Tag Archives: writing

January 29, 2024 · 6:00 am

My Writing Life – Drabbles #amwriting

Things have been hopping here at Casa del Jasperson. We finally have all the furniture we need, so Grandma has a comfy chair in the living room as well as here in the Fortress of Write. This is the best workspace I’ve ever had.

MyWritingLife2021BI have been busy on the domestic side of things and enjoying life as a Townie. Lovely Instacart delivers my groceries from any store I choose. If we have to be out after dark and it’s raining, I can’t see well, so Uber does the driving. We are living a life of luxury and grateful for it. I have a “passel” of grandbabies and great-grandbabies, so when I have nothing to write, I have needlework projects to keep me busy.

With the dark of winter, jigsaw puzzles returned to the new and improved Casa del Jasperson. We bought a wooden rotating puzzle board with pull-out drawers to set on top of our card table. It rotates like a Lazy Susan but has drawers for sorting the puzzle pieces. The cover keeps things clean when we aren’t working on it. We feel pretty fancy, thank you.

My Coffee Cup © cjjasp 2013And speaking of fancy, we had a chance to spend time with two great-grandbabies this weekend. The best part of being a grandma is when the little one starts crying or needs changing, someone else takes over, and grandma shuffles off to the kitchen to stir the soup and make another cup of tea. Yay for old age!

So, let’s talk about the writing front. This is the time of year when I concentrate on short stories, preparing them to send to contests and magazines. Writing short fiction forces the author to develop an economy of words. You have a finite number of words to tell what happened, so only the important stuff fits within that space.

A side-effect of building a backlog of short stories is the supply of ready-made characters and premade settings to draw on when you need a longer story to submit to a contest. And when you look on the internet, you’ll find many contests for drabbles, some offering cash prizes.

Drabble_LIRF_1_jan_2018_cjjapWriting drabbles means your narrative will be limited to one or two characters. There is no room for anything that does not advance the plot or affect the story’s outcome. Also, while a 100-word story takes less time than a 3,000-word story, all writing is a time commitment. I will spend an hour or more getting a drabble to fit within the 100-word constraint.

To write a drabble, we need the same fundamental components as we do for a longer story:

  1. A setting
  2. One or more characters
  3. A conflict
  4. A resolution.

First, we need a prompt, a jumping-off point. We have 100 words to write a scene that tells the entire story of a moment in a character’s life.

Some contests give whole sentences for prompts, others offer one word, and others may offer no prompt at all. If you are new to the writing world, a prompt is a word or visual image that kick-starts the story in your head. An excellent site for finding ideas is 700+ Weekly Writing Prompts.

I have found that dividing the required count into three acts makes the plot outline more manageable when a contest has a rigid word count requirement. I assign a certain number of words for each act. (I’ve included that graphic at the bottom of this post.)

I give about 25 words for act one to open the story and set the scene. Act two is longer, around 50 – 60 for the story’s heart. That leaves 10 – 25 words to conclude it.

Drake - a drabble by cjj

Sometimes (okay, lately), I’m too scattered to make progress on a longer work in progress, and at that point, I write myself into a corner. Maybe I can’t even come up with a drabble. That’s when I “mind wander” about the work that has me flummoxed, thinking out loud on paper.

I don’t know about you, but it helps me to spend fifteen minutes writing info dumps about random side characters’ history and lay down a trail of breadcrumbs that lead to nowhere. These exercises aren’t a waste of time because visualizing anything about those characters and that world helps to solidify world-building and ids character development.

Writing info dumps in a separate document helps me identify the themes and subthemes I need to expand on for depth. It gives me the important info but keeps the fluff out of the narrative.

Tidying the house allows me to rest my mind, and I feel incredibly noble at the same time.

Seriously, when our mind is actively focused on a task that takes all our creative attention, we sometimes tune out the ideas and don’t quite hear the prompts that “the back of our mind” whispers to us.

We know those ideas are there, lurking just out of reach. Being able to almost see what we need to do next is frustrating, like looking through a fogged-up window. Focusing on a physical task like laundry or cooking relaxes my creative mind.

Daydreaming is good for you. Allowing the mind to wander allows a kind of ‘default neural network’ to do its job. This kicks into gear when our brain is at wakeful rest, like in meditation.

It boosts the brain, making our thought process more effective.

Yes, I spend an astounding amount of time daydreaming. Crocheting or making maps for my friends makes me look productive (when I’m on a mental vacation). I would hate to be simply wasting time.

It may feel like the Titanic that is your novel is going down, but we who write are all in the same lifeboat. If you’re stuck, I hope what works for me will work for you. Remember, if you suffer from a temporary dry spell, you are not alone.

short-story-arc

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January 24, 2024 · 6:00 am

Submitting to Magazines and Anthologies Part 3 #amwriting

Over the last two weeks, we have talked about the nuts and bolts of formatting the body of a manuscript for submission to a contest. Most contests want “blind” submissions (work without the author’s identifying information on the document), so we haven’t yet discussed how to make a proper “header.”

WritingCraft_short-story-formattingThis is the heading at the top of each page of a word-processed or faxed document. It contains page numbers, the title, and the author’s name. You won’t need one for most contests. However, if you plan to submit work to a magazine or anthology, you will want your header to follow their guidelines.

The header is important because when an editor likes your work, they might print it out to look at it more closely. If the printout of the manuscript falls off a desk, it can easily be reassembled because the pages are numbered.

We insert the header by opening the “insert” tab and clicking on “page number.” This opens a new menu. We add the page numbers using the small dropdown menu.

This is how the ribbon and menus look:

Headers and Page numbers prnt sc 2

The header contains the title and your pen name. The first page contains your legal name, mailing address, contact information in the upper left-hand corner, and the word count on the right.

This may seem excessive, but if you are serious about submitting your work to agents, editors, or publishers, it must be as professionally formatted as possible.

You will insert the Title of the Book and Your Author Name just before the page number. That way, it will look tidy and be aligned to the right. You can do this on the page number tab.

That is a simple process, but occasionally, a publisher will specify that the first (title) page should have no header or page number. Instead, they might want the header and page numbers to begin on page two.

To make the page numbers begin on page two:

  1. Click anywhere in the document.
  2. On the Page Layout tab, click the Page Setup Dialog Box Launcher and
  3. then click the Layout
  4. Under Headers and Footers, select the Different first pagecheck box, and then click OK.

Headers and Page numbers prnt sc 3

  1. The header contains the title, author name, and page numbers—all aligned right.
  2. The first page contains your mailing address and contact information in the upper left-hand corner.

So now we know how to make our submissions look professional—but where should we send them?

How do we find reputable publishers who are accepting submissions?

When I began this journey, I didn’t understand how specifically you must tailor your submissions for literary magazines, contests, and anthologies. Each publication has a specific market of readers, and their editors look for new works their target market will buy.

Magazine editors don’t have the time to teach you how to write. You have to learn that on your own. You have to ensure your work is clean and well-written before submitting it.

Cover_of_October_1952_issue_of_The_Magazine_of_Fantasy_&_Science_FictionSo, what do they do if they don’t go over your work line-by-line? Magazine editors look for and bring new and marketable stories to the reading public.

Marketable is the keyword. If your submission doesn’t fit what that magazine’s readers expect, the editor will reject it. Perhaps the quality of your work isn’t the problem. Maybe you have selected a publication that features work in your chosen genre. But your subgenre may not match what the readers of that publication want to see.

After all, both spaghetti Bolognese and bruschetta are created out of ingredients made from wheat and tomatoes. But, a person who craves spaghetti Bolognese won’t be satisfied with an offering of bruschetta despite the fact they both feature wheat and tomatoes.

The genre may be Italian, and they feature the same ingredients. But the delivery method is a subgenre that may not appeal to every diner.

Another point I want to make is this. Once your story makes it through the publisher’s door and into the first part of their process, their editor may ask you for minor revisions. They may ask you to clear up small things you missed when self-editing.

But they won’t offer you technical advice.

Harpers_Magazine_1905This is because they shouldn’t have to. Before submitting your work to an agent or submissions editor, you must have the technical skills down.

You must ensure you have a clean manuscript that is marketable to the readers of the publication you are courting. Ask someone in your writing group to proofread it before submitting it.

Professionals do the required work and don’t think twice about it—self-editing and proofreading are just part of the job.

Prominent publications have wide readerships, which helps the indie author as much as those who are traditionally published. The more people who read and enjoy your short story, the more potential readers you have for your novels. These people likely read books, and guess what? They might look for your novels when shopping for books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other digital booksellers.

lasceax prizeWhen you have a story that you believe in, you must find the venue that publishes your sort of work. Read the magazines you hope to submit work to. That way, you will know what publishers are buying in your genre.

  • In other words, if you write fantasy, google magazines featuring fantasy and sci-fi and buy them. Read the work that publishers are buying so you aren’t wasting your time.

An excellent place to start would be the website Worlds Without End, an author resource site listing magazines that publish fantasy and science fiction.

Not all publications will be accepting new work, but some will. Be warned—finding magazines with open calls for submissions is a lot of work.

Anthologies with open calls might be more plentiful, but you must know how to find them. You can connect with writers’ groups through the many forums on Facebook and other social media platforms.

Pw06Those who can’t afford to buy magazines can go to websites like Literary Hub and read excellent pieces culled from various literary magazines for free. This will give you an idea of what you want to achieve in a story and where you might consider sending your work.

And may you have good luck with your submissions. Speaking as a reader, there is no such thing as too many stories. In fact, I’m going to curl up with a good book right now!

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January 22, 2024 · 6:00 am

Submitting to Contests and Anthologies Part 2 #amwriting

We are continuing our series on submitting short works to contests, anthologies, and magazines. Today’s focus is on contests.

WritingCraft_short-story-formattingFor the most part, the requirements are basically the same from contest to contest, with minor differences. Most contests charge a submission fee but have a cash prize if your work is chosen. It doesn’t matter how brilliant your story is; if you don’t follow their guidelines for submission, you will have wasted your money. Non-conforming work will not be read, so follow their guidelines!

To make sure your work conforms to the intended recipient’s requirements, go to the contest website and read the standards they have laid out.

You must get your paragraphs and line spacing right, so you must know how to use the tools that come with your word processing program. These handy tools exist to make your documents look as professional as possible.

First, you must open the toolbox.

Open your document and make sure you are on the home tab. I use MS Word, but most word processing programs (Open Office, Google Docs) follow a similar process as my program does. Running across the top of the page is the ribbon, which is your toolbox.

Everything you need to create a manuscript is there, waiting for you to learn to use it. A tiny little v in the far right-hand corner is the arrow for expanding or hiding the ribbon. We will expand the ribbon, giving us access to all the necessary tools.

MSWord_ribbon_toolsLIRF01182024

I use dark mode for all my work as light mode hurts my eyes. That is why the above screenshot of my ribbon is dark when yours might be shades of white, blue, and gray. You can discover more about “dark mode” here: Using Dark Mode in Windows 11 | Windows Learning Center (microsoft.com)

Now, we must select the font. As I said before, I use Microsoft WORD. Like every other word-processing program, it has many fancy fonts to choose from and a variety of sizes.

Lucky Coffee CupYou don’t want fancy. Stick with the industry standard fonts: Times New Roman (or rarely Courier) in 12 pt. These are called ‘Serif’ fonts and have little extensions that make letters easier to read when strung together to form words.

  • Check the contest page for their guidelines. You will find they likely want submissions formatted in Times or Times New Roman .12 font size.

If you are using MS WORD, here are a few simple instructions: to change your fonts, open your manuscript document, and Click on the tab marked ‘Home.’  In the upper right-hand corner of the ribbon, across the top of the page, is the “Editing” group, located at the right of the Styles group. Note: be sure you have Editing and NOT Editor. (The Editor menu has different functions that we’ll cover another time.)

select> select all. This will highlight the entire manuscript.

With the manuscript still highlighted, go to the font group on the left-hand end of the ribbon. The default font, or predesigned setting, will probably say ‘Calibri (Body)’ and the size will be .11. Scroll down to Times New Roman and click on it to change the font for the entire manuscript.

  • If you have clicked on the wrong font, it can be undone by clicking the back arrow (upper left-hand corner).

Once you are satisfied with your changes, click save.

Now, we are going to format our paragraphs and line spacing. Editors, publishers, and contests want their copies double-spaced so they can insert comments in the reviewing panel as needed. Having it double-spaced allows for longer comments and is easier for an editor to read.

NEVER use the tab key or the space bar to indent your paragraphs. Too many extra spaces in an electronic document cause the formatting to fail when converted to the various electronic publishing formats.

  • Keep extra spaces to a minimum—use only one space between sentences!

remove_tabsLIRF01202024To remove tabs from a manuscript in MS Word or most other word-processing programs, open the “Find” box (right side of the ribbon on the home tab). In the “Find” field, type in ^t. (Caret + lowercase t) (press the alt key 94 to make ^ and key the t). This only works if you have a ten-key (number pad) at the right side of your keyboard. ^t.

Then click “Replace.” In this field, type nothing. Click once on “Replace all,” and it will remove every tab. (If you have no number pad, you must do this by hand, using the backspace to remove the tabs from EVERY paragraph.)

That will leave you with no indents whatsoever. Your manuscript will temporarily look like a wall of words, but you will resolve that.

Once the tabs are all removed, use the following instructions to format paragraphs.

formatting_paragraphs_MSWordLIRF01202024FIRST: SELECT ALL. This will highlight your entire manuscript.

Step 1: On the Home tab, look in the group labeled ‘Paragraph.’ On the lower right-hand side of that group is a small grey square. Click on it. A pop-out menu will appear, which is where you format your paragraphs.

Step 2: On the indents and spacing menu: Use standard alignment align LEFT. We use this format because we are not looking at a finished product here. Do not justify the text. In justified text, the spaces between words and letters (known as “tracking”) are stretched or compressed. Justified text gives you straight margins on both sides, but this type of alignment only comes into play when a manuscript is published.

Step 3: Indentation: leave that alone or reset both numbers to ‘0’ if you have inadvertently altered it.

Step 4: Where it says ‘Special,’ select ‘first line on the dropdown menu.’ On the ‘By’ menu, select ‘0.5.’ (Some publishers specify a different number, 0.3 or 0.2, but 0.5 is standard.)

Step 5: ‘Spacing’: set both before and after to ‘0.’

Step 6: ‘Line Spacing’: set to ‘double.’

To summarize, the standard paragraph format has:

  • marginsof 1 inch all the way around
  • indented paragraphswith no extra space between
  • double-spacedtext
  • Align Left. This is critical.

Next, we want to add page numbers. Open the “insert” tab and click on “page number.” This opens a new menu. We will add the page numbers using the small dropdown menu.

  • Choose top of page, plain number, far right hand. You can add the title there too.

page number

NOTE: Most contests do NOT want you to insert identifying information, such as your name, on the manuscript you submit. The email and submissions portal will have your manuscript and title linked to your personal information, so don’t worry.

Editors and readers at contests receive an overwhelming number of manuscripts. They don’t have time to deal with authors who can’t be bothered to conform to the submission guidelines.

On Wednesday, we’ll talk about headers and formatting to submit to publishers of anthologies and magazines.

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January 17, 2024 · 6:00 am

Submitting to Contests and Anthologies part 1 #amwriting

Today begins a two-part series on submitting your work to contests and anthologies. We’ve talked a lot about the nuts and bolts of writing short fiction. January is an excellent time to review your backlog of short works and see if you have something worth sending to a contest or a publication.

WritingCraft_short-storyYou can get your foot in the traditional publishing house door this way. Also, if you are happy as an indie author, having work that places as a finalist in a contest (or is accepted into a paying anthology) will increase your visibility and gain readers for your other work.

The first part of the year is when calls for new works begin appearing at Submittable or Submissions Grinder. Large publishing houses and reputable small and mid-size publishers willing to pay for your work use these platforms to advertise when they are open to reading work by new authors.

to err is human to edit divineMany contests and publications use the Submittable platform year-round to accept and review the large volume of manuscripts they receive from writers. It’s great for us as authors when a publisher uses this platform. The Submittable app allows us to track what we have submitted and where it currently is in the process.

Also, the website at SFWA has a list of reputable publications that you might want to check in with every few weeks or so. These publishers regularly post open calls for submission, so it pays to check each magazine and publisher’s website for opportunities.

Submitting to contests is an excellent way to grow as an author. Why is this? Writing for anthologies and contests forces us to fit an entire story into a specific length.

Often, you must base your narrative around a particular theme, one you might not have chosen. This forces us to use our imagination.

So, what do editors of anthologies and magazines look for? And how are contests judged?

Pw06First, let’s be clear–editors don’t enjoy sending out rejections. They want to find the best work by new authors because they love to read. If you have a story that was a contest winner, you may be able to sell it to the right publication.

I regularly read for several literary contests and have edited several anthologies. Your work will receive a far closer inspection than from a casual reader.

Contests have a pool of editors and authors reading for them. These readers do their best to judge each entry on their merits. In many contests, two people will read the submissions. Each reader will have looked at the technical aspects of the piece as well as the overall story and characters.

Contest readers judge an author’s technical skill and professionalism as well as the overall story:

  1. Plot: the sequence of events and the overall story arc.
  2. Setting: did the world-building include a location, time, hints of the weather, and hints of the environment? Was the world solid to the reader?
  3. Viewpoint/narrative mode: how was the story told? Was the POV consistent to one or two characters? Did the narrative drift between verb tenses, making it confusing? Was it consistently told in the first-person (or second, or third, or omniscient, etc.)?
  4. Characters: Were the characters believable, and did they have an arc?
  5. Dialogue: Did the dialogue, both spoken and internal, advance the story? Did each speaker have their own voice and style?
  6. Transitions and hooks: Did the opening lines hook the reader? Did the narrative move smoothly from scene to scene without jarring the reader out of the story? Did each transition hook the reader, enticing them to keep reading?
  7. Showing versus telling: did the author understand how to show the action?
  8. Mechanics: Did the author understand grammar, punctuation, and industry standards? Did they follow word count and length requirements and obey formatting directions as listed in the submission guidelines?

Editors for anthologies will look at each submission with the above guidelines in mind, but they will have two more caveats:

  1. Theme: did the author understand and incorporate the theme into their story?
  2. Appeal: did that story strike a chord? Did it make them want to read more of that author’s work?

Contest readers/judges read every word in each submission and base their opinions on how well the first eight conditions were met.

ok to write garbage quote c j cherryhEach editor for an Anthology or magazine will have a slightly different idea of what they will accept than a literary contest. Literary contests focus heavily on knowledge of craft as well as the ability to tell a story.

Anthologies and magazines will make some allowances in regard to grammar and mechanics for the sake of voice—as long as it is consistent and benefits the story.

The main difference between submitting your work to a contest and submitting to a publisher is the sheer volume of work they receive and the number of people/editors available to read it.

Anthologies and contests close on a specific date or after a certain number of submissions have been received.

The inbox of a large publisher fills up every day. Larger publishers may have gatekeepers reading submissions, but most editors do their own work. For this reason, the editor will look at the story’s first page, and based on what she sees there, she will decide whether to continue reading or reject it.

If all ten of the above criteria are clearly shown in the first paragraphs, the editor will read further. If the work continues to be engaging and professional, they will read it to the end. Each page she reads gets you closer to being published, so make those words count.

oopsSome contests charge a fee for submissions. I’ve said this before, but it bears mentioning again. You have wasted time and money if you don’t follow the prospective contest or publisher’s submission guidelines, which are clearly listed on the contest page on their website.

Following those steps demonstrates your level of professionalism. Editors at magazines, contests, and publishing houses have no time to deal with unedited, improperly formatted manuscripts. Their inboxes are full of well-written and professional-looking work, so they will reject the amateurs without further consideration.

If you have any doubts about the quality of your work, consider running it past your critique group to hear their opinions on characterization, story arc, and other features of your work.

Book- onstruction-sign copyIt’s hard to hear a critical view of something you have struggled with and labored over. We believe it to be perfect, but we don’t have an objective view of it. This is when you must step back and rethink certain aspects of a piece before you submit it. The external eye of your writing group can help you see the places that don’t work.

On Monday (next week), we will discuss the expectations of publications and contest editors regarding the work they want to read. I will show how most contests and publications want submissions formatted, offer screenshots, and explain why they have these uniform standards.

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January 15, 2024 · 6:00 am

Bad Grandma, the Bread Machine, and Murder #amwriting

One of my three works-in-progress is a murder mystery set in one of my established fantasy worlds. I am currently writing the antagonist’s story and meshing each event with the protagonist’s timeline via the calendar.

MyWritingLife2021BMy antagonist is a woman whom we’ll call Bad Grandma for the sake of this post. She takes what she wants and damn the consequences.

I see Bad Grandma as a pirate in the truest sense of the word. I’m writing her as having a career marked by violence and brutality. She is definitely not a Jack Sparrow sort of pirate.

I’m at the midpoint of the first draft of this story and can’t go any further on my protagonist’s thread. Bad Grandma’s story has to be written, including the end. Then, I can return to my protagonist and write the scenes connecting the dots.

This woman has no conscience or moral boundaries, which makes writing her exhausting.

I’m a Good Grandma—I only murder people on paper. So, between bursts of writing this evil woman’s story, I find myself cleaning and cooking, activities that help me organize my thoughts.

chocolate chip cookies, veganCooking has become a primary activity for me. The weather here at Casa del Jasperson has been cold, with a layer of frigid, applied to the general iciness of the Arctic blast. As I write this post, it is a warm and balmy 18 degrees (minus 8 Celsius). It is clear and sunny, and the thin layer of snow that fell four days ago, less than an inch, is still there.

I have been making soups in my crockpot and baking all sorts of tasty delights. After all, making and serving good food is my love language. With that said, I’m a lazy chef. I rarely cook on the stovetop, so nearly everything I serve comes from the crockpot or the oven.

I made bread nearly every day for most of my adult life because it was cheaper to make than to buy, and it tasted better. But now that it’s only Greg and I, we buy it as often as we bake it.

bread machineI’ve turned laziness into a fine art. I love my bread machine because it takes the work out of making the dough. However, I rarely bake my bread in the machine. It makes too large a loaf, and the crust can be a bit too crunchy.

Instead, I use the “dough” setting. Once the machine says the dough is made, I divide it in half and place it in prepared loaf pans. Sometimes, I make cinnamon rolls or cranberry walnut loaves once the machine has finished its part of the process. When the finished product emerges from the oven, it has the right texture and the house smells divine.

So, let’s get back to the murdering murderer. Our story is set in a riverport town. Bad Grandma is a drug smuggler who has murdered a mage, a Temple armsmaster. With the head peacekeeper in that town dead, she escapes justice for the moment, heading downriver. She stops in another port town two days later and is arrested the moment she steps off her stolen barge.

Book- onstruction-sign copyThe constable in that town is unaware that Bad Grandma has murdered a mage but knows she’s wanted for smuggling and other crimes. However, our Bad Grandma is slippery and escapes the noose by murdering the constable.

She decides to sneak back home to her long-abandoned family until things cool down, believing she has them cowed enough that they’ll hide her. But she’s been so abusive all their lives that her son throws her out and alerts the city watch that she’s back in town.

So now Bad Grandma is on the road, trying to escape justice. The only avenue of escape for her is a trail through the mountains. That road takes her back to the place where she had murdered the mage.

480px-Skull_and_crossbones_vector.svgAt this point in my writing process, I need to know what Bad Grandma is doing because my protagonist, the mage who is investigating the murders, has to respond to her actions and plan how to catch her. I am writing the scenes that she is featured in, and soon, I will have the ending of the novel written. Bad Grandma’s meeting with karma resolves the central problem in this tale of woe. Once I have that solved, winding up the other threads will be easy to write.

Or so I hope!

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January 10, 2024 · 6:00 am

Learning from Gatsby: conveying emotion #amwriting

Emotions are tricky to convey, and I’ve read a few books lately where this was poorly handled (he was angry, she was enraged, etc.). So, today, I want to revisit a post from August 2021 that examined this problem.

F Scott Fitzgerald on Good Writing LIRF07252022When we write about mild reactions, wasting words on too much description is unnecessary because mild is boring. But if you want to emphasize the chemistry between two characters, good or bad, strong gut reactions on the part of your protagonist are a good way to do so.

I often use examples of how to convey simple emotions from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. First, you haven’t gotten the real story if you haven’t read the book but have seen the various movie adaptations. Adaptations are stories that have been reworked, so it never hurts to go to the source material and discover what the author intended.

The prose has power despite the fact it was written a century ago. I don’t feel qualified to get into the debate over whether Fitzgerald stole prose from Zelda or not. Their relationship was a hot mess. I’m a casual reader, not a scholar, so I leave that can of worms to those more knowledgeable.

However, we can learn from how the prose was constructed and how Nick Carraway sees the world. There are lessons here, things we can put into action in our own work.

About The Great Gatsby, via Wikipedia:

The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway‘s interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and Gatsby’s obsession to reunite with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan.

f scott fitzgerald The Great GatsbyThe novel was inspired by a youthful romance Fitzgerald had with socialite Ginevra King and the riotous parties he attended on Long Island’s North Shore in 1922. Following a move to the French Riviera, Fitzgerald completed a rough draft of the novel in 1924. He submitted it to editor Maxwell Perkins, who persuaded Fitzgerald to revise the work over the following winter. After making revisions, Fitzgerald was satisfied with the text, but remained ambivalent about the book’s title and considered several alternatives. Painter Francis Cugat‘s cover art greatly impressed Fitzgerald, and he incorporated aspects of it into the novel. [1]

If you are curious, an excellent book on Sara and Gerald Murphy, the people who inspired Fitzgerald’s novels (and a glimpse into the real world he introduces us to), is Everybody Was So Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy: A Lost Generation Love Story by Amanda Vail.

The following passages show us what is happening inside Nick Carraway, the protagonist. Every word is intentional, chosen, and placed so as to evoke the strongest reaction in the reader.

Here, Fitzgerald describes a feeling of hopefulness:

And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees—just as things grow in fast movies—I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.

Next, he describes shock:

It never occurred to me that one man could start to play with the faith of fifty million people—with the single-mindedness of a burglar blowing a safe.

Jealousy:

Her expression was curiously familiar—it was an expression I had often seen on women’s faces but on Myrtle Wilson’s face it seemed purposeless and inexplicable until I realized that her eyes, wide with jealous terror, were fixed not on Tom, but on Jordan Baker, whom she took to be his wife.

The discomfort of witnessing a marital squabble:

The prolonged and tumultuous argument that ended by herding us into that room eludes me, though I have a sharp physical memory that, in the course of it, my underwear kept climbing like a damp snake around my legs and intermittent beads of sweat raced cool across my back.

mood-emotions-1-LIRF09152020Fitzgerald shows us Nick’s emotions, AND we see his view of everyone else’s emotions. We see their physical reactions through his eyes and through visual cues and conversations.

Nick Carraway’s story is told in the first person, and Fitzgerald stays in character throughout the narrative.

I suggest playing with narrative POV until you find the best one. Sometimes, a story falls out of my head in the first person, and other times, not. Whether we are writing in the first-person or close third-person point of view, seeing the reactions of others is key to conveying the sometimes-tumultuous dynamics of any group.

Writing emotions with depth is a balancing act. The internal indicator of a particular emotion is only half the story. We see those reactions in the characters’ body language.

This is where we write from real life. When someone is happy, what do you see on the outside? When a friend looks happy, you assume you know what they feel.

I spend a great deal of time working on prose, attempting to combine the surface of the emotion (physical) with the deeper aspect of the emotion (internal). I want to write it so I’m not telling the reader what to experience.

Great authors allow the reader to decide what to feel. They make the emotion seem as if it is the reader’s feeling.

emotion-thesaurus-et-alIf you have no idea how to begin showing the basic emotions of your characters, a good handbook that offers a jumping-off point is The Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi.

Their entire series of Writers Helping Writers books is affordable and full of hints for adding depth to your characters.

Just don’t go overboard. These books will offer nine or ten hints that are physical indications for a wide range of surface emotions. You can usually avoid dragging the reader through numerous small facial changes in a scene simply by giving their internal reactions a little thought.

I usually reread The Great Gatsby and several other classic novels in various genres every summer.

Fitzgerald’s prose is written in the literary style of the 1920s. It was a time in which we still liked words and the many ways they could be used and abused, hence the massive amount of Jazz Age slang that seems incomprehensible to us only a century later.

If you’re like me, you might need to find a bit of a translation for some of the slang: 20’s Slang | the-world-of-gatsby (15anniegraves.wixsite.com). The problem of slang falling out of fashion as quickly as it enters everyday speech is an excellent reason to avoid using it.

For example, one bit of slang confused me because of the context in which it was used: Police dog. It was a slang noun referring to a young man to whom one is engaged.

Myrtle Wilson said “I’d like to get one of those police dogs.”

When I read it the first time, I thought the speaker meant a German shepherd, and it didn’t make sense.

Ulysses cover 3Students taking college-level classes in literature and English are often required to read The Great Gatsby and other classic novels from that era, such as James Joyce’s Ulysses. Reading classic literature as a group and discussing every aspect is central to understanding it. Also, you get a glossary as part of the course, so that’s a bonus.

While these novels are too complex for most people’s casual reading, I wanted to understand how these books were constructed.

We twenty-first-century writers can learn something important from studying how Fitzgerald showed his characters’ thoughts and internal reactions. My personal goal is to improve how my first drafts read.

Who knows if I will succeed–but I’ll have fun trying.

Credits and Attributions:

[1] Wikipedia contributors, “The Great Gatsby,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Great_Gatsby&oldid=1190673325 (accessed January 10, 2024).

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January 8, 2024 · 7:26 am

Tension and asymmetric information #amwriting

All writers begin as readers. As we read, we see an arc to the overall novel. It starts with exposition, where we introduce our characters and their situation. Then, we get to the rising action, where complications for the protagonist are introduced. The middle section is the action’s high point, the narrative’s turning point.

writing craft functions of the sceneAfter we survive the middle crisis, we have falling action. We receive the crucial information, the characters regroup, and we experience the unfolding of events leading to the conclusion. The protagonist’s problems are resolved, and we (the readers) are offered a good ending and closure.

I think of scenes as micro-stories. Each one forms an arch of rising action followed by a conclusion, creating a stable structure that will support the overall arc of the plot.  In my mind, novels are like Gothic Cathedrals–small arches built of stone supporting other arches until you have a structure that can withstand the centuries. Each scene is a tiny arc that supports and strengthens the construct that is our plot.

Each scene has a job and must lead to the next. If we do it right, the novel will succeed.

The key difference in the arc of the scene vs. the overall arc of the novel is this: the end of the scene is the platform from which your next scene launches. Each scene begins at a slightly higher point on the novel’s plot arc than the previous scene, pushing the narrative toward its ultimate conclusion.

ArcOfScenesLIRF04062024These small arcs of action, reaction, and calm push the plot and ensure it doesn’t stall. Each scene is an opportunity to ratchet up the tension and increase the overall conflict that drives the story.

My writing style in the first stages is more like creating an extensive and detailed outline. I lay down the skeleton of the tale, fleshing out what I can as I go. But there are significant gaps in this early draft of the narrative.

So, once the first draft is finished, I flesh out the story with visuals and action. Those are things I can’t focus on in the first draft, but I do insert notes to myself, such as:

  • Fend off the attack here.
  • Contrast tranquil scenery with turbulent emotions here.

My first drafts are always rough, more like a series of events and conversations than a novel. I will stitch it all together in the second draft and fill in the plot holes.

So, how do I link these disparate scenes together? Conversations and internal dialogs make good transitions, propelling the story forward to the next scene. A conversation can give the reader perspective if there is no silent witness (an omniscient presence). This view is needed to understand the reason for events.

Milano_Duomo_1856Transition scenes must also have an arc supporting the cathedral that is our novel. They will begin, rise to a peak as the necessary information is discussed, and ebb when the characters move on.

Transition scenes inform the reader and the characters, offering knowledge we all must know to understand the forthcoming action.

A certain amount of context can arrive through internal monologue. However, I have two problems with long mental conversations:

  • If you choose to use italics to show characters’ thoughts, be aware that long sections of leaning letters are challenging to read, so keep them brief.
  • Internal dialogue is frequently a thinly veiled cover for an info dump.

An example of this is a novel I recently waited nearly a year for, written by a pair of writers whose work I have enjoyed over the years. I was seriously disappointed by it.

The protagonist’s mental ramblings comprise the first two-thirds of the novel. Fortunately, the authors didn’t use italics for the main character’s mental blather.

This exhausting mental rant contained very little critical knowledge. Ninety percent of what the man ruminated on was fluff—it was all background covered in the broader series and didn’t push the story forward. At the midpoint, I considered not finishing the book.

AsymetricInformationLIRF01062024Plots are driven by an imbalance of power. The dark corners of the story are illuminated by the characters who have critical knowledge.  This is called asymmetric information.

The characters must work with a limited understanding of the situation because asymmetric information creates tension. A lack of knowledge creates a crisis.

It’s tempting to waffle on but a conversation scene should be driven by the fact that one person has knowledge the others need. Idle conversations can be had anywhere, and readers don’t want to read about them. Characters should discuss things that advance the plot in such a way that they illuminate their personality.

The reader must get answers at the same time as the other characters, gradually over the length of a novel.

I struggle with this, too. Dispersing small but necessary bits of info at the right moment is tricky because I know it all and must fight the urge to share it too early. Hopefully, all these bumps will have been smoothed out by the end of my second draft.

8ce052b8e7c8182a51dc4999859c1061When we write a story, no matter the length, we hope the narrative will keep our readers interested until the end of the book. We lure readers into the scene and reward them with a tiny dose of new information.

I have no idea whether the novel I’m working on today will be an engaging story for a reader or not. But I’m enjoying writing it.

And that is what writing should be about: writing the story you want to read.

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January 3, 2024 · 6:00 am

Version control or how to save your sanity #amwriting

Here we are in the bright new year, and one way to help keep it bright and shiny is to never lose your manuscript.

MyWritingLife2021BIf you have been a computer user for any length of time, you know that hardware failure, virus attacks by hackers, and other computer disasters will happen. They’re like the Chelyabinsk meteor—hard to predict, difficult to recover from, and a horrible surprise when they happen.

Nothing is worse than discovering that all those hours of work on a labor of love were for nothing. A consistent system for saving and backing up the files in each project will save you time and tears.

As a municipal liaison for NaNoWriMo, I met many authors who didn’t know how to properly save files. They were new writers who didn’t understand how important it is to keep the old file and save it as a new one to work out of. They made massive cuts to the storyline, but instead of first renaming the file, they saved it and continued working. Those original sections were gone, along with the ideas and a lot of good prose that could have been reused elsewhere.

USB_DriveThis year, I met a young man who, being new to using a word processing program, forgot how he named his 2022 manuscript. He couldn’t find it when he decided to start writing again. I showed him how to search for files by date, taught him how to name documents, and taught him how to create a master file for all the files generated in the process of writing his book.

Also, keeping an external backup updated is crucial. If the computer dies, months of work won’t be lost forever. You will have a backup.

I generate work in a variety of subgenres, which complicates things. Each project is intended for submission to different places, so I have a large number of files in my writing folder. That’s why I use a cloud-based file hosting service.

  • I can’t misplace or lose it.

fileFolderI work out of Dropbox, so when I save and close a document, my work is automatically saved and backed up to the cloud. My files are always accessible even when working offline, so if the power goes out, I can access my work for as long as my computer’s battery holds out.

Many cost-free storage systems are available for your backup—Google Drive, OneDrive, or even a standard portable USB flash drive. Some people also purchase an external hard drive, which I have done for my images and graphics files.

Most people have never had a reason to learn how to label files consistently. It is a skill I developed, as properly filing things was part of my job. I was responsible for naming and saving my employers’ files in a consistent and manageable way. In 1993, when my office went from paper to PC, those skills transferred easily.

Each book will generate several files.

  • The original first draft manuscript and the subsequent drafts.
  • Documents detailing research and a list of sources and their links.
  • Random notes we generate in the process of creation.

Epic Fails signOne thing I hear from new writers is how surprised they are at how easily something that should be simple can veer out of control. The worst thing that can happen to an author is accidentally saving an old file over the top of your new file or deleting the file entirely.

Version control is a system that enables us to maintain an accurate history of changes to a file (or set of files) over time. We can return to specific versions as needed later, so nothing has been lost. 

The way you structure your filing system will evolve as you discover what works best for you. It will ultimately be centered around:

  • what you’re filing,
  • the number of files you are working with,
  • the various sub-categories (subfolders) your system needs to be broken down into.

A filing system is quite simple. For most documents, my system is a standard office-type system that consists of:

DIRECTORY> FOLDERS> SUB-FOLDERS> DOCUMENTS

My first draft of any manuscript will be given a Master File with a working title. That will be a handle to carry it by.

Within that master file, I have maps and every version of the original manuscript. The subfolders are clearly labeled and contain the old versions and any research that pertains to it.

Why do I keep so many versions of a manuscript? Every draft of that novel has some good things that I had to set aside for the sake of the story arc, but I never delete old files. You never know when you will need something you have already written.

  • The internet says using an underscore ( _ ) instead of a space in file names is a best practice. This is because some applications and computer scripts may not recognize spaces or will process your files differently when using spaces. If you intend to submit your work to a publisher, use the underscore to indicate spaces in the title to label any file you submit to them.

Screenshot_lennsStoryLIRF01022024I make a separate subfolder for my work when it’s in the editing process. That subfolder contains two subfolders, and one is for the chapters my editor sends me in their raw state with all her comments:

  • My editor saves each individual chapter as a separate new document, giving them a specific name: RoA_edit1_IL_01-10-22. (Ruins of Abeyon, Irene Luvaul edit 1, January 10, 2022.)

She does this because she edits one or two chapters a day and sends them to me that evening, and I save them in the subfolder for the raw edits. The other subfolder is for the finished work with the completed revisions:

  • I make the revisions Irene suggests and then save the chapter into that second folder: RoA_cjj_revised_jan-11-22. (Ruins of Abeyon, Connie J. Jasperson, revised January 11, 2022.)

We don’t lose the order of chapters because we have a reliable system for naming files, which we ALWAYS use. Consistency is critical when labeling files.

One thing to be aware of is to save it as a Word DOCUMENT and not a Template. If you save it as a template, you will keep getting a warning that the document is read-only and won’t let you save your changes.

screenshot_SaveAsDocumentLIRF01022024

‘Libraries’ is the screen that opens when you click “Save As” and is where you go to manage your documents, music, pictures, and other files. You can browse your files the same way you would in a folder or view your files arranged by properties like date, type, and author. These pictures, above and below, are of File Explorer libraries (Microsoft Windows file listing browser).

Name your files consistently and save each version in the master folder. Below is the master file for Lenn’s Story, the working title for my 2023 NaNoWriMo project (which still has no title).

You will create many versions of your manuscript. You will find the road much easier if you manage your versions well. And the event of equipment failure, you will have access to the most recent version of your work because it was regularly backed up to the cloud or an external drive.

File_names_save_master_file_screen_shot

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January 1, 2024 · 6:00 am

What I #amreading and #amwriting in the #HappyNewYear

Happy first day of 2024! The sun has been rising a few minutes earlier and setting a few later for a few days now, unnoticed because of the gloom and rain of a typical Pacific Northwest winter. Spring must be on the way because the internet says so.

MyWritingLife2021We are at the same latitude as Paris, Zurich, and Montreal but usually get a lot more rain than those cities. The North Pacific can be wild at this time of the year, which makes for some great storm-watching.

I read several books over the Christmas hiatus, two worth the time, and one—not so much.

The first two were written by the late mystery author Jane Haddam (Orania Papazoglou): Not a Creature Was Stirring (published in 1990) and Precious Blood (published in 1991). I had read both of these when they were first published, and let me say that they were every bit as great the second time as I thought they were the first.

The third book I read was on preorder for nearly a year, and I had been eagerly awaiting it. Published by one of the Big Traditional Publishers, it launched the second week of December 2023. The novel was written by one of my favorite fantasy author-duos. I’m not naming names because I don’t feel comfortable writing bad reviews. (That’s also why I don’t review books authors send to me.)

Unfortunately, this book is a masterclass in how NOT to structure a novel.

The book reads like something I might write when my mind is wandering, and I’m trying to figure out what to do next in a first draft. The first two-thirds of the novel is comprised of mental ramblings covering old ground and snippets of history. The lowest point comes when they spend ten pages dressing the main character for an important event, ten more pages covering the event, and three entire pages covering why the valet puts the ceremonial robes and tabards into storage.

CAUTION INFO DUMP ZONE AHEADBy the time the authors got to the meat of the matter (which was late in the second half) I no longer cared. Truthfully, when the fluff is carved away from this book, you might have 20,000 or so words of an interesting story—a novella.

This proves to me that everyone writes a stinker once in a while because we’re all human. I suspect the authors having to meet a firm deadline for completing this novel is why it’s not as good as the previous two in that series.

The Big Traditional Publishers expect great things from their stable of authors, but pushing them to force out two or three novels a year does no one any favors.

Anyone can shove out words at a fast clip when you must set down a certain number of them daily to meet a deadline. But what you have when that deadline is met might only be a pile of words.

Sometimes, a book isn’t a novel. Sometimes, a story works best as a novella, and stretching it just doesn’t work. What are the traditional lengths for novels, novellas, and novelettes?

The internet says: Here are the differences between novels, novellas, and novelettes:

  • A novelette is longer than a short story but shorter than a novella. The word count is usually between 7,500 words to 17,500 words.
  • A novella is longer than a novelette and is sometimes called a long short story or a short novel. It is usually around 20,000 words or more.
  • A novel is longer than a novella and is meant to be read over several days.
  • All tell a complete story within that length.
  • Traditionally, novelettes tended to focus on whimsical, sentimental themes. The modern-day novelette, though, is more like the novella because it can encompass different genres like sci-fi, drama, or historical short fiction.

The internet pulled the above information from this website: Learn the Differences Between Novelettes, Novellas, and Novels – 2023 – MasterClass. I highly recommend clicking on this link for a good article on the length, word count, and expected content of these literary forms. Who knows? You might want to take one of their masterclasses.

Writing long-form stories is a struggle at times. I have a “passel” of short-form stories and plan to format and publish two volumes of short stories, novelettes, and novellas sometime this year.

ICountMyself-FriendsI’m planning two volumes because one will feature stories set in the world of Neveyah, and the other will be random speculative short fiction pieces.

The New Year is upon us, and frankly, it’s getting off to a strange start.

Greg and I are in self-imposed quarantine because two days ago, we were exposed to Covid at close quarters.

I had planned to make an Avocado, Tomato, and Cucumber salad to take to last night’s annual New Year’s Eve party. Instead, we sat at home, watched a new episode of Vera, and watched New Year’s at the Space Needle: The Space Needle Dazzles the Pacific Northwest with Lights, Drones, and Fireworks for T-Mobile New Year’s at the Needle (yahoo.com).

The fireworks display over the Space Needle has become a Pacific Northwest tradition, and they went all out this year. The drones were amazing. I managed to stay awake long enough to watch it all.

Regardless of the plague, Greg and I enjoyed the evening. I hope your new year gets off to a great beginning. Wherever you are in this world, I wish you all the good things life can bring!

20191019_180732

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December 27, 2023 · 6:00 am

Masterclass in structure: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens – and #review of audiobook as read by Aaron Volner

My dear friend (and one of my favorite indie authors) Aaron Volner is an amazing narrator. He has just posted on YouTube his incredible reading of the original manuscript of A Christmas Carol, written by Charles Dickens. Aaron’s interpretation of this classic is spot on. He has gotten all the voices just right, from kindly Fred down to Tiny Tim.

I think this is by far my favorite version of A Christmas Carol as it is the original manuscript and is one I will be listening to every year. The original version as it fell out of Dicken’s pen and onto the paper is far scarier than most modern versions, and Volner’s interpretation expresses that eeriness perfectly. Scrooge’s horror is visceral, and his redemption profound.

Charles Dickens would have been proud of this reading. I give Volner’s performance five stars—something I rarely do. You can find this wonderful reading at “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens – YouTube

And this prompted me to revisit a post from a year ago: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens – a masterclass in structure #amwriting.

Another Christmas has joined the Ghosts of Christmas Past. Our post today explores my favorite Christmas story of all time, A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens.

My Sister's Ornament, cjjaspI have talked about this novella many times, as I consider it one of the most enduring stories in Western literature. The opening act of this tale is a masterclass in how to structure a story.

I love stories of redemption–and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens remains one of the most beloved tales of redemption in the Western canon. Written in 1843 as a serialized novella, A Christmas Carol has inspired a landslide of adaptations in both movies and books.

Charles Dickens was a master of storytelling, employing hooks and heavy foreshadowing to good effect. Let’s have a look at the first lines of this tale:

Christmascarol1843_--_040“Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge’s name was good upon ‘Change for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a doornail.”

In that first paragraph, Dickens offers us the bait. He sinks the hook and reels in the fish (the reader) by foreshadowing the story’s first plot point–the visitation by Marley’s ghost. We want to know why Marley’s unquestionable state of decay was so crucial that the conversation between us, the readers, and Dickens, the author, was launched with that topic.

Dickens doesn’t talk down to his readers. He uses the common phrasing of his time as if he were speaking to us over tea — “dead as a doornail,” a phrase that is repeated for emphasis. This places him on our level, a friend we feel comfortable gossiping with.

He returns to the thread of Marley several pages later, with the little scene involving the doorknocker. This is where Scrooge sees the face of his late business partner superimposed over the knocker and believes he is hallucinating. This is more foreshadowing, more bait to keep us reading.

At this point, we’ve followed Scrooge through several scenes, each introducing the subplots. We have met the man who, as yet, is named only as ‘the clerk’ in the original manuscript but whom we will later know to be Bob Cratchit. We’ve also met Scrooge’s nephew, Fred, who is a pleasant, likeable man.

These subplots are critical, as Scrooge’s redemption revolves around the ultimate resolution of those two separate mini stories. He must witness the joy and love in Cratchit’s family, who are suffering but happy despite living in grinding poverty (for which Scrooge bears a responsibility).

We see that his nephew, Fred, though orphaned, has his own business to run and is well off in his own right. Fred craves a relationship with his uncle and doesn’t care what he might gain from it financially.

By the end of the first act, all the characters are in place, and the setting is solidly in the reader’s mind. We’ve seen the city, cold and dark, with danger lurking in the shadows. We’ve observed how Scrooge interacts with everyone around him, strangers and acquaintances alike.

Now we come to the first plot point in Dickens’ story arc–Marley’s visitation. This moment in a story is also called “the inciting incident,” as this is the point of no return. Here is where the set-up ends, and the story takes off.

Dickens understood how to keep a reader enthralled. No words are wasted. Every scene is important, every scene leads to the ultimate redemption of the protagonist, Ebenezer Scrooge.

This is a short tale, a novella rather than a novel. But it is a profoundly moving allegory, a parable of redemption that remains pertinent in modern society.

In this tale, Dickens asks you to recognize the plight of those whom the Industrial Revolution has displaced and driven into poverty and the obligation of society to provide for them humanely.

This is a concept our society continues to struggle with and perhaps will for a long time to come. Cities everywhere struggle with the problem of homelessness and a lack of empathy for those unable to afford decent housing. Everyone is aware of this problem, but we can’t come to an agreement for resolving it.

A Christmas Carol remains relevant even in today’s hyper-connected world. It resonates with us because of that deep, underlying call for compassion that resounds through the centuries and is, unfortunately, timeless.

Ghost_of_Christmas_Present_John_Leech_1843As I mentioned before, this book is only a novella. It was comprised of 66 handwritten pages. Some people think they aren’t “a real author” if they don’t write a 900-page doorstop, but Dickens says differently.

One doesn’t have to write a novel to be an author. Whether you write blogposts, poems, short stories, novellas, or 700-page epic fantasies, you are an author. Diarists are authors. Playwrights are authors. Authors write—the act of creative writing makes one an author.

Today’s images are two illustrations by John Leech from the first edition of the novella published in book form in 1843.  We’re fortunate that the original art of John Leech, which Dickens himself chose to include in the book, has been uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. Thanks to the good people at Wikimedia, these prints are available for us all to enjoy.

From Wikipedia: John Leech (August 29, 1817 – October 29, 1864, in London) was a British caricaturist and illustrator. He is best known for his work for Punch, a humorous magazine for a broad middle-class audience, combining verbal and graphic political satire with light social comedy. Leech catered to contemporary prejudices, such as anti-Americanism and antisemitism, and supported acceptable social reforms. Leech’s critical yet humorous cartoons on the Crimean War help shape public attitudes toward heroism, warfare, and Britain’s role in the world. [1]

Write what you are inspired to, and may the New Year offer you all the inspiration you need. May you be happy, healthy, and may you have many opportunities to tell your stories.

CREDITS AND ATTRIBUTIONS:

[1] Wikipedia contributors, “John Leech (caricaturist),” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Leech_(caricaturist)&oldid=871947694 (accessed December 25, 2022).

Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Christmascarol1843 — 040.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Christmascarol1843_–_040.jpg&oldid=329166198 (accessed December 25, 2022)

A colourised edit of an engraving of Charles Dickens’ “Ghost of Christmas Present” character, by John Leech in 1843. Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Ghost of Christmas Present John Leech 1843.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Ghost_of_Christmas_Present_John_Leech_1843.jpg&oldid=329172654 (accessed December 25, 2022).

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