#27 AN ANNOUNCEMENT, Modern Love: Cracking the personal essay formula, Writers are sedentary hunters, Avoiding plagiarism, Raymond Chandler's writing rules
AN ANNOUNCEMENT TO MY SUBSCRIBERS: NEW DELIVERY SCHEDULE
I’d like to announce a change in the publishing schedule of Chip on Your Shoulder. Having just passed the six-month anniversary of weekly editions of my newsletter dispensing writing advice, I’ve come to a crossroads of sorts.
I want to devote more attention to my fiction that has taken a back seat to the time and energy devoted to producing a weekly product that I can be proud of and which I hope helps my readers.
So look for the next newsletter Friday, April 10 when I switch to delivery every other week.
I hope I can look forward to your continued interest. Your readership and support means the world to me.
In the meantime, stay safe, stay home if you can, wash your hands, don’t touch your face and keep others in your thoughts.
May the writing go well.
If you're reading this for the first time and enjoy it, you can get the newsletter free every other Friday by subscribing at chipswritinglessons.com/newsletter. Thank you.
"An American on Horseback"/Utagawa Yoshitora"
BOOKBAG: Modern Love: Cracking the Personal Essay Formula
The “Modern Love” column is one of the most popular New York Times features and a much sought-after credit for freelancers. Attaining that goal isn’t easy. Just one out of every 100 “viable essays: meaning essays that are reasonably well written and targeted to the column” are chosen for publication, says its editor Daniel Jones.
“Modern Love” is not just a writer’s prize. It’s the personal essay in its purest form, universal stories of love, loss and redemption told with uncommon skill and grace.
On Twitter, Facebook and Q&A, Jones has generously shared the requirements he’s established for serious consideration. Writer Laura Copeland tracked these down and generously collected them in a Google Doc.
I was thrilled when I found this resource. I’m a huge fan of the personal essay, having published several over the years. I’ve taught it in numerous seminars, helping shepherd many into publications, and persuaded teachers to add the assignment to their curriculums. Jones's observations and recommendations constitute a master class, rich with advice, much of it applicable no matter what form or genre you work in. It’s worth your attention but as it’s long, I’ll present a sampling here and recommend you read all of Jones's good advice, linked below.
Remember why people read stories
"To find out what happens," Jones says.
"Don't underestimate the power of a reader's curiosity, whether you're writing a short story or a personal essay. Too often people give everything away at the start. In newspaper articles, you're supposed to put all the important information at the top, right?"
Modern Love essays, like good fiction, should unfold "a dramatic arc, with mystery and surprise. If the surprise in your story is the fact that your unlikely relationship led to marriage, don't say in the first line: "I met my future wife at a cocktail party..."
Submission guidelines
If you’re prone to touting the power of your essay, describing its plotline or listing your degrees and writing credits, "in a cover letter don’t bother," Jones says. “I pay little attention to someone’s writing background when I read an essay. I don’t even have time to read a cover note that’s more than two sentences long...I judge a submission solely on the writing before me.” A perfectly suitable cover note will say nothing more than: "I wrote this essay with your column in mind. I hope you enjoy it."
Cliche alert
In the many essays Jones reads every month, the same words, phrases “or stylistic tics” appear again. In other words, the worn-out use of cliches. They’re not just annoying, “they signal trouble with the writing to come.” Ever use any of these? Don’t if you want to avoid rejection.
I’ll never forget
I’ll always remember
If I had to do it all over again
Literally
A. Sentence. With. A. Period. After. Every. Word.
I curled up in a fetal position
I curled up with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s
More than one at a time
When I started freelancing in the 1970s, simultaneous submissions were frowned on. The North American Review said it would never again consider a writer who sent a story to another publication. That was unfair. Writers could wait months for a reply only to get a rejection and have to start over. Considerate editors like Jones no longer have a problem with writers sending their essays to places other than the Times. With that in mind, I recently submitted a short story to a dozen publications.
If you're lucky enough to get accepted, let the other editors know immediately. There's a chance they'll be impressed and look for your work in the future. One thing is certain: If you wait and waste their time, Jones says, they're going to be "really annoyed."
When the answer is No
Rejections hurt with any story, but hearing no about your personal essay has a special sting.”You may feel like it’s you being rejected,” says Jones, who’s been on the receiving end, too. What you may not know is that the editors are looking for a different mix, a fresh voice, a compelling angle, or heeding a suggestion to shift topics from their boss. As someone who once considered laminating his desk with rejection slips, I find his bottom line comforting: “There is no bar of quality to clear that then ensures publication in any particular column. Other factors will always be in play, and you can't know what those are, so try not to let any one rejection paralyze you or even set you back.”
Further reading
Jones recommends two books for those interested in mastering the personal essay: “The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative” by Vivian Gornick and “Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction,” by Tracy Kidder and Kidder’s longtime editor, Richard Todd.
For models you can study, Jones has edited "Modern Love: True Stories of Love, Loss and Redemption."
You can read, with gratitude, Copeland’s entire compilation here.
"English Couple Sharing an Umbrella"/Utagawa Yoshitora
WRITERS SPEAK
"The important thing is that there should be a space of time, say four hours a day at the least, when a professional writer doesn't do anything but write. He doesn't have to write, and if he doesn't feel like it, he shouldn't try. He can look out the window or stand on his head or write on the floor. But he is not to do any other positive things, not read, write letters, glance at magazines or write checks. Either write or nothing. Two very simple rules: a) you don't have to write. b) you can't do anything else. The rest takes care of itself."
Raymond Chandler
CRAFT LESSON: Sedentary hunters
“Every morning between 9 and 12 I go to my room and sit before a piece of paper,” said the Southern writer Flannery O’Connor, whose famous works include the novel “Wise Blood” and the story collection “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” “Many times I just sit for 3 hours with no ideas coming to me. But I know one thing: if an idea does come between 9 and 12, I am there ready for it.”
More than one of the writers I’ve interviewed have emphasized this. Award-winning mystery writer Bruce DeSilva said, “My years in journalism taught me that writing is a job—something you do whether or not you feel like it. You do not wait to be inspired. You do not search for your muse. You just plant your ass in your chair and write.” It’s how he’s published five novels.
When Bryan Gruley pursues a nonfiction story in his day job as a feature writer for Bloomberg Businessweek magazine, “doing the work means, for instance, looking at every page of notes, documents, and other materials I’ve gathered in my weeks of research, even though only about 1 percent of what’s there is likely to make it into my story,” he told me.
“As a novelist, doing the work is more about sitting at my laptop every morning and putting words to digital paper. Whether it’s 300 or 500 or 1,000 words a day, if I keep doing the work, I know I’ll eventually have enough in front of me that I can begin to see my way to the middle of a book and, finally, an end. I’ve heard writers say, “That story just wrote itself.” If only.” Gruley just published his third crime thriller.
Some days the words will come in a flood. On others, it’s like pulling teeth. While many writers establish a word count and refuse to get up from their desk until they hit it, I don’t think that’s necessary. There have been days where I look up and realize I have written nearly 1,000-plus words, others less than 100. Stephen King’s word count is 2,000 words, but for me, those two pages are good enough, even though I realize I will have to revise them. Then there are the miserable ones where I have been lucky to eke out a few dozen. But as long as I haven’t missed a day, I am content. Writing every day, or whatever schedule you set, is a promise we make.
In retirement, I have the luxury to put some of those demands aside. For the most part. My blog and newsletter need constant feeding. When I am writing as a contributor to Nieman Storyboard, which celebrates narrative writing, I have to produce a story, whether I am inspired or not. Nothing focuses the mind like a clock ticking toward deadline. You write and hope what you wrote hits the mark. My fiction is driven by an inner need.
I usually circle the subject at first, convinced I have nothing to say. Then an idea for a lead comes to me. I write it down whether or not I think it’s any good. I need that opening, in the words of John McPhee, “to shine a flashlight into the story, down into the whole piece.”
After that, I start throwing paragraphs up on the screen. I lower my standards. I count the words. I hazard an ending. I let it sit for a day or two. Then I begin rewriting, a word here, a sentence there, shift paragraphs around, until it finally takes shape. It’s a process fraught with uncertainty. Each time I start, I fear this will be the time it won’t work. But it seems to, so I try to remind myself of that. I tell you this in hopes that it might bring you comfort when you face this self-doubt. If you keep at it, it will come.
“Writers are sedentary hunters,” said writing teacher Donald M. Murray. “We sit in our chairs, and like a hunter in a duck blind, must wait, sometimes in the cold, until our prey comes into sight.” Sitting in his chair every day, Murray produced more than a dozen books, and hundreds of articles. When your prey comes into sight, are you there, ready for it.
TIP OF THE WEEK
Give credit where credit is due.
Plagiarism is theft, pure and simple, the purloining of another writer's words.
No matter the excuse—sloppy note-taking, deadline pressure—the penalty can be harsh. Plagiarists often get fired, and even if they escape the ultimate death penalty, their careers are tarnished, their stories or books tainted. There's an easy solution.
Be honest about where you get your material. Don't think everything you write has to be original. Writers stand on the shoulders of other writers. Thomas Mallon, author of "Stolen Words," an engaging history of plagiarism, says writers should follow a general rule: “If you think you should attribute it, then attribute it."
CHIP IN YOUR EAR
"My Sweet Lord"/George Harrison
"A Dutch Couple"/Utagawa Yoshitora
MISCELLANY: This week's art
Utagawa Yoshitora (歌川 芳虎) was a designer of ukiyo-e Japanese woodblock prints and an illustrator of books and newspapers who was active from about 1850 to about 1880. From the 1860s Yoshitora produced pictures of foreigners amid rapid modernization that came to Japan after the country was opened to trade.
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May the writing go well.