Lisa Romeo Writes

Of Writing Advice, One-Liners, and an A Game.

2012-01-24T12:09:00.003-05:00

Once I met with a writer who had asked me to evaluate hermemoir-in-progress. It was time to return her pages and my report, and overcoffee, maybe pass on some tips for moving on. I wanted to convey bothencouragement and a realistic idea of the amount and type of work still aheadfor her.

It was mid-morning, and possibly because I had been awake until 2:00a.m. ~~watching old episodes of Downton Abbey~~ working on another project, I worried that I wasn't saying anythingparticularly hlepful. But then she told me that something I had mentionedweeks before, just one sentence which I barely remember saying, had already beena big help as she worked on additional material; roughly this: "Your experience itself is not so unique, sojust tell the story you can tell." Or something like that. I don't think it's especially brilliant, but I was pleased to have been of help.

This reminded me that so much of the useful, memorable writing adviceI've gotten over the years, hascome in the form of a one-liner. I can recall one writer I admiretelling me, "Nice writing, but what is this reallyabout?" Good advice, coming after several drafts in which I was spendinga lot of time trying to write elegant prose, while avoiding writing about anything.

Another mentor in a workshop onceasked me to explain, out loud, something I had made overly obscure and complex onthe page, and after I did, she simply said, "Okay. Now write exactly that."One author's offhand remark, tossed outduring a panel at a writer's conference on creating the *I* narrator in memoir, has also stayed with me: "Getover yourself; you're not that interesting." Or something like that.

One more I remember was an MFA faculty member who had read a lot of mywork, and reacted to a new, lackluster piece I'd written with, "If yousettle for your B game, you may not get the A game back." Ouch. But, she had gotten through, and tothis day, I swing for an A game every time. I sometimes strike out, but that's okay; and if Iknew more about baseball, I'd find a clever way of saying it's not the homeruns that count, but a decent batting average. Or something like that.

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, Jan. 20, 2012 Edition

2012-01-20T08:22:00.001-05:00

I've been crazy busy (thank the freelance gods), so even the link list is short this week. But I am cooking up several author interviews and guest posts for the next month or so, including one with the inimitable Bill Roorbach. So stay tuned. Meanwhile...

►Somegood tipsfrom Robert Lee Brewer about experimenting as a writer, and getting out ofthat comfort zone.

► Itry to keep tabs on the precious few book manuscript contests for creativenonfiction, and found this one, from Zone 3press, with a May 1 deadline.

► RobertVivian has some thoughtson the meditative essay.

►Ifyou are considering adding a new poetry book to your collection, NPRpreviews a dozen good ones set for 2012 release.

►Asa teenager, I wanted to be a sports columnist for the New York Times; and still love to read their sports pages.Yesterday, JereLongman's column hit several of my buttons -- Royal gossip, an equestrian athlete,jocks behaving badly (in this case rugby players), and anything British. Butmostly I loved it because of Longman's excellent craft and hilarious style.

►Finally,wouldn't be cool if a U.S. departmentstore held literary events, housed a reading space, and if a fast foodchain on this side of the pond were to giveaway, oh 9 million books?

Note: Registration is now open for The Submissions Project - an online class to help you get active in the area of moving your work out into the world. Begins Feb 27.

Have a great weekend!

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, Jan. 13, 2012 Edition

2012-01-13T10:40:00.001-05:00

►Copybloggerrecentlylisted Ten Terrific Creative Writing Blogs.

►Onthe Los Angeles Times' Jacket Copy blog, 25 authorsnote New Year's resolutions, some funny, some quite serious, many aboutfinding more time to write and to read.

►Threenew blogs I recently discovered that you might like: ThreeGuys One Book, The MemoirProject (Marion Roach Smith) and Literary Writers Network.

► Everyindependent bookstore needs to take thismessage to its "shoppers" (notice I didn't write"customers".

►Andwhile on that subject, though I couldn't find a video of a performance, some equally good lyrics, to the John McCutcheon song, Closing theBookstore Down.

►Duotrope, a highly usefil site that listsliterary journals and offers multiple excellent submission stats, tools and trackingsystems, is planning to branchout into nonfiction.

►Creativewriting teachers (and students too) what do you think? Is the idea ofteaching one writing skill at a time at odds with the workshop approach anddoes it matter?

►AtTerrible Minds, Charles Wendig wrote my favorite kind of writing advice post: theno B.S., no spin, not nicey-nice kind: 25Things Writers Should Stop Doing. Head over, and brace yourself.

►Finally,I'll be sendingout daily Writing Prompts again beginning Friday, January 20, for sixweeks.

Have a great weekend!

Book Lists, of All Kinds.

2012-01-10T10:06:00.000-05:00

The Book List. Do you have one? I have several. One is a list of the books Iown and have (somewhere) in the house. This comes in especially handy when one of my kids needs a required book for school, not to mention when I nearly buy a third copy of a book I'm sure I want to read someday. Another is a listof books I want to buy or borrow from the library or trade for. A third is the list of books beingpublished soon by writer friends and acquaintances, so that (hopefully) I'llremember to lend somesupport. Still another is a list of the books I need (and usually want) toread to prepare for an upcoming class or assignment.

Then there is the list I want to add – the List ofBooks I've Read This Year. Except for during my MFA program, thislist has been missing from my life for decades. Growing up, I conscientiously kept a list of the books I read every year. I know manyof my writing friends still do keep such a list and I don't know why I fell outof the habit, probably coinciding with completing college some ahem-somethingyears ago.

As a reading obsessed child and teenager – way beforeblogging -- adding a book to the list was a source of pride and more; it was a wayto document for myself that maybe all that reading was adding up to something,that I hadn't merely just been (as my mother often snarled) sitting on my butt.How I would love to be able to look back at those lists today!

As an adult who now interacts with words and writingevery day, wanting to once again have a Books I've Read list may representsomething else; I am not sure exactly what yet. However, Ido know I want to read more (but doesn'teveryone, except maybe my husband?). I mean a lot more, and listlover that I am, maybe a listof what I actually accomplished will be a motivator to keep up the readingpace.

Another reason I'm reviving the Books I've Read listis I enjoy adding to a list almost asmuch as I like crossing things off a to-do list. I like towatch a list grow when it means maybe I've grown a little too (isn't that whatreading is really all about anyway?)

Finally, I think having a list will motivate me notto let too much time go by between finishing one book and starting another.Sure, there's that delicious time period when I close the back cover of one bookand don't want to move on to another just yet; I want to remain in the world that author createdfor just a bit longer.

Problem is, if I linger too long, I get upsetwith myself for not starting that next book. So along with my new list is this new idea – I'm notto put a book on the just-read list until I've selected the next book to readand placed it, physically, in my path, for the following morning, say. This iseasier said than done because there are so very many books piled on my To BeRead shelf and because often I need to gauge what kind of mood I'm in at theend of one book before choosing the next.

I don't plan to post the list here (who needsthat?), but on more frequent occasions than in the past I'm probably going tomention what book just made it on to the list.

(Note to those who receive posts via email: No, I don't have a balky space bar on my computer. Blogger and Feedburner are having a problem with the spacing between words. I'm trying out a few suggested fixes, but my powers are limited, so I'm hoping the tech folks get this sorted out soon. Thanks to those who sent emails to alert me.)

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, January 6, 2012 Edition

2012-01-06T11:48:00.001-05:00

On Fridays I post links I like. It's called Friday Fridge Clean-Out because on many Fridays, I concoct a dinner plan for my family by pulling out everything that's been accumulating in my refrigerator that week, choosing the freshest looking stuff, tossing it together, and hope everyone at the table will find something they like. Here, the "fridge" contents come from my Google reader, email inbox, Facebook and Twitter feeds, favorite news and writing sites, blogs I follow, etc. Enjoy!

►Everget the feeling, as you're contemplating ideas for personal essays, that youjust don't have enough turmoil in your life to compete? Then this hilarious McSweeney's personal essayby a personal essay is for you. (via @ChristinGeall)

►Afirst time novelist wondersabout boundaries, subliminal influences, and creating characters, inconnection to her profession as psychotherapist and living a visible life in a smallcommunity.

►Asa writer, are you easy to contact? Do you understand the link betweenopportunities and being easy to find, especially online? Chuck Sambuchino – and100-plus commenters – share some terrifictips.

►Overat her Dollars and Deadlines blog, Kelly James-Enger rounds up eightuseful posts from 2011. Some of the posts are round-ups too, so there'splenty to explore on a number of useful topics.

►Everwonder what your shower curtain has to say? Apparently Dave Eggers has, and the resultingmonologue is printed on -- wait for it -- a shower curtain.

►Tomark the one-year anniversary of the publication of her excellent short storycollection, Quiet Americans, Erika Dreifus is giving awaythree copies (print or electronic).

►Britishnovelist Harry Bingham runs a helpful blog for the Writers Workshop in the UK.I liked this guestpost he featured about finding mentors, especially this line: "A willingness tolisten and learn is just as attractive to a potential mentor as a high level ofnative talent, perhaps even more so."

►Youhave until Jan. 13 to enter Gotham Writers' Workshops hugegiveaway of more than 63 items – writing books and other products, e-readersand tablets, subscriptions and class tuition.

►Finally, for the writer who has everything, a dollof your favorite author? (via Diane Lockward's poetry newsletter)

Lies Writers Tell Themselves

2012-01-05T09:34:00.000-05:00

I am not a morning person. I loathe getting up early, as in before 10a.m. For a few years, when my husbandand sons went camping for a week each summer, I'd work from noon to four,have lunch/dinner, relax, do chores and errands, see a friend, then work andread again from 10 p.m. to 2:00 a.m., turn in around 3:00 and awaken,refreshed, around 11.

Sadly, this is no way to conduct a responsible adult life when I’m notalone. Instead, I get up everyweekday by 6:45. I eat breakfast with my younger child and deliver him toschool before 8:00. Then I often go to a breakfast meeting I've willinglyscheduled, I sit at my desk and open my computer. I work, I write, I edit, Italk to students or clients.

I pass for normal every morning and function mostly, I'm convinced, becauseof the lie I tell myself when the alarm first rings, which is this: I'll just get my son to school, and then I'llcome straight home and go right back to sleep. I tell myself this lie nearly everymorning. Except for a morning or two each winter when the annual majorcold arrives, the lie doesn't become the truth. I know this –that I am not going to come back home and go back to bed – but I persist intelling this to my semi-conscious self in order to make myself get up.

This came up the other day in a conversation with a writer who told me that if it weren't for the lies she told herself on a daily basis,she'd never have gotten her memoir completed (now signed by a small literarypress; translation: it will be published though little money will likely ensue).Some of her sillier daily lies went something like this: The house will clean itself. My kids will fondly rememberthis time as the wonderful year they got to watch endless TV, eatpeanut butter sandwiches for dinner, and their silly mother forgot to make them practice piano.

Her more serious daily lie goes likethis: Just go ahead and write whateveryou want because no one is ever going to read it anyway. She tells herself this lie, despite two traditionally published novels, dozens ofessays, and a poetry chapbook. The lieis necessary, she says, because it allows her to be daring on the page and toblock out thoughts of what comes after the final draft – agent review, findinga publisher, critics, readers, marketing. Yes, she admits that it's a lie, thatdeep down, she's fairly confident what she writes will make its way to readers,but if she thought about her words existing anywhere out in the world whileshe's still at work on early drafts, she'd panic and possibly stop writing.

Driving home from our (yes morning!) coffee chat, I wondered if therewere any lies I tell myself while I am writing. One that bounces around mybrain when I'm in the first draft of a personal essay is: I'll never be able tofinish this in a way that satisfies me. I believe I persist in this particularlie so that I won't skip over the necessary mental (and often emotional) stepsinvolved in writing the all-important middle of the story. Evenif I already have a great ending in mind, I am still convinced I'll never getthere, and that's a good thing. It meansI won't just skate over the middle, never going deep enough. If I never really believe the end is insight, I'll spend more time getting that middle right.

Another lie I tell myself is: I have no business writing this; I don't havethe skills or experience to tackle it. Why this lie? Because if I feel too confident,if I don't have a simmering case of being a bit of a fraud, then I tend to writetoo quickly, with less care, and less respect for the particular piece. So Itell myself, You can't write that, and in some counterintuitiveway, this keeps me going. Maybe I want to prove myself wrong. Or perhaps a partof me recognizes that one always has to write that very first….book review,scholarly article, prose poem, short story, lyrical essay, something… and so the fear isnecessary. Then, while I am scolding myself that I shouldn't be writing thething I'm currently writing, I can remind myself that in the past I've written many things I had no experience with the first time around either.

I suppose there are other lies I tell myself too, but I can't think ofthem now. It's 8:15 a.m. and I'm thinking of going back to bed.

Guest Blogger Michelle O'Neil on Insecurity, Expectations, and the Self-published Author

2012-01-03T09:00:00.000-05:00

Somewriter friends always know what to say. I met Michelle O'Neil online severalyears ago, and she's turned out to be that kind of writer friend, who alwayshas something good to say about anything I do. Even when I screw up, I cancount on getting a short but oh-so-spot-on email, tweet or Facebook messagefrom Michelle that puts things right into perspective. Michelle recentlyself-published the memoir Daughterof the Drunk at the Bar. As she explains below, that was the easy part.Wounds fully licked, she is now hard at work on her next good book.

Pleasewelcome Michelle O'Neill.

Writingin general is fraught with fear and insecurity, but hang onto your hat if you decideto self-publish. I thought I'd done the hardemotional work writing my memoir. I wrote honestly. I wrote bravely.

I wrotea good book.

I hired professionaleditors to give me feedback on structure. I had other writers go through mymanuscript line by line. Persnickety friends with eyes of eagles found evenmore things to fix after I released it. I thanked the self-pub Gods forprint-on-demand and the ability to make corrections.

Sincethe book's release, I've received emails from readers who want to tell me what mymemoir has meant to them. Some have said they could not put it down. Some peopleare finishing the book in one or two days. Some readers who work in the recovery fieldhave said they are buying copies for their offices and clients.

One ofmy first writing teachers, author Jennifer Lauck asked me to guestpost on her blog and hosted a webinar with me on the topic ofself-publishing. I've received good Amazon reviews. Some of my nearest anddearest bloggyfriends have talkedme up on theirblogs, and I've begun to receive good reviews by bookbloggers.

And yet.Many of my traditionally published writer friends and acquaintances are not touchingmy book with a ten-foot pole. Some writers I have long supported, are not reciprocating.To my knowledge they aren't even buying my book. If they are, they are notsaying anything about it. They are not putting their name on a review. They arenot talking it up on their social networks. They are not even giving me kudosprivately.

Self-pub.

I thinkI understand their reluctance. I have opted out of a system most writers areheavily invested in. I'm assuming the fact I didn't go the traditionalpublishing route, makes mine "not a real book" to many. And thatcompletely derails me if I think about it too long.

Is mybook "real?" Am I a real writer?Did my book not get picked up by a literary agent because it isn't good enough?Granted, I only sent the final version to a handful of them. I kept readingabout the emergence of e-books taking over the marketplace and how the time wasripe for independent publishing. Also, with the state of the publishingindustry, unknown writers are not getting much attention from the big houses,so I was kind of scared to go that route, even if I did land an agent.

Do peoplethink my story is too personal? Too ugly? Was I wrong to publish it independently?Is my book not as good as I think it is? Is it a joke?

When youhope people will show up for you and they don't, it hurts.

Thatbeing said, I have had to take an honest inventory of what my expectations weregoing in. I have supported many authors in the past because I was so happy and excitedfor them when their books came out. I believed in their work, and I love books!I didn't do it for a payback, but somehow, as my book marched out into theworld, I started to assume they might return the favor, at least those I knewpersonally. My motivation for supporting other writers, though pure at the time,became muddied in retrospect.

What itcomes down to is this. I support other writers on my blogs and through my social media outlets and viaword of mouth, because I love to do it. I will continue to do it, but nobodyowes me.

WhatI've learned, and would like to pass along to others who plan to self-publishis this: please explore whether you have any unconscious (or conscious) notionsof riding the coattails of your traditionally published friends. If you do, it'sprobably best to let those notions go.

And,whatever expectations you do have for the traditionally published writers inyour close circle, consider asking them directly to do something specific, suchas, "Will you "share" my book with your Facebook friends?" or "My Amazon sales could be better,would you mind reading my book and putting up a brief positive comment?"or "Would love it if you would do a tweet for my book sometime thisweek." Granted, this is an area I have yet to master. It is very hard forme to ask for help. And I abhor the thought of putting anyone on the spot. Ifeel if they were inspired to talk me up, they would. Deep down, I guess I'mafraid of finding out they don't like my work, or worse, they don't like me.

I'm alsoforced to look at why it matters so much to me if my traditionally publishedfriends and acquaintances support my book. Is it because I hope Daughter of the Drunk at the Bar willreach a wider audience and positively touch many people? Well, yes. But if I'mbeing honest, the reason that comes beforethat one is I don't want to feel like a failure. I'm tying my self-worth intohow well my book does.

I reallymeant not to do that.

But thisis what's great about being a writer. Every little thing we go through is anopportunity for self-exploration and there is always the opportunity to bringit back to the page. Why do I find ithard to ask for help? Why am I hanging my sense of value as a person on howmany books I sell? How can I inspire others to want to read my work, ratherthan playing the role of the unnoticed victim? What does this give me thechance to heal? How can I believe in myself and in my writing more?

On adeeper, soulful level, being a writer is a chance to grow so much more thansales. We lick our wounds, but a new page always beckons, "Come here,"it says, "get back to work." Because real writers? That's what we do.

Michelle is aformer radio news reporter whose pieces aired during NPR's Morning Edition inWashington DC. She has contributed to special needs anthologies, and haswritten for many venues, both print and online. Learn more about her memoir here.

Friday Fridge Clean Out – Links for Writers, December 30, 2011 Edition

2011-12-30T08:30:00.000-05:00

► RiverteethJournal has announced its first Nonfiction Conference, May 18-20, 2012.Robert Atwan and Hope Edelman are featured guest speakers. Check out the fullschedule and other writers on the agenda (including many friends of this blog) here.

►Tips for writerson using LinkedIn (via Poets & Writers).

► Carol Tice has few – make that 113 -- tipsfor growing one's freelance writing income.

► Anna Quindlen has called World Book Night (a huge give-awayevent scheduled for April 23, 2012), "..like Halloween on an intellectuallevel."

► Speaking of giving away books, I was awed to learn about The Book Thing, a Baltimore book *store*which collects and then gives away books. Free. To Everyone. Really. (hat tip Jenny Rough)

► The January 2012 Mindful Writing/River of Stones challengeis to, quite simply: "1. Notice somethingproperly every day during January. 2. Write it down." Get more info at theWriting Our Way Home blog or Facebook page.

►What do you think about the idea of "paying" forsomething (ebook, video) with a Twitter message or Facebook update announcing the "purchase"?(via GalleyCat)

►In a wonderfulinterview at Hippocampus, BeverlyDonofrio talks writing process (and so much more): "I print out constantly and edit with a pencil. On the memoir I’mwriting now, I rewrite and polish a chapter until I think it is good and it isfinished. I pin it to the wall. Write the next chapter till I think it is goodand finished, then go back to the previous chapter and sometimes the one or twobefore that one. Invariably I find that none are good enough or finished. But,by moving on to the next, I’ve gained enough distance to view it with a fresheye. My first take on situations, my memories, the stories I want to tell isfairly superficial. I hate this about myself: I’m fairly superficial. Only through writing do I go deep, and each draftbrings me deeper still. Perhaps if my default weren’t to be so shallow, itwould take many less drafts to get to the good stuff: the truth." Read the fullinterview here.

►Finally, did Santa strike out this year? Out of Print Clothing has a nifty selectionof tees featuring classic book covers. And RokkiHandbags turns actual old books and vintage album covers into cool handbagsand totes.

Have a great weekend.

Writing the "I Did It List" Before the Next Year's To-Do List

2011-12-29T15:13:00.000-05:00

I've talked here before about all the reasons, as awriter, thatI love lists, of all kinds. And lastnight I sat down to compile one of my favorites -- a special kind of list that,instead of looking ahead to what needs to be done or what I hope to do, looksbackward at what I have done. I call it the Did-It List (or the What IAccomplished List) and I tackle it every year at this time.

This ritual began about five years ago when I wasfeeling low about what I had NOT accomplished that year, and thought: wellokay, so what HAVE I done this year? And so I listed it all, and felt better forall kinds of reasons.

I saw that I had been a lot busier than I had givenmyself credit for. I realized that even for goals not achieved, I had takenseveral steps in the right direction. I found that having accomplishedsomething relatively minor but which represented a major stretch outside mywriting comfort zone, was unexpectedly satisfying. I noticed that rather thanthe rut I had imagined I was in, there was actually a lot of variety on thelist. I saw patterns I had not recognized before, related to when during theyear I'm most productive. I began tounderstand that the amount of time involved in completing a writing project isnot always in direct proportion to its importance, either emotional, financialor career-wise.

I'veencouraged other writers to do their own version of a Did-It List, as areminder of all the ways one has grown as a writer from year to year. I won'tclutter up this post with my actual list because hey, who needs another writerbrag post, and anyway it's mostly in a shorthand only I would understand. But it may be worth considering that lastnight's (that is, 2011's) list was different from many other years because insome ways it was less about what I DID because I wanted to, and more about whatI had to do. It's worth it, I'verealized, to look not only at the things I did which I am happy about andplanned for and want to brag about, but also at the things I did out ofnecessity or obligation or self-preservation.

For example, in 2011 I did: - Survive the loss of aclient of 4-plus years, replacing that monthly retainer check with other income. -Say goodbye to a 16-month gig as an essaycontributor when a management shuffle triggered a payscale downsizing. –Refocusteaching energies when the continuing education classes had too few registrants.–Turn down a good offer to edit and write for a regional web venture, despite atrue admiration for and instant camaraderie with the owner, because I knew inmy bones I wasn't the right person for the job.

On one hand, I could look at this part of the listand see that I only DID these things in response to loss, bad luck, and maybe evenpoor judgment on my part. Or I could look at it as the kind of rebalancing thatoccurs every couple of years in my crazy writing/freelancing life.

And on the plus side, I saw that the work slow-downscoincided, almost precisely, to the periods when I found myself in need of morepersonal time and more focused mental energies to help my son, a high schoolsenior, navigate the college application / visits / testing / essay-writing labyrinth.

There were wonderful things on my Did-It List too,thankfully. In the final analysis, I think the most important aspect is thatthere IS a list, that it exists yet again, another year, that in the last 12months there was, again, a creative writinglife, and a freelance working life built on writing, editing, teaching,ghostwriting and research. Good or bad, I DID it for another year.

Maybe you will want to write your own Did-It List.Maybe not. Either way, I wish you all the best in your creative endeavors in2012, whatever you DO. Thanks for reading the blog, and if you're so inclined, goahead and tell me what you DID do in 2011.

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, Dec. 9, 2011 Edition

2011-12-09T08:56:00.000-05:00

► Needto give a reading? Learning to confidentlyread your work aloud is essential – sometips from a grab bag of writers, at Beyond the Margins.

►Especially for poets, five "quick and dirty" lit journal submissiontips (a few unconventional), from a Gulf Coast journal editor. (Hat tip Erika Dreifus)

►Speakingof poetry, this newbook looks interesting -- Poetry inPerson: Twenty-five Years of Conversation with America's Poets.

► Writerswho want to work on their fiction skills in an online class (somewhat similarto my nonfiction classes), might want to check out Jordan Rosenfield's current crop ofofferings.

► Ilove how thisformer rock critic turned her literary efforts to something she'd beenadmiring for a long time – songwriting.

► Marketingyour own self-published book? Orpromoting your traditionally published book? Good tips and solid how-to advice is found inthe newsletter from Author MarketingExperts.

►Mosey over to Flavorwire's "40Inspiring Quotes About Reading From Writers." Then, head out to (or over to the website of)your local independent bookstore and buy books as gifts!

►Finally,there's been a lot of web chatter lately about undisclosed sponsored (paid-for)tweets, links, blog posts, Facebook updates and the like, which are designed to appear as spontaneous, genuine testimonials. Justto let you know, I don't do that here. Nothing on my blog (or Twitter feed,or any online presence) appears because I was paid to post it, or becauseI received free products, services or special consideration.

Have a great weekend!

The Freelance Worry Cycle

2011-12-01T15:16:00.001-05:00

After decades as a freelancer you'd think I'd get used tothe down periods, when work is scarce, clients and editors go missing, and I feelas if I'll never see another paycheck (or opportunity). You'd think I'd justchalk it up to business as usual and not worry so much. You would bewrong.

I worry. I kvetch. Iagonize. I alternately obsess over the fallow state of affairs or busy myselffor hours each day making lists of possible new sources of business, generatingqueries, submitting like crazy, contacting likely sources of business, askingtoo many people if they know anyone who needs a writer, editor…heck, sometimeseven a gofer.

I forget that at times, I've designed things just this way-- purposely creating a lull between teaching assignments, so that I can makesubstantial progress on a manuscript; declining certain writing assignments forreasons that make sense (at the time, anyway); allowing an eager but difficult editingclient to drift away because the fit was not right, for either of us.

Even so, I worry, whine, and I wonder….what if I were tochuck this freelance status?

I don't.

Because then, the upswing begins. Slowly at first, and thenit seems all at once. Contacts email me back, some with tantalizing prospects.Editors suddenly seem to remember who I am and what I can do, and get in touch,some with assignments. Writers in need of editing or writing coaching call andtell me about their interesting projects and how I can help. Organizationslooking for a seminar leader or instructor want to talk.

You'd think, after so many years, I'd realize that theflurry of activity that accompanies the upswing also just means business asusual and that I wouldn't get overly excited. Wrong again.

I do – get excited, that is.

When work picks up, I think I've won some sort of (okay,small scale) freelance lottery. I can't believe how lucky and fortunate I am. Ieven sometimes wonder if these folks have the right person. Do they really want me to do that? Well, okay then.

Very quickly then, I get over it. I get busy. Get to work. Getgoing. And for a while, I forget that, inevitably, another slow period will comealong. And I'll worry, naturally.

Women Writing on Family: Always topical here, and now - it's a book!

2011-11-16T12:47:00.002-05:00

When your work is occasionally published in essay collections or other anthologies, a fun day is when the ARC (advanced reading copy) arrives, and you get to see, often for the first time, what other writers and topics will be in that same book, and how the issues are treated across hundreds of pages.

Yesterday the ARC arrived of the forthcoming book Women Writing on Family: Tips on Writing, Teaching and Publishing (edited by Carol Smallwood and Suzann Holland – Key Publishing/Canada, Jan 2012). I have two contributions in it, both on the topic of writing about one's spouse in nonfiction. One is a round-up of tips and techniques used by other contemporary women nonfiction writers, and the other is an interview with writer Meredith Hall, about the absence of the spouse in her memoir, Without A Map.

Since the book arrived yesterday, I've been delighted to find within its pages, contributions from one other writer who is a good personal friend – Christin Geall; from writers I've come to communicate with online – Kate Hopper, Cassie Premo Steele, and Caroline Grant; from a writer whose memoir I loved – Catherine Gildiner; and from one whose teaching ideas I admire – Sheila Bender. Together, they've written on such diverse issues as narrative voice, non-paid writing, journaling, writing about memories, writing conferences, confidence, making time to write, and working with editors.

And there are so many other articles and essays from talented, thoughtful and resourceful women writers in the U.S. and Canada. I can tell, from the titles alone, so much of it will be worth reading -- pieces on: voice, marketing and market research, web writing pros and cons, organizing critique groups, personal essay craft, writing about childhood and about one's children, character development, research, writing about grandparents, the MFA and PhD, rattling family skeletons, writing about illness in the family, moving between fiction and memoir, seeing family members as characters, lines between history and imagination, avoiding sentimentality, and so much more. It's packed, at 320 pages.

Timing is everything, right? I worked on my two pieces for this book back in 2008, but just this week, I am concluding teaching an online creative nonfiction class, which has focused each week on a different aspect of writing about family, about our memories, about difficult personal issues. Yet, for the nonfiction writer who focuses on crafting personal narratives, writing essays based on personal experiences, and envisioning memoirs which, of necessity, includes as characters others who are important in one's life, these issues are also timeless.

You can preorder the book now here (I won't earn any commission.) I hope you'll consider getting yourself a copy, and also passing the information/link along to your writing friends.

This or that? Now or then? More or less? Yes. No. Maybe.

2011-10-06T14:56:00.004-04:00

Four times now over the last few weeks, I've had phone, online and in-person conversations with writer friends, all dancing with the same questions: Start a blog, or not? Develop a group blog with a few other writers, or go it alone? Forget about blogging, concentrate on the book manuscript and/or publishing more short pieces? Submit the manuscript direct to contests and small presses, or try other agents? Go to an upcoming writing symposium, or use the funds to hire an editor, and/or the time to get more revisions done? Spend time researching additional publication venues, or get busy submitting and research more later? Teach, or not?

Write today, or go to Target instead? And maybe swing by Dunkin Donuts too?

In other words, all of the same questions writers everywhere ask themselves –torture themselves with?—each and every day. Let me be clear: No one was coming to me for "answers". And good thing; I don't have any. We were simply picking one another's brains.

A few things stood out. A group blog sounded like a wonderful way to spread out the work, and fun, of maintaining something as insatiably hungry as a blog; or it's a way to avoid building a personal online presence. One writer's attendance at a conference is considered to be an "investment" in his craft; for another writer, it's classic procrastination M.O. Contest deadlines can represent thrilling opportunity, or intimidation-inducing paralysis.

Finally, all we could conclude was that there is no "right" time to do, or not do, any of these things, only what feels right at the time, or what makes sense in the larger context of the writer's life and goals, time constraints and interests.

Which either means we are all, always, back at square one, and – or? -- that there is a lot (maybe too much) freedom in this thing we call a writer's life. Decisions, decisions. More of this? Less of that? Now? Later? Maybe? Ever? Never?

Obviously, I waver on some, no make that all of the many dizzying options and possible paths. Readers of this blog know that sometimes I'm here several times a week for weeks in a row, and then I go missing for a week, a month, more. Sometimes it's a conscious decision (if I am working to meet a client or editorial deadline, say), and sometimes I simply feel that it's the right time to be putting all of my writing energies elsewhere.

I don't claim to know the right, best or most intelligent way to apportion writing time and energies across all of the activities I mentioned above – blogging, submissions, revisions, new drafts, research, contests, teaching-- only that it's necessary to engage, every day, in the activity of trying to sort it out. Some days, doing what feels right at the time. Other days, doing what needs to be done because I've agreed to deadlines, signed a contract, accepted students, made promises to clients, editors, publishers.

In the meantime, in the background, I have been mulling over something I heard. A writing acquaintance told me he quit nearly all online activities for a year because, "The blog ate the book (manuscript), and then Twitter ate the blog." Interesting. And not necessarily in a good way. I take what he said seriously. And yet I also know that I'm the kind of person (kind of writer?) who usually gets more done when I have more to get done.

Meanwhile.

Over the past week or two, the four writer friends with whom I talked about these pesky time-and-energy-apportioning questions have made some decisions, put off some decisions, decided to not decide on other issues.

Me too.

So I'll be here, but sometimes not, because I'll also be researching, writing, teaching, submitting, editing, revising. Deciding, every day.

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, Sept. 9, 2011 Edition

2011-09-09T12:08:00.000-04:00

►Bookcontest season has arrived, and here'sa list of the small field which focuses on the memoir manuscript.

►Onthe Glimmer Train blog, LynneBarrett discusses (often funnily) what an editor of a literary journalwants (and so rarely gets). Kind of makes you glad to be a submitting writerinstead. (hat tip Kendall Williams)

►GalleyCat has unearthed links to freeebooks of five ultra long novels.

►AtWriter's Digest University, anexcellent example of the kind of crisp, no-frills cover letter recommendedfor literary journal submissions; plus, other tips for less submission stress(via @ErikaDreifus).

►Amazonhas launched an interactive feature inviting its customers (or anyone,really) to ask questions of their favorite authors. Queries can be posted eitheronline or from Kindle.

►Quick– pronounce these authors' names: ColmTobin, J.M Coetzee, Jhumpa Lahiri. Need help? Try thischeat sheet. (via Shelf Awareness)

►Many– at least 200 – MFA faculty members are upset at Poets & Writers Magazine'sranking of MFA programs, and have said so inan open letter.

►Finally,one writer asks herself 200Questions Before Lunch.

Have a great weekend!

Three Upcoming Local Events for Writers - Come See Me Sometime!

2011-09-08T17:04:00.001-04:00

The next few weeks are shaping up to be busy, event-wise, for me. For those of you who are local, perhaps you'dlike to join me. All events are free and open to the public.

Monday, September 19 -- Pen to Prose, Nutley (NJ)Library, 93 Booth Drive, 6:30 p.m. After I discuss tips for writing moredynamic dialogue, I'll stay and contribute to the group's regular critiquesession. For more information, click here.

Sunday, October 2 -- Bluestockings Bookstore and Café, 172Allen Street, New York City, 7 – 9 p.m. I am one of 12 writers reading our food-basedpoems, which appear in the recently-published collection, Broken Circles: A Gathering of Poemsfor Hunger, from Cave Moon Press. Please bring two canned or boxed goods if youare able, for the Food Bank of New York. C'mon by, Manhattan friends. Help celebrate my birthday! More details here.

Tuesday, October 11 -- PennyUniversity, The Fine Grind CoffeeBar Café, 101 Newark-Pompton Turnpike (route 23), Little Falls, NJ, 9:30 – 11:30a.m. Write About What You Love: Turning your loveof a hobby, sport, interest and other passions into prose. I'll talk about my experiences writing andpublishing work that pivots on my interests in horses and riding, food, raisingsons, and other passions; also, tips and advice for writing, research andediting material about what you happen to love, too. (This is my local go-to place to meet clientsand friends, and they are big supporters of local writers and literary events.)

Reminder: *I Should Be Writing* Boot Camp still hasopenings for the session starting in just a few days, on Monday, September 12. An affordable, enjoyable way to break out ofa writing rut: get going, keep going and stay accountable! Detailshere.

The Writing Prompt Project Returns for Fall

2011-08-29T10:00:00.004-04:00

It's Prompt Project time again.

For those who are new here, the nutshell: A few times a year, I email a daily writing prompt to anyone who signs up. It's typically a short prompt (sometimes even just one word), and useful for writers of most any genre. There are no rules, expectations or guilt: You get the prompts, and do with them as you like. Unless you tell me or anyone else, no one need know whether a prompt inspires an award-winning piece of work, or if they all molder in your email inbox.

The next Prompt Project begins September 7 and will run until October 31. If you want to join the prompt mailing list, contact me. You can opt out at any time. I'd love it if you would include your real name in your email, but it's not required.

For those who haven't worked with writing prompts in the past, some tips and my personal reasons why I love prompts, can be found here, here and here.

By the way, if you have a writing blog, or are connected with other writers via social networks, I'd love it if you would pass on this post.

Stuff my Writing Students Say, Part 12: It's been done already, so I can't do it

2011-08-23T08:35:00.001-04:00

Here's one I get a lot:

"Other people have already written about this. I guess I'd better write about something else."

Really?

People have been writing about the same topics for centuries – love, hate, desire, relationships, crime, food, birth, death, deception, dogs, aliens, friends, enemies, you name it (okay, maybe not cell phones, but you get the idea). If writers were to stop writing simply because someone else beat them to the topic; well, most every bookshelf would be empty, magazine or newspaper pages and websites would be blank.

The point is that what you write will be different because you are a different writer from all the others who have already mined the same material. Or at least, you'd better be. If on the other hand, you have nothing new to say, if the only way you can manage to write about X, if the only thing you have to contribute about X simply mirrors what others have already done, then by all means, stay away from X and write about Y instead.

If abandoning your chosen topic is more about marketplace concerns, then I have even better news: Forget it. If you make choices about what to write based on what's selling at bookstores TODAY, you will be in for a lifetime of disappointment. Let's say you notice that books about twins are hot, and you are working on a novel or memoir about twins, you'd be mistaken to decide either that you'll be too late to the party by the time your manuscript is done OR that you if you write really fast, you can get in on a hot trend.

Either may turn out to be true, or neither – like so many other once-hot subjects, the topic may slip from its pinnacle, but remain a healthy but smaller part of the book market anyway. The thing is, you won't know while you are still writing which scenario will play out, and anyway, do you really want to determine what you write about based on something as fickle as readers' tastes? I'm not being naïve; I realize that writing a new vampire or wizard series is probably not going to generate huge interest right now. Except -- I could be wrong. (On the other hand, if you can reliably predict what will be hot in a literary sense, say, two to three years down the line, then I take it all back. And, can I get your number?)

This goes for short pieces of writing, too. So many writers have seen an essay or feature in a particular media venue – usually a publication or site they greatly admire and aspire to being published in, with a huge circulation, top freelancer pay rates and mucho prestige – and thrown up their arms. "Ugh. So-and-So just wrote a column about X. So I guess it's been done. "

Really?

Who cares if So-and-So wrote about it? You know what? It may be a really good thing that So-and-So raised awareness about X, introduced X into the conversation, put other editors on alert that there's something to be said about X. Now you can approach editors at venues other than the admired, highly valued one, high paying, prestigious one you aspire to, and concentrate on those that – let's face it – are probably more likely to publish your work.

And if that isn't what you want to hear, then there's this: Next time, stop dawdling over your pretty-damned-good essay or manuscript or query and hit send, instead of worrying over every comma (for the 14^th blessed time) and talking yourself into the idea that it's not going to fly anyway, so why submit it? Be first next time. But if you can't, being second, tenth, or 203^rd is okay too. It's a pretty big literary world out there and chances are very good you can find a place for your work where what you have to say about X will be fresh, and first, for them.

Meanwhile, you could also just stop reading so much! (kidding, I think)

Note: Your can read the rest of the Stuff My Writing Students Say series here.

Summer reruns from writers worth a second look.

2011-08-18T09:15:00.001-04:00

It's August. In New Jersey. Land of the Triple-H weather forecast – hazy, hot and (horribly) humid. While I'm at the pool, here is a list of suggested blog reruns for you: all author interviews or guest posts which get a fair share of traffic, and in my opinion are all worth a second look.

Writing memoir – Sue William Silverman

A poet in nonfictionland – Susan Lilley

Lessons learned while writing a novel – Christina Baker Kline

The mind of the essay writer – Candy Schulman

How to interview scientists – Jennifer Gresham

Book publicity journey of a first time author – Vicki Forman

Planned productivity – Sage Cohen

And, here's a guest post I wrote for a friend's blog, about how writers often say no to ourselves before we even give others the chance to say yes.

Happy reading. Poolside, I hope.

Are the Benefits of Organization Overrated?

2011-08-16T08:50:00.004-04:00

I like to be organized. Apparently I was born that way. Mostly, I've grateful, though at times, I'd rather be brilliant instead, or stunningly creative, or gorgeous, at least wildly successful. I've written here before about why it disturbs me to have a reputation as an extremely organized person, even though I understand that having this inherent trait is enormously helpful – in work and life.

But.

Sometimes I get carried away. I over-organize, which isn't a bad thing by itself I suppose, except when it is. Lately I'm asking myself if the time it takes to organize things could be better spent DOING things.

Does it really pay to spend time organizing a spread sheet -- by type, deadline date, word count and other criteria – for the publications, online venues and contests where I want to submit? Or would a simple (less time consuming) list do the trick? Does the time I invest in meticulously mapping out future marketing plans and dates for my classes make sense, or should I really just be blasting out links whenever and wherever I can? Will the way I organize my in-development writing, into electronic files and sub-files, and the way I gather and organize my rough handwritten drafts and notes -- by carefully sliding notebook pages, ripped out articles, photos and other paper stuff into carefully marked old-style file folders -- really help in structuring the memoir-in-progress, or should I instead just be writing and editing and revising like mad?

How to know when one's highly toned organization muscle would be better off going just a little bit slack, in favor of just getting on with things? Can organization be a procrastination tool? Hmm. This is interesting – and unsettling – to me, because I have never thought of myself as a procrastinator, and in fact, others tell me I'm pretty darn productive. There's not much evidence that I do put things off. I get things done.

Except.

Getting things done is not the same as getting the most important things done. The things that will matter more over the long haul. The things I may not have time for because I'm spending that time you know, getting organized.

I’m nothing if not self-critical. And lately, I've noticed that not only do I spend what I think might be too much time organizing, but that I also have grown rather annoyed with my highly organized self. She just seems kind of bothersome lately. Who cares? I want to yell at her, shake her by the shoulders. Who cares? Do I really care any longer if everything is color coded, cross-referenced, totally updated, crossed-off, linked up, mapped out? Do I really need a monthly list, weekly lists, daily lists, and then – oh, I'm so sorry, but it's true – a morning, afternoon and evening list?

No? No kidding!

Changing an ingrained habit is difficult, especially when that habit is, mostly, a good one. But it can be done. As I'm sure you can guess, my organizational tendencies spill over into non-work related areas. Just ask my kids how many lists I make before a trip, how intricate the itinerary is, how often I explain where the tickets, hotel confirmation emails, GPS and antibacterial hand gels are to be kept. On an upcoming trip, I've decided to test my ability to be less organized and more spontaneous, and hoping that if I can live through it, maybe I can transfer those newfound (non)skills back to the office.

We might get lost, delayed or dirty. It's a start.

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, August 12, 2011 Edition

2011-08-12T08:40:00.002-04:00

►Excerpts from books short-listed for the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, as well as those nominated for a number of other prestigious awards (such as the PEN/Faulkner, National Book Critic Circle, and Edgar, among others), can be found through this list of links.

►If you're planning to attend the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) conference in Chicago in 2012 (and even if you're not), you might want to check out their recently released list of just-approved panels, seminars, readings and other sessions.

►A lot of people may opt to take down their own status photo and upload something benign instead, after reading this piece about how facial recognition software and Facebook photos can lead to unsettling results.

►Mediabistro just announced an Authors Who Visit Book Clubs directory; writers can post their information, and clubs can search for nearby authors willing to make an appearance.

► Quill & Quire, which tracks the Canadian book scene, posts a links round-up once a week. The two most recent entries are here and here.

►The next U.S. poet laureate has been named.

►My sort-of-quarterly newsletter was just sent out. If you are not on the mailing list and want to be, please let me know.

►Finally, do authors sometimes get a little (or a major) attack of schadenfreude? You bet.

Have a great weekend!

Not exactly qualified for that writing award? Apply anyway.

2011-08-09T07:26:00.002-04:00

This is a story about freelancing, a wild chance, nostalgia, looking back in order to go forward, friends with blogs, and a little luck.

A few months ago, I was fortunate to be awarded a scholarship (in the category of Nonfiction Article Writing) by the Education Foundation of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), to attend ASJA's annual three-day conference in Manhattan.

I knew I would gather plenty of terrific advice, tips and knowledge from the panels and seminars, and I looked forward to spending a few days around fellow freelancers, exchanging inside info and trading (a few) horror stories. But the real reason I wanted to go to the ASJA conference was that I hadn't been to one in about 20 years. Before that, attending the ASJA event had been an annual outing for me, beginning with my first, the year after graduating from college with a journalism degree.

At the time, I was struggling to support myself as a freelance writer, and saw the conference fee as a necessary investment. I was right – from that first conference, I made important contacts with editors who sent work my way for many years. After that first attendance, I made the ASJA meeting a fixture on my calendar, even after I began working in public relations a few years later (another story!).

The conference slid off my annual agenda at some point. Until this past winter, when I got the idea in my head that, living just across the river, and wanting to expand the freelance journalism arm of my career, I really had no excuse not to attend again. Except of course, the fee. I visited the ASJA site a half-dozen times, filled out the registration form, and then let it languish. That money, I kept telling myself, would be better spent on my son's tuition. Or the other son's cello lessons. Or groceries.

One late winter morning this year, I was doing one of the online things I do every day – reading my friend Erika Dreifus's great blog, Practicing Writing. That day, she reminded readers that the deadline for the ASJA Education Foundation scholarships was that very afternoon. I thought for a moment about applying, but immediately dismissed the notion; I figured the selectors were probably looking for someone either (take your pick): younger, with less (or more) publishing credits, in worse financial circumstances, with less (or more) experience.

Then I remembered something I'd read a while back on another great blog, where novelist Tayari Jones wrote a post meant to encourage young writers to think big and be a bit reckless in seeking out opportunities. Tayari passed along advice she was once given (and I'm paraphrasing here): Every day in the writing world, someone is awarded something for which he or she may not seem especially qualified. The trick is to keep applying for things, because one day, why can't it be you?

The ASJA application, including links to published articles, a CV, and cover letter explaining why the scholarship was being sought, was due in a few hours.

Why can't it be me? I hit send.

Here's what was so interesting to me, sitting in on ASJA discussions again, some 30 years after having attended my first conference: How much has not changed, and how much has. On the one hand, everyone was discussing the very same things that we worried about in 1982 – the best way to query editors, how to attract an agent's attention, negotiating rights and fees, interviewing difficult people, keeping clips organized and presentable. But that was fine, because in the intervening years, everything else had changed, and so doing all of those basic things that propel a freelance career, now requires an entirely different set of skills, tools, technology.

Back in 1982, I recall wide-eyed, eye-rolling, grudging reactions in some sessions to certain ideas of changing up the way one does business. In 1982, a panelist suggested that five years hence, everyone in the room would own at least one computer on which we'd all be writing our articles. Having seen computers being installed in the journalism classrooms at Syracuse University just before I graduated the year before, I believed it, but I noticed quite a few crossed arms and shakes of the head around the room.

It was a similar scene several years later, when in those same ASJA sessions I heard another speaker declare that in just a few years, we would no longer be printing out word-processed articles and stuffing them into envelopes to send off to editors. At another ASJA I attended, probably around 1990 or so, I remember someone said the words electronic communication and web page. Some people seemed excited, but others clearly were not happy to contemplate the coming changes.

Fast forward to this past April, when there was a lot of talk about online activities -- creating a great website and blog, building a Twitter following, knowing how (and how not) to use Facebook and other social media, writing for online venues, SEO skills, developing e-newsletter lists, building an online portfolio of clips. Mostly, audience members welcomed information on these topics. But then in some sessions, where the conversation veered to video blogging, podcasts, writing for phone apps, formatting ebooks, and other issues, I could sense some reluctance (could some of that have been coming from moi?), and suddenly it felt just like old times: Can all this newness really be coming our way, be here already? Yes, and how wonderful. Yes, and oh no!

One way the conference also felt familiar, for me at least, was in the way these gatherings are good for one's career, and the soul of the work-at-home freelancer. I got to talk, in the flesh, with other writers – some with more experience than I, whose tips I appreciated, some with less experience, whose questions I was happy to answer. I met editors face-to-face and gathered useful intel on what might get an assignment nod. I was able to listen to others ask the questions I was either too hesitant to ask, or would never have thought of – and heard the answers in real time. I shared a meal, a drink, a coffee, with people I might not have sought out – a design blogger, a pet columnist, an education writer -- but whose company, and insights, I enjoyed.

And, I got to write this blog post – which I hope will encourage other writers to go ahead and ask for that scholarship, apply for that residency, enter that contest, go after that job. Why can't it be your turn next?

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, August 5, 2011 Edition

2011-08-05T08:30:00.001-04:00

► Over at Shelf Awareness Pro, young adult novelist Mal Peet talks about the necessary musicality of prose and how reading one's work aloud can help a writer develop rhythm. "A sentence that clots in your mouth is unlikely to flow in your mind," he notes.

►NPR Books has a short interview with Marion Roach Smith and an excerpt from her new book, The Memoir Project.

► Kerry Cohen's helpful article from The Writer, "Not Hurting People With Your Words," is now available over at Gotham Writers' Workshop.

► At HTML Giant, Blake Butler shares "22 Things I Learned From Submitting Writing." He's blunt.

►A puzzle constructor whose creations often appear in the New York Times, talks about his craft. Puzzle lovers, follow the other links in the piece to more great stuff, too.

►Tired of glare on your computer screen while writing outdoors? (You do write outdoors sometimes, don't you?) Not sure if you can buy this computer sun shield in the U.S., but it looks interesting. (And I'm betting you can also rig up something similar for a lot less.)

► Consulting editor Alan Rinzler with some new thoughts on – yes I'm going to write that dreaded word: platform.

►When that "complementary" hotel newspaper isn't really free. Yikes.

►Finally, what ensues when a college journalism class attempts to put together a newspaper 1970s style, sans computers, digital cameras, etc.

Have a great weekend.

What I'm reading, perusing, studying, scanning, dipping into, skimming, leafing through and poring over.

2011-08-04T11:30:00.000-04:00

In my experience most writers love dictionaries and thesauruses, some love style manuals, others even adore grammar guides. I love them all, which explains my pleasure reading this week – The Man Who Made Lists: Love, Death, Madness and the Creation of Roget's Thesaurus, by Joshua Kendall.

I guess it didn't surprise me that Roget probably suffered from what today would be called obsessive compulsive disorder. He spent nearly his entire childhood on the tasks of categorizing, listing and codifying everything that comprised his world – people, events, nature, scholarly subjects, animals, gardens, body parts, books, relationships, vegetables.

I haven't finished the book yet, but the other day, when I heard something about promising new treatments that would maybe one day eradicate OCD, I couldn't help but feel a pang of – well, I don't know quite what.

Surely I wouldn't want anyone who must deal with an OCD that impairs their life to continue to suffer when a treatment is one day available. Yet I could not help but also think that the world is probably a richer, more creative place because of the books, films, inventions, ideas, and artwork produced by those who had/have OCD, as well as many other disorders. What would writers have done for two centuries without Roget's Thesaurus? Aren't we all enriched a little bit because of his contribution?

Likewise, I thought of Temple Grandin, an autistic woman who has worked tirelessly over the last 40 years to redesign the modern American slaughterhouse based on her uniquely visual thought patterns, an intuitive sense of what calms herd animals, and an innate geometry ability. Her book about life as an autistic child and adult (recently an award winning HBO film) has also contributed greatly to people's understanding of autism.

The world seems to need all kinds of minds.

Writing Quirks and Bad Habits

2011-08-02T08:00:00.001-04:00

Writing quirks. We all have them. Sometimes a writing quirk is just a bad habit, one we should take extra care to extinguish – or at minimum become acutely aware of and question ourselves about. For me, one of my quirks is a tendency to get list-y: "Hello my name is Lisa and I am a serial comma and semi-colon abuser." Another I've mostly eradicated from my prose is the one-word paragraph comprised of the word still or yet.

Over the last few months I've advised students, editing clients and writers I coach about their individual writing quirks. A few involved dialogue tags: One writer loved adverbs (Bob said heartily), another seemed unable to use the verbs said or asked (Mary enthused; he entreated), and a third writer combined both (Sue heartily enthused; Joe entreated smugly).

Other bad habits I've seen recently include memoir writers beginning nearly every sentence with the pronoun "I"; overuse of one particular favorite (usually hackneyed) phrase ("and so with that," "not that it mattered"); starting a new paragraph every few sentences whether it makes sense or not; continually referring to an important secondary character in terms of their relationship to the main character rather than by name ("my mom" instead of Mother, Mama, Mom; "her brother" rather than Joe); and – one of my particular favorites – repeatedly using the exact same word or descriptor for an item that is central to the story ("the red dress" 10 times in one page; if it's not to make a poetic point, couldn't that item at least once or twice, be a frock, outfit, garment, piece of clothing, silky confection, or depending on its design, a sheath, gown, sundress, cocktail dress?).

Oh dear. Was that list-y of me?

Some writers are so overly enamored of a single word, they will find ways to use it far too many times in one piece; a few recent ones I've encountered: superior, blanch, quibble, obstreperous.

Then there's "it".

I once challenged a writer to do a spell check and count how many times he used it in a 1200 word essay. Answer: 46. My pet peeve with *it* is that very often the reader won't immediately know what *it* refers to precisely; or the meaning shifts, from one *it* to the next; and more importantly, that using *it* substitutes for bringing readers closer in to the story and further inside a character's head.

Example: It was a glorious day so John called in sick even though it would get him in trouble. It didn't matter. He'd already decided that it was no longer worth it. Fix: Monday morning's glorious sunrise convinced John to call in sick. He knew Mr. Morgan would make a negative note in his performance review folder, but that didn't matter. By then, John had decided he'd been humiliated by a demeaning job long enough and would no longer worry about the consequences.

Many writing quirks can be solved by awareness and practice with alternate ways of expressing ourselves. Sometimes I challenge a writer to produce something without a single adverb, or using only said or asked, or writing sentences longer than five words, or never longer than 12 words. Once, I limited a memoir writer to no more than three uses of *I* per page.

As for me, when I revise I am keenly aware of my terrible friend the serial comma and my tendency to want to list things. An instructor once told me: periods are free and for a while I kept a sticky note on my computer with that written on it.

Another way to kill your quirks is by constantly striving to be more precise, because many bad habits have to do with avoiding precision. Unless we are being purposely imprecise or ambiguous for metaphorical, style or poetic reasons, we need to work hard to help a reader see and understand our exact, specific, precise meaning.

Yet.

Some writing quirks are actually good habits, just gone a little (or a lot) awry. Think of the writer who is a master of interesting description: Terrific when we're reading about the main character's new house, or the place he's traveled, or the office she's coveted and is now hers; maybe not so great when we're asked (for no reason related to plot or character development) to read paragraphs of description of a pot, blouse or pencil.

One writer I worked with wrote stunning dialogue. But not every story she wanted to tell could be done best via conversation. Another created richly innovative metaphors; but after reading five in a row in a single paragraph, fatigue set in (for me at least). One writer whose work I otherwise particularly liked, took too much to heart the typically good advice about ending a paragraph with a striking or powerful image or word, and began ending every paragraph with a word that sent me running to the dictionary.

I would continue, but that might be list-y of me.

Still.

Even More Reasons Writing is Rejected: Part Three

2011-07-22T09:00:00.001-04:00

In Parts One and Two, I covered 40 reasons why your work may have been rejected – 20 which are easy to avoid, and others which go to the heart of writing craft. Today, to wrap up, 20 or so reasons which may or may not make sense, but turn out to be more or less true

Some Reasons you really can't control…
1. The editor was in a lousy mood that day and didn't like anything that crossed his/her inbox.
2. The editor has seen your work before and just doesn't like it, period.
3. The section in which your piece would have run has just been eliminated.
4. The venue got way more submissions than anticipated and even though your piece is good, they can only publish so many.
5. The publication got way more submissions than they anticipated and since they have far too few staff to read them all, everyone in the overflow lot simply got a rejection.
6. Your piece was read by an overworked undergraduate student on an internship who makes mistakes and overlooks good work sometimes.
7. The editor who read your work just doesn't like ____ (fill in blank with whatever the subject of your piece was – ducks, China, smokers, kids…)

Reasons you can't control, but might have realized before submitting…

8. They only publish work by…women and you're a man; health professionals and you're not; Asian-Americans and you're Greek.
9. You've written about this topic dozens of times in publications similar to theirs, and the editors don't want to be derivative.
10. You have paraphrased too much of another writer's work.
11. You keep sending to the same editor over and over, and keep getting impersonal form rejections (never any personal notes or encouragement). Take the hint. He/she isn't interested in your work. (Probably.)
12. You are not a writer that venue considers established enough for its pages.

Reasons that sound inauthentic, but sometimes really are just plain true:

13. We just ran something similar.
14. We recently accepted something similar.
15. Liked this, but it just missed: please submit again. (You know, editors often really do mean this.)

Possible explanations for: "This is just not for us," or "This doesn’t meet our editorial needs":

16. We just don't like it and aren't really sure why.
17. We have other stuff at the moment that we just like better.
18. Someone here knows you, doesn't like you, and cast the veto vote. (Yes, it happens; though thankfully, not too often.)
19. We're in a budget crunch which is limiting our page count, bandwith, editor and/or contributor budget; therefore, we're cutting back on how much we accept.
20. We're just way too busy to explain why we are passing on this.

Annoying things that, on a good day, probably won't get you rejected on their own, but are just enough to annoy the editor so that if he/she is having a not-so-good day, may just get you the boot:

- You don't know how to properly punctuate or format dialogue.
- You don't use page numbers and it's a long piece.
- You sent it to an editor's personal email address instead of their professional inbox.
- You wrote a rambling cover note filled with unnecessary information.
- Instead of inserting direct links to your published work, you invite an editor to "visit my website (or blog)" so she/he can spend time she/he doesn't have hunting down your published work.
- You mention that you and the editor once met and that he/she indicated your piece would be a shoe-in, when what was really said was more like, "send it along."
- You address a female editor as Mr. or a male editor as Ms.
- You wave your MFA (or other) degree as if it is reason enough to accept your work.

Did I miss anything? Writers, and editors especially, do chime in.

More Reasons Your Writing Gets Rejected: Part Two

2011-07-21T08:30:00.003-04:00

Yesterday's post noted 20 possible reasons for rejections that are easy to avoid. Today, it gets trickier:

20 possible reasons for rejection, that have to do with your writing craft and skills…and a few tips on what you can do about it next time around:

Your opening lines were forgettable.

Your cover note summed up the entire piece, it didn't sound fabulous, and so the editor never bothered to read the work.

Your piece was riddled with poor grammar, improper usage, spelling/punctuation errors. (Message: I am a lazy writer.)

Your piece was poorly organized. (You rushed, or you don't yet understand what you really want to say on the page, or you need more feedback or experience.)

Your work is very clearly not at the same level of skill and craft as that which the venue routinely publishes. (You didn't spend enough time studying what's published there or you weren't honest with yourself.)

Your work reads like an early draft, instead of a meticulously revised final manuscript.

Your work is riddled with adverbs (instead of good verbs) or is written in a passive voice or commits some other obvious crime against prose.

Your dialogue is stilted, tedious, inauthentic, or filled with banalities ("Hi," she said. "Oh hi," he answered.)

Your work is loaded down with trite and expected clichés, overused idioms, too-common similes, poorly constructed metaphors, tired old phrases.

You shift tenses and/or points of view for no reason, or you do so clumsily.

It's dull to read. (Your language range and vocabulary inventory need a boost.)

Your work lacks conflict or tension; no one wants anything.

Your work has a happy-ever-after, all-wrapped-up-in-a-pretty-bow ending.

You have a strong opening and/or ending, but a too-soft middle.

You have a strong middle, but a lousy opening and/or ending.

You didn't tie up (or at least acknowledge) the loose strings the piece raises.

Your work makes it clear that you are not reading enough in your genre.

You have written about a subject that has been completely over-exposed, or its time has come and gone, and/or you just do not have a fresh enough new angle on it.

You have copied another writer's well-known style too closely and your work reads like an imitative writing exercise.

You love to use exclamation points !!! or you overuse (and incorrectly use) the ellipsis…or you love the em dash but don't know its proper usage -- or you randomly use § dingbats or white

space breaks in places that make no sense, all/any of which weakens the overall effectiveness of the prose.

In Part One, I discussed 20 possible easy-to-avoid reasons why your work/query was rejected; you can read it here.

Next up: 20 or so reasons for rejection that do and don't make sense but are still often true.

Reasons Writing Submissions & Queries Get Rejected: Part One

2011-07-20T12:09:00.008-04:00

A while back, I was prepping a talk for a writers' group about submissions and rejection (and I admit, was in a slightly cynical mood), I came across an article titled something like, "10 Reasons You Were Rejected," and I thought: Ten? Really? Is that it? I can probably come up with ten times ten. Thankfully, I didn't go quite that far, but I did compile "61 Possible Reasons Why You Got A Rejection: The Good News and the Bad." Relax, I'm not going to sling them all at you right here, right now. Nah, I'm going to break them up into three posts. There, isn't that better? First up --

20 possible pretty simple reasons why you got a rejection. (These, by the way, are oh-so-easy to avoid):

1. You sent a piece of the wrong word length.
2. You sent it to the wrong editor (and that editor did not do you the supreme favor of forwarding it on to the right one).
3. You sent it by postal mail and that venue now only accepts electronic submissions.
4. You sent by personal email and that publication now only accepts submissions through their site's Submission Manager form.
5. You sent a piece as an attachment when guidelines said NO attachments. Or vice versa.
6. You missed the deadline (yes, even by five minutes – if it's an online sub).
7. You ignored or did not read the exact submission guidelines. Or figured they did not apply to you.
8. You sent a form/genre that the publication does not publish, or no longer publishes.
9. You put your name on the pages of your work, or it appears somewhere in the text, when the guidelines say NOT to (because it's either a contest or the editors do a blind reading).
10. You sent single-spaced text or a teeny font size or otherwise poorly formatted your work.
11. You made a pest of yourself by following up too soon, too often, or impolitely.
12. You said something stupid in your cover note like, "I don't read your publication, but…"
13. You submitted (via email) something that was previously published and the editor found it online (because yes, some venues do a routine search/scan of all submissions).
14. Your cover note stated that you needed a speedy reply, hinted that another publication was interested, or asked for a specific (and way high) amount of money. Or you otherwise made an ass of yourself.
15. You queried about something you should have sent in as a fully completed piece.
16. You sent in a fully completed piece when you should have queried first instead.
17. You called something a short story (indicating fiction) when it is really a personal essay or piece of memoir (nonfiction) or vice versa, and the person who edits that genre dismissed it.
18. You sent something that is not right for that venue's clearly stated readership, mission, or desired style/form/aesthetic.
19. You dropped the names of certain editors, authors, or others who you think have influence at that venue, and you didn't check with those people first; when the editor asked them about you, there was a less-than-effusive reaction.
20. You have been published by this venue in the (recent?) past and they have a policy about not publishing the same authors more than X times per Y time period.

Have I made these mistakes over the past few decades? Some, sure. Live and learn.

Tomorrow, 20 or so possible reasons for rejection that are related to your writing craft.

Thinking Ahead: Two Fall Writing Classes and a Writing Coaching Option

2011-07-18T13:25:00.007-04:00

Reminder (which may be good or bad news, depending on your situation): Summer will end. What have you got planned for your writing once it's over? Here, two classes for your consideration, plus a new writing coaching option, all now open for registration:

1. *I Should Be Writing!* Boot camp for procrastinators and busy people.
You get to the end of a day, week or month and realize -- you haven't written a word. Everything you write isn't what you intended to write. You are stuck in the middle of a long writing project. Or can't get started, even on a small one. Your writing routine is MIA. You spend more time talking about writing than writing. You're writing regularly, but have little idea what you are actually working toward. You want to try something different on the page but can't seem to get out of your own way. You're fresh out of ideas – or have too many. You promise yourself you will get serious...when you have time, on Monday, next month, but you don't.

If any of the above describe your current relationship to your writing life, and you need a gentle push – or a very firm shove – then maybe you need this class.

I will help you: create the time to write, adopt a writer's mindset, develop and maintain regular writing routines, deal with writing obstacles, set and achieve specific writing goals -- and enjoy the process.I will act as your coach, ally and (kind but tough) task-master. Through email exchanges, instructional materials, productivity and accountability tools, a private online discussion group with fellow writers, and telephone conversations, you will become (or return to being) a writer who writes. Opportunities for feedback on your writing also offered.

This class is self-paced; no need to be online at specific times. Writers of any genre are welcome. Class size is limited to 10.

Begins September 12. Runs for 6 weeks.

Cost: $155. (nonrefundable)

To register, please use the Buy Now button along the left side of this blog and choose Option 1. If you need to pay by check, or want to see if this class if a good fit for you, email me (LisaRomeoWrites@gmail.com).

Former students: If you've already taken Boot Camp, but want to do so again, contact me for the Repeat Rate.

2. Online Memoir & Personal Essay 4x4 Creative Nonfiction Writing Series: Four weeks. Four key topics.

This time, the four topics are:
- Writing about loved ones: Do, Don't, and Don't You Dare
- Accessing & working with incomplete memories
- Jumping sandboxes: Can another genre help your nonfiction craft?
- Trauma, tragedy, sadness & grief: Make it moving, not maudlin

This is NOT a peer-review workshop, so you get to concentrate on your own work, not anyone else's. There is a weekly lesson to read, examples to study, suggested craft readings, and writing assignments to turn in for in-depth (private) comment and feedback from me (yes, these can usually be adjusted to support your work-in-progress). A private online forum keeps you in touch with other writers enrolled in the class. Also -- email exchanges with me, a daily (optional) writing prompt and two (optional) phone calls.

Begins ~~October 17.~~ October 24.

Cost: $185. (nonrefundable)

The class is self-paced; no need to be online at specific times. Class size is limited to 12.

To register, please use the Buy Now button along the left side of this blog. If you need to pay by check, or ask questions to see if this class if a good fit, email me (LisaRomeoWrites@gmail.com).

Former students: If you've already taken this particular 4x4 series, but want more practice, contact me for the Repeat Rate.

3. One Month of Writing Coaching

First, we talk by phone (or if you're local, in person) about your writing goals for the month, brainstorm, set goals, make a schedule. Then, you write (up to 10,000 words, any genre), and I read it and provide a high level of detailed feedback, editing suggestions, comments. We email all month long and talk more by phone – about any aspect of your writing, and/or anything in your writing life.

Cost: $235 (nonrefundable) Available beginning in September; can specify a calendar month or any 4-week period.
To register, please use the Buy Now button along the left side of this blog. If you need to pay by check, or want to ask questions, email (LisaRomeoWrites@gmail.com). Multiple-month packages are available at reduced rates.

Note: A Summer Special on coaching and editing is still available -- see top of left hand margin.

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, July 15, 2011 Edition

2011-07-15T08:45:00.001-04:00

►Sandra Beckwith, of Build Book Buzz, is offering a free download of her guide to virtual author tour basics. She knows her stuff.

►I am a big proponent of maintaining a submission/rejection tracking system, and I like this author's – a tracker-with-a-trackside-twist.

►Interesting advice from Marion Roach Smith about structure and the memoir at Gotham Writers' Workshop.

► I was reminded recently what a terrific resource exists for writers on the hunt for scholarships to attend conferences, residencies and retreats. (hat tip Practicing Writing).

►I'm not a huge fan of sites that post freelance writing jobs, simply because most aren't really jobs (they pay nothing or pennies) and often the poster is clueless about reasonable rates, turn-around time, what experience matters, or other issues. But some writing friends tell me I just haven't found the right sites yet. So here's a list of 65 places that post freelance jobs. Who knows?

►Check out odd writing habits of famous writers over at Flavorwire, which also notes some of their writing philosophies, too, such as this: “I write one page of masterpiece to ninety-one pages of shit. I try to put the shit in the wastebasket." Guess who?

►Looks like there's a lot to be learned over at Pitch University, about getting ready to send that manuscript or proposal to an agent or publisher.

►Some writers who've heard "no thanks" from the New York Times' Modern Love column are posting their essays, and in some cases, a note about their submission experience, over at Modern Love Rejects.

►Talk about short. At one forty fiction, they want your Tweet-sized, 140-character story.

►Kudos to two of my writing students/writing coaching clients whose work has appeared around the web: this piece by a mother of an autistic child, on her experience watching James Durbin on American Idol this past season; and this short contribution to the Eckhart Tolle newsletter, by a health care worker, on compassion and listening.

► Finally, in this fun speeded-up video, watch as an empty space becomes a book store (via GalleyCat).

Have a great weekend!

Stuff My Writing Students Say, Part 11 -- On getting casual, lazy, sloppy.

2011-07-11T13:14:00.007-04:00

"I realized that I had become a very casual writer. With texting, emails and Facebook, I've gotten sloppy and lazy."

So many writers have, and of course, it's helpful to be aware of this tendency and guard against a too-casual, even sloppy approach to the creative work we write in the hopes of publication. Just as we take care that the easy, sketchy, rough-note aspects of first drafts don't cross over into more polished pieces, it's also a good idea to create a mental boundary around the kind of sloppy, casual way we write in emails and social media, and the way we approach how we write when we are writing for real.

But it's perhaps not all bad news. In fact, several times over the past six months, I've actually advised a few writers to look to their casual, sloppy, social correspondence in order to get to a new place in their memoir manuscripts and/or personal essays.

Some nonfiction writers find it difficult to dig down deeper than surface level and express sometimes uncomfortable feelings, or to describe potentially embarrassing or painful personal moments in an essay or memoir form; and yet, sometimes these are the very same people who tell me they can however, easily express themselves and tell the real story underneath a surface situation, when writing an email to a very close friend.

When I hear this, I make what to me seems a very logical suggestion, but one which many seem to find a bit odd: Gather up those emails -- they are kindling, fodder, the ingredients for a from-scratch creative meal. Yes, they will be wordy and rambling and not always on point. But that's okay. It's in the spaces between the tangents and the sprawling, long-winded rants and prose pity parties, where the valuable stuff resides.

It's not that I want these writers to copy and paste this material directly into their pieces, but I do want them to take a look at it, think about what they've written there, and consider what they've told their best friend and why and how they first wrote it. If they are lucky, those emails go back to the time in question they are trying to write about. Why wouldn't you study them? The way, say, you'd go back and re-read personal journals? What better memory trigger?

In this way, I've seen a few writers make the leap from hiding behind vague descriptions and imprecise emotional language, to getting their more elusive, emotional stories on the page.

Sure, we want to be aware that today's modes of communication encourage sloppy writing, and keep our standards high for our more meaningful work. One effective but oh-so-difficult habit is to clearly separate the time we spend really writing, from the time we are participating in any online activities (as in, turn off the damn internet when writing!). But these newer communication methods also encourage writing, period. And encourage us to tell our stories, sloppy as they may be, to our first read readers, our confidants. Sometimes, sloppy – in an emotional sense -- is what you want, at critical points in working as a creative nonfiction writer.

You can read the rest of the Stuff My Writing Students Say series here.

Friday Fridge Clean-Out -- Links for Writers, July 8, 2011 Edition

2011-07-08T17:07:00.003-04:00

► If funding develops, Chicago will become home one day to a planned American Writers Museum.

► Attention memoir writers and personal essayists who are sincerely concerned about how what we write will affect other people – Rights of Others is a blog you'll want to bookmark.

► Shelf Awareness, the excellent daily enewsletter for those in the book trade, now publishes a not-so-frequent, but equally wonderful one for readers, chock full of reviews and other news.

► I wonder why more out-of-work, experience investigative journalists have not applied for these grants, which are still available.

► Promoting a book of poetry can test even the most creative sort. That's why I love this idea: For a week or so, you can call the author, Heather Christie, and she reads you a poem. Maybe she was trying to avoid the (reality or perception?) that "no one cares about your (bookstore) reading"?

► Whether you are a closet science geek, or need new places to find ideas about science-related topics for your writing, you'll be interested in Scientific American's new venture, grouping some 60 science blogs in one place. I took a very brief, casual tour around and read some truly interesting stuff.

►There are so many places, ways and reasons to teach writing outside of academia, and I am always interested in the people who do so, like this woman.

► I love, love this comingling of poetry, prose, brevity and developing a daily writing practice. Think about joining me - dive into the river and write a "small stone" every day that remains in July.

► In 21 days, you could transform some aspect of your life, by breaking an old habit or creating a new one, according to loopchange (and science); so I'm thinking, for those struggling to establish a daily writing habit – might noting your intention on this new social site, cheering others on in their new habit goals, and reaping members' encouragement, get you going?

►Finally, just for fun, what if a women's magazine wrote headlines and articles that truly reflected real lives?

Have a great weekend.

Not the Friday Fridge Clean-Out

2011-07-01T09:08:00.006-04:00

Last night, putting together the Friday Fridge Clean-Out, I was checking out the eight links I'd set aside, and here's what I thought as I opened each link to reread the item and decide what to say about it: Nah. Never mind. Old news. Not so funny after all. Who cares? Overexposed. Don't think anyone but me will care. And, must-have-copied-the-link-wrong-have-no-idea-where-this-was-supposed-to-lead.

And there, my friends, went the Friday Fridge Clean-Out down the garbage disposal. Instead of flailing around for more, fresher, newer, better links, I said, "eh," and decided instead to post a sample of what piled up in my own fridge this week. Here goes:

>Really, Mr. Editor, you're not going to run the piece you asked me to turn around so, so fast, which I did because we've worked together before and you'd always treated me fairly, and I didn't even stop long enough to get a letter of assignment or contract? And you "can't" (or won't) tell me why the piece has been killed? And I get no kill fee? Really?

>Really, writing student, you are dropping the class because the material is outside of the parameters of peaceful existence a sentient human being, but I shouldn't worry, it's not me?

>Really, former writing student, you sold two articles to that nice regional magazine and you are so charged up about your rebooted freelancing career and you want to thank me, for the editing and writing advice, and the vote of confidence? Really? You're so welcome – and you go, girl!

>Really, washing machine, you die and need to be replaced after only 7 years just when I have one kid heading in from camp and another heading out? Really? (Sorry, off topic I guess…except for the need to write/teach/edit/sell something to cover the costs, and…wait, what's that? Really, university where I teach on campus only twice a month, you want me to do what? To purchase a 24/7/365 parking permit? Really?)

>Really, literary journal editor, you love and want to discuss the piece I sent you 17 months ago (and received no response), and you want to discuss it "very soon"? The same piece I tried to follow-up on twice (and received no response), and then formally withdrew (and received no response), and then resubmitted elsewhere (and received a quick, polite response) – that piece? And when I explain that the piece is no longer available, I get an email lecture about submission protocol? Really?

>Really, writer who writes well and who seems like a good person, an interesting person, you do want me to edit that memoir manuscript we first talked about a year ago? And you did not ask me to chop my fee in half, nor did you ask me to turn it around way too quickly? And, you sent me a perfectly formatted, spell-checked, proofread manuscript which I don't want to stop reading – really? Thank you. My washing machine and wallet thank you. My tired brain thanks you. My empty fridge thanks you.

And next week, Friday Fridge Clean-Out returns. Really.

Have a great weekend!

What a Self-Published Editing Client Taught Me

2011-06-28T08:46:00.005-04:00

I have been of two (maybe three) minds about self-publishing: It's totally right for some people, completely wrong for certain writers, and iffy for many others. Now that there are so many types, levels and options even within the world of self-publishing though, I find myself reassessing those blanket statements fairly frequently.

Whatever my own personal feelings about self-publishing, as an editor and sometime ghostwriter, I am always happy to help out planning-to-self-publish folks get their manuscripts ready. When I first began working with self-publishing writers a couple of years ago, one thing I hadn't anticipated was how much my involvement with their manuscripts might mean to me.

Recently, several former editing clients brought their projects to completion, and when each book arrived on my doorstep, I was surprised by my own excited reaction – and it took me a while to unravel why each one meant something different, and important, to me. Like this one.

Florida Artist: Wm. North, His Life and Art is jointly written by a local woman (who'd taken one of my writing classes three years ago), and her 83-year-old father, a well-respected, award-winning painter. Shorter text-wise than most other books I work on, it is also filled with photos of his paintings of Florida scenes, both natural and man-made, making it visually enticing.

During the editing process, I was impressed by Colleen's commitment to (before it's too late) help her father record his life story, explain his philosophy about art, and share his joy at living a full artist's life in retirement after a desk-bound career. The book was not only a labor of love between father and adult daughter, but a marketing tool too – something her dad could sell at his gallery and art book store and to the many fans of his work worldwide. That he is slowing losing his eyesight made it even more urgent to help Colleen bring the book to fruition quickly, and I was pleased that I could direct Colleen to a nearby publishing company so her cherished project remained local and completely within her control, fulfilling an important commitment she'd made to herself and her father.

All of these ingredients made for an excellent use of self-publishing, I thought. When I finally saw the finished book, and the art which I had only seen online, jumped off the pages at me, I had a new feeling of satisfaction for the small part I'd played in helping Colleen and her father. The feeling lingered, and it was about more than words, pictures and a lovely finished product in my hands. This book seemed to haunt me, and I was about to find out way.

Watching and listening to Colleen at her book launch party a few weeks later, I realized that for me, this project was also about something else, something sad and yet also wonderful to finally acknowledge: My own father was a frustrated artist who created pencil sketches, and wrote poems, short stories and essays, but almost always in secret; and I only realized after he'd died four years ago, that we may have had some interesting conversations about his creative endeavors (instead of mine) had I only stopped long enough to notice.

How lucky Colleen and her father were, I thought, to have had this book-length "conversation" while he's still here, and vibrant. Colleen thanked me on the book's acknowledgments page. But maybe I should be thanking her. And so I am.

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, June 24, 2011 Edition

2011-06-24T07:00:00.002-04:00

►I often refer writing students to Richard Goodman's craft advice, so I was glad to come across, via Gotham Writer's Workshop – four excerpts from his book, The Soul of Creative Writing.

► Susan Johnston's recent Urban Museletter has links to 15 posts/articles on writing craft.

►In issue 14 of Pen America, 50 writers talk about books in translation they recommend, and a few of the writers' choices are available over at the website. While there, you can read some pieces from the organization's 48th International Congress, including this essay on the writer's life by Alain de Botton.

►Lovers of long form journalism will want to explore Byliner. At the Neiman Journalism Lab, this post explains it all.

►In 2002, modest Poetry Magazine received a $200 million donation, and set up the Poetry Foundation to administer the whopping gift. This weekend the Foundation moves into a $21 million new home, and The Chicago Tribune reports on the good times -- and harsh criticism.

► Writers of memoir will want to check out agent Paula Blazer's Saturday Morning Memoir blog, and consider her upcoming (July 9) book, Writing and Selling Your Memoir.

►Finally, this is a new idea -- a literary journal, EdgePiece, edited by "emerging editors" who promise not to "fully reject" any submission, and to work with submitting "emerging writers" in order to polish pieces for publication. Huh. (via New Pages blog)

Have a great weekend!

Writers and the artifacts of publication: Who needs clips and copies?

2011-06-21T08:00:00.007-04:00

When I was a teenager, writing for the school newspaper, I couldn't get my hands on enough copies of the final, printed product. The same held when I began writing for magazines and newspapers. Today, when an essay appears in a book, I want at least one copy. Ditto for literary journals; and for the work which appears only online, I want a nice print-out. (Yes, I have links to everyting that's link-able, but that's different.) On my bookshelves, in my file cabinet, and in my basement and attic (where they have not, I hope, been chewed by mice or mold), copies of almost everything I ever got published, reside. It's not that I take them out and reread them, and now that we're long past the days when postal-mailing photocopies of clips to editors was essential to getting new writing assignments, I still just like knowing they are there.

I thought this was what all writers did, post-publication.

But maybe not.

Recently, two experiences have reminded me that not every writer needs to have something tangible in order to savor the writing they've completed and sent out into the world. The first reminder came via a very frequently-published writer friend (16 books, thousands of magazine and journal pieces), who nonchalantly confided she often never bothers to secure copies of the magazines and journals her work appears in; that she must have a printed copy of books number two and five around somewhere, but maybe not; that she's just too busy to spend time or energy collecting and storing "that stuff."

Huh. I found this interesting, but it was also easy to discount, in the vein of…well, if I were as frequently published as she, and had a multiple-book contract, and had just optioned a novel for TV, and was routinely invited to write for major media outlets, I could afford to be that coolly casual too. But since those things don't apply to me, I simply can't understand.

Then, there's this: During the school year just ended, my elder son wrote two lengthy articles for his high school newspaper, both wrap-ups of a sport season. He reviewed coverage of past games, interviewed coaches and players, dug up (and calculated) many statistics, wrote several drafts, and worked hard to revise and polish (and only asked me to weigh in once, maybe twice).

On deadline days, he attached his story to an email to the newspaper's student editor, and hit send. I haven't seen the articles since. Oh, they appeared in the newspapers, he got some compliments (or so he said), and my son saw each of the newspapers. Once. But then very quickly, each edition landed in that mysterious place in every teenage boy's life (and backpack) where physical things go to die. And that's just fine, as far as he's concerned.

Not me.

"Don't you want to have copies to keep?" I've asked. (What I really mean, of course, is don't you want to show me and Dad and have us be impressed? Don't you need/want to hear us say how great they look in print? Don't you want me to make multiple photocopies to send to Nana?)

"It doesn't matter," he's said.

"It does," I try to convince him. I talk to him about clip files, an online portfolio, college applications, wanting one day to get an assignment to write for a college newspaper. Or even if he never writes another thing, I ask why he doesn't want to just have them, have something to show for his work? How will he feel in 20 years when he wants to show someone and has nothing to show?

It does no good.

Here's how he responds: He had a blast writing the articles. He worked hard. He loved doing it. He thinks he did a really good job (I think so too). It was fun. But it's just a few issues of the school newspaper, Mom. Get over it.

I think I get what he's telling me (and maybe what my writer friend above, was saying too): It's not about the publication, or at least not ALL about the publication.

It's about the process. The writing, as in writing-as-an-act, not writing as work, or writing as prelude to a product.

It's a useful reminder, and I get it. I do.

I still want those school newspapers, damn it.

I could send an email to the newspaper's faculty advisor. I could. With tremendous restraint, I don't.

Dad, Writing -- and Writing About Dad

2011-06-19T08:18:00.008-04:00

Father's Day. It may be that on this day, those who have lost our fathers feel an even keener need to honor them. After my father died, I wrote several nonfiction narratives and essays about him, about us,about the distance and the connection between us. A few have been published, others are making the rounds, still more are in the memoir manuscript draft, and the to-be-finished file. Other to-be-written Dad-related material is lurking in notebooks.

Why? I have some ideas, but really I'm not completely sure; that's part of what makes it so interesting to write this stuff.

My parents retired to Las Vegas in the early 1980s, and when he died, nearly five years ago and I flew out there, I wrote Two Weeks in Vegas. Later, when I thought back on his decline, I wrote Tip Not Included. Two poems are in the pipeline, with publication upcoming.

I don't know if I'll ever be done writing about Dad, which makes sense, since it was he who showed me what it was like to read with a constant, daily, insatiable hunger. For him, I think it was because formal education was taken away at an early age; for me, well, I suppose I just wanted to be like Dad.

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, June 17, 2011 Edition

2011-06-17T08:40:00.005-04:00

►Like to muck around with metaphor? Head over to The Economist magazine's language blog for some news, and further links. (Who knew The Economist had a Language blog, huh?)

►What are you writing? Do you know what it's going to be, when you first start on a new piece? Short story? Poem? Novel? Personal narrative? Erika Dreifus considers.

►A few times a year, for six weeks or so, I send out daily writing prompts, and while that program is on hiatus for now, I found this great resource where creative writers can get a prompt fix.

►If you haven't already read Dani Shapiro's brilliant essay in n+1 about the intersection of her writing life and internet distraction, then you haven't….well gee, maybe you've been writing and not been sufficiently distracted on the internet.

►I should no longer be shocked by tales told by former web content slaves. But I'm still disturbed, mostly by statements like this, which I think are mostly, and sadly, true: "The Internet has created more readers than ever before in the history of the world. And yet, perversely, the actual writer is more undervalued than ever before. .. In the age of Internet news, Google 'keywords' matter…Regular old words, not so much."

►Let's see if I can write the following sentence without smirking. James Franco is busy doing The Thing. Not that thing. This thing – The Thing – is a sort-of "quarterly publication". Take a look and decide for yourself.

►The Writer Magazine is now available on Nook and via an iPad app.

►Not every author can go this far, but when the last independent bookstore in her area closed, novelist Anne Patchett had enough, and announced plans to open one herself.

►Poetry. Songwriting. One late summer week. The Cotwsolds region of England. Paul Muldoon. The home and gardens of T.S. Elliot. Enticing, no?

►Finally, do some folks take The Onion seriously? Apparently they do, and then post their hilariously inappropriate responses. (hat tip RexBlog)

Have a great weekend!

Writer's Guide to More Writing Time. You may not like it.

2011-06-14T17:00:00.005-04:00

In the past few months, I have advised several writers with whom I'm working as a writing coach to lie, to cheat and to steal. Oh, we've also talked about other things – developing a submission tracking spreadsheet, choosing a writing conference, preparing critiques for an upcoming workshop, trying new structure ideas for a memoir.

Yet, some of the most interesting conversations have focused on treachery – the questionable things we are sometimes forced to do, in order to have the time to write. While it would be just dandy if into every writer's daily life, some sizable chunk of uninterrupted time were to magically appear, free of day job tasks, child rearing, commuting, household duties, pet care, spousal maintenance and meal preparation.

But since that's a fantasy, most writers need to instead wrestle time for their writing. When one has exhausted strategies for squeezing more time from the same 24 hours – getting up earlier, writing during the (public transit) commute or on lunch hours – it's time to get serious about getting a little bit (or maybe a lot) more cunning. Even deceitful.

When my first son was an infant, I had access to free daytime child care but only if it was for an "important reason," which I quickly understood to be exactly two things: bonafide paid work or a medical appointment. A walk in the park or a haircut to refresh my colic-baby brain and remind myself I was still human? Nope. Lunch and adult conversation with a friend? Not a chance. Writing creative work which had no sure market value? Are you daft?

So I lied.

I didn't go to the dentist. I went to my writing group.

I cheated.

I said I had to work for 4 hours, knowing the brochure I was finishing for a client would take only two hours.

I stole.

I did paid work late at night for two solid weeks and used the daytime child care time for my own writing instead.

Lately I find myself advising others to take similarly drastic action. Why?

Because otherwise no writing will occur. Because significant others who say they want to be "supportive" -- aren't. Because children who are old enough to make their own meals -- don't. Because bosses keep making unreasonable (and uncompensated) "requests" for ever more time. Because house guests keep wanting to arrive, or stay. Because the volunteer committee to whom one has always said "yes" just won't hear "no". Because a relative thinks writing falls into the same category as watching reality TV in the middle of the day.

Because in some homes a closed door, a person hunched over the keyboard writing (and not on Facebook), and/or a request for "some writing time" is the same as announcing to those within earshot (and everyone else who has your phone number or address): "Please interrupt me as often as possible for the most mundane, trivial reasons and then after I answer your silly question, by all means, please keep hanging around."

So toss your gym bag in the car, but head to the cafe next to the gym to write instead. Keep the sitter an extra hour (or two). Leave for that appointment 30 minutes early (traffic, you know?). Send the spouse and kids out so you can "rest."

Lie. Cheat. Steal. Get your writing time.

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, June 10, 2011 Edition

2011-06-10T10:08:00.005-04:00

►As the Iowa Writers Workshop turns 75, here's a peek inside, and what's new, what's better and what not to do there (think social media).

►Library Journal offers a roundup of links to posts with takeaways from Book Expo America, which was held in New York late last month.

►Do you spend big chunks of time quietly writing in an elegantly furnished room of your own, a lovely lakeside retreat, the lobby of a 4-star hotel? Nah, me either. And Nicole Cooley thinks it's better that way, and explains it all "In Praise of Ugly Writing Spaces."

►Two upstart site concepts: Freelancers are chattering about eByline and writers in search of agents and publishers are checking out Storiad. At both, writers post expertise and content, editors/publishers post needs/wants, and the two are meant skim one another's listings in the pursuit of assignments, sales and finding new projects/talent.

►This long piece -- featuring practical writing tips from 23 authors --is (mostly) in list form, so it's not such a long read.

►See if you can spot all the fat in the excerpt Michelle Seaton uses to show how much can be trimmed in her post about line editing, at the blog of Grub Street, Boston's wonderful writing center.

►Finally, I often feel like the only writer around who is not a yoga practitioner, but even I could appreciate yoga poses for writers, such as: "Cash-Your-Huge-Royalty-Check-Asana: This pose is actually for advanced yogis and I don’t really know how it’s done. You might try standing on your head."

Have a great weekend!

When a Big Editorial Project Ends

2011-06-08T08:45:00.001-04:00

Satisfaction. Letdown. Relief. Pride. And, eventually panic.

These are just some of the emotions I rotate through at a time like this, the day after I have finished a major, long-term client editorial project. And by finished, I mean definitely finished, for sure; not like last month when it felt just about finished. Now, the client's book has been sent off to the printer by the publisher, and that's it. The end of 19 months of hard work, collegial collaboration, laughs, and occasionally, disagreements and promises to myself (never again!).

Yesterday, I did a few quick edits on the second version of the foreword, gave an opinion on some cover text, and without even realizing it at the moment, the project came to a quiet end.

More than a year and a half ago, one of the co-authors called. Demanding schedules and commitments created a need for editorial help in order to complete the manuscript the two authors had proposed, sold and committed to delivering to a respected, established academic and professional press.

Over the many months we worked together, my role took on a fluidity that at times unnerved me, challenged my patience as well as my skills, and had me wondering why I'd agreed to the project in the first place and at the same time thinking, I'd like some more, please.

For 19 months, I revised, advised, edited, wrote, rewrote, brainstormed, ghostwrote, restructured, consulted, coached, proofread -- and revised again and edited some more.

And today, when I know for sure that, at least for this particular book project, there will be no more urgent emails or late night phone calls asking me to drop everything and take another look at a client-revised chapter, that all of the structuring decisions are final, that nothing else requires "just one more pass," I'm glad to let it go. And, a little sad too.

But mostly – as everyone who makes a living as a freelancer will likely admit – I'm wondering how and when I'll replace that completed project with another income-producing project.

And then there's that little voice, a temptress, urging, on second thought…. As I moved all of the files from the completed project off my desk, put them far out of arm's reach, glanced at my calendar now free of weekly project-related deadlines, and noticed that clean swatch of uncluttered space on my desk, beckoning, teasing – I hesitated, and thought about what it might be like…

"I know!" I mused. "I won't take on another big project. Instead, I'll use those big chunks (instead of small pieces) of time, to work on my own book."

Then I snapped out of it, slapped my forehead, and reminded myself that the tuition bill, the now higher property taxes, the summer camp fees, and oh yes, the mortgage, are a lot more related to my securing more paid client work than producing a book spine with my name on it.

I know (no, I hope and pray) another interesting project will come along, but also worry that it will happen later rather than sooner. That's where the panic comes in, staring at that blank calendar and knowing those pesky, annoying, wonderful – and missing – project-related deadlines need to appear there. With luck, I'll have another project to (sometimes) complain about and to love, and I'll be grateful, and I will get busy, and I will learn something new and feel proud of what I can help a client accomplish on the page.

Many days, that's enough.

Department of Shameless Self-Promotion: NYTimes blog rant

2011-06-06T08:04:00.002-04:00

Today, over on one of the New York Times' blogs, I sound off on a little pet peeve of mine, "A Report Card Ritual, Destroyed." I hope you'll take a minute to read it, and if you're inclined (pro or con), leave a comment over there.

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, June 3, 2011 Edition

2011-06-03T09:03:00.004-04:00

► Some interesting posts and interviews lately over on the blog of the Denver Independent Creative Writing Program, like this one by Robin Black, which discusses, in part, one of my favorite craft topics – writing beginnings.

►As always, Dani Shapiro nails it with this post about the grit (not glitter) of the writer's life.

►Poynter offers this round-up of links to an interview series with prominent food writers, about the current status, impact and future of food writing.

►Lisa Tener ran a terrific interview about writing memoir, with one of my favorite writers (and mentors), Richard Hoffman, memoirist and poet.

►Want to make sure your book will be a formatter's nightmare if it goes on the Kindle? Just follow the advice of Garth Risk Hallberg's Seven Steps to Kindle-Proof Your Book at The Millions. You will be in dubiously fabulous company, by the way.

►Editors and other staffers of the New York Times Sunday Magazine publish a blog, The 6th Floor.

►Finally if, like me, you find the disclaimers/authors' notes at the front of many modern memoirs of interest, you'll love this mash-up by Marty Kihn, which combines not just new, but older and unexpected ones as well.

Have a great weekend!

Submissions, Writing Seasonal Essays, Karma, Editors and Luck

2011-06-02T15:56:00.004-04:00

Two things I've mentioned here before in the way of tips and insight for the submission process have just recently cropped up again in my own freelance writing life. I love when that happens, when I follow my own advice; and I love when on occasion something circles back in a positive way because of something I've done right in the past.

The first instance centers on how I go about writing and submitting seasonal essays, which I've noted before. Two years ago, on the day after a particular springtime holiday, I wrote an essay about it. Then I put the piece in a drawer for 8 months and made a reminder note in my calendar. When that date rolled around, I pulled the essay out, polished it up, added updated information, and began submitting.

A web editor I had worked with liked it—at first – then didn't, but by then it was too late to submit elsewhere. Back in the drawer it went, until…this past winter, when out it came again. I edited in a few new thoughts, updated (again), and made a new list of places to submit. One was the same website where the editor who had once liked and then rejected the piece, had moved on. The new editor accepted and published it.

Here's what I took from this: A. My carousel approach to seasonal essays continues to deliver. B. A new editor may have a different perspective and range of likes and dislikes than his/her predecessor; so it's worth a (re)try even there. C. If the piece involves kids, and their exact ages or grades are not relevant, leave those details out, which makes updating a bit easier. "The high-schooler" and "my tween son" will stand for a few years, while "the high school freshman" and "the 12-year-old" will not.

My second bit of recent good Karma concerned an opinion piece I wrote and submitted to a newspaper about a year ago. While not exactly seasonal, it would be best received if run at the end of the school year. As is typically the case with newspaper submissions, I did not hear back in the affirmative within two weeks, which usually means, "Thanks but no thanks."

But not always.

In this case, unknown to me, the silence meant a shuffle in the editorial job tree, a swath of submissions put on hold, and a newly editor assigned, who needed time to wade through the pile the departing editor had marked "maybe". Turns out, this newly assigned editor was one I'd written for twice before; she noticed my name, pulled out my piece and liked it enough to call (yes, on the telephone) and ask if the essay was still available, and did I have time – that afternoon – to do some updating and minor revisions?

Yes. And, yes.

The piece was still available mostly because I had written it so carefully to that particular column's specs, and wasn't enthusiastic about reworking it for another venue; I figured I'd do that the following year. And then between that time and now, I frankly lost track of the thing when merging an old Excel Submission Tracker spreadsheet with a new one. On one hand, this was a case of my not following two good pieces of my own advice -- Keep submitting to new venues until it sells! and, Be meticulous with submissions record-keeping. I guess I just got lucky.

I learned some new lessons, too: A. Unless you've received a firm "no," a submission could still be in play (rare, perhaps, but obviously possible). B. Every editor you ever work is also an editor you may one day want to work with again. Make friends. C. Be limber enough to turn something around fast. D. Try not to change your telephone number.

Wishing you some good writing life Karma, too!

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, May 20, 2011

2011-05-20T10:40:00.004-04:00

►Do you hate the smell of rejection in the morning? So do these guys but they have a suggestion.

►I'm guessing every high school English teacher and college freshman comp instructor is groaning over the idea of "logical" punctuation.

►If your fiction is plodding along, maybe your plot needs help. Check out the Plot Whisperer blog's author interviews.

►I missed this minor brouhaha, but apparently there was an uncommon event at the White House – a Poetry Workshop for 77 young poets. Some folks got a bit upset.

►Interesting article on the evolving intersection of blogs, vlogs and tweets, what their authors bring to the reader/viewer conversation, and traditional publishers. Maybe we all need one another after all?

►Sometimes what's good for what ails you, at least if you are a reader, is a "devastatingly sad" book, perhaps one on this list. What's yours?

Writers: When offered help, do you say YES?

2011-05-18T11:28:00.013-04:00

A few years ago at a writing conference, I took a master class with a writer who'd published novels, memoirs and essay collections. About 12 writers met with this author for several hours over two days for a combination of lecture, discussion and workshop. The second day's class focused on the first two pages of a manuscript, with each of us reading ours aloud for feedback. At the end of the session, the author offered to take another look at any two-page rewrites that resulted; all we need do is email them to him with a reminder note.

I thought he was maybe just being polite, or that he'd send back a standard perfunctory reply along the lines of "Good work and good luck." I figured he must be too busy anyway. Then weeks went by. A few months. And when I did finally think about following through, I decided he probably wouldn't even remember making the offer.

Then one day when I was feeling particularly miserable, his card found its way to the top of my messy desk. A week later, I'd rewritten those two pages based partly on his critique and hit send, reasoning the worst that could happen was he'd ignore my email.

Three days later, I got a response – several paragraphs on precisely what he thought I'd done well in the rewrite, and a few more specific suggestions for further development. And at the end, a P.S. "You are the only writer in that class who took me up on my offer. Actually, I've made that offer about four times in the last two years, and have only heard from two writers, you included."

I was floored. What idiot writer would pass on the opportunity to get further feedback from a writer of this man's stature, at no additional cost? Well, me, almost.

I thought about this again recently after I got back from another conference and realized that the writing world is probably littered with similarly squandered opportunities.

What writer hasn't at least once received an unexpected and generous offer (from a writer, agent, editor, publisher), to look over something at no cost or obligation – a proposal, manuscript pages, idea, query letter, synopsis, contract – or to otherwise provide additional assistance, advice, contact? And how many times have we either let it slip through the cracks of memory or busy-ness, or filed it too deeply in the back of our minds, or figured he/she was just being polite or wouldn't have the time or interest to respond anyway, or would have forgotten they'd even made the offer?

As for me, the next time someone extends me such an offer, I plan to surprise that person and follow up.

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: May 13, 2011 Edition

2011-05-13T13:13:00.005-04:00

Note: Blogger is having problems. For those who subscribe by email, I have no idea why you got a post delivered today from January, and yesterday's post is now lost in space....yep, it's Friday the 13th all right. Which means it's time to clean the fridge...

For my new readers, hopping over from Catbird Scout, Face Things, Alltop, and Practicing Writing, what I do (most) Fridays is serve up a mix of interesting things I've come across online. It's named after the way I feed my family most Friday nights – cooking (or at least assembling) whatever I find in my fridge. Sometimes the result is a tasty, satisfying meal; other times, well – judge for yourself. Enjoy!

► Mediabistro lists five free guides to ebook formatting and style.

► Midge Raymond offers Ten Tips for a Writing Life. I happen to like number 10: "Remind yourself of why you write. Sometimes I get grouchy about not having enough time to write; other times, I’m grouchy because I have to sit down and slog through a beastly first draft. This is when I need to remind myself that I choose to do this, every day."

► Check out the "nearly100 fantastic pieces of journalism" from 2010, according to The Atlantic's Conor Friedersdorf. A few of my favorites are on the list, including Autism's First Child (John Donvan and Caren Zucker), Letting Go (Atul Gawande), Roger Ebert: The Essential Man (Chris Jones), and The Lost Girls (Mimi Swartz).

► Got a bad case of book deal envy? Horribly jealous of your (better / more frequently) published writer friends? What to do? Get over yourself, according to Dear Sugar at The Rumpus.

► Over at The Renegade Writer, Julie Fast talks about how writers can get work done even when depressed. (I'd say that should come in handy for…oh maybe everyone?)

► I hear that my friend Christin Geall made a dynamic presentation at the Creative Nonfiction Collective Conference in Banff, Canada, about "Momoir" -- and the implications of that term and the genre. If you're in the area, you can catch Christin later this month at a nonfiction panel, To Tell The Truth, sponsored by the Malahat Review, at the Greater Vancouver Public Library.

► More friends doing cool things: Christina Baker Kline and Deborah Siegel are partnering to present a day long program in Brooklyn on May 21, for writing mothers who want to restart, kick-start or otherwise light a fire in their writing lives. Can't go? Then at least read Christina's 20 ideas for rejuvenating your writing life, right where you are.

► Finally, what is a Pop-Up Magazine? (Hint: this sounds like the kind of literary event even my husband might like.)

Have a great weekend.

Memory, nonfiction, and writing about the here and now

2011-05-12T11:59:00.000-04:00

I've always been interested in how nonfiction writers work with memories, recreating on the page the events of our past. I even occasionally give presentations to writers groups about it, and also cover the topic in some of my classes. I'm interested in how we can retrieve bits of stubborn memories, how the writing process itself helps loosen additional details, and what we can do to work around, through and sometimes without, the memories we think are necessary to tell a particular story.

I think this intrigues me because a large portion of my creative nonfiction work has pivoted on incidents from at least five years in the past, and some goes back further – 10, 20, even 30 years ago. Although my freelance journalism activities have included a fair share of reporting and opining keyed to current events, for creative nonfiction, it's looking back, often far back, that has always felt more comfortable to me.

Then my father died in 2006, and suddenly I had a compelling need to write about that experience, not so long after it occurred. Slowly, over the four-plus years since, more and more of the present (or more recent past) has crept into my work.

And then last summer, I did what for me, was rather strange: wrote a personal essay about what was happening in my life, right then. I did not fool myself that the piece had the same kind of depth and nuance, the same kind of reflective insight and long-lens perspective I liked to see on the page; but then again, there was a certain energy and tone to it that I liked. Here's how and why it happened.

Last May, I was asked to write twice a month for the Love Mom section at Your Tango. Technically, this made me a (paid) blogger, though my editor and I agreed my pieces wouldn't be casual chronicles, but personal essays. The site typically skews to a younger readership, but I was to represent the slightly older Mom voice, the one with experience, teenage children, and a 22 year marriage.

It was an interesting learning curve, as my (now former) twenty-something editor and I wrestled with getting the tone right, somewhere between here's-what-I-know-for-sure and despite-my-experience-I'm-as-clueless-as-every-other-mother. I experimented with essays that reached back to specific events from when my boys were babies – such as how a miscarriage once affected holiday plans, and my initial reluctance at the prospect of motherhood -- and those noting current struggles, but still reliant on echoes of past experience – such as my annual family-free week, and making peace with being just good enough.

Then last summer, faced with a deadline and operating on scant sleep while across the country at my mother's and on the third week of hospital bedside duty, and missing my family, I decided to let fly with an of-the-moment essay about the mixed emotions stirred by the situation. After getting over the small tremor of fear that my siblings would be upset by the piece, I rather liked the experience. Since then, I've continued to write about what's happening, as it happens, including a follow-up when my mother had another heart attack and I decided not to fly to her side. In one of my favorite pieces, I wrote about anticipating how much I'll miss the family routines we take for granted today, when they are one day gone.

While I don't write or think of these essays in the same manner I do the longer, deeper pieces I continue to work on for other venues, I've grown quite fond of writing them. As I tell my students all the time, shorter is harder, and at less than 800 words, these short pieces are a useful way to practice what I teach.

Going back to the idea of memory, I've also discovered – or rather reconfirmed what I probably already knew – that all memory is tricky, and rich, and so very fallible. Recalling what happened two weeks ago -- and what it means, how I felt, the way others reacted, and who said what -- is as much an act of using one's imagination, as to mine material from decades past.

Turns out, I like getting a story out to readers without even knowing for sure it will all turn out. (Why I should be so surprised, given my initial journalism training?) That part though is a risk for someone like me who is much more comfortable knowing the end of a story before putting a single word on the page. But then again, I need to remind myself that most of the time when I write a very long piece about something which took place 20 years ago, the "end" I eventually write toward is rarely the same conclusion I had originally attached to that story in my memory.

This week over at Love Mom, I wrote about how the preparations for the SAT -- and my son's not-so-subtle stance against my inner-Tiger Mother instincts -- had me re-evaluating the hovering blunders I've made, and how I'm now trying to change that pattern. And who knows, two months from now it may be that I've not really changed at all; that "lesson learned" may have faded to a missed opportunity and I may feel slightly nauseated that I touted what turned out to be an unearned epiphany.

That's the risk I guess of writing in the present. I've avoided it a long time, and so for now at least, I want to see how that particular writing glove fits. Good thing too, since now I'm contributing an essay weekly at Love Mom. I hope you will hop over from time to time to see how it's going, let me know how I'm doing. (All of my pieces at the site are listed here.)

Write Your Way Into Summer - 4x4 Online Nonfiction Class

2011-05-11T10:19:00.005-04:00

Quick! Before the summer eats your writing commitment, spend four weeks to focus intently on four different elements of creative nonfiction writing craft.

Consider registering for my next Online Creative Nonfiction 4 x 4 Class. We tackle four keys of creative nonfiction in four weeks.

June 3 – July 4*
(*to accommodate the July 4 weekend and/or travel plans, the final deadline will be moved out several days).

Topics you will work on:

►Writing in Scenes
►Humor
►Narrative in Nonfiction
►Revising (and liking it)

Whether you write memoir, essay, or other CNF forms, you'll pick up new craft skills to dramatically enhance your prose. Each week there is a lesson to read, examples to study, a mixture of required and optional assignments which include opportunities to turn in your writing for private comment and feedback (and yes, these can usually be adjusted to support your work-in-progress).

Since this is NOT a peer-review workshop, you get to concentrate on your own work, not anyone else's. A private online forum keeps you in touch with other writers enrolled in the class. There will also be suggested additional craft readings, and an optional phone consultation. Also -- email exchanges with me, a daily (optional) writing prompt and more.

Cost: $185. Please the Buy Now button at left.
Or, if you need to pay by check, or want to ask questions to see if this class if a good fit for you, email me ( LisaRomeoWrites@gmail.com ).

Former students: If you've already taken this particular 4x4 series, but want more practice, ask for the Repeat Rate.

Stuff My Writing Students Say, Part 10: I knew that!

2011-05-05T12:56:00.003-04:00

"It's funny. You really didn't tell me anything I didn't already know about the places in the piece that need work. But for some reason, I just kept hoping I could avoid it."

I heard the above quite recently from a student in one of my writing classes, after sending back a piece of creative nonfiction, in which I noted three specific areas I felt needed further work. But I've heard it other times, too. And frankly, I remember thinking this very thing myself years ago when submitting work.

You know the drill, don't you? Oh, this section on page 4 is not really as good as it could be, but it's not really terrible either. Maybe X won't notice.

But X always does notice, right?

Really, how silly are we writers? If we can see what's not working, why would we expect that the perceptive writer, editor, or a writing instructor, who we trust with our work, would fail to notice? (And, if we are paying that person and/or investing our time, why would we want them not to notice?)

I guess it's not that we really believe, deep down, that we are going to get away with anything. The opposite is probably true: I believe most writers want to be called out when their prose isn't top notch. I think this habit -- of pretending we don't see our own writing flaws and hoping someone else doesn't either -- has more to do with not wanting to do battle with those two dreaded R words: Revision and Rewrite.

What we won't do sometimes to avoid that two-headed monster, right? Including turning in prose we know is not as well crafted as we are capable of producing. Including not doing the deep thinking that goes along with rewriting a section which feels too thin. Including hoping another perceptive writer, editor or writing instructor will give us a pass.

I've learned a lot over the years about making peace with revisions and rewriting. In fact, these days, I don't consider myself to be really, truly writing something (as opposed to doing a "brain dump" or playing around on the page) unless I'm in the thick of revisions. Lately, I'm something of a zealot now about how much a writer can grow through the acts of Revising and Rewriting.

Much to the sometime horror of some of my students, I use one of the R words -- Revision -- quite a lot, all the time, in fact. And I also on occasion let go with the other R word – Rewrite – in it most feared form, the one preceded by the C word: Complete. Complete Rewrite, I may suggest (or urge or demand). The kind with a blank sheet/screen. C'mon, it's good for the writing soul, I'll urge.

But it's not always so dire. More often, it's just about paying attention to what we already know needs work, and working on it some more. Revising.

If you think your work needs work, why wait for someone else to notice?

Note: You can read the rest of the Stuff My Writing Students Say series here.

Author Interview: Kim Stagliano on her memoir, combining humor and autism. Yep, you read right.

2011-03-30T08:48:00.006-04:00

Memoirs by mothers of special needs children are a well-stocked sub-category of the genre, with those focusing on children on the autism spectrum making up a sizable portion. Many follow the family from diagnosis and adjusting to a "new normal," to navigating a maze of therapies and special services, offering a window into a unique kind of family life. So does Kim Stagliano's book – but with two big differences: Autism disproportionately afflicts males, but Kim has three autistic daughters. And, she's done something rarely attempted in this subcategory: she puts humor on the page, with gusto. Her book is All I Can Handle: I'm No Mother Teresa – A Life Raising Three Daughters With Autism.

Kim agreed to answer a few of my nosy questions.

Lisa Romeo: You write with such graceful humor, not going for big laughs, but showing the humor even in very difficult situations. Has humor always come naturally to you?

Kim Stagliano: I am a classic middle child and was always a bit of the class clown. I have a wry, biting humor that isn’t always that nice. I didn’t have to work to create the humor in the book; it’s part of my style in general.

LR: When did you realize you could employ humor in accounts of your family's life with three daughters on the autism spectrum?

KS: When I wrote my first Huffington Post piece in 2006 and people laughed and learned, and complimented the (writing) style.

LR: Did you always know you'd want to write a memoir, or did that build slowly as you began to blog and report on autism and your personal experiences? When did you first see yourself as a nonfiction writer, as opposed to a woman who was chronicling her family's journey?

KS: I was dead set against it! How’s that? I wanted to write fiction – still do! I never thought anyone would be interested in our story and I just didn’t want to relive every moment. But as editors asked my agent for a non-fic proposal, the idea grew on me and I decided I could find a way to write our story while staying semi-sane and get a hopeful but realistic (and humorous) message into a book.

LR: You include images and experiences some other writers of autism memoirs often retreat from – parents injured by a child's meltdown, kids' "decorating" with feces, financial wipe-outs that treatment and other issues can cause. When you are writing, do you ever hesitate and think, maybe I shouldn't go there?

KS: Sure. I try to respect my children’s identities and their humanity – and it’s a fine line. Some folks think I cross the line, others appreciate the candor in that they don’t feel so alone. I hit the delete key about a million times while writing!

LR: Your book mixes family stories with your strong views on autism advocacy, the role of vaccines, social services, education, and public perception, as well as flashbacks from your childhood. How did you go about deciding on an organization and structure for the book?

KS: I knew that the autism community has limited time (to read). So I wanted the book to be broken into bite sized chapters that you could read quickly, digest and then either put the book down or continue reading. I made the book a quick read on purpose to accommodate the needs of the autism community first and to make the book super approachable for those outside our world, like teachers, therapists, outside family members. It’s purposefully a fast, funny read so no one will really know “what hit them” when they are finished.

LR: Although you already had a strong following (dare I use that word: platform), did it strike those in publishing – agents, publishing house editor, marketing folks – as an odd sell, a book about raising three autistic daughters which is also humorous, and at times, hilarious?

KS: Yes it did. We had a lot of editors who just did NOT get me, my humor or how to make the story funny. My agent persevered though and he sold the proposal. There were also a lot of comments that the market was already saturated – but no other book offers the raw honesty and humor like mine does. I like to say, “You won’t need a Prozac to read it,” and I mean it!

LR: You are managing editor of Age of Autism, a major news site and online community. Did that work prepare you (or not) for the challenge of pulling together this memoir?

KS: Writing a book is very different from blogging and running Age of Autism. What AofA did for me was to give me a constant reminder of who I was writing for – my audience of parents struggling to get through the day or the night and desperate for laughter and encouragement.

LR: Is there another book in the works?

KS: Yes there is! Fiction (I get to kill people, yay). I’m working on a young adult novel that brings in the sibling issue with autism. That’s all I’ll tell you for now.

Note from Lisa: We're giving away a signed book to one reader. To be entered in the random drawing, leave your comment on this post by midnight Tuesday, April 5. (U.S. postal addresses only.)

Next Online Creative Nonfiction 4x4 Class begins May 2. Registration now open.

2011-03-28T19:08:00.010-04:00

What might happen if you took four weeks to focus intently on four important elements of creative nonfiction writing craft?

Consider registering for my next Online Creative Nonfiction 4 x 4 Class. We tackle four keys of creative nonfiction in four weeks.

May 2 – 27.

Topics you will work on:

- Beginnings & Endings

- A Strong "I" Narrator

- Powerful Small Details

- Dynamic Dialogue

Whether writing memoir, essay, or other CNF forms, you'll pick up new craft skills to dramatically enhance your prose. Each week there is a lesson to read, examples to study, and a mixture of required and optional assignments; these include chances to turn in your writing for private comment and feedback from me, and can be adjusted to support your work-in-progress.

Since this is NOT a peer-review workshop, you get to concentrate on your own work, not anyone else's. A private online forum keeps you in touch with other writers enrolled in the class; also -- email exchanges with me, writing exercises, a daily writing prompt and more.

Cost: $185. Use the Buy Now button at left. If you need to pay by check, or want to ask questions to see if this class if a good fit for you, email me (use email link on left column) or: LisaRomeoWrites@gmail.com.

Former students: Contact me first to ask about your discount. And, if you've already taken this particular 4x4 series, but want more practice, ask for the Repeat Rate. Members of The Write Group and MEWS, there's also a discount for you!

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, March 25, 2011

2011-03-25T08:45:00.005-04:00

► Are you a book hoarder? Then you will understand this guy's problem.

► End your week – start your weekend – on a grace note, by reading Emily Rapp's elegant essay about how her terminally ill son's diagnosis led her "home" – in every sense of the word.

► In a Poynter interview, Frank Bruni describes how he prepared (in part) for the different challenge of writing his memoir, Born Round, after decades as a New York Times reporter, foreign bureau chief and restaurant critic: "In part I approached my own story the way I would someone else’s. To supplement my own memories I debriefed family members and friends. But mostly I took some time to read, in rapid succession, the kinds of memoirs I’d read before but never with a particular focus. I looked closely at how they were done, how they were paced, their tones. And I tried to draw from that some internal sense of how I should proceed with mine and what I wanted it to read and sound like." The rest of the interview is here.

►Penned a short line you love? Gotham Writing Workshops is running a Twitter-length contest (140 characters).

► More than two dozen AOL sites have either been shut down, or folded into similar "stronger" Huffington Post verticals. It's my understanding that these AOL sites were paying freelance contributors, so what will happen to that policy now? Will the freelance writers now be labeled bloggers, which HuffPo claims it's okay not to pay because they are "not really writers"? And what about that statement anyway?

► I recently concluded the Winter Prompts Project, emailing daily writing prompts to dozens of writers. The final prompt was, "The end of the line." In response, Stephanie Walulik, a former writing student of mine and Prompt Project participant, wrote this post on her blog – about writing, waiting, and endings.

► Have journaling fever? Or wish you did? Maybe Journalfest is for you.

►Local folks interested in online journalism might want to attend this 2-hour panel, Truth and Authenticity in News in a Digital age, at Caldwell College on April 7.

►Finally, if only every writing job ad were this honest.

Have a great weekend.

Stuff My Writing Students Say, Part 9 : Words. They matter!

2011-03-23T08:45:00.002-04:00

"One thing I've learned is that I need to analyze every single word carefully to see whether it's contributing and if not, replace it or cut it."

There's a tendency to read the above, and sort of snidely snicker, Duh.

But think again. This writer has articulated something some writers never seem to truly grasp. Or, have forgotten.

While every writer knows that words are the building blocks of their craft, and most writers are world class word geeks, the role of each individual word in a piece is sometimes overlooked. Once we get the "big idea," we skip to thinking in terms of themes, plots, topics, characters, scenes, images, flashbacks, feelings, etc. Oh we may vacillate over choosing the perfect word for that one powerful line of dialogue, or for the opening and/or the final sentence. We may silently high-five ourselves when we settle on the greatest word in a particularly good transition or description.

But sometimes we stop treating individual words as if they are gems to be handled with care, and instead begin deploying them with abandon, splattering them across the page as if it doesn't matter where they land, who their neighbors are, what impact they, as individuals, will have on the reader.

So occasionally, as the writing student quoted above notes, we need a reminder: Everything we do is about one word, then another. One word at a time. You know what? This is easy to forget when we are writing in increments of thousands of words. We begin thinking about sections, pages and chapters, instead of what our work really is: words. One word after another. Then another word. And another.

I do know writers who, in the first draft of a piece, will not move on from a sentence if one word strikes them as even slightly off, even it that sentence takes an hour or more to perfect. I like to power through first drafts, and then scrutinize every word later, during revisions -- and in final edits, in proofreading (and, heaven help me yes, even after publication).

I'm not going to advocate either system, but urge writers, at some point in the draft/ revision/rewrite/editing process, to take a long look at each word. And, frankly I'm a little miffed when students think of this as a bother.

Looking carefully at each word doesn't strike me in the least as onerous, but as the best fun a writer can have – playing with words. This one or that one? Big or small? Strong or soft? Common or unusual? Does this word contribute to my overall piece? To this sentence? This paragraph? Is it the best word? Is there a more precise word? A more interesting one? Can the word be cut entirely (I'm thinking of adverbs mostly, but also words like "that")? Would a more vivid, a more active, a more nuanced word be better?

Look, we're writers. We all love words. Let's treat them as if they actually matters. Every single one.

Writing Tips from Teen Spy Author Anthony Horowitz: Another Night in the NJ Suburbs

2011-03-22T10:26:00.010-04:00

Last night my sons and I saw the novelist Anthony Horowitz at a pre-launch event for his book, Scorpia Rising, the last in the British teen spy Alex Rider series, released in the U.S. today. Instead of reading, Horowitz talked about being a writer, peppered with plenty of puns and obvious half-truths, and took questions from the mostly teen and tween audience, answering in a lively prattle. At one point, he noted how much he'd disliked school and that he'd put every one of his teachers in his novels, where they each promptly met with a painful death. (Note: the event took place in a middle school with many teachers in attendance.)

But then Horowitz got serious for a moment, giving advice to the fledging writers in the room. To me though, his tips are just as relevant to writers of any age or experience. Horowitz, who also writes for several British television shows, and is currently working on an adult novel about Sherlock Holmes, told his fans there are five basic things one must do to be a writer (I'm paraphrasing):

First, read. Second, write. Third, go out and have fun, have adventures. (Do something illegal! Don't get caught.) Or else you will have nothing to write about except someone alone in a room typing. Fourth, believe in yourself and what you are doing. There will always be someone telling you that what you are writing won't work. Ignore them. Fifth, never stop. The difference between a successful and unsuccessful writer is the unsuccessful one stopped writing.

Horowitz also talked about the connection between the mental state of the writer and the experience of the reader: "Writing is telepathy. If you are bored and miserable while writing, the reader will be bored and miserable reading."

The kids asked such great questions, and Horowitz gamely answered every one:

- He writes "anywhere and everywhere," but his favorite places are at a secluded vacation house and in his London home office, where he has a view of St. Paul's Cathedral.

- "The best thing about being a writer is thinking of new ideas. The writing itself is not so much fun. Writing is hard."

- Best places/times to work out new ideas are while walking his dogs and while in a hot bathtub. 'Or in a hot bath with the dogs," he joked (I think).

- In teen adventure books, "First chapter: kill all the parents. It's impossible for kids to have adventures with parents around."

- He liked the movie Stormbreaker, based on the first Alex Rider book. But – "No movie is ever as good as the book."

- Don't ever let anyone tell you that reading is passive. It's one of the most creative things you can ever do. Your mind is at work all the time when you are reading.

- Though he'd published many books before the Alex Rider series shot to global success, when he wrote the opening line of the first (of 9) books in that series, he had a strong feeling his life might change.

- He writes first drafts by hand.

- How to get back at movie producers who decide not to greenlight a second film from your series: put them in the next book, with thinly veiled names, and have them roll around in a mud puddle--while on fire.

Horowitz stayed on for more than an hour, signing 100+ books, greeting every kid by name, posing for photos, shaking hands, answering questions at the signing table. Kudos to Watchung Booksellers (my local independent bookstore), for brining Horowitz to Montclair, where he completed a circle of sorts. Ten years ago, the bookstore hosted him when he was only a moderately successful YA author, and immediately after, the Alex Rider series exploded across the globe. Coincidence? Cause? That didn't seem to matter to the large and enthusiastic audience of young readers, parents, teachers and librarians last night. All in all, a pretty terrific way to spend a Monday night in the New Jersey suburbs.

Writers: Stuck? Stalled? Procrastinating? Hey, maybe you Should Be Writing!

2011-03-19T09:00:00.002-04:00

You get to the end of a day, week or month and realize -- you haven't written a word. Everything you write isn't what you intended to write. You are stuck in the middle of a long writing project. Or can't get started even on a small one. Your writing routine is MIA. You spend more time talking about writing than you do writing. You're writing fairly regularly, but have little idea what you are actually working toward. You want to try something different on the page but can't seem to get out of your own way. You're fresh out of ideas – or have too many.

If any – or all—of the above describe your current relationship to your writing life, you have something in common with the 19 writers who enrolled in the Winter session of the online *I Should Be Writing* Boot Camp for Procrastinators and Busy People. When the class ended, six weeks later, here's what some of those writers had to say:

"I learned so much and am writing more than ever. I feel like a writer, finally."

"The class was amazing."

"Now I am really focused. Writing feels more serious than ever. Now I realize there's more to writing than just the time I spend at the computer. "

"This class has been a blessing. The structure helped me plan, and the assignments and goals taught me that I can stretch to meet a writing challenge."

"Such a rich and meaningful experience."

"This changed my writing life. "

"Before, I was really only talking about 'my book,' but didn't really have one started. Now I do and it's growing by several pages a week. I'm in action now."

"I've written and published a lot, but was just so stalled. Not anymore."

"I now have tools for handling all the so-called 'obstacles' that kept me from coming to the page."

Interested in getting your writing life in better shape? The Spring session of * I Should Be Writing* begins Monday, March 28. More details here. You can register using the PayPal button at left. Or contact me if you have questions about whether this is the class for you.

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, March 18, 2011 Edition

2011-03-18T09:47:00.004-04:00

► Members of the Authors Guild have about a month left to take advantage of their extremely generous discount offer on registration to Book Expo America, May 24 - 26 in New York City.

► If you are an essay writer (or simply love reading well-crafted essays), then you probably know about The Pedestrian. Now, you can gain online access to the full text of most of the journal's pieces with a 24-hour, $2.99 subscription.

► Two interesting pieces over at the Nieman Journalism Lab: A former editor-in-chief of the Sunday New York Times Magazine, and a former New Yorker writer, have a conversation about the future of long-form journalism, and a look at what the new paywalls at major newspaper websites may cost writers.

► Spend any time on Twitter? Then you might want this list of women in publishing who regularly tweet.

► Local writers, next Saturday, March 26, the West Caldwell Public Library, is hosting Women Poets Reading Poems that Reflect the Lives of Women. Included on the roster of two dozen-plus area poets are several who have been featured here on this blog.

► Over at Christian Writers Submission Information blog, I was pleased to find a wide range of calls for anthologies, journals and other projects (including many paying markets) that weren't strictly (or only) in the Christian writing lane.

► Congrats to my friend Kathy Briccetti, author of Blood Strangers: A Memoir, for her Lambda Literary Award nomination.

► Lisa Dale, author of several novels, including Slow Dancing on Price's Pier (release date April 5), is offering a free ebook download, 10 Simple Questions That Can Make or Break Your Author's Blog.

► Finally, the start date of my next online *I Should Be Writing* Boot Camp for Procrastinators and Busy People has been moved back to Monday, 3/28 so you still have time to register (that is if you don't procrastinate…) My Rutgers continuing education class, Memoir & Creative Nonfiction Writing, begins Saturday, 3/26, on the New Brunswick campus; registration accepted until Tuesday evening, 3/22.

Have a great weekend.

Guest Blogger Lisa Catherine Harper on revisions and her new book, A Double Life, Discovering Motherhood

2011-03-07T08:30:00.005-05:00

A few weeks ago, while prepping an online lecture on the tangled topic of writing about people we know and love (or have known and loved), Lisa Harper pointed me to a post she'd written for the Poetry Foundation blog. In that post, she describes discovering she was the subject of several poems in a book by a former lover. Lisa teaches in the University of San Francisco's MFA program, and in more of the writer community coincidences I love, Lisa grew up only a few miles from where I live and has written a new book about motherhood (a favorite writing subject of mine).

Please welcome Lisa Catherine Harper.

A Double Life, Discovering Motherhood, tells my personal story against the backdrop of science, focusing on how the physical changes of motherhood give rise to its profound emotional and psychological transformations. The book was informed equally by personal experience and the kind of research available only in medical textbooks and journals.

From the get-go, I aimed to write a nonfiction narrative about motherhood which looked beyond a personal story to something universal. But this posed problems for some agents and editors who told me it was “too quiet”; neither “self-help” nor “straightforward personal narrative.”

My book didn’t focus simply on pregnancy or on baby’s first year, but spanned the period of tumultuous change between conception and my daughter’s first nine months—a time that defined for me my transition to motherhood. Editors didn’t know what to do with the book, how to sell it, or where it would find its home in bookstores. I responded by working hard on two aspects of my manuscript: 1) Dramatizing the personal story; and 2) Ensuring the research emerged organically from the narrative.

To bring out the narrative I added more scene, increased the use of direct dialogue, and made setting more vivid. I also included significant character development of my husband. Early readers had asked for that, and I responded, and the result has been constant feedback about how much my readers now appreciate his presence. I cut whole chapters that didn’t relate to the larger story of change, and I completely rewrote a few that were cast in more lyric modes—which were lovely on their own but defied the structure of the book.

To integrate the research I worked very hard to translate medical language for a lay reader. Right up through the copyediting stage my editor and I continued to make sure the tone, diction, voice, and syntax of the medical language was consistent with the story. Also—I cut details and facts that, while interesting, did not have direct bearing on the story. So there was significant development, refining, and cutting, as well as some structural revision.

The passage that follows is a good example of a strategy that I urge my students to employ: the speedy anecdote, which is a summary that has the force of scene. The lists of food came later, and both were a way for me to show just how greedily and omnivorously hungry nursing made me. In the passage I try to move swiftly through a period of time that lasted a few weeks, but to give the episode immediate and urgent presence through the details (sweat soaked bedclothes, the showers, the lists of food.)

The medical passage is a good example of one which made use of more graceful transitions (During this period…after birth) and more straightforward syntax than you might find in a medical text. In the passage, I cast the list of facts so that it tells the physical story about what happens in during this difficult postpartum time. In fact, this material was gathered from several different chapters of the texts I worked with, then synthesized into one cohesive “story.”

My persistence paid off: my book won the 2010 River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize, found a home at Bison Books/University of Nebraska Press, and has been praised by Publishers Weekly as “universal, moving, and relevant.”

Below is a passage from “The Fourth Trimester,” which moves from story to research then back to story as it explores those impossibly hard first postpartum weeks.

After the pain [of labor], after the bone soaking fatigue, came the hunger. No one had prepared me for this. No one had warned me just how hungry I would become in the days after I gave birth. Even as the fluid left my body through urine and sweat—a horrible, cold sweat that soaked the bedclothes and necessitated two or three showers and two or three changes of pajamas each night—the milking left me ravenous, as if my stomach had been emptied along with my breast of every scrap of food and nutrient it might have possessed in reserve. I could never eat enough. Every few hours my blood sugar dropped precipitously, and it was all I could do to load myself with calories. I ate handfuls of nuts, chocolate, dried fruit, crackers, cheese, olives, meats, antipasto vegetables, cold pasta, cold pizza, salads gifted by friends. I was grateful to the point of speechlessness for the food my friends had dropped off, because even the ready-to-eat meals I had stored in our freezer took too much energy to prepare. Truly, it took Herculean effort to defrost and reheat and serve. Then, on day three of Ella’s life, an enormous, cement-heavy box arrived via FedEx from New York. I sliced it open and revealed a half dozen cheeses, olives, artichokes, flatbread, a loaf of dark rye, dolmas, roasted peppers, black olive tapenade, marinated mushrooms all slick with green olive oil and pungent with vinegar, and a large box of buttery, orange shortbread. Ravenous, I gazed at the bounty and wept. It was exactly what I needed. I could hardly believe my friend’s goodness. We ate our fill, and then, like the loaves and the fishes, the food sustained us for many days.

The first six weeks postpartum, often referred to as the fourth trimester, is a deceptively arduous time. During this period, the mother’s body must reverse all of the processes of pregnancy. Every system of her body, not simply her reproductive organs—from respiratory to gastrointestinal to hematologic to neuromuscular—has undergone dramatic physiological change in order to assume the additional functions and capacities of pregnancy. After birth, the mother’s blood volume, which has grown 30 to 50 percent, by up to a liter and a half, must decrease to pre-pregnancy levels. Her heart rate, which has increased progressively over the pregnancy until it beats fifteen to twenty times more per minute, will slow. The concentration of thyroid hormones, which have been elevated in order to support the altered metabolism of carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids, must return to normal. Placental hormones, like estrogen and progesterone, diminish rapidly. The mother’s uterus must shrink and resume its proper relation to the rest of her abdominal organs. The cervix, bruised and distended from delivery, must heal, or “form up” and shorten. The site of placental attachment also must heal (which it does, amazingly, without scarring). And, of course, breasts, under the influence of two powerful hormones, prolactin and oxytocin, must undergo the final transitions that will enable lactation. This is only the best case scenario: there are many complications—from surgery to depression to placental retention–that can make recovery even more arduous.

And then, there is the practical matter of the baby.

Notes from Lisa (Romeo): To learn more, visit Lisa Harper's website and watch the cool (and short) video book trailer. Her book is now available for pre-order. You can also follow Lisa Harper on Twitter.

If you'd like to win a free, signed copy of A Double Life, Discovering Motherhood, please leave a comment on this post by midnight, March 21 (must have a U.S. postal address). One commenter will be chosen at random.

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, March 4, 2011

2011-03-04T09:21:00.006-05:00

►Over at Writers for the Red Cross, all this month you can bid on "publishing-related items and services donated by authors, publicists, agents, and editors."

►Are there really fewer women's bylines on OpEd and other opinion pages simply because women writers don't submit as frequently as men?

►For years, I've heard only good things – raves, actually – about Robert McKee's Story Seminar (late March/early April in New York City). Originally geared to screenwriters, I know many novelists and nonfiction writers who claim their approach to narrative was transformed by attending.

►The New York Times Sunday Magazine has killed the On Language column after 32 years. But there is a Facebook page urging its return.

►If the Borders in your backyard recently closed, there's a list of alternative independent bookstores by location over at Reluctant Habits.

►Plot got you puzzled? Check out The Plot Whisperer.

►I'm wondering what the slush pile is looking like over at Akashic Books since publisher Johnny Temple said in this interview that his company still accepts (welcomes!) non-agented submissions.

►Finally, sometimes I'm actually glad I live in New Jersey. When library cuts loomed, Jersey library supporters took to Twitter with cleverly inspired tweets.

Have a great weekend!

Panning for Writing Rules, Finding Some

2011-03-02T08:00:00.000-05:00

I recently received a copy of MFA in a Box by John Rember, and have been dipping in and out.
Rember ends some chapters with a list of Rules for Writers. Here are some I like so far:
•Writing is co-written. The common name for co-author is reader.
• Every draft takes a layer off the surface of your consciousness. Rewriting is a form of personal archaeology, and the good stuff is never on the surface.
• Don't wade in over your boots unless you don't mind getting wet.
• Treat you reader with respect. They don’t' have the time to know what you know. Your own arrogance can kill the best parts of your stories.
• If you're lucky, the writer and the editor in you will accept the principle of mutually assured destruction and learn to put up with each other. The best I can say for this arrangement is that sometimes the editor saves the writer from going down the wrong path, and the writer saves the editor from reducing the story to a rehash of proven and predictable technique.
• Learn to turn your face toward the things that nobody else wants to look at. You'll find things there that nobody else has seen.

Author Interview: Laraine Herring on The Writing Warrior

2011-02-28T08:30:00.005-05:00

I discovered Laraine Herring's first book about writing when I was doing a bad job of getting out my own way as a writer. Her words buoyed me. Since then, Laraine and I have connected online, I've invited her to guest post here before, and she remains one of the sanest voices I know when it comes to helping writers cut through the clutter in our own heads. Laraine directs the creative writing program at Yavapai College in Prescott, Arizona, and is a novelist as well.

She has a new writing book out, The Writing Warrior: Discovering the Courage to Free Your True Voice. Here, in her own voice, she answers my questions.

Lisa Romeo: I loved your previous writing craft book, Writing Begins with the Breath: Embodying Your Authentic Voice. I was bowled over with how you connected the art and act of writing with so much else in a person's life. How, if at all, are the two books connected?

Laraine Herring: I think The Writing Warrior holds a higher level of accountability for the reader in relation to her or his own B.S. I think the tone of Writing Begins with the Breath is softer, more encouraging and more encompassing. With Warrior, I wanted to kick (gently) people into contact with their own tendencies and hopefully help them not only laugh at the ways they trip themselves up, but find the courage to face them head on without dissolving into shame and self-criticism. With Warrior, I wanted to emphasize personal responsibility to writing and to a writing life. Much of the writing life is in the valleys, not the peaks. Much of it is in between the sale, or the book signing, or the good review. What do you do in between those things? Those actions are what make you a writer.

LR: The title, The Writing Warrior: Discovering the Courage to Free Your True Voice, is interesting in itself. It conjures the idea of writing as something we need to gird ourselves for, and to me, also suggests that writing requires grit for the expedition of unearthing one's voice. What led you to this title, and what does it mean for you, both as a writer yourself, and a writing teacher?

LH: The warrior sequence in yoga has always been one of my favorites, and I think it’s often a misunderstood pose and phrase. Being a warrior is not all “rah” – not all yang energy. A warrior also must bend, must practice discernment, self-observation and awareness, and yes, that warrior must also be able to slice through her own illusions, but not in a destructive way, rather, in a way that makes the whole stronger. When you cut away the dead leaves on a plant, the plant grows stronger.

I think writers have to continually face unseen obstacles. The hardest part, in my observation of writing students and of myself, doesn’t occur in understanding how plot works or how characterization can develop; the hardest part comes in sustaining and maintaining a relationship to that writing, with all the ups and downs that any relationship of substance has. A warrior has staying power.

LR: You include a number of writing exercises throughout the book. I am a huge fan of writing exercises and writing prompts, both for myself, and for the developing writers I work with. Can you describe the role these activities can play in a writer's regular practice?

LH. I wish I could do my own exercises because I think they’re pretty cool, and I’ve seen them work quite well with students. I have books of writing exercises from other people (and I’ve subscribed to your Daily Writing Prompts) because I think it’s so important to maintain an element of surprise in your writing practice.

The reason my own exercises don’t work for me as well is because I’ve thought them through and I’ve (no matter how much I may try not to) formed some type of predetermined response to them. There’s no twist or surprise since I wrote them. When a teacher gives you a prompt and ten minutes, you’re free of all accounting and all preconception of what you should be doing. You truly get to play, and if play is a component of a regular writing practice, then you’re going to find a lightness throughout your writing time. I know it gets serious. I know we “angst” ourselves into misery. But we can also feel that sense of wonder, and the more familiar that is, the more our work is going to shimmer rather than sink.

LR. I was intrigued by your chapter "The Beginning is Not the Beginning," since it speaks to something I struggle with, and counsel other writers to address: not forcing the big idea in a piece, but instead working within the material and trusting the process. Why do you think writers fight against this more natural way of letting their work unfold?

LH. I blame it on grade school! But seriously, I think many people are taught to view writing as a product, and even worse, a skill that can be mastered and then pulled out at will to create something perfect on demand. We can memorize our multiplication tables and they’ll always work for us, but there’s no equivalent in writing. I think students and beginning writers often think there is, or should be.

Every semester students wail to me about how hard writing is and how they feel like they should be better than they are. They’ve never tried before, yet they think they should be perfect at it. That’s a damaging myth. No sane person in a first semester ballet class thinks they should be of the caliber to dance with Baryshnikov. Yet, people take one writing class and think they should be good enough for a publishing contract. I don’t honestly know why that’s so prevalent, but I keep seeing it.

I also think there’s a natural element of laziness to being human, and to write something well, we have to have patience and persistence. Those seem to be challenging qualities for many of us. I also think that people are often trained to have a big idea – they must have something to say. They must have a theme (shudder, shudder). So they get hung up on writing in the clouds rather than playing in the dirt. Writing is built from the ground up.

LR. You write, "Few things strike fear in the hearts of writers more than the notion of revision," and list some reasons -- laziness, self-loathing, disappointment at not getting it right the first time, not wanting to look deeper into the work and story, etc. I am continually amazed that newer writers resist revisions so strongly while accomplished writers revel in it (or at least understand revision's value and spend the time). How do you help writers develop an appreciation for revision and build the tools and mindset to make it a regular practice?

LH: In my beginning short story writing class, I require them to completely trash the first draft (they don’t have to burn it or anything!) They have to start their revision on a new, blank piece of paper. We devote a full class period to talking about this and talking them off the proverbial cliff. It’s harsh, I know, but I also know that I only have 15 weeks with them, and this is so uncomfortable that, left to their own devices, they’ll move a comma or two around and call it a revision.

I want to kick them into the unknown and give them a space to return to with something fresh. It works, though there is great weeping and gnashing of teeth. I also try very hard to emphasize that the first drafts are not the end. I try to help them see that each draft gives gifts and sign posts for what the next draft and ultimately the heart of the story could be.

If they can reframe the drafting process as something that is providing messages and clues to them about the story, that helps. If they think the drafting process is just fixing stuff until it’s right, we don’t have a great deal of success. I also try to emphasize the draft as communication between author and story, and that communication gets more refined and distilled as the signal gets stronger.

LR: You write about a time in your life when you and another writer phoned one another at 5:30 a.m. each weekday to check in and be sure you were both writing before heading out to day jobs. I'm a big believer in having writing accountability partners. Now that you've published several books, how do you track your own productivity and stay accountable?

LH: I miss my friend Jeffrey terribly. He’s been dead for three years now, and I have to say, it’s a hole in my writing and personal life. I have a great friend I share writing with, but Jeffrey was someone quite different. We didn’t critique each other’s work as much as demand accountability of one another for the act of writing. I won’t lie. It’s hard to maintain that for yourself alone. Everyone is so uber-busy now. We’re all teaching a gazillion students, trying to balance family and work, trying to write, struggling with health issues or aging parents, cut salaries – it’s hard. Jeffrey may be the only friend of this type I have in this life. So I imagine him calling, and I imagine what he’d say, and I often get up and write for him. He was only 45 when he died. I am 42. My dad died when he was 46. Time is short. I’ve framed my life around the phrase “memento mori” (remember you will die).

LR: I like what you say about the Illusion of Publication: "Your responsibility is to your craft and to the voice of your work. Keep your eyes there. When publication happens, it will neither unmoor you nor freeze you. It will just be the next right thing." Did you have any personal experiences with how publication either unmoored or froze you? And what do you mean by the "next right thing".

LH: For me, publication occurred at the right time. It didn’t occur when I wanted it to (ha), but it occurred at the right time. I already knew that it wouldn’t change anything other than I would have a book to share. I had been rejected for so very long that I learned my primary relationship was to writing, not to publishing.

“The next right thing” means exactly what it says. If you do the work of writing: read, write, revise, read, write, revise, solicit feedback, study the craft, etc, etc that work – that putting one word after the other with no attachment to an outcome, will result in the next right manifestation of that work. The book appears when the book is ready to appear. If the writer will focus on the practice, on the work, the results have a sneaky way of taking care of themselves.

LR: What do you hope, above all else, that a writer can take from your book?

LH: Respect the art.

Note from Lisa: Please visit Laraine's website and blog for further inspiration.

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, February 25, 2011

2011-02-25T08:00:00.000-05:00

If you're new here, nearly every Friday, I post links to items of interest to writers that I've stumbled across. Enjoy!

►Over at The Writers Alley, Christin Taylor makes some good points about writers and the blank page.

►Buy the whole issue, or buy one short story. That's the idea behind Found Press Quarterly, a new Canadian digital literary journal.

►Speaking of Canada, you can get your fill of information about the literary journal world north of the border at The Literary Type.

►There is now a poetry blog at the National Book Foundation. A new original essay will appear each weekday until May. They began with the year 1950 and are working forward, paying tribute to the 51 poets who earned a National Book Award in poetry over the past 60 years.

►Though it wasn't often, whenever I was in New England, I'd enjoy Katherine A. Powers' column, A Reading Life in the Sunday Boston Globe. Now the column's been cut, but according to Galley Cat, I'll be able to find her at the Washington Post and Barnes & Noble Review. Here's an interview with Powers, from December.

►Finally, just for fun, A Book Inside looks at the unique and sometimes oddball rituals of 20 famous writers.

Have a great weekend.

Take that, lousy contract. There, I feel better now. Sort of.

2011-02-23T09:30:00.001-05:00

I don't spend a lot of time here complaining about the writing life. Hey, I chose it. I'm here, most of the time, to connect with others who have also chosen to write. So I try to confine my complaining. Then, there's this…..

The other day, I get an emailed contract from a new website, and in between reading it on the screen, I'm also scanning email, and oh look -- an announcement that the site is now live! Funny I thought that was happening in two weeks.

I click over, check things out, look around the site and see…my essay. The very same essay to which the contract pertains. I wonder, am I old or just old fashioned in expecting contracts to arrive BEFORE publication?

A few hours later, I get another email. So sorry, it ways, but the dollar amount in the contract is, ahem, wrong. It's actually, you know, less money. About half as much. Not a problem, is it? And, oh yes, by the way, there is a new payment schedule – 60 to 90 days after publication, not 30.

Did I mention the contract's lousy terms, how the publisher wants to own – well, everything? Publisher, you know what, I have an idea, let's save us both some time: How about if you also take…oh I don't know, how about rights to my entire inventory of past, current and future pieces, all my current and future ideas, and all my notes too – hey, you never know, you might want to one day publish, resell, reassign, republish in any media, now existing or ever invented, without further compensation.

For the first time in my professional life, I pick up the phone and tell a publication where to stick their contract. I say take down the essay and they do. I don't feel much better. But I think I will.

Writers: Start Your Exercise Engine

2011-02-22T15:49:00.004-05:00

Every month or so, when email coupons arrive, I order a few books about writing. I mine them for new insights and examples to share with my writing students, and read them to expand my own craft development. Some of my favorite writing books are sprinkled with writing exercises, tips, suggestions and "assignments."

One new purchase was Writing Life Stories: How to make Memories into Memoirs, Ideas into Essays, and Life into Literature, by Bill Roorbach, the paperback edition of the successful 2008 hardcover. I especially like his exercises, many of which are infused with the wit and grit of his entire book.

In a chapter titled, Saying it Right, he discusses the importance of assembling words and utilizing language in precisely the right way for your writing project. The beginning of the instructions for an exercise he calls Forget About Style goes like this: "In this exercise you are to throw a fit – perhaps you're furious because of the latest round of rejections slips, a stupid reading from a friend, Cheetah ran off with Ken – throw a fit and kick the pieces of your style kit around the frat house while the drunken brothers yell…."

Later, he talks about the motion, musicality and rhythm of writing, how our words must sing. This reminds me of a writing professor I once had who insisted an essay of mine needed more of a beat, that she should hear a BAM every few lines. Since she said that, I've always read my work aloud and listened carefully for the beats, the rhythm, and – though I never called it this – as Roorbach says, the "motion" in the flow of words.

Roorbach offers this exercise: "Tap Your Feet. Pull out the work of a favorite writer, and read it listening and feeling for the rhythm and rhythms. Tap your feet as you read out loud. Look for repeated words or phrases that set up a beat. Listen for sentences that rise, sentences that fall…." He goes on to suggest doing the same for another writer, and noticing the rhythm differences, and then giving your own work the same treatment.

I've been doing this sort of thing for several years, usually when I'm home alone. If I try to do this when my family is around, even if I close the office door – maybe especially when I close the office door – they begin muttering about how writers really ARE crazy.

Go ahead – get crazy with your words, too!

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, February 18th 2011 Edition

2011-02-18T13:45:00.002-05:00

►Worried that maybe you use one favorite word or one particular phrase too frequently? Check your prose over at WriteWords to find out.

► Over at Daily Finance, Karen Dionne tells all about foreign rights.

► In case you haven't followed the discussion about the distribution of work by women vs. men in literary magazines, here's the Vida post which started it all.

►If you like writer-centered link round-ups like this, try the 20-links lists over at Writer's Rainbow.

►And Erika Dreifus lists links to some post-AWP conference reactions.

►To what commuting lengths will some folks go to complete their education. Check out this writer's (gorgeous but trying) commute.

►If, like me, you enjoy the work of writer Hope Edelman, check out her relaunched blog.

►On Twitter, people with strong opinions about possible editorial fallout from the Huffington Post/AOL merger are posting under the hashtag #huffpuff. One positive outcome are the tweets directing writers to less well-known (paying) online venues to pitch/submit online news and features.

Have a great weekend.

Guest Blogger Allison Gilbert on her new book, Parentless Parents, and writing about family in nonfiction

2011-02-15T08:30:00.009-05:00

Months ago I invited Allison Gilbert – who I like in person as much as I do as a writer – to guest post here in support of the publication of Parentless Parents: How the Loss of Our Mothers and Fathers Impacts the Way We Raise Our Children (Hyperion). Allison chose to present an excerpt from the book along with insight about the process of writing about her personal life and family members in the pages of her nonfiction. As it happens, this coincides with the start yesterday of an online class of mine in which we are addressing writing about loved ones. I love coincidences like that.

Please welcome Allison Gilbert.

For the last few years, in my work as a writer, I’ve revealed some exceptionally private details about my life and exposed equally intimate stories about my husband and his family. I don’t omit the kind of information that might make a more private person cringe. I feel a great need to tell my story honestly. Why else go through the awful pain of writing? But the reality is, I am quite aware that the people I write about, these characters I create on the page, are the very same individuals I need to pass cranberry sauce to on Thanksgiving, and that makes the type of writing I do, complicated.

My family has been very supportive of me, and nobody has ever asked me to omit passages from my work they could easily have found objectionable.

And right there, in that last sentence I just typed, is the key to getting away with what I do: I show them what I’ve written before any comma, period, or colon gets printed. They don’t have editorial control, but they deserve to know what’s coming. Being blindsided would be uncomfortable for anyone.

Interestingly, the facts I write about never seem to be in dispute. I’ve never had to wrangle with a family member that a certain conversation actually took place. What does differ (and what often prompts the most interesting reactions) is how the same events or conversations often made each of us feel so differently.

My father-in-law once said something to me in passing, for example, that meant absolutely nothing to him – but hurt me so deeply I could never bring myself to talk with him about it. Years later as I was writing Parentless Parents, I decided to write about what he said. Instead of causing friction between us, bringing it out into the open through my writing brought us closer. Ultimately, I’ve found, the key to writing about my family has been showing them that I love and respect them enough to include them in the process.

This excerpt, taken from Chapter 7 of Parentless Parents, is an example of taking an exceptionally private moment public. My husband and I had gotten into a wicked fight about his mother, the kind of conversation you would never want your mother-in-law to hear. When it was finally time for me to show her the following passages, I held my breath until she finished reading.

The worst fight Mark and I ever had ended in a volcanic explosion of Doritos. When the neon dust finally settled, it seemed not an inch of our kitchen floor was clean. Days later, I was still sponging orange powder from the cereal cabinet and silverware tray. Our argument began because I didn’t want Mark’s mother coming over to our house – again. Marilyn is a wonderful mother-in-law. Warm. Loving. A fantastic grandma. But on that day, at that minute, I had reached my in-law limit.

It was July 4th weekend, and we’d just spent nearly the entire holiday with Mark’s family. We had gotten up early Saturday morning and gone to New Jersey to spend the day with his mother and our two nieces at his sister’s house. That night, after Mark’s mom headed back to her home a few miles away, we went with all the cousins to see fireworks with Mark’s dad and stepmother.

Sunday morning, we were at home finishing a late breakfast when the phone rang. Mark went into our bedroom to find the receiver (it’s cordless and we constantly lose it) and within minutes he returned to the kitchen and gleefully announced, “Grandma’s coming over in an hour, guys!”

"Today?!” I asked, clearly not thrilled with the idea.

“She just has a little laundry to do,” Mark explained. At the time, Marilyn lived in an apartment building about 25 minutes away and came over about twice a month to do a load or two and see her grandchildren.

“Can’t she come over next weekend?”

“All-i-son,” he said in exasperation. Mark pronouncing every syllable of my name is the verbal equivalent of putting his foot down -- which only angered me more. I shot him a look that I had hoped Jake and Lexi didn’t see. My voice began to rise.

“Can’t we just have a day to ourselves?”

“No, Allison. She has laundry to do to-day.”

“But I want to spend the day with just you and the kids. Just us!” Jake and Lexi were at this point looking up from their plates and I was uncomfortably aware that they were hearing me say that I didn’t want their grandmother to come over. But I couldn’t help myself. To the core of my being, I didn’t want her to come over. Marilyn’s the one woman who reminds me most of my mother’s absence, and on that day I just needed a break.

“She’ll only be here for a few hours!” Mark yelled, clenching his fists into tight, violent balls.

Mark is generally easy-going and hard to upset, and for the first time since I’d known him, I was scared he was going to punch his hand through the kitchen window. But I didn’t relent. I couldn’t. “We spent all day with her yesterday! Please,” I pleaded.

Mark was furious, and I knew it was all because of me. And while he didn’t strike the glass as I had feared, he started pummeling the unopened bag of Doritos on the kitchen island. He punched it again and again until pulverized chips spewed everywhere. Instantly I was sorry for what I had done – mostly because Jake and Lexi saw and heard everything.

So how did my mother-in-law react when she read these passages? Was she angry with me? Offended? No, it turns out these potentially hurtful words made her feel closer to me. For so long, she said, I’d kept her in the dark, and refused to let her “in.” Ultimately, these passages sparked a thread of conversations we never would have had otherwise. And it’s because of them – that my mother-in-law have never been closer.

Note from Lisa: Learn more about Allison’s new book Parentless Parents by watching the book trailer on YouTube. Allison is also the founder of Parentless Parents, a new and growing nationwide network of parents who have experienced the loss of their own mothers and fathers. You can join the conversation by visiting Parentless Parents on Facebook. If you would like a free signed copy of Parentless Parents, leave a comment here by midnight February 21 (US postal addresses only); one name will be drawn at random.

Reading (Way) Outside My Comfort Zone

2011-02-14T11:49:00.005-05:00

I like to read outside my comfort zone from time to time, and when I do read a book, or even part of one, which I wouldn't ordinarily pick up, I always learn something.

Readers of this blog know of my interest in song lyrics and the people who write them. While waiting for my son to finish a chess club event at our library the other day, my eyes fell on Decoded by Jay-Z.

In the book, the rapper and hip hop star offers analyses of his own lyrics, interleafed with anecdotal reminiscences of coming of age in the Budford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. I'm pretty certain Jay-Z had a ghostwriter, and she's kept the star's voice on the page (for better and worse, depending on each reader's taste).

I read the first 40 pages in between doing a zillion other things – one of which was compiling a lecture on nonficiton writing that involved working with memories that seem elusive or incomplete. One of my points is that in many cases, it's often more interesting to the reader – and certainly more honest – for the writer to put our own misgivings about the quality of our memory right on the page, to write the memory holes into the prose. I know I have many examples of this on my bookshelf.

But before I had a chance to look for them, there, on page 4 of Decoded, I stumbled across one example of working with a fragmented memory. Jay-Z is describing the first time he saw a rapping rhymer in action, on a street corner in his rough-and-tumble world (bold mine):

"...Like the day I wandered up to something I'd never see before: a cipher – but I wouldn't have called it that; no one would've back then. It was just a circle of scrappy, ashy, skinny Brooklyn kids laughing and clapping their hands, their eyes trained on the center. I might have been with my cousin B-High, but I might have been alone, on my way home from playing baseball with my Little League squad. "

He can't remember who he was with or where he was going, so he shares that with the reader, suggesting likely scenarios based on the activities he does remember doing frequently (being with B-High, walking home from baseball). He didn't know what to call the thing he'd come across, though later he learned the word (cipher), but he tells the reader about his ignorance at the time of the incident. Both are better decisions, sharing with the reader what the author doesn't know, than either skipping the incident altogether, or fleshing it out with details he can't stand behind or couldn't have known at the moment.

As for the book in its entirety, I may not get to page 317. I know only a handful of Jay-Z's recordings, so I can't comment on whether his meditations on, and explanations of the lyrics, jive with what I thought the lyrics meant (or if I really want to go there). I don't have an opinion on whether hip hop lyrics are a new and important poetic form. Or even if I like the guy.

I'm only saying that when I read outside my comfort zone, it makes me think. Sometimes, I read more carefully. That's always a good thing for a writer.

Readers, what have you read lately that's outside your comfort zone?

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, Feb. 4, 2011 Edition

2011-02-04T09:34:00.005-05:00

Stats are telling me I have a bunch of new readers – so, Welcome! On Fridays, I post links for writers – an entirely eclectic and personal assortment of what I've stumbled across and think may be useful, interesting, intriguing, odd and sometimes, funny. Enjoy!

►In this interview over at Second Act, novelist Terry McMillan describes what happened to her characters while in revision stage for one of her novels: "With each subsequent rewrite, I changed it to be more about them and less about me." So many other good insights in the piece too.

►This weekend, when so many writers in Washington, D.C., at the annual conference of AWP (Association of Writers & Writing Programs), taking a look at the toll the modern writing rat race takes seems particularly apt. Amber Sparks evaluates and decides to step off the maddening treadmill of write fast / publish frequently / share & promote your published work like mad online / write about your writing / then do it all again. (hat tip Cathy Day via Practicing-Writing). Also, read Cathy's post about AWP and anxiety.

►Regular readers of this blog know that I have a thing about the art of writing song lyrics. I simply find it fascinating and therefore loved this piece in the New York Times about how a budding songwriter sought help from a Pulitzer Prize winning poet to improve his lyric writing craft.

►Speaking of poetry, O, The Oprah Magazine's April issue will spotlight poetry, in recognition of National Poetry Month. I feel divided about this. A monster mainstream magazine spotlighting poetry is a good thing, right? But they're planning to mix celebrity poetry with that of recognized poets. And their choice of guest editor? Not a poet, but Maria Shriver. I get that she's (apparently) a lover of poetry, but I wonder – for a magazine devoted to empowering women and recognizing their achievements, might it be a better idea to bring a real live female POET on board to edit the issue?

►The Atavist presents long-form journalism on the iPad, iPhone, iPodTouch, Nook, Kindle and other platforms. Since I don't have any of those devices (yet) I can't personally vouch for the content, though people I trust say they've read engaging pieces of good quality there.

► This one has been in my Friday Fridge Clean-Out hopper for a while and I don't know why I haven't passed it on sooner: Nathan Bransford on writing better dialogue.

► There seems to be something for every kind of writer over at Working Writers, from interviews with mainstream novelists to profiles of poets, tech tips, productivity discussions, and explorations of craft.

►One of my writing coaching clients tipped me off about Sentence First: An Irishman's blog about the English Language. Word and language geeks could waste some real time over there.

►Library Journal's list of five notable memoirs which will debut over the next three months, is now up.

►And finally, while you're waiting (and waiting…) to hear back on submissions to literary journals, you could catch up on reviews of the journals themselves, plus a little (or sometimes, a lot) of writerly jabs in their direction over at the Review Review. (Be sure to read the About page.)

Have a great weekend!

Write. Submit. Wait. Write. Submit. Wait.

2011-02-03T08:15:00.004-05:00

I'd like to share with you a writing experience I had a few months ago.

Here's what happened. Back in February 2010, after making a list of 10 literary journals I thought would be good homes for a particular piece, I submitted a 6,000 word segmented narrative essay to the first six. By June, three had passed (and so I promptly sent it out to the next three on my list). In September, on a Sunday morning, I received an email from the nonfiction editor of one of the journals – a biggie.

She loved the piece, she said, and was looking to fill a slot in an upcoming issue, already in full production mode, but that opening was for a 2000 to 3000 piece. If I wanted to preserve my piece in its 6000-word form, she'd hold on to it and put it into the next round of editor readings, to see if it would again make the preliminary cut for a future issue. But, she and another nonfiction editor were most intrigued with a particular 7 pages (out of 19) of my piece. Would I consider shaping an excerpt around those pages? Oh, and could I do so by Thursday?

This is a literary journal in which I'd feel honored to have my work published; it has a reputation for presenting finely crafted pieces by writers I admire. Of course I would do it. But. Going from a 19 page piece to a 9 page piece poses a boatload of prickly challenges. Then again, it was written as a segmented essay anyway, meant to be digested in chunks. How hard could it be? Huh.

She and I talked it over, and we decided I had two choices: Present the sections she liked most on their own, with no introductory or concluding text, just a line noting it's an excerpt from a memoir-in-progress; OR, lift the segments and create a new opening and a new, condensed ending. For various reasons, mostly to do with preserving the overall tone, I opted for the latter.

Fortunately I love revision. I enjoy deconstructing my prose and finding new ways it might also work. I like the challenge of saying more – or at least as much – in fewer words, and in a more finely fitted form. Give me a deadline, an editor who's sharp and supportive, the chance to crack an admired publication (and some dark chocolate) and I'm a happy camper. Still, you'd think it would be simpler. After all, we're only talking about writing a page or so new material, to be shaped around existing prose, right? Right.

Thing is, when I was able to see the 7 pages on their own, I realized that for a new opening and ending to work, I couldn't just condense the segments which had originally come before and after. I found I had to put aside the existing other 12 pages of prose, though they did guide me. In the end, when I got done hating every new word, I eventually loved (almost) every word.

The more I departed from my original words, phrases and images, and my original idea of just how long the piece "should" be, the easier it got. Which reminds me, yet again, how much more we are capable of as writers if only we can get out of our own way. Sometimes getting out of our way means starting with blank pages, new ideas, and fear.

I finished and sent the piece off. And heard nothing for days, then for two weeks, which surprised me only given the urgency the editor had initially implied. I sent a follow-up email and the reply seemed to suggest she'd forgotten what she had asked me to do. (Journal editors are busy and overworked, I get it, I do.) I explained again, and was advised to wait. I did, for another few weeks, and then was told it was going "up a level," for the approval of her editor-in-chief. It could go either way.

It went the wrong way.

I considered that I may have made the wrong choice, that I should have simply lifted the 7 pages she liked, labeled it an excerpt, and left it at that. Was it a case of my thinking I knew better than this editor, who perhaps was, between the lines, telling me what I should do? Then why had she given me a choice, I wondered. Because she's a good editor, who respects writers, that's why. And I'm a bit thick.

I pouted for a bit. Vowed to never submit there again, or to submit anything again, anywhere, ever.

Then I realized: Now this work has two incarnations, and I'll have two similar but different pieces to submit (again!) to another round of journals. Maybe the new, shorter form will open opportunities at journals that won't publish 6000 word pieces, which I had previously ruled out based on what I had decided was the piece's "final, finished" form. It took an editor I'd never met, who'd never read my work before, to notice something that was right under my nose – the clarity and tightness of those particular 7 pages.

In the end I had to admit I'd learned something (actually a few things) and not just about how to be nimble and flexible in the crazy world of literary submissions, but also about what it takes to re-imagine a piece of work, even after it's "done," and about how important it is to embrace the discipline of revision as something that not only gets the job done, but which contributes to one's craft.

The piece is still circulating to other journals in its original 6000 word form, AND it's also now circulating to other publications in its new 3000 word form, AND its been submitted also in its 2000 word excerpt-with-no-explanation form. And so we wait...

Author Interview: Erika Dreifus on her short story collection, Quiet Americans

2011-02-01T08:00:00.004-05:00

Sometimes, a particular writer friend comes along at a perfect time, and through that friendship, that writer seems to "answer" for us questions we didn't even know to ask. Thus it was with Erika Dreifus, with whom I first connected through her excellent blog. Since then, we've stayed in touch, met up at writer conferences, shared meals, and she even showed up at my first poetry reading (now that, believe me, is a true writer friend!). I am completely thrilled her debut short story collection, Quiet Americans, has just been published. I'm not in the habit of praising a friend's book simply because it's a friend's book; with that in mind, let me simply say I loved every single story, paragraph, sentence, phrase and word.

Lisa Romeo: We all know the old advice: Write what you know. And its corollary: Write what you DON'T know about what you know. In this collection, I get a sense of you maybe starting from what you know (family stories and history), and then exploring what you wish you knew, what you suspect you might know but really don't know, and even what you want to know but perhaps might prefer not to know. Does any of that make sense to you as you look back over your motivations and inspirations for the collection?

Erika Dreifus: First, Lisa, thank you so much for conducting this interview. I am a longtime fan of Lisa Romeo Writes (and Lisa Romeo, Writer), so this is a true privilege for me.

Yes, your comments make quite a lot of sense! In many of these stories, I began with something that I knew, but built a story based on what no one had spoken about, or what I'd been left wondering. For example, I've written elsewhere about the kernel of truth that inspired the opening story, "For Services Rendered": a factoid recounted by my paternal grandmother about a German-Jewish refugee pediatrician she met here in the United States. "For Services Rendered" was definitely motivated by my ruminating over the backstory, which I didn't know, and which, by the time I began drafting the piece during my last semester in my MFA program, I could no longer discuss with my grandmother, as she had passed away a year earlier.

LR: As a Christian and an Italian-American, I have no experience hearing Jewish family stories about atrocities of World War II. As I read these stories, however, I found that while the specific context is of course paramount to their meaning, the larger issues -- of human compassion, justice and the delicate nature of family history – were extremely universal. Was that a consideration for you when writing, to be sure the shared human themes were clear?

ED: I think that many of the motivating questions—the things, to borrow your phrasing above, that I wished I knew, or that I suspected I might know but didn't really know—are, in fact, universal. At their core, they are questions about why an individual makes the choices s/he does, and how one's actions can radiate out and affect others in unexpected ways. I'm not certain that these were conscious considerations for me while I was writing, but I'm very glad to have discovered them in the end.

LR: I keep wanting to say this book is such a "great read," but that sounds almost too close to saying it was "entertaining," which I was afraid sounded belittling. But as a reader, it was so engaging, in a literary sense – I did not want to stop reading at the end of each story – and yet I wondered if it was okay for me to be deriving "entertainment" value from a book about such important (and harrowing) issues. Does that make any sense to you?

ED: Well, thank you, Lisa. And yes, I think that I can understand what you’re saying here. I’m encountering some similar feelings, for instance, as I am signing books. Somehow, I shrink from inscribing anything such as “Hope you enjoy the read! J”

But I'm certainly not the first person to write about harrowing issues. To the extent that as writers, we learn about craft from reading, I have learned from others’ examples. The writer has to be careful: You don’t want to drive the reader away.

A current example from the film world comes to mind: Right now, I’m avoiding “Black Swan,” because I just don’t think that I can tolerate watching it. Your response to my book—appreciating the intensity but also being able to remain immersed—is, to me, far more preferable (although it appears that “Black Swan” is doing just fine without me!).

LR: As someone who suffered two serious bouts of postpartum depression, I was gripped by the story, "Matrilineal Descent," in which a character in the 1910s suffers from the condition, and its long-reaching effects on her descendents. I also especially loved the directness you attained by the partial second-person point-of-view. The story seemed to be not so much about PPD itself, but about the absence of it from the cultural conversation. What got you interested in that theme for a story? And how did you arrive at the double POVs?

ED: Here we return to the matters of source material and motivating questions. Like the situation of European Jews under Nazism, but on a much quieter and more private scale, postpartum depression is also a significant part of my family history and inheritance. In its own way, it left me with as many questions and anxieties as the more public history did.

This specific story grew out of emotions and questions attached to my paternal grandfather's life and, more specifically, the circumstances surrounding the death of his biological mother (my great-grandmother) the summer after he was born. There's been postpartum depression on both sides of my family tree, and I've thought about changes in awareness and treatment over time, and how all of that has played out across the generations. So I think that your point about the story's emphasis on a certain phase in that history—a time when both awareness and treatments were rudimentary at best—is right on.

As for the POVs: that's something I'm not certain I can answer. Again, there were things I knew, or was able to discover, and there were things that remained far more elusive to grasp or write about. In some way, I think I needed the additional POV as a way to help me mediate the distance between those two realms.

LR: Many characters, and/or their descendents, appear in several stories, and in places the collection feels like a segmented novel. Yet other stories are completely independent (or did I miss something?). When you were writing, were you intentionally linking the stories, or did you find that certain characters simply kept showing up (or wouldn't leave you alone)? And later, when you were assembling the stories for this collection, how did their inter-relatedness influence which ones you chose and where each would occur in the book physically?

ED: You're quite right, and you didn’t miss anything!

Several of the stories—but not all of them—are linked by characters and family ties. And I've written other stories featuring members of this extended family, many of which have been published in journals and magazines but are not included in Quiet Americans. Somehow, a collection comprising only stories about these characters didn't really come together.

Initially, I was a little squeamish about including only some linked stories. But I gained some confidence when I read Yes, Yes, Cherries, a wonderful collection by Mary Otis (Tin House Books, 2007), in which some, but not all of the stories feature the same protagonist over time.

As for the assembly process: Looking back, I've realized that two literary agents who expressed strong and sustained interest in earlier iterations of the collection were instrumental in helping me select and order the pieces that have gone into the final book. For that, I am extremely grateful.

There's a chronological thread, too, and perhaps it's the academically-trained historian in me that was pulled to this structure. More specifically: The first three stories are set before or during World War II, and the last three stories take place in the first several years of 21st century. The middle story—the fourth of the seven—is pretty much set at a midpoint, in 1972.

LR: Related to that, when writing, do you use any kind of physical or electronic document, family tree, or other device, to keep relationships, time periods and other elements clear and correct?

ED: This is a terrific question, but I have to say that no, I don't use those devices. Which means that I'm especially glad that my publisher/editor caught an inconsistency or two as we progressed toward publication!

LR: The second person POV again, in the story "The Quiet American, or How to Be a Good Guest," for me at least, seems to suggest a bridge (a blurring?) between fiction and nonfiction. While I understand that fiction is only in part reliant on the author's live, that story especially struck me as one that may have had roots in a personal experience. Care to comment?

ED: Yes, there are definite autobiographical components in that story. For example, like the narrator, I did visit Stuttgart in the summer of 2004. I, too, have a terrible sense of direction. And I did, indeed, sign up for a bus tour of the city.

But other elements of that story are entirely invented, and one major thread is borrowed (a much nicer word that "stolen," don't you think?) and adapted from a travel experience in Germany that a dear friend shared with me over a meal a shortly after my trip. This is part of what is so alluring to me about fiction-writing: the opportunity to combine fragments of personal experience, research, what we learn from others, and what we imagine, and create something new and whole in its own right.

LR: I loved the final story, "Mishpocha," in which a man learns he not be quite who he thinks he is; it seemed to tie together threads you explore in the stories that come before. It feels current, since he traces ancestry online, but it's timeless too, the idea of searching for truths we may not eventually want to confront; and you weave it so beautifully into a larger family story. When I read a story like that, I often wonder about the initial drafts and the writer's intentions in the early stages, whether the writer always intended to have these two parallel narratives in the same story, or if that emerged during the process of drafting two separate ideas?

ED: Well, here's a variation on the recipe I just mentioned: Take a discovery, add some research and a dash of personal experience, and mix thoroughly with imagination.
I definitely had more than one idea from the start, but it took awhile for the strands to sort themselves out. First, I'd been captivated by a newspaper story that ran in the Boston Globe during the summer of 2006, about a man who had pursued his family history and genealogy for decades avocationally. He took immense pride in his family heritage, and was stunned to learn around age 70—his mother was in her nineties when she revealed the information—that he'd been adopted. (Jewishness, by the way, was not a part of this particular story.) I clipped the story and put it aside.

About a month after that article appeared, I attended a Jewish genealogy conference for the first time, and that's where I discovered the advances in DNA technology that are referenced in "Mishpocha." In one session, a panelist recounted a true story about someone who learned through this technology that the man he'd considered to be his father was not, in fact, his biological parent. And I just sat there in the audience thinking: That is a story.

So those elements emerged not quite, but almost, simultaneously. And at some point shortly thereafter, as I processed other aspects of the genealogy conference and considered, yet again, the impact of Nazism and the Holocaust on successive generations, the story came together.

LR: As someone who is being published for the first time in book form, did your perception of yourself as a writer shifted at all during the post-acceptance and pre-publication process? Do you now have different writing goals and thoughts about what's possible for your writing future, than before you were able to claim the title, "author"?

ED: It would be great to nod and smile and answer confidently and affirmatively here, but the truth is that I still don't quite know what to expect or hope for from this book's publication. Last Light Studio approached me quite unexpectedly, at a time when I'd long since accepted (and, to a considerable extent, come to appreciate) the ways in which my writing life had turned out to be quite different from what I had envisioned back as a beginning MFA student. So I'm taking a wait-and-see approach here. Time will tell.

Note from Lisa: A free signed copy of Quiet Americans will go to one person chosen from those who leave comments to this post by midnight, Feb. 8 (must have U.S. postal address). Erika is donating a portion of her proceeds from the sale of Quiet Americans to The Blue Card, which supports survivors of Nazi persecution and their families in the United States.

Friday Fridge Clean Out – Links for Writers, Jan. 28, 2011 Edition

2011-01-28T11:18:00.003-05:00

►Novelist Nina Vida on how she resurrected a 20-year-old, traditionally published novel of hers, revised and independently rebirthed it as an ebook on her own.

► A lovely post by Ellen Meeropol on the writer's job of writing AND reading, over at Word Love, the blog of novelist Randy Susan Meyers. And another one over there by Karen Dionne, with the author's perspective on the making of an audiobook.

► Two writing sites I hadn't seen before: Life Story Writing and Extreme Writing Now. The latter, among other things, offers writing prompts, and you know how crazy I am about prompts.

► I mentioned his Chronicle of Higher Education essay here a few weeks ago, and now The Shadow Scholar, who earned a living ghosting college term papers and graduate theses, has, predictably, landed a book deal.

►Amazon is now selling Kindle Singles, short (10K – 30K words), priced at $2.99 or less. Interesting assortment of authors on their first offering list, ranging from Darin Strauss to Pete Hamill, Ron Rosenbaum to actress Claudia Lonow.

►Esquire magazine contributing writer Chris Jones (who wrote the wonderful piece on film critic Roger Ebert and his cancer battle last year) has a new blog, where anything might come up.

► I'm looking forward to seeing Andrew Rossi's Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times, which recently captured much attention at Sundance.

► Finally, a hilarious digression -- submit to this "journal" and eliminate the agony of waiting to hear if your submission has been rejected.

Have a great weekend.

Stuff My (Writing) Students Say, Part VIII

2011-01-26T07:45:00.004-05:00

"My work is just plain too wordy, especially when I'm writing in some backstory. The excess verbiage weighs down the pace in an unintended way, and I can almost sense a reader getting fatigued. But I can't seem to get around it. Maybe I'm just that kind of writer."

Or, maybe not. In any case, you're in luck. I have the *answer* and it's – get ready – more words. Yep, write a lot of them.

But then, cut at least half. Often more. Sometimes, a lot more.

If you find that you get wordy because you are trying to tell a complicated backstory, consider: Do I need all of it? Will a much more compressed version do? How about just a few key, vivid details? Would the backstory work better as narrator interior monologue, as a separate flashback scene, or as dialogue in an unfolding scene?

Or, how about: Can I do without it entirely?

This sounds counter intuitive, but you'd be surprised at what our pieces can live without.

This is an important consideration, and not just relating to being less wordy: What is left out of a piece of writing is very often more important, more telling, than what is included.

I cannot tell you how many times, usually in desperation, under deadline pressure and/or severe word restrictions, that I have simply hacked out an entire paragraph (or 2 or 3), written a new transition, and voila, the result is a far better piece overall.

At first there's a sense of "no way can the piece survive without this..." Then I make the big deletion anyway just to see how it works, and the next thing I know I'm thinking, "Why did I ever think I HAD to keep that in there in the first place?"

The above student also noted something else that's important -- that sometimes when he reads his own work he gets to a spot where he can sense a reader will feel fatigued or impatient. That's usually a clear sign that the real problem is very likely at a prior point in the text. By the time you can see that a piece is draggy, the reason is most often not what's on the page right there, but what's happening in the text that comes before that point. Everything we write builds on what comes before; so if by page 6 we're thinking, oh boy this is starting to get tedious, then we need to go back to page 5 or maybe even pages 4 or 3 and try to figure out where it loses its energy.

The rest of the Stuff My (Writing) Students Say series is here.

Lisa Romeo Writes

Of Writing Advice, One-Liners, and an A Game.

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, Jan. 20, 2012 Edition

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, Jan. 13, 2012 Edition

Book Lists, of All Kinds.

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, January 6, 2012 Edition

Lies Writers Tell Themselves

Guest Blogger Michelle O'Neil on Insecurity, Expectations, and the Self-published Author

Friday Fridge Clean Out – Links for Writers, December 30, 2011 Edition

Writing the "I Did It List" Before the Next Year's To-Do List

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, Dec. 9, 2011 Edition

The Freelance Worry Cycle

Women Writing on Family: Always topical here, and now - it's a book!

This or that? Now or then? More or less? Yes. No. Maybe.

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, Sept. 9, 2011 Edition

Three Upcoming Local Events for Writers - Come See Me Sometime!

The Writing Prompt Project Returns for Fall

Stuff my Writing Students Say, Part 12: It's been done already, so I can't do it

Summer reruns from writers worth a second look.

Are the Benefits of Organization Overrated?

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, August 12, 2011 Edition

Not exactly qualified for that writing award? Apply anyway.

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, August 5, 2011 Edition

What I'm reading, perusing, studying, scanning, dipping into, skimming, leafing through and poring over.

Writing Quirks and Bad Habits

Even More Reasons Writing is Rejected: Part Three

More Reasons Your Writing Gets Rejected: Part Two

Reasons Writing Submissions & Queries Get Rejected: Part One

Thinking Ahead: Two Fall Writing Classes and a Writing Coaching Option

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, July 15, 2011 Edition

Stuff My Writing Students Say, Part 11 -- On getting casual, lazy, sloppy.

Friday Fridge Clean-Out -- Links for Writers, July 8, 2011 Edition

Not the Friday Fridge Clean-Out

What a Self-Published Editing Client Taught Me

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, June 24, 2011 Edition

Writers and the artifacts of publication: Who needs clips and copies?

Dad, Writing -- and Writing About Dad

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, June 17, 2011 Edition

Writer's Guide to More Writing Time. You may not like it.

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, June 10, 2011 Edition

When a Big Editorial Project Ends

Department of Shameless Self-Promotion: NYTimes blog rant

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, June 3, 2011 Edition

Submissions, Writing Seasonal Essays, Karma, Editors and Luck

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, May 20, 2011

Writers: When offered help, do you say YES?

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: May 13, 2011 Edition

Memory, nonfiction, and writing about the here and now

Write Your Way Into Summer - 4x4 Online Nonfiction Class

Stuff My Writing Students Say, Part 10: I knew that!

Author Interview: Kim Stagliano on her memoir, combining humor and autism. Yep, you read right.

Next Online Creative Nonfiction 4x4 Class begins May 2. Registration now open.

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, March 25, 2011

Stuff My Writing Students Say, Part 9 : Words. They matter!

Writing Tips from Teen Spy Author Anthony Horowitz: Another Night in the NJ Suburbs

Writers: Stuck? Stalled? Procrastinating? Hey, maybe you *Should Be Writing*!

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, March 18, 2011 Edition

Guest Blogger Lisa Catherine Harper on revisions and her new book, A Double Life, Discovering Motherhood

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, March 4, 2011

Panning for Writing Rules, Finding Some

Author Interview: Laraine Herring on The Writing Warrior

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, February 25, 2011

Take that, lousy contract. There, I feel better now. Sort of.

Writers: Start Your Exercise Engine

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, February 18th 2011 Edition

Guest Blogger Allison Gilbert on her new book, Parentless Parents, and writing about family in nonfiction

Reading (Way) Outside My Comfort Zone

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, Feb. 4, 2011 Edition

Write. Submit. Wait. Write. Submit. Wait.

Author Interview: Erika Dreifus on her short story collection, Quiet Americans

Friday Fridge Clean Out – Links for Writers, Jan. 28, 2011 Edition

Stuff My (Writing) Students Say, Part VIII

Writers: Stuck? Stalled? Procrastinating? Hey, maybe you Should Be Writing!