More from Russell -- and more class blogs

Hope you are following Russell's blog. It's grim holiday reading but certainly puts in perspective how lucky we are. You'll also find some good photography, including pictures from inside some of the rooms -- a no-no there at Treblinka. Let's hope Russell gets out OK.

Not so grim are other blogs written by class members, which I have been meaning to post all quarter.

Jojo writes with humor about slices of her life and needs encouragement to post more often. Go visit and leave a comment or two.

Subscribe to Dawn's blog and you'll get a new story in your inbox every Sunday. How can you resist? I like the name: peacefulldawn.com.

 Interested in politics? John will give you an interesting viewpoint on his blog. I especially like his take on the death of North Korea's leader this week: "The last bat shit Stalinist dies -- Kim Jong Il." Of course, I would have put a hyphen after "bat.

Book recommendations from your classmates

One of the things I like about teaching the non-fiction writing class is the number of book recommendations that come out of it. Here are some that were either mentioned in our last class session or that I am coming across as I read your final papers.

Anusha and Marta gave high marks to "The Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia." I went looking for it on Amazon and found that it is part of a trilogy by Jean Sasson. Sounds well worth reading.

In her article on tree houses, Caela discussed "The Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder" by Richard Louv. Think your kids might be spending too much time on video games and not enough time in fresh air? Read this one.

Also, Dawn sent me the link for the Scrivener software. It's a program to help you organize and write a book. Both Dawn and Maggie recommended it.

I'll keep reading and passing on recommendations. Congratulations to this class, the first I have taught where all members showed up, did the assignments and successfully completed the class. 

Notice of publication from another grad

This is from Samantha Updegrave, who completed the course last year:

"Another piece I wrote got published!

"This is through Shambhala Publications, and the 35<35 Project. Here's the link. You can also vote / rate the piece, which could possibly help push it toward being selected as one of the 35 for the digital or print book version!  

http://bysamanthaclaire.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/and-also-here-in-falling-at-3535/

Russell is alive and writing in Warsaw
I received an e-mail today from Russell, who is in Poland, and best of all, is writing about his visit there. He has a blog started but says he is a couple days behind:

"Haven't had a chance to cover my experiences and reflections going with a tour guide to important Jewish sites (such as they are) in Warsaw. Nor the trip to Treblinka where 800,000 died. I was the only one at the site on a freezing day. How strange and moving that was, the perfect metaphor for the disappearance of a people."

Congrats to a non-fiction writing grad

Andy Seiple took the non-fiction writing course last year and is now pursing an MFA in nonfiction writing at the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts. He writes on Facebook today: "Bucket list check-off time. First published piece."

You'll find it here.

Looking ahead to Winter Quarter
 Larry Cheek has posted the winter syllabus on the Catalyst Common View page.

Be sure to pick up the two texts (below) at U Bookstore or elsewhere before the first class meeting: "The Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction," and "The Best American Magazine Writing 2011."

We will also continue using the first-quarter text, "Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer" by Roy Peter Clark.

Writing for online, the long and the short of it

This post from Forbes.com takes a look at what works -- as in attracts traffic -- in online writing. And the answer is . . .  they both work.

But you need to adjust your writing to the topic being covered. One writer in this blog post covers the markets and does many short stories throughout the day. The other writer covers the pharmaceutical field and does longer stories to explain complicated procedures. Both draw what Forbes considers big numbers.

Also note how much these writers use other online tools to build their audiences. They Tweet, have blogs and collect Facebook and LinkIn friends. Last of all, note that Forbes contract contributors get paid according to the number of readers they attract.

Study other writers

One of the most-oft repeated pieces of advice for writers wanting to improve is "Read."

For example, Evan Maloney of The Guardian newspaper recently blogged that reading improves vocabulary, books provide examples of how to write and they provide both inspiration and escape. I speak from personal experience when I caution against imbibing too much in the escape aspect... if you want to get any writing done.

While books will probably serve as examples for a while to come, publication of longer nonfiction stories faces more of a challenge
In this era of Twitter-length sound bites and decreasing attention spans and news holes, some worry that long-form writing, such as that found in Esquire, Vanity Fair and the Atlantic, will disappear. But feature stories still have their fans.
"Long-form journalism is definitely a dwindling culture – as the printed press goes online, there is less of a demand for it, and consequently, fewer people who remember the good old days...
My point – Mr Hersey – is that journalism, as well as fiction, can give readers the opportunity to live history – and not just witness it. That’s what feature writing is all about."

Three years ago (already?), John B. Saul posted to this blog, encouraging his writing students to read the Seven Best Stories of 75 Years of Esquire, because they were, obviously, some of the best examples of what to do.

Along those lines, I've recently come across this blog called Longreads that appears to be dedicated to long-form writing. In the past few weeks, Longreads blogger Mark Armstrong has been asking contributors - professional writers from different publications - to submit their recommendations for the five best stories of 2011. While I don't agree with some, the posts present a good cross-section, including blogs, of some of this year's work. Just a few more examples to learn from.

12 Most Rudimentary Ways to Improve Your Writing
Laura, the other main contributor to this blog, brought this one to my attention, saying it might be too rudimentary for my advanced students.

Maybe.

But since it echoes much of what I have said in class I think it must be good stuff.

Some good advice under No. 4: "Concise writing is more effective. Pretend like every word you publish costs you a dollar. Be frugal."

Question for you: Would it be helpful to have a stylebook for this class? It would give you practice working within a certain style, and many of the questions we had last night on capitalization could be answered with a stylebook.

Please consider too whether it would be worth buying another book.

Here's a web site of oft-forgotten lore
As I nodded weak and weary over my volume of "Garner's Modern American Usage," my hands dropped onto the computer keyboard and serendipitously typed in the URL of UsingEnglish.com, which has a great grammar glossary. This is a site for ESL students but it answered several of the questions I had on verb tenses in one of the articles I was editing.

But I'm not saying, "Nevermore," to Bryan A. Garner. His book remains the last word in this class on usage. So if you come rapping, gently tapping or even fling open a shutter with many a flirt and flutter to argue some point of grammar, I will shriek "Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore" and cling to my Garner's.

But that web site sure is handy.

Check out this version of "The Raven:"
 

I got this in a message today, one of those things going around the Internet. A sappy little film, but a simple tale well told. Basically, a homeless guy walking down the street, stopping now and then to do something.

It got me to thinking how you could or would tell this story in writing. Ideas?

Links and books that came from Bill Dietrich

When Bill Dietrich talked to our class he mentioned some web sites and books that sounded like they would be helpful to aspiring writers. I found the Writers Market site more useful than the publisher site, to the point that I wonder if I have the correct site. But there are jobs advertised on the site, which may be of interest.

And for you budding science writers, have a look at the site for the National Association of Science Writers.

I'm also curious to read these books he mentioned:

"Thinking like Your Editor" and  "On Writing" by Stephen King.

Anyone read either of these? Tell us what you think.

A couple of reminders about next week

Remember the class starts on Tuesday, Dec. 6, at 6:30 p.m. in Miller Hall, Room 301. We should be
back in Smith Hall, Room 309 by 7:30 p.m. to critique six papers.

Also, remember that on Saturday, Dec. 10, from 9 to 11:30 a.m. there will be another workshop at
NARA. They are expecting about a dozen of us to show up.

Here's what we learned from Bill Dietrich

On interview ethics: make sure what they said is what they meant. They won't remember what they said but they will remember what they meant.

becoming a writer = (talent and hard-work) x fate. 

knowing your audience + business savvy >the stories you tell.

To be a successful author, write for the readers, not yourself. Who will read this? Who will buy it? Audience, audience, audience.

"Read, read, read. Write, write, write."

Want to make a character in your writing truly scary?  Make that character relatable to your audience.  Then when they do something awful, it will seem that much worse.

In his career as a writer, William Dietrich beat his head against a lot of closed doors - and then found open doors right next to them.

Much as I wish Dietrich was still turning out Northwest natural history books -- what a powerful voice for our  environment  he was -- his practicality and commitment to expanding his talents was surprisingly admirable.

A Cinderella story

On Friday, Betsy Morais, an Atlantic Magazine writer, asked "When does a writer become a writer?"

Some writers appear to come out of the chute as successes (see previous post about Jeffrey Eugenides). But many are the stories about writers who weren't appreciated or didn't achieve significant recognition until after they'd died.

Some writers, including Franz Kafka and Anton Chekov, are driven to toil away in what spare time they find outside their unrelated day jobs, seemingly with little hope of being published and even less of receiving awards or achieving bestseller status. Alexis Jenni was such a writer, filling pages with prose on the weekends when he wasn't filling young minds with information about physiology, ecology and the theory of evolution. So the 48-year-old was stunned in early November when he won France's top literary prize; it wasn't even on his radar.














Morais writes:
"In the Alexis Jenni school of thought, a writer may be someone, anyone, with a compulsion to scrawl or the conviction of having something to say. A writer is not defined by his career, but the simple act of writing regularly. And authors who found success through the muck of making ends meet have taken that approach for some time now, in practice at least."

I guess the answer to Morias' question is: when someone practices "... the simple act of writing regularly."

An interesting aside: Jenni apparently received his share of publishers' rejections and then didn't bother to submit one manuscript. He sent his award-winning manuscript to only one publisher, which took a chance on Jenni. But many also are the stories of the rejections received by now-famous authors, including Kurt Vonnegut and Vladimir Nabokov. The Atlantic has compiled a few such gems as evidence that publishers don't always recognize what they receive in the myriad of manila envelopes that cross their desks. Or in the plethora of PDF files that fill their inboxes.

A critic speaks: "And So It Goes"

To follow-up on the previous post, The New York Times has reviewed Sheilds' biography of Vonnegut. Kind of.

It's actually more a criticism of Vonnegut himself. Here is the one sentence in Christopher Buckley's article that addresses the book: "Shields has a deep affection for his subject and does what he can to rebut charges of hypocrisy, but in this he is not entirely convincing."

Other than that, Buckley summarizes Vonnegut's life from Shields' book and then picks apart Vonnegut's actions. I guess he could have done that without Shields' book.
Buckley makes the point that the book is depressing because Vonnegut's life was kind of depressing, but what's the point in now saying "Hey, don't be so depressing, Kurt."

My critique: Buckley didn't write the greatest book critique.

And so it goes

I read my first Kurt Vonnegut novel, "Slaughterhouse-Five," in a high school literature class. Fascinated, I quickly followed it on my own with "Cat's Cradle" and "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater" and was hooked on Vonnegut.
When people ask my favorite food or my favorite movie, I usually have to stop and think. But for several years, I never hesitated when asked my favorite author (he's still a favorite but he's been joined by others).

So I snapped to attention when I heard on a recent NPR interview that Charles Shields has written a biography of Vonnegut, due out on Wednesday. Regrettably, it's initially available in Kindle and hardcover versions only, otherwise I'd have signed up to receive a copy the day it came out.

I like reading some biographies, as long as the individual is interesting and the writer is good.
I have no doubt that Vonnegut was interesting, having started his adult life fighting in World War II. The NPR interview highlights Vonnegut's disenchantment, the extent of which I hadn't realized, even though I knew he'd tried to commit suicide.
Probably few can read his works and not sense he had lived through enough to develop a clear-eyed, cynical view of people. But he veiled the cynicism with humor, coming across as more upbeat than he apparently was; as the saying goes, "Scratch the surface of a cynic, and you'll find a disappointed idealist." Some substitute "romantic" for "disappointed idealist"... potayto, potahto.

I knew nothing about Shields' writing. When I looked him up on the Amazon website, he mentioned a blog he'd kept while writing the biography. He just wrote the final post a few weeks ago.
I didn't get too far into the older posts but from what I read, the blog deserves its own post here because it gives some wonderful insight into Shields' process. If it's indicative of the quality of the biography, I won't be disappointed.

I was saddened in 2007 when I heard of Vonnegut's death and didn't buy his posthumously-published "Armageddon in Retrospect" for the longest time. I finally bought it a few months ago when I saw it languishing on a sales shelf in a little independent bookstore. Vonnegut's son, Mark, wrote the introduction, and the first two grafs seemed written for writers:

"Writing was a spiritual exercise for my father, the only thing he really believed in. He wanted to get things right but never thought that his writing was going to have much of an effect on the course of things. His models were Jonah, Lincoln, Melville and Twain.
He rewrote and rewrote and rewrote, muttering whatever he had just written over and over, tilting his head back and forth, gesturing with his hands, changing the pitch and rhythm of the words. Then he would pause, thoughtfully rip the barely written-on sheet of typing paper from the typewriter, crumple it up, throw it away, and start over again. It seemed like an odd way for a grown-up to spend his time, but I was just a child who didn't know much."

New book from Roy Peter Clark

If you find the exercises in Roy Peter Clark's book useful, you might check out his new book: "Help! For Writers: 210 Solutions to the Problems Every Writer Faces." Read a review of it here.

What we learned from Maureen

Here are the Tweets you sent me about the session with Maureen O’Hagan from The Seattle Times. Sorry if I missed someone’s – as I did with those you sent about Cheryl’s visit.

Thanks again to Maureen.

And I’m expecting Tweets from you about Bill Dietrich’s visit.

Here’s what you said you took away from Maureen’s talk:

Don't tell the story just for the story's sake. There should be something of consequence that the reader can take away
from it.

Murder, mental mayhem and medication: how to explore the terrain of mental illness to uncover the mind of a gentle killer.

The story is in the details. Paint a picture with words to capture the essence of your subject. Write for yourself & the readers will come.

What’s your story? Truth. What do you want me to know? Discover.  How? Investigate the facts.  Show me, don’t tell me; write, revise, edit.

"A good editor is going to save me from myself"

What are the most important things to bring to a difficult interview?  Pencil, paper, and the ability to walk in the other person's shoes.

“I’m kind of nuts about fact checking . . . Editors don’t really want to hear it’s a good story. They want an excuse to run it (the story) . . If I had to make stuff up out of my head -- I’d be a failure. I can’t write fiction."

"I think of writing as a puzzle, and what's the best way to put that together."

If you can’t grab the reader, don’t bother. Write as many leads as you need to – 20? – ’til you find the one that works.

Every piece of work has a back story more rich and complex than the work itself.  The puzzle is knowing how much of the story to share.

"Happy topics are boring."

In journalism, you encounter difficult decisions, so you need to use your best judgment.

Fact check. Be fair. Capture the essence of things. A good interview is like watching a movie unfold. Fact-check again.

Free Sunday afternoon? Consider attending this

Sunday • November 20 • 2pm
Obliterate the Empty Page:
Okay, I've Written a Novel — What Do I Do Now?
A Q&A with the Northwest Independent Editors Guild
U District store
Get tips and advice for your NaNoWriMo project from a panel of expert editors from the Northwest Independent Editors Guild:  Kyra Freestar is a freelance editor specializing in both copyediting and developmental editing for authors and publishers. She also works for the Author-Editor Clinic, where she often writes for the blog The Editor's POV. Sarah Martinez, an editor at Pink Fish Press, has participated in NaNoWriMo since 2007. Before joining Pink Fish Press, she edited and read for a local literary agent.  A specialist in working with writers on tight deadlines, developmental editor Anne Mini has helped quite a few NaNoWriMo participants overcome writer's block and revision reluctance. She also teaches writing and marketing classes, and writes Author! Author!, a popular blog for writers. For more information on the Northwest Independent Editors Guild and its services, please visit www.edsguild.org.

"Virgin Suicides" author gets comfortable 20 years later

I was listening to the BBC on the radio Sunday night and heard an interview with author Jeffrey Eugenides on the "Talking Books" programme (must include the "e" because it's British, after all). Eugenides is best known for his first book "The Virgin Suicides" because of the movie adaptation. But his follow-on book, "Middlesex," won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2003.

He has just published his third book, "The Marriage Plot," which prompted the interview. Most of the interview discussion is about his fiction books and characters, but I thought writers of any genre could relate to his final comments, which I include below.

His message has both good and bad ramifications. Good because they show even a talented, recognized writer struggles; bad because it shows those struggles can last up to two decades before authors begin to feel even somewhat comfortable with writing.

Hope no one's in a hurry.

Host:
"Since your debut with “The Virgin Suicides”… you have written two other novels. Do you feel that you have come of age now… do you feel completely at ease as a writer?"

Jeffrey Eugenides:
"I think I’m getting the hang of it. I’m just getting a sense that I can do it again.
Your first book… Don DeLillo once told me your first book comes to you as a gift – you don’t know how you wrote it, somehow you did. And your second book is the book that teaches you that you actually can do it.
I agree with that but after the third I feel more so, as though this is what I can do. I’m not that kind of novelist who’s always going to repeat the same kind of novel. Usually, I rebel against the novel before and change it up quite a bit.
But I do feel a kind of… I had terrible, terrible anxiety on the level of the sentence for the first 20 years of my writing career. Didn’t know how I wanted my books to sound, didn’t know how to write, didn’t know if I could actually get my point across in a certain way. And that started to go away and recede in writing “The Marriage Plot” and that feels like maturity - I don’t know if it is but it feels like a kind of maturity. I was pleased about it and I think I’ll stay in the same mode for the next couple of books."

The audio file of the interview will remain up on the BBC site until Nov. 21.

What we learned from Cheryl Phillips

I'm way late on sharing what all of you said about our guest speakers so far. Here are the "Twitter" posts you did on Cheryl Phillips from The Seattle Times. And thanks again, Cheryl.

Coming soon: What we learned from Maureen.

Here are the Tweets:

In today's class you have changed my view towards search engines. You taught me to search data that was not caught by google."

Start offline .Once online get a strategy & get organized!
Don’t throw darts @the WWW & don't forget the invisible web. Dive
deeper.

Ask for e-copies of federal or public documents or review them before asking for print copies. There's no substitute for talking to/interviewing people.

Search invisible web by using special links, a natural language search engine or “way back” machine which takes snapshots of previous sites!

Most of the information on the Internet isn’t available through a single, direct search, even using Google.

RE: S. Palin’s Alaska property  “ I wonder what she can see from here.”  My guess: Russia. Thanks for teaching public records to us!

Google isn't the end-all resource for online research, only the start. The great info is found in other sources, you just have to find them.

Online information below the top of the Internet, searched with
structure, is best. Curated sites, databases, and .gov sites are most helpful.

No substitute for talking to people!! Know what you are after. Bookmark and organize into subject folders & sub folders

There’s a place that even Google can’t find; the deep and invisible web where firewalls and intranets hide information that’s found only by those who know how to look.

Be curious and persistent - the amount of information available to you is astounding if you know where to look, and how long to look for it.

Exhaustive research, exhaustively catalogued, supports factual writing.

Good research means you scour multiple search engines. Be aware of the invisible web. Google and Yahoo, like our brains, use less than 10% of available data.

I have been an internal person. Cheryl showed an example of full worldly engagement, and the courage to do so with the joy of leaning in.    

Be tenacious. Her advice was to ask for what you want and if you don't get it, ask again. If you still don't get it, change the way you are asking for it.  This is relevant to interviewing subjects as well as researching information. Though the Internet is a valuable resource, not all data will be readily available. Pursuing answers and information efficiently is part of the challenge inherent to research and reporting. 

Most critical thing I heard from Cheryl was her focus on exhaustive research, exhaustively catalogued and organized, in order to support factual investigative reporting.  Especially as it seems she might often research more than one complicated story at a time.

Reads blogs and comments

The following are Seven Bar Jokes Involving Grammar and Punctuation by Erik K. Auld. Most demonstrate various writing mistakes in a fun way.
Commas seem to throw everyone a curve now and then. Three years ago, John B. recommended the book "Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation" to me, and the first entry on the list below reminds me of "eats, shoots and leaves."
I particularly like Number 6 since it used to be my Number 1 nemesis.
Better to laugh at the problems this way than when they show up in your own writing... when they aren't so funny.

1. A comma splice walks into a bar, it has a drink and then leaves. (As I said, commas are infamous, so an editor has taken up the challenge to expand this sentence into its possible permutations. For those who are so inclined.)

2. A dangling modifier walks into a bar. After finishing a drink, the bartender asks it to leave.

3. A question mark walks into a bar?

4. Two quotation marks “walk into” a bar.

5. A gerund and an infinitive walk into a bar, drinking to drink.

6. The bar was walked into by the passive voice.

7. Three intransitive verbs walk into a bar. They sit. They drink. They leave.

Thinking about writing

My previous post came out of an evening of frustration while copy editing. But I must acknowledge that most of what I was editing was written in just a few hours, if that. The unfortunate nature of the small newspaper business is that writers don't have much time to think about their stories before they have to move on to the next thing.
I would hope, if the reporters had the time, that they would have gone back and fine-tuned what they had written.

My frustrated observations are nothing new. Many writers more experienced than I am have already commented on the matter:

"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter - 'tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning."
- Mark Twain.
(Editor's note: Forgive Mr. Clemens this use of "'tis.")

‎"Writing is nature's way of letting us see how sloppy our thinking is."
- Richard Guindon
Apparently, this was the caption of one of Mr. Guindon's cartoons. I wish I could find the cartoon.

"What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure."
- Samuel Johnson

"The best part of all, the absolutely most delicious part, is finishing it and then doing it over."
- Toni Morrison.

Yes, we writers are afflicted with a modicum of masochistic madness.

Avoid sounding like everyone else or even yourself

Words and their meanings have perplexed and fascinated me for most of my life.
So many wonderful words exist that it seems a shame not to sample as many as possible. But sometimes, to really get your meaning across, only one will do.
Writers should make it their quest to employ the right words. Even though the thesaurus may list 10 lines of synonyms, Catherine Soanes demonstrates that rarely can you substitute one word for another and have it convey the same meaning.
True, if your reader isn't familiar with such nuances, substituted words might not make any difference... or the reader may get the wrong idea no matter what word you use. But you are not writing for them.
Writers are often tempted to find something different to spice up their copy after they've had to repeat a word, no matter how right. If so, they should at least make the effort to find the next best word.
I guess that's why #TheOldEditor says "Giving a reporter a thesaurus is like giving a toddler a loaded handgun."

Think about the words you use and why you choose them. One writer I work with uses certain words in almost every story; I guess they're supposed to be part of the writer's voice. But if I never read the words "folks," "critter," or "first ever" in a news story again, it will be too soon. "Fire folks" is probably not a good substitution for "fire crew."
But I don't think the writer is thinking about the words themselves. Perhaps they are just thinking about what might sound cool.
Or we get into habits.
I almost wrote the first sentence of this post like this: "Words and their meanings have perplexed and fascinated me all my life." But has it really been "all my life?" Did I come out of the womb contemplating the difference between "your" and "you're?"
No, it's just the kind of thing people say.
Whenever superlatives or extreme words like "always," "never," "all" or "none" pass from your keyboard to the computer screen, you should stop and ask, "Is that really so?"

Some writers might try to up the coolness factor by throwing in some line -- metaphor or phrase -- that they've read elsewhere. Writers throw in terms like "that's a sticky wicket" or "that begs the question" because they've heard others use them. But some meanings aren't intuitive, and the phrases are sometimes used the wrong way (The photo shows a sticky wicket -- a muddy cricket pitch -- at the North Perrott Cricket Club). Just as it's sometimes enlightening to look up the meaning of a common word (I am still occasionally surprised), writers should make sure they understand phrases before they use them.
Other times, writers recycle tired metaphors, which can hinder their efforts to come up with original ideas, something my teachers favored ("Avoid cliches" is tattooed on my left hemispheric cortex, not that I've always heeded it).

Originality is a key part of being a good writer and it applies to both word usage and ideas. But creating an original idea is challenging because so many types of stories have already been written.

Talk about challenging: Anyone who has had to write a holiday story knows what a struggle it can be to avoid the trite, the sappy and the cliche'. The temptation elves are everywhere, which is why the editor of the Baltimore Sun has put out a warning to stay away from the snow-borne sirens that have seduced many a writer: forced riffs on holiday phrases, such as "white stuff," "Bah, humbug," "T'is" and "T'was."

Every writer wants to produce engaging prose. But while you're trying to make those enlightened words flow onto the page, check your word and phrase choices now and then. Then go back through and ask yourself if anything else might work better.

Here is the link to Cheryl's updated presentation on web research. Thanks again to Cheryl from The Seattle Times for sharing her considerable knowledge about where to find information on the internet.

I set this up in Google Docs. When you click on the image above it should open in PowerPoint. Go to the upper right corner and click on "Start Presentation" for the slides to show. When I tried it, the links to the various sites were live.

Let me know if you have trouble seeing the presentation.

Some can get away with it

A few posts ago, Larry Cheek provided a list of what to do (or not) when dealing with editors. He said, "An essay, being much about your voice, your experience, and your interpretation, is basically the writer's property."

Apparently, that's what David Foster Wallace believed too, because in 1998, along with an essay on Kafka, he sent a letter to the editors of Harper's Magazine, basically demanding that they keep their red pens in their pockets.

If they touched his essay, he promised to "find a way to harm you or cause you suffering* if you fuck with the mechanics of this piece."

I don't know that this is in keeping with Cheek's other recommendation to "cultivate a personal relationship."

Introductions

On many Internet forums, moderators ask that newcomers introduce themselves to the group. So...
My name is Laura L. (as opposed to Laura G.), and John B. Saul was my professor in Fall 2008 when I was a student in the School of Journalism at the University of Montana.
He took on the Herculean task of beating my boring, boorish and backward copy into something more bearable. Three years later, I am still trying to improve my writing - an undertaking that is never-ending and now more difficult without such a guiding hand.
But I enjoy the process, and if it takes a lifetime of trial-and-error to become fractionally better, there are worse ways to spend a lifetime.

Now that the introductions are out of the way, I would turn your thoughts to paraphrasing.
Every writer has to try to condense a source's comments to write a compelling story. The use of too many direct quotes can slow the pace of prose.
But writers must use caution when paraphrasing, because if key details are lost, so is the intended meaning.

Case and point: the inscription that is now on the sculpture at the new Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial. The inscription paraphrases part of one of King's speeches, but Roy Peter Clark and others argue the paraphrase is inaccurate. Unfortunately, now it is literally carved in stone.
King's time was recent enough that people are still familiar with his speeches, and some know better than to trust the inscription. But as time goes by, that could be less the case, especially considering how often incorrect information is perpetuated on the Internet.
So if a writer wants a story to be accurate - every nonfiction writer should want that - pay particular attention to paraphrasing. The treasury of history depends on veracious retelling.

The blog that refuses to die

Former students (and fellow teacher Larry):

I have maintained a WRI-TING blog since 2007 while teaching at two universities. Now the school I am teaching at requests that we use its software product instead of outside sources. I'm doing that, but I could not stand to see our blog die. So I have renamed it and re-purposed it.

From now on, consider this a place to share thoughts, books, websites, other blogs and anything else that has to do with writing. The contributor list will be open to anyone who has taken a reporting or writing class from me.

Let me know if you want to be added as a  contributor. If you just want to look in on us once and a while, feel free to do that. There are only 100 spots on the contributor list, so if you join as a contributor, please contribute. And mind your manners.

Larry and I added last year's class as authors. If you are one of those people and want to be removed, let me know.

John B.

Feel free to add to this list

Mantra asked me for a list of "must read" non-fiction books, something I had never thought of. I suppose someone has compiled one somewhere but I have not. I can share some suggestions from last year's class. I have read most of them and found them worth my while:

"Our Guys" by Bernard Lefkowitz
"Methland: The Life and Death of a Small American Town" by Nick Reding
"The Red Parts: A Memoir" by Maggie Nelson

We had at least two people in class last year writing about murder cases, so some of the suggestions tended to be on the grisly side.

Also recommend but still on my "to read" list:
"At Large and At Small: Familiar Essays" by Anne Fadiman

Here's a book that William Dietrich said he read as part of his research for "Blood of the Reich," the novel you can read for this class (or if you prefer to read some of Bill's non-fiction work, I recommend "The Northwest Passage," his book on the Columbia River): "Himmler's Crusade: The Nazi Expedition to Find the Origin of the Aryan Race." That would be a good one to read before Bill visits the class.

Here are the non-fiction book I have read in the past year that I think are worth consideration:

"The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town" by John Grisham (famous novelist tries out non-fiction, successfully, I thought)
"North by Northwestern: A Seafaring Family on Deadly Alaskan Waters" by Capt. Sigg Hansen and Mark Sundeen (I didn't expect to like this one, but it tells a lot about Seattle and its connection to the fishing industry.)

I highly recommend two books by Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani journalist: "The Taliban" and "Descent into Chaos"
"The Lexicographer's Dilemma" by Jack Lynch is a fascinating book on the English language and the development of grammatical rules.
Bill Bryson brings humor and his own personality into his non-fiction: "Notes from a Small Island" is about living and traveling in England.

"At Home" by Bryson was recommended by the class last year but I have not read it.

Writing Tips from Author Caitlin Kelly

Hi Everyone:

In the spirit of the fabulous guest writer classes Larry put on for us, I wanted to give you the heads up on a two-part series on writing that will be running on my blog starting Friday, June 24.

Through the unknown workings of fate, destiny and the Internet, I ended up in an email chat with Caitlin Kelly, freelance writer and author of two books including her latest Malled - a memoir style piece about a two-year detour into the life of a retail clerk. She agreed to write a few guest posts for me on writing and what evolved was a two-part series with a possible Q and A follow-up (if enough questions come in).

The first post will discuss the issues surrounding disclosure and the second will feature a peek at the writer's life. More info can be found here.

Hope you have a chance to stop by and ask some questions.

Cheers,
Sarah

Relations with editors

Below are my "Do and Don't" watchwords for dealing with editors, which I promised to post today.

There's one important point I didn't get to last night: The editing process differs between articles and essays. An article, being more grounded in objective fact, is legitimately subject to heavier editing. An essay, being much about your voice, your experience, and your interpretation, is basically the writer's property. An editor may (and should) help you clarify and express yourself effectively, and keep you from flights of wordiness, but should not try to alter your voice or your point of view.

In books of all kinds, the editing process is usually collaborative rather than dictatorial. The editor doesn't insist on changes, but makes suggestions. We accept some and decline others. Sometimes the editor pushes harder, and then we discuss it harder. I've never had it degenerate into a standoff.

Reprising my final comment of last night, this was truly a wonderful class. I'll miss you.

· DEALING WITH EDITORS: a few do’s and don’ts and a maybe:

DO talk through your idea and plan for a piece with the editor beforehand. The most impt editing is done before the story is ever written.

DO notify (and ask permission) if you’re going to be late

DO cultivate a personal relationship, but w/o becoming a pest.

DO compliment an editor occasionally on good work. They don’t get many.

MAYBE negotiate the fee and other terms.

DON’T turn in anything careless, figuring “they’ll catch it if it’s wrong.”

DON’T warn them that a piece is too long, or hazy, or that you have any other doubts about it. The one exception is legal/ethical issues.

DON’T whine, nag, or bother them with inconsequential stuff

Writing Links to Ponder Post-Class

If on an upcoming Tuesday night you're yearning for Nonfiction Writing, console yourself with Red Lemonade. Red Lemonade publishes books (in electronic and print formats) and its website allows visitors to read and comment on Red Lemonade titles. Writers can also electronically publish their own works through the website. They retain full rights. If Red Lemonade founder Richard Nash likes the book, he may publish it. But authors are free to take their work elsewhere. See The Stranger's interview with Richard Nash for more details.

Or if you find you're in need of writing inspiration this summer, check out some of the articles in The Atlantic's "Nearly 100 Fantastic Pieces of Journalism." Of the 100, I've read about five articles. I particularly liked "Letting Go" by Atul Gawande.

Yellowstone and Wolves

Having enjoyed "Flight" by Barry Lopez in our Touchstone Anthology, I was pleased to learn that he wrote Of Wolves and Men so I took a copy with me on my trip to Yellowstone. Published in 1978, Lopez covers animal research, art, music, literature, Native American lore, politics, and history. I noticed that several other books on wolves cite this comprehensive early work of the author.

Every morning of this trip I awoke before sunrise, grabbed coffee and a pastry at Bearclaw Bakery in Cooke City, Montana, and drove down into Yellowstone's Lamar Valley. I looked for a yellow Nisson Xterra SUV parked at one of the pullouts. This was Rick McIntyre's vehicle. Working for the Yellowstone Wolf Project, Rick has logged over 3,000 consecutive days observing the park's wolves and has spotted the animals at least 95% of those days. Typically there are eight to twenty other cars following him around the valley. He is so popular with wolfers that when nature calls, several people follow him to the bathroom with binoculars and spotting scopes.

Among this migrating crowd of wolf lovers is Joellen Barton from Iowa. She and her husband drive their white Ford Expedition cross-country every spring and fall to spend a month observing wolves. The license plate reads, "DRUID42," the name and number of their favorite wolf--Druid pack wolf number 42. After comparing notes on wolf books with Joellen, I added the 2010 book Wolfer: A Memoir by Carter Niemeyer to my reading list. Niemeyer turned from trapper of to advocate for wolves.

During a trip back to Bozeman to pick up my wife and son, I stumbled upon Country Bookshelf bookstore and a few doors down, Vargo's Jazz City and Books. Before long I had a stack of books that would somehow have to fit in my luggage.

I found Tim Cahill's Lost in My Own Backyard. Cahill is an entertaining travel writer with titles like Jaguars Ripped My Flesh, Pecked to Death by Ducks, and A Wolverine Is Eating My Leg. He lives 50 miles north of Yellowstone and Backyard collects his essays on backwoods hiking in the park. "I've spent entire afternoons not knowing exactly where I was, which is to say, I was lost in my own backyard. This shouldn't happen if you stay on the major trails. But you may find yourself lost in thought, or in sheer astonishment. And here's the big idea for Americans: Yellowstone was the world's first national park. It was established, by an act of Congress, on March 1, 1872. The park was expressly put aside 'for the benfit and enjoyment of the people.' That makes Yellowstone Park America's backyard. Your backyard."

Writing Creative Nonfiction

While away in Yellowstone last week I read Writing Creative Fiction: Fiction Techniques for Crafting Great Nonfiction by Theodore Cheney. I like how he contrasts scenes and summaries, drama and narrative. Nonficiton writers can use both sides of this continuum to keep the reader moving.

He also refers to the nonfiction version of fictional dialog as "captured conversation." As for character development, nonfiction writers should reveal character bit by bit using selective details sprinkled through the writing that are connected to the unfolding narrative.

Perhaps the strongest aspect of this book are the many excerpts from great writing that illustrate Cheney's points. Here's an excerpt about passive verbs:

"'To be' doesn't conjure up any image in the brain. It says only that the subject exists--and we already knew that. Tell us something new. Better yet, 'show' us something new. 'To be or not to be, that is the question'--the bard gives us a moment's pause, and then we remember we have the answer--NOT to be."

"We want our sentences vivid (vivid deriving from the Latin vivere--to live). Give life to sentences by substituting accurate, vivid verbs for the intransigent forms of to be:

He was enticed by her black hair.
Revised to:
Her black hair knocked him for a loop.

She was embraced by the clown.
Revised to:
The clown grabbed her and hugged her."

Notice how he swapped the object and subject to eliminate the passive verb? This doesn't work all the time but find every place in your draft where it could.

What writing books do you recommend?

STRATUS SUBMISSIONS

Subject: UW Nonfiction certificate -- new annual Arts anthology "Stratus"

Dear students,

I’m writing to ask for your contributions to a new UWEO annual anthology, “Stratus: Journal of Arts & Writing,” to be produced each summer, featuring the top work of excellent Arts and Writing program graduates, supplemented by contributions by Arts and Writing instructors.

A significant portion of the anthology will be reserved for the best work of our 2010-11 program graduates:

n Creative work (both written and visual)

n Manifestos

n Statements of artistic philosophy

n Conversations amongst pairs or groups of graduates of a program

The anthology will be produced in PDF format and posted on a UW webpage, for print-on-demand accessibility. Please send contributions for consideration to Stratus, at stratus1@uw.edu, using the following specifications (as requested by our book layout editor):

n Written work should be submitted via email, to stratus1@uw.edu, in MS Word.

n Format (font, margins, etc) is not important, but no double returns.

n Graphics must be in 300 dpi tiff or jpeg format.

n Length: 10-12 pages, or about 3,500 words, maximum.

n Submissions accepted: May 15 – July 18, 2011.

n $50 honorarium for each accepted submission.

Please let me know if you have any questions. I look forward to receiving your submissions.

Thanks very much,

Roxanne

Roxanne Ray, Ph.D.

Program Manager, Academic Programs in the Arts

University of Washington

rray@pce.uw.edu

Inspirational reading (in more ways than one)

From The New York Times Magazine, this is a terrific piece of reporting and writing: a blend of RBHA, keen-eyed profiling, and intelligent backgrounding. Be conscious of its structure as you read it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/magazine/an-american-idol-just-for-opera.html?ref=magazine

Publishing it yourself

Here's an interesting argument in The New York Times today by a mid-career author who's moving into self-publishing:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/books/review/the-case-for-self-publishing.html?ref=books

Bleakness in Seattle

Here's the Crosscut piece I mentioned Tuesday night in connection with adaptability. It's a shift in format for me in that much of the "added value" is in the captions for the slide show rather than in the essay, which is unusually short (500 words). What we're doing here is taking advantage of web publication, which let us publish an unlimited number of photos at no cost. If this piece had run in a print newspaper or magazine, we'd have been limited to three or four photos, and readers would have had to visualize the rest of the places through words. Clearly, words + pix makes a better package.

It probably wasn't as rewarding to write as a coherently structured and well-argued 1,000-word essay on the subject. But it was easier, and I think it's more useful and informative for the reader. On balance, that's a win for everyone.

I won't be doing every piece in this format, but we'll use it when appropriate and also keep looking for different multi-media possibilities with web publication. That's what I mean by adaptability.

http://crosscut.com/2011/05/18/architecture/20927/Why-does-Seattle-have-so-many-bleak-public-spaces-/

You're invited

Here are a couple of events that may interest you. The June 1 item is another class in the UW Writers Program, and the instructor is opening the evening's guest speaker talk to anyone in the other classes. It'll be a second perspective on the author/agent axis, and another agent in the region for you to meet.

MAY 19, 2011 - University Bookstore - Bellevue. 990 102nd Ave NE. Bellevue, WA 98004

Time: 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

Guest Authors:

C.C. Humphreys. How to Plan a Book Tour (followed by a book signing)

Chris is the bestselling author of several historical fiction novels the latest of which is Vlad: THe Last Confession.

Laura Munson. How to turn your life experiences into a bestselling memoir. (followed by a book signing)

Laura's memoir, This is Not The Story You Think It Is has garnered much critical praise. She is also a frequent contributor to Author Magazine.

JUNE 1, 2011 -- Guest Agent at Popular Fiction Class: 1325 4th Ave. Seattle.

Time: 6:30 p.m.

Speaker: Vickie Motter, literary agent with Andrea Hurst and Associates. Vickie represents both fiction and nonfiction.

Topics: The Role of an Agent. What an agent can and cannot do for the author. Vickie will also answer questions regarding how to write Query Letters, Synopsis and Book Proposals.

Bio: Vickie is looking for new and previously published authors dedicated to continuously developing their craft and writing poignant nonfiction or marketable fiction. She enjoys the opportunity of working closely with her authors to help bring a book to life. She has a special love of unique plots, dark themes, strong characters, an engaging voice, and witty humor.

Vickie represents:

Fiction: YA Contemporary, Dystopian, Steam punk, Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Paranormal, Cozy mysteries.

Nonfiction: Narrative, Humorous memoir, Healthy living, Cookbooks with a strong platform, Current events.