August 16th, 2010
"If you’re a good writer, these days, you pay attention to the way that people don’t pay attention."
— Charles Baxter
Welcome to the latest installment of the Grub Street Rag, a newsletter of the Boston literary scene sent out every Monday from the shimmering lake beneath our feet at Grub Street's World Headquarters. As always, if you are receiving this e-mail in horror, please advance to the bottom of the page to unsubscribe yourself.
After getting through our last five-year plan in a record three years, Grub Street is again in the exciting position of thinking about our future. You're a big part of that future and we want to hear from you. To that end, we’ve put together a brief online survey designed to better understand how we are serving you, what you value most, and what kinds of new programming you’d like to see. The survey should take no more than 10 minutes to complete and can be accessed here: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/339255/Grub-Street-Survey.
We encourage you to share this link with anyone who might be interested in Grub's work. To sweeten the pot, we’re giving away two free Grub Street classes in time for fall registration! Just complete the survey and enter your email address in the drawing. If you have any questions about this survey, please direct them to Chris Streeter (chris@altshulergray.com). Thank you in advance!
Thank you all so much for your patience this past week while our office was closed to have the floors repainted. We are open for business again: shinier, slipperier, and generally more polished than before. Stop by and say hello if you're in the area!
Each week for the next seven weeks, we're going to be featuring a video from our Muse and the Marketplace conference. This week, the fabulous--and here, fabulously terse--authors Benjamin Percy (The Wilding) and Bret Anthony Johnston (Corpus Christi) gesture towards their likes and dislikes, literary and otherwise.
Ben Percy and Bret Anthony Johnston on Vimeo.
Cheers,
Whitney, Sonya, Chris, Chip, and Eve
In addition to our ongoing workshops, Grub Street offers numerous writing-related events around town. See our website for a long-term view of all we do. Ready to sign up? Call us at 617.695.0075 and we'll get you on the list.
SEMINAR: Monday, August 23rd, 7:00-10:00pm, Crafting the Villain
Instructor: KL Pereira
Some of the best and most memorable characters in literature are villains, rough and tough monsters, sly and sexy femme fatales, and naughty and deceitful oligarchs. They unnerve and excite us, sending a chill down our spines, and striking fear into our hearts. Yet when creating our own villains we often fail to overtly acknowledge the complexity and moral ambiguity that compels them to cause mayhem, delegating their motivation to a need to cause evil for evil’s sake and resulting in two-dimensional baddies. In this one-day seminar we will discuss traditional and non-traditional villains, why they are an essential part of any juicy tale, and how we can develop truly sinister and captivating characters that will antagonize, needle, and provoke even the bravest reader.
*ONE SPOT LEFT* $65.00/$50.00 members, Grub Street HQ, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.
SEMINAR: Monday, August 23rd, 7:00-10:00pm, Question Every Word: The Art of Micro-Editing
Instructor: Michelle Seaton
Before an editor evaluates your manuscript’s themes, plot, characters, or voice, he or she judges its sentences. The best way to impress any reader is to write clear and efficient prose. Good sentence-level editing can increase the pace, enhance the description, and deepen the mood of your work. In short, it can make your writing more compelling. In this workshop, we will take apart and reassemble sentences and paragraphs from both fiction and nonfiction drafts. You will learn to read like an editor, to question every word and remove abstraction in order to take your writing to the next level.
$65.00/$50.00 members, Grub Street HQ, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.
SEMINAR: Monday, August 23rd, 7-10pm, Poetry Jam
Instructor: Rebecca Morgan Frank
Do you want to experiment with writing poetry? Are you looking to get back to those poems you wrote a while ago? Are you in a rut with your writing and in need of a jumpstart to find a fresh approach? Or are you a prose writer who needs to cross train by flexing some poetry muscles? Poets of all levels are welcome in this one night workshop in which we'll experiment with various poetry games, collaborations, and exercises. You'll leave with some seeds of poems, and with a toolbox of writing exercises to help you keep writing on your own. Be prepared to write, collaborate, and have fun.
$65.00/$50.00 members, Grub Street HQ, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.
SEMINAR: Monday, August 23rd, 7:00-10:00pm, He Said/She Said: The Necessity of Feedback and How to Take It
Instructor: Lynne Griffin
Athletes and singers engage in regular practice, receiving ongoing coaching and “notes” to enhance performance. For the writer, positive feedback as well as constructive criticism serve an equally valuable purpose. This workshop will delve into why you need feedback and what to do with it once you get it. We’ll discuss techniques for examining positive, negative, and conflicting feedback—specifically how to incorporate it into a manuscript or story revision. If you want to take your work to the next level, join Lynne for an informative evening aimed at honing this all important skill set. Additional topics will include how to find trusted readers, working with a writers’ group, as well as knowing when it’s time to stop workshopping a piece.
$65.00/$50.00 members, Grub Street HQ, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.
DAYTIME INTENSIVE: Monday-Friday, August 23-27th, 11:00am-2:00pm each day, Revision Clinic
Instructor: Cam Terwilliger
Though it's often said that revising is the key to publishable writing, revision is a process that many fiction writers find frustrating. Once you have a first draft, what happens next? How do you follow through on the ideas your workshop suggested? How do you add depth to characters? How do you make the structure more direct? This week-long intensive course will teach the crucial concepts of revision that will allow you to address these issues. Whether it's exploring the possibilities of an initial draft or adding the final touches, revision is a process no successful writer can do without.
$285/$260 members, Grub Street HQ, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.
SEMINAR: Tuesday, August 31st, 7:00-10:00pm, Creating Complex Characters
Instructor: Lisa Borders
Stories often begin with a character the writer loves -- or loves to hate. But characters who come to life on the page are full of contradictions, neither wholly good nor entirely evil. How do we infuse our characters with the complexity that will make them believable? Through a combination of exercises and discussion, this seminar will show you how to create characters whose human contradictions make them vivid and memorable.
*2 SPOTS LEFT* $65.00/$50.00 members, Grub Street HQ, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.
SEMINAR: Tuesday, August 31st, 7:00-10:00pm, Art of the Scene
Instructor: Amy Marcott
Scenes play important roles in fiction and nonfiction—an opportunity for the reader to experience the action as it unfolds in the real time of the story and for the writer to dramatize crucial encounters and key moments. But combining numerous narrative elements into a successful scene can be a challenge. This class will look at the way scenes work and strategies employed by various authors. We’ll focus on pacing, choreography, dialogue, tension, details, subtext, and more and practice these with in-class writing exercises designed to inspire and elevate your own writing. If time permits, we can workshop a short scene you bring (up to about five pages double spaced) in small groups. Bring 3 copies.
$115.00/$95.00 members, Grub Street HQ, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.
SEMINAR: Tuesday, August 31st, 7:00-10:00pm, Crafting the Pitch
Instructor: Ethan Gilsdorf
In this seminar, you will how to write killer cover letters for submitting essays to literary magazines, non-fiction book proposals to agents, and articles to editors of magazines, newspapers and online publications. We'll look at top mistakes that writers make and examine some pitch letters that actually worked. We'll also see how to leverage your background and expertise to best present yourself, even if you don't have a lot of publishing experience. Bring 15 copies of a draft of any pitch letter for a non-fiction project you are currently working on.
$65.00/$50.00 members, Grub Street HQ, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.
SEMINAR: Tuesday, August 31st, 7:00-10:00pm, Book Smarts: A Novel Approach to Marketing Your Work
Instructor: Marisa Pagano
Writers receive a lot of bad advice. They are told to submit widely and often, be persistent, and say yes to every opportunity. They are expected to trust their agent as they “shop” their work and believe wholeheartedly in their publisher as they position it. Writers make themselves available for tours and readings post-publication, but no one explains how to act once the public (and the publisher’s) interest winds down. Taught by a ten-year publishing veteran who has worked with the industry’s top talent, this course not only demystifies the process of getting your work into print but also recommends the right approach to a successful publication and career. Strategies discussed include targeting the best agent for your specific work, evaluating the publication options presented to you by your agent, optimizing the promotional plan devised by your publisher, and solidifying the success of your work post-publication. The seminar applies to commercial and noncommercial works in multiple genres and will primarily interest novelists, memoirists, poets, short-story writers, and nonfiction writers.
$65.00/$50.00 members, Grub Street HQ, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.
WEEKEND WORKSHOP: Saturday, September 11th, 9:00am-4:00pm, The Terrible Familiar: Writing Literary Darkness Tastefully and Effectively
Instructor: Adrian Van Young
The one-day version of the popular weekend seminar! Writing a dark domestic drama but can’t quite make the conflict pop? Penning a tale of the supernatural that wants to be taken seriously? Inhabiting a villain or scoundrel who refuses to be plausible? This weekend workshop is geared towards writing from the dark side without the melodrama or the fatal constriction of genre. By looking at the dark successes of some of our best writers, and through lively in-class exercises in everything from non-linear narrative structure to writing first-person unreliability, you will become a seasoned hand in writing violence, both physical and emotional, creating nuanced, relatable villains, mastering the finer points of dark and uncanny description, and making the dark hopes and desires of your characters seethe upon the page, among other strange things not dreamt of in our philosophy.
$115/$95 members, Grub Street HQ, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.
WEEKEND WORKSHOP: Saturday, September 11th, 9:00am-4:00pm, Crash Course in Guerrilla Book Promotion
Instructor: Ethan Gilsdorf
If you're about to publish a book, you've probably got questions about how to best publicize and sell it -- as well as wondering what to expect. In this expanded version of his popular seminar, Ethan Gilsdorf reports on the lessons learned from his 50+ city budget book tour and six month guerrilla effort to promote his book Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms. Whether you have a big or small publisher, or chose self-publishing, there are both traditional and non-traditional methods to identify and reach your target audience and build an audience in various potential book-buying communities. We'll discuss setting up a promotional budget; creating a book tour (and not just at bookstores but other venues) and brainstorming special contests, promotions and giveaways unique to your book; establishing yourself as an expert and tying in your book to current events; using traditional media like print, TV and radio; and jumping on social media to develop a fan base and create buzz. We'll also over what your publisher should do and what you can do, and the problems that self-publishing creates. Come with questions.
$115/$95 members, Grub Street HQ, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.
WEEKEND WORKSHOP: Saturday, September 11th, 9:00am-4:00pm, Plotting the Novel
Instructor: Michelle Hoover
Starting with Aristotle and working through three contemporary authors’ ideas about plotting, this course will offer several plot forms to help you rethink your novel’s structure and the vital connection between character and plot.
*Sorry, this class is sold out. Please email chip@grubstreet.org to be put on a waiting list.*$115/$95 members, Grub Street HQ, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.
WEEKEND WORKSHOP: Sunday, September 12th, 9:00am-4:00pm, The Time of Your Life
Instructor: Hillary Rettig
One of the keys to success in writing is using your time properly. That can be tough when you have a job, family, home or other major commitments – and when occupational hazards like procrastination and writer’s block rear their ugly heads. The good news is that all of these issues can be addressed once you’ve figured out the root causes of your time “issues” and applied some practical strategies to address them. (Hint: it’s not that you’re lazy or uncommitted—so stop blaming yourself! Another hint: it is not so difficult to create and stick to a time “budget” and schedule that will help you achieve your goals.) Author Hillary Rettig (The Lifelong Activist) will help you achieve these goals with two three-hour seminars offered on the same day: “Time Management” first, then a lunch break, then “Stop Procrastinating!” The best news of all is that once a writer actually starts solving his or her procrastination problems or blocks and starts managing his/her time better, change can happen amazingly fast!
$115/$95 members, Grub Street HQ, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.
WEEKEND WORKSHOP: Sunday, September 12th, 9:00am-4:00pm, Jumpstart Your Writing
Instructor: Grace Talusan
This one-day weekend version of one of our most popular courses has a very clear mission: spend the day writing. Through a series of fun directed writing exercises, we will explore the terrain of fiction and some non-fiction: mining for material, constructing characters and settings, shaping vivid dialogue, understanding point of view, and finding your voice. We will discuss the process of writing and the strengths and weaknesses of the work we produce in class. We will read and discuss published stories in regards to craft, then write exercises inspired by the stories. A supportive and generative experience for both new and practicing writers. Limited to 15 students.
$115/$95 members, Grub Street HQ, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.
WEEKEND WORKSHOP: Sunday, September 12th, 9:00am-4:00pm, How to Plan, Write, and Develop a Book
Instructor: Mary Carroll Moore
Whether you're a nonfiction author, memoirist, or novelist, and whether you have a book almost finished or merely a concept for one, this workshop will help you get to know your book--what it is about, how to structure it, how to finish it! You'll learn a step-by-step plan (including timetables, chapter grids, storyboarding, and three-act structure) and ways to flow chapters, find holes in your material that need filling, organize research and concepts, and construct engaging plots. PEN/Faulkner-nominated instructor Mary Carroll Moore, author of twelve published books, will show you how to package your manuscript for agents and publishers, via essential tips on editing and evaluating your book at all stages. Learn why strong structuring is the key to selling a book in today's competitive publishing industry. For all levels of writers.
$115/$95 members, Grub Street HQ, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.
Be sure to check out our website for a comprehensive view of upcoming events.
Grub Street wants to promote YOU! Please send events for consideration to whitney@grubstreet.org. Bonus points and undying gratitude for submitting your event info in the same format as the events below. Our apologies in advance if we cannot fit you in. Please note that we do the best we can to evaluate requests, and do privilege requests from members, but cannot be held responsible for the quality of these events and programs or the legitimacy of contests. We expect that readers will do their own due diligence before sending their work or their money to any individual or organization.
Shocking update from Spreading the News: Not much happens in August! We'll be back next week with information on upcoming literary events around town.
Welcome to the end of the e-mail, where like the little piggie who went to the farmers' market and was sold as artisanal free range bacon, we offer you the chance to win a prize. This 1988 minutiae-filled novel takes place over a matter of moments as the narrator reflects during his lunch hour. Name the novel and the author. Email your answer and your postal address to whitney@grubstreet.org. First correct respondent wins a J.P. Licks gift card.
Last week's answer: Agatha Christie claimed sitting in a tub and munching on apples was a helpful activity for plotting books. Winner: Louis Gordon.
