SCWW Conference Labor Day Special Offer

By Ginny Padgett

2012 SCWW Conference – October 19-21 – Myrtle Beach

It’s that time of year again. School is back in session, football returns to fan-filled stadia and South Carolina Writers’ Workshop holds its annual conference.

Here’s the latest conference news. The early-bird registration rate ended yesterday (September 1), but if you register by September 15 and email me at ginnypadgett@sc.rr.com and tell me you saw this blog, I will extend the $50.00 discount. Additionally, I’ll extend the deadline for purchasing a manuscript critique to September 15.

Registration remains open until October 17; however, you’ll pay full price and only pitch and query-letter critique appointments remain for sale.

 I hope you’ll join us for the conference. It’s an excellent opportunity to network with other writers and industry professionals, hone your craft, expand your knowledge of publishing trends…and who knows, come away with a book deal! It’s going to be a great weekend for writers in South Carolina.

Take a look at the weekend activities that will mark the 22nd SCWW Conference. (See http://columbiawritersworkshop.blogspot.com/search/label/Ginny%20Padgett) You can go to www.myscww.org/conference/ for all the information, including links to registering for the conference and making your Hilton reservations.

Playing Tennis with the Net Down

By Bonnie Stanard

Robert Frost was quoted as saying, “Writing in free verse is like playing tennis with the nets down.” I would ask, If you’re playing tennis with the nets down, are you playing tennis?

Free verse is usually defined as verse without meter or rhyme. Most poetry I read today is free verse, whether we classify it by form as narrative, lyric, sonnet, etc.

Take a look at the excerpt below from “Nightclub”, written by former poet laureate Billy Collins and printed without its versification. Is this poetry or prose? 

You are so beautiful and I am a fool to be in love with you is a theme that keeps coming up in songs and poems. There seems to be no room for variation. I have never heard anyone sing I am so beautiful and you are a fool to be in love with me, even though this notion has surely crossed the minds of women and men alike.

Prose poems have enthusiastic defenders. This is a poem that “appears as prose, but reads like poetry,” according to www.poets.org. I’d like to know what reads like poetry means. Prose poems throw out meter and rhyme as well as versification. What meaningful difference is there between prose poems and flash fiction? For poets to stake a claim on prose can only mean the genre is desperate for an audience.

Some poets are staking out territory in music. Poetry on Record, a CD collection, includes several poets reciting to music. I have to wonder when some writer will come out with a CD collection of, not lyric poems, but “song poems” with a trio knocking off a beat in the background.

Poetry slams, defined as performance poetry, have emerged as competitive events. In this case, the success or failure of a poem depends not so much on the merits of the writing as the performer’s ability to entertain. Written representations of these poems convey less in terms of drama or substance. 

Fiction writers rehash characters and plots that have been around since the first written words. They’re able to make prose interesting for the contemporary reader without abandoning the devices that serve the style, things like dialogue, foreshadowing, symbolism, narration, point of view, etc.

In the 20th Century, rhyme morphed into assonance/dissonance, and meter went from structured beat/lines such as iambic pentameter to syllabic and blank verse. Innovation in poetry today seems to be missing the mark. Why have we abandoned rhyme and meter rather than pioneer revolutionary varieties? Surely there are more avenues to explore. Aren’t there?

Working Behind the Scenes

We’ve been very busy over here at SCWW and hope that you have noticed our work. In the last two months, we have:

 

Updated the website

Opened conference 2012 registration

Assembled the conference faculty

Found a keynote speaker

Decided on classes and seminars for the weekend

Selected volunteers to assist with the conference

 

The majority of the above has been accomplished through the tireless efforts of our organization president and conference chair, Ginny Padgett.

 What have you been up to? I hope you have been thinking about joining us in October. Or that you have been telling your friends about what a great time we have in Myrtle Beach each year. Or maybe you were getting your entry for the annual Carrie McCray award ready for submission? And let’s not forget about The Petigru Review, Tibby is excited about the project this year and we’re all looking forward to another great edition.

Whether or not you’ve been thinking about coming to the conference this year, let me tell you a bit about what we have planned: sessions on social media; sessions by some of SCWW’s own on their adventures in getting published; an interactive discussion with Patti Callahan Henry, our 2012 Keynote speaker; sessions specifically geared to non-fiction, memoir, children’s literature and a Friday intensive especially for poets or anyone seeking a new way to be inspired. There are also slushfests, which are a big hit every year; book signings by the authors on faculty; and the critiques, pitches and real-time queries we have each year. We hope you’ll be as thrilled as we are with the things on offer this year.

If you’re available the weekend of October 19 – 21, we’d love to see you there. In the meantime, send us an email or leave us a comment, let us know what you think of everything we’ve been up to. You could even let us know what you’re up to.

A Tome, Extensive Research and a Good Story.

By Alex Raley

Big books were the norm in college and graduate school.  I also read such books for pleasure, but as I moved forward in time I found tomes rarely held my attention.

Recently a friend passed on to me a novel of 847 single-spaced pages. How could I tell him that I don’t read tomes? I kept it for six months without opening the cover. Then in January, 2012, I realized that I was 80 years old. To read the book might take the rest of my life. I knew I’d better get on with it.

I found myself buried in a page-turner: Stephen King’s 11/22/63. Why was this book gripping my mind? On the surface, the novel did not appear to be worth 847 pages, but an analysis of how King kept my attention began to turn up some answers:

• The novel has a theme that is always present, though, its pinnacle is close to the end of the novel.
• There are several subplots that are interesting in their own way. King weaves them into the overall story and theme.
• The characters in all the plots are skillfully drawn.
• Details flow as easily as the dialogue. In fact, most of the story and details are moved forward by dialogue.
• The novel takes an almost overworked time-space-travel idea and makes it a great tool to address King’s philosophical stance.
• Yes, King is philosophical here. He poses the question of whether we should tamper with destiny, even if this were possible. He takes his main character back in time-travel several times before he takes a firm philosophical position, which piles on more intrigue for the reader.
• The work is based on an amazing amount of research. So much research that one has to forgive an occasional mishap. King can afford a research assistant, but he also visited many of the sites himself.
• 11/22/63 has plenty of gory actions to please all King lovers. For those who don’t like gore, the final trip back in time erases most of the blood and guts. You are left with only a memory of the gore.

We have all been surfeited with how-to workshops, but I found that a reading and analysis of King’s novel gave me examples to hang my hat on. This was not someone telling me what to do but my own examination of a successful author’s work. I tried the same examination on the work of a little known author. I easily could see why he is little known.

The next time you are tempted to pay for a how-to seminar, try reading and analyzing the work of a good author. It’s cheaper, and you might even be entertained while you are being informed. 

Wallabies in the Bathroom

How many people have a wallaby toilet paper holder? Not many. They are cute animals. So why don't more of us have them?

Recently my husband and I rented a house for a few days in northern Michigan. We saw photos on the Internet of the family's big game hunting exploits. Stuffed heads (and complete animals—more than 70) hung on the walls. They were above eye level, and I could ignore most of them. I didn't look up much. My daughter is a vegetarian. Enough said.

In two of the bathrooms taxidermied wallabies held the toilet paper like a servant from bygone times. That gave me paws.

Once I got over the shock of a wallaby's adorable face, furry ears and vacant eyes—and avoided the little paws—I thought it might be an opportunity for inspiration.

I recently revised and finished a picture book for my four-year-old granddaughter I wrote and illustrated a long time ago. The illustrations were crayon drawings. The story had little plot, no conflict and no satisfying ending. I rewrote the story with a plot, conflict and an ending. With Photoshop Elements I turned the illustrations into a cute little story about a frog who escapes from an octopus. I know frogs and octopi live in mutually exclusive environments, but my granddaughter loved it.

Inspiration can come anytime, anywhere. A story began gestating in my mind. I have a vague idea of a picture book about a wallaby. But I'm not an artist. I'm a digital scrapbooker. I don't have a clue how to draw a wallaby. If I figure that out I can use Photoshop to separate the drawing into its disparate parts, then cobble them together in different poses. The wallaby in my story will never encounter a hunter, because that's too scary for little children. He will have an adventure, escape some difficulty and live happily ever after.

My granddaughter is enamored of princesses. How about a wallaby princess who wants to have adventures instead of being rescued by the handsome wallaby prince? Princesses can do anything: have adventures, slay dragons, rescue princes. A tale of star crossed lovers whose wallaby clans have been feuding forever? Or the wallaby princess who rescues the wallaby prince from the big bag wolf.

Right now I'm in Vermont on a mountain with my son's in-laws. No wallabies here. Last night while we slept I think the forest crept closer to the house. I'm going to pace it off to see if it really did. There's a premise for a creepy horror story: what happens when the trees encroach on the house? Hopefully, I won't be around when that happens. I'm leaving in the morning.

The point is that inspiration comes in many forms. We just need to look and truly see, and listen with our hearts.

Wait. There is so much wilderness here in the Green Mountains. What if a woman's car breaks down on a country road, and, when she goes for help, she meets a seemingly ordinary family who conceals a horrible secret. There's a creepy story there somewhere. Beware, this won't be a child's cautionary tale about a wallaby. You won't want to go outside in the dark after you read this one....