My Article Published: "4 Photo Hacks to Inspire Your Writing"

Great news! My article was published today. If you like writing & photography, then this one’s for you. Enjoy the writing exercise at the end.

“4 Photo Hacks to Inspire Your Writing”
By: Melanie Faith

Last week, I shot my first roll of film in over a decade.

Up to this point my photos, like a lot of my writing drafts, were entirely digital and screen-manipulated. This analog film process was nothing like that computerized process, refreshingly; it shook up the way I thought about crafting my work.

That first roll of film last week was also a lot of other firsts: first roll of black-and- white film, first time loading 120 film (I used to shoot 110 and 35 mm), first time shooting medium-format square negatives, first time using a cute, plastic Diana F+ camera.

120 film has just 12 negatives per roll. Unheard of in the digital world of endless do-overs and deletes. I still love digital, but practicing image-making on film is teaching me to approach my making creatively.

What can photography lend to our writing process?

• Renew your beginner’s mind.
I’ve been photographing since I was a teen, and yet here I was, trying several new photographic styles that were entirely fresh to me.

Many of us have been writing creatively for years, yet we, too, can capture that beginner’s mind and use it to create innovative drafts.

If you normally write prose, give poetry a shot. If you often write novels, try a short story or two.

Or pick a genre you’ve never practiced: perhaps flash memoir or writing a graphic novel or jokes for a stand-up routine.

Or switching POV from your standby third-person to first-person or second-person.

Or it could be as simple as writing a first draft longhand.

These changes won’t necessarily be permanent; they will, however, bring out new ideas and imagery that will surprise and motivate.

• Add a few restrictions to your art and watch it flourish.

In both photography and writing, sometimes if you put obstacles or limitations in your path, you can create something remarkable.

I know: paradoxical.

When shooting with film, I had just 12 clicks of the shutter. I also couldn’t preview it after taking the shots; the Diana F+ camera has a tiny viewfinder, but it’s not entirely accurate to what the lens will capture—it’s more like playing pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey than aiming at a dartboard. It’s a machine made for teaching how to approach and then let go of expectations.

I had my film for four days before I took that first roll for a spin; four days of narrowing down possible subject matter “worthy” of my twelve little compositions. Seven turned out well enough to submit to a literary magazine. I certainly don’t approach my digital photography that way. 

• Approach your writing with more of your full attention.

Because the camera and the shutter-release (on the side of the plastic lens!) and pretty much everything else about the camera was new to me, I had to slow down… and then slow down again… and then a third time. I watched a YouTube tutorial on loading the film about 12 times; no joke.

I quickly learned to trust my instincts more and to rule out certain subject matter in favor of other options, because I knew that I was paying $7.50 for the roll of film and almost $20 for developing.

Even though the cost isn’t exorbitant to practice film photography (especially getting third-hand cameras at an auction site like I did), that it COST me something made each shot precious.

What does your writing cost you? Sleeping in? Time out with family or friends? We value our art more when we sacrifice something for it.

• Think thematically.
Just like writers begin a novel, short story collection, poetry manuscript, or series of essays that surround the same theme or characters, photographers often challenge themselves to create a series based on the same subject, setting, or motif.

The other day, I took a twenty-minute walk with my new camera and then found, in storage, two lawn chairs that had almost been thrown out several times—their worn green webbing and silver metal bases redolent of my parents’ youth and endless picnics and fireworks displays. Yet they’d been stored away.

Gleefully, I dug them out from behind the staircase and arranged them in various configurations on the lawn. Six of out my twelve shots became a mini-series about the chairs.

If I’d had limitless shots would I have found the chairs as compelling, especially for a series? Maybe. But probably not.

It’s very common for writers, like photographers, to take part in creativity challenges that encourage such project-based thinking. Practicing your art with a group of like-minded people for consecutive days will more likely yield workable results.

We writers have NaNoWriMo in November and NaPoWriMo each April. Photographers have challenges like the 365 Project and monthly challenges, such as at Instagram where photographers post themed lists of ideas.

These challenges are often informal but incredibly liberating.

Both writing and photography rely on intuition and self-exploration. A mixture of knowing some things and making up the rest. Both arts often include elements of self-doubt or curiosity that are assuaged with practicing your craft on a regular basis.

Try this exercise: Make a list of five themes you could explore as a series in prose or photography.

Want to learn more? Try my May 2020 online Imagery Power: Photography for Writers class.

Take a perusal of Photography for Writers, my exercise-packed, creativity-fueling book. Signed copies also available at my Etsy: WritePathProductions.

Courtesy of Women on Writing https://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/classroom/MelanieFaith_Photography.php

Want to Teach Online? I've Got You: Craft Article Published Today at WOW!

“3 Exercises for Launching an Online Writing Class for Profit and Enjoyment”

By Melanie Faith

The Timing has Never Been Better to Teach Creative Writing!

The field of teaching creative writing online has flourished in the past decade. When I started teaching online classes, most universities and colleges didn’t offer any online courses and I didn’t know a single freelance writer who did, either.

Happily, in 2020, the tide has turned and opportunities abound for educators who are passionate about their love for writing.

By the way: it’s not a requirement to have taught English for years offline in public schools or to have published a book before sharing what you know with eager learners.

If you’re organized and communicative, enthusiastic about self-expression, and motivated both in your own writing practice and to direct other writers in theirs, there is sure to be a program to fit your teaching goals (or you’ll create one!) and students keen to study with you. Read on!

Why Teach Online?

The vast majority of my teaching is now as a freelancer online instructor and professor, and I love it! Let’s look at cool pros to teaching online.

A highly-flexible schedule. As a freelance teacher, I am free to go to lunch with a friend or to grade at 2 in the morning without waking at 7 am to report to a brick-and-mortar classroom.

Most classes are asynchronous, meaning that students and teachers literally can pop by any time of day and night to leave and answer messages and download/upload content, so teachers and students can communicate at 4 am in their pjs if they want.

Many online programs, including Women on Writing, offer great instructor freedom to choose texts, a class topic, and to develop a course and hand-pick or write handouts of our own choosing. This support for unique and individualistic course content inspires instructors as well as student writers.

Community building with fellow writers. I regularly make friends with creative writers from all across the world who share many of my same writing and life goals, including keeping my writing and publishing life active and lively.

       
The pleasure of making another writer’s path more-informed and supported. Much of what I learned about writing and publishing during my first ten years as a creative writer was through my own slow process of blunders. It’s very rewarding to offer fellow writers advice, and then to see them and their writing make their own pathways to editors and readers.

Motivation for my own work. Nothing keeps me engaged in my own writing process like encouraging others in theirs. As I often tell my students and clients: “We’re all writers in this writing journey together.”

Get Started Today! 3 Helpful Exercises

As you begin to consider writing topics you might teach, here are three thematic questions to get your wheels turning about the kind of class you might offer and the unique skills you will bring to an online classroom. Consider answering each question as a free-write, setting a timer for at least fifteen or twenty minutes for each question.

1.     What genres have you written in the past five years?  What style or genre of writing has most
inspired you recently? List any books (such as craft books about writing, novels, poetry collections, essay anthologies, etc.) as well as writing websites that might be fun to share.

2.      What excites you most about the opportunity to teach online?  List as much as you’d like. Pinpointing the qualities that encourage you will integrate this zest into your online classroom preparations, creating an environment where writers flourish.  

3.     Write a paragraph to introduce yourself to your ideal student. Describe what brought you to teach this class online and something about your writing journey. Feel free to share a dream for your own writing. Then, ask your delightful ideal student two or three questions you’d like to know about them. 

This exercise is one I wrote and offered to a client who was considering teaching online, and he found it very insightful to his writing process and to picturing his targeted class audience.

Over the course of a few days, your answers will point you in exciting directions for your genre, class topic/theme, and potential texts for a future course.

Students in my Creating an Online Creative-Writing Class for Fun and Profit course  will flesh out this list with several other questions, consider what to charge, write a course description and instructor bio with personality, and complete a syllabus (and much more!) for a class that they can pitch by the end of the four-week course. 

"Four Qualities of Authentic Writing" Craft Article Published at WOW Today :)

“Four Qualities of Authentic Writing”

By: Melanie Faith

I read 99 books for fun in 2019. If you’re an avid reader, too, you probably identify with the joys of reading when the minutes dissolve and the pages just keep turning and turning. Conversely, you probably also recall books that plodded so sloth-slowly that you kept counting the number of pages left to the end of the chapter.

As writers, we want our work to have all of the former’s pizzazz and none of the latter’s plodding.

What makes the difference between writing that flows and excites readers compared to writing that falls flat and bores? Authenticity, my friend.

Just like making friends is all about connection, so too writing that resonates creates a bond between author, writing, and reader/audience.

While defining authenticity within prose can be a little bit like getting gelatin to stick to a wall, there are still definite patterns to authentic writing.  We can apply these qualities as a litmus test to gauge the authenticity in our own drafts: 
       
Authentic writing includes imagery that makes the personal universal.

We all have many emotions and experiences. Boring writing tells us explicitly the name of the emotion, such as “He felt happy” or “I was mad.” Vibrant writing, on the other hand, suggests those emotions and experiences with specific visual images or symbols that express ideas subtly.

Many authors, for instance, use color imagery numerous times within a scene to underscore feelings or experiences, such as blue for sadness, green for security or growth, and red for passion or anger. While we are all individuals, we’re not as individualistic as we might at first think.

As Henri Nouwen and psychologist Carl R. Rogers once said, “What is most personal is most universal.” Authentic writing capitalizes on this knowledge to demonstrate our collective joys, struggles, shame, and healing.

       
Authentic writing tends to be understated, rather than overstated.

Ever read a paragraph that was over a page long? What was the result? Probably skimming over or through the paragraph and yawning. Lots of yawning. Rambling writing is the equivalent of the new friend at a party who expounds about everything at great length while listeners look longingly for the nearest exit.

Authentic writing doesn’t meander. It doesn’t cram everything but the kitchen sink into the paragraph or page, either. Instead, it has a theme and a point it wants to communicate to readers and omits details that are off-topic or redundant.
       
Authentic writing writes through, and not around, a subject. We’ve all read through paragraph after paragraph to get to the big revelation of an article or chapter or novel, only to have the author back away from the topic or to take a left-turn after barely any revelation at all. Talk about frustrating! Evasions don’t tend to endear people to each other, whether in person or on the page. Authentic writing includes elements of bravery.

Authentic writing risks something on the page. Authentic writing doesn’t hint at bigger analysis ahead and then offer the reader little or no fleshing out afterwards. Yes, there are many topics that are terribly scary to express and which take great courage to share with readers, whether through a character’s POV or our own.

On the other hand, risk earns readers’ respect; even if they don’t always love what the author writes, they find deflection and barriers worse. One reason readers read is to find connection (“I’ve thought that/done that, too!”); abruptly backing away from a topic or theme you’ve set up is a fast way to alienate readers and friends alike.  

Authentic writing has focus and a take-away without cliché or overly-easy advice or
solutions.

Authentic writing conveys a point without hammering it out by being repetitious. Readers tend to find repetitious writing boring or, worse, self-righteous and sanctimonious; authentic writing, on the other hand, subtly provides a purpose or a take-away and then moves on swiftly for the reader to think further about the topic on their own.

Trust your reader to make personal meaning based on the literary devices you’ve skillfully crafted and move on, to keep the pace popping.

Practice more authentic writing in my online class, beginning Friday, March 13th. Sign-up today!

I Guest Blogged: "3 Steps to Fixing an Annoying Protagonist"

Check out my guest blog at the fabulous Write it Sideways that went live today: “3 Steps to Fixing an Annoying Protagonist.”

Craft Article: "Introducing Your Next Characters: How to Outline Your Protagonist and Nemesis"

Great news! My craft article was published by Women on Writing today! Read on for some tips sure to develop your latest fictional protagonist and antagonist.

“Introducing Your Next Characters: How to Outline Your Protagonist and Nemesis”

By: Melanie Faith

Protagonists and antagonists: every story has them, or should have them. Our readers want someone to root for, someone they can identify with as they conquer problems both common and extraordinary. They also want an instigator, a character whose sole goal is to create the tension and conflict we experience in real life.

Think of these characters as paired all-stars in your novel—wherever there’s the protagonist striving to make their hopes and dreams happen with their actions, the antagonist should soon appear to work their devious deeds of mayhem to block those hopes and dreams.

Many writers delve straight into their initial scenes with their protagonist without knowing more about their protagonist than a name and perhaps an age. Certainly, many writers begin stories without knowing anything about the antagonists who will make it their purpose to mar the protagonist at every turn.

While one could free-write scenes for endless weeks or months, the more sensible approach is to do some quick but fruitful pre-writing to “meet” your protagonist and antagonist before setting your scenes to the page.

Outlining character details before writing chapters will:

*  save you time figuring out what your protagonist wants,

*  save you time and scenes figuring out why your protagonist is doing what (s)he is doing,

*  create immediate conflict that sets your novel’s plot into motion,

*  help you to pinpoint exactly why this protagonist desires what (s)he desires,

*  introduce you to the antagonist’s desires and why (s)he doesn’t want the protagonist to succeed,

*  and demonstrate the lengths the antagonist is willing to go to block your protagonist.

To get started, consider the following outlining exercise. Set a clock for fifteen or twenty minutes and answer these questions. Allow ideas and information to bubble up from your subconscious without editing or omitting details. Write as much or as little for each question as you wish. J  

There are many, many more approaches for developing notes about your protagonist, numerous of which I’ll explore during my course Outline Your Novel with Ease, but these initial questions will get you well on your way to a juicy conflict and two well-rounded main characters.

Feel free to keep writing beyond the ding of the timer. Pick a few of these questions, or answer them all.  Feel free to add details over the following hours and days as they appear to you. Keep in mind that protagonists are not all good and sweet, nor are antagonists all selfish or rude; we’re all a blend of qualities, emotions, circumstances, and missteps.

Then, after a few days, sit down to draft your initial scene. In the scene, use several details directly from this exercise.

By the way, you’ll learn more about your protagonist from this pre-writing exercise than you will include in the scene, which is perfectly normal and a great idea. Think of those “characters” you know in real life—you know a lot more about them (and they about you!) than either of you share directly when communicating.

Meet your protagonist:

*  What is their childhood nickname? Do they still go by this name? Would they hide it?

*  What is their birth order? Do they have siblings? Would they have liked [more] siblings or no siblings? Does anything in their background influence their thoughts about having or raising children?

*  Do they live where they thought they would as a teen? Why or why not? Are they willing to move to another location? Why or why not?

*  What is your protagonist’s dream job? Do they currently have that job? Do they have excuses for why they don’t have that job? If so, what are they?

*  Describe a time when your protagonist was overlooked or underappreciated. What would it take to make your protagonist feel like a winner?

Meet your antagonist:

*  Does your antagonist have a nickname? Do they still use it? Would they hide it?

*  Has your antagonist known your protagonist since childhood? Since college? If not, when and how did your antagonist and protagonist meet?

*  What was your antagonist’s initial (unspoken) impression of your protagonist? Describe their first conversation.

*  What is your antagonist’s biggest regret?

*  Describe a time when your antagonist felt like a winner. Then write about a time when your antagonist felt like a complete zero.

Want to learn more? Check out my 2020 classes, beginning on January 17th with Outlining Your Novel with Ease! Click here: 2020 classes info.

Welcome to the World, Photography for Writers!

At long last, it’s release day for my new book, Photography for Writers!

Buy your copy today at Vine Leaves Press. Signed copies also available, via my WritePathProduction Etsy Shop or via pm.

Photo by Adi Goldstein on Unsplash .

"Four Tips for Writing Fantastic Flash"

My article about flash-writing was published today. Ta-da! Give the writing exercise a spin.

“Four Tips for Writing Fantastic Flash”

by: Melanie Faith

Good things come in small packages. Chocolate truffles. Earrings. Me—okay, that last one is wishful thinking since I round my height up to 5’2”, but you get the picture.

            Flash is the mighty genre that could and no exception to the small-packages rule of thumb. In both fiction and nonfiction, flash stories tell a narrative, develop a character and setting, craft conflict and tension to a surprising ending, and more—all in just 1,000 words or less. Pretty impressive!

            Use these four tips and the accompanying exercise to craft some stellar flash.

·         Set two characters against each other.  Ever lived in a dorm? Then you know that very rarely do even two people (much less a whole group) view similar experiences the same way. Such conflict is a key component of good flash. Whether your characters compete for the same person, place, or thing or just have opposing personal, political, or ideological views, one sure way to maintain conflict within a flash is to pair two characters in a clash of goals. When I judge flash contests, one of the key disappointments is when a good flash character or concept doesn’t have enough tension to sustain the flash, so the prose falls flat.

·         Ready, set, action!  Your protagonist or speaker must DO something. Flashes aren’t as dynamic if the character is inert or has things done to her or him. Detail your protagonist’s physical actions and responses. Many promising flash drafts I’ve read go off the rails when they include a character reflecting on something that has occurred—which is fine for a sentence or two, maybe, but for a flash to really zing off of the page, the character must push back in deed. In real life, I need a fair amount of reflection time, but in my flash writing, I avoid it. Wind those characters up and let them move on the page! Which brings us to our next tip:

·         When in doubt, include (a little) body language. Sometimes, jokingly, I’ve referred to dialogue without any speaker tags or visual imagery for several paragraphs as “floating heads,” because the characters seem to exist in outer space, without a clear physical presence. Readers don’t need to know every single cough, sneeze, or hand on the hip, but if your readers can’t imagine how characters are reacting to each other—whether through vocal tone, rolled eyes, tapping toes or shifting uncomfortably- then they probably won’t have as deep an investment in characters’ struggles. Much of what real people communicate in everyday life is demonstrated through body language; sprinkle a few well-placed images between the dialogue to show the conflict between what the character says and how the character or others physically react.

·         Contradictions make better flash characters. In other words: we’re all a mess, so why not mine it? Another problem in some flash I see are characters who are one-sided, with a single personality trait that is not-so-awesome for flash: they are too agreeable. Something bad happens, and they accept it as the way things are or they make a decision to ignore it entirely. Strong writing brings us characters who have a main trait—kindness, enthusiasm, anger—and an opposing trait that rears its head now and again—selfishness, mercurial moods, humor at the wrong moment. As F. Scott Fitzgerald once said: “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” Guess what—we all have these two opposing sides and must function, which creates the kind of exhaustion and frustration that doesn’t always make life easy but which makes for fantastic conflict, tension, and character development in flash.

Try this exercise:  Your speaker or protagonist has always reacted to injustice by ________________, but today, a different side of their personality is going to shine. Instead, they will _________________. Include inner thoughts of the character or speaker right before they decided what to do, during, and after. Include at least a line of dialogue in your flash where a person with a different opinion or view tries to stop your speaker or protagonist. What happens next? Go!

~~~~~~~~

Looking for a fun online writing class? Still a few spots in my Flash writing class that starts on Oct. 25th. :) In a Flash Details.

I’ll also be teaching a novel class in January. Outlining Your Novel with Ease Details.

"Food Writing: Introducing the Quotable Yum Factor" Article Published :)

So pleased that my article was published as a Spotlight article at Women on Writing this week. I’ll also be teaching a themed online writing class in September (scroll to the end of the post for the link to the course and more details).

“Food Writing: Introducing the Quotable Yum Factor”

By Melanie Faith

I’ve been a quote collector from way back. I can’t help but relish words of wisdom on the topic of food that demonstrate not only eating but also sharing our love for nourishment through writing is just about the best thing since, well, sliced bread.

          Why food writing? you ask. Let’s take a look at three quotes that explore just why food writing sustains and entertains writers and readers:

·        “First we eat, then we do everything else.” -M.F.K. Fisher

Think back to some of your first memories; most of these remembrances likely involve food, food preparation, eating, snacking, or all of the above . Do these memories involve a birthday party? There was certainly cake with decadent, butter-rich icing or the waft of cocoa powder at the first slice. What about memories of a yearly special occasion shared around the table with family and friends, like the first savory bites of Grandma’s Thanksgiving stuffing with the pecans and what was that delicious spice she always winked and called her “secret ingredient”? 

Food has an undeniable connection to place, culture, and time period that can inspire evocative writing. We often recall not just what we ate and how it tasted (which is a sensory feast enough) but who we were with (or not with), the location, and other events that were occurring while we noshed.

Food brings both comfort and spark points for poetic prose and narrative verse.   Try this: set a timer for fifteen minutes and make a list of foods or dishes from your growing-up and teen years and your young adult days. Any of these foods could make great material for a free write, because they are connected to wider experiences and places in your past or present.  Combine setting details with food details for a richer mixture.

·        “Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first.” -Ernestine Ulmer

Feel the push-pull in the above quote? That’s part of what makes it delicious, non? Tension and conflict, two hallmarks of literature, are perfect companions for writing about food as well.

As a creative-writing teacher and bookworm, I’ve read many scenes

in novels and nonfiction manuscripts where food served as a backdrop or symbolism for the deeper struggles in characters’ or speakers’ lives. 

For example, you might combine a protagonist who is scared to tell his love interest something about his past with a breakfast scene in which he prepares his love’s favorite waffles. How does he avoid telling this truth, using the food as a go-between? How does he work himself up to sharing this secret? Dialogue as well as description of his actions and the food all work together to deepen the writing.

·        “I have made a lot of mistakes falling in love, and regretted most of them, but never the potatoes that went with them.” -Nora Ephron

Mistakes in life and/or love, who hasn’t made some? Ephron’s quote reminds us, as writers, to employ wry humor as we look back on our pasts. It also reminds that, as disappointing or frustrating as things became, there were silver linings that sustained us.

Cooking and writing, too, share the need for a healthy sense of humor and a silver-lining attitude. Ever made a cake, following the entire recipe, but the cake fell flat or never rose at all. [Instructor raises her hand.] Ever written a draft that seemed so promising and then either stalled mid-draft or just didn’t go in a direction you expected? [Instructor’s hand again goes up.]

Food writing has two great strengths: one, there is the opportunity for humor (perhaps something unexpected, non?). I’ve read hilarious blogs and essays where a writer takes a kitchen disaster or restaurant meal gone wrong and serves up a wider truth about how we rebound and try, try again.

Also, food writing encompasses many, many genres. Its versatility is part of the reason why I love writing food scenes and, for several years now, teaching a writing workshop to encourage others to do so.

·        Like poetry? Try “Figs” by D.H. Lawrence, “Ode to the Onion” by Pablo Neruda, or “After Apple-Picking” by Robert Frost.

·        Enjoy personal essays and food-journal articles? How about anthologies with both? Try the annual The Best American Food Writing books for inspiration.

·        How about travel writing? Yep, food writing also falls under that category, such as blogs that detail the best bistros and taco trucks in your town or city.

·        I haven’t forgotten the prose writers. Many novels include scenes or even whole chapters where food plays a significant part in the narrative. The examples and sub-genres of fiction that involve food are endless, such as: classics like the party scene in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby to children’s books like  Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, YA like Stephanie Burgis’ The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart, Contemporary Fiction like Kirstin Chen’s Soy Sauce for Beginners, Romance like Yolanda Wallace’s Month of Sundays, Historical Fiction like Crystal King’s Feast of Sorrow: A Novel of Ancient Rome and Philip Kazan’s Appetite, and many more.

Go ahead: do a little “food-writing research” today. Pick one of the above food-writing genre examples and research and/or read the piece(s). Then, give food-writing a go on your own. Whether in poetry, prose, or a combination of both, your writing is sure to be richly filling and enhanced with eating imagery.

I’ll be teaching an online writing class, beginning Friday, September 13th. Just four more openings left. Click for more details about this delicious course. Food Writing for Fun and Profit.

My MFA-Themed Article Published Today

Ever wonder when to apply for the MFA? Wonder about my before-MFA journey?

Excellent news: my article, “When’s the Right Time to Pursue an MFA?” was published this morning at NUNUM. Ta-da! :)

Photo: part of my Artifact Series. :)

My Lyric-Poetry Article Published :)

So excited to announce that my article, “Three Types of Lyric Poetry to Fire up Your Writing Practice,” was just published. Click on the name of the article above to read it.