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"But I'm really a writer."

This is just a really good post about being a writer. I’ll just quote this bit:

And growing up I watched [my mom] struggle with the difficulty of telling people she was a writer at cocktail parties and having them ask, “Have you written anything I have read?” and having her crumple inside as she tried to come up with a breezy cocktail party answer to something that cut her to the quick. Man, that’s brutal stuff. I don’t think most people understand how personal good writing can feel, and how much doubt there is when you put something out there and don’t get a response.
…
I did my best not to want it for myself, because life is a lot easier if you have an answer like, “I’m a lawyer” at a cocktail party. People don’t further question your success or credentials. You don’t have to doubt every day whether you’re good at what you care the most about being good at, or whether anyone will ever acknowledge what you’ve done.

This is so true.

After going through law school, I have a theory that there are three kinds of lawyers: the ones who are in it solely for the money/prestige, the ones who are in it to “change the world” (includes both social justice types and academics), and the ones who are really writers. Surprising how many people said to me over the course of the three years: “But I’m really a writer.”

I heart you, Walter Mosley


But the truth is: If you want to make money, go into real estate. The most successful writer’s income is nothing compared to the wealth of a modern-day land baron. One office building in Soho could buy the careers of at least half-a-dozen successful writers.The acquisition of wealth should not be our primary goal. Nor should greater and greater numbers of readers. The foremost goal on our minds should be to create a story that is true to its own world view.

Words, sentences, paragraphs — these are our basic tools and ultimate means of gratification. Metaphor, similes, rhyme and meter, symbols and line-breaks, even the elusive epiphany — these are the instruments of a writer’s success.

Yes, yes, and yes. This is what I’ve been trying to say.

Thank you.

It comes down to this: Writing novels requires an obsession with our truths. Those truths are not put into novels for witnesses but for co-conspirators. The good novelist knows that Truth is always accompanied by its silent partner: Guilt. She knows that our humanity makes us responsible for events that transpire in this world. She knows, too, that we’re not willing to accept the blame.

I think I’ve just had a f’ing epiphany.

Actual Content

So I’ve made my word count so far, but it’s taking more hours that I planned. I’m hoping it’ll speed up once I get more into the story.

Anyhow. During my daily blog-reading (read: procrastination), I ran across this:

[Japanese author Haruki] Murakami believes the first step toward successful writing is proper physical fitness.

“First train your body. Then, your writing style will follow,” the author said, is a mantra by which he lives. Murakami has run the Boston Marathon six times and will run his 34th marathon this weekend.

“I realized that I needed physical strength [to focus on writing for long periods] and that strength helped to develop my writing style,” he said.

I’d like to believe that.

Went for a run last night. When I started, it was just drizzling, but it picked up just after I reached my turn-around point. And then–whoosh–it was sheeting down. The light was crazy with headlights bouncing off all that water. My shoes felt all spongey. Squish, squish, crunch through the leaves. And my (bright yellow reflective) jacket plastered itself to me. Was all good, though. I’d warmed up by that time, and it wasn’t cold, just wet. Plus I felt really energetic right from the beginning. I think part of it is the abrupt change from running in the daylight to running in the dark. It’s a different experience. Makes me feel all dedicated and stuff. 😉

I love November.

Funny

Saw this post at MediaBistro this morning.

*insert laughter here*

I recognized it immediately. We (Toasted Cheese) received this “query” about two months ago. I snarked at the sender’s extreme cluelessness, considered ignoring the e-mail, but in the end, whipped off a quick “our submission guidelines are here” response. We haven’t heard anything further from the guy.

Anyhow, Claire at MB covers all the salient points. Honestly, I don’t think there’s any hope for people who are as out of it as that letter-writer but her advice may help others.

Mine would be:

1. Learn how to write a query letter. There’s plenty of information available online. Google is your friend.

2. Professional correspondence–even in e-mail form–should always have a greeting “Dear Ms. Editor” and a closing “Sincerely, Jane Writer.”

3. Don’t: tell the editor your life story, list every story you’ve ever written, lead with a negative (“I’ve never been published”).

4. Do: show the editor that you’ve done your homework (why is your work right for the editor’s publication?), list a few relevant writing credits if you have them &/or your credentials (e.g. a degree in writing), follow the publication’s submission guidelines.

5. It’s your job to find your target publication’s submission guidelines, READ THEM, and follow them. This takes time, but it is not rocket science.

6. Only submit work that is appropriate for the publication. If the publication says it accepts fiction and poetry, don’t send a book review! If it’s a romantic-themed journal, don’t send a horror story. If it says “stories under 1,000 words only” don’t send one that’s 2,000-words.

Every submission period, we toss ~20% of the subs we receive because they haven’t followed our fairly basic submission guidelines. Submissions are most often disqualified for the following reasons:

*wrong e-mail address / incorrect subject line

*too many pieces submitted at once / two or more genres submitted at once / more than one submission during a submission period

*exceeds 5,000 words (our maximum)

So You Want To Write Full-Time?

People often talk bad about teaching, saying that it zaps a person’s creativity. And I will admit that there are challenges. But taking that job at ETSU let me take a breath. I returned to the manuscripts and made the changes that I wanted to make for my own artistic reasons. My choices were motivated by my goals for the story, not the fact that I needed to eat. That I would lose my little condo. Or that I might have to nove in with my parents. (Horror of horrors!).

So this is why I urge writers to think long and hard before making their writing their primary source of income.

To memoir or not to memoir, that is the question

Don’t you just love it when someone else articulates something you’ve been thinking about / trying to say? Tayari Jones again, on whether writing a memoir is the right thing to do:


And it made more wonder if having the RIGHT to hurt someone makes it okay to do so.
…
In this piece I talk quite a bit anout my dad. Was it really okay for me to talk about him? Of course I have the right and desire to tell my own story, but I can’t really tell it without him.

She concludes:

I don’t know. I think I prefer the safe realm of fiction.

!!! I’ve thought a great deal about writing a memoir. This is always where I end up. Fiction does feel safe to me. I can write about more significant, weightier subjects in fiction than I can in memoir. The distance of fiction allows me to get nearer to the truth, if that makes any sense.

Writing a memoir would mean writing about my family, my childhood. That’s the key to the whole thing. Without that, there’s no point. But when I write personal non-fiction, even if I’m just testing it out, in a Word doc, I find myself hedging when it comes to my family. Who they are is crucial to who I am, hence I must write about them, if I am to write my story.

But the good daughter in me balks at hurting anyone. No one in my story is evil. There is no big bad.

It would be much easier if there was.

TCGN* Update

[*Tom Cruise Goes Nuts]

I’ve been confining my thoughts on this matter to Sallie’s ever-so-funny running commentary at So Anyway…, but I just had to share this tidbit.

Quite frequently, I’ll make an observation on something to myself or someone else, then later on I’ll hear someone else make the same observation in a more public forum. And then I’ll think, hey! I said that yesterday! (or whatever). I’m still trying to decide if this makes me a trendsetter or simply unoriginal.

Anyhoo.

Last Friday I commented on Eden’s post about TCGN’s appearance on Today:


You know back in the day (i.e. the 80s), I liked TC. That gradually wore down to neutrality. My feelings toward him remained pretty much neutral until the last, oh, how long would you say it’s been? two months or so? Now I actively dislike him. I may never pay to see another movie with him in it. And I can’t imagine I’m the only person who’s feeling that way.

Then last night I was noodling around TWoP and after catching up on the AC360 thread, I saw the Today Show thread, remembered Eden’s post (I didn’t actually see the interview) and thought I’d see what the TWoPPers had to say about it.

Just a few snippets:
ctygrltif2:

Between that and the “Matt, Matt, Matt” he was just so offensive. I hate the way he’s trying to force his cult on the rest of the world. I was never a big fan of his movies anyway so it’s no big loss that I’ll never pay money to see one again..

Damaris56:

Well, after this whole thing with Katie Holmes and Brooke Shields and this latest interview on Today, I’m boycotting his films. I’m never giving this guy a penny of my money. I had planned to see War Of The Worlds because Spielberg was directing it, but nothing will get me in to watch any movie with this idiot in it.

Lizziedrew:

Add me to the list of those who will be boycotting his movies in the future. That pompous asshat doesn’t need any more of my money, for damn sure.

BitchySmurf:

I never liked Tom Cruise. I never disliked him. But I never “got” the whole appeal. I’m never going to another one of his movies. War of the Worlds seems like the kind of thing I would enjoy too. But I won’t go.

So, heh. There are also links to transcripts of the interview wherein TCGN proves that he is, in fact, a crazy person. It’s funny (funny weird, not funny haha). The main reason my initial like of TC wore off was because I could never get a read on him in interviews. Maybe this is stupid, but if I find someone to be vacuous or annoying or assholey in interviews, I find it hard to like his/her work. Conversely, if someone comes off as bright or witty, I’m more inclined to enjoy his/her work.

Anyhow, to me, TC never came off as anything. He was like a robot, a shell. I got the impression that he had no personality of his own, he just filled this shell with roles, and when the role ended he was empty again. Now, I realize this was in part due to his publicist (you know, the one he fired) suppressing his urge to reveal that he’s a crazy person. But I also think that my instinct that he had no personality of his own is probably not that far off. That’s the kind of person that cults appeal to, after all, isn’t it?

One more thing: in all this frenzy, little mention has been made of TC’s children. I’ve been thinking about how they’re getting to that age (according to IMDb, they’re 12 and 10) where everything your parents do, regardless of how ordinary, is embarrassing. Can you imagine being a pre-teen and having to watch your dad behave as he has for the last while? I’m mortified for them.

Thinking…

I must be getting cooler (um, yeah, right) or at least more tuned in to the >cough< A-List, if I can read a list like this, and not only be familiar with five of them but have been so over one of the 5 six months ago (sorry, JB).

(The joke’s on me, of course, as he’s the one with the book deal.)

The coolest Avon Lady on the planet…

…er, make that in the universe.

Hey, Klingons have feelings, too!

“Mrs. Jaworski, 8 has been suspended from school for one day.” She wore an arctic blue power jacket over black slacks, and I self-consciously tried to pull my hooded sweatshirt further over my pink pajamas.

“It’s Ms., please. And sorry for my attire, but I ran a marathon yesterday and I’m too sore to change this morning.” I tried to infect her with my smile, but she wore a tight-lipped expression as frosty as her jacket. “So, anyway. What did he do?” I picked at the hem of my sweatshirt, looked just to the right of her face. I couldn’t meet her eyes. I felt nervous. I felt underdressed. I wondered where 8 was.

So she told me what he did. And as she told me, I started to laugh. I didn’t laugh a little, either, but I belly-laughed and grabbed my stomach. My son stood with his class this morning, put small right hand over heart, faced the American flag, and recited his own personal pledge of allegiance:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United Federation of Planets, and to the galaxy for which it stands, one universe, under everybody, with liberty and justice for all species.

“Mrs. Jaworski. This isn’t humorous. The Pledge is an extremely important and patriotic moment each morning in the classroom. I am ashamed of your son’s behavior, and I hope you are, too.”

She had me at “Ms.” Then she threw in a marathon. Then she started to laugh at Principal IAmMiserable&ThereforeYouShouldBeToo (believe me, I know the type) and became the coolest mom ever. Also, she can write.