More Recent Posts
A Plot’s Natural Flow
How is a plot born? Does it spring from the ghostly image of a pretty girl peering through a rain-pebbled window? Does it rise from the low rumble of a night train straining up the last long slope into a sleeping town? Perhaps it grows from the echoing laughter of a child long lost to misfortune or mystery. Does a plot come from a memory … or is it born in the heart? Until I made the transition from writing short stories to novels, I paid little attention to plots. In fact, to me the plot of a story
An Afternoon Conversation with Carteret Writers President, Melissa Kelley
Last week I had the pleasure of interviewing my friend and Carteret Writers President Melissa Kelley. Our fearless leader has done a fantastic job of gathering our crazy ideas and implementing the not so crazy ones all while being supermom to two great kids. Let’s start with a fun question, what was your favorite book as a child? Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery Have you ever gone back and reread them as an adult? Yes, I did reread it within the last five years and all the other ones from that series. Being originally from Canada the
Writer’s Block, or Overcoming the Writerly Urge to Not Write
You’ve either read the American author William Goldman, or you’ve watched a film adaptation of one of his novels. I’d put money on it. He wrote a slew of cult classics that covered wide swaths of literary territory – from the tongue-in-cheek fairy tale adventure of The Princess Bride to the Nazi-driven conspiracy thriller Marathon Man. If neither of those ring a bell, surely, you’d remember the movie poster for Magic, his tale of a magician at the mercy of a malevolent ventriloquist dummy called Fats. (Please let me know in the comments if you, too, were permanently scarred
Eddy Says: We Caught You Doing Something Right!
Encouragement from the Desk of Eddy For your motivation, below are a few positive notes Eddy, as an acquisitions editor, has made re: submissions she has received over the last few years. The bold type words concern the major elements most editors pay attention to (if the narrative is intriguing). I really like the voice in this work. Reminds me of Larry Brown and his vignettes in Tiny Love. With the following edits addressed, I'd like to publish this in our quarterly: Page 6 needs a tag or a beat during the dialogue to make clearer. ‘Bed’ is repeated
Letter Written by a Friend
At the Hooks and Lines workshop on creative non-fiction, we were tasked with writing imaginatively about writing itself. I was admittedly somewhat triggered by the meta-ness of this topic, no fault of the excellent presenter, but rather an echo from my turbulent academic past where rhetoric and composition people fancied themselves in opposition to literature people, a battle I never understood. Once I got past my initial contrariness to the topic, I discovered I had quite a few opinions about being a writer. Several of the readings from the workshop showed writers who were, at best, ambivalent about their
Member Blog Roll
If you’re a CW member with a blog you’d like to share on our blog roll, email us the link at carteretwriters@gmail.com with the subject line: [Your Name] Blog Link.
