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September 2006

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THE WRITERS' RETREAT NEWSLETTER

September 2006, Volume 6, No. 2

http://www.writersretreat.com

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IN THIS EDITION

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1.  WELCOME TO OUR NEW EDITOR:  Cynthia Green

2.  THE ONLY LIGHT ON FREDERICK STREET – Don J. Snyder

3.  CHECK YOUR CHECKLIST!

4.  VISIT OUR 7 LOCATIONS IN CANADA, COSTA RICA, MEXICO, USA

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Thought of the month:

Garp knew what every artist should know: as he put it. “You only grow by coming to the end of something and by beginning something else. Even if these so-called endings and beginnings are illusions.” Garp did not write faster than anyone else; he simply always worked with the idea of completion in mind."

--- Micheline Cote

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1. WELCOME TO OUR NEW EDITOR:  Cynthia Green

A warm welcome to Cynthia Green for joining The Writers’ Retreat as editor.

Cynthia is a writer and editor in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  She has full range of editorial skills including substantive edits, line edits and critiques. She also prepares proposals, queries, jacket copy, press releases, and newsletters. She has been a ghostwriter for memoir, fiction, and children’s books. She has many published clients and most recently published an article in the March 2006 issue of Mandala, A Journal of Tibetan Buddhism. 

She is on the Board of Directors of the New Mexico Book Association and PEN New Mexico. 

In spring 2007, she will be on-site at a new Retreat in Northern New Mexico to assist writers‑in‑residence.

Again, welcome to The Writers’ Retreat team. We are very proud to have someone with your expertise and availability.

To meet our editors, go to http://www.writersretreat.com/Bios.htm. 

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2. THE ONLY LIGHT ON FREDERICK STREET – Don J. Snyder

This has been a busy summer in St. Andrews By the Sea, and we have welcomed a procession of very serious writers from the most prestigious graduate MFA writing programs across America:  Stanford, Columbia University, The Iowa Writer's Workshop, and The James Michener Writing Center at The University of Texas.

This summer I built a new reading and writing room at the front of the upstairs hallway, over looking Frederick Street.  There is a story behind this room which begins ten years ago when my father told me for the first time that my mother was really my stepmother, and that my real mother had died seventeen days after giving birth to me and my twin brother, in August 1950. Her name was Peggy and she was just nineteen years old.  That began a journey for me to learn who she was in this world, why she had died, and why the family had kept her hidden from me my whole life.  For the first ten years of my life, we lived only a few hundred yards from her grave, and yet no one ever took me there. 

In 2002, Alfred A. Knopf published my book about her life, Of Time & Memory.  And I am at work now on the screenplay for a feature film.

Two images rest at the heart of the book. The first was conveyed to me by an Army buddy of my father's who told me that on the Autumn mornings after Peggy's death, he and his friends would take turns going by the Lutheran cemetery to pick up my father who was spending every night sleeping on Peggy's grave beneath his army blanket.

He and my mother were only together for ten months; she died at the time in their love story when all they wanted in the world was to be together. 

 
The second image was of Peggy who loved to sew and who had a Singer sewing machine with a small lamp, set in her bedroom window. The light from her sewing machine was often the only light on in town late at night. She stayed up late sewing every night, her neighbor told me. First her wedding dress, then her maternity clothes, then her baby clothes.  And then the light went out.

After Of Time & Memory was published, I was on the Today Show telling this story of the sewing machine, and how the day after Peggy died, her father sold it along with all her furniture.

When I got back home from New York City, there was a message from a woman in Vermont who had telephoned me to say she had my mother's sewing machine. 

I have set it in the front windows of the new reading room here at the Retreat, which will always be called, “Peggy's Room.”  On my birthday this summer, August 11, 56 years after my mother's death, I rewired the little lamp and when I turned it on for the first time it still worked.  And so now, in the evenings I leave it on, and it shines as the only light on Frederick Street.

It will remain on each night all winter as the Retreat remains open. 

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3. CHECK YOUR CHECKLIST! Cynthia Green

I am lucky to do what I love to do every day: work with the written word. I read, evaluate, edit and write. Because some common problems arise in most manuscripts, I keep a Writers’ Checklist posted right in front of me. It helps me zero in on those problems when I’m not quite sure why a piece of writing doesn’t flow the way it should—including my own! I also give my clients and my readers a copy of the checklist to use as they read through the work.

There are five consistent problem areas, primarily for fiction but also for contemporary nonfiction that is often written as “story.” Under each category there are about ten problems, but for this series of articles for the Writers’ Retreat Newsletter I’ll focus on one problem in each category. The troublemakers are:

• character development

• Plot/action conflicts

• time, place, and mood

• pacing

• point of view

• dialogue

• general problems

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

In many stories, the primary characters reflect the essential character of the author. This is not necessarily a bad thing. We are always told to write what we know. But some authors have trouble selecting which character will embody their particular configuration of human issues…so they create several who may have different physical features but feel like carbon copies of one another.

Character problem: Lack of contrast in personality, goals, values, or ideas.

Solution: Try reducing the number of characters.

PLOT/ACTION CONFLICTS

Some writers do extraordinary gymnastics with the written word. They can take you flying around the cosmos or down into the depths of soul. But sometimes the reader just wants to know what happens next in the story.

Plot problem: Rather than advancing the plot, lyrical or poetic descriptions feel too clever or contrived.

Solution: Simplify sentence structure. Move forward.

TIME, PLACE, and MOOD

When little kids tell a story, they focus entirely on plot. The story is filled with “…and then…and then…and then…” Mature writers know the reader wants a slow unfolding but sometimes they get positively sluggish. They construe a whole scene around one small piece of information. I’ve often skimmed a bland episode only to have to go back later and find a missing piece of the plot.

Mood problem: Narrative scenes are not vivid.

Solution: Add memorable texture, visuals, scents, and sounds to events, places, and situations.

PACING

This may seem rudimentary but I correct past verb tenses in every manuscript. Passive voice (the ball was hit by him) slows action. Active voice (He hit the ball) moves action. Compound verb tenses (I had worked in the garden) slow action. Simple tenses (I worked in the garden) moves action.

Pacing problem: Complex verb tenses

Solution: Every time you see compound tenses (verbs with -ing or with had, had been, etc.) rewrite as a simple past for clarity.

PROBLEMS IN THE POINT OF VIEW

Oops! My character is ruminating on a mountaintop and I forgot to tell you how she got here. Well, she drove a car to the path, put on her hiking boots, walked ten miles through the woods, climbed a sheer rock face, then stood on the summit and felt…

POV problem: Characters are left in suspended animation while author fills in information.

Solution: Flow the information into the story through narrative or conversation.

PROBLEMS WITH DIALOGUE

Dialogue is often punctuated with he said, she saw, they observed, etc. But too much speaker identification creates a staccato clap at the end of each voice.

Dialogue problem: He said, she said…

Solution: Trust that the reader can figure out who is talking and let the words of the dialogue reveal the tone, mood, intention, etc.

GENERAL PROBLEM

Some say there are only five plots in all literature; some generously say there are seven. Face it: our stories have been told in form or another. Nonetheless, it is hard to resist thinking we’ve hit the BIG Idea. Just in case the reader might not get it we hit them over the head. We become preachy or moralizing. That’s exactly when the originality fails and the (all too familiar) lecture prevails.

Problem: Didactic writing

Solution: Just tell your wonderful story in your simple, clear, original voice.

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4.  VISIT OUR 7 LOCATIONS IN CANADA, COSTA RICA, MEXICO and USA

Do you need to get away and advance your project? Try one of our year-round retreats! To assess the benefit you may expect, please review the comments of residents on the memories page.

In Québec, Canada bordering the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont;

St.Andrews-by-the-Sea, New-Brunswick, Canada;

North Lake Harbour, Prince Edward Island, Canada;

Zihuatanejo on the Pacific Coast of México;

The beautiful San Juan Mountains in Ouray, Colorado;

Corralitos near Santa Cruz, California;

Ojochal, Costa Rica;

Northern New Mexico coming in April 2007.

The rates for a weekly residency differ from one location to the other. We offer any length of stay on a first reserved basis.

Please visit our Web site at www.WritersRetreat.com and click on one of the locations for more details.

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Thanks for taking time to read our newsletter and for your interest in The Writers’ Retreat. See you next time!

Remember… we are here to help you Shape your Vision into Reality…  

Micheline Côté 

The Writers’ Retreat

Telephone:  (819) 876-2065

info@writersretreat.com

http://www.writersretreat.com

Please feel free to post or forward this message to a friend.

If you no longer wish to receive e-mails from THE WRITERS’ RETREAT, please reply with REMOVE in the subject line. Please indicate your FIRST AND LAST NAME. Thank you!  

THE WRITERS' RETREAT NEWSLETTER - Bringing the writing life to you!

June 2006, Volume 6, No. 1

http://www.writersretreat.com  

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IN THIS EDITION

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1.  WELCOME TO OUR NEW EDITOR:  Don J. Snyder

2.  THREE (3) NEW YEAR-ROUND RETREATS NOW OPEN

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1.WELCOME TO OUR NEW EDITOR:  Don J. Snyder

A warm welcome to our new editor, Don J. Snyder. Don, a former Fellow at the Iowa Writer's Workshop, and a James Michener Fellow, offers instruction in Screenwriting, the Novel, and the Memoir.  He has taught Fiction Writing, Nonfiction Prose, and Screenwriting at Colgate University, Colby College, The University of Maine, and Columbia College.  He is the author of five novels published by Alfred A. Knopf, Random House, Doubleday and Simon & Schuster; two memoirs published by Alfred A. Knopf and Little Brown; and the screenplay, “Fallen Angel” a Hallmark Hall of Fame Christmas movie which won the highest ratings for a television movie in 2003. 

“You can make it if you persevere.  And it doesn't come down to talent. I've seen young writers squander their talent. Hard work can't be squandered because it carries its own rewards. Hard work and defiance are the most important things.”

Don is on-site at St. Andrews-by-the-Sea Retreat in New Brunswick, Canada (find out more below).

We are very proud to have someone with his talent, expertise and enthusiasm.  His help is well-timed and appreciated!

To read his bio, go to http://www.writersretreat.com/Bios.htm and scroll down the page.  Don at the Oprah Winfrey Show “A Job Lost, a Life Found.” 

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2. THREE (3) NEW YEAR-ROUND RETREATS NOW OPEN

ST. ANDREWS-BY-THE-SEA, New Brunswick, Canada (East Coast):

We’re proud to announce the opening of a new facility in St. Andrews-by-the-Sea in New Brunswick, an old seaside resort town surrounded by Passamaquoddy Bay. Life is simple and relatively earthy in St. Andrews and it has the touch of sophistication visitors are looking for!  It is also a place of matchless beauty where writers work far from the madding crowd in one of the most beautiful seaside villages.

The retreat caters to five residents at the same time. Five private rooms with 2 shared bath are available. Breakfast is served each morning and residents may use the kitchen and common areas. To accommodate screenwriters, there's a screening room with a TV and a DVD player. Wireless Internet is available throughout the retreat.

The retreat is exclusive to writers.  Private tutorial is available by arrangement.

Location:  The retreat is a 6½-hour drive from Boston and 4½ hours from Bangor, Maine.

Your host:  Don J. Snyder, author & editor for The Writers’ Retreat

VISIT ST. ANDREWS RETREAT AT  WWW.WRITERSRETREAT.COM/NEWBRUNSWICK.HTM OR

CALL (819) 876-2065 FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO RESERVE YOUR SPACE.

NORTH LAKE HARBOUR on Prince Edward Island, Canada (East Coast):

This new facility is located at North Lake Harbour on Prince Edward Island, Canada.  The North Lake Harbour Retreat offers writers and artists quiet living space in an inspirational and meditative coastal setting.

The retreat is an 1880's renovated island farmhouse set amidst the rural farm fields of eastern Kings County.  Situated near the head of beautiful North Lake Harbour, the retreat offers views of both harbour and ocean. 

It offers three studios with shared bathrooms, wireless Internet is throughout the retreat, a full farm breakfast each morning.  Three meals a day package is available by arrangement.

Location:  The retreat is a 12-hour drive from Boston, 3½ hours from Moncton, New Brunswick and 12 miles from the ferry going to Magdalen Islands in Quebec.

Our host in Elmira, North Lake Harbour, PEI:  Patricia Craig, Freelance Archivist

VISIT NORTH LAKE HARBOUR AT  WWW.WRITERSRETREAT.COM/PEI.HTM OR

CALL (819) 876-2065 FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO RESERVE YOUR SPACE.

Diquis Del Sur RETREAT IN OJOCHAL, COSTA RICA

The Ojochal Retreat in South Costa Rica offers writers quiet living space in a paradisiacal setting. On one side of the retreat, residents can admire the ocean view, which is only one kilometer away. On the other side, they can enjoy mountain views and lush gardens. 

The retreat is a compound of 10 charming villas spread on lush green 12 acres with fruit trees, exotic flowers and birds. Privacy is the key to this retreat.  All villas have their own private terrace; five with kitchenettes and A/C. There's a spacious rancho where one can relax, write, read or gather with fellow residents at the restaurant and bar or at the swimming pool.  Breakfast is included in the rate. Additional meals are available by arrangement.  The on-site Internet Café is open to all residents.

Services include laundry, shuttle to the beach and to Ojochal, Internet access, restaurant and bar service.  On-site car rentals are also available.

Location:  Ojochal, South Costa Rica. Please go to our Web site for details and how to get there:  http://www.writersretreat.com/CostaRicaLocation.htm

VISIT DIQUIS DEL SUR RETREAT, COSTA RICA AT  WWW.WRITERSRETREAT.COM/COSTARICA.HTM OR

CALL (819) 876-2065 FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO RESERVE YOUR SPACE.

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Thanks again for your interest in The Writers’ Retreat. Enjoy writing around the world. Please remember, we are here to help you Shape your Vision into Reality…  

Micheline Côté 

The Writers’ Retreat

Telephone:  (819) 876-2065

info@writersretreat.com

http://www.writersretreat.com

Please feel free to post or forward this message to a friend.

If you no longer wish to receive e-mails from THE WRITERS’ RETREAT, please reply with REMOVE in the subject line. Please indicate your FIRST AND LAST NAME. Thank you!