Q & A on Writing

Topic: Finding Time to Write

2011-01-28T05:32:00.001-08:00

Question: What are some tips on how to find the time to write?

Answer: Of all the tips the author gives, I noted this one, especially: “Don’t research during ‘prime time.’ Don’t ever cease the flow of your writing to stop and research. Research during nonwriting times.”

Title: “Making Time to Write.” Cheryl Bolen. The Writer (December 2010), 26-27.

Topic: Reading Like a Writer

2011-01-27T06:56:00.001-08:00

Question: How does one “read like a writer”?

Answer: “When you find something you like to read, don’t content yourself by saying, ‘I like this.’ When you find something that you actively dislike, don’t content yourself by saying, ‘I hate this.’ You ask yourself, ‘How is this made? What is the ratio of abstract to concrete language? Is the diction Latinate or is it colloquial? What is the ;point of view? …. What tense does the author turn to? What is the basic rhythm? Is this author writing mostly iambic lines or trochaic lines? Does the author use fragments?’

“You have to work very specifically, using the writing that you like and the writing that you don’t like. Ask yourself how it’s made, because then you can use that technical information to teach yourself how to write the way you want to write. That advice has helped me a lot. Books are our best teachers, and they’re everywhere.”

Title: “Aiming for the Universal.” Interview with A Manette Ansay by Elfrieda Abbe. The Writer (December 2010), 22-25.

Topic: Query

2011-01-26T07:39:00.000-08:00

Question: What should every query letter have?

Answer: Susan Shapiro: “Your query should describe why you are uniquely qualified to write the piece and why the publication’s readers will be interested in it.”

Title: “The fine Art of Pitching.” Jeff Reich (Editor). The Writer (December 2010), 6.

Topic: Interviews

2011-01-25T05:42:00.000-08:00

Question: What are some useful tips on interviewing?

Answer: “Lean toward the other person to convey interest and enjoyment.” “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” “Suspend judgment. Never assume you know how someone feels.” “Take notes…but don’t let your note taking get in the way of the interview.” “Maintain eye contact.” “Be aware of the interviewee’s time constraint.” “Follow up: If I need additional information, is it best to contact you by phone or e-mail?”

Title: “Learn Interview Tips from a Therapist.” Dave Stefan. The Writer (October 2009), 10-11.

Topic: Writing--a Painful Process

2011-01-24T05:35:00.000-08:00

Question: How Do You Feel about Writing?

Answer: “I’m one of those writers for whom writing doesn’t come easy. For me, the process of knitting together words and sentences into a coherent, meaningful, readable whole is fraught with missteps, detours and plenty of frustration. And yet I keep at it, and the finished work—written just for me, at this point—is worth the effort. It’s a compulsion that’s hard to explain to others, but there it is.”

“But for the rest of us, writing is often a struggle—albeit one we take on gladly. …cites George Orwell, who famously compared writing to ‘a long bout of some painful illness.’ Tom Wolfe once remarked, ‘I do find writing a very painful process—I never understand writers who say it’s enjoyable.’ And I’ve always liked the line by Katherine Anne Porter: ‘Oh God! How I have to beat myself over the head to get started every morning.’ But what literary riches these writers have left us.” Jeff Reich, Editor of The Writer.

Comment: When I feel I have written well, I have a sense of enjoyment. However, while I’m writing, I find it pure pain. When I read something I have published and find mistakes, I feel pain. Poring over finished work to proofread a 534-page book, once, twice, three times, I feel pain I’m with those who feel that writing is a painful experience. RayS.

Title: “What Drives our Writing?” Jeff Reich, editor. The Writer (October 2009), 6.

Topic: A Good Story

2011-01-21T06:01:00.001-08:00

Question: What are the characteristics of a good story?

Answer: “Make no mistake: great writing is secondary. Because if the reader doesn’t want to know what happens next, who cares how well it’s written?”

Title: “The Love of a Good Story.” Robin Garland interview with Lisa Cron. The Writer (January 2011), 34-35; 55.

Topic: What Is Publishable?

2011-01-20T05:48:00.001-08:00

Question: What is a book editor looking for?

Answer: “When someone says, ‘This manuscript is the new Twilight/ Gossip Girl/ Harry Potter/ Wimpy Kid/’… I’m usually pretty skeptical. We’re more interested in creating trends, rather than following them. The books that tend to excite me are those where I start reading and I think, ‘Wow, I’ve never read anything like this before’ or ‘I have no idea where this is going but I can’t wait to find out.’ ” Magan Tingley, editor, Little, Brown.

Comment: I notice that I’m looking for something similar to ‘I have no idea where this is going…’ even in the novels and stories of Henry James. RayS.

Title: “What Book Editors Want.” Maya Rock. The Writer (January 2011), 30-33.

Topic: A Master's Degree in Professional Writing

2011-01-19T06:06:00.000-08:00

Question;…What are the advantages of?

Answer: A practical focus. “The graduates agree that experimenting with different genres and meeting other writers were the most gratifying parts of their degree.”

Comment: Experimenting with writing different genres intrigues me. RayS.

Title: “A Graduate-Program Alternative.” DA Dahm. The Writer (January 2011), 23.

Topic: Advice for Beginning Writers

2011-01-18T06:32:00.001-08:00

Question: What do beginning writers have to learn?

Answer: “The most important lesson I learned…was that to be a better writer, you have to write, and write all the time…. Beginning writers sometimes have a hard time understanding how much practice is required to get anywhere with your work. Part of this means…being able to write 10 pages and then, when you realize those pages aren’t working, you cut the ten pages.”

“Now that most writers write first drafts on computers, there’s almost no reason not to be willing to experiment and fail again and again. So a lot of what I do is to try to get students used to the habit of writing something, not having it work out, rewriting it, rewriting it again, make some decision, rewrite it again—and then try to finish the thing.” Joe Meno.

Comment: You need to practice writing, even if it doesn’t work out. Many writers tell how they have written a great deal, with only a few pieces actually published. RayS.

Title: “Imagining Out of the Box.” Mort Castle’s interview with Joe Meno. The Writer (January 2011), 18-20.

Topic: The Writer Online

2011-01-17T05:59:00.001-08:00

Question: What are the advantages of writers who go online with a personal web site?

Answer: “A website is essential for writers. If you haven’t set one up yet, this investment should be top on your list. Enlist a Web-design consultant to help you establish a professional look.

“Even if you’re just starting out, your website can help with self-promotion, establishing credibility and making samples of your writing—either short published pieces or you blog posts—available to editors and others interested in your work.” Debbie Swanson.

Comment: A blog might accomplish the same thing. RayS.

Title: “5 Smart Ways to Invest in Your Writing in the New Year.” Debbie Swanson. The Writer (January 2011), 8-9.

Topic: The Nature of Writing and Publishing

2011-01-14T05:32:00.001-08:00

Question: What are the characteristics of successful—and unsuccessful—writers?

Answer: Jeff Reich, editor of The Writer magazine, a publication for writers by writers: “If you were to name a few attributes every successful writer possesses, surely persistence—some would say doggedness—would be near the top of the list. After all, we must overcome all kinds of obstacles in the course of writing an article or story and getting it to print, form the time-sapping distractions and responsibilities of day-to-day life to the many roadblocks that lie between your finished piece and publication. We’re all familiar with the impulse to give in, to surrender to the seeming impossibility of it all. But we need to keep going.”

Comment: “Success” comes in a variety of guises. My book on teaching English, was a failure. Few people—even my friends—read it and those that did seldom commented on its ideas. However, my blogs, which reinforced and even repeated what I had said in my book about teaching English, generate from 50 to 100 page views a day. For me, that is success. RayS.

“Editor’s Note: Never Lose Faith.” Jeff Reich. The Writer (January 2011), 6.

Topic: A cliche

2011-01-13T05:42:00.001-08:00

Question: Is a picture worth a thousand words?

Answer: Isaac Asimov: “Don’t you believe it….” “Consider, for instance, Hamlet’s great soliloquy that begins with ‘To be or not to be,’ the poetic consideration of the pros and cons of suicide. It is 260 words long. Can you get across the essence of Hamlet’s thought in a quarter of a picture—or, for that matter, in 260 pictures? Of course not. The pictures may be dramatic illustrations of the soliloquy if you already know the words. The pictures by themselves, to someone who has never read or heard Hamlet, will mean nothing.” May 1986.

Comment: Pictures are pictures. They do their job, which is mainly illustrations of ideas, usually expressed in words. Consider the endless pictures of automobile accidents in the daily local newspapers or local newscasts. Those pictures may suggest ideas, but Karl Shapiro’s “Auto Wreck” formulates impressions and questions that the pictures of auto wrecks may suggest to individual readers, but cannot convey, certainly not in captions. RayS.

Title: The Writer’s Digest Guide to Good Writing. Thomas Clark, ed., et al. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 1994.

Topic: Publishing Freelance Articles

2011-01-12T06:01:00.000-08:00

Question: What must you do in order to publish articles?

Answer: Read the magazines for which you plan to write, but read them as a writer, noting the style and characteristics of the articles. Note that the table of contents deals with subjects, not topics or ideas. For example, an idea is the Presidency. Subject: “Is the Presidency Too Powerful?” Idea: Science. Subject: “Is Science Creating Dangerous mew Bacteria?”

Quote: “One of my discoveries as a teacher is that too many students in article-writing classes have not read articles. They may have glanced at magazines from time to time but they never really studied the content for style.” ML Stein. February 1976.

Comment: Recurring advice for publishing: study your market. Study the market for which you plan to write. I made that mistake with my first article submitted to an editor. I read many articles in the journal for which I wanted to write, but I did not study them as a writer. For example, I did not realize that I needed to establish what had already been published on my topic. The article was returned by the editor who said she would publish it if I established what was already published on the topic at the beginning of the article. I should have known that, but I had not read the articles as if I were going to write one. RayS.

Title: The Writer’s Digest Guide to Good Writing. Thomas Clark, ed., et al. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 1994.

Topic: Purpose for Revising

2011-01-11T05:22:00.001-08:00

Question: What should you aim for in revising your work?

Answer: “When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done. If the first draft runs 4,000 words, your second should go about 3,000. If the first is around 3,000, you can still probably get it down to about 2,500 by tightening up the nuts and bolts. The object here isn’t to shorten for the sake of shortening but to speed up the pace and make the story fly along.” Stephen King. “The Horror Market Writer and the Ten Bears.” P. 228. November 1973.

Comment: I think you’ll agree that Stephen King is a model for how to establish pace in writing. RayS.

Title: The Writer’s Digest Guide to Good Writing. Thomas Clark, ed., et al. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 1994.

Topic: Stephen King's Top Ten Horror Topics

2011-01-10T05:46:00.001-08:00

Quote: “Fear of the dark. Fear of squishy things. Fear of deformity. Fear of snakes. Fear of rats. Fear of closed-in places. Fear of insects (especially spiders, flies, beetles). Fear of death. Fear of others. Fear for someone else.” P. 225. Stephen King. November 1973. “The Horror Market Writer and the Ten Bears.” Pp. 224-228.

Comment: Never thought of cataloging my top ten fears. Let’s face it. King is the master of horror writing. RayS.

Title: The Writer’s Digest Guide to Good Writing. Thomas Clark, ed., et al. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 1994.

Topic: Advice on Writing

2011-01-07T06:15:00.000-08:00

Question: What shouldn’t you try to write?

Answer: Don’t write anything you wouldn’t want to read. Brian Garfield, February 1973.

Comment: Sounds self-evident. But one might not want to read something for a whole variety of reasons. I’ve thought deeply about why my book was a failure. I think if I had considered my interest in what I was writing, and why my readers might not want to read it, I might have approached my book with an entirely different perspective. Worth thinking about. RayS.

Title: The Writer’s Digest Guide to Good Writing. Thomas Clark, ed., et al. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 1994.

Topic: Why Write?

2011-01-06T05:40:00.001-08:00

Quote: “Television shows us what we do; writers tell us why.” Carl E Johnson. May 1972.

Comment: Think about that statement. As I ponder the future of American culture and question whether books will have a place in it, I keep coming back to the idea that books and print have the power to share ideas and to reflect on them. To what degree do television news shows, sit-coms, medical dramas and crime shows develop ideas? I don’t say they have no ideas, but the scope allowed by the medium is limited as is the medium’s pace which does not allow time for reflection RayS.

Title: The Writer’s Digest Guide to Good Writing. Thomas Clark, ed., et al. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 1994.

Topic: How-To Articles

2011-01-05T05:48:00.001-08:00

Question: What are the types of “how-to” articles?

Answer:

. The pure how-to article “How to Build a Sandbox.”

. The narrative how-to article: “How a company instituted a cost-control program or how an individual made money in the stock market.”

. The various ways how-to article.”20 Ways to Save Money at the Supermarket.”

. The questions-to-ask how-to article. The pros and cons of corporate advertising.

. The pitfalls-to-avoid how-to article. “Marriage—Unsafe at Any Speed.”

. The question-answer how-to article.

. The don’t-do-this how-to article. “Don’t Lose That Job Before You Get It.”

. The checklist how-to article.

Hugh Sherwood. November 1970.

Title: The Writer’s Digest Guide to Good Writing. Thomas Clark, ed., et al. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 1994.

Topic: Description

2011-01-04T06:05:00.001-08:00

Question: What is the role of description in today’s fiction and nonfiction?

Answer: “…the long descriptive passages of yesterday have given way to dialogue….”

“Busy readers in today’s world of competitive communication usually look for ‘the action.’ They want the story—not lovely prose.”

“In other words…description may be essential to most fiction and nonfiction, but…keep it brief and blend it in.” Don James, July 1969.

Title: The Writer’s Digest Guide to Good Writing. Thomas Clark, ed., et al. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 1994.

Topic: Themes of Novels

2011-01-03T06:00:00.001-08:00

Question: What are some classic themes of traditional novels?

Answer: “The novel that deals with the Young Man from the Provinces, as Lionel Trilling calls him. It is the novel that presents the abrupt and fortuitous rise to high life of a young fellow of rustic or poverty-stricken origins. Great Expectations by Dickens and Old Goriot by Balzac are classic examples. More modern examples are The Princess Casamassima by James, The Red and the Black by Stendahl and Youngblood Hawke by Herman Wouk.”

“The novel that presents the Journey to a Promised Land. This thematic pattern can be found in Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck … and Giants in the Earth by Rolvaag.”

“The novel that presents the Innocent Observer of a Corrupt Society. This pattern can be seen in Huckleberry Finn by Twain, What Masie Knew by James, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by Joyce.”

“The novel that deals with the Young Woman of Sensibilities Fallen on a Dull Age. Madame Bovary by Flaubert and Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Hardy are classic examples. A more modern example is Lady Chatterley’s Lover by Lawrence.

Robert C. Meredith and John D. Fitzgerald. “Themes in the Traditional Novel.” May 1966.

Comment: The ability to reduce a novel to its bare essentials, as in these examples, is vital to selling a novel to a publisher. RayS.

Title: The Writer’s Digest Guide to Good Writing. Thomas Clark, ed., et al. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 1994.

Topic: The Meaning of Novels

2010-12-31T07:10:00.001-08:00

Question: Why read novels?

Answer: “All traditional novels demonstrate that certain people had certain experiences, and these experiences comment upon life, leaving the reader with some nonfictional conclusion about life. The nonfictional conclusion, or significance, is the theme of the novel.” Robert C. Meredith and John D. Fitzgerald. May 1966.

Comment: Is the novel dead? I don’t think so. Is reading novels no longer relevant to today’s American society? I don’t think so. Do Americans read classic novels? I think, less and less. Perhaps plain-spoken statements like this one on the nature and purpose of the novel will motivate people to read more novels—even traditional novels. Tweets, e-mail, Facebook and reading novels can co-exist. RayS.

Title: The Writer’s Digest Guide to Good Writing. Thomas Clark, ed., et al. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 1994.

Topic: How to Write a Good Story

2010-12-30T05:36:00.001-08:00

Question: How can you prevent readers from becoming bored with your writing?

Answer: Hallie Burnett. “If a story doesn’t bore you to write, it won’t bore the reader to read. When I begin to feel bored with any part of my writing, I skip to the next point that interests me, intending to come back and fill in—but often I find this unnecessary, and the words I have not written are never missed.” P. 178.

Title: The Writer’s Digest Guide to Good Writing. Thomas Clark, ed., et al. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 1994.

Topic: Writing a Good Story

2010-12-29T06:49:00.001-08:00

Question: What is the recipe for a good story?

Answer: John Steinbeck: “If there is a magic in story-writing, and I am convinced that there is, no one has ever been able to reduce it to a recipe that can be passed from one person to another.” P. 162.

Comment: Someone once said, no one can teach you how to write. They can only tell you how they write. RayS.

Title: The Writer’s Digest Guide to Good Writing. Thomas Clark, ed., et al. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 1994.