The Prompt That Led to My Weirdest Story
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I used to work as an orthodontic assistant…
By day I was changing wires, replacing broken brackets, and lecturing preteens about their oral hygiene. By night, I was taking classes at the University of New Orleans for my MFA in Fiction Writing. In Louisiana at the time, you needed absolutely no education or background to start using sharp tools in other people’s mouths. Being an orthodontic assistant was one hundred percent on-the-job training.
I was writing stories based on my friends when something strange happened…
I was writing a lot of short stories back then and giving myself writing prompts. One of which was to use each of my New Orleans friends as inspiration for a fictional character. I would choose a few details about a friend and use those details as a jumping off point for the creation of a fictional character.
(Try it yourself. Pick a person you know and jot down a handful of specific details about them. Use those details as a jumping off point to create a completely new and completely fictional character.)
One day I created a character loosely (oh-so-very-loosely) based on a friend. I only used three true details about her : she had been an ice skater in high school in southern California, her family was originally from Taiwan, and she had recently bought a house in New Orleans.
My real friend had started a nonprofit organization, but I decided to make my character an orthodontist, mostly because I knew way more about that, given my day job.
I started writing a story about Andrea the Orthodontist, and something very, very weird emerged. To this day, I have no clue where the idea came from. I will credit the creative muse. Because, let me tell you, the story I ended up writing, which is called “Four-Handed Dentistry,” is quite bizarre.
And I really like it.
“Four-Handed Dentistry” was originally published in the literary magazine Vagabond City and is now available to paid subscribers of my newsletter. If I had to give it a label, I would probably call it magical realism. Check it out and let me know what you think.
And try my writing prompt for yourself. As long as you’re heavily fictionalizing your friends, they won’t mind if you use them as inspiration for a character (probably). Writers are scavengers by nature. We take our ideas from wherever we can find them!
Getting Started on Your Novel is starting soon!
Maybe you’re less interested in writing a short story and more interested in writing a novel. I hear ya! Novels are my jam these days, too. It’s like a switch flipped in my brain. I used to think in short stories, now all my ideas are novel-length.
Do you have a great idea for a novel or memoir? Well, stop spinning your wheels and start writing your first draft! Based on my popular in-person workshop at The Writers Center, I have created a virtual do-it-on-your-own-time course in which you will:
generate ideas for your novel
write beginning scenes
flesh out the plot
get to know the characters and their motivations
learn about story structure, conflict, world-building, and other craft topics
get tons of advice and encouragement to get you off to a great start
By the end of this course you will have the beginning chapter(s) of your novel and a good idea of where you’re going next.
Getting Started on Your Novel is a course is for writers of all genres and will be available to paid subscribers of my email newsletter.
It’s $5/month to subscribe, and the course officially runs from May 21 – June 25 (though you can do it at your own pace). This means you will get the entire course for only $10.
By signing up you will also have access to the entire course of Cultivating a Regular Writing Practice — a great companion course to Getting Started on Your Novel.
Cancel your subscription at any time, or stay with me to receive future courses, like Sticking with Your Work-in-Progress and How to Get a Literary Agent.
Subscribe to my paid newsletter by clicking here.
Imposter syndrome and a really dangerous haircut
Are just two of the things I discuss in this interview with poet and fellow Substack writer Alex Knepper. I open up quite a bit in this interview about my insecurities and my wild younger days… what can I say? I’ve always been an over-sharer!
P.S. check out Alex’s newsletter. I really enjoyed her recent review of the poetry collection Milk & Honey by Rupi Kaur.
Writing News
It’s not too late to work through the Cultivating a Regular Writing Practice email course! Paid subscribers to my newsletter will now have access to all four lessons. This series of do-it-on-your-own-time course will help you create a writing routine that works for you and keeps you writing regularly for the long-term. This is a great course to complete in preparation for my next one: Getting Started on Your Novel.
TOMORROW TONIGHT: Free Workshop from former kidlit agent Mary Kole: Writing an Irresistible Query. Geared towards all writers and featuring live query letter editing.
WriteMentor’s Novel-in-Development Award deadline is approaching. Submit your completed or in-progress novel by May 16.
I LOVED Mar Romasco-Moore’s new YA novel, I Am the Ghost in Your House. It’s about a girl named Pie and her mom who are real but invisible. They live in other people’s houses and steal their neccessities. Then Pie falls in love… with a girl who literally doesn’t know she exists. Oh, how that speaks to the teenage experience! A unique and beautifully-written novel set in the punk scene in Pittsburgh — I highly recommend!
I Am the Ghost in Your House, a new YA novel by Mar Romance-Moore Submit your fiction, poetry, nonfiction, or art to Epiphany Literary Journal for only $5, and get a free digital subscription to the journal. This is a great deal, especially if you’ve been meaning to read more literary magazines. Deadline for submissions is June 1.
Write On Con, an online conference for kidlit writers is now open for registration. The conference will be held July 15-17.
And there’s also WOWCON, WriteMentor’s online conference for kidlit writers, coming up September 24 - 26.
The querying trenches are rough right now, and Twitter pitch parties ain’t what they used to be, but still, as I always say, it doesn’t hurt to try. So mark your calendar for these upcoming spring Twitter pitch parties. And be sure to read my article 13 Things to Know About Twitter Pitch Events.
May 19 (8am—8pm EST): #PitDark — Twitter pitch for manuscripts that contain an element of horror or darker writing in a range of age categories
May 26 (8am - 8pm): #Flippit — What started as a joke is now a real thing. Literary agents pitch to authors and we writers get to be the ones to click “like.”
June 1 (8am—8pm EST): #CanLitPit — twitter pitch party just for Canadians
June 23 (8am—8pm EDT): #PitchDis — Twitter pitch event to showcase pitches from the disabled community
Finally! After years of virtual conferences, we’re starting to see some in-person ones. Check out these upcoming summer conferences:
Washington Writers Conference: May 13-14 in Bethesda, MD.
Chesapeake Writers’ Conference: June 19-25 at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. A week of craft talks, lectures, panel discussions, readings, and daily workshops in fiction, poetry, songwriting, or creative nonfiction.
Killer Nashville International Writers’ Conference: August 18-21 in Franklin, Tennessee. This conferences brings together forensic experts, writers, and fans of crime and thriller literature. They also offer discounts and scholarships.
For more writing conferences, check out this list.
NYC Midnight hosts a range of storytelling challenges throughout the year. I have done several of these and always been pleasantly surprised by what I come up with when the pressure is on. Not gonna lie, these challenges are pricey, but they’re a lot of fun. Upcoming challenge:
June 10 is the Flash Fiction Challenge. You can read last year’s winning entry here.
Globe Soup offers a variety of contests, both free and paid, throughout the year. Their current contest is:
The Short Memoir Competition, deadline May 17. Theme: places that have made me, changed me, or inspired me.
This year the Writing Day Workshop “How to Get Published” Conferences will be held virtually. I attended one of these conferences in person a few years ago in Philadelphia, and I thought it was fantastic. I can’t vouch for the virtual version, but there are some benefits: recorded classes, no travel expenses, attend in your comfy pants. Plus, you can sign up for Zoom pitch sessions with agents for $29 a piece. Check out the upcoming conferences (and remember, anyone can attend from anywhere; just keep the time zone in mind).
Chicago Writing Workshop: June 10-11, 2022Florida Writing Workshop: July 8-9, 2022
Kansas City Writing Workshop: August 5-6, 2022Live in the DC area? Mark your calendar for the FREE Gaithersburg Book Festival on May 21. A celebration of books, writers, and literary excellence with workshops, speakers, a children’s village, and more!
That’s all for now. How’s your writing going? Any resources you need? Let me know!
Sincerely,
Eva