Write Angles 12-09

December, 2009

Write Angles Write Angles OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER of the BERKELEY BRANCH of the CALIFORNIA WRITERS CLUB

View From the Helm

Table of Contents The View From the Helm...........2 Upcoming Meetings...................3 Marketing Corner.......................3 Past Workshop: What Lights Up?........................4 Upcoming Workshop: Feeling to Form..........................4 California Writers Club and the Active Role Women Took From Its Early Years III.............................5 Successful Critique Groups.......7 Story as Laboratory..................8 100 Years, 100 Members...........8 Member News & Tidbits.............9 How Can I Help?.....................10

On the cover:

Distinguished Writers of . California Dashiell Hammett, 1894-1961 One of our finest mystery writers, Hammett created enduring characters such as Sam Spade, Nick and Nora Charles, and Secret Agent X-9. Called “the dean of the ‘hard-boiled’ school of detective fiction.”

It is hard to believe how far the Berkeley Branch has come in the last twelve months. The things we do well got even better. Our new programs are maturing rapidly. A year ago the anchor 3rd Saturday support/critique group sessions served 10 to15 members and drop-ins. Sometimes, up to twenty people attend the Rockridge Library meetings. A nonfiction, nonstory crit group was initiated in the fall, and a half-dozen regulars meet on 2nd Thursdays at Borders Books in Alameda A ten-page fiction group was formed recently to deal with chapter and story-length pieces. A core of a half-dozen writers e-mail submissions to one another in advance. As a result, all meeting time is spent discussing stories and craft. They have decided to meet twice monthly on alternate Thursdays. Those interested in joining this group may contact Bruce Shiguera, [email protected]. A writing-for-children group is accepting new members. Contact Debbie Frisch,[email protected]. A dozen people have expressed interest in a memoir-writing group. We expect to initiate something after the first of the year. In October we launched a program of workshops. Fifteen people attended each of the first two. Risa Nye, workshop chair, has already scheduled monthly workshops through the spring of 2010. The November issue of Write Angles was the first produced by Kristen Caven. We received many e-mails congratulating the club for taking our newsletter up a notch. Our speaker programs under Laura Shumaker have contributed to the 50 percent increase in meeting attendance. We credit Linda Brown for much of the growth of the Branch. When I ask the first-timers at our meetings or drop-in crit groups how they heard about us, I get a variety of answers: the Branch Web site, the Oakland Tribune, SF Chronicle, East Bay Express, a flyer posted in a library, notice in The Rockridge News, listing in the Oakland Library Calendar. The Berkeley Branch partnered with member Tatjana Greiner to publicize her WestSide Story Contest. This year we attracted over 80 entries from eight states and three countries. Most gratifying was the support from our sister CWC Branches. A quarter of the total of all submissions arrived from half of the continued next page...

“I’ve been as bad an influence on American literature as anyone.” —Dashiell Hammett december 2009

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other seventeen Branches. Berkeley branch member Clifford Hui won the grand prize as well as the third place. Out-of-state Berkeley branch member, Dirk Wales, won fifth place. CWC writers won six of the first seven places. A marketing support group is forming within the branch to assist our members with the post–publication aspects of authorship. Our Web site at www.CWC-Berkeley.com got a facelift. Membership is up nearly 50 percent from a year ago. On November 30, 2009 we are 98 strong. (And hoping to reach 100 by the end of the year!) Our members contribute great things, and we encourage everyone to get involved. Besides building on the good works of 2009, we also have one more priority job to get done. After years of enjoying the generosity of Barnes & Noble’s store in Jack London Square, we must find ourselves a new home. We’ve been spoiled to have a large, accessible space available at no cost to the club for use during daytime hours on a weekend in a central location with convenient parking. While it seems impossible that we will be able to duplicate every one of these benefits, we are working on it. You can help by looking to your network for leads and possibilities. We need to hold out for an Oakland/Berkeley/ Alameda location with good parking. We may have to compromise on some feature such as meeting day, meeting hour. We may have to pay for a facility and charge a fee for attendance. We are working on it. If you can make a contact and initiate a conversation, it would be great. Someone out there would love to have the prestige associated with claiming they are the home of the founding branch of the 100-year-old California Writers Club. See you at our last event of 2009—the December 12 luncheon at an award-winning restaurant in Alameda, where we’ll hear the winning stories from the WestSide Story Contest read by their authors, and will re-present the Jack London Award to Anne Fox. If you have not reserved a seat, please do so right away. Send your check for $22 to CWC-BB, Box 6447, Alameda, Ca. 94501 —AL Levenson

January Meeting: LOCATION AND DATE TO BE ANNOUNCED. There are two potential venues at this time. Please check your e-mail during the week before the meeting for location and exact time.

Either Saturday, January 16, 2010 or Sunday, January 17, 2010

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Upcoming Speakers December 12, 2009 Annual Luncheon, Winners of WestSide Story Contest Read January 16, 2010 Michael Larsen and Elizabeth Pomada, on how to get an agent. February 20, 2010 Seth Harwood, on creating free serialized audio books. March 20, 2010 Becky Levine, on critique groups and revision techniques. April 17, 2010 Robert Pimm, intellectual property attorney, on copyright protection and “fair use” of the work of others.

The Marketing Corner A goal of the CWC Berkeley marketing group is to provide information about the varied aspects of marketing: Internet marketing, author events at bookstores, book festivals, Internet book-review sites, writing contests, and exposure through traditional media. Another goal is to create a cooperative environment where CWC members support each other. Ultimately, the work of an author must sell itself. The most important judge of the writing is the reader; self-promotion is the road to the most important judge—the reader. Please visit our Web site/Blog at http://cwcberkeleymarketing. wordpress.com/ The site is open to everyone. The comment section is for CWC members only.

—Lloyd Lofthouse

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What Lights Up? Marilyn Abildskov’s workshop on brevity began with a examination of a piece by Sandra Cisneros. “Bread,” a sparse story of 200 words, was the basis of a collective parsing session led by Marilyn, in which we were reminded of many elements of craft. •

Authentic language validates voice and is richer than formal language

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Short sentences are impressionistic and give immediacy to writing. Memory works in fragments.

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In your first re-read, ask yourself if you answered these two questions in the first paragraph: Where is the scene? When is it?

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Sensory perceptions put the reader in the scene

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Setting scene well and early relieves the writer of the burden of adding it later and gives the reader context early so he doesn’t have to guess.

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And more

Then we were given a writing exercise. A prompt with a menu of imperatives: write about a single moment involving two characters in a tight space— physical and emotional—using sensory details, occurring within an hour. And, Marilyn said, include food in some fashion. Take twenty minutes, including time for a stretch and visit to the rest room. Several people produced a credible story with a complete narrative arc. And everyone continued on next page

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January workshop:

Marilyn Abildskov

Feeling to Form

The inexperienced writer, says Jeanette Winterson, believes sincerity of feeling will be enough, while the experienced writer knows that feeling must give way to form. “It is through form, not in spite of it, or accidental to it,” she writes, “that the most powerful emotions are let loose over the greatest number of people.” This workshop is designed to introduce students to basic elements of form. We will start by reading short pieces, then try our hand at a few writing exercises, and conclude by sharing newly generated work out loud. Our goal will not be originality per se—is there anything new under the sun?— but a freshness found in locating the right form. “For, while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new,” wrote James Baldwin, “it always must be heard. There isn’t any other tale to tell, it’s the only light we’ve got in all this darkness.” Marilyn Abildskov is the author of The Men in My Country and teaches in the MFA program at St. Mary’s College. Sunday, January 10, 2009, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., followed by brown-bag lunch and further discussion. Space is limited—PreRegistration is required! Mail your check to CWC-BB, Box 6447, Alameda, CA 94501. $9 for CWC members. $29 for nonmembers. Questions?  Email to [email protected].

Upcoming Workshops

January 10, 2010 FEELING TO FORM: A Memoir Workshop introducing elements of form with Writer/Professor Marilyn Abildskov March 14, 2010 TBA April 11, 2010 Marianne Rogoff on Travel Writing May 9, 2010 Wesley Gibson, Writing Effective Dialogue To recommend or request a speaker, contact Risa Nye . at [email protected].

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LIGHTS UP from page 4...

CALIFORNIA WRITERS CLUB and the Active Role Women Took from Its Early Years This article was adapted in three parts from Theresa Pipe’s original article for the Berkeley Historical Society appearing in The Independent Gazette’s “Berkeley History” column, dated September 5, and September 19, 1982. With special thanks for Part 3 to Maud Volandri and B. Jo Kinnick (both deceased) for their research.

Marilyn Abildskov at her November workshop

wrote something that captured several key story elements. “Editing is not called for when reading spontaneous writing, and the writer has not yet edited himself.” Marilyn said. “What lights up” was the jump-off question she asked of everyone, prompting us to locate pleasing and/or attentiongetting details and to open craft elements for discussion. For nearly two hours more, we meandered among the following: •

“If” is a provocative word.

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The reaction of a character in a scene is not the reaction of the writer when writing.

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Foreshadowing can be accomplished by a character’s imaginings.

Brevity is not easily won, but Marilyn made the challenge worth doing. I’ll be at her January workshop, “Feeling into Form.”

—Al Levenson

See You There!

PART 3: JULIA ALTROCCHI BRINGS A NEW STYLE TO THE CALIFORNIA WRITERS CLUB Several other women were destined to succeed Mary Roberts Coolidge, who served as president of the California Writers Club of Berkeley in the mid-1930s. Among them, one outstanding writer who brought a new style to the Club during her years of leadership with the Berkeley Branch was Julia Altrocchi. She was directly involved with a new venture of the Club in the early 1940s. It was soon after the Golden Gate by Julia Cooley Altrocchi International Exposition in 1939-40 at Treasure Island, where Dr. William Morgan of the Pacific Unitarian School for the Ministry spoke of his own early leadership years with the California Writers Club. In August 1941 the Club sponsored the first Writers Conference of the West at the old Oakland Hotel in Oakland, California. The conference welcomed writers and readers alike. They put on a barbecue, the musical comedy play, June Moon, a pageant, and dedication of trees to California writers and poets at Woodminster Amphitheater. There was a literary-landmarks breakfast at the Lake Merritt Boat House and a banquet at the Hotel Claremont. Panelists covered everything from pulp paper (mass markets) to the novel to pseudoscience (science fiction). Club President Julia Altrocchi’s words appeared on the neatly bound program: “It is right that such a gathering should be held under the giant redwoods, in a place of towering traditions, on the last frontier of America….” She mentioned those who paved the way for fresh literature—Bret Harte, Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, and later the “giants” of literature—George Sterling, Jack London, Gertrude Atherton. Dr. Suren Babington (an East Bay physician), Julia Altrocchi, Gertrude Atherton, Charles and Kathleen Norris, Ethel Cotton, and John Hamlin were among those involved then with the continued on next page

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California Writers Club and the Writers Conference. Longtime Club members Cleone Montgomery of Berkeley and Maud Volandri of San Francisco remembered Julia Altrocchi well as “a gracious hostess who often entertained with luncheons for guest speakers in the Berkeley area.” The wife of Dr. Rudolph Altrocchi, head of UC Berkeley’s Romance Languages Department for many years, the poet began writing at age six. She published Poems of a Child in 1904 while growing up in Chicago. As Mrs. Volandri recalled in the 1980s, there was a story attached to the poet’s childhood claim to fame often mused over by Mrs. Altrocchi throughout her lifetime. During the young poet’s innocent childhood, Julia’s aunt was the mistress of the poet Richard Le Gallienne, father of actress Eva Le Gallienne. Her aunt often talked about Julia’s artistic accomplishments in poetry to Le Gallienne, who had a number of friends in the publishing field. One day he arranged to have Julia’s poems published in book form as a “gift” to his mistress—and wrote the introduction himself. Later, Mrs. Altrocchi wrote a historical novel on early Chicago, Wolves Against the Moon, and published a number of articles on California’s historical and literary subjects. Julia Altrocchi also penned Spectacular San Franciscans, a nonfiction work containing historical anecdotes on San Francisco people. Her extensive poem about the Donner Party, Snow Covered Wagons: A Pioneer Epic, won a Commonwealth Club of California award in 1937 and is reportedly her best-known work. Movie rights were sold later for Snow Covered Wagons, but it never . actually appeared in film. —Julia Cooley Altrocchi,. Then in 1968, after Julia Altrocchi served a second term as 1899, age six,. president of the California Writers Club, her book-length poem, from Poems of a Child Chicago—Narrative of a City, won the coveted $1,000 Stephen Vincent Benet Narrative Award sponsored by Poet Lore magazine. “She went to Boston, where Benet’s sister, Laura, presented the award to her,” stated B. Jo Kinnick, a Piedmont poet belonging to the California Writers Club, who was also an artist member of the Browning Society in San Francisco. After Julia Altrocchi’s death, the manuscript became published in 1973 by the Piedmont-Oakland Branch of the National League of American Penwomen, where her membership was highly valued. Mrs. Kinnick, who edited the work, encouraged its publication by Altrocchi’s branch of Penwomen (called the Diablo-Alameda Branch). Several dramatic readings of her poem, Chicago—Narrative of a City, followed. In July 1981 the poem was chosen to represent America at the World Congress of Poets in the St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco. There, Dr. Clarence L. Miller, then president of the Ina Coolbrith Circle, directed the readings. Together with the Ina Coolbrith Circle, the Browning Society of San Francisco helped to sponsor the Congress, attracting poets worldwide. In 1982, the same dramatic reading was repeated for the Browning Society, the Ina Coolbrith Circle and the Speech Arts Association.

I’m the romping, scampering one.

I’m the one who runs and sings among the flowering fields

I’m like the leaves, the grass, the wind, the happy little butterfly and the little scampering clouds.

— Therese M. Pipe

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How to Hold a Successful Critique Group

“Isn’t there some sort of protocol for critique groups? I’m overwhelmed,” an acquaintance asked me recently. “What do you mean?” I asked. “Well, first, they come with work that hasn’t been proofread. Then they spend hours arguing over tiny points of grammar, spelling and punctuation. A couple of the group gets an idea about something, and they never stop going on about it. But they may be easier to take than the man who says everything is ‘nice.’ What does ‘nice’ mean? And then there’s a woman who defends every criticism anyone gives her and is still making the same errors now as in the beginning. Also, everybody starts by saying how bad their work is. Why do I want to read someone’s bad work? It’s a waste of my time—but it shouldn’t be, should it?” No, your critique group shouldn’t be a waste of your time! When I mentioned this problem to my class, a student pointed out Judith Barrington’s suggestions in her Writing the Memoir, from Truth to Art. Readers do: • come prepared with corrected copies for all participants • ask for specific feedback they would like • ask for clarification if they don’t understand • make notes while people talk • respond to specific questions asked during the critique. But readers don’t: • denigrate their own manuscripts • explain the intention of the piece or why it was written • respond until all have given their critique. Critique givers do: • start with what they like, what moves them • pinpoint why something works or does not work • point out where they feel confused, lost or do not believe • write notes on their copy of the manuscript and always sign as a reader • suggest possibilities for language or plotting to example their critique • make copyediting and proofreading corrections on their copy. But critique givers don’t: • criticize in a way to belittle the writer • make generalizations without pinpointing specifics: “This is good because I was moved by the last paragraph where you said...” • tell stories from their own experience • waste time pointing out small grammar problems and other proofing errors • impose personal viewpoint or flog a point that has already been made. Writers, always remember, it’s your work and what you think is most important, that is, until your publisher says differently! —Ana Manwaring, reprinted with permission from The Redwood Writer.

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CWC Critque Groups! If your objective is to receive and give useful feedback, you are welcome. You do not need to be a CWC member to try a group on for size! More information is on our Web page at www.cwcberkeley.com. Please inquire about invitation-only groups. Write [email protected] unless otherwise specified.

Five-page group For all prose: fiction, nonfiction, essays, query letters, proposals. When: 3rd Saturdays, 1-5 p.m. Where: Rockridge Library, 2nd-floor meeting room For info: [email protected]

Ten-page group By invitation-only, limited to six members. Additional groups can be created with interest. When: Weekday eves, monthly

Nonfiction group This group reviews informative articles, query letters, and book proposals. (No memoir.) Dropins welcome. First-timers are welcome to bring a submission. When: 2nd Tuesdays, 7-9 p.m Where: Border’s Books Coffee Shop, Alameda Towne Center

Mystery writers group By invitation only, currently seeking new members. When: 3rd Wednesdays. Time is a mystery. Where: private homes

Children’s writers group

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By invitation-only, currently seeking new members. When: monthly Where: private homes Ana, program coordinator of the Redwood Branch, CWC, teaches at the Napa Valley College in St Helena. www. anamanwaring.com, saintsandskeletons. blogspot.com, anamanwaring.wordpress.

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STORY AS LABORATORY Last month I prompted a number of club members with questions about the differences between short stories and novels. I asked, “How has what you’ve learned about one inform the other? How are they similar? What can be done in one that can’t be done in the other?” I received a number of provocative answers. —AL

Short stories can function as wonderful laboratories that allow you to try things that a novel might not support because it’s very weird or very specific. You can be more uninhibited with a short story, because you can use the structure to rid yourself of demons. An event that took place in Vietnam one night in 1966 haunted me until the early ‘80s, when it came together as a story, “A Night at the Well of Purity.” I worked on that story—and dealt with the demons—off and on for the next twenty-five years. In 2007, the story was named a finalist in the 2007 Chicago Literary Awards. As for the demon that sparked that story, it hasn’t been around for a long time. Writing can be great therapy—better and cheaper than going to a shrink. —Lloyd Lofthouse You can be more uninhibited with a short story because there is no need to provide a background for the characters. Your best friend may suddenly reveal himself to be a vampire, and the reader will accept that fact, filling in the how and why for herself. Your grandfather could be a crusty relic of the Civil War (or War between the States) and continue to shoot Yankees decades after the war has ended. No explanation needed. Aunt Sadie cries over her vanished lover and mistreats any young woman who happens to be blond. What IS needed is deft handling of storytelling. A few wellplaced words in narrative or sentences must set the scenery or, on the other hand, leave some matters unexplained. Do not tell too much; leave the reader thinking. That is why writing a successful short story is both easier and harder than writing a full-length book. —Lucille Bellucci “You can be more uninhibited with a short story because you don’t spend a year writing it, so if it’s a failure, it’s no big deal. An experimental novel is much more chancy. For instance, I once wrote an experimental novel, taking a good six months to write it. I was experimenting with living letters. You know, to keep the letters on the page happy, they had to be paid a good wage, and I had to negotiate constantly with all of them. Like, as you can figure, the Z’s and Q’s were always complaining they didn’t get as much work as the I’s and E’s. How were they supposed to make ends meet since the pay scale totally reflected the frequency of their presence on continued on page 10.

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100 Years, 100 Members 1. AL Levenson 2. Alex Campbell  3. Alice Wilson-Fried 4. Alon Shalev 5. Anjuelle Floyd 6. Anne Prowell 7. Anne Fox 8. Aphra Pia 9. Arline Lawrence 10. Arue Szura 11. Barbara Ruffner 12. Barbara Burton 13. Barbara Gilvar 14. Bill Roller 15. Bruce Shigeura 16. Carlene Cole 17. Carol Newman-Weaver 18. Caroline Ahlswede 19. Caroline Abasta 20. Caryl Hansen 21. Charlie Russell 22. Charlotte Cook 23. Clifford A. Hui 24. David Sawle 25. David Gray 26. David George 27. David Baker 28. Debby Frisch 29. Dirk Wales 30. Dorothy V. Benson 31. Edward S. Dean 32. Ele Quinn 33. Ellen C. Graebe 34. Emery Garriott 35. Evelyn Washington 36. Faith Darling 37. Frances B. Spencer 38. Francine Howard 39. Gail Travers 40. Gary McIntyre 41. Gloria Reid 42. Gurnam S. Brard 43. Jane Glendinning 44. Janell Moon 45. Janice Armigo Brown 46. Jeff Kingman 47. JoAnn Smith Ainsworth 48. Joanna Graham continued on next page...

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49. Joanne Sandstrom 50. Jody Weiner 51. Joy Maliwawa 52. Judith Field 53. Julia Epstein 54. Karren Elsbernd 55. Kasian Klute 56. Kathleen L Orosco 57. Ken Frazer 58. Kristen Caven 59. Laura Shumaker 60. Linda Brown 61. Liz Waegle 62. Lloyd Lofthouse 63. Lois Kadosh 64. Lucille Bellucci 65. Madelen Lontiong 66. Marc P. Kaplan 67. Margaret Wesson 68. Marianne Lonsdale 69. Marianne Rogoff 70. Marilyn Abildskov 71. Michael Larsen 72. Mickey Weiss 73. Micky Duxbury 74. Monica Conrady 75. Natasha Borovsky 76. Nicole Bazan 77. Nonnie Thompson 78. Phyllis S. Smith 79. Ray Faraday Nelson 80. Richard Mutter 81. Risa Nye 82. Sarah Clark 83. Sasha Futran 84. Tanya Grove 85. Tatjana Greiner 86. Therese M. Pipe 87. Thomas Burchfield 88. Tina M. Stinnett 89. Van Moore 90. Vernon Dolphin 91. W.E. Reinka 92. Wendi Lelke-Wallway 93. Willie Rose 94. Christopher Richards 95. Irv Hamilton 96. Shelly Wagner 97. David Simmons 98. Naomi Rosenthal 99. 100.

Welcome New Members!

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Member News

CWC BERKELEY BRANCH MEMBERS: Please send Write Angles all the news about your life in the world of art, letters, and literature, however it expresses itself. Your efforts and accomplishments inspire courage in others. [email protected] Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers has asked Charlotte Cook to be their guest workshop leader for their annual all-day event for members in May 2010. Charlotte will do a combination of her “An Acquisition Editor...” and “Edit Your Manuscript to Be Published.”  Alon Shalev’s novel, Oilspill dotcom, has been released on Smashwords.com and Scribd, making it available on Kindle, SonyReader, iPhones and other applications. Alon thanks Kemble Scott for his advice at our CWC October meeting Linda Brown, Publicity Chair, is interim secretary of the Friends of Joaquin Miller Park, of which the CWC is a member. Joyce Krieg of the Central Coast Branch of the CWC created the poster honoring the literary history of the California Writers Club. Linda presented the poster to the City’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission, who have accepted it for display in the Joaquin Miller Park Ranger Station. Barbara Gilvar, who recently joined the Berkeley Branch, discussed her book, The Art of Hiring Leaders, a Guide for Nonprofit Organizations, with 25 members of the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber’s Nonprofit Roundtable on November 23.  At the same event, Linda Brown briefed the Roundtable on the Chamber’s history of co-sponsoring CWC writing conferences. —Anne Fox  

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. ~William Wordsworth TIDBITS

Sandy Moffett, of our sister branch, The Writers of Kern, in the Bakersfield area, has asked for help with a research project. “If you have (know or were) a child who asked questions about the death of a loved one, I’d like to visit with you. Please drop a note to [email protected] with your contact info.”

100 members /100 years We’re almost there! Do you know anyone who would like to be our 100th member? Give a gift membership for only $44.50 ($20 initiation fee plus half-price dues at $22.50) Send an e-mail today to [email protected]. Youth members are always $10. continued on next page...

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the page? Well, of course the I’s and E’s were bellyaching about carrying the whole load and were mad at the others for not doing their part. “When do we get a vacation?” they’d say. Well, I’d open the file on the computer and find a whole different novel in front of me because some #*&% letter or another would get in a huff and walk off the job. Words would be rearranged, sentences turned topsy-turvy, and whole paragraphs would be deleted since they no longer made any sense. I started with a mystery that one day became a romance, and a week later it metamorphosed into a play! I couldn’t even fire the troublemakers because of the union. It was a mess. After that, I decided—no more experimental novels. I’ll stick to the conventional ways to write novels so I wouldn’t waste months and come up with nothing. I vowed to save the crazy stuff for short stories. —Emery Garriott You have to boil down your ideas to their purest form. You have to determine the quintessential essence of expressing your idea, as Harper Lee did in To Kill A Mockingbird. ...You must quickly develop the identity of your characters, the setting and their mission or dilemma.

Do you ever wonder... “How can I help the club?” Help is needed in the following departments: -Membership chair -Database -Contributions to WA -Web site (Word press) -Facebook page/group -Buddy System editor -Write Angles co-designer (will train in InDesign) Contact calwritersclub@ gmail.com if you can help!

—Gary McIntyre I am wary of the idea of “experimental” in writing for fear the idea of experiment will overpower the idea of the storytelling. I want to tell a story the way it comes to mind, without considering the form. Yet I have a story that would be considered experimental. I had one idea that might seem to be two different stories that were separate yet connected. I thought the best way to tell this story was to have two story columns, side by side. In my way of thinking, I wanted the reader to read across the two columns. It didn’t work for anyone but me. I learned that people talk about new ideas, new ways to express things, but they don’t really mean it. That, however, does not deter me from playing with other ideas that are different, experimental. I came upon an abandoned house in an affluent neighborhood of Westchester County in New York and set about doing a photo study of it. The setting inspired a story. Rather than burden the opening of my story with a lengthy description, I inserted the photos with scene-setting text. The technique appealed to the visual nature of my mind and opened up a new way of thinking for me. I was pleased with the result. . . which is the point of writing. Now, I move on from there…

I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter.~ —James Michener

—Dirk Wales You can be more uninhibited with a short story because you can deal with the essence of a thought and not be encumbered with details.  The greatest experiment in shortness I have ever seen was a performance of thirty-two one-page plays.   Why not continued on next page...

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short stories; they were definitely short. They allowed only one page of content, including dialog and stage directions. Each play was performed by one to five actors. Imagine being cast as a lead in such a play and having to memorize a five-word script. —Irv Hamilton Because when you cast it in the short form and look at it, you may think of a lot of implications that can flesh out your original inspiration into a long form.  This is particularly true of science fiction, and many science fiction novels by masters like Bradbury and Asimov are made up of a series of short stories hooked together like boxcars on a train. —Ray Faraday Nelson One thing I can do with a short story that I can’t do with a novel is finish it. Truth be told, the second thing is start it. Three years ago the notion of writing a novel was as intimidating as asking Penny Pollock to the junior prom in high school. All the planning of the twists and turns of a story, keeping the characters busy for a couple of hundred pages, remembering to put the getaway vehicle on page 30 for the escape on page 100. Short stories were the way to get started, to learn the craft, and avoid getting a hundred pages down the road only to find the novel that started as a ball of yarn is a tangle of wool with a kitten in there somewhere. When I wrote my first short story fewer than three years ago—I don’t count that dreadful stuff I wrote in college—I was happy to achieve the three basic elements of story: a beginning, a middle, and an end. That’s before I learned about Character, Plot, and Dialogue. Or is it Hook, Conflict, and Crisis? My stories are much better than they were three years ago, thanks to the patience of peer critics. They have beginnings and middles and ends. They have Characters, Narrative Arcs, and lots of talking. Sometimes they have Hooks, Humor, Happy Endings. Today, when I have an idea for a story, I have enough of the elements to see me to the end. I can get the first draft down in one or two sittings. Then I revise it. And revise it. Then I edit it and tweak it. And somewhere around the fourth or fifth draft, it feels right, and I take it to my crit group, who are always willing to inflate the story and deflate my ego. Then back to the laboratory. The struggle is long and no easier. But now it is fun in the same way the junior prom was fun. I am still intimidated by novels, and I plan to call Penny Pollock and ask her out on a second date. —AL Levenson

I try to leave out the parts that people skip. ~Elmore Leonard december 2009

Berkeley CWC

Board of Directors President: AL Levenson Vice President: Dave Sawle Secretary: Jane Glendinning Treasurer: Carlene Cole Membership: AL Levenson Publicity Chair: Linda Brown Program Chair: Laura Shumaker Workshop Chair: Risa Nye Newsletter Editor: AL Levenson Copyeditor: Anne Fox Newsletter Production: Kristen Caven Webmaster: AL Levenson Delegate to Central Board: Linda Brown Delegate to CWC-Norcal: Lloyd Lofthouse 5th Grade Story Contest: Lucille Bellucci WestSide Story Contest: Tatjana Greiner

The CALIFORNIA WRITERS CLUB is dedicated to educating members and the public-at-large in the craft of writing and in the marketing of their work. For more information, visit our Web site at cwc-berkeley. com. Copyright © 2009 by the California Writers Club, Berkeley Branch. All rights reserved. Write Angles is published 10 times a year (September-June) by the California Writers Club, Berkeley Branch on behalf of its members. CWC assumes no legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, process, product, method or policy described in this newsletter.

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