How to Write about Sex–Let Me Count the Ways

Okay, I’m not actually going to write about how to write about sex here. I’m not even sure I can put the word “sex” in a blog headline. If the blog police don’t blow the whistle my Catholic upbringing might. But, as Noy Holland points out, there are a lot of ways from the explicit to the barest innuendo, the down and dirty to the sublime, to write about sex.   See the article here.

I’ve read many, but not all, of the stories and novels Holland mentions in the article. And I recommend them to you. It’s been said many times and many ways: if you want to write fiction, if you want to write a particular kind of fiction, reading fiction–studying it–is one of the best things you can do. Besides writing. Dive in and try it!

 

Writing the Memoir: Disclaimers

I just stumbled across this valuable and interesting piece. If you’re writing creative non-fiction you’re going to want to read it more than once.

Cate Macabe

Though a disclaimer is no guarantee against a lawsuit, most authors and publishers of fiction and nonfiction use them in an attempt to cover all bases, to have some claim to a defense just in case they are sued.

Penguin Books uses its own particular disclaimer: “Penguin is committed to publishing works of quality and integrity. In that spirit, we are proud to offer this book to our readers; however, the story, the experiences, and the words are the author’s alone.”

Writers of fiction have it easy. We’ve all read the disclaimer on a novel with some form of, “This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.” But a disclaimer for a memoir is a different beast. Readers of memoir don’t…

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Beating the Bushes for Readers

I came across this post quite a while ago. It’s on Jane Friedman’s site, and it’s a guest post by Angela Ackerman. It’s one of the best marketing essays–or lesson, or maybe blueprint–I’ve seen in a good long time. Read the post here. 

In fact there’s so much good information here and on Jane Friedman’s site and on Angela Ackerman’s  One Stop for Writers and her main website that I can’t say a lot more. Except check them out. Put them in your quiver for when you have specific questions or need inspiration. You could do worse!

Websites Galore, or Keep This List Handy

Okay, old person alert. When I was young I wrote my first stories and poems on a manual LC Smith typewriter. Then there was a little portable electric, a Royal maybe. Then, oh Frabjous Day, an IBM self-correcting Selectric, at least I think that’s what it was called. And then an Apple, Two-ee was it’s name I believe, followed by a long string, Macs and PCs both. Who knew there would come a day? A day when there would be so many websites and resources for writers of all ages and stripes that someone would think to name the 100 best, for several years running, in fact.

It’s a huge list–an ice cream super duper sundae with three flavors of syrup and whipped cream and a cherry on top kind of list. I’d bet my IBM Selectric (if I still had it) that no one person is going to find use for every website on this list. But I’d also bet that if you’re a serious writer and you’re looking for one sort of resource or another–from help with independent publishing to research ideas to editing help to finding a writer’s group to who-knows-what–you’ll find something on this list useful. So pin it up on your cork board, or maybe just bookmark it. You might find it useful.

And here it is: 100 Best Websites for Writers

Write on!

Five Thirty-Day Exercises for Writing Fun

1. Eavesdrop on the bus, in a coffee shop, at a meeting, really anywhere works. Overhear and write down one snippet a day for thirty days. At the end of thirty days you can: (a) Use the overheard as a starting point and write a flash fiction, or a longer story, or poem from it. (b) Sample the whole, string it together to make it all into one time/place event, story, poem. (c) Something else of your choosing. (d) All of the above.
2. Mini-notebook. I have a writing friend who mailed several friends a tiny notebook with a tiny pen. Write down one thing everyday he said. So the size of the notebook in some ways determines the form, content, substance. It’s interesting to think about how.
3. Sign up for the November novel writing month–too late this year. I’ve thought January would be a better month. It’s longer, with fewer holidays. It’s colder (in most regions) and snowy or rainy (if we’re lucky–I live in California). So maybe there’s more incentive to stay inside and write.
4. One sentence in variation. Write one sentence, then rewrite it 29 times, once a day.
5. Timelines. Make a different one everyday for a project you’re working on or thinking of. It could be a timeline of a day, or a year, an hour. This is a good exercise for autobiography, memoir, and narrative non-fiction. (Yes, of course, and fiction.)

Practice, habit, and kicking ourselves out of a rut or a writer’s block. Writing exercises are good for all of that. Getting new ideas. Looking at the elephant from a different end. In the past, I’ve set myself 30-day exercises when I couldn’t write anything else. It’s magic folks, the act of writing can spur you on to more writing.

Please feel free to share these ideas with your friends, writing group, students. Please feel free to send them over to my blog to see more.

Write on!

Free Advice Is Worth Way More Than You Pay for It: If It Inspires You to Write

I once had a colleague who loudly opined that free advice is worth what you pay for it, a curmudgeonly attitude even in those pre-internet days. But who can put a value on what spurs you to write what you’ve always wanted to write? And who can put a value on your writing?

The tips in this article may come under the category of free advice. But they’re good and sold. Check it out. You may or may not be motivated by writing for yourself as opposed to others. You may or may not have the inclination and wherewithal to attend a writers’ conference and look for an agent. Read it once, maybe twice, then go to your computer or pick up a pen and just do it.

Take what you can use and leave the rest. Write on!

Famous Women Writing Their Own Stories, Or 25 Little Lessons on Writing

I can’t tell you how much I love this collection of quotes/article. I thought of copying some of them whole, right into this blog. I also thought of copying some of them on my old-fashioned notecards–yes, 3″x5″ written in lovely blue pen–and hanging them on my office wall. They are that strong. That moving. That inspirational.

Check it out:

http://nymag.com/thecut/2015/09/25-famous-women-on-writing-their-own-stories.html

These weren’t written as writing assignments. But they could be!

Like this:

Nora Ephron: “In the way I grew up, we knew that you might write about almost anything if you could just find a way to tell the story — that was what we believed in our house, that was religion in our house. Everything was copy.” —Time, November 2010

What’s some copy in your life? Find a way to tell the story so it makes you (and subsequently your readers) laugh or cry and want to go on.

Or this:

Maxine Hong Kingston: “What is universal? There could be some peculiarity that you have in your self, but if you can make it an art, make it part of a story, then when another person reads it, it becomes part of his or her life. And so one’s odd self and ideas become part of the human universal story.” -—“Interview with Maxine Hong Kingston,” July 1996

What is so peculiar in your story that it becomes universal when you tell it a certain way?

Write on!

Time Sensitive–Free Webinar 10/21/15 on MFA Programs

https://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/EventLobbyServlet

From a Publishers’ Weekly newsletter–here’s a one-hour free webinar about what MFA programs are looking for in applicants. I look back more than fondly on my later-in-life MFA experience at San Francisco State. Among other things, I read widely–things I never would have found on my own. And I loved the assignments and deadlines.

Hmm, I’m not going back to school, but maybe giving myself some assignments and deadlines isn’t a bad idea. Oops. Off topic. Check out the webinar if you’re interested. And have a good week people!

Do You Want to Write a Book?

How do you know you want to write a book? How do you know a book is what you want to write? What might you do to explore these questions.

1. You might start writing a page or two a day and see what happens. (Check out Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones or The Artists’s Way by Julia Cameron.)
2. You might make a rough outline, exploring the scope and structure of what you want to write about. (Is it a book, an article, something in between?) And, yes, books are different lengths. Each book should be about as long as it should be–long enough to thoroughly explore your subject and short enough to not include every bit of extraneous side story or bit of information you know.
3. Ask yourself why you want to write a book. Really. Be honest with yourself. (Not to be too flip, but if the answer is to make a lot of money or get famous, you might want to spend the hundreds of hours it takes to write a book doing something else.)

I work with people who are writing or want to write a book. If you have an idea or a method of teaching something or knowledge or inspiration or a story to share but haven’t a clue how to get started, or got stuck in a first draft, or don’t know what to do now that you have a finished draft, I guide people through the process—writing to publishing—or any portion of the journey. I’ve worked in book publishing for more than 40 years as a coach, inspirer, task master, goal setter, idea clarifier, and editor.

I’ve probably edited more than 1500 books. (I’ve been working in publishing since 1972.) It is work I love. It is incredibly satisfying to help people articulate what they want to write and then help them write it. I ask dozens of questions. I give deadlines and assignments. I cajole and suggest and praise. Sometimes the assignment is to read. Sometimes it’s to write. Sometimes it’s to make a list. Sometimes it’s to finish an outline–not the final, exact outline that the project will follow. But an outline. A way to get started!

My friend Mark, who is the best computer handholder ever, threw in this picture of a typewriter. I’m not sure why. I love how old typewriters look. But even more I love the tools we have now. Computers won’t write a book for you–at least not yet. But they sure make the doodling, and drafting (but beware the boogie version control), and editing, and publishing a lot easier!

Who Do We Mean When We Say Editor? What Do We Mean When We Say Editing?

 Everybody who writes a book needs an editor of some kind. As you choose your route to publishing—independent, traditional, or some combination in between—you need to think about what kind of help you need to successfully publish. An editor is someone who makes you sound like your best self, sing in your best voice. The words on the page need to absorb your readers, communicate your ideas, tell your story in a way that people stick with it. We become attached to our own words. We think we are communicating clearly. We’re sure we’re not using jargon. Uh huh!

Not everybody who got an A in freshman comp is an editor. Please shop around. You owe it to yourself. There are editorial services on line. Go to classes or seminars. Go to the writing center in your city. Ask your friends. Do interview the editor! Talk with her about what kind of editing you think you need. Listen when he tells you what he thinks the project needs. Do talk about the cost upfront. How does she bill—by the hour, the page, the project? Will she let you know when she thinks she’s done as much as possible. Ask as many questions as you can think of. (Look for a post on questions to ask a potential editor, coming here soon.)

If you’re writing a book you want an editor who has edited books!

acquiring, developmental, rewrite,  line, copy—editors one and all

• Copy editor—the one kind of editor every book should have—no exceptions ever. Light to heavy, running into line editing. Querying on meaning and facts. Punctuation and grammar, which is more about consistencies throughout than RULES! Do you misuse or misplace adverbs? Do you use a descriptor word too frequently? A copy editor will find your ticks and fix them.
• Line editor—will do more than a copy editor might with language. Finding your voice and keeping it fresh and consistent. Regularizing tenses. Unearthing the topic sentence of any given paragraph or section from the middle or the end. Sometimes (often inside publishing houses) copy editing and line editing are merged into one procedure.
• Rewrite editor. Okay, you’ve got a great idea. It comes from your long experience. You have notes for a bunch of stories illustrating your points. You know what you want your readers to know when they finish your book, but you’re not really a writer. You’re a teacher, or an activist, or a spiritual director, or a therapist or a . . . . And you have something to say. Working with a rewrite editor or a ghost writer can make an idea a book. A rewrite editor, like a ghost writer, can take your ideas and write them up. Traditional publishers don’t pay for this kind of editing.  If you want this kind of edit/editor, look for someone with experience. Buy a few hours of their time, work on a bit together, and see where it leads.
• A developmental editor is a coach or a consultant. S/he will work with you to help figure out what should go into your book or proposal. And work with you as you find your voice and write your proposal (if non-fiction and if you’re aiming to go with a traditional publisher) and/or manuscript. A developmental editor is someone who can look at a stack of papers and see the organization and shape of the book. Again, traditional publishers rarely spring for this kind of editing, unless you are very famous or unique at what you do and have to say.
• Acquiring editors, who occasionally do some of the editing described above, are what we call the people who fall in love with your project, sell it internally to their marketing and sales people, talk you up to anyone who will listen. Piss you off by saying you absolutely cannot have the title and cover you want and you have to remodel the baby you both fell in love with. Help position the book and write back cover copy; hold your hand when you’re stuck; tell you to suck it up and accept or make changes they or others who are working on the book are suggesting; explain the publishing process; suggest cover ideas. Suggest new topics or ideas after your first book is a success. Hold your hand when you’re stuck. Urge you on.

Each kind of editing is a particular set of skills a person learns by practicing them.  A thorough developmental or rewrite edit of a 300-page manuscript can cost a few thousand dollars. My advice is to hire an editor who is experienced at BOOK editing. Talk with him/her about what you expect to get and what it will cost. Most expensive is not always best, but, as with other things in life you most often get what you pay for.