week #9 - So long and thanks for the memories!

Well, time ticked by and I am sad to say this is my last week here at the Marion Davies Beach House. I will miss everything about this place and the people I met during my tenure here.

I took a little time over the weekend to reflect on how my writing changed during my stay and I wanted to share my thoughts with you below. If you came to my event on Tuesday night, I talked about some of these same issues (I also read a short portion of my novel that I wrote here.)

best writing backdrop ever!!!

Over the course of the last 8 weeks, people who visited my office hours often asked what exactly am I doing here at the beach house and how did I get here? I had answered a call for a writer-in-residence from the Annenberg blog. Each residency focuses on a different genre of creativity. Before me was a choreographer and after me will be an acting troupe. My call was specifically for a fiction writer.

The application process involved sending in a few letters of recommendation, a writer’s statement, proposed events for these types of evenings, a writing sample as well as a description of the project I’m currently working on.

glorious sun in eyes in front of Marion Davies Beach House

So for the past ten weeks I’ve had the wonderful opportunity of having a place away from home to call my office. In addition to the hours spent writing without the distractions of my home office, (think lots of dog barking and neighborhood construction) I hold office hours once a week for three hours on Mondays from 11-2. I’ve been so pleased with the turnout of these office hours. The work I’ve been presented with has run the gamut from short stories, to novel ideas, to picture books to a graphic novel to a Greek cookbook. All enthusiastic writers with great stories to tell. I will hold my final office hours on Monday, March 14^th from 11-2 in my office on the second floor of the Marion Davies building.

The novel that I was able to complete during my time here is currently titled, “Time May Change Me” The gist of the novel is about a woman with a transgendered daughter who is forced to move back in with her parents after years of estrangement. It sounds pretty heavy, but I think, I hope it has a lot of comedic elements to it.

There are many ways in which my writing was greatly impacted by my time here at the Annenberg:

Planning: Let me start by talking about the planning rituals I usually go through. Because, in my writing life before the Annenberg, I worked on such limited writing time. My average on a good day was 2 hours. Keep in mind I didn’t start writing until I had kids, so I just learned to write within these parameters. Because of this, I really would spend a lot of time planning and outlining so that I could best economize my writing time. When it came time to write, I’d just follow my outline and “produce".  However, something happened with all of the extra time I had here. I felt liberated from my usual planning and for the first time, I wrote without a premeditated structure. This was incredibly liberating for me and I felt as though a lot more discoveries happened both for me as a writer and for my characters. I allowed them to meander without pressure and they’d inevitably take me someplace unexpected or interesting – places I don’t think they would have ended up had I been locked down to preplanned plotlines. This leads me to structure.

Structure: So as I mentioned, Time May Change me is about a woman who returns home with her daughter to estranged parents. At first, the structure was split in two: before and after the daughter's transition. My original vision was to have each section alternate between these before and afters. But as I began writing, it became apparent that so much of the momentum and energy of the story was in the after. So there was a lot of cutting (not deleting because I ended up saving some of the before sections to use as flashbacks) and I decided to keep the story in the “after” sections. I did leave a “before” in there to start the novel as a prologue.

The Writing Process:

For me, the writing process has been very accordion-like this sort of stretching and then compressing goes on. I’ve spend a long time in my MFA program and in writer’s workshops discussing how we all write. I definitely am a strong proponent of moving forward and getting words on the page, even if those words are not ultimately the ones that will end up on the page.

So, there you have it! I think the biggest piece of advice I’d offer fellow writers is to get out of your comfort zone, change up your writing routine and try something new! If you usually write in the morning, try writing at night. If you usually write in first person present, check out the third person past tense. And keep applying to those residencies! You never know what metamorphosis your writing might go through at a beachside office!

Come by my last office hours Monday, March 14^th from 11:00-2:00

artist-in-residence, that's me!!!

And feel free to keep up with my writing life at www.jennifercaloyeras.com

A very special thanks to everyone at the Annenberg and the Marion Davies Beach House for having me!

And here's where I'll be over the next two months! Come say hi!

Saturday, March 12, 2016 - SCBWI Writer's Day, Los Angeles 8:00 - 4:30 

I'll be hanging out at Writer's Day at the Skirball Museum: Skirball Cultural Center
2701 North Sepulveda Blvd. - Los Angeles, CA 90049

 Saturday, April 2, 2016 - AWP CONFERENCE, Los Angeles  12:55-2:45

I will be signing my novel, Strays, at the Literary Classics booth at the AWP conference in Los Angeles. 

Sunday, April 10th: 11:00 - 12:50 - Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

I will be signing my young adult novel, Strays, at the SCBWI booth at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. 

week #5 - What's in My Toolbox?

                  I like to think of myself as having a metaphorical writer’s toolbox I carry around with me at all times.

                 My toolbox is an amalgam of all of the wisdom, both theoretical and practical, that I have amassed regarding the writing process over the course of my life.

                  Today, I wanted to talk about a few of the practical tools in my toolbox that help keep me organized and productive.

                  

I recently shared on Instagram (find me as JenniferCaloyeras) a photo of the six projects I’m working on all in various stages of revision.

File folders: 

        It can be hard to keep track of the various stages of revision for each project.

I keep them organized in a labeled file folder on my desk.

At the front of each folder, I stick a post it that labels what needs to be done next. For example: “Print and edit pages 1 – 50” or “Start typing edit on page 75”.

Excel:

Excel has become my very best friend for keeping track of submissions. Each project I complete has its own excel spreadsheet in order to keep track of query letters I send out, what the response was, if there’s any follow up, dates and any notes the reader might have added (sometime even with a rejection will come a note saying, “it wasn’t right for this issue, but please send more!”  

Because I have a short fiction collection, it can get complicated sending out thirteen different stories to different literary magazines and anthologies, but with the excel spreadsheet I can keep track of them all as well as view them by date or by story.

Bulletin board:

I like to keep information regarding different genres I write in front of me. Sometimes, those will include important due dates for submissions, research I’m conducting or even photos for inspiration.

A little notebook:

I am the queen of collecting little writing journals. Sometimes I’ll use a new journal to start a new project. Often in the beginning stages of a writing project I prefer writing ideas out by hand.

Currently, I’m using this plain moleskin, given to me years ago by my sister in law, to keep track of all things writing including ideas, appearances and to do lists.

A filing system: 

Until something appears in book or journal form, I like to hold on to all drafts. What if I cut something that I need later on? This way, I have it. I keep my files alphabetized by title and all my creative writing folders are purple so they don’t get mixed in with health care or other files.

 A lined notepad:

Whenever I start revising a book-length piece of work, it gets assigned a lined notepad. As I read through the work I’ll do line edits on the manuscript, but I’ll use the notepad to keep track of more global changes or questions. I usually allot about two pages per chapter. When I go to revise, I do so chapter by chapter, starting with the line edits and then moving on to the bigger, more global aspects that need to be changed.

Programs that prevent you from going on the Internet: 

There are a few ways in which technology can keep you from being distracted by technology:

Anti-Social: this app lets you set the time you want to write and during this time you are blocked from all social media on your computer.

Write or Die: this program allows you to set writing goals and then should you stop writing, the app will wither gently remind you with a pop up window (gentle mode), play an unpleasant sound until you continue writing (normal mode), or your writing will begin to unwrite itself (kamikaze mode)

Coffitivity: for those of you that work better in a coffee shop vibe rather than in silence, Coffitivity will create background coffee shop ambient noise.

On Tuesday, February 9th at  6:30 - we will be discussing our strategies for creative writing and revision – come join us and add more ideas to your toolbox!

Join authors Zsuzsi Gartner, Matthew Specktor, Andrea Quaid and Jennifer Caloyeras as discuss and take questions about their various writing strategies. On the page how do we get from A to Z? How do different mediums and platforms affect the writing process? Do different projects merit different approaches? Can the process of writing be taught? 

Zsuzsi Gartner is the author of All the Anxious Girls on Earth, and editor of Darwin’s Bastards: Astounding Tales from Tomorrow. Her most recent book, Better Living through Plastic Explosives, was a 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist. She is the founding director of Writers Adventure Camp at The Point in Whistler, B.C. She’s at work on a novel.

Matthew Specktor is the author of the novels American Dream Machine and That Summertime Sound, as well as a nonfiction book about the motion picture The Sting. His writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The Paris Review, The Believer, Tin House, Black Clock, and Salon.com, among other publications. He was a senior editor and founding member of the Los Angeles Review of Books.

Andrea Quaid is co-editor of Acts + Encounters, a collection of works about experimental writing and community. Recent critical and creative publications include the American Book Review, BOMBlog, Jacket2, Lana Turner, LIT and the Los Angeles Review of Books. She teaches in Bard College’s MAT Program (Los Angeles) and Language and Thinking Program (New York) as well as California Institute of the Arts. Currently, she is writing a book on contemporary experimental women’s writing and the literary epic.

Jennifer Caloyeras is the 2016 Writer-in-Residence at the Beach House, and will be working on a novel in the Marion Davies Guest House from 1/12/16-3/15/16. Her most recent novel, Strays, is for young adults and explores an incarcerated teen's relationship with a pit bull. Caloyeras' short fiction has appeared in Booth, Storm Cellar and other literary magazines. She holds a M.A. in English from Cal State Los Angeles and a M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of British Columbia. Jennifer’s current project is her first adult novel – a mixture of humor and pathos – that explores a mother’s journey with her transgendered six-year-old daughter, and the weight of expectations parents place on their children. She will share her work with three public events, a weekly blog, and open office hours throughout her tenure (schedule below). Her website: jennifercaloyeras.com. 

Mondays January 25 – March 7, 11am-2pm: Open Office Hours – come by Jennifer’s office at the Beach House with any literary questions

Tuesday February 9, 6:30pm: Unpacking the Elusive Writing Process

Tuesday March 8, 6:30pm: Culminating reading and Writer's Publishing Workshop. 

Follow her weekly updates to the Resident Blog starting in January 2016. 

Stop by early to save your seat and check out the historic site!

Tickets are free but space is limited and reservations are required. Arrive by 15 min before start time to retain your reservation. Late seating, even for reservation-holders, is not guaranteed. To adjust or cancel your reservation for this event, email culture@smgov.net. We appreciate your keeping in touch!

Getting Here: The Beach House is located at 415 Pacific Coast Highway, Santa Monica, CA 90402 on the west side of Pacific Coast Highway. Enter off PCH at the Beach House Way traffic light.

Parking: The parking rate is Nov - Mar: $8/day or $3/hour,  Apr - Oct: $12/day or $3/hour, payable at the park and pay machines in three areas of the ACBH parking lot. Credit cards or exact change only. Handicapped placards and Senior Beach Permits are accepted. For other parking info and lot hours, please check the website for details.

Other events: To view & make reservations for future free Beach=Culture events, check annenbergbeachhouse.com/beachculture.

General Info: For hours, events and more, visit annenbergbeachhouse.com, or call (310) 458-4904. Back on the Beach Café hours are subject to change but are generally through 3pm in the off season & 8pm in the summer, call (310) 393-8282 to confirm.

What’s your favorite writing tip or strategy?