Author Archives: Dogpatch Writers Collective

About Dogpatch Writers Collective

We’re a mixed-breed pack who’ve been barking up the write tree since the first full moon in this millennium.

by Dogpatch Writers Collective | January 17, 2013 · 6:42 pm

Cate Perry on Hooking

Dogpatch Writers Collective welcomes guest contributor Cate Perry.

Angela sat on the edge of the hospital bed, letting the news sink in: Her own heart was a ticking time bomb.

Now that I’ve got your attention, allow me to take a step back and tell you Angela’s life story in 100% exposition. She was born on May 7, 1985. She had blonde curly hair that turned brown over time. She never caused her parents any trouble. Now she works as a receptionist for Happy Days Travel Agency. Every day at breakfast, she eats an apple and blah, blah, BLAH!!!

We’ve all heard the bleak news about slush piles. Agent panels at writers’ conferences around North America tell us 95% of their submissions are crap, while 5% are decent enough to read past the first couple pages. And when we hear this, we simultaneously ask ourselves the same, pleading silent question: Would my work merit that 5%?

When I started as an intern for a literary agency five years ago, I got to answer that question for myself. Moreover, I got to see the 95% who got rejected and why. Continue reading →

4 Comments

Filed under Craft, Publication

Tagged as agenting, Cate Perry, creative writing, getting published, story hooks

by Dogpatch Writers Collective | January 15, 2013 · 5:09 pm

Cecile’s Writers in The Hague

Dogpatch Writers Collective salutes Cecile’s Writers in The Hague. We hope you all go there—virtually at least. Cecile’s Writers is a quartet of talented writers that has launched a literary journal called Cecile’s Writers’ Magazine, publishing work by intercultural authors. Check out their awesome blog as well as submission guidelines at http://cecileswriters.wordpress.com/.

Props to this hardworking group—Sofia, Samir, Vanessa, and Cecile—for expanding the conversation within the world writing community and working to offer a platform for other writers to showcase their work.

As the writing god Steve Almond would say: Carry on, comrades!

2 Comments

Filed under Publication

Tagged as Cecile's Writers, Steve Almond, submissions, The Hague

by Dogpatch Writers Collective | December 18, 2012 · 10:43 am

Scene Questions

We all can probably remember a particularly vivid and effective scene from a great story. The unmasking scene in Junot Díaz’s story “Ysrael.” The riot scene in Dagoberto Gilb’s book The Flowers. The opening scene in Mary Karr’s Liars’ Club. The death of Father in Peter Rock’s My Abandonment. Most scenes by Antonya Nelson. The ending of The Grapes of Wrath. Shakespeare’s classic Nunnery Scene. Haven’t we all thought—if I could write a scene like that, it would be a truly spectacular scene.

We came up with some questions to keep in mind as you write, and you can probably think of a lot more.

What is the story genre in which this scene will take place?
What defines the story world in which the scene dwells?
What are the writer’s rules for the story world? Continue reading →

3 Comments

Filed under Craft

Tagged as Antonya Nelson, creative writing, Dagoberto Gilb, dramatic payoff, Drown, Junot Diaz, Mary Karr, My Abandonment, Nunnery Scene, Peter Rock, scenes, The Grapes of Wrath, writing scenes

by Dogpatch Writers Collective | November 18, 2012 · 9:20 am

Group Writing Critique: BABY KILLER by Laurel Leigh

It’s dogfight time. Laurel Leigh’s BABY KILLER is a memoir about a splintered family grappling with questions about a young man’s guilt or innocence. Getting ready to revise the full manuscript, Laurel has asked us to examine the opening—here’s an excerpt. Dogpatch Writers Collective occasionally posts these excerpts of our group critiques of work in progress, and your comments are welcomed.

From Baby Killer

: Anthony Shaw Arrest Picture

Nursey tells me everything she’s learned: Baby Alex had been beaten before. He visibly showed signs of abuse according to the emergency-room doctors. It’s unclear how Alison was or wasn’t involved in abusing him. On the evening of his death, the baby woke up and threw up and peed on Anthony. Nursey isn’t sure whether the vomit provoked the crucial beating or whether it was an aftermath. Anthony and Alison took the baby to the hospital hours later when they realized something was wrong with him.

“An investigator called me,” Nursey tells me.

“You talked to an investigator?”

“She wanted to know what people, you know in the family, had said about Anthony. I told her, ‘I’ll help you but I don’t know everything.’ So I guess I’m working for the prosecution if anything, nailing the coffin in the head.”

At another time my sister’s off way of describing things would make me smile and want to hug her.

Read a longer excerpt at: http://www.laurelleighwriter.com/publications/baby-killer/

Comments from the Dogpatch: Continue reading →

4 Comments

Filed under Craft, Dogfight

Tagged as Anthony Shaw, Baby Killer, Bellingham, memoir

by Dogpatch Writers Collective | October 24, 2012 · 8:29 pm

Group Writing Critique: “Abandon Hope” by Jilanne Hoffmann

Welcome to the dogfight! Here’s a snippet from a short story by Jilanne Hoffmann, followed by critical comments. Dogpatch Writers Collective occasionally posts these excerpts of our group critiques of work in progress, and your comments are welcomed!

From “Abandon Hope”

I flip through the pages until I find the map of hell I’d been trying to draw. I trace the outer circle that says “Limbo” with my finger and then spiral through the circles until I reach the Circle of the Violent and remember Henry memorizing, “But now look down the valley. Coming closer you will see the river of blood that boils the souls of those who through their violence injured others.” I look up quickly to see if Henry is sitting in a dark corner of the basement waiting to jump out and scare me, but he isn’t. I haven’t seen Henry for two days, and I’m ready for this game to be over. Maybe if I just sit and wait he’ll surprise me. So I slam the book shut, squint my eyes real tight and sit there, trying not to breathe. Then I turn off the lights and stare up at the constellations. In the dark I can pretend he’s right here with me.

Comments from the Dogpatch:

Dear Jill: This story is sick! You’ve created a truly tragic scenario in this story, made more so by the restraint with which it is told and by the narrator’s own lack of understanding of the true implications of her own innocent actions. Pile on that her mother is completely shattered by her own historical grief and unaware of who her daughter is, and this is a story that sticks with a reader long after the pages have been put down. You do an amazing job of allowing the reader to correctly intuit what the narrator herself doesn’t know, and that makes the heartbreaking effect of the story even stronger. Nicely done! I hate you! Continue reading →

3 Comments

Filed under Craft, Dogfight

Tagged as Baseball, Constellations, Dante's Inferno, Family Relationships, Lizzie Borden, Orion, point of view, writing critique

by Dogpatch Writers Collective | October 20, 2012 · 2:17 pm

Inspiring Blog Award Nomination

The Dogpatch Writers Collective was honored to receive a nomination for an Inspiring Blog Award from blogger and history consultant Marsha Lee of Streaming Thoughts. Thank you, Marsha Lee! There are so many great blogs happening now, and it’s wonderful to know our blog is inspiring to readers.

Read what Marsha Lee had to say about the Dogpatch Writers Collective and check out her site while you’re there: http://tchistorygal.wordpress.com/2012/06/29/inspiring-blog-award/

Sincere thanks to all of you who follow the Dogpatch Writers Collective. We’re very pleased to be part of a vibrant creative community.

Here are a couple other writing-related blogs to check out and we hope you will let us know about more.

Andrea Hurst & Associates publishes a group blog by West-based literary agents focused on the business of publishing as well as writing craft.
Robert Steven Williams has been blogging so long you might have a birthday while scrolling through his site. He’s a singer/song writer/story writer who opines on both story craft and current events.

Woof!

Jilanne, Wes, David & Laurel Leigh

Group Writing Critique: “National Pastime” by Wes Pierce

Welcome to the dogfight! Here’s a snippet from a short story by Wes Pierce, followed by critical comments. Dogpatch Writers Collective occasionally posts these excerpts of our group critiques of work in progress, and your comments are welcomed!

From “National Pastime”

They sit in their usual seats. Tony has season tickets on the front row of the first balcony, right alongside third base. ‘Best seats in the house,’ according to Tony. Her husband makes a lot of money, so he can afford the best seats in the house. But for Beryl they are not the best seats in the house, they’re the worst: she is afraid of heights.

Tony knows this. ‘We’re only twenty feet up. Thirty, tops,’ he says, whenever she brings up her fear of heights. ‘What’s twenty or thirty feet?’

‘But couldn’t we sit just a few rows back?’ she says. ‘Couldn’t we sit lower down?’

‘I don’t want to sit a few rows back. I don’t want to sit lower down,’ Tony says. ‘You can’t take in the whole field lower down. I want to sit right here.’

Tony says she only has to be logical about it.

‘You’re not going to fall, if that’s what you’re worried about,’ he says. ‘And besides, we’re only twenty feet up. Thirty, tops. So even if you did fall, you’re not really going to get hurt, you know. Not if you keep your head. If you were to fall from up here, but you kept your head, you’d be all right. Oh, you might break a leg or an arm. But you wouldn’t die or anything.’

Comments from the Dogpatch:

Wes,

You’ve got a harrowing story and a parent’s nightmare—being seated next to an obnoxious drunk at some “family” event they’re attending with their child. They don’t want to leave the seats they’ve paid good money for. They don’t want to make a scene. They want to make nice while maintaining a psychic distance from the annoying ass and hope that nothing gets out of hand. Until it does. Continue reading →

3 Comments

Filed under Craft, Dogfight

Tagged as Baseball, drinking, Francine Prose, national pastime, point of view, writing critique

by Dogpatch Writers Collective | June 9, 2012 · 1:54 pm

Group Writing Critique: “Can I Get a Witness?” by David J. Marx

Dogpatch Writers Collective will occasionally post excerpts of group critiques of work in progress. Here’s a snippet from the middle of a short story by David along with comments. Feel free to join the fray!

From “Can I Get a Witness?”

(photo from flickr.com)

. . . I carried a different route every day and got lost several times in the first month. I’d just ask a shopkeeper or a bum on the street for directions. Most days nobody really cared when or even if I brought them mail. That is, except for first and fifteenth of each month, when welfare checks were scheduled to be delivered. On those days, the check recipients, who otherwise rarely rose from bed before noon, were up with the roosters, awaiting checks. Continue reading →

5 Comments

Filed under Dogfight

Tagged as 1970s, David Marx, fear, going postal, group critiques, Hayes Valley, San Francisco, short story, writers workshop

by Dogpatch Writers Collective | February 24, 2012 · 10:22 am

What Are You Afraid Of?

“Life is full of excuses to feel pain, excuses not to live, excuses, excuses, excuses…The only pain you [should (my insertion)] feel is for all the useless pain you felt, all the times you didn’t do something because of cowardice or fear, all the times you let the bastards and the kibitzers and the fear shrinkers hold you back. Watch out for the death people, do you see what I mean? They’re the ones to avoid.” Erica Jong

So there you have it–be fearless and multiply–with words, that is.

For more on ditching those excuses, check out: Quotes About Excuses