The goal is not to keep the TICHN cart empty and thus write a “perfectly normal” story. A story that approaches its ending with nothing in its TICHN cart is going to have a hard time ending spectacularly. ~ G. Saunders, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain In this Lit Lesson, we expand our teaching about character sketches and profiles/portraits by taking on Victory Lap by George Saunders which shows, brilliantly, three the deeper character creation technique. (NOTE: I’m using the...
From Dickens to Orange: The Enduring Power of Verbal Snapshots “To gain your own voice, you have to forget about having it heard.” ~ Allen Ginsberg https://blackbirdstudiopdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/LL36.mp4 Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange got me thinking a good deal about portraits and character sketches which helps writers develop richer, more nuanced characters in both fiction and creative non-fiction. From Tell it Slant by Brenda Miller and Suzanna Paola: One of the most...
The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.” Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings In Wandering Stars, by Tommy Orange, one of his characters says: Stories do more than comfort. They take you away and bring you back better made. The big question being asked in this teaching is this: What happens when you cannot be taken away because you are too confused by the structure? (From Publisher): The eagerly awaited follow-up to Pulitzer...
How Barbara Kingsolver’s ‘Demon Copperhead’ Transforms Victorian Social Critique into a Modern Appalachian Tragedy https://blackbirdstudiopdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Copperhead-2.mp4 Concentrated Focus on Demon Copperhead Refresher on Dicken’s version: Previous teaching “What Dicken’s Can Teach You”: HERE Characters David Copperfield: The protagonist, who narrates his life story from childhood to adulthood. Clara Copperfield (David’s mother): A...
From Demon Copperhead to Bridget Jones: How Modern Authors Breathe New Life into Timeless Tales “Nothing is new under the sun. Even the thing of which we say, “See, this is new!” has already existed in the ages that proceeded us.” (From Vanities of vanities/Ecclesiastes 1. “All is weariness”) https://blackbirdstudiopdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Copperhead-1-2024.mp4 Introduction – Define Literary reimagining also known as retellings or adaptations, refer to works of literature...
Too often they [teachers] don’t give a systematic view of a writer’s work, and train him to develop a thick skin instead of a sensible one. ~ The Artful Edit by Susan Bell by Cevia Yellin, our in-house editorial expert It’s my delight and pleasure to introduce Cevia Yellin, a long-time student in SIV working on a novel based on the restaurant her parents owned for ten years of her childhood. As luck would have it, Cevia is also a professional freelance writer and editor and has...
Creative Writing Workshop: Consecution is a fancy way of saying “sequencing” “Consecution” (is a) re-describing (of) the compositional process, how the repetition of words and sequences of events progress toward a naturally developed story with a coherent plot structure…(which is not)…different from the advice of the classicists — …good writing is, after all, good writing. Lish’s genius is in making it strange that we might see it better. ~ From The Consecution of Gordon Lish by...
Creative Writing Workshop on Reading, Character/Plot and the Divine Feminine. Buckle up “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” ~Stephen King On Reading: Again and again, I meet writers in my creative writing teaching program who balk at taking the time to read. Or listen, to a book. Or, if they do get in there, they sabotage the learning process by judging the work as “boring, confusing, overwhelming,” and putting...
Publishing Advice for Creative Writers Six months Eighty queries Fifteen rejections based on the query (meaning they didn’t read a word of the book) Two rejections based on a full read Three query letter revisions One major meltdown One re-write I finally, finally, FINALLY found an agent for my fifth memoir, The Summer of ‘72. Robert Difirio of D4EO Literary. Bob is an old-school agent with five-plus decades of experience in the business and a corral of intelligent, hard-working writers doing...
“I have only to break into the tightness of a strawberry, and I see summer – its dust and lowering skies.” ~ Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye This is our annual update on each other’s summer. Send a photo or two and let us know what you’ve been up to! SUSAN C/SII From Susan C in SII and living in CT: In between writing, painting, Library meetings, short trips and volunteering, I work on my 1500-piece never ending jigsaw puzzle of Van Gogh’s Starry...
