The blog of fantasy fiction author and writer Tarah L. Wolff

It’s that time of the year again. The Jackpine Writers’ Bloc put out its call for submissions for The Talking Stick Volume 19 on January 1st. For those of you writers who are either from Minnesota, or have a close connection to the area, you should consider submitting. Winning prizes for each of the three categories (Fiction, Creative nonfiction and Poetry) is $500 and for second place it is $100. Not to mention all pieces that get chosen are read and critiqued by our fantastic celebrity judges. And there is no reading fee to submit.

Submission Guidelines

I both look forward to and loathe this time of the year. It’s always fun to be on the Editorial Board. When Sharon and I took over the work of The Talking Stick, our only condition was that we could always be on the Editorial board to choose the submissions every year. Without a doubt, it is the most enjoyable part of the process. On top of that, neither one of us wanted to have to work on a book for the rest of the year when we didn’t have a say as to what was being published or sent to the judges.

So, I’m on the Editorial Board again this year. The call for submissions ends March 1st so the five members on the Editorial Board will meet in March some time to determine what gets put in the book. It’s a long day for us. We’re given the submissions to read a week or two before we meet and just getting the submissions read through two or three times is the biggest job. Just imagine one to five submissions from nearly two hundred writers ranging anywhere from one page to fifteen pages each. Big job. But, I look forward to it every year. It’s wonderful to read other peoples writing, though, I admit, I don’t give the poor writers much of a chance.

I can’t help it. Last year, the fiction was gaggingly difficult to read. Fiction, every year, is always the poorest category. I have less and less tolerance for obvious mistakes that should be corrected before submitting. I just can’t believe that we, as editors, are offered so little respect that we’re sent works that were obviously never even read through a second time. Have writers no shame? No dignity? No consideration for the people that want to publish them?

And my biggest, deepest pet peeve, is the complete lack of respect of writers to even bother reading our submission guidelines. We literally have hundreds of works submitted by hundreds of writers to wade through – the submission guidelines are there to make our lives easier. For anyone here that is considering submitting to The Talking Stick, know this: You’re work will be thrown out  if you do not follow our submissions guidelines.

The worst thing you can do to an editor is vary from the default fonts of every Word Processor. Times, or Arial, will help you get published. Don’t use any other kind of font.

I’m going to go back to the subject of reading Fiction. I am apprehensive to attack the Fiction and it grows worse every year. I use to really try, sit down with every story and try to find the good. I’m no longer like that. Because I have become a fiction writer and it is my passion, I have absolutely no tolerance for stupid mistakes. I often wonder, don’t writers ever read? Because, so often when I’m reading terrible Fiction, the biggest mistake that is pointed out to me is the complete lack of knowledge. Sentence structure, story structure. A complete lack of Writing basics. Don’t writers ever read? And that leaves me even more ticked because it becomes obvious, with the very worst stories, that these writers don’t think they need to read. Don’t think they need to learn any kind of writing basics. They actually believe that their work is so incredible that they have nothing to learn.

Well, they have nothing worth publishing then either.

I’m sounding very cold-hearted. Fair enough. I am being cold-hearted but only because I am one of the other writers. The writer who has gone to every class, read every Pulitzer prize winning novel, tried to become a better writer, and year after year respected the craft and never submitted anything with so much as a single spell check error. Never submitted anything that hadn’t had hours of my blood, sweat and tears, poured into it. These other writers, aren’t writers in my opinion. These folks who think they can sit down and whip something up. These writers who half-ass it, not bothering even so much to learn what “Story Structure” means. They make the rest of us look bad.

Creative Nonfiction.

If there is one category we put off reading year after year. It is Creative nonfiction. As much as I loathe crappy fiction there is nothing worse than wading through hundreds of the most boring creative nonfiction you can imagine. Don’t get me wrong, there is good fiction and creative nonfiction in the book every year (works that are worth publishing). But, where the one main mistake fiction writers commit every year is not even knowing fiction writing basics, creative nonfiction writers make the mistake of writing something no one else can stay awake reading. In other words, writing something no one else could give a rats ass about. So often, we get memoir writing and not creative writing in any way. Where that writers family may get a kick out of that particular piece, the rest of us, who don’t know who Uncle Harry is, could give a rat’s ass. So, year after year, we all have loathed reading the creative nonfiction to such an extent that we finally reduced the word count by several hundred. Hallelujah! I’m actually looking forward to it this year because of that.

The most difficult choice. Print quality writing or a quality story?

It is the most difficult choice and it is getting worse by the year. Publish a boring, crap story that was written well or publish the terribly written decent story that kept us reading despite the sentence mistakes? It is a very hard choice. And this is usually where we have out biggest arguments on the Editorial Board. Where one person liked that story because she has a puppy too the rest of the Editorial Board is shaking there heads because they won’t be caught publishing such poor writing. That is my biggest problem with all editors. Not enough of them read without bias but instead, publish those crappy, poorly written stories about two years because they too, have a toddler. I refuse to be that editor. In the end, because I value quality writing above all else, I vote to throw everything else out and just hope, every year, that there will be enough pieces that combine good story along with good writing. Because this is about words. Good words.

The opinion of writers groups varies entirely across the board. There are some people, authors and writers, who swear by them as support structures and then there is a much, much larger majority (mostly of successful published authors) who believe writers groups are nothing less than highly destructive. In this post I’m going to explore the reasons why writers groups have got such a bad reputation and also why, in some cases, they have a very good reputation.

My writers group, my aunt, and I, have become something of celebrities in our writing piece of Minnesota. What we have become and done for many years is unprecedented. We have stayed together, kept motivated, welcome new members and all of our members have become published authors. We have also kept our fourteen year old book churning out year after year, publishing Minnesota authors (without a reading fee) and offering $1500 worth of prizes every year. We have no membership dues and rely mostly on benefits to keep us publishing and supporting Minnesota writers year after year. We are a nonprofit and we are proud of what we have accomplished. The Jackpine Writers’ Bloc.

Writers alone in the woods

There are many different types of writers that come and introduce themselves to our group. The one defining quality of almost all of them is that their writing has never been read by anyone outside their families. They have basically never conversed with other writers and are a little terrified. They hold their work against their chest like it’s a light sensitive baby and when they come to our monthly meetings and read it, they go either one way or the other.

Can’t take critisism

Writers who absolutely cannot take criticism and seem to believe that while they’ve been off writing alone in the woods they have become Hemmingways. While we sit through their reading we’re left giving critique and support to deaf ears. We find out soon enough that this writer came for only one thing. To read in front of other writers and have those other writers bow before their brilliance.

I absolutely cannot say this enough. Not only is your writing not great or interesting but the majority of it is downright SHIT. No matter how good it may or not be it can be IMPROVED. Until you’re willing to improve as a writer and hear criticism you are a complete waste of time to other writers. And you’re a complete waste of time to yourself and you will never improve as a writer. But I guess if you think you’re perfect at this point anyway than you don’t need to improve. Do you?

Giving Criticism

I’m one lucky chick to have several long time highly published authors in my group. And many avid readers/writers. They give unique and interesting advice and have helped me in the past. The major problem with most writers’ groups is that they become full of a few very crappy writers, and very closed minded people.

Be Warned.

These people have destroyed many writers to make themselves feel better about their own shitty work. No, this is not how it always is but I think all writers groups have this sad truth within them at least a little bit. Every writers group has people who like and or dislike certain genres of writing and write themselves in a very specific genre. They cannot help but judge your writing against what they like.

The hardest thing to find is someone who can comment objectively on just the technique and form of the writing and not on the subject. This is an extremely rare person and is almost impossible to find. Do I think I am one of these people? As much as I possibly can be.

Whether you like it or not.

Your writing will be shaped by the opinions of the writers group. If you’re willing to take critique you fill find your writing will begin to take on different shapes. Read as much as you can and get as many opinions as possible about your writing. You will be able to glean and apply and grow faster than anyone else alive in your art of writing.

The Bad.

The only problem with a writers group (assuming they are good authors and readers who know how to critique properly and not just be stupid assholes) is that you can take it one step to far. It is possible to start writing to appease the people in your writers group. Never allow this to happen. Find your voice and stick with it. For years I have been the only commercial fantasy fiction writer in my group and they simply haven’t been able to help me much. It’s tough for poets and memoir-ists to make an intelligent critique on fantasy commercial fiction. But they are wonderful people and great writers in their own genre and I’ve taken their criticism as I would from anyone on the street picking up my book and reading it. As most novelists know good readers are damn hard to find but my writers group remains there for me, my encouragement and my support.

I will say it again.

You simply can not read enough, write enough, and get your writing read by enough people. Learn to glean from comments. If twelve out of thirteen people don’t like that line, consider changing it. If only one person doesn’t like it than everyone is entitled to her/his opinion. Know who your readers are and don’t be surprise if the love poet isn’t that fond of your horror novel. Take nothing personally and all of those readers will at least give you one very important thing.

Thick skin.

You know you’re going to need it when you actually want to get published. Become apart of the writers community in your area. Become a part of the writers of this country. Know what you’re trying to get into, don’t be shy. The longer you hide behind those trees the harder it will be to break in to the industry. As long as you’re careful to stay objective, take every opinion worth a grain of salt, becoming a part of a writers community will benefit you.