Posted on April 19, 2017 by betsylerner
What do people mean when they talk about voice? For me, the first book I ever read that screamed voice was Catcher in the Rye. Then I discovered the confessional poets whose voices I loved. Is voice only first person? Is voice quirky, inflected, blood-soaked, ironic, quixotic, besotted, divided? Junot Diaz, David Sedaris. How does it suffuse third person or omniscient narrators. Through tone, detail, pacing, revelation.
Can you teach voice, develop it, find it?
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Posted on April 17, 2017 by betsylerner
In the last few weeks, more than one writer has mentioned that he or she is working on something “just for themselves,” “no pressure,” “a totally different genre,” etc. I get it. It’s the desire to write in obscurity, which is ironic since the desire to come out of obscurity is so overpowering before you get your work out there. It’s a desire to protect the creative process, to stop second guessing what the market, agents, editors think. When writing ceases to be fun and by fun I mean rewarding, you need to reboot. I still think that the person writing just for him or herself still hopes the work will be met with open arms. What am I saying? You can run but you can’t hide.
Where do you go to hide?
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Posted on April 5, 2017 by betsylerner
Now that I’m officially not working on a writing project, I want to talk about how it feels. It feels fucking great. My skin is clear, my nails are manicured, I’m sleeping again. I don’t know how I ever wrote at all. It’s so hard. LOL. Seriously, if you told me I had to write another book right now I would start crying and never stop.
How the fuck do you do it?
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Posted on April 3, 2017 by betsylerner
I’ve spent the last year having mother daughter conversations at libraries, bookstores, Jewish Centers and bridge clubs. Last week, I was on a panel with three other writers talking about mommy memoirs. I could have hit myself in the face with a hanger. This post is dedicated to my dad. I credit him with everything I know about business and my love of movies, Broadway, stars and salty food. He would have preferred me to get an MBA instead of an MBA, but when I started acquiring books he was always thrilled to see my name in the acknowledgments of books I had worked on. He would literally show the acknowledgments to anyone who visited our house.
Was your dad proud of your writing, you?
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Posted on March 30, 2017 by betsylerner
When I was a young idealistic poet type, I heard this quote by SamuelJohnson, “No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.” I was deeply offended by the sentiment. I mean shouldn’t one write for passion? Ironic isn’t it that I became a literary agent, that my work is all about getting writers money? Literally. Benjamins. It’s my job to get out there on the choppy waters and bring something home. Sometimes when you do a huge deal for a writer, he’ll say: I would have written it for free. Blockhead. Okay, I still believe you should write out of passion and I’m not even going to say the money will follow. That’s another not truism.
Do you write for money?
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Posted on March 29, 2017 by betsylerner
Do like to go away to write, find a cabin or studio apartment or barge or yert. Do you need total silence to concentrate, hunker down. Do you need to put distance between you and your loved ones, your work, your chores, your buttons. Have you been to Yaddo or MacDowell or other writer retreats? I’ve heard they provide box lunches. I’m sure I wouldn’t like the lunch. I’m sure I would want to break the no talking ban. I’m sure I would start smoking, possibly burn down my cabin. Fortunately, I like writing at home in my own little corner in my own little chair.
Where do you write?
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Posted on March 28, 2017 by betsylerner
Posted on March 27, 2017 by betsylerner
I have been absentee because I could not figure out how to convert my comcast to Xfinity. And my teenager is away at college. I’m not going to write about how technology is destroying us and writing and poetry and daydreaming and masturbating and basketmaking and flag folding and watching ants carry crumbs across a mountain that once was a mole. Have you ever changed the part in your hair? Do you think you really know a person? Yes, I love my fucking phone. I love it. Get over it. Do I take it out while people are talking. In the middle of dinner? During an MRI? Do I sleep with it? Play Bridge on line all night like some nocturnal animal with slow eyes.
What’s your relationship to your technology??
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Posted on March 22, 2017 by betsylerner
I went to hear a movie producer give a talk and he made the point that you have to have a lot of ideas. You can’t be clinging to your one script for life. Imagine, he said, if you found yourself next to Steven Spielberg at a cocktail party and he asked what you were working on. You pitched your script. He didn’t like it and said, “what else you got?” And you got nothing. I know books aren’t movie pitches, but I still think it’s really healthy to always be evolving ideas, taking notes, clipping articles, recording dialogue. Keep a list of ideas. They won’t bite.
How many ideas are you working on?
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Posted on March 20, 2017 by betsylerner
Dear Friends of this blog. Under the category of better late than how did I possibly fail to mention the publication of a novel by our very beloved and brilliant Donna Everhart?Please join me in congratulating her on the publication of The Education of Dixie Dupree. Better yet, support the author and buy a copy.
Let’s try something new in the comments. Let’s see if we can do a live(ish) Q&A. Leave a question for Donna and hopefully she’ll answer.
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Betsy Lerner 