Writing Conversations By eMailE-valuations of Your Non-fiction or Poetry by Linda M. Hasselstrom For a step-by-step explanation of how the Writing Conversation process works, how much it costs and how to initiate a conversation with Linda, click here: Writing Conversation explanation You may also read a brief sample essay and then see an example of Linda's overview and working agreement (Part One) and then see an example of Linda's line-by-line comments on the sample essay (Part Two) by clicking here: Part One: Sample essay with overview and working agreement Part Two: Sample line-by-line comments Coming soon. How the Writing Conversation process works: Since 1996, Linda has been conducting individualized writing retreats for women at her ranch on the east slope of the Black Hills. (See her website www.windbreakhouse.com for complete details.) Now, for those unable to attend a four-day retreat, she is offering "Writing Conversations by Mail." Who Is Eligible? Any writer of nonfiction or poetry. Unlike a Windbreak House residential writing retreat, there is no lower age limit or gender requirement. How Much Does It Cost? 1. Applicants must send a $25 non-refundable application fee with their application. This fee provides for: – Linda's initial read-through and a brief overview of her evaluation of your manuscript. – An estimate of the time needed and cost of a complete evaluation of your manuscript. – Coverage of all return mailing and handling costs. The application fee will be deducted from the cost of the full Writing Conversation fee if you choose to proceed. 2. A full evaluation of your manuscript, with written line-by-line commentary, costs $45 per hour, less the $25 application fee. – For the full evaluation fee, you receive a line-by line written commentary on your manuscript, explanations of all my suggestions, plus printed handouts or reference materials explaining various writing techniques Linda believes you should use to improve the writing, and suggested reading. 3. You will be allowed to send one mailed or emailed list of followup questions, and receive one response from Linda at no additional charge. How Long Will It Take? – Once we receive your manuscript at Windbreak House, we will check to be sure your application is complete, including the $25 non-refundable application fee. Within two weeks, Linda will provide you with an overview and estimate of costs of a full evaluation. – Once you have signed and returned our working agreement with full payment of the evaluation fee, Linda will respond within the time specified in our agreement, usually one month. If you need the comments back sooner, let us know with your initial application so that Linda may decline your evaluation if she doesn’t have time to complete it. – If the evaluation takes less time than Linda has estimated, we will refund your overpayment. How Does the Process Work? 1. Send a cover letter (see below); a cd, 3.5-inch floppy disk or e-mail attachment containing the poetry or nonfiction manuscript you want evaluated; and your check or money order for $25, to: Linda M. Hasselstrom Windbreak House Retreat P.O. Box 169 Hermosa, SD 57744-0169 Please make checks payable to Linda M. Hasselstrom. Thank you. 2. Linda will read your manuscript once, and write a brief overview (less than one page), indicating her opinion of the writing and ways you might improve it. She will also include a written estimate of the time she will require to provide a written evaluation, and specific cost of the evaluation. 3. We will mail or e-mail this initial overview and estimate to you. 4. If you choose a full evaluation, print out the estimate, sign it, and return it with full payment, to Windbreak House. This is our working agreement. 5. Linda will begin evaluation of your writing after we have received a copy of the working agreement, along with your payment. 6. Within the time specified, Linda will complete her evaluation, and mail or e-mail the manuscript back to you with additional reference materials. 7. Within one month after you receive this evaluation, you may ask questions in one e-mail or letter, and Linda will respond in one additional e-mail or letter at no additional charge. What Is a Complete Evaluation? A complete evaluation will include Linda's line-by-line evaluation of your writing, inserted in the text of your manuscript. Besides these written comments, Linda will make general suggestions about your writing, and send supplementary material, including printed materials with ideas on how to improve any particular writing problems, and some suggested reading. Writing and Overview Sample Because poetry and nonfiction vary so greatly, Linda is unable to estimate the time required to study your manuscript without seeing it. But Linda has years of experience in writing commentaries, so her estimate of the time required should be accurate. See below for a sample overview, working agreement and line-by-line evaluation. Example of Charges Linda recently read and wrote comments on a 40-page manuscript in six and one half hours of reading and writing, so the charge for that evaluation would have been about $300. What If . . . What if you need comments back from Linda by a specific deadline? Tell us when you apply. If Linda can’t complete your evaluation by the deadline, she will say so. What if you decide to revise your manuscript before you receive Linda's evaluation? Sorry, once we have a signed agreement, you may not send more manuscript pages to add to your initial submission. If you continue to work on the project, and want further evaluation, you must ask for a new evaluation and contract. What if you choose not to pay for a full evaluation? You have no further obligation. The materials you received are yours to keep in return for your non-refundable application fee. What if you decide you want to come to Windbreak House to work with Linda in person? If you are a woman, over 21 years of age, complete the application process according to the directions on the Windbreak House website (www.windbreakhouse.com). Sorry, we are not accepting men or anyone under 21 for residential retreats at this time. However, there is no age cutoff or gender requirement to work with Linda through the mail. How Do I Apply for Writing Conversations by Mail or E-mail? 1. Mail (or e-mail) a letter to Linda explaining what you want to do with the piece you are submitting. Remember, this is not formal; it’s a conversation between friends. Be sure to-- -- list any specific questions you have about your writing; -- tell Linda whether or not you want additional suggestions on marketing the piece; -- tell Linda if you need her comments by a particular date; -- and please, please, allow Linda at least two months’ time to work before that date. Of course she'll try to do it sooner. 2. Send a CD or 3.5-inch floppy disk containing a complete copy of the manuscript. -- Linda prefers a CD and WordPerfect software. If you do not have WordPerfect, please specify in your letter which word processing software you use. -- If your computer will not make a CD, send a 3.5-inch floppy disk, with information about the format you are using. -- Please do not send a zip disk. We do not have a zip drive. 3. If you do not have CD or 3.5-inch floppy disk capability, send your manuscript in an e-mail attachment, specifying in the cover letter the word processing software you are using. Sending your manuscript in an electronic format will allow Linda to transfer your manuscript to her computer and write her comments directly on your manuscript, just the way she does for writers in residence at Windbreak House. Linda has found this method allows her to be more specific and detailed in her comments, thus saving her time (and your money). Sorry, we are not accepting manuscripts on paper at this time. 4. Mail your letter, your CD or floppy disk containing your manuscript, and the $25 non-refundable application fee to: Linda M. Hasselstrom Windbreak House Retreat P.O. Box 169 Hermosa, SD 57744-0169 Please make checks payable to Linda M. Hasselstrom. Thank you. 5. Be sure to include your address, telephone number and e-mail address, and notify us at once of any changes in either that occur before you get your manuscript back. 6. If you have any questions, please contact Linda's assistant, Tamara Rogers at info@ Linda says. . . Advantages: Your work can be evaluated by me even if you are a male, or under the age of 21. We both save time and money because neither of us must drive to Windbreak House, or work at a specific time. You don’t have to decide what to bring, how much food you’ll need, or pack those hiking boots. Disadvantages: We don’t get to eat cookies together at midnight while discussing your writing, or discover new cacti in the grass or listen to the snipe at dusk. You may still have to cook for anyone you may live with-– but if you’ve never been to Windbreak House, I’ll send you hints on creating a retreat in your own home. But Remember: You can still come to Windbreak House anytime you need to, for more personal attention. back to top Sample Writing Conversation, Part One essay, overview, working agreement Here’s a short essay sent to me by a young student. First I have posted it so you can read it without interruption. Following the complete essay is my brief overview with sample working agreement. Then, in Part Two, I have re-posted the essay with my line-by-line comments. This should give you an idea of how a Writing Conversation will work. You may wonder why my evaluation may take a week or more to complete instead of just one day. Normally I read the piece, put it aside for a day or two, read it again and comment; then I think about the comments and add things for days and days and days. . . Linda M. Hasselstrom February, 2005 SAMPLE ESSAY: Are you a till-you-drop shopper, and you don’t like dropping just from hunger? If you go to the Rushmore Mall, you may have a great alternative to starvation. Luckily for us people who live for two things-food and shopping- the Rushmore Mall has a food court with a ton of variety for all different kinds of bizarre tastes. If you decide to subject yourself to the mercy of everyone else at the mall, you will need to go to the side of the mall near the Scheels entrance. As you go in the door, to your right will be a variety of restaurants including Taco John’s and Pizza & Pasta. You can see the grills steaming and hear them sizzling as you walk by. The smell of the spicy hamburger and salsa at Taco John’s is amazing, and there are huge bins of crunchy, zesty veggies and smooth flavorful sauces. At Pizza & Pasta, the wafting scent of pepperoni and spaghetti sauce will sweep you off your feet. As you walk around to the right, you will see several more restaurants, including Arby’s and Ashby’s Ice Cream. At Arby’s there are large, colorful signs showing what you can order and at Ashby’s there is a huge ice cream display showing off all the flavors, specialties, shakes, and sundaes that you can get there. All around the room there are lots of shopping bag-carrying people and hassled parents with wandering kids. The food court is the loudest place in the entire mall, because everyone in it is ordering or talking or shouting or crying or laughing or creating some sort of sound wave that vibrates through the air towards you making it seem like every person is yelling directly into your ear. In the center of the room is the most commotion. There are teeming hoards of people, every one of them bumping into the person next to them which is almost always you. The only way to avoid being crushed into catsup is to scuttle, head down, shoulders together, crab like, into the refuge of the bathroom, where you get shunted around like a football by old ladies putting on hot pink barbie style lipstick (note- this will only happen if you are a girl and therefore go to the ladies bathroom). When you emerge, you will notice what I am supposed to be writing about, such as tile floors smeared with catsup and plastic tables and chairs and babies in strollers and shopping bags. If you manage to get successfully to a table with your food, you will notice that there is a huge potted plant lunging into your chair with you and trying to eat your burger, but it’s only a small palm that is supposed to be good looking or something like that, so don’t worry. The point of this was supposedly to give you an accurate description of the food court, so that you can decide whether or not you want to go there to eat. I hope that I have truly aided you in making your choice, so try not to die of football-like injuries in the bathroom, or slip in the catsup. SAMPLE OVERVIEW: Considering your writing experience and history, I think this is a dandy early draft, with a lot of potential to become an intriguing humorous essay, perhaps saleable as a newspaper column. Most of my comments would concern two matters that I believe could be improved: your use of detail, and the structure of the essay. In order to practice writing with the kind of detail that will make this essay sparkle, you might try the following exercise:
2. Read one or both of the following (both should be easy to find in a library): Introduction, Cannery Row, John Steinbeck and "Goblin Market," Christina Rossetti. 3. Compare what you have written to the details in the passages listed below. You might want to copy into your journal some of the vivid descriptions. 4. Then go back to the same place to listen more carefully and smell more thoroughly, and take more notes! I will probably note grammatical and mechanical errors-- I can't help myself-- but I don't concentrate on them, since the more you write, the more interest you will have in correcting these mistakes yourself. I suggest that if you do not have a good grammar resource by your desk that you get the one I use: The Elements of Style, ed. Strunk and White. This is a classic, and I will often refer to it when discussing mechanical matters in your writing. I notice, for example, that it might help you with the comments I will make about your use of the dash, the comma, and the design of this essay. SAMPLE WORKING AGREEMENT: I estimate a full line-by-line evaluation will take just over one hour’s time. 1.25 hours @ $56.25 less $25 application fee = $ 31.25 balance due If you choose a full evaluation, print out this estimate, sign it, and return it with the balance due of the full payment, to: Linda M. Hasselstrom Windbreak House Retreat P.O. Box 169 Hermosa, SD 57744-0169 Please make checks payable to Linda M. Hasselstrom. Thank you. This is our working agreement. I will begin evaluation of your writing after we have received a copy of the working agreement, along with your payment. back to top |
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