Write The Book: Conversations on Craft

Yvonne Daley - Interview #358 (7/27/15)

Gary Lee Miller interviews Yvonne Daley, Director of the Green Mountain Writers' Conference and author of five nonfiction books, including The Bend In The Road: Lenny Burke's Farm, published by Northshire.

This week's Write the Book Prompt was generously offered by Yvonne Daley. These are lines from people’s Instagram profiles. Use one or more as inspiration for a fictional piece with the line being the online dating or Instagram profile of your character. Alternatively, if you are writing nonfiction, what would someone in your piece write for their one-line description of him or herself. If you’re a poet, play with one or more of these self-descriptions in an ironic or wry manner as a way of commenting on contemporary communication.

• A man of mystery and power, whose power is exceeded only by his mystery
• Buoyant, waggish, efficacious, indefatigable, demiurgic, convivial marketing companion, self-made thousandaire
• Currently starring in my own reality show titled, A Modern Cinderella; One Girl’s Search for Love and Shoes
• Currently working towards an MBA with an emphasis in fantasy football
• Don’t think for a second that I actually care what you have to say
• Fabulous ends in “us.” Coincidence? I think not
• Generally, the path of least resistance appeals. Also, I am excellent at parallel parking.
• I always feel sad for seedless watermelons, because what if they wanted babies?
• I am an actor and a writer and I co-created my breakfast and my son, Malachai.
• I am coming back to face the reality that a normal day is not beer on the beach or calamari in the belly.
• I can quote (Insert movie) better than you and all your friends.
• Can’t remember who I stole my bio from or why
• I have not lost my mind – it’s backed up on HD somewhere.
• I have this new theory that human adolescence doesn’t end until your early thirties.
• I hope one day I love something the way women in commercials love yogurt
• I looked at my Instagram photos and realized I look beautiful.
• I once sneezed a beanie weenie through my nose. I also made a horse faint in Costa Rica.
• I only rap caucasionally
• I prefer my puns intended
• I put the hot in psychotic
• I recently gave up Warcraft so my productivity, and drinking, have increased dramatically.

Good luck with this exercise and please listen next week for another.

Music credits: "I Could Write a Book," by the Boston-based band, Possum.

Christine Sneed - Interview #357 (7/20/15)

Award-winning author Christine Sneed, whose novel Paris, He Said, came out this spring from Bloomsbury USA.

Christine Sneed generously offered two Write the Book Prompts when I spoke to her. Gary Miller read one of them on the show last week. You can find it here. The second is a dialogue-writing exercise that Christine uses to encourage her undergrads to write with restraint. Write a short scene that happens almost entirely in dialogue.  Keep it to 2 or 3 characters.  In the scene, one of the characters should reveal a secret or some fact that worries or upsets the other person(s) in the scene.  Don’t overdo the reaction. Think about gestures the characters might also make or the physical/sensory details that would enable your readers to see the scene even more vividly.

Good luck with this exercise and please listen next week for another.

Music credits: 1) “Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) “Filter” - Dorset Greens (a Vermont band featuring several former South Burlington High School students).

Mark Andrew Ferguson - Interview #356 (7/13/15)

Gary Lee Miller interviews Mark Andrew Fersuson about his debut novel, The Lost Boys Symphony, published by Little Brown and Company in March 2015. 

This week's Write the Book Prompt comes from Christine Sneed, who will be Shelagh's guest on the show next Monday. They will discuss Christine's new book, Paris, He Said, which came out on May 5th from Bloomsbury. Write a scene in which you describe the room of a close family member through the eyes of a narrator who admires what he/she sees. (Either first or third person point of view, whatever you prefer). Now describe the same room from the POV of someone who is critical of the room. 

Good luck with this exercise and please listen next week for another.

Music credits: "I Could Write a Book," by the Boston-based band, Possum.

Diane Lefer - Interview #355 (7/6/15)

Author, playwright and activist Diane Lefer, whose new book is Confessions of a Carnivore, published by Burlington, VT publisher, Fomite Press. Visit Second Chances LA to read Diane's interviews with torture victims in her local (Los Angeles) community. 

This week’s Write The Book Prompt was suggested by my guest, Diane Lefer, who says that writers sometimes forget to consider what their characters want at different points in their fictional lives. She likes to present a character’s emotional life, and not just the facts. The prompt, then, is to write, “When I was five years old, what I wanted more than anything else in the world was…” and finish that statement. Write it again, beginning, “When I was ten years old,” and “When I was fifteen years old.” Keep going with this. Choose the intervals of time that make the most sense for your age or for that of your character. See how the desire changes, and keep that in mind as you write.

Good luck with this exercise and please listen next week for another.

Music credits: 1) “Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) “Filter” - Dorset Greens (a Vermont band featuring several former South Burlington High School students).

Elena Delbanco - Interview #354 (6/29/15)

Author Elena Delbanco, a co-founder of the Bennington Writing Workshops, whose debut novel, The Silver Swan, came out this spring from The Other Press. 

This week’s  Write The Book Prompt was suggested by my guest, Elena Delbanco. Write about a piece of music. This may sound easy, but it is not. Describing sound is difficult in much the same way that describing color or the quality of light can be difficult. Do you use metaphor? Do you rely on adjectives? But don’t rely too heavily, or the prose might be cumbersome for your reader. Try to convey the sound of the music, as well as the impact it has on the listener. Let your first try be clunky; don’t worry about it. Listen as you write. Maybe you’ll write unexpected words, nonsensical words. That’s fine. Go with that. See what happens. And later, revise.

Good luck with this exercise and please listen next week for another.

Music credits: 1) “Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) “Filter” - Dorset Greens (a Vermont band featuring several former South Burlington High School students).