Writers!
What type of writing would you like to try, or perhaps become more skilled at, this summer? One idea is flash prose, which is fun to write and a bit easier to finish compared to other kinds of writing projects. Contests abound for this type of writing too—including WOW’s quarterly competitions.
We recommend author Melanie Faith's course on the popular genre of flash prose. Her class covers both flash fiction and flash nonfiction writing, with lots of helpful guidance for both beginners and experienced flash writers.
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In a Flash: Writing and Publishing Dynamic Flash Prose starts on Friday, July 1, 2022. In this five-week workshop, you’ll explore the art of flash and everything you need to have a lively flash-writing practice, from where to get ideas and drafting to editing and submitting your work. Students will complete weekly assignments for constructive and supportive instructor feedback. There will be a private group for students to discuss the literary life and for sharing of literary resources, such as markets and quotations about the writing process.
In today’s newsletter, Melanie Faith explains why uncertainty can be an important element in great flash fiction. She also includes a fifteen-minute writing prompt you can try. Check it out below!
Here also have the following classes starting soon: Life's a Bitch and Then You Write: A Three-Step Technique to Strengthen Your Work-in-Progress (June 13), When Life Fissures: Writing About Grief in Fragments (July 4), Narrative Structures (July 5), Writing Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults (July 10), An Introduction to Storytelling Forms: Flash Fiction, Short Stories, Novels, Poetry, Screenplays, Personal Essays, and Memoir (Including Portfolio Creation) (July 19), Specifics Tell the Story: Exercises and Strategies for Overcoming Exposition (August 15), Not What But How: Improving Essays with a Focus on Craft, Not Content (August 15), and Chicken Soup Essays: Write & Receive Personal Feedback (August 15). More information can be found below and on our Classroom Page. |
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Write on!
Marcia & Angela
Classroom Managers
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Fabulous Flash: Diving Headfirst into the Pool of Uncertainty
By Melanie Faith
Recently, a channel I was streaming played a song I’ve heard numerous times, but this time I heard it differently. One word—out of all of the lyrics I’ve sung, hummed, or bopped along to dozens and dozens of times before—suddenly popped out at me in a way I’d never really noticed it before.
Uncertainty.
As I went about my morning emailing and while other songs streamed, my brain kept bouncing back to that one word, as if italicized and then boldfaced for good measure.
Uncertainty carries a wallop of meaning. For starters, there’s the un-. Not is often not the most promising of openers. It can come across as negative. Or a barrier. Or confusion. And yet, not always: for “untroubled” and “unimpeded” also begin with a negation and reflect an unburdened, unruffled experience.
Uncertainty also makes for a promising (and often overlooked) element of flash fiction. What’s so great about uncertainty anyway?
*Uncertainty bonds readers with your protagonist. Who identifies with a protagonist who’s perfectly relaxed, has it together, and perfectly understands the possible outcomes of their actions? Exactly nobody, because not only does that not mirror real life, where emotions and actions are in flux, but also it deflates conflict and tension (two golden qualities) from the flash piece.
*Uncertainty swiftly cues readers to what is at stake. When writing stories of under 1,000 words (and often much, much shorter, even as short as five or ten words sometimes), it is imperative that a single, focused what-if or problem take center stage immediately.
*Uncertainty can enrich characterization. It can succinctly center a character in the middle of an impossible situation, in media res, equally afraid of either outcome or response. Will the protagonist freak out, rise to the occasion, or something in-between? [See conflict and tension above.] As a writer, it’s important to explore not only who your characters are but what they care about, what they fear, what they most want that just may be beyond their reach—either now or forever.
*Uncertainty is inherent in certain milestone settings. This emotion is shorthand for many momentous benchmarks of life. Think of your whirling swirl of feelings, hopes, doubts, and fears at your graduation from high school or college. Before your engagement, while planning your wedding or your wedding. At your first job where you wanted to make a good impression and wondered if anything you were doing made a dent at all. Funerals, hospitals, birthing centers or home births in a water tub in the middle of an on-again, off-again couple’s living room, a school dormitory on the first or last day of the semester, a testing site for entrance exams, a war zone, a one-lane country back road just after a two-car accident: all of these settings immediately plunge your reader not only into the snapshot scenery you’re providing but also help readers to draw from their own personal experiences with the same or similar settings. There’s an inherent resonance there.
Uncertainty can be the sweet spot where hope and potential joy or failure eddy together. Or, yes, it can be a dicey spot where we sit in discomfort and nervousness before the result, wondering which way the next few moments (or months) will play out.
Uncertainty can be operatically positive or negative, but it is rarely, if ever, ho-hum or boring. It is an in-between state that points to imminent actions and reactions. Perfect for creating a small but mighty story that draws readers into your tale from the get-go and holds their interest until the very last syllable.
Try this prompt: Pick a setting where uncertainty is inherent. Match that with a character who has something at stake—not next month or next year, but in this very moment. Combine. What is your character most uncertain about? What action or reaction will they take? What avalanche of responses result? Write for fifteen minutes. Go!
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In a Flash: Writing and Publishing Dynamic Flash Prose |
Instructor: Melanie Faith
Start Date: Friday, July 1, 2022
End Date: Friday, August 5, 2022
Duration: 5 Weeks
Location: Private Facebook group and email
Feedback: Instructor feedback and critique on all assignments
Cost: $200, which includes e-mail critique and positive feedback on student writing, and access to a private group for student interactions.
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Description: Flash is a dynamic, fun genre that more and more editors seek. Both flash fiction and flash nonfiction share many of the same qualities, from characterization and setting to conflict and dialog. |
In this five-week workshop, we’ll explore this eclectic art form and everything you’ll need to have a lively flash-writing practice, from where to get ideas and drafting to editing and submitting your work. We’ll discuss practical tips and techniques along with inspiring exercises from our text, In a Flash! Writing & Publishing Dynamic Flash Prose by Melanie Faith. Students will submit drafts weekly for constructive and supportive instructor feedback. There will be a private group for students to discuss the literary life and for sharing of literary resources, such as markets and quotations about the writing process.
Topics covered will include: Begin Where You are; To 'I' or Not to 'I?'; Quotation Power!; "Flash," You Say? Four Tips for Compressed Dialogue; Villains and Vamps: Crafting Realistic Antagonists; Writing Private People; The Big Cs; Snapback: Incorporating Details of Era and Setting; I See You: The Value of (Re)Connection; Spark, Spark, Light! The Inciting Incident & You; Mixed-Emotion Station; Descriptive Ruts; Attributes: Adventures in Style and Syntax; Idiomatic Time Travel and All that Jazz; The Advocate: Personality Types and Your Protagonist; The Whiplash Compliment; FOMO: Fear of Missing out & Your Characters; Tight-Roping: Balancing Self-Revelations with Self-Protection; Joy Bombs: How to Write Happy without Turning Your Reader against You; Playing Genre Ping-Pong; The Strategically-Shattered Plate; Dynamic Settings on the Skinny; The Too Timid and Tame; Plucking Posies from a Flash Bouquet: Submission Tips, and much more.
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Melanie Faith holds an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte, NC. Her writing has been nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize. Her full-length, historical poetry collection set in the 1918 flu epidemic, This Passing Fever, was published by Future Cycle Press in October 2017. Vine Leaves Press published her craft books about writing and editing flash fiction and nonfiction and her craft book about writing poetry (both 2018). In December 2019, her craft book, Photography for Writers, was also published by Vine Leaves Press. Her latest books on craft are: Writing It Real: Creating an Online Creative-Writing Class for Fun and Profit (February 2022 Vine Leaves Press) and Writing It Real: Crafting a Reference Book that Sells (April 2022 Vine Leaves Press). From Promising to Published: A Multi-Genre, Insider’s Guide to the Publication Process is set for publication in May 2022. Her shorter pieces appeared in After the Pause, Contemporary Haibun Online, The Sandy River Review, The Writer’s Monthly Review Magazine, and Embodied Effigies. Her flash fiction, “The Slades,” placed honorable mention in the Bevel Summers Prize for the Short Short Story and was published in Shenandoah (Washington and Lee University). In addition to numerous photography publications, her art made the cover of both OVS Magazine and Chantwood Review. Her instructional articles about creative writing techniques have appeared in The Writer and Writers’ Journal, among others. To learn more about Melanie’s writing, teaching, and photography, please visit: www.melaniedfaith.com. |
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Upcoming WOW Classes & Workshops |
Below are some classes and workshops that are starting soon. Click on the links to be taken to a full listing that includes a week-by-week curriculum, testimonials, instructor bio, and more. Keep in mind that most class sizes are limited, so the earlier you register the better.
All the classes operate online--whether through email, website, chat room, or group listserv, depending on the instructor's preferences--so you do not need to be present at any particular time (unless a phone chat or webinar is scheduled and arranged with your instructor). You can work at your own pace in the comfort of your own home. If you have any questions, please reply to this email or email us at: classroom@wow-womenonwriting.com. |
Ongoing - Starts Upon Ordering:
Submissions Consultation | Return time: 1 Week | $25 | Submit up to 12 pages (4,500 words) of your writing and receive 5 or more suggestions of where to submit your piece and formatting for each market | Editor: Chelsey Clammer
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Children's Novel Draft Editing Package (For Novels for Children Ages 9-12) $325 | includes a complete read-through of a novel manuscript up to 100,000 words by a professional editor, a revision letter, a bullet point list of strengths and revision suggestions, a 30-minute Skype consultation, and for WOW! writers only—a page of self-editing suggestions. | Editor: Margo L. Dill
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Starts the First Tuesday of Every Month:
How to Write a TV Pilot | 4 Weeks | $150 | Location: Email | Feedback: Instructor Feedback | Limit: 10 Students | Instructor: Christina Hamlett
Starts the First Friday of Every Month:
Writing a Novel with a Writing Coach: One-on-One Instruction | 4 Weeks with a chance to renew | $140 | Location: Private Website, Email, and Google Drive | Feedback: Instructor Feedback and Critique | Limit: 20 Students | Instructor: Margo L. Dill (Please note: this class will be on hiatus July and August, and will return September 2, 2022.)
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Life's a Bitch and Then You Write: A Three-Step Technique to Strengthen Your Work-in-Progress
3 weeks: June 13 - July 3
No matter what happens in life, the writing must go on if you want to achieve—and keep—success as a writer. In this class you’ll learn Kelly’s 3-step technique, developed during a particularly difficult time in her own life to keep her focused and on track with her writing career, that you can also use when life’s challenges and adversities threaten to toss you off your writing path. Only $30!
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Online Clips for Freelance Writers: Websites vs. Portfolios
Starts upon ordering: 30-minute video class, plus one 30-minute Zoom/Skype call
By looking at case studies of writers who use either websites or online portfolio platforms (or both), participants will have a clear understanding of the benefits and drawbacks of both options. They will also see that it’s actually quite simple to set up an easily-accessible space to showcase examples of their writing. The workshop will also cover how to make your online portfolio cohesive with your social media profiles via simple branding tactics. Only $40!
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In a Flash! Writing and Publishing Dynamic Flash Prose
5 weeks: July 1 - Aug 5
Flash is a dynamic, fun genre that more and more editors seek. Both flash fiction and flash nonfiction share many of the same qualities, from characterization and setting to conflict and dialog. In this five-week workshop, we’ll explore this eclectic art form and everything you’ll need to have a lively flash-writing practice, from where to get ideas and drafting to editing and submitting your work.
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When Life Fissures: Writing About Grief in Fragments
4 weeks: July 4 - July 31
Grief is an experience that never feels complete. Yes, you can explain the chronology of what led to someone’s death and its aftermath, but the way that we experience grief is both cyclical and fragmented. How could it not be? There is something missing from our lives now, and so it makes sense to write about grief in a way that reflects our experience of it. In this course, we will read Bluets by Maggie Nelson and a handful of craft and other literary essays that explore different ways to write about grief.
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Narrative Structures
6 weeks: July 5 - Aug 15
Have you always wanted to write a novel but don’t know where to start? This class is aimed at writers of all levels who want to deepen their understanding of plot, narratives, and structures. Through a range of lectures, masterclasses, live Q&A sessions, and structural analyses, students will learn a number of different narrative structures, experiment with new frameworks, and understand which methods work best for them as a writer.
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Research: Prepping to Write Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults
Multiple dates
Nonfiction for children and teens lines the bookshelves of libraries and bookstores, fills magazines and e-zines and is used in classrooms around the world. The first step in taking your place in this market is learning to do the research. That may sound relatively simple, but done right it includes researching markets and possible topics as well as locating accurate source materials. This course will help you develop the skills you need to take on these tasks with confidence.
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Empower Your Muse, Empower Your Writing Self
4 weeks: Aug 8 - Sept 5
Learn how to tap into the power of your subconscious mind to achieve writing success. Based on the instructor’s book LIVING WRITE: The Secret to Bringing Your Craft Into Your Daily Life.
Fee includes EITHER a free critique of any genre, up to 10 pages, or a 15 minute one-on-one phone consultation with the instructor on any topic related to writing (must be scheduled prior to the end of class).
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No Matter How Busy You Are, You Can Still Find Time to Write
4 weeks: Aug 8 - Sept 5
Students learn unique and creative ways to fit writing time into their busy lives, including how to set achievable writing goals, how to create a Writing Action Plan, and how to manage distractions and interruptions. Fee includes a free critique of up to 10 pages or a 15 minute phone consultation; one-on-one support and feedback from the instructor through email.
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An Introduction to Storytelling Forms: Flash Fiction, Short Stories, Novels, Poetry, Screenplays, Personal Essays, and Memoir (Including Portfolio Creation)
12 weeks: July 19 - Oct 10
This 12-week course introduces students to storytelling in all its forms, examining flash fiction, short stories, novels, poetry, screenplays, personal essays, and memoirs. We also have a total of three weeks across the course dedicated to learning the universal elements of story and writing craft, and the final week allows students to specialise in a chosen form and further develop a piece of their writing. At the end of this course, students will have produced a portfolio of various forms.
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Chicken Soup Essays: Write & Receive Personal Feedback
3 weeks: Aug 15 - Sept 4
Have you ever wanted to see your essay in a Chicken Soup for the Soul book? (Who hasn’t!) It might be their book on dogs, angels, grandmas, kids or cats... Chicken Soup for the Soul always has a rotating list of themes for their next book – and your essay could be included! In this class, we will talk about guidelines, tone and voice, and students will write essays to submit to Chicken Soup’s latest upcoming themes (they have several themes with a submission deadline coming up – a perfect time to take this class and work toward a deadline.) It’s time to go for it! Led by editor Kandace Chapple.
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Specifics Tell the Story: Examples and Strategies for Overcoming Exposition
6 weeks: Aug 15 - Sept 25
You’ve heard “show don’t tell” over and over and still writing group members, instructors and editors ask again for details that appeal to the senses, details that allow the reader to live the experience you are writing. Why as writers do we forget to provide the images and specifics and instead write broadly and bump the reader out of the experience they are having? Let’s find the answer and what to do about it for producing evocative, compelling writing. Led by Sheila Bender!
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Not What, But How: Improving Essays with a Focus on Craft, Not Content
4 weeks: Aug 15 - Sept 11
You have a story to tell, but what’s the best way to tell it? Should you write about your relationship with your mother in the first person point of view or second? What about tense? Past, present, future? And how about the actual structure and organization of the story? Is a clear chronology of events the best way to write about your life? In this four-week class, we will explore different narrative structures. We’ll also look at a number of craft techniques that can all influence the essay in subtle, yet very significant ways.
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Writing the Hermit Crab Essay and Other Related Creative Nonfiction Forms
6 weeks: Sept 19 - Oct 30
The writer Brenda Miller coined the term Hermit Crab essay for her book Tell It Slant co-authored with Suzanne Paola to suggest that non-fiction writing can be structured by borrowing a form we are familiar with from other writings that are not considered essays: prayers, bus schedules, recipes, how-to manuals or tv scripts to name a few possibilities. The idea is that by borrowing the structure (braiding, collaging, poetic language in related novel essay forms) and filling it with what we want to evoke about our personal experience we come upon surprises we might not have found otherwise. Led by Sheila Bender
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Curiosity and Creative Nonfiction
4 weeks: Sept 25 - Oct 23
Where do we get ideas for our writing? As nonfiction writers, we are inspired to write because of our experiences. But sometimes we don’t know how to put our experiences into words or how to write about them. This is where curiosity and research come to the rescue. This class will look at the different ways in which being curious about an experience, an event, an object, an anything that catches your attention can fuel your writing and bring a deeper level of meaning to what you write. By combining (fun!) research and personal experience, your writing can take on new meanings. Led by Chelsey Clammer!
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How to Write a YA Dystopian Novel
8 weeks: Sept 6 - Oct 31
Have you always wanted to write a YA dystopian novel but need help fine-tuning your idea? Got an idea for a YA dystopian novel, but have no idea where to start with the actual writing of your book? In this eight-week course dystopian novelist Madeline Dyer will take you through the steps involved in crafting a dystopian novel. Each week will focus on a different craft aspect, and you’ll be provided with learning materials such as lectures, excerpts, links, and more, along with individual feedback from Madeline.
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Leaping Worlds: Writing Historical Fiction and Time-Travel Stories
5 weeks: Sept 30 - Oct 4
Have a favorite historical era? Love to research and read and write about different time periods or future worlds? Both historical fiction and time-travel stories keep pages turning by exploring worlds unlike our own. In this five-week class, we’ll discover the exciting diversity of settings, characterizations, and genres that encompass both historical fiction and time-travel/sci-fi/fantasy narratives. Led by Melanie Faith!
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Dissecting Rejection: Understanding Why Your Book Keeps Getting Rejected and Knowing When It's Ready for Publication
4 weeks: Sept 12 - Oct 9
No matter how many times an author is told “your work doesn’t fit our catalog” or “it’s just not right for us,” an author will always assume their book is being rejected because of the writing. So why is your book getting rejected? Is the plot not strong enough? Are the characters in 2D when they’re supposed to be 3D? Or maybe there are too many grammatical errors. Whatever the reasons, you can’t fix your book if no one will tell you what’s wrong with it. That’s what this class is all about.
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Travel Writing 101 Webinar
2 Hour Zoom Webinar: Wednesday, October 5, 2022, 2-4 PM ET
You have stories to tell from your travels and you think they should be published in a newspaper, magazine, or your own blog, but where do you start? This class provides an overview of the travel-writing world from ideation to publication, including tips on how to get started, different types of stories, a brief look at how to write a travel feature story, potential markets, and successful pitching. Whether you seek to write about places near or far, this class will help you turn travel experiences into published stories.
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Creating the Five Minute Memoir
6 weeks: Oct 10 - Nov 20
Imagine writing a book-length memoir as a collection of short memoir pieces—that take five minutes each for the reader (longer to write, of course). In our six weeks together you will explore six examples of short memoir, copy the successful strategies those authors have used, and at the end of our time together, have help putting your six memoir pieces together or seeing the six as stitches you can thread through longer writings and chapters. Led by Sheila Bender!
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Travel Writing 101 Webinar
2 Hour Zoom Webinar: October 26, 2022, 2-4 PM ET
Is your writing dull and lifeless? Do you wonder how successful writers pop their words off the page (or screen)? There are easy ways to spice up your writing—nifty little techniques guaranteed to excite your readers. We’ll skim over them in this quick, two-hour class, with exercises to practice later at home. Whether you’re writing magazine or newspaper features, blog posts, marketing materials, the Great American novel, or something else, this class will bring new sparkle to your writing.
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Pitching, Querying, and Submitting Your Work
4 weeks, multiple dates
Whether you write essays, short stories or novels, sending your work to an agent, editor or publisher is a daunting task. This course will teach you to assemble submission basics including a pitch and a query letter. We will also discuss how to find markets and how to manage rejection. Led by Sue Bradford Edwards, an author with over 600 sales to her credit, including 30 traditionally published books.
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Writing Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults
4 weeks, multiple dates
Biographies, science, history, how-to, and more. Nonfiction is published in book form, online and in both magazines and e-zines. Not only do teachers and school librarians seek nonfiction for their students, children and teens read it for fun. In this course, you will learn how to organize your material, write and revise not only the manuscript you workshop in class but future projects as well. Learn from Sue Bradford Edwards!
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June 13, 2022
July 1, 2022
July 4, 2022
July 5, 2022
Narrative Structures | 6 weeks | $185 | Location: Private Facebook Group, streaming platform for interactive masterclasses, Zoom | Limit: 20 students | Instructor: Madeline Dyer
July 10, 2022
July 19, 2022
August 1, 2022
Blogging Made Easy | 4 Weeks | $97 | Location: Email only | Limit: 10 Students | Instructor: Karen Cioffi
August 7, 2022
August 8, 2022
August 15, 2022
September 4, 2022
September 5, 2022
September 6, 2022
How to Write a YA Dystopian Novel | 6 weeks | $185 | Location: Private Facebook Group, streaming platform for interactive masterclasses, Zoom | Limit: 20 students | Instructor: Madeline Dyer
Narrative Structures NEW! | 6 weeks | $185 | Location: Private Facebook Group, streaming platform for interactive masterclasses, Zoom | Limit: 20 students | Instructor: Madeline Dyer
September 12, 2022
September 19, 2022
September 25, 2022
Curiosity and Creative Nonfiction | 4 weeks | $150 | Location: Private Website | Feedback: Instructor and Peer Critique | Limit: 12 students | Instructor: Chelsey Clammer
September 27, 2022
September 30, 2022
October 5, 2022
Travel Writing 101 Webinar | Zoom 2-4 PM ET | $35 | Feedback: Includes a 15 minute Q&A | Limit: 20 students | Instructor: Barbara Noe Kennedy
October 10, 2022
Creating the Five Minute Memoir NEW! | 6 weeks | $210 | Location: Google Classroom | Feedback: Instructor and Peer Critique | Limit: 10 students | Instructor: Sheila Bender
October 12, 2022
The Power of Storytelling 101 NEW! | Zoom 2-4 PM ET | $35 | Feedback: Includes a 15 minute Q&A | Limit: 20 students | Instructor: Barbara Noe Kennedy
October 26, 2022
The Pizzazz of Writing 101 NEW! | Zoom 2-4 PM ET | $35 | Feedback: Includes a 15 minute Q&A | Limit: 20 students | Instructor: Barbara Noe Kennedy
November 7, 2022
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