Writing and Publishing Fiction

How Do You Astrally Project to a Fiction Writer's Conference?
Cotton Underwear is the Key.

In order to complete my being publishable check list, I had planned to attend the Ann Arbor Book Festival's Fiction Writer's Conference on Saturday, the 14th. Unfortunately, I was a bit short on cash (or credit for that matter) as the conference approached and I had a decision to make.

If I were to describe my writing style, I would probably classify it as speculative postmodern neo-minimalist metafiction. Followers of Unpublished Guy have already been treated to various samples of this enigmatic writing style if they followed my novel writing effort in July. Every good writer should challenge themselves and try different writing styles.

Inspired by the John Gardner Art of Fiction exercise, "Write a long sentence," here is my latest post, a single sentence story, Now I Have a Title. (Am I ever going to shut up about John Gardner and the Art of Fiction? No, probably not.)

Now I Have a Title

What might some of John Gardner's Art of Fiction exercises looked like if he had a pathological obsession for Zen koans and parlour games?

Way back when I was more earnestly learning the craft of writing, I was reading through several different books on writing fiction. Almost immediately, I felt that I was reading the same book over and over again. It was if they were all cribbing from the same set of Cliff Notes. Show don’t tell. Give your characters a distinctive trait.

Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers was different, both philosophical and practical. Academic and grounded. Finally, a guide to writing that went beyond storytelling abstractions or superficial suggestions on character development, plotting, point of view, and themes.