The work has officially begun. I’m updating The Forest for the Trees for a 10th anniversary edition. Rereading it now, I can’t believe I had the chutzpah to write it at all. The only thing that explains it (besides my vast and passionate love of writers and their craft) is that I wrote the proposal and sold it when I was pregnant. I was turbo-charged by the hormones coursing through my body and I believed I could do anything. Case in point: I attempted to trompe-l’oeil a table. The entire time I was pregnant, I felt as if I had a huge generator strapped to my mid-section. There were mornings going to work when I felt as if my stride was the length of an entire block. Whatever cocktail of serotonin and estrogen that was — someone should bottle it.
My editor has given me pages of notes as to what needs updating — a huge to-do list. Betty loves nothing more thank ticking things off a to-do list. I’m not being snarky: I do love crossing things off lists, I do love my label maker, I organize my desk drawer for sport. The truth is it’s making me a little sad, remembering who I was when I wrote it, what I was struggling with at the time, who I was close to and who I had lost. And how I sat in a room for months surrounded by my books lined up against the wall like a firing squad.
Filed under: Books |
Betsy Lerner 
It’s a wonderful book. I thank you for it … and look forward to the anniversary edition.
Yes, it’s a superb book. I couldn’t believe my luck when I found it. I borrowed it from the library and read it for the first time about four months ago. The librarian checked it out and passed it to me and I opened it and started reading and walking and reading and walking until a stranger outside commented that I better be careful in the traffic. I put all my other work on hold and hoovered it when I got home. I love the James Thurber story – how he wrote in his head at parties. The tone is pitch perfect. Don’t start getting all critical and changing too much because it’s great the way it is.
I am discovering your work through your blog and am VERY excited to read the revised version of the book. Thank you for the great work you do!
Me, too. I want to/will read your book. Which one to begin with though – the original, or wait for the revised? .
trompe-l’oeil….. I learn all kinds of shit on this blog.
Oops… Did not mean to be anonymous. That was me, Betsy.
It is a fantastic book – can’t believe it’s been 10 years!
FOREST FOR THE TREES helped me to be a better writer. Like you remember where you were in your life when you wrote it, as the reader, I too remember where I was as an author. Just as a song or certain smell takes you back to where you were when first heard it, I expect the same will happen when reading the new edition. It will be a treat with a “nostalgic cherry on top.”
An Instant Shrink for Writers was the title my recent post of your wonderful book
http://www.randysusanmeyers.com/blog/?p=3
I also posted it to Red Room Authors and Good Reads.
I look forward to reading the next version.
Thanks to everyone for these really wonderful comments.
It’s a classic. It sure helped me, and several of my friends.
I’m big on revisions, but I don’t know what I would change in that book. I don’t recall any fat in there, and it has all proved accurate in my career.
I’ve read “The Forest For The Trees” twice and recommended it to several other writers. An amazing book. Thank you for writing it (and for explaining me to myself! Hah!)
It’s been ten years? Holy mackerel, and I thought this summer had flown by…..
I just learned via Janet Reid that you’re blogging and hurried right over to start catching up.
Loved TFFTT. Read it twice straight through when it came out, then periodically over the years. I loaned it out though and never got it back, so I’m ready for V2. 🙂
Thank you for writing such a good book, which I discovered only this summer, at the local library. The new edition will be a permanent fixture on my nightstand.