Writing | Writing
Jun.24.2008
Today's updatery:
First, the phrase familiarity breeds contempt is quite true when this author is reviewing her draft.
Second, today I'm reading over the manuscript and tucking in the stray threads and clipping off the frayed edges. So far, so reasonably good. Which is to say, despite my contempt,...
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Jun.23.2008
I know exactly when I froze up on The Undressing of America: when the publisher bought it. Through my whole career I've been able to keep a pretty low profile, hiding behind modest expectations. Writing comic books, I could win the approval of my editors and most readers by meeting the expectations...
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Jun.22.2008
Before I beat myself up too much for taking two years to face the fact that I'm not getting my new book written as fast as I thought I would, I should acknowledge a lesson I just received in the mysterious tides of creation.
It will probably come as no surprise to you that some books take longer to...
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Jun.21.2008
Over two years ago, I sold a book idea to Farrar, Straus & Giroux, one of our more respected publishers. My editor was very praiseful and encouraging, and I liked him. I expected to jump right in and turn it around quickly. But I haven't submitted a word yet. I've written a lot: written long...
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Jun.21.2008
Poof!
I vanish, just like that.
There are occasionally warnings, the carefully worded auto-reply, the ever-shortened phone call. But usually I am simply...gone. It is not a good trait in a friend, is it? There are no more lunches, no more long e-mails, and rarely an explanation.
I would irritate...
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Jun.21.2008
Ask any writer why they write, and I'm sure it'll come down to one answer. "Because I can't imagine not writing."
There's something that makes the world settle after a day of commanding my characters. Of course, "commanding" is a rather bold statement. Much of the time, they...
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Jun.20.2008
This is what I call the mysterious, quarklike appearance of ideas. If I don’t grab a pen pronto they slip out. Gone. To flit into someone else’s brain or dream, someone who’ll write them down into something great, if they’re not lazy like me, or to tunnel straight through the universe on their own...
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Jun.20.2008
It’s not every evening that you can sit, just four rows in, and listen to one of our great contemporary writers talk candidly about writing, history, politics, and even Scarlett Johansson. But hearing KQED’s Michael Krasny’s relaxed interview with Salman Rushdie on Wednesday evening, it was the...
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Jun.20.2008
One of my favorite words is reification (now that you can use my most hated words against me). Sounds like a meaningless jumble of morphemes, doesn’t it?
It’s one of the most life-changing words I’ve ever experienced.
You may not know it, but you reify. A lot. We all do. Every time you regard...
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Jun.20.2008
Should I blame my father? Kafka blamed his.
My father, who long ago re-located to the world Kafka also inhabits, put this annoying impediment into my mind. Whenever he read an article (regardless of how he praised it), if he found an inaccuracy, he would question if he could therefore believe any...
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