The Westside Writers Schmooze Returns!

“BLOG” MEANS NEVER HAVING TO SAY YOU’RE SORRY

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HOW WE LEARNED TO STOP FRETTING ABOUT THESE BLOG POSTS 

BEING LATE (IN THIS CASE, RIDICULOUSLY SO) AND JUST GET ON WITH IT!

Ah, Schmoozers – how we’ve missed you!  But fret not – the Westside Writers Schmooze resumes in just a few short weeks. 

Since summer’s really, really fun, we never got around to recapping the June Schmooze on revision (okay, we are sorry), so we thought we’d take this opportunity to, briefly, do that (briefly?...you’ll believe that when you see it, right?) and provide a sneak peek at the very exciting upcoming Schmooze year, which runs from September 2012 through June 2013.

After the usual announcements, intros, and some tales from the Critiquenic which had happened a few weeks earlier, Charlie kicked off the revision discussion with a moving metaphor.  And by “moving” we don’t mean emotion-eliciting (which, let’s face it, is not exactly Charlie’s bailiwick) we mean literally moving, like as in “change of address.”

You see, Charlie and his family had recently moved, and it got him to thinking about how moving and revision are the same (it’s a good thing Mr. Self-Involved didn’t recently have a stomach flu or the opening metaphor would have been very unpleasant indeed). 

Here’s a little of what he said:

      Why is moving so painful?  Cause you’re taking apart a life you’ve built for yourself over the years.  It wasn’t perfect; in fact there were many things you found obnoxious: the overstuffed garage, the lack of things on the wall you really like, maybe even the setup of the house itself.  But still, it was your home and, as such, it served you fairly well.  And now you’re ripping it apart, ripping its guts out, going through all the crap, and deciding… ENDLESS DECIDING… what crap you need and what crap is crap and what crap is crap but with enough emotional heft that you want to keep it with you and lug it to the new place and try to find somewhere to fit it in. 

      It’s the same with your book.  You take something that kind of holds together, you pull it into its separate parts, and then you appraise the parts.  And, like moving, once you’ve ripped everything apart and it’s lying in pieces all around you, it’s overwhelming.  How could there possibly be so many interlocking pieces to your life/book?  And now that they’re not interlocking, what, exactly, was the point of saving that walking matzo ball that’s been gathering dust on your desk for 20 years?

      After you get rid of the obvious garbage, you‘re left with daunting questions:  what do you do with the rest?  How do you decide what to keep and, if you do keep it, where you’ll put it in the new place?  Will the new place even work with your old junk?  It’s so scary that, if you hadn’t already signed the lease, you might well not move at all.  But you did, so you gotta.

      And this is where the metaphor is valuable:  once you decide your project needs work, sign the lease on the new draft.  Don’t listen to folks telling you it’s good enough if you know in your heart that it isn’t.  Sign the lease so that you know that by the end of the month you have to move your shit out of the old draft and start placing it in the new version.  You’ll be glad you did.

This launched us into a discussion of why rewrites are so scary.  Why are we so often faced with such angst? 

This novel is terrible. I can never fix this. If I try to do anything like X suggested, I will fail; maybe she can do it, but I can't. Was all my effort wasted? Will I freeze up and be unable to write anything else, ever?

The answer to why we have so much angst is something like – because we’re human, and worse creative humans.  We’re going to have our doubts, our anxieties, but we must push through the angst and get on with the business of improving our work and making it the absolute best it can be.

So just how do we do that?  How do we internalize feedback, determine what’s valuable, and apply it to our work in ways that feel organic and germane to the stories we’re trying to tell?  We dunno.  Thankfully, you Schmoozers were full of incredible suggestions:

• Look at your emotional beats.  Are they all the same?
• Work backwards, scene by scene, thinking in terms of cause and effect: does each scene propel the story into the one that follows?
• Think like illustrators, who often start with gesture lines, and build from there; don’t get bogged down in the details.  (Charlie loves this one!)
• Don’t attempt to write “the perfect draft” – they always stink.
• You don’t need to cover everything in one rewrite.  Try tackling one set of problems (i.e. character development, plotting issues, etc.) to start.

Longtime Schmoozer and Cricket contributor Joseph Taylor wasn’t able to attend, but was kind enough to contribute (via an e-mail to Karol) some valuable words of warning about taking advice too literally.  Here's an excerpt:

A helpful critique is one in which the person offering it understands what it is the writer is trying to do, points out the good points as well as the bad, and offers suggestions for improvement where possible. 

Seeking sound feedback is not a luxury for the writer; it’s a necessity.  Still, securing feedback does not absolve the writer of revising his or her own work.  The writer who simply does what someone else suggests and doesn’t find places to improve her own work isn’t doing her job.  The writer is Reviser-in-Chief.

As important as getting feedback is, suggestions for improvement are not always on target.  While those who critique usually have good intentions, they can be hasty, not fully grasp a point of reference, or try to remake a piece the way they would do it.  It’s the writer’s job to smoke these out, and set aside such comments when necessary.  I would go so far as to say that if the writer is not rejecting some feedback, she is not engaged enough in her own revision process.

The best providers of feedback are like the best editors; they help you improve your work—sometimes noticeably so—yet they always manage to allow you to retain ownership of it.  That’s as it should be.  Those who give feedback do not have ownership of your piece; you do.

The great Ray Bradbury once offered a withering assessment of those who suggested he redo some of his work.  It can be found here: http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/censoring-ray-bradbury/

Hence, Karol’s tip from Don Roos that she always seems to come back to:

• Only take feedback from people who love and “get” your work.  They’re the ones who are best suited to help you improve your story.

Karol also loves these great (previously shared at a Schmooze) tips from an interview with YA writer Allen Zadoff and his publisher, Elizabeth Law, on dealing with feedback (or, as former screenwriter Zadoff calls them, “notes”). 

Allen at the Schmooze, December 2011
Photo credit: Rita Crayon Huang, Copyright ©2012

Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

“…the ego is always hurt when first receiving notes. I think it’s natural because the author really only wants to hear one thing: “It’s genius. Don’t change a word.”

But that’s not the real world, and it’s not what makes you a better author. The most important thing I’ve learned is that the hurt reaction is just the first impulse. I don’t have to do anything about it. I let it pass like a summer storm.

Once it’s blown itself out, I move to the more interesting place of sorting out the feedback. They generally fall into four categories.

·       1. Notes I agree with.

·       2. Notes I disagree with.

·       3. Notes I intuitively feel are wrong, but I’m not sure.

·       4. Notes I intuitively feel are right, but I’m not sure.

·       As I think about it, there is a fifth category: Notes I don’t understand and I need more clarification.”

Read the whole interview here:  http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/2011/05/interview-publisher-elizabeth-law.html

And there were LOTS of tips from other online articles and interviews as well.  Here are some links to explore:

http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2009/11/how-to-respond-to-manuscript.html

http://sophiepembroke.com/2011/03/05/learning-to-love-the-edit/

http://voices.yahoo.com/how-revise-fiction-going-through-editing-process-506498.html?cat=4

Eventually, it was time to wrap up and say our goodbyes for the summer hiatus (though many of us knew we’d be seeing each other at the National Conference in August). 

We, your humble co-coordinators, would be remiss not to mention that we felt a great deal of love coming back at us at this Schmooze – and throughout our first full year of duty.  You’ve made our job easy and fun with your participation and general awesomeness – so we thank you!  With your continued assistance, we’re set to have another year of amazing Schmoozes.

The details are now posted on the SCBWI So-Cal Calendar (http://www.scbwisocal.org/calendar.htm), but here are a few highlights:

• Two (2!) Guest Speaker nights.
• Two critiques nights – but a little later this year, since the LA County Writer’s Days are much earlier.  Both critique nights will be in time for the National Conference manuscript consultation deadline.
• A couple nights where we take on ethics issues – sex, violence, hate speech and more.  These Schmoozes will explore the idea of how far is too far?  If we are completely authentic in our depictions of kids, teens and the sometimes shady people around them, are we somehow endorsing bad behavior?
• Explorations of niche markets, reality-busting stories and books we just plain LOVE.

We’ll also be co-sponsoring a screening of Library Of The Early Mind with the Santa Monica Public Library.  More info on the film, described as “an exploration of the art and impact of children’s literature on our kids, our culture, and ourselves” can be found here http://www.libraryoftheearlymind.com/.

The screening’s set for Saturday, December 1^st at 2 PM at the SMPL Main Branch (we may plan an informal Kid Lit Happy Hour event afterward as well) so SAVE THE DATE!

But, first things first.  The Schmooze resumes Wednesday, September 12^th with a Conference Recap/Query How-To night, where you’ll be able to relive all the glory of the conference – or live vicariously though those lucky stiffs who got to attend – and get your questions about writing great query letters answered.  We’ll even spend some time critiquing Schmoozers’ own query letters, so it’s an evening you definitely DON’T want to miss!

We really can’t wait to see everyone again!

Until then, keep passing the open windows,

Charlie & Karol

As an added treat, here are a few Schmoozetastic photos from the conference! 

(Check out many more on Rita's blog:  http://rhcrayon.livejournal.com/92699.html)

Charlie & Rita hanging at the Hippie Hop.
Photo credit: Rita Crayon Huang, Copyright ©2012

Jeff enjoyed the Hippie Hop, too!
Photo credit: Rita Crayon Huang, Copyright ©2012

Rita, Lee and Sara at the Hippie Hop.
Photo credit: Rita Crayon Huang, Copyright ©2012

Wait, who let these zombie into the Hippie Hop?!
Photo credit: Rita Crayon Huang, Copyright ©2012

Karol, Rita, Mara and Jen enjoying the Crystal Kite Luncheon
Photo credit: Rita Crayon Huang, Copyright ©2012

The Schmooze's own Sara Wilson Etienne at her breakout session!
Photo credit: Rita Crayon Huang, Copyright ©2012

The Westside Writers Schmooze welcomes YA author, Allen Zadoff

It was a packed house (40+ people) for the December Schmooze with special guest, Allen Zadoff. The night featured laughter, insights, inspiration, writing exercises and, of course – baked goods galore!

After brief announcements, during which Karol implored everyone to check out the awesome new issue of Kite Tales, we dove right in. Well, sort of. Often we skip the intros around the room when we have a guest speaker. But Allen wanted to know more about the Schmoozers, so we went ahead with a quick round of introductions.

As usual, the writers in attendance ranged from picture book authors to young adult novelists, with everything from cartoonists, musicians and poets in-between. One Schmoozer had come all the way from San Diego! (We think it’s safe to say that Allen was pretty impressed with our little group…mostly cause Allen said he was pretty impressed with our little group!)

More importantly, our little group was WAYYY impressed with Allen. More than one of you have gushed to Karol and Charlie that it was the “best, most inspiring Schmooze ever,” which, while fine for Allen, was hurtful and thoughtless and heartbreaking to poor Charlie and Karol. Worse, we consider it one of the best Schmoozes ever, too (at least since we’ve been leading it)!

Why was it so good? Well…

The Highly Impressive portion of the evening began when it was Allen’s turn to tell us a little about himself.

An Unexpected YA Writer (and the most inspirational story you will ever hear at a Schmooze)

Originally a theater director in New York, Allen came to LA to pursue a career as a screenwriter. After an encouraging start (he was accepted into the prestigious Warner Brothers Comedy Writing Workshop), he spent several years writing scripts on spec. (For those of you not familiar with screenwriting terms – that means he wrote scripts on his own, hoping to sell them.)

Unfortunately for Allen (but, as it turns out, fortunately for YA readers everywhere), the Big Screenwriting Break never quite materialized.

Allen hit a wall.

In desperation, he started to question whether he’d ever make a living as a writer. Fed up with trying to sell screenplays, Allen started writing personal essays for a small Japanese magazine. Instead of telling stories for Hollywood, he began telling his own stories.

It was during this period that Allen started asking himself what he considers “the more important questions:”

• If I never sell, will I keep writing?
• What do I really care about?
• If I’m not trying to sell, what stories do I want to tell?

Allen ultimately realized he did want to continue writing. A teacher told him, “You’re an artist. An artist’s job is to build a body of work. Get going.”

So he did.

The Funny, Heartbreaking Guy

Allen shifted from screenwriting to a memoir and novels. He had to “unlearn” some habits he’d picked up from screenwriting, most having to do with relying too heavily on plot. He also learned that “the stakes” in stories are not continually rising like a thermometer; instead, Allen says the stakes should be at 110% from the start and stay there the whole way.

Of course, his screenwriting background wasn’t entirely detrimental. He tends to write short chapters, has keen facility with structure and forward propulsion, and he’s good at taking “notes,” screenwriter speak for “feedback.”

(As Karol promised, here’s a link to the awesome interview with Allen and his Egmont editor, Elizabeth Law, where he details his great approach to dealing with notes. Look for the “notes” part about half way through, but the whole interview is great!)

Around this same time, it came to Allen’s attention that a lot of really great stories were being told in the YA world. He cites Laurie Halse Anderson’s SPEAK as a YA novel he read early on that really made an impression on him. (M.T. Anderson’s FEED was another – which, incidentally, your humble Schmooze co-coordinator Karol gave to him!)

As it turns out, his agent (the one who dubbed him the “funny, heartbreaking guy”) told Allen the new material he’d been writing was, in fact, YA.

He faithfully continued his regimen of writing in the wee hours of the morning at a coffee shop before going to his day job…and the rest, as they say, is history.

Not only did Allen’s debut novel, Food, Girls and Other Things I Can’t Have win the Syd Fleischman Humor Award,

but his second novel, My Life, The Theater and Other Tragedies, was also well received (including making this year-end list). And his memoir Hungry sold, too!

Allen’s next novel for Egmont, Since You Left Me, will be published in August. It’s the story of a teenager named Sanskrit Aaron Zuckerman who (as his name suggests) is trapped between worlds--stuck in private a Jewish School while trying to keep his yoga teacher mother from leaving the family. It’s Allen’s first novel set in Los Angeles!

He has several additional novels coming out and/or under contract as well. (He shared some super-secret details on them, but we’ve been sworn to secrecy…SEE what you miss not coming to the Schmooze?!?)

A Little Exercise To Get our Brains Moving

Once Allen finished telling us about his journey to YA Authordom, your other humble Schmooze co-coordinator Charlie commented that, after reading Allen’s aforementioned memoir Hungry about food addiction, he was afraid he might be “addicted to writing.”

Allen said that in fact you can have an unhealthy relationship to your work, and that, in his case, facing the fact that he may never sell changed his relationship to writing for the better.

That exchange provided an excellent segue to the writing exercises Allen had planned for us. They are inspired by exercises from Julia Cameron’s The Artists Way and ideas from Stephen Pressfield’s War of Art and were designed to help us let our stories write themselves.

The writing prompts Allen used were brilliant and led many of us to Major Revelations. But we ain’t gonna tell you what they were. Not out of vindictiveness (except perhaps on Charlie’s part) but because it would spoil future presentations Allen may want to give (now are you EVEN MORE BUMMED you missed the Schmooze?!?).

But we will reveal that, for Allen, “looking inside and letting the unconscious decide the story” and letting go of “trying to figure it out” on his own led to a big breakthrough.

‘K. Nuff said—loose lips and all that.

A Few Additional Tidbits

As Allen sees it, an author’s job is to ask questions and be curious: fascinating stories are written by authors who are curious and honest.

That said, an author is also basically a business owner. Development, creation of content, publicity – it’s all on YOU. In fact, Allen says he has a weekly “executive conference” with himself during which he asks, “What’s my story about?”

He shared a bunch of insightful thoughts on writing craft. Here are a few:

• Be curious about your fears because they mirror you’re protagonist’s fears.
• Plot can come from working on character.
• Your protagonist wants something – and it must be a matter of life and death.
• At the end of the second act (i.e. the protagonist’s darkest hour, when all hope seems lost), he or she must reach an ultimate defeat and subsequent surrender and become open to being in the world in a different way.

So…dear fellow Schmoozers – if you’re feeling discouraged with your writing, perhaps you’re just at the end of the second act of your (current) writing journey. Perhaps you’re merely a defeat and subsequent surrender away from it all coming together in some fabulous, unexpected way.

(Your humble Schmooze co-coordinators are certainly counting on that, though Charlie wonders how long this “end of the second act” period of his life is supposed to last…)

Alllllrighty then. Out with the old, in with the new…

On January 11, 2012, please join us for the next Westside Writers Schmooze –

BRAINSTORMING! LIKE BARNSTORMING…BUT WITH YOUR BRAIN! (NOT REALLY, BUT WE THOUGHT IT WAS CATCHY!)

Bring your brain and join us for a highly informative, hands-on Schmooze where we’ll discuss different methods of brainstorming, idea mining, research, and problem solving, whether it’s on your current project or in selecting the right Next Big Idea. We’ll also take time to set some writing goals for 2012!

You can tell how Incredibly Exciting we expect this Schmooze to be by all the exclamation points used. And if you don’t get your butt there, you’ll probably be reading the blog post a month from now and kicking yourself for missing it.

DON’T LET THAT HAPPEN!

Happy New Year! May we ALL have a happy, creatively successful 2012!

(There we go with the excessive exclamation points again…)

Keep passing the open windows,

Charlie & Karol