Writers Association - What is Horror Fiction? That's a difficult question. In recent years the very term has become misleading. If you tell people you write horror fiction, the image that immediately pops into their minds is one of Freddy Krueger or maybe Michael Myers, while you were hoping for Shelley's Frankenstein or Stevenson's Dr. But let's give it a try, shall we? Webster's Collegiate Dictionary gives the primary definition of horror as "a painful and intense fear, dread, or dismay." If we accept this definition, then horror can deal with the mundane or the supernatural, with the fantastic or the normal. In his 1982 anthology Prime Evil, author Douglas Winter stated, "Horror is not a genre, like the mystery or science fiction or the western. What makes horror literature so pervasive is that its need to evoke the necessary atmosphere and sense of emotional dread is utterly dependent on who we are as readers -- as people. The answer to that question lies in the nature of the publishing industry. Precisely as it should.
Goodreads The delights of genre-bending | Writers Victoria Thursday, December 10, 2015 By: Jane Rawson interviewed by Michelle McLaren Speculative fiction takes you outside of the everyday and into the strange, whether interplanetary, magical or at home. Writer Jane Rawson shared her thoughts on where spec fic can take writers and readers with Writers Victoria's Michelle McLaren. She'll be teaching a Summer School workshop on spec fic in January. How do you define speculative fiction? I define it as any fiction that includes elements not conventionally considered "real" (someone else might define it entirely differently). What is it about speculative fiction that appeals to you - both as a writer and as a reader? I’ve always felt like there’s a lot more going on in the world than we usually notice. When your debut, ‘A Wrong Turn at the Office of Unmade Lists’ won 2014’s Most Underrated Book Award, judges described it as “genre-bending”. I was delighted. You cite Douglas Adams’ ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ as an influence on your work.
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Sculpting a Memoir Memoir writers have huge egos. We actually believe that something we did is important to others. We are the like aging relatives reminiscing at Thanksgiving dinner. Good memoirs must read like a novel, impart some kind of wisdom, and come to a reasonable conclusion. I approach writing as I approach sculpture. One way to determine the right amount of detail is to fictionalize your story. First Person: I went to the market to pick up some fish for the dinner party Friday night. Third Person: Erika hated shopping and dinner parties, but they were necessary to her husband’s job. “Sam,” she cried. “Erika? Erika winced. He laughed in that same, deep way she remembered from high school. Relevant details surface in third person. Writing in third person also helps with the hard stuff. The statement “I learned that even in death there is hope” is not as powerful as the following example: “Don’t go, Jim. “Mary, it’s my time. Jim patted the bed. I wiped my eyes and took his hands. “Mary, listen.
Writing Writing Even the best writers sometime need a little stimulation, if only for practice. Otherwise, writers may face the dismal monstrosity of writer's block. These generators are here to help when you need plot ideas, genre-bending concepts, and more. Story Inspiration Envisioner Combines legends, tales, and stories with new or unexpected elements. Humor and For Amusement Action Film Trailers We've all seen those action movie trailers that begin with "In a world of . . ." and then quickly describe what goes on. Music Song Challenges Creates a style and subject matter for a song - for a challenge to when you need a quick idea for a story or game. More Resources! 7 Pieces Of Advice For Submitting To Literary Journals And Magazines – The Writer's Circle Getting a piece of writing published online is easy — all you need is an Internet connection and there's an endless amount of places to put your words. Getting a piece of writing published in a literary magazine or journal, however, is quite the opposite. So… why go through all the trouble? Literary magazines and journals offer a big audience of readers — as well as agents, publishers, editors, and other people in the industry. If you want that feeling of accomplishment (and to be able to throw it in your portfolio), check out some of these tips for getting noticed and published by magazines and journals! 7. This is excellent advice from Poets & Writers, which cautions that writers should research magazines and journals before submitting any work to them. 6. Though you want to follow the first step here and research where you're submitting, you don't want to craft something that you don't absolutely love. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.
Creative Writing Ideas, Courses Online, Free Classes for Writers To Get Published in a Magazine, Try Cheating Unlike Michael Derrick Hudson, the white poet made infamous for his inclusion in this year’s Best American Poetry under the name Yi-Fen Chou, I keep no “detailed records” of my literary submissions. I prefer to focus on the successes, few and insubstantial as those may be. Some years ago, I wrote a short story and began sending it around to the journals and small magazines, which (relatively) promptly declined to accept it. After a few failed efforts, I chanced upon a publication that offered detailed instructions on its website for unsolicited submissions. This was a bicoastal operation, with offices in Brooklyn and Portland (a lit-world cliché even then, but not quite on today’s order of eye-rolling magnitude), and the editors provided two mailing addresses: Portland for stories by writers without an agent; Brooklyn for those with agents. At the time of these submissions, I was a junior editor at an established magazine, and I decided to use this to my advantage.
LitReactor Why You Should Stop Using To-Do Lists I’m changing a conviction I’ve held for over 40 years. How so, and exactly what am I changing? It’s simple: I’m not using to-do lists anymore. This will come as a surprise to many AWAI friends. Over the years, I’ve religiously preached the importance of to-do lists to anyone who would listen. “Denise (Ford) has so much to do. Cam’s two-word response: “Covey Quadrants.” Now, I have a confession to make. And, I immediately replaced my to-do list passion with it. Breaking your day into 4 sectors … Let’s start by looking at the Covey Time Management Grid with nothing filled in. Before I adopted the Covey Time Management Grid, I would fill in my to-do list first thing in the morning. This system worked. I embraced the Covey system before even using it, because it made priorities visually obvious immediately. Finding the right slot for your to-do’s … Looking at my Covey Grid doesn’t really reveal which to-do items go where. Doing that was difficult when I first started using this system.
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