2017 Steel Pen Creative Writers' Conference: Introducing Keynote Speaker Catherine Lanigan

www.inwriters.org/steel-pen-conference

As we previously announced, the Indiana Writers’ Consortium is please to have Catherine Lanigan as the keynote speaker for the 2017 Steel Pen Creative Writers’ Conference. She is the bestselling author of over forty published fiction and non-fiction titles, including the novelizations of Romancing the Stone and The Jewel of the Nile.

In addition to giving the keynote speech, Catherine will present a workshop based on her craft book, Writing the Great American Romance Novel. That book and several of her others will be on sale at the conference, and she will sign them during the cocktail hour.

The title says this is an introduction, and that’s all it is. Catherine’s accomplishments are too many and too varied to do justice to in a blog post. What follows is just a sample.

Catherine is the author of the novelizations of Romancing the Stone and The Jewel of the Nile. But what is a “novelization?” It simply means that the movie came first. Although Catherine didn’t create the original story line, few writers get the chance to novelize an award-winning movie. Just being given the opportunity is a great honor.

Some sources list the author as “Joan Wilder.” For those of you not in the know, Joan Wilder is a fictional romance writer who has the lead female role in the movies and is, of course, the female protagonist in the books. In recent years, however, Joan has shared the credit with Catherine, as she should.

Catherine is known primarily for her contemporary romance novels, which include the Shores of Indian Lake series for Harlequin Heartwarming. She also writes historical fiction such as Web of Deceit and Wings of Destiny and romantic suspense such as Friday Papers.

                          

The Christmas Star, Catherine’s Vietnam war-based novel, won the Gold Medal Award Top Pick from Romantic Times Magazine, the Book of the Year Romance Gold Award from ForeWord Magazine, and the Book of the Year Romance from Reader’s Preference.

But Catherine doesn’t just write novels. Her non-fiction includes true stories in several of the Chicken Soup anthologies, a trilogy of books regarding angelic intervention in human life, and her craft book, Writing the Great American Romance Novel.

Nor is Catherine’s work limited to one medium. She recently completed a screenplay for the Oracle Film Group. Powder Pup Mountain Rescue will be aired on Netflix sometime this year, although the exact date is still to be announced.

There is plenty more, but it won’t fit here. For additional information on Catherine and her books, check out her website at www.catherinelanigan.com. You can also visit her on Facebook, LinkedIn, Goodreads, Pinterest, Google+, and Twitter@cathlanigan.

Better yet, come hear Catherine speak at the 2017 Steel Pen Creative Writers’ Conference on October 28. It will be held at the conference center at Fair Oaks Farms just off I-65 near Rensselaer, Indiana. Registration will open in June.

Additional information on the conference will be posted at www.inwriters.org/steel-pen-conference  as it becomes available.

We hope to see you there.

Writing Success in Three Simple Steps

NOTE: Although IWC Intern Louis Martinez originally wrote this article for college students, it works for writers at all stages of their lives and careers. Even experienced fiction writers can apply it to their short stories or novels. So read it with your work in mind.

College Success in Three Simple Steps

by

Louis Martinez

Do you want to write decent papers but can’t seem to no matter how hard you try? Well, guess what? You’re in luck. It’s actually not that hard if you follow this simple, three-step writing process.

Planning

First things first, the planning phase. Otherwise known as “prewriting.” I don’t recall ever writing a great paper without thinking. It’s important to take some time to consider just what it is you want to say. You can’t put your thoughts into words before your thoughts even exist.

Now, planning doesn’t have to involve some extravagant web of ideas or a spiffy outline. Believe me, I never do that stuff, and I never get anything less than an A on my papers. What’s important is that you stop before you write. Stop, and take a moment to think. Think about what you’re going to write before you try and write.

What I normally do is just that, think. I think about what I want to convey, what I want to craft into an effective piece of written communication. And I think about it a lot.

I usually think about what I want to write for days before I sit down with my computer and start running that keyboard. I form connections with other thoughts and experiences I have throughout the day. I ponder the message when I’m in my bed, staring up at the ceiling while I wait for sleep to come over me.

I’m sure we’ve all heard some broken record of a person tell us to “think before speaking,” or something along those pestering lines. As obnoxious as those people can be, they’re not wrong.

Think before you speak. Think before you act. And, if want your writing to impress, think before you write as well.

Check out The Write at Home Blog for more strategic ways to plan your piece of writing.

Drafting

This is the part where you create your rough draft, and the nexus through which I have seen far too many of my fellow college students convolute the writing process.

Drafting is simple. Just put your thoughts into words. Don’t worry about the finer details. That’s the next stage. Right now, just write down everything you came up with during your planning. Don’t stop and think too much about it or go back and change things before you’re done. Just write.

Do not attempt to edit while you draft. I’ve witnessed many students working on their drafts, then stopping to ponder if what they wrote could be said any better. Yes, it almost certainly can be, but if you stop to edit before you finish drafting, you cut off your train of potentially brilliant ideas before it gets to its destination. And the bad thing about losing this track is you may never get it back. Stay the course. Do not deviate, lest you derail the train.

In speaking with those around me at school and at work (I work at my school), one of the most recurrent topics of conversation is low grades on papers. A few questions later, the problem becomes clear, and all too common. People are submitting their rough drafts as final copies. Then they come to me wondering why they can’t seem to get a decent grade on anything they write, pleading for me to share my wisdom, as if I am some kind of literary guru.

Here’s the thing. Rough drafts are never pretty. Not even mine. They’re “rough drafts.” Reference.com does a great job at spelling it out here.

Editing

If you turn in a paper you wrote the day it was due without a second glance, don’t bother contemplating why you received such a low grade. You submitted a rough draft, and you’re probably going to get a rough grade.

I say “probably” because I’ve gotten A’s on papers I wrote at the last minute. But hey, that’s just Overconfident Louis being overconfident. Don’t be like him. Be like me, Regular Louis.

Now for the last step, and the one many of my peers skip completely. Editing.

I’ve heard the excuses. Over and over, people tell me they write best when they’re under pressure, when they wait until the last minute to put anything down. That’s cute, but no.

You may work faster when you’re under that kind of pressure, but not better. Trust me, I’ve read the stuff some people turn in. It’s not pretty. Like I said in the previous section, it’s called a rough draft for a good reason. It’s rough, and it hurts to look at.

Please, after you finish writing your paper. Go back and rewrite it. Fix all the errors. Spruce up those sentences that just don’t sound right when you read them again and say them out load. Take out all the unnecessary filler that makes you sound like a rambling buffoon.

Give yourself ample time to go through the entire writing process: planning, drafting, and editing. Give each stage your full attention. Do not neglect this linear progression. Take it seriously, and you will find yourself on the way toward good writing.

Finding Inspiration in Nature

With the beautiful weather we are having these days, it’s a good time to take your writing muse outdoors. Even a dreary February day can provide sights like the one above, which resembles a child’s drawing but was actually created by Mother Nature.* The obvious way to use nature for inspiration is to write about it, but you can also take pen and paper or a laptop with you and turn the outdoors into your office.**

The Indiana Dunes top the list of Northwest Indiana nature preserves and hiking trails that can be used for inspiration. The National Lakeshore wanders along Lake Michigan in Lake, Porter, and LaPorte Counties. The Dunes even have a state park that interrupts the national one. The Indiana Dunes State Park is located at 1600 North 25 East at Chesterton, Indiana.

Heading from west to east, here are a few other places in Northwest Indiana that can give you inspiration.

·       Hammond Lakefront Park and Bird Sanctuary, 701 Casino Center Drive in Hammond. Although the park is small, the short trail from the Hammond Marina has several great spots to sit and write.

·      Gibson Woods Nature Preserve, 6201 Parrish Avenue, Hammond.

·       Lemon Lake County Park, 6322 West 133^rd Avenue, Crown Point.

·       Grand Kankakee Marsh, 21690 Range Line Road, Hebron.

·       Taltree Arboretum, 450 West 100 North, Valparaiso.

·      Coffee Creek Watershed Preserve, northeast corner of I-80/90 and IN-49, Chesterton.

·       Creek Ridge County Park, 7943 W. 400 North, Michigan City.

·       Luhr County Park & Nature Center, 3178 S. 150 West, LaPorte.

So enjoy the weather, but don’t let it keep you from writing. Use it for inspiration, instead.

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*   The photo at the top of this post is © 2017 by Kathryn Page Camp. It was taken from the bike path that runs along the old Monon tracks (the proposed site of the new South Shore extension) in Munster.

** Thanks to Gordon Stamper, Jr. for the idea behind this post.

Steel Pen Wants You

Indiana Writers’ Consortium is looking for presenters for the 2017 Steel Pen Creative Writers’ Conference, which will be held on October 28. We have a new venue this year, so join us at the conference center at Fair Oaks Farms just off I-65 near Rensselaer, Indiana.

This full-day conference provides educational opportunities for creative writers at all stages in their careers. Attendees will choose from a variety of workshops, panels, and lectures covering fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and the business of writing. If you are interested in presenting, we would love to read your proposal.

When preparing a proposal, please keep the following in mind:

·       The actual schedule has not been set, but breakout sessions will be allotted somewhere between 50 minutes and 1 hr. 15 minutes.

·       This conference is aimed at creative writers, and all proposals should provide value for them. For example, a proposal by a visual artist could cover the relationship between author and illustrator, and a proposal by a storyteller could address ways to enhance the selling opportunities provided by school visits, library presentations, and book signings.

·       All presentations, including lectures, should provide opportunity for interaction.

Please note that presenters are responsible for arranging and paying for their own travel and accommodations and must pay a discounted registration fee of $35.

The proposal applications will be sent out by e-mail today and are due back by April 15. If you are not on the distribution list, you can e-mail steelpenconference@gmail.com and ask for the form.

Additional information about the conference will be posted at www.inwriters.org/steel-pen-conference as it becomes available.

Please share this post with anyone who might be interested in submitting a proposal.

How to Find Limitless Inspiration

by

Louis Martinez

It can be hard to write a gripping tale when you’re lacking inspiration, and at times, a reliable source can seem hard to come by.

Writing a story without inspiration can be like getting up at 5:00AM for a 15-hour shift at a miserable job. Believe me, I would know. I’ve tried both.

So how can an aspiring writer get around this dilemma? Is there a full-proof way to beat the struggle and get right back on track every time? Maybe, and maybe not. I know I’ve got a trick that always works for me, and maybe, just maybe, it might work for someone else reading this as well.

So, how do I conjure up my limitless source of inspiration? It’s simple really, but you have to be willing to try. What I do, and what always works for me, is to evoke an emotion pertinent to the type of story I’m trying to write. Most often, I use fear.

How do I go about this? There’s only two things needed: a wealth of riveting information, and a means to access it. And if you’re reading this right now, you have both. Human history, and the Internet.

Following in the footsteps of Wes Craven, the Master of Horror, the best inspiration comes from real life, and our past is riddled with dark tales sure to make anyone feel like they’re being watched. Try searching for “true horror stories from history,” and soak in all you can.

Then, as you find yourself alone in a cold, quiet room, let your mind wander into the abyss. Let the darkness consume you, and write down what you bring back. You’re sure to be pleased with the results. I know I always am.

The benefits of this go beyond simply crafting a great story. If you struggle with fear and anxiety, you might already be plagued by the darkness at all times. In which case, turning your real life horrors into works of fiction might help you cope. It could lead you to a better understanding of yourself and the struggles you face and even help loved ones understand your trials if you’re willing to share with them. And for some, putting your fears into words can help you gain the control over your mind that’s always seemed to be out of your reach. I know writing has helped me process feelings of despair, and I’m sure it could do the same for terror.

If you can learn to use your own mind to generate inspiration, you’ll never run out. I believe Wes Craven was a master at observing the dark side of this world and using it to spark his imagination. Learn to combine your own bad experiences with real life horror stories, warping them all into the twisted tales that haunt our dreams.

If you’re like me, and willing to embrace the horrors of this world and your mind, you’ll never find yourself wanting for inspiration. If you’re not, or if you’re simply writing a lighter tale, just switch up your search. Human history is also full of happy, heartwarming tales. Try searching for “uplifting stories from history.” You’ll find what you’re looking for and lots more to go with it.

Look to the world around you, and look within yourself. Do this, and you will find your own personal source of limitless inspiration.

A Poor Man's Copyright? Don't Waste Your Stamp.

by

Kathryn Page Camp

www.kathrynpagecamp.com

I just read an Internet article at Crafty House titled “3 Easy Ways Writers Can Protect Their Work From Copyright Infringement,” and it irritated me. Why? Because one of the three suggestions is the so-called “poor man’s copyright,” which I believe gives false comfort.

Before I explain, you should understand how someone gets a copyright. The copyright is created the minute the author puts the work into tangible form. If it stays in your head, you don’t have a copyright. But once you transfer it to a sheet of paper or save it on your computer, you do. Registration is not required, nor is a copyright symbol, although both have their uses.

The poor man’s copyright—or the poor man’s postal copyright as it is sometimes called—is the practice of mailing your manuscript to yourself. It probably doesn’t go as far back as the Pony Express, but it’s almost that old. The idea is that the postmark will prove that you wrote it on or before the date on the postmark. Then if someone else publishes the material before you do, you can prove that you had already created it. That’s the theory, anyway. Unfortunately, I can think of a dozen ways to discredit that evidence in court. In any event, the poor man’s copyright is not even a copyright. All it does is provide shaky evidence that the person who mailed it may have written the material.

And if the concern is protecting information you have published on the Internet, the easiest way to prove that you got there first is to print off the Internet posting, complete with the date at the bottom of the page. While that evidence can be manufactured, too, it tends to be more reliable.

So what else can you do to protect your material? First, use a copyright notice. It doesn’t have to be on every single posting if the site itself contains an adequate notice, such as the one on this blog. A copyright notice won’t stop all intentional infringers, but most people who use someone else’s work do it out of ignorance. They simply don’t realize that the material is copyrighted. A notice will tell them that it is.

Federal copyright registration is not necessary, but it does have advantages. For one thing, you cannot sue for copyright infringement unless the material is registered. Registration also provides a legal presumption that the person who registered it first is the copyright owner. The presumption can be rebutted, but it is much stronger evidence than a postmark.

Before I go, I would like to comment on another suggestion in the Internet article. (Suggestion number 2 was to include a copyright notice, which I agree with.) That other suggestion is to register for a Creative Commons license. There are many different Creative Commons licenses, but all of them provide permission for others to use your work in one way or another as long as you receive the credit. If that works for you, fine, although you should read all of the licenses carefully before chosing one. But if you want to keep strict control over use, then a Creative Commons registration is not for you.

Nothing can eliminate all infringement, especially in this Internet world. There are steps you can take to make it less likely, but the poor man’s copyright is not one of them.  

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I took the photograph of the Pony Express stables in 2013 while we were on vacation in St. Joseph, Missouri. It is © 2013 by Kathryn Page Camp.

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Kathryn Page Camp is a licensed attorney and full-time writer. Writers in Wonderland: Keeping Your Words Legal was a Kirkus’ Indie Books of the Month Selection for April 2014. The second edition of Kathryn’s first book, In God We Trust: How the Supreme Court’s First Amendment Decisions Affect Organized Religion, was released on September 30, 2015. You can learn more about Kathryn at www.kathrynpagecamp.com.

Preserving Our First Amendment Rights

by

Kathryn Page Camp

www.kathrynpagecamp.com

What are our First Amendment rights in today’s political, religious, and racially charged atmosphere? And why is it so important to keep our discussions civil?

There are many myths about the First Amendment. As a lawyer who has written two books that cover First Amendment issues, I feel qualified to dispel them.

1.     Myth: Private entities and individuals are bound by the First Amendment. The First Amendment only applies to government action. If a public library bans your book because of the subject matter or the position it takes on an issue, you may have an argument under the First Amendment. If a private bookstore refuses to carry the book for the same reason, you don’t. But you may not be able to force the library to stock it, either. Although a public library is a governmental entity, it may have a perfectly valid reason to refuse to place the book on its shelves. That’s because—

2.     Myth: Freedom of Speech is an absolute right. Freedom of Speech rights are subject to limited qualifications. For example, the First Amendment does not give anyone the right to riot or destroy property or disrupt traffic or trespass on private property. It also limits the use of libelous and fighting words, obscenity, and speech advocating illegal conduct. And a library has only so much shelf room and money for books, so it cannot stock every one that comes its way. As long as it uses objective criteria that are viewpoint neutral, it can refuse to carry your book.

3.     Myth: If I’m on public property, I can say whatever I want, whenever I want. Governments can place reasonable restrictions on the where, when, and how of speech on public property if those restrictions do not discriminate based on religious, political, or other content. For example, a town may not prohibit people from handing out leaflets on public sideways but it may use anti-litter ordinances to fine them for leaving a stack of flyers unattended on the municipal building steps. And nobody has the right to disrupt public business by conducting a sit-in on the floor of the legislature or shouting at the participants while a trial is in progress.

Even with these limitations, the First Amendment gives us precious rights that don’t exist in many countries. As Americans, and especially as Americans who write, we should all have an interest in preserving them.

Yes, the First Amendment protects name-calling and swearing and knee-jerk opinions by prohibiting the government from banning and punishing them. But just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should. One way to preserve Freedom of Speech is to keep the discussion civil. It’s only when Americans pass these boundaries that people start losing their respect for the First Amendment.

Even when I disagree with someone, I agree with this quote often attributed to Voltaire:

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

The First Amendment gives us the freedom to say what we want even when others disagree, and that’s one reason I’m glad to be an American.

_________

Kathryn Page Camp is a licensed attorney and full-time writer. Writers in Wonderland: Keeping Your Words Legal was a Kirkus’ Indie Books of the Month Selection for April 2014. The second edition of Kathryn’s first book, In God We Trust: How the Supreme Court’s First Amendment Decisions Affect Organized Religion, was released on September 30, 2015. You can learn more about Kathryn at www.kathrynpagecamp.com.