Writersfest Wrap-up

A creative writing workshop will contain students whose ambitions and abilities, whose conceptions of literature itself, are so diverse that what they have in common - the desire to write - could almost be considered meaningless.
— Rachel Cusk

I think that, in principle, a workshop is such a beautiful idea - an environment in which writers who are collectively apprenticed to the craft of writing can come together in order to collectively improve.
— Eleanor Catton

Being part of the Workshop is like being part of a really big family. Everyone is so close. Everyone feels the success of others who go on to do well. Whatever happens, I will still be part of the Workshop.
— Lucy Carless

This was my fourth foray in the world of Writersfest, and I have to say that each time it’s been a little bit different.

The first time was on a package that included the workshop tickets and the hotel room. I really enjoyed the workshops and learned a lot. Unfortunately, I went with a friend and came home without one (figuratively, not literally). To this day I have no idea what happened. She wasn’t talking, and I didn’t push her to. Que sera, sera.

Then we had COVID and the lockdowns, so I didn’t go back until 2022 (in 2021 I went to a different writing retreat). I still sprang for the festival pass, but this time I went for all four days. Technically it was five, but I opted out of staying the extra night just for the one workshop (which I wasn’t really interested in anyway). Instead I paid extra to hear Guy Gavriel Kay read from his newest work (and got a signed copy for the daughter).

Because I was late calling for my hotel reservation, I couldn’t get the discount rate at the Holiday Inn, and ended up staying at the Delta (which was only a block away). The workshops were interesting and I learned a lot. The weather was beautiful and I took a lot of early morning walks along the waterfront.

My third Writersfest was in March of this year. This time it was being held at the Delta, and I did call in time for the discount on my reservation. Wow! What a difference it made in the price! The weather was a little cold and crappy, which made staying at the same place where the workshops were taking place even better.

That being said, I enjoyed a couple of the workshops but was disappointed in a couple. The rest were kind of so-so, but I still learned a lot. There were a handful of us who paid for the four-day pass, and we kind of got to know each other a bit.

October’s Writersfest was held at the Holiday Inn, and even though there was no discount offered, I booked my room there. Can we say pricy? And the room wasn’t all that great. Although I did have a tiny balcony that overlooked the water. AND it’s right at the end of Princess Street, which is a mecca for shopping magpies like me.

Like many organizations, Writersfest is having a hard time getting volunteers. One noticeable difference was they no longer did the land acknowledgement at the beginning of the workshops, and sometimes there wasn’t even anyone to introduce the facilitators.

I found a couple of workshops were more seminars than actual workshops, but they were still okay. Three of them I really enjoyed and learned from them. I skipped the Travel Writing workshop to go to a reading called Folklore, Fable, and Fantastical Females. The most disappointing workshop of them all was something called Creative Collaborations – Combining Imagery and Words. It was nothing more than a sales pitch for an independent small press who sold very pricy boxed sets of stories.

Will I be going back in the spring? Maybe, maybe not. There’s a stitching retreat which I missed last year because it was the same date, but this year I’ve already got it paid for, so it’ll depend on when the spring writersfest is.

But I’ll probably go to the fall one again. And since they’re no longer offering a hotel discount as an incentive to buy the festival pass, I will probably take a better look at the workshops being offered and pick and choose what I think will be worth my while. And if that means I have more time to sit and write in my favorite coffee shop, so be it.

There are worse things I could do with my time.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

THE WEEK IN REVIEW
Honestly, I don’t have a word for last week. Yo-yo maybe, because it was weirdly up and down.

Monday we finally got our new fridge delivered. While it takes up the same amount of space as the loaner, it seems smaller inside. And I still don’t have room for my big stock pot in it, which means I’ll need to make my soups earlier in the day so they’ll be cool enough to bag up for the freezer later that same day. No more putting it off for a couple of days. 😊

Tuesday was a very uninspiring rainy day, with a stitch in at the library (which was the bright spot). When I got home I realized I had a poetry gathering the next night, so I spent the afternoon writing a poemwork poem.

Wednesday I started out making a big pot of chicken chowder for the father-in-law, and yes, it was cool enough to bag up for the freezer before bed. The poetry gathering ran a little long, but lots of good poetry was shared.

Thursday was a rather quiet day, perfect for indulging in some online shopping, and Friday involved a lot of in store shopping, followed by me making my Death By Chocolate cake to take with me to a small get-together to say goodbye to one of stitchers, who’s moving to Toronto.

Saturday the daughter, granddaughter, and I went on a shopping road trip, which was followed by the hubby and I doing some shopping, which was followed by another social event, this time at the father-in-law’s.

But in between all of that, I managed to catch up on my NaNo words.

NEW WORDS:
2636+466+210+1201=4513 words

Once again, a lot of time was saved by having part, if not all of my posts done ahead of time. And also once again, Monday’s post was rather heavily photo dependent. Thank goodness I had the presence of mind to take a lot of photos during the crafting process.

Goals For Next Week:
Keep up the good work, blog posting-wise.

NANOWRIMO:
Day 19 – 2617
Day 20 – 1930
Day 21 – 2977
Day 22 – 1788
Day 23 – 2087
Day 24 – 1936
Day 25 – 2559
Total for week 4 – 15,894
Total for month – 41,729

Slowly but surely I managed to catch up my words and as of yesterday I was back on track to the 50,000 word goal.

While I’m still a little apathetic about the whole thing, I’m liking the story better. However, it has become glaringly apparent to me that if I’m going to try and do anything with this novel in the future, I’m going to have to do a great deal of world building.

It would have been super helpful to have done all that before NaNo started, but I didn’t. So now I’m stumbling around trying to figure out the flora and fauna as I go along, what the customs and traditions of the people are, and what exactly they do with themselves all day.

Also, a better idea of what the layout of the land is would come in handy. So far I’ve got lots of jungle, some cliffs, and a river that is no where near where the people are, which makes no sense because wouldn’t they need a source of water close by?

Yeah. So there’s a lot of work ahead of me if I’m going to whip this up into any kind of shape to be readable. And honestly? I’m not even at the halfway point of the story itself, so it’ll be continued well beyond the end of NaNo.

You know, eventually.

Goal For Next Week:
Finish NaNo.

POETRY:
There was a poetry gathering last Wednesday night, and seeing as I skipped it the month before, I figured I pretty much had to show up. Plus I needed to pay my yearly dues 😉

So Tuesday afternoon had me trying to come up with a metaphysical poem (the poemwork for the month). In the end I did a black out poem. Actually, I did two of them. I looked up articles on metaphysics on Google copy/pasted a page of text from two different articles, and picked out the words and phrases to craft my poems.

I have to admit, I’m getting a little tired of all these forms. It doesn’t really leave me much time to write a poem just because I have something poetical to say. And while it’s all well and good to be able to learn a new form, the forms themselves don’t always lend themselves to creating an anthology.

Goal For Next Week:
Think about my future in poetry.

CRAFTING:
Tuesday was our library stitching, where I worked a bit on my kit. I really wanted to work more on my crafting this past week, but I didn’t have time because I was busy catching up on NaNo. I was a little jealous of one of my writing buddies, who was able to get some quality crafting done for Christmas last week.

But while I didn’t have time for crafting last week, I did find time to shop for crafting supplies. I got about $50 worth of beads and charms from Wish, and then I went to another site to buy an engraving tool and a bunch of engraving bits.

Oh! And there was a request for Christmas prints for a project with the stitchery group, so I donated all the Christmas prints (mostly fat quarters) in my stash, that I’ve had for years and didn’t know what to do with. Well, as any hoarder knows, as soon as you get rid of something, you’ll find a use for it.

It was just after I gave away my prints that I did the class in the folded stars. I could have used that Christmas fabric to do more stars. *sigh* As I recall, I got a lot of those fat quarters at Walmart, who was completely out of the ones with Christmas prints. So, instead I had to go all the way to Fabricland where I bought some off the bolt.

Also last week, I finally got around to stiffening my crocheted snowflakes. I used watered down mod podge and staked them all out on waxed paper covered cardboard. Worked really well too. Now all they need are strings.

Goal For Next Week:
Make some fabric stars; work on kit; work on zentangle.

WHAT I’M READING:
I finished The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman, and I really hope she’s going to write a sequel to it because I really want to know what happens next. Now I’ve started The Hike, by Lucy Clarke.

On the Kindle I finished The Psychic Cat Mysteries by S.M Reine, which was a series of five mystery stories from a cat’s point of view.

Goal For Next Week:
Keep up the moderate reading habits.

THE WEEK AHEAD:

I swear, that new leaf of mine is off in space somewhere.

The weather has been as variable as my mood. I’m still a little tired and lethargic, so this grey, dismal November is not helping things any.

I don’t know what I’m going to be writing about for Monday, maybe something about Christmas crafts. ‘Tis the season, don’t you know.

Tuesday is a regular meeting with the stitchery group. There aren’t any classes, it’s just a regular stitch in, which means a lot of talking and a little stitching.

Unless inspiration strikes me like a bolt of lightning, I’ll be using the last of pre-written poetry posts on Wednesday. And because December’s poetry gathering is early, I really should try to start working on the poemwork.

I did do a little of my indoor gardening last week. I dumped the dead plants (five of them!) and rearranged several others. So this week I’d like get my coleus clippings planted, and repot my money tree into a bigger pot.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my blogging schedule, and my writing in general. Brace yourself – I’m taking the month of December off from writing, and that includes blog posts. I’ll be putting up an official notice next weekend, and then I’ll use my month to make some decisions . . . and some changes.

Starting in January, things are going to be very different around here.

Plotless Fiction – Writersfest Part VI

When I say “plotless,” I am including texts that may have a different or radical way of approaching “plot.” Can imagery, syntax, typography be plot? I guess we’ll find out.
— Stuart Ross

Going back in time, I really admire the experimental fiction of the 1960s and 1970s that B. S. Johnson, Toby McLennan, Donald Barthelme, bpNichol, and Daphne Marlatt were creating, among others. Hell, I still consider Michael Ondaatje’s greatest novel, Coming Through Slaughter, a masterpiece of innovation!
— Stuart Ross

Simply put, for me, innovation in fiction means challenging conventions, expanding boundaries, and confounding expectations.
— Stuart Ross

Day four, workshop one was probably my favorite of all the workshops. But wait, you say. What happened to day three? Well, day three started with a workshop on Travel Writing, which I skipped to go to an author event – Folklore, Fable, and Fantastical Females, a reading and conversation with Paola Ferrante, Emily Urquhart, and Anuja Varghese. It was really good, but not the sort of thing you take notes on.

The second workshop of day three was nothing more than a sales pitch for some very pricy boxed sets. Yes, the workshop was a disappointment, but I did buy three of their product. This was followed by an actual workshop on Spoken Word poetry, which isn’t really my thing, so I skipped it and went shopping.

Anyway, day four, workshop one was Plotless Fiction, facilitated by Stuart Ross. I tell you, you can never go wrong with a workshop run by Stuart Ross.

Writer, editor, and writing teacher Stuart Ross offers a relaxed, supportive workshop that explores the possibilities of fiction beyond the constraints of narrative and the artificiality of plot. In this hands-on session, you will be introduced to writers whose works push against the definitions of the story, and will produce your own short works, using a variety of enjoyable, challenging writing strategies.

Plotless Fiction is also known as Experimental Fiction, or Weird Things You Can Get Published.

When Stuart Ross says plotless, he means literally plotless, as in no plot to it. It’s like making a short story that is actually a list.

Plot in fiction is a series of things that happen in a novel. The trajectory goes up and up and up to the conclusion.

Can there be tension without plot? Yes. You can care about the characters, which creates tension. Perhaps the idea is to create a question for the reader – what will happen to the character.

Throw away the way you normally write. Experiment. The human mind is built to find stories and make connections. They will always try to make connections.

Exercise: write a series of single sentences describing various objects objectively.

A booklet sits on a black tablecloth, its pages fanned from use.
The pastry is braided and dotted with nuts.
The stack of torn pages sits haphazardly beside the more orderly stack of magazines.
The brightness from the window hurts my eyes.

Now write a series of sentences starting with “I” – each one a different person.

I like to walk the streets at night, staying in the shadows.
I am tired.
I hate the falling leaves, the longer nights, and pumpkin spice.
I need to start planning for Christmas.

Now randomly join them together.

The brightness from the window hurts my eyes. I like to walk the streets at night, staying in the shadows. The pastry is braided and dotted with nuts. I am tired. A booklet sits on the black tablecloth, its pages fanned from use. I need to start planning for Christmas. The stack of torn pages sits haphazardly beside the more orderly stack of magazines. I hate the falling leaves, the longer nights, and pumpkin spice.

Your results could be a short story, or a poem. You can put together any two lists of things.

Next we were given a separate page to write on and asked to write ten lines describing chaos. (Note, 10 hand written lines translates to 5 typed lines)

Dark, stormy clouds sweep in from the south. The lake churns, waves crashing along the shore. There’s a smell of ozone in the air as the first thunderous crash of thunder, like a sonic boom, precedes the jagged spears of lightning. Like cameras held by the paparazzi, the flashes come one after another, the thunderous timpani keeping time with the volatile storm.

Then we were asked to write ten more lines describing serenity.

The view out the window is full of serenity. The tranquil water is calm, at rest. The day has barely begun, so enjoy the peacefulness while it lasts, for it won’t last for long. The flags lay limp because there is not yet a breeze to stir them. Even the birds are at rest, anticipating the world waking up. It doesn’t last for long, but dawn giving birth to the new day is amazing.

Then we tore the pages apart, and folded one of the ten lines in half, placing it over top of the other one to create a new set of ten lines. First we have serenity on the left, and chaos on the right.

The view out the clouds sweep in from the tranquil water churns, waves crashing day has barely here’s a smell of ozone peacefulness, first thunderous won’t last for like a sonic boom, because there is jagged spears of lightning. Them Even by the paparazzi anticipating one after another, the doesn’t last for timpani keeping time with birth to the new.

Now we have chaos on the left, and serenity on the right.

Dark, stormy window is full of serenity. South the lake is calm, at rest. The along the shore begun, so enjoy the in the air as while it lasts, for it crash of thunder long. The flags lay limp, precedes the jagged not yet a breeze to stir like cameras held birds are at rest, the flashes come one world waking up. It thunderous timpani long, but dawn giving the volatile storm day is amazing.

Weird, eh?

And finally, we were given a series of newspapers, magazines, and pages, and asked to just pull random lines and string them together. This was actually kind of fun – like a reverse blackout poem, only longer. And it was interesting using different sources for the lines as well – a newspaper for one line, an advertisement for the next.

Opinion
In life, there are minor errors. The reader may perhaps wonder. Our large ensemble offers a diverse repertoire. This group currently meets on the first business Monday of each month. A firestorm of controversy over Exeter’s mishandling of sexual misconduct on the part of faculty members. According to sources, then Congressman DeSantis cultivated Trump’s support. A violent storm of hail forced Joseph to take shelter. Meanwhile, Statistics Canada said its early estimate for August pointed to an increase of 0.1 percent for the month. There is growing evidence that new mothers can help in creating a healthier bottom line. This cycle is an opportunity for corporate leaders to play.

As always, Stuart Ross’s workshop was the highlight of the retreat. The final workshop of the day was to write about food, which necessitated a change in location, but I opted to just go on home instead.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

THE WEEK IN REVIEW
The word for last week is . . . perseverance. It took a lot of perseverance to make it through last week, I tell you what. And that cold I’ve been fighting was every bit as persistent.

My time at Nottawasaga was chronicled in my Monday blog post, and if you’re curious you can read about it HERE . By Friday night I was feeling queasy from the cold medication I was taking, and it didn’t seem to be helping anyway, so I stopped taking it. I was no better, cold wise, the rest of the weekend, but at least my head was a little more clear.

One big difference between a stitchery retreat and a writing retreat is the alone time. I guess because writers are more solitary creatures, our day starts later, ends earlier, and we have breaks in between workshops. Stitchers, on the other hand, are far more social. And despite the fact it was a more energizing atmosphere than being around most groups, I was pretty much peopled out by the end of the weekend.

NEW WORDS:
2656+1157+411+949=5,173
UP: 475 – words

The fact that I had Sunday’s post written and up on time was due to having most of it written before I left for my stitchery retreat.

Monday’s post was photo dependent, so while long, it was fairly easy to write. And of course for Wedenesday I had a pre-written poetry post. And Friday, all I had to do was find an excerpt from my NaNo. So all in all, I got off pretty easy with the blog posts last week.

Which was a good thing, because as I said before, this cold has been kicking my butt big time. I have been so tired and lethargic this past week it’s not even funny. Between the weather, my cold, and the new diabetic medication I’m on, it was a real effort to do anything, let alone any writing.

Goals For Next Week:
Kick the cold to the curb so I can get some real writing done.

NANOWRIMO:
Day 12 – 492
Day 13 – 1,034
Day 14 – 354
Day 15 – 984
Day 16 – 1541
Day 17 – 2411
Day 18 – 2452
Total for week 3 – 9,268
Total for month – 25,835

Yikes! As you can see, I fell way off the wagon as far as NaNo goes. As of yesterday, I should be at 30,000 words. Sadly, even after I got home from the retreat I had a really hard time generating any words. The NaNo mojo just wasn’t working.

The last couple of days I’ve slowly been catching up, but it’s still a bit of a struggle. And I still need to up the pace if I’m going to finish on time.

But one good thing, I figured out my ending. I gave up the whole murder/self sacrifice bit, and replaced it with an accident. A little less convoluted, but it makes better sense.

My NaNo experience this year, has got me questioning why I keep doing this. While it’s hard to resist getting caught up in the whole NaNo whirlwind, I have to ask myself what I’m getting out of it.

It’s certainly not making me a better writer, just because of the very nature of NaNo – writing quantity, not quality. So while it might make me a faster writer, for a month at least, it’s doing nothing to improve the quality of my writing. And do I really need another unfinished manuscript to add to my pile?

I still plan on finishing this year’s NaNo, or at least try to, but maybe it’s time to let go of that winning streak I’m so proud of. Because honestly, all those unfinished manuscripts are not the mark of a winner.

Goal For Next Week:
Continue to catch up my NaNo.

POETRY:
Once again it was nice to be able to dip into the pre-written poetry form well. And I have two more forms in that well, so that should take me to the end of NaNoWriMo. But that’s not to say I won’t work on more, if I get the chance. It’s kind of nice to have forms ready to go in case of an emergency.

Goal For Next Week:
Think about doing the remaining three example poems.

CRAFTING:
You know, you’d think going away for a whole weekend of stitching I would have got lots of stitching done. But the truth is, our time in the sewing room was a lot like one of our regular stitch-ins. There was a lot of socializing, and only some stitching. LOL

I did get some work done on the kit I’ve been working on, and I finished the third square of my zentangle. And I was blown away by a lot of the work around me. The ladies from the Toronto Guild were so welcoming and friendly . . . and the talent! The sheer quality of the work was mind boggling. And it was comforting to know that many of these projects have been works in progress for years.

Then Tuesday there was a regular meeting of my own stitching guild where I learned to make a Christmas star using folded fabric. It was a lot of fun, but I was still recovering from the weekend so I left right after the class, even though our time wasn’t up. But guess what Monday’s post is going to be about? 😊

Goal For Next Week:
Make more stars; work on kit; work on zentangle.

WHAT I’M READING:
Read another couple of chapters of The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman, and I’m kind of sad I’m getting close to the end because I’m really enjoying this book.

On the Kindle I finished The Guest is a Goner by Carly Winter, and started The Psychic Cat Mysteries by S.M Reine, which is a cute series of stories from the cat’s point of view.

Goal For Next Week:
Keep up the moderate reading habits.

THE WEEK AHEAD:

Yeah, I think that new leaf I was nurturing has crawled back into it’s seed shell, waiting for me to find my focus. I don’t blame it. If there was room, I think I’d join it.

The weather has been absolute crap lately, typical for November, but it hasn’t helped me recover from my weekend away. I need to ignore the weather and start getting back on track this week.

It should be another easy week for posting. Monday’s post is pretty much a done deal. I took pictures as I was making my fabric star, not just to help me remember how to make it, but to chronicle it for the blog.

And Wednesday I’ll be able to use another of my pre-written poetry forms. Nice to have them ready to go. And of course Friday I only have to find a suitable excerpt from my NaNo novel.

Tuesday is the library for stitching, and I haven’t decided whether to take my zentangle to start a new square, or my kit because it’s better fabric to work on.

I didn’t take care of my indoor gardening last week, so it would be nice if I could find the time for it this week. I don’t know why, but my hearts on a string are starting to die. I haven’t changed anything about the way I’m looking after them, so maybe I need to look up what I should be doing differently. I also need to see how big of a pot my money tree can be put in.

But the priority for this week is going to have to be catching up on my NaNo. You’ve seen the numbers, I am seriously behind. I think the most I’ve written in one day during NaNo was 10,000 words. I could really use a day like that this week. 😊

Lot’s of stuff to do, I’m just waiting on the ambition to do it this week.

On Metafiction – Writersfest Part V

Metafiction says something. It has to do with taking a large fiction itself and writing within it; that kind of self-reflecting writing that emerges from it can be thought of as metafictional.
— Robert Coover

If Realism called it like it saw it, Metafiction simply called it as it saw itself seeing itself see it.
― David Foster Wallace

Why do I covet metafiction so much? Why do I nurture a style that David Foster Wallace purportedly exploded in the late 1980s, that is derided by most literary theorists as passé, that people tend to agree serves no worldly, moral purpose other than to draw attention to the writer’s own navel? Because, dammit, metafiction is relevant to today.
― M.J. Nicholls

Day two, workshop three was On Metafiction, facilitated by Kevin Chong, who is an associate professor at the University of British Columbia. I don’t mind admitting I had no clue what was meant by “metafiction”. But I soon found out

Get ready to subvert convention! While most stories hope to suspend the reader’s disbelief, metafiction actively reminds the reader that they are reading a work of fiction. In this workshop, you will explore examples and discuss techniques such as talking to the reader, alluding to the process of writing the story, writing characters who are aware that they are fictional and more.

This workshop was another one with a slow start due to technical difficulties. But obviously it didn’t hold things up for long because I have lots of notes. A little spotty and often incomprehensible notes, but there were lots of them.

Mr. Chong began by telling us about his fourth novel, The Double Life of Benson Yu, which is shortlisted for the Scotia Bank Giller Prize. The book has Yu telling twelve-year-old Benny’s story, a version of himself growing up in 1980s Chinatown. Then Benny enters the story as a real person.

Jacob Queen defines metafiction as any kind of storytelling where the creator is actively trying to make the audience think about the fact that what they are experiencing is a fictional account. The term was first coined by William H. Gass in 1970.

Why do writers use metafiction? To comment on how stories shape experience. To call attention to the artifice of storytelling. To dramatize the tension of the writer’s life. We exist in two worlds at all times; we live in two realities. Sometimes you’re in both at once, and sometimes you’re in neither place.

Writing Exercise: Write a one page story about two people planning to steal a painting.

“So, what do you think?” Biff had laid the plan out carefully, going over every detail.

“I don’t know, Biff,” Joey said, shaking his head slowly. Of course everything about Joey was a little slow.

“I tell you, it’s easy pickings,” Biff said, taking a swig of the beer he’d brought with him out to the front stoop. “We can be in and out of there before old lady Krantz even knows what’s what.”

“Yeah, but stealing from an old lady?” Joey shook his head again and took a drink from his own beer. “It just ain’t right, man.”

Biff held onto his patience by a slim thread. The job wasn’t possible without Joey. “Wasn’t old lady Krantz the one who ratted you out to your wife about you stepping out with that stripper named Polly?”

“Well, yeah.”

“And your wife done left you.”

“Yeah, she did.”

“And didn’t old lady Krantz tip off Levi Goldman that you were taking extra breaks out on the loading dock?”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Joey said, sitting up a little straighter.

“You lost your job over that one.”

“I sure did,” Joey said indignantly. “What’s an old lady like her doing owning a painting worth so much?”

“I don’t know, Joey.”

“I say we should take it from her and sell it. We can split the profit. What do you say, Biff?”

Biff just smiled.

Famous examples of metafiction include the French Lieutenant’s Woman, by John Fowles. The narrator becomes part of the story and offers several different ways to end the story. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde creates an alternate 1985, where detective Thursday Next chases a master criminal through the 1847 world of Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre. The movie, Stranger Than Fiction tells the tale of Harold Crick, who suddenly begins to hear an author inside his head, narrating his life. When he discovers that the author always ends her books by killing off the main character, he begins a journey to find her and change her mind.

Other books can be considered metafiction, even if they’re not described as such. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes is one. The hero reads too many stories and goes mad on his quest to become a knight. Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale has a famous epilogue that takes place in the future. Atonement, by Ian McEwan is set in three time periods, and at the end the character reveals she is the author and has changed the ending so it’s happy.

Techniques of metafiction:
One, the author directly comments on the story, addressing the reader.
Two, the author comments on the writing process.
Three, the author interacts with the characters.

Metafiction versus Autofiction

Autofiction is a term used to describe a group of writers who blended fiction with autobiography. Some of these writers include Sheila Heti, Ben Lerner, Rachel Kusk, and Karl Ove Knausgård. Like metafiction, autofiction often uses characters who have the same name as the authors. Autofiction trades more on the distinction between truth and reality. Metafiction is more concerned about the artifice of storytelling. It features more parody and pastiche. Finally, autofiction is rarely ever plotted. It’s almost like an essay.

Writing Exercise (part two): Take your first scene and add a metafiction element to it. You could address the reader, talk about how the story differs from a “real life” account, or discuss the painting.

“So, what do you think?” After laying out all the details, there weren’t anything to think about, as far as I was concerned.

“I don’t know, Biff,” Joey said slowly. God, everything Joey did was slow, even shaking his head at me.

“I tell you Joey, it’s easy pickings.” I took a swig of my beer to keep from smacking him upside the head. We was alone out here on the stoop.

“Yeah, but stealing from an old lady?” Joey took a drink from his own beer. “It just ain’t right.”

Man, if I didn’t need him to disarm the alarm system, I wouldn’t be wasting my time with him, you know what I mean?

“Wasn’t it old lady Krantz who ratted you out to your wife when you was stepping out with that stripper?”

“Well, yeah, but—”

You can’t let guys like Joey think too much, and I’m on a roll. “And wasn’t it old lady Krantz who tipped off Levi Goldman that you was taking extra smoke breaks out on the loading dock?”

“Well, yeah, but—”

“So she ruined your marriage and got you fired. So what do you owe her?”

“Yeah, what do I owe that old bat.”

Finally, I got a fire lit under him. You see the smoke?

“I’ll do it!” Joey said.

I just smiled. I knew he’d cave. What about you?

Is metafiction right for you? It works for you if you want to comment on story telling or you want an immersive story. It won’t work if you want a straight forward story. But give it a try – you never know . . .

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

THE WEEK IN REVIEW
The word for last week is . . . struggle. I was having sinus problems, which I figured was allergies, but it morphed into a sinus cold. A really, really bad sinus cold. So I spent most of my week popping sinus medication, which tends to cloud my already befuddled brain.

The weather is still pretty crappy, which I guess is really just typical for November. We’ve had a couple of hints of sun, but mostly it was grey and murky, sometimes windy. Wednesday night we had freezing rain but there was no sign of it by Thursday morning.

The cats have been weirdly affectionate lately, and it makes me wonder what’s up. I mean, they were cuddly as kittens, then kind of grew out of it, and now they’re starting to be more cuddly again. Dinsdale never gave up curling up with people (when he was in the mood) but now Khaos has been snuggling up with me when I’m in my recliner, and one night after I went to bed she curled up on my chest! None of the cats I’ve ever had has ever done that before.

NaNo has also been a bit of a struggle, but I started falling off the wagon when I came to the Nottawasaga stitchery retreat. Unlike the writing retreats, this one starts early, runs later in the day, and although we’re not chained to our stitching by any means, there’s not a lot of alone time for writing.

NEW WORDS:
2605+689+347+1057=4698 DOWN: 482 – words

Like the weather and my mood, the words have been pretty up and down lately. One week I seem to be up, the next I’ll be down. A little consistency might be nice.

Goals For Next Week:
Keep up the good work with the blogs

NANOWRIMO:
Day 5 – 1699
Day 6 – 1572
Day 7 – 1276
Day 8 – 2272
Day 9 – 628
Day 10 – 1488
Day 11 – 876
Total for week 2 – 9,811
Total for month – 16,567

I hate to admit it, but I’m still not all that keen on the story I’m working on. And I also hate to admit that it would be a lot easier to work on if I had some kind of outline. And as you can see, going on a stitching retreat in the middle of NaNo did not help my word count.

I’m also beginning to have my doubts if this story will go the distance. The beginning is more detailed than the original idea, and it’s set up nicely for the ending I envisioned. However, I’m beginning to see a few problems with the ending, such as there’s really no motivation for anyone to come back to this planet to “discover” the missing (and presumed dead) main character.

And how am I supposed to fit in the murder he’s supposed to have committed? AND the female main character is the key witness to what really happened, but she was shot and unconscious at the time. *sigh* I see many plot holes to be filled in my future.

Goal For Next Week:
Keep making the daily quota; catch up ASAP.

POETRY:
It was really helpful, having new poetry forms ready to go. All I had to do was schedule one of them to appear at the designated time on Wednesday. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. :-)

I think even after NaNo I’ll try to have a form or two ready for emergencies, like if I get called away for something and run out of time, or (like this week) I’m feeling like crap.

Goal For Next Week:
Think about doing the remaining three example poems.

CRAFTING:
Having nothing better to blog about, I really wanted to do a blog post on my woven fabric basket. But that meant I had to finish it first. So that’s how I spent my Sunday, taking pictures as I worked on it. The final picture on the post showed it woven together, but with pins still in it at the top.

Tuesday morning I finished the hand stitching around the top of my basket before going to the library for some more stitching. Everyone was suitably impressed.

Despite knowing I wouldn’t have my zentangle finished in time to make a tote bag out of it, I did do a bit more work on it as well. If I keep plugging away at it, I’ll have it ready in time for the next retreat.

Friday morning I loaded up the car, drove across town to pick up one of my guild sisters, and we hit the road for the Nottawasaga Resort for a stitchery retreat. You can read the full story on my Monday post (on my other blog).

Goal For Next Week:
Sew the brown bag; work on zentangle.

WHAT I’M READING:
I kind of stalled reading The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman, and the reason for this is because I was enjoying it so much that I didn’t want to take the chance of binge reading it. LOL

On the Kindle I finished Dead Even, by Patti Larson, and started The Guest is a Goner by Carly Winter.

Goal For Next Week:
Keep up the moderate reading habits.

THE WEEK AHEAD:

Honestly, that new leaf of mine is probably struggling as much as I am. This cold is kicking my butt big time. But, like that new leaf, I’m hanging in there.

The fact that I didn’t spend as much time in the office as I might have liked had more to do with my recliner being more comfortable than anything else. Plus the recliner was handy if I felt a nap coming on because of the cold medication I was taking.

As much as it’s fun to get away, it’s always nice to get back home again and get back into my routines. You know, as soon as I’m able to kick this darn cold to the curb and establish my routines again.

Seeing as it’s NaNo season, I’ll probably go with one of the new poetry forms I have in my “to be used” folder. That’s what I did them for, after all. Although I’d still like to work on the example poems to go with the other forms as well.

There’s a regular meeting of the stitchery guild on Tuesday, and this time we’re being offered the choice of a class making small Christmas trees out of fabric yo-yos, or folded fabric stars. I opted for the stars.

One of the things I absolutely have to do this week is tear my office apart to look for my idea notebook. This is a large, top wire bound notebook (think oversized steno pad) that I wrote down long ideas and notes on several of my unfinished books. And I cannot find it. It’s got to be in the office somewhere, I just have to find it.

Something non-writing that needs to go on the list this week is indoor gardening. I need to get rid of three dead plants – or is it four? And rearrange the plants on top of the tall bookcase in my office. I also need to pot the coleus clippings I took from my garden. I’m impressed with how quickly they rooted. And there are a couple of plants that need to be repotted.

And, of course, I need to catch up on my NaNo. At the writing of this (late Saturday night) I’m behind by almost 2000 words. *sigh*

So, lots to do this week. Let’s just hope I find the ambition to do it all.

Making Word Art – Writersfest Part IV

Good cover design is not only about beauty... it’s a visual sales pitch. It’s your first contact with a potential reader. Your cover only has around 3 seconds to catch a browsing reader’s attention. You want to stand out and make them pause and consider, and read the synopsis.
― Eeva Lancaster

Aspiring authors, get this through your head. Cover art serves one purpose, and one purpose only, to get potential customers interested long enough to pick up the book to read the back cover blurb. In the internet age that means the thumb nail image needs to be interesting enough to click on. That’s what covers are for.
― Larry Correia

I always think that it's wrong to put images of my protagonists on the cover of my novels because readers can identify with characters only if they are given the chance to imagine them independently.
― Orhan Pamuk

Back to the Writersfest reports this week. 😊

Day two, workshop two was Making Word Art, facilitated by Oliver McPartin.

Are you an artist wondering how to get into book design? Are you a writer wondering how book covers are made, and who gets a say? Want to develop your own unique typography to make your work unique? Graphic designer, illustrator and artist Oliver McPartlin offers an insight into the book jacket and typography design business.

This was another more seminar than workshop, so all we could do was sit there and take notes. And I gotta be honest here, my note-taking leaves much to be desired. But we weren’t allowed to record the workshops, so now I’m stuck trying to figure out what I’m talking about. LOL

There were a few technical glitches in the beginning. Mr. McPartlin’s presentation depended on being able to run a slide show from his laptop, and no one seemed to know how to get the interface between the laptop and the projector to work. We were finally saved by one of the maintenance men who doubled as the hotel’s IT guy.

When considering cover art, you must first consider what type of book you’re working with – who the audience is, who’s going to be buying the book. You’ll need to look at the demographics, genre, comparison titles, and do an evaluation pitch for the book to come up with an author kit.

Clichés and tropes are useful to let readers know what to expect. However, people on the cover will lead to that person sticking in the reader’s mind. This is why many books only show part of the face on their cover. Some trends serve a purpose. Big type is easy to read in Amazon thumbnails. But some design trends are just trends. The end goal is to sell more books.

Who gets a say in book covers? The author, publisher, marketing department, designer, retailer, distributer . . . all input is welcome. New authors tend to be more picky about their covers. Seasoned authors tend to be more easy going.

You need to learn the language. Authors and non-designers often know when something is wrong, but not how to fix it. Take direction with a grain of salt but try to meet them halfway. Don’t get attached to your first idea – pick your battles! Showing some flexibility on an inconsequential decision might lead to more important things.

Timelines are usually a season ahead for promotional purposes. The front cover is done well in advance of the back. Things can change along the way, like last minute title changes.

The number of versions needed varies. Short story collections are the most difficult and have the most versions. You can present a bunch of concepts, but not a bunch of variations on one concept. The Carson Method (named for David Carson) is to make fifty versions and tell them to pick.

The creative process is the fun part. Read the book only as much as you need to so you can skim for imagery. Iconography is important and useful. The trick is to use it in an interesting way. Look for the book’s internal iconography, an image that jumps out at you. Make sure the image fits the content.

Draw on visual elements from the text, even if no one will ever catch it. Reflect themes using existing symbols – green for jealousy, a dove for peace, pomegranate for knowledge, a rose for love, a dying rose for death/dying/murder.

Strive for quality. Take a step back and ask yourself if it looks good or not. If not, keep going. Taste is part of the process and is cultivated by practice. Pay attention to signage, fonts, photos, and ads. Spend time in bookstores looking at covers.

Know the elements of your own style so you know what to fall back on and to keep from overusing certain ideas. Follow designers on social media. Keep a stack of design books. Stay up on font trends – what’s overused, underused, esthetically pleasing, current.

Keep a list of techniques you want to try. Spend time with your software.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

THE WEEK IN REVIEW
The word for last week is . . . roller coaster. It may seem like a kind of strange word, but it’s fitting for the way my week was, including the weather.

When I was slacking off, I really slacked off – reading, playing games, napping – but when I mustered the energy to get doing stuff, I really went to town. So it was a pretty up and down week.

Weather-wise we seem to have had it all – wind, clouds, sun (a tiny bit), rain, snow . . . it was pretty up and down. My mood, however, pretty much stayed down. I don’t know if it had something to do with a change in my medication, or it was just me. I’m kind of hoping it was the medication, because that would make it temporary. If it’s just me, then who knows how long this mood will last?

It rained/snowed on Halloween, but that didn’t stop the 25 kids that came to our door. I was smart this year and made up bags to give out – 30 of them – and then got small bags of chips to go with them. So there’s not a whole lot of leftovers, as there was in previous years.

I was off to a slow start with NaNo. I kinda knew which idea I was going to go with, but I wanted to hedge my bets, so I was going to consult this oversized notepad I like to write longer ideas down in, only I couldn’t find it. I have no idea where it could be – I’ve gone through pretty much everything in my office, including the storage closet, but it seems to have vanished. Just like my little password book did.

And speaking of passwords . . . I did a factory reset on my Galaxy Tab E tablet (that I rarely use) and passed it on to the daughter so she could set it up for the granddaughter. Well, I’m not exactly sure why, but when I went to check my email Friday night, it wanted me to verify I was who I said I was, and to do so I had to sign into my email. The problem was, I had no clue what my password was because it was in the little password book I lost.

The next option for verification it gave me was to send a code to the Tab E, which I don’t have anymore. The third option was to send a code to my Hotmail account, which I haven’t checked in I-don’t-know-how long, and which took several tries before I got the password right. *sigh*

I did eventually get everything all straightened out, but it would have never happened if Staples hadn’t taken it upon themselves to sync my devices when I had my laptop in for a virus scan.

NEW WORDS:
2250+509+1197+1224=5,180
UP: 563 – words

Guess I had more to say than I thought last week. And the blog posts were all up early, too. I gotta tell you, it was a nice feeling to be able to relax at night instead of scrambling to get a post finished.

It made it easier to turn my attention to other things too, to read or stitch without feeling guilty. I hope this is something I can keep up in the weeks to come.

Goals For Next Week:
Keep up the good work with the blogs

NANOWRIMO:
Day 1 – 1730
Day 2 – 1651
Day 3 – 1651
Day 4 – 1724
Total for week 1 – 6,756
Total for month – 6,756

I will admit that I got off to a very slow start with NaNo this year. In fact, I was pretty lethargic about it, even on November 1. I had pretty much decided on the idea I was going to go with, but despite it’s potential, I was still pretty meh about the whole thing.

Late Wednesday afternoon I finally spent an hour searching for a name for my main character, and this was followed by working on a mock up of a cover for it so I could make my official announcement on the NaNo site.

And I will tell you for true, I hate the title and as soon as I can come up with something better I will be changing it. But so far I don’t know enough about the story to do so. It’s revealing itself slowly to me. I’m making my daily quota, but just barely. And it’s been mostly later in the day when I’m writing.

Goal For Next Week:
Keep making the daily quota; maybe try to get my words in earlier in the day.

POETRY:
Despite the fact that I had a form all ready to go, in the spirit of Halloween, I decided to go with a classic poem. I posted The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe, and included a video of Vincent Price reading it.

One of my goals before NaNo started was to have a couple of forms done, or close to being done, just to have ready to use in case I needed to focus on the words for NaNo. Well, I did the example for one of the poems that I’d researched and distilled the information for, and then researched and distilled the information for another form and before I knew what I was doing, I did an example for it too!

So that makes a total of four forms ready for posting, and three that just need an example. But I gotta tell you, one of those forms is going to be more challenging than one of the coded Welsh forms!

Goal For Next Week:
Take my time getting the remaining examples written.

CRAFTING:
This week it was back to the library for stitching, where admittedly we all got more talking than stitching done. Everyone was impressed that I wore my witch’s costume.

One of the ladies brought her woven basket to work on – she was down to just having to hand sew the strips at the top down. I would like to feature mine on my Monday post, which means I’ll need to unweave it so it’s flat and take pictures. I wish I’d thought to take pictures from the beginning though.

We talked a bit about the upcoming stitching retreat – 5 of the 7 of us who were at the library were going – and settled on our car pooling. Then I’d no sooner got home than one of the driving forces behind the retreats phoned me and talked me into signing up for one in March, too. LOL

I’ve given up on finishing my zentangle sampler, but I think I’ll take it with me to the retreat (which is next weekend!) to work on. Meanwhile, I have another bag I’d started years ago. The embroidery is finished, it just needs to be sewn together.

Goal For Next Week:
Finish my basket, sew together brown bag.

WHAT I’M READING:
I’m a little over halfway through The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman, and I’m finding it fascinating.

On the Kindle I finished Pawsitively Poisonous, by Melissa Erin Jackson. And I’m working on Dead Even, by Patti Larson now. BUT I updated my Goodreads, and I’m showing as having read 66/50 books read for the year. Guess I’ll need a bigger goal for next year, eh?

Goal For Next Week:
Keep up the moderate reading habits

THE WEEK AHEAD:

Well, I’d have to say that new leaf of mine is beginning to grow. Maybe not in the direction I was expecting, but it’s starting to push through.

This despite the fact that I didn’t spend as much time in my office as I would have liked, but that’s not entirely my fault. I don’t know what’s gotten into the cats lately, but they’ve been super cuddly. Khaos spent an entire day snuggled up to me in the recliner. Even after I had to gently move her so I could have a lunch/bathroom break, she was right back with me when I sat down again. Incidentally, this was the day I got all that poetry done. Maybe she’s my poetry mews?

Tuesday should prove interesting. My car needs to go in for servicing and to get the tires switched over to the winter ones. The hubby needs his car to drive his father to a medical appointment in Oshawa. There is a stitch-in at the library. Looks like I’m walking. 😊

With four poetry forms ready to go, I don’t feel the need to knock myself out writing poetry this week. Maybe I’ll start working on the hard one. After all, I’ll have four weeks before it’s needed.

I’ll finally be in a place to post an excerpt from this year’s NaNo for Fiction Friday this week. Hopefully it’ll be a decent one, although I have to say I’m not impressed with what I’m writing so far. Don’t get me wrong, with a little planning I think this story could be a winner, I just don’t have time for planning right now.

Like I said above, I’d like to get that brown, embroidered bag finished in time to take to the retreat with me, but I’ve been putting it off for twenty years now. Do I really think I’ll do it now? *shrug* Who knows? Stranger things have happened.

Friday I’ll be off to the Nottawasaga Inn (pretty much in the middle of nowhere) with my guild sisters. It should be a fun time. We have to drive right by this big outlet mall on the way, and there are already plans to stop and shop – no rush to get there, right? LOL

Time for some more lists, to keep me organized. And to remind myself of what all I have to do before I leave, and all of the things I want to take with me. You know, like my lap top, so I don’t fall behind on NaNo.

Three days away from home in the middle of NaNo. Good lord, what was I thinking?

Where There’s A Will There’s A Way

It’s the second last day of NaNo. I’m sitting around the 48,000 word mark as I type this, so there’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to write 2,000 words in two days.

Last week was a definite challenge, I tell you what. Because of my wrenched shoulder, early in the week I couldn’t type on the lap top at my desk. I had to have it sitting on my lap because my arm wouldn’t stretch to reach it. Finally I thought to squish a pillow in the chair beside me and prop my arm up on that, but I could only type for a short while before my hand and arm were aching too much to keep going.

Thank goodness for my Neo! But even typing on the it I had to type for a bit, rest a bit, pop an Advil and repeat as necessary. I finally broke down and went to the walk-in clinic and they pretty much told me what I already knew – I pulled the muscles really bad in my upper arm/shoulder and I needed to rest them as much as possible. They even gave me a sling to keep my arm immobile . . . but did not show me how to tie it and even watching YouTube videos I couldn’t figure it out. But they also gave me some kick-ass anti-inflammatories. :-)

I’ve kind of written myself into a corner and I’m not sure how to get out of it again. Originally I was going to have Brand, my main character, acquire a special sword to rescue this female magic worker that he teams up with. However, he hasn’t met her yet and I have him paired up with a fellow mercenary – they’re like blood brothers. They’ve ticked off the religious fanatics and the sidekick is ripe for tangling with the bad guys, which will require Brand to get the sword to save him. But I still want him to face off the bad guys to save the girl, so I don’t know how I’m going to work that all in.

I do not want to turn this into a series, but I did originally have a couple of short stories using this character and I kind of wanted to incorporate some of the action from them into this book, but other than one of the fight scenes it doesn’t really work – my character has changed too much. *sigh*

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

I had a couple of 1,000 word days, and a couple of 700 word days, but thanks to the extra words I had accumulated earlier I never really fell behind. And yeah, my arm got achy from time to time but I just kept going anyway. I was not going to let a little thing like a wrenched shoulder keep me from my NaNo goal, especially since this year I was keeping up a steady pace.

The story is a real mess. I have so totally departed from my original idea that I don’t know if there’s any getting back to it. Believe it or not, I’m only now getting to the part where he meets his magical partner, so there’s plenty of story left to tell. But there are going to be a lot of kinks to work out first. Really not looking forward to editing this puppy.

Goals From Last Week

1. Edits on book flood stories – didn’t even look at the stories, but I did order myself a coil binder to make my book flood books.
2. Blog posts – despite my injury, I got them all up. And on time too!
3. More words on Firestorm – only 2,000 to go and I’m done!

Goals For This Week

1. Finish NaNo – but continue with the story.
2. Start getting the book flood stories organized.
3. Blog posts should be a given, but I’m putting them as a goal anyway.
4. Finish editing the story I plan to submit this week.