My Food-Themed Article Published Today! 🍓

So happy that my latest article was published at Women on Writing today!

Fabulous Food Lingo and 5 Sumptuous, Savory Prompts to Try 

By Melanie Faith

Most writers are word lovers. We delight in the fun of stringing each little consonant cluster together. 

What might writers adore just as much as the flair of finding just the right synonym or antonym to tell our tales? What pairs well with an appetizer of theme and a garnish of motif and a heaping helping of diction choices with a fresh ooey-gooey slice of second-draft pie? 

Why, food, of course!

Food combines a topic that is both highly relatable and rigorously individualistic. Food writing promises: Sure, we’ve all had salad, but we’ve not all described this heavenly pasta salad from Café Romano on Spruce Street or that delectable BBQ Uncle Ross used to bring to every family function with a tangy sauce so top-secret aunts, uncles, and several second cousins are still trying to figure out and reproduce it (almost successfully) for each year’s reunion. 

Food is inextricably connected to memory, place, and time. Food is both growing up and growing into our better selves. 

Food is also undeniably literary. From Proust’s super famous madeleine to the descriptions of bread, cookies, and cakes (along with those mouth-watering photos) in your favorite print cookbooks or online recipes, food is tied to expression, especially self-expression in relation to our connections with others. Food is also the guilty pleasure stashed in the top or back shelf of the pantry (Shh…, I won’t tell). 

Yes, just like writing, the foods and meals we make, buy, and/or share (or keep for ourselves) provide endless possibilities for creativity—from the individual ingredients to the finished dish on the platter someone gave to great grandma so long ago no one knows where she acquired it but now this treasure is yours.  

We often speak of food enthusiastically in conversation with family and friends, so why not write about food the same way?

Try a few of these ideas the next time you’re searching for something to write and want to get words flowing in yummy formation:

Food-jar fiesta: Get a glass jar (recycled or new) and fill it with scraps of food phrases, one on each small piece of paper. Or page through a print cookbook for topic ideas. Love surprises? Get a friend, partner, child, or fellow writer to contribute ideas to the jar for you. Draw one scrap a week for a free-write. If you really enjoy choosing from the jar (like the best sweets, it can get kind of addictive), feel free to dip into it a few times a week. Once you’ve worked your way through the jar, reload it and write on!  

Make a food-word alphabet: Write A-Z down the left-hand side of a piece of paper. Quickly jot down any food-related word you can think for each letter. Feel free to do a second draft of this list where you use a search engine to add additional words to the list from recipes, cookbooks, or watching cooking shows. Keep this list handy at your desk for future free-writes.

The recipe nobody wants: Write down four or five places where people meet. Then, pick one as your setting. Write for fifteen minutes about a recipe that your character doesn’t want and that others don’t want to eat, and yet…circumstances or traditions dictate they must make and eat this dish. Include body language and some dialogue in a second draft. This prompt is great for exploring tone—from humor to dread—and an excellent way to practice describing various textures of foods we don’t enjoy. 

The nose knows: Write for 15 minutes about a food you would recognize anywhere, from smell alone. This is a great way to practice descriptive writing and making your readers hungry! 

Ask, and it’s yours: Write down a few food-related questions to ask someone in your family or friend circle. Conduct an informal interview where you supply the treats (or a favorite meeting-place does) and you take notes on your friend’s (and your own!) answers one afternoon. You can also do this exercise as a free-write and then swap each other’s answers to read aloud after writing. Some fun options may include: asking if they recall a favorite food or recipe from growing-up years and its origin; asking how, when, or where they learned to cook; asking them to describe a recipe they made that went wrong and what happened (be ready to laugh). This exercise can also be repeated at various times of year, with both longtime friends and new.

Also, check out my latest online writing class (beginning Friday, Oct. 10th): clickety-click.

Courtesy of Women on Writing.

My Article, "4 Epic Takeaways from Myths, Fairytales, and Folktales to Apply to Your Writing," Published Today! 🎉

Splendid news: I’ve had a craft article published today at Women on Writing. The topic is a very fanciful and fun one: “4 Epic Takeaways from Myths, Fairytales, and Folktales to Apply to Your Writing.”

Ta-da!

“4 Epic Takeaways from Myths, Fairytales, and Folktales to Apply to Your Writing”

by Melanie Faith

Stories based on myths, fairytales, and folktales have interested readers and have seen a remarkable resurgence in popular fiction and bestselling novels in recent years.  Authors like Sarah J. Maas of A Court of Thorns and Roses series fame and Madeline Miller’s Circe are household names.

First, let’s explore some exciting reasons why writers and readers alike find these stories compelling and inspiring.

·         They reignite our childhood imaginations. Most writers and readers fondly remember their favorite mythic characters. We grew up on their adventures, and it felt like we grew up with them, too.  Whether it was Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, The Frog Prince, or other Brothers Grimm fairy-tale protagonists or Hans Christian Andersen’s Thumbelina, The Little Match Girl, The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Ugly Duckling, The Wild Swans, or The Snow Queen, these stories populated library shelves and bookshelves in our rooms that take us back to our earliest days of being read to and reading on our own.

·         They connect us with timeless stories of human emotion. All of those bedtime stories influenced us as creative thinkers and helped us to learn empathy. I remember a Little Golden Book copy of Hansel and Gretel my dad used to read to us for bedtime stories that I begged to hear over and over, even though it also completely freaked me out with its tender, lost brother-and-sister duo, the gingerbread-house-residing scary witch, and that terrifying oven. I also remember well the beautiful, far-less-frightening treasury of children’s folktales with Rapunzel’s long, long tresses descending and dangling from a fortress tower.

·         They represent our heritages. Myths, fairytales, and folktales are popular throughout the world and in every culture. They feel embedded in our DNA almost. They transmit the values and customs appreciated within a culture. Whether these stories are translated into many languages or remain in their language of origin, they often share commonalities in theme, tone, and plot. Human nature explored with drama and humor and warnings and hope against all odds. These stories can sometimes offer well-paced and satisfying closure we seldom get in everyday life.  

·         They give us other worlds to retreat to and to savor in the midst of turbulence and turmoil. They are epic recreations of stress and struggle with protagonists with whom we can identify. They also give us deeper insight into our own times and our place within them. These are some of the many reasons why stories based on Greek and Roman myths as well as entirely new world-building settings continue to flourish.

 

What can we take from fairytales to apply to our own writing? Try these four tips:

·         Every protagonist needs a sufficiently powerful antagonist to contend with. If the antagonist doesn’t unleash enough consequences and trouble, the protagonist won’t need to rise to the occasion to protest and triumph. Make sure your antagonists cause enough conflict in your narrative. This is one of the most common reasons for ho-hum fiction that gets rejected. What is your protagonist’s worst fear? That should inform your antagonist’s next moves.

·         When the chips are down, they are never completely defeated. Make sure the larger implications of the conflict are explored in vivid detail so that your readers can imagine the anxious situation and feel it as they read. Embed a small foreshadowed detail to maintain the hope that eventually will prevail.  

·         Setting is significant. Nothing should happen in a vacuum. Where and when a story takes place are vital elements to good storytelling. Add visual images, references to music and art and books and important popular culture of the time, and landscape or architectural details to flesh out scenes, especially near the beginning of a longer work to create vibrant context. Research settings and eras with an eye towards intriguing tidbits to share in your tale. Readers really want to feel like they, too, are stepping into and roaming around the protagonist’s authentic world.   

·         Protagonists don’t need to say a lot at once to have a big impact. Actions and reactions are just as important, if not more so, than dialogue. Definitely write conversations into your tale, but keep dialogue as direct, pertinent, quickly paced, and resonant as possible. Protagonists don’t have time for long-paragraph speeches and explanations before springing into action. The clock is tick-tick-ticking! Show their determination and concern with their actions, rather than their pronouncements.  

 

The next time you open your draft-in-progress, consider applying these tips to create more vital, vibrant prose. Also, join us for my new upcoming course with further tips about crafting your own riveting protagonists and worlds that will keep readers returning again and again.

Want to learn more? Writing the Mythic: Penning Prose Exploring Myths, Fairytales, and/or Folktales starts on Friday, April 18th. I’d love to have you join us. 😊

Beautiful illustrations courtesy of Women on Writing.

My Article Published: "Finding Your Fiction Draft’s Best Beginning" 🎊

Thrilled that my article, “Finding Your Fiction Draft’s Best Beginning,” was published today at Women on Writing. Read the article below, and take the exercise for a spin.

Also check out this link to my new online class, FROM BETTER TO BEST: Writing Fictional Beginnings that Hook Readers, that begins Friday, January 24th. 😊

Without further ado: ta-da! 🎊

“Finding Your Fiction Draft’s Best Beginning”

By: Melanie Faith

 Here are three things that share a commonality: home renovation, finding a supportive life or business partner, earning a degree. What’s their similarity? 

While you think about it, let’s ponder our attention spans, which have grown quite a bit shorter in recent years. Think about how quickly we move onto the next book, song on streaming, or post on social media if it doesn’t grab our attention and hold it. Add to that the fact that publishers receive thousands of manuscripts a year, all vying for attention, and it’s pretty staggering.  

So, what do our initial three examples have in common? They all require a big time investment (often much longer than anticipated) and tend to test our patience at various steps until we reach our goal. If there are consistent through lines in life, it is that most of our efforts require regrouping, refining, and numerous revisions.

With so much streaming content and instant entertainment available and so few minutes of free time each day, it’s even more important than ever that we writers intrigue our readers from the start or else there’s a world of other options they’ll choose from. Gone are the days of the slow-burn build-up of a few pages. While it takes more time and effort to rewrite opening pages, it’s well worth it to hook our readers.

What should we do to ensure that our beginnings make a positive, have-to-keep-reading-this impact?

 

·         Bring in the Buddies: Have you looked so often at your draft that your brain is tired? Or are you moderately sure your opening is fine, but then again… An external reader can be invaluable, either way. Props if they are another author, but they don’t have to be. Give your first pages/chapter to willing friends or colleagues and ask what one passage they liked best; this is the element that should front-end your next draft.  Feel free to get the opinion of another reader or two, but don’t ask so many readers that you get numerous conflicting opinions, which can be confusing. In my own experience, asking between one and three readers is a sweet spot to get the perfect amount of feedback on whether my current opening works well. If your readers are also writers, make sure to return the favor for them sometime. Another option: send just the first page and have them note what they think is the most interesting or important line. This really zeroes in on whether the current opening lines flop or fly.   

 

·         Heed the Hunch: You know that line that made you smile when you wrote it? That line that sort of shimmered from the page or made you stop and feel surprised?  That little jolt of wow or that little tickle of hmmm is your inner writer letting you know that something impactful has just landed on the page. If that passage is already on your first page, great! Leave it there. But if it’s not, what if you moved it forward? I’ve often moved favorite lines forward and then either cut out the original opening and written transitions to the latter parts of the chapter or merged the original opening into other parts of the manuscript. Either method can work well, depending on the story’s needs and your own preferred editing methods.

 

·         Skip Ahead: Newsflash: your first chapter doesn’t have to be your first chapter. Let me rephrase that: the chapter that’s currently first may actually not be the best final-draft opener. Instead, a second, third, or even later chapter might hold a more compelling way to open your narrative. Feel free to move a scene or a whole chapter forward.

 

Try this exercise! Reread your draft’s current opening page or two and answer these questions (or ask a friend) to see if you might have a better opening that’s currently much later in your draft:

·         Is there action in the opening scene?  

·         Is there immediate conflict for the protagonist to struggles against?

·         Is it clear from the first page or two who is telling this story?

·         Is the protagonist compelling in this first chapter?

If the answer to any of these questions is “not really” or “not as much as there could be,” then it’s likely you have a faster-paced, more absorbing opening scene that you could move forward. Remember that editors, agents, and readers need your opening hook to grab their attention on page one or else they could stop reading. Sharpen the imagery, characterization, dialogue, or setting that will keep those pages turning.

 

Photo courtesy of Eilis Garvey and Unsplash.com.

"3 Significant Ways to Explore Theme in Poetry" 🍂

Super excited that my article about exploring theme in poetry was published today at Women on Writing. Check it out! I’m also taking sign-ups for my fun class that begins on Friday, October 18th—more details below about that and my latest poetry book as well. Read on! 😊

3 Significant Ways to Explore Theme in Poetry

By Melanie Faith

First whirly-twirly leaf of the season. Photographed by yours truly. 😁💗

Poetry is an evocative, word-rich art. It’s compressed language that so often tells a much, much wider, deeper, bigger story about the human journey. Read on for three tips that will make discovering and deepening themes within this art form a motivating voyage for you as a writer and a meaningful experience for your readers as well.  

Write a poem where an object expresses so much more than the sum of its parts. Think for a moment of the top two or three objects that have made a difference in your life. Maybe you still own them, or maybe you’ve lost them in a move or sold them years ago, like a first car. Maybe it’s a Christmas or birthday gift you still have that someone you love gave to you, or maybe it’s something you bought with your first or last paycheck from a job, Or perhaps it’s a commonplace item, like a pencil or pen, that has nonetheless figured prominently in your life in recent years. Describe the particulars of this object.

Poetry thrives on attention to imagery, with attention to detail. Our lives are terribly rushed, even on the “slow” days, and poetry encourages us both to slow down and to notice our world. Poetry also makes us feel gratitude for what we have and where we are in our lives at this very moment. Describing objects can be as short as a three-line haiku or a five-line tanka or as long as a sonnet or even an epic poem of many pages. Word count or style of poem is not nearly as important as being as vivid, visceral, and specific about the object and its meaning to you as possible. Write about the object as if either someone who has seen this fill-in-the-blank commonplace object a million times and even owns one can appreciate it at a whole new level, or as if someone who has never seen your unique object can intuit its worth and see it in their mind’s eye clearly. The object you choose—whether a pair of roller skates, say, or a key to your first car—will remind readers of their own experiences with roller skates or their first car. That magic connection between poet and reader shines through in object poems. 

Write a persona poem. Just like fiction, poetry can be a container for speaking in another character’s voice. Just because a poem is written in first-person POV doesn’t mean it has to be from the lens of your own life experience. Wonderful poems have been written in first-person from the point of view of fictional characters, historical leaders, artists real or imagined, you name it. You can also write a persona poem from the perspective of a non-famous, everyday person. They can be set in ancient history, modern history, present-day, or even a future we’ve not reached yet. Science-fiction or fantasy poetry? Why not?! Persona poems allow the writer to explore character creation, historical or present or future time periods, the timeless struggles and joys of being human, setting, and so much more within a compact poem. 

Many of the poems in my current collection, Does It Look Like Her? are persona poems from the POV of a painter and her young son; I’m neither a painter nor do I have a son. I found, though, while exploring my protagonist’s and her son’s lives, that through these characters I could say resonant things about being an artist, caregiver, and member of a family than I likely would have explored if writing from my own limited timeline. It’s often easier to tap into universal human experience through a character than relying solely on my own lens and experiences. Readers, too, often connect quite deeply with characters—it’s ingrained in us to put ourselves into the place of characters from the first reading we experience as small children who are being read to until we can read on our own.

Write a poem to celebrate a special occasion or to commemorate a milestone, whether yours or someone else’s. Great poems have been written to honor work anniversaries, engagements, marriage anniversaries, wedding receptions, births, retirement, graduations from kindergarten, high school, college and university, grad school, and first and last days of work. The poem can be in honor of a national holiday, an international event, a religious celebration, a place-centered poem such as celebrating the opening or anniversary of the founding of a school or organization or charity. You name it. Options abound! Any person, place, group, or stage of life is well worth exploring poetically, whether you write it for your own satisfaction, share it with a friend or partner, share at an in-person or online venue, or publish with a literary journal with thousands of readers. 

Enjoy the exercise below, and please join me for my October poetry-writing course where we’ll explore even more themes within this thought-provoking genre.

Try this exercise: Start with choosing the type of thematic poem from the three above that most interests you. Make a quick list of three or four topic ideas. Have a friend give you an idea or two as well, to lengthen your list of options. Then pick one of your ideas and write a poem draft in fifteen minutes. I recommend setting a timer—there’s something about writing a first draft with a time limit that tends to get words flowing. You can always set the timer for fifteen more minutes to expand the time for drafting if you want. Use this list to write more poems on other days. Go! 

🍁

Threading the Needle—Writing Thematic Poetry

Instructor: Melanie Faith

Start Date: Friday, October 18, 2024

Duration: 4 Weeks

Class Type: Asynchronous; it can be studied from anywhere in the world, in different time zones.

Location: Private Facebook group and email student provides when registering for the class.

Feedback: Weekly instructor feedback of exercises.


Description: Themes are important in vivid writing. Strong poetry often explores specific themes, from poems to celebrate special occasions and the natural world to poems that celebrate art and other beloved objects. In this class, students will read about 9 forms of poetry in our class texts (one craft book, How to Write Poetry: A Guided Journal of Prompts, and poetry books: Owls and Other Fantasies, The Optimist Shelters in Place, and Does It Look Like Her?, and one optional book: Letters to Joan), and then pick from the weekly themes to pen a poem for personalized instructor feedback on what is working well in their poem and what they might revisit/revise.

Weekly topics include: Nature Poetry, Occasional Poetry, Ekphrastic [Arts] Poetry, Found Poetry, Persona Poems, Narrative Poems, and more! There will also be an optional private class group for classmates to share shop talk and the instructor will provide posts of poetry-writing and literary links to inspire the writing process. Join us for this inspiring poetry course!

View the full listing for the curriculum and testimonials.

🍁

Check out my latest poetry book, Does It Look Like Her? Available now at Amazon or for signed copies, check out my Write Path Productions Etsy page.

I also wrote an amazing craft book called Poetry Power with tons of exercises and inspiration to keep your poetry pens moving; available through my awesome publisher, Vine Leaves Press. Signed copies also available at my Etsy, Write Path Productions.

"3 Exciting Ways Creating Art Enhances Writing" Published 🖼️🎨

 Super excited to share my new article that was published today at Women on Writing! Check it out. 🥳

 

3 Exciting Ways Creating Art Enhances Writing

By Melanie Faith

 

Have you always wanted to try (or get back to) painting, drawing, making videos or music or fiber arts, dancing, sculpting, photographing, making jewelry, making hybrid work, pottery, or another art form but felt like it was out of your reach, you didn’t have enough time or the right skill level? This article is for you! You have great company. Including me. 


As a creative writing teacher and author, I didn’t consider myself a visual artist and I didn’t allow myself the time until recently to explore, dabble, and create the other things I really wanted to make. 


It took me a lot of years to realize one of the reasons. Art class in sixth grade was required for all students. How I loved noodling around with the supplies and chatting to classmates at our art tables, making jokes and attaching feathers and sticks and other items to our mobile projects, getting charcoal smears on our hands as we tried our hands at drawing of a vase of flowers and then our classmates’ profiles. It was just like elementary-school art, only better, because the lessons were more challenging and covered diverse types of art. Then something unfortunate happened. 


Seventh grade art was an invitation-only club. And I didn’t get an invitation to join. I’m pretty sure that’s the point at which I stopped even trying to just make things for the fun of making them. The exclusion of it settled: art-making is for others. 


So for years, I carried cameras and photographed all matter of artsy things without calling myself a photographer or trying to get published. I visited museums and student art shows and doodled in margins of journals but never showed anyone. I never talked about it (like I told oodles of people about my writing), and I never took classes. Sometimes, I grabbed scissors and glue and made collages from old magazines that I put on my door to amuse myself, but I never considered just how happy it made me to create these things, just how contented and relaxed I was in the making process, because I didn’t think I was talented at it.


Eventually, I started to take baby steps. I started to share my photography, first with friends and then submitting to magazines. A few years ago I treated myself to a “real” sketchbook where I could stretch out across the page and make bigger marks. I gave myself more space to make, and it enhanced my writing life.

  

I’d love to encourage you to explore whatever arts appeal to you as well. Don’t wait for permission or until you feel it’s comparable to a famous artist or even to the quality of something you’ve seen a friend do. Begin now. See what you can do. No stakes, no pressure. 


Let’s take a look at how practicing an art—any art—can deepen and inspire your writing process. 


It boosts play and discovery.


I’ve long been a fan of serial cartoons, one-panel comics, and graphic novels. I love the multitude of options for telling a visual story well. As a young kid, I devoured Cathy, Frank and Ernest, Peanuts, Hägar the Horrible, and Garfield in their daily installments in my parents’ newspapers (and made a scrapbook of them one year), and once I started teaching and graphic novels became part of the high-school curriculum, I discovered afresh the amazing story and character possibilities in comics through Persepolis, Maus, and Scott McCloud’s craft book, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. I began doodling a little caricature of my face and my waving hand that I enjoyed adding to cards for friends and my nieces. This year, I finally gave myself a fun new challenge—to write a 3-page comic I called “I Could Have Been Veronica.”


I worked for about a month, from conceiving the story to hand drawing the panels, to revising the story and drafting twice before the third, final, draft. And had the best time! Is it professional? Nope! I’ve got some (okay, many) slanting lines, and I redrew more times than I’d like to admit (here’s looking at you, waving hand that looked gnarled and pair of tap shoes that were a terror to draw in scale), but did that ultimately matter? Not one jot. I spent many pleasant afternoon and evening breaks with my colored pencils, pens, and notebook, adding to the three-pager until it was time to share at my blog. 


It halts perfectionism, the inner editor, and the competition-fair mindset.


The important thing was never that the comic should be perfect or professional quality. The goal was to get lost in the joy of seeing how I would create this three-page comic. To evolve and stretch the limits of what I could draw and say within the tiny frames. To relish the moment of creating for prolonged, short bursts. That is, the goal was not to compare it to anything I’ve read and adored in graphic novels, comic strips, and cartoons, but to make my own something. A pure, untainted, joyous flow of creativity. Making art for the sake of making it. Very satisfying.


It facilitates joy. (Who couldn’t use more of that?!)


It matters less and less that I’m not naturally talented in the visual arts I’ve chosen to enjoy (I will pick up what I need to know through making things, exploring, reading about them) or that I wasn’t seen long ago as a good candidate for art club (that was so 7th grade!). I like to make things now, want to make more in the future, and that’s enough. Whatever I make will encourage my perceptions, challenge and inspire me, and engage the side of myself that likes to reflect and dream. Refreshing.  


Join me for my August Art Making for Authors class, which begins August 2nd. You’ll get a chance to break out some supplies and practice the kind of projects you’ve been wanting to make. You can pick any form of art you fancy for each assignment, and we’re not looking for perfection or comparison—we’re looking to savor the making process.  Learn more and sign up at: clickety-click.

 

Reach 🤩

Reach

Sketch in colored pencils & black felt-tip pen.

I haven’t shared a doodle in a while, so I figured it was about time to break out my sketchbook and play a bit.  

I was thinking yesterday, too, about swing-arm lamps. The kind architects often have on their desks, but sometimes also students and offices. I didn’t know that they were referred to as “swing-arm” lamps until a quick search-engine search delivered that little golden nugget into my life, which I now share with you. 😉

Speaking of innovation and knowledge, I read a book two or three years ago about the Bauhaus, a German school of design, arts (including theater, sculpture, pottery, stained glass, wooden toys, and poster design), and architecture in 1919-the early 1930s. Fine arts and crafts and some very sharp-looking designs were created by young students and their professors which continue to inspire designers of furniture and architecture. They made innumerable creations in their carpentry and metal-working workshops, from chairs and swivel lamps and photography and arts posters for theater performances given at the school to coffee-and-tea sets and glassworks and weaving and you name it. If the design was geometric, spare, innovative, and functional during that time period, it was probably cooked up and refined at the Bauhaus.  

I’ve never owned a swing-arm lamp, nor a gooseneck lamp (which I think of as their fanciful second cousin), but I’ve often admired both. There’s something very appealing about the way they’re designed—form and function working hand-in-glove. They don’t just sit there stationary, but offer instant flexibility for the user. Wherever the light is needed, le voilà! Here we go; instant warm spotlight. Then, economically pushed back when not in use—until the next time.

Continued growth as a writer often requires a reaching process that combines a hearty blending of the initial sizzle of the imagination intermingled with the stability and support of consistent application, mixing the heat of creating with the cooler temperatures of refining and editing the vision into new forms for sharing.

This end-of-year time gets all of our gears turning with goals we’ve finished and those we haven’t and those we’d like to dream up for next year. Without putting pressure on ourselves (because nobody needs more of that!), it’s a good season for this kind of if-you-can-imagine-it-you-can-make-it-happen reflection.

It’s a good time for downshifting, daydreaming, and putting some plans into action for the coming months.  I have the kind of mind that needs no encouragement to cook up a project or ten and imagine the endless permutations and exciting possibilities. I also have the kind of mind (and enough experience as a writer and creative) to know it takes time, organization, trial-and-error patience, and planning to see a project to its conclusion so that it’s ready to share. I try to give my imagination free reign for a while, and then I begin to organize that wide expanse into a series of steps (accounting for setbacks and a learning curve along the way).

I’m cooking up some fun projects for 2024 that I can’t wait to share. At the moment, one project in particular is very new, wobbly, interesting ground for me, stretching what I already know with the many, many things I don’t. It includes a-million-and-one steps that I’m learning (and reading about and trial-and-erroring and trying-again-and-againing).  Stay tuned!

I am delighted to share that I have three online classes that I hope will inspire fellow creative writers and artists to invest in their own dreams and goals and talents as well as to try new creative goals that will inspire reaching into new territory as well.

If you have a friend you haven’t purchased a gift for yet or would like to invest in your own artistic process, I’d love to work with you and a friend! Mark your calendars. All three courses accepting sign-ups now 😊:

*In Tune: Writing about Music in Fiction (starting Friday, February 2, 2024; 4-week class; NEW!):

https://wow-womenonwriting.com/classroom/MelanieFaith_Music.php

*An Inside Look at Launching as a Freelance Editor (one-afternoon webinar; 1-2 pm ET; Friday, April 12, 2024)

https://wow-womenonwriting.com/classroom/MelanieFaith_FreelanceEditorWebinar.php

*Art Making for Authors (starting Friday, August 2, 2024; 4-week class; NEW!)

https://wow-womenonwriting.com/classroom/MelanieFaith_ArtMaking.php

I also have craft books aplenty that make excellent gifts, such as: From Promising to Published:

Here’s to reaching into our imaginations and cooking up the projects that will interest and sustain our creative growth both now and throughout 2024!

Write on!

 

In Tune: Writing about Music in Fiction! 🎶

I’m crafting some exciting new projects for 2024, including a delightful 4-week online writing class at WOW! for February.

Introducing: IN TUNE: Writing About Music in Fiction!

If you’re looking to treat yourself to some writing motivation or looking for the perfect holiday or birthday gift for the writer in your life, look no further! This class will rock! 🤩🎸🥁

Course description:

“Fiction is filled with references to music: from high-school dances and music-school students, singers, music teachers and lessons, garage bands and musical instruments to records, rock concerts and folk/indie festivals and coffee-house performances, opera and musical-theatre performances, and so much more. Many of us spend our happiest hours with music in the forefront or background of our lives as soundtrack. There’s a type of music-inspired prose for as many musical genres as you enjoy.

Whether you’re writing a scene or story about a music practice, a novel with a musician or music fan as a protagonist, or just want to know more about how musical fiction works and/or add musical references, vivid characterizations of vocal performance, or music-centered scenes or references to your writing, this course will explore how music culture, sound, setting, POV, and more are portrayed within fiction to enhance and inspire your own rhythmic, compelling prose. Knowing how to read musical notes isn’t required for this class—just the desire and sincere appreciation for both music and literature and to add another tool to your literary toolkit.

Students will choose one novel with a musical plot to read independently, and the instructor will provide excerpts from music novels as well as handouts and a weekly writing assignment to get the muse melodically flowing! Join us for this new course that’s sure to strike a chord.”

To the great joy of writing and music! Sign-ups open now! Clickety-click: IN TUNE: Writing About Music in Fiction!

My Photography Chosen for J. Mane Gallery's Juried Exhibition: "Eat" 📸

I’m so pleased that 5 of my photos were chosen as part of J. Mane Gallery’s latest juried exhibition. The theme is “Eat.” Among them are these 2 photos that were so fun to take and make. 📸😊

See my other 3 photos and all of the amazing art by talented artists at: J. Mane Gallery “Eat” Exhibition.

If you’re in the market for an awesome online writing class, check out my similarly themed Food Writing for Fun and Profit (starting Friday, October 6th).

To art and food!

"Four Reasons Food Can Spice Any Genres You Write" 🍝

Wonderful news! 🥳My article was published by Women on Writing today! Check it out, and then give the writing prompt a whirl. 📝


Four Reasons Food Can Spice Any Genres You Write

By: Melanie Faith

 

Photo by Mae Mu on Unsplash.

It’s just about autumn in the US, which is an important weather shift in the seasonal states. Humidity dissolves as leaves turn into a crayon-box bonanza of shades while it remains sunny, bright, and crisp enough for a walk in a cozy, knit sweater and a mug of steamy tea after.  Another signal of the time shift is the shortening of days and the lengthening of my appetite.

 

While I enjoy eating all year ‘round, there’s something special about the chill in the air and the darkening of the evenings that increases my appreciation for sweet and savory flavors. Bring on the ooey-gooey cakes and breads, the creamy mac and cheese, the hearty, saucy spaghetti Bolognese!

 

No matter the season, the rituals of eating; snacking; food buying, storage, and preparation; meal clean-up; and food sharing surround our days and can be integrated into our writing to enrich our work.  Let’s look at four reasons why adding food writing to our repertoire can deepen our writing:

 

Food connects us: Nothing reminds us more of our communities and the cultures we belong to than food.  References to the recipes, meals, and snacks your protagonist grew up eating and still makes can provide shorthand for so many parts of your character’s background and life, including but not limited to her family of origin’s geography, socioeconomic status, and more. Certain foods will instantly be connected in readers’ minds with a particular state, region, cultural heritage, or country, while other foods and beverages are universal to many communities—which will give your readers other insights into how your unique character fits into a larger trend or social sphere or, conversely, how they might rebel against it.  Including meals or restaurant scenes can also demonstrate how your character interacts with others, what she feels comfortable saying or not saying, what she wants to share in public compared to her private thoughts, and so much more.

 

Speaking of which, food can create both bonds and tensions:  If one of your characters loves attending a weekly potluck she organizes and hosts once a month while another character lives for a quiet dinner for one at home to get away from the stresses of his day job and rejuvenates with the radio on while preparing couscous and a salad, you’ve already set up a way to show (rather than tell) extroversion and introversion. You’ve also set up a scenario where their differing styles could create conflict if these characters become friends, coworkers, family, or romantic partners. Characters can react strongly, or they might have inner hopes or misgivings about what is being served, about their dining companions, or about where the dining takes place. 

 

Food is also often connected with larger social issues that deeply impact many people both locally and globally—such as food instability, hunger, and ever-rising grocery prices—that you can shine a light on within your writing in nonfiction, poetry, flash, novels, and many other genres.

Photo by Atie Nabat on Unsplash

 

Favorites and aversions make us each unique. Including small details about what your character loves and loathes eating can strengthen your characterizations. Just like all of us, characters can have detested foods show up in their lives and have to navigate their distaste quietly or verbally, or they can absolutely love quirky regional favorites that their friends and family can’t stand or refuse to try. Conversely, we all love to share our favorites, and sometimes these favorite foods are eagerly adopted by those we love, spreading the joy. Writing that praises, describes, humorously disses, or delights in foods can connect with your audience’s own experiences of likes and dislikes.

 

Try this exercise!  If you write fiction: your antagonist has just invited your protagonist to dinner. Where will they go? What will they talk about? What is being served for dinner? If you write nonfiction, poetry, or other genres: jot a list of five of your favorite or least favorite foods. Pick one of the foods, set a timer for twenty minutes, and describe a time when you were served or served others this particular food. Use as many sensory details as possible to denote the food and reactions to it. Go!

 

 Care to learn more? I have a few spots left in my Food Writing class that begins Friday, October 6, and I’d love to have you and a friend join in the fun. Details at: Food Writing for Fun and Profit.