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The NOWW Flash Fiction Writing Contest is back!

8/28/2019

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​Challenge yourself with a little writing exercise, and you could win cash! The NOWW Flash Fiction Challenge is now accepting short short story entries of 500 words max. Quick and to the point! The top three stories will earn cash prizes and publication in our blog this fall.

Contest Rules
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  • Free entry (you have to be a NOWW member—sign up here, if you’re not a member: http://www.nowwwriters.ca/join-noww.html)
 
  • One submission per person
 
  • Your story must be 500 words maximum, not including title. Stories that go over the word count max will be disqualified.
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  • Stories can be submitted in Word format using 12-point font or Text format (such as with Microsoft Notepad). Please do not submit in PDF format.
 
  • At the top of your entry, please include your name, email, phone number, title of your story, and word count (not including title). Then, include your title again and the story

​. You can view a sample entry below:


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  • Please do not include anything within your story like your name that would make you identifiable. 
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  • Email to admin@nowwwriters.ca with “Flash Fiction Contest” in the subject line (mailed submissions will not be accepted)
 
  • NEW STORIES ONLY, please. Your submission must be:
    • Your own work
    • Unpublished
 
  • Deadline is Sunday, September 22 at 11:59pm (Eastern Time)

Two members of the NOWW board will judge the contest.

What’s Flash Fiction? 

Flash fiction stories are, well, short. Sometimes called ‘micro-stories’, ‘postcard stories’ (if a postcard is part of the contest) or ‘short short stories’, flash fiction challenges the writer to fit a complete story into very few words. While there isn’t a paint-by-numbers formula for flash fiction, there is a certain art to it. It’s not about trying to squish a 3,000-word story into 500 words.

Here are a few links to help you get a better idea of the craft—and to get the creative juices flowing:

How To: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/may/14/how-to-write-flash-fiction(Another how-to written by David Gaffney)

More Tips:https://www.hysteriauk.co.uk/2017/04/07/starting-flash-alex-reece-abbott/ (A UK contest with tips from the judges about how to write flash fiction)

Some Examples:http://flashfictiononline.com/main/(Example pieces)
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NOWW’s Flash Fiction Challenge is a great way to challenge yourself and get the creative juices flowing. 

By the way, this blog post is 379 words, so you have a little more room than this to write your beginning, middle, and end. Think you can do it? Let’s find out! Start writing today!
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Sound in Poetry

5/20/2019

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by Alexander Kosoris
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​​I quite enjoy poetry, but it took a heck of a lot of reading to begin to get a sense of the styles I prefer within the form. And there’s something elusive about poetry. Even after years of active reading, I feel that I’m barely able to scratch the surface of understanding why certain passages speak to me. I believe that this is part of the explanation as to why the form can seem a bit daunting or even inaccessible.
 
But every so often something comes along that allows a glimpse into the underlying techniques that make poems sing. In my recent poetry binge, Kayla Czaga’s Dunk Tankclearly showed me how sound repetition can be used to influence rhythm, pacing, and flow. And this specific aspect greatly interests me because it allows for subtle direction and structure that can be felt without jumping out at you, like more overt techniques employed to similar ends, such as tight rhyming or alliteration. I’ll illustrate what I mean and how this can be used with a handful of passages. In order to maintain specificity in the discussion, I’ll be using International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbols to describe various sounds, but I’ll give examples where possible for the sake of clarity.
 
I want to start off with a passage that stood out to me on my first read-through. From the poem “Girl Like”:

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​Try reading it in your head and again aloud. Listen to the ebb and flow of the passage. Now look at it once more, with three common sounds highlighted:

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​In this verse, aɪ and ɜ:rform a structural backbone, while ɪ is one of the driving sounds of the overall passage. The ɜ:rsound, specifically, punctuates the passage, while the overlap of sounds creates a blending effect that smoothes the flow.
 
This technique can also be used to dictate pacing. For instance, refer to a passage from “Fun and Games”:
 
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Note how the alliteration that moves between the first and second lines pulls your attention. But compare the final line. When I first read this, I found that I lingered there; the poem slows. Note how often the ʌ sound (UH, as in fun) occurs. This sudden build-up of one sound effectively slows the pacing, drawing attention to the concept presented, all without breaking flow overtly as when alliteration is used this way.

I want to end with an entire poem with multiple repeating sounds highlighted, “Sleeping is the Only Love”:

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​The eɪ sound never greatly builds up at any point in the poem, but it occasionally recurs, acting as a soft, cohesive point throughout, while the repetition of the sound in the first and final lines effectively underlines the common idea. The remaining four sounds are ever-present, heavily overlapping, but each increases in frequency at different times, each being the main driver of a subtle rhythm when this occurs. These, of course, aren’t the only recurring sounds within this poem. I invite you to consider the effect the frequently repeated ɪ sound creates with regard to the rhythm and pacing, or to look into consonant use throughout. (What does the strong use of the harsher S sounds at the start evoke compared with an increase in rolling Ls shortly thereafter?)
 
The next time a poem stands out to you for reasons that aren’t readily apparent, try to look for repeated sounds and their relation to one another. And consider these sounds when writing your own poetry; you may end up with something musical.
 

​Alexander Kosoris is a book reviewer who regularly contributes to The Walleye, Thunder Bay’s arts and culture magazine.
 
“Girl Like,” “Fun and Games,” and “Sleeping is the Only Love” are taken from Dunk Tank, copyright © 2019 by Kayla Czaga. Reproduced with permission from House of Anansi Press, Toronto. www.houseofanansi.com.

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Deborah Ellis and Writing for  Young Minds

5/5/2019

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The Challenge of Reaching out to Young Minds
​by Donna White

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​Authors who write for children face a unique challenge. They are writing for young minds: young impressionable, malleable minds; minds that can be shaken and challenged, uplifted and restored.

But in this task a middle or young adult author must beware. In this attempt to show the ways of the world, to teach or present a moral, he or she must do it subtly, between the lines, so to speak, because any hint of anything didactic will be felt on the very pages a child turns and the book will be closed, never to be opened again.


The author of books for children understands the need, the craving children have in wanting to understand the world around them. They know that their audience is very capable of hearing the truth about the injustices that go on outside of their four walls.  
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Deborah Ellis is a master of this. She has exposed thousands of children, and adults, to the inequalities of our world through her fine grasp of storytelling. Stories that shed light on the horrid treatment of women and children in Afghanistan, the plight of AIDS victims in Malawi, and the slavery of children in cocaine trafficking in Columbia. Her books place the issues of poverty, racism, terrorism, and homosexuality to the forefront and shake the readers’ core, leaving them informed and equipped to make a difference in the world.

Ellis is the recipient of the Governor General's Literary Award, the Jane Addams Children's Book Award, the Vicky Metcalf Award, the Ruth Schwartz Award, the Middle East Book Award, Sweden’s Peter Pan Prize, the Children's Africana Book Award Honor for Older Readers, the Ontario Library Association’s President’s Award for Exceptional Achievement and named to the Order of Canada. In 2017, her novel, The Breadwinner, debuted as a feature animated film, produced in association with Angelina Jolie.

But nothing makes note of Ellis true character than the fact that she donates the royalties of her books to such organizations as "Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan", Street Kids International, the Children in Crisis Fund of International Board on Books for Young People, and UNICEF. Her goodness and compassion are in step with her exceptional skills as a writer.
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Hope you can come to NOWW’s LitFest events this coming Friday and Saturday, May 10th and 11th. We have a fantastic spread: A reading and conversation with CBC Radio’s Cathy Alex and Deborah Ellis at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery on Friday May 10th at 7:00, a workshop with Ellis at the Mary J.L. Black Library from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, May 11th, and of course, the Gala that evening at the Art Gallery at 7:00, for a chance to mingle and congratulate the winners of this year’s writing contest.
See you there!



Donna White is the author of the Stones trilogy. An avid traveler, she enjoys visiting other countries and experiencing everything each culture has to offer. From interviewing former child soldiers in Gulu, Uganda, to celebrating Shubho Noboborsho in Chittagong, Bangladesh, and sitting amongst a troop of chimpanzees in the rainforest, Donna embraces every experience to the maximum. Her writing takes on a very serious role: to reveal situations in the world that aren’t regarded as newsworthy but should be.
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She resides in Canada with her husband, children, dogs, cats and horses on their hobby farm in Northwestern Ontario. You can visit her website at www.donnawhitebooks.com to find photo galleries, teaching resources, and much more. 
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Crayons, Tarot Cards, and Talking Horses

12/3/2018

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"Making Stories by Hand" 
The Dryden Edition

By Jessi-Lyn Currie
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Late last September, and very shortly after moving back to the area, I began my search for local NaNo WriMo groups on the internet. Not finding anything in the Kenora area, I extended my search to 'Northwestern Ontario'. I didn't find exactly what I was looking for, but I did come across a Facebook posting for a writing workshop in Dryden. I was cutting it close both for time and space, but I managed to contact the folks at NOWW and snagged one of the last slots for the event.

I was not familiar with the author, and though I gleaned through the event description, I was more excited about the 'writing' part and finding other local writers, more than anything. When I last lived in the Kenora area some 20 years ago there were no writer groups or anything that could be considered a workshop. There was a writer’s conference one year when I came back to visit, but I have not heard much about that since. I tried my best to go with few expectations. The description gave it a very childlike feel where we could 'play' and 'doodle! and 'mess around' and reminded me of all the adult colouring books that have become so popular in the last few years. It promised to be a fun time.
Kathryn, a Toronto based writer, has just recently earned her PHD in Philosophy, and has taught her creative journaling and imaginative exercises both in and outside of the academic world. Many of the exercises and topics she covered were your basic categories for first-year writing classes; Characters, setting, POV, scene building, and dialog. Kathryn, though, approached it all with a unique tactic to try and trick the brain that it was doing something fun, and not just tedious work. 

If you haven’t been to the Dryden library, I highly recommend it. It is a treasure trove of creativity and artistic expression. Every nook and cranny has an original piece of artwork, including a fireplace with comfy chairs.

Crayons were the first order of business. To heck with the No. 2s and Bic Rollers, we went straight for the colourful and cursive. Kathryn had us write the alphabet, over and over, in the old school style. At least everyone in the class was familiar with cursive, so I don’t know how well this exercise will go over with anyone just graduating high school. Maybe not as exciting as most will think but her theory was sound. By using a very different writing instrument from the beginning of the class, this simple change set off a part of the brain that made you pay close attention to what you were doing. It took us out of our automaton brains and into the more right-side of the creative mind. As well, it takes most adults back to a time when crayons were a staple, and they most likely didn't worry about what it looked like. 

This idea of using crayons, or markers, extended to Kathryn’s writing journal. Filled with brainstorm bubbles and landscape sketches, hers is also full of character drawings, doodles, fancy writing, square printing, and all in different mediums: Crayons, watercolor, ink, graphite, markers, coloured pens, and more. We would also be using them for the rest of the day.

A deck of tarot cards was the next rabbit she pulled from her bag of tricks. Though she was not about to read our publishing fortunes over a cup of loose-leaf tea. There is a popular book that uses tarot cards and their meanings to create a character's background, traits, and then build some situations for them. Kathryn took a more visual route with the classic Rider Waite Smith deck and had us draw a character based on the image on the card we each drew randomly. It was an invigorating exercise that ended up going in many unexpected directions, giving us a rockstar angel, a knight’s horse, and a woman playing eternal hide-and-seek. She then had us partner up to create a dialog with a given prompt. This was especially fun when the horse magically began to talk. These exercises for building a character, their voice, and dialog with another person, was fun and put the group in a playful mood that continued for the rest of the day.

My favorite exercise of the day was the Object of Desire. This, like most of the others was multi-stepped. She had us begin like the tarot card exercise with a drawing of something we desired. We made a brief list about how having said object would change our lives. Then, using just the object as subject just start writing. It was an intense writing, quick, timed and without any prompts other than what came to mind with the object.

The final step in this exercise is the one that resonated with me the most – take one line from that last paragraph of intense writing, anything that jumps out at you, something that doesn’t sit well, or you have no idea where it came from. Now, rewrite it for the beginning of the next paragraph and go from there for another minute or two of intense free-writing. Rinse and repeat once more, and however many times you want after that. Basically a 'go deeper' exercise, each paragraph or two building on the last one. Every writer has their own version of free-writing, and Kathryn’s took it up a notch by starting with drawing and growing it with intense micro-bursts, much like watching a sped-up video of a sprouting bean plant.

I came away energetic and appreciative of the Creative Journal aspect of the workshop. It was more formless, right-brained and less uber-organized, bullet journal left-brain. Kathryn gave the class permission to break rules. Previous workshop teachers I have had had been adamant that rules are cardinal and sacrilege if not followed. One of the major rules she encouraged us to break is the idea of never changing POV mid flow, as in a chapter, or having more than one in a story. Not just character POVs but going so far as going from an 'I' POV to a 'He/Her'. It was refreshing to hear analternative to the normal drone of do's and do-not's and be given a more Why Not! approach. 
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Kathryn Kuitenbouwer knew her subject very well, and you could tell she was having fun while teaching, doing all the exercises, including the dueling dialog, along with us. She answered our questions honestly and with a strong assurance that there is no wrong way, just any way your imagination wants to take you. Allow it to happen. Don't be critical of yourself. And, just get the words flow on the paper. The doodles in the margins are a good thing. 

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​As a side note, when the event was listing ‘different mediums’ to be used, I decided to take along one of my many typewriters. Kathryn promptly laid claim to it and set it up by the fireplace as a ‘line-by-line poetry’ experiment. I can’t say we turned out a masterpiece, but it was fun as people took turns and added their own lines to the crazy poem. And Kathryn has since acquired a typewriter of her own.

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Meet Autumne Atwood

11/10/2018

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​How long have you been a member of NOWW?

I have only been a member since January 2018 and it has been an amazing experience! I have participated in many of the activities that NOWW offers. It feels wonderful to be connected to a group of people that are passionate about writing and reading. I became a member of the NOWW Board of Directors in September 2018 as a member at large. 

 
What do you normally write?


I feel most comfortable writing creative non-fiction, particularly memoir, although I have been trying my hand at fiction lately, as I am taking a Creative Writing Prose class at Athabasca University.

Do you have a favourite book or favourite author?
 

I probably have too many to list. A few of my favourites include “Welcome to My Country” by Lauren Slater, “A Fine Balance” by Rohinton Mistry, “Dept. of Speculation” by Jenny Offill, and I always love me a bit of “Bridget Jones’s Diary” by Helen Fielding.

Let’s get to know you a bit better. Tell us a bit about yourself and how you found your way to writing:

I started writing poetry when I was 17 as a way to express myself. I’ve been writing ever since, slowly migrating towards creative non-fiction, specifically memoir style pieces. 

Tell us a bit about what interests you now:

I really enjoy writing creative non-fiction and I am also working on a piece involving significant research, which I am finding very interesting. I really enjoy school and feel I will be a student for life when it comes to writing, and working on a piece that requires research is right up my alley. 

Will we see you at any upcoming NOWW events?
 

Most recently I did a reading at  the Mary J L  Black Library. The topic of the evening was “Hibernation”. 

Where can we learn more about you and your writing?

I can be found on twitter @AutoAtwood and on Instagram at autumneatwood

And to end things off, tell us something surprising about yourself!
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I have always wanted to be a ballet dancer and have taken lessons as an adult.



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Anyone Can Do NaNoWriMO

11/7/2018

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Originally published  11/11/2016

by Tessa Soderberg
Every year I saw the question on the writing e-groups I’m a member of asking, “who is doing NaNoWriMo this year?"  I thought: Not me, 50,000 words in 30 days—I couldn't do that!
 
In 2010 I discovered that I could. I was trying to write a novel about civilians during World War II. I already had half a dozen false starts. NaNoWriMo was about to begin, and I thought why not try it? I've never been a disciplined every day writer. When an idea grabs me I sit down and run with it, leaving the editing for later. First, I get the whole gory mess on the computer.
So NaNoWriMo was perfect: it provided incentive in the form of the daily word count. I was also hoping NaNoWriMo would provide the kick I needed to start writing every day throughout the year. I signed up, filled out my author profile, and registered my vaguely formed idea of a novel. On November 1st I put fingers to keyboard and got on with it. Twenty-five days later, what I ended up with was raw, cliché-ridden, full of spelling and grammatical errors and plot holes you could drive a tank through. But I had done it—50,000 plus words and the seed of a story. This year, after much editing, the first chapter of that story won first prize for novels in the NOWW Writing Contest. My 2014 NaNoWriMo first chapter placed third in the same contest. I've taken part every year since.
 
Why do it? NaNoWriMo makes me write. Have I become the disciplined writer I'd like to be? No, not yet, but perhaps this year. It provides me with first drafts to struggle over throughout the rest of the year. The online word counter lets me track my progress to see how I'm doing compared to others who are taking the challenge. It's not about having the highest word count; it's about having one and adding to it.
 
In September I start getting excited: what will I write about this year? I brainstorm, running plots and characters through my head. In October I begin tearing my hair out trying to come up with an idea that will sustain over 50,000 words. On November 1st I sit down with my keyboard, and with luck the words will be there. One then two then three, and suddenly I've got 1000 words. I sign in and put my first word count into the counter. I've begun: I'm a participant once again. Now the challenge is to keep up the momentum.
 
In November I admit I am slightly distracted. Every waking thought and some sleeping thoughts are about my novel. What will happen next? Last year I agonized for days whether to murder my main character. It would play hell with the tentative ending, but it was an option. I decided against homicide. A wounded and suffering heroine would make a much longer tale than one suddenly dead, with only details of who what when and why to tidy up. Besides, I liked her. I had already done terrible things to her and I felt that murder was going too far. I know, some of you are wondering about my sanity. In November my characters kind of take over the place. So the October question is: “Who am I going to meet this year and what am I going to do to those poor souls?”
 
The point is to focus on character and plot. Ignore your inner editor completely. Misspellings—you can fix them in December. Write “I am” instead of “I'm” because it's two words and every word counts. I love watching my word count grow from five thousand to the half way mark and then fifty thousand. I validate my word count, and get my winner certificate.
 
I also enjoy the online contact with local writers. It's nice to see what other writers in the region are doing, thinking, and writing about. We have write-ins—get-togethers to meet, write, and share encouragement.
 
NaNoWriMo is my excuse to sit down and write. The first draft may be awful, but I've got the whole year to edit it.
Here is a link to information on NaNoWriMo
​nanowrimo.org
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​Tessa Soderberg 

I hate bios. I write novels and have been doing so since high school. I have about a dozen rough drafts covering subjects from time travel, nuclear war, and historical fiction. 

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A Weekend with Playwright Jeff Ho

10/9/2018

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​By Cathi Winslow
 
No one is born with the ability to write well. We learn to write by writing. Toronto theatre artist Jeff Ho will visit Thunder Bay on October 12 and 13 to share excerpts of his own work and help us learn new ways to approach our writing. 
 

When Jeff Ho began writing his first play, it took him a long time to realize what he had been missing—not only in his work, but in his life. He graduated from the National Theatre School in Montreal with an impressive résumé of acting credits. However his training was devoted to how to interpret a play, not how to write one.
 
“It took quite a little while,” says Ho, “to believe that writing was something I needed.” 
 
He didn’t feel equipped for it and had to muster the confidence that he could succeed. He worried that no one would think his writing was any good. “That need to work, be affirmed, make a name—all those fresh grad things felt very high stakes.” Ho learned to write by doing it, discovering along the way how much tenacity, perseverance, and sheer faith is required to move a play from page to stage. 
 
Before theatre school, Ho studied classical piano, and so he decided to incorporate his own compositions as well as those of Chopin and Rachmaninoff into his play. He says, “Learning to marry all the different artistic facets of my upbringing—music, writing, and acting—to create a unified and cohesive piece of theatre was an enormous experiment.” He established rules for how piano music would speak in place of the male characters. His journey was sometimes daunting and humbling as he discovered new ways to combine his creative skills. The process required patience. “It was a lot of trying things, till something theatrical and potent revealed itself.” 
 
Ho created his play as a way to honour the matriarchs who had held his family together through dire circumstances over three generations. He created characters based on his mother and grandmother, and discovered how deeply they were ingrained in him. “I learned how the way I love, laugh, and live have all been informed by what my mother and grandmother faced while they were loving, laughing, and living.” 
 
Ho’s experience as a performer helped to inform his play. He used acting techniques to develop each of the characters, then sat down to transcribe his improvisations. He wrote scenes that he would love to dig into as a performer, such as a fight scene or “something really juicy”. If the words felt “clunky” or unwieldy in his mouth, then he knew a rewrite was needed. Sometimes a scene looked like it might need more work, but performing helped to reveal its strengths. Ho learned that “if something felt underdeveloped on the page, but left lots of room for silence and stillness in performance, that was actually a gem to keep.” 
 
As he worked with a dramaturge to develop his play, he uncovered many subtleties around creating text for himself to perform. He says they all stem from the same core: to share a story on stage that is full of power and beauty. 
 
“Whether we acknowledge it or not, like it or not, see it or not, theatre is all around us:  the courtship of young folks at a club, dancing around each other trying to catch each other's attention. Our politicians and their speeches. Teachers in front of their students. A chef presenting a dish. A driver trying to get out of a speeding ticket from the officer. We are constantly shifting our personalities within each specific encounter in our days, and that is theatre.”
 
Ho’s advice to writers: 
 
"Learn to be patient with yourself, because not everything will come at the speed you'd like it to. And be open to learning, every day, everywhere: curate your curiosity, as artistic inspiration can flow in from a walk, an encounter with a stranger, a thought in the shower, a song that won't leave you alone. And then, create with all of your being. Don't compare yourself to others; there will be younger, hotter artists every year. Do your work, and love your work, that's your prime responsibility." 
 
Jeff Ho will share excerpts from his first play, as well as his most recent play, on Friday October 12 at 7:00 pm, in the Jean McNulty Recital Hall at Lakehead University, presented by 10x10, NOWW, and the Playwrights’ Guild of Canada. (Free admission)
 
On Saturday, October 13, you are welcome to participate in playwriting workshops at Urban Abbey: Monologue Boot Camp at 10:00 am (free admission) and Playwriting Master Class at 2:00 pm ($10 registration). More information at www.10x10tbay.ca/workshops


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​Cathi Winslow is a playwright and musician with an extensive background in theatre, music, dance and creative writing. Her original plays have been produced in New York, Los Angeles and Thunder Bay. Cathi is the Artistic Director of the 10x10 Play Showcase. She is delighted to represent Northern Ontario at the Playwrights’ Guild of Canada.

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Meet Elizabeth Page...

10/1/2018

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​What’s your name?

My name is Elizabeth Page. I also write as E.B. Page

​How long have you been a member of NOWW?
This is my first year as a member of NOWW and I look forward to many more!
 
What genres do you write in and what format of writing do you do (poetry, non-fiction, scripts etc)?
I write fiction primarily, but I have branched out into creative nonfiction over the past year. I also write articles occasionally for parenting websites regarding complex relationships and family dynamics.
 
Who is your favourite author/writer or what is your favourite book?
The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood. I came across it at exactly the right time in my early twenties and became truly inspired by her to create deeply meaningful and thought provoking fiction myself.

Will you be participating in or attending any upcoming NOWW events? If so, which?
I live in Kenora but I hope to spend some time in Thunder Bay over the next year and be more involved in the NOWW community. I would like to attend upcoming workshops in the fall.

How can others learn more about you?
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www.medium.com/@eb_page
www.ebpagewrites.com

Or follow me on twitter @eb_pagemaster

Tell us a small fact that may surprise us about you:
I’m a writer’s block knitter. I knit when I’m stuck and as soon as I put my mind to knitting instead of writing I come up with a brilliant idea and toss it aside. The more holes there are in my knitting the better my writing turned out!
 
Tell us a bit about yourself:
I’ve always written privately. I have boxes full of childhood journals and short stories. I wrote the first draft of a novel when I was ten. I began my a more serious attempt as an adult during NaNoWriMo 2015 and took a writing class shortly thereafter. It was at this point that I realized I wanted to share my writing with others and started submitting to contests and going to workshops. Having young children at home makes it difficult to write at times, but I am inspired by my boys every day. My busy family life, work and community involvement are what give me my unique perspective and inspiration to keep writing.
 
Tell us a bit about your writing: 
My first novel is speculative fiction, my favorite genre to read. I pursued it for quite some time before I realized that I was emulating voices I admired rather than searching for my own. I still write speculative fiction but I have really found my voice in my creative nonfiction pieces. Because I am part of a blended family, the relationships within my own home grow and evolve in the most interesting way. I like to put these situations into play in my stories and articles and use them as building blocks in my work.
My biggest writing accomplishment to date is placing in my first contest this year! I was awarded second prize in the Bill MacDonald Prize for Prose Nonfiction category.

What are your favourite things or some of your inspirations? 
My inspiration is everywhere. I am inspired by my own life experiences and those of the people around me. I draw on my strongest, deepest emotions and start to paint a picture of what that looks like to me. I find that my best writing contains raw universal truths that others feel a strong connection to. The days where the magic happens are few and far between, but it’s a very validating experience as a writer when the right idea comes together to create something meaningful.



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Hook and  Hold Your Reader: Workshop Review

5/22/2018

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by Charles Campbell
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​Author Angie Abdou opened her May 5th workshop for over 20 people with these words: “Trust the process”.

Abdou—also keynote speaker for NOWW’s LitFest Gala—described writing as an exercise that may or may not generate results.  Athletes train daily and for long hours so they will have the skill and discipline for infrequent events. In order to be a writer, she said you have to take the same approach.  

Abdou’s first novel dealt with Olympic athletes, so her advice to treat writing like a sport is based on experience in both pursuits. Writers should write daily, she said, with the intention that while their word count will accumulate over time, much of what is written may never be published.  
To that end Abdou recommended writers adopt a practice that includes timed writings that are either free flowing or prompted by a broad concept.  Leave the mind open. When the time comes to review what you have written, take what works and don’t worry about what doesn’t.
 
“Write hard, write raw, write what hurts.”  Ernest Hemingway
 
Abdou discussed how writing needs to engage the reader.  It is not enough to write pretty words; the reader should feel emotion and urgency and believe that the stakes in the story are meaningful.  She explained how we write about objects can convey emotion, rather than having the author describe how characters feel. In order to better understand this concept, Abdou gave workshop participants three writing exercises.   First, we described an object special to us and second, we wrote about someone threatening that object. Then we put together the two for the beginning of a story. I wound up with a few hundred words that demonstrated how an object I own embodies my emotion and how a threat to it, threatens me.
 
Abdou discussed how important it is for the first few pages of a work to capture a reader’s interest. She provided openings to two very different books and asked us to explore what made them work (or not) and how they might be improved. No surprise that openings can come in many forms but need to provide characters that readers will care about.  They also need to raise questions that create suspense without generating confusion for the reader which may take them out of the story. From the participants’ feedback, it also became clear that what hooks one reader might not hook another.
 
With a collection of short stories, four novels, and her first nonfiction book Home Ice to be released this fall, Abdou has a solid track record in publishing.  She drew on her experience to let us know what we should expect when we have a novel that we consider ready to bring to the marketplace.  The short answer is “more work”.  
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Editors will ask hard questions, Abdou said, and writers need to be ready to listen and consider what is being asked.  An editor may not request a rewrite, but a few well aimed questions may give the writer pause to consider if the material deserves one.  Abdou’s message: the writer-editor relationship has been around for a long time. Trust the process.  While she does not see an agent as a requirement for publishing in Canada, the right agent can help to open doors in other countries and address the business side of publishing.
 
I went to the workshop ready to hear how to hook a reader.  I learned this—and more.  If we want to publish, we need to review our writing critically and listen to what others have to say.  But first we need to write.

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​Charles Campbell
is an accountant by day and writer by evening and weekend.  Although he has had successfully submitted his tax returns for decades, he is far more proud of having his plays selected for the 2015, 2016 and 2018 10x10 Showcases.  Charles joined NOWW to get away from financial statements and to dedicate more time to develop his writing, but much like Michael Corleone, he's been pulled back in and is serving as Treasurer.

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Freelance Writing Workshop Review

3/28/2018

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by Emma Christensen
I’ve been asking myself different versions of the same question for years: “Could I make money from my writing?”  You know, write as a side gig?

Although I’m grateful for the modest sums I receive from my writing, I return to my day job to really pay the bills. Writing for (more) money remains a bit mythical, an idea that generates more questions than actual dollars.

For freelance writers Graham Strong and Bonnie Schiedel, writing isn’t just a side gig, it is their day job.  At a NOWW workshop held at the Waverley Library on March 20, 2018, Strong and Schiedel shared their best advice on how to make money from freelance writing, answering some of those many questions in the process. 

Although Strong and Schiedel both make their living from freelance work of various types, they’ve taken very different routes to get to that point, proving that there is no “one size fits all” solution to breaking into the industry. 

Schiedel was introduced to the world of magazine writing while working for Chatelaine in Toronto.  Her articles have appeared in many of the consumer magazines we think of as household staples – Reader’s Digest, Canadian Living, and Best Health.  She adapted to a changing economy by writing content for corporations. 

Strong’s career began locally by writing for a community newspaper and editing the Robin’s Donuts employee newsletter.  Within a few years, with the rise of digital content and internet advertising, Strong had connected with clients all over the world who employed him to write everything from web content to television scripts.  Variety is what makes his work interesting.  “For me, freelancing is a perfect fit,” he said during the workshop.

As full-time freelancers, being generalists—offering a wide variety of services—has been successful for both Schiedel and Strong.  Schiedel recommended specializing in an area of knowledge or interest for writers who are looking to freelance part time.  “It’s easier to market yourself if you have an area of expertise,” she said.

Strong and Schiedel quickly confirmed my long-standing hunch that success as a freelance writer requires more than strong writing skills. 

Schiedel emphasized accuracy, adaptability, and the importance of having an approachable writing style—one that is easily understood without sounding simplistic.  She also cautioned that working freelance does not mean working in isolation.  She’s made good use of her ability to work with a team and develop a rapport with interviewees, skills that obviously transferred to her role as a presenter. 

Strong emphasized the value of professionalism and good communication.  For him, these qualities are even more important than his skill as a writer.  He takes deadlines seriously and underscores the need to be self-motivated and to gracefully accept criticism and feedback from clients. 

Both presenters conveyed information in a casual and approachable manner, welcoming questions and dialogue with the audience.  The fact that they are peers in our local writing community—rather than professionals from faraway cities – made the presentation even more effective.  Humour and personal anecdotes added a new dimension to the content of the workshop and to potentially dry topics like negotiating rates and contracts.  I was happy to leave with an extensive list of additional resources, not in the form of a stack of handouts, but as a slim business card that directed me online to nowwwriters.ca/workshops.

Strong and Schiedel engaged the audience further by presenting an “elevator pitch” exercise, challenging us to think critically about how we would introduce ourselves as freelance professionals if we had only 30 seconds to do so.  For me, the exercise brought another set of questions to the surface – “How do I want to present myself?” and “What skills and areas of expertise should I emphasize?”

Ultimately, I walked away from “Side Gig” feeling that many of my questions about a career in freelance writing had been answered.  What surprised me was that I valued the questions the workshop posed—bigger, more career-defining ones that only I have the answers to—even more than the information I’d received.  Thanks to Strong and Schiedel, the process of writing for money seems a little less mythical and decidedly more tangible.


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Emma Christensen contributes regularly to The Walleye and indulges her love of fiction through reading and writing.  She’s currently working on the second draft of a novel.  Emma lives with her husband in rural Thunder Bay, where hiking, cycling, kayaking and other outdoor hobbies continue to fuel her creativity.

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