Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Process not Product
William Styron declined to call himself an author, though he published many books. He said he didn't think in terms of
having a career...he said "I have a typewriter." Styron was engaged in the process of writing without having to identify himself
with the product of the process itself. The writing process was what was important for Styron.
Neil Simon just recently was given the "Mark Twain" award and recognition at the Kennedy Center for his many contributions
through the writing of plays, screenplays and fiction. Clearly what interests Simon is the human situation and condition
rather than his own identification as an author. Simon is interested and engaged in witnessing and exploring his
fellow humans through the process of writing.
Writing cannot be a goal in and of itself. The practice of writing can be a goal. But one must harness one's interest
in the writing process and allow it to lead one toward the issues and ideas as well as the conditions which emerge and engage
one through it. Writing is most significantly a process, not a product.
Keep writing.
5:14 pm est
Monday, November 13, 2006
Writing Down the Bones
Natalie Goldberg's well-known books encourage writers to grapple with the challenges faced by those who want to write.
As a Buddhist practitioner Goldberg is one who strives to demonstrate her practice through writing about the writing process
itself. Her Writing Down the Bones and Thunder and Lightening challenge and encourage would-be
writers to take the process and writing practice seriously.
Writing challenges one to face issues and ideas or concerns we may generally neglect or "shy away" from too
easily...through the writing process, uncomfortable feelings and forces may come forward to address us when we write,
particularly when we write fiction and/or poetry. We sometimes do not know "where we are" with regard to certain feelings
and issues untill and unless we begin to write about them. Writing at this deep level holds up a mirror to our neglected
truths and realities if we genuinely have to courage to look into that mirror and work through them regardless of the surprises,
shocks or confrontations they present.
Writing works on one at as deep a level to which we are willing or not willing to go. Writing dares you to look
deeper into a situation, or a person, a character or a reality you otherwise may successfully avoid...writing creates danger
and possibility and risk and we avoid writing at the peril of our own growth and development as well as our own self-understanding
and knowledge. The courage to write...do you have it?
Keep writing.
12:25 pm est
Friday, September 29, 2006
Just in Case
Just as a visual artist carries a sketch pad with her at all times, a writer must carry a notepad to record senses, observations,
comments and conversations she doesn't want to forget or lose. Make notes to capture and remind youself of the feelings and
sensations you experience when you are traveling as well as just noticing moments during your day. You can go back to these
and fill out the details at some future time, just as the visual artist returns to her sketch pad for the development of future
work and exploration. All art is exploration and you set your own limitations and possibilities based on your attentiveness
and awareness to the details you remember and cherish. If you don't cherish something, you won't feel the need or desire to
retain much. Cherish your awareness and attentiveness and let them record their observations and concerns. They will feed
your writing and creative engagements in the days to come.
Keep writing.
8:55 pm edt
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Etymology
Etymology traces the history of meaning in words and demonstrates the fluidity of our language. Discovering the
history and source of a word's origins reveals the culture and context in which they were created and utilized. New words
are being generated daily, and every year our dictionaries add and/or delete words, based on their use and place in the contemporary
lexicon. Notice the words you hear in conversations and on the internet as well as the prevalence with which they
are used. Words are lenses through which we can see and appreciate the past and present, and they are the tools with
which we work the soil of the present reality. Work with words and let their stories work their ways into you. You'll be the
richer and wiser for it.
Keep writing.
5:22 pm edt
Friday, September 8, 2006
Haiku
Familiarize yourself with Japanese haiku, which communicates so much feeling and essence with such an economy of words.
Haiku invites you to experience and participate at levels beyond those of logical thought. The simplicity and beauty of haiku,
whether you are reading or working on writing it, reveals a complexity and depth of existence discursive writing may often
only begin to hint at.
Today we received this haiku, so appropriate for the coming winter months.
"Winter has arrived,
Shit! Its cold."
Keep writing!
3:58 pm edt
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Conferences
How many conferences or workshops have you attended this year? Getting in touch with other writers, editors, or publishing
professionals can give you a better sense of your own goals, directions and market niches. At a national or international
conference you can see major developments in the industry and acquaint yourself with the newest developing resources and ideas
shaping the landscape. Of course a portion of your expense for these meetings and your travel and accommodations should be
at least partially deductible on your income taxes. The government is thereby actually encouraging you to develop your professional
connections and resources. How can you turn that down? Check out the many possibilities and select several that will give
you the best return on your investment of time and money. Sign up and go! You owe it to yourself.
Keep writing.
12:34 pm edt
Monday, August 21, 2006
Too Much Information
When writing a book, you may feel the need to do as much research as possible in order to gain the best insight into
and understanding of your topic. Of course researching and familiarizing yourself with the details of your subject is important,
but you also can stall your project by trying to get more information than you actually need in order to move ahead with your
writing. There really is such a thing as "too much information." Many books have not been completed because of it.
You have to draw a boundary when you run the risk of doing more research than is actually necessary. How do you know
how much is necessary? Are you using research as a way to avoid your writing? Ask youself some challenging questions about
that.
Begin your writing. As you come upon areas and issues that invite reconsideration of your understanding, stop and do
some additional research at that point. Don't get bogged down in too much information before you really need it.
Keep writing!
2:29 pm edt
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Ask Questions
Build a practice of asking questions. Explore the processes and realities of others as well as your own interests and
insights. Keeping a journal or log of the questions you have asked yourself or/and others during a day gives you a resource
and perhaps provides impetus for future projects which interest and intrigue you and invite further investigation. Once
you have a good collection of questions built up, you can come back at a later time and sift through your earlier questions
and responses and use that as a "jumping off" point for more detailed study. Be an inquiring mind. Ask questions.
What do you want to know?
Keep writing.
3:12 pm edt
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Study Abroad
Gaining a new perspective and approach to writing can be heightened by reading in a different language. Language mirrors
and contains the colors, shades, sounds and sights of a culture, and presents a peoples' history and landscape in every paragraph.
You don't have to travel abroad to experience a new way of looking at things,however, and you don't necessarily even have
to study or learn a new language, though it does enrich one's understanding and appreciation of a different culture to
do so. Reading authors and books from cultures and countries beyond one's own is an easy and engaging way to expand one's
awareness and imagination. Select a country. Find three or four authors from it and read their writings. Study abroad.
Keep writing.
10:06 am edt
Friday, July 14, 2006
Commentary
Writing commentary on recent events or "your take" on current events can be an insightful way to remember and gain your
own understanding of situations. You can ,in the process, work out your own appreciation for and recall some passing circumstances
which then become your "reporter's notebook" for future and more developed writing and research. Just by just keeping
a "running commentary" on what is "going on" you engage yourself in the process of thinking about and practicing your writing.
Keep writing!
11:05 am edt
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Blogging
Really, there is no excuse for not starting a blog and enjoying the experience of reading them. Look into the world of
blogs and discover the richness and wealth of information you can now find through them. The electronic medium and environment
have enriched and liberated many imaginations by putting more control and freedom into the hands of the everyday person. You
may find some of no or little interest, but you may also be enlightened and amazed at others in terms of their professionalism
and high quality. Read as many as you can to expand your awareness of the new environment for writing. Check out this site
as a beginning:
www.blogger.com.
Keep writing.
10:05 am edt
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Contracted Lengths and Dates of Submission
Read your book's contract. Your editor entered a number of estimated pages for your projected and completed
manuscript in your contract. Should your manuscript exceed this length by 5 to l0% you should really contact
your editor and ask how "firm" that length is. Sometimes you can negotiate a greater length. Sometimes you cannot.
Publishers make plans for their production expense and marketing/sales costs as they anticipate forthcoming books. Much
of these projections are based on contracted delivery dates and manuscript lengths. So also note your manuscript
delivery or submission date as well as the contracted length. The manuscript which arrives beyond its
contracted length and delivery date could cause your publisher to seriously reconsider its interest (and
investment) in your writing and work.
Keep writing.
6:04 pm edt
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Library Journal
The national publication for librarians is Library Journal, which is available at your local library's
reference desk for the asking. Publishers hope to have their books reviewed positively in Library Journal.
A positive review of a book in LJ draws the book to the attention of acquisitions librarians who, seeing
the review, will be more likely to order copies for their own library's collection.
Library Journal provides updates on national, state and local issues of interest to librarians and their
supporters. Keeping up to date on what those concerns are gives you a better understanding of the market and audience for
your work ,as well as the particular libraries which specialize in your type of writing and research.
Library Jobbers call on acquisitions librarians and present/represent the titles of a number of publishers for whom they
work. Services to librarians are increasingly managed through software programs and specialized services which know and
understand a library's special interests and list and can target specific titles to them as soon as they are available.
Read up on the library market and industry. Target your writing and work to the most appropriate segment of the profession.
Library Journal is a good place to start. And support your local library!
Keep writing!
1:51 pm edt
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Travel Diary
The major booksellers now carry a collection of blank books in all kinds of cover designs, fabrics, shapes and sizes.
You can spend a good deal of money on blank books at Barnes and Noble as well as Borders, if you want a lovely place to collect
your notes, thoughts, and ideas.
One section of the stores' blank books collections includes travel diaries, or travel journals, generally distinguished
by colorful pictures and scenes from exotic places on their covers. There are sections in these "books" for such things
as: what I saw, where I stayed, and what I ate.
How do you organize and preserve your writing and your observations? What process best supports the way you work? Legal
pads, spiral bound notebooks, post-it notes, hard drives, disks, CDs, and diaries--all provide the blank screens on which
to process your thoughts, feelings, emotions, observations, frustrations, and, mostly, your visions and possibilities. The
process is as individual as the journey itself.
Your writing itself is your travel diary. Your observations and awareness, as well as your insight and imagination, are
your passport. Your commitment is your itinerary. You may or may not need the prepackaged, celophane-wrapped, imported Italian
leather bound book to get you on the way.
Keep writing. Bon voyage.
9:18 am edt
Monday, March 20, 2006
The Thesis and the Book
Harmon and Montagnes have written a classic book and guide on converting a dissertation to a book. It is entitled
THE THESIS AND THE BOOK and it is published by the University of Toronto Press. In their book the authors delineate
the differences between a thesis and a book, and give solid guidance on how to move a research work intended for an academic
audience and committee to a broader market and audience.
Often researchers completing their Ph.D. and other advanced degrees begin to think about publishing their thesis without
giving consideration to the great number of differences between an academic research work and a book to be marketed to a more
general audience. The University of Toronto Press book is an excellent guide for coming to recognize and understand the revisions
that generally must take place before a trade or commercial press can express interest in it.
The primary goal of a dissertation should be to make an important contribution to the literature of one's academic field.
The rigorous controls on the process typically require that a number of discipline-specific and committee recommendations
be integrated into the manuscript in order for it to gain approval from the committee. Once that approval has been gained,
the researcher can consider and decide if her or his research can and should find broader exposure through journal or book
publication.
A thesis may, often through extensive revision, become a book, but if it remains a thesis and if it has been approved
by an academic committee, the author has accomplished his or her goal by making a contribution to the literature of the
field.
Keep researching.
Keep writing.
4:24 pm est
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Complexities
You may have read all the books on writing or publishing, and you may believe you have gained as much information and
knowledge as you can, but you can never gain enough insight by reading the writing of others, and your reading is never
a waste of time. By reading in the genre in which you are writing you learn from published authors--you come to learn from
their style, their tone and shades or color of character development, their voices, their undercurrents, their mind and its
complexities.
Writing is about complexities, whether you are writing novels or scholarly research and seminal works. Writing is about
seeing and understanding more completely "what is going on" whether in a character, a plot, or an ethnographic analysis of
classroom communication. Reading in your area of interest leads you into complexities of situations or phenomena in order
to provide some insight and understanding into them.
Read regularly and a number of kinds of writing. Explore the author's complexities. Life is complex and difficult
to understand. The mind is complex. Good writing is complex and enlightens/engages us in the journey toward better comprehension
of whatever provokes, challenges, or interests us.
Keep writing. Keep reading as well.
6:48 pm est
Friday, January 20, 2006
No Response?
What do you do when you've gotten no response from a publisher and for a submission? You should always make
sure your submissions include SASE's or postcards for acknowledgement of receipt by the publisher, but how long should
you wait expecting/hoping to hear back from a publisher? Is it appropriate to call an editor or should you write or email
asking about the status of your submission and its review?
If you don't follow up after what seems to be a reasonable amount of time you may not,for example, discover the
proposal, manuscript or query letter never arrived, or that it got lost in the shuffle on a busy editor's desk. (One
publisher we know began nearly every letter he wrote with the phrase: "Your manuscript has just surfaced on my messy desk..."
) While you should not call or write more than once or twice, it is adviseable and acceptable to contact the publisher asking
for a status report on it. You have that right and obligation to yourself and to your work, in fact.
Being respectful of a publisher's or editor's time is thoughtful, but it may have never been seen or reviewed
if it has never been acknowledged. You have the right and the responsibility to take your work as seriously as you take the
editor's work. Give them a call or send a note asking for a status report if you've had no acknowledgement or response in
about a month's time.
Keep writing.
3:34 pm est
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Style and Substance
The first question an editor often asks about a manuscript is , "Is it worth doing?" the second question is often, "Is
it done well?" Those two questions provide a solid foundation and beginning from which to decide whether further time and
energy are warranted in evaluating a project. Often an editor can tell within a very brief amount of time whether the manuscript
or proposal is worth doing or/and done well. The volume of work an editor experiences hones the editor's ability to decipher
the initial worth and merit of the subject/topic and the writing itself.
Style and substance are both critical factors in manuscript review and consideration. If you can provide some context
and/or argument for why your manuscript has substantial merit you may also persuade an editor to spend more time and energy
on it. Your approach and style have to be appealing and engaging in order for that to happen. Your presentation of yourself
and your material make all the difference in opening that possibility.
Style and substance. Is it worth doing? Is it done well?
Keep writing.
2:12 pm est
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Writing Your Passion
In order to write you must care about something deeply enough to commit yourself to your concern or interest in it. If
you care about an issue or subject/topic, you take the time to invest your time and thought in it, and you organize your project
and your efforts in order to shape and present it in the most effective way. You must believe that what you are writing about
is important and has enough value to take a stand or unearth the facts or demonstrate its importance for others to consider;
to invite a reader to explore other possibilities and perspectives. You cannot wait for someone else to validate or encourage
you in this, though many unfortunately do. The greatest resource you have for your writing must come from within you...from
you concern..your passion. Your passion invites expression. Your writing reveals it. It may seem only a small spark, but
that small spark from within your writing could light a lamp or even an entire room for a reader's own passion.
Turn it on. Write your passion.
Keep writing.
8:07 am est
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Perserverance
How many stories have you heard about the writer who has for years received nothing but rejection notices for his or
her submissions? Perhaps you know someone like this, or this person may be a friend who just keeps going
on writing in spite of what might seem to be obvious discouragement. They may seem oblivious to external feedback. It
is the love of writing and creating which fuels their imagination; their passion and their work, apparently. The external
judgement of the merits of their work does not dampen their enthusiasm for the process. The passion keeps them going.
After years in academia more than one or even a hundred academicians turn from scholarly research to writing fiction
or autobiography. The imagination and experience as well as passion want to have their say, and more than left brain analysis
becomes necessary for these writers after years of research papers,reports and conferences. They have perservered (perhaps
"succeeded") in making their scholarly contribution; their seminal work. That accomplished, the rest of the story wants to
be told.
A history professor and founder of the field of women's history, Gerda Lerner, capped off her writing career with "the
rest of the story" of her life, including a more comprehensive description of her life. Many were surprised and enriched by
this personal detailing beyond her scholarly writings. Loren Eiseley's poetic turn of the language had to express beyond the
scholarly and accepted analytic. and scientific vernacular.
Perserverance brought these writers; these scholars through their chosen fields of research and with some measure of
completion they opened to the possibility of and need for writing in a different way and about more personally engaging
insights and experiences. The "objective" became the "personal."
Perserverance may get the manuscript accepted.
It may also prepare the writer to move in an entirely different direction.
Keep writing.
11:43 am edt