UFCW First Annual Christmas Contest - Flash Fiction

What is Flash Fiction? Basically, it’s a story that can be read while drinking a single cup of coffee.

So, let's get those creative juices flowing!

• Deadline: Sunday, November 27, 2011

• Word Count: 300 words

• Theme: The Forgotten Gift (Yes, this theme is vague, we did that on purpose. We wanted to encourage your creativity—not limit it.)

The contest is open to all UFCW members and friends, so feel free to share the link!

First, Second, and Third place winners will be chosen. Entries to be judged anonymously, with winners being announced at our Christmas party in December. The winners and their stories will also be published on our UFCW Web site in January.

Ready to get started?

• All entries must be submitted in Times New Roman, 12 pt font, double-spaced.

• Email your entries to Cathy Baker at tea4thee@charter.net as a separate Microsoft Word document (.doc, we will NOT accept .docx). No PDF’s or other file types will be accepted.

• Send your entry as an email attachment WITHOUT your name anywhere on it.

IN the body of the email include:
Your name
Title of Story
Email Address
Telephone Number

Plan to tweet about the contest? Use the hashtags: #ufcw #write #FlashFiction

I've Finished My First Draft - Now What?

I talk with lots of writers who struggle with the editing process. It leaves them feeling overwhelmed and confused. Many are uncertain of where to begin. As a professional editor, I have a specific process I follow, whether I’m working on a client’s manuscript or my own. There are a lot of things to look for in a manuscript and I’ve found that it takes multiple editing passes to catch everything. I take things in small bites—editing no more than a chapter at a time. I also go from the big issues to the small details. Here are the steps I go through when I’m getting a manuscript ready for publication.

First Pass – I make certain that each scene (if there’s more than one per chapter) has strong conflict and is necessary to move the story along. I’m ruthless here—good writing alone NEVERjustifies a scene’s inclusion in the finished product.

Second Pass – I check my timeline and the sequence of events. I make sure everything is logical. For example, I look to see if I have a character giving a response before an event happens. 

• Elisa jumped when a loud pop echoed in the chamber.
• The loud pop echoed through the chamber and Elisa jumped, knocking her head against the back of the chair.

In the first example the reader sees Elisa jump then reads about the pop.
The second example puts things more logically. 

During this pass I also check to see if I have a balance of speaker beats and speaker tags. 

Third Pass – I check for passive writing. I do a search for the word was and study each usage to make certain it’s past tense—not passive tense.

• Stuart was walking across the yard.
• Stuart walked (or better yet, strolled) across the yard.

Was Walking is passive in the first example.
In the second example the verb is much stronger.

Fourth Pass – I look for telling, instead of showing. These are some clue words I search for:

• Felt
• Remembered
• Knew
• Watched
• Saw
• Looked
• Was
• -ing words
• -ly words

These words let me know that something might be wrong.

Fifth Pass – I look for times when I’ve named emotions instead of showing them. 

• Bethany felt panic course through her system. Had she waited too long?
• Bethany could feel her nails cutting into her palms as she fisted her hands. Had she waited too long?

In the first example I name the emotion – panic. In the second example I let Bethany’s actions lead the reader to her emotional state. The first example also has a clue word—felt—that would help me see that changes need to be made.

Sixth Pass – I look to see if each scene contains all five senses. 
Here are two senses I had to add to the scenes I was working on.

• Substandard lighting and circulation led to the lingering odor of sulfur mixed with leaching compounds. At almost two clicks beneath the metropolis the noxious haze, unable to dissipate, lingered to burn the throat of any unfortunate worker.
• Dawn had broken, but instead of beauty, a dank haze hung over the city. He could still taste the metallic bite in the polluted air.

Seventh Pass – I read the entire chapter out loud, making notes about whatever hits me as slightly off.

This is the process I always use. It won’t catch everything, but it gets me a long way down the road. After going through these seven steps I set the chapter aside and move on to the next one. This gives me my second draft. 

There are many good books out there on this subject, especially Self-Editing for Fiction Writers  by our own Dave King. All I’ve done is break the process down into one I could replicate with any manuscript. What are some tricks you use when you’re in the editing process?


Blessings,
Edie

January 13 Meetings Are Cancelled

His Will for My Heart in 2011

My dear friend, Linda Shepherd, author, speaker, and founder of the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, recently shared some words of wisdom with me. She has given me permission to share them with you.

"After a word from the Lord, [a friend] and I have been working hard to ‘remove the sin that hinders.' It's a good word, a word that requires a thorough search of one's heart. I've searched and I continue to do so. And as I've confessed revealed sins, I've seen God show up.

Today, as I was reading the book, The Stronghold of God by Francis Frangipane, I read this:

'What we become to Him is far more consequential than all we shall ever do for Him. He wants our love and companionship. Indeed the Scriptures tell us that he ‘jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us' (James 4:5). Thus, if our devotion to our task exceeds our devotion to Him, He will personally hinder our success. It is out of love that God delivers us from the unanointed momentum of our zeal. He intentionally dries up our vigor. The Lord insists that our success not originate from our strength but from our union with Him.'

Wow, what powerful words. How careful we must be not to worship our work, but to seek instead a way to more powerfully abide with Christ."

I have to tell you, friends, I don't know Francis Frangipane or his ministry, but this passage spoke volumes to me. The paragraph Linda quoted actually begins with, "God has always been more concerned with the condition of our hearts than the activity of our hands."


Even though we seek to serve Him with everything we do, it's so easy to get caught up in the activity of the hands and forget the condition of our hearts. I admit it. Sometimes I struggle by allowing the job to come before the joy of knowing Him intimately; the project to come before the purification of my heart; the calendar to come before the call to holiness.


I confess my sin to you today. But more importantly, I confess it to my Father. Like David, I cry:

Create in me a pure heart, O God,
       and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me from your presence
       or take your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation
       and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
       and sinners will turn back to you. Psalm 51:10-13

Then. Then I will teach others. Not before the cleansing and the renewing and restoring. But after. After everything else is in order...only then can I teach others about His mercy, His goodness, and His grace.


Oh God, create in me a clean heart in 2011!


Blessings,
Vonda

Today's post is shared by Vonda Skelton, Co-founder of the Upstate Fellowship of Christian Writers.