Putting our work out in the world

“I realized it was my job to write to the best of my ability, take the risk of sending it out for publication, and let folks who make such decisions decide whether my stuff was any good. –Sage Cohen


One of the best things in Sage Cohen’s new book, The Productive Writer, is her sensitive and encouraging discussion of putting our work out in the world. This really hit home for me when I read it because in late 2009 I finished my first novel, Witnessing the Creation, and I’ve done nothing with it in the year since. Instead, I started writing a second novel.

Now there’s nothing wrong with writing another book. It’s great, in fact. But when a Writing Friday comes up, I don’t bite the bullet and investigate agents and rework my synopsis and get that novel out there where something wonderful might happen to it. It just sits in its folder in the computer and I think about it and it nags at me.

The truth is I’m afraid. Afraid it’s not all that great. Afraid I will be rejected. Afraid I’ll have to revise my opinion of myself as a good writer and storyteller. And as long as I don’t put it out there, I won’t find that out, for better or worse.

This same fear keeps me from entering contests with my poems and reading at open mikes and being part of the Portland writing scene. It’s easier and safer to sit here in my office and draft more fresh material or polish what I’ve got.

Now I don’t think everyone who writes has to write for the public. Writing is a wonderful act of creative self-expression and can have an audience of one: the writer. But I wrote the novel not only to see if I could but to tell a story. And that story isn’t being heard or read. So Sage’s advice is important to me. I need to do something with my manuscript—and soon.

The future of story

Elegant thoughts by a great writer: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/columns-and-blogs/soapbox/article/44912-tweets-about-the-future.html

bad guys

Lindsay Samuels posted her list of favorite villains on her   http://librarysciencedegree.org/the-50-most-hated-characters-in-literary-history/.

Check it out!

More about character and observations

I noticed on retreat this past week each of the 20 or so monks I saw three times a day at services had a distinctive walk. Some of it had to do with footwear, some of it with age and ability. They all wore variations on the same clothing but they carried those robes quite differently. Their heads sat on their necks in particular ways, their necks sat on their bodies each quite differently. Their ways of kneeling, of bowing in prayer, in standing at attention were different. The way they held themselves when they sang varied amazingly.

It was a rich visual field and I could have created a dozen characters. So next time you can, watch a crowd of people, say at the mall. Rather than looking for a general impression, notice one thing at a time. How do the next 15 people walk? What verbs describe that? What comparisons can you make? 

You can also do this while watching a movie or a TV show. How would you describe for a reader the way this man moves or gestures. Actors are a great resource for writers for they have studied and honed the gestures and tics and mannerisms that make a character come alive. If we can learn to translate that to the page, we can create lively, memorable characters.

Reading manuscripts for friends--Part I

One of the most uncomfortable parts of my job as a college professor was the need to grade the writing of my students. Writing is a creative act, no matter the content, and to put a letter grade on someone's efforts is painful for the giver and the receiver, especially when the student is doing the best she can and is a mediocre thinker and writer. Does she get an A because she's at the top of her game or a C because she's average in the bigger range of the game?

As a student myself, I shied away from traditional art classes as I couldn't bear to have my creative efforts compared and categorized against a standard set by someone else. It was too painful.


So in the writing groups I attend and lead, we focu on helpful suggestions, usually centering the conversation on two questions: What did you want to hear more about? Where did you get lost or stop listening/reading?
These questions are quite benign and fall into the category of support rather than critique. Lots of writers swear by critique groups but my own experience of them has been as negative as art classes: there was little consideration for feelings and a lot of desire to have the product change to fit the critiquer's style, not the writer's.

So what does one do when a friend or writing colleague asks you to read her manuscript? Last week my friend Pam did just that. Pam and I have known each other a couple of years but in the last few months we've grown closer, especially since we went on a writing retreat together. She wrote a mystery for national novel writing month last year and has been revising it and wanted a couple of outside readers. I've heard parts of her book and thought I'd like to read the rest. I didn't really think too much about the comments part of it.

Friday we met to talk about it. First,I hadn't prepared anything and I think that was a bad idea.  My comments were all over the place, not organized at all, and I sorted out the reason behind some of my hesitancies about her plot out loud while she listened. Frankly, I only knew I had the hesitancies. I wasn't sure what they were about until we started talking.

Second, I read her book but I didn't study it. I'd mention things that seemed missing but she swore they were in there. Maybe so. I don't know the book nearly as well as she does. And I hadn't thought about that problem until just now.

Third, my role as reader was unclear. Was I giving her my professional advice as an editor? My feedback as a casual reader? My support as a friend? All that felt awkward and dicey to me. And even if I'd set that out clearly, I'm not sure I could keep that straight.

I don't think Pam and I did any harm to our friendship but I wonder if the conversation was unsatisfying to her. I also wonder how she felt.

As an editor, I know to ask my clients what kind of feedback they are looking for and I don't accept vague answers. I think that's probably a good idea with friend writers as well: find out what is wanted and don't accept vague answers. If the writer isn't sure what he wants, it may be best to pass on the opportunity.

More thoughts on this next post..

Start your story or novel with a character in a dilemma or crisis

Many writers enamored of the novels of the 19th century, when the novel really took over as a main literary genre, expect to be able to use some of the same literary techniques today. That direction often spells disaster for anyone wanting to publish. Most readers today, totally acculturated on movies and television, won't sit through (read through) a slow descriptive beginning, such as the childhood of the main character or a lengthy description of place. They' re wanting to be hooked right away into or they will move on to something that does that.

Now that's not to say that if you're the most exquisite poet who ever wrote a novel you can't capivate some readers. But most of us want to know right away who the main character is and what the dilemma is. It doesn't have to be the main dilemma but it needs to lead us in that direction. Who is this person we are going to spend a lot of hours with? What does he want? Why is she troubled?

I recently read a first chapter for a potential client in a lengthy novel on racism in America. She writes well and I am interested in the subject so I was ready to like it. But she spent the first chapter setting up a wealth of context for the story rather than plunging me right in and giving the context later. I would not have bought her book.

When you're reading, watch for beginnings that grab you. See if something along that line will fit for your own story.

Avoiding stereotypical characters

Fictional characters tend to fall into predictable patterns and circumstances (also known as stereotypes). Some of these are cultural stereotypes (the star athlete, the cheerleader, the computer geek, the crooked poltician) and some are literary stereotypes (Holden Caulfield, Elmer Gantry, Emma Bovary).

To keep your characters from being flat, empty stereotypes requires the same kind of care and attention that their physical description does. Each human being is unique through his or her inner world: the thoughts, feelings, and responses to circumstances. Genre fiction at its best is a prime example. Most detective novels rely on a standard plot (dead person, clues, suspects, discovery, solution to the mystery). What makes some of these stories great is not only a macabre plot twise. Far more often, it is the inner working of the detective, the inner working of the suspects, and some of the secondary characters as well. Harry Bosch, Dismas Hardy--these are great characters, people we come to know.

We feel intimate with them. We know them. Give your characters an inner life, a truly inner life, and it will add a layer of richness to your work.