Ev Bishop

About the three-author reading . . .

/ Ev Bishop / 6 Comments

I had the privilege of taking part in a three-author reading event at UNBC (Terrace campus) this past Thursday (July 9th), along with poet Simon Thompson (watch for his poetry collection, coming September 2009 from New Star Books) and Si Transken, an inspiring wild woman who, amidst her hectic life of teaching as a tenured PhD at UNBC and working with street women and in shelters in Prince George, writes wickedly funny, painfully challenging poems about the people she meets—docu-poems.

The way I prepared this time was particularly beneficial and non-crazy-making (bonus!), and evening was totally fun and inspiring night—I went home so fired up that I wrote ‘til 3:00 a.m.

Once Simon began to speak, I forgot my nerves. He made interesting commentary on writing in general, and the poems he shared, full of sharp, vivid images, pulled me in entirely. His poetry is like a camera’s click—each scene is captured with precision, right down to the changes in light and shadow. I especially love how he makes no references to mood or emotion, yet each poem is powerfully felt because of the details he chooses to elaborate on. An excellent take-home point for every writer!

Si was shocking and fantastic—soft-spoken, smiley, constantly joking as a presenter. Her poems? Her words? They flashed and slashed like a pulled knife. She is all about social activism and change and vocal about what’s wrong in the world what needs to be righted and so high energy you wonder if she breathes when she talks and you’re ashamed/challenged—your words your thoughts your art should DO something.

The audience was great—very engaged, laughing and interactive. Yay! Afterward, most hung around to chat a bit. I especially enjoyed talking with Noreen Spence, a wonderful painter, about some of the parallels between painting and writing (maybe between all arts—my sister’s a classical singer and we notice similarities in our processes all the time too).

This morning I received an e-mail from Noreen that said in part: “I was listening to the three of you last night and thinking about what enormous courage it took to do what you did. Another way that writing is similar to painting. All this solitary activity and invested energy and then one day there you are, having to be exposed and suddenly gregarious. What a wild ride. Only crazy people would willingly climb on for this insane roller coaster. Thank heavens for the crazy people!”

Yes, thank heavens. 🙂

Writing is a solitary, intimate endeavour, and while I love that about it, it also makes mingling with people who do what I do (or want to do) and who love and obsess about the same things I do (in different forms or modes) that much more important, special, out of the ordinary, nourishing.

If you can, get thee to a reading soon!

Being True to Characters, Being Politically Correct, Censorship—a bit of a rant.

/ Ev Bishop / 6 Comments

In the Question-of-the-Week thread on a writing forum that I moderate, someone brought up political correctness and asked for thoughts about what to do if you’re “told that it’s ‘politically incorrect’ to say you’re crazy or mad or out of your mind, things like that, because you are offending mentally ill people . . . Having [my MC] tear her hair and say “Oh, I must be mentally ill” isn’t gonna cut it but I don’t want to go out of my way to be offensive either.”

The asker inadvertently stumbled on one of my instant hot buttons.

People who critique characters and/or dialogue according to whether or not said characters/quotes are politically correct are IDIOTS!!! (Heh, heh, how’s that for potentially offensive?) Authors have a responsibility to show life as it is really experienced and to create people who are real—a story should never be a tool for propaganda (even if the PC view is actually a valuable or “correct” view).

Besides, in my experience, most would be PC police are completely obtuse, focusing on random words that they find personally offensive (which, very interestingly to me, usually have nothing to do with them personally), ignoring context and theme. I.E. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mocking Bird is still frequently banned (ARGH about book banning, period!), not by racist groups hoping to subvert her message, but by no-mind white people who object to her use of the word “nigger.” As if using it in the story somehow promotes its use rather than confronts it.

Back to the original question, almost no one questioning his/her sanity would contemplate whether they were experiencing mental illness, and ones who would couch it that way and speak of “disordered thinking,” etc., would be very specific characters. One of my MCs is a psychologist, for example, and she, understandably, uses shoptalk as she analyzes herself. However, even she reverts to the type of shorthand people really use when they’re afraid: insane, crazy, mad—though she would never use such talk with clients, and—something I find interesting about her—never even thinks in those terms for most clients, only herself. Writing is always about being true to the character(s).

Does a character feel like he’s losing his marbles? Is she going insane, or going mental? Is he worried about going postal, or is he just a few bricks short of a load? Is he afraid he’s losing it, or is he totally f*cked up? (Insert about a bazillion other ways people really refer to questions of mental illness. Every individual would think of and express that fear in a way unique to him/herself.

We need to write honest stories and should only listen to criticism that says, “Hmm, this doesn’t ring true to me somehow,” NEVER to comments like, “Well, that’s offensive.”

People who struggle with mental health issues (or any other “issues”—racism, abuse, etc) aren’t offended by honest portrayals of a character going through the same. Likewise, showing the awful treatment people endure may be painful, even disturbing, but it shouldn’t offend us—it should challenge us.

If anything, it’s the opposite of what the PC crowd says: books that deal with life as it is really experienced open doors for thought and conversations that might actually have the power to bring about the changes that supposedly the PC-obsessed want to see. Emotionally true stories make us sympathetic, make us ask questions, make us consider what we believe and why we believe it.

Why can’t more people understand:

Stories that use the F-word aren’t about swearing being cool.

Stories that depict racism as it actually exists are not racist.

Stories that show violence as it all to often occurs are not promoting violence.

Stories that explore sexuality in all its weird, wonderful (and yes, sometimes horrific and unhealthy) are not porn.

Stories are written to help make sense of the world and the things that exist in it; avoiding the portrayal of something doesn’t make it cease to be.

And IF the stories _are_ actually endorsing things that are offensive, awful, “sinful,” etc . . . they still need to be out there. We learn as much (or more!) from what we hate as we do from what we agree with. Are there books/topics that I wish didn’t exist? Absolutely. Would I fight for their right to stay on shelves? Without exception. Mein Kampf encourages absolutely revolting, illogical, repugnant opinions; it also incites people to realize that even “quiet” forms of racism should be confronted.

That last point is crucial: we are allowed to, in fact, we must challenge ideas put forth, question attitudes displayed, point out what we see as flawed, harmful, hateful . . . Everyone has a right to publish; not everything is right. Not the latter by any means. I deplore the content/philosophy/pov some insist on putting out there (and attack it vehemently). I loathe gratuitous sex and violence in books or “art,” and I’m not silent when people are portrayed as commodities to be used for slaking lust. That’s why we have voices: to use them. We can’t take away someone else’s without saying it would be fine to have ours stolen too.

It may seem that I’ve leaped from worrying about the “small” thing of political correctness to addressing the larger issue of censorship, but I don’t think it’s a leap at all. The former is just the latter with a good makeover.

I think the voices of what’s appropriate/proper, etc. assail all writers to some degree or another. What are your thoughts on the topic? I assume you have places you “don’t go” as an author, but do you believe that there are places no one should be allowed to go?

The author who contributed the question that sparked the fire of all this thought offered a glass of wine and chocolate to those who responded—perhaps I should offer the same to you who read my rant. Virtual wine and chocolate for us all!

Don’t Pass On the Genre Pass

/ Ev Bishop / 3 Comments

I recently finished the third draft of my current WIP, and maybe you can identify with the very academic and scholarly feeling of WHOOOHOOO that coursed through my body.

Thinking I was sooo close to The End (I envisioned 4th Draft as being as simple as addressing a few pages of additional notes chapter-by-chapter), you can imagine how annoying it was to find that every time I went to open the novel’s folder, I stalled—ended up reading blogs, posting at forums, playing with my dogs . . . I even found myself doing dishes and catching up on laundry (the true sign of how low I stooped). At first I thought it was just my ever-present, all-too-common love of work avoidance. Then I read Alexandra Sokoloff’s recent Murderati post, “On Genre, Sort of,” followed her link to a post on her personal blog, “Top Ten Things I Know About Editing,” and had a huge Aha! moment.

The lightning-strike comment regarded doing what Alexandra calls a “genre pass.” I’ve never written according to genre before (but I should have. Reading her post made me realize why my first novel, a book I still believe in, got full-reads and good comments from agents, but no offers for representation. It’s women’s fiction, and I should’ve taken comments from literary markets, “It’s too commercial,” and from more mainstream markets, “It’s too literary” and jumped off the fence, picked a group of target readers and edited with them in mind. In fact, I still might do just that—but I digress . . .). The story I’m working on now is a mystery/suspense with supernatural elements. Writing-wise, I feel like I’ve discovered my home. Editing-wise, I now realize that I wasn’t putting off my “last” add-ins, because I have a penchant for household chores. My subconscious writer knew something (as usual) that my usually perceptive inner editor didn’t: The kind of cool/creepy things my brain has been throwing my way lately aren’t for my next book (well, some of them are), they’re to intensify this one.

A small part of me is disappointed (I so wanted to hand over my story with a big “Ta-da—c’est fini!” to my first readers), but the largest part is relieved and excited. I know what I need to do to feel right about calling this book “finished” and sharing it—and that really demands a big WHOOOHOO. Maybe even two.

Author Event

/ Ev Bishop / 7 Comments

I was excited to be asked to take part in a three-author reading event at UNBC (Terrace campus) on Thursday, July 9th. I’ll be reading fiction and non-fiction excerpts, and poets Si Transken and Simon Thompson will be sharing from a variety of their works. It should be a fun, inspiring night. We’d love to see you there!

PDFOnline

Interviewed at The Freelance Survivor

/ Ev Bishop / 13 Comments

I was recently interviewed by Dee-Ann LeBlanc of The Freelance Survivor, a site packed full of useful information. Fun! You can read what I had to say here.

Terrace Writers’ Guild 2009 Fiction Contest

/ Ev Bishop / Leave a comment

logoTWGThe 3rd Annual TWG Fiction Contest is open for submissions!

Deadline: Postmarked by Tuesday, October 27, 2009

1st Place: $250.00 from UNBC and paid publication in Northword Magazine.

2nd Place: $150.00 from Marion Olson of Re/Max and author’s name and story title published in Northword Magazine.

3rd Place: $75.00 from saz communications and author’s name and story title published in Northword Magazine.

Rules and guidelines:

1. All submissions must be written by individuals currently living in Northern British Columbia—that’s any community north of Quesnel, including the Queen Charlotte Islands.

2. No entry fee is required, and all story rights remain with the author. All genres are welcome, but sorry, no poetry or stories intended for children.

3. Submissions must be between 1500 and 3000 words. Stories that do not meet this guideline will be eliminated from competition.

4. All works must be original and free of plagiarism (which includes third-party poetry, song lyrics, characters, etc., without written permission). The contest’s audience is the general public, so excessive violence or sex, determined by the judges, will result in
disqualification. Entries may not have been previously published.

5. Entries should be typed in 12-font, double spaced in black ink on white paper, and must have a cover page with the title of the work, the author’s name, contact information, and an approximate word count. Every subsequent page must carry the title and a page number, but the author’s name must be deleted in order for fair judging. Any submissions not meeting these guidelines will be disqualified.

6. Manuscripts will be destroyed after judging. A #10 (business size) self-addressed, stamped envelope must be included with the entry in order to receive judging results. Entrants may choose to not send an SASE, in which case winners may be viewed by visiting this website after December 31st, 2009.

Please mail submissions to:

TWG FICTION CONTEST
PO BOX 1046
TERRACE BC
V8G 4V1

Winners will be notified by December 15th, 2009

No email submissions will be accepted. For more information, e-mail here.

On behalf of Terrace Writers’ Guild and all the writers up here in Northern BC that benefit from the inspiration and motivation this contest provides, I’d like to express a tonne of appreciation to our generous sponsors: Northword Magazine, UNBC, Marion Olson, and saz communications.

INK WELL, edited by Ev Bishop, launched today

/ Ev Bishop / 4 Comments

INK WELLThe young writers’ club that I head up at Centennial Christian School here in Terrace, Writers’ Ink, launched its Spring 2009 issue of our magazine, INK WELL. We’ve come along way since the days of cutting and pasting and photocopying! Check us out and make sure you click to preview – you can flip through each page, very cool! I’m especially excited, because I did the design work – a bit of new branching out for me.

And if you’re into desktop or print-on-demand publishing for any purpose – to put your own creative work “out there,” or for business, non-profit, or special interest work you’re involved with – look into MagCloud. I’m very impressed with the quality of their end product, their prices, and the overall site set up.

SiWC 2009 or bust!

/ Ev Bishop / 14 Comments

So I just did something very exciting—booked a four-night stay at the gorgeous Sheraton Guildford in Surrey, BC. It seems unbelievable, but it’s already time—really time!—to start planning my favourite annual indulgence: The Surrey International Writers’ Conference.

I normally try to rein in my freakish enthusiasm and exuberance while blogging, so I don’t scare readers away, but allow me one, YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

I know some writers are sceptical of the advantages of conferences. They think they’re nothing but a money grab. They feel you don’t learn anything that you couldn’t from a book or a bit of research. They’re sure everyone’s just there for their egos—I’m a writer, look at me. They’re convinced you’d be better off spending the time writing, not talking about writing.

I confess I don’t understand conference bashers.

1. Yes, attending a conference is a financial commitment. That it costs you something is part of its value. Say what? Just that: Putting money into your craft, saying in essence, “I’m serious about my writing, and it’s worth not just my time, but also my material resources to pursue,” is like giving yourself a big ol’ permission slip to take your goals more seriously. It’s also a big cue to family and friends—Oh, she’s serious about this little writing thing.

Professional development (Yes, a little FYI, conferences are P-D, not just wonderfully social times where everyone sips wine, talks about their favourite things—books and storytelling, of course—and comes away absolutely inspired) betters the quality of your work and boosts your word counts. Being with other people who are excited about the same things you are is motivating.

2. Books on craft are great, and yep, you learn a lot reading them, but—and gasp, I can’t quite believe I’m saying this—there are some things being alone with a book can’t do. Reading alone in your study doesn’t give you the experience of being with 1000 other souls who love what you love—ideas, words, stories. It doesn’t give you the chance to laugh along with one of your favourite authors. It doesn’t provide the opportunity to stick up your hand in the middle of the information to say, “Gah—I don’t get it!” or “Yay—I love how you put that!”

Hearing authors talk about their personal experiences, reassure you that it’s an achievable dream (they’re living proof, after all), and answer every-question-you-can-imagine is invaluable. As is getting to learn face-to-face from agents and editors who accept books (maybe even one like yours!) for their livings.

3. As for the complaints about “egos” . . . I don’t see it. I’ve met people I don’t click with, sure. I may have (it’s terrible) even cringed or grimaced inwardly a time or two on behalf of a cornered agent or author, yep. But people are people wherever you go. The great, the bad, the meh—they’re everywhere. And for what it’s worth, I think writing conferences having a higher per ratio capacity of hilarious, generous, kind, and witty people than most public groupings. The feeling of community and camaraderie is almost the whole reason I go. I work alone day after day all year (Yay for the Internet, but that’s an aside). Even the most reclusive of us benefit from and need human company sometimes.

4. Four days of conferencing and sushilizing does not, in anyway, take away from my productivity. I write almost every day—and that’s in addition to my business writing, editing, and workshops. Surrey energizes me for a whole year. If I have a day where I feel kind of unmotivated, I look at the calendar and recall the goals I’ve set for the next conference . . . Speaking of which, I’m on track, but not ahead of where I wanted to be by this month, so I should go.

Happy writing, everyone—and if you’re heading out to Surrey this October 22, 23, and 24 for SiWC, let me know.

I’m also interested in any comments about why you love writing workshops or conferences—or really mix things up and tell me why I’m out to lunch and they suck! 😀

~ Ev

Ye Olde Idea Shoppe

/ Ev Bishop / 12 Comments

Stephen King has said he’s frequently asked where he gets his ideas. He gives slightly varying answers, but one of *my favourites, he attributes to a friend of his: “I buy them at the supermarket.” Now it’s obvious he was being a bit facetious—on some level asking a writer where he/she gets ideas is like asking the moon why it hangs in the sky or where the ocean gets its water. There probably is a perfectly reasonable scientific explanation to the query, but I’ll be darned if I’d ever know how to articulate it. And even the best responses would be destroyed with one further question: why? Why do you get ideas for stories? Why indeed. But I digress. Back to ideas, where they come from, and the ones at grocery stores—oh yes, the grocery store. S.K. and his quoted buddy were speaking partially in jest, but they would agree that the statement is factual.

Story ideas abound in grocery stores. They arrive in the produce section (who hasn’t lifted a big yellow clump of bananas and thought about the huge, hairy spider that might have arrived with the shipment?). They lurk about the deli. Why does man keep standing there like that? Is he going to try to shoplift bulk olives? Does he have a thing for the girl at the counter? Is she his long lost child? They sit in well-ordered rows in the canned foods sections. Do you know what’s in that can of refried beans—the third one back in the middle of the row? Well, do you?

When short on cash, or just not in the mood for a big shop, have no fear. Ideas are everywhere:

In conversation, like when a friend recently expressed his suspicion that the reason there are so many more vaccinations now than when we were kids isn’t disease-prevention at all. It’s a safe guard for world governments worried about over-population. If at anytime they want to cull the population, they just have to press a button and release whatever it is that reacts with whatever injection. Story idea!

In overheard snippets of dialogue. “I can’t believe she’d do that. It’s sickening.” What can’t the speaker believe she’d do? And who’s she? And who, come to think of it, is the speaker? And what’s sickening? How sickening?

In dreams (See, that’s what I’d like to know—forget ideas—where do dreams come from? Come to think of it, a story about where dreams come from would be pretty fascinating!)

In physical work, especially it seems to me, in gardening and yard work.

In doing absolutely nothing (which is why, even when I’m really busy, I strive to have do-nothing time . . . It’s good for your brain).

Even in random personal moments. I bought a full-length formal gown (of all things) two weeks ago. Wearing a dress like that makes you (or makes me, anyway) just feel different. And that made me think of a story idea—what if you walked into a vintage store, tried on an outfit, and suddenly—poof—you were you no longer—or you were, but only in the flesh suit and life of the person who’d owned the apparel you now sported? (Hey, I didn’t say every idea was a good idea.)

Chances are if you’re a writer, you don’t need to find ideas. You need to somehow stop tripping on them as they lift the floorboards late at night. You need to carefully replace the stone you moved only to find another one scuttling beside a centipede. You need to do something, anything, to stifle them, so you don’t lose focus on the ones you’ve already collected and are trying to coax onto the bright white page. You understand full well how ideas just appear, well, everywhere, from nowhere.

My question for people who ask, “Where do you get your ideas?” is this: Don’t you get random weird ideas all the time?

I know that not everyone writes, but it never actually occurred to me that perhaps not everyone is inundated with the what-ifs, questions, and strange observations that spark story ideas. I think I thought that ideas came to everyone, just that some people are compelled to do something with them . . .

* If you happen to know where on earth I read this bit—I want to say it’s in On Writing—could you give me page number? I’d like to give the actual name of the person King attributes it to, and I’d like to confirm how it’s worded. Thanks!

The Waiting Game

/ Ev Bishop / 5 Comments

Is there anything more onerous to a writer than the waiting game? Most people tackle a project and then, well, they’re done. Not fiction writers, oh no. They “finish” their work (which could take months, a year, or even years) and send it away, only to have the really time consuming part of the job start: the waiting.

Lurking dangers surround all that waiting. Self-doubt has lots of time to imagine unkind things being said to your story’s face (and to do its own unkind muttering in your head). The desire for regular coffee money might trick you into some cave of a job where you’re paid by the hour. Writer’s block (if you subscribe to that kind of notion) is more prone to leap upon you and starting chewing on your throat—especially if what you want to write next might depend (foolishly!) on whether the circulating work sells (my advice: write like it sells, or don’t and start something entirely new—just write!).

It’s not all bad though. If you let it, waiting to hear back can be kind of like counting down to a vacation. Each passing day is one closer to at least some sort of a response, the wait gets sweeter, the anticipation builds. I’ve learned to use the hope that just won’t die (I’m bandaging my throat here as you read!) as motivation to write the next thing. While your words sit on someone’s desk, there is the endless opportunity that said words might find a home—someone might like that story, poem, article, or what-have-you. Nothing is more inspiring than the idea that someone might relate to your offerings and even (gleep!) want more of them. Exciting stuff.

I try to take full advantage of this wait/hope phenomenon by keeping 6 – 8 things “out there” all the time. That way, rejection doesn’t hurt as much (hope sprints over to another project to rest on) and my inner-creep can’t do as much of a job on my self-esteem.

Hmmmm . . . Is there a point to this post? Yes (lectures self), get your stuff out there and keep it out there until it finds a home. And in the meantime, the waiting time, get busy on the next idea.

Happy writing,
☺ Ev