Photo by Marian Calle

Name (byline): Maisy Card

Literary agent (if one): Monica Odom of Odom Media Management

Book title: These Ghosts Are Family

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Expected release date: March 3, 2020

Genre/category: Literary Fiction/ Family Saga

Elevator pitch for the book (1-2 sentence pitch): Stanford Solomon has a shocking, thirty-year-old secret. And it’s about to change the lives of everyone around him. Stanford Solomon is actually Abel Paisley, a man who faked his own death and stole the identity of his best friend. These Ghosts Are Family revolves around the consequences of Abel’s decision and tells the story of the Paisley family from colonial Jamaica to present day Harlem.

Previous titles (if any) by the author: debut author

What prompted you to write this book?

I was reflecting on the state of my family when I began the book, thinking about how close I was with my extended family when we first came to America and how we’d drifted apart both geographically and emotionally over the years. My grandfather was also beginning to show signs of dementia around that time. There were so many stories about him and his past that I’d heard from others but had hardly heard anything about him out of his own mouth. I was thinking about how much of the truth would be lost when he was gone, and how as a member of the black diaspora whose ancestry has been effected by both slavery, colonialism, and immigration, I have to find a way to accept those mysteries, questions, and silences. I had the idea to create a fictional family that would mirror some of the questions I struggle with.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process? (Explain.)

The idea for this book evolved over time. So many different iterations of it have existed, but I would say that the first real kernel began in 2006. Initially, I was writing unrelated short stories centered on Jamaican characters. Eventually I began to connect them and started to ask myself how the stories would change if they were all part of the same family. And later I decided the story should center around the actions of one member in particular, the family patriarch. We sold the book in 2018, but I also made more edits after it sold while working with my editor, including adding an additional 30,000 words.

[Read our previous Author Spotlight with Afia Atakora, author of Conjure Women.]

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title? (Explain.)

I think what surprised me was how many people work on a single book. During most of the writing process, I wasn’t sure if anything that I was doing even mattered. Later, I got input from my agent, then my editor, and soon I was interacting with the art department, editorial, marketing, publicity, sales etc. So much labor, other than your own, goes into publishing a book.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book? (Explain.)

I think my style or voice shifted over time. I began writing this book it in my early twenties and finished in my mid-thirties. The way I write stories and my voice as a writer has really changed. I think the structure of this particular book—a novel in stories—absorbs that shift in my style and uses it to the different characters’ advantages, without it becoming jarring.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

I hope they start to reflect on the questions they have about their own familes and the stories that were never told. I hope it leads them to ask questions to their parents, their grandparents, etc. And to begin to document those family stories while they still can.

If you could share one piece of advice with other authors, what would it be?

Find a writing buddy or join a writing group. Writing can be very lonely, and it can be hard to stay motivated on a long project. It’s great to have people to hold you accountable.

Order your copy of These Ghosts Are Family by Maisy Card.

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Maisy Card holds an MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College and is a public librarian. Her writing has appeared in Lenny Letter, School Library Journal, Agni, Sycamore Review, Liars’ League NYC, and Ampersand Review. Maisy was born in St. Catherine, Jamaica, but was raised in Queens, New York. Maisy earned an MLIS from Rutgers University and a BA in English and American Studies from Wesleyan University. She is the author of These Ghosts Are Family.

The post Author Spotlight: Maisy Card by Amy Jones appeared first on Writer's Digest.

In today’s fractured media environment, every month sees another magazine shuttered. Rates get slashed on the regular. Increasingly, freelance journalists are finding that they not only need to work harder, but smarter as well—the “pitch story-write story” cycle can be draining. Before almost all content became available online, writers could simply rewrite a story and tailor it to another market, but that practice is no longer viable.

(When and how should writers negotiate better terms?)

Yet not all is lost. Writers can maximize their time by pitching multiple, different stories that arise out of the same kernel of an idea. Most refer to such idea mining as “spin-offs.” A spin-off is not a rewrite or a reprint. “There is a window or an element in every article that could open out into different ideas,” says Kamala Thiagarajan, an India-based freelance journalist. “One story often leads entirely to another; both are different, and yet intricately linked.”

Milking a topic for multiple stories also makes business sense. “Finding another angle on the same idea can be a real time saver because you’ve already done a lot of the background work and developed sources,” says freelance science writer Carrie Arnold. “You’re familiar with the field, so you can jump right in and know what exactly is newsworthy or interesting.”

Take the following steps to start pitching your own spin-offs.

1. Find Multiple Angles

For most journalists, multiple angles emerge while talking to sources. But new ideas don’t just magically appear, so you may have to try a little harder. “Whenever I interview anybody, the last question I always ask is, ‘What is the most interesting thing happening in your field, apart from what we’re talking about here?” says Paul Tullis, a former editor for Men’s Journal and Seed. He also suggests creative questions such as: When you go to conferences, what are the most well-attended panels? What are people talking about in the hallways? When you talk to an old colleague and say, “Can you believe X is happening?” What is X?

Reporting trips provide ample opportunity for discovering various sides to an issue. Independent journalist Wudan Yan went to Bangladesh in early 2018 to report on the Rohingya refugee crisis. She pitched several stories from the camps—all with different angles—generating more than $2,000 in income from just 10 days of reporting. (She funded the trip herself.) One story for PRI focused on intellectual disabilities in the camp’s children, and another on elephant attacks in the camps was published by HuffPost. Her background research provided depth to the stories, even though her angles were unique.

Note: While you should never use the same quotes for your spin-offs, you can use different quotes from the same interview. It’s good practice to let sources know their quotes will be used for another story as well.

2. Pitch to Noncompeting Publications

Let’s say you conceive a story idea from a study on body image. During your research, you realize the study’s author is quirky enough to warrant a profile. Yes, there’s potential for two stories there—a news piece and a profile. Just one rule: Don’t pitch the stories to competing venues. Instead, think more broadly. Maybe you pitch the news piece to a science magazine such as Discover, and the profile to a women’s lifestyle publication like Marie Claire. “If there is not a lot of overlap in the readership of the publications then it should be safe, because as an editor I’m thinking, Is this a good story for my readers? Will they have seen this somewhere else before?” Tullis says. “If I’m editing for a science mag, it’s not likely that my readers have also seen the same person covered in a women’s mag.” In fact, mentioning your prior coverage of the topic could actually work as a selling point, and may convince the editor you’re the right person to write the piece.

3. Be Transparent

When it comes to keeping editors in the loop, writers set their own rules. Yan routinely pitches stories from her overseas reporting trips. “If your sources and angles are totally different, and if you’re paying for your trip, ethically there isn’t a need to disclose whether or not you’re doing a story for someone else,” Yan says.

That said, if there is considerable overlapping research or common sources, you might want to give the editors a heads-up. “I would certainly expect writers to be open about commissions they’ve accepted elsewhere about the topic around the same time,” says Richard Hurley, editor at the medical journal The BMJ.

Some freelancers may fear revealing such information will prevent them from scoring the assignment. However, editors these days understand it’s common for freelancers to crank out several stories from one topic. “You can work with your editor to angle it substantially differently from the same research,” Hurley says. “That makes everyone happy.”

4. Get Creative

There are a few different ways to spin multiple articles out of the same topic. Arnold wrote a story for Scientific American Mind on how social media was changing the way people grieve. While researching that story, she conceived the idea for a service-type piece for AARP focusing on managing social media and online financial info after death. Studies can birth dense science stories, as well as broad, more consumer-driven articles.

(Should writers use social media?)

Sometimes a news piece can sow the seeds for a broader trends feature. For NPR’s Goats and Soda, a global health and development blog, Thiagarajan filed a story about a gang rape in India that moved the government to enact more stringent anti-rape legislation. In a separate piece for the same publication, she then did a deep dive into why the justice system often fails rape victims and the potential impact of the new laws.

Travel writers often write about the same location from different perspectives. Freelancer Valentina Valentini wrote about The Gravediggers Pub in Dublin for BBC Travel. She traced the history of the pub and its owners, steering clear of the ghost stories associated with it. Later, she pitched the haunted history to Atlas Obscura.

Bobbi Dempsey, a freelance writer based in Pennsylvania, found several different angles while researching a profile piece on a Samoan wrestler. The subject was part of a family dynasty of pro wrestlers, so she did a “family tree” piece for a wrestling magazine. She also learned that Samoan people are prone to certain medical conditions, and thus wove a health story out of that information. A broad piece about Samoa for a travel outlet also followed.

You can re-tool your ideas only so much. As an ethical freelancer, you should know where to draw the line. “When you find multiple angles, you definitely need to have a new perspective,” Thiagarajan says. “Don’t overdo an idea just because you want to make more money.”

But be mindful—if your re-slanted pieces have overlapping research, compare copies with previous stories before filing. Or better yet, run them through plagiarism software.

[Read more ways to generate article ideas here.]

Have personal experiences you want to share? WD University’s Pitch an Article: Write for Today’s Marketplace will teach you how to craft a good pitch letter and do it well. Be ready to mine your life for ideas. Start thinking about a great spin on a topic or an unusual personal experience that you’d like to write about in class! Register today!

The post The Art of Spin-Offs: Freelance Article Ideas by Dinsa Sachan appeared first on Writer's Digest.

What should writers blog about if they write fiction? Poetry? Nonfiction? Do blog topics have to align with your other writing? We dive into these questions here.

Blogging is a great way to share your thoughts with the world, connect with readers, and build a writing platform for new and experienced writers. One of the first questions I’m often asked by people interested in starting—or improving—a blog is, “What should I blog about?”

(Should writers have a blog?)

This is a great first question. I’ve been blogging for more than a decade, and I constantly re-evaluate my topics, my treatment, and my goals. Once you begin posting to a blog, you are creating and sharing content, and it makes a lot of sense to think about what you’re sharing and why.

So, let’s dig into this.

A key to success for any writer is having an online presence. Blogging is one way to share your expertise and—at the same time—build an author platform. Don’t know how to start a blog? Not sure what to focus on? Don’t fret! This online writing workshop will guide you through the entire blogging process—how to create and setup a blog, where to start, and much more. You’ll learn how to attract readers and how to market your writing. Start a successful blog today and get noticed by editors and publishers.

Click to continue.

What Should Writers Blog About?

While I think it’s important for bloggers to ask what they should post, the better first question is, “Why do you want to start a blog?” Is it for fun? Is it to share thoughts about your life? Do you have a topic that really interests you? Or do you just want to try it out because others have? Any of these reasons (or something completely different) are fine, but the reason why will help guide you to what.

(8 Blogging Tips for Writers to Find Success.)

For instance, if you’re really into a specific topic (like extreme weather), then you should have a good idea of what kind of subjects you’d like to cover (hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, etc.). If you’re doing it to improve your author platform, then you’ll need to figure out who your target audience is and blog about things that interest them. The best blogs combine a blogger’s intrinsic interests with an audience’s interests.

As you can imagine, 100 people could visit this post and walk away with 100 different blog post ideas.

What Should Writers of Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry Blog About?

Over the years, I’ve heard so many theories about what writers of different genres should do with their blog, and it’s great to consider different perspectives. But what’s always worked best for me is to experiment and pay attention to responses. Then, decide whether your strategy is working.

(Should writers use social media?)

Could nonfiction blog posts work for a novelist? Possibly, if they line up with the subject of the novels. Could flash fiction posts gain traction for a person who writes nonfiction? Maybe; I’ve never tried it.

One thing I do know for certain: If you just do what you’re told and what everyone else is doing, then you’re more likely to disappear in the flood of blogs and sites that already exist. Find ways to differentiate, whether that’s through content, style, or tone.

Final Word on Choosing Blog Topics

Blogging is best done through trial and error, but a good place to start is by looking at your writing goals and trying to think how your blog can complement those. If you’re writing historical fiction, you’ll likely do a lot of research that can’t fit in the story. So share little nuggets of information on your blog and plug your fiction with each post.

Who knows? Eventually, you may become an authority on certain aspects of history and find yourself pitching a nonfiction book that complements your historical novels. Or vice versa, for whatever your subject of choice may be.

The post What Should Writers Blog About? by Robert Lee Brewer appeared first on Writer's Digest.

There are no villains in memoir—unless you count yourself. Understand the ways in which you act as a character so you can tell your story as its writer.

When I began writing memoir, I was surprised to find how much these true stories needed to read like novels or short stories told in the first person. Just like fiction, there need to be scenes with action and dialogue. Settings have to be vividly rendered with concrete, physical details. There also has to be a clear storyline with an inciting action, rising conflict and a satisfying conclusion, complete with some meaningful change occurring within the protagonist.

What there cannot be, however, are villains. There are no villains in memoir.

To be clear, memoirs, like life, are often filled with characters doing villainous things. There are cheating spouses, alcoholic parents, schoolyard bullies and predatory priests. I worked with a client whose father murdered her mother, and another who escaped the thrall of a religious cult. The world is filled with people doing awful things to other people, and the ones who survive those awful things often want to tell their stories. Sometimes they must tell their stories just to make sense of their lives. Most of the stories we read or watch in books and movies have had villains. Surely our stories can as well.

Yet ours can’t, and to understand why, let’s look at a traditional fictional villain: the killer in a murder mystery. The hero in a mystery, whether a detective or an amateur sleuth, always answers two questions. First, they must find out whodunit. In a good mystery, there are always many suspects, and the majority of the story is spent watching the hero sift through clues until he or she has homed in on The One. Then comes the second, and more important question: Why? Why did the killer kill? What was their motivation?

In truth, no good mystery is merely a whodunit. It is always a “why did someone do it?” As terrible as murder may be, the mere fact that someone killed someone else is not all that compelling. Why someone killed someone else is. The killer’s motivation is what drives the entire story and what makes them a true villain. It is their motivation that gives purpose to their actions.

This is precisely why there are no villains in memoir. In real life, the only thing we know for sure is what we see and hear, and what we think and believe. When a memoirist depicts a scene in which something happens involving anyone besides him- or herself, no matter how joyous or violent, no matter how wanted or unwanted, the rules are always the same. The writer should always describe as vividly as possible what was said and done. If your father threw a whisky bottle at your head, show that bottle flying through the air and shattering against the wall. If he called you names, he should call you those names on the page. And if you thought He’s crazy and wants to kill me, let the reader know you thought that. Or, if you thought He hates me and has always hated me, let the reader know that too.

The line the author cannot cross, what the author cannot show, is what another person thought or what motivated another person. No matter how certain we might be that we know what someone is thinking, we are wrong. Thoughts come to us constantly like a river always flowing. Sometimes those thoughts even contradict themselves: She loves me; she wants to leave me. I want to stay here; I want to leave right now. A mind can change and change and change again. It’s hard enough to keep up with your own mind; it is impossible to follow another’s.

That said, it’s relatively easy to avoid falling into the trap of showing other people’s thoughts—the memoirist is writing in the first person, after all. It’s a little more complicated with motivation. We assign motivation to each other all the time. We say, “He doesn’t love me,” or, “She doesn’t care about anyone but herself,” or, “He has to be right all the time.” I usually do this to try to make sense of something that doesn’t make sense to me. I become a little like a detective, solving the mystery of why someone would do something that seems unkind, selfish or destructive. Though I’m a pretty intuitive guy and consider myself a good judge of other people, my answer never satisfies me completely. I always feel some missing piece, some other, conflicting motivation that makes that person as complicated and nuanced and whole as I.

Thus, while my character in a memoir might think My brother doesn’t really like me, I, as the author, can’t begin a story, My brother never really liked me. I don’t actually know that. All I know is that I felt like he didn’t like me, or that I decided he didn’t like me. The distinction may seem subtle, but it is actually the difference between telling my story and telling someone else’s story. As soon as I start assigning motivation, I’m telling another person’s story, and that is not mine to tell.

The challenge is that in fiction, the villain is often the source of the story’s problem. Without a killer, the hero would have no mystery to solve. Every story, whether true or fictional, must have conflicts, must have obstacles, and this is true of memoir as well. I just have to turn my attention inward to find that villain, that source of the problem.

I must become a kind of detective of my own life—specifically my own actions and motivations. Let’s say I am writing about a difficult, year-long relationship I had when I was 20. I know for a fact that I was never excited to be in the relationship, that on the first date with this young woman I sensed that, while she was perfectly nice and attractive and bright, we were not a great fit. Yet I entered into that relationship anyway, and for 12 months rode the rollercoaster of arguments and confusion and accusations and tears. I was rarely happy in this relationship, that is also a fact. I also couldn’t bring myself to end it. That’s another fact. It wasn’t until she confessed she was sleeping with someone else that I finally felt free to leave.

Those are the facts. I already know them. As a writer, I am always looking to discover something in the stories I tell. And so, the question I’d ask myself again and again as I told this story is Why?. Why did I go on a second and then third date? Why did I think it was good idea to move in together? Why did I stop writing as soon as we started dating? Why did I need her to cheat on me to end it? Just like a fictional detective, I am looking for motivation, except the motivation I am trying to understand is my own.

In this way, I am always the villain of my own story. I always write about my own suffering, discomfort, unhappiness and fear. The character named Bill Kenower on the page often blames the world for his problems. He blames his girlfriend’s unhappiness for his unhappiness, the publishing world for his rejections. Like many criminals, he always believes he’s innocent. It’s those other people who are guilty. If only they’d quit doing what they’re doing, he’d be fine.

Bill the Author knows better. He knows, first, that Bill the Character never wants to be afraid, depressed or angry. He knows the character always wants to be interested, happy and peaceful. That never, ever changes. Bill the Author also knows that Bill the Character has many mistaken ideas about how to get what he wants, about where happiness and love and peace can and can’t be found. He knows Bill the Character looks for what he wants where it isn’t, that he looks for it in sex, success, money, praise or drugs and alcohol.

Bill the Author doesn’t mind this because he loves a good story, and there’s nothing like the suffering those misguided journeys engender to give a story its meaning and energy. Bill the Character is a sympathetic protagonist. He’s looking for something we all want, isn’t he? He just wants to be happy, to be OK. Poor guy. If only he knew better. Fortunately, he doesn’t know better. If he did, there’d be no story to tell.

Unlike the villains in fiction, Bill the Character is always both guilty and innocent. He is guilty of believing something that isn’t true, of believing that he needs to stay in a relationship that doesn’t engage him, that he should stop writing because his girlfriend needs all of his attention, that good sex is enough of a reason to hang around with someone. He’s guilty of all these crimes of misunderstanding, and his sentence of suffering will last exactly as long as he continues to believe them.

To write a memoir in this way requires the author to take complete responsibility for their lives. I do not mean I am taking responsibility for everything that happens. I have very little, if any, control over what other people do, let alone the weather or stock market. But I do have control over how I respond to what happens, including what I think and believe about the world around me. I have known no greater pain than when I have thought I’m a failure, or I’m a loser or I’m lost. When I think I’m a loser, it’s like telling myself a story I would never want to hear. That the story is untrue doesn’t matter. As a writer, I’m great at believing stories that aren’t technically true. To write about dragons flying through magical kingdoms, I have to see and believe in those dragons in my imagination. I have to see them as clearly as the houses outside my window. If I can believe in those dragons, believing I’m a loser is easy.

The memoirist must retell a story. Our past is laden with lies we’ve told ourselves, lies about how we weren’t good enough, how someone never loved us or how the world is cruel and unfair. We tell the story, the lie, again and again and again like a campfire myth with no good ending. All we are left with at the end of these stories is our own formless suffering. The memoirist is drawn back to these old stories to tell them correctly, to find that moment when the untrue story began in our frightened or angry hearts.

Am I always taking complete responsibility for my life when I’m not writing? Sadly, I am often not. I forget the lessons writing taught me. I forget that every single time I think I’m doomed or She doesn’t care about me, I’ll feel miserable or irritated as surely as fire burns paper. The good news is that all the untrue things I believe now become stories I can tell later. Someday, maybe soon, maybe in 10 years, I’ll be rummaging through my memory for a story, and there it will be, that pinprick of discomfort as I recall what was said and done once upon a time. I can’t remember exactly why I was unhappy, but I know I was, and so I don my detective’s cap, pull up to my desk, and go looking for the villain of a lie so I can be free again.

For more about memoir writing, check out this guest post by Karen Stefano about writing traumatic events.

Have personal experiences you want to share? WD University’s Writing the Personal Essay 101: Fundamentals will teach you how to avoid the dreaded responses of “so what?” and “I guess you had to be there” by utilizing sensory details, learn to trust your writing intuitions, and develop a skilled internal editor to help with revision. Register today!

The post Your Own Worst Enemy: Writing Villains in Memoir by William Kenower appeared first on Writer's Digest.

You can also read about Jane’s experience interviewing Richard Russo here.

Validation: That’s how Richard Russo describes the impact of winning the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for his fifth novel, Empire Falls (Knopf, 2001).

“It gave me permission to continue. It said, ‘Keep doing what you’re doing.’”

Russo’s epic story of a declining New England small town has been hailed by critics as the last great American novel of the 20^th century. It was the inaugural selection of the USA Today book club and named 2001’s best novel by Time magazine.

Empire Falls tells the life story of an unpretentious nice guy, Miles Roby, who’s spent all his life managing the town’s greasy spoon, Empire Grill. The first chapter opens with Miles waiting at the restaurant for his teenage daughter, Tick, to return from school. She eventually appears hefting a load of books.

“The overarching metaphor is at the book’s opening—Tick and her backpack,” Russo says. “The larger theme is how kids are carrying too much weigh, and what will the weight be in the end. It turns out it’s cruelty.”

Russo modeled Tick on his won two daughters, who were high-school age when he wrote Empire Falls. In some ways, Russo says, the story is a father-daughter love story, but one that ends with a father’s worst nightmare: cruelty against his own child.

“ I was hoping [the school shooting] wouldn’t be the climax. I knew where it was headed, and I didn’t want to go there,” Russo says. “I used a fair amount of my daughters in the character of Tick—I had grown to love this child. And to turn around and put this fictional child in that kind of mortal jeopardy! But it’s a multigenerational book. Everyone’s hurt or abused in some way.”

As grim as the subject sounds, Empire Falls overflows with humorous scenes and characters, for which Russo’s earlier novels are well known. Straight Man is an academic satire and Nobody’s Fool (both Random House) is another small-town life novel with tragicomic elements. The latter was made into a motion picture starring Paul Newman; Russo wrote the screenplay.

Whether he’s detailing the lives of intellectuals or blue-collars, Russo always builds a vivid setting. Sense of place is crucial in all of Russo’s work, particularly so in Empire Falls. The dying town envelops Miles’ activities, taunting him for never escaping. In The Complete Guide to Novel Writing (WD Books), Russo says, “Place and its people are intertwined, place is character.”

Typically, Russo works on a novel for several years, and during that time often returns to the story’s beginning to add passages or reshuffle scenes.

“In art, effects often precede the cause. I try to make the novel appear like that’s what I was doing all along,” he says.

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Empire Falls features lengthy flashbacks including a 14-page prologue relating the town’s history. But Russo says chapter one—set during the present day—was his start. As he progressed, he saw the need for a backstory, so he started writing about Miles’ childhood and the town’s history. He later decided to place the flashbacks in italics as separate sections, to deliver the information.

“I realized how much the past impinged on the present,” Russo says. “I have this analogy: If you’re building a house and you start digging, and you run into this rock, you have two options. You can either try to dig the rock out, not knowing how big it is or how deep it goes, or you can build around the rock and make it an architectural part of the house, as if it really belongs there. And that’s kind of what these flashbacks are like.”

Once Russo finishes a novel—which he revises and revises until he can’t make it any better—he shows it to his wife.

“She’s the first reader, a good reader and generous reader. She tells me when the book loses her attention,” he says.

After his wife’s read, Russo sends the work to his agents, Nat Sobel and Judith Weber.

“Every single one of my books they’ve made better, but we don’t always agree on what needs to be done. The secret to the relationship is that they’re never insistent,” he says.

Russo’s most recent book has taken a different direction. The Whore’s Child (Knopf) is a collection of seven short stories—some new, some old.

Although Russo finds that short stories pose a lesser risk (“If short stories fail, it’s a month out of your life—damage control.”), they are much more difficult for him to write.

“They are all about control, which I’ve never had a lot of. I’m a creature of digression. You can’t allow yourself to be distracted.”

Yet distraction is exactly what Russo goes after in his writing environment. He prefers to write in diners or busy places, where his mind can wander and make connections. “You can end up where you didn’t mean to go, but it’s probably more interesting than where you mean tot go in the first place.”

Russo’s advice to novelist in particular is this: “Whatever you’re working on, take small bites. A few pages at a time. Whatever you’re working on should be the most exciting thing. The task will not be overwhelming if you can reduce it to its smallest component.”

Also: “Don’t keep a journal because you’ll think what you remembered to write down was important when it’s actually not.”

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The post Vintage WD Interview: Richard Russo, Master of the Tragicomedy by Jane Friedman appeared first on Writer's Digest.

Cartoonist Bob Eckstein will be covering the 2019 Annual Writer’s Digest Conference with his art and tweets on Twitter and in a post-conference post for LitHub.com. In this post, he shares some of his cartoons along with tips for conference goers.

Later this week, the WD team will be in New York City for the 2019 Annual Writer’s Digest Conference. In addition to the Writer’s Digest staff, there will be many other familiar faces, including artist Bob Eckstein, who will be covering the event for LitHub.com.

Bob Eckstein is an award-winning bestselling author and illustrator and New Yorker cartoonist. In addition to covering the event, he will be signing copies of his new book, The Ultimate Cartoon Book of Book Cartoons by the World’s Greatest Cartoonists.

Here’s a quick Q&A with Eckstein about his previous experience with the conference, what his goals are this year, and how first timers can get the most out of their experience.

You’ll be returning to the Writer’s Digest Annual Conference in 2019. How many times will this be for you?

This will be only my second one. The first time I didn’t know what to expect and, besides, I was just focused on my job of live-drawing and reporting the event. But starting on the first day, a writing class with Jacob Kruger, I was so captivated I forgot why I was there and just soaked it in. I walked away thinking I want to rewrite everything I ever wrote up until that point. The conference, literally, pun intended, recharged my career.

I began a whole new aspect to my career, screenwriting, and it got me very excited about writing again. That’s why I begged to come back. I’m sorry I haven’t been coming for years. But I’m a very late bloomer.

(Click here to read the confessions of a late bloomer.)

What are you anticipating the most for the 2019 WD Conference?

In all honesty, my own book signing. I know that answer will sound bad but I am so flattered that my book is in the conference bookstore that this is a big deal for me and I don’t know what to expect yet from the classes. I know when it is all said and done one of the classes will be the highlight of the conference and set me off on new goals for my writing.

How do you plan to spend your time at the 2019 conference?

It will be a frantic conference for me, because I hop from class to class and try to capture the vibe everywhere and then tweet about it (follow hashtag #WDC19 and @WritersDigest), take notes and illustrate what I see.

I’m going to be drawing portraits of the speakers and the attendees and tweet quotes and jokes. I will try to mingle with people and use some of that, too. I have live-drawn ABAs, book fair, and other events and, on rare occasion, someone will get mad at me. This conference is as warm and supportive as any I’ve been to.

I will be signing books, enjoy the reception and observe Pitch Slam. Last year, I participated in Pitch Slam so I could really experience it. This year, I will not waste a spot realizing how important this is to others.

(Click here to see the editors and agents who will be at Pitch Slam.)

What’s your best advice for a first-time Writer’s Digest Conference attendee?

As for the Pitch Slam, let me add this is not the end all but a learning experience. Everyone at the conference is going to ask you, “What’s your book about?” Use that opening with complete strangers to practice the 10-second elevator pitch that you’ll need for Pitch Slam. Take a deep breath and start your exchange with the agents with a friendly greeting instead of diving in like a salesman. People want to work with people they like. There are people in this business who I know like me, and that’s that, in the same way I know there are some who don’t like me, and that happens. So make eye contact and a warm greeting is always smart.

Finally, enjoy the fact you are going to be part of a select group of people that are passionate about books and writing. Other than that no other advice is needed. Just soak it in. As I’ve told my writing friends, this is a conference I encourage all in this business to attend.

The post Cartoonist Bob Eckstein Returns to the 2019 Annual Writer’s Digest Conference by Robert Lee Brewer appeared first on Writer's Digest.

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the July/August 2019 issue of Writer’s Digest magazine, themed “Villains.” This issue includes advice to help writers write better villains in memoir, thrillers, film, and everything in between, plus a WD Interview with bestselling author Susan Orlean.

Gotham Ghostwriters’ Dan Gerstein reveals how writers can spot nightmare ghostwriting clients and take steps to avoid them when seeking work.

By Dan Gerstein

One of the first things fledgling ghostwriters learn about their job is how similar it is to dating. It can get very intimate very quickly—authors often share their deepest secrets with their collaborators within weeks of meeting. It usually involves ongoing negotiation—from deal points through communication styles. And clients will inevitably carry some emotional baggage into the relationship—from deep-seated insecurities, to professional or familial strains, to a scarring experience with a prior partner.

Most engagements are professional and productive. Many turn into lasting relationships, some even lifelong friendships. But much like dating today, almost every ghost pro will have at least one horror story to recount if asked. They come in many scenarios—clients who were emotionally and editorially unavailable, bombarded their ghosts with texts at all hours or ghosted their ghost (typically without pay). Most of these stories have two common threads: They tend to happen early in a ghost’s career, and there were clear red flags about the client that—much like in the early days of a romantic relationship—the ghosts were blind to because of the client’s charm, fame or wallet.

What makes this hazard challenging for new ghosts to navigate is the confidential ethos of the field. As with Fight Club, the rules of Ghost World discourage talking about what happens in Ghost World—even the clients who put a beating on you. This is one big difference between dating and collaborating: there are not dozens of websites like DontDateHimGirl.com that tell you how to spot an asshole client or call them out by name. As a result, this is a rite of passage that too many ghosts have to suffer through on their own.

To help remedy this situation, I asked my agency’s network of 2,400+ ghostwriters to share their ugliest experiences and the lessons learned. Here are the worst hits and best tips in spotting, handling and ideally avoiding difficult clients.

The Polygamist

One problematic situation ghosts encounter is the author who insists on bringing other partners into the relationship as a reader and critic. Sometimes it’s a threesome with a spouse. Sometimes it gets truly polyamorous, with multiple friends with too many benefits involved. Most times it leads to a mess. 

Marlayna Glynn says that after going through a trying conceptual evolution with a client, the author shared the second version of the manuscript Glynn produced with several friends, including some named in the book. It turns out ‘friends’ don’t always like the way they are portrayed. The client took all their friends’ criticism to heart, regardless of its merit, and cited the friends’ negative feedback in terminating the relationship.

PRO TIP: To prevent disaster by committee, get to know the client’s inner circle before committing and assess if there is a meddling spouse or business partner looming. Then set boundaries in the contract. “I am very forthright now that the writing and editing process is between me and the client only,” Glynn advises. “I will not make any changes requested by anyone I am not contracted with in writing.”

The Uncommitted

Another problematic profile is the author who is ambivalent about the project—or even worse, totally absent. More than one of our ghosts relayed stories of clients never reading the manuscript draft before it was submitted to the editor or, in one case, after it was published. This lack of availability can cause major headaches for the ghost. Sometimes in can threaten a publishing deal. Bronwyn Fryer says she  collaborated with a medical doctor who went MIA for five months during the writing process, without one word of feedback on the drafts submitted. It turned out her client had serious medical problems involving an organ transplant, which the ghost never knew. Fryer eventually needed three extensions on the project and had to pen innumerable drafts.

Other times, it can cost the ghost serious money. To win his first big client – a chairman of a federal agency—Oren Rawls agreed to take only $1,000 up front and get paid upon delivering chapter drafts. He poured in more than 100 hours of prep work. But after Rawls turned in the first chapter, the Chairman disengaged without much explanation. Rawls spent months chasing him down and later found out that the client had been investigated for financial malfeasance. “The lesson learned (at $4.08 an hour): No matter how important a client may be to your business, never work too far ahead of your last check.”

PRO TIP: Be discriminating up front. “I’m happy to work with anyone honorable in any way that makes them comfortable,” Fryer says, “but if he/she isn’t an ethical, respectful person, I don’t want to be part of it.” Make sure the contract and/or work plan you start with spells out the client’s obligations and deadlines, with clear consequences for violating them.

Improve Your Novel With a 2nd Draft Critique!

Ensure your manuscript skips the slush pile and lands on the desk of an acquisitions editor or literary agent and — get a 2nd Draft critique! When you send in at least 50 consecutive pages of your manuscript for review, you’ll get an overall evaluation on your manuscript’s strengths and weaknesses.

Writing fiction? You’ll receive comments on your plot, characterization, dialogue, and setting. You’ll also get feedback on your proposed target market and audience. Plus, a professional critique editor will point out (but not correct for you) any consistent issues within your manuscript pertaining to grammar, mechanics, spelling, or style.

Click to continue.

The “Should Be” Committed

The most dangerous authors are the ones that would be considered “psychos” in the dating world. They run the gamut from erratic, unreasonable, dishonest, paranoid and abusive. Here are a few of the more illustrative examples our writers shared:

Early in Louise Bernikow’s career, she was hired by a therapist and her patient who wanted to write a book together about the patient’s journey to healing. Bernikow received her standard 10-hour retainer up front. The therapist then sent all her session notes in three huge binders, but never agreed to meet and discuss the project, and neither she nor the patient answered email or phone calls. “They really expected me to turn those binders into a finished book,” Bernikow related. When Bernikow explained why that wasn’t possible, the client sued her for the retainer. A lawyer friend eventually got the suit dropped. 

PRO TIP: Clarify expectations on obligations up front. Spell out what you will do and what the client will do and when. And be sure to include a timetable and any other appropriate details.

Justine Duhr’s nightmare happened during the negotiating phase with a client who strung her and her agency team along for months, haggling over every line of the contract. Over time his behavior grew more alarming, leaving voicemails in the middle of the night demanding to know why the ghost wasn’t picking up the phone, and sending 3 a.m. emails full of questions and commands, with angry 3:15 a.m. follow-ups wondering why we hadn’t yet replied. He asked for new services to be added to the scope for no extra money. In the end, the client signed the agreement and submitted his first payment, only to demand a refund and threaten a lawsuit less than 12 hours later. He had changed his mind about writing the book.

PRO-TIP: If it talks like a schmuck and walks like a schmuck, it probably is. So heed the warning signs. “Sometimes for our sanity’s sake it’s best to say thanks but no thanks,” Duhr said.  

Cliff Carle recalls getting hired to help a client pump up a thriller that was, Carle says, “devoid of thrills.” Carle returned a reworked manuscript that followed the client’s instructions to a T. The next day, the client called him screaming because he mistakenly thought he had only asked for line edits. Carle had the smart idea to ask an independent editor of the client’s choosing to arbitrate. The editor told the client that Carle’s version “greatly enhanced the story.” The client responded with an explosion of profanities, telling Carle he was a hack and “you’ll never make it in this business.” 

PRO TIP: To avoid misunderstandings, especially on editing jobs, get the client to provide specific guidance in writing on exactly what they want done. Have an early opt-out clause in your standard contract, Carle advises, “whereby if you can’t see eye-to-eye, you can bail, but still get paid for the work you’ve done.”

The Common Enemy

John Kador had his share of projects blow up because of unreasonable clients. “But there was only one common element among all those disasters: me,” Kador says. 

“Clients, like boyfriends and girlfriends, will always show you who they are. The hard part is believing them when you’re desperate,” Kador added. “As I look back on the mishaps, I can see that in every case I had hesitations about the project and went ahead anyway. The key to protecting myself is to have good policies and stick with them. The power of a policy lies in protecting me from fear and seduction.”

Kador’s most hard and fast rule is meeting in person before doing a deal. This will add time and cost, but the payoff is worth it. “Pay for the trip out of pocket if you have to,” he says. “Most upstanding clients will agree to reimburse you. If a potential client can’t get it together to meet with you, walk away and consider yourself lucky.”

About the Author

Dan Gerstein

Dan Gerstein is the founder and CEO of Gotham Ghostwriters, and a nationally recognized political writer, communications strategist, and idea man who has been writing professionally for himself and others for 25 years. A graduate of Harvard College, Gerstein got his start in collaborative writing and thought leadership development as a speechwriter and policy advisor on Capitol Hill for U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman from his home state of Connecticut. He went on to serve as a senior advisor and communications strategist for Lieberman in his vice-presidential and presidential campaigns.

Since forming Gotham Ghostwriters, Gerstein has become one of the country’s top experts on the ghostwriting market and a sought-after source for industry conferences and news articles. He is also a nationally-recognized leader in the speechwriting field, co-founding the Professional Speechwriters Association. Follow Dan on Twitter @dangerstein.

The post The Horrors of Being a Ghost: Ghostwriters Share Their Tales of Nightmare Clients by Guest Column appeared first on Writer's Digest.

Each genre of fiction has its own rules for getting published. In this article, we cover how to publish your science fiction novel, including how to write a query letter and synopsis, example queries and synopses as well as literary agents and book publishers open to science fiction submissions.

Writing a novel is hard to do. It takes skill, hard work, and perseverance. Once you’ve finished, it’s natural to start thinking about the next step—publication!

In this post, I’m going to share how to get your science fiction novel published. We’ll look at example query letters and synopses that were effective specifically for science fiction novelists. I’ll also share lists of literary agents and book publishers that are open to writer submissions.

(Click here to learn how to write a science fiction novel.)

The first step is finishing your manuscript. Notice that I didn’t say the first step is writing your manuscript. That’s because editors and agents expect writers to submit edited and revised manuscripts. Once your manuscript is finished, it’s time to start working on your query letter.

In WD University’s 12 Weeks to a First Draft, you will tackle the steps to writing a book, learn effective writing techniques, and of course, begin writing your first draft. Register today!

How to Write a Science Fiction Query Letter

All query letters, regardless of genre, share one goal: To get the editor or agent to want to know more about your project. This is not accomplished by being intentionally vague and abstract. Rather, you’ll want your query to be specific and concrete.

Here are the essential elements of writing an effective query letter:

• Sentence that lays out what you’re pitching. This sentence should include the full title of your novel, genre (or sub-genre), and word count. A completely made-up example would be: The Boy Who Rides Horses is a 120,000-word science fiction novel.
• Hook. The hook is a sentence or two that gets the agent or editor to want to know more about the story you’re telling. Both the hook and sentence that lays out what you’re pitching are typically included in the first paragraph, though the order can be switched.
• Supporting story. If you’ve piqued interest after the first paragraph, the second (and possibly third) paragraph’s job is to reveal more about your story that will heighten that interest—hopefully resulting in a request for sample chapters or a full manuscript.
• About you. Your final paragraph should be a line or three about you and your relevant writing accomplishments in relation to your novel. Don’t inflate if you don’t have much to tell. A simple, “This is my debut novel,” will suffice.

(Here are 10 dos and don’ts of writing a query letter.)

Sample Science Fiction Query Letters That Worked

I love advice, but what really helps me is to see examples of how to accomplish goals. Below, I’ve shared a few query letters that worked for science fiction authors. Click the links to view the original queries and commentary from agents.

• Stefanie Gaither’s Falls the Shadow, accepted by agent Sara Megibow. From Megibow: “I’ve been reading slush pile queries for 8 years and can honestly say this is one of the strongest queries I’ve ever read. I get an immediate sense of the world, the stakes, the characters and the conflict.”
• Mindy McGinnis’ Not a Drop to Drink, accepted by agent Adriann Ranta. From Ranta: “I love the punchy first line, the spare prose, and gradual introduction to all the book’s main players.”
• Nick James’ Skyship Academy: The Pearl Wars, accepted by agent Jen Rofe. From Rofe: “Sci-fi has never been my ‘thing.’ … Then I received a query for Skyship Academy: The Pearl Wars by Nick James.”

How to Write a Science Fiction Synopsis

A novel synopsis is a summary of your novel. Various literary agents and book publishers may want synopses of varying lengths, so always check specific guidelines. But here are a few things to keep in mind when writing your own science fiction synopsis.

• Set up the world. For science fiction, it’s usually a good practice to set up the world in which your story takes place. Don’t go in depth here by describing technology, specialized languages, or new species—unless it ties into the main conflict of the story. If it’s possible, try to accomplish this goal at the same time as the next one, which is to…
• Set up the protagonist’s main desires and obstacles. For instance, your protagonist may be a young woman who needs (by the way, “needs” always trumps “wants” for raising the stakes of a story) a rare medicine to save her love interest. A few problems: She has to travel 500 miles to get the medicine, all mechanical devices (like cars and motorcycles) don’t work, and robots have taken over the world and want to eliminate all humans.
• Share how the character changes during the story. Maybe our protagonist has a fear of making decisions and doing things on her own in the beginning of the story. Then, show how she is forced into situations in which she has to overcome these fears to achieve her goals. This is called developing a character’s arc.
• Reveal the ending. A query doesn’t have to reveal how a book ends, but your synopsis should. In fact, your novel synopsis should share how the book ends from a plot perspective and how it changes the main character, inside and out.

Sample Science Fiction Synopses

Here are a few example science fiction synopses written by Chuck Sambuchino, author of Create Your Writer Platform and Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript, Third Edition. Click each link to read the synopsis and Sambuchino’s full commentary.

• Sample synopsis for Robocop. From Sambuchino: “Notice how a lot of the action is stripped from this, and the character of Bob Morton is not even mentioned. You have to keep a synopsis moving. But as quickly as it moves, we must see the main character’s arc, and you can see (Alex) Murphy’s within this text below.”
• Sample synopsis for The Fly. “The main thing with this synopsis was to streamline Seth’s transformation process (and I left a lot of details on the cutting room floor) so that it could be whittled it down to the proper length.”
• Sample synopsis for Flight of the Navigator. “Concerning this synopsis, I cut all out mentions that Max’s home planet was called Phaelon. I cut all info about how the craft could fly at high speeds. I left in one little moment about the free fall, because I felt it showed David’s arc in taking control of the situation after starting as a guinea pig at NASA. I had to lose a lot of specifics about how Max got stuck on Earth and what exactly he did with David’s brain. You’re starting to see a pattern here—cut, combine, cut, combine, cut. Smooth and fast—that’s how a short synopsis has to look.”

Finding a Literary Agent for Your Science Fiction Novel

Literary agents are important decision makers in the publishing process for authors who wish to be published by many of the big publishers. That’s true for science fiction novels as well. Below I’ve included a link to a post where I’ve listed literary agents who are open to science fiction submissions.

Click here for a list of science fiction literary agents open to submissions.

Finding a Book Publisher for Your Science Fiction Novel

Not all book publishers require a literary agent for writers to submit their work. In fact, some book publishers prefer unagented submissions. That said, the process for submitting to a book publisher is often very similar to submitting to agents. For instance, writers should always double-check submission guidelines before submitting, because they can often change over time depending on their current needs and preferences.

Click here for a list of science fiction book publishers open to submissions.

The post How to Publish Your Science Fiction Novel by Robert Lee Brewer appeared first on Writer's Digest.

During the time between each Writer’s Digest Annual Conference I get the opportunity to work with and learn from our great WD authors on a daily basis, mostly through email and manuscripts. But, seeing them share their knowledge in person is an entirely different—and invigorating—experience.

Here are 7 reasons why I can’t wait for you to meet and learn from some of our favorite WD authors live later this summer in New York City.

1. Steven James is the perfect person to teach a class about public storytelling for authors, and once you see what he throws at you (literally!) you’ll understand why.
2. While editing Carla Hoch’s brand new book, Fight Write, I couldn’t help but envision fight scenes in my head and in her sessions you won’t have to imagine—you can watch, and even participate!
3. Jane Cleland, who just won her second Agatha Award for Best Nonfiction for Mastering Plot Twists (Congrats, Jane!), has sessions that build on two topics from that very book.
4. Zac Petit, once a full-time WD magazine editor, successfully made the switch to full-time freelance work after writing the book on it and he’ll share his secrets from both vantage points.
5. In addition to two regular sessions, Jordan Rosenfeld will host a day-long intensive built around her new book, How to Write a Page-Turner (the brilliant book that single-handedly made me blow my personal book-buying budget for the year—best research I’ve ever done!).
6. If you flip to pages 57-60 of The Byline Bible (which recently won an award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors), you’ll see an astounding list of 3-page essays from Susan Shapiro’s students that led to bigger opportunities and you can learn how to do the same in her session.
7. If you’ve read Writing Without Rules, you know Jeff Somers is both funny and likes to talk about things he’s done to make his agent, the incomparable Query Shark Janet Reid, shake her head. Join them for what I imagine will be the most informative stand-up session Writer’s Digest has ever seen.

Keep in mind, these are 7 of my reasons for you to attend. Check out our full schedule and I’m sure you’ll find at least 7 more of your own.

Write better. Get published. Build your network.
Writer’s Digest Annual Conference | August 22-25 | New York City

The post Seven WD Authors You Don’t Want to Miss at #WDC19 by Amy Jones appeared first on Writer's Digest.

A long-time staff writer with The New Yorker, Orlean has seemingly written about everyone and everything, from the weird subculture of orchid fanatics (The Orchid Thief) to Hollywood’s most famous dog (Rin Tin Tin) to profiles of unusual individuals, such as Spain’s first female bullfighter. Her dedication to story has made her one of the most admired figures in contemporary journalism.

Orlean talked by phone to Writer’s Digest about the challenges of researching and writing The Library Book, why the story intrigued her so, how libraries are meeting the needs of 21^st century patrons and a few thoughts about craft.

WD: The title of The Library Book can be interpreted different ways. What does the title mean to you?

I’d like to think it means all of the things that it could mean. It’s a very meta title, which is partly why I loved it so much. It’s a book about the library, and it’s about library books. It means all of those things at once, and that’s the great appeal to me. It’s rare when you have a title that on one level is so simple that for a minute you stop and think, well, that’s not a very good title because it’s so simple—then it kind of reveals itself in a clever way to actually describe what the book is about.

WD: Was that always the title you had in mind?

Yeah, and it’s very interesting because none of my other books ended up with the title I was working with initially. When I proposed the book, I believe it was both my editor and my agent who simultaneously said, “Oh, and it’s going to be called The Library Book.” Before I had a title, I would refer to it as the library book, the book about the library. And when the time came to actually design the cover, everyone said, that’s the title—you can’t improve it.

WD: You note that you weren’t looking to write any more books when you became aware of the Los Angeles Public Library fire. What made you feel that way?

Well, I was certainly not done with writing. Writing a book is such a challenge, it’s so overwhelming. I had finished Rin Tin Tin, which had taken me about five years to do, and at the time my son was just a toddler. The number-one take away I have now is that you can either write a book or have a toddler, but it’s not a very good idea to do both. But I just thought, look, I don’t know if I’m ever going to fall in love with a topic enough to feel that I want to spend five years or six years working on it, and maybe that’s not so necessary. Maybe I’ll just do stories for the magazine and that will be sufficient. I think I simply felt that I didn’t know if I had the energy to push myself through another project as big as a book.

WD: What was it about the Los Angeles Public Library fire story that triggered your interest to the extent that you had to write a book about it?

I had begun thinking there was an interesting book to be written about libraries. We haven’t seen a book written that would take on the day-to-day life of a library. It just struck me as a very rich subject, but I’m not looking. In addition, I had this feeling you needed a narrative arc or it would be simply too free-form and it just didn’t feel it would work as a book.

When I heard about the fire, I was so fascinated. The two categories of story that I cannot resist are, one, the examination of something that seems very familiar but that I realize I don’t really know anything about. And that was definitely present in this story. And secondly, the discovery of a big story or subculture that I never knew existed, and that was true of the fire. So this combined the two genres of story that I find almost irresistible. The so familiar that you don’t notice it, and so hidden that it’s a discovery.

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WD: You worked on The Library Book over four years. What were the greatest challenges during the research phase? And what were your greatest challenges while writing it?

The biggest challenge in the research was the fact that one of the most important characters in the story, Harry Peak, was no longer alive. I never anticipated that I would write the book without him being available to me. So I had to sort of take a step back and think, “Okay, I have to rethink this. This is not what I was expecting.” I’m kind of proud of how I worked around that. It felt like I was able to make a virtue of a necessity.

In the case of the writing, the biggest challenge was structure because it informs everything. You can write beautiful sentences, but if you don’t have a flow and a forward momentum, it doesn’t matter. You have a pile of beautiful sentences, but you have no momentum to move the reader through the story.

In this case, I realized I was essentially working on four storylines. And the challenge was, how do I make these live together naturally and happily within a book? I had the history of the library. I had the story of the fire, which was a totally different time period. I had the day-to-day life of the library, which I very much wanted to write about. And I had this more meditative storyline of what do libraries mean, what is their importance, what has been their importance? So how do you put those together? I was very challenged to figure out how do I bring these four stories together? To me, they were very natural to live together in the same book, but I had to figure out how to move the reader from one time line to another, from one story to another.

WD: I especially enjoyed the history of the Los Angeles Public Library. It was such an odd and fascinating story.

I’m so glad to hear that, because I thought it was utterly compelling. When you tell people the story of a library is utterly compelling, you can imagine them rolling their eyes, but I thought it was phenomenal. I went into the book not expecting that I would spend so much time writing about the history, but it kept getting more and more interesting, and more and more necessary in terms of understanding the library today. It felt enriched by knowing the story of the library’s history.

WD: Why was this story so important to you personally?

The idea of a library is very deeply connected to the idea of being a writer, and that is making permanent a narrative, a story, that lasts for eternity. So if you’re a writer and you have any of the impulse to be putting down on paper something that will survive you, you’re in a sense inextricably connected to what a library means. So that was very meaningful to me. But in addition, it was really deeply connected to memories of my mother, who I associate so deeply with my love of libraries because I spent so much time going to libraries with her. It felt like I was responding to memories of her, which then became very urgent in a way that I hadn’t anticipated, since over the course of working on the book she was diagnosed with dementia and her memories began disappearing like smoke. I never anticipated that, of course, but suddenly the idea of putting down on paper some of our memories that were so intrinsic to my experience of her as a mother became a huge piece of the motivation for me to write the book.

WD: Did this project change how you viewed the function of libraries in any way? Did you come away with a change in perspective?

Oh, very much! I think that it really filled me with delight to see how vibrant and contemporary libraries are, and how they have adapted to the very obvious changes in the way we read and borrow books. But it also made me appreciate libraries as physical places. I mean, suddenly the idea that it was just a place where you could go if you wanted to work or read and just didn’t want to be at home, and that it was so much like going to a park if you wanted to get out of the house and go for a walk. It had the sense of being a destination that I hadn’t really thought about before. I know that sounds ridiculous, but I think we’re increasingly in a society where people don’t go to offices to work, and you sort of yearn for some human contact, not necessarily that you want to get together with a friend, but you want to be out in the world a little bit. And libraries are a perfect place for that. They are the perfect third place, as they say—not home, not work. And they demand nothing of you. It’s not like you are going into a store or even a coffee shop, where there is a transactional nature to the visit. This is part of what makes libraries so attractive, that they are there for us as places to go, and they demand nothing and offer everything.

WD: You spend quite a bit of time discussing Harry Peak, the aspiring actor many believe set the library fire, but toward the end you suggest that he likely was not actually involved. Tell us why Harry was such a compelling figure to you.

Harry Peak was, for better or worse, a storyteller. He was a very important figure because I would not wager to say he had nothing to do with the fire. I think it is inconclusive. I went back and forth throughout the course of working on the book, but in many ways he embodied that human desire to be noticed and to be remembered. That thematically was so linked to what I was looking at with the library, the fact that they exist because of this human need and wish to be remembered. Harry Peak, whether he lit the fire or not, certainly his whole life was about being noticed and remembered. It’s interesting because the question of whether he started the fire or not almost becomes irrelevant when you simply look at him as a figure who embodied an uncontrollable desire to be remembered.

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WD: Have you heard from Harry Peak’s family following publication of The Library Book?

No. I tried to reach them a while ago and both of his sisters have changed their phone numbers. I don’t know why, but they did. Clearly it had nothing to do with me, but as a result, I have not been able to get in touch with them. Of course, I’m curious to know what their sense was in terms of the portrait I created of Harry.

I’m hoping that the book will find its way to them. You never can predict what people will think about your portrait of a family member, so I’m fully prepared for them to have mixed feelings about it. I guess what I’m trying to say is I’m prepared for their reaction to be anything from “Wow! You really caught Harry and you gave him a fair shake,” to feeling uncomfortable with the intimacy of the portrait.

WD: What do you believe was the true cause of the Los Angeles Public Library fire?

I don’t know. People ask me, and I keep thinking I should have a simple answer, but I really don’t. I’ve considered many versions of this in terms of what do I think is the most likely outcome. There was a while where I thought maybe it wasn’t arson at all, and maybe it was just misdiagnosed. And I think there is a reason to take that seriously as an option. And then I just go back to the question of how did Harry know the details of what happened that day if he wasn’t there? It just doesn’t make any sense. I certainly think that if Harry was in the library and struck a match, he didn’t do it thinking it would cause $22 million in damage. I think if he was there and if he lit a match, it was a dumb sort of petulant gesture that he didn’t think through and the result was never what he anticipated. But I just don’t know, and I’m okay with not knowing.

There was a point when I was working on the book where I felt I had to have a conclusion. And then I thought, no, I’m not a detective. I am a reporter and I can learn a lot and take this to the next level in terms of investigation, but I felt what was interesting was this sort of Rashomon quality of it to say this is one version, this is another version, there is even a third version where this is not arson at all. That is the nature of the situation, which is that nobody feels resolved and my goal as a writer was to illuminate the story rather than solve it.

WD: Did the Los Angeles Public Library fire result in any significant safety improvements among the nation’s community libraries? Was there any kind of silver lining to this tragedy at all?

Certainly there had been changes in the mid ‘80s in terms of recommending sprinkling system, which had never been recommended before. In terms of disaster preparedness, that was not really something libraries spent time thinking about before that. Now there is great awareness of that and far more expertise in dealing with it.

Interestingly, I met a woman at one of my readings the other day and that’s her specialty, disaster preparedness for libraries. And I thought, boy, we’ve come a long way. There was nothing in place in terms of what the library could do should there be a fire. And this isn’t because the people who ran the library were negligent; it simply wasn’t something people thought about. Now, the recommendation for sprinklers and other fire suppression has been updated, and we have better fire suppression. There have been a lot of changes, and I think we can look to the library fire and think there was some good that came out of this catastrophe.

WD: After Harry Peak, my favorite character in The Library Book is Wyman Jones, who was the Los Angeles City Librarian for 20 years. You say talking to him was like engaging in a fistfight with someone gazing at himself in a mirror while punching you. What did you mean by that?

Wyman Jones—who passed away before the book came out, so he never saw the results—was a fascinating narcissist and one of the most argumentative people I’ve ever encountered in my life, in a way that is almost comical. I mean, he would argue about everything and anything, but he was so completely wrapped up in himself as he was arguing. So I just couldn’t help but picture this; it was almost as if he was always observing himself arguing. I mean, he was beyond argumentative. Whatever I said, he would dispute it and basically yell at me, which I found almost funny because it was so extreme. So there was just this element of narcissism and self -assuredness and arrogance that characterized my interaction with him. I also felt a great deal of affection for him, which seems counter intuitive except it was almost funny because he was so extreme. He was a very interesting guy, and a very smart guy. Just talking to him, I learned so much, even though it was begrudging. I mean, he didn’t tell me anything with the interest of telling it to me as much as making a point that I didn’t know anything. So I was getting all this information almost in spite of himself, which also cracked me up.

WD: The theme of this issue is Villains. Is there a villain in The Library Book?

Fire is the villain. I think you can say with real assurance that fire is a frightening beast that is always present and always lurking in Southern California. I think the other villain, which is a little more of a conceptual villain, is time, and the loss of memory that comes with time. The greatest achievement of libraries is to try to fight that villain, and to save for eternity the stories that make up who we are.

WD: You use the Los Angeles Public Library fire as a springboard to discuss the role and value of libraries around the world and throughout history. What do you say to those who believe that libraries are no longer relevant? What do libraries bring to the 21^st century?

What I usually do when I’m having this conversation, which comes up frequently of course, is to point that not everything that we know or care to learn about is on the internet. That simply is the fact. There is an enormous amount of material and ephemera and books and newspapers and all sorts of material that is still not on the internet. So if you care about really knowing what is out there in the world, a library provides that.

Secondly, isn’t there a place in our culture to have a portal of knowledge and information that exists and is treated as such? We have public parks even though many people have private backyards. We all have the equivalent of a private backyard in our computers at home, but isn’t there value in having a space that the community has designated as our shared place of knowledge?

WD: In what ways are public libraries working to better serve today’s patrons? What kinds of positive evolution have you witnessed?

I’ve seen so much evolution that’s been really encouraging. Libraries have really embraced their role as places where knowledge is shared. And I want to emphasize the word place, because that’s where it’s different from saying “Yeah, but I can look up XYZ on my computer at home.” Libraries have exploded with programming, with events, with services all going on in their space in a way that has made them indispensable. Literacy, book groups, a speaker series—there is so much going on that I would say there is more to go to a library for than there ever has been.

WD: The Orchid Thief, which you published in 1998, is among the books for which you are best known. How have you evolved as a researcher and a writer since then?

I feel I have evolved a lot. I think I have become a better researcher and simply more resourceful. It’s one of those things where the more you do it, the better you get at it. I’m more aware of what I need in terms of material that is going to end up being valuable and useful to me. But I think the real evolution has come in my writing. I have a confidence in my writing, which is just a matter of, the more you do it, the better you get at it. I feel more willing to take chances with my writing and to play a little bit more.

Structure remains the thing I find the most challenging, and that will, I suspect, remain unchanged forever. But with the actual crafting of sentences, I feel looser, more willing to be playful and take chances. I’m much better at trying things and throwing them out if they don’t work. When I was younger, I needed to get it right on the first try, but now I feel what could be better than to throw things out and try them again? And that’s confidence, I think. It’s easier for me to take chances, to edit myself. I think the best thing I have ever learned is to look at something and know it’s not as good as it can be. Some of that comes from working on a computer as opposed to working on paper. When I started my career, I was typing on paper, and changing something was so hard to do. On a computer, it requires nothing to say, I’m going to try this from a different angle.

WD: You did a tremendous amount of research for The Library Book. Please take us through that process.

I began as a newcomer to Los Angeles, so the first thing I had to do was figure out how to get to the library. What I generally do in the beginning is throw my net wide in every direction, though in this case I also knew that I wanted to begin by learning as much about the fire as I could right off the bat. So I began simply digging up all the newspaper coverage I could find, talking to people who were either at the library at the time or reporters who covered it, and just getting the most basic background. What happened? What was that day like? I talked to a lot of firefighters, and to a lot of former librarians who had been there on that day, and just began getting the basics on the day of the fire itself.

Then I took a step back and thought, All right, I’m learning about the fire. How did we get to this point? What was the library’s status in 1986 that made it ripe for this kind of event? And then I stepped back again. Now I realize I have to go to the very beginning. How and when was this library founded, and how did it end up in a situation where it had a building that was in disrepair, that had been the center of all this civic debate for so long about whether to get rid of it or not? It’s almost as if I took this super-focused center, which was the day of the fire, and kept radiating out from this incident further and further. So it was a series of concentric circles in the reporting.

Then I had this additional kind of overarching curiosity, which is, what is it like to be in the library day to day? So I made a very long list of all of the departments at the library that I was curious about, and arranged to spend a day or two in each, which took quite a while. So I was really reporting the book in a series of concentric circles with this day-to-day life of the library arc kind of over it like a rainbow, basically.

WD: How do you decide what to write about when it comes to books and magazine articles? What factors typically inform that decision?

I have a very simple rule, which is, am I curious about it? Is this something I am really dying to know about? There is really nothing more strategic or calculating than that. I will hear about something, and I will find myself thinking about it and wondering about it, and the only way to solve that curiosity is to write a story about it. I don’t usually spend much time thinking Hmmm, is this a story anybody else is going to be interested in? because if I’m really excited about it, I feel like, of course other people are going to be interested in it. I just take it on faith that my excitement is going to motivate other readers. I fall in love, essentially, with an idea. I don’t sit there thinking People in Baltimore aren’t going to care about a fire at the Los Angeles Public Library, are they? That’s not the point. If I feel it’s interesting, I need to stay focused on that excitement and not worry if it’s a story other people are going to care about. When I’m in the middle of working on a story, I am absolutely confident that it’s the single most interesting thing in the world. And I think you need to believe that. It’s all about being passionate about the story. You have to love the idea.

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WD: How is your approach to books different from your approach to magazine articles? And in what ways are they the same?

They are the same in the sense that I think you need the same essential passion. I think that is what writing requires, and it doesn’t matter if you’re writing something short or long. The difference in working on a book versus an article is how many of those concentric circles of knowledge are you able to include? If you have just 5,000 or 8,000 words for an article, you’re not going to keep extending the circle of knowledge further and further because you’re not going to have room for it. Whereas with a book, I feel you can go until those circles bleed off the page. There is no limit except your own sense of storytelling. With magazine articles, I don’t think it’s a matter of it being shorter, I think it’s a matter of being at the red-hot center of the story.

WD: Which nonfiction writers do you most admire? Who do you look up to as a writer?

The list is long: John McPhee. Joan Didion. Ian Frazier. Mark Singer. Tom Wolfe. Lillian Ross. Many of the people who formed the heart and soul of The New Yorker for many years.

WD: What advice can you offer nonfiction writers who are just beginning their careers? What do you know now that you wish you had known when you first started out?

The advice I feel the most passionate about is, you have to really fall in love with storytelling. If you’re not in love with the idea of being a storyteller, it doesn’t matter what other tips and tricks I share with you. I think you need to understand what that means and explore it and embrace it, and it will carry you through the stories you choose for yourself and are excited about, and it will even carry you through those assignments that you hate and can’t believe you’re stuck doing. The job is storytelling; it doesn’t matter what the nature of the story is. So you have to truly understand what that means and love it.

I think in a practical sense, developing systems to stay organized is critical. That sounds very unromantic, but in terms of being a good writer, you’ve got to have systems of note taking and material organizing and phone lists. I wish I had from the beginning been better at that because it actually affects your ability to write well, to be organized, to know where your material is.

You are a small factory, and you’re the factory owner and operator, so you need to be mindful of each of those roles. On the pure practical side of writing, if you set up systems for keeping yourself organized from the beginning, it will pay you back 100 fold. It’s something I still struggle with, but the more material you work with, the more you’ll thank me if you think in advance to number your note books and keep a master list of phone numbers. There is a practical side to writing that is very important and we never talk about it because it seems so uninteresting. But it’s essential.

WD: What is the greatest piece of writing advice you have received over your career?

It was from a friend who is a writer I really admire. One day she said to me, “You don’t have to be in such a hurry as you write. Have more fun with the writing.” At the time I thought I don’t know what you’re talking about. But it really made sense to me later. I think if there’s any improvement in my writing over the last set of years, it’s in large part because I’ve been able to say, I don’t have to be in such a hurry, I can have fun, I can expand on a thought and marinate an idea a little bit more in the writing.

WD: Have you ever desired to write fiction? Do you have a novel in you?

No. I love fiction and it’s what I read the most in my spare time, but I just don’t see me writing fiction at the moment. I may surprise myself, but at the moment I don’t see it. There are too many true stories I find too interesting. And I think there is a fundamental mission in my writing, which is to show people the world in a way they haven’t looked at it before, that feels best served by nonfiction.

WD: What do you have in the works right now? Despite your earlier view, do you believe there will there be more books in your future?

Yes, I suspect so, even though the initial aftermath of writing a book is the feeling that you could never do it again because it required so much effort. But I’m toying around with some ideas, so it wouldn’t surprise me.

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The post The WD Interview: Susan Orlean on The Library Book and Finding the Red-Hot Center of the Story by Don Vaughan appeared first on Writer's Digest.