A good friend of mine is applying to a traditional MFA. She wrote a great sample but the punctuation is very untraditional (a lot of lower case, etc.) She asked for my input. Do I tell her the truth and say she should change it to normal punctuation in time for submission? Her sample is really good but from what I understand, she's likely to be automatically slush-piled... What Would Junot Do?
I've worked on MFA admission committees and like all these affairs they can be arbitrary as fuck. (Personal example: when I applied to MFAs, I was rejected by all my "safety schools", by every school I applied to, in fact, except Cornell. Go figure.
You never know, right. You might get someone on the committee who likes the untraditional punctuation. You might get someone who is turned off by it. I would hope that even the person that is turned off would at least give the work a fair read ... but ours is not an ideal world.
It's really up to the writer what they want their portfolio to communicate and what they wish to risk. If I was a friend of the person in question and they asked me about the punctuation, I would say the above and no more. Their choice in the end is theirs.
After all if punctuation is going to scuttle a candidacy... that's probably not the MFA for them anyway.
My submission was printed with fading ink and had amateur spelling errors and punctuation mistakes that I only noticed after I sent in my application. Maybe there were folks in the schools that rejected me that saw those infelicities and threw me right onto the reject pile ... or maybe they rejected me because they didn't like my stories. Hard to know. What I do know is that one school at least forgave me my "irregularities" and gave me an honest read.
You ask what I would do?
What I did. Submit the story that most represented me, errors and all and pray for the best. (I'm sure if I didn't get in the first round I probably would have gone conservative but who knows right?)
i, needless to say am in the category of non-traditonal writers. as a well read person, you likely have at least learned of e.e. cummings, my personal hero. in my 75th year on this planet, i am going to release several books but my current plan it is write my e. e. cummings version and ask a professional writer to translate to a standard prose. my wife of almost 40 year will at least do a final editing of the standard version.
I’m nearing the submission stage for my first novel, set in the mid-nineties with background scenes from the 60s and 70s. It’s an OG Nuyorican novel, absolutely codeswitch-free, and I sometimes wonder what editors from wildly different backgrounds might make of it. My approach is humility for the craft and confidence in my voice. I know the work will benefit from a good editor, but will they get what I want to say? I can’t imagine you had a problem with your three books (am I trippin’?), but is this scenario a particular challenge for writers of color?
Thomas, it's like I said in that last post about proleptic defenses (HOW TO STOP WORRYING ABOUT AUTHENTICITY). You really don't know what your possible editor will or will not make of your work yet. I would suggest not starting from the negative or from a place of deterministic deficiency. Truth is if Editor A doesn't get what you want to say, then maybe Editor B will get it. In my experience editors attach themselves to a work because they resonate with it. Perfect harmonized connection is a lot to ask of an editor - but sympathy and enthusiasm I can work with. An editor might not be able to help you with all elements of the work but as long as they can help with something substantial - what more can we ask of this imperfect world? Example: my first editor for Oscar Wao had no idea what to do with my footnotes and cut them from the manuscript and didn't know jack about my nerditry - but she was amazing at a bunch of other stuff that improved the work immensely. Fortunately my second editor got the footnotes - and supported their inclusion.
Something my therapist said to me last week. Receiving help demands skillfulness from both the one asking for the help and the one receiving it. You got to be willing to accept the helpers limitations without dishonoring what they can help you with.
From your experience, if someone had an artistic talent and never pursued it after college cause you know, they had to make a living. Do you find that those people tend to miserable in their middle age even though they have a comfortable life? Cause they never used their abilities. Basically, can you just tell me to shut the f up and f'n create whatever it Is that that I'm supposed to?
Appreciate the post Junot. I'm grateful for how venerable you are on dealing with your own demons. Forgiveness and mourning is not something I thought that I deserved. As a child of immigrant parents it was never part of the plan. I feel like I have to break this cycle of trauma my parents passed down to me -that they had with moving to this country, escaping communist China- cause I don't want to pass it on to my kids which I feel like I'm already unconsciously doing.
I would like to know if you have a process in describing characters. Is there a point on when to describe a minor character such as saying Jerry stuck his bald head in the doorway. I know that reading is part of this since I am reading a wide range of Short stories. No rush on a post especially if you discussed it already. If prompts are part of the answer, then I would like to read about that as well.
How can I reach that famous "second hand" to pull up a YA mexica-inspired historical fantasy into the spotlight with a blurb from a famous non-Chicano, non-fantasy, failed-SF author? – Willing to work for camaraderie
Hi Professor, I like having other writers and readers around me but I'm not sure how people do that during the rewrite stage. I feel like there's no point in showing someone draft #20 when they've already given their notes on earlier stages. Also, my rewrites're mainly a bunch of structural changes that won't make sense to anyone else. What do people do? Should I just keep plowing forward alone?
Nancy, good to hear from you and glad the book is moving ahead full-steam.
With these things, we all need to understand our crit rhythms and we all need have a sense of what our readers can endure. I tend to have my readers weigh in once I've gotten a good chunk done on a novel (75 pages) or a solid draft of a short story. With novels I'll have them come back in again at the halfway mark and then again when the draft is complete. And if necessary when the next draft is done. But honestly only a two of my readers have the stamina for a fourth go-around. Most tap out at three.
I know a few writers who check in with their readers only at the end of each draft. And I know one writer who has their people look at their manuscript every step of the way.
I might be wrong Nancy but it sounds like you're saying that the changes you are making to the manuscript are occult enough that turning to your readers at this stage might not be the best use of their energies. At the same time (and I'm sure I'm reading this wrong) you seem to be implying that maybe you could use some affirmation nevertheless?
Given what I know of my rhythm and my readers, I would wait until I've done enough to warrant their attention. But you have different needs and different readers. You have to weigh what would be best for you against over-taxing what your single best resource as a writer - your first readers.
Hope that helps. Please shoot back if you have a follow up.
this is happening right now. folks post their questions and i answer them either here or in a post. ill put up the next coro the wednesday after next, give or take a day.
I've participated in a number of workshops, writers'groups, and classes that were great and with well-intentioned people that I generally liked, but generally weren't diverse in terms of demographics. This sometimes became apparent when conversations about writing veered into the political. Any suggestions as to organizations that offer workshops likely to have more minority perspectives from people from previously marginalized groups ?
Hi Junot. Thanks for the time you put into your substack, I am getting a lot out of your posts.
My writing question is a bit grisly.
I experienced a violent crime, home invasion and attempted murder on October 25.
The two men who did this stole all my laptops, all my hard drives, and I won't list all the other things (except the ashes of my three beloved dogs - I ponder why the F take my dogs' ashes - but what futility) and after one of them strangled me unconscious, they left me for dead.
In this terrible event I lost 40,000 words of my novel I have been working on and gained complex PTSD. I think 5 weeks later my consciousness may just be coming back into my body - I have been disembodied since the event.
Luckily I had worked with an editor to whom I had emailed the first 15,000 words, words that I do like still even after his lengthy feedback and having them percolate in my brain a long time - they are good words and I feel still a good start to a novel.
The words that were never emailed to him are gone. 25,000 more words.
There were large chucks of those 25,000 words that were utter garbage, not working, and not even from me, they were from my thinking brain which writes nothing magical or engaging.
But there were a few chunks that were really good that I will never be able to capture again.
Bottom line, if you know, how does one begin to write again when the project has been lost.
I am facing the CPTSD of course, anything associated with the event makes me lock down.
I am also facing my self-imposed deadline from before the event to have this novel done within 2 years.
How does one start again when the gold has been stolen?
Part of me was relieved they stole the garbage, but the other part of me is sickened they stole the gold as well.
this is beyond horrible. im so very sorry. i hope you have support and resources because that's a fucking nightmare.
i posted something just now that might apply to your question (ON MOURNING etc). im no expert but you asked for a response and ill offer what I can: my sense is that healing should come before writing (some folks can heal through writing but i never have been able to).
and i would urge you to drop the self-imposed deadline. why compound one horrific cruelty by heaping another smaller-scale mundane cruelty on top of it? what is a deadline going to accomplish here except add to your stress, your precarity?
i often do this --ill be deeply wounded by some misfortune and I'll try to bind the pain through work. But work does not heal - it only binds the wound temporarily. Better to heal the injury through mourning and forgiveness. The work can wait because your health is more important than anything.
If you will allow me one last intervention: why be this hard on yourself? You don't know if the magic is gone or if it's just waiting for you to finish your mourning and forgive yourself and the world and give it another go.
It might just be waiting for you. Will it require work? Of course it will but that's always been a small price to pay for magic.
Please believe, I'm not talking out of my neck. The whole reason I started this substack was because I lost a two year novel and I'm trying to summon the same open-heartedness in myself that I'm advocating for you.
I know, deeply, personally, that it ain't easy.
But you know what's even harder? Living and writing under the weight of the negative zone.
Alright - that's all - I'll stop running the gums. Good luck ok?
Hi:
While I understand the definition of Show and Tell, I would like to see a post on this at some point. Thanks.
i gave it a shot; incoming soon...
A good friend of mine is applying to a traditional MFA. She wrote a great sample but the punctuation is very untraditional (a lot of lower case, etc.) She asked for my input. Do I tell her the truth and say she should change it to normal punctuation in time for submission? Her sample is really good but from what I understand, she's likely to be automatically slush-piled... What Would Junot Do?
I've worked on MFA admission committees and like all these affairs they can be arbitrary as fuck. (Personal example: when I applied to MFAs, I was rejected by all my "safety schools", by every school I applied to, in fact, except Cornell. Go figure.
You never know, right. You might get someone on the committee who likes the untraditional punctuation. You might get someone who is turned off by it. I would hope that even the person that is turned off would at least give the work a fair read ... but ours is not an ideal world.
It's really up to the writer what they want their portfolio to communicate and what they wish to risk. If I was a friend of the person in question and they asked me about the punctuation, I would say the above and no more. Their choice in the end is theirs.
After all if punctuation is going to scuttle a candidacy... that's probably not the MFA for them anyway.
My submission was printed with fading ink and had amateur spelling errors and punctuation mistakes that I only noticed after I sent in my application. Maybe there were folks in the schools that rejected me that saw those infelicities and threw me right onto the reject pile ... or maybe they rejected me because they didn't like my stories. Hard to know. What I do know is that one school at least forgave me my "irregularities" and gave me an honest read.
You ask what I would do?
What I did. Submit the story that most represented me, errors and all and pray for the best. (I'm sure if I didn't get in the first round I probably would have gone conservative but who knows right?)
Thank you, so much. Have a great day!
i, needless to say am in the category of non-traditonal writers. as a well read person, you likely have at least learned of e.e. cummings, my personal hero. in my 75th year on this planet, i am going to release several books but my current plan it is write my e. e. cummings version and ask a professional writer to translate to a standard prose. my wife of almost 40 year will at least do a final editing of the standard version.
Estimado Profe,
I’m nearing the submission stage for my first novel, set in the mid-nineties with background scenes from the 60s and 70s. It’s an OG Nuyorican novel, absolutely codeswitch-free, and I sometimes wonder what editors from wildly different backgrounds might make of it. My approach is humility for the craft and confidence in my voice. I know the work will benefit from a good editor, but will they get what I want to say? I can’t imagine you had a problem with your three books (am I trippin’?), but is this scenario a particular challenge for writers of color?
Thomas, it's like I said in that last post about proleptic defenses (HOW TO STOP WORRYING ABOUT AUTHENTICITY). You really don't know what your possible editor will or will not make of your work yet. I would suggest not starting from the negative or from a place of deterministic deficiency. Truth is if Editor A doesn't get what you want to say, then maybe Editor B will get it. In my experience editors attach themselves to a work because they resonate with it. Perfect harmonized connection is a lot to ask of an editor - but sympathy and enthusiasm I can work with. An editor might not be able to help you with all elements of the work but as long as they can help with something substantial - what more can we ask of this imperfect world? Example: my first editor for Oscar Wao had no idea what to do with my footnotes and cut them from the manuscript and didn't know jack about my nerditry - but she was amazing at a bunch of other stuff that improved the work immensely. Fortunately my second editor got the footnotes - and supported their inclusion.
Something my therapist said to me last week. Receiving help demands skillfulness from both the one asking for the help and the one receiving it. You got to be willing to accept the helpers limitations without dishonoring what they can help you with.
Thank you, Junot. You're very generous.
Hi Junot,
From your experience, if someone had an artistic talent and never pursued it after college cause you know, they had to make a living. Do you find that those people tend to miserable in their middle age even though they have a comfortable life? Cause they never used their abilities. Basically, can you just tell me to shut the f up and f'n create whatever it Is that that I'm supposed to?
allen, i posted a response to your question and hope it helps. forgive my misapprehensions.
Appreciate the post Junot. I'm grateful for how venerable you are on dealing with your own demons. Forgiveness and mourning is not something I thought that I deserved. As a child of immigrant parents it was never part of the plan. I feel like I have to break this cycle of trauma my parents passed down to me -that they had with moving to this country, escaping communist China- cause I don't want to pass it on to my kids which I feel like I'm already unconsciously doing.
Hello Again:
I would like to know if you have a process in describing characters. Is there a point on when to describe a minor character such as saying Jerry stuck his bald head in the doorway. I know that reading is part of this since I am reading a wide range of Short stories. No rush on a post especially if you discussed it already. If prompts are part of the answer, then I would like to read about that as well.
How can I reach that famous "second hand" to pull up a YA mexica-inspired historical fantasy into the spotlight with a blurb from a famous non-Chicano, non-fantasy, failed-SF author? – Willing to work for camaraderie
Hi Professor, I like having other writers and readers around me but I'm not sure how people do that during the rewrite stage. I feel like there's no point in showing someone draft #20 when they've already given their notes on earlier stages. Also, my rewrites're mainly a bunch of structural changes that won't make sense to anyone else. What do people do? Should I just keep plowing forward alone?
Nancy, good to hear from you and glad the book is moving ahead full-steam.
With these things, we all need to understand our crit rhythms and we all need have a sense of what our readers can endure. I tend to have my readers weigh in once I've gotten a good chunk done on a novel (75 pages) or a solid draft of a short story. With novels I'll have them come back in again at the halfway mark and then again when the draft is complete. And if necessary when the next draft is done. But honestly only a two of my readers have the stamina for a fourth go-around. Most tap out at three.
I know a few writers who check in with their readers only at the end of each draft. And I know one writer who has their people look at their manuscript every step of the way.
I might be wrong Nancy but it sounds like you're saying that the changes you are making to the manuscript are occult enough that turning to your readers at this stage might not be the best use of their energies. At the same time (and I'm sure I'm reading this wrong) you seem to be implying that maybe you could use some affirmation nevertheless?
Given what I know of my rhythm and my readers, I would wait until I've done enough to warrant their attention. But you have different needs and different readers. You have to weigh what would be best for you against over-taxing what your single best resource as a writer - your first readers.
Hope that helps. Please shoot back if you have a follow up.
Can anyone remind me of the Coro schedule, please?
The schedule varies. Just getting the hang of this so it's less regular than I'd like it to be.
Thank you - when is this next one, please?
this is happening right now. folks post their questions and i answer them either here or in a post. ill put up the next coro the wednesday after next, give or take a day.
I've participated in a number of workshops, writers'groups, and classes that were great and with well-intentioned people that I generally liked, but generally weren't diverse in terms of demographics. This sometimes became apparent when conversations about writing veered into the political. Any suggestions as to organizations that offer workshops likely to have more minority perspectives from people from previously marginalized groups ?
http://www.kundiman.org/poc-organizations
this is a great general post and it has links for Hurston/Wright Foundation and Macondo which are both excellent.
Belated thanks, Junot. I'm checking these out. I, too, am getting a lot out of StoryWorlds.
Hi Junot. Thanks for the time you put into your substack, I am getting a lot out of your posts.
My writing question is a bit grisly.
I experienced a violent crime, home invasion and attempted murder on October 25.
The two men who did this stole all my laptops, all my hard drives, and I won't list all the other things (except the ashes of my three beloved dogs - I ponder why the F take my dogs' ashes - but what futility) and after one of them strangled me unconscious, they left me for dead.
In this terrible event I lost 40,000 words of my novel I have been working on and gained complex PTSD. I think 5 weeks later my consciousness may just be coming back into my body - I have been disembodied since the event.
Luckily I had worked with an editor to whom I had emailed the first 15,000 words, words that I do like still even after his lengthy feedback and having them percolate in my brain a long time - they are good words and I feel still a good start to a novel.
The words that were never emailed to him are gone. 25,000 more words.
There were large chucks of those 25,000 words that were utter garbage, not working, and not even from me, they were from my thinking brain which writes nothing magical or engaging.
But there were a few chunks that were really good that I will never be able to capture again.
Bottom line, if you know, how does one begin to write again when the project has been lost.
I am facing the CPTSD of course, anything associated with the event makes me lock down.
I am also facing my self-imposed deadline from before the event to have this novel done within 2 years.
How does one start again when the gold has been stolen?
Part of me was relieved they stole the garbage, but the other part of me is sickened they stole the gold as well.
Thank you.
this is beyond horrible. im so very sorry. i hope you have support and resources because that's a fucking nightmare.
i posted something just now that might apply to your question (ON MOURNING etc). im no expert but you asked for a response and ill offer what I can: my sense is that healing should come before writing (some folks can heal through writing but i never have been able to).
and i would urge you to drop the self-imposed deadline. why compound one horrific cruelty by heaping another smaller-scale mundane cruelty on top of it? what is a deadline going to accomplish here except add to your stress, your precarity?
i often do this --ill be deeply wounded by some misfortune and I'll try to bind the pain through work. But work does not heal - it only binds the wound temporarily. Better to heal the injury through mourning and forgiveness. The work can wait because your health is more important than anything.
Thanks. I guess I need to just let that whole novel go. It's gone.
There is no way to get any of the magic that was there back -
If you will allow me one last intervention: why be this hard on yourself? You don't know if the magic is gone or if it's just waiting for you to finish your mourning and forgive yourself and the world and give it another go.
It might just be waiting for you. Will it require work? Of course it will but that's always been a small price to pay for magic.
Please believe, I'm not talking out of my neck. The whole reason I started this substack was because I lost a two year novel and I'm trying to summon the same open-heartedness in myself that I'm advocating for you.
I know, deeply, personally, that it ain't easy.
But you know what's even harder? Living and writing under the weight of the negative zone.
Alright - that's all - I'll stop running the gums. Good luck ok?