Book news from The Guardian
Ten years of John Crace's Digested Read
Stranger than fiction: the true story behind Kidnapped
Henry Sutton's top 10 unreliable narrators
Latest Fiction Writing Articles from About.com
March Writing Challenge: Historical Writing
For the March challenge, write a poem, prose poem, or short-short story from the point of view of an historical figure. The phrase "historical figure" may be taken broadly -- anyone from Nicholas I to Nellie Bly's mom is fair game. Be as creative as you'd like.
So far we've had a huge range of responses: a story based on a little-known episode from WWII, a humorous presidential portrait, and a letter "From Sigmund to Mother," to highlight a few. The challenge will be open until March 31, so take some time in the next few weeks to give it a shot.
March Writing Challenge: Historical Writing originally appeared on About.com Fiction Writing on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 at 08:35:00.
Permalink | Comment | Email this
Reader Question: An MFA at Age 42?
Last week, I heard from a 42-year-old writer who was applying to MFA programs and having doubts about it. He wrote, "I hear this stuff about how conventional writing and publishing is dead, that even really good young writers can't break out because the industry is closing down or morphing into something more media-oriented. And I wonder, what's the point of getting an MFA now? Will any book I write ever get distribution?"
In response to his first question, about the publishing industry, I answered, "Books will continue to be written and published, but the publishing world is in crisis right now, and until they figure out how to resolve it, it will be harder for us writers. Even ones who do publish will be keeping their day jobs -- but then, hasn't this been the case throughout history? How much did Jane Austen make from her books, for instance? We might have it better today, even with our current problems."
But is an MFA program worthwhile, if publication is the goal, especially if it means taking time out from a paying career? "If you can afford to take a few years out of the workplace and focus on your writing within an MFA program, especially one that offers funding, then do so -- but don't expect it to lead to quick or easy success. If publication is your main goal, you could also take classes outside of a degree program and assemble a good writing group who can help you finish and revise your novel. Subscribe to Poets and Writers magazine; start sending your stories to literary magazines.
"On the other hand, MFA programs do provide support and give you the chance to be around writers, both the professionals who come to teach and unpublished colleagues. It's an opportunity to exist in a world in which literature and writing is the most important thing. If you think that one day you might want to teach at the college level, an MFA will be necessary. And you'll come out of it a bit savvier about the publishing world. You'll be more serious about your craft. But you can't really think of it as a financial investment, as you would an MBA or a law degree, or even a teaching degree. It would have to be something you're doing for yourself, because you want this time to write."
But these are very hard questions to answer, and I can only speak from my own experience. What do others have to say? For those of us in the middle of life who aren't living on a trust fund, for whom an education requires a degree of sacrifice, is an MFA worth doing? Or are there other routes to literary success that make more sense? What advice do you have?
Reader Question: An MFA at Age 42? originally appeared on About.com Fiction Writing on Monday, March 15th, 2010 at 10:22:36.
Permalink | Comment | Email this
Pros and Cons of Writing for Young People
In the past few years, a number of excellent YA/middle grade books have come my way, via a Nick Hornby column in the Believer and a YA-author friend. After meeting Weetzie Bat and the Penderwicks, and reading The House of the Scorpion and Chasing Vermeer -- and taking into account the fact that young people actually buy books -- it suddenly made a lot of sense to write a YA novel rather than the coming of age novel I'd been planning. In doing so, I discovered that writing for a younger audience is a tremendous amount of fun. Setting aside pretensions to being a serious writer was seriously liberating: suddenly I could just tell a story. I could get lost in my own prose, the way I'd done when I was first starting to write.
But when I raised my head out of my happy YA-novel world, I discovered to my naive dismay that other adults generally didn't get it. When I answered the question "What are you working on now?" I met puzzled or stony looks. I found myself having to justify the book, and in justifying it, I felt as though I were patronizing the genre. I found myself saying things like, "I think the experience is really going to help my adult fiction."
So I was pleased this week to have both sides of my experience validated by an L.A. Times article. They quoted Lizzie Skurnick, author of Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading "YA authors are able to take themselves less seriously. They're able to have a little more fun, and they're less confined by this idea of themselves as Very Important Artists. That paradoxically leads them to create far better work than people who are trying to win awards." And author Cecil Castellucci attested to the downside: "As a YA author, I get tired of being asked, 'When are you going to write a real book?' As if a YA book is not a real book."
To a certain extent, I understand why people react the way they do. In many cases, YA novels are less demanding than novels for adults. They tend to have fewer plotlines and they're often shorter. But neither of these things is always true, especially in today's marketplace. I suspect that many writers choose this audience because there's a great deal more freedom in writing for this audience than in writing for increasingly cautious editors of American fiction for adults. And YA readers, who switch easily between adult novels and novels written specifically for them, are up for more challenging work.
As a neophyte to this world, however, I'm interested in hearing from other people who read or write YA/middle grade fiction. What's your experience in writing or this audience? How do you handle skeptical adults? What do you think of their charge that YA novels aren't "real" books?
Pros and Cons of Writing for Young People originally appeared on About.com Fiction Writing on Friday, March 12th, 2010 at 09:38:52.
Permalink | Comment | Email this
Tell others about this page:
