October 2009
10 posts
So, about that “hallelujah moment” thing: how about a “hallelujah” week thing instead? Per a very thoughtful email received Tuesday evening, my work is cut out for me and now, I can barely sit still thinking about getting a few hours alone with my computer.
The most massive thank you in the world to the incredible agent that just changed everything. And I mean...
“My father always used to say to throw your questions to the sea and the answers would wash up on the shore.” “Did they?” “No, not in Brighton Beach.”
I’d like, for one day, to hop in a time machine to 1930s Brooklyn. To see the stitching of the baseball gloves that look so cumbersome, to feel the texture of the radio knobs as I tuned them to the...
Mirror Mirror in the Word Count
The I-am-so-happy-I-haven’t-yet-queried reinforcement keeps showing her beautiful face. And gosh, if she isn’t the most gorgeous thing in the world.
Those handwritten edits are now in place. The final result of the adverbs/modifiers/show-tell removal: more than three hundred words deleted. Three hundred unnecessary words. This is a hallelujah moment in action.
In an effort to...
You get three exclamation points a novel, eh? A cursory command+F through my half-edited manuscript shows twenty-seven in two-hundred and fifteen pages. All in dialogue. Snip, snip, snip (exclamation point).
I’m busy implementing two-hundred pages of handwritten edits, which are mostly stylistic, show/tell, and structural. I’m about halfway through getting them into the manuscript, and I can already see how much more polished the prose is looking. I love how I’m starting to learn that cutting down on things like modifiers, adverbs, and overwritten sentences doesn’t equal...
Red Pen Black Pen No Pen
My critique took place on Tuesday, but I’m just now starting to become lucid enough to write about it. That doesn’t mean I’ve come to any conclusions or even begun to digest a lot of what was said - that’s a very laborious road ahead - but my mind has at least chilled out enough to be able to employ the “use your words” widsom of grade school.
Of course, there...
To the man with the pocket protector on the F train,
You are the reason I love this city with an unbridled heart. I will see you in my next novel, I promise.
Meredith
Fire Away
First MFA-level critique tonight. My skin is crawling with anticipation.
When I told a friend I was nervous, he said, “That’s good, you don’t want to be ambivalent.” I suppose he’s incredibly on with that statement; every second that the goosebumps raise higher and the less time I can sit still in my chair, it’s more indication that I’m excited, that...
The Woodwork at Balthazar
I guess the real question when you get down to it is, “How do I not be discouraged that every other human in the history of mortal existence wants to be a writer, too?”
Last night, I sat in workshop for the first time since May with a group of brand new faces and ages, and then came home to my Google Reader, a quarter of which is devoted to online literary magazines, agent blogs, and...
Paragraphs that Make my Morning: Part Une
“Then sometimes, out of the blue, an editor will say ‘hey, I’m looking for Such and So’ and after I regain my senses (because the editor was certainly NOT looking for Such OR So when I pitched before!) I am very happy to offer up Exhibit A: one lovely manuscript, with fresh crisp pages, in TNR 12 point, and delivered by a ripped bicycle messenger and oh goodness was that a...