Labor Day, Julia Child and Writers

    After the United States Congress unanimously voted to approve legislation that made Labor Day a national holiday, and President Grover Cleveland  signed it into law in  1894, its purpose  was to celebrate the economic and social contributions of workers.  Today,  Labor Day is mostly associated with the end

of summer and retail sales.

    Typically, Labor Day weekend marks the last  three day, care free weekend before the start of school when families go on picnics, to the beach, barbecue in the back yard, and kids play hard. In the late 1970's when I worked for the Los Angeles Times selling retail advertising, I remember  there was always a big push to sell a Display ad to the department store, grocery market or mom and pop business to promote their special Labor Day Sale. 

    As I was preparing to write my blog for today, knowing it coincided with Labor Day, I gave thought to how writers often look upon their work as a Labor of Love - the hard work, perseverance, and dedication it takes to  write, and sometimes rewrite  a story, poem, memoir, composition, compilation of recipes ,  or essay; the writer is  vulnerable to the ridicule and criticism of others, all while putting  forth effort day after day to hone a craft  that will not only please her or himself, but also be pleasing to others in the way of description, plot, dialogue. Sometimes the writers goal is to educate, to help  broaden another's point of  view; Sometimes the writers purpose  is to make us  laugh, or move one  to tears, or share their own personal story. 

    When most folks think of Julia Child they think of the master of French cooking, a PBS superstar who taught cooking lessons to millions via television,  not Julia Child, the accomplished author. Yet, that is exactly  what she was, a storyteller who had a passion for French cooking,  the author  of  one  of the best selling cook books of all time, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, along with  other popular  titles including, Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume Two, From Julia Child's Kitchen, Julia's Kitchen Wisdom, Cooking with Master Chefs and her memoir, My Life in France. 

                                                               

   By all accounts, Julia Child, born Julia  Carolyn McWilliams  in the  idyllic turn of the century  town of Pasadena, California,   August 15, 1912  was a child with  high energy and determination. Traits that would serve her well throughout her life, especially while writing her first book. It took Child  nine years of researching, writing, recipe testing and editing before  Mastering the Art of French Cooking  was finally published in 1961 ,  and not by Houghton Mifflin ,  who sent her a letter rejecting her book  because it was too long, but  by publisher Alfred A. Knopf.  

    And Knopf published only after much back and forth. According to biographer Bob Spritz, author of  Dearie The Remarkable Life of Julia Child, " Getting Knopf to publish it, however, would take considerable effort."

    Today, we can only surmise how lucky Knopf must have felt after their wise decision to publish Child's book led to a best seller.  Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume One, and Mastering Volume Two  - taken together, are considered one of the most influential works in American cookbook history. 

    This Labor Day I salute Julia Child,  and all writers who work so tirelessly to pursue  their goal of writing their passion  - a  novel, memoir,  or book of poems - and yes, even a cookbook !


*** For more information about Julia Child visit  http://www.juliachildfoundation.org/

     

    

   

   

    

    

 

Is Your Writing Boring or Exciting? How to Engage Readers

If you write boringly, your reader will quickly become bored and quit reading. Death to your hard but less than stellar work. Advice from people like Kurt Vonnegut and Ray Bradbury tell us to write so the reader does not feel like his time is wasted. Write so that he or she is forced to stay up past bedtime to read just one more chapter. Write so that the reader cheers for at least one character and then write that character into all sorts of troubles and show how that character gets out of the trouble, learns from it or overcomes it. 

Write, then go back and highlight verbs in one color and nouns in another. Did you repeatedly use one or two words? "Brett found a great deal on a horse. He went to the store and chose great tack." Can you find a stronger word to replace an uninteresting one. "Bart decided he was going to learn to ride a horse" or "Bart challenged himself to learn to ride Big George."

Determine your target audience and write to one person in it. If you try to write to the world, 99% of the people will not like your writing, topic or story line and the other 1% will have trouble finding you. Narrow your prose to fit a certain demographic. Try picturing your ideal reader when you are writing. Where is he sitting, what level of education does she have, how is she going to react to what the main protagonist attempts? What would spark interest in a reader to continue reading? Something unsuspected? Something harmful to a character? A plot twist that juxtaposes common sense?

Know your characters down to their sock sizes. Outline a complete picture of what your characters look like, what they like to wear, where they shop, what do they do in their leisure time, their occupation and the clothes they need for it versus clothes for relaxing. Hair color of course but does she dye it? What kind of Stetson does he wear? You will not use most of the information that you envisioned but you will know your character and writing about him or her will be easier. 

Research and get to know the gun used to commit murder or understand what and how a the form of transportation was used in your 1817 novel. Was it a coach, carriage, palanquin, wagon, cart, surry or sedan chair? Did it have leather straps for support (The dry leather straps rubbed against each other creating further irritation for Melanie) or did it have elliptical or leaf springs (Melanie's irritation grew as the springs of the coach squeaked louder with each pot hole).

We all know the rule that a sentence must reveal something or advance the plot. If it doesn't, then delete the sentence as it is of no use. You know in your mind the picture you are trying to create but think objectively if you actually did the best job. Remember the game of two people facing each other with a divider between them; they cannot see each other. One person tells the other how to draw an object without naming the object. Your sentences should draw a picture that readers can imagine easily.

Several writers I know have complained because their editors forced them to reveal facts or introduce people before the writer wanted to. Give your readers as much information as possible quickly so they have an intimate understanding of what is going on and why. You develop tension by the events that you make happen to your characters not by keeping salient points from readers.

We learn that writers must read a variety of genres. Pick up your next book with an agenda in mind. Decide what you are going to look for in this author's writing. Is it how he introduces characters, how she describes emotions, why you believe that that the setting is in NewYork City in 1945? Remember when it was called New York City and not New York? When did it change and why? You should know it when you write about it. "Ethel traveled by train to New York City in 1945." "Kirsten flies to New York in 1999."

 We have stories to tell so let's apply what good writers teach us and hope we are as successful as Flannery O'Conner, Ernest Hemingway, Rex Stout and Stephen King.

Question Mark and Exclamation Points Together ?! Interabang Explained

JENNIFER ROVA

May we use ?! and !? or ???? or !!!! in writing? It is unacceptable to use the aforementioned in academic writing, in formal writing, in business writing and by good writers. Its use points to the writer as uneducated or too lazy to think of the proper words. In recent years and in more casual writing, ?! and alternatively !? became popular through comic strip cartoons. Often the cloud above a character’s head will contain  interrobongs or interabangs  (in-TER-a-bang) which is what [?!] and [!?] are called, the latter spelling being the preferred choice.

interabang

Punctuation at the end of a sentence is called terminal punctuation. There is the period [.], which ends most sentences. The question mark [?] ends an interrogative sentence and an exclamation point [!] is used after an interjection or exclamation.

An interabang is used to express some question, excitement, surprise or disbelief: I am adopted?!

You did what to the dog!? Please, will you help me?!

Is there a specific way to use the interabang? Yes, it turns out, there is. If you want to use an interabang, place the most important punctuation mark first. “You got into Harvard?!” denotes first surprise that you got accepted followed by the extra emphasis of the unbelievable. “You got into Harvard !?” is excitement for your acceptance followed by the lesser surprise that you got in.  The unwritten rule is that you put first the punctuation you would normally use without its companion.

“What are you doing?” is asking a simple question because I do not know the answer.

“What are you doing!” is disbelief, horror or worry regarding what you are doing that I see and I understand.

“What are you doing?!” is surprise and disbelief and “What are you doing!?” is disbelief followed by why would you do something like that?

There is a glyph (symbol) for an interabang but it is not found in most fonts. Apparently you can find it text editor or by using Americana font. I could not find it in fonts and I do not have text editor but it looks like this. It is combination of a question mark and an exclamation point. Most people use "?!" or "!?"

interabang

There are several other uses of the word interabang in unrelated instances. One is a web site of an English design firm, interabangUK, another is a travel web site, Interabang travels with Trisha and Derrick, plus various others within a variety of unrelated subjects.

The question is it ever proper under any circumstances to use multiple exclamation points or question marks such as “I am so tired!!!!!” “Where are you?????” The answer is no, unless you want to look stupid and annoy your reader be it in an email, on Facebook or in your writing.

For more information see Nancy Owens Barnes' post on "Exclamanation Mark: Its Use and Abuse!"
http://writingnorthidaho.blogspot.com/2012/11/exclamation-mark-its-use-and-abuse.html

P.S. I agree with a reader's comment that to use "ect., etc." is also a no-no.

I Don't Know What To Write

A few times I have been asked to give a workshop on "writing books" or "how to write." The main comment I get is, "I don't know what to write about."  My answer is usually to ask a person in the audience to toss out a subject and I tell them beforehand that I can come up with five different themes to write about from that one suggestion. For instance, one person shouted out "grocery stores." I answered in almost rapid responses: how to shop, using weekly ads, how and where grocers place items on
shelves, and what to do about people who talk loudly on their cell phones the entire time they, and you, are shopping. Another said "men's shoes."  My answers were: a history of men's shoes, how fine shoes are made, current trends in men's shoes, how to take care of your shoes, and can you buy shoes for another person.

 Not all of these ideas would play out to be a vital article, and research is required on all the answers. The point is if I can find five topics in rapid succession off the top of my head in a public venue with random topics, you, too, can find some topic about which to write!

In researching this subject, I came across a large number of books whose titles made me wonder, "How did THAT get published?" These titles prove my point better than any more expounding on how and where to find topics you may want to explore for writing. You never know what publishers will print.                                                                                                

Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification, Julian Montague

How to Start Your Own Country, Edwin S. Strauss

The Toothpick: Technology and Culture, Henry Petroski

Catflexing: A Catlovers Guide to Weight Training, Aerobics and Stretching, Stephanie Jacobsen

Village Bells,  Alain Cobin 

Fashion in Spinach, Elizabeth Hawes

Bicycles in War, Martin Cardin and Jay Barbree

English Laundresses Working Class 1850-1930

How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found, Doug Richmond

Bombproof Your Horse, Rick Pelicano

Blessed Are the Cheesemakers,  Sarah-Kate Lynch

Knitting with Dog Hair A Sweater From The Dog You Know and Love Than The Sheep You'll Never Meet, Kendall Collier

The Book of Marmalade, C. Anne Wilson

Build Your Own Hindenburg, Alain Rose

How to Avoid Huge Ships, John H. Trimmer

How to Abandon Ship,  Phil Richards and John J. Banigan

Blue Plate Special, the musing of a woman about her food choices, meals, food prep, Kate Christensen

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in A World that Can't Stop Talking, Susan Cain

How to Sharpen Pencils A Practical & Theoretical Treatise on the Artisanal Craft of Pencil Sharpening for Writers, Artists, Contractors, Flange Turners, Anglesmiths, & Civil Servants, David Rees and John Hodgman 

How to Read A Book, Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren

Suture Self, Mary Durheim

Across Europe by Kangaroo, Joseph R. Barry

The Invention of The Curried Sausage, Ulwe Timon

A Lust for Window Sills, Harry Mount

Soap Through The Ages,  R. Lucock Wilson

SALT a world history,  Mark Kurlansky

How to Build A Cork Boat,  John Pollack

How Tea Cosies Changed The World, Loani Prior

Be Bold with Bananas, Crescent Books

The Devil's Cloth A History of Stripes,  Michel Pastoureant

As  you can see, you CAN find a topic, even obscure, that a publisher will publish.

The Writing Life: Just Because It's Fun

True confession: I am not a particularly playful person. Blame it on school gym class, dim memories of recess, or being a last-one-left-at-home child of older, non-game-playing parents, but whenever someone starts choosing up sides for softball or reaches for the Parcheesi set, I feel out of my element.

Thanks to a stubborn bent toward learning, no one is better than me at turning a fun time into work. A game of tennis becomes a grueling exercise in improving my swing and footwork and, frankly, just trying to make contact with that infuriating little ball. Volleyball at a picnic--no thank you. I rather like the idea of croquet, but when the opportunity to play is presented, I tend to stay rooted in my lawn chair, cool glass at hand, rather than risk looking foolish with a mallet. At parties I'd rather enjoy a good conversation than play Pictionary. And forget reading for pleasure--as a writer, even the most delightful, absorbing book soon becomes an object for dissection and analysis to lift the curtain on the author's magic.

That's not to say I'm a dour killjoy (at least, not all the time), but when someone suggests playing a game--or worse, makes a nonspecific suggestion to "go outside and play"--I'm never the first to jump in. What does that mean, really, "to play"?

This odd aversion to play is, I feel, a shortcoming, a fault of character. Research shows that play is a healthy and necessary component of mental health. But recently I came across a new-to-me definition of play that, I believe, will throw wide the doors of my reluctance to let the good times roll.

In Write Within Yourself: An Author's Companion by William Kenower, a thought-provoking set of essays on the writing life, the author describes a magical evening of serendipitous backyard play with friends that he experienced as a child. He concludes, "We weren't free that night because we didn't have to do dishes or homework, we were free because we were living the gift of play, the search for the current pleasure in everything."

"The search for the current pleasure in everything." Yes! When I read that definition of play, I understood that playing has less to do with games and teams and rules and physical coordination, and more with finding and relishing the golden moment in even the most mundane task. I felt released from the tyranny of "having fun" to something much more satisfying. I felt free to appreciate the delightful squish of mud while gardening, the cascade of rainbow bubbles while washing dishes. To feel the sheer pleasure of taking a walk on a starlit country road, instead of calculating how much it would contribute to my daily 10,000 steps. Instead of finding the chore within the fun, I began to look for the fun within the chore.

For writers, play can mean enjoying words and language, literally messing around with them as an artist messes around with paints or modeling clay. Get giddy with plays on words, puzzles, limericks, double meanings. Form phrases out of fabulous words you find in the dictionary--words that mean something wonderful, or that merely have a pleasing arrangement of vowels, consonants, and syllables. Don't do it because you're striving to create the cleverest limerick or most evocative metaphor. Do it just because it's fun. Search for the current pleasure in whatever it is you're writing.
Now go inside and play!

Book Review: The Clockwork Muse

Here in the far northern U. S., summers are short. Already the vivid greens of the forest outside my window are taking on a golden cast. Fall is one of my favorite seasons, and yet there's a feeling of melancholy, a sense of weekend jaunts not taken and swimming not indulged in and people not visited--fun, summery things that pretty soon will have to wait until next year. I'm aware of time passing at a speed it does not possess in the dead of January. I wish I could grab onto the hours and make them slow down. Since I can't, the next best thing is to make the most of every hour while I have it in my grasp.

Eager to wring the most productivity out of those hours set aside for writing, I picked up a slim volume titled The Clockwork Muse: A Practical Guide to Writing Theses, Dissertations, and Books by Eviatar Zerubavel. Published by Harvard University Press in 1999, the book is mainly directed to students and other academic writers, but I'm finding it filled with practical advice for anyone tackling a major writing project, from a book project to a school assignment to an annual report at work.


Zerubavel, a professor of sociology at Rutgers, helps the reader sidestep writer's block, procrastination, burnout, and the clammy anxiety that too often accompanies the blank page by establishing a schedule and regular work habits. He covers all stages of writing, from planning to outlining, drafting, and revising. Some of the suggestions will be old news to the seasoned writer, but for those who find themselves craning their necks to see the peak of an intimidating writing project, this book will help bring it down to a manageable size. And happily for the time-pressed reader, the book is short enough to zip through in one or two sittings.

When I can sit down to write with full concentration and a clear road-map of what I need to accomplish, I can devote fewer hours to writing, giving me more free time to indulge those last heady, precious days of summer. If it's been a while since you gave your writing habits a tune-up, pick up a copy. And as kids head back to school, your favorite young scholar might also benefit from reading The Clockwork Muse.

An Introvert's Guide to Writer's Conferences

For many writers, summertime means writer's-conference time. Conferences can be exhilarating, exciting . . . and exhausting to a natural introvert. All those people! All that talking! All that smiling and back-slapping hail-fellow-well-met-ness!

Having just returned from one big conference in Portland, Oregon, and soon to attend an even bigger one in Indianapolis, making the most of a writer's conference is at the top of my mind, so I thought I'd share a few hard-won suggestions with you.

First, why would you even want to attend a writer's conference, which can sound like an introvert's worst nightmare? For me, it's primarily to connect with other writers, to meet editors who might be interested in the kinds of things I write, and to take classes and workshops that will help me improve my craft. Fix your own reasons in your mind; then the time, money, and all-out effort will seem well-spent.

There's loads information on the Internet for things to do before, during, and after a conference, from preparing your pitch to sending thank-you notes. In addition to the usual wisdom about elevator pitches and comfortable shoes, here are a few suggestions from my own hard-won experience:

*Make sure you're at the right conference in the first place. Do your homework to choose a conference that's a good fit for you geographically and financially, as well as appropriate to your kind of writing. Check that it features keynote speakers and teachers you're truly interested in meeting and learning from. Socializing is much easier when you feel that you're among kindred spirits.

*Set a goal. Choose a goal that takes you out of your comfort zone, and make it measurable, like "initiate conversations with three fellow writers" or "schedule meetings with two agents to discuss work-in-progress." Then peel yourself from the wallpaper and do it. When you've achieved your goal, kick back and reach for the chocolate. You've earned it!

*Look for ways to serve others. You never know when someone might need a pen, an aspirin, a chair, a breath mint, a tourniquet . . . Mom was right: focusing on others helps you forget yourself and your anxious feelings. Especially keep an eye out for others who might be feeling as lonely or ill-at-ease as you are. A simple "hello" may improve both your situations.

*Take a time-out. A writer's conference is not a retreat--you are not going off to some bucolic locale to write for long, delicious, uninterrupted hours.An active conference will likely keep you busy from sunup to sundown and beyond--it's up to YOU to call a time-out when you need a break. Retreat to your room for a lie-down, or scope out a quiet corner of the hotel lobby or campus where you can catch your breath and regroup.

*Drink water. It's good for your body, gives you something to hold on to, and keeps you from getting dry-mouth. The air in some conference venues can be incredibly dry.

*Practice what to say. Here's some solid information from C. Hope Clark, author of The Shy Writer, on pre-planning what to say about yourself and your book, so that you aren't scrambling to think up a response on the spot.

*Phone home. Sometimes all it takes is the sound of a familiar voice to give you the courage to get back out into the fray.

*Above all, have fun.  Try to work some enjoyable activities into your schedule, whether it's swimming in the hotel pool or visiting a nearby museum or tourist site. While you don't want to skip out on too much of the conference--you've paid good money to be there, after all--a few well-timed withdrawals can help you absorb the information you've been given, as well as give you a break from being "on" all the time.

Who knows . . . by the end of the conference, maybe some of those strangers will have become friends.

Are you an introverted writer trying to make it in an extroverted world? Share some tips!