Alexander is the author of the collections Universal Love and Children of the New World, which was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and a best book of the year by NPR, Google, and Electric Literature. His fiction and interviews have appeared in Rolling Stone, World Literature Today, Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy, and Best American Experimental Writing.

He is the founder and director of The Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing and is a Professor of Creative Writing at Siena Heights University. Today we will be talking about his latest story collection: Universal Love.

In this episode Alexander and I discuss:

• How he balanced hope and cynicism in stories set in the not too distant future.
• His process for building a short story collection and choosing what was included.
• Why you should embrace the mess of early drafts and take plenty of risks.

Plus, his #1 tip for writers.

About the Alexander

Alexander Weinstein is the author of the collections Universal Love and Children of the New World, which was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and a best book of the year by NPR, Google, and Electric Literature. His fiction and interviews have appeared in Rolling Stone, World Literature Today, Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy, and Best American Experimental Writing. He is the founder and director of The Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing and a Professor of Creative Writing at Siena Heights University. 

You can find Alexander on his website or follow him on Facebook and Instagram.

Universal Love

A hypnotic collection of speculative fiction about compassion, love, and human resilience in the technological hyper-age, from Alexander Weinstein, author of Children of the New World. 

Universal Love welcomes readers to a near-future world where our everyday technologies have fundamentally altered the possibilities and limits of how we love one another. In these gripping stories, a young boy tries to understand what keeps his father tethered to the drowned city they call home. A daughter gets to know her dead mother’s hologram better than she ever knew her living mother. And, at a time when unpleasant memories can be erased, a man undergoes electronic surgery to have his depression, and his past, forever removed.

In an age when technology offers the easiest cures for loneliness, the characters within these stories must wrestle with what it means to stay human in an increasingly cybernetic future, and how love can endure even the most alluring upgrades.

In the vein of Weinstein’s critically-acclaimed first collection, Universal Love is a visionary book, written with one foot in the real world and one stepping bravely into the future.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link, where if you choose to purchase via the link DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 366

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The post Episode 366: The Art and Craft of a Short Story Collection – Interview with Alexander Weinstein appeared first on DIY MFA.

If you missed our previous posts on this theme, why not read those first? Start with our case study on man and the natural world if you’d like an introduction to the theme. Or check out our recommended reading list of books about man and the natural world or our five reasons for why this theme matters. Otherwise, let’s get writing!

Make the Setting Integral to the Plot

Setting is already one of your story’s central elements. So when man and the natural world is one of the themes, the setting becomes an even bigger player in the game–so big, in fact, that it can influence the plot.

Think of stories you’ve read where the plot relies on the setting. How do the unique natural elements of the setting make the story’s events possible? In Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden, for example, Mary’s transformation from sickly and selfish to healthy and caring happens as a result of her nurturing her uncle’s abandoned garden back to life. The friendships she develops with the other residents of Misselthwaite Manor contribute to this as well. But how would the story change if Mary was sent to live in a downtown orphanage that had no garden? The theme of man and the natural world would probably disappear—and the plot of this classic children’s tale would be drastically different.

So as you determine how the setting influences the plot, consider the following six keys to connecting these two building blocks of storytelling:

1. Location: Where does the story take place? Ensure you think about the macro (country, state, town / city) and micro (neighborhoods, buildings, landmarks) elements of the location.
2. Time: When does the story take place? Consider the time period, season, and (for certain scenes) the time of day. Whether it’s daytime or nighttime can significantly impact how a scene plays out.
3. Natural Elements: What are some of the unique natural elements (e.g., topography, climate, bodies of water, weather conditions, wildlife) of this location at this time?
4. Goals: What is the character’s goal in this story? What conflict is he trying to resolve?
5. Connection: How does the character’s story goal or main conflict connect with the setting? In other words, how do the setting and its unique natural elements make the story possible?
6. Impact: How do the natural elements of the setting affect or influence the character’s ability to achieve his story goal or resolve the main conflict?

If you’re unsure of how to answer the final question, stay tuned for more insights and a related exercise in the next section.

Exercise #1

Choose a setting with natural elements that could play a big role in a story, and write down your answers to the six questions listed above. (This setting can be one you’ve written about before or one that’s brand new.) Then write a scene or short story in which the character’s story-goal pursuit or the main conflict relies on this setting and its natural elements. 

How does the natural world make the character’s struggles or the scene’s events possible? How would the scene / story change—or be rendered impossible—if it occurred in a setting with different natural elements?

Also, check out the writing exercises in our post on using setting to illustrate literary themes.

“Characterize” Nature as Your Character’s Friend or Foe

No story ever goes smoothly for the protagonist. Between the beginning and the end, she’ll run into complications and setbacks as she struggles to reach her goal or resolve the main conflict. And in stories where man and the natural world is a central theme, these complications include natural obstacles that hinder the character’s progress or threaten the safety of herself and others. In this way, nature acts as one of the story’s antagonists. It may not be a human character whose motives and actions oppose the protagonist’s, but the power it holds over the protagonist through changing weather, expected seasonal conditions, and natural disasters can just as easily throw her off course. 

It’s also important to consider how the natural world can help the protagonist. Sometimes it’s more like a friend or ally and assists the character through shelter, sources of food or water, and signals of danger. Elements like these can give the protagonist a sense of hope, relief, joy, and other positive emotions that can, among other things, rekindle their commitment to their story goal. They must also be carefully chosen based on what occurs or is available in the story’s setting.

If you need some examples on how nature can antagonist or assist your character, here are two excellent ones:

• Rae Carson’s Walk on Earth a Stranger: Leah Westfall rides in a covered wagon across the American plains and Rocky Mountains to reach the gold mines of California. Along the way, she braves whitewater rapids, a buffalo stampede, oppressive heat, and other natural elements that act as obstacles to her journey and overall safety. She also witnesses the beauty of natural landmarks and acknowledges her gratitude for off-road hiding spots and other ways that nature protects her.
• Andy Weir’s The Martian: After being left behind on the planet Mars, astronaut Mark Watney must find a way to survive until a rescue mission arrives. The planet’s harsh environment—marked by dust storms, frigid temperatures, dangerous terrain, and lack of oxygen—makes this the biggest challenge of his life. But thanks to his engineering ingenuity, Mark figures out how to grow a crop of potatoes inside his laboratory using technology, Martian soil, and (*ahem*) human waste, which stretches his food supply and increases his odds of living long enough to come home.

Exercise #2A

Create a two-column table on paper or in a word processing document. Label the columns “Antagonize” and “Assist.” Then, in each column, list the ways in which the story’s setting and its natural elements either antagonize or assist the protagonist as she works toward achieving her goal or resolving the main conflict. Don’t worry if you fill one column with more ideas than the other, but make sure you consider how the natural world can both hinder and help the protagonist in her efforts.

Exercise #2B

Return to the scene or short story you wrote for Exercise #1, and write two new scenes: one where the setting and its natural elements antagonize the protagonist, and one where they assist her. Or, if you’re up for a challenge, write a single scene where the natural world does both for the character. How does your character react to these events? How do they complicate or aid her progress? How does it all make her feel? Is it even possible for nature to be both friend and foe in your story? If so, what does the protagonist think about this duality?

Infuse Your Descriptions of Nature with the Character’s Mood

Stories about man and the natural world never skim the setting’s surface. The natural elements must be carefully considered and described appropriately. This doesn’t mean you need to write about every leaf, insect, or drop of water. Rather, focus first on the elements that the character would notice and that best serve the scene, and then phrase those descriptions based on how the character thinks, feels, or reacts at that moment.

Put yourself in your character’s shoes and imagine he’s in a natural setting. What kind of environment is he in? What time of day is it? What’s the weather like? What kinds of wildlife (flora, fauna, etc.) does the character notice? What other unique elements of that setting does he make note of? Then consider the character’s circumstances and emotions at that moment. What just happened or is currently happening in the story? What thoughts or emotions is the character experiencing as a result? How do the setting’s natural elements and current conditions exacerbate his situation and feelings? Or how do they make things more bearable for him?

Remember that the key here is to illustrate the character’s relationship with nature. This is why it’s crucial to frame the description according to his observations, circumstances, and attitude at that moment. Depending on what’s happening, the character might not pay much attention to the dry grass or the chirping of crickets, but he may be exhausted enough to notice the heat and lack of shade. Or maybe he’ll be so distracted by the beauty of the moon that he doesn’t realize how much the temperatures have dropped. By inhabiting your character fully in each scene, you’ll ensure your descriptions of nature are accurate, imaginative, and meaningful.

Exercise #3

Review the last scene you wrote for your story, and notice your character’s state of mind at the end. Then, imagine your character going outside immediately after this scene ends and into the closest natural environment. What is that environment like? How does that environment affect the character’s mood? Or how does the character’s mood influence what he notices about the natural setting? List various scenarios such as daytime versus nighttime, heat versus cold, rain versus sunshine, etc. and determine how the character’s reaction changes in each one. If the story’s next scene were to occur outdoors, which scenario would be most impactful? Why?

Use the Story’s Events to Demonstrate Humanity’s Impact on Nature

We’ve likely read stories where trees are cut down, animals are forced to leave their homes, and pollution dirties the water and air. These and other moments are meant to remind readers of the havoc humanity can wreak on the natural world and the potential consequences if no one takes action to stop it. This also creates the reverse scenario of Exercises #2A and #2B above. Instead of nature acting as an antagonist to a human character, this time the character is antagonizing nature.

When taking this approach to the theme, first consider why the destruction is happening. For example, if characters are razing a forest, what are their reasons for doing so? Do they want the land for farming or development for homes and businesses? Do they need wood and other natural resources for their use or consumption? Are they driving out inhabitants such as birds, animals, and people—or using them to further their goals?

Next, ponder the consequences of this devastation. How would the natural elements of this setting change forever if the antagonist’s plans are carried out to completion? Think about how the terrain, wildlife, climate, and other aspects of nature would be impacted. How would these changes affect the characters living and working there? (Food and water supply, weather conditions, options for shade or cover, and nature’s aesthetic qualities are just some of the things to consider here.) Maybe even the worst-case scenario has already become reality. Jay Kristoff’s Stormdancer is a harrowing example of characters living—and dying—in a country where deforestation and pollution due to industrialization have led to climate change, famine, and disease, among other problems. 

This angle on the theme doesn’t have to be all “gloom and doom,” though. In most cases, one of the characters—your protagonist, for instance—may be determined to fight back or counter the damage that’s been done. If so, then ask yourself why this character cares so much about the world she lives in. What is she willing to do to save what’s left of it? Most importantly, what steps will she take (perhaps with help) to achieve her goal? Once you’ve brainstormed this as well as the reasons for and consequences of the destruction of the natural setting, you’ll have in place the first puzzle pieces for an exciting and emotionally charged story.

Exercise #4

Brainstorm the ways in which the natural world of your story’s setting could be impacted by your characters. If it helps, create a table that lists different “man-made” scenarios, possible reasons for each one occurring, and its impacts on the environment and the characters. Where does your protagonist fit into the picture on any of these scenarios? Would she be assisting with the destruction? Or fighting to stop it? Make note of her motivations for engaging in either side, then write a scene or short story in which the character witnesses or participates in the devastation. What does she or other characters try to do to save the story’s setting?

How have you explored man and the natural world in your own stories? What other writing prompts or exercises would you recommend to nurture this theme?

Sara Letourneau is a freelance editor and writing coach who lives in Massachusetts. She’s also a poet whose work has appeared in Mass Poetry’s Poem of the Moment, The Aurorean, The Avocet, The Bookends Review, Golden Walkman Magazine, Soul-Lit, and other journals and anthologies. She can often be found performing her poems at local open mic nights, reading good books, roaming the shores of Cape Cod, and enjoying a cup of tea. Learn more about how Sara can help you with your writing at Heart of the Story Editorial & Coaching Services. You can also connect with her at her writer website, Twitter, Goodreads, or Instagram.

The post Writing Exercises for Exploring the Theme of Man and the Natural World appeared first on DIY MFA.

• longing for a mother
• discovering “truth” about oneself
• searching for home
• finding a religion

In a way the whole story is a hide-and-seek. The protagonist is trying to hunt, seek, uncover, dis-cover, and arrive at some “thing.” The best way to communicate that thing is through metaphor: a central image that can tie your book together. It should be something packed with possibility.

• In Pete Hautman’s Godless a group of teenagers decide to create a religion devoted to worshipping the town water tower.
• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd features a honey jar as clue to the past.
• The Double Life of Zoe Flynn by Janet Lee Carey features a glass doorknob carried by the protagonist, who is longing for home.

Each of these books features multiple scenes with the talisman. In fact, for each book, the talisman is featured on the original cover art.

Janet Lee Carey actually carries her book’s talisman with her, as she works on the manuscript. During the writing of The Double Life of Zoe Flynn, she carried a glass doorknob in her voluminous bag. While passing through airport security, her talisman was picked up by the x-ray machine. When the security staffer pulled it out of the bag, all Janet could think to do was stammer, “I’m a writer!” (If you ever meet Janet, ask her to tell you the rather mysterious story of how she found the glass doorknob.)

• What is your talisman?
• Plan three scenes focused on your talisman.
• Write one of those scenes.

Find an object you can carry around with you that symbolizes your central metaphor. Carry it around, if you can, for the rest of the time you are writing your novel.

But do have an explanation prepared for Homeland Security.

Katherine Grace Bond often finds herself in the woods of Washington State escaping from giant cats and shadowy figures in cloaks. She is the creator of TEENWrite acting/writing workshops, where participants come as their characters. Visit www.KatherineGraceBond.com She is the author of the young adult novel The Summer of No Regrets (Sourcebooks, May 2012).

The post Find Your Talisman appeared first on DIY MFA.

This technique is especially useful when you need to give a short excerpt of your WIP to a critique partner who has never seen the project before.  In the writing class where I first learned this technique, all the students were submitting from novels-in-progress so the Rough Sketch (as our teacher called it) was essential for bringing the rest of the class up to speed.  Since taking that class, I made some adjustments to the Rough Sketch, renamed it as “Story Sketch” and added several of my own touches.

Here’s how to create a Story Sketch for your WIP.  First, download a Story Sketch Worksheet by clicking the link and fill it out.  Read on for an explanation of the worksheet.

Title:

This one is obvious, but worth mentioning nonetheless.  Make sure the title of your WIP is at the top of your Story Sketch.

Flap Copy:

The flap copy is the description you would find on the inside flap of your WIP if it were a printed book.  It’s like a short teaser enticing readers to want to pick up your book and read it.

Important Characters:

Choose five.  Yes, just five characters out of your entire cast.  I know it might be tough, but narrow the choices down to the five most important players.

World:

Briefly describe the setting or world where your story takes place.

Narration:

What is the point of view for your piece?  1st Person?  3rd Person?  Who narrates the story?  What words capture the voice of the narration?  Formal?  Conversational?  Snarky, perhaps?

Fortune Cookie:

The rectangle represents the fortune inside a fortune cookie.  In this rectangle, write a fortune cookie saying that captures the theme of your story.  (E.g. The Wizard of Oz might be summed up by “There’s no place like home.”)

Music:

What song or piece of music captures the mood of your piece?

Images:

Collect a few images that communicate the essence of your story and attach them to your rough sketch.  You can also include a paint chip or fabric swatch.  If you have artistic tendencies, you can also include doodles or sketches.

Using this worksheet, create a Story Sketch for your Work-In-Progress.

The post How to Create a Snapshot of your Work-in-Progress with a Story Sketch appeared first on DIY MFA.

Colors and Their Meanings:

Combining colors lends nuance.

Blue alone might symbolize peace and calm, but add red and yellow, and you get the primary colors which imply youth.  Replace the yellow with white and you get a patriotic color combination.  When you pair colors together, their meanings can change or acquire nuance.

Introduction to Color Theory:

Red, Yellow and Blue are the primary colors.

They are called primary colors because you cannot mix any other colors together to get these three.

Note: red, yellow and blue are primary colors for pigment.  When you’re talking about color and light, the primaries are actually red, green and blue but that gets us into the differences between the color of light and the color of pigment and that’s the subject of another post.

Orange, Green and Purple are secondary colors.

They are called secondary because you can make them by mixing only two primaries.

See the color wheel below for primary and secondary colors.  Primaries are marked with a 1 and secondaries are marked with a 2.

Colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel are complementary colors.

These colors complement each other well and provide contrast.  Each of the primary colors has a secondary color as its complement.

But, what does this have to do with writing?

The post How to Use Color Theory to Boost Your Writing appeared first on DIY MFA.

I learned the benefits of this technique when I was in design school studying toy design.  “Mood boards”–where we captured the mood and overall look of a design project–were an integral part of each portfolio presentation.  In these focused collages, we learned the importance of communicating the essence of a product or brand through imagery.

How do you make a mood collage?

There are no rules.  You can clip pictures from magazines or cut out letters and words in different fonts.  You don’t even need to use concrete objects or words but can make a cool background by using printed fabrics or textured papers.  Use whatever inspires you, as long as it fits the mood of your project.

Idea: Think beyond the flat page and create a three-dimensional collage by gluing down trinkets or 3D objects.  Flat canvas not your style?  Glue your collage to the outside of a round metal canister or the inside surface of shoebox.

Once you’ve collected your materials, lay out the pieces in a way that inspires you and move things around until you’ve got a design that you like.  Finally, break out the glue-stick or glue-gun and start sticking the pieces down.

Sometimes I use Photoshop to create mood collages because it’s easy to download pictures from the web, clip them compile the images in one digital file.  A bonus of making collages digitally is that it’s easy to print them out in different sizes, email them to people or even post them on websites or blogs. Other times, though, I prefer making my collages the old-fashioned way with scissors and glue.  Whatever your preferred method, the goal is the same: to capture the mood of your work-in-progress with your collage.

Here are a few mood collages I’ve made:

Mood collage for a road trip project.

Mood collage for a project about a wedding.

Mood collage for a project about cats.

Try This: Set aside one hour to make a mood collage for your work-in-progress.

Tip: The one-hour time limit is crucial.  After all, you don’t want to invest so much time making a mood collage that you sacrifice your valuable writing time.  Force yourself to work quickly so you stay within this time limit so you avoid tinkering with the collage for too long.

Clip pictures from magazines or print images you find online and cut them up.  If you like, while you’re clipping pictures and gluing, listen to some mood music that inspires your story.  The idea with this project is to get completely immersed in the mood of your work-in-progress.

Once you’ve finished your collage, give it a place of honor in your writing space.  To those brave writers among you, scan the collage and share it on the DIY MFA Facebook page so we can all ooh and ah at your awesome project!  Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

The post Set the Mood for Your Story With a Mood Collage appeared first on DIY MFA.

1) Establish Writing Session Rituals

I’ve been writing with the same type of notebook and pen for years, and it’s not uncommon for writers to have rituals like this. I once heard of a writer who wore different hats for drafting and editing so she could get into the mindset of the different tasks. Other writers have a particular place where they like to write or a preferred beverage sitting next to them as they work. You name the quirk and chances are, some writer out there has it. Whatever the ritual, though, there has to be a reason why writers do this and why it works. Here’s my guess: these rituals are sensory cues that remind your brain “OK, time to buckle down and write.” While they may seem silly at times, they help get you into that writing mood even on days when your muse has decided to go on vacation.

2) Tap Into the Five Senses

This goes hand-in-hand with the idea of setting up rituals to create your optimal writing session. Engaging the senses is sort of like jump-starting a car; it can jolt your brain out of its comfort zone and into action, helping you get those writerly juices flowing. Everyone has one of the five senses that really pushes his or her creative buttons. For some writers, it’s sounds or colors. For others, texture or taste. Personally, I find smell to be especially powerful, and I often need only one whiff of a familiar scent to get my brain right back into a particular project.

3) Break Out of Routine

While rituals and sensory cues can be a great reminder that it’s time to get to work, sometimes they can get out of control. It’s a fine line between using rituals to kick-start your writing versus depending so much on those routines that you can’t write without them. Suppose one morning Zabar’s happens to be out of your favorite chocolate eclairs. You can’t just have a meltdown in the middle of the baked-goods aisle. Instead, you need to use this change in routine to your advantage. Sometimes all it takes is one small, new thing to boost you out of a writing rut.

4) Set a Timer

It never ceases to amaze me what a simple time constraint can do for my productivity. If I sit down with a huge chunk of writing time ahead of me, chances are I’ll waste at least half of it reading email, checking Twitter or surfing the web. If, on the other hand, I have only 30 minutes to work you can bet I’ll be writing up a storm during that short block of time. Sometimes I’ll purposefully schedule appointments with oddball blocks of time in between where I know I’ll be forced to work fast.

5) Realize There Is No Such Thing as the “Right Mood” to Write

In the end, you don’t need the right pen or the right egg timer or even the right chocolate eclair in order to write. Just apply some glue to the seat of your pants and sit your backside in that chair. (OK, the glue is optional.) Seriously, though, some writers get so caught up in getting our surroundings “just so” that they never get started on the real work: writing. Sometimes you just have to dive in and figure out later whether you know how to swim. Or as Ray Bradbury put it: “First you jump off the cliff and build your wings on the way down.”

What do you do to set the mood for an optimal writing session? Any go-to rituals in your repertoire or a something you do to shake up your routine?

The post Setting the Mood for an Optimal Writing Session appeared first on DIY MFA.