📚🖊My Flash Article Published Today🖊📚

It's a great news kind of day! My article, "The Inherent I: 4 Reasons for Using Fabulous First-Person POV in Flash," was published by Women on Writing today. Read the whole article below, as well as a free prompt to try. 😎

Interested in more? I’m taking sign-ups for my April Flash Fiction course: clickety!

“The Inherent I: 4 Reasons for Using Fabulous First-Person POV in Flash”

By: Melanie Faith

 

Both flash fiction and nonfiction often feature first-person narrators. What are the advantages of using I speakers when writing flashes?

 

First person is focused. A speaker in first-person narration showcases their own inner landscape, feelings, and outlook. Whether fiction or nonfiction, a first-person speaker follows one person’s tightly-woven motivations, blinders, opinions, hopes, and goals. There’s no head-hopping involved!

Since flash is so small, it’s helpful to have a narrow, beam-of-light approach rather than several POVs competing for the very limited space available under 1,000 words, but often much less.

First person is natural to the ways we think and already form stories. From the time we start to talk, I, me, and my are some of our first words we learn to speak or to write. When we tell friends about the picnic we enjoyed or the meal that went terribly wrong, chances are very strong we frame our anecdotes in first-person. It’s often our default mode when communicating via text, email, or video conferencing as well. Humans inherently express our own experiences using I statements. Why go against the grain in our writing?

First person includes room for surprises. Yes, it’s first-person narration, but in the case of flash fiction especially, that doesn’t have to mean the character presented has to share all of your own experiences, feelings, or beliefs. In fact, it might be more fun to play devil’s advocate and writing a character who is your polar opposite.

Say, you are a marathon runner who’s just had an injury and has been limited to moderate exercise and no training for the next six months during physical therapy. You’re itching to get back on the track, back to your passion for the sport, to your next race. Flip it and reverse that energy as you recuperate. What if your protagonist has never run a marathon in his life? What if he actually detests running?  What if someone dares or even bribes him to run a marathon or else there will be consequences? Yep, you can write this in first-person POV to see life from his perspective. Or perhaps from the perspective of his coworker, Meghan, who has issued the challenge/bribe. What’s her perspective like, and why is she making this request/demand?

First person could include any of these details, just not all of them at once. You never know what you’ll learn about yourself—or others—or your favorite sports, hobbies, pastimes, and more through leaping into another person’s eyes. 

First person includes promising limits.  Yes, first person can be limited, but that’s also part of its charm.

In a nonfiction flash essay, for instance, the reader does not get to delve deeply into the feelings or actions of many others, unless those are in relation to—and shed important light on—the first-person speaker’s journey. It’s all about the speaker, baby!

The reader gets to intuit and experience the speaker’s limits and foibles as well as their strengths and fears.

What a writer reveals in first person as well as what must be left out because it is told in first person provide a compelling insight into human behavior, both for the individual and for people in that setting or time period or group the speaker belongs to, or wishes to, or never will.

 

 

Try this prompt! Set a timer for fifteen or twenty minutes. Write in first person about a time when the I speaker—whether you or a made-up character—felt left out of a group. Do not use the word disappointed anywhere in the flash; instead, demonstrate it with the I statements the person uses, their astute observations about why they wanted this inclusion but it hasn’t come to be, and/or in their actions or refusal to act. Go!

Photo courtesy of Nathan DeFiesta on Unsplash.com

✨📸 My Photo Chosen for Exhibition 📸✨

Thrilled to announce that my fine-arts photo, "Dad's Razor," was chosen for PhotoPlace Gallery's "The Poetry of the Ordinary" online gallery among the work of so many talented artists.

Check out the whole exhibition (clickety-click on the Online Gallery tab underneath the sofa-and-city-view shot ).

My Poem, "Wobbly," Featured ☕📚

So pleased to announce that my latest poem, “Wobbly,” was featured tonight as part of Lee Ann Berardi Smith’s wonderful series on Facebook of poetry videos during the pandemic, with the hashtag: #poemdemic.

Check out Lee Ann’s amazing video reading (clickety links above), my poem text (below), as well as other excellent videos of Lee Ann sharing verse from many inspired poets.

“Wobbly”

 

the stack of books

beside the nightstand

beside the bed

got wobbly again

I wouldn’t know why—

 

I only added three new

hardcovers last week

to the tippy-top

 

so I sat on the floor

this morning

on the carpet

with the tea stain

 

my knees tucked in a way

that would let me know

when I stood up

that they loathed to be tucked

that way, and I sorted

and pulled two or three mid-stack

 

volumes of softcover poetry

to send to an out-of-state poet friend

and a thick historical novel

that had been so-so

but a swap with another friend

 

and the memoir

about the 1980s painter

to toss into the free

book box by the gift shop

the next time I go past

 

and the rest,

like elementary-school

friends, I set out

for indeterminate recess

 

I let them group together

still holding hands

beside the printer

 

I know, despite my efforts

at any minute,

they might sing that song,

 

might play that game,

that goes

we all fall down

Photo Courtesy of Alfred Kenneally on unsplash.com

🌟 Online Reading: Thursday, March 4th at 6 pm EST

Q: What are you doing this Thursday, March 4th at 6 pm EST (aka: 5 pm CST or 3 pm PST)? ☕

A: Attending this amazing reading of 8 Vine Leaves Press authors. Our theme, Commercial Meets Experimental, includes select readings from our published books.

Would love to see you there. Zoom link below. 😎

✨New Interview at: But I Also Have a Day Job 📓

Wonderful news: I was interviewed recently by talented writer and editor Ian Rogers at But I Also Have a Day Job. Our discussion dropped today; it’s a perfect way to open March on an artistic note.

We discussed oodles of writing and career topics alongside a few scoops about my photography.

Check it out, along with numerous other interviews with fantastic authors talking about their creative passions and how to balance writing with making a living!

"4 Inspired Reasons for Teaching an Online Class" ☕

Excited to share that my article, “4 Inspired Reasons for Teaching an Online Class,” was published today at Women on Writing.

To learn more about my class, starting March 5th, click here: Creating an Online Creative-Writing Class.

Read the article below.

4 Inspired Reasons for Teaching an Online Class

By: Melanie Faith

“When one teaches, two learn.” –Robert Heinlein

Like most of us, I’ve held many jobs and learned something about myself from all of them: choir-music librarian, research assistant, camp counselor, and journalist to name a few.  By far the most creatively-enriching job I’ve ever had is teaching creative writing online.  Let’s look at some motivating benefits for teaching an online class that might just inspire your own course in the near future. 

Why teach an online writing class?

Online classes are flexible.

Online classes are wonderful for just about any schedule. Some courses operate over Zoom, Skype, Google Hangouts, and other platforms at particular times of the day like in-person classes, say 7-8 pm. Other classes are scheduled asynchronously, via message boards, discussion posts, and other posted content like PDFs which students can access at a time that suits their schedules.

As an online instructor, you have a lot more freedom to choose how you’ll present your class—such as through posted videos on an asynchronous class or a group meeting/lecture at 3-4 in the afternoon or a mixture of the two—than if you were assigned a brick-and-mortar classroom in a lecture hall.

Your home office and your students’ abodes are your classrooms. You’ll have no commute. You can invest that extra time into our lessons, student communications, handouts, or even your own writing.

Online classes are great fun.

Writing is a topic that’s endlessly fascinating. Each writer brings their own style, themes, characters, projects, and/or goals to the course. There will be a great variety of skill levels and native talents brought to your classroom.

Part of the marvel of teaching an online class is the opportunity to nurture the best skills writers have to offer while challenging and inspiring fellow writers to enhance their writing.

Writing students tend to be diverse, lively, and creative thinkers. They’re often widely-read, curious about life and others, and visionary thinkers. What’s not to love about any of these attributes?

Online classes are a wonderful way to build a writing community.

One of my favorite aspects of teaching writing online is when my students email me, even after our class has ended, to let me know that they continue to write, that they have submitted work to literary magazines or agents, that they have gotten acceptance letters.

During the weeks I spend with my students, our class becomes a community and a support network, and this network often continues in some form after our course. For example, several students have become friends and found writing critique partners in my classes, and they’ve continued to encourage each others’ novels, poetry, and/or memoirs long after the final day of class.

Group dynamics vary in any class, but creative writing students tend to be generous with their time and efforts.  

Students have been some of the greatest supporters of the nonfiction craft books I’ve written for writers, and their interest in my past, current, and future projects continues to hearten and inspire me.

Online classes are a great way to evolve as a working writer. 

Teaching creative writing provides the occasion to talk about a subject that I’m passionate about with a target-audience of people who actually care about the same topic.

Who else in my daily life would care about the latest interviews with my favorite authors who dish details on their writing process? Who else would want to take for a spin a writing prompt I just wrote? Who else understands the challenges of a third draft as compared to a first one and wants to bounce ideas for a better editing process? Or to share ideas about marketing out literary brainchildren?

There’s camaraderie and inspiration when teaching writing online. We may not be sitting in the same room, but we’re experiencing the same joys and struggles with our works in progress (WIP). Any frustrations my students are having with their protagonists or antagonists or scenes I can identify with because I’ve either had the same frustrations or may even currently be experiencing the same with my own WIP.  

Interacting regularly with motivated writers supports my own growth as a writer. I can’t tell you the amount of times when, after having a great discussion with students about some aspect of the writing or editing process, I’ve suddenly known exactly the next step I should try in my draft.

✨ "3 Suggestions on a Saturday Night" ✨

I have the pleasure of guest blogging today at Nicole Pyles’ wonderful blog, World of my Imagination.

Check out my “3 Suggestions on a Saturday Night” for some literary, movie, and audio amusements.

"Journaling as a Discovery Tool for Current Projects" 🖊📕

Splendid news: I’m guest blogger today at CreateWriteNow!

My article, “Journaling as a Discovery Tool for Current Projects,” was published this morning.

Also check out journaling prompts, Mari’s marvelous book, Journaling Power, and other inspiring journaling resources at CreateWriteNow!

Photo courtesy of Nick Morrison at unsplash.com

My Poem, "Aim," Published 🖋📓

So pleased to announce that my poem, “Aim,” was published in the current (December 2020) issue of Songs of Eretz. It has a refreshing “Spring” theme— more on that in the editor’s note.

The issue contains the poems of many very talented poets to savor, including meaningful poems by my dear friend, Charles A. Swanson, who is a featured poet in this and many other issues. Check out his poignant elegy to his beautiful granddaughter, Addi. It is an honor to share this issue as “contributor twins” with this steadfast friend from my grad-school days. Here’s to many more of his publications.

Read the complete issue at: Songs of Eretz.

“Aim”
Melanie Faith 

That was the night we sped barefoot
down the embankment
across the rolling lawn
past the fountain outside the dining hall, past
Diana the huntress

her bow and arrow pointed perpetually
skyward. Her aim: a silvery spattering of almost-
summer stars. Our aim: celebrating the end
of semester. Our aim: disruption. Each shimmer
of water from rotating sprinklers

a world within a world we had yet
to step into, landed light
and wet on our bare
shoulders. We were a spinning
folly before equilibrium, the best kind.

The brick-tower clock struck two. Someone
squealed from the impact of the cold,
another someone shushed, but it was half-
hearted, against the mirth. Diana
and her bow, at the top of the hill, steady

she kept watch, peering the other way,
head tipped upward to her map of constellations:
ever-aiming into the many night spoils.
Enough stars to gather and gather again
in our open arms.

Photo courtesy of Gaimard on Pixabay

"3 Ways Receptivity Leads to Authentic Writing" 🙌📕

Great news! My article about authentic writing was featured today at Women on Writing. Read on!

“3 Ways Receptivity Leads to Authentic Writing”

By: Melanie Faith

We writers tend to be natural observers. Sometimes, that means noticing little nuances of behavior or movement that others might not pay attention to at all. Other times, that includes thinking about an overheard conversation or wondering about the tension within someone’s voice minutes, hours, or even days later.

This receptivity often leads to amazing results and renewed vitality in our writing. According to vocabulary.com, “Your receptivity is your ability and willingness to take in information or ideas.”

Why receptivity? Overall, we writers are meaning-seekers and meaning-interpreters. Not only do we have to choose (or be chosen by) our subject matter, but also we write and edit to bring out symbolism, metaphors, and resonance so that readers will connect to the main ideas and themes we explore. People who are closed off, even partially, tend to miss countless excellent ideas that come their way. The world is jam-packed with ideas waiting for you to notice them.

Here are three top tips for staying open to quality material you might be bypassing:

1.     Receptive writers cast their nets widely first and narrow down later.    

Since March, millions of workers around the world have worked from our home offices. Conferencing online at a distance has become an ordinary new feature of how the workplace functions in 2020 and into 2021. It can be pretty easy to feel isolated and in one’s own bubble when the majority of social interactions after the workday are also often at the click of a button rather than in our living rooms or at restaurants.

As much as my inner introvert rejoices at a good curl-up-and-read fest, I recognize the need for hanging out and absorbing ideas from friends and fellow creative makers. Nobody is an island, even with Covid-19 social distancing. We need to keep coming into regular contact with others’ everyday conversations about hopes, dreams, fears, complaints, and even the seemingly silly minutiae or anecdotes that used to be more commonplace before quarantine.

Art thrives on community and the spontaneous mingling of ideas. Cast your net wide and get a few recommendations to keep ideas flowing.

If you’re not conversing or overhearing juicy, disparate, random or rambling conversation on the regular, you’re probably missing out on some very important ideas that could positively impact your writing. Don’t immediately scroll past an argument or debate on Twitter or Facebook—read through strands of comments, even if you don’t comment. 

Put your favorite podcast on while you work out at home or take a quick run around the block. If you don’t have a favorite podcast or book or song at the moment, text a friend or ten and find out what they’re listening to or reading recently.

2.     Slow and steady: receptive writers listen and give themselves time to reflect before creating.

I’ll admit: this is a hard one for me. My mind is almost always bursting with ideas, and never more so than when I read an article that inspires me or watch a video or overhear a conversation that strike a chord. It helps my writing, though, to remind myself that when I come across new inspiration that I need to tune in and give the information a little bit of time to settle before reacting.

Give yourself some time to take in new ideas by keeping a notebook handy to jot down initial impressions, conversation snippets, or notes, but then give that information some hours or even days to rest in your notebook before using them in a new piece. This little grace period between gleaning exciting ideas and integrating or exploring them will deepen your pre-writing period. Your subconscious mind will make connections between ideas that may surprise and delight you.

Great news: often, in the hours or days in-between first hearing or learning of something and beginning to write, several other tangentially- related ideas or pieces of information will also cross your path and enrich or change the focus of your initial idea, enriching your theme in the process. We’re a fast-paced culture, but our writing process doesn’t have to be rocket-launch speed.

We hear not nearly often enough: slow it down, reflect. I’ll say this again because it’s just so soothing: slow it down.

3.     Receptive Writers don’t put too much pressure on a single idea.

Here’s something we don’t tend to talk about much, but it’s as true today as it was a hundred or even a thousand years ago for scribes: don’t expect your entire writing career or reputation to be built on one magnum opus. Realize that there are many, many ideas out there and likewise a multitude ways to interpret, structure, and create art from those ideas.

Think of your writing as a marathon run, rather than a sprint. Explore each idea to the best of your ability with what you know now, but realize that you have many chances to edit and/or add to your ideas during the course of your writing career. Also, if the piece doesn’t immediately gel or if it changes focus or shape, that’s a natural part of the process. If this project doesn’t pan out after endless weeks or months of struggling, it’s okay to let it go and begin another project. There are endless other possibilities to pursue at any given time that may refresh your writing—remain flexible and open-minded about beginning again.

Ease off the pressure for the latest project to showcase every single one of your writing talents, and ease into the openness to each idea’s potential to bring out new qualities in your writing during the writing process.  

Using our natural observational skills will deepen our writing. In addition, such receptivity will work wonders for creating fresh, authentic writing again and again.

Care to learn more? Clickety-click: Developing Your Authentic Voice. Starts January 8, 2021. Sign-ups now open!

Learn more about my other WOW classes and books: click.