The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction meets the growing need for a concise yet creative exploration of the re-emerging genre popularly known as flash fiction. The book's introduction provides, for the first time, a comprehensive history of the short short story, from its early roots and hitherto unknown early publications and appearances, to its current state and practice. This guide is a must for anyone in the field of short fiction who teaches, writes, and is interested in its genesis and practice.
For those looking for another history on flash fiction you can see my 8,000-word article included in "Books and Beyond: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of New American Reading" (4-vols, Ken Womack, Editor, Westport, Connecticut / London: Greenwood Press, 2008). More info on this four-volume encyclopedia can be seen at my Flash Fiction Blog. You might ask your library to order it for you. Further, this collection was cited as a RUSA Outstanding Reference Source (the first Dartmouth win for Greenwood Press).
Mira Desai
Calque, a literary translation site, has published the story "Instantly," a translation of Pravinsinh Chavda’s "Sheegrata."
It's a tale about a woman who is a survivor and knows how to make the most of her beauty.
Gentle on the essay; it's the first one I've written after Class 12.
Work that was ready in 2005 finally finds a home. Humbling.
It's special to me as it is a real conversation between me and my dad right after he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He was a man of few words, but to me, these were profound.
Sue Ellis
Birmingham Arts Journal has accepted "Sophie's Song," a story that began in Practice and asked that we include music in the story. I chose elk bugling because I think the sound resembles clarinet notes. Anyway, thanks to everyone who encouraged and responded with crits. The story will appear in the July issue.
Rebecca Gaffron
My story "The Neighbor's Cat" has found a home at Colored Chalk. It will be included in the up-coming Broken Clocks issue. Thanks to everyone on fiction who critted this one.
A very short piece called "Capacity" will be appearing in Ink, Sweat and Tearssometime in the next few weeks. This is a great little journal. It primarily publishes poetry but also some micro-fiction and art work.
I also have the honor of joining Judith and Wayne with a dark little piece now up at Flash Fire 500.
It's been a good week!
Deanna Hershiser
Flashquake has accepted my nonfiction piece, "Literary Release," for their Summer 2009 edition. It'll go online June 1.
Thanks so much to those who critiqued an earlier version titled "Book Drive." I will receive $5; it's nice to return to the glamorous world of paid writing! I really appreciate the help and support on the lists here.
Ann Hite
My essay, "Tacky Yard Ornaments," will be published in the July issue of The Birmingham Arts Journal. Yeah! This piece started as a practice piece and grew. Thanks practice list.
I found out on Friday that my novel, "Beautiful Wreck," was a semi-finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest. This means it made it all the way down to the last two hundred before they chose the three finalists. The contest began with 10,000 entries. I did receive a review from Publishers Weekly that was favorable, but pointed out the reasons they didn't pick it over the last three. I'm on cloud nine guys. The novel going this far means a publisher will take it. We'll see. I'm going to try and sleep now.
I have had my first piece accepted. The Shine will publish my memoir/essay (there seemed to be some disagreement on which it was) "The Passing," in its September issue. Thanks so much to those in Nonfiction and Novels-L for their help with this piece.
Judith Quaempts
A somewhat grim little piece of mine is up at Flash Fire 500.
Randy Radic
An excerpt from "Blood In, Blood Out: The Violent Empire of the Aryan Brotherhood" is up on Crime Magazine. For obvious reasons, under a pen-name.
My review of "Patches of Grey" is up at Alvah's Books. Thanks to Rebeca for both the book and the opportunity.
Wayne Scheer
"A Suburban Story," is up at Flash Fire 500. No payment, but they respond quickly and put up the story even faster. Good for when you need that jolt of instant gratification. "A Suburban Story" began as a Practice exercise. Thanks to the group for your critiques and encouragement.
Harriette Spanabel
My story "Only An Experiment" is up at Cynicmag under featured stories.
Joanna M. Weston
My poem "Old trains" is up at Camroc Press Review. Memories of those long-ago days travelling to boarding school!
Prepared by: Carter Jefferson Revised and reposted on: May 24, 2009 -------------------------
Exercise: In 400 words or less, write a scene in which a birth plays an important part, and show at least the beginnings of the changes this might cause.
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Birth can be an occasion for joy, something to celebrate with flowers and gifts, or it may be a disaster for everyone concerned. Sometimes it even comes as a surprise. It may take place in a hospital, an ordinary bedroom, or a cotton field. In any event, it causes change--in a happy family, in the life of a single mother, or in the hopes of succession for the children of a king.
For this exercise, you need not show your readers the actual birth, though you certainly may, but make sure the scene shows how the event is received and indicates something of the changes wrought.
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Exercise: In 400 words or less, write a scene in which a birth plays an important part, and show at least the beginnings of the changes this might cause.
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In your critiques, note how well the setting is constructed, and whether we have been shown authentic characters acting in believable ways. What do we learn of the characters from their reactions to the birth? What future actions does the scene foreshadow? Would you like to read more of the story? And as usual, pay attention to all the technical concerns that go into good writing. These exercises were written by IWW members and administrators to provide structured practice opportunities for its members. You are welcome to use them for practice as well. Please mention that you found them at the Internet Writers Workshop. _____________________
This Day In Writing History On this day in 1859, the legendary British writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father, George Altamont Doyle, an Englishman of Irish descent, was a drunkard whose only accomplishment in life was fathering an intellectually gifted son. At the age of eight, Conan Doyle was sent to a Jesuit prep school called Hodder Place. From there, he attended a Jesuit university, Stonyhurst College, but after graduating in 1875, he cast off the yoke of Christianity and became an agnostic.
For the next five years, Conan Doyle studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh. During this time, he began writing short stories. He sold his first story to Chambers's Edinburgh Journal before his 20th birthday. In 1882, he joined his classmate George Budd in a Plymouth medical practice, but their relationship soured. Conan Doyle left for Portsmouth, where he set up his own medical practice. Unsuccessful at first, he began writing stories again while waiting for patients.
After many rejections, his debut novel A Study In Scarlet was published, first in 1887 by Beeton's Christmas Annual magazine, then in book form a year later, with illustrations by his father, Charles. The novel's main character was a detective called Sherlock Holmes. The brilliant, analytical, and laid-back Holmes was assisted by his friend, Dr. John Watson, who also served as narrator for the duo's adventures. A Study In Scarlet was the first of four novels and 56 short stories to feature Sherlock Holmes, who would become one of the great iconic literary characters of all time.
Conan Doyle himself would later become a real life sleuth, investigating closed cases where he believed that the defendants had been wrongfully convicted. In 1906, his first case, that of a half-English, half-Indian lawyer named George Edalji convicted of writing threatening letters and mutilating animals, led to the establishment of England's Court of Criminal Appeal a year later.
In addition to the Sherlock Holmes novels and stories, Conan Doyle's large body of work also included a series of science fiction writings featuring the character of Professor Challenger. Though he possessed a brilliant mind like Sherlock Holmes, he was far from laid-back and described as "a homicidal megalomaniac with a turn for science." Conan Doyle's first work to feature Professor Challenger, a novel called The Lost World, was published in 1912. In it, Professor Challenger claims to have discovered a South American plateau where dinosaurs still exist. A skeptical reporter, Edward Malone, accompanies Challenger on an expedition and finds that the irascible scientist was right. Not only are there dinosaurs in the Lost World, but a race of ape-men as well.
Conan Doyle was a believer in the supernatural world and wrote two non-fiction books on the subject, The Coming Of The Fairies (1921) and The History Of Spiritualism (1926). In the 1920s, he became friends with the legendary American magician Harry Houdini, but Houdini's work as a prominent debunker of spiritualism soon led to a bitter falling out between the two men.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was knighted in 1902, an honor he believed was bestowed as the result of The War in South Africa: Its Cause and Conduct, a pamphlet he had written justifying England's role in the Boer War to an outraged world. He later wrote a non-fiction book on the subject called The Great Boer War. He died in 1930 of a heart attack at the age of 71. He will always be remembered as one of the greatest writers of all time.
Quote Of The Day "My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram, or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation." - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Vanguard Video Today's Vanguard Video features a clip of legendary novelist Jack Kerouac's 1959 appearance on The Steve Allen Show. Jack reads from his celebrated, iconic 1957 novel, On The Road, backed by Steve's jazz piano. Enjoy!
On this day in 1916, the novelist Harold Robbins was born in New York City. His first novel, Never Love A Stranger, was published in 1948. The violent, sexually explicit (though not nearly as explicit as Robbins' later novels) tale of Francis Kane's (Robbins' birth name; he was given the adoptive name Harold Rubin) daring rise from poor Hell's Kitchen orphan to top Mafia boss proved to be quite a shocker. According to Robbins, his publisher, Pat Knopf, bought the manuscript because "it was the first time he had ever read a book where on one page you'd have tears and on the next page you'd have a hard-on."
A former employee of Universal Studios, Robbins used his knowledge of the movie business to write his second novel, The Dream Merchants, published in 1949. The novel, inspired by the life of Unversal's founder Carl Laemmle, takes place from the early days of the silent film era through the advent of sound film and tells the story of a young man with no money and big dreams who goes to Hollywood and builds a great film studio. Robbins' 1952 novel, A Stone For Danny Fisher, was adapted as the acclaimed Elvis Presley movie, King Creole. His most famous novel, The Carpetbaggers, was published in 1961.
The Carpetbaggers, which told the tale of Jonas Cord, a wealthy industrialist and aviator who decides to get involved in the filmmaking business, was thought by some to be based on the life of Howard Hughes, but Jonas Cord was mostly modeled after Bill Lear, inventor of the Lear jet plane, the car radio, and the 8-track tape player. Though the novel broke new ground in its literary depictions of graphic sex and violence, in 1964, it was adapted into a heavily sanitized feature film which starred George Peppard as Jonas Cord.
Quote Of The Day "Obscenity is a cleansing process, whereas pornography only adds to the murk." - Henry Miller
Vanguard Video A while back, an essay of mine about the late, great poet and novelist Richard Brautigan was published here on the blog. Today, I present the following video of Brautigan reading his poetry and excerpts from his novels. The soundtrack was taken from the author's 1970 spoken word album, Listening To Richard Brautigan:
This is the first in an ongoing series of posts of videos related to writers and the craft of writing. First up: the late, great, legendary American poet Sylvia Plath reads her most celebrated poem, Daddy.
Full of Plath's trademark dark lyricism and anguish, this is one of my all-time favorite poems. Enjoy!
Internet Writing Workshop members continue to find publishing success in all venues. Congratulations to this week's crew!
Jody
Jeannette Cezanne
So the story I wrote about my experience living on a haunted estate many years ago—that I'd really put together for a ghost-story reading last Halloween—came out this month in Fate Magazine, a paying market. It's called "Talking Back."
And a poem I wrote for my stepson, "Haven," appears in this month's issue of Mom Writer's Literary Magazine, a non-paying market.
Both are print publications.
Mira Desai
I’m delighted to inform you of publication of a short story translation, "A Fistful of Flowers" in Muse India (May- June issue), originally titled "Khobo bhariney phool" in Gujarati by Shri Pravinsinh Chavda. It is a tale of an older man’s obsession set against a conservative backdrop.
Feels great!
Sue Ellis
A couple of weeks ago we had an assignment at Practice to write an essay of some kind. I wrote about the ten years I delivered mail on a rural route. Used short paragraphs with bits and pieces of memories, rather like prose. On a whim, I expanded a few paragraphs and sent it off to Christian Science Monitor. They said yes!! I've spent a few days going over edits with an editor there, who was a pleasure to work with. Don't know when it will be appearing, but thanks so much to all of you who encouraged me on that one.
Alice Folkart
I have a book review up at Rebeca Schiller's Alvah's Books.
Nifty site. Enjoyed working with Rebeca.
Rebecca Keller
I just learned that my excerpt of a novel in progress, working title "Inventories: A Coming-of-Middle-Age Story," earned me a substantial scholarship to the Wesleyan Writers Conference next month, where the faculty and speakers include people like Amy Bloom, Ravi Shankar, Julie Barer, Roxana Robinson and Katha Pollit.
Portions of this novel were submitted to the IWW's Novels-l list, and I'll probably begin submitting again at some point.
Victoria Mixon
My essay on how not to write a query letter, "Hooks from Hell", is up on Wendy Burt-Thomas' site, Ask Wendy - The Query Queen.
Randy Radic
My review of "The Canal Builders" is up at Alvah's Books. Thanks to Rebeca for both the book and the opportunity.
Wayne Scheer
My short story, "Family Man," has been accepted by Pear Noir. Thanks to the Fiction group for their fine critiques.
Dead Mule has accepted my flash story, "Neighborly Concern," for one of their summer issues.
Burst Fiction has accepted a flash originally written for Practice, "An Evening Repeats."
Thanks to all.
Jack Shakely
I can't believe what I am about to write: my historical novel "The Confederate War Bonnet" has been awarded the gold medal in the category of historical/military fiction in the 2009 Independent Publisher Book Awards (the IPPY Awards).
I am touched and honored and especially want to thank JoAnne Sanger for her critiquing.
Carole Sutton
My crime fiction novel "Ferryman" has just received a review from Todd Fonseca on Goodreads.
A necessary element in fiction, as in life, is conflict. Conflict creates tension, raises challenges, and adds suspense to a story. There are many types of conflict, and just as many ways to categorize them. In short stories, the focus will usually be on a single type of conflict. In longer works, we'll usually find a mixture of conflicts. The conflict may not always be a single epic challenge, but a series of conflicts that become an obstacle for the character. ______________________
In 300 words, write a scene with someone faced with a series of unfortunate events. The author may choose between internal (man vs. himself) or external forces (man vs. man, man vs. nature) for your character. The concept, of small things leading to big consequences, is a very valuable tool in story-telling. Show the readers how the characters deal with each event. How does the character react to these events? Does the character feel anger or self pity? Does the character persevere or change direction? ______________________
When critiquing, look at what forces are at play, and how the events unfold. Does the character react in a credible - and interesting - way? If anything stretches credibility, say so. On the other hand, also point out the things that work well. These exercises were written by IWW members and administrators to provide structured practice opportunities for its members. You are welcome to use them for practice as well. Please mention that you found them at the Internet Writers Workshop. _____________________
Word Riot Magazine, an online literary magazine published by Word Riot Press, is seeking experimental and literary fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. They accept the following submissions:
Flash Fiction of 1,000 words or less.
Short Stories of 1,000 to 6,500 words.
Novel Excerpts of 6,500 words or less.
Non-Fiction of 650 words or less for very short essays or 1,000 to 6,500 words for full-length essays.
Poetry.
Manuscripts must be submitted electronically, either in the body of an e-mail or as an attached Microsoft Word document. For more information, read the writer's guidelines.
Some of you may know me as the administrator of Prose-P, the Internet Writing Workshop's critiquing list dedicated to the crafts of flash fiction and prose poetry. While prose poetry has been around for quite some time, flash fiction is a recent phenomenon that has become hugely popular.
What, then, is flash fiction? Well, it's a short story - a very short story. Which is why flash fiction has also been known as short-short fiction, and sudden fiction. The length of the average flash fiction story is 500 to 750 words or less, though some publishers have defined flash fiction as being as long as 1,500 words or less. Since the exact word length varies from publisher to publisher, after some debate on Prose-P, we set the maximum length for submissions at 1,000 words or less. Most flash pieces aren't that long.
No matter what the length, the purpose of flash fiction is the same: to tell a compelling story in few words. A work of flash fiction, like a regular short story, must have a beginning, a middle, and an end - a setup, a conflict, and resolution. Traditionally, flash fiction carries an ironic or surprise twist ending that makes the very short story resonate with the reader. However, this is not a requirement. But the flash fiction story must have the same structure as a longer work - setup, conflict, resolution.
Therein lies the challenge - to craft a compelling, complete story in few words. Recently, flash writers have experimented with smaller and smaller word lengths, resulting in the following flash formats:
Postcard Fiction
Postcard fiction is short flash fiction about 250 words or less in length. It's called Postcard because it's short enough to write on a postcard.
Drabbles
The drabble is another very short form of flash fiction. Drabbles are exactly 100 words long, no more, no less, title not included. Titles of drabbles are 15 words or less, and legally hyphenated words count as one.
55 Fiction
This format - a story told in exactly 55 words - began in a writing contest held by a newspaper back in 1987, and continues to be popular today. I've written 55 fiction myself. It's really challenging - and fun! Here's a piece of 55 Fiction I wrote called Love Lesson:
LOVE LESSON
When she opened the door, I had a rose in my teeth. We made wild, desultory love, then snuggled up like children under the covers. We talked. I listened.
Before I left, I told her I loved her. She smiled.
"You're so... perfect," she said. "Unlike my husband. He could learn from you."
You can see how, in just 55 words, so much can be said. That's 55 Fiction. Now. imagine what you could pack into a regular flash story, of, say, 500 words or so. It's all about compact, concise writing.
If you'd like to read more flash fiction, try the following sites:
Sonar4, a free monthly ezine, is seeking science fiction and horror short stories (no fantasy) of 1,000 to 5,000 words in length. Sonar4 is published once a month in a handsome PDF edition of approximately 75 pages. Sonar4 also features interviews with authors and screenwriters and reviews of novels, anthologies, and movies. All interviews and reviews are done in-house by the ezine's staffers.
Sonar4 is currently a non-paying market, but offers good exposure for authors. Manuscripts must be sent as attached RTF files using Sonar4's online submission form. For more information, visit the website and read the writer's guidelines.
Amazon's newest electronic reading device, the Kindle DX, goes on sale this summer. This is an early look at the DX, which promises a host of new features, the best of which being a larger viewing screen than the previous model. The DX's viewing screen is a 9.7" diagonal (over 50% larger than the previous Kindle's 6"diagonal screen) E-Ink EPD (electronic paper display) with a resolution of 1200x824 at 150ppi and a 16-shade gray scale for sharp, clear text and images.
The new rotating display feature (unavailable on earlier models) allows for viewing both portrait and landscape pages, which is handy for browsing the web. Speaking of which, the DX also includes wireless Internet access capabilities for downloading books. Another feature exclusive to the DX is a built-in PDF document reader. The DX also includes native support for Kindle AZW, TXT, unprotected MOBI, PRC, Audible and MP3 file formats. Other formats will require conversion.
The DX includes Kindle's "Read-To-Me" text-to-speech engine, however, some e-book titles may restrict that feature. The DX offers much more storage space than previous models - a whopping 4GB internal memory, with 3.3GB of that available to store your collection of e-books. The battery life has been improved. With wireless Internet access turned off, you can read e-books for up to two weeks on one charge. Otherwise, battery life will vary depending on use, but it only takes about four hours to charge the battery through a USB connection to your computer.
The DX is about 1/3" thick and weighs 18 ounces. It includes stereo speakers, a headphone jack, an EVDO modem with Amazon Whispernet, a USB port, a rechargeable battery and an AC adapter.
The Kindle DX will sell for a suggested retail price of $489, but there are bound to be sales, especially during the holidays. With its larger screen and sharper images, the DX could prove to be the best electronic reading device yet. I recently read an article about the DX being used as a reader for college textbooks, which could save students a lot of money. The possibilities are endless. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for not only the Kindle DX, but for electronic reading devices in general. Click here to pre-order a Kindle DX from Amazon.
My story "Countdown" was published in Camroc Press on April 30.
Alice Folkart
A clutch of five 'domestic' poems (requested by the editor) is up at 7Beats. You'll have to scroll down past the 4th photo image (Roman columns) to find me. But, don't go too fast - there's some pretty nice other stuff. I'm in good company.
AND - In response to a call for submissions of memoir about mothers here in the Islands, I wrote and sent in a piece. The project is called My Mama Monologues. My piece was among about 20 selected from submissions from all over the world to be presented in a public (paid - but not to me) reading associated with Mother's Day. Readings are scheduled on Maui, Kawai'i and here on Oahu. The Maui readings, two performances, will be held this weekend. We'll be reading here on Oahu, in Honolulu, on the 15th and the 17th. Each production has a producer, a professional director and professional readers/actors. My piece will be read by the producer/director (an actor/writer) on Maui. Here on Oahu, I get to read it myself and also read the works of two other writers who couldn't get to Oahu for the event.
AND - am going to the book launch reception Wednesday evening of Rainbird, the annual literary journal of Windward Community College. I have two poems in that.
My book review for "American Wars: Illusions and Realities" appeared on the Political Affairs website.
Jack Shakely
I am delighted to tell you that my novel "The Confederate War Bonnet" has been selected as a semifinalist in the Historical/Military Fiction category of the 2009 Independent Publisher Book Awards (the IPPY Awards).
Trish Spanabel
I have been invited to read my Six Word Memoir on Love at a gala charity event in New York City. Out of 500 authors, six of us were picked and I am thrilled to be one of them.
S.L. Weis
My review of Eli Wiesel's most recent novel "A Mad Desire to Dance," is posted on Rebeca Schiller's review site, Alvah's Books. Thanks, Rebeca for giving me the opportunity to try my hand at reviewing.
Prepared by: Carter Jefferson Posted on: September 16, 2007 Reposted on: May 10, 2009 _____________________
Exercise: In 400 words or less, write an opening scene in which something happens, and then show us a character through that person's thoughts, words, and deeds. Though you may use more than one character, focus on one in particular to let us learn as much as possible about that person as the story begins. _____________________
Good characters are essential to a good story whether it is plot-driven or character-driven. In both kinds of story something happens and characters react. The reader comes to know the characters through what they think, say, and do.
In a plot-driven story, action tends to predominate; it causes the character to react. In a story about a hard-nosed detective who must chase down criminals, the plot usually is complex, but well-drawn characters greatly enhance such a tale.
On the other hand, in a character-driven story, there may be little action, with the focus on the thoughts and reactions of the characters, but things still happen, characters still react. For instance, we might learn a lot about a quiet, reserved widow by her deep emotional response to observing a butterfly alighting on a flower.
Choose one of the two styles, plot-driven or character-driven, and write a scene that shows us what your character is like. _____________________
Exercise: In 400 words or less, write an opening scene in which something happens, and then show us a character through that person's thoughts, words, and deeds. Though you may use more than one character, focus on one in particular to let us learn as much as possible about that person as the story begins. _____________________
In your critiques, consider what you have learned about the character. Are the character's traits things that people around him or her would notice, or are they hidden from view? Do the character's thoughts and actions match? Can we tell why the character reacts in a certain way to an event? _____________________ These exercises were written by IWW members and administrators to provide structured practice opportunities for its members. You are welcome to use them for practice as well. Please mention that you found them at the Internet Writers Workshop. _____________________
Word processors are amazing things. As someone just old enough to remember that venerable writing machine known as the typewriter, I've really come to appreciate the power and flexibility that today's word processors offer the writer. It sure is a far cry from the days of loading paper into a typewriter, struggling to maintain consistent margins, then ripping the paper out of the machine, swearing, and loading in a new sheet whenever you made a mistake. Editing and rewriting was tedious and involved retyping the same text over and over again.
Over the years, typewriters evolved, first from manual to electric. Then in 1961, IBM introduced its famous, groundbreaking Selectric typewriter, which featured one type ball instead of individual type bars for striking characters onto paper. Shaped like a golf ball, but slightly larger in size, the type ball increased typing speed and accuracy while reducing wear and tear on the typist's hands and wrists. The days of type bars jamming together and bringing the typist to a screeching halt were over.
Even typing ribbons evolved, from manually threaded (which always smudged the typist's fingers) to cartridges. Correction ribbons, which were a clean and neat alternative to whiteout, also evolved into cartridges.
The greatest evolution of all came in 1974, when the first word processor was introduced by the Wang company. Text was typed on a conventional IBM Selectric typewriter, stored on a cassette tape, (each tape could store up to 20 pages of text) edited, then printed out later. In 1976, Wang introduced the first word processor to have a CRT monitor screen. Soon, word processing machines came with floppy disk drives for storage. The machines looked like computer printers with built-in monitor screens and storage drives, and an external keyboard.
By the mid-1980's, the personal computer replaced the word processor as the writing machine of choice. But throughout all this technical evolution, one thing stayed the same: the way manuscripts were formatted. Even in the early 1990s, when the Windows 3.1 and Apple Macintosh operating systems offered numerous fonts to choose from, writers stuck to the old Courier typewriter font.
In the old days, editors used the fixed width of Courier font characters to guesstimate word counts, a practice made obsolete by today's word processing software. Another practice carried over from the typewriter days was underlining text to indicate italics. Even today in 2009, some writers still follow these customs. But more and more editors are saying they're not necessary anymore. Which is good for writers, as Courier looks too light when printed by today's ink jet and laser printers. Also, Courier is not exactly a practical font to use when submitting complete manuscripts through the mail. By switching from 12-point Courier to 12-point Roman, you can save on both paper and postage costs.
Of course, when considering a particular market, you should always read the writer's guidelines carefully. If they specify a particular font, use it. For example, I know one online publisher of short stories who specifically requests that writers use 12-point Roman as their font for submissions. If no particular font is specified, don't assume you that you must use Courier. Just keep two things in mind: the font you choose should be easy on your editor's eyes and give your writing a professional appearance.
So don't be a schmuck and use arty fonts like Comic Sans MS and Papyrus. And for the love of god, don't EVER use one of those script fonts that make your text look like cursive handwriting.
Now, there are some manuscript formatting traditions from the typewriter days that should still be adhered to, such as one-inch margins all around, and half-inch paragraph indentations. Always double-space your manuscripts, but be aware that for electronic submissions, you'll probably be asked to single-space your manuscripts because reading a double-spaced manuscript pasted into a plain text e-mail is hard on the eyes and distracts from the writing.
Which brings me to another point. In this Internet age that we live in, more and more markets are accepting electronic submissions. Instead of having to print out your manuscript and mail it, you can e-mail it directly to the publisher. Read the writer's guidelines carefully for details about electronic submissions. Some markets may allow you to attach a word processor file (such as a Word DOC file) to your e-mail, but due to virus and malicious code concerns, more and more publishers are requesting that electronic submissions be made in the bodies of plain text e-mails only. If that's the case, send a plain text e-mail. Don't send an attached file or rich text (HTML) formatted e-mail hoping that the publisher won't care. They will. And your rejection letter will reflect that.
Here's a tip for plain text electronic submissions. To indicate italicized text, you can *use asterisks like this* or you can _use underscores like this_ in place of rich text italics. I use asterisks myself.
The modern age has been good to writers. Word processors like Microsoft Word and OpenOffice Writer (which I use) have taken the drudgery out of the writing process and let writers concentrate on the creative process and, well, write. While it's no longer necessary to maintain most practices from the old days of the typewriter, a common sense approach to manuscript mechanics still applies in the modern world.
The Internet Writing Workshop has monitored critique groups for fiction, nonfiction, novels, romance, short prose, poetry, scriptwriting, and practice writing. Each have participation requirements. The IWW also has groups discussing the art and craft of writing in general, creative nonfiction, speculative fiction, and marketing. The IWW is a cooperative. Membership is free.
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Neither the IWW as a group nor any of its volunteer administrators individually take any responsibility for the accuracy or the integrity of any links listed here or on The Internet Writing Workshop's Web page. The links are shown as a convenience. Posts are the responsibility of the individual poster.
