Writing In Wonderland: The Write Support

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

The Write Support

It's time once again for the annual southeast Texas The Write Support. You're all invited to attend this day of writers helping writers. ATTENDEES will include fiction, nonfiction, and poetry professionals.

The Write Support

June 24, 2017

10 am – 4 pm

Howells Furniture Conference Room – 2^nd Floor

6095 Folsom Dr, Beaumont, TX 77706

COST: FREE to all TGCW members. For all others, the cost is $10 at the door. Table space may be limited and will go to the first to reserve, please RSVP to Sylvia Ney.

Schedule:

10 am – 1 pm Bring your latest manuscripts and questions to share for honest feedback, and to encourage needed reviews. This is strictly time for critiques, edits, reviews, and general work on your manuscripts.

LUNCH On your own at your discretion. There are many restaurants within a five mile radius of this location.

1 pm – 4 pm Come sell your books, and check out the work of others, ask questions, make connections, learn current industry news, or seek more critiques. This afternoon is geared more toward the publishing and purchasing aspects of writing, but anyone is welcome to continue to work on their own projects.

Hope to see you there!

Friday, June 24, 2016

The Write Support and Vonnegut's 8 Rules

I'm preparing to lead a writer's workshop tomorrow called "The Write Support." The purpose is for writers to come together for a full day of support. We'll have time for lessons, critiques, reviews, editing, selling/buying each others work, marketing, and more.

For some reason, Kurt Vonnegut's "8 Rules for Creative Writing" are rolling around in my mind. Maybe I saw his name recently, or overheard someone else mention them? Either way, I thought I would share them here in case you have never read them before.

Kurt Vonnegut: 8 Basics of Creative Writing

Kurt Vonnegut created some of the most outrageously memorable novels of our time, such as Cat's Cradle, Breakfast Of Champions, and Slaughterhouse Five. His work is a mesh of contradictions: both science fiction and literary, dark and funny, classic and counter-culture, warm-blooded and very cool. And it's all completely unique.

With his customary wisdom and wit, Vonnegut put forth 8 basics of what he calls Creative Writing 101:

Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.
Start as close to the end as possible.
Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

The greatest American short story writer of my generation was Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964). She broke practically every one of my rules but the first. Great writers tend to do that.

From the preface to Vonnegut's short story collection Bagombo Snuff Box.

Which one do you feel is the most significant? I'm partial to #5. Do you agree with these? How do you feel they compare to Elmore Leonard's rules?