What Are You?

This may be a bit windy, so bear with me. 

I was part of a discussion recently about the current nature of LGBTQ literature, and whether or not we need it as a separate entity.

The general answer was yes, we still need it. (Yay, I keep my job!)

But when I asked this question, things got rather tense:

Do you identify as a Gay/Lesbian Writer, or do you identify as a writer who happens to be LGBT?

The panel was split, and the audience were split as well. While some identified as specifically lgbt writers, some said they were writers first, who happened to be lgbt. Personally, I identify as a lesbian writer–my experiences as a lesbian shape the person I am as a writer, even if I’m not writing specifically lesbian texts. A few folks in the audience became quite insistent we should not label ourselves in such a way, as it limits our writing as well as our readership. My thought is that I know my market, and yes, my work is often directed at the lgbt community. I don’t feel it limits me, as I’m writing for exactly the people I want to reach.

Which brings me to the next issue:

At what point do you call yourself a writer? Because there are loads and loads of different types of writing these days. Is a blogger a writer? Or ‘just’ a blogger? Can I call myself a writer if I’ve only published short stories and articles, and not a novel? What if someone has never published anything, but writes for personal enjoyment? Can they call themselves a writer? Would you consider them one? I have no problem calling myself an editor–so is it a financial thing? When you get paid for something, you can call yourself by that name, but not if you do it for fun/free? If an artist never sells anything, are they still ‘An Artist’? Or are they something else, and an artist as a hobby?

So:

1. Do you identify as a _______ writer, or just a writer who happens to be ___________.

2. At what point do you consider someone a __________. (writer, painter, poet, artist, etc).

Song: A Thousand Years by Christina Perri (really beautiful lyrics)

Book: Cassandra by Christa Wolf

 

Character Profiler

A while back, I blogged the results of a random personality test, where you plugged in your blog’s url and it spit out a personality type for you. (Mine was ESFP, I think–Performer).

While doing some work on character archetypes, personality types and writing today, I came across a website where you can take the actual test, something I haven’t done in years.

Although there were certainly aspects of the last one that were true, I don’t actually like being in the limelight–I’ll do it, but it stresses me out.

So I took the new one by actually answering my questions rather than using the blog thing, and it makes a hell of a lot more sense. If you’d like to take the real thing too, check out the Keirsey Temperament link. (Use the pull down menu under About, and click on Take the KTS II. Note you can get a free mini report, available at the bottom of the ones with prices listed).

My results (and my writing-reasons for this kind of research below the results):

Custom Keirsey Temperament Report for: Vic Your Keirsey Temperament Sorter Results indicates that your personality type is that of the Idealists (NF), as a temperament, are passionately concerned with personal growth and development. Idealists strive to discover who they are and how they can become their best possible self — always this quest for self-knowledge and self-improvement drives their imagination. And they want to help others make the journey. Idealists are naturally drawn to working with people, and whether in education or counseling, in social services or personnel work, in journalism or the ministry, they are gifted at helping others find their way in life, often inspiring them to grow as individuals and to fulfill their potentials. Idealists are sure that friendly cooperation is the best way for people to achieve their goals. Conflict and confrontation upset them because they seem to put up angry barriers between people. Idealists dream of creating harmonious, even caring personal relations, and they have a unique talent for helping people get along with each other and work together for the good of all. Such interpersonal harmony might be a romantic ideal, but then Idealists are incurable romantics who prefer to focus on what might be, rather than what is. The real, practical world is only a starting place for Idealists; they believe that life is filled with possibilities waiting to be realized, rich with meanings calling out to be understood. This idea of a mystical or spiritual dimension to life, the “not visible” or the “not yet” that can only be known through intuition or by a leap of faith, is far more important to Idealists than the world of material things. Highly ethical in their actions, Idealists hold themselves to a strict standard of personal integrity. They must be true to themselves and to others, and they can be quite hard on themselves when they are dishonest, or when they are false or insincere. More often, however, Idealists are the very soul of kindness. Particularly in their personal relationships, Idealists are without question filled with love and good will. They believe in giving of themselves to help others; they cherish a few warm, sensitive friendships; they strive for a special rapport with their children; and in marriage they wish to find a “soulmate,” someone with whom they can bond emotionally and spiritually, sharing their deepest feelings and their complex inner worlds. Idealists are relatively rare, making up no more than 15 to 20 percent of the population. But their ability to inspire people with their enthusiasm and their idealism has given them influence far beyond their numbers. Healers (INFP) are concerned with keeping the world whole and complete, and will make great sacrifices for causes they believe in. They like to develop deep relationships with others and be a source of personal growth ideas and practices. Healers like to have time to reflect on their thoughts, ideas, or decisions, and like to give others plenty of space to do the same. They tend to encourage curiosity and compassion, and often create a harmonious environment in which others can explore opportunities and express themselves.

Now, I want to explain something with regard to characters and why I went that direction:

When you are building your characters, you need to know them. Really know them. Yeah, we all sometimes build aspects of them as we go. But if we have a definite idea of who they are on a deeper level, right from the beginning, we have a better understanding of what is going to drive them through the novel. Why do they react the way they do? Would they really react the way I have them reacting? Or am I off base?  The better you know them, the better you understand not only how they would react, but why. And the better you understand them, the better your readers will understand them.

Archetypes and personality types are a good way to help you define your characters. Answer the personality tests as the character, and see what it comes up with. Does it suit the image you have of the character? If not, where is the gap? When you’re creating characters, you need to aim for ultimate veracity: the deepest truth of your character and the way they work their way through the obstacles you’ve put in front of them. Deciding whether they’re a natural performer and Crusader type, or a loner, Librarian type, can be immensely helpful when figuring out who your characters are and how they act at the core of their being.

Book: Stigmata by Helene Cixous (so utterly, insanely, beautifully written)

Song: Beautiful People by Chris Brown

 

Lesbian Writing Retreat in Malaga, Spain in 2014.

As I may have mentioned once or twice (or a billion times), I’ve got a lot going on: PhD work, business courses, editing, workshops, community work, book festivals, etc. Most of these things are in progress and/or ongoing.

One of those things has got me really excited, and I want to share it with you.

A few months ago, I got an email from a lesbian resort in Malaga, Spain, asking me if I’d be interested in running a writing retreat there.

Clearly, there’s only one answer to that question.

And now we have a date!

Join me for a seven day writer’s retreat in Malaga, Spain at the Bambu Resort (women only, sorry!) May 10th-17th, 2014.

Why should you go on a writer’s retreat?

A writer’s retreat is for folks who need time to write. Time that is just for writing. At a retreat, you spend time with a retreat leader (me!) in the morning for a few hours discussing your writing in a small, friendly group. Then, you go off and write, focusing your energy on exactly what you want to do. We gather back together in the afternoon to talk about where you’re at. Then, in the evening there are often activities of some sort planned–wine tastings, meals at local taverns, etc. There may even be a trip planned during the day, to write in a historic site or some such thing.

It’s a chunk of time you use to dedicate to your writing, time you often don’t have in your life at home. It’s a way to delve into your creative side without the restriction of daily life, with other people whose focus is on writing. Being an author can be incredibly lonely–it’s just you and your thoughts. A writer’s retreat is a way to listen to other writers, get feedback on your writing, work through issues you’re having, and just…enjoy writing.

And Spain? Spain is beautiful, sunny, relaxed and friendly.

In the next few weeks we’ll have a program available and I’ll post it both here and on my Global Words site. I really hope you’ll consider signing up. Or, if it’s not for you, what about your friends? Yeah, I know it isn’t until 2014. But there’s no reason not to sign up early and give yourself something to look forward to, as well as a reason to get that novel you’ve been working on finished, or at least started.

 

Come Write with Me

There’s still time to register for my course, Editing Your Prose.

It starts on January 14th and is six weeks–every Monday night at the Nottingham Writer’s Studio.

I’d love to have you there. I’ve pasted the course details below. To register, go to http://www.nottinghamwritersstudio.co.uk.

 

Editing Your Prose with Victoria Oldham

14 January – 18 February (6 weeks)

Victoria is back with her much praised Editing Your Prose course. So many people were asking about it we decided to run it again! See what past participants have said:

“I was a bit stuck on what type of editing the second draft of my novel needed – now I’m not.”

“It more than met my expectations – covering material I hadn’t thought about – despite my own professional editing experience. [...] I now understand things I’ve been told before, that didn’t entirely make sense. It’s improved my planning process almost beyond recognition.”

The Course

The first course of action when writing is to write. To get your ideas down in, at least theoretically, a cohesive and plausible way. But when you’re done with that, it’s time to give your work some tough love. This six-week editing course will go over various aspects of self-editing, including point of view, structural gaps and how to fill them, word choice, dialogue and basic editing tips on both line and structural levels. You will be working on your own manuscript, and the instructor will use examples from everyone’s work in order to show, not tell.

The Tutor

Victoria Oldham is a professional editor with a publishing house in New York, and has published more than sixty articles and short stories.

Cost: £48 full price, £36 NWS members
Dates: Mondays, weekly, from 14 January to 18 February 2013, 7–9pm
Where: the NWS meeting room.
To book: Contact us on admin@nottinghamwritersstudio.co.uk.

 

Work with me

So, not too long ago I posted information about my new consulting business, Global Words.

I’ve posted a few new courses that are coming up, and I’m in the process of planning a few online workshops as well.

I’ve got two coming up, and the one on Saturday is almost full, but the one in January still has some spaces. I’d love you to join me. And, if you’re interested in the online workshops, give me a shout.

Coming up:

Constructing a Novel with Victoria Oldham

Saturday 1 December 2012, 10.30am–4.30pm

The Workshop

One of the questions I’m most often asked as an editor is, “How do I get started?”. This workshop will help you begin the process of putting your ideas for a novel into working order. We’ll start with the basics of story construction, and by the end of the day you’ll have the workings of your new novel in place.

This workshop is for beginners, short story writers encroaching on the novelist’s territory, and people who have something started but aren’t sure where to go next. You don’t need to bring anything but an idea and a way to jot your ideas down.

Cost: £40 full price, £30 NWS members
Dates: Saturday 1 December 2012, 10.30am–4.30pm
Where: the NWS meeting room.
To book: Contact us on admin@nottinghamwritersstudio.co.uk.

Editing Your Prose with Victoria Oldham

14 January – 18 February (6 weeks)

Victoria is back with her much praised Editing Your Prose course. So many people were asking about it we decided to run it again! See what past participants have said:

“I was a bit stuck on what type of editing the second draft of my novel needed – now I’m not.”

“It more than met my expectations – covering material I hadn’t thought about – despite my own professional editing experience. [...] I now understand things I’ve been told before, that didn’t entirely make sense. It’s improved my planning process almost beyond recognition.”

The Course

The first course of action when writing is to write. To get your ideas down in, at least theoretically, a cohesive and plausible way. But when you’re done with that, it’s time to give your work some tough love. This six-week editing course will go over various aspects of self-editing, including point of view, structural gaps and how to fill them, word choice, dialogue and basic editing tips on both line and structural levels. You will be working on your own manuscript, and the instructor will use examples from everyone’s work in order to show, not tell.

The Tutor

Victoria Oldham is a professional editor with a publishing house in New York, and has published more than sixty articles and short stories.

Cost: £48 full price, £36 NWS members
Dates: Mondays, weekly, from 14 January to 18 February 2013, 7–9pm
Where: the NWS meeting room.
To book: Contact us on admin@nottinghamwritersstudio.co.uk.

 

Gender and Fictional Identification

It seems to me there is a greater spectrum allowed for male beauty than female. 

Two lead male characters, rivals for a girl’s love. One skinny, broody, one buff and open. One geeky with glasses, one sporty in tight shirts. Both considered handsome, both paragons of maleness, etc.

But women seem to be all of a similar shape–thin, fragile, breakable. Hair and eye color change, but body shape, not so much.

Do you identify with any particular characters in books or movies? If so, why? If not, why not? And if/when you write characters, does it help if you identify with them, or do you need some separation?

Song: A Thousand Years by Christina Perri

Book: On Not Knowing Greek by Virginia Woolf.

An Award that Doesn’t Include My Four Year Old Self in a Swimsuit.

I just got nominated for a One Lovely Blog Award.  I love getting awards, especially when it comes to word usage and not bathing suit usage, which I won a trophy for when I was four. I think it was the last trophy I won…but I digress.

Thanks to Middleagebutch from the Flannel Files for this nomination.  MAB blogs about life, gender, family and all kinds of good stuff.  All written with lots of humor and wry wit. You should check it out: Flannel Files.

In accepting this One Lovely Blog Award, I’m supposed to do a few things:

1. Post the One Lovely Blog Award logo on my blog (see above).
2. Thank the blogger who nominated me and link back to his blog (thanks again, MAB).
3. List seven things about myself (can I think of seven?)
4. Nominate some other blogs for this award.

So in keeping with the One Lovely Blog Award tradition, here are seven random things all about me.  Things you don’t know, and probably didn’t need to.

ONE.  I trip and fall all the time. Heels, tennies, slippers, bare foot. I’m quite likely to fall on my face at anywhere, anytime. Keep your camera ready if you’re out with me.

TWO.  I hate peas. Really. With a passion usually reserved for religion or shopping.

THREE.  I like country music. I’m sorry.

FOUR. I dislike the desert. Immensely  It’s just a big, hot, dusty cat litter box with creatures who can kill you with a single breath. Give me a forest anytime.

FIVE. I have four chipped front teeth. How did I do that, you ask? By playing touch football in seventh grade. The girl I was chasing thought it meant touching the football to my face.

SIX.  kd lang and Rachel Maddow make my toes curl. (yes, I clearly have a type).

SEVEN.  I can bend all of my fingernails to my fingertips without breaking them. And they’re nearly see through. Sexy, right?

With that being said, here are some interesting and well-written blogs that I read, because I love the blogosphere and how much we can learn from one another. And thanks again to middleagebutch for the award.

Bold Strokes Books Authors Blog. Real life LGBT authors blog about life and writing and sometimes both.

Crystals of Thought. Jenny Farmer is a poet, and shares not only her own poetry but other’s as well.

Just Be. Live all. Live Life. Liz blogs about lots of great stuff as an ex-pat living in the Nordic world. Beautiful pics.

Lesbian Dad. One of my favorite blogs, written by a butch lesbian parent. Lots of humor and great pics.

Vulpes Libris. A book blog, mostly reviews, but sometimes just people talking about books they love.

Making a Living at My Crossroads

So, I had a friend here for a few days. A good friend, one I can talk ad nauseam to about books, and writing, and life in general. Particularly as it relates to books and writing. We started talking about crossroads, mainly because she and I are both facing them.

As many of you know, I edit professionally as well as write and blog. And I was talking to my friend about freelancing, and how if I could just get two freelance projects a month, I wouldn’t have to go back to a day job that sucks the soul out of me.

And since that doesn’t sound like a stupidly unachievable goal, I’m going to give it a go.

Here are the reasons you should hire someone like me (or, rather, me specifically):

• If you’re serious about your writing and the book you’ve written, and you really are determined to get it published, paying for an editorial critique before you send it off can be the difference between being accepted and being rejected. An editor will spot inconsistencies, plot gaps, structural issues, character conflation, and just basic errors. Why send it in if you haven’t had it checked?
• But can’t my great Aunt Sally who was a teach do that for me? No. She can’t. First of all because no matter what you think, your friends and family will not tell you the absolute, stark ugly truth because they love you and don’t want to crush you. An editor, particularly one you’re paying, will be brutally but professionally honest. They will tell you the truth.
• Writing is work. It’s hard, and it’s a craft, and no, what you’ve written isn’t already the best thing on the planet. Writers who have written fifty books still have editors, because no matter what, a writer can’t see something they’re that close to. It takes a second pair of eyes to see what didn’t make it to the page, but is firmly planted in the writer’s mind.
• You can learn from editing. And everything you learn only makes you a better writer.
• Asking a friend to do it for you, to the level an editor would, for free, is not cool. They write too, they have lives, etc. What you’re asking them to do is time consuming, intense work. Would YOU do it for free? And if you did, how much time would you really give it?

So, those are a few reasons. And they’re good ones. If you need more, I can give you more. I’ll be doing workshops too, from creative writing 101 to editing and structural workshops. Those will probably start mid October. I hope you’ll sign up for one of them, and I hope you’ll tell that friend pestering you to read her book and give her feedback to come talk to me instead.

For more information, go to Global Words and see what I’m talking about and what’s on offer. Give me a shout with questions.

Writing vs Editing

I write, and I edit. 

Officially, I am an editor. I write, but not enough to feel like a career writer. I am, however, a career editor.

I’ve been asked which is harder, and which I prefer.

The thing is, they’re utterly, totally different things.

Writing is flowy. It’s creative, and open, and you can do whatever you want with whomever you want in whatever setting you want. A vampire riding around in a flying car in 3020? Sure. And I write, well, dirty stuff.

I was at a conference with S, and we met some great folks. One of them asked me if I’d submit a story to an upcoming anthology. I laughed and said, why not? And then I threw S under the bus and said she’d write something too. We did, and were both published in said anthology.

From that time, I’ve had eight more published. They’re flowy, and sexy, and dirty, and quick. Nothing deep, no subtext. Raw and messy. Not one of them took more than an hour or two to write. I continue to watch for calls for submissions, but they seem to have faded for the moment.

Editing, on the other hand, is not flowy. It is not, generally, creative, nor open, and there are lots and lots of rules. It requires absolute concentration, dedication, and you have to go, line by line, through a story and see both what is not there as well as what is. You have to see plot gaps, character inconsistencies, structural and pacing issues, dangling participles, incorrect modifiers, etc.

I find that when I need to write, I have to have a certain amount of distance from my editing space. Literally. I sometimes need to write in a place separate from my editing space to create space in my head, making room for flowy instead of editorial.

The more I edit, the less I write. The clearer I am while editing, the more difficult I find writing. This is particularly problematic since I’m doing a PhD in creative writing…

Ultimately, I have decided to set aside days just for creative writing. Whole days where I edit nothing, where I ignore my own authorial foibles and just let the words vomit from my fingertips. I don’t even edit them before I send them to my editorial committee, because I’m afraid I’ll take the passion out of it and leave nothing but grammatical lethargy.

So. That’s my story. What’s yours?

Book: The Woman Who Killed Babies for Money

Song: We’ll be Coming Back by Calvin Harris

Blog:  Global Words 1 Editing and Literacy Consultancy (shameless self promotion)

 

Life’s Reset Button

So, on another blog (Growing Up) someone commented that she feels like her life has been put on ‘reset’ and she’s trying to find a way back to herself.

And this has me thinking about my own reset moments.

I asked in yet another blog (What Would You Say) what you would tell someone about yourself if you were to tell them the most important things. Where would you start?

(Stay with me, I’m going to jump around a bit)

First, I’m still struggling with the introduction bits. How do you tell someone your history, the things that have made you, you? How do you fill them in on the daily minutiae of things that created you? That kitten you saved once, that woman who yelled at you on the street, that addict that made you cry when she held your hand, the guy you helped push his car in a blizzard? How do you reduce these moments, these minuscule anecdotes that rocked your world into something someone who doesn’t fundamentally know you can understand?

I can look back and see several ‘reset’ moments. Times when I was on the path I thought I should be on, only to be shunted off it like raw egg off a spoon, onto another and totally unexpected path. Getting sick at 18 changed my world forever. Falling in love with a girl as a teenager changed my world forever. Meeting S changed my world forever.

But there are a billion little ‘resets’ too. Deciding to move to a new city. The sudden idea to send a story to a contest and see what happens. The first time I saw my name in a book. Graduating.

I’m in the middle of a reset right now, at this very moment. Family I haven’t seen in 30 years are trying to get to know me (now you see where things are tying together) and I’m trying to figure out how to tell them things that matter, what matters, what doesn’t, and learning in general how to communicate. And I’m learning to ask questions, which is actually really hard for me to do, as I tend to respect others privacy to the point they think I’m not interested.

I’ve also lost my little part time work, which has shunted me onto a new path and made me wonder: can I make a living as a writer type? Can I teach workshops, edit, freelance and actually bring in money?

The answer to this seems to be yes, and it’s both thrilling and scary as I attempt to understand the parameters of this new reset. And in getting to know myself through trying to explain myself to others, the reset becomes both murkier and clearer. I realize I still have insecurities, and I realize how far I’ve come, and in articulating where I want to go, I gain a deeper understanding of my own passions and flaws.

Have you had reset moments? How did you deal with them?

Book: The Sea, The Sea by Virginia Wolfe

Song: All Good Things by Nelly Furtado

Blog: Bold Strokes Author Fest, UK (we’ve got some great writers blogging over there right now. Check them out!)