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We’re wild about words!

2 women writers and essayists worth reading

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I’m always on the hunt for good women writers and essayists, particularly non-fiction as I spent my career as a journalist. Here are two I’ve found this summer and recommend:

How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran:

 

Hilarious book by Caitlin Moran
Hilarious book by Caitlin Moran

Moran is a British columnist whom I discovered when I listened to this laugh-out-loud  interview with Terry Gross on her public radio show Fresh Air. Moran talks in a fast, clipped way and her British accent makes everything she says seem pretty funny. Her writing is the same. In How to Be a Woman, Moran chronicles her life from adolescent womanhood and well into adulthood, going into all the stuff that females talk about as they try to make sense of their changing bodies and lives. Two-thirds of her chapters begin with “I” as in “I Need a Bra!” and “I Am in Love!” and “I Go Lap-Dancing!” She’s not afraid of exclamation marks, to be sure!

In the Fresh Air interview, she read part of the chapter “I Am A Feminist!” She talks about when she was 15 and read Germaine Greer and how she realized she was a feminist. And she mocks women who don’t know if they are feminists. “We need the word ‘feminism’ back real bad. When statistics come in saying that only 29 percent of American women would describe themselves as feminist — and only 42 percent of British women — I used to think, What do you think feminism IS, ladies? What part of ‘liberation for women’ is not for you? Is it freedom to vote? The right not to be owned by the man you marry? The campaign for equal pay? ‘Vogue,’ by Madonna? Jeans? Did all that good s*** GET ON YOUR NERVES? Or were you just DRUNK AT THE TIME OF SURVEY?”

See what I mean? Hilarious.

Related: Summer Reading for Writers: 4 Recommendations

Bukowski in a Sundress by Kim Addonizio:

 

Raw, funny, poignant book by Kim Addonizio
Raw, funny, poignant book by Kim Addonizio

I found this book when I was perusing the “New Non-Fiction” shelf at my local library. I didn’t know of Addonizio, but I did know of Bukowski. And the image of a woman dressed like a biker chick drinking a glass of wine while sitting on her kitchen counter gave me an idea of what to expect. The subtitle, “Confessions of a Writing Life” got me. Turns out Addonizio writes both poetry and prose and has written writing guides for poets. The chapters in this book have intriguing titles like “How to Succeed in Po Biz” and “Children of the Corn” and “How to Try to Stop Drinking so Much.”

The content ranges from the sharing the desperation of trying to be a writer who earns decent money to the equally desperate search for a soul mate and the guilt of two marriages that didn’t work out. Her prose made me laugh out loud a few times, shake my head and roll my eyes in disgust at others. Her chapter titled “Space” about her mother’s decline into Parkinson’s disease and dementia is painful to read, tears in my eyes at one point, laughing just a few paragraphs later. Addonizio’s life is a lot racier than mine is or has ever been, but her struggles resonate. Like all of us, she’s trying to do the best she can.

Her essay “What Writers Do All Day” starts out: “Most writers I know avoid writing. We bitch and moan about time to do this thing we’ve been called to do, and when we finally wrestle that time from the maw of errands to be done and loved ones to be dealt with and actual paid work, like waiting tables or lawyering or reading other people’s writing, we avoid it like mad.”

After chronicling what her Facebook friends say they do to avoid writing, and chronicling how she spent the last 90 minutes — checking email, making toast among other things — she concludes: “So, most days I spend a few hours trying to make something happen in language…Whatever the effects on the larger world, writing is a record of one consciousness trying to make sense of it all or at least to transcribe some of the mysteries. It comes from showing up to the blank page, the empty file with its blinking cursor, and hoping the Muse will honor her end of the bargain and keep the appointment. What do writers do all day? Eventually we get down to our true work, and keep at it.”

By the way, the title of this book is actually what a book judge once called Addonizio. (Not to her face, but she found it in a transcript of a meeting of contest judges.) She doesn’t think it was meant as a compliment (I don’t either), and her book didn’t win that particular award. “But this is what happens when you put your work out into the world–if you’re lucky. If you’re not lucky, no one says anything at all, because no one knows that your slim little volume of poetry or your novel ten years in the making even exists.”

Amen.

What writers have you discovered lately?

 

 

 

Only one way to write a book: Write!

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laptopI’ve been getting a lot of solicitations about online courses and webinars to teach people how to write a book.

These courses offer lots of tips and ideas such as software packages that will make it easier for you to write and organize your material, and tips about staying hydrated and eating the right foods for energy.

All of that is well and good, but really, the only way to write a book is to sit down and write it.

Here are some of my tips to get you into the mindset to write the book.

Schedule your writing time and stick to it unless there’s a true emergency.

If you’re writing at home, make sure you’re in a secluded place with the door shut and tell your family to leave you alone.

Shut off your email and your phone.

When you find yourself reaching for the phone, stop and get back to work.

Unclutter your desk or the area where you sit to write.

The first newspaper publisher for whom I worked was named Stu Awbrey. Stu was small in stature but a fabulous writer. He would walk around the newsroom of The Hawk Eye in Burlington, Iowa, and “tsk, tsk” at the state of some of our desks. He used to say, “A cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind.” To which I once heard a classified ad rep reply: “An empty desk is the sign of an empty mind.” I agree with Stu; all that stuff can be a distraction.

Don’t use “writer’s block” as an excuse not to write a book.

That comes from my years spent in journalism with constant deadlines where you had no choice but to crank out the story. Write something, anything, and then go back and revise later.

Keep a notepad handy.

Jot down any thoughts that interfere, like “remember to call the babysitter” or whatever.

Prepare for solitude.

Prior to sitting down to write, use the facilities and get a glass of water so you won’t be jumping up after 10 minutes.

Set a deadline and a reward.

Example: “I’m going to sit here for 90 minutes and only write. When that’s up, then I can take five minutes to do whatever I want. Then I have to start writing again.” Resist the temptation to check email in that five minutes because you will end up spending time on it. This of course only applies to days when you can set aside a large chunk of time to write.

Here’s the bottomline:

The world won’t end while you’re glued to your chair and writing. After a few successful writing sessions, I bet you’ll look forward to the solitude and escapism of writing your book.

What tactics work for you when you are writing?

Must-read for writers on how to self-publish

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typewriter_bookWriting and self-publishing a book has never been easier. I often get asked for advice from people writing a book or who aspire to do so.

Here’s a book on how to self-publish that I recommend: What Kind of Loser Indie Publishes? And How Can I Be One, Too? by Pamela Fagan Hutchins.

After I left my job as an editor at The Democrat and Chronicle to “rewire” (read about it here), I knew I wanted to write and publish a memoir about my family owning pharmacies for 90 years in Iowa. But although I’d written many articles, columns and editorials over my 33-year career, I didn’t know much about writing a book and self-publishing. So I read a slew of articles, blogs and books. This book by Hutchins was the most helpful. Here are five reasons why:

  1. Hutchins writes with humor and pathos. She takes you along her personal journey, having written and self published nine books at the time she wrote this one. As she says in the introduction: “I’m not a hybrid author who moves back and forth between the indi- and traditional-publishing worlds. I’m ground zero to 50,000 feet. If I can do this, and share what I’ve learned, maybe you really can do it, too. Don’t you think.”
  2. There’s no b.s. in this book. Her first chapter is titled: “Earn (no) money all by yourself (on the financial implications of traditional versus indie publishing.” This chapter is a great overview of what’s going on in the worlds of traditional publishing world and self publishing, with questions to ask yourself in deciding which route to go.  The bottom line is that it’s hard to make significant amounts of  money as an author so you better have other reasons for wanting to write a book.
  3.  Hutchins shares the aggravations she’s encountered, so you can anticipate and learn. In the section on “How to put yourself on the market,” she goes into great detail about the pros and cons of various e-book publishers. For example, she’s blunt about the challenges of working with Apple. It’s a lot easier to read her summaries before you go to each site to check out their terms.
  4. Throughout the book, she offers web links for everything she writes about. So if you read her book digitally, you can just click on the link and voila! you go to the site. The first time I read her book, I got a copy from the library. I liked it so well, I downloaded the Kindle version so I’d always have it as a reference.
  5. How you market your book will be just as important as producing a quality book. Hutchins’ advice about a marketing plan, giveaways, social media and more really helped me have a book signing event that was over-the-top in success. (Read about it here.) She provides a sample marketing plan, press release, etc. in the appendix.

If you’ve written a book, what advice do you have to share?