It’s Story-a-Day May!

Yes, I know that we’re halfway through the month, but better late than never, right?

Did you know that May is “Story-a-Day” month? Yup, it’s another one of those writing challenges I love so much. This time, the challenge is to write one story every day. How you define story is up to you.

This is definitely the writing month challenge that intimidates me the most, which is probably why I’ve only attempted it once (and I think I only wrote 4 stories). Still, the challenge intrigues me, especially as I continue to ponder the short story form. This seems like the perfect opportunity to pound out all those half-baked short stories ideas floating around in my mind, right?

Even if you don’t participate, the StoryADay website has a great blog, and you should definitely sign up for the daily prompts. They might inspire your writing beyond the month of May … or you can do like I do, and foist them on your students or your writing group. (I use them for the Teen Writing Group I lead at the library — thanks, StoryADay May, for making my job easier!)

I’m Officially a Goodreads Author!

My bit of writing excitement last week — which I’ve already blasted around all the social media to which I belong — was being accepted into Goodreads Author program. I’ve been a member of Goodreads for over three years now, and recently I was looking at the collection of science fiction short stories, Queer Dimensions, in which I published a piece. I noticed that several of the short story contributors in the anthology had a “Goodreads Author” credit next to their names, but that acknowledgment was woefully missing from my name. So I did a quick Google search, applied to be part of the program, and voila! Three days later, I, too, have become a Goodreads Author.

The best part of this transition is probably that it pulled up a few reviews of the anthology that I hadn’t read before, including one that referenced my contribution, “The Man in the Mirror” as “the most sincere of the stories.” I also appreciated this review from Lily:

THE MAN IN THE MIRROR by Lacey Louwagie
This well written story is about what could happen when everything you’ve always wanted starts to come true. In this sweet yet oftentimes sad story the heroine learns that being yourself, and not trying to be what someone else needs, is the only way to truly be happy. Very nice story with an excellent ending.

As endings are the most challenging part for me to write, I was particularly pleased that she commented on the ending.

There are some scary things about crossing the threshold to “Goodreads Author,” too. One is that now I’ll have to be ready to buck up and accept negative, even scathing reviews, of what I’ve written (Lord knows I probably deserve it, after some of the reviews I’ve written!) I admit that when I review a book on Goodreads that designates the author as a “Goodreads Author,” I feel more hesitant to write something negative. A good friend of mine admitted to feeling the same thing, but then made peace with it by deciding that authors just need to accept that not everyone is going to like their work. It’s part of the territory. I agree with her. Now let’s see if I can take as good as I can give (one thing I will NOT do is leave comments on bad reviews “defending” my work. Readers have every right not to like what you’ve written, no questions asked.)

And then there is the issue about being brave, too. I tell the world I write speculative fiction, but it’s not as widely known that some of it (much of it, if I’m totally honest), addresses queer themes in subtle or overt ways. I know that this means some people will judge me immediately as a person, and skip right over the writer part, skip right over what I actually have to say (“oh, she’s part of that agenda”). And that saddens me. But it’s part of the world we live in, and it’s not going to get better if we continue to hide.

Mostly, though, I feel challenged. Because as good as I thought it would feel to reach this milestone, I find the one book to my credit looking pretty piddly on my author account page. I want more books there. MORE!! Around this time next year, I’ll be able to add the book I’m working on for ACTA publications to the roster. Hopefully by the time that one is there, I’ll have another in the works that I can look forward to putting in spot number three.

What are Your Three Writing Wishes?

SheWrites is asking members to record their year’s three writing wishes here. (I’m reinterpreting wishes as “goals,” since my *wishes* would be a) publication with b) fantastic reviews and c) high sales — but I’d rather list things I can make happen on my own.)

Now, this seems rather fortuitous, as one of my writing wishes for this year is to become a part of an online writing community, and SheWrites is the one that holds the most appeal because of its support of and connection to women writers from all walks of life and all stages of their writing career. For almost two years now, I’ve received their weekly emails and as such have been something of a “lurker” in that respect, since I always read them but only occasionally click through. But in those two years, I’ve seen a passion for writing and a warmth for other writers at SheWrites that isn’t particularly evident at other online writing communities I’ve explored, although I’m sure they all have their areas where they shine.

My main reason for wanting to join an online writing community is to further my goal of understanding the short story as a literary form (and writing option). I’m fortunate to have my wonderful speculative fiction writers group, who monthly battle valiantly against patchy Internet connections to Skype me into their meetings in Duluth. I’m doubly fortunate that a couple members of the group are particularly good at speculative short stories. But I feel a little at a loss when it comes to getting feedback on short stories of a more literary nature, and so those tend to gather dust while I wait for them to (at some point!) critique themselves. Since I’ve waited over a year and a half for that, I think I really need to take matters into my own hands. And so, these are my three writing wishes for this year:

1. To evolve from a lurker to a participating member of SheWrites.
2. To Workshop and Revise my literary short story, “Closeted,” and to submit it (I originally wrote it for GlimmerTrain’s semi-annual short story contest with the theme of Family.)
3. To finish writing my retelling of Rumplestiltskin, which was supposed to be a short story but is languidly stretching out into a novella, and to bring it through its first rigorous round of revisions (right now, it’s at that awkward stage where it’s already ITCHING to be rewritten, but I’m trying to at least throw the rest of the bones out before I start rearranging vertebrae).

There are other things I hope to accomplish in my writing life by this time next year, such as participate in one last NaNoWriMo before I’m an old married woman (my last NaNo as a single gal, not my last NaNo ever), and get an agent to request the full manuscript of Ever This Day. But if I can at least accomplish 1, 2, and 3, I will be quite content.

What are your top three writing wishes?

Poetry, Short Stories, and Realizations

A good friend just reminded me that today marks the beginning of Story-a-Day May–a challenge to write a story every day for a month. This comes on the heels, of course, of Poetry Month and Script Frenzy, a challenge to write 30 poems in a month and to write a script in a month, respectively.  And then, of course, there is my personal favorite, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), the challenge to write a novel in a month, in November. This has me thinking that one could easily spend a whole year devoted purely to writing challenges, with all the “off-months” consumed with revising the frenzied outputs of April, May, and November.  In fact, I like this idea so much that I’m tempted to make this my “writing project” for 2012 (which is, incidentally, also the year that I’ll get married, which should give me plenty of material.)

As of now, I came in short of the April 30-poem challenge at 23 poems (respectable or measly, depending on your perspective). 24 if you count the one that LiveJournal deleted of its own volition.

Until November, I’m continuing to explore short forms. I realized recently why poetry and short stories are so difficult for me — it’s because my writing Kryptonite is endings. With these forms, the end is always looming within sight, even from the very first word. Perhaps my preference for novels doesn’t come just from the fact that I read more in that format, but because it allows me to procrastinate writing an ending, sometimes for years and/or for over a hundred thousand words. BUT shorter forms also mean that I get to revise sooner, which, for me, is the fun part.

I won’t be doing Story-a-Day May, but I WILL commit to finishing my short-story-in-progress this month.  Strange that that can feel like a bigger challenge than the 50,000 words demanded by NaNo!

Back to the Classroom

I’m writing again, and I finally have a plan.

It’s been two months since I finished the second draft of my YA novel, and as usual, I was taking a “break” between projects. It was a productive break, as I managed to write a handful of poems, a short story, and lots of journal and blog entries. But two months tends to be sort of my “breaking point” between projects, when I start feeling a little batty for lack of writing structure. So when I woke up earlier than usual yesterday and had a whole blissful hour for writing, I decided what my next project is going to be: writing exercises.

I admit, it feels a little like a demotion to go from writing novels to doing writing exercises. In the past, I tended to scorn writing exercises (although I had no trouble doling them out to students!) because they took time away from my “real” writing. Well, I’m not ready to start a new novel, and Story-a-Day May revealed to me how productive exploring can be. Also, I ended up telling my mom about one of the stories I’d jotted down in my picto-journal, and as I told her about it, I realized it could actually be developed into a good short story.  So I’m going to take some time to work through reading and doing the exercises in Wild Ink, perhaps in conjunction with revising my novel. After I’m through with Wild Ink, I may be ready for a novel again (it may be November by then, after all!), or I may want to spend some time continuing to explore within the short story genre. Either way, I plan to have a full notebook of ideas to draw from. And I can’t wait!

Short Story Epiphany

Well, it’s official–or at least as official as some notes jotted down on paper: I’m going to write another short story. This after my epiphany of realizing that not everything needs to be a novel.

This may seem obvious, but it wasn’t to me. I think it’s natural for our creativity to run on a similar track to what we  feed it, and since I was 10, my life and my mind have been filled with novels. Every time I had a story idea, I assumed that it was actually a novel idea. I’ve let each story nugget percolate in my brain until it collected enough subplots and story arcs and character development to become a novel. If it never “grew” to novel proportions, then it never got written.

Recently, I’ve realized that some stories just don’t want to grow to novel proportions. Some of them want to be enough just the way they are. And this changes my perspective because, in my handful of unsuccessful short story attempts before “The Man in the Mirror,” I always felt so stressed out by the genre, always felt like I had to somehow squeeze a novel into ten pages. I was too ambitious in my story arcs, or not ambitious enough. Most of all, I just didn’t think in short stories because I didn’t read them.

I recently made a resolution to start studying and understanding the form of short stories a bit better, since they’re much easier to “place” than novels. Although I haven’t yet officially embarked on the study, it has been happening organically over the last few years. I knew a good short story when I saw it as an editor for New Moon Girls magazine; I got to work with a very talented short story writer in my writers’ group; and I’ve taken to reading short stories in the bathtub (my new home came with everything a girl could need except a shower). Now I realize that a lot of those little “story-lets” in my mind may just be short stories waiting to happen — not novels that will never get written. I can’t wait to explore the possibilities.

“The Man in the Mirror” deemed “creepy.”

I got my first review from someone I don’t know of my Queer Dimensions short story, “The Man in the Mirror,” and luckily, it was a favorable review. You can read it here. (And yes, when you’re going for dystopia, “creepy” is high praise indeed. )

Queer Dimensions On Sale Now!

You know things are crazy busy when I don’t even have time to post about the release of Queer Dimensions, the venue that published my first fiction story, “The Man the Mirror.” The ebook has been available since September 8 (discount code MN24S  expires at midnight!), and the paperback version just released today. I have my contributors’ copy of the ebook, but I’m old fashioned and haven’t read it yet — I’m waiting for my printed version. Oh, AND I’m waiting for the day when I’ll have time to read again. It’s out there somewhere, looming in the distance . . .

In the meantime, I’m creating my writer’s residence in the country. I’ll post photos of my new writing space when complete!

Man in the Mirror Galley

I love PDF files. Today I got the galley for my QueeredFiction short story, “The Man in the Mirror.” It’s exciting to see what it’s going to look like published. The file is still confidential, so I unfortunately can’t show it off . . . yet.

The Joy of a Good Edit

Yesterday, I received my edits of “The Man in the Mirror” from QueeredFiction. I was a bit nervous to open the document. Although I’ve been heavily edited when I’ve written something “on-the-job,” this is the first time my fiction has been edited for publication.

But as someone who spends a lot of time in the editors’ seat, I should have reminded myself that, “The editor is your friend.” I was pleased with the edit of “The Man in the Mirror.” It definitely made the story stronger and tighter. It was edited enough that I knew the editor took his job seriously, but not so much that I felt like what I’d produced originally was just a stinking pile of you-know-what. Interestingly, his main edit was to drastically cut down a section I had already drastically cut down from earlier drafts. It just goes to show how valuable a fresh set of eyes is, and also reassured me that I was on the right track with my revisions, even if I didn’t take them as far as I should have.

Along with implementing the edits, I was charged with writing a 30-word blurb for the piece. I’m pretty sure writing the blurb is harder than writing the story itself. After about seven attempts, here’s what I finally came up with:

In a world of declining male birthrates, Gina moves to a polygamy-practicing Ranch searching for love. When Gina’s marriage fails, her best friend Andi takes drastic steps to make sure Gina’s dreams of love still come true.

Also, my newest post on Young Adult Catholics went up yesterday.