I always said I wanted to be a writer. (Actually, when I was very little I wanted to be a waitress at my favorite restaurant, Wags. But when Wags went out of business and was replaced by a Denny’s, my dream to serve pancakes and coffee to senior citizens was replaced, too.)
In fifth grade, I won a National Pride Award in Writing, and from then my destiny was set: I was going to be a famous author. By the time I reached high school, I was pretty sure I was going to be the next Stephen King. Or Margaret Atwood, or Faulkner, or Steinbeck, depending on what I was reading that week.
The adults in my life intervened before I graduated. Yes, you will someday be ludicrously famous, they reasoned, but in the meantime writers have to live. To eat. Why not go to college for Journalism? You could become a reporter… while you’re writing that first break-out novel, of course. The St. Petersburg Times agreed, and gave me a full scholarship.
I tried to be a reporter. I liked writing feature articles in the vein of my two journalistic heroes: Thomas French and Jeff Klinkenberg. But anything other than dramatic feature pieces and controversial editorials bored the hell out of me. Local news? No thank you.
I changed majors. I took everything I learned in my journalism classes and applied it to creative writing. Okay, the Chorus of Reason compromised, you could still be a teacher. Just until you’re famous. Teaching? Okay, yeah, sure, until I make Oprah’s book list.
I was less enthusiastic about teaching than I was about reporting, but I believed it was the only thing I could do with my creative writing degree. I went to graduate school under the assumption I would eventually find an arts school that would let me teach creative writing the way I would want.
And then something amazing happened. I was asked to serve as the Editor in Chief of my college’s literary journal, Inkwell. Actually, the retiring editor practically forced it on me, but it turned out to be for the best anyway. I quit my job and took out student loans to cover my living expenses for my second year of graduate school. The college picked up the tab for my classes. I imagine my mom(the only Voice of Reason left) harbored a few doubts about how I would survive, but she and my dad took a gamble and supported my decision. Bless them both.
It was there, in the little office of Manhattanville’s writing center, with manuscripts stacked and piled all around me, that I got an inkling of what I wanted to do with my life. I was reading a story submission, and a switch was suddenly flicked on in my brain. I liked the story, but knew it needed a little work–I could see just where I would tweak, or nip, or polish. I quickly made a few notes and arrows, then sent the story back to the author. I told him I loved it, but wanted him to rework the last few paragraphs, emphasizing the symbolism presented in the opening scene, and continuing the story to its logical, heartbreaking conclusion. He wrote me back a few hours later, saying that he always knew the story’s ending was lacking the punch he wanted, but no one had ever been able to show him how to fix it-until now.
I ultimately didn’t get to publish the story (our small collegiate literary journal had an outdated editorial hierarchy that involved a very old, very conservative nun at its pinnacle, and the story had sex, violence, and copious amount of drug use), but I urged the author to submit it elsewhere. I have no doubt he’ll get it published someday, and many others. He has an almost uncanny ability to illuminate the beauty in absolute devastation.
The experience of editing the story, of improving the story, hooked me. I wanted to be Super Editor for our little journal. I worked nights, came in on the weekends, relentlessly fundraised, and organized readings and events. I fought heroically for stories and poems I wanted to include, and just as fiercely to keep out what I considered less than stellar.
Sidenote: We published an essay by Alexander Maksik, titled You Keep Living or You Don’t, which is still my favorite piece from Inkwell’s Fall 2008 issue.
I went to my teachers who were editors, or had been editors. “I really like what I’m doing,” I told them. “I really like this.” Perhaps I could become an editor full-time? Meanwhile my ego kept whining: No, we’re going to be famous. Remember? You’ve always wanted to be a writer.
But I wasn’t sure about that anymore.
It was one of those teachers–an editor at Penguin, an amazing teacher, and who has deftness to her editing that I will always admire–who asked me the deciding question: Which do you like better, reading or writing?
I’ve always been a flash-in-the-pan kind of writer, belting out short stories in a day, or half a novel in a few months, and then losing interest and walking away from it. I don’t yearn to write everyday, and I certainly don’t make time for writing. I make time for reading. I can read a book in less than 24 hours if it’s a good one, and I average about a book a week. I read in bed, on the train, walking home, eating breakfast/lunch/dinner if I’m alone. I read every possible minute I can.
And which makes me happier: Writing a great sentence, or reading one? Finishing a good short story, or finding one? Over and over again the answer was clear.
I called my mother with the good news just before she flew up to see me graduate. “Mom,” I said. “I want to be an editor.”
“Oh, thank God,” she replied. “I’m so glad you’ve found something you love to do that you can still make a living out of.”
The Voice of Reason agreed. It was destiny.
I worked as an assistant at a literary agency for a year, learning how to offer insightful, constructive criticism. I networked like crazy, called in favors from past teachers, friends, and even editors that I met at literary functions. Anything to help get my foot in the door. I went on dozens of interviews.
I’m not an editor, not yet. But I do work in an editorial department in a large publishing house, and I’m learning more and more about my trade everyday. I’ve learned that there are several different kinds of editors, and that while I’ll never be a copyeditor, I could be a Developmental Editor. And someday, an Acquisitions Editor. That is my dream now. I look at women like Shaye Areheart, Nan Talese, and Karen Berger of Vertigo Comics, and I call them my heroes.
I still write. I haven’t given up on writing completely–but I write when I feel like it, and mostly for this site–though sometimes a poem slips onto a page, or an old short story will reignite my imagination and demand a rewrite. I still write, and may even still be a writer, but I don’t think I’ll ever be an Oprah’s booklist author.
Over the summer I read a lot of books. More than I can even remember now, but I figured I'd give it a try.
Let's see, I read:
Cancer Vixen (Marisa Acocella Marchetto) - a painfully honest, and painfully funny memoir about battling breast cancer.
The Lost Symbol (Dan Brown) - better than I thought it would be. A fun read, kind of like National Treasure in book format.
Cruddy (Linda Barry) - an excellent book. Dark, gritty, disturbing, sad and poignant. A YA novel for grown-ups. This was Dylan's selection for Book Club.
The Sugar Queen (Sarah Addison Allen) - I loved this book. It was fun, charming...sweet!
The Story Sisters (Alice Hoffman) - This was one of those books that I couldn't put down, but by the end it was all a little too depressing, and then the ending was a little too "all wrapped up" for me.
Shanghai Girls - (Lisa See) I didn't like this one. It was too dry, too removed from its characters. It felt at times like a history lesson, and I never fell into the story the way I usually do.
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (Jamie Ford) - A beautiful story about a Chinese boy falling in love with a Japanese girl in San Francisco, during WWII. I read this after Shanghai Girls, and it was amazing how much better the storytelling was. This is Jaime Ford's first novel, but I hope he does more.
Skeletons at the Feast (Chris Bohjalian) - I couldn't put it down, the ending was an image worthy of an Oscar, and then the Epilogue went and spoiled it by being so saccharine I got a toothache.
The Double Bind (Chris Bohjalian) - I learn my lesson slowly when it comes to authors, but I now know Chris Bohjalian has awesome stories and no idea how to end them.
Goats Infinite Typewriters - A collection of the frighteningly irreverent (and hysterical) webcomic Goats.
Scud: The Whole Shebang (Rob Schrab, Dan Harmon, Mondy Carter, Jack Grey) - A huge collection of the comic about a disposable assassin who keeps his primary target alive so he too can live, and maybe find redemption from God, or Satan, or mob bosses.
The Crimson Petal and the White - audio (Michel Faber) An epic tale of love of all kinds, ambition, social status in Victorian England, jealousy, rage, and revenge. Bawdy, racy, well-told, sprawling, it was 35 disks and I ended up with a 60 cent late fee because I couldn't finish the whole thing in six weeks!
Feast of Love (Charles Baxter) - A modern novel about the modern condition of love. Very, very good, if a little unconventional in its telling.
Geek Love (Katherine Dunne) - Dark and disturbing, and ultimately not quite as good as I would have liked, but still a fun read about circus freaks, mutants, families, incest, love, revenge, and self-acceptance.
World War Z (Max Brooks) - It didn't give me nightmares, but it definitely gave me chills. The definitive story of If Zombies Were Real...it went from infection, to plague, to apocalypse, and back again. I'd read this book again, but not at bedtime.
The Virgin's Lover - audio (Philippa Gregory) I do love my Gregory romances, but this one was slightly less fun than the others.
The Boleyn Inheritance - audio (Philippa Gregory) Much better, all about the tragic Anne of Cleves, King Henry's 4th wife, and Katherine Howard, his 5th. The horrible Jane Boleyn (wife of George Boleyn, who testified she'd seen her husband commit sodomy, incest, and sorcery) returns as well, and it was sweet to see her finally get her inheritance.
And I think that was it. 3 audio books, 3 graphic novels, 11 "regular" books, for a total of 17 books over 5 months (May to September). Not bad.
It's not bad fiction, per se, but bad writing. Why do people read books, devour books, catapult these books to best-sellerdom, when the writing is stale, formulaic, and...bad?
For one thing, it's about story. People will suffer through a lot of unnecessary adjectives and purple phrases if the story is fundamentally interesting. Maybe not a heart-twisting, coming-to-terms-with-the-suffering-of-the-human-existence kind of story--actually that kind of story will hold a whole lot less overwriting. But these books aren't that kind of story. They're usually thrillers. (Or romances.)
These kinds of stories can carry a lot of extra baggage, because they're not very heavy themselves. It's kind of like reading an action movie. Action movies, stereotypically, have weak plots. The integrity of the film is buttressed by witty banter, car chases, and lots of explosions. Extras, glitter, filler.
Take a fairly entertaining story and "jazz" it up with a lot of pretentious overstuffed phrases and poorly ascribed dialogue, and you've got a "thrilling" novel.
If I sound like I'm dogging on thriller novels, its because I am. But only a little bit. One cannot live on Faulkner alone, of course. This past weekend, I had oral surgery and was laid out for at least 48 hours. I had nothing to do. Except read a thriller novel. The premise was a lot like the movie National Treasure, and that's all I'll say about it specifically.
At first I snubbed the book, stuck my nose up and read it only to ridicule it. But, as the story progressed, I found I was ignoring the ridiculously overblown sentences, "It smelled like death..." and flipping through the pages to see what would happen next. The thriller had taken hold. I was reading for clues, deciphering double meanings, guessing at who would be the rat.
I admit there were a few egregious places where I had to shake my head and make a mental red line through a sentence or two, but for the most part I enjoyed the story and kept reading because I wanted to know how it ended.
And this, despite all the flaws (that new, young authors should always work to avoid), is why people read bad fiction.
It's been a productive couple of months, which is part of why I've been MIA on this blog for so long. I've been snatching up extra assignments, learning every thing I can, and it has finally paid off.
I've been assigned my first project editing gig. My own book.
What does a project editor do? Well, I'm still learning. The first thing it seems is design the sample pages, which means you have to code a section of the manuscript for the designers. Our coding is all done through color codes.
Yay! I love color coding. I color code the Post-It Notes and Highlighter pens I use. One color for each editor.
Color coding a manuscript takes waaaay longer than you're thinking it will. Allow me to demonstrate using this great book I just finished reading, The Sugar Queen. (See great cover at top of page.)
The first page is Praise for the Novels of Sarah Addison Allen. This page would have three codes. The 1st head level (the largest type) would be one, then the 2nd head level, and the text. The Dedication page would have the same code as the Praise pages text code, but the Title page gets its own 3 codes (this is the page that has the title, author name, and imprint information), and the Half Title page gets yet another code.
That's 7 codes so far, and we haven't even started the story yet! The Chapter Numbers get a code, the Chapter Titles get a code, paragraphs that have indents get codes, paragraphs without get a code, italics, bold, bullet lists, charts, and tables will all get their own codes.
In a text-only book, like The Sugar Queen, you might have 20 codes. But, if you're working on illustrated books, which is what I do, then you can easily have 30 or more different codes.
All done by color. There are 40 colors in the MS Word font color palette, including black and white. That leaves 38 to work with. 35 if you take away the unusable three: light yellow, light green, and light turquoise.
My MS Word has 20 basic codes already programmed into it, which I did after working on sample pages for my editors.
Last week I met with an awesome designer who showed me the things I'd done wrong on this first try. She told me I did a hell of a good job for a first time.
I hope so, because the manuscript that I'm supposed to code the entire thing comes in this week!
This is a really great opportunity, and the book sounds super-awesome-cool. The author is a person I respect, and I definitely want to do a good job on his book.
I apologize for my MIA status on this blog. The work schedule of an Editorial Assistant is busy busy busy, but the personal life of this EA is also busy busy busy. I've made some awesome friends at the publishing house, and I spend a lot of weekends out and about with them. I still read, and write, a lot, but I write less than I should. It's funny that creative people always want to work in a creative profession, because I've found that your creativity is sapped by your job leaving you very little for yourself! By the end of a day spent rewriting intros, sales sheets, back cover copy, whole paragraphs of books, etc., I just have very little energy to come home and dish out another thousand words.
So, to present you something, I've cheated and stolen these two subjects from Facebook:
15 Books That Shaped Who I Am...In No Particular Order:
So, apparently, I have been shaped into a girl who defies all conventions of femininity, believes in magic, is terrified by the possibilities opened by that belief, and has a strange fascination with macabre stories of murder, incest, and tragic family secrets. Yeah, that sounds like me.
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100 Important Books the BBC Doesn’t Believe You’ve Read
The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?
1 Pride and Prejudice - 1 (I read all of these trite wastes of paper in high school. I don't care how famous she is, Austen can suck an egg.) 2 The Lord of the Rings - 2 3 Jane Eyre - 3 4 Harry Potter series - (I suspect this was added to raise the average to 6.) 5 To Kill a Mockingbird - 4 6 The Bible - (Who actually reads this? I tried to read the Cliff Notes and got bored!) 7 Wuthering Heights - 8 Nineteen Eighty Four - 5 9 His Dark Materials - 10 Great Expectations - 11 Little Women - 6 12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - 7 (This is one of the most depressing novels. Ever.) 13 Catch 22 - 14 Complete Works of Shakespeare - (No, but I've read most of them.) 15 Rebecca - 16 The Hobbit - 8 17 Birdsong - 18 Catcher in the Rye - 9 (Which I didn't like as much as his collection Nine Stories.) 19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - (Why is this book on this list? Was this an important book in anyone's literary development?) 20 Middlemarch - 21 Gone With The Wind - (I tried 3 times, and never got past the first chapter. This book is horribly written.) 22 The Great Gatsby - 10 23 Bleak House - 24 War and Peace - 25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - 11 27 Crime and Punishment - 12 28 Grapes of Wrath - 13 29 Alice in Wonderland - 14 30 The Wind in the Willows - 31 Anna Karenina - 15 32 David Copperfield - 33 Chronicles of Narnia - 16 34 Emma - 17 (See comment on #1) 35 Persuasion - 36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - 18 37 The Kite Runner - (I was told in equal parts that this book was awesome and that it was horribly written. I chose to skip it.) 38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - 39 Memoirs of a Geisha - (See comment on 40 Winnie the Pooh - 41 Animal Farm - 19 42 The Da Vinci Code - 43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - 20 44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - 45 The Woman in White - 46 Anne of Green Gables - 21 (I soooo do not remember this book, except for the cover!) 47 Far From The Madding Crowd - 48 The Handmaid’s Tale - 22 49 Lord of the Flies - 23 (This should count twice. I've read it over 20 times! It's true, I read it twice a month for a while. I would finish it, put aside for a week, and then reread it.) 50 Atonement - Ian McEwan - 24 51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel - 52 Dune - Frank Herbert - 53 Cold Comfort Farm - 54 Sense and Sensibility - 25 55 A Suitable Boy -
56 The Shadow of the Wind - 57 A Tale Of Two Cities - 26 58 Brave New World - 27 59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - 28 (See comment on #19.) 60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - 29 61 Of Mice and Men - 30 62 Lolita - 63 The Secret History - 64 The Lovely Bones - (Again, same as #19?) 65 Count of Monte Cristo - 66 On The Road - 67 Jude the Obscure - 68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - (Really? They just added 6 books they assumed Everyone has read, right?) 69 Midnight’s Children - 70 Moby Dick - 31 71 Oliver Twist - 72 Dracula - 73 The Secret Garden - 32 74 Notes From A Small Island - 75 Ulysses - 76 The Inferno – 33 (But I never read the other two.) 77 Swallows and Amazons - 78 Germinal - 79 Vanity Fair - 80 Possession - 81 A Christmas Carol - 82 Cloud Atlas - 83 The Color Purple - 84 The Remains of the Day - 85 Madame Bovary - 86 A Fine Balance - 87 Charlotte’s Web - 88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - (WTF??) 89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - 90 The Faraway Tree Collection - 91 Heart of Darkness - 34 92 The Little Prince - 35 (Though I think technically my mom read it to us.) 93 The Wasp Factory - 36 (God yes! I am so happy this book is on this list! It's graphic, violent, totally disturbing and I love love love it! I've read it 4 or 5 times!) 94 Watership Down - 95 A Confederacy of Dunces - 96 A Town Like Alice - 97 The Three Musketeers - 98 Hamlet - 37 99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - 100 Les Miserables - 38 (Unabridged, baby--that's right! With a French/English dictionary with me for the hard parts!)
