Writing Advice from an Editor to an Intern

By Kate Phillips

          I didn’t set out to become an editor. I wanted to be a successful writer working from home. I became both after years of writing then taking a writing class where I met the woman who just bought one of the magazines I now write for and edit.

I started out as an unpaid intern for the magazines. I wrote articles as well as learned about copyediting (turning press releases and items sent in by the public about meetings and events into style copy for the magazine issue), layouts (placing headlines, bylines, copy, ads, pull quotes, photos, and captions on each page), proofreading (using the correct proofreaders’ marks), and all the little things to check in an effort to publish an almost perfect issue (something always goes wrong).

A few years later, I became the editor of one then two magazines—a job I love.

Now I’m working with an intern who wants to be a writer and an editor. I’m happy to share my knowledge and experience with her; however, writing skills are more straightforward to teach than editing skills. My writing advice is posted now. My advice for editing will be posted on October 17, 2016.

Here is my writing advice:                                                                        

                             

To be a better writer, write. It’s just that simple. There is never enough time to write. You must make the time to write. Get up early. Stay up late. Write anytime you are waiting for someone or something. Writers write! Jot down thoughts and sentence fragments, plots, and ideas in a notebook or record on phone. 

If you want to be a professional writer, learn to write on demand, not wait for inspiration, by writing to deadlines. Filling a notebook a month as recommended by Natalie Goldberg in Writing Down the Bones is a great way to start. Write a concise weekly blog—300-500 words—without fail. Write three pages every morning as recommended by Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way. If really short on time, write Six-Word Memoirs®. (See books by the same title or visit Smith Magazine online.)

Take writing classes or join a writing group. Deadlines and feedback are essential.

“It is easy to lose sight of the fact that writers do not write to impart knowledge to others, rather, they write to inform themselves.”   –Judith Guest

Choose a magazine you enjoy reading. Write an article following its style (topic, word count, tone, etc.). Write about what you love. Learn from the best as you can interview experts or participants in whatever topics interest you. Write your first drafts without thought to the word count. Then rewrite your articles repeatedly. Final articles should be your best work including all the points you wanted to make as well as meeting the word counts. Submit articles for publication.

“Don't market yourself. Editors and readers don't know what they want until they see it. Scratch what itches. Write what you need to write, feed the hunger for meaning in your life.”     –Donald M. Murray

Write with abandon then rewrite by writing concisely.

“Nothing you write, if you hope to be any good, will ever come out as you first hope.”   –William Hellman

For reference: on average, I spend 35-40% of my time writing and 60-65% rewriting pieces for publication. I rewrite my articles five, six, ten times until I’m satisfied it’s the best I can do. Read pieces aloud to catch mistakes.

“Writing is really rewriting—making the story better, clearer, truer.” –Robert Lipsyte

“Look for verbs of muscle, adjectives of exactitude.”  --Mary Oliver in Blue Pastures on page 89.

Meet all deadlines, no matter what, as professional writers and editors won’t work for long if they don’t.

Also, read everything. A better reader is a better writer.

Read writing books. I have recommended many on this blog (see partial list at end of this post), especially The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.

All knowledge makes you a better writer (and editor). I read all genres as good writers make any genre or topic interesting. I also read books about philosophy, science, space, and art as well as classic novels and bestsellers.

“You learn to write by reading and writing, writing and reading. As a craft, it's acquired through the apprentice system, but you choose your own teachers. Sometimes they're alive, sometimes they're dead.”  –Margaret Atwood

Read often and widely including poetry to get a feel for words, language, flow, and rhythm.

Poetry is essential. Ray Bradbury makes this recommendation to writers on page 36 of Zen in the Art of Writing:

Read poetry every day of your life…it flexes muscles you don’t use often enough…it expands the senses and keeps them in prime condition.

Reading expands your vocabulary, too. Look up every word new-to-you for future reference. Write these words and definitions in your notebooks so you remember them.

Make sure the words you use (or edit) mean what you think they mean otherwise you look foolish. Once in print, it is out there forever so take the time to refer to a dictionary, RefDesk.com, or the Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus. Use correct punctuation and grammar, too.  

For writers (and editors), words are our medium. Spend as much time as possible reading and writing.

“…writing is finally sitting alone in a room and wrenching it out of yourself, and nobody can teach you that.”       –Jon Winokur

Writing Book Recommendations: 

(I have reviewed most of these books on this blog. Dates of posts are in parentheses.)

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield  (8/30/12)

Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield  (9/9/13)

Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg  (5/6/13; 1/12/14)

The Right to Write and The Writer’s Life by Julia Cameron  (5/6/13; 1/12/14)

Invisible Ink by Brian McDonald  (6/26/16)

The Golden Rule by Brian McDonald  (7/25/16)

The Elements of Eloquence: Secrets of the Perfect Turn of Phrase by Mark Forsyth  (2/23/15)

The Writer’s Home Companion edited by Joan Bolker, Ed. D.  (12/3/12)

Blue Pastures by Mary Oliver  (3/21/16; 4/4/16)

Zen and the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury  (3/9/15)

For Writer’s Only by Sophy Burnham  (12/17/12)

The Writing Life by Ellen Gilchrist  (7/21/14)

Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild (1/28/13)    

Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes  (1/11/16)

Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block (will be reviewed)

The Book on Writing by Paula LaRocque (will be reviewed)

The Modern Library Writer’s Workshop by Stephen Koch  (8/5/13)

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott (5/6/13)

A Writer’s Paris: A Guided Journey for the Creative Soul by Eric Maisel  (5/25/15)

Fiction Writing Master Class by William Cane (9/7/15)

The Soul of Creative Writing by Richard Goodman 10/19/15)

Backpack Literature by XJ Kennedy and Dana Gioia (4^th post each month, September 2016-April 2017)

On Writing by Stephen King—needs no review

Write Within Yourself: An Author’s Companion by William Kenower  (8/8/16)

The Writing Trade by John Jerome (1/14/13)

Poetry:

Mary Oliver  (4/28/14) I read all her books.

Billy Collins  (4/22/13) I read all his books.

Anthologies & classic poetry

Knowledge:

A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman. (5/27/13) I recommend all of her books.

At Home by Bill Bryson. I read all his books.  (12/24/12; 1/26/15)

Books by Joseph Campbell & The Art of Reflection: A Joseph Campbell Companion by Diane K. Osbon

Memoirs:

Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir by Beth Kephart  (8/26/13)

Let’s Take the Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell  (9/29/14)

On Conan Doyle by Michael Dirda  (11/23/15)

Six-Word Memoirs edited by Larry Smith  (9/10/12)

Essays:

Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman (11/26/12)

This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett (5/26/14) Title of an essay, not subject of book.

High Tide in Tucson by Barbara Kingsolver (7/22/13)

A Cup of Comfort for Writers edited by Colleen Sell  (5/11/15)

Screenplays:

Screenplay by Robin Russin and William Missouri Downs  (8/10/15)

On Story: Screenwriters and Their Craft edited by Barbara Morgan and Maya Perez  (6/6/16)

Reference:

Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus (6/9/14)

The Synonym Finder by J I Rodale  (6/9/14)

Grammar and punctuation books

Online:   

Are You There Blog? It’s Me Writer by Kristen Lamb, award-winning blog warriorwriters.wordpress.com.

Steven Pressfield, blog Writing Wednesdays at www.stevenpressfield.com.

What Do Artists Do All Day? Katie Paterson is Creating The Future Library

By Kate Phillips

          Recently, artist Katie Paterson was highlighted on the BBC America show What Do Artists Do All Day? She was working on a sculpture created from wood from 10,000 trees—every species in the world including the oldest tree (over 4,000 years old) and the tallest tree in England. The samples are all polished rectangles of various sizes. In the art piece, the wood “grows” from ground level to a canopy high above so people will be able to walk into the sculpture like walking into a forest.

          While this was an interesting project, Paterson explained she had another wood project she was working on called The Future Library. To complete this project, she has planted a forest outside of Oslo. In 100 years, these trees are to be felled, pulped, and made into paper for books.

          In the meantime, 100 authors are being chosen now, one each year, to write books that will be printed on this paper. The first author is Margaret Atwood. The second is David Mitchell. Their books are only to be read as part of this project.

          Will paper books still be prevalent in 100 years? Will people know how to pulp wood and make paper then? I guess instructions will be included with the 100 manuscripts just in case. It’s difficult to believe that things we take for granted today may be faint memories a century from now.

          Of course, this happens all the time. I just read an earlier book (1989) written by a current author. In it, a woman couldn’t call for help from her bedroom because a receiver was off the hook in her kitchen. This was a minor shock to me as cell phones have made this problem inconsequential. How much more of our everyday lives will be inconsequential 100 years from now?

          I keep considering that someday our culture will be considered primitive. How is this possible with computers, tablets, wi-fi, etc.? We’ve sent a Rover to Mars! Except 100 years ago imagine how modern people felt with indoor plumbing, electricity, and now ordinary household appliances.

As a writer, I’m interested mostly in the authors writing books that won’t be read for up to 100 years. They are writing through time. Knowing the audience will have different sensibilities, will that change their work? Or will they just stay true to themselves and write it as just their next book to give the future audience a feel for life as it is now?

          A book takes a lot of time and effort to finish. Imagine, after all that work, getting no appreciation or feedback from your audience. Of course, if the project is completed as planned, the authors will have whole new audiences.

          I hope Katie Paterson’s Future Library is a success. I’d like to think book readers continue on long after most everything else is obsolete.

UPDATE: Reported on BBC the next day: Sony’s new digital books bringing characters to life by swiping the illustrations from the page on to any table top where they danced around were highlighted at a Tech Expo in Germany. It’s getting harder to believe books on paper will be available 10 years from now let alone 100.

Backpack Literature by XJ Kennedy and Dana Gioia

By Kate Phillips

          It’s September so I’ve decided to go back to school—well “audit” a writing class using the textbook Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing 4^th edition by XJ Kennedy and Dana Gioia. I’m going back to Beginner’s Mind to remember things I’ve forgotten and learn things I never knew.

In the preface, authors Kennedy and Gioia believe:

“…that textbooks should not only be informative and accurate but also lively, accessible, and engaging…read with enjoyment and which will inspire [students] to take their own writing more seriously…” (page xxx)

          I wish I had taken a class like this in college!

          In this textbook, there are short stories, poetry, and plays by many well-known writers including John Updike, Amy Tan, Tim O’Brien, Kate Chopin, Mary Oliver, Billy Collins, Anna Deavere Smith, and August Wilson along with some classic writers like William Faulkner, Emily Dickinson, and Shakespeare. After reading these pieces, there are questions then writing assignments. This will sharpen my critical thinking and writing skills as well as introduce me to some writers new to me.

          After the questions at the end of each chapter, there is a Writing Effectively section about the chapter’s topic like plot or point of view followed by a Checklist for your writing and then a Writing Assignment as well as More Topics For Writing. I will complete or just review items as I wish since I’m auditing this class.

          If you are a beginning writer or you need assignments and deadlines to get you writing or you just want to hone your skills, this textbook in the 4^th, 5^th, or any edition may work for you.

I’ll let you know how it’s working for me. There are 30 chapters. My plan is to complete a chapter a week. I’ll post an update of the course the fourth week of every month until completion, September through April. Then I will write a summary in May.

I love to read. I love to learn. I love to write. I think I’m going to love this “lively, accessible, and engaging” textbook.

Professionally, I publish on average three book reviews, seven essays, and four articles a month while also working on writing projects. I edit two monthly magazines as well as work as a freelance editor. I’m adding this textbook project to my writing schedule because I believe it will be fun and educational while improving my writing across the board. Writers write! Deadlines rule!

Snoopy's Guide to the Writing Life Edited by Barnaby Conrad and Monte Schulz

By Kate Phillips

          I read highly recommended novels for my post this week, but two failed to keep my attention and the third was good, but not great so I searched my bookshelves and decided Snoopy’s Guide to the Writing Life was a better choice.

Before you dismiss this as a joke, 32 authors/writers including Ray Bradbury, Sue Grafton, Elizabeth George, A. Scott Berg, and Elmore Leonard penned essays on The Writers’ Life based on their favorite comic strips of Snoopy sitting in front of his Olivetti typewriter on top of his doghouse which illustrate this tribute to writing.

In the Foreword, author Monte Schulz writes about his beloved father, Charles, their relationship as well as how important literature was in their lives.

“When I was young, my father gave me some of his favorite adventure books to read, like Driscoll’s Book of Pirates and Red Rackham’s Treasure. He wanted me to become as entranced by the storyteller’s art as he was…He own reading was astoundingly eclectic. He loved poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction…” (page 3)

“Once I’d reached the age where literary art is appreciated as much as bravado storytelling, my father began recommending literary books for me to read. Years later he told me that one of his fondest wishes had been that one day I’d grow into an appreciation of literature so that he and I could share and discuss the same books, some he would find to read, some I’d share with him. And finally we did…” (page 4)

“…Without a doubt, my father used Snoopy the author to express his own love and frustration with the creative process, to illuminate the writer’s life by poking fun at the often incomprehensible divide between author and publisher while showing the amazing resilience of the everyday writer struggling for acceptance and acknowledgment…” (page 11)

          In his Introduction, Barnaby Conrad gives readers a glimpse into Charles Schulz’s writing life describing his working day, writing space, and some of his habits that he caught while interviewing him for The New York Times Magazine. Schulz shared his views on writing, art, music, and genius as well.

In the 32 essays by other authors/writers, they offer advice, reflections, and warnings that are enlightening. Not every essay appealed to me, one even offended me, but here are a few quotes I loved:

“My biggest piece of advice is don’t use desperately boring description to elaborate on something technical or dole out heavy explanation...The reader will ignore it and be bored. Describe it in dialogue. The vision in the in the mind of the reader flies so much faster, and the reader actually understands and enjoys hearing what the characters say about it.

                                    --Clive Cussler (page 36)

“The rules for writing a best-seller are simple:

·        Take an idea you really, really like.

·        Develop it until it is brilliant.

·        Rewrite it for a year or two, until every word shines.

Then bite your nails, hold your breath, and pray like mad.

                                   --Sidney Sheldon (page 40)

“The joy about writing is that as long as you write from your heart, a thousand English degrees cannot compete with that. And remember, an editor can always correct your spelling and fix your grammar, but only you can tell your story.”

                                   --Fannie Flagg (page 69)

“To me, writing a book is a two-part process. The first part, and probably the toughest, is starting a book…

The second part, which I’ve always considered much easier, is completing the book. It’s much longer than starting, but also considerably easier—because now, momentum is on my side.”

                                   --Jay Conrad Levinson (page 112)

“I always tell my writing students to become completely aware of their bodies as they write. I tell them that their minds will lie to them all the time, but their guts will never lie to them. You know when you are afraid, don’t you? You feel it; you don’t think it. You know when you are excited, too…you have to learn to apply that gut reaction to your writing…”

                                   --Elizabeth George (page 123)

I wish I could reprint Elizabeth George’s entire essay as she gave great advice, but you will have to discover it for yourself. She ends with:

“I think the writing life is the best there is. It’s also the most challenging. It’s filled with a heck of a lot of difficult moments, but overcoming them is the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done.” (page 124)

          I have to agree.

         

         

Write Within Yourself: An Author's Companion by William Kenower

By Kate Phillips

          When I started out to become a writer, I didn’t know any writers except the ones I read and loved. I didn’t know how to write an article or a book or what comprised a workday. I only knew I wanted to write, too.

          Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg gave me an on ramp into the writing life. As I have mentioned previously, it was a great help to start a writing career.

Since then, I’ve become a professional writer. I know and edit many writers, but the writing process is different for each one of us. Because I write alone, I'm always looking for writing companions.

I’ve found a few books like: For Writers Only: Inspiring thoughts on the exquisite pain and heady joy of the writing life from its great practitioners by Sophy Burnham; The Writer’s Home Companion by Joan Bolker, Ed.D.; Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury; The War of Art: Break Through Your Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield; The Writing Life by Ellen Gilchrist; Blue Pastures by Mary Oliver; The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life by Julia Cameron; Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott; and Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman. As for blogs, I recommend Writing Wednesdays by Steven Pressfield and Kristin Lamb’s award-winning blog.

While browsing for something to read recently, I came across Write Within Yourself: An Author’s Companion by William Kenower. In his 80 concise essays about writing, Kenower shares some life stories, beliefs, insights, advice, topics to consider, successes, failures as well as quotes from other writers.

On pages 12 & 13:

Every day when writers sit down to write, they must ask themselves this question of, “What do I most want to say?” over and over again…

…What do I most want?

Life, and well-being, is really as simple as that…that question remains the most courageous , the most meaningful, and also the most frightening  question you will ever answer…as a writer, if you answer authentically you may see a combination of words on the page that you have never read before, which is both exhilarating and frightening…

On page 97:

Through writing you can learn the endlessly practical discipline of trust. You learn to trust because you are forever the judge and jury of all decisions in your life, and writing draws this fact into stark relief. You must trust yourself finally, or nothing will ever get written.

          On page 149:

…I only got to discover that I love to write once. And yet writing, like some marriages, can be a constant discovery. As with writing, love is not some destination but a portal, a window through which to see life as I intend to lead it.

          On page 159:

So do not think about writing beautifully, think only about writing clearly and about what you care the most. Let the words take the shape of whatever your clarity demands, and then let it go. If you manage to say precisely what you mean, you will have provided another person the opportunity to share in what you love, and there is little in the world more beautiful than that.

         

          Like the other companion books I listed, Write Within Yourself sits on a shelf near my writing desk. I write alone, but I have a support system.

The Golden Theme by Brian McDonald

By Kate Phillips

           

          

In The Golden Theme: How to Make Your Writing Appeal to the Highest Common Denominator, McDonald states: This simple sentence, we are all the same, is the Golden Theme that all stories express. (page 4)

          Advice for writers:

 

Young or inexperienced artist [are told] to find their style, their voice…[not to] “Learn the craft of storytelling.” (page 75)

Telling an artist to express himself or herself only produces self-indulgent, mediocre art. (page 76)

Your job as a storyteller is to tell the truth—the deep truth—the truth as you see it. If you do this even while not trying to have a style, you will have one. (page 77)

…if you…express the Golden Theme as purely as you can…you will reach people—move them. And when people comment on your style, you will have no idea what they are talking about because your work will penetrate so much further below the surface that style will become unimportant to you. (page 77)

          McDonald also shares the importance of storytelling.

              “There have been great societies that did not use the wheel.

              But there have been no societies that did not tell stories.”

                                                             Ursula K. LeGuin (page 11)

          …buried within the story is survival information. And this survival information is, I believe, the reason we tell stories. (page 13)

          The stories McDonald repeats may or already have saved lives. For example, he reveals how “hanger flying” stories helped Sully Sullivan land his inoperable plane safely in the Hudson River saving hundreds of lives. (pp. 16-17)

          The knowledge that others have had the same woes can change lives. In…Alcoholics Anonymous, people do little more than share stories, and yet they have a substantial recovery rate. (page 40)

          …We human beings are always looking for connections. This is why it is so important to understand the Golden Theme. (page 41)

          One of my favorite stories tells what happened at meals on the set of Planet of the Apes in 1968 on pages 42 &43. I also enjoyed learning about the brilliance of Rod Serling and The Twilight Zone on pages 47 & 48.

          We use the Golden Theme in life to determine who is good and who is not. (page 59)

          Focusing on differences instead of similarities blinds us to the Golden Theme. (page 82)

          Brian McDonald wraps up his book with the importance of storytelling—not just entertaining, but a healing art. Let people know they are not alone. You must make people understand we are all the same. (page 104)

Essential advice for writers and storytellers: Tell the truth—the deep truth—the truth as you see it. Readers and listeners will respond.

         

Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t: Why That Is And What You Can Do About It by Steven Pressfield

By Kate Phillips

Normally this week’s post would be an essay on writing, but I just finished Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t: Why That Is And What You Can Do About It by Steven Pressfield. It’s a perfect companion to last week’s writing book recommendation Invisible Ink by Brian McDonald.

I’ve been a fan of Steven Pressfield since I read The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles. I reviewed it on this blog in my first post. It’s the book that turned me into a professional writer. Do yourself a favor and read it, then reread it.

In Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t, Pressfield recounts how he became a writer as well as sharing all the truths he learned about writing along the way. Like McDonald in Invisible Ink, Pressfield uses movies and TV shows to illustrate his points—showing, not just telling—because using a story structure works for any genre that you want to appeal to an audience.

                    Why?

Because a story (whether it’s a movie, a play, a novel, or a piece of nonfiction) is experienced by the reader on the level of the soul. And the soul has a universal structure of narrative receptors…

The soul judges a story’s truth by how closely it comports to the narrative templates that are a part of our psyche from birth… (pp. 63-64)

          For his screenplays, Pressfield recommends: Start with an Inciting Incident, deal with the villain, then transformation of the hero completes the story.

How can you tell when you’ve got a good Inciting Incident? When the movie’s climax is embedded in within it. (page 75). Followed by chapters: “The Second Act Belongs to the Villain” (pp. 76-77) and “Every Character Must Represent Something Greater Than Himself” (pp.78-79) to set the story. Chapters “Write for a Star” (pp. 94-95); “The All is Lost Moment” (page 104); and “Give Your Villain a Brilliant Speech” (pp. 108-109) round out your work.

          Pressfield discusses his “overnight success” when he publishes his first novel at the age of fifty-one on pp. 120-121. Here he lists nine storytelling secrets followed by a list of ten skills he learned in twenty-seven years of writing.

          His chapter “Fiction is Truth” on page 122 is essential reading as are “Narrative Device” on pp. 124-125 and “Novels are Dangerous” on pp. 128-129.

          From fiction, Pressfield moves to nonfiction in “A Non-Story is a Story” including a list of eight universal principles of storytelling (pp 148-149) and to self-help in “Flashback: Narrative Device in The War of Art” (172-173) and “Flashback: Hero and Villain in The War of Art” on page 174 to reveal how many of the same principles apply.

In The Artist’s Calling section, I loved “There is a Muse” on page 181 and “The Artist’s Skill” on page 184.

I also read and love Steven Pressfield’s blog, Writing Wednesdays, too.

I just started reading Brian McDonald’s blog, Ink Spots—also the title of another of his books.

Howards End is on the Landing: A Year of Reading From Home by Susan Hill

By Kate Phillips

          Readers always have books they haven’t read nearby whether in stacks by the bed or on bookshelves for someday. If you have new ones entering your life via the library, friends, or bookstores, some day can quickly become some year.

          English novelist Susan Hill certainly found this to be true.

“It began like this. I went to the shelves on the landing to look for a book I knew was there. It was not. But plenty of others were and among them I noticed at least a dozen I realized I had never read.

I pursued the elusive book through several rooms and did not find it…But each time I did find at least a dozen, perhaps two dozen, perhaps two hundred, that I had never read.” (page 1)

          She also found many books she would enjoy rereading and so began a journey through her own library which she turned into a book entitled Howards End is on the Landing: A Year of Reading From Home.

          As a lifelong reader in her sixties, an author, a reviewer, and a judge for literary awards, Hill has a great many books so it’s easy to imagine that one or more could be misplaced. What fun to come across so many unread books and old favorites then decide to read or reread as many as she could in one year and write about them. Another of the joys of this book is the commentary from Hill as she recalls meeting authors at parties or while interviewing them for the BBC.

          Hill is partial to classics and literary novels, but has a fondness for murder mysteries and a few children’s books, too. Among them, she recommends My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell (page 55), The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald (page 74), The Bell by Iris Murdoch (page 115), and The House in Paris by Elizabeth Bowen (page 141).

          She also enjoys diaries written by The Reverend Francis Kilvert (page 83), Virginia Woolf’s A Writer’s Diary (page 92 & 128), and The Journal of Sir Walter Scott (page 93).

          For a challenge, Susan Hill ends with a list of forty books that would last her the rest of her years on earth (pp. 235-236). Taking up the challenge, I made my list of one hundred books as I am younger with more years to read—hopefully. It’s a painful challenge as I sit surrounded by thousands of books that I love.

We only had one book in common: Shakespeare. I went with Shakespeare’s complete works as they are published in one volume. Hill chose to pick “Macbeth” since his work was not published together until after his death. However, I’m currently reading The Blue Flower since she recommended it so highly—perhaps we will have two books in common.

Have fun reading Howards End is on the Landing, discovering authors new to you, and making your own list of books to last for the rest of your life.

On Story: Screenwriters and Their Craft edited by Barbara Morgan and Maya Perez

By Kate Phillips 

          I’m always on the lookout for TV shows about writers and authors. PBS has a show entitled On Story based on the Austin Film Festival. Various hosts interview mostly screenwriters who either wrote original works or adopted them from books. Even if you are not writing a screenplay, hearing writers discuss their work is inspiring.

          On Story: Screenwriters and Their Craft, edited by Barbara Morgan and Maya Perez, is a book based on these interviews. A wide array of writers, many of them award winning or Academy nominated, give good advice.

Here are a few excerpts:

…To me, the life of writing is the life of nurturing your own enthusiasm, your own passion for writing. You’ve got to nurture it…

        --Randall Wallace (page 24)

        Credits include: Secretariat, Braveheart

…Screenwriting is much more like writing poetry—the real juice is not in the lines but the space between the lines. If the lines are done right, the audience makes the jumps. If you tell them everything, they’re just observers. If you do it right, they’re participants. That’s what you want. That’s what all great art does…

     --Bill Wittliff (page 28)

    Credits include: Legends of the Fall, Lonesome Dove

         

…What I learned was about 70% of my first drafts were awful, but there was 30% that was better stuff than I ever would’ve gotten on paper if I was limiting myself because of fear of what people might think. I’d urge young writers, first write for the content of your heart. Don’t worry about what other people might think. Just cut loose…Find a way to get it on paper…

                           --Bill Wittliff (page 32)

                           More credits: The Perfect Storm, The Black Stallion

Conflict was the major thing. I used to have this huge sign over my typewriter that said, “Conflict, Stupid.” Nine times out of ten if you’ve got a scene that’s not working for some reason, the characters are not in conflict. They’re just giving out information. They’re wandering around and not going anywhere.

    --Nicholas Kazan (page 67)

    Credits include: Bicentennial Man, Reversal of Fortune

I can’t remember who said—it may have been Hitchcock—that books are written from the beginning to the end, and screenplays should be written from end to the beginning. The ending of a movie is crucial…I think the ending is so important that if you don’t know the ending when you start, you shouldn’t do it.

            --Steven Zaillian (page 163)

            Credits include: Awakenings, Schindler’s List

Helpful advice for almost any writing project you are working on.

My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop edited by Ronald Rice

By Kate Phillips

          For readers and writers planning summer vacations, check out My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop, edited by Ronald Rice and Booksellers Across America, published in 2012). There are eighty-one independent bookstores in thirty-six states to choose from as an added bonus to or as the main purpose of any trip.

          After reading the fantastic tributes by writers like Isabel Allende, Wendell Berry, Meg Waite Clayton, Fannie Flagg, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Pete Hamill, Ann Hood, Mameve Medwed, Ann Patchett, Chuck Palahniuk, Michael Tisserand, Luis Alberto Urrea, Abraham Verghese, Terry Tempest Williams, and Simon Winchester, not surprisingly, I want to visit all of the bookstores. Luckily, two are within an hour of my home. On the next trip to see my dad, we will visit the one within an hour of his home.

Then I will branch out with friends and other family members in tow. I think we could visit maybe ten or twelve more in daylong trips from their homes—only one or two a day so we have plenty of time to browse, read, and shop once we arrive. That is the point after all.

All of these tributes mention the importance of the book-loving owners and knowledgeable staff. Beautifully summed up by Ann Haywood Leal in her tribute starting on page 201: “Finding a book a home in someone’s heart is a talent. They may not know it, but…the staff of Bank Square Books [Mystic, Connecticut] are in the business of matchmaking.”

Some excerpts from the tributes:

The floors have to creak, of course. There should be a bit of a chill inside—not dank, or damp, but enough to bring on thoughts of curling up somewhere with one of the bound companions. If the table displays, favorite picks, and the like have a quirky randomness to them, in defiance of the latest imperatives from publishers, all the better…

All of this you take for granted at The Elliot Bay Book Company in Seattle.

                                                Timothy Egan (page 88)

At Watchung Booksellers [in Montclair, New Jersey] there’s a daily rhythm to the life of books. Kids are running around—a bookstore like this is where kids are first brought into the wider world of reading—and there are the sounds of conversations about books, and the humming quiet of the browsers, and the crisp tearing and folding of gift-wrap paper at the counter, and it smells like books, with that fresh, subtly seductive smell. Independent bookstores such as Margot’s [owner] collaborate with writing in such an intimate way that makes cyber bookselling seem merely retail.

                                      Ian Frazier (page 119)

…The event is an author series called Book Your Lunch, and it’s the brainchild of bookseller Jill Hendrix, owner of Fiction Addiction an independent bricks-and-mortar bookstore in my hometown of Greenville, South Carolina. Book Your Lunch is a fantastic way to bring readers and a wide range of authors together—from mystery writers, to award-winning novelists, to non-fiction and cookbook authors. Fiction Addiction sells tickets in advance, and the featured author reads from her work, or gives a short talk, followed by a Q&A session, a delicious lunch, and then an on-site book signing.

                                                          Mindy Friddle (page 121)

Some of the writers of the eighty-two tributes may not be familiar to readers. All of the essays end with writer bios, listings of their books/works, and/or website addresses. (While 84 writers wrote tributes, two were collaborations and The Strand in New York City received two tributes so in total eighty-one bookstores are celebrated.)

As if dream bookstores and writers new and familiar to readers weren’t enough to delight readers of this book, within the essays many of the writers mention their favorite authors.

What more could a reader ask for? Well, I do wish the bookstores’ addresses, phone numbers, and websites were listed at the end of the essays or in the Bookstores by Location index on pages 375-378. Not hard to find online, but still it would have been better in the book.

Whether you are traveling or not this summer, My Bookstore is plain fun--fabulous destinations and numerous book suggestions for readers. It’s almost as good as visiting one of these treasured bookstores!

                     

The Book Lover's Anthology: A Compendium of Writing about Books, Readers & Libraries

By Kate Phillips 

          My book recommendation this week is The Book Lover’s Anthology: A Compendium of Writing about Books, Readers & Libraries published by Bodleian Library. It’s not a book you read straight through, but one you pick up when you only have a few minutes to read or just feel like browsing.

There are inspiring quotes, passages, and poems about: The Friendship of Books; Old and New Books; Good Books and Bad; The Joys of Reading; A Sentimental Education; Bibliophilia; Literary Worlds; and The Library.

          Among my favorite passages are:

           Rich Fare

…There are other evils, great and small, in this world…Of these, Providence has allotted me a full share; but still, paradoxical as it may sound, my burden has been greatly lightened by a load of books.

Thomas Hood, letter to the Manchester Athenaeum (page 29)

          Books are men of higher stature,

          And the only men that speak aloud for future times to hear.

                   Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Lady Geraldine’s Courtship

                  (page 35)

                  

Love and the Library

          I do not know that I am happiest when alone; but this I am

          sure of, that I am never long even in the society of her I love

          without a yearning for the company of my lamp and my

          utterly confused and tumbled-over  library.      

                    George Gordon, Lord Byron (page 182)

          I would rather be a poor man in a garret with plenty of books

          than a king who did not love reading.

                   Thomas Macaulay (page 210)

          Enjoy discovering your favorite passages!

Rain: A Natural and Cultural History by Cynthia Barnett

From Kate’s Writing Crate…

          As a reader, I always love finding books that appeal to me. As a writer, I am twice as pleased when the authors also provide masterclasses within their books.

          Masterclasses take place when performance artists and musicians work one-on-one with students. Writers don’t generally have this option, but I have found some books to be masterclasses for characters, backstories, plots, settings, voice and/or creativity.

          The April masterclass post seemed perfect for a review of Rain: A Natural and Cultural History by Cynthia Barnett. This book caught my eye for two reasons: I love rain and the cover is beautifully clever. On a white background, tiny silver raindrops fall from top to bottom except for the two inch wide by six inch long space in the center under a black umbrella where the title and author’s name appear.

          I expected to learn many facts and figures about rain and I did in this fun read. Fun? Yes, especially for writers as you will see.

          Here are some of the facts:

Amid the worst drought in California history, the enormous concrete storm gutters of Los Angeles still shunt an estimated 520,000 acre-feet of rainfall to the Pacific Ocean each year—enough to supply water to half a million families. (page 11)

Rain is sex for the exquisite orchid Acampe rigida…When raindrops splash inside, they flip off the tiny cap that protects the pollen…[then] they bounce the pollen precisely into the cavity where it must land to consummate fertilization. (page 16)

In medieval Europe, the 1300s marked the beginning of a five-century climate shift known as the Little Ice Age…The second decade of the 1300s was the rainiest in a thousand years. (page 39)

In his 1615 memoir of the native people of Mexico, the historian Fray Juan de Torquemada described an ingenious local skill, one his men wished they could take home to Spain. The natives knew how to make rainproof garments. (page 96)

The history of the waterproof mackintosh [coat] in Europe (patented in 1822) begins on page 98.

Along the Mississippi, in the third-largest river basin in the world, the same federal government that doled out 160-acre homestead plots to small farmers in a land too dry for corn built levees promised to withstand floodwaters in a land too wet for cities or cotton. (page 144)

In the early twentieth century, Eugene Willis Gudger, an ichthyologist with the American Museum of Natural History and editor of the museum’s Bibliography of Fishes, reported he had authenticated seventy-one accounts of fish rain, spanning A.D. 300 through the 1920s. (page 249)

Villages Cherrapunji and Mawsynram in India vie for the world’s rainiest place receiving close to 470 inches a year…the rainiest metro area in the US is Mobile, Alabama [which] pulls in 65 inches annually. (page 278)

          What I did not expect was for so many writers and authors to be referenced and quoted including in order of appearance: Ray Bradbury, Keats, Isaac Asimov, John Burroughs, William Carlos Williams, Victor Hugo, Charles Darwin, Agatha Christie, Shakespeare, Aristotle, Evangelista Torricelli, Douglas Adams, Jonathan Swift, William Faulkner, Kurt Vonnegut, Helen Keller, Thomas Wolfe, Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Alexander Frater among many more. Rain, mighty storms, and their consequences make for good copy.

An author even changed people’s customs on rainy days:

The disdain of the Europeans for umbrellas is noted on page 103.

“Surely that weather watcher Daniel Defoe and his 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe also helped popularize—and defeminize—the umbrella.” (page 105)

Although, the history of the umbrella goes back 3,000 years notes the art writer Julia Meech. (page 106)

In fact, Chapter Nine is entitled “Writers on the Storm” which discusses how rain plays a major part in the lives and works of Steven Patrick Morrissey, Charles Dickens, George Sand, Isak Dinesen, Emily Dickinson, Dante, Thomas Hardy, Longfellow, Hemingway, Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, James Joyce, Woody Allen, Mark Twain, and others.

In 1816, Mary Shelley might not have written her classic tale if not for the Little Ice Age.

…The eruption of Mount Tambora the year before dimmed the sun…It was the coldest summer ever recorded in Europe. Shelley and her poet companions [husband Percy Shelley and Lord Byron] had to stay holed up in their villa, huddled over a constantly burning fire. Lord Byron suggested they each write a ghost story. Frankenstein was hers. (page 200)

         

Many writers find rainy days good writing days.

The Seattle-based writer Timothy Egan…did his own informal study of book authors to figure out if they accomplished their best work in the murk of the dark months. (page 203)

…Seattle transplant Jennie Shortridge said she took seven years to finish her first novel in Denver, with three hundred days of annual sunshine. “When I moved to the Northwest, I wrote the next novel in fifteen months, and subsequent books every two years,” she told Egan “The dark and chill keeps me at my desk.” (page 203)

One writer decided rain was essential to his work.

In the late nineteenth century, a western poet named Joaquin Miller, living in the mountains overlooking Oakland, California, loved rain so much that he created his own personal rain machine to make water roar down on his roof. Anytime he needed some writing inspiration, he could twist a spigot inside his house to summon a shower outside. (page 275)

          I wish I had a personal rain machine as well since rainy days inspire me to write. After I read this book, rainy days now also inspire awe.