#write the world

[hermind-defined]

Reform for a Broken System

Recently, throughout the United States there has been great discussion about the structure of prisons and whether the system poses as an effective form of rehabilitation for offenders.  While reviewing the statistics, money funneled into the program, and psychological benefits, the results are alarming.  The questions at hand are, “Why does the United States hold the number one ranking for most incarcerated people,” and “How can we stop this revolving door system?”  The outcomes to these issues will not be easy to rectify, however it’s time that officials start to recognize that the United States prison system is a flawed system that fails when it comes to rehabilitating offenders, however with heavy efforts, the change can be accomplished to halt this issue from progressing any further.

Former President, Barack Obama once said, “The United States is home to 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s prisoners. Think about that,” and when being provided alarming statistics such as the ones above, there is nothing left to do but step back and evaluate how the United States landed such a remarkably high number of inmates (“13th” 00:00:08).  Starting in 1972, the United States only had a total of 300,000 prisoners, and today that number has reached over 2.3 million.  Believed by many, mass incarceration started in the 1970’s and has been an exponentially growing issue over the last forty years (“13th” 00:00:50).  The fabric of America is sketched by our pride in freedom, however yet we hold the number one spot for the most incarcerated citizens. Statistics are evident, which provide a solid foundation for officials to admit there is a problem, however, achieving that admission is another obstacle.

How does the United States manage to properly care for 2.3 million inmates, you ask?  They don’t. Medical professionals have admitted time and time again that the United States prison system is not psychologically benefitting to inmates (Sindicich et al). During a man or woman’s stay in prison, 90% of those individuals will endure some sort of trauma (Sindicich et al). While most inmates have some sort of addiction or mental disorder, it’s been speculated that prisons do not have firm guidelines in place to ensure inmates are receiving the proper care (“Solitary Confinement is Torture”).  Some may say, “Why waste the money on these criminals,” however, at some point a majority of inmates will be stamped with “timed served” and it would be reassuring to know that prisons are taking the time to properly rehabilitate inmates before preparing them for the world outside of a cell.  Society does not have much compassion when it comes to newly released inmates; stereotyping can easily be stemmed from one’s past, especially when known that an individual had been incarcerated for any amount of time (Schlumpf 21-23).  If proper structure was established for inmates, treatment would be able to be administered as well as proper diagnosis to those who have underlying issues that may have not been acknowledged prior to being incarcerated.  According to a study in 2017 conducted on a Rhode Island prison, 90% of the male inmate population had an unaddressed past trauma (Tyler et al. A.18).  Due to the lack of preparation for inmates to be released back into society, this poses even more threats for future situations.  A negative combination of an ill-prepared individual, who typically is re-entering a financially strained situation only contributes to a cycle where an inmate will typically land back in the custody of law officials and back in a cell.  Even if an inmate does not make their way back to prison, they’re 14% less likely to be able to provide financial support for their family (Tyler et al. A.18). There are countless gray areas when it comes to the prison system, however a significant improvement that could easily be established is designing guidelines to ensure that inmates are not ill-prepared, but and are self-aware of any preexisting mental conditions they may possess and how they can actively treat themselves.

The 13th Amendment in the United States Constitution could possibly be one of the most controversial amendments within our Constitution.  The amendment states the following:

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction (US Constitution.  Amendment XIII).

This amendment was voted in favor by 68% of the House of Representatives on January 31, 1865 (“Primary Documents in American History”).  This Amendment has relation to the prison reform issue at hand due to the fact the forms of punishment in prison are currently comparable to slavery and torture.  The 13th Amendment formally bans slavery, however the clause of the Amendment delegates that if a person is a convicted criminal, they will lose their constitutional rights, therefore leaving them in the relentless hands of the prison system in the United States.  Only then any prison inmates can be forced to complete any form of occupation from making lingerie for multi-billion-dollar companies to making military weapons for long hours and little pay (Benns 2015).  In the event an inmate chose to be disobedient, they can face different punishments but the most commonly known repercussion is solitary confinement (“Solitary Confinement is Torture”).  When an inmate is sentenced to solitary confinement they are secluded to a single sell up to twenty-two hours a day (“Solitary Confinement is Torture”).  Due to prison reform sparking a national debate, some prisons have taken steps to manage time spent in solitary confinement more closely to ensure that 7% of the prison population isn’t susceptible to the same extensive lengths in solitude (“Solitary Confinement is Torture”).  Solitary confinement aside from hard labor can hinder on an offender’s ability to re-enter society with a peaceful transition (“Solitary Confinement is Torture”). To rectify this major dilemma, it’s crucial to establish more effective forms of punishment and limit the hours of labor an inmate may work.  The modification of the current structured state of the prison system is a viable aspect that could progressively halt the revolving door that potentially lands inmates back into custody of law enforcement.

    In conclusion, to achieve prison reform it’s possible that a small army would only be capable of creating such significant changes.  To ensure changes can be made to improve the conditions of our prisons, it’s crucial to be involved with your government, whether it be locally, state-wide, or nationally.  The evidence of the significant population, psychological damage, and poor conditioning structure is clear, but the rebuilding of a broken system will be the step that can correct a national epidemic that will ensure safety and a potentially better environment for future generations.

[cicadamagazine]

There’s still time to enter our joint flash fiction competition with @blogwritetheworld! If you’ve got a monster under your bed or a skeleton in your closet, we want to know about it!

Visit the contest page for more details.

[blogwritetheworld]

From My Desk to Yours with Michael Lydon: Writing a Novel

by Michael Lydon

So you want to write a novel? Well, as the coolly cynical cats in my high school gang used to say, “Better pack a lunch!”

Seriously, writing a novel is a major undertaking, and you may learn, as I learned on my first try at the form, that you’re not cut out for the job—even though a novel is, in essence, a story, and we all read and tell stories every day. A joke sketches a quick story; an anecdote relates a slightly longer one. Then come short stories, ten to thirty pages long, after that novellas, fifty to a hundred pages. Only then do we reach full novel proportions, anywhere between two hundred to eight hundred pages. Taking on such a ginormous task may be a bridge too far for most beginning writers. Don’t let that discourage you however! If you have a novel inside you eager to be born, start writing it today—you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Here’s a suggestion I hope will help you get your pen flying: you don’t have to start on page one! Write a few pages to describe your central character, his or her house, his or her childhood. You can even write an ending. Most of these scribbled efforts may not make it into the novel, not word-for word at least, but the freedom such experiments encourage will surely enrich your story’s subtext.

From that improvisatory suggestion I’ll leap to a more disciplined one: see if you can find your novel’s beginning-to-end arc. Your scribbling may have given you one, two, or a half-dozen detailed scenes; great, they’re your raw material. Now start looking for the framework those scenes will hang on.

Next, why not try to divide your story arc, even if only in your own mind, into writing’s three classic sections: beginning, middle, and end. The beginning introduces the novel’s people and places; the middle describes their conflicts, the end describes how those conflicts get resolved. Yes, I know that sounds boringly cut-and-dried, and many fine novels will never fit this formula, but thinking of your novel in terms of these three immortal chunks will help illuminate the areas of your story that need attention in your next draft.

You still need to get your opening sentences down on paper, the sentences that, you hope, will hook your readers. Sarorah (US) grabbed me with her lively opening portrait of her heroine Charlie:

“Charlie, Charlie,” my dad calls out to me hysterically. I laugh to myself: he probably thinks I ran away again but in reality I was hiding under my bed. He hears my silent giggle and peeks under, his sullen expression turning deadpan when he discovered me. “Charlie why are you hiding, do you know how much of a fright you gave me young lady?" Blah, Blah, and more Blah is all I think to myself while I fish around my head for an excuse…”

That sparky beginning wakes me up! I’ve just got to find out where this lively gal will be going for the next two hundred pages.

The middle of your novel is the meat of your story and probably the longest of the three sections. Here in many tales the “protagonist” faces a trial of some sort, helped (or hindered!) by an array of “supporting characters.” A mid-length novel may have twenty or more named and described characters, and it is of utmost importance that these be as true to life as the writer’s skill and insight permits.  “Novels hinge on well-developed characters,” says the prompt introducing Write the World’s current novel-writing competition. “All the rest of it—the plot, the setting, the language—mean little if the reader doesn’t experience the fictional world through a character who feels real and relatable. The reader must detect a beating heart—feel that human connection—to care about the rest of the story.”

No wiser words have ever been written about the art of writing novels. To succeed as a novelist, a writer must make his or her characters human beings readers can believe in, humans who could be our next-door neighbors, the lady sitting next to us on a bus, the man behind the counter at the hardware store. Some years ago when in bed with the flu, I tried to pass long boring hours reading best-selling detective novels. In one the hero, gets a serious brain injury.

A few hours sleep and he’s back on the case despite a wicked headache. “How is it now?” asks a friend. “Better” says the stoical detective. And went on that same afternoon to solve a major crime.

“Wha..?” said I to myself, “this guy’s not human! Nobody could do all that the writer is making him do! I simply don’t believe it!” And with that, I flipped the book into the wastebasket; I’ve never read a novel by that writer again. Millions of readers may still be reading such thrillers, but I say, “Nonsense! I won’t read novels when I can’t believe the central character is human.”

The best novelists do more than make their central characters believable, they make the novel’s whole world believable. The great English novelist Anthony Trollope prided himself on being able to map each novel’s world, here his fictional county of Barsetshire:

I had it all in mind, its roads and railroads, its towns and parishes, its members of Parliament, and the different hunts that rode over it. I knew all the great lords and their castles, the squires and their parks, the rectors and their churches.... There has been no name given to a fictitious site, which does not represent to me a spot of which I know as though I had lived and wandered there.

With the end of a novel writer and reader say goodbye to each other and to the characters they have come to know and, often, to love. Endings can be comic or sad, noisy or quiet, agitated or calm; what matters most is that the reader closes the book with a sense of satisfied finality. Perhaps the ending I love best of all from the countless books I have read is the end of The “Genius” by Theodore Dreiser. The “Genius” tells the story of Eugene Witla, an adventurous American painter who lurches from one affair to another, from commercial hackwork to great art, from obscurity to fame. After describing such a tumultuous life, Dreiser surprises us by leaving his hero with a hushed ending of unmatched poignancy. In the novel’s last sentences, Dreiser describes Eugene tucking his daughter into bed and stepping outside to look up at the Milky Way:

“Where in all this—in substance,” he thought, rubbing his hand through his hair, “is Angela? Where in substance will be that which is me? What a sweet welter life is—how rich, how tender, how grim, how like a colorful symphony.”

Great art dreams welled up in his soul as he viewed the sparkling deeps of space.

The sound of the wind—how fine it is tonight,” he thought.

Then he went quietly in and closed the door.

About Michael

Michael Lydon is a writer and musician who lives in New York City. Author of many books, among them Rock Folk, Boogie Lightning, Ray Charles: Man and Music, and Writing and Life. A founding editor of Rolling Stone, Lydon has written for many periodicals as well, the Atlantic Monthly, New York Times, and Village Voice. He is also a songwriter and playwright and, with Ellen Mandel, has composed an opera, Passion in Pigskin. A Yale graduate, Lydon is a member of ASCAP, AFofM local 802, and on the faculty of St. John’s University.

[blogwritetheworld]

Novel Writing Competition Winners Announced

Each November, thousands of aspiring novelists embark on their NaNoWriMo journey with the goal of finishing an entire novel by the end of the month. We got in on the action here at Write the World with our third annual Novel Writing Competition. Some of you (who at this point have just hurled yourselves across the NaNoWriMo finish line!), shared a favorite excerpt from your novel. Others used our competition as a way to think more broadly about how a smaller work might fit into a larger piece some day. The quality and range of excerpts we received meant our Guest Judge, YA Author Cath Crowley, faced a particularly difficult task in choosing the winners. Today, Cath shares which pieces stood out amongst the rest and earned the awards for Best Entry, Runner Up, and Best Peer Review.

From Cath:

BEST ENTRY “Ankh” by Soo Young (Soo) Yun

“Ankh – life, eternity”, begins this beautifully crafted piece by Soo Young. The line reminds me that a story’s beginning is a promise to the reader—a promise of characters and ideas, language and change. Ankh promises us a glimpse into history and time. Not an easy task to pull off. But from that first line—controlled, staccato—I had no doubt that Soo Young would deliver.

This is a piece that delivers on many levels. It’s a travel guide of Egypt, and the journey of a character. I see what the narrator sees because Soo Young’s descriptions are concrete and concise. I can imagine the high-heeled woman taking photographs in the sand dunes. I can feel the dusty smooth surface of the walls.

The dialogue is real, yes, but more than that, it explores theme. And the themes of this piece are subtly and confidently conveyed.  History is a huge place. But the beauty of this piece is that we’re taken into the small moments of it. We’re with the narrator in the past, as we imagine the painstaking process of etching each mark under the scalding Egyptian sun, and at the same time we’re in the present, feeling insignificant in the face of the towering walls that depict past battle scenes. We’re also in the future, as the writer directs our eye to a photograph being taken, a moment captured for later.

At the end of the piece, when the narrator tries to recall the temple and its endless wall of chiselled hieroglyphics—yet is only able to find the angel-like figure of eternity—the reader feels as though, in a very short space of time, she has been taken through history and shown the future. Like the narrator, I feel insignificant in the face of history, and awed by it.

Beautiful.

RUNNER UP “Graveyard” by Laika

This piece had me from its first lines: “Orthadai Bloom was fond of graveyards. They were neat, quiet, and they took things seriously.” I felt a tensing sensation in the back of my neck, which I get sometimes when I read. It means I’m jealous. It means I wish I’d written it.

I couldn’t have written this piece. I couldn’t have thought up the details—wonderful details—of a character granted life by a graveyard, a character with “the odd tendency to never show up in photographs.” I’m a sucker for a great voice that can surprise me. I’d happily spend a novel with Orthadai Bloom.

The sentence structure of this piece is striking. There’s a song-like quality to it, created by the repetition of the lines, the alliteration in the lines: “A graveyard contained the lives of countless people, countless stories; stories with happy endings and sad ones.” It’s a pleasure to read aloud. As all good writing should be.

BEST PEER REVIEW ALanford’s Peer Review of “Suspicion”

This is a wonderful review. Commenting on a writer’s work is hard. An editor, or a reviewer, needs to adopt the right tone, one that lets the writer know the work is respected, while at the same time that it could be improved. This reviewer does a good job of phrasing comments. There are clear examples and good suggestions for improvement. I love that there are insightful questions included. All writers need an editor that asks the right questions. It pushes you off in interesting directions.

[blogwritetheworld]

Featured Writer: Molly Bovett

Molly Bovett has found a way to incorporate her love of writing into all facets of her life. Molly, who has a passion for learning new languages, has banded together with a group of fellow “polyglots” to start an online linguistics magazine. And when she’s not preparing for the magazine’s upcoming launch, she’s working on an urban fantasy novel. But, above all, Molly hopes her writing will inspire others to join her in enacting social change. Read on to learn how Molly plans to improve the world around her through writing.

You're in the process of starting an online language magazine for fellow "linguistics enthusiasts”. Can you tell us more about how and why you decided to start this project?

The project was started by someone who wrote a blog post about a month ago inviting writers and language-lovers to work together on an online magazine on the topic of global communication and the importance of foreign languages. I got involved to produce poetry, photography, and articles for the magazine. And while the project has only launched this final week of October, the entire team is excited to work on this publication together. Our goal is to offer information and to show people the importance of cultures and languages different than your own. The first edition should be out sometime in the New Year.

What advice do you have for someone who is interested in starting their own online magazine or blog?

First of all, make sure that it’s definitely something you have time and patience for before you begin work on it. I’m already blown back by how much hard work and time we’ve all set aside for this! You might be in charge of a team of editors, writers, artists and designers so you'll need to exercise your leadership skills to make sure everyone is on task. Secondly, advertise as best you can. The blogger leading my project has a huge following, so finding people who are interested in the project was not difficult. One of the things we’re going to focus on over the course of the next few weeks is setting up social media pages to advertise the magazine.

You mention in your bio that you're eager to use your writing as a tool for social change. In what ways? Why is this important to you?

The writer I always give as an example when asked about writing for change is the marvelously talented Lin-Manuel Miranda—writer of the Broadway hit, Hamilton. The song ‘Almost Like Praying’ has drawn attention to the crisis in Puerto Rico and given a voice to people on the island who feel unheard by the world. When I say writing for social change and spreading a message, this is what I mean. Songs and poetry can connect to people in ways no other media can, and the right words in the right order can work miracles.

Encouraging social change is especially important to me because every day there is a new problem in the world and every day there are people who ignore it—either because they don’t think it affects them or they don’t think they can help. I want to write to show them they’re wrong. I don’t want to be powerless in the face of injustice and if being a skilled writer is my blessing, I will find a way to use it to the best of my ability.

In the "Message From Writer" section of your profile, you have a word count for Blackbird, a novel you're working on. Can you tell us more about this?

Blackbird is an urban fantasy novel I’ve been working on since the start of the summer. To summarize, it’s about a girl raised to be a criminal who, upon realizing the errors of her ways, runs away from home to try and escape her dangerous lifestyle. Unfortunately for all involved, this backfires horribly and she winds up in more trouble than before. Her new problems force her to choose between rejecting her violent ways entirely or embracing them to salvage what little she has to live for.

If you could insert yourself in the world of any fictional novel, which one would it be and why?

I’d insert myself in the world of Welcome To Night Vale. Yes, it’s a podcast, but there is also a published stand-alone novel about it. It’s true that someone mysteriously vanishes or dies every other day, but being bored would be completely impossible. I’d love to be part of the Night Vale community and get involved with the murderous librarians, the giant glow cloud, and the hooded figures in the dog park.

What are three things our readers might not know about living in England?

First, the school holiday system is a pain. I have almost no holiday time whatsoever this year and when I finish school I have a fourteen week summer. Who needs that much holiday time? What am I supposed to do with myself? I’m going to run out of things to do by mid-July. Optimum holiday time is four weeks, but that unfortunately never happens. Secondly, just because England is a comparatively small country, it doesn’t mean it’s easy to get from one place to another. I once read an American crime novel where the protagonist traveled from London to Newcastle in one hour. You drive for an hour in London, and you don’t leave London. The book was rather old (1950s, I think?) and a bit of an extreme example, but still, it takes far longer to get around the country than people seem to think. Finally, the Brits have queuing down to a fine art. If you come to England and you mess up the delicate process of lining up to buy things in the supermarket, someone will make you very aware of it before you even realize you’ve done something wrong. I once crossed through a long queue to get to my bus at the other end of the station and a woman started yelling at me for cutting in line. I wasn’t even getting the same bus as her.

About Molly

My name is Molly Bovett and I come from a small market town in the middle of the English countryside. I'm in my final year of secondary school and recently, writing has turned from a relaxing pastime into a sort of coping mechanism to get me through the exam seasons. Writing—poetry in particular—is something I've always devoted time to. I'm fascinated by how powerful words can be. They help us express our emotions and thoughts in a way that no other method can. I aspire to master the craft of using my poems as catalysts for change. If I could help even one person with my writing, I will have satisfied myself. Beyond poetry and exams, my time is devoted to art, activism, and the study of foreign languages. I love doing watercolor paintings and when I have time, I'd like to produce paintings that are personal to me, such as artwork for the local Pride parades. The languages I currently study are French, German, and my beloved Swedish. All of my passions are presently being combined into one awesome project—I have just started working on a yet-to-be-published online language magazine alongside fellow polyglots and linguistics enthusiasts.

[blogwritetheworld]

The Write Place: Observing Like a Writer

Looking for the right advice on pursuing the writer’s life? You’ve come to the write place!

by Lisa Hiton

Whether you’re deep into your amateur sleuthing as a mystery writer, or tapping out your town’s top stories as a fledgling journalist, asking good questions and making keen observations are key skills for any writer. For me, amateur sleuthing is where I first began observing the world around me like a writer.

By sixth grade, after our first encounter with Alfred Hitchcock (Vertigo and North by Northwest to be precise), my best friend and I became consumed by the elements of mystery. I remember us taking the train into the city of Chicago, armed with hand-sized steno pads. As we sat in the quiet of the train, we began taking notes. The man across from us wore red sneakers. He kept looking sideways from his newspaper. He flipped the pages of the paper faster than it seemed someone could be reading. These notes were the beginning of a mystery for us.

While in the end, no great narrative came from observing this gentleman ride the train, the exercise was the beginning of a life’s commitment to observation and asking questions. To that end, I became a writer, while my friend became an analyst for the intelligence community. She may have more of a foray into the real mysteries than I do, but I’m happy to use these skills in other pastures.

Alfred Hitchcock was a master observer of the human condition, allowing him to make films that get to the core of our biggest fears.

WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR

Observation and questions are important in all fields of study and all genres of writing. A food writer may observe how a chef cooks, what different dough rolling techniques are like in different cultures, how different spices smell. They might also take those observations to generate questions for their larger story: Why do different cultures roll out dough using different techniques? How do these ingredients tell a story? Is it a family story? Or the story of a larger culture? The relationship between observations and the questions they lead to allows writers, journalists, and storytellers to keep with a subject deeply, and sometimes, for years.

And so, dear writers, as we go ahead into our life’s work, we must practice these observation skills. We must dedicate our time and power to giving readers the details—of characters, real people, landscapes, sporting events, far away places, the world. It is only through taking these notes down and braiding them together that we can share parts of the world and our imaginations with others.

I SPY, WITH MY EYE...

Many of us have memories of riding in the car or taking public transport with our family. While on a given drive to grandma’s house or  on a train ride to a different state, to occupy the time, we often play games. The simple act of playing “I Spy” while on a road trip is a great way to understand the role of observation for writers.

In a car, on a train, or even on foot, a journey presents us with an evolving landscape. The “I Spy” game is a way to mark how a landscape changes. You can go from an urban area full of buildings, pedestrians, trucks, and noises, to a pastoral full of cows, horses, sky, cornfields, and intermittent barns. On foot, you may go from the cut-grass of a lawn, to a sidewalk, to a park, to the woods. Noting these changes—whether it’s as small as noticing the sound of a cricket or as large as suddenly seeing a city’s skyline in the distance—fuels our understanding of the world in and out of books.

To take this childhood game into the realm of a writer’s practice begins by grabbing a notebook and a pen. Then seeing where the world of observation takes you—what questions do your observations raise, and how can you convey these answers and mysteries to readers in every genre?

THE TRAIN GAME

You might make your first assignment as an observer the same as mine: riding a train. This prompt could also be done out of any window—a house window, car window, window at the back of your math class (I’m a big believer in daydreaming during math class…).

The first part of the prompting is about strict observation out the window:

Look out the window. What do you see? Make a list. List everything. List what you find beautiful and interesting. List what is mysterious. List what is boring.

Annotate your observations. How might you rank your observations? How might you categorize them?

A window is a good place to begin because it keeps things simple. Only what enters the frame is allowed into your observations. As you annotate, note when your mind leaps elsewhere, and where it leaps to. Do you imagine where a bird went? Did you keep thinking about that orange house you passed at the beginning of your observation journey? Why? What else might you want to write about those things?

COVERTLY OBSERVING CONVERSATIONS

Once you’ve begun honing in your observation skills, you’ll be observing the world around you everywhere you go. A trip to the grocery store could turn into an entire character study of your local cheesemonger. The next phase of observation is working with people.

We all love people watching. It’s human nature. While it’s not good to gawk or stalk, the casual observations of others, connecting to people we encounter in everyday places, can be fodder for practicing your observing and listening skills, which in turn, will strengthen your writing. So grab your notebook and pencil and head to your local grocery store, library, or coffee shop and be ready to add character study, dialogue, and place description into your observing practice.

First, observe people conversing from a distance where you cannot hear the conversation. What do you notice? What gestures do they make? What is each person’s posture? What clues do these give you about what they may be talking about? Are they arguing? Gossiping? How would you describe their connection? Why?

Next, find a place where you can listen in on a public conversation/dialogue.. For example, get in line at your coffee shop and listen to how the hostess taking orders may respond to different people in line. Make notes about dialogue. But focus more of your attention on the details. The tone, the postures, the gestures.

Annotate your observations. What encounters are you most drawn to? Why? What themes can be made of your details? What follow-up questions would you want to ask if you had the opportunity to do so?

Sometimes, these observations can lead directly to a story by following the questions that are raised. Maybe you noticed a little girl by herself stealing an olive from the olive bar at your grocery store. How did she get there? Why is she alone? Do her parents know she’s tasting an olive? Is this her first olive? Does she love olives? Or did she grab the wrong thing? Inventing these answers can lead to a great character study, and possibly even a scene from a short story or even a novel.

In other cases, the observations and the questions they raise may lead to something else altogether. Let’s say you’re observing a librarian and her interactions with readers like yourself. Maybe you overhear her recommend your favorite book to someone. That connection might lead you to go talk to her. Perhaps, eventually, you ask if she’d be willing to do an interview so you can write a portrait piece on her and her work or a feature on the library as a whole. By simply seeing the world around you, you’ll become more connected to it—in a literal sense as well as an imaginative one.

About Lisa

Lisa Hiton is an editorial associate at Write the World. She writes two series on our blog: The Write Place where she comments on life as a writer, and Reading like a Writer where she recommends books about writing in different genres. She’s also the interviews editor of Cosmonauts Avenue and the poetry editor of the Adroit Journal.

[blogwritetheworld]

Featured Writer: Jerah Winn

Last year, in celebration of National Novel Writing Month (#NaNoWriMo), Jerah Winn wrote an entire 50,000 word novel in 30 days! This November, she’s  committed to penning yet another prolific piece along with thousands of other writers from around the world. In our latest Featured Writer interview, Jerah reflects on last year’s novel writing experience and shares how it helped her grow and accomplish one of her lifelong goals at such a young age. Jerah, whose family has had to make some big, cross-continental moves, also offers advice on how to not only cope with, but thrive in, new and unfamiliar territory.

And for those of you joining Jerah in NaNoWriMo, stay tuned for the launch of our annual Novel Writing Competition where you’ll only need to submit an excerpt from a larger work.

In 2015 you completed NaNoWriMo by writing an entire novel in one month! What was the process of writing a full novel in a month like? What did you learn?

I did NaNoWriMo in 2015 and it was a wonderful, crazy experience. I confess most of my actual memories of the month are blurred together into a mess of words, but I’ll never forget the moment I checked my word count the evening of the 30th and discovered I was only ten words away from 50,000. That November was a huge turning point in my writing journey and in my life as well—I learned a lot. When writing that piece, for instance, I outlined the entire novel before I started, something I’d never done before, and discovered that I had much more success that way. I also learned that it was possible for me, a teenage writer, to accomplish something that many people never do. Since then, I’ve learned and grown with my writing a lot more than ever before. It was an adventure I’ll never regret.

Beyond participating in NaNoWriMo again this November, what are some of your other long term writing goals?

I look forward to many more years of NaNoing. Other than that, my major goals are to be published before I graduate from high school, which gives me two years to finish editing the novel I started in 2015. For that novel I’ll probably self-publish, since I don’t think I’m quite ready to take the dive into the traditional publishing industry. One day (after I graduate, most likely) I do want to be published traditionally, too. I have visions of stalking my fans’ discussions on various social media platforms, but I suppose I’ll have to stop procrastinating and actually write something before that starts happening.

What is your favorite genre to write?

I love fantasy. I love reading it and I love writing it. That’s not to say I don’t like other genres, especially when reading, but with fantasy there’s just something else. If I had to say, I suppose it’s because of the possibilities—I’ve always been fascinated by possibilities. Blank paper is a possibility, character is a possibility, and fantasy is full of possibilities. I feel like there are fewer requirements in fantasy. With genres like nonfiction, historical fiction, and even realistic fiction, you’re bound by reality as it is and I don’t like doing research very much. But with fantasy, I like to say, anything is possible—even dragons!

If you could have a dinner party with four of your favorite novel characters who would they be and why?

There are so many possibilities! First, I’d have to go with Galadriel from Lord of the Rings. By the time of the Fellowship, she is easily one of the oldest—if not the oldest—elves alive in Middle Earth and the very thought of how much she would know is tremendously exciting. Next, I’d invite Lady Pauline from the Ranger’s Apprentice series, because while she isn’t quite a main character, she is well acquainted with everyone important. She’s smart and witty and a much better conversationalist than most of the actual Rangers. She and Galadriel would be a fascinating pair to talk to. Then I’d have Hermione Granger from Harry Potter because, once again, she would be able to give an excellent and accurate account of just about anything I could think of to ask her. Finally, I’d have Annabeth Chase from the Percy Jackson books, for similar reasons.

You've grown up in various parts of the world. Do you have any tips for someone who is moving, even if just to a new town, about how to adjust or make new friends?

A couple of years ago, my family moved from Central Asia—where we’d lived all my life—back to the United States to spend a year there. Even though we were technically going back “home”, I felt as though we were doing the opposite, and let me tell you: it was not fun. Looking back, however, I’ve realized that it ended up being one of the best years of my life, and I learned a lot through it. So! Here’s my advice, starting with: DON’T get stuck in the past! I made this mistake and it made me miserable. I was so focused on when I would get to go back to my school and my friends in Asia that I wasn’t able to appreciate what was around me at the time. Next tip: take advantage of where you are and don’t be afraid to try new things—in fact, look for them! Keep an eye out for opportunities you wouldn’t have had otherwise. I can faithfully promise you that if we hadn’t moved to the US, I never would have found out about NaNoWriMo, and look how that turned out. My final bit of advice: don’t be afraid of people. Whether you’re trying to make friends at school or meeting your neighbors, remember that people are people wherever they are. They may act differently because of cultural differences or even just tiny variations in tradition, but they’re still people. Learn to appreciate the differences and you’ll be able to appreciate the people and they’ll appreciate you.

About Jerah

My name is Jerah Winn, and I’ve been a storyteller for as long as I can remember. Some quick facts about me: I’m a TCK (Third Culture Kid); my Myers-Briggs type is INFP; I love books and the inspiration they bring; I memorize random things like digits of pi and Rubik’s cube algorithms. I did NaNoWriMo last year and won. As an introverted sophomore in a tiny high school, I spend most of my time balancing homework, procrastination, and outside-of-school projects while I tell myself I should get off Pinterest and write something.