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Friday Finds for Writers

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

Treasure ChestWriting-related resources, news, and reflections to read over the weekend.

  • “10 Rules of Submitting to Literary Magazines” – and Diane Lockward’s thoughts about one of them.
  • Tom Fields-Meyer’s “Letter to a Young Writer” may be enough to get me back to writing morning pages (or something like them).
  • “How Not to Pitch”: freelance advice from an Atlantic editor.
  • The latest in Prospect‘s interview series on the art of criticism: David Wolf interviews Ruth Franklin.
  • And on a bittersweet note: Paul Muldoon’s eulogy for Seamus Heaney.

    • Have a good weekend, everyone.

    Wednesday’s Work-in-Progress: Negative Reviews on the Brain

    by Erika Dreifus on
    7

    Thumbs_down_smiley2On my mind lately: negative reviews.

    The topic came up during my recent visit to the Whidbey Writers Workshop MFA program, not just within the book-reviewing discussions I had with students, but also in a presentation by another faculty member, who told us that he was fired from one of his freelancing gigs (as a food critic) after negatively reviewing a restaurant whose ad dollars helped fund the publication he was writing for.

    It came up again when I returned home and discovered a new, negative (two-star) review of Quiet Americans on Goodreads (go ahead and look for it if you want to). I didn’t mind quite so much the disdainful adjectives the reviewer applied to my writing style–everyone’s entitled to an opinion–but I was bothered (and stunned, really) by one other judgment about its substance. If I were to engage with the reviewer (which I won’t; we all know authors should NOT follow that understandable impulse), I would ask for some specifics. That’s one thing about negative reviews–it’s especially frustrating when the reviewers don’t provide details, examples, or other evidence to support their arguments. It’s not all that dissimilar from getting a negative workshop critique that offers painfully little (if anything) to help you understand what, exactly, the critiquer objects to.

    And then, last week, I read a negative review that seemed exemplary: sensitive, thoughtful, detailed, and evidenced. Read it here, and be sure to read through to the end, which offers some powerful closing lines (yes, I’m always reading as a writer!).

    Meantime, just this past Monday, David Abrams’s always-interesting Quivering Pen blog presented, as part of its “My First Time” series, a guest post by Doreen McGettigan on her first bad review. Which brought back memories of my own similarly-themed “My First Punch-in-the-Gut Review” for the same feature.

    So, yes, I have negative reviews on the brain. Any thoughts on the subject or relevant links you care to share?

    Friday Finds for Writers

    by Erika Dreifus on
    2

    Treasure ChestWriting-related resources, news, and reflections to read over the weekend.

  • Lisa Romeo earned her MFA five years ago. What does she have to show for it? (Read this eloquent and honest piece, people. You won’t regret it.)
  • For your weekend literary listening: “Andre Dubus III & Edith Pearlman: A Reading & Conversation, Sponsored by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation,” courtesy of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP).
  • With a little help from Ben Yagoda, Carol Tice presents “7 Simple Fixes” for writing mistakes.
  • Ron Charles reflects on Amazon.com’s “New Books” suggestions. (I am compelled to add that these suggestions may have some usefulness for book reviewers looking for not-yet-published titles to review.)
  • Finally, I’m not sure exactly which of my Twitter connections pointed me to Mashable’s “Complete Guide to Twitter Lingo,” but I think that Twitter newbies, especially, may appreciate it.

    • Happy weekend, everyone. See you back here on Monday!

    Wednesday’s Work-in-Progress: The Waiting Game (Redux)

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    waiting_roomAs I noted in a blog post last summer, in some ways, I’ve been drawn to a life–the writing-and-publishing life–for which I am temperamentally unsuited. And that’s because two of the things I have always found most challenging are these: rejection and waiting.

    In an essay, I’ve explained how rejection has become much easier with time and experience. But as I mentioned in that post last summer, the patience project is still something more of a work-in-progress. It’s not merely a matter of waiting for the acceptance/rejection decisions. I’m also filled with anticipation (and, sometimes, anxiety) when I know that a new piece has found a home and–yes, after another wait–will be meeting readers. I’m aware that this is what my dad calls a “high-quality problem.” But that doesn’t necessarily make the waiting easier! Plus, in many cases, even while waiting for publication, I know that yet another wait lies ahead: a wait for the paycheck (which I’ll admit makes me appreciate the steady salary of my day job all the more).

    Right now, I’m waiting for three accepted essays to be published and paid for (two memoir pieces, one op-ed). There’s also a book review waiting to make its appearance (part of the delay in this instance is due to a publisher delay in releasing the book in question). It’s possible that all four of these pieces will be out within the next month. But I’m not holding my breath!