Thursday’s Work-in-Progress

by Erika Dreifus on
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I was hoping to squeeze in some especially productive writing time this week between Christmas and New Year’s. After all, I was scheduled to go to my “day job” just two days. One of those days dropped away when a winter cold worsened and I decided to take yesterday off.

For a brief morning moment, my mood brightened. Unanticipated “free” time! Somehow, I’ve never quite accepted the idea that on a “sick day” I’m not necessarily going get a lot of writing done. That, in other words, I’m staying home precisely because I lack the energy and clarity of thought to work. That I should just succumb to naps and cable news and maybe reading a magazine article or two and let the writing slide. But invariably, I relearn my lesson each time.

Which means that I haven’t exactly maximized this week writing-wise. Before 2011 ends this weekend, though, I’ll have sent out the January 2012 Practicing Writer newsletter (thank goodness for my work-ahead ethic). Hopefully, I’ll have at least started the two review assignments that require my prompt attention. And maybe I’ll have made some progress on one more project.

You see, earlier this month, I dove into Brian Klems’s “12-Day Plan of Simple Writing Exercises,” which concludes with these instructions: “Gather everything you’ve written over the previous 11 days. Pick your favorite. Edit it, polish it and either try to get it published or post it on the Web to share with the world. Be proud of yourself and your work.”

Well, I’ve selected my favorite piece. I’ve begun editing and polishing it, but much more revision awaits me. In all likelihood, that work will continue well into 2012. (For one thing, the piece began as a poem, but seems to be edging into essay territory.)

What about you? What are the works-in-progress that you will be carrying into 2012? I’d love to know, if you’re willing to tell me.

The Wednesday Web Browser for Writers

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled
  • Scott Nadelson’s new story collection, Aftermath, is this week’s Fiction Writers Review Book of the Week. Follow @FictionWriters for a chance to win a copy. (Having read Nadelson’s two previous collections, I’ll admit that I would love to be a winner this week.)
  • My fellow Last Light Studio author, Ericka Lutz, has posted her first book trailer for The Edge of Maybe, her forthcoming LLS novel. Take a peek (but be forewarned that you should be wearing headphones if you’re listening at work and/or in the vicinity of children).
  • Thanks to the Yiddishkayt site, I discovered a fabulous video profile of author Arnost Lustig (1926-2011) that was produced for Czech TV. Thankfully, there are English subtitles. And the profile perfectly captures Arnost, with whom I had the privilege of studying in the Prague Summer Program in 2004. Arnost would have turned 85 last week.
  • D.G. Myers remembers those writers, like Arnost, who left this world in 2011. (Myers also comes up with his own set of the year’s top 10 literary news stories.)
  • In case you haven’t heard about the latest brouhaha in the poetry world, here’s a pretty good summary. Disclosure: I have never studied with Rita Dove, but I have taken courses with Helen Vendler (a British lit survey as an undergrad and a summer seminar on Yeats after I’d finished graduate school), and I think she is brilliant.
  • Lest you believe that anthology quarrels are new to our modern moment, Benjamin Ivry recalls some older literary history. Hint: Ralph Waldo Emerson and Emma Lazarus are key players here.
  • On a less fraught note, author Alan Heathcock recommends a poem a day. (And so do I.)

    • Quotation of the Week: Zelda Popkin

    by Erika Dreifus on
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    “You do not conceive a novel as easily as you conceive a child, nor even half as easily as you create nonfiction work. A journalist amasses facts, anecdotes and interviews with top brass. Enough of these add up to a book. A novelist demands quite different things. He has to find himself in his materials, to know for sure how he would feel and act and the events he writes about. In addition, he requires a catalyst — a person, idea, or emotion which coalesces his ingredients and makes them jell into a solid purpose.”

    –Zelda Popkin

    Source: Zelda Popkin’s autobiography, Open Every Door, as quoted in “A Forgotten Forerunner: Zelda Popkin’s Novels of the Holocaust and the 1948 War,” by Jeremy D. Popkin. I’m not sure that all of the nonfiction writers I know would agree with the statement above. But as I mentioned last week, it was Zelda Popkin’s journalistic/nonfiction work that led me to a key anecdote that shapes my new story, “Fidelis,” and I’ve found out a little more about her. The article I’ve reference is fascinating, for anyone who has access to the database (or a really good library!).

    Friday Find: Holiday Wishes

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    No “real” find for you today. Just my very best wishes for a happy holiday, whatever you may be celebrating this season.

    I’ll be back here on the blog on Tuesday. Apologies in advance for the lack of Monday Markets/Jobs/Opportunities next week. I’ll make up for it with the January newsletter, which will be out by New Year’s!

    Thursday’s Work-in-Progress: How to Tell a True War Story

    by Erika Dreifus on
    3

    As many of you know, the big reveal has happened: The commissioned story that I’ve mentioned several times on the blog over the past few months is out in the world, and I’ve been shouting the news from the virtual mountaintops. The story is titled “Fidelis,” and I am so proud to say that it is part of this year’s Hanukkah Lights broadcast on National Public Radio. (Local air dates and times vary, but my story–as well as the others featured this year–can be accessed at the link I’ve given you.)

    Of course, my first “thank-you” must go to the series producer, who contacted me during the summer with the stunning invitation to write something for the broadcast. When he cited something that he particularly appreciated about Quiet Americans–about the way he perceived the stories making the past resonant in the present–I knew that I was going to write a piece of historical fiction. He was a pleasure to work with. And his one revision request improved the story immeasurably.

    Beyond that, and the word count, the only “limitation” was that the story had to “pertain to the Hanukkah season.” When I realized that this December would mark the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor (remember, I’m an historian by training), I knew that I was one step closer to finding a story to tell.

    I owe a great deal of thanks to Rabbi Lisa S. Greene, who helped guide me to extremely useful background resources on Hanukkah. And I am immeasurably grateful to three readers of early drafts for their constructive critiques: B.J. Epstein, Natalie Wexler, and my mom!

    Most important–and hopefully without giving too much away–I’m grateful to the military veterans–including chaplains–who have given us all so much.

    Please go listen to the story. And then come back here to find out which books and other resources helped me write it. (more…)