Writing Certificates > The Writer's Spotlight > Summer 2024
Summer Writer's Spotlight
In this Issue:
- Ask a Writer
- Recent Writing News: Students
- Recent Writing News: Instructors
- Feature Article: Jaclyn Westlake
Ask a Writer
Our writing advice column features questions from our community answered by Malena Watrous and other creative writing instructors.A QUESTION ABOUT CONCLUSIONS
When it comes to the conclusion of a novel or short story, do you think readers find it more satisfying to have loose ends tied up? Or left ambiguous and open to interpretation?
To answer this question, I took a stab at my own response, as well as consulted two of our instructors in the Novel and Memoir Writing Certificates, Rachel Howard and Liza Monroy. I'll start with their responses before concluding with my own.
From Liza Monroy:
I love an open-ended, non-conclusive ending, myself. But it's also not that these two aspects (tying loose ends/leaving open to interpretation) need to be mutually exclusive. The new novel Whoever You Are, Honey by Olivia Gatwood is a good example—there's a character who might or might not be an AI-operated robot, and the author gives you an idea of the answer, while also leaving room for the reader to consider otherwise. It's really well done. In my opinion, a balance is key as you want to satisfy your reader but you don't want to just wrap everything up neatly in a way that's not true-to-life, so it still feels real.
From Rachel Howard:
And from Malena Watrous:
For me, the answer differs depending on if I'm reading a novel or a short story. Reading a novel is a commitment, and I expect a satisfying resolution. It's not that I want every bow neatly tied, but I do like to feel that the novel has reached its "surprising and inevitable" conclusion, that the areas of tension were resolved and the protagonist went through a complete change. Short stories, however, tend to be moody little creatures. They often start in media res and end in media res as well. The short stories that stick with me often end on minor chords, with unresolved conclusions, and I think that they stay with me for that very reason, because there's unfinished business there. But I think they get away with it because they don't ask readers to engage for the long haul. It's often more of a glimpse into a life, or a picture of a turning point.
As you can see, three writers provide three answers to this question, proving that there's never just one way to do anything in fiction, and every rule can be broken. (Although, to quote Flannery O'Connor, "It's always wrong of course to say that you can't do this or you can't do that in fiction. You can do anything you can get away with, but nobody has ever gotten away with much."
Do you have questions for our writing instructors? Submit them to continuingstudies@stanford.edu for possible inclusion in our next quarterly Spotlight.
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Student Writing News
- Diane Byington shares: "I just found out that my novel, Louise and Vincent, is a finalist for the Colorado Author League awards in historical fiction!" Congrats, Diane!
- Stephanie Dennee: "The issue of SWING magazine that my short story "How to Milk a Sheep" is published in is out now. SWING was recently awarded the Firecracker Award for Best Debut Magazine from CLMP (the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses) and is currently accepting submissions for its next issue."
- John Maly has published his first novel, Juris Ex Machina.
- Carol Matthews had a short story selected to be included in the Central Oregon Writers Guild Anthology 2024.
- Kevin McLoughlin had a story published in "The Raven's Perch."
- Linda Moore recently published her first thriller, Five Days in Bogota, which was the 2024 winner of an International Book Award in Literary Fiction.
- Howard Rappaport is celebrating the publication of his debut novel, Arnold & Igor.
- Jessie Weaver just published the sequel to her first young adult thriller, Live Your Best Lie. The follow-up, Lie Until It's True, involves the same characters and has been described as, "A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder meets Knives Out."
- Jaclyn Westlake has just published her debut novel, Dear Dotty. You can read her essay about the process in the feature article below!
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Instructor Writing News
Holly Brady (writing as Hollis Brady) has just published her first young adult novel, Pescadero, about an unlikely friendship between a younger girl dragged from the Midwest to coastal California and an undocumented farmworker who shares his tale of crossing the border. Brady teaches classes on how to self-publish in our program, and self-published this novel, which won a coveted starred review from Kirkus.
Nina Schuyler just published In This Ravishing World, in which "Nine connected stories unfold, bringing together an unforgettable cast of dreamers, escapists, activists, and artists, creating a kaleidoscopic view of the climate crisis." Nina's collection has already won the W.S. Porter Prize and the Prism Prize for Climate Literature.^Back to top
Feature: Reflection from Jaclyn Westlake
Jaclyn Westlake is an alumna of the Stanford Continuing Studies Novel Writing Certificate (Fall 2018 cohort).A recruiter-turned-career-advice-columnist, her work has appeared in Forbes, Business Insider, and Inc. She lives in California with her husband and their dachshund mix, Indiana Jones (but you can call him Indy).
Dear Dotty is her first novel.
The Novel Writing Certificate Teacher's Advice That Fueled My Writing Journey
How's this for an inauspicious start to my novel-writing journey? I wasn't initially accepted to the Continuing Studies Novel Writing Certificate. In fact, I was only invited to enroll because someone—a mysterious stranger who, in my mind, was undoubtedly a more talented writer—decided not to. But, waitlisted or not, I was thrilled to be there.
On the first day of The Writing Life course, my luck took a turn. Stacey Swann, the author of Olympus, Texas, a GMA Book Club pick, happened to be my teacher. She'd go on to become my mentor, my friend, and the first writer to blurb Dear Dotty, my debut novel. But on that day, she was the person who shared a piece of advice so valuable that I've kept it tucked away in the back of my mind, bringing it forward when I need a dash of encouragement ever since.
Stacey said that at the start of her MFA program, there were a handful of standout writers, people so talented that the rest of her cohort took notice. Everyone considered that elite group to be the ones to watch. But, by the end of the program, some of the best writers in the bunch were the ones who'd been initially overlooked. And those early shining stars? Several of them ended up somewhere in the middle of the pack.
Ultimately, their success came down to a willingness to learn and grow. The writers who were the most committed to improving their craft were the ones who got the most out of the program.
This was precisely what I needed to hear, given that I wasn't terribly confident in my abilities (being waitlisted didn't help). I knew I wasn't a great writer—not by a long shot. But I was good enough to be there, and I could get better. So, that's what I decided to do.
Absorbing feedback is hard—I'd be lying if I said I didn't shed some tears along the way. Realizing that the pages you've spent months writing aren't going to make the final cut can be painful. Reading the brilliant work of a fellow writer can be discouraging. But it's necessary. All of it.
I spent two years in the Novel Writing Certificate working on the novel that would become Dear Dotty. When I completed my certificate in the summer of 2020, I had something resembling a rough—but complete!—first draft. Two developmental edits, a writing retreat, a handful of beta readers, and 10 rounds of revisions would follow before I was ready to start querying agents. The book that was published looks a lot different from the first draft. And that's a good thing because my work got stronger with each pass.
I believe this to be an essential component of a successful writing journey. You have to be humble enough to want to improve, commit to getting comfortable giving and receiving feedback (especially when it's not what you want to hear), and be resilient enough to keep going. This is much easier said than done and requires a healthy dose of patience, which does not come naturally to me (just ask my husband).
I still don't consider myself to be a great writer. But I know I'm good enough to get a book published! And I believe that I'm going to continue to get better. I'm actually excited about getting better. I have Stacey Swann and the Novel Writing Certificate to thank for that. I'm not exaggerating when I say that Dear Dotty wouldn't exist without them.
Wherever you are in your writing journey, I hope Stacey's advice sticks with you as it has with me. When in doubt, remember how far you've come and try to look forward to where you're going next.
Before I go—I would be remiss if I didn’t plug Stacey's fantastic novel, Olympus, Texas—a Greek mythology retelling set in rural Texas. It's one of my favorite books.
Happy writing!
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