Making a Literary Life Friday: Wandering the Web

A reader wrote to us asking what were some of the better web sites to enrich a writer's life. Too many was the initial response. If any of you are Slate readers, then you know what a time-sucker the Internet can be to a writer. Still, there are riches to be found.

Below, we've shared some of our favorites, but we'd like to hear about yours. What web sites inform your writing?

Lisa Marnell
Verlakay! A beautiful interactive website developed and maintained by author Verla Kay. It's a hang-out for writers and wannabe writers of children's fiction. There's even a thread for those of us attending LA's summer SCBWI (Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) conference - see you there? Couldn't live without you, Verla.

Lois Lowry - I love her. Discomermaids (Jay Asher's blog).

Amy MacKinnon
Where to start? I read a lot of sites because I'm naturally curious, some for pure entertainment, but to further my career as a writer...Let's start with the industry standard, Publishers Weekly. Booksellers, sales reps, agents, and editors all read it. You should too. In fact, it was an article in last week's edition that pointed me to my next new favorite site, Books on the Nightstand. It was started by two publishing insiders who wanted to share good reads. They do that via columns and podcasts. Very savvy of them to mix up the media. So you can clean off your desk while you listen. They even take their show on the road and recommend books to eager readers. Clever. And one of my absolute favorites web sites is American Fiction. Who is Mark Athitakis and where did he find his voice? He has his ear pressed to the inner circle of the loop and shares it all with us. How he consistently culls the finest articles, interviews, news from the world wide web is beyond me. I'm just glad he does it.

Hope you come back on Tuesday because I have the most magnificent news to share! I'm bursting to tell you, but I must wait my turn! If you're really curious, like I am in life, I've embedded a clue in my post.

Hannah Roveto
Good ones, all. What else? I do love reading the inside view from agents' perspectives. There's Nathan Bransford and Kristin Nelson's PubRants, whom I love to visit now and again. I do miss Miss Snark, but you can find oldies but goodies still out there floating around!

Lynne Griffin
I echo Amy's choices for must reads. I would also add Publishers Marketplace, which though it does require a monthly subscription fee is critical to learning which agents represent the types of fiction or non you write. I also like it because it keeps you up-to-date on what authors are selling, trends, etc... Another insider site I love is Mediabistro's Galleycat. It's casual tone shouldn't fool you, the info gives you a valuable glimpse inside the business. And finally, I am a big Poets & Writers fan. It has everything the magazine does and more. Extended interviews, web only articles and an amazing archives, I can spend hours here.

And don't forget to peruse our friends of our blog link list to the right. Many of these sites offer generous amounts of content. Happy reading.

Rhythm and Writing

Posted by Lynne Griffin

Just for a bit of inspiration, I dipped into Joyce Carol Oates, The Faith of a Writer. Battling a cold, I'd taken to my bed with her book, the novel I'm rereading--A Separate Peace--and a new book of writing exercises called, Naming the World, edited by Bret Anthony Johnston.

In an essay on inspiration, Oates quotes Virginia Woolf. She'd written about the connection between style and rhythm in one of her many letters, analyzing the complexities of the writer's life. I took pause when I read the following:

A sight, an emotion, creates this wave in the mind, long before it makes words to fit it; and in writing...one has to recapture this, and set this working and then, as it breaks and tumbles in the mind, it makes words to fit in.

I really connected to this passage, in love with thinking about inspiration as a wave. Ripples, seas, and swells are waves of varying intensity. The process of writing, for me, begins with feeling some kind of disturbance--whether it's taking notice of some sensory detail or acknowledging a feeling--which leads to a transfer of energy in space and time. This breaking and tumbling that Woolf refers to, begs to be captured in words and phrases, sentences and paragraphs.

Moving on to Bret Anthony Johnston's, Naming the World, I noticed an essay by Paul Lisicky called, All about Rhythm. I turned to page 286, and it began with the same Woolf quote highlighted above. Don't you love when the Muse hits you on the head, urging you to learn something new about writing? The same quote placed before me in a matter of an hour, sent me on a quest to find out more about waves.

Waves are born when wind meets water. Speed and distance and time are the variables that influence formation of what's called a fetch. I'll make the leap and say I believe rhythm in writing is formed with the right combination of pace, and psychic distance (how close or far the writing is to the reader) and word combinations. In Lisicky's essay, he says the master of rhythm is the poet. He asserts that if a writer is to find the rhythm--the break and tumble of waves brought forth on the page--one needs to be:

...more deeply aware of pauses, sentence length, stops, even alliteration and assonance in the prose...open ourselves up to our own rhythms--the patterns of our everyday speech, the quirkiness of the way we move and walk--and carry those over to the lives of our invention.

So today, as I delve into writing my work-in-progress, I'm going to be thinking about waves. The way they spill and roll, plunge and dump water on sand. Here's hoping I'll find my rhythm, a surging type of wave; one that will knock my readers over and drag them deeper into my story.

Maybe You're Just Molting

by Hannah Roveto

I might be identifying too closely with my son's hermit crabs. Why I shouldn't is clear: they are very low on the evolutionary scale, although I feel that way at times. They are scary looking; first thing in the morning I might come close to their appearance. Like today, for example, when I was woken up at 5:30 because one of the crabs was in the water dish naked.

The initial concern was that it was dead. No, quite the reverse. The crabs are molting. They've been sloughing off their exoskeletons, hiding for days down in the gravel with only their painted shells peeking up into the light. (Smaller Dean had Spiderman on his back, Crabby a more mature and elegant metallic green.)

During this time they peel themselves out and are at their most vulnerable. Thanks to Crabby's foray into the (empty) water dish to refresh himself with water held in the sponge, we now know their back ends look like oversized grubs with small claw-like legs sticking out, the better to hold onto their shells once they get back inside. Ugh. Their front ends look like miniature crabs, yes, but without those formidable and surprisingly strong pincers we have all come to respect. Our cat stared past the chicken wire screen longingly, inches away from a tender, defenseless treat. Why do the crabs put themselves at such risk? Simple: they will die if they don't.

I was going to blog today about why some writers take so darn long to become writers. I read something recently in which an author noted she came to the art of writing as an adult. In interviews for this blog's Author Spotlight series, Hallie Ephron said she took on fiction once her children were grown and she became unafraid of what her creative family might think of her efforts. Mameve Medwed said she was a short story writer until a good friend told her to write a novel; she said she was petrified, went at it "kicking and screaming."

Jonathan Franzen, speaking at Grub Street's Muse and the Marketplace, said he believes many great writers are women who come to it later in life, or at least, not straight out of college or grad school. He said women have other things in their lives that demand attention; once women start to focus more on themselves than on the external in their lives, they find their writers' voices. I think this is true -- and applies to some men, too.

Some writers need time, whether it is to experience enough to generate a full story, or to overcome the terror of putting ourselves out there. The transformation does not take place overnight; it takes time, agonizing months and years. We know what we are about to do, and that knowledge alone could stop us in our tracks. But it doesn't. Maybe we don't really have a choice. So we pick at our old selves, get uncomfortable with the shell we have wrapped around our soft cores. We burrow and peel that shell off, a dangerous, delicate operation. We develop the courage to walk around exposed, if need be, as we form a new way to present ourselves to the world: a bigger, stronger, better us. Molting is important to humans, but perhaps it is required of writers -- at any stage. It's scary and exciting and dangerous and essential to our beings.

(Update: Dean seems to be back in his original shell, although burrowing again, and Crabby is out of the water dish and checking out an upgrade to a larger soccer-motif number. The cat is sleeping in another room.)

The Evolution of a Page

By Amy MacKinnon

I think it was our second meeting when I submitted twenty pages of my manuscript, then tentatively title TETHERED, to my writers' group. This is Hannah's feedback from that night. I was wreck showing it to them, but see how kind her notes are -- and they weren't overwhelming either.

This second page is what I submitted to Grub Street's Muse and the Marketplace two years ago. I signed up with Little, Brown editor Asya Muchnick. Beforehand, she read 20 page of my manuscript, making careful notes on each. It was waiting in line for my critique when I met Gail Konop Baker; what a blessing that's been. Asya gave my manuscript a careful, thoughtful edit. I floated out of there.

Now this third page is probably the most marked-up of the bunch. That handwriting belongs to my editor Sally Kim. After sending me a two page editorial letter with an overall structural critique (what needs tweaking, what doesn't work, what needs more depth), she then did a careful line edit of the manuscript. Now don't let anyone tell you editors don't edit anymore. Here's physical proof they do and do it beautifully.


And then the lovely, lovely copy edits. Now when it's your turn to open that huge bubble-lined manilla envelope and pull out your manuscript, you'll be tickled to see a key with all of your characters' names, every major business, each setting. It's quite a kick. It might also intimidate you a bit to know a professional grammarian has laid eyes on your words. Not to worry, s/he is on your side to make your book the best it can be. There will be a lot of marks. It might scare the bejesus out of you so much, you close the envelope back up again -- for a few days. I'm not saying I did this, but I might have. Once you plunge in, though, you find it's not nearly as humiliating as you feared. In fact, I asked my bestest friend Heather Grant Murray, also a copy editor, to go over it as I did. I love copy editors.





Then the best part happens. Your first pass pages arrive. For the first time since you sat down at your desk all those years ago, you see how your words will appear on the page. Isn't it magnificent? Lynn Amft designed the interior layout and she is brilliant. The very first design I was shown, I loved. She captured the tone perfectly.


Looks like quite a bit of work by many hands, doesn't it? But imagine, that's just one page...

Meeting Rose

Posted by Lisa Marnell

Last week, I shared my story in pictures with you. In order to help me visualize the New Hampshire setting where my novel takes place, I googled images of snow and mountains, ski hills and dilapidated houses. I printed the photos and taped them to the wall in my study. Now when I write, I tell my family I'm going to New Hampshire. They understand - thanks for the idea, Lynne!

I started writing this YA novel almost two years ago. It started from a seed, a snippet in time that happened years ago. I was twelve. It was a rainy New Hampshire day, and we wouldn't be water skiing on Lake Winnepasaukee that afternoon. My dad dropped us, my sister, brother, and neighbors, Cathy and Scott at a local bowling alley. He gave us money for lanes and shoes, snacks and drinks, and promised he'd be back in a couple hours to pick us up. It was the stringy-haired girl at the bowling alley that I remember; she's the detail that had an impact on me that day.

She had no money. No one bought her snacks. Her dad was young - late twenties maybe? - and the woman he was with wasn't her mom. Her mom would have commented on her bowling, or at least nagged her to tie back her stringy black hair. That girl was as interested in me as I was in her. The moment that is branded in my mind is the way way she stared as I sipped Coke from the cup my brother delivered to me. No one bought that girl a Coke. And I used two straws!

The protagonist in my work in progress is Rose, the name I gave that girl in the bowling alley. I wrote a full first draft of this novel last year and shared it with our writers' group. They complimented my setting, my use of language in places, but the story, the entire story wasn't working. I scrapped it, for the most part, and started again. Part of the problem was that Rose's story wasn't her own. The bigger problem was that I didn't know Rose. Who was Rose?

I used character sheets at the start of this novel. You know, the lists of a character's physical traits, habits, history, secret longings. They helped, to some extent, but creating a character is not the same as meeting one. It took time to get to know Rose. At this point in this novel, I know her, better. I could fill out a character sheet now for her and have answers for most of the questions.

Now, I'm close to completing a new first draft. The story is RADICALLY different than it was. In keeping with my strategy of using pictures to help me immerse myself in my fiction, I found Rose's picture - another google search. Meet my Rose. She's smart, and kind, sad and frustrated. She's lovely, really, and has a story to tell.

Making a Literary Life Friday: Changing Perspective

For each of us there was a time before we were writers. Back in those days, our ideas about the writing life were different than they are today. Here at the Writers' Group, we've traveled along roads we only dreamed about. How have our perspectives about writing changed? How have yours?

Lisa Marnell
I used to think writers were, well, celebrities, I suppose. The first time I met Christopher Castellani (at Duxbury Library on a cold December night), I could barely put two words together; he had written two books! Now I know writers are people. It gives me hope! It fills me with a sense of happiness and calm.

Amy MacKinnon
I'm not quite as far along as Lisa is in the process. When I met Julia Glass at the Muse, my voice trembled and I managed to stutter out a few words, but not the ones I wanted.

I think my perspective about agents and editors has changed the most. I used to be some what intimidated by them. I thought they held all the keys to us writers getting our work published. Now I know from the ones I've met that they're not wheelers-n-dealers, but people who care deeply about good writing. They want us to succeed. Most profound, we writers have been holding the keys--in the form of a good--book all along.

Hannah Roveto
I knew writers growing up; I never saw them work, though, and I must have assumed all the elements of craft flowed from them in some natural way. When I started to take fiction more seriously, I was stymied. I was a good writer; why couldn't I make it come out the way I wanted? The joy of meeting and talking with other writers -- and taking classes from the likes of a Hallie Ephron -- is finding out how to make that leap, to ask the right questions and pull out answers that are most useful. Because as we know, we all go at this differently!

Lynne Griffin
When I fantasized about being a writer, but had not yet put pen to page, I was blocked by doubt. How could I be published alongside my idols Anna Quindlen, Carol Goodman, Ann Patchett? Along came a treasured gift from my husband; a copy of Carolyn See’s Making a Literary Life. Carolyn talks about desire as a critical component to success. She encourages writers to take the journey seriously enough to do what’s necessary. Everything that’s necessary. Over the years my perspective about success has changed. It doesn’t come looking for you, you have to go out and find it.

Copy Edits

Posted by Lynne Griffin

Lisa's story arrived in pictures on Monday, Amy's galley on Tuesday and Hannah's inspiration just yesterday. What did I get in the mail this week? My copy edited manuscript. It is really a thrill to see it, all marked up with purple pencil, with little green Post-its littered throughout.

The process of getting a manuscript through production includes a thorough read by an expert stylist and grammarian. You'd be surprised at how many little details and inconsistencies even the most meticulous writer misses.

Some of you are old pros at this part of the publication process, but for those of you who aren't, let me share how it works.

The manuscript was sent to me via UPS with a tracking number--the mere thought of all that work getting lost is frightening. When it arrived, I pulled it from its envelope and went through each page to get a sense of just how much work there would be to do. You see, my job at this stage is to go through and read the manuscript word-by-word. When I get to a correction made by the copy editor--it could be as simple as to add or delete a comma, or as complex as to change a whole sentence, for readability--I am to decide whether or not to accept the change. If I accept it, I do nothing; just leave it and keep reading. If I disagree with the change (and I would if the change interfered with meaning, or characterization, and the like) I write the word STET next to it, which means leave the material as it was written.

Through the manuscript on Post-it notes, there are what are called queries. The copy editor is in fact asking me questions. They can be easy questions such as, do I like the sentence change, to more complicated ones like would this character really do this? I even had to do a bit of research on some queries, like do certain trees hold their leaves as long as I said they did. Great pick ups like this assure a quality read for readers. My copy editor did an amazing job with another important task--reading for consistency.

Enclosed in the package sent to me, is what is called a style sheet. Imagine a set of directions that covers everything from how unique words will be spelled, (one-two punch & hit and run) how dates and times will be managed, (spell out the quarter hour & use a.m and p.m.) and (this is my favorite) a character listing, one that includes physical traits and plot details. It even includes a brief summary of each chapter. I loved seeing my novel captured this way by a fresh reader.

All of this work done by someone you may never meet, but should certainly thank, is a generous gift. To know that someone who loves books took tons of time to read and fine-tune my manuscript is awe inspiring.

My copy edits are done now and will go back to my editor. She in turn will send it back over to production so that the changes can be incorporated into the manuscript. Next step is galley creation, like the one you saw Amy holding this week. Each of these essential milestones take me closer to publication. It's hard work, but thrilling.

Those of you who've gone through this process, feel free to add info I've left out via the comments section. And if you have questions, feel free to pose them here.