The February issue of the Yet to be Named Newsletter is almost ready to be released. In the meantime, check out these priceless finds:

• Guide to Writing an Effective Synopsis
• Essential Synopsis Checklist
• 10 Synopsis Dos and Don’ts

Want to be notified when the newsletter comes out? Send an email to: TheChicoWritersGroup@gmail.com with “SUBSCRIBE” in the subject line.

Would you like to contribute to the monthly newsletter? Check out our submission guidelines [here].

Some of us get them from reading the tabloids (nope, don’t even have to buy them, just stand in line at the grocery store and flip through one while you wait), watching television, arriving early at the movie theater and watching all the commercials and trailers — the possibilities are endless. The key is using your imagination, giving your muse an opportunity to romp around.

But in a world that’s crazy busy, sometimes we lack the time or the ability to slow our brains down long enough to let our muse out to play. Are we endlessly stuck in a gray world, unable to coat a fresh sheet of paper with those lovely scribbles that turn into being novels, short stories, poetry or prose? Of course not! We just need tools to help us unlock our muse’s true potential.

Working with writing prompts is a terrific tool to exploring some thoughts and ideas. Whether you chose to select a topic or subject and see what a few minutes of free writing will expose, a more definitive prompt that might give you character names, a place and a situation, or do a fun little exercise that involves a dictionary (see below), spend some time to free write.

The Dictionary Prompt:

Open the dictionary and blindly pick a word. Don’t even bother looking at the definition, jot the word down on your pad of paper. Do this again, two more times.

Once you have your three words, set a timer for ten or fifteen minutes, then write. You don’t even have to use the words you selected. Maybe those words elicited another thought or idea. Maybe you’d prefer to write about something that eludes to the words. Or maybe your muse has taken off in a completely different direction. There are no right or wrongs to this exercise. Just write. Don’t edit. Don’t try to make sense. Don’t worry about grammar or spelling or the mechanics. If you do, your muse will shut up and sit there, staring vacantly at you as if you’ve put her under lock and key and threaded a gag across her mouth. Whatever you do, don’t piss her off.

If you find you like this exercise, consider signing up for “Word of the Day.” You’ll find that a number of online dictionaries have this free service that will deliver a new word to your in-box daily. Create a filter and save those words in a special folder so that you can easily and quickly return to it for some new words to play with.

Online Prompts:

Do a query for the keywords “writing prompt” and see what you stumble upon. There are hundreds upon thousands of sites out there where the fodder is chin deep and just a few keystrokes away. Use caution, however, in posting what comes of the prompt. Should the exercise evoke a much bigger story (isn’t that the whole point to these exercises?), you wouldn’t want someone coming along and swiping it from you, right? But more importantly, as the industry continues to evolve in light of the economy and the necessity of streamlining by using technology, online posts can at times be considered a form of publication and can, in some circumstances, ruin the opportunities for agented publication. A good resource for learning more about these legalities is to visit literary agent Nathan Bransford’s web site and enroll in his online forums at http://www.nathanbransford.com

What Ifs:

Thinking back on your day, whether it’s while you were standing in line at the bank or grocery store, straddling the in-box at work, mindlessly running copies, or driving around running errands, was there a person, a car, a landmark you passed that caught your fancy? A situation, an event, an observation you made, perhaps? Spend ten to fifteen minutes just thinking about that, letting your mind go and carrying that thought away on it’s own little trip. Now spend another fifteen minutes chasing that idea across your paper. Save it. You might find it useful as a scene description, a character, even a plot point. Maybe even the jump-off point for your next free write that could reap a wild array or even a single solitary idea for a story.

Where else can you get ideas?

• commercials
• mailers
• online ads
• movie trailers
• tabloids
• magazines
• a cozy coffee shop
• a busy mall
• the list is endless…

Other ways to develop a playground for your muse:

• Mind mapping – to learn more about this, visit http://www.hollylisle.com who has a wonderful way to mind map
• Snowflakes – to learn more about this, visit http://www.ingermanson.com or better yet, http://www.writetoinspire.com/article1258.html 
• For logic thinkers, work on developing your creative brain by taking up drawing and for those of you who are all creative-minded, visit Wikipedia for some articles about logic thinking. Having two sides of your brain, the creative and logical sides, your muse has a much more expansive playground to cavort around on!

A list of commonly used adverbs: Moms Who Think (http://www.momswhothink.com/reading/list-of-adverbs.html)

And while you’re there, slip over to the list of verbs, also located on that site and linked to the aforementioned page.

The Rules of Quick and Dirty Worldbuilding by Annalee Newitz http://io9.com/5039477/the-rules-of-quick-and-dirty-worldbuilding – This takes on more of a science fiction bent, but again has some advice that can be generalized to other worldbuilding.

The Mythopoets Manual by Loren J. Miller http://www.rpgmud.com/WorldBuilding/Mythopoets/tmm.html – Specifically looks at the issue of religion.

Worldbuilding Links http://www.bmarch.atfreeweb.com/Worldbuilding.htm – A collection of links to other worldbuilding resources.

World Builder Projects http://hiddenway.tripod.com/world/ – Another collection of links to other worldbuilding resources.

Our next meeting we’ll discuss red herrings which is scheduled for Sunday, June 14, 2009 from 12:00 (possibly 12:15pm) -3:00 pm at the library. More information to come.

The Exploding Cat – how to foreshadow and some other helpful tips for writers by the novelist, Holly Lisle.

http://howtothinksideways.com/crashtests/writing-videos/holly-lisle-and-the-case-of-the-exploding-cat=/

Holly has a lot of other resources for writers. Check out:

• www.writercrashtest.com
• www.howtothinksideways.com
• and of course, www.hollylisle.com which is crammed full of useful information (you might want to tie yourself down before going in there, you could get lost in there!)

LJ Sellers, author of The Sex Club, is a mystery writer. She offers some tips and advice on plotting your story and keeping things organized. Here’s a great post to read and while you’re there, check out her other sage advice she gives:

http://ljraves.blogspot.com/2008/08/10-ways-to-keep-your-writing-organized.html

Another blot/site to visit is JA Konrath’s (Jack Kilborn series) site, specifically the “Newbie’s Guide to Publishing” which is a free book and well worth the read even before you start (or finish) your novel.

http://www.jakonrath.com/writers.htm

What resources do you have that you can share? Add a comment so we all can enjoy!

Look for news on our upcoming meeting and craft chat topic coming soon!

Required reading: Transracial Writing for the Sincere by Nisi Shawl. Other links from the handout:

• A primer on privilege: what it is and what it isn’t by Betty
• “Check my what?” On privilege and what you can do about it by Andrea Rubenstein
• Stephen King’s Super-Duper Magical Negroes by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu
• Appropriate Cultural Appropriation by Nisi Shawl
• I Didn’t Dream of Dragons by Deepa D.
• Mary Anne Mohanraj Gets You Up to Speed, Part II by Mary Anne Mohanraj
• White people, its not all about you, but for this post it is by Deepa D.

what is duotrope? Duotrope’s Digest is a free, online resource for writers of fiction and poetry.
why duotrope? Search for the perfect market for your fiction and poetry, based on a number of criteria. We list well over a thousand current markets and keep them as up to date as humanly possible. You can also get nifty reports on response times and acceptance/rejection ratios. Sign up for a free account and track your submissions. We’ll even remind you when it’s time to query. Explore and see what else we have on tap.
how can duotrope? Pull up your web browser and head over to duotrope.com. Remember, it’s free!

Also, under the “useful links” category in the navigation column, you’ll find a recently added “Creating a Pitch” which was written by the novelist Camy Tang. Definitely worth reading and even bookmarking for future reference.

Yesterday various agents and editors got together on Twitter and posted a wild rash of reasons they will reject a query letter.  If you haven’t read the 140 or less character tweets we collected, now would be a really good time.

How do you write a winning query letter that won’t be labeled “fail” by these editors, agents and interns working in publishing houses?  We’ve collected a few really good articles that will help you get your foot in the door.  Take a gander: (hint: click the links as they’ll take you directly to the article we’re referencing.)

• Mystery author, S. W. Hubbard, has a great article here: www.swhubbard.com
• Ester Heller, Editor-in-Chief, Targum Press posted the following guidelines Nov. 2008: http://blogs.targum.com
• A summation of yesterday’s #queryfail experiment and lessons learned can be found here at the Belletrinsic blog: http://belletrinsic.blogspot.com
• Tara Lazar did a summation, too, that’s worth perusing and can be found here: http://taralazar.blogspot.com
• Colleen Lindsay, the literary agent (FinePrint Literary Management) responsible for yesterday’s #queryfail, has a site crammed full of useful information to pick through.  Start here: http://theswivet.blogspot.com and be sure to look around the site, it’s very useful!
• Jill Corcoran has a very well put together “how to write a query letter” post that’s very timely, too, as it was published on March 1st, 2009: http://jillcorcoran.blogspot.com Be sure to check out the posts she links to as well (run your cursor over the page to find the links which aren’t underlined).  Bookmark the post as it is a great resource!

Still need more?  Want a template of sorts?  Short of sending out the monkeys to write it for you (and no, we won’t do that — didn’t you read yesterday’s capture of the #queryfail tweets?), Nathan Bransford with Curtis Brown LTD provides you with a great “Mad Lib” style query letter.  Just be sure to change it up a bit so it’s more personalized!  Go check it out at: http://nathanbransford.blogspot.com/2008/03/query-letter-mad-lib.html

If you have your own tips, winning recipe, experience to share, by all means, leave a comment!  Good luck, too!

• Writing Dialect: It’s in the Rhythm by Cameron Michaels
• How to Avoid Writing Dialect in Plays
• Dialect Survey Maps – A collection of maps showing the regional variations in terms and pronunciations in the US.
• Writing Dialect in Fiction by Tony Burton – Contains several examples from classic literature.
• Using Dialect in Fiction by Jennifer Jensen – Another discussion of use of dialect.
• Writing Accents and Dialects by Charles Carson – Includes some caution that how you write accents and dialects may say more about you than about the characters.
• Write stuff: Avoid using dialect, phonetic spelling by Rusty Lang – Advice on using dialect and phonetic spelling in journalistic writing.
• The International Dialects of English Archive – "IDEA was created in 1997 as a free, online library of primary source recordings for the performing arts." Includes transcripts of the audio samples. Note: Each audio sample begins with the person reading a passage. You may want to skip past this to the unscripted speech.
• Internet Archive – Contains many freely available movies and audio recordings. May require some digging to find the dialect you’re looking for.
• radio-locator and Web-Radio – Search for radio stations; results will show you which ones you can listen to over the Internet. Both include search by state.