In Which I Have a Birthday and Review the Year

via GIPHY

- a post by Jeanna Mason Stay

Next week is my birthday. I’ll be 37, which is exciting if you like prime numbers but less fun if you prefer to have lots of factors in your age (like 36, which is fantastic—1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 12, 18, 36!). If you multiple 37 by 3, however, you do get a cool number (111), so it’s not all bad. Plus, it gives you the opportunity to be geeky about numbers, which is always a bonus.

Anyway, I think it’s about time for an early midlife crisis, but I just don’t know what direction to take that (except, of course, rearranging all the furniture in my house and trying to toss half of my belongings, but since that happens regularly, it doesn’t really count).

When I think about my age and writing, though, I can’t help but think of many/most of my favorite authors. Shannon Hale and Brandon Sanderson are both only a few years older than me. They’ve been publishing waaaaaay longer than I have (since, technically, I still haven’t!). Kate DiCamillo published Because of Winn Dixie when she was 36ish. We won’t go on and on, because that would be depressing. I guess the point is that it sure doesn’t feel like I’m doing much with my writing career.

At the same time, I’m quite aware that their career paths are just not for me. But then I think, “Maybe it’s because I’m just not a hard enough worker” (totally true), “Maybe I’m not talented” (hopefully not true), blah blah blah. I dither a lot. In the end, pretty much the only reasonable conclusion on this topic is Comparison = Bad.

So instead of comparisons, it seems like a good idea to think about the things I have done this year with writing.

I’ve written a bunch of short stories and flash fiction, two of which are going into anthologies relatively soon. I’ve participated in a flash fiction competition, which has been delightfully fun so far. I won the Mormon Lit Blitz this year. (Yay!) I won a Beginning of Book contest. I was given a great opportunity that is still terrifying the pants off me (and I am therefore stalling!)

I tried writing several stories that I wasn’t good enough to write yet. One of them turned out well. Some turned out okay anyway, though not amazing. One of them crashed and is still burning. I’m planning on pulling out the fire extinguisher and trying again. In trying things I wasn’t ready for, I got (hopefully) just a teensy bit better.

I started out the year with a goal of writing every single day. That goal also crashed and burned around August, but that was still pretty good for me. I went farther on that than I had previously, and I still write many days, though not even close to all.

I taught a writing class to a group of awesome teens, and as part of that, I put together an anthology of their awesome writing. It was an insane amount of work, but it turned out so fun, and I’m so glad I did it. I learned a lot about how anthologies work, how hard it is to put things in an order that makes sense and flows, and a lot of mishmash of stuff that I may never need to know again.

I discovered how much I love short fiction. I’m learning how it gives me most of the joy of writing, which is a big part of why I write in the first place. But it comes with far fewer of the bouts of angst, suffering, agony, and self-doubt that novel-writing has done in the past. So I’ve not given up on novels, but I am definitely loving the change of pace.

And none of this even touches on the sheer awesomeness that is each of my kids, which is a whole different topic.

Looking back, I’m really happy about writing this year, even though it still isn’t what I had planned on. I won some, lost some, grew and changed a lot. Another time I’ll start thinking about goals for the coming year, but for now, I think I’ll just relish where I’ve been. I’ll never catch up to my author crushes, but I think maybe I’ll find a place where I’m happy being me.

Shameless Self-Promotion!: Mormon Lit Blitz edition

Have you heard of the Mormon Lit Blitz? It's a flash fiction contest that's been going on around this time every year for the past five or six years. Flash fiction, if you don't know, is generally considered to be fiction under 1000 words (although it doesn't include children's picture and board books, which are usually in that range too). It's fun to write--though it can be surprisingly difficult--and quick to read. Hence the "flash" part.

This year, my entry was a finalist, and this week is the voting. So I'm taking a moment to shamelessly promote my story and hope that you will go read it and the other stories then vote.

It's titled "Forty Years," and it's the story of a woman and her relationship with her mother and with motherhood.

The voting ends on Friday, so if you're inclined to vote, go do it! Here's the link to voting instructions. Also, there's a small discussion of each individual piece going on here (and of course you can page to the other stories' discussions too), so if you have a desire to share your thoughts on any of the stories, I encourage you to do so. Being writers, you know how awesome it feels to have people respond positively or thoughtfully to your work, so go share that feeling with someone else!

And if you're on Facebook, go like the Mormon Lit Blitz so that you can hear about and enter the contest next year!

Thanks,
Jeanna

Afghans or stuffed toys

 When I first learned to crochet as a kid, I thought that serious crocheters must make afghans or tablecloths or wall hangings--big, grand things. I didn't start with big stuff, but I felt like I was working towards that.

Fast forward many years and I've gotten a few afghans under my belt, but I start to realize I don't really like making afghans. They're big and heavy and take too much time and yarn. But I really like making stuffed animals. They're cute and little and fun to give as gifts, and I can finish them in under ten hours.

I used to think that the only thing for me to write was novels. Anything else was sort of just a stop on the way to novels. But this past year I've dealt in short fiction a lot, and I've started to realize it's fun! I enjoy it. It's easier to experiment with because you can try and fail without writing 50,000 or more words before your realize it's not working. There are places you can submit short fiction too, which just makes it more fun!

Both afghans and stuffed toys are valid crochet projects. Both novels and short stories are great in writing. Sometimes you just need variety. So if you're feeling burned out on your current type of project, try something new! It might turn out that you like making stuffed toys?

Writing Something Shorter

This school year, I’m teaching a short story and novel writing class to a group of teenagers at our homeschool co-op. We’ve only been going for a few weeks, but I’m having so much fun!

One thing we’re doing is writing stories in a wide variety of lengths. I thought I’d share some of the lengths we’re doing. I have really enjoyed thinking about these different styles of stories more. Sometimes you just need a break from working on novels, you know? And sometimes you even need a break from a traditional “short story.” If this is you, read on for some ideas!

1. Our biggest project is going to be a novel/novella/novelette (depending on how ambitious and excited each kid is; they’ll be setting their own limits). Incidentally, in case you were wondering, here are some generally accepted numbers for the lengths of those different types:

Novel: somewhere over 40,000 words

Novella: about 17,500 to 40,000 words (or about 70–80 pages)

Novelette: 7,500 to 17,500 words (about 30–70 pages)

(Did you know there are lots of specifications for short stories too, like “long short story” and “short short story”? Crazy.)

2. Six-word stories. This should be self-explanatory, right? Six words. The end. We did six-word memoirs on the first day of class, and it was amazing how much I got to learn about each of these awesome kids from what they said about themselves in just six words.*

3. Twitter stories. Yes, I know some people write Twitter stories that are contained in a long series of tweets, but I think it’s much more fun and interesting to write a story that can be contained in a single tweet—that’s 140 characters (which includes spaces and punctuation). Again, it’s interesting to see how much you really can pack into such a short space—and also what you really can’t.

4. Flash fiction. This is usually considered anything between about 500 and 750 words. Here’s what I love about this length: Let’s say you get a good idea one morning. You hop in the shower and think it out; by the time you’ve toweled your hair, you have an exact plan. If you have a typing speed of, say, 50 wpm, you could sit down to type and have a completed rough draft 15 minutes later! Instant gratification!

5. Typical short story length, somewhere in the low thousands. Honestly, I don’t have much to say about these, although I do think it’s great to write them occasionally.

Are you feeling stuck in your current WIP? How about taking a break. Write a Twitter story based on a side character. Write some flash fiction about what would happen if your main character woke up one day with a super power. Imagine your villain’s six-word memoir. It could be fun.

* In case you were wondering, it’s cheating in a memoir to just list qualities like, “Funny, creative, mother, wife.” You have to tell a story in those words. Try it, it’s fun!

Princess Lolly: A Bedtime Story

- a post by Jeanna Mason Stay

Princess Lolly, as drawn by my daughter

My lovely oldest child turns eight this week. It is nearly impossible to express how fantastic this girl is. She is funny, loving, kind, smart, good, curious, and just all-around amazing. She’s the sort of kid I would have loved to be friends with when I was young. She’s enthusiastic about everything, and we just love her to pieces.

In honor of her birthday, and also because this story is part of a giant project I’m working on this month, tonight I am posting a story I used to tell her a lot when she was a little girl. Princess Lolly is one of the characters from the board game Candy Land, and she went on many adventures in our bedtime hours. This, however, is her original adventure.

Hope you enjoy something light and silly tonight!

      Once upon a time, Princess Lolly was walking along the path through Candyland to visit her friends. Now, Princess Lolly is always very, very sticky, but on this particular day she got even stickier.

      The first place she went was to visit Plumpy to eat some plums from his tree. Now, a normal person would pluck the plum from the tree first and then bite into it. But not Princess Lolly. She liked to bite the plums right off of the tree, which is not a very exact method of eating. It was rather messy in fact, and plum juice ran down her cheeks, making her face very, very sticky.

      Next she visited Mr. Mint in the Peppermint Forest. He was chopping down peppermint trees, and she volunteered to help. She wasn’t strong enough or old enough to use Mr. Mint’s ax, but she was very good at gathering the peppermint logs up against her chest and stacking them in piles. Of course, peppermint logs are candy, and gathering them made her arms and her chest very, very sticky.

      After she helped Mr. Mint for a while, she wandered off to see Jolly at the Gumdrop Pass. Gumdrop Pass was one of her favorite places to run and jump because every time she jumped on top of a gumdrop, her legs and feet would sink deep into it. As you can imagine, this made them—you guessed it—very, very sticky.

      Gramma Nutt was next on her list of friends to visit, and she loved to see Gramma Nutt because Gramma was always making a batch of her yummy peanut brittle. She stirred the brittle over a fire in a giant cauldron, and then she would pour it out into shallow pans to cool. Princess Lolly was not very patient, though, and when it was still far too warm to have hardened, Princess Lolly poked at it with her finger. Fortunately, it was not too hot to burn, but her hand did sink deep into the brittle, which made it very, very sticky.

      At this point, you can probably understand why Princess Lolly spends her whole life being so sticky, but trust me, it gets worse. Because just before the end of the day, just before she headed home to see her mother, Princess Lolly stopped off to see Gloppy in the Molasses Swamp. And the swamp looked so inviting that she jumped in and swam around. So even though there had been parts of her that were relatively clean before, now she was absolutely covered in molasses—and therefore, very, very sticky.

      “Mommy, I’m home,” she called out to her mother, Queen Frostine, when she arrived back at the Candy Castle.

      “Oh, my dear!” exclaimed Queen Frostine, smiling. “You are very, very sticky, darling. I think you need a bath before bed.”

      Princess Lolly agreed.

      But do you know where she bathes? In the Ice Cream Sea. And so, even though Princess Lolly got a bath that night, it was in ice cream, and so, at the end of all her adventures and the end of the day, Princess Lolly still ended up very, very, very sticky.

 

Come on, Let’s Blitz Again

- a post by Jeanna Mason Stay

It’s that time again! Time to spend a few minutes reading some fun, interesting, thought-provoking, and beautiful short Mormon fiction and then vote on which you liked best. Yup, it’s Mormon Lit Blitz time.

For the past several years, the Mormon Lit Blitz has presented an array of short fiction (less than 1000 words) on a wide variety of Mormon topics. With the exception of the first year (in which I competed, so I’m not exactly unbiased), this year has been my favorite. There are some really wonderful pieces in this year’s competition.

Lacey talked last week about condensing your writing (even if you don’t write picture books). If you want to see this in action, the Blitz is a great place to witness how much meaning and power you can pack into a very few words.

For me, Adams’ “Faded Garden” was the most powerful for imagery and sheer visceral-ness (can we pretend that’s a word?). Plus, I think it perfectly captures an idea that is hard to put into words—and I have a soft spot for anything about Eve. Young’s “Best Wedding Advice Ever” was hilarious. And also, the best wedding advice ever. Jepson’s “Angry Sunbeam,” Cowley’s “Five Year Journal,” Young’s “Echo of Boy”—all of these captured moments and events that were both moving and very, very real.

In fact, I think perhaps that is what made this year so good, in my opinion. Just about every piece touched on a universal experience or feeling in a way that made it very real and very close. No, I’ve never hurt anyone as much as the character in Hales’ “Child Star,” and my husband has never turned into a giant rabbit like in Lemmon’s “Disability, Death, or Other Circumstances.” I’ve never made beaded lizards to “decorate someone else’s service” (Parker). But I have certainly made mistakes I regretted, struggled to find the blessings in a terrible situation, felt frustration at not making a difference.

So I encourage you, if you have just a minute or two and want to be touched by a feeling of connection to others, if you want to laugh or smile or just think, give those minutes to this year’s Mormon Lit Blitz. You won’t regret it.

(Also, vote! Voting closes at the end of the week.)

Here’s a handy list of the stories, essays, and poems in this year’s Blitz. You can also find voting instructions here.

Eric Jepson, “Angry Sunbeam”
Heather Young, “Best Wedding Advice Ever”
Tyler Chadwick, “Three Meditations on Fatherhood”
Scott Hales, “Child Star”
Emily Harris Adams, “Faded Garden”
Katherine Cowley, “The Five Year Journal”

Annaliese Lemmon, “Disability, Death, or Other Circumstance”
William Morris, “The Joys of Onsite Apartment Building Management”

Darlene Young, “Echo of Boy”
Lehua Parker, “Decorating Someone Else’s Service”
Julia Jeffrey, “Should Have Prayed for a Canoe”
Merrijane Rice, “Mother”

Enjoy!

The Mormon Lit Blitz--Flash Fiction Fun!

- a post by Jeanna Mason Stay

 

For the past three years, a lovely group of literary folk have been running the Mormon Lit Blitz, a little competition for flash fiction (in this case, pieces that are less than 1000 words). Today marks one of the last days of the competition before voting begins.

The fun thing about flash fiction is that it’s just that—flash, fast, just little snippets that pack punch. Some of the pieces each year have been poetry (which I confess I put in a different category from flash fiction, but some of it was so good I didn’t care), and others have been experimental forms, while most have been just straight-up short fiction.

I hope you will consider reading through the entries for this year’s Lit Blitz and voting when the time comes. You’ll get fun and interesting and thought-provoking works, all in three-minute bursts! If you want to join the discussion on the pieces, here’s where you can do that too (the link is only to the discussion of the first piece, but I have faith in your ability to figure out how to find the rest from there). And maybe next year you can enter and be part of the blitz.

A few past favorites (in no particular order, and surprisingly many relevant to motherhood):*

"Actionable Intelligence" by Jonathon Penny

"Stillborn" by Merrijane Rice

"When I Rise" by Kimberly Hartvigsen

"In Which Eve Names Everything Else" by Katherine Cowley

"Birthright" by Emily Harris Adams

"No Substitute for Chocolate" by Jeanna Mason Stay**  ***

* I won’t have added this year’s favorites because I’m writing this ahead of time—shocking!

** Hey, I was going to try to be all humble and not mention it, but then I decided not to. :)

*** Also, in case you should take the piece too seriously (as some did), no, I do not advocate this type of plan. It was a story, intended for humorous effect, not a real suggestion.