Dennis Cass Wants You To Be More Awesome

Question: How Do I Find People to Give Feedback?

July 2, 2009 · 2 Comments

A reader writes:

Of all the things that I thought might be challenging about trying to write a book, it never dawned on me — until very recently — that it would be hard to get anyone to read it. I mean be a reader, as in read and comment. I thought writing was the hard stuff, but based on my success at inducing others to read and comment, I would have to say that reading and commenting must be much more difficult, for no one I know wants to do so. I recently read a book by a fairly well known author who identified those people who had been her “readers” –  and low and behold I knew one of them. Wow, I thought, there was my one chance to snag a reader and she beat me to it.

So:  What advice would you offer to a novice writer who is looking for a reader, for someone who will give the writing a fair but critical look and take the time to give feedback?

The practical answer is to take a class. I’ve always had good luck meeting new writers through classes and conferences. Another possibility would be to ask around your local bookstore or coffee shop. I supposed you could also advertise on Craig’s List.

The more holistic answer is that you get what you give. If you start volunteering your time to give feedback other people’s work, then you’ll soon find yourself on the receiving end of sweet reciprocity. Being a good reader means you’ll be good and read.

Some tips:

1. Keep it OUT of the family

Parents, siblings, spouses and dear friends are the absolute worst people to read your work, so it stands to reason that you shouldn’t read their work either. It’s impossible not to think about them hiding inside the characters and story (or worse, yourself) and any feedback will be clouded by preconception. Time to meet new people.

2. Limit your feedback to one or two vital areas

Even the best advice can only be addressed in stages. If you unload a laundry list of observations and insights, you’ll not only muddy your most important points, but you’ll risk the person tuning you entirely.

3. Only copy edit if people specifically ask for it (and even then proceed with great caution)

No one wants to hear about the typo on page 237. It makes people feel ignorant and it makes you look petty and small. Let the machines do the work.

4. Say less rather than more

Give your listener credit. If you feel the beginning is slow, say the beginning feel slow. You don’t need to dissect the slowness.

5. Questions are more helpful than statements

Telling people about the flaws in their work puts them on the defensive. Asking questions helps them step outside themselves and see their work through your eyes.

So instead of saying their protagonist is wimpy, say something like, “Do you want this guy to come across as super passive?”

5. Remember who the writer is

The cardinal sin of giving feedback is getting in and rewriting it yourself. Your job is to give an honest reaction, not right wrongs. Even if you have the coolest idea for the coolest ending ever, please keep it to yourself.

6. Don’t be offended if the person doesn’t take your advice

Rule #6 is Rule #1. Everyone walks their own path. It’s taken me over ten years to follow advice that I got from my first writing teacher. Be kind, generous and supportive and then walk away. It all comes back.

→ 2 CommentsCategories: emotional life of writer/artist · find your people · reader question

On Deadline: Help Me Wolvy!

July 1, 2009 · Leave a Comment

writing-advice-from-wolverine

→ Leave a CommentCategories: quick

Attention Twin Cities: Paragraph Party!

June 29, 2009 · 1 Comment

If only writing them were as easy as formatting them

If only writing them were as easy as formatting them

Before I start blasting away with Facebook and Gmail, I wanted to give the good readers of DCWYTBMA the first shot at an exciting and innovative new class I’m teaching at The Loft.

It’s called Paragraph Party and it’s based on the simple premise that writing lives and dies at the paragraph level.

If you can make paragraphs that are energetic, shapely, informative, stylish, thoughtful, purposeful and true, then you’re going to have a wonderful career.

If you can’t make those kinds of paragraphs, then you’re going to have a much less wonderful career.

Solution: Paragraph Party!

This is not a mechanics class. We’re not going to be talk about topic sentences and supporting sentences and so forth. Instead we’re going to use the paragraph as a springboard for talking about all aspects of writing. And we’re going to do it using student work. And we’re going to do it live.

Here’s how it works:

1. Sign up for the class.

2. Before class you will send me a paragraph from one of your many delightful works in progress.

3. I will take all paragraphs and load them into a special Paragraph Projecting Device that I have commissioned expressly for this purpose.

4. On the day of the class I will project paragraphs onto the wall. Then we’ll break them down and build them back up until they’re perfect little gems of pure delight.

5. Jokes, asides, wisdom (and possibly snacks) included.

The first Paragraph Party is on Tuesday, August 4th. The cost is $40 for nonmembers, $36 for members. Space is limited, so if you’re interested sign up now. You will not be disappointed.

See you in school.

→ 1 CommentCategories: classes · craft · execution

Awesome Writing Prompt #12

June 25, 2009 · 6 Comments

Photo courtesy foxypar4 Flickr photostream

Photo courtesy foxypar4 Flickr photostream

The good people at Phantom Fireworks recently sent me a brochure containing the following delightfully named fireworks products:

Fortress of Fire

Cometary Chaos

Glitterator

Toot N Twirl

Large Happy Planets

Strobe Flower Blooms

Komodo 3000

Vapor Trails

Critical Blast

Artificial Satellite

Hexagon Magic

Saturn Battery

Barbarian Blast

Fiery Cloud

Your assignment is to take one or more of these names and use them in a paragraph. The goal is to stray as far from the literal as possible.

[Ed. note: Example redacted because stop signs have eight sides.]

Have fun and have a fine weekend.

→ 6 CommentsCategories: awesome writing prompt

Notes on My Dream MFA in Writing Program

June 24, 2009 · 11 Comments

In response to Louis Menand’s article in The New Yorker about the writing workshop, I’m pleased to present notes (repeat: NOTES) on my dream MFA program.

BASIC STRUCTURE

Two-year program, trimester system, three classes a term for a total of 18 classes.

REQUIRED COURSES

The almighty page

The Sentence

The Paragraph

The Scene

Basic Dramatic Structure

Research, planning, and project management

Introduction to Project Management

Basic Research Techniques for Writers

The business of writing

Introduction to Magazine and Book Publishing

The Internet for Writers

The writing life

Introduction to the Writing Life

How to Have Something to Say

ELECTIVES

The almighty page

Experimental fiction, tricky structure, voice, comedy writing, genre writing, literary fiction, etc.

Research, planning, and project management

Historical research, scientific research, planning a novel, how to collaborate, etc.

The business of writing

Pitching, media training, managing your web presence, etc.

The writing life

Psychology of writing, managing creative energy, developing your relationship to the world, how not to become a drunk, etc.

WHAT WE WON’T COVER

There will be no assigned reading or critiquing of literature in class. The school will publish a list of foundational books, films, plays, poems, etc. References to these works may or may not come up in class. Act accordingly.

There will be less of an emphasis on critiquing completed work in class. Class time is dedicated to developing specific skills. Integrating those skills happens on your own time, as does how your peers, your professors, etc. react to said integration.

GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS

The school runs three publications staffed by independent editors who are advised by faculty and alumni.

The publications are broken into three tiers, a highly competitive publication that also publishes established writers, a mid-range publication that also takes outside submissions, and a student-only publication that is the most forgiving, but that still reserves the right to reject your work.

In your first year you’re eligible to be published by the two lower-tier publications. The top-tier publication is open to second-year students only.

To graduate you have to get through the publication process once at the top tier or twice at the second tier or three times at the bottom tier. (Graduation requirement is waived in the event you get a book deal, publish with a national magazine, etc.)

You can take as long as you want to graduate. You get your shingle when you make it into print.

→ 11 CommentsCategories: classes · culture

Five Possible Reasons Why We Believe Writing Can’t Be Taught

June 22, 2009 · 10 Comments

Beliefs about teaching as information/skills transfer

I am the teacher. You are my student. I have life knowledge in my head computer. Your head computer does not. As my student, you expect to download my life knowledge from my head computer directly into your head computer.

Failure of the direct download at the personal level is attributed to either the teacher or the student.

Failure of the direct download at the system level is attributed to the impossibility of teaching the subject.

Results take so long you lose track of cause and effect

Gregory Blake Smith was one of my teachers and mentors. Over twenty years ago, he likened point of view to a kite on a string. The more string you paid out, the higher the kite flew and the broader (and more distant) the point of view became.

When I heard first him say this I thought, “What do you know, old man?” During my apprenticeship I wrestled with that metaphor. Today it’s part of my daily practice.

Did Gregory Blake Smith teach me about point of view that day? No. Did he teach me about point of view eventually? Yes.

Genius obliterates reason

Geniuses are like airplane crashes. Statistically you’re more likely to die a car crash or a home accident than in an airline disaster, but when a plane goes down it’s a lot more dramatic than someone slipping in the tub. Those rare talents scramble our brains in the same way. A “silver gleaming death machine” comes along and we say, “You see! Writers are born, not made.”

Pride and ego makes us take credit for what others have given us

If you’ve ever worked in an office, then you understand the phenomenon of the boss who takes your idea and passes it off as his own. Writers are the same way, if not worse. One of the reasons we don’t believe writing can be taught is because writers are too close-lipped (or self-blind) to talk about how they were taught.

Beneficial “secondary benefits”

Whenever human beings are around you always want to look out for the secondary benefits to a belief. If writing can’t be taught, then teachers are off the hook for not teaching, and students are off the hook for not learning. We don’t have to think critically about our writing programs. We don’t have to risk having uncomfortable conversations about what’s working and what isn’t working (or, more pointedly, who isn’t working). In other words, we all have “plausible deniability” and nothing has to change.

→ 10 CommentsCategories: culture · emotional life of writer/artist

Don’t Tell Me What It IS—Tell Me What It’s LIKE

June 18, 2009 · 4 Comments

You with me on that?

Have a fine weekend.

→ 4 CommentsCategories: advice · craft

Question: Is My Book Too Long for Today’s Marketplace?

June 17, 2009 · 2 Comments

A reader writes:

My manuscript is over the limit on word count, but I think I can get it down close enough to acceptable levels that I am not really concerned.

I have two friends, however, who have written tomes. Yes, I hang out with overachievers. I’ve read one completely and bits of the historical. Both have had very positive comments from agents who are aware of the word count, but I wonder if the current climate is going to kill these books.

The delightful Moonrat recently covered this very topic. Her “is there a word cap count cap for a debut novel?” offers a peek into an editor’s point of view.

Agent Colleen Lindsay (who writes The Swivet blog) has walked similar ground, but she serves up a better word-count breakdown in her post “On word counts and novel length.“

I can’t offer much more on industry standards, but I can speak to what it might be like to go out into the world with a long, long, long, long, long, long book. Here’s what you’ll need:

1. Publication strategy that takes into account longness

You can’t pretend your book isn’t too long. People are going to notice. Which means publication strategy should take into account the size of your book.

If there are agents who are more likely to fight a long book’s battles, then that is an agent you will want to employ.

Getting a referral/endorsement from an established author will also help. See if you can get Toni Morrison to say, “I know this f*cker is 250,000 words long, but trust me on this one: it’s brilliant.” That just might do it.

Along those lines, it’s never too early to find ways of selling the book as a long book. (As the old computer science joke goes, “It’s not a bug; it’s a feature.”)

Is your book the final word on the subject? Is it the product of 25 years of research? Is it long because it’s experimental? Is it some kind of super epic? You’ll need something better than “just cuz.”

Finally, even if you land the deal at the desired size, the publisher may change their mind. Your editor might ask for big cuts, or ask you to split the book into two or three volumes. Be prepared for a fight.

2. Audience-building strategy that takes into account longness

All the struggles you encountered during the publication process will only be magnified once the book is out. There are people who simply won’t read long books. Period. There are even people who will resent you for writing long. (Who do you think you are, anyway? What century do you think it is?)

Are you planning on wooing those who would otherwise read your book if they weren’t turned off by the length? Or are you going to focus on a smaller core audience and hope to build the buzz that way? What’s the “elevator pitch” that makes its longness an enticement?

Your book’s longness will also come up again and again while you’re doing media. What’s your plan for handling interviews? Are you going to be coyly apologetic? Raffishly defensive? Unabashedly sassy?

Finally, if it’s not easy keeping any book afloat over its natural life, then a big book will be even more challenging. Once the energy of the hardcover release dissipates, then you have the long slog of getting your book into paperback, and then continuing to support it.

What is your plan for (sometimes literally) carrying this beast around with you for six, seven, eight, nine, ten years? What happens if the publisher decides not to go into paperback, the rights revert to you and you have to try re-selling the book to another house?

Are you prepared to fight your long book’s long-book battles twice?

3. Failure strategy that takes into account longness

Books fail for all kinds of reasons. Long books often fail because they’re TOO DAMN LONG and everyone (including the author) knows it.

If it’s absolutely unavoidable that your book is that long, then it might be easier to stomach the failure.

If your book is too long out of blindness or stubbornness, then you’re going to have a lifetime of “if only” conversations with yourself. Start practicing today.

→ 2 CommentsCategories: book business · execution · getting published

Question: Why Do I Discount My Work?

June 15, 2009 · 4 Comments

A reader writes:

I would like to know why I always discount my efforts – I have “real” artwork (that I don’t seem to get around to doing much) and then I have “non-art” that I mess around with and do nearly every day. I tell people it’s a matter of intent and materials – just goofing around with whatever is at hand doesn’t cut it – I can’t show or sell the everyday stuff – only the serious art counts. Am I right or am I wrong?

I’m glad I don’t have examples of your work to cloud the issue. Because it doesn’t matter if your “real” artwork is a collection of fine (but neglected) oils and your “non-art” is macaroni glued to construction paper. What’s happening here is all about attitudes and beliefs.

The critical part of your mind thinks like this:

Food Chain

Your “real” art is up there with the hawks and the orcas. Your “non-” art is down there with the plants and the plankton.

You have these attitudes and beliefs because you grew up with parents, teachers, critics, the Evil Mainstream Media, etc. who feel more comfortable when culture is categorized into high and low, good and bad.

The artistic part of your mind, however, thinks like this:

Food Web

In this context your “real” art and your “non-” art aren’t so easy to judge. Everything’s connected and related and somehow necessary. What it all means is up to you.

Is it better to be a maned goose or sedge? I don’t know. Maned geese are on top, but sedge is awfully central. Even daphnia and decayed matter—lowly as they are—can lay claim to getting good eat-and-be-eaten action.

Both the “food chain” and “food web” models of culture have their merits, but as someone who used to make a living as a critic, I can testify to how limiting the food chain mentality is. It’s hard to see the true potential of your work if you’re constantly putting things into categories.

The answer for you might be to stop goofing off and get serious, but let me ask you this:

What would happen if you stopped dismissing your “non-art” as “non-” and started taking it seriously? Where would you want to take it? How would you get it there?

Good luck and let me know how it goes.

→ 4 CommentsCategories: art · emotional life of writer/artist · reader question

Now THIS is a Senior Project

June 15, 2009 · 2 Comments

Congratulations to Savannah College of Art and Design senior Bang-yao Liu.

You are one ‘09 grad who has nothing to worry about.

→ 2 CommentsCategories: find your people · further · quick