This is just to say how much I appreciated your recs here. Checked each one out more online. What a melange, a good reminder of how much good, if often overlooked, art (even in the form of food) is being made all the time.
Hi Junot. Thanks so much for your thoughtful reply about voice in the last office hours.
Do you have any tips for learning to write better when you’re already reasonably good at it? Aside from doing an MFA, I find a lot of the available educational offerings are more basic than what I’m after (and expensive!) Yet I still really crave some input and guidance on how to get better at this very hard thing. Any thoughts on good techniques for self-study or finding a mentor or other options?
i wish i had something wise to say. With any journey, beginnings are very hard but so are middles. im sure all the standards apply here: seeking a community of like-minded writers to meet with regularly but those are harder and harder to locate in this atomized age.
but still one must try, right?
because one never knows.
If you can't find anything, sometimes there's no other recourse except to be your own guide, your own teacher. What you've been doing already no doubt. After all you know better than anyone else what it is for you to work and for you to push yourself. What it feels like for you to be lost and what it feels like to be engaged. These days sites like substack make it easier for one to assemble a solid curriculum--in my day there was very little except you and the books, which was really really isolating.
Any tips for revising? I'm gearing up for what I hope will be the final pre-querying revision on the 7th draft of a novel. I'm obviously past the dizzying passion that got me through the first 6 drafts, and I hope that can be useful for seeing where it needs to be brought to my own standards from a technical/craft perspective. But sometimes, I just see, "aughhh, that's weak," without knowing what to do instead, and that frustration creates a vicious cycle that makes revision seem insurmountable at this stage.
sarah, huge congratulations. may the seven draft be the charm.
as for your question: this is a tough one. nothing helps us as writers more than having good critical readers. many writers do it alone but it's almost always better not to. easy for me to say find a good reader, however, and very hard to actually find one.
if you don't have a reading group, all i can say is that's its a lot easier to re-write in a spirit of generosity, if you're having an on-going conversation with your critical self.
you have to be able to control your judgment at your perceived shortcomings because that judgment will prevent you from seeing what is valuable about the work.
Hi Junot, I was hoping you could write about the opening paragraph. I know you've mentioned it before relating it to voice but... I recently spent two months to nail an opening after my coach/editor green lit the rest of the piece, but challenged on me on the first few lines.
I looked for insights in T.C. Boyle collections, I looked through Drown, Saunders and other short story volumes but found little rhyme or reason other than MAYBE action. In the end, when mine reached its final form I knew i from the feeling in my gut, than from anything tangible or that I could point to at all really.
So, I guess the question is how do YOU know when your opening paragraph is ready? Are there checkmarks or is it guttural? Thanks!
This is just to say how much I appreciated your recs here. Checked each one out more online. What a melange, a good reminder of how much good, if often overlooked, art (even in the form of food) is being made all the time.
Hi Junot. Thanks so much for your thoughtful reply about voice in the last office hours.
Do you have any tips for learning to write better when you’re already reasonably good at it? Aside from doing an MFA, I find a lot of the available educational offerings are more basic than what I’m after (and expensive!) Yet I still really crave some input and guidance on how to get better at this very hard thing. Any thoughts on good techniques for self-study or finding a mentor or other options?
i wish i had something wise to say. With any journey, beginnings are very hard but so are middles. im sure all the standards apply here: seeking a community of like-minded writers to meet with regularly but those are harder and harder to locate in this atomized age.
but still one must try, right?
because one never knows.
If you can't find anything, sometimes there's no other recourse except to be your own guide, your own teacher. What you've been doing already no doubt. After all you know better than anyone else what it is for you to work and for you to push yourself. What it feels like for you to be lost and what it feels like to be engaged. These days sites like substack make it easier for one to assemble a solid curriculum--in my day there was very little except you and the books, which was really really isolating.
good luck, sara. wish i had more..
Any tips for revising? I'm gearing up for what I hope will be the final pre-querying revision on the 7th draft of a novel. I'm obviously past the dizzying passion that got me through the first 6 drafts, and I hope that can be useful for seeing where it needs to be brought to my own standards from a technical/craft perspective. But sometimes, I just see, "aughhh, that's weak," without knowing what to do instead, and that frustration creates a vicious cycle that makes revision seem insurmountable at this stage.
sarah, huge congratulations. may the seven draft be the charm.
as for your question: this is a tough one. nothing helps us as writers more than having good critical readers. many writers do it alone but it's almost always better not to. easy for me to say find a good reader, however, and very hard to actually find one.
if you don't have a reading group, all i can say is that's its a lot easier to re-write in a spirit of generosity, if you're having an on-going conversation with your critical self.
https://junot.substack.com/p/sometimes-dreams-are-not-enough
you have to be able to control your judgment at your perceived shortcomings because that judgment will prevent you from seeing what is valuable about the work.
Hi Junot, I was hoping you could write about the opening paragraph. I know you've mentioned it before relating it to voice but... I recently spent two months to nail an opening after my coach/editor green lit the rest of the piece, but challenged on me on the first few lines.
I looked for insights in T.C. Boyle collections, I looked through Drown, Saunders and other short story volumes but found little rhyme or reason other than MAYBE action. In the end, when mine reached its final form I knew i from the feeling in my gut, than from anything tangible or that I could point to at all really.
So, I guess the question is how do YOU know when your opening paragraph is ready? Are there checkmarks or is it guttural? Thanks!