In the age of social media, everyone’s a writer, and while fewer people may be reading books, many more seem to be writing them.
“There are a lot of people who think they can and then learn how much work it takes to get really good at it.”
Jody Hobbs Hesler is the author Without You Here, a novel that won the Independent Press Award for Literary Fiction this year, and a finalist for the Southern Literary Review Book of the Year in 2024.
Betty Joyce Nash published her first novel – Everybody Here is Kin – in 2023, and like Hesler has written lots of short stories and essays. Both have MFA’s, both teach at Writer House and they’ll join two other professional writers in reviewing the first hundred words from people who aspire to the literary life.
“We’re looking mostly at fiction although we will take memoires, but no erotica, horror or non-fiction.”
Nash says the way you begin your story is critical to getting published and read.
“You don’t have that many opportunities to grab readers, so you can’t afford a ho-hum first paragraph.”
So they’re inviting aspiring authors to e-mail their first hundred words by midnight, March 11th. On the 23rd at 2, the team will read entries – keeping the author’s name private -- and provide feedback. Again, Jody Hobbs Hesler.
“We talk about what jumps off the page at us, what’s working, and then we also trouble-shoot things that could work better. It’s really about making sure your words do the best work they can.”
Nash hopes to help those who have the essential elements but need a little advice to entice an agent or publisher.
“Sometimes there are paragraphs with a lot of energy, and maybe it’s terrible grammar. This piece is just dying to get out. Let’s fix it!”
Others may need to refine their writing style – to say things simply.
“Language is so embroidered it’s gotten in the way of the meaning. I love Jane Austen. Don’t get me wrong. I love Henry James. Give me a long sentence – that’s fine, but It needs to make sense. A lot of times there’s what we call throat clearing where someone wants to tell you it was a beautiful day and the clouds were billowy, and there’s lots of decorative language, but I’ve seen clouds before. I want to know why are we looking at them right now?”
Last year, the team got more than a hundred submissions, and the program – at Charlottesville’s main library – is just 90 minutes, but Hesler hopes everyone comes away with a better understanding of how to write a compelling first graph.
“Even if we don’t get to their submission, they will take away something that they can use,” she says.
And the panel will encourage new writers to give their craft time and be realistic about the prospects for publication and sales.
“If you’re going into the writing and you’ve never taken a writing class and you haven’t practiced, your odds are excruciatingly long, but if the reason you’re writing is that you have something that you need to say, and you just want to learn to say it well, you can do that and you can get better at it, and that can give you satisfaction,” Hesler concludes.
“Writing classes are partly about building community and refreshing your skills and learning new ones and thinking about words in a new way. You just can’t learn enough really,” Nash adds.
Again, the festival hopes to get submissions by midnight, March 11th via e-mail: WriteStartVABook@gmail.com.
To register for this free program go to https://web.cvent.com/event/bda10ffb-3cfe-44d9-897a-bd63899e8520/summary
