“Trust Your Narrative Instincts” RPLA Showcase: Arielle Haughee

My first FWA meeting was a terrifying disaster…well, to me at least. I’d only scribbled in notebooks, I wasn’t a real writer. Yet I dared to go to the Maitland library among a group of REAL authors. No worry, I’d just hide in the back. My hopes were dashed when I saw the tables arranged in a U, with nowhere to hide. People would see me. I sat down and flipped through pages of an empty notebook, attempting to look busy. Could they smell that I was a fake? The group leader gave a warm smile and said the words that sunk all the way to the pit of my stomach, “Now we’re going to introduce ourselves and share about our work.” Was it too late to sneak out? Maybe I should pretend to be sick.

The first person went and held up their book that just won a Royal Palm Literary Award. I sunk down an inch in my seat. The next person went and she started a literary magazine and owned a local writing studio. I slunk down three more inches. The person next to me held up the first book in her series, told when the second one was coming out, and said she was working on the third. Everyone clapped. I slid down like a noodle off a plate. My turn. I took a deep breath, “MyNameIsArielleAndI’mNew.” Silence. Then a smile. “Welcome.”

That was five years ago.

I was going to start this showcase the way I start all of them, with an overview of the author, this time myself. But writing about me in third person felt strange and wrong. I followed my narrative instincts and surprised myself by coming up with this opening. Read on to find out more about narrative instincts, the mischief that sparked my writing career, and my passion for revision in this week’s RPLA showcase for First Place Published Flash Fiction.

Arielle’s Writing Journey

I got in big trouble in sixth grade, VERY big trouble. My best friend had been away from school for two weeks and me being the good friend that I am decided to sum up all the sixth grade gossip in my own little newspaper just for her. The problem was when I brought it to school, it soon became not just for her. I distinctly remember the kids running around the playground grabbing my newspaper to get a glimpse of what I wrote. I made sure to be a good little journalist and include “news” about every single student. My parents were called, I got the much-dreaded trip to the principal’s office, and of course, all the kids hated me for being a terrible gossip. But my love of writing was born. (My apologies to the sixth grade class at St. Luke’s in Beavercreek, Ohio.)

When I left college at UF, I followed a different passion and became a teacher and after five years, stayed at home to be a mom. After having my first son, I started to go a bit crazy at home. How many times can you say “not in your mouth” a day before you start climbing the walls? My favorite escape was reading but I kept having this problem—the characters were deviating from their story lines in my head. Then the setting would completely change and everything that happened in the plot was different. My brain couldn’t keep all this in, so I started filling notebooks with these story ideas. After a failed novel attempt and a quick realization that I had no idea what I was doing, I threw myself into learning craft. I joined writing organizations, went to local events, entered contests…anything I could think of. I became involved with FWA and Writer’s Atelier in Winter Park and my journey took off.

The Winning Entry, Flight of a New Dawn

Logline: After spending months as his brother’s caretaker, Jon must find a new life for himself now that Patrick is gone.

This piece came from a very personal place. It was inspired by my incredible mother. My grandmother had the misfortune of being diagnosed with terminal cancer and required full time care. Mom took care of her every single week for two years, completely giving her life over to my grandmother’s well-being. I wrote Flight of a New Dawn after the first year, wondering what life would be like for her after my beloved Grammy had passed. Writing the story about Mom and Grammy would have been too close, so I put some distance in by making the characters male and brothers. (I actually used my father-in-law’s first and middle name for their names.) My mother hasn’t read this piece so I’m a bit nervous about her seeing it, but I hope she knows it comes from a place of deep love and pride and wishing her every happiness in life.

Read Flight of a New Dawn here.

Two Truths and a Lie, Writer’s Edition

Release three books all at once (or in a very short time span).

Progress, not perfection.

Trust your narrative instincts.

The lie? Release three books at once. This is popular advice for series writers, particularly those who write to genre standards in speculative fiction and romance. The idea is that you have a whole series out together and people will read all three and you will build your fandom faster. Can you do it? Sure. But I accidentally did it this spring—three books released in two months—and it was one of the most stressful times of my life. I worked nonstop from November through May, getting up very early and staying up very late, working in all my spare time, skipping meals…you get the picture. It was not fun. In fact, I had a major burnout and it took quite a while to get myself going again. Don’t do that to yourself if you don’t have to.

Progress, not perfection has been a revelation for me. FWA member and presenter Racquel Henry preaches this dictum and it has allowed me to relax my expectations. Focus on making improvements with everything you write, from one draft to another, from one book to the next. If you focus on absolute perfection, you’ll never get the project done. It’s helped me to stop being so critical of my work and put more of my stories out into the world.

Narrative instincts are the feelings or intuition you get about a story. It’s that nagging in your head that tells you something isn’t quite right in that particular scene, the fighter in you that just can’t do that one suggested revision, the feeling of despising a certain part of your story…it’s your connection to your process. Listen to that inner voice when it tells you something is wrong or when you feel like you’ve deviated too far from your original concept. Your narrative instincts will help guide you and also sometimes surprise you with an answer.

Other Works by Arielle

I am a multigenre author and have a wide range of publications, particularly for my short stories. I tap into my teacher brain as well as my mom side to publish picture books. My book Grumbler was featured in the Kirkus Reviews May 2019 issue. It’s about a grouch who lives at the dump and keeps getting stuck with all this irritating “love.” He soon figures out that trying to give love away comes with unexpected results.

I am also the editor of a micro-memoir anthology series. The first book released in winter of 2019, How I Met My Other: True Stories, True Love. It’s a mix of true love stories about how people met that are sweet, funny, and memorable, a good beach read. My grandmother’s love story is featured—she was engaged to another man who wanted to dance with other girls so she went on a revenge date! I published them under my company, Orange Blossom Publishing. I am currently collecting stories for the next volume about how people came to have that special pet in their lives called How I Met My Other: Furry Friends, True Tails.

Working with other writers and authors is a great love of mine. In addition to coaching and consulting, I also do public speaking. From working with and talking to so many writers, I realized that revision is a huge stumbling block for many people. One of the most frustrating and heartbreaking observations I’ve made was that writers would completely give up and abandon their drafts because they couldn’t get through revision. People shouldn’t give up on their projects when it gets hard, especially when they’ve come so far. To help writers at all levels and with any type of novel, I wrote The Complete Revision Workbook for Writers: Tools for a Polished Novel published by Writer’s Atelier Books. I’ve gotten great feedback that it’s truly helped a lot of people.

Coming Next from this Author

I have two more picture books releasing in 2020: Joyride and Pling’s Party. Joyride features a fun-seeking dog and a cantankerous cat going on adventures together—riding a bike, a golf cart, and even a boat. Things get dicey when the cat ends up in the water! In Pling’s Party, an exuberant exclamation point keeps breaking his rule and jumping into the story, making the party a bit more exciting than it’s supposed to be with drums, monkeys, and a mud mountain. I adore working with illustrators and have had such fun making these projects with Becky McKinniss and Sharon Lane Holm.

I am also working on another craft workbook for Writer’s Atelier Books. This one will be a fantasy/sci-fi worldbuilding workbook. There is a lot of planning involved when creating a fictional world and I aim to have a book where writers can keep everything in one place—physical topography, language, religious culture, currency, transportation, history of power, rules of magic…just to name a few!

Stay Connected with Arielle

I have a craft blog featuring several picture book and revision articles on www.orangeblossombooks.com. Be sure to sign up for my newsletter to get a free editing checklist for cleaning up prose. I also have an author website with my events calendar and information about new releases on www.ariellehaughee.com. You can find me on Facebook and Instagram, @orange_blossom_books. I also have an Amazon author page where you can see my other works.

Click here to hear the FWA podcast with Arielle Haughee.

More about RPLA

The Royal Palm Literary Awards competition is a service of the Florida Writers Association established to recognize excellence in members’ published and unpublished works while providing objective and constructive written assessments for all entrants. Judges include literary agents, publishers, film producers, current or retired professors, teachers, librarians, editors, bestselling and award-winning authors, and journalists from across the nation. Entries are scored against the criteria set by RPLA using rubrics tailored to each genre. Winners are announced at the annual FWA conference during the RPLA awards banquet. To learn more about RPLA, click here for the guidelines.