That’s the thing with parents in Young Adult literature—can’t live with them, can’t live without them. Teens are exploring their world for the first time, attempting to establish their own identity separate from their families of origin, so you will find almost all characters going on adventures independent of their parents.

If you are writing a young adult novel, it’s important to consider your characters’ parents on the front end, and develop them into three-dimensional, well rounded, fully fleshed out people to avoid stereotypes and cookie cutter plot devices.

Where it Started, Where We Are

When some of the first young adult novels came out in the 1960s, Julie Just from the New York Times said the parent narrative “fit in neatly with the classic narratives: its strongest stories were about orphans and lost boys of one kind or another.” In these novels, issues weren’t with parents but with other kids. 

But by the 70s and 80s, the narrative started to shift the conflict from friendships to what was happening at home. This is where the problem parent narrative entered the scene, and has never left. It’s not to say all parents should be problematic, because surely there are still supportive parents out there, but you do have to consider the role the parents will play because it’s a significant part of young adults lives…and of course, how to get rid of them so teens characters can go on their adventures.

Approaches to Developing Your Characters’ Parents

Active and supportive parents 

By all means, you can make the parents a positive force in your protagonist’s life. Or even if the protagonist’s parents aren’t the greatest, one of the side characters could have supportive parents. They can serve as mentors, confidants, or sources of guidance for the protagonist. 

This approach emphasizes a positive parent-child relationship and showcases the protagonist’s growth while navigating challenges. 

Here are a few examples of novels who took this approach:

• The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas: The protagonist, Starr, has parents who are actively involved in her life, providing support and guidance as she navigates the aftermath of witnessing a police shooting.
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling: Although Harry’s parents are deceased so you wouldn’t consider them active, their love and sacrifice play a significant role throughout the series, shaping Harry’s journey and providing emotional support.

Tips for crafting Active and Supportive Parents

• Show moments of emotional connection between the parents and your characters.
• Illustrate how the parents’ guidance and presence positively impact the protagonist’s journey.
• Use the parents’ wisdom or advice to provide insights and lessons for your characters’ growth.

Absent or Neglectful Parents

Absent or neglectful parents create a ton of opportunities for tension and conflict. This can lead the protagonist down the path of having to fend for themselves or seek support from alternative sources, such as friends, mentors, or other family members. It allows for a greater sense of independence and self-discovery as the protagonist overcomes obstacles. 

And the reality for a lot of kids is this is their lived experience, so experiencing a character overcoming this struggle can help them process their own life circumstances. 

Check out these novels for examples of this approach to parents:

• A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas: The main character, Feyre, has a neglectful and unsupportive family. Her journey takes her into the magical Fae realm where she finds a new family and discovers her own strength.
• Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell: The novel tells the story of two misfit teenagers, Eleanor and Park, who bond over music and comics. Eleanor comes from a troubled home with neglectful and abusive parents, which adds to the challenges they face in their relationship.

Tips for crafting Absent or Neglectful Parents

• Explore the protagonist’s emotions and reactions to their parents’ absence, such as feelings of abandonment or independence.
• Emphasize the impact of the absent or neglectful parents on the protagonist’s self-reliance and resilience.
• Showcase the protagonist seeking alternative sources of support and building relationships with other characters.

Overprotective or Controlling Parents 

This is basically the opposite of the parental figure we just explored. There are so many challenges characters can face when dealing with overprotective or controlling parents, and a tremendous amount of conflict can come from this. 

In some novels, this role of the parents actually creates the plot in the novel. Obstacles arise as the main character tries to assert her independence, make her own choices, or pursue her dreams. The positive side, it creates opportunities for the protagonist to develop resilience and assertiveness. 

Here are a couple novels that wrote this kind of parental figure well:

• Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon: This is a novel where the main character’s overprotective mom creates the plot for the whole novel. Olly has a rare disease, where she is allergic to basically the whole world, and her mother keeps her protected from it. But when the new boy next door catches Olly’s eye, she begins to push the boundaries of her mother’s rules thus setting the story into motion.
• We Were Liars by E. Lockhart: The story features a wealthy family known as the Sinclairs, and the main character, Cadence, has overprotective parents who try to control her life. Their actions and secrets play a significant role in the unfolding mystery.

Tips for Crafting Overprotective or Controlling Parents

• Highlight the tension and conflict arising from the overprotective or controlling behavior.
• Explore the internal struggle of the protagonist, torn between their desire for independence and their parents’ restrictions.
• Allow the protagonist to assert their autonomy and challenge their parents’ control throughout the story, creating opportunities for the protagonist to defy their parents’ expectations and find their own path.

Complex Parent-Child Relationships

No one is really all good or all bad, right? Creating nuanced parent-child relationships that blend positive and negative aspects might be the most realistic approach to developing parents in young adult novels. 

Showing the complexities of family dynamics, with parents who have their own flaws, conflicting expectations, or differing values from the protagonist can add depth and realism to the story. 

A couple examples of novels that did this well are:

• Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver: The main character, Samantha, experiences a time loop, reliving the last day of her life repeatedly. Her complex relationship with her parents, including their expectations and conflicts, contributes to the overall narrative and Samantha’s self-discovery.
• Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo: The characters in this novel come from various backgrounds with complex relationships with their parents or parental figures. Kaz Brekker, for example, has a complicated history with his deceased parents, which shapes his actions and motivations.

Tips for Crafting Complex Parent-Child Relationships

• Unveil the layers of the relationship through meaningful dialogue, flashbacks, or shared experiences.
• Explore the conflicts, misunderstandings, or differing values that shape the complexity of the parent-child dynamic.
• Show instances where the protagonist learns from their parents or reevaluates their relationship as they grow and change.

Parental Absence Due to External Factors 

Sometimes parents might be absent, but it’s not because they don’t care or are neglectful. External circumstances could be forcing the parental absence, such as work commitments, illness, death, or other external factors. 

This can create a sense of longing or loss for the protagonist, leading them to seek understanding or fill the void in their lives. It also offers opportunities for personal growth, resilience, and the formation of unconventional support networks. 

Check out these novels that show this type of parental relationship:

• Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi: In this West African-inspired fantasy, Zélie’s mother is absent due to being killed in a brutal raid. Her absence fuels Zélie’s desire for justice and sets her on a quest to restore magic to her world.
• The Clock Strikes by Dominique Richardson and Sorboni Banerjee: This is the fourth novel in my Everbeach series, and Elle’s father is absent but not because he doesn’t want to be there, but because he’s a truck driver and his work takes him on the road. This leaves Elle at the mercy of her soon-to-be-step mother Juniper, and she seeks guidance and comfort with her godmother, Titania. 

Tips for Crafting Parental Absence Due to External Factors

• Establish the reasons behind the parental absence, such as work, illness, or other circumstances.
• Depict the protagonist’s emotional response to the absence, capturing their longing, grief, or resilience.
• Introduce surrogate parental figures or unconventional support networks to fill the void left by the absent parents.

Whether the parents in your young adult novel will have a positive or negative impact (or even a mix of both) is yours to determine. Hopefully these ideas, examples, and tips will help you craft well-rounded, three dimensional parents for your young adult novel.

Dominique Richardson is the coauthor of The Everbeach Series—a young adult, romantic suspense series full of forbidden romance, deadly twists, and scandalous secrets that will keep you turning pages into the night. The fourth and final book in the series comes out June 6th. Check out the first book, Red as Blood, if you’re looking for your next bingeable read. Passionate about all things books and giving back to the community, she is also the Executive Director and cofounder of YA by the Bay, a nonprofit young adult reading and leadership festival, dedicated to inspiring teens to “be the author of your own life.” Raised between Jamaica and the United States, her biracial heritage finds a home in her books. She spends her free time passing on her love of unicorns to her twin boys, running in the Florida heat, and drinking all the coffee. She now lives in Tampa, Florida with her family.

She would love to connect with you! Find her online on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. If you’d like to stay in the know about her upcoming book releases, sign-up for her email list. To learn more about the YA by the Bay Young Adult Book Festival, check out the website.

The post Crafting the Parents in Your YA Novel appeared first on DIY MFA.

However, as much as I truly value and enjoy this continual pursuit of knowledge, sometimes I need a break. We all need downtime while working on long projects, in between manuscripts, or even from just life in general.  

As such, this column will give you a handful of books, movies, and podcasts that are enjoyable enough to qualify as entertainment, yet still expand your base of literary knowledge. The items that will appear here are great for when you need a break from the world, lazy Sundays, or hanging with your (soon-to-be?) culturally inclined friends and family.  

Finally, I would like for you to know that, as a children’s picture book author, I am making it a point to include at least one item that is family-friendly or that can be enjoyed with school-age kids. This month’s pick masquerades as a children’s book but tells the remarkable story of the couple behind Curious George.  

That gem was found during my latest session of literary-cool-hunting, and so were these others: 

The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts by Joshua Hammer 

How did anyone pull this off? How did everyone pull this off? are the questions you’ll ask while reading through the escapades covered in this true story. 

Bad-Ass Librarians tells the harrowing story of an unassuming government archivist who, along with a network of citizens, became one of the world’s greatest smugglers of literature, saving over 350,000 Islamic and secular manuscripts from Al-Qaeda. 

This book should make all writers take pause, as it documents the undeniable evidence of just how important the written word is to a society.  

The Booksellers (1 hr 38 mins; Amazon, Apple TV, among other streamers) 

If you love bookstores, then this is the movie for you. 

It is a documentary released in 2020 and narrated by Parker Posey. This indie film gives the viewer an inside look at New York’s antiquarian book market. Watchers are given access to labyrinthine bookstores and book sellers who reside in apartments-turned-bookshops. Of course, the books themselves are objets d’art. 

Swooning is guaranteed.   

The Journey that Saved Curious George: The True Wartime Escape of Margret and H.A. Rey by Louise Borden 

Did you know that the manuscript for Curious George escaped, along with the author-illustrator couple, from Paris under Nazi Germany’s advancing threat? 

The husband-wife duo fled France on bicycles, traveled by train through Spain and Portugal, eventually taking a boat to Brazil. This extremely well-illustrated biography is styled as a lengthy picture book and worth checking out for the visuals alone. 

Although this book is listed as appropriate for ages 8-12, it truly makes for an interesting adult read.  

The Madman’s Library: The Greatest Curiosities of Literature by Edward Brooke-Hitching  

The Madman’s Library is a lushly illustrated collection of odd literary ephemera. It’s kind of like the Mutter Museum of books. From the chicken poet of Massachusetts to a book made of American cheese slices, this sometimes macabre compilation is wonderful to pick up and wander through if you have a few moments. 

It’s a personal favorite to consult when I need something interesting to write about and it has yet to let me down. 

WARNING: May cause excessive texting, OMGs and furious communication with other book lovers. 

Muse of Fire: A Shakespearean Road Trip (1 hr 23 mins; iTunes, Amazon, YouTube) 

It is my absolute pleasure to share this documentary with fellow DIY MFA word nerds. Muse of Fire started out as a grassroots project to explore Shakespeare’s works in contemporary times and garnered enough of a reputation to include Tom Hiddleston, Ewan McGregor, Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen and several other names you will recognize. 

From students required to learn Shakespeare, to prisoners needing something that sparks their humanity, to the formidable list of award-winning actors, they all come together for this film has it all: two friends, one crappy car, and a review of iambic pentameter.     

(If you don’t mind a movie broken up into 4 parts, you can view it for free on YouTube: Part 1   Part 2   Part 3   Part 4 Courtesy of the Ewan McGregor Vault) 

Tell us in the comments: How are you going to start your Leisure Learning this month?

Melissa Haas is the author and illustrator of Catula: The Misadventures of Dracula’s Cat and The Night Before Christmas (NOW WITH CATS), among other books. Follow Catula’s whereabouts on Instagram @CatulaTheCat or download a free coloring page at www.catulathebook.com.

The post January 2022 Leisure Learning appeared first on DIY MFA.

The new year always makes me want to reevaluate my creative process and push myself to become a more productive writer. This year is no different. As I’ve been thinking about creativity, I’ve begun evaluating my mindset as a creative person. 

I’ve realized that there are certain components that make up the mindset of a writer. First, you must have a willingness to experiment and try new things through the process of iteration. You have to reframe concepts of success and failure and view them more as part of the process. And, you have to realize that word choice matters; the things we tell ourselves about ourselves and our work matter.

The Key to Success and Productivity is Iteration

What’s iteration? Simply put, it’s when you keep trying things out and tweaking your process until you get it right. This approach is huge in the tech startup world, where programmers develop rudimentary Beta versions and continually improve the product in subsequent updates. We think nothing if a piece of software creates an update to fix bugs and other problems, yet as writers we often beat ourselves up for the slightest imperfections, both in our writing projects and in our process itself.

I’m here to tell you that it’s OK to be imperfect. It’s OK to mess up. It’s OK to try different things and explore brand new ideas. Go ahead, try a writing technique out and if it doesn’t work, just ditch it and try something else.

There are two sides to iteration. The first is we must be persistent and keep writing, even when it’s hard or painful and crafting each word feels like pulling teeth. On the flip-side, though, iteration also means letting go of habits or techniques that aren’t working for you. As writers, we sometimes fall into the trap of thinking that just because a certain technique worked for another great writer, it should work for us. Then when that technique doesn’t work, we feel like there’s something wrong with us because that other writer’s method didn’t take.

For example, when I read Stephen King’s memoir On Writing, I was very shaken by the part where he talks about his writing and reading habits. According to King, a “real writer” must write 2,000 words per day and read upwards of 80 books in a year. I tried following his advice, really I did. And I failed miserably and felt horrible about my writing. 

That was when it hit me that Stephen King’s writing habits might work for Stephen King, but that didn’t necessarily mean they would work for Gabriela Pereira or any other writer for that matter. I realized that I needed to test out my own writing habits and find something that worked for me.

After that, with a long-time process of trial and error, I discovered that I write best in the late morning and late afternoon, that I do my best work with headphones on and music blaring, and that I need short, contained blocks of time. For reading, I’ve found that 25-30 books per year is my “sweet spot” and that I love reading on public transit or late at night under the covers with a book light (like I did when I was a kid). Without iteration, I’d probably still be mentally flogging myself for not writing 2,000 words per day and reading 80+ books per year.

Why Does Iteration Work?

The answer is twofold. First, iteration makes you mindful of your work habits and writing process. It also pushes you to adopt a meta-view about your writing, which can lead to more objectivity. Let’s delve into these three reasons further, shall we?

You become a more mindful writer.

When you iterate and test out different aspects of your writing process, it pushes you to become a more mindful writer. Mindfulness and meditation are techniques that I’ve been exploring, both in my writing life and my real life over the years. The idea of mindfulness is to become aware of your mind—to observe your thoughts and where they go—but then to be able to let them go.

When you practice iteration in your writing process, it makes you more aware of your habits: both what works and what doesn’t. As you iterate and observe your habits, you’ll become better able to shape your process and become more a more effective and productive writer.

You adopt a meta mindset.

This goes hand-in-hand with mindfulness. When you iterate and test your process, it pushes you to adopt a meta-view of your writing. This creates a certain distance between you and your work, distance that can help you gain a more objective perspective about your project.

We writers can get very emotionally involved with our writing. Our characters become like close friends and the world of our writing becomes a private sanctuary. When it comes time to evaluate our work, this emotional connection makes us very biased. When we embrace iteration as part of our writing process, it creates a disconnect between us and our writing and this makes it easier to be objective with our decisions.

Reframe Success and Failure

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter.
Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
~Samuel Beckett

This is one of my favorite quotes because it gets at the heart of what iteration is all about. In order to iterate, we must embrace failure and mistakes as a central part of our creative process. Failure is not some big, scary thing. It’s part of the game. I like to think of it as sort of like playing golf. I’ve tried to learn, but when it comes to hand-eye coordination, I’m hopeless. Many of my cousins and other relatives play, so I grew up hearing a lot of golf talk.

Here’s the thing: the whole idea with golf is getting the lowest possible score. You would think, then, that the ultimate victory–the epitome of perfection (at least in theory)–would be to score a “zero.” Here’s the catch: if you score a “zero” that means you didn’t actually play the game. The minute you step out onto the tee and take your first swing, you’re getting an imperfect score. Failure and imperfection are built into the premise of the game. In order to play, you have to fail.

We need to embrace failure as being a core part of the creative process, just as it is a core part of playing golf. When we fail, let’s celebrate and embrace that fact. It means we’re out there, playing the game and doing the work.

Word Choice Matters

One of our superpowers as writers is our massive vocabulary. This gives us the power to choose the word and the meaning that we apply to our lives and our writing. Thomas Edison once said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that didn’t work.” This reframing is key. 

You may have heard me ask in webinars who is an aspiring writer. Lots of people raise their hands. But really, it’s a trick question. No one is an “aspiring” writer. If you write, you are a writer. Period. End of story. It’s a telling fact that so many of us need to qualify our status as writers by calling ourselves “aspiring.” In fact, I’ve found this is true with most creative careers, where we’ll hear people say they are aspiring actors or musicians, but we never hear someone call themselves an “aspiring plumber” or an “aspiring neuroscientist.”

I share this anecdote to underscore the power of words, even if those words seem inconsequential. Whether we tack on the dreaded a-word when we call ourselves writers, is only the tip of the iceberg. The truth is, every word matters, and when we talk about ourselves, those are often the most influential words of all. What we tell ourselves about our writing not only shifts our perspective about the work itself but shades how we view ourselves as creative people.

My challenge for you today is to think—really think—about the words you use when you talk about yourself, your life, your creative process, and even your health, either physical or mental. Strip those words down to their barest essentials. Try to understand that deeper meaning behind them.

Then choose one word or short phrase and rewrite it. Use different words. Be deliberate.

We are working behind the scenes at DIY MFA on a new program that focuses on mindset for writers. If you want to stay in the loop, sign up here to get emails as we release more information.

Gabriela Pereira is an author, speaker, and entrepreneur who wants to challenge the status quo of higher education. As the founder and instigator of DIYMFA.com, her mission is to empower writers, artists and other creatives to take an entrepreneurial approach to their education and professional growth.Gabriela earned her MFA in writing from The New School and speaks at college campuses and national conferences. She is also the host of DIY MFA Radio, a popular podcast where she interviews bestselling authors and book industry professionals and author of the book DIY MFA: Write with Focus, Read with Purpose, Build Your Community.

The post Mindset Tools for Writers appeared first on DIY MFA.

I called my mentor first, and I’ll never forget what he said after congratulating me: “Lauren, it’s not going to save you.”

It wasn’t until after publication I realized what he meant.

What Do You Do?

Whenever someone asked me this question, I would always tell them what my job was at the moment—barista, bookseller, bartender. I think maybe once I said “writer” to which the person replied, “What have you published?” I never said “writer” again.

I felt like I’d been caught in a lie. After all, I hadn’t been published and—if I’m being honest—I hadn’t been writing all that much. Dreams of becoming a writer and actually being one aren’t the same, right?

After Inconvenient Daughter became a book I could hold in my hands instead of an idea in my head, I thought so many things would change. I thought old boyfriends would regret leaving me, that my parents would admit I was right to pursue writing instead of becoming an accountant…I thought I would officially be inducted into “writerdom.” But none of those things happened.

Imposter Syndrome Runs Deep

I don’t know that anyone ever feels like a writer, but I can tell you that I certainly don’t. As a transracial adoptee—specifically, a Korean adoptee raised by white parents—my imposter syndrome runs pretty deep. I never feel wholly Korean or American, neither of Korea nor of America. 

It’s kind of the same with writing—I published a book, but I don’t feel like a writer.

Even now when people ask what I do, I tell them about the claims I process for insurance companies and field questions about their health benefits. And the more I think about it, the more I think we—the writing community—need to rethink what makes a writer a writer. We need to shake this imposter syndrome.

Us vs. Them

When I was in graduate school, the Us vs. Them mentality was strong. The “Us” being those of us in MFA programs, the “them” being those who weren’t. But “Us vs. Them” extends to publishing too. I used to think what separated writers and dreamers was an ISBN, but the reality is the only thing separating writers from identifying as writers is the mentality that there’s a specific set of requirements to be a writer, AKA imposter syndrome.

So, for whoever needs to hear this, if you dream of writing—you are a writer. 

If you avoid writing and wish you didn’t—you are a writer. 

And, if you’re not published, if you’re not in an MFA program, if you’ve gotten a ton of rejections—you are a writer. 

Get rid of that imposter syndrome once and for all. You are a writer.

Dream on.

Lauren J. Sharkey is a writer, teacher, and transracial adoptee. Inconvenient Daughter is her debut novel, and loosely based on her experience as a Korean adoptee. You can follow her at ljsharks.com, and on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

The post Faker: On Fighting Imposter Syndrome appeared first on DIY MFA.

Here is an average weekday in my life as a poet:

Around 7 am, I walk from my apartment in the Lower East Side to my writing space, Paragraph, on 14^th St, collecting impressions of the city along the way. I have been reading lots of image-rich Classical Chinese poetry in translation and am slowly building up a collection of my own Chinese-influenced poems based on urban images for my next book. New York City is my great love, and I try to take a different route each day.

Good Morning!

Humming, I celebrate another dawn.
All that I witness, sash
lifted, has panache
and purpose: steam and trash
rise up with jubilance;
the courts New Yorkers keep in lieu of lawn
are launchpads for romance,
as day comes on.

Even the rats are skittering
with special, light
skritterings, like they all
got laid last night.

I hear the backed-up traffic sing
obscenities and honks
from Chelsea to the Bronx.
My friends, I hear the call,
yes, I repeat the call:
“Let’s do this thing!”

Open 24 hours, Paragraph is a “WeWork” for writers. There is a climate-controlled quiet room, where aspiring and established novelists and memoirists, along with a few editors, peck away at their keyboards. There is a café area with various sources of caffeine and a fridge. In order to feel “legit” as a full-time writer and poet, I need this special space outside of my apartment, a kind of office to which I can go from 9-5 and beyond. 

When I arrive at Paragraph I devote a half hour to an hour to “business and publicity,” which mostly means responding to emails (fan-mail, hate-mail, contracts and promotional copy) and posting on Facebook and Twitter.

To get myself in the mood for creativity, I lose myself for a time in poetry that I find stimulating, often Chinese poetry in translation or poetry by Auden. Then I get to work. 

I start with fragments—phrases or lines that I find striking. I combine them in different ways in search of a spark. Have you ever gone camping and tried to start a fire by rubbing two sticks together? That’s the analogy I want here. The phrases and lines are the sticks, and I rub them together until the fire that is a poem is enkindled. 

Some days I end up with a poem I want to keep; some days I end up with nothing. 

Here’s another analogy: fishing. Some days the fish are biting; some days, not. Be philosophical. Don’t despair if you write for hours and come up with bupkis. Tomorrow may well be better.

When I need a break from raw and active creativity, I turn to revision. I print out several poems that I have recently written and do everything I can in terms of word-substitution, expansion and contraction in an attempt to push them to their “perfect” iteration. 

Remember that, rather than being opposed to the creative process, editing is a fecund part of it. Every little problem, every little annoyance in a poem needs to be ironed out before it can be submitted, and the solutions that come to me in revision often make the poem stronger than it was before by pushing it in a new direction or providing the click that makes it a satisfying Gestalt.

I grew up as a poet when I fell in love with the reader. Whereas Jonathan Franzen says the novelist should think of the reader as a friend, I say the poet should think of the reader as someone he/she wants to make out with. A poem is an act of seduction. I know a poem of mine is done when I can I imagine myself whispering it, with confidence, like a sweet nothing, into someone’s ear:

Only Connect

A lonely soul, I know,
as earth and the years revolve,
flirtations come and go
and earnest vows dissolve.

The love I meant I marred.
Now all that’s left is my will
to catch your ears off guard,
to broach and breach until

my folderol gets through.
Let me in, please, with you.

I suppose I should answer what everyone is thinking—how do you afford this life in NYC? Some money does come from my original stuff in the form of prize money or payments for publications but, I confess, far more of my very modest living comes from translation and teaching.

I encourage translation because, yes, it can bring some money in, but also because it works as a craft exercise that pushes a writer to find a different voice and idiom. Here’s some advice: if you are going to translate something, translate something in the public domain so that, say, Euripides isn’t around to collect a share of the royalties. 

Also, think about translating a play because you can, for example, sell the printing rights and retain the stage rights. That way, whenever a theater company wants to produce your translation, it has to pay a certain amount for each performance. Multiple revenue streams.

Teaching, for me, comes as naturally as breathing. The trick with a “side hustle” is to keep it on the side, that is, make sure it doesn’t take away from writing time. I try to schedule classes for late afternoon or early evening, so that my block of creative time remains intact. 

Then, at the end of the day, I print out the day’s creations so that I can take them on the road and keep fiddling with them.

Usually around 6pm, now that the city is not locked down, I walk for a drink or two in the East Village. I find that a few drinks allow me to “get some distance” and “a new brain” on the day’s work. Yes, I am the guy you see at the bar scribbling on sheets of paper.

Oh then the happy hours
when a serene bartender
pours tequila, mixer
and ice into a blender
to make a soothing elixir.
Ease has a salty flavor.
After a sultry day’s
bright blurriness, we savor
another sort of haze.

I then walk home and, if I am in the mood, continue working with the material I had composed earlier in the day. If I am not in the mood, I revise some more in bed or re-read work by a favorite poet or two.

Then I go to sleep and get up and do it all over again.

Aaron Poochigian is a renowned poet, author, translator and lecturer. He earned a PhD in Classics from the University of Minnesota and an MFA in Poetry from Columbia University. His first book of poetry, The Cosmic Purr (Able Muse Press), was published in 2012, and his second book Manhattanite, which won the Able Muse Poetry Prize, came out in 2017. His thriller in verse, Mr. Either/Or, was released by Etruscan Press in the fall of 2017. A recipient of an NEA Grant in translation, he has published translations with Penguin Classics and W. W. Norton. His latest book, “American Divine,” came out in 2021. His work has appeared in such publications as Best American Poetry, The Paris Review and POETRY.
You can find him on his website, or follow him on Twitter.

The post The Practice: A Day in the Life of a Full-Time Poet appeared first on DIY MFA.

By following the mechanics of writing plot twists and paying attention to the nuts and bolts, you will force your reader to stop mid-scene, turn back a few pages (or chapters), and try to determine how you sneaked in this startling twist without them having a clue. But they had a clue. Several. 

Here’s the deal with a plot twist: You must outsmart your reader. If you don’t think smart and write smart, your reader will slap your book closed and buy nothing that leaked from your pen again. You have to get this right. So:

Plan Like You Are Building a Cottage . . . A Book Cottage!

Your future best-selling twisty-turny novel must start with a solid foundation. You need a plan. Planners have an edge over Pansters when writing a romance novel with twists and turns. Why? Because we must lay subtle clues in the proper places for the magic to work.

Foundation

Write an outline of your entire romance novel from the first word in chapter one through the starry-eyed happily ever after ending. Scour your outline as you consider places to add plot twists. Do this from beginning to end, jotting down every single incidence. Then delete this list.   Delete? Yes. If you so easily found places and ideas for plot twists, so did your reader. You must be shiftier than that. 

Think of sneaky places for plot twists that are so snarky and out of the box you will fool even the seasoned reader. Guess what? Toss those ideas too and think of some more. 

Create a twist so unforeseen that not one reader can guess what is in the works. When the twist is revealed, your reader thinks, Yes, that makes perfect sense, and I never saw it coming. Your goal? To write plot twists no one guesses, and after the reveal, everyone gives themselves a forehead thump.

Once you determine the perfect, I gotcha plot twist jewels, the ones that made the final, final  cut, insert them into your novel with a sly, sneaky, snarky grin. 

Install Insulation

Read your manuscript to make certain each twist moves the plot forward and makes sense to the story. Otherwise, what are they doing in your book?

The insulation is the story around the story. The protective covering holding the story together and composed of the setting, characters, plot points, etc. The whole enchilada with air spaces for the insertion of twists and turns.

A potential elevator pitch for an “insulated” romance novel with a twist? Young man stationed overseas tells pregnant girlfriend how much she will adore his mother when she goes to live with her during her final trimester of pregnancy. The girl thinks her boyfriend is a weirdo when his mother turns out to be a Mom-Zilla.

Twist: This woman (aka psychotic she-demon) had murdered the actual mother before the girl’s arrival and is posing as her for monetary gain. Woo Hoo, a twisty-twist!

Interior and Exterior Finishes

Once you tuck twists nice and cozy into your manuscript, it is time to find hidey-holes to plant the subtle clues for your twists. Don’t ignore “hot spots” for tucking clues into scenes of your story where the reader may concentrate on the action, like a love scene, and may not notice the addition of your clue. 

The Final Walk Through 

Read your manuscript carefully to make sure your twists and turns fit the story and make sense. 

Decide if subtle clues are too obvious and need toning down, or if you need to consider adding more clues. Paint an overall picture of your story in your mind and make certain to apply every virtual brushstroke.

Finally, ask yourself: Have I used the best clues to uphold the major story while creating twists that bring more continuity to the story—but only after revealing the twist? If the answer is yes, congratulations, you made it to twisted authordom!

Writers Write!

Tammy Lough is an award-winning author of over 65 published works who loves writing romance and creating unique characters who burst with personality and frequent sprinklings of humor. She writes a monthly column, On the Back Page with Tammy, for Saturday Writers, a Chapter of the Missouri Writers Guild and is an active member of the Missouri Romance Writers of America, Romance Writers of America, and the Missouri Writers Guild. You can connect with Tammy on her website www.TammyLough.com.

The post Romance Writers: Do the Twist! Part 3 appeared first on DIY MFA.

Stepping into somebody else’s shoes is hard, but inhabiting a character’s brain is even harder. Your job is no longer just to tell a story, but to tell it as only your protagonist would. And there are lots of traps you can fall into along the way.

Violating Perspective

This first problem is not one that’s exclusive to writing in the first person—it comes up when working in close third too. (Close third person = using names and pronouns for all characters while still “seeing” the world of the story from one character’s point of view.)

The issue here is undermining the perspective you’re ostensibly writing in by including information that your main character couldn’t possibly know. In third person fiction this could be by including a scene your viewpoint character is not present for, but in first person the violation is often subtler. Perhaps your character has never been to this planet before, but she’s speaking about the climate and vegetation as if she was an expert. Or your character is telling us exactly what his love interest is thinking, although he doesn’t have telepathic powers.

The rule is clear: if your first person character doesn’t know something, it can’t be part of their narrative. Once you’ve chosen your lens on this world, you can’t just jump outside of it.

Noticing the “Wrong” Details

Linked to this is an even subtler erosion of point of view through having your first person character noticing and remarking upon the wrong details at the wrong time.

If your character is a seamstress, she may well dwell on the fabrics and cuts of every dress at a ball, but if she’s an assassin on a mission to kill someone at the party, her focus may be elsewhere. Ask yourself what is unique about how your character experiences the world. Are they a perfumier who’s particularly attuned to smells? Is he the only child at a gathering of adults, observing the action from a different height? Lean into these perspectives and show us what it feels like to be someone else, as only fiction can.

The “wrong time” part of this equation is important too. If someone is in the midst of a fight scene, they probably aren’t thinking about the exact shade of a sunset. If someone’s just been kidnapped and is afraid for their life, is this a realistic moment to include a character-building flashback about their childhood?

(Over-)Using the Mirror Trick

Most often your viewpoint character will also be your main character, and you probably want us to know what they look like, right? But this can be tricky in first person fiction. In real life, people often think about their appearance when they catch sight of their reflection, but unfortunately having your protagonist detail their looks while looking in a mirror is a cliché that usually feels unnatural and inserted for reader benefit.

Does this mean your viewpoint character can never look in a mirror? No. But consider ways to drop in small details about their appearance over time, rather than telling us everything we need to know in a lengthy descriptive mirror scene.

Starting Too Many Sentences with “I”

Using “I” is what writing in the first person is about, but this doesn’t mean that every sentence needs to start in this way. Once the point of view has been established for readers, you can mix up your sentence structures for variety and interest.

One way to do this and to check you’re not getting stuck in a sentence rut is to listen to your writing using text to voice applications. Learn to appreciate the rhythm of prose and play with new ways to start your sentences.

Relying on Eavesdropping

Finally, try to ensure the mechanics of your plot don’t involve too much eavesdropping! How often is your first person character overhearing conversations they shouldn’t and spying on other characters?

As with the mirror trick, I’m not saying you should never do this, but if this solution is used too often your main character may come across as passive and weak, and you risk straining reader credulity.

So there you have it—common pitfalls to avoid when writing in first person! I hope this was helpful and that I haven’t scared you away from experimenting with my favorite point of view. There’s nothing better than a novel which introduces us to a new and standout voice, so get writing—I can’t wait to meet the characters you dream up.

Finola Austin, also known as the Secret Victorianist on her award-winning blog, is an England-born, Northern Ireland-raised, Brooklyn-based historical novelist and lover of the 19th century. Her first novel, Bronte’s Mistress, was published by Atria Books in 2020. Written in the first person, Bronte’s Mistress imagines the story of Lydia Robinson, the older, married woman rumored to have had an affair with the Bronte sisters’ brother. By day, Finola works in digital advertising. Find her online at www.finolaaustin.com.

The post Traps to Avoid when Writing in the First Person appeared first on DIY MFA.

Jeanette the DIY MFA Curriculum Unicorn (aka Curriculum Director) here. I’ve been a fellow word nerd since early 2018 when I ran across Gabriela’s Stop Dreaming, Start Doing video series. At the end of the videos, I flipped to the next blank page in the journal where I had furiously been scribbling notes and wrote down my biggest takeaway—Be the best learner as well as the best writer.

It was this sentence that inspired my deep dive into the DIY MFA curriculum and the three pillars: write with focus, read with purpose, build your community. Consideration for each of these areas is necessary to create a well-rounded literary life. 

Part 1: The Writing

I had just quit my steady job to become a full-time writer. I knew nothing about turning myself into a business or even what a professional writer even did every day—except write. It was obvious that if I wanted to make a living from my words, I had to get them out of my brain and into some publicly consumable form. 

But my first method for full-time writing was the equivalent of throwing pasta at the wall and seeing what sticks. I wrote short stories, blogs, chapters of various novels. I branched out into unfamiliar topics and genres. And at a certain point, when I looked back at all I had accomplished, I realized I had pieces of everything that amounted to almost nothing.

Without concentrating on a single project and putting my everything into it, I was left with half-hearted attempts nowhere near ready for publication. I needed the first pillar of DIY MFA—I needed to Write with Focus. To achieve this meant committing to a project, following through to the last page, and having a plan for what would happen with the piece afterward.

Put It Into Action: It’s okay to want to vary your writing, but you have to see the larger picture and how each individual piece fills in a space in your unique literary puzzle. If you’re just starting out, imagine the body of work you want to create, then craft your writings around this central image. As you contemplate each piece of writing, hold it up to your ideal image and ask yourself: How does it fit? Where is this leading me next?

Part 2: The Reading

As a kid, I could race through a 400-page book in a single afternoon. But after college, my love of reading began to wane and it was a struggle to read even a couple of books a year. I was still writing, but that too became more and more of a battle as I lost the creative spark so often felt after reading a particularly well-crafted chapter from a favorite author.

So when I saw the second pillar of DIY MFA was Read with Purpose, I groaned outwardly. Failure. I was sure this step would mean utter failure in my attempts at following the DIY MFA plan. But in her very Gabriela way, the great word nerd-in-chief convinced me that I could at least try and so I did.

I began devouring books on crafting characters and perfecting scenes. I stockpiled resources on style, grammar, and punctuation for further reference. And I finally picked up a novel and revisited my favorite authors to bask in their genius once again. To me, the second pillar of DIY MFA made reading easy because it became necessary, yet flexible at the same time. Until then, I hadn’t realized how much my writing truly needed the reading aspect in order to advance my own creative works.

Put It Into Action: The best part of DIY-ing this curriculum is that you make your own syllabus! List 5-6 books that could help you in your current project. These could be comp (competitive) titles that are similar in topic or theme or maybe use the same narrative structure or point of view as your book. In any case, they should be books that will give you insights as you work on your writing. Now, pick one book from your list and start reading!

Part 3: The Community

Writing may be a mostly solitary act, but editing and publishing sure aren’t. I knew being a full-time writer would require immersion into the broader writing community, both locally and globally. I started attending various writing and critiquing groups around town (back when getting together was a thing). I joined Facebook groups and grew industry connections on LinkedIn. Everywhere I turned, I tried to fit into the community of writers I found.

But after a time, I realized I was unhappy in some of these communities. Whether it be the focus of the group or its personality, I found myself pulling away from places I felt I should have been diving deeper into. And I had to ask myself, “why?”

What I had missed in the third pillar—Build your Community—was the idea of building only the right community. Critique is necessary, collaboration is necessary; but if you leave every writing group feeling downtrodden rather than inspired, it can mean you aren’t getting the right feedback or haven’t found the right people who will truly support you and help you grow as a writer.

Put It Into Action: Luckily, DIY MFA makes this pillar really easy to apply. If you’re reading this newsletter, technically you’re already part of an awesome writing community. Now that you’ve found the right community, you can reach out to fellow word nerds in a way that makes you comfortable. There’s the Facebook group Word Nerds Unite, or you can connect on Twitter and Instagram via #DIYMFA. Plus, we have something awesome planned for next week that will let you connect with this community even more.

A Complete Writing Life

These days, I live and breathe the three pillars as part of my role here at DIY MFA. And I must say, it has been a distinct blessing to help shape the very content that has impacted me so much. I didn’t actually know how much I needed Gabriela and DIY MFA until I had truly experienced these three pillars for myself. Without each of them, I would not have the full writing life that I enjoy today.

Get on the waiting list for DIYMFA 101 today!

Jeanette the Writer is an editor, coach, and freelance writer who wants to help others demolish their editing fears and finish their manuscript. As a former scuba instructor turned entrepreneur, Jeanette knows about putting in the hard work to pursue your passions. She has worked with authors, speakers, coaches, and entrepreneurs—empowering them with the right mindset, knowledge, and tools to help them tackle their editing goals. You can learn more about Jeanette by visiting JeanetteTheWriter.com. 

The post Beyond the Writing: How to Build a Well-Rounded Author Life appeared first on DIY MFA.

A few years ago, I realized that I needed to get a better handle on my depressive episodes. I knew they followed my period in some fashion, but for the most part I would be miserable for several days until I realized my period was coming, and then I would start actively managing my depression. This affected my writing process as well, as my depression often caused me to think there was a problem with my current project, when it was really my emotional state. To increase my self-awareness, I created a simple exercise I called Laura’s Morning Routine.

Laura’s Morning Routine

Every morning for a year, I sat down and did two things:

I closed my eyes and I took stock of how I was feeling at that moment. 

It was simply time for me to stop what I was doing and focus on how I was being. I generally spent no more than five minutes. At the beginning it felt a little weird because I had no experience with how I normally felt, and thus I had no idea what I was supposed to be feeling.

As time went on, I began to notice when things were off my baseline. Since I did this exercise at the same time and place each morning, I cut down on variables. I began to understand how I normally felt so I could more easily tell when things were different.

I rated the previous day on a scale of 1 to 5 in three categories: body, mind, and spirit.

• Body: Rated based on how much pain I was in that day. One was pain that got in the way of my day; three was how I normally feel (no pain); and five was amazing.
• Mind: Rated based on how much chatter or negative self-talk my mind generated that day. One was a near constant racket; three was normal (not none, but manageable); five was days when I was very positive, with a lot of gratitude and/or lots of great story ideas.
• Spirit: Rated on how much social anxiety I was dealing with. One was for days I was withdrawn and did everything to avoid attention; three was normal (chatting with people when they were around); four was days when I sought out interaction with people; and five was days when I would sing out loud with my music. 

Making Your Exercise

1. Set aside a time to do the exercise and try and make it happen in the same place and at the same time as often as possible. Make sure this time works for you most days, if not every day. It could be in bed before you get up. You may even already have a notepad by your bed for nightly story ideas. If you have a daily writing habit, you could do the exercise before or after your session. It could be during your lunch break at work or before/after your commute home. The whole idea is to make a habit out of being aware.
2. Decide which aspects you want to be more aware of. They can be anything. How productive you are, how happy you are, how much time you spent with your family/friends. I have only two suggestions. First, don’t list too many things, just find the ones you think will be the most important; second, have at least one that focuses on how you are as opposed to what you’re doing.
3. Define your rating system. You can rate yourself however you want. You can have a scale from 1 to 100. You can rate yourself in .5 increments. You can rate yourself using fruits. Just make sure you know what your rating means and that you have that definition in your mind for comparison. It can also help you to hold yourself accountable, because you need to write down your result each day.

Do Your Exercise

Once you’ve picked your time, make sure you sit down each day and record your results. You can do it in a favorite notebook or in a notepad app on your phone. I would encourage you to dedicate yourself to doing this for at least two weeks. A month would be better. It doesn’t take long each day, so it should be a priority. 

And just remember, you will not see an immediate result. I did this exercise regularly for a whole year. I’m not saying I never missed a day, but I didn’t let myself miss many. Raising your awareness is a lifelong pursuit, but then so is growing as a writer, so these things go hand in hand. I don’t want you to try these techniques for a week or two and then think something is wrong when you’re not magically aware. It takes a bit of dedication, but the results will be worth it.

Also, Resist the Urge to Analyze

You may start thinking “I’m gathering all this data. What am I supposed to do with it? I should analyze it somehow. What if I get a ton of banana days and no limes? What does that mean!?” For now, just tell yourself you’re gathering data and leave it at that. The human brain wants to find patterns, it wants to know why. If you do this long enough, you will notice those patterns. That’s fine, just don’t get sidetracked with worrying about what it all means.

And if you begin wondering what this has to do with writing, sometimes it’s difficult to separate what is related to yourself, your life, or your writing. This exercise will help you to learn where your own personal baseline is. In my next post I’m going to talk about what you can do with the data you collect and how you can shift this exercise to help you become more aware in any facet of your life. And yes, that includes your writing.

Laura Highcove has a degree in computer science, which is obviously why she is a fantasy writer. She is influenced by anime, video games, table-top gaming, programming, horses, and Norse mythology in no particular order. She currently lives in beautiful Blacksburg, Virginia with her computer, two cats, and husband. Her psychic abilities have not yet developed, but she remains hopeful. If you’d like to learn more about her, head over to her website and sign up for her newsletter (and get a free short story) here.

The post How to Develop Awareness to Harness Your Writer’s Intuition appeared first on DIY MFA.

I wrote a book one time that contained a character whom I loved. I enjoyed how they interacted with the other characters, how they were developing as a character, and the mystery they added to the plot. At the same time I had this nagging feeling that they didn’t quite belong.

For months I convinced myself that I just needed to write more of the story and then their purpose would become clear. But that feeling didn’t go away, and I finally had to admit that the character didn’t belong in that book. So began the arduous task of removing them. Once they were gone, the story came together neatly and far more solidly, and I found myself wishing I had listened to my writer’s intuition from the beginning.

So What is Writer’s Intuition?

Writer’s intuition is an (often) unconscious knowledge that comes from experience. Many people have given many names to the same concept: a gut feeling, reading the room, thin slicing, or instinct. All of these things refer to the way the brain takes in information, checks it against what you already know, and gives you a conclusion faster and more completely than you can consciously.

With my superfluous character above, I could give you a whole slew of reasons they needed to be taken out of the book, as well as the same number of reasons to leave them in. I don’t know *how* my writer’s intuition knew the story would be better without them, but somehow I did know.

This is why you’ll often hear authors talk about how they fixed a broken plot or developed a character’s arc, yet when asked how they knew what changes to make, they can’t give a complete answer. The author knows because their writer’s intuition is taking all of their past experience and drawing a conclusion, and they’ve learned how to listen. If they do try to explain the reasons, it’s often impossible because it’s part of a huge wealth of experience only they have.

How Does One Get Writer’s Intuition?

The great thing is, you already have it. Just by being alive, existing in the world, and especially by reading, writing, and ingesting stories, you have your intuition about how stories, characters, and plots work. Which is good, because writer’s intuition is impossible to teach.

I know what you’re thinking. “If you can’t teach intuition, then what is this post for?” That is because while I can’t teach you writer’s intuition, I *can* show you how to teach yourself to develop it further and more intentionally.

What do you Mean ‘Teach Myself’?

With most skills and techniques, you follow a set of steps that will give you a distinct result. Unfortunately, (and fortunately) writer’s intuition is a collection of all of your experiences, even those not related to writing or stories. No one can teach you their writer’s intuition because they can’t give you their experiences. This is the same reason why no two people, even with the same idea, could possibly ever write the same book.

The most important thing for developing your writer’s intuition is becoming more consciously aware of it. Remember when I said your mind is drawing a whole bunch of conclusions subconsciously? It’s always doing that, and an important step in learning to develop your writer’s intuition is by becoming aware of what your brain is doing and why. And you can do that by learning to be more aware, or more mindful of yourself, and that is something that I can teach you.

Practicing Mindfulness

The first and most important step is to slow down and begin to pay attention to certain things about how you write. When you’re paying attention you can notice things that you simply took for granted or thought were just coincidence. I’m going to help by sharing with you some exercises and techniques you can practice in order to develop your mindfulness and thus become aware of your writer’s intuition. The more aware of your writer’s intuition you are, the easier you can tap into it when you need it, instead of writing half a book before realizing you really should’ve taken that character out ages ago.

Even by just reading this article you can be more aware of what your mind is telling you with regards to your writing. For now, see how that feels, but don’t focus on it too much. If it gets in the way of your writing, then it’s not doing its job. My next article will introduce some exercises so you can begin to develop your writer’s intuition more intentionally.

Share an experience you’ve had with your writer’s intuition, whether you knew what it was at the time or not.

Laura Highcove has a degree in computer science, which is obviously why she is a fantasy writer. She is influenced by anime, video games, table-top gaming, programming, horses, and Norse mythology in no particular order. She currently lives in beautiful Blacksburg, Virginia with her computer, two cats, and husband. Her psychic abilities have not yet developed, but she remains hopeful. If you’d like to learn more about her, head over to her website and sign up for her newsletter (and get a free short story) here.

The post An Introduction to Writer’s Intuition appeared first on DIY MFA.