HOW TO GET STARTED WRITING A BOOK
I get letters from fans all the time. I always try to answer them. Here’s one I received shortly before I left on my publicity tour. I told her I’d answer her question in my blog,
Dear Loraine,
I am interested in how to get started writing a book. I want to tell my story. I was head teacher at my school. I was in the system for 33 years. I retired last year. I have been a very successful teacher in this community. I had some interesting experiences during my teaching career. I have always been well respected. I have always wondered if I would have been as successful had my situation been reversed. I want to write a book. I have kept a journal some through the years but I just cannot seem to get going. I was a reading and language art teacher. I was always very good at motivating students to write. I know what the process is all about. Do you have some advise? Your Fan M---
Dear M---
You way you were good at motivating others. Maybe you need someone to motivate you. It’s very hard to write for the wind, to go into a little room all alone, sit down to an empty page and write for what, for whom? It’s hard even if you have wonderful stories to tell.
Perhaps you could take a class or join a workshop. Years ago, I wrote some award-winning poetry while simply trying to show off at a poetry workshop in New Orleans.
When I began writing screenplays I needed a partner, someone to show up and be brilliant for. None of those screenplays were ever produced, but I used one as a sample and got my first TV assignment. After that, there were producers and agents counting on me. I had plenty of motivation. It was either write or get fired.
I still thought of myself as a screenwriter, when began my first novel, but I was burned out from years of pleasing producers and network executives. So to get the juices flowing again, I took a creative writing class in the mountains around Los Angeles. As the character of Sissy LeBlanc began to take shape, I was able to bring in pages and get feedback. I still consult other writers when I have a creative problem. We take these story conferences very seriously.
If you don’t want to join with other writers and can’t get yourself to go into that little room by yourself day after day, don’t worry. There are only two reasons for writing: for the sheer creative pleasure or for money. Never feel guilty about living your life instead of writing about it.
Author Loraine Despres will give you short takes on love, life's little ironies, and the world as she moves through it, with detours including how to attract men and keep them happy. That's easy. Writing, that's harder. The writer's life, that one is the hardest of all.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Friday, November 18, 2005
The National Book Awards
The National Book Awards were announced and instead of fireworks we had the usual caviling about too many awards. Too many? How is a good book supposed to come to the attention of a reader? You walk into a bookstore and are immediately on overload. There are so many books. And so little time to read them. How do you find the one that will be worth your time, not to mention your money?
Few newspapers have book review sections any more. The ones that do can only review a small number of books. The independents do their best hand selling to their customers. The chains such as Barnes and Noble try with their Discover Great New Writers which helps introduce dynamic new literary writers to the reading public, selected by volunteer readers from around the country. (Full disclosure: The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc was a Discover Great New Writers Selection, so I’m partial to the Program. I believe a lot of readers would never have found Sissy if Barnes and Noble hadn’t promoted it. So bless you Barnes and Noble and your Discover program.)
We live in a noisy world. Concerts and clubs have become ear-splitting experiences. Movies bombard us with noise. But as E.L. Doctorow said at this year’s National Book Award, “Books are written in silence, and read in silence. They are the finest and most uncertain form of communication that we have…”
Movie and TV studios spend millions in TV ads, print ads, and journalist junkets. Publishers don’t. One of the few ways to bring a worthy book to the attention of readers is through awards. But even these are met in relative silence.
On Wednesday November 9, PEN USA held their 15th Annual Literary Awards Gala in Los Angeles. The silence on the part of the press was almost deafening. The New York Times ignored it. The L.A. Times gave it only a brief mention in a wrap-up column entitled: The Envelope: Styles and Scenes, which featured Charlie Kaufman who wrote the award winning screenplay of course, with the briefest of mention of some of the other awardees. If you want to learn about the wonderful writers who won the 2005 Pen USA awards go to http://penusa.org/go/awards/section/431/
Few newspapers have book review sections any more. The ones that do can only review a small number of books. The independents do their best hand selling to their customers. The chains such as Barnes and Noble try with their Discover Great New Writers which helps introduce dynamic new literary writers to the reading public, selected by volunteer readers from around the country. (Full disclosure: The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc was a Discover Great New Writers Selection, so I’m partial to the Program. I believe a lot of readers would never have found Sissy if Barnes and Noble hadn’t promoted it. So bless you Barnes and Noble and your Discover program.)
We live in a noisy world. Concerts and clubs have become ear-splitting experiences. Movies bombard us with noise. But as E.L. Doctorow said at this year’s National Book Award, “Books are written in silence, and read in silence. They are the finest and most uncertain form of communication that we have…”
Movie and TV studios spend millions in TV ads, print ads, and journalist junkets. Publishers don’t. One of the few ways to bring a worthy book to the attention of readers is through awards. But even these are met in relative silence.
On Wednesday November 9, PEN USA held their 15th Annual Literary Awards Gala in Los Angeles. The silence on the part of the press was almost deafening. The New York Times ignored it. The L.A. Times gave it only a brief mention in a wrap-up column entitled: The Envelope: Styles and Scenes, which featured Charlie Kaufman who wrote the award winning screenplay of course, with the briefest of mention of some of the other awardees. If you want to learn about the wonderful writers who won the 2005 Pen USA awards go to http://penusa.org/go/awards/section/431/
The National Book Awards
The National Book Awards were announced and instead of fireworks we had the usual caviling about too many awards. Too many? How is a good book supposed to come to the attention of a reader? You walk into a bookstore and are immediately on overload. There are so many books. And so little time to read them. How do you find the one that will be worth your time, not to mention your money?
Few newspapers have book review sections any more. The ones that do can only review a small number of books. The independents do their best hand selling to their customers. The chains such as Barnes and Noble try with their Discover Great New Writers which helps introduce dynamic new literary writers to the reading public, selected by volunteer readers from around the country. (Full disclosure: The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc was a Discover Great New Writers Selection, so I’m partial to the Program. I believe a lot of readers would never have found Sissy if Barnes and Noble hadn’t promoted it. So bless you Barnes and Noble and your Discover program.)
We live in a noisy world. Concerts and clubs have become ear-splitting experiences. Movies bombard us with noise. But as E.L. Doctorow said at this year’s National Book Award, “Books are written in silence, and read in silence. They are the finest and most uncertain form of communication that we have…”
Movie and TV studios spend millions in TV ads, print ads, and journalist junkets. Publishers don’t. One of the few ways to bring a worthy book to the attention of readers is through awards. But even these are met in relative silence.
On Wednesday November 9, PEN USA held their 15th Annual Literary Awards Gala in Los Angeles. The silence on the part of the press was almost deafening. The New York Times ignored it. The L.A. Times gave it only a brief mention in a wrap-up column entitled: The Envelope: Styles and Scenes, which featured Charlie Kaufman who wrote the award winning screenplay of course, with the briefest of mention of some of the other awardees. If you want to learn about the wonderful writers who won the 2005 Pen USA awards go to http://penusa.org/go/awards/section/431/
Few newspapers have book review sections any more. The ones that do can only review a small number of books. The independents do their best hand selling to their customers. The chains such as Barnes and Noble try with their Discover Great New Writers which helps introduce dynamic new literary writers to the reading public, selected by volunteer readers from around the country. (Full disclosure: The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc was a Discover Great New Writers Selection, so I’m partial to the Program. I believe a lot of readers would never have found Sissy if Barnes and Noble hadn’t promoted it. So bless you Barnes and Noble and your Discover program.)
We live in a noisy world. Concerts and clubs have become ear-splitting experiences. Movies bombard us with noise. But as E.L. Doctorow said at this year’s National Book Award, “Books are written in silence, and read in silence. They are the finest and most uncertain form of communication that we have…”
Movie and TV studios spend millions in TV ads, print ads, and journalist junkets. Publishers don’t. One of the few ways to bring a worthy book to the attention of readers is through awards. But even these are met in relative silence.
On Wednesday November 9, PEN USA held their 15th Annual Literary Awards Gala in Los Angeles. The silence on the part of the press was almost deafening. The New York Times ignored it. The L.A. Times gave it only a brief mention in a wrap-up column entitled: The Envelope: Styles and Scenes, which featured Charlie Kaufman who wrote the award winning screenplay of course, with the briefest of mention of some of the other awardees. If you want to learn about the wonderful writers who won the 2005 Pen USA awards go to http://penusa.org/go/awards/section/431/
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