For Tuesday, August 28
Prompt #2
Base a 1,000 words around this randomly selected Neruda line:
"Still it would be marvelous to terrify a law clerk with a cut lily"
(Don't try to find the poem to get a context for it, create the context.)
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Sunday, August 26, 2007
English 643 Writers
Prompt #1
Write 1,000 words in response to this:
What's the best lie you've ever heard? Alternative - have your characters lie to each other.
Write 1,000 words in response to this:
What's the best lie you've ever heard? Alternative - have your characters lie to each other.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
English 643/Graduate Fiction Workshop
Professor Diana Joseph Office Hours: M&W 10-12; TH 10-11
English 643 E-Hours: T&F 9-12
Email: diana.joseph@mnsu.edu Office: Armstrong 201L
dianajosephsyllabi.blogspot.com Phone: 389-5144
Graduate Fiction Workshop
This workshop will operate differently from the traditional model. It does not focus on story as final product; you do not bring in a "finished" draft to find out whether or not it "works." Instead, this course uses the discussion of short, "unfinished" anecdotal pieces to explore a story's possibilities.
The class stresses close, careful reading and intensive writing. You'll write a thousand words a day, five days a week for fifteen weeks. Topics for writing will come out of prompts; each writer will be responsible for providing a week's worth of prompts. Every few weeks, we'll assemble a packet of these exercises. You should turn in the prompt you find most dynamic or intriguing, the one you're most excited about pushing further. We'll discuss your thousand word piece with an emphasis on craft, but also with the intention of locating the material's potential. Questions for discussion may include What is this piece's emotional center? What seems to be at stake? What are the metaphors? The conflicts? Based on what's here, who is the narrator?
More about My Workshop Philosophy
When we discuss a story, there won’t be talk about what we “like” or “don’t like.” There won’t be talk about what’s “good” or “bad”; there won’t be any value judgments. (This kind of feedback is hugely subjective and frequently confusing—like when six people love it, six people hate it, and one needs more time to think things over.) There won’t be advice on how to “fix” your story. (It’s your story, which means it’s your vision/version of the world, which means you should be the only one who can fix it.) There won’t be suggestions about what you “could” or “might” do. (I’m not interested in talking about writing that hasn’t been written.)
I am interested in what your story is about – the questions it raises, its themes, your artistic vision – and I’m interested in how your story is told, how its form reinforces its content. If writing is a series of choices, then what are the effects of these particular choices? If there’s an infinite number of ways to say something, then why are you saying it in this particular way? Why use first person instead of third person limited? What’s the effect of present tense over past? What are the story’s significant images and how do they create meaning? This workshop centers on describing and interpreting your use of the elements of fiction—and describing how each works with the rest to create unity, a singular effect, a vivid and continuous dream.
Class Materials
This is no required text for this class.
$ for photocopying/printing costs
Assignments
Participation=100%
This class depends entirely on your participation.
I define participation as your active engagement with the class, demonstrated through evidence of preparedness, and thoughtful contributions to discussions and workshops. I will also assess your participation by your completion of the following:
1. You’ll write 1,000 words a day, five days a week for 15 weeks. The writing will be in response to an assigned prompt. Don’t be surprised if I occasionally ask you to email me a file containing your prompts. I don’t want to police people, but I do want to provide an incentive to stay on track.
2. You’ll provide 5 writing prompts for the class. You’ll email your prompts to me by 5:00pm the Sunday of your week, and I will email them to the class.
3. Each of you will offer an assessment of your peers’ workshop responses; I will take this into consideration when determining participation grades.
Class Policies
Do the work; contribute in a thoughtful way to class discussions, but don’t monopolize. If you suspect you’re talking too much, you probably are. Missing more than one class results in dropping a full letter grade; if you’re not here, you can’t participate. Show up on time. No handwritten work will be accepted. All coursework must be completed to pass this class. Late work will not be accepted. Assignments are tentative and subject to change.
Your Name_________________________________________________________English 643
On a scale of 1-10, rate the time/effort you estimate each student put into your workshop critique. Use the back of this sheet for further comments, if necessary.
1. Arimah, Lesley
2. Benjamin, Jessica
3. Clisbee, David
4. Daly, Luke
5. Davis, Andrew
6. Dunnan, J. W.
7. Flynn, Thomas
8. Gatewood, Carrie
9. Grant, Richanda
10. Irmen, Ami
11. Johnson, Joshua
12. Langdon, Sarah
13. Slotemaker, Michael
14. Starkey, Danielle
15. Weerts, Matthew
English 643 E-Hours: T&F 9-12
Email: diana.joseph@mnsu.edu Office: Armstrong 201L
dianajosephsyllabi.blogspot.com Phone: 389-5144
Graduate Fiction Workshop
This workshop will operate differently from the traditional model. It does not focus on story as final product; you do not bring in a "finished" draft to find out whether or not it "works." Instead, this course uses the discussion of short, "unfinished" anecdotal pieces to explore a story's possibilities.
The class stresses close, careful reading and intensive writing. You'll write a thousand words a day, five days a week for fifteen weeks. Topics for writing will come out of prompts; each writer will be responsible for providing a week's worth of prompts. Every few weeks, we'll assemble a packet of these exercises. You should turn in the prompt you find most dynamic or intriguing, the one you're most excited about pushing further. We'll discuss your thousand word piece with an emphasis on craft, but also with the intention of locating the material's potential. Questions for discussion may include What is this piece's emotional center? What seems to be at stake? What are the metaphors? The conflicts? Based on what's here, who is the narrator?
More about My Workshop Philosophy
When we discuss a story, there won’t be talk about what we “like” or “don’t like.” There won’t be talk about what’s “good” or “bad”; there won’t be any value judgments. (This kind of feedback is hugely subjective and frequently confusing—like when six people love it, six people hate it, and one needs more time to think things over.) There won’t be advice on how to “fix” your story. (It’s your story, which means it’s your vision/version of the world, which means you should be the only one who can fix it.) There won’t be suggestions about what you “could” or “might” do. (I’m not interested in talking about writing that hasn’t been written.)
I am interested in what your story is about – the questions it raises, its themes, your artistic vision – and I’m interested in how your story is told, how its form reinforces its content. If writing is a series of choices, then what are the effects of these particular choices? If there’s an infinite number of ways to say something, then why are you saying it in this particular way? Why use first person instead of third person limited? What’s the effect of present tense over past? What are the story’s significant images and how do they create meaning? This workshop centers on describing and interpreting your use of the elements of fiction—and describing how each works with the rest to create unity, a singular effect, a vivid and continuous dream.
Class Materials
This is no required text for this class.
$ for photocopying/printing costs
Assignments
Participation=100%
This class depends entirely on your participation.
I define participation as your active engagement with the class, demonstrated through evidence of preparedness, and thoughtful contributions to discussions and workshops. I will also assess your participation by your completion of the following:
1. You’ll write 1,000 words a day, five days a week for 15 weeks. The writing will be in response to an assigned prompt. Don’t be surprised if I occasionally ask you to email me a file containing your prompts. I don’t want to police people, but I do want to provide an incentive to stay on track.
2. You’ll provide 5 writing prompts for the class. You’ll email your prompts to me by 5:00pm the Sunday of your week, and I will email them to the class.
3. Each of you will offer an assessment of your peers’ workshop responses; I will take this into consideration when determining participation grades.
Class Policies
Do the work; contribute in a thoughtful way to class discussions, but don’t monopolize. If you suspect you’re talking too much, you probably are. Missing more than one class results in dropping a full letter grade; if you’re not here, you can’t participate. Show up on time. No handwritten work will be accepted. All coursework must be completed to pass this class. Late work will not be accepted. Assignments are tentative and subject to change.
Your Name_________________________________________________________English 643
On a scale of 1-10, rate the time/effort you estimate each student put into your workshop critique. Use the back of this sheet for further comments, if necessary.
1. Arimah, Lesley
2. Benjamin, Jessica
3. Clisbee, David
4. Daly, Luke
5. Davis, Andrew
6. Dunnan, J. W.
7. Flynn, Thomas
8. Gatewood, Carrie
9. Grant, Richanda
10. Irmen, Ami
11. Johnson, Joshua
12. Langdon, Sarah
13. Slotemaker, Michael
14. Starkey, Danielle
15. Weerts, Matthew
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
English 343 Undergraduate Fiction Workshop
Professor Diana Joseph Office Hours: M&W 10-12; TH 10-11
Interns: Jon Surdo E-hours: T&F 9-12
Bryan Johnson Office: Armstrong Hall 201L
Nathan Melcher Phone: 389-5144
Email: diana.joseph@mnsu.edu Online: dianajosephsyllabi.blogspot.com
English 343: Fiction Workshop
This is an introductory-level fiction workshop. Through close reading of literary short fiction, we will study elements of craft. Through a variety of writing exercises and prompts, we will practice our craft.
Assignments
1. Story Journal=25%
You will regularly receive writing exercises and prompts. You’ll begin many of these in class while some will be assigned for outside of class. These exercises must be typed and double-spaced and placed in a 3-ringed binder. Keep track of your work—when I collect your story journal, I’ll check for all exercises and prompts assigned throughout the semester. I’ll assess according to the strength of the work; evidence of your effort; and originality.
The full length story you’ll workshop toward the end of the semester will come from the entries in your story journal. In the meantime, we’ll workshop individual exercises as a way to jumpstart your writing process, generate ideas, and help you develop a full length story.
2. Two Self-Assessment Essays, each=25%
I don’t grade creative work; I do grade your ability to explain what you’ve come to understand about craft. Twice during the semester – once around mid-terms, and once by Finals Day – you will turn in a reflective narrative essay. In it, you’ll need to describe:
a. what you’ve learned about crafting fiction from the assigned readings
b. what you’ve learned about crafting fiction from the workshops
c. what participating in workshops – both as a reader and as a writer – has taught you about writing
d. any other aspects of the course that have guided or enhanced your understanding of fiction
3. Participation
I define participation as your active engagement with the class, demonstrated through evidence of preparedness, and thoughtful contributions to discussions and workshops. Each of you will offer an assessment of your peers’ workshop responses; I will take this into consideration when determining participation grades.
Workshop Philosophy
We’ll workshop your exercises, with an interest in what your piece is about, and in how it’s told, and how its form reinforces its content. If writing is a series of choices, then what are the effects of these particular choices? If there’s an infinite number of ways to say something, then why are you saying it in this particular way? Why use first person instead of third person limited? What’s the effect of present tense over past? What are the story’s significant images and how do they create meaning? This workshop centers around describing (and interpreting) your use of the elements of fiction—and describing how each works with the rest to create unity, a singular effect, a vivid and continuous dream.
As a workshop participant, you must read the drafts up for workshop. You’re expected to write feedback, positive and critical, on the manuscript(s), and you should have suggestions in mind for class discussion. Expect to be called on.
Workshops are a give-and-take experience. If someone fails to provide evidence of reading and analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of your draft, then you’re not obligated to give that individual much feedback, either. But if someone gives a reading that shows time, effort, and thought – whether or not you agree with the comments – then you owe that person equal consideration. Workshops are about giving what you get.
Finally, workshops are not about egos – fragile, super, or otherwise. Workshops are not about being defensive, nor are they about hurling insults. Workshops are about the text, locating its strengths and weaknesses, and finding ways to make it stronger. Be critical, but be constructive.
Class Policies
Each absence over 3 will lower your final grade by 5%. I do not distinguish between excused and unexcused absence.
Participation is 25% of your final grade; if you’re not here, you can’t participate. If you fail to turn in workshop material on the day it’s due, you lose your workshop spot—and participation credit. If you don’t come to class on the day of your workshop, it won’t be rescheduled—and you lose participation credit. Frequent tardiness will affect your participation grade.
All coursework must be completed to pass this class.
Writing done for this class is considered public text.
Assignments are tentative and subject to change.
Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated; it may result in failure of the class.
I’m available for help outside class during my office hours or by appointment.
Due Dates
8/29 “Sarah Cole,” 53
9/5 “White Angel,” 229
9/10 “The Way We Live Now,” 569
9/12 Prompts Packet Entry Due
9/17-10/8 Workshop
10/10 “Strays,” 542
10/15 “Emergency,” 351
10/17 “The Year of Getting to Know Us,” 193
10/22 Self Assessment Part I Due
10/24 Prompts Packet Entry Due
10/29-11/19 Workshop
11/21 Full Length Stories Due
11/26 Story Journals Due
11/26-12/5 Small Group Workshops
Finals Day Self-Assessment Part II due
Your Name___________________________________________________________________English 343
On a scale of 1-10, rate the time/effort you estimate each student put into your workshop critique. Use the back of this sheet for further comments, if necessary.
1. Armstrong, Mikel
2. Biers, Kelly
3. Brun, Lucas
4. Detloff, Megan
5. Engler, Aaron
6. Erickson, Justin
7. Hickey, Janel
8. Hoffmann, Charlotte
9. Jenkins, Jason
10. Johnson, Adria
11. Losasso, Angela
12. Martin, Tim
13. Miller, Amy
14. Moeller, Heather
15. Mustapha, Adebayo
16. Natale, Richard
17. Nerison, Bobbie
18. Schmitt, Daniel
19. Urlacher, Emily
20. Voelker, Marcy
21. Wagner, Sarah
22. Wayne, Tiffany
23. Wilberding, Tamara
Interns: Jon Surdo E-hours: T&F 9-12
Bryan Johnson Office: Armstrong Hall 201L
Nathan Melcher Phone: 389-5144
Email: diana.joseph@mnsu.edu Online: dianajosephsyllabi.blogspot.com
English 343: Fiction Workshop
This is an introductory-level fiction workshop. Through close reading of literary short fiction, we will study elements of craft. Through a variety of writing exercises and prompts, we will practice our craft.
Assignments
1. Story Journal=25%
You will regularly receive writing exercises and prompts. You’ll begin many of these in class while some will be assigned for outside of class. These exercises must be typed and double-spaced and placed in a 3-ringed binder. Keep track of your work—when I collect your story journal, I’ll check for all exercises and prompts assigned throughout the semester. I’ll assess according to the strength of the work; evidence of your effort; and originality.
The full length story you’ll workshop toward the end of the semester will come from the entries in your story journal. In the meantime, we’ll workshop individual exercises as a way to jumpstart your writing process, generate ideas, and help you develop a full length story.
2. Two Self-Assessment Essays, each=25%
I don’t grade creative work; I do grade your ability to explain what you’ve come to understand about craft. Twice during the semester – once around mid-terms, and once by Finals Day – you will turn in a reflective narrative essay. In it, you’ll need to describe:
a. what you’ve learned about crafting fiction from the assigned readings
b. what you’ve learned about crafting fiction from the workshops
c. what participating in workshops – both as a reader and as a writer – has taught you about writing
d. any other aspects of the course that have guided or enhanced your understanding of fiction
3. Participation
I define participation as your active engagement with the class, demonstrated through evidence of preparedness, and thoughtful contributions to discussions and workshops. Each of you will offer an assessment of your peers’ workshop responses; I will take this into consideration when determining participation grades.
Workshop Philosophy
We’ll workshop your exercises, with an interest in what your piece is about, and in how it’s told, and how its form reinforces its content. If writing is a series of choices, then what are the effects of these particular choices? If there’s an infinite number of ways to say something, then why are you saying it in this particular way? Why use first person instead of third person limited? What’s the effect of present tense over past? What are the story’s significant images and how do they create meaning? This workshop centers around describing (and interpreting) your use of the elements of fiction—and describing how each works with the rest to create unity, a singular effect, a vivid and continuous dream.
As a workshop participant, you must read the drafts up for workshop. You’re expected to write feedback, positive and critical, on the manuscript(s), and you should have suggestions in mind for class discussion. Expect to be called on.
Workshops are a give-and-take experience. If someone fails to provide evidence of reading and analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of your draft, then you’re not obligated to give that individual much feedback, either. But if someone gives a reading that shows time, effort, and thought – whether or not you agree with the comments – then you owe that person equal consideration. Workshops are about giving what you get.
Finally, workshops are not about egos – fragile, super, or otherwise. Workshops are not about being defensive, nor are they about hurling insults. Workshops are about the text, locating its strengths and weaknesses, and finding ways to make it stronger. Be critical, but be constructive.
Class Policies
Each absence over 3 will lower your final grade by 5%. I do not distinguish between excused and unexcused absence.
Participation is 25% of your final grade; if you’re not here, you can’t participate. If you fail to turn in workshop material on the day it’s due, you lose your workshop spot—and participation credit. If you don’t come to class on the day of your workshop, it won’t be rescheduled—and you lose participation credit. Frequent tardiness will affect your participation grade.
All coursework must be completed to pass this class.
Writing done for this class is considered public text.
Assignments are tentative and subject to change.
Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated; it may result in failure of the class.
I’m available for help outside class during my office hours or by appointment.
Due Dates
8/29 “Sarah Cole,” 53
9/5 “White Angel,” 229
9/10 “The Way We Live Now,” 569
9/12 Prompts Packet Entry Due
9/17-10/8 Workshop
10/10 “Strays,” 542
10/15 “Emergency,” 351
10/17 “The Year of Getting to Know Us,” 193
10/22 Self Assessment Part I Due
10/24 Prompts Packet Entry Due
10/29-11/19 Workshop
11/21 Full Length Stories Due
11/26 Story Journals Due
11/26-12/5 Small Group Workshops
Finals Day Self-Assessment Part II due
Your Name___________________________________________________________________English 343
On a scale of 1-10, rate the time/effort you estimate each student put into your workshop critique. Use the back of this sheet for further comments, if necessary.
1. Armstrong, Mikel
2. Biers, Kelly
3. Brun, Lucas
4. Detloff, Megan
5. Engler, Aaron
6. Erickson, Justin
7. Hickey, Janel
8. Hoffmann, Charlotte
9. Jenkins, Jason
10. Johnson, Adria
11. Losasso, Angela
12. Martin, Tim
13. Miller, Amy
14. Moeller, Heather
15. Mustapha, Adebayo
16. Natale, Richard
17. Nerison, Bobbie
18. Schmitt, Daniel
19. Urlacher, Emily
20. Voelker, Marcy
21. Wagner, Sarah
22. Wayne, Tiffany
23. Wilberding, Tamara
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Good Thunder Calendar
Good Thunder roster for 2007-2008 is announced
Visiting authors
2007-08-16
Published in The Free Press, Mankato, MN, 8/16/2007
Rick Robbins, director of the Good Thunder Reading Series, has announced the 2007-08 lineup of visiting authors to Minnesota State University.
Here’s a look at the schedule.
Sept. 13 — Beth Ann Fennelly, poetry.
Oct. 11 — MSU alumni reading with Robert David Clark, fiction, Gwen Hart, poetry, and Thomas Maltman, fiction.
Nov. 1 — Robert Wright Minnesota Writer Residency featuring Luke Rolfes (fiction), winner of the Robert Wright Award, and Marie Myung-Ok Lee, fiction/ young-adult fiction.
Nov. 29 — Deborah Keenan, poetry.
Feb. 7 — James Armstrong, poetry.
Feb. 28 — MSU faculty reading with Candace Black, poetry/creative nonfiction, Robbins, poetry, and Roger Sheffer, fiction.
March 25-28 — Eddice B. Barber Visiting Writer Residency featuring Tom Franklin, fiction.
April 17 — Leigh Allison Wilson, fiction.
Visiting authors
2007-08-16
Published in The Free Press, Mankato, MN, 8/16/2007
Rick Robbins, director of the Good Thunder Reading Series, has announced the 2007-08 lineup of visiting authors to Minnesota State University.
Here’s a look at the schedule.
Sept. 13 — Beth Ann Fennelly, poetry.
Oct. 11 — MSU alumni reading with Robert David Clark, fiction, Gwen Hart, poetry, and Thomas Maltman, fiction.
Nov. 1 — Robert Wright Minnesota Writer Residency featuring Luke Rolfes (fiction), winner of the Robert Wright Award, and Marie Myung-Ok Lee, fiction/ young-adult fiction.
Nov. 29 — Deborah Keenan, poetry.
Feb. 7 — James Armstrong, poetry.
Feb. 28 — MSU faculty reading with Candace Black, poetry/creative nonfiction, Robbins, poetry, and Roger Sheffer, fiction.
March 25-28 — Eddice B. Barber Visiting Writer Residency featuring Tom Franklin, fiction.
April 17 — Leigh Allison Wilson, fiction.
Fall 2007 GRADUATE Form and Technique/English 640
Professor Diana Joseph Office Hours: M&W 10-12; TH 10-11
English 640 E-Hours: T&F 9-12
Email: diana.joseph@mnsu.edu Office: Armstrong 201L
dianajosephsyllabi.blogspot.com Phone: 389-5144
Form and Technique in Prose
This course examines the technical underpinnings of fiction and nonfiction genres. Through lectures, readings, class discussions, imitation exercises, and workshops, we will study the relationship between form and content. Specifically, we’ll pay attention to issues of craft including point of view, characterization, setting/place, tone, style, imagery, structure, plot and theme.
Required Texts
Almond, Steve, Candy Freak.
Anderson, Laurie Halse, Speak.
Davis, Amanda, Wonder When You’ll Miss Me
Haddon, Mark, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.
Kundera, Milan, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting.
Martone, Michael, ed., The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction.
Satrapi, Marjane, Persepolis.
Sedaris, David, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim.
Assignments
1. Craft Analysis=25%
Over the semester, you’ll write six craft analyses; which six texts you write about is up to you.
This assignment requires close analysis of how a text is crafted, but the technique studied is up to you. You might want to examine the release of information in a story’s opening paragraph; how a character is created through action or dialogue; how to write a long passage of indirect dialogue; why a writer might opt to write unquoted dialogue; how to establish setting through sound; or through weather; or through geology. You might want to examine how a writer locates a story in time by using a clock; or a calendar; or the seasons; or how a writer manages quick shifts in time; or uses white space. Point of view, establishing psychic distance, creating a voice, moving into or out of a dramatic moment: each requires the writer understand his or her craft.
For each book or story we read, 1.) Decide what technique you want to examine more closely. 2.) Type a specific passage from the text that shows that specific technique in motion. This passage can be as short as a single paragraph or as long as several paragraphs. 3.) Write a short (no longer than ONE single-spaced page) analysis of what the writer achieved and how he/she achieved it.
Bring 2 copies of your passage/analysis to class (one for me, and one to put on the document camera) for an informal presentation.
2. Imitations=25%
Over the semester, you’ll write 6 imitations; which six texts you imitate is up to you.
1.) Type a short passage from the text—be sure to choose a passage that intrigues you, that you think you can learn something from; 2.) write a close imitation of that passage, paying close attention to the author’s voice, tone, style, level of diction, sentence length and sentence structure, but inserting your own content. Bring 2 copies to class (one for me, and one to put on the document camera) for an informal mini-workshop.
NOTE: There are 13 class days; you have 12 assignments. You will turn in either an analysis OR an imitation (not both—which assignment you do on a particular day is up to you) every class day but one. You chose your “free” day.
3. Participation=25%
Participation in not merely showing up for class—that’s called attendance. I define participation as your active engagement with the class demonstrated through thoughtful contributions to class discussion, evidence of preparedness, and helpful feedback during workshops.
4. Form project=25%
What are all the forms a piece of writing can take? There are books and magazines, of course, and broadsides and chapbooks, but there are also take-out menus and checkbook ledgers, classified ads and vanity license plates. Your assignment is to experiment with form, by creating a text whose form reinforces its content in artistic and interesting ways. My only limitation is the text itself must be something I can hold in my hand. Make a copy for each member of our class.
Class Policies
Do the work; volunteer for presentations. Missing more than one class results in dropping a full letter grade. Show up on time. If you’re not here, you can’t participate. No handwritten work will be accepted. All coursework must be completed to pass this class. Late work will not be accepted. Assignments are tentative and subject to change.
Schedule of Events
August 30 Banks, p. 53
September 6 Wonder When You’ll Miss Me
September 13 Speak
September 20 Sontag, p. 569 and Thon, p. 595
September 27 Dress Your Family
October 4 Cunningham, p. 229 and Ford, p. 288
October 11 Candy Freak
October 18 Proulx, p. 521
October 25 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
November 1 Braverman, p. 167 and Hansen, p. 338
November 8 The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
November 15 Baxter, p. 131 and Walker, p. 624
November 22—THANKSGIVING BREAK
November 29 Persepolis
December 6 Diaz, p. 244 and Dybek, p. 256
English 640 E-Hours: T&F 9-12
Email: diana.joseph@mnsu.edu Office: Armstrong 201L
dianajosephsyllabi.blogspot.com Phone: 389-5144
Form and Technique in Prose
This course examines the technical underpinnings of fiction and nonfiction genres. Through lectures, readings, class discussions, imitation exercises, and workshops, we will study the relationship between form and content. Specifically, we’ll pay attention to issues of craft including point of view, characterization, setting/place, tone, style, imagery, structure, plot and theme.
Required Texts
Almond, Steve, Candy Freak.
Anderson, Laurie Halse, Speak.
Davis, Amanda, Wonder When You’ll Miss Me
Haddon, Mark, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.
Kundera, Milan, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting.
Martone, Michael, ed., The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction.
Satrapi, Marjane, Persepolis.
Sedaris, David, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim.
Assignments
1. Craft Analysis=25%
Over the semester, you’ll write six craft analyses; which six texts you write about is up to you.
This assignment requires close analysis of how a text is crafted, but the technique studied is up to you. You might want to examine the release of information in a story’s opening paragraph; how a character is created through action or dialogue; how to write a long passage of indirect dialogue; why a writer might opt to write unquoted dialogue; how to establish setting through sound; or through weather; or through geology. You might want to examine how a writer locates a story in time by using a clock; or a calendar; or the seasons; or how a writer manages quick shifts in time; or uses white space. Point of view, establishing psychic distance, creating a voice, moving into or out of a dramatic moment: each requires the writer understand his or her craft.
For each book or story we read, 1.) Decide what technique you want to examine more closely. 2.) Type a specific passage from the text that shows that specific technique in motion. This passage can be as short as a single paragraph or as long as several paragraphs. 3.) Write a short (no longer than ONE single-spaced page) analysis of what the writer achieved and how he/she achieved it.
Bring 2 copies of your passage/analysis to class (one for me, and one to put on the document camera) for an informal presentation.
2. Imitations=25%
Over the semester, you’ll write 6 imitations; which six texts you imitate is up to you.
1.) Type a short passage from the text—be sure to choose a passage that intrigues you, that you think you can learn something from; 2.) write a close imitation of that passage, paying close attention to the author’s voice, tone, style, level of diction, sentence length and sentence structure, but inserting your own content. Bring 2 copies to class (one for me, and one to put on the document camera) for an informal mini-workshop.
NOTE: There are 13 class days; you have 12 assignments. You will turn in either an analysis OR an imitation (not both—which assignment you do on a particular day is up to you) every class day but one. You chose your “free” day.
3. Participation=25%
Participation in not merely showing up for class—that’s called attendance. I define participation as your active engagement with the class demonstrated through thoughtful contributions to class discussion, evidence of preparedness, and helpful feedback during workshops.
4. Form project=25%
What are all the forms a piece of writing can take? There are books and magazines, of course, and broadsides and chapbooks, but there are also take-out menus and checkbook ledgers, classified ads and vanity license plates. Your assignment is to experiment with form, by creating a text whose form reinforces its content in artistic and interesting ways. My only limitation is the text itself must be something I can hold in my hand. Make a copy for each member of our class.
Class Policies
Do the work; volunteer for presentations. Missing more than one class results in dropping a full letter grade. Show up on time. If you’re not here, you can’t participate. No handwritten work will be accepted. All coursework must be completed to pass this class. Late work will not be accepted. Assignments are tentative and subject to change.
Schedule of Events
August 30 Banks, p. 53
September 6 Wonder When You’ll Miss Me
September 13 Speak
September 20 Sontag, p. 569 and Thon, p. 595
September 27 Dress Your Family
October 4 Cunningham, p. 229 and Ford, p. 288
October 11 Candy Freak
October 18 Proulx, p. 521
October 25 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
November 1 Braverman, p. 167 and Hansen, p. 338
November 8 The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
November 15 Baxter, p. 131 and Walker, p. 624
November 22—THANKSGIVING BREAK
November 29 Persepolis
December 6 Diaz, p. 244 and Dybek, p. 256
Monday, July 16, 2007
My Book Deal Ruined My Life
Taxes, weight gain, depression, loneliness—book advances are
like lottery payoffs
by Gillian Reagan Published: June 5, 2007
Tags: Arts & Culture, James Frey, Nathan Englander, Rachel Sklar
This article was published in the June 10, 2007, edition of The New York Observer.
For those who think they have a book inside them just waiting to be written—and,
really, isn't that pretty much everyone?—landing a book contract would be like
winning the lottery. Dreams would come true; doors would open. Anything could
happen.
"You hear about these big contracts coming in, and it whets your appetite," said
Leah McLaren, a columnist for Canada's Globe and Mail, who landed a book
contract with HarperCollins Canada in 2003 for her chick-lit novel, The Continuity
Girl. "You start to think, 'This is my lottery ticket …. It could be optioned for a
movie or become a huge best-seller!'
Indeed, securing a deal with one of the many esteemed editors at publishing
houses like Knopf or Doubleday or FSG seems like fulfilling a kind of New York–
specific American dream. Visions of six-figure contracts, KGB readings and TV
appearances dance through writers' heads. Even better: no more office, no more
boss.
"But then, it could completely disappear and sell five copies," added Ms. McLaren
whose own book was published to little fanfare as a paperback original in the
States this spring. "And you'll never be heard from again. You'll disappear. And
that's the real risk of writing a book."
Slideshow
My Book Deal
Ruined My Life
But just think for a minute, by way of comparison, if a book contract is a lottery
ticket …. Evelyn Adams, who won $5.4 million in the New Jersey lottery in 1985
and 1986, now lives in a trailer. William (Bud) Post won $16.2 million in the
Pennsylvania lottery in 1988, but now survives on food stamps and his Social
Security check. Suzanne Mullins, a $4.2 million Virginia lottery winner, is now
deeply in debt to a company that lent her money using the winnings as collateral.
Could such doom await lucky-seeming, envy-enspiring book writers?
Look at Jessica Cutler, a.k.a. Washingtonienne, the D.C. sex blogger who was paid
a six-figure advance for her novel, based on the experiences she chronicled on her
blog. Suffering under the weight of a lawsuit from an ex-boyfriend, who claims to
have been humiliated by her writing, she has now filed for bankruptcy. She can't
even pay her Am-Ex bill.
Then there are the truly epic downfalls of authors like James Frey, whose
fabricated memoir caused his life (and his seven-figure two-book deal with
Riverhead) to shatter into a million little pieces. Now he's writing two novels
without a contract and posting on the blog and message boards on his Web site,
bigjimindustries.com—the literary equivalent of living in a trailer park.
And even before the potential post-publication humiliation, there's deadline
pressure; crippling self-doubt; diets of Entenmann's pastries and black coffee; self-
made cubicles structured with piles of books, papers and unpaid bills; night-owl
tendencies; failed relationships; unanswered phone calls; weight gain; poverty;
and, of course, exhaustion.
So forget the American dream! Getting a book deal seems more like a nightmare.
In 2002, Daniel Smith, a former Atlantic Monthly staff editor, received the news that he'd gotten a book contract for Muses, Madmen, and Prophets: Rethinking the
History, Science, and Meaning of Auditory Hallucination in a sweltering phone
booth at the MacDowell Colony, an artists' retreat in woodsy New Hampshire.
"There was no cell-phone reception at the time, so you had to get into these poorly
ventilated—meaning there was no ventilation—phone booths. You sweat like a pig
in there, and that's how I got the news. And it was extremely exciting," Mr. Smith
told The Observer.
Mr. Smith's book was inspired by the experiences of his father, an attorney who
was ashamed that he heard voices in his head. He passed away in 1998. "I basically
signed up to think about my father and his most painful secret every day for the
next three years. I basically could sign myself up for mourning every day for three
years, which is really not a fun way to spend someone's life," Mr. Smith said.
"Thinking about insanity every day for many years also is very uncomfortable,
because it's like thinking about death—it's one of our two greatest fears."
At one point, said Mr. Smith, the writing was so miserable, "I thought about getting
into painting houses or digging ditches, doing anything other than writing—
making watches or something like that."
Mr. Smith faced the problem that many authors struggle with: being stuck with
their subjects for one, three, even 10 years at a time.
"I want this woman out of my life so much it's ridiculous," said Michael Anderson,
55, who has been researching and writing a book about the playwright Lorraine
Hansberry for HarperCollins since 1998. "It has been, in essence, 10 years, and
sometimes it seems like, 'My God, why isn't this thing done yet?' But at times I
think, 'My God, it's only been 10 years.' I never understood why biographies took
so much time; now I'm in awe that any of them get finished."
When he received his contract, Mr. Anderson was working full-time as an editor at
The New York Times Book Review, a job he had for 17 years. He figured he would
try to take four years to finish the book and publish it by his 50th birthday. "But
that was just naïve," Mr. Anderson said.
He left The New York Times in 2005, sequestering himself in his Washington
Heights apartment to devote himself to the book.
For months, each night, he would be startled from his slumber at 3:30 in the
morning in the midst of a thought about Hansberry. "She's a nice woman, but I
don't want to be with her all the time," Mr Anderson said.
Nathan Englander spent close to a decade on his second novel, The Ministry of
Special Cases, released this April. "I was getting upset about all the articles—you
know, 'After a decade of silence … ,'" Mr. Englander, 37, said in an ominous tone
during a phone interview.
"Now I look around and wonder—it's hard to remember who I was all those years,"
Mr. Englander added. "I don't care about anything when I'm in the work; nothing
else matters at all …. People I lost touch with, I'm trying to get back to. I'll write
them, 'Thank you for your letter in 1999. Here's what's been going on.' You work
your way through to get familiar with normal life."
Aside from losing touch with friends, Mr. Englander also struggled with everyday
life.“I look down and see that I’m only wearing one shoe,” Mr. Englander said in a
recent interview with the blog Bookslut. “Recognizing it, I think, How can I walk
around like this? Why would I walk around with only one shoe? … Why isn’t that
shelf organized, or why didn’t I write that person back or … I can’t understand
why the person that is me didn’t do these things. And to that question my mother
responds, ‘Because you were like a tortured madman working on this book,’ and I
remember and say, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s why.’”
“Spouses get very jealous of the biographer’s subject, because it really is what you’
re thinking about all the time,” Mr. Anderson explained. “I’ve often thought that if
I were married, my wife would’ve sued for divorce.”
The freedom of setting one’s own schedule, of course, is another gift of the book
contract—for some, it’s the very motivation to pitch a book in the first place. Work
for a few hours, go to yoga, work a little more, eat a sandwich …. It’s a fantasy of
independence, without daily or weekly deadlines imposed from above, without
being picked at by your nosy co-worker. But then…You miss the co-worker: the
ruminations on last night’s Sopranos at the coffee machine, the bitching about
deadlines over lunch. You even long for their Z100 sing-alongs and screeching
renditions of “Since U Been Gone.”
“I found, when I quit The Times, that the biggest problem is loneliness,” Mr.
Anderson admitted.
“Basically, I was giving myself panic attacks in the beginning,” said Ms. McLaren,
who took a leave of absence from her column-writing job to move to an isolated
farmhouse outside Toronto and write her novel in solitude. “As a newspaper
writer, people were always walking over to your desk and being like, ‘Where is it?
How’s it coming?’ All that was taken away—there’s no deadline.”
And then there’s the self-loathing.
“You’re not letting people read it as you write it. Nobody has ever read what you’
re doing. It could be terrible. It could be brilliant. And you start to think, ‘Oh God, this is a complete piece of shit that couldn’t be published—nobody is going to read it.’ But then you have a sandwich and go, ‘I am a genius and I’m going to win the Booker Prize.’”
Rachel Sklar, 34, the media and special-projects editor for the Huffington Post,
barricaded herself her in Lower East Side apartment to work on her book, Jew-ish:
Who We Are, How We Got Here, and All the Ish in Between, a humorous
“guidebook on being a contemporary Jew,” according to Ms. Sklar. “It’s not like
you can pack all that into a pamphlet if you’re going to do it right. You can’t just
wing a chapter on the Talmud.” (Originally due in mid-February, the book’s
deadline has since been pushed twice—once to May and now to mid-September.)
Ms. Sklar took six weeks off from her blogging job to uniform herself in fuzzy
sweatpants, tie her hair into a bun, surround herself in books from the library and
Amazon.com, guzzle Diet Coke and immerse herself in Jewry.
“The stack of books kept me where I was. I wasn’t going out, I wasn’t shopping ….
I berated myself and may have had a few meltdowns. Well, I definitely had a few
meltdowns. But you know, a friend of mine came over at 1:30 [after] a movie
premiere with a six-pack of Diet Coke and a box of cupcakes, and it was the
greatest pick-me-up ever.”
“The interesting thing is that it’s kind of freeing when you have a real good excuse
to tell people no,” said Anna Holmes, 33, the current managing editor of Jezebel, a
Gawker-sponsored female-centric blog, and editor of Hell Hath No Fury: Women’s
Letters from the End of the Affair. “But there was also that fear that the more I said no, at the end of the whole thing I wouldn’t have any friends left.”
Ms. Holmes stayed bundled in her apartment for about a year between 2001 and
2002, leaving her job as a writer at Glamour to cobble together the book.
“If you have an office job, at least it’s walking to and from the subway every day.
When you sit in your house, you seriously gain weight,” Ms. Holmes said in a
phone interview from her Long Island City apartment. “I’m eating my Greek
yogurt and steamed vegetables—I’m trying to be good about what I’m eating. But I’
m still like, ‘I’m getting really soft.’ My idea before the book came out was that I
was going to diet, because I had gotten flabby, so that I’d look better to promote it. But that didn’t happen. I was quote unquote dieting for I think two weeks, but I
just couldn’t do it.”
After all the months of writing, editing and wrangling permissions to reprint
letters, Caroll & Graf released the book in August 2002. But the last thing Ms.
Holmes wanted to do was celebrate the publication.
“I was really tired. I wasn’t so much physically tired, I was mentally tired. At the
exact moment I was supposed to be promoting it, the last thing I wanted to do was
talk about it. I had to get all excited about this thing that I had just given birth to. It was like postpartum depression…
“I had a hard time getting myself back into my quote-unquote normal life, because
I actually started enjoying my [own] company so much and the solitude of it all. I
didn’t even want to go out,” Ms. Holmes continued. “I still tend to kind of want to
be at home and read and, you know, [become] a cat lady, with my cats.”
And what about that holy grail—the advance? Even the smallest advance can be
justified to death as the ticket out of your office job or bartending gig. But is the money that publishers pay most writers enough to make the suffering worth it?
That money, of course, isn’t just for rent and ham sandwiches and Oreos.
It’s also for the sky-high freelance taxes (about 37 percent of any untaxed income
will be commandeered by Uncle Sam), agent’s fees, fax and copy tabs at the library,
travel for research trips and any other number of things. Think about it: $100,000 is actually more like $65,000 after taxes—not bad. But then there’s the 15 percent
agent’s cut (another $15,000), leaving you about $50,000. For a year, that’s a livable salary. But once other book expenses are taken into account—like permissions, travel, copies and the like—you’re looking at a modest pile rather than a mountain. There’s really not much left to enjoy—especially if your work stretches on for years.
“When I hear a book deal, I think, ‘Oh, that person made a 100 grand.’ When I have
a low-five-figure advance, I call it, like, a small gift, I suppose,” said Ms. Holmes. She also learned that her publisher wouldn’t pay for the rights to print the breakup letters she wanted to include in the collection. “The advance I got was not money that I could live on; it was money that had to be used to pay permissions for the book,” she said.
Although Mr. Smith said he was able to survive on his advance, he admits that
those six-figure deals can quickly dwindle away over the three or four years it
takes to write a book. “You’re basically making 30 or 40 grand a year, and that’s
not that great of a salary …. It’s really not as much as it seems. These numbers can
be very deceptive.”
Yet, still, the dreamers dream. Brendan Sullivan, 25, moved to New York after
studying creative writing at Kenyon College in Ohio. He hasn’t landed a book deal for his novel, but is determined to find a publisher.
“Writing has ruined my life and cost me many, many girlfriends,” he wrote in an e-
mail. “I have thrown away several careers and one college degree to spend my
time working in bars, D.J.’ing in bars and drinking my rejection letters away. I
wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy, and I’ve made many of them since I started
…. I also abandoned my agent with words harsher than those I’ve saved for lost
loves.”
Mr. Sullivan has held 27 jobs to support his writing career, from selling chapstick
on the street to being a night guard in an art gallery (“That was my favorite job
ever, because I just sat in a chair and read novels all day,” Mr. Sullivan added.)
He is currently working on his second novel. His first one, well, “There are eight
drafts of it—they’re in my basement right now,” he said in a phone interview from
his Fort Greene apartment. He trashed the novel after he got into a public fight
with his first agent and decided to start anew. “You have to learn how to suppress
your gag reflex in order to get anything out. Like in love, you make a lot of
mistakes and you learn from them.”
Indeed, despite the heartbreak, the loneliness, the trashed drafts, the rejected
proposals, writers will continue to reach for the golden ticket, the fulfillment of
their American dream.
“In terms of the most joyous life to have in the world, in terms of pleasure
receptors, it might be like being a heroin addict: It’s the most pleasurable thing that you could choose, if you have that constant access,” said Mr. Englander, before
hanging up to head to the coffee shop and write. “I’ll say, ‘Oh, yeah, it almost
killed me,’ but I’m saying that in the most positive way, because it’s all I want to
do.”
More... http://www.nyobserver.com/2007/my-book-deal-ruined-my-life
Taxes, weight gain, depression, loneliness—book advances are
like lottery payoffs
by Gillian Reagan Published: June 5, 2007
Tags: Arts & Culture, James Frey, Nathan Englander, Rachel Sklar
This article was published in the June 10, 2007, edition of The New York Observer.
For those who think they have a book inside them just waiting to be written—and,
really, isn't that pretty much everyone?—landing a book contract would be like
winning the lottery. Dreams would come true; doors would open. Anything could
happen.
"You hear about these big contracts coming in, and it whets your appetite," said
Leah McLaren, a columnist for Canada's Globe and Mail, who landed a book
contract with HarperCollins Canada in 2003 for her chick-lit novel, The Continuity
Girl. "You start to think, 'This is my lottery ticket …. It could be optioned for a
movie or become a huge best-seller!'
Indeed, securing a deal with one of the many esteemed editors at publishing
houses like Knopf or Doubleday or FSG seems like fulfilling a kind of New York–
specific American dream. Visions of six-figure contracts, KGB readings and TV
appearances dance through writers' heads. Even better: no more office, no more
boss.
"But then, it could completely disappear and sell five copies," added Ms. McLaren
whose own book was published to little fanfare as a paperback original in the
States this spring. "And you'll never be heard from again. You'll disappear. And
that's the real risk of writing a book."
Slideshow
My Book Deal
Ruined My Life
But just think for a minute, by way of comparison, if a book contract is a lottery
ticket …. Evelyn Adams, who won $5.4 million in the New Jersey lottery in 1985
and 1986, now lives in a trailer. William (Bud) Post won $16.2 million in the
Pennsylvania lottery in 1988, but now survives on food stamps and his Social
Security check. Suzanne Mullins, a $4.2 million Virginia lottery winner, is now
deeply in debt to a company that lent her money using the winnings as collateral.
Could such doom await lucky-seeming, envy-enspiring book writers?
Look at Jessica Cutler, a.k.a. Washingtonienne, the D.C. sex blogger who was paid
a six-figure advance for her novel, based on the experiences she chronicled on her
blog. Suffering under the weight of a lawsuit from an ex-boyfriend, who claims to
have been humiliated by her writing, she has now filed for bankruptcy. She can't
even pay her Am-Ex bill.
Then there are the truly epic downfalls of authors like James Frey, whose
fabricated memoir caused his life (and his seven-figure two-book deal with
Riverhead) to shatter into a million little pieces. Now he's writing two novels
without a contract and posting on the blog and message boards on his Web site,
bigjimindustries.com—the literary equivalent of living in a trailer park.
And even before the potential post-publication humiliation, there's deadline
pressure; crippling self-doubt; diets of Entenmann's pastries and black coffee; self-
made cubicles structured with piles of books, papers and unpaid bills; night-owl
tendencies; failed relationships; unanswered phone calls; weight gain; poverty;
and, of course, exhaustion.
So forget the American dream! Getting a book deal seems more like a nightmare.
In 2002, Daniel Smith, a former Atlantic Monthly staff editor, received the news that he'd gotten a book contract for Muses, Madmen, and Prophets: Rethinking the
History, Science, and Meaning of Auditory Hallucination in a sweltering phone
booth at the MacDowell Colony, an artists' retreat in woodsy New Hampshire.
"There was no cell-phone reception at the time, so you had to get into these poorly
ventilated—meaning there was no ventilation—phone booths. You sweat like a pig
in there, and that's how I got the news. And it was extremely exciting," Mr. Smith
told The Observer.
Mr. Smith's book was inspired by the experiences of his father, an attorney who
was ashamed that he heard voices in his head. He passed away in 1998. "I basically
signed up to think about my father and his most painful secret every day for the
next three years. I basically could sign myself up for mourning every day for three
years, which is really not a fun way to spend someone's life," Mr. Smith said.
"Thinking about insanity every day for many years also is very uncomfortable,
because it's like thinking about death—it's one of our two greatest fears."
At one point, said Mr. Smith, the writing was so miserable, "I thought about getting
into painting houses or digging ditches, doing anything other than writing—
making watches or something like that."
Mr. Smith faced the problem that many authors struggle with: being stuck with
their subjects for one, three, even 10 years at a time.
"I want this woman out of my life so much it's ridiculous," said Michael Anderson,
55, who has been researching and writing a book about the playwright Lorraine
Hansberry for HarperCollins since 1998. "It has been, in essence, 10 years, and
sometimes it seems like, 'My God, why isn't this thing done yet?' But at times I
think, 'My God, it's only been 10 years.' I never understood why biographies took
so much time; now I'm in awe that any of them get finished."
When he received his contract, Mr. Anderson was working full-time as an editor at
The New York Times Book Review, a job he had for 17 years. He figured he would
try to take four years to finish the book and publish it by his 50th birthday. "But
that was just naïve," Mr. Anderson said.
He left The New York Times in 2005, sequestering himself in his Washington
Heights apartment to devote himself to the book.
For months, each night, he would be startled from his slumber at 3:30 in the
morning in the midst of a thought about Hansberry. "She's a nice woman, but I
don't want to be with her all the time," Mr Anderson said.
Nathan Englander spent close to a decade on his second novel, The Ministry of
Special Cases, released this April. "I was getting upset about all the articles—you
know, 'After a decade of silence … ,'" Mr. Englander, 37, said in an ominous tone
during a phone interview.
"Now I look around and wonder—it's hard to remember who I was all those years,"
Mr. Englander added. "I don't care about anything when I'm in the work; nothing
else matters at all …. People I lost touch with, I'm trying to get back to. I'll write
them, 'Thank you for your letter in 1999. Here's what's been going on.' You work
your way through to get familiar with normal life."
Aside from losing touch with friends, Mr. Englander also struggled with everyday
life.“I look down and see that I’m only wearing one shoe,” Mr. Englander said in a
recent interview with the blog Bookslut. “Recognizing it, I think, How can I walk
around like this? Why would I walk around with only one shoe? … Why isn’t that
shelf organized, or why didn’t I write that person back or … I can’t understand
why the person that is me didn’t do these things. And to that question my mother
responds, ‘Because you were like a tortured madman working on this book,’ and I
remember and say, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s why.’”
“Spouses get very jealous of the biographer’s subject, because it really is what you’
re thinking about all the time,” Mr. Anderson explained. “I’ve often thought that if
I were married, my wife would’ve sued for divorce.”
The freedom of setting one’s own schedule, of course, is another gift of the book
contract—for some, it’s the very motivation to pitch a book in the first place. Work
for a few hours, go to yoga, work a little more, eat a sandwich …. It’s a fantasy of
independence, without daily or weekly deadlines imposed from above, without
being picked at by your nosy co-worker. But then…You miss the co-worker: the
ruminations on last night’s Sopranos at the coffee machine, the bitching about
deadlines over lunch. You even long for their Z100 sing-alongs and screeching
renditions of “Since U Been Gone.”
“I found, when I quit The Times, that the biggest problem is loneliness,” Mr.
Anderson admitted.
“Basically, I was giving myself panic attacks in the beginning,” said Ms. McLaren,
who took a leave of absence from her column-writing job to move to an isolated
farmhouse outside Toronto and write her novel in solitude. “As a newspaper
writer, people were always walking over to your desk and being like, ‘Where is it?
How’s it coming?’ All that was taken away—there’s no deadline.”
And then there’s the self-loathing.
“You’re not letting people read it as you write it. Nobody has ever read what you’
re doing. It could be terrible. It could be brilliant. And you start to think, ‘Oh God, this is a complete piece of shit that couldn’t be published—nobody is going to read it.’ But then you have a sandwich and go, ‘I am a genius and I’m going to win the Booker Prize.’”
Rachel Sklar, 34, the media and special-projects editor for the Huffington Post,
barricaded herself her in Lower East Side apartment to work on her book, Jew-ish:
Who We Are, How We Got Here, and All the Ish in Between, a humorous
“guidebook on being a contemporary Jew,” according to Ms. Sklar. “It’s not like
you can pack all that into a pamphlet if you’re going to do it right. You can’t just
wing a chapter on the Talmud.” (Originally due in mid-February, the book’s
deadline has since been pushed twice—once to May and now to mid-September.)
Ms. Sklar took six weeks off from her blogging job to uniform herself in fuzzy
sweatpants, tie her hair into a bun, surround herself in books from the library and
Amazon.com, guzzle Diet Coke and immerse herself in Jewry.
“The stack of books kept me where I was. I wasn’t going out, I wasn’t shopping ….
I berated myself and may have had a few meltdowns. Well, I definitely had a few
meltdowns. But you know, a friend of mine came over at 1:30 [after] a movie
premiere with a six-pack of Diet Coke and a box of cupcakes, and it was the
greatest pick-me-up ever.”
“The interesting thing is that it’s kind of freeing when you have a real good excuse
to tell people no,” said Anna Holmes, 33, the current managing editor of Jezebel, a
Gawker-sponsored female-centric blog, and editor of Hell Hath No Fury: Women’s
Letters from the End of the Affair. “But there was also that fear that the more I said no, at the end of the whole thing I wouldn’t have any friends left.”
Ms. Holmes stayed bundled in her apartment for about a year between 2001 and
2002, leaving her job as a writer at Glamour to cobble together the book.
“If you have an office job, at least it’s walking to and from the subway every day.
When you sit in your house, you seriously gain weight,” Ms. Holmes said in a
phone interview from her Long Island City apartment. “I’m eating my Greek
yogurt and steamed vegetables—I’m trying to be good about what I’m eating. But I’
m still like, ‘I’m getting really soft.’ My idea before the book came out was that I
was going to diet, because I had gotten flabby, so that I’d look better to promote it. But that didn’t happen. I was quote unquote dieting for I think two weeks, but I
just couldn’t do it.”
After all the months of writing, editing and wrangling permissions to reprint
letters, Caroll & Graf released the book in August 2002. But the last thing Ms.
Holmes wanted to do was celebrate the publication.
“I was really tired. I wasn’t so much physically tired, I was mentally tired. At the
exact moment I was supposed to be promoting it, the last thing I wanted to do was
talk about it. I had to get all excited about this thing that I had just given birth to. It was like postpartum depression…
“I had a hard time getting myself back into my quote-unquote normal life, because
I actually started enjoying my [own] company so much and the solitude of it all. I
didn’t even want to go out,” Ms. Holmes continued. “I still tend to kind of want to
be at home and read and, you know, [become] a cat lady, with my cats.”
And what about that holy grail—the advance? Even the smallest advance can be
justified to death as the ticket out of your office job or bartending gig. But is the money that publishers pay most writers enough to make the suffering worth it?
That money, of course, isn’t just for rent and ham sandwiches and Oreos.
It’s also for the sky-high freelance taxes (about 37 percent of any untaxed income
will be commandeered by Uncle Sam), agent’s fees, fax and copy tabs at the library,
travel for research trips and any other number of things. Think about it: $100,000 is actually more like $65,000 after taxes—not bad. But then there’s the 15 percent
agent’s cut (another $15,000), leaving you about $50,000. For a year, that’s a livable salary. But once other book expenses are taken into account—like permissions, travel, copies and the like—you’re looking at a modest pile rather than a mountain. There’s really not much left to enjoy—especially if your work stretches on for years.
“When I hear a book deal, I think, ‘Oh, that person made a 100 grand.’ When I have
a low-five-figure advance, I call it, like, a small gift, I suppose,” said Ms. Holmes. She also learned that her publisher wouldn’t pay for the rights to print the breakup letters she wanted to include in the collection. “The advance I got was not money that I could live on; it was money that had to be used to pay permissions for the book,” she said.
Although Mr. Smith said he was able to survive on his advance, he admits that
those six-figure deals can quickly dwindle away over the three or four years it
takes to write a book. “You’re basically making 30 or 40 grand a year, and that’s
not that great of a salary …. It’s really not as much as it seems. These numbers can
be very deceptive.”
Yet, still, the dreamers dream. Brendan Sullivan, 25, moved to New York after
studying creative writing at Kenyon College in Ohio. He hasn’t landed a book deal for his novel, but is determined to find a publisher.
“Writing has ruined my life and cost me many, many girlfriends,” he wrote in an e-
mail. “I have thrown away several careers and one college degree to spend my
time working in bars, D.J.’ing in bars and drinking my rejection letters away. I
wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy, and I’ve made many of them since I started
…. I also abandoned my agent with words harsher than those I’ve saved for lost
loves.”
Mr. Sullivan has held 27 jobs to support his writing career, from selling chapstick
on the street to being a night guard in an art gallery (“That was my favorite job
ever, because I just sat in a chair and read novels all day,” Mr. Sullivan added.)
He is currently working on his second novel. His first one, well, “There are eight
drafts of it—they’re in my basement right now,” he said in a phone interview from
his Fort Greene apartment. He trashed the novel after he got into a public fight
with his first agent and decided to start anew. “You have to learn how to suppress
your gag reflex in order to get anything out. Like in love, you make a lot of
mistakes and you learn from them.”
Indeed, despite the heartbreak, the loneliness, the trashed drafts, the rejected
proposals, writers will continue to reach for the golden ticket, the fulfillment of
their American dream.
“In terms of the most joyous life to have in the world, in terms of pleasure
receptors, it might be like being a heroin addict: It’s the most pleasurable thing that you could choose, if you have that constant access,” said Mr. Englander, before
hanging up to head to the coffee shop and write. “I’ll say, ‘Oh, yeah, it almost
killed me,’ but I’m saying that in the most positive way, because it’s all I want to
do.”
More... http://www.nyobserver.com/2007/my-book-deal-ruined-my-life
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