Jennifer Caloyeras's Blog, page 15
June 9, 2016
El Segundo Public Library Author Fair: Sunday, June 12th
Bring the kids to the El Segundo Public Library Author Fair this Sunday, June 12th from 11:30 - 4:30. I will be signing books. There will be many children and young adult authors as well as musicians, photo booth and prizes.
Here's a nice article about the event in the Manhattan Beach Sun.
May 29, 2016
save the date! June 12, 2016
I'll be signing books and speaking on a panel at the El Segundo Public Library Author Fair 2016. Come on down and say hello!
Check below for a list of participants:
May 10, 2016
Plot Development
it is a cool foggy day in Los Angeles - my favorite kind of day to drink tea and write!
I am reposting my post on Plot from my time as artist-in-residence at the Annenberg Beach House this winter.
A few days ago I had the great pleasure of visiting the new Broad Museum downtown and it got me thinking about the connection between perspective and plot. I was staring at these colorful orbs by Jeff Koons, appreciating how abstract they were.
But when I walked around to the other side of the exhibit, I realized they weren’t abstract at all, they were tulips. It completely changed the way I looked at the work of art.
I think this related to novel writing, in the sense that when it comes time to plot out your writing, you need to know your own perspective. What are you ultimately trying to say in your work? Once you figure out what you are trying to say as a writer, you can move on to what your characters are trying to say. Are they reinforcing what you’re trying to say? Opposing it? Saying it in a different way? Once you figure out your perspective, you’re ready to plot.
In last week’s blog entry, I talked a bit about the importance of characterization in writing. Today, I’m going to focus on plot.
I have to say, that something has changed in the way I approach plot with my new project compared to how I’ve written novels in the past.
Previously, I’ve done a very organized job of plotting out my entire novel before I begin writing. It’s not to say that this plan won’t change once I begin writing (it always changes) but I have a linear sense of how it will all take shape. This time around and for the first time, I’m writing more towards the energy of the story. That is to say, I’m following the characters and writing in a nonlinear fashion. As I’m doing this, I’m piecing together these plot points into a linear fashion.
No matter which method you use to write, when it’s all said and done, you will have a story with a beginning, a middle and an end (the middle is always the muddiest bit to write.)
In its most simplistic terms, plot is rising action that leads to a climax and then is followed by falling action. (Think in terms of the shape of a triangle, the apex being the moment of climax) but when you’re writing something 200, 300, 400 + pages, getting this action to up the ante with each chapter can be challenging.
I like to think of plot as a bunch of mini plot triangles, strung together, all with their own moments of rising action, climax and falling action.
If your story is essentially about one character, this can be easier to organize. My current novel explores three different characters, with distinct story lines, so I have to stay vigilant about how I keep track of their information and with what happens to them in each chapter.
Even though I didn’t complete the draft of my novel in a linear fashion, I did spend a long time plotting everything out ahead of time. For me, I write faster when I know where I’m going.
There are many methods one can use in order to plot out their work. I would argue they all have one thing in common – the notion of starting a novel with an idea and expanding outward. So how can this help you with your work?
In one sentence, write down what your novel is about.
Expand this into three well-crafted sentences.
Expand this into one paragraph.
Expand this into one full page adding important plot details.
You can keep expanding outward, perhaps writing a full page per chapter on your book.
Before you know it, you’ll have a complete and detailed outline of what you want to happen in the novel. Here’s where you can see where the holes are, what questions need to be answered, what concepts need research, where your characters perhaps lie flat.
There are many online tools that can help you plot your novel. Feel free to check them out!
Try this Plotting Worksheet from Annie Neugebauer
Creative writing templates to kick off your novel
There’s an endless supply of books for writers all geared around how to plot a novel. My favorite of these books is actually geared towards screenwriters, but can certainly be applied to a novel. It’s Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat, which takes you step by step through plotting out your story.
April 19, 2016
Character Development
I'm going to repost some of my blog entries from my time as writer-in-residence at the Annenberg Beach House in Santa Monica.
To read the introductory post, click here.
It’s no secret that plot and character development are the keys to writing great fiction. Today, I wanted to focus on character.
There’s an arc that needs to happen with the characters you write, whether your writing a 400-page novel or a ten-page short story. The character has to change. This doesn’t mean they have to become better or learn something (although this can be satisfying for a reader) but they do have to begin one way and end another way.
(An example of how a character can start on a high note but end on a low note can be found in my short story, Plush, originally published in Booth Literary in February, 2014. Here, the main character goes from being full of pride, boasting that he ranked as the number one cuddler at his job to feeling defeated by the end of the story, when he realizes how immobile his life really is.)
One great tip that is oft repeated is to make sure your likeable characters have an unlikeable trait and that your antagonists have something we can all relate to. This ensure that you are writing well-rounded characters.
But where does one get the inspiration for their characters? The answer is simple: all around us.
Writing can be a primarily private exercise. This is why I have loved my time at the Annenberg. It has transformed the privatization of my writing life into a public engagement. I am used to being at my home office, sometimes in pajamas, shutting out the the rest of the world, so that I can better enter the world in my head. But you can’t write in a bubble forever. And I think that one of the best strategies to overcome writer’s block is to get out into the world and observe. Writers are like ornithologists tracking birds - like Jane Goodall following primates. We are the recorders of human behavior in all of its grit and glory.
I spend a good amount of my time here on the veranda overlooking the beach. People pass by the beach path on bike, segway (the non self-igniting kind), roller skates and on foot. Each person I see could easily turn into a character if I took the time to flesh them out. One woman that particularly struck me the other day was dancing her way down the bike path. Dancing! I had to know more.
What kind of music was she listening to?
Did she dance around all the time or just on this bike path?
Did anyone ever tell her to stop?
Did she do this often or was today the first day she was inspired to dance?
Had she been formally trained as a dancer?
It doesn’t matter what the real answers are to these questions. I am a fiction writer. I get to fill in the lines. She is someone who will stick with me for a long time and should you find a woman dancing through life in the pages of my next book – you’ll know who inspired it.
In the meantime, here are some tools for writing memorable characters:
11 points from Writer’s Digest
25 things a great character needs from Terrible Minds
12 character writing from Writing Forward tips
April 6, 2016
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books Signing 4/10/16
I am so looking forward signing my young adult novel, Strays, at the SCBWI booth at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on Sunday, April 10th: 11: - 12:50.
Click here for the Sunday schedule.
Click here to read an article about the SCBWI signing table in The Examiner.
Come say hi!
March 31, 2016
AWP Book Signing this Saturday!
Anyone attending AWP this year? I'll be signing copies of my novel, Strays, at the AWP CONFERENCE on Saturday, April 2, 2016 from 12:55-2:45 in downtown Los Angeles.
Come find me and say hi over at booth #954.
There will be dog biscuits.
February 18, 2016
New York!
It's been a crazy busy 2016 so far, so excuse the lack of blog posts.
I am a little over halfway through my tenure as writer in residence at the Annenberg Community Beach House. It has been a wonderful experience so far and you can read some of my blog entries on the City of Santa Monica's website. I'll be posting them to this blog over the next few weeks.
And, I've just returned from New York City where I was nominated for a DWAA Pat Santi Memorial Friends of Rescue Award. I didn't win, but I "won" in so many other ways on this trip!
The awards ceremony was being held at the Hotel Pennsylvania where all the dogs were gathered for the Westminster Dog Show. There were so many dogs in the lobby! This big cutie was my favorite:
Best of all, I got to meet Jackie Skole, author of Dogland, who is also published by Ashland Creek Press (my publisher)
My family took in some fabulous shows:
We watched the Kings beat the Rangers in a very dramatic hockey game at Madison Square Garden.
And enjoyed some rare snow for this Californian!
I came home inspired, exhausted and greeted by a very joyful blossoming peach tree!
January 26, 2016
save the date: February 9th
I am thrilled to be speaking at my alma mater, Cal State Los Angeles on February 9th at 11:30 am.
My lecture is titled:
ACP: Animals/Aesthetics/Adolescence: A Reading by Jennifer Clark Caloyeras
Event date and time
Tuesday, February 9, 2016 - 11:30am
Description
Join Cal State LA alum and acclaimed author Jennifer Clark Caloyeras as she discusses her latest young adult novel, Strays; shares her experiences in writing and publishing; and examines genealogies of inter-species relations in YA literatures. Book signing to follow.
Place
Los Angeles Room BC, 3rd Floor, U-SU
January 25, 2016
Unpacking the Elusive Writing Process
Save the date: February 9, 2016 at 6:30p.m.
I'll be moderating this panel at the Annenberg Community Beach House as part of my time as artist in residency.
(no, I'm not living here - everyone keeps asking me that, although it would be dreamy!)
Zsuzsi ponders
Join authors Zsuzsi Gartner, Matthew Specktor, Andrea Quaid and Jennifer Caloyeras as they discuss and take questions about their various writing strategies. 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 creative 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.
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.
January 13, 2016
Greetings from my Beachside Office
*This blog originally appeared on the City of Santa Monica's website. To see original blog post, click here.
Greetings from my Beachside Office
Hello! My name is Jennifer Caloyeras and I am thrilled to be the current writer in residence at the Annenberg Community Beach House.
My second young adult novel, Strays, was released in May, 2015. My short stories have been published in Booth, Storm Cellar and other literary magazines. I hold a M.A. in English from Cal State Los Angeles and a M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of British Columbia. I am a Los Angeles native and I’ve always had a close connection with Santa Monica; it’s where I went to high school and where my children currently go to elementary school. I will be spending my time at the beach house working on my first adult novel, currently titled, Time May Change Me, about a mother grappling with raising her transgender daughter. I am so excited to be here!
The anticipation of spending each day at the beach got me thinking about novels set at the beach. The ones that immediately come to mind are: the fisherman’s struggle off the coast of Florida in Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, the great white shark in Peter Benchley’s Jaws, Scotland’s Isle of Skye in Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, one of my childhood favorites, Scott O’Dell’s Island of the Blue Dolphins and more recently, representations of Cape Cod in E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars. I set my own novel, Strays, along the California coastline in Santa Cruz.
Recalling an image of the beach doesn’t conjure the same image for everyone. Beaches can be as vast and varying as people - with or without berms, rocks, sand, dunes, grass, inhabitants. The beach always seems to signify some sort of border - between human and nature, continent and abyss. The beach is simultaneously a beginning and an end.
Whatever your imagined beach looks likes, I look forward to sharing this beach in Santa Monica with you for the duration of my tenure. Please come visit me at office hours starting on January 25th from 11-2. (and Mondays thereafter, with the exception of February 15th, which will be moved to a different day.)
Here are some other places to find me on social media:
My author website
Twitter: Jencaloyeras
My Facebook author page
Goodreads
What book beaches have had the greatest impact on you?
p.s. Saturday, January 16th 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Santa Clarita Public Library
I will be participating in the third annual Celebration of Local Authors at the Santa Clarita Public Library on January 16th from 10 - 3. There will be panels, readings and activities for children and adults. Stop by and say hello! I will be speaking on the young adult panel from 10:15-10:45 in the community room.
