Categories
A Lighter Look at the Writer's Life

Through the Years

Has your writing training “ruined” you in some ways? Do you notice plot holes, awkward point-of-view changes, and overly-predictable twists? I experienced this phenomenon recently.

My pastor asked me to produce and direct our church’s Christmas play, which is nothing new. I have been doing productions in some form or another for years, and I was thankful for the early heads up, as opposed to waiting until November to try to throw something together. He asked me to look over a play from a drama service he had found, so I paid the fee and downloaded the sample.

I am not one to knock someone else’s work, but my writing training radar kicked in as I read–and not in a good way.

The play in question hit me over the head with the biblical message, with several “sermonettes” tacked randomly into the dialogue. How many workshops have I attended about avoiding preachiness and subtly weaving in the spiritual message? Too many to count.

Another important lesson I have learned over the years is the “Show, Don’t Tell” rule. In the scenes I write, my characters should be actively DOING things, not just talking about them. Having my character “shiver to the bone under his light jacket in the unexpected snowstorm” is better than having the character exclaim, “It’s so cold!”

This play had a lot of telling, with characters standing around talking about what they would do or what they had done. Long monologues about random characters were featured. Much talk with little action had me squirming in my recliner as a I struggled through the piece.

Once finished, I flipped back to the front and noticed the copyright date: 1977! That would explain the awkwardness, as well as the references to records and outdated phones.

We’ve come a long way, baby.

There were certainly some great pieces written during that time and before, but today’s writers—and readers—are different. Many expectations have changed, and we must meet them before audiences turn us off or put away our pieces before finishing them.

So what to do about the Christmas play? I found the very first play I ever wrote, circa early-2000s, and dusted it off. A few changes and updates here and there (Cell phones have changed everything, haven’t they?), and I think ’ll have a solid production. The story holds up surprisingly well, and I miraculously managed to do a lot of showing instead of telling, even though I was a greenhorn at the writing thing back then.

Here’s hoping my other pieces will hold up over the years!

Carlton Hughes wears many hats. By day, he’s a professor of communication at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College. On Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings, he does object lessons and songs with motions as Children’s Pastor of Lynch Church of God. In his “spare time,” he is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in numerous publications, including Chicken Soup for the Soul and several devotional books from Worthy Publishing—Let the Earth Rejoice, Just Breathe, So God Made a Dog, and Everyday Grace for Men. Carlton and his wife Kathy have two college-age sons, Noah and Ethan. He is on the planning committee for Kentucky Christian Writers Conference and is a year-round volunteer for Operation Christmas child.

Categories
Dear Young Scribes

How New Writers Can Build an Impressive Writing Resume with Zero Experience

Aspiring authors are frequently advised to build a writing resume in effort catch the attention of an agent or editor. The reason? Agents and editors search for writers who are not amateurs. They want to work with writers who have proven themselves to be skilled in their craft and experienced with words and deadlines. When they see a list of publishing credits beneath your name, they will gain respect for you as a writer. It gives them a reassurance about your ability to produce quality, publishable-worthy content.

At least, this is what goes through my mind as I review submissions for Hartline Literary and Illuminate YA.

But I’m sure this advice might cause some inexperienced writers to cringe. How is it possible to build this kind of shining writing resume when your writing has only been published on your blog—if that?

Here are ways you can start now at building a writing resume that will cause your submission to stand out in a slush pile:

  1. Submit guest posts to blogs and online magazines.

Online publications are often searching for new content to build their database. Not only is this a great way to build your credibility as a writer, but it will also give you more exposure and help to establish your online visibility and platform.

Where to find this:

Use an online search engine to find blogs and online magazines that publish articles to the audience you hope to reach. (For example, if you hope to target a Christian teen audience, consider submitting an article for the blog to my magazine, PursueMagazine.net.)

  1. Write for your school and/or church newsletter.

Where to find this:

If your school publishes a newsletter, ask if you could contribute an article to build your writing resume. Same goes for your church newsletter. Find out if your church releases weekly newsletters; if so, ask how you can submit an article that meets their approval and guidelines. Many new writers have found this to be the best way to get their feet wet in the writing world.

  1. Enter writing contests.

Placing in a contest is one of the best ways to establish credibility as a writer. There are several writing contests you can find online that offer a variation of categories to enter—such as short stories, flash fiction, devotions, articles, novels, etc. Here’s a plus: Some of these writing contests are judged by literary agents and publishers.

Where to find this:

WritersDigest.com holds multiple contests each year. TeenInk.com offers writing contests specifically for teen writers. Many writing organizations and writing conferences offer annual contests for unpublished writers as well.

 

(Side note: Recently, a teen writer sent a proposal to me at Hartline and stated that her work had been critiqued in a contest by an editor at Penguin/Random House. This editor told her that, out of all the manuscripts she’d critiqued in that contest, this writer’s work was the most promising. You better believe this gave me a new level of respect for this writer’s work!)

  1. Publish your work in magazines.

After you’ve worked to establish yourself as a writer by publishing articles for free and/or writing for your blog, consider submitting your work to print publications. Again, find magazines that are targeted to your specific audience and publications that will build your expertise in a certain field. If you’re a fiction writer, search for magazines that accept short stories or flash fiction pieces.

Where to find this:

The latest Writer’s Market Guide (or Christian Writer’s Market Guide) is the best way to find a list of current magazines that are searching for submissions. Be sure to follow the specific writing guidelines listed in the writer’s market guide, and adhere to the specific theme if there is one.

If you begin to feel as though building a writing resume is annoying work that cuts into your book-writing time, remember this: Any time spent working with words is an investment into your writing career. Writing for blogs/publications will increase your visibility, validate your expertise, and help you practice writing quality content on a deadline.

Then, when an agent or editor receives your submission, they’ll know you’re not the type of writer who rushes toward achieving publication. Instead, you’re in this for the long haul. You’re dedicated and a hard-worker. You know what it takes to be a career-novelist, and you’ve already worked hard to invest in your career by first taking the time to build an impressive writing resume.

Do you have tips to add to this list? What’s the biggest struggle you’ve faced as you’ve worked to build your writing resume with zero experience?

 

[bctt tweet=”How New Writers Can Build an Impressive Writing Resume with Zero Experience #pubtips @TessaEmilyHall” username=””]

 

Categories
A Pinch of Poetry

Poetry Defined

Teachers of literature typically define poetry as anything other than prose. Even though this definition is true, it’s vague at best.

Poetry has been around for a long, long time. Some historians even believe that poetry in the form of oral tradition predated the practice of writing. You can find poems in every major movement, era, and time period in human history. Likewise, throughout the ages it has developed many forms.

The best way to define poetry is to describe the various forms that it takes.

Narrative poetry tells stories.  Lyric poetry is usually shorter and uses strong imagery to create an emotional effect.

Concrete poetry expresses the theme through the design and the placement of the words. Haiku are short Japanese poems focused on the theme of nature.

Sonnets are highly structured poems that make use of iambic pentameter and rhyme scheme.  Similarly, villanelles make use of refrains, stanza, and rhyme.

The modern free verse form has opened up even more possibilities for poets because ironically this “form” of poetry is defined as any poem that doesn’t fit the molds of the other forms.  It’s a form without a form.  The rules are whatever you make them.

Essentially poetry can be fun or serious.  It can be simple or complex. Most poets try to communicate a complex message in as few words as possible.

Recently, I was sitting in a conference session with well-known poets, Sara Holbrook and Michael Salinger as they defined contemporary poetry perfectly. They called it “snapshot writing” and described it as “non-fiction focused through a creative lens.”

How appropriate.

If you think about it, much personal poetry today is non-fiction with a few exceptions.  Poetry takes our everyday encounters and transforms them into extraordinary experiences, whether for better or worse.  We poets paint pictures of our emotions that are too deep to describe with simple language.

[bctt tweet=”Poetry takes our everyday encounters and transforms them into extraordinary experiences. #poetry #writerslife”]

Of course these are only a few of the many ways we could define poetry.

One thing is for sure.  Poetry is not simply anything other than prose.

It’s a unique form of linguistic expression that allows for much creativity and imagination.  Poets can play with words, sounds and techniques until they come up with the perfect mixture that expresses the exact meaning and emotions they want to express.

Therefore, you could say my personal definition of poetry is an artistic arrangement of words to capture an experience.

What is poetry to you?  Comment below your definition of poetry.