Thought for the Day

"I think I did pretty well, considering I started out with nothing but a bunch of blank paper." - Steve Martin

Give yourself credit where credit is due and don't be too hard on yourself. Writing is creating out of thin air, from the smoke of our dreams and desires. It's not magic, and it doesn't come easily.

books and chewing gum

"This will never be a civilized country until we expend more money for books than we do for chewing gum." - Elbert Hubbard

I couldn't find stats on how much Americans spend on chewing gum, or, for that matter, how much we spend on books. I know, I'm a dork. I actually tried to find this out. Although this sentiment might not be statistically true, it sure feels psychologically true. My lament is not that we don't read, but that we don't read enough good, thoughtful writers.

I spend a lot of time, too much time, in thrift stores and at yard sales. I'm always hunting for books. Sadly, the majority of what I find is utter garbage. Okay, okay, I hear you already. So people are reading. That should be enough. The fact that what they're reading is soulless, pointless, trivial BS shouldn't matter. I can't help but agree with Mark Twain when he wrote, "The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them."

UNF Writers Conference - lessons learned

The 2010 UNF Writers Conference has concluded and before hitting the sack for some well-needed rest I thought I'd share my notes on the conference and some lessons learned.

New York Times bestselling author Steve Berry kicked off the three-day event with a informative general session on "What Every Writer Should Never Forget." What is that crucial element we writers must keep in the forethought of our minds? The three-act structure. I found Berry's focus of a hands-on, methodical approach to story structure solid advice for the beginning writer and a great reminder for more experienced writers. For most writing, the fundamentals of story telling begin there, so what better way to begin a writing conference? Lesson learned: Begin at the beginning and pay attention to the basics of structure.

The rest of Friday's schedule allowed the writer to choose from sets of workshops. The three out of the four I attended were interactive and provided concrete ways to build character, market yourself, and increase tension and desire in your reader. I found Sharon Cobb's session on creating characters through the "psychologist-treatment" method innovative in its approach to getting to deeper levels in the understanding and fleshing-out of characters. Darrell House's high-energy session - part performance, part self-marketing tips - on "getting the gig" in the children's book market was just a blast. Local crime writer and literature professor Michael Wiley's session on building narrative desire for the reader was invaluable in its thoughtful approach to the elements of tension and suspense, especially for mystery novels but applicable for other genres and mainstream literary fiction. Though not as interactive, Young Adult fiction writer Adrian Fogelin's session served as a good reminder of the way fiction can touch pre-teens and teens and what a unique opportunity the YA author has for shaping young hearts and minds. Lesson learned: Pick your workshop sessions wisely and find ways to apply the speaker's message to your particular genre and style.

Saturday and Sunday concentrated on critique sessions with a published writer. Attendees were given some options on genres: children's, memoir, general fiction, young adult fiction, non-fiction, and screenwriting. I used the opportunity to workshop the first ten pages of my YA book Gems in the Rough. The YA author for my section, Kristin Harmel, was fantastic. Energetic, supportive, and honest, I found working with her and the entire critique group engaging and productive, so much so our group has decided to ban together and start our own Jacksonville YA writers critique group. Go Team YA! I was even lucky enough to find an early reader for my book who I thing can give me the fresh eyes and constructive criticism I need for the revision process. Lesson learned: Be supportive of your fellow writer's efforts and use the time to network.

Sunday's lunch speaker, magazine writer Mary W. Bridgman provided useful advice on getting your work out there and using small magazines as a way to build publishing credits. The day ended with information on writing a pitch for the "Book & Film Deal Connection" pitch book, which will go out to agents, publishers, and producers who have agreed to read the pitches. I could tell there were lots of excited writers in the audience ready to pitch their books.

The only swing and miss, for me, for the conference came after lunch on Sunday with the First Page Panel program. Attendees were invited to submit the first page of a manuscript. For what purpose was rather vague at the time of asking. I submitted the first page of a manuscript that hasn't gotten past the first chapter and hadn't been revised, a sci-fi/horror bit called Additive, about the conspiracy by food companies and the pharmaceutical industry to hook Americans on a dangerous food additive. About half of the first pages submitted were selected. Mine was one of them. The First Page Panel turned out to be the writer reading his or her first page in front everyone and three workshop leaders sitting on stage critiquing their first page submission.

In theory, perhaps not a bad idea. But who wants to be unknowingly thrown into an American Idol -style first page crit/bash? Some judges even focused on spelling and comma errors, which although important if you're sending work to an agent, aren't worth focusing on and using to club the unsuspecting beginning writer. The audience wasn't able to visually follow the page (I need to see a page not have it read to me), the writers were not allowed to provide any set up or even book jacket blurb to orient the audience, and one of the judges took more time to rip apart the page than the writer took to read it. I was sort of happy the session ran long and they never got to mine. Overall, a bad idea and a waste of valuable time. I would have appreciated more time spent on the business aspect of building a writing career, the kind of stuff you don't get in the other workshops. Lesson learned: Be careful sending in samples of work when you don't know what it will be used for.

For the most part, I enjoyed the weekend and will return for next year's conference, hopefully with an agent and a book deal.

Happy writing this-coming week, friends, and keep the literary faith.

UNF Writers Conference this weekend

The UNF Writers Conference is in its second day today. I plan to post a detailed entry after tomorrow's conclusion, but in the meanwhile I wanted to offer words of encouragement today to keep the literary faith and keep writing. Two common themes running through the workshops and critique groups are to write the book you most want to read and not to be afraid to edit savagely when needed, which I firmly believe is a necessary function similar to pruning a rose bush or disciplining your child. Along these lines, I offer a quote by the esteemed author Henry James for your consideration:

"I have performed the necessary butchery. Here is the bleeding corpse."
Henry James, following a request from the TLS to cut three lines from a 5,000 word article.

books and writers that make us want to write

"Reading usually precedes writing. And the impulse to write is almost always fired by reading. Reading, the love of reading, is what makes you dream of becoming a writer. And long after you've become a writer, reading books others write -- and rereading the beloved books of the past -- constitutes an irresistible distraction from writing. Distraction. Consolation. Torment. And, yes, inspiration." - Susan Sontag

A few books that made me want to write (in no particular order):

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce
Beloved and Paradise - Toni Morrison
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
Geek Love - Katherine Dunn
Ellen Foster - Kaye Gibbons
Kate Vaiden - Reynolds Price
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursala Le Quin
Romeo & Juliet - William Shakespeare

Add to this list the short stories of Flannery O'Conner, Edgar Alan Poe, Angela Carter, and Ray Bradbury and the poetry of e. e. cummings, Robert Frost, and Sylvia Plath.

Keep reading, keep writing, and keep the literary faith.

more quotes on the joy of books

"Books are a delightful society. If you go into a room filled with books, even without taking them down from their shelves, they seem to speak to you, to welcome you." - William E. Gladstone

"As good almost kill a man as kill a good book: who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who destroys a good book kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were, in the eye." - John Milton

"An ordinary man can . . . surround himself it two thousand books . . . and thenceforward have a least one place in the world in which it is possible to be happy." - Augustine Birrell

A good book to me is an accomplished literary construction. I am drawn into the story, and the characters become real. They talk to me long after the last page is read. But more than that, I delight in the structure of the book, whether multi-layered or straight forward. Much in the same way I imagine an architect might stand in awe of a remarkably-constructed building. I study its use of dialogue, paragraph construction, chapter structure, literary devices. I want to discuss with others who love good writing an author's command of punctuation, how he or she wields a comma with deft and grace, slices a passage in just the perfect manner with a dash, makes a statement with an ellipsis. When every word counts, every sentence holds together, every scene is a beauty on its own and necessary part of an exquisite whole, I clap my hands and applaud the talent, skill, and passion of the author. Bravo. Bravo.

What is a good book mean to you?

the random read

"If you cannot read all your books, at any rate handle, or as it were, fondle them -- peer into them, let them fall open where they will, read from the first sentence that arrests the eye, set them back on the shelves with your own hands, arrange them on your own plan so that you at least know where they are. Let them be your friends; let them at any rate be your acquaintances." - Winston Churchill

I love the anticipation of surprise in the random read. I have a large bookshelf of books I've read, books I want to read, books I think I should own (just in case they go out of print and every copy but the copy I've saved is consumed by rabid swarms of book-eating locus). It's one of my favorite pastimes to flip through a book that's been on my mind. I turn to a page, letting my eyes pour over the words until a passage strikes my fancy. I rarely read more than a page, placing the book back carefully in its proper place. I find great comfort in knowing it will be there for me when I feel the urge to visit it again. I suppose it might be like a foodie stopping by Whole Foods just to walk the isles, picking out an interesting jar of this or that or handling a ripe fruit, taking in a good, long sniff of the produce, and placing it back on the shelf or in the bin. Or the wine aficionado at a wine tasting.

Random reads for your pleasure:

From Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham

"'I remember when first I went to Paris, Clutton, I think it was, gave a long discourse on the subject that beauty is put into things by painters and poets. They create beauty. In themselves there is nothing to choose between the Campanile of Giotto and a factory chimney. And then beautiful things grow rich with the emotion that they have aroused in succeeding generations. That is why old things are more beautiful than modern. The Ode to a Grecian Urn is more lovely now than when it was written, because for a hundred years lovers have read it and the sick at heart take comfort in its lines.'"

From The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

"The rain had stopped. The air now drove out of southeast, broken overhead into blue patches. Upon the crest of a hill beyond the trees and roofs and spires of town sunlight lay like a pale scrap of cloth, was blotted away. Upon the air a bell came, than as if at a signal, other bells took up the sound and repeated it."

Time for one more? Yes?
Yes.
Always time for one more.

From Jazz by Toni Morrison

"Girls can do that. Steer a man away from death or drive him right to it. Pull you out of sleep and you wake up on the ground under a tree you'll never locate again because you're lost. Or if you do find it, it won't be the same. Maybe it cracked from the inside, bored through by crawling life that had to have its own way too, and just crept and bunched and gnawed and burrowed until the whole thing was pitted through with the service it rendered to others. Or maybe they cut it down before it crashed in on itself. Turned it into logs for a fire in a big hearth for children to gaze into."

Ah, the random read. Always a surprise and delight waiting in the turn of a page.