September 29, 2025 · 6:33 am

Notes on Managing Submissions #writing

Do you have a backlog of short stories? One of the best ways to build a reputation as an author is to submit your work to magazines and anthologies.

At first, finding places to submit your work can be challenging, but it’s not impossible. Here are links to two Facebook groups where publishers post open calls for short stories. I have posted these before, and they are still relevant.

Open Submission Calls for Short Story Writers (All genres, including poetry)

Open Call: Science Fiction, Fantasy & Pulp Market (speculative fiction only)

  • You must answer some questions to prove you are legitimately seeking places to submit your work if you apply to be accepted into these groups.
  • Once you are in, you must follow the rules of good conduct for a happy coexistence. Troublemakers and trolls are unceremoniously ejected.

A word of warning: some open calls will be for charity anthologies and are not paid. Do your due diligence. Some “charity” anthology mills have fancy websites featuring “glowing” reviews designed to trick you into publishing with them. Be wary and carefully research the unpaid ones to ensure that the publisher is reputable and that there is a good reason why you are being asked to donate your work for no compensation.

When an author is new to the mean streets of publishing, a vanity anthology mill can seem like a miracle. After all, your work will definitely be published by these predators, no matter how poorly edited it is. Worse, they sometimes offer that service for a steep fee (a BIG red flag). The only volumes they sell are the ones that the individual authors can pressure their friends and families to purchase.

Legitimate publishers do not charge for editing or any other aspect of the publishing process.

Before you sign a contract, remember this: your author name will be listed on the cover and forever associated with that book.

However, legitimate publishers are out there, and they are worth your time and effort. These publishers will pay industry-standard royalties and will offer reasonable contracts.

And on that note, be sure any contracts you sign limit the use of your story to that volume only, and you retain all other rights.

  • You should retain the right to republish that story after a finite amount of time has passed, usually 90 days after the anthology publication date.

SFWA maintains a list of predatory publishers to avoid doing business with. They also provide useful information on potential red flags in predatory contracts. You don’t need to be a member to access these. https://www.sfwa.org/

There are legitimate calls for extremely short fiction by highly reputable publishers. Flash fiction, works of 1000 words or less, is easier to sell to online magazines. Royalties will be paid by the word and might be small as the work they are contracting for isn’t long, but it is payment.

Reputable publishers often have open calls for charity anthologies, which are worth submitting to. These anthologies typically feature one or two well-known authors donating a short story, with work by up-and-coming writers comprising the rest of the book.

You could be one of those up-and-coming authors. But in order to achieve that goal, you must write something worthy of submission.

If a publisher is looking for work that explores a particular theme, such as “escape,” you must think creatively. Consider an original angle that will play well to that theme and then write it.

When you submit your work to various places, you should keep a record of it. Most publishers won’t accept simultaneous submissions. To avoid that, you should list:

  • what was submitted,
  • links or email addresses of where it was sent to,
  • when submissions close.

To that end, consider creating a database for your work. I use an Excel spreadsheet that lists the title, word count, completion date, where and when I submitted the work, how much I earned for it, etc.

Below is a screenshot of what my list of submitted work looks like. I started this file in 2015 and continue to use it to track my submissions.

In extremely short fiction such as drabbles and other flash fiction, you must include only the most essential elements of a story. This kind of constraint teaches us to write concisely and still show an engaging story.

As a poet, I find it far easier to tell a story in 100 words than in 1,000. That 100-word story is called a drabble and is an art form in its own right.

You can find publications with open calls at Submittable. Unfortunately, that site is no longer as useful for speculative fiction as it was several years ago. However, I have seen anthology calls for spec fic there. Still, poetry collections, literary anthologies, and contests use Submittable, so that is an option. https://www.submittable.com/

Some social media platforms are useful, as you may hear about open calls that way. I know many people are avoiding social media these days, but you don’t have to go nuts. Use it just for business (and yes, writing is a business). Follow editors on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and their Twitter feeds, if you are still using that platform. (I no longer use Twitter, but I do use Bluesky.) Consider following the magazines you submit to (or would like to send work to) on each social media platform you use.

A fellow author keeps a networking notebook. It includes the names of people in the industry she has spoken to, their affiliations (if they work for an agent or editor), their emails and/or business cards, and other relevant details. This information comes in handy when she has to write cover letters to go with submissions to these editors, as she can reintroduce herself as having met them at a specific seminar or conference.

This list of suggestions is meant for authors who intend to write professionally. It’s a business, so these habits help keep me focused and on track.

1 Comment

Filed under writing

Tagged as , ,

September 26, 2025 · 6:00 am

#FineArtFriday: A closer look at “The Alyscamps,” or “The Three Graces at the Temple of Venus” by Paul Gauguin 1888

Paul_Gauguin_les_alyscamps085

Artist: Paul Gauguin (1848–1903)

Title:  (English)The Alyscamps, or The Three Graces at the Temple of Venus

French: French: Les Alyscamps, ou Les Trois grâces au temple de Venus

Date: 1888

Medium: oil on canvas

Dimensions: height: 91.6 cm (36 in); width: 72.5 cm (28.5 in)

Collection: Musée d’Orsay

What I love about this painting:

Color! I love the vivid colors contrasted against the pale sky. The Three Graces in classical mythology are the goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity, goodwill, and fertility. They have come to symbolize faith, hope, and charity.

According to the internet, the traditional mythology Paul Gauguin explores in this composition demonstrates his early education and his appreciation of classical art. And truthfully, although he never trained formally, he did know his stuff. Before he became an artist, he was both a stockbroker and an art dealer/collector.

Gauguin is known for his use of bold colors, simplified forms, and strong lines. Again, according to the internet, this painting is a prime example of his study of form and color.

And he tells us a story. First, the eye is drawn to the vertical lines of the temple standing tall on the hill behind the figures. They are also depicted with a sense of height, and the hills beyond are tall and narrow.

A calm stream flows from beneath the temple, the river of time. The three women stand almost in the background, yet they are commanding, observing us and our lives as time passes them. They are as strong and unmovable as the rocky hills and the temple.

Gauguin tells us that time may pass, and things may change, but the Temple of Venus rises above it all. Does this Temple of Venus represent “agape,” a love that is selfless and unconditional? A kind of love that is spiritual in nature?

Maybe, and maybe not.

Paul Gauguin was a famously complicated man, conflicted and tormented by the contrasts of 19th century morality and the realities of his life.

Who knows what that temple meant to him on the day he created it? Either way, Gauguin’s Three Graces, Faith, Hope, and Charity, stand almost in the shadows, offering him comfort. They are as solid and eternal as time.

And who or what, I wonder, is the immense dark, nearly indistinct fourth shadow who peers over their left shoulder? It seems like a person’s form. Is it another of the Fates? Is it Death? There is so much to consider in this painting.

Paul Gauguin lived an eventful life. For a wonderful documentary on the man and his life, go to:

Why Is Gauguin So Controversial? (Waldemar Januszczak Documentary) | Perspective – YouTube

Also, check out Paul Gauguin – Wikipedia.

Credits and Attributions:

Image: Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Paul Gauguin 085.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Paul_Gauguin_085.jpg&oldid=710795058 (accessed September 24, 2025).

Comments Off on #FineArtFriday: A closer look at “The Alyscamps,” or “The Three Graces at the Temple of Venus” by Paul Gauguin 1888

Filed under #FineArtFriday

Tagged as , , , ,

September 22, 2025 · 6:00 am

The Zen of #writing

Every writer is different, with a unique approach to getting their work on paper. There is no one-size-fits-all method for taking a story from an idea, a “what if” moment, to a finished piece. Each of us has to find our own way.

As an indie, my deadlines are self-imposed, so my production timelines aren’t as finite as a writer who is under contract. If I find myself at a real stopping point, a place where the plot isn’t moving forward, I stop forcing it.

I choose to stop forcing myself to write when the ideas have dried up. I set aside what isn’t working and relax by writing flash fiction and short stories. I have no deadlines, so I can return to a piece that is stuck when I’ve figured out how to get it back on track.

 My goals are for me, not for anyone else. I choose to embrace a Zen writing life.

I’ll admit there is one drawback to this approach, but it’s not the end of the world. One book I began ten years ago feels as if it will never be finished, because I became stalled at the halfway point. Despite my best intentions in 2022, I never got back to it. I know how it has to end, because it is history and is canon in the Tower of Bones series. At this point, I haven’t decided the best way to arrive at that conclusion.

So, one goal for that novel during the rest of this year (2025) is:

First, I will go back to the outline and begin the next phase. Looking at the original plan will help me get the book back on track again. Once I have the plot firmly in mind, I’ll finish writing the pivotal scenes, then tie them together with good transitions. That will complete the manuscript which should top out at 170,000 words.

After that, I will send it to my beta readers. Once I receive their recommendation, I can embark on my favorite part: revising the manuscript. It could take months, but this really is the stage of the process I enjoy most.

Once all that is done to my satisfaction, I will send the manuscript to Irene and have it professionally edited.

The last stage is a two-step process:

  • I make the corrections Irene wants.
  • Then, I hang on to a manuscript and let it sit unread for a while. A month or so later, I print out each chapter and go back through it with a yellow highlighter. At this point, I am proofreading it, looking for typos and cut/paste errors, and making corrections.

Then, if I am happy with it, I will have it professionally formatted for publication. I will also hire the cover out, as I no longer have the patience to deal with cover design.

The first hard-earned piece of wisdom that I have to share with you today is this: you must develop perseverance. You can write the greatest novel ever, but it won’t satisfy every reader. So write your stories for yourself and don’t stop trying.

The second bit is a little more challenging but is a continuation of the first point: Write something new every day, even if it is only one line. You develop better skills when you practice writing a few new words every day. Even if you only have ten minutes free, use them to write whatever enters your head, stream-of-consciousness. Maybe you should write a journal entry.

The third suggestion is fun and easy: learn the meaning of a new word every day. You don’t have to use it, but it never hurts to know new things. Authors should have a wide vocabulary.

The fourth thing: don’t sweat the small stuff when you are just laying down a first draft. I know it’s a cliché, but it is true. Lay the words down, passive phrasing and all, because the important thing is to get the story finished. Don’t share that first draft with anyone you can’t unconditionally trust, as it is yours and still in its infant stage.

The fifth thing to remember is this: every author begins as someone who wants to write but feels like an imposter. The authors who succeed in finishing a poem, a short story, or a novel are those who are brave enough to just do it.

Every author I know has struggled in their personal life. During the years I was raising my children, I had three failed marriages, worked three part-time jobs, and struggled to find time to write. Just when life was getting better financially, two of my children developed adult-onset epilepsy. However, that bad year was when I reconnected with the love of my life. That was the year life became better than good despite the hiccups and the dreaded “E” word.

Now, twenty-two years later, my spouse is suffering from late-stage Parkinson’s, and I am no longer physically able to properly care for him. Still, I visit him every morning without fail, the high point of my day. And even though he is unable to reliably communicate his thoughts, he tells me he loves me. Things are different, but we are still who we always were.

The good things in life are still good, and I choose to focus on those. As time has gone on, I have learned not to panic when I get the dreaded phone call letting me know something bad has happened. Our five children are strong and have stepped into the roles Greg and I have had to step back from. We pull through the rough times as a family.

Everyone needs a creative outlet, whether it is painting, music, or gardening. Writing is how I make sense of the twists and turns of life. It helps me process the complications in a non-threatening way. My Zen approach to writing means I have the choice to write what I can and not feel guilty for the goals I don’t achieve.

  • The story is the goal. Everything else is a bonus.

In real life, nothing is certain. Adversity in life forges strength and understanding of other people’s challenges. It enables us to create characters who aren’t perfect, but with secret backstories that make them more human, more relatable.

Storytelling is my art form, my creative outlet, the one thing I do for myself. I write the stories I want to read, and that is what every writer should do.

So, take ten minutes, and write as many new words as possible. Write a scene, write a 100-word microfiction, or write a haiku. Write these words just for you, a piece you don’t have to share with anyone unless you choose to.

Let go of the guilt. Enjoy the freedom of writing for the joy of it.

 

7 Comments

Filed under writing

Tagged as , , ,

September 19, 2025 · 6:00 am

#FineArtFriday: Indian Sunset – Deer by a Lake by Albert Bierstadt ca. 1880 – 90

Artist: Albert Bierstadt (1830–1902)

Title: Indian Sunset – Deer by a Lake

Date: circa 1880-1890

Medium: oil on canvas

Dimensions: height: 77.2 cm (30.3 in); width: 113.1 cm (44.5 in)

Collection: Yale University Art Gallery

What I love about this painting:

I love the way the setting sun glows through the rising mist, shining across the still waters of the lake. I love the shadowy woods, the deepening sense that twilight is near and night will soon enshroud the scene.

Deer graze in the lush meadow at the shore. Perhaps they will bed down in the shelter of the trees at the edge of the wood.

Albert Bierstadt’s landscapes made even the most ordinary scene feel majestic. One of his greatest skills was his ability to show the haze of twilight and the stillness of a pond or lake at that singular time of the late September evening, that moment when the warm breeze cools, slows, and fades to calm.

By placing wild deer in his scene, Bierstadt gives us a little story and a reason to care. It is autumn, and hunting season. Will this brief moment of peace be the buck’s last? We’ll never know, but I like to think Bambi and his family will live to see the advent of spring.

About the Author, via Wikipedia:

Albert Bierstadt (January 7, 1830 – February 18, 1902) was a German American painter best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. He joined several journeys of the westward expansion to paint the scenes. He was not the first artist to record the sites, but he was the foremost painter of them for the remainder of the 19th century.

Bierstadt was born in Prussia, but his family moved to the United States when he was one year old. He returned to study painting for several years in Düsseldorf. He became part of the second generation of the Hudson River School in New York, an informal group of like-minded painters who started painting along the Hudson River. Their style was based on carefully detailed paintings with romantic, almost glowing lighting, sometimes called luminism. Bierstadt was an important interpreter of the western landscape, and he is also grouped with the Rocky Mountain School. [1]

To read more about this artist, go to  Albert Bierstadt – Wikipedia.

Credits and Attributions:

IMAGE: Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Indian Sunset Deer by a Lake by Albert Bierstadt.jpeg,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Indian_Sunset_Deer_by_a_Lake_by_Albert_Bierstadt.jpeg&oldid=828692957 (accessed September 18, 2025).

[1] Wikipedia contributors, “Albert Bierstadt,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Albert_Bierstadt&oldid=1308977510 (accessed September 18, 2025).

 

 

 

 

4 Comments

Filed under #FineArtFriday

Tagged as , , ,

September 15, 2025 · 6:00 am

English, the ever-disintegrating language, and why punctuation is important #writing

Every now and then, one of the forums I visit will have a group of people engaged in a little gripe session, sparking a series of comments on how English seems to be sliding in a new and degenerate direction.

I’ve said it before, and I will say it again: English is the ever-disintegrating language. The very roots of English encourage its continual evolution, and the advent of smartphones and the internet have this rollercoaster hurtling downhill.

Unfortunately, I love how each generation of the last three hundred years has twisted common words and used them in “wrong” ways. (I know, I’m naughty.)

The problem many writers have is not with the words they choose and use. It is the lack of knowledge where grammar and sentence structure are concerned.

English grammar, and punctuation in particular, is designed to meet a reader’s expectations. This means that punctuation isn’t flexible, but many other aspects of grammar are.

What makes grammar confusing to the inexperienced author is the fact that the rules are bursting at the seams with exceptions.

This is because, a long time ago in a university far, far away, a bunch of smart guys in Victorian England decided to codify the slippery eel that is English.

They applied the rules of a dead language, Latin, to an evolving language with completely different roots, Frisian smushed together with Old French, and added a bunch of mish-mash words and usages invented by William Shakespeare, calling it “Grammar.”

Some writers are grumpier than others. They do make me laugh, though, with their diatribes declaring that certain newer word usages either signify lazy speech habits or a shift in the language.

A long time ago, I came up with a short list of text-message words that have bled into daily usage. These magical morsels of madness are only the tip of the pox-ridden iceberg:

Supposably … one of my personal favorite crutch words. You may ask if I meant supposedly, and I will look at you with a blank stare.

Liberry … unfortunately, you must go to the library for those books. The liberry will give you hives.

Feberry ... I hope you mean it will happen in February, because Feberry will never come.

Honestness...  honestly, I’m not sure what to make of that one.

But my particular favorite is prolly, which my granddaughters think means probably, but in all honestness, doesn’t. Although in fifty years, it may be the preferred form in the dictionary, and the word probably will be cited as the archaic form.

It’s not a new problem. Jonathan Swift, writer and dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, went so far as to say, “In many Instances, it offends against every Part of Grammar.”

Well, that is prolly a little harsh.

English shifts a little with every passing year. It seeks out and pools up in the lowest places. It steals what it wants from every other language it comes across.

That is what makes it so fun to play with. And it’s also what makes English so difficult to work with.

The real problem with some novels, as I see it, isn’t mangled words. It’s this: proper punctuation is vital for the reader to understand and enjoy what you have written.

Punctuation acts as traffic signals, regulating the flow of words in such a way that the reader doesn’t realize it’s there. Instead, they are completely involved in the book.

You don’t have to invest in a library of books on style and writing (even though I can’t pass them up). I have done the work for you by condensing basic punctuation into seven painless rules in this article from last May. It should get you on the right path, punctuation-wise. https://conniejjasperson.com/2025/05/26/self-editing-part-one-7-easy-to-remember-rules-of-punctuation-writing/

An author’s personal voice and style affect the overall readability of their finished product. Good readability is achieved by authors who have developed three traits: understanding of the craft, a touch of rebellion, and wordcraft.

  1. Understanding of the craft: Readers expect certain things of prose, things that go beyond the author’s voice and style. I suggest keeping to generally accepted grammatical practices when constructing sentences. Consider purchasing and using a style guide. This is handy to have when questions arise.
  2. Rebellion: We love it when authors successfully choose to break the accepted rules. They are successful because they do so in a consistent manner, and the reader becomes used to it.
  3. Wordcraft: The way the author phrases things, and the words he/she chooses, combined with his/her knowledge of the language and accepted usage. Perhaps they aren’t afraid to use invented word combinations, such as wordcraft (word+craft). They deliberately choose the context in which their words are placed.

Simply having a unique style does not make your work fun to read. You must meet the reader’s expectations regarding sentence construction, or they will become confused and put the book down. If they review it, they won’t be kind. “Did not finish” is not a good review.

As you are developing your style, remember: we want to challenge our readers, but not so much that they put our work down out of frustration.

Most Indies can’t rely on their names to sell books. That requires marketing, a can of worms I am not qualified to open. But I do know this: there is no point in spending the time and money trying to market a book rife with errors and garbled sentences.

What you choose to write and how you write it is like a fingerprint. It will change and mature as you grow in your craft, but it will always be recognizably yours.

5 Comments

Filed under writing

Tagged as , , ,

September 12, 2025 · 6:00 am

#FineArtFriday: Autumn on the Hudson River by John Williamson 1871

Artist: John Williamson (1826–1885)

Title: Autumn, Hudson River

Date: 1871

Medium: oil on canvas

Dimensions: 45.7 × 58.4 cm (17.9 × 22.9 in).

Inscriptions: Signed and inscribed verso (now covered by relining): Autumn. / Hudson River. / By J. W. Williamson / N.Y. 1871

 

What I love about this painting:

Williamson shows us a peaceful autumn day on New York’s Hudson River, focusing on the quiet beauty of wild grass and calm waters.

This is a beautiful depiction of what autumn often looks like where I live, despite it’s being on the other side of the continent.

The morning mist is gradually lifting, revealing a field of harvest-gold grass. Inland, I imagine the farmers are hoping for the mist to burn off to sunny Indian summer day so they can get the hay in before the weather turns wet.

Further out, the sails of fishing boats and cargo vessels gleam white in the mist as they go about their business, likely also hoping for a sunny day. I suspect they won’t get it, as the cloud cover looks high and there to stay.

As I mentioned above, this view of a less-than-sunny day on the East Coast is not too different from autumn here in the Pacific Northwest.

To my knowledge, this is the first time I have come across works by John Williamson.

I could find nothing about him or his art on Wikipedia, but I did find a few biographies about him on several art auction sites. This was the most informative:

About John Williamson, via Questroyal Fine Art:

John Williamson was a versatile artist who created still lifes, genre scenes, and landscapes during the heyday of the Hudson River School. Born in Scotland, Williamson came to the United States with his family in 1831. He spent most of his life in Brooklyn, New York, studying art at the Brooklyn Institute and helping to found the Brooklyn Art Association. [1]

To continue reading about this artist, go to John Williamson – Questroyal Fine Art.

Credits and Attributions:

IMAGE: Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Autumn Hudson River-John Williamson-1871.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Autumn_Hudson_River-John_Williamson-1871.jpg&oldid=1069869485 (accessed September 10, 2025).

[1] Quote from artist biography via John Williamson – Questroyal Fine Art, © 2025 Questroyal Fine Art, LLC.

Comments Off on #FineArtFriday: Autumn on the Hudson River by John Williamson 1871

Filed under #FineArtFriday

Tagged as , , ,

September 8, 2025 · 6:00 am

Walking the path to becoming an author #writing

This last week I was asked what it takes for an ordinary person to be an author. My first thought was, no one is more ordinary than an author.

But I didn’t say that.

Authors are crafts folk, people who work at the craft of writing and take the time to turn out a finished product that is as good as we can make it. You wouldn’t enter a half-finished quilt at the county fair. You would go through all the steps to finish the job and take pride in your creation.

A serious writer takes the book through all the steps needed to make it readable, salable, and enjoyable because we love what we do, and we take pride in it.

It’s a lot of work.

Some writers are better than others, not unlike those crafters who work with wood. A good author is like a carpenter who makes a piece of furniture that will be handed down for generations.

Today seems a good day to revisit an article from February of 2020 on this very subject. Nothing has changed since I wrote this article, so here it is, a rerun that I hope you enjoy.

People often say they want to write a book. I used to say that too.

In 1985 I came across my first stumbling block on my path to becoming a writer. I didn’t know it, but to go from dreamer to storyteller is easy. Anyone can do it.

But if we choose to become an author, we’re taking a walk through an unknown landscape.

And the place where we go from dreamer to storyteller to author is the hardest part.

At first the path is gentle and easy to walk. As children, we invent stories and tell them to ourselves. As adults, we daydream about the stories we want to read, and we tell them to ourselves.

That part of the walk is easy. At some point, we become brave enough to sit down and put the story on paper.

The blank screen or paper is like an empty pond. All we have to do is add words, and the story will tell itself.

The first impedance that would-be authors come to on their way to filling the word-pond with words is a wide, deep river. It’s running high and fast with a flood of “what ifs” and partially visualized ideas.

If you truly want to become a writer, you must cross this river. If you don’t, the path ends here. While this river flows into the word-pond, the real path that takes us to a finished story is on the other side of this stream.

Fortunately, the river has several widely spaced steppingstones. Landing squarely on each one requires effort and a leap of faith, but the determined writer can do it.

The last thing you do before you step off the bank and begin crossing that river is this: visualize what your story is about.

The first stone you must leap to is the most difficult to reach. It is the one most writers who remain only dreamers falter at:

  • You must give yourself permission to write.

We have this perception that it is selfish to spend a portion of our free time writing. It is not self-indulgent. We all must earn a living because very few writers are able to live on their royalties. If writing is your true craft, you must carve the time around your day job to do it. All you need is one undisturbed hour a day.

The second stone is an easy leap:

  • Become literate. Educate yourself.

Buy books on the craft of writing. Buy and use the Chicago Manual of Style. You can usually find used copies on Amazon for around $10 – $15, passed on by those who couldn’t quite make the first leap.

I freely admit to using the internet for research, often on a daily basis, and I buy eBooks. However, my office bookshelves are filled with reference books on the craft of writing. I buy them as paper books because I am always looking things up. The Chicago Manual of Style is one of the most well-worn there.

Most professional editors rely on the CMOS because it’s the most comprehensive style guide—it has the answer for whatever your grammar question is. Best of all, it’s geared for writers of all streaks: essays, novels, all varieties of fiction, and nonfiction.

The third stone is the reason we decided to write in the first place:

  • Good writers never stop reading for pleasure.

We begin as avid readers. A book resonates with us, makes us buy the whole series, and we never want to leave that world.

We soon learn that books like that are few and far between.

The fourth stone is an easy leap from that:

  • We realize that we must write the book we want to read.

As we reach the far bank, we climb up and across the final hurdle:

  • We finish the work, whether it’s a novel or short story.

Over the years since I first began writing, I’ve labored under many misconceptions. It was a shock to me when I discovered that we who write aren’t really special.

Who knew?

We’re extremely common, as ordinary as programmers and software engineers. Everyone either wants to be a writer, is a writer, has a writer in the the family, or knows one.

Even my literary idols aren’t superhuman.

Because there are so many of us, it’s difficult to stand out. We must be highly professional, easy to work with, and literate.

Filling the pond with words and creating a story that hooks a reader is as easy as daydreaming and as difficult as giving birth.

Because writers are so numerous, every idea has been done. Popular tropes soon become stale and fall out of fashion.

A study by the University of Vermont says there are “six core trajectories which form the building blocks of complex narratives.” These are:

  1. Rags to riches (protagonist starts low and rises in happiness)
  2. Tragedy, or riches to rags (protagonist starts high and falls in happiness)
  3. Man in a hole (fall–rise)
  4. Icarus (rise–fall)
  5. Cinderella (rise–fall–rise)
  6. Oedipus” (fall–rise–fall)

No stale idea has ever been done your way.

We give that idea some thought. We apply a thick layer of our own brand of “what if.”

It’s our different approaches to these stories that make us each unique.

Sure, we’re writing an old story. But with a fresh angle, perseverance, and sheer hard work, we might be able to sell it.

And that is what makes the effort and agony of getting that book published and into the hands of prospective readers worthwhile.

2 Comments

Filed under writing

Tagged as , , , , ,

September 5, 2025 · 6:00 am

#FineArtFriday: Greenwood Lake by Jasper Francis Cropsey, 1879

Artist: Jasper Francis Cropsey (1823–1900)

Title: Greenwood Lake

Description: English: Greenwood Lake by Jasper Francis Cropsey

Date: 1879

Medium: oil on canvas

Dimensions: height: 60.3 cm (23.7 in); width: 110.5 cm (43.5 in)

Collection: Private collection

What I love about this painting:

Jasper Francis Cropsey loved the wild beauty of Greenwood Lake as it was in his day. I suspect he wouldn’t feel quite the same about it nowadays, since it is definitely a summer destination for modern vacationers. He found his muse in the rural beauty there.

Autumn seems to have been a favorite time of year for him. Each autumn, he made numerous paintings from his favorite spots along the shore and in the area. This painting was made just as warm September drifted toward the cold months of October and November. The deciduous trees are dressed in shades of red and gold.

Two men walk along the dirt lane that runs beside a meadow. Perhaps they are just going from one place to another, or maybe they are hunters. If so, they are returning empty-handed.

Cattle graze and gossip in the distance, as cows often do. A dog (perhaps the farm dog?) has stopped in the middle of the road to bark his greeting to the men.

I understand why Cropsey painted this scene many times from different angles. In my opinion, the end of September is the best part of autumn in the north. Soon, the beautiful colors will fade, falling to the ground and turning soggy and brown, marking the end of the annual cycle. But now, this day, Cropsey’s world is at peace, the air is crisp, and the leaves are at that wonderful stage that pleases the eye and makes one glad to be alive.

About the Artist, via Wikipedia:

Jasper Francis Cropsey (February 18, 1823 – June 22, 1900) was an American architect and artist. He is best known for his Hudson River School landscape paintings.

Cropsey trained as an architect under the tuition of Joseph Trench in the early 1840s, a period in which he was also trained in watercolor painting, instructed by Edward Maury, and took some life drawing courses at the National Academy of Design. He set up his own architecture office in 1843, but began exhibiting his watercolors at the National Academy of Design in 1844. A year later he was elected an associate member and turned exclusively to landscape painting; shortly after he was featured in an exhibition entitled “Italian Compositions”.[1]

To learn more about Jasper Francis Cropsey, go to Jasper Francis Cropsey – Wikipedia.

About the scenery in this painting via Wikipedia:

Greenwood Lake is an interstate lake approximately seven miles (11 km) long, straddling the border of New York and New Jersey. It is located in the Town of Warwick and the Village of Greenwood Lake, New York (in Orange County) and West Milford, New Jersey (in Passaic County). It is the source of the Wanaque River.

Jasper Francis Cropsey created several paintings of Greenwood Lake beginning in 1843. Cropsey painted many paintings of the area such as American Harvesting (1864), Greenwood Lake (1870), Fisherman’s House, Greenwood Lake (1877), and Cooley Homestead–Greenwood Lake (1886). Cropsey met and married Maria Cooley, daughter of Issac P. Cooley, in 1847 and continued to visit the area for many years.

Some of Cropsey’s painting command high prices at auctions. Greenwood Lake (1879) sold at Christie’s auction in 2012 for $422,500. Sunset, Camel’s Hump, Lake Champlain (1877) sold for $314,500 in 2011. [2]

Credits and Attributions:

IMAGE: Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Greenwood Lake by Jasper Francis Cropsey, 1879.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Greenwood_Lake_by_Jasper_Francis_Cropsey,_1879.jpg&oldid=617153620 (accessed September 4, 2025).

[1] Wikipedia contributors, “Jasper Francis Cropsey,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jasper_Francis_Cropsey&oldid=1309347669 (accessed September 4, 2025).

[2]  Wikipedia contributors, “Greenwood Lake,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Greenwood_Lake&oldid=1300748871 (accessed September 4, 2025).

4 Comments

Filed under #FineArtFriday

Tagged as , , , ,

September 1, 2025 · 6:00 am

The second draft – a deeper dive into the emotional side of subtext #writing

Last week, in Monday’s post, ‘The Second Draft – Subtext,‘ we barely skimmed the surface of that aspect of our story. We discussed how it can be conveyed as part of world-building. But subtext is so much more. Subtext is emotion. It’s the hidden story, the hints, allegations, and secret reasoning.

  • Subtext is the content that supports both the dialogue and the personal events experienced by the characters.

These are implicit ideas and emotions. These thoughts and feelings may or may not be verbalized, as subtext is often conveyed through the unspoken thoughts and motives of characters. It emerges gradually as what a character really thinks and believes.

It also shows the larger picture. It can imply controversial subjects, or it can be a simple, direct depiction of motives. Metaphors and allegories are excellent tools for conveying ideas.

Subtext can be a conscious thought or a gut reaction on the part of the characters. It is imagery as conveyed by the author. A good story is far more than a recounting of ‘he said’ and ‘she said. ‘It’s more than the action and events that form the arc of the story. A good story is all that, but without good subtext, the story never achieves its true potential.

Within our characters, underneath their dialogue, lurks conflict, anger, rivalry, desire, or pride. Joy, pleasure, fear … as the author, we know those emotions are there, but conveying them without beating the reader over the head is where artistry comes into play.

When it’s done right, the subtext conveys backstory with a deft hand. When layered with symbolism and atmosphere, the reader absorbs the subtext on a subliminal level because it is unobtrusive.

An excellent book on this subject is Writing Subtext: What Lies Beneath by Dr. Linda Seger. On the back of this book, subtext is described as “a silent force bubbling up from below the surface of any screenplay or novel.” This book is a valuable resource for discovering and conveying the deeper story that underlies the action.

Some writers assume that heavy-handed information dumping is subtext because it is often conveyed through internal dialogue,

It’s not. Descriptions, opinions, gestures, imagery, and yes – subtext – can be conveyed in dialogue, but dialogue itself is just people talking.

When characters constantly verbalize their every thought, you run into several problems. First, verbalizing thoughts can become an opportunity for an info dump. Second, in genre fiction, the accepted method of conveying internal dialogue (thought) is through the use of italics.

The main problem I have with italics is that when a writer expresses a character’s thoughts, a wall of leaning letters is difficult to decipher.

Nevertheless, thoughts (internal dialogue) have their place in the narrative and can be part of the subtext. However, I recommend going lightly with them. There are other ways to convey thoughts. In the years since I first began writing seriously, I’ve evolved in my writing habits. Nowadays, I am increasingly drawn to using the various forms of free indirect speech to show who my characters think they are and how they see their world. I rarely use italics.

most of our random thoughts involve obsessing on what we could have done better.A character’s backstory is the subtext of their memories and the events that led them to the situation in which they find themselves. We use interior monologues to represent a character’s thoughts in real time, as they actually think them in their head, using the precise words they use. For that reason, italicized thoughts are always written in first-person present tense:  I’m the queen! We don’t think about ourselves in the third person, even if we really are the queen.

We think in the first-person present tense because we are in the middle of events as they happen. Our lives unfold in the “now,” so they are written as the character experiences them.

Memories are subtext and reflect a moment in the past. They should be written in the past tense to reflect that. If it was a moment that changed their life, consider rewriting it as a scene and have the character relive it.

We can combine memories and emotions in the form of free indirect speech:

Jeanne paused. The sight of that dark entrance brought a wave of memories, all of them dark and painful.

Chris, on his knees sobbing … their mother’s bloody form ….

She was too young to understand then, but now she knew why Chris seemed so emotionless at times.

Resolutely, she followed him inside.

Subtext expressed as thoughts must fit as smoothly into the narrative as conversations. My recommendation is to express only the most important thoughts through an internal monologue, which will help you retain the reader’s interest. The rest can be presented in images that build the world around the characters.

image of a question mark, asking "what was I thinking?"Information is a component of subtext. We have provided the reader with a lot of information in only a few sentences. They might think they know who a character is, and they have a clue about his aspirations.

But a good story keeps us hanging. Knowledge must emerge via subtext and through descriptions of the environment, conversations, interior monologues, and a character’s general impressions of the world around them.

Odors and ambient sounds, objects placed in a scene, sensations of wind, or the feeling of heat when the sun shines through a window. These bits of background are subtext.

I like books where the scenery is shown in brief impressions, and the reader sees exactly what needs to be there. We don’t want to distract our readers by including unimportant things, such as the exact number of ferns in a forest clearing. The ferns are there, the lost hiker thinks eating their tips is better than starving, and that is all the reader wants to know.

Subtext, metaphor, and allegory are impressions and images that build the world around and within the characters. They are as fundamental to the story as the plot and the arc of the story. As a reader, I’m always thrilled to read a novel that is a voyage of discovery, and good subtext makes that happen.

2 Comments

Filed under writing

Tagged as , ,

August 29, 2025 · 6:00 am

#FineArtFriday: a second look at “Street Scene on a Rainy Day” by Francesco Miralles Galup (ca. 1891)

Title: Escena de carrer en un dia de pluja (Eng: Street Scene on a rainy Day)

Artist: Francisco Miralles Galup

Date: circa 1891

What I love about this painting:

Francesco Miralles Galup understood how to show the reality of weather, especially weather that was only mildly uncomfortable. We see a perfect rainy spring afternoon in a busy cosmopolitan city. It could have been any large city at the end of the 19th century. The sky is gray, the street is busy, full of carriages, and pedestrians must be careful where they step.

A cart full of flowers passes in the background, headed for the market. Two well-dressed ladies dodge puddles in their effort to cross the street. Around them, people stop to gossip, and umbrellas abound.

Like every chihuahua I’ve ever known, the little dog is miserable, unhappy with the damp.

I think this may be one of my favorite paintings of that era, one showing real people and their social lives. It was an era before refrigeration, so people went to the market each day to purchase whatever food they planned to serve. The market is where they met up with their friends and heard news of both the wider world and the local gossip.

He shows us ordinary people, happy and living their best lives.

About the Artist, via Wikipedia:

Francesco Miralles Galup was born Francesc Miralles i Galaup (6 April 1848, Valencia – 30 October 1901, Barcelona). He was a Catalan painter, best known for his realistic scenes of bourgeois life and high society.

When he turned eighteen, he received parental permission (and financial support) to study in Paris, where he would remain until 1893, with occasional visits home. During his first years there, he copied masterworks at the Louvre and may have worked briefly with Alexandre Cabanel. He eventually had several small studios in Montmartre and on the Rue Laffitte.

He exhibited regularly at the Salon and the Sala Parés, back home in Barcelona. He also became a client of the well-known art dealership Goupil & Cie, attracting wealthy buyers throughout Europe and America. This was a relief to his family, who had initially been concerned that they might have to support him indefinitely. Their ability to do so had been compromised as they had lost much of their fortune in the Panic of 1866 and were losing more of it as they paid off their debts. In fact, they eventually moved to Paris so he could help support them. [1]

Credits and Attributions:

IMAGE: Escena de carrer c1891, Francisco Miralles Galup / Public domain. Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Francesco Miralles Galup – Escena de carrer c1891.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Francesco_Miralles_Galup_-_Escena_de_carrer_c1891.jpg&oldid=1039428081 (accessed August 28, 2025).

[1]Wikipedia contributors, “Francesc Miralles i Galaup,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Francesc_Miralles_i_Galaup&oldid=1291581678 (accessed August 28, 2025).

Comments Off on #FineArtFriday: a second look at “Street Scene on a Rainy Day” by Francesco Miralles Galup (ca. 1891)

Filed under #FineArtFriday

Tagged as , , , ,