Meet the Grad: Randall Bonser

On January 18, 2015, on the final day of the upcoming residency, the MFAC program will have a Graduate Recognition ceremony, honoring the men and women who have just completed their studies and will receive an MFA from Hamline University. Between now and residency we'll be posting interviews with many of the grads. Randall Bonser is today's grad; he lives in in the metro Atlanta, GA area. To learn more about his writing, please visit his website or follow him on Twitter: @rbwritenow

Randall with one of his ghost projects.

What do you do when you’re not working on packets?

I taxi young teenagers (mine, not others’) to school activities and sports. I wash the uniforms of said young teenagers. I play in a men’s soccer league. I defy house rules and buy more children’s books.

How did you hear about the Hamline MFAC Program?

I was stalking Ron Koertge, whose books I love, and was trying to find out if he taught anywhere. Lo and behold he taught at this college in St. Paul. The low residency nature sounded good, and I’d get to rub shoulders with Ron, so I investigated. I went to an investigative meeting in Chicago and met Christine Heppermann, who is my new literary hero (sorry, Ron).

What was your writing experience prior to entering the program?

I have made my living as a writer for many years in advertising, marketing, business-to-business, and ghost writing. I also wrote poetry and stories for fun, but now I’m trying to make those fun projects my serious projects.

What do especially remember about your first residency?

Everyone had the flu. And the workshop was awesome, I learned a ton. And I met Claire Rudolf Murphy, who got me excited about the semester’s work. Oh, and I met this group of people who called themselves the Hamsters, my class, and enjoyed getting to know them. Evenings at the hotel were great bonding times, and lots of fun.

Have you focused on any one form (PB, novel, nonfiction; graphic novel) or age group in your writing? Tried a form you never thought you’d try?

I don’t know if it’s a good idea, but I tried a little of everything – nonfiction, YA, poetry, picture books, graphic novel. I’ve had a blast, and learned a ton. I’m hoping that the broad range will help me, but I’m a little nervous that I didn’t concentrate on one form. I love them all and want to write them all, but I’m not sure that’s realistic.

Tell us about your Creative Thesis.

I completed a first draft of a graphic novel called “Rocket Captain.” It’s about a boy and girl in 7^th grade who struggle to find success in a culture that defines them before they get a chance to define themselves. The girl is Vietnamese American, the boy is African American. The two are called upon to help build a rocket in science class. They start as friends, have a misunderstanding and start working against each other, then try to find a way to reconcile at the end. Working with Gene Yang was great because he is very smart about STORY. When my story was not holding up, or I took a short cut, or was not supporting a plot twist, he let me know. I enjoy the graphic novel medium and hope to keep working in it.

What changes have you seen in your writing during your studies?

I am much more aware of story elements. I used to think that good stories were organic, that they didn’t follow a formula. But when I looked at the stories I liked, they had elements in common. They weren’t artificial, but they were carefully planned and fine-tuned. I hope that awareness of story is more present in my work than it used to be.

With packet deadlines removed as an incentive, do you anticipate it will be harder to keep writing? Any plans for your post-Hamline writing life?

I have been trying to establish a schedule that will work for me once the deadlines are no longer there. Phyllis Root helped me when I worked with her to establish daily routines that start the night before so that you have a sense of accomplishment, even when you only write a little bit. I plan to pursue some of the projects I’ve started here at Hamline and see if I can work toward publication, no matter what I am doing “for a living.”

Any thoughts for entering students or for people considering the program?

This is a very enjoyable program and you get to dabble in things you wouldn’t normally get to work in. The feedback is fantastic. For serious writers, you’re going to get to the point when you say, “I love my critique group, but how can I get some professional feedback on what I’m writing?” You can hire an editor or coach, or you can enroll in a program like Hamline. I’ve had the time of my life.

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The public is welcome to attend the graduate recognition ceremony on Sunday, January 18, 3:30pm, (Anne Simley Theatre, Drew Fine Arts Building). Linda Sue Park is the speaker.

Meet the Grad: Andrew Ruscito

On January 18, 2015, on the final day of the upcoming residency, the MFAC program will have a Graduate Recognition ceremony, honoring the men and women who have just completed their studies and will receive an MFA from Hamline University. Between now and residency we'll be posting interviews with many of the grads. Andrew Ruscito is today's grad; he lives in Rhode Island and can also be found on Twitter: @BeQuietAndrew.

Andrew Ruscito

What do you do when you’re not working on packets?

I try to get as far away from the project I’m writing as possible. I suppose it is always in the back of my mind but I try to clear my head when not writing so I can come back to it with a fresh perspective. I do have a multitude of hobbies all of which I am only moderately skilled at. I love playing music. I have half a dozen guitars and basses and an electric piano. I’ve been playing since I was young. I was in and out of bands in high school and as an undergrad but I continue to play in my basement just for fun. In addition to that, I like playing video games on my computer. I like something I can immerse myself in. Something with a lot of lore and expansive world. Even though it is a few years old at this point, I still find myself in awe of the world in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Of course, I like to read too. My library is quite eclectic. I also have a large collection of comics and graphic novels. I’m a big fan of the magical characters like DC’s Zatanna and Marvel’s Doctor Strange.

How did you hear about the Hamline MFAC Program?

Liza Ketchum and Kelly Easton. They were both faculty at the Alliance for the Study and Teaching of Adolescent Literature (ASTAL). That group ran through Rhode Island College and was headed by my undergrad advisor, Dr. Jean Brown. Kelly and Liza repeatedly told me about Hamline and when it came time to graduate, I knew Hamline was where I wanted to go next. I always joke that when Liza and Kelly tell you to do something, you do it. Truth is, I am so happy I listened to them.

What was your writing experience prior to entering the program?

ASTAL gave me a unique writing experience. In addition to Liza and Kelly the faculty at ASTAL also gave me the opportunity to work with local authors Mark Peter Hughes (Lemonade Mouth, Crack in the Sky, I Am the Wallpaper), Peter Johnson (Loserville, What Happened, and others), and Padma Venkatraman (Climbing the Stairs). All of those authors gave me tremendous insights into my writing and prepared me for my time at Hamline. There were, of course, various writing groups and college workshops along the way but none were as helpful as ASTAL.

What do especially remember about your first residency?

How not cold it was! I was told over and over again about the Minnesota winters and how harsh they could be so when I arrived in January for my first residency I was a bit unimpressed and noted it was only a few degrees cooler than it was back in RI. I also remember being nervous but excited. My buddy, JJ, had done a good job of preparing me for the actual program so any lingering nerves I had disappeared when I met the other students and staff. Finally, I remember waking up incredibly sad on the day after residency. Yes, it was nice to be back home in my own bed but it was odd and lonely not going to breakfast with all of my new friends from the program.

Have you focused on any one form (PB, novel, nonfiction; graphic novel) or age group in your writing? Tried a form you never thought you’d try?

Each semester brought something new for me. I arrived at Hamline with part of a YA realistic fiction book. Liza and I worked on that during my first semester. During the second semester I worked on Middle Grade Horror with Anne Ursu. That was new to me and a ton of fun. When the big critical semester came around Swati Avasti also advised me through a YA Speculative Fiction Hybrid novel. That work helped set the ground for a graphic novel during my final semester with Gene Yang. The Middle Grade Horror opened my eyes to the great field of Middle Grade and further enhanced my love for Horror. The hybrid novel, while interesting, proved that while I love sci-fi, I don’t love WRITING sci-fi. Working with Gene was great too. I was able to carry out a childhood dream of writing a comic book. Gene guided me to a completed first draft of a super hero graphic novel.

Tell us about your Creative Thesis.

My thesis wasn’t what I originally intended. I thought I would pick something I started in a previous semester and bring myself to a complete first draft. I circled Gene’s name for advisor not thinking I would actually be paired with him. When I saw his name on my advisor slip, I thought, “Okay, I guess it’s back to the spec-fic hybrid novel.” I kind of dreaded that thought as it wore me out the semester prior. Instead I remembered a short story I wrote as an undergrad about a girl who grows up in the shadow of her super hero father. The girl, Liberty, goes on to find that her father isn’t quite the hero he is made out to be. Things get more complicated when she is unexpectedly forced to don a cape of her own. She doesn’t feel like she can quite fill her father’s boots and has to deal with the discovery of many family secrets buried deep in the past. The comic form was interesting. In writing prose fiction an author avoids saying that their character is annoyed—instead we show it. In comics we MUST write that in the script. If we don’t clearly convey the emotions, settings, and everything else in a scene the artist may not capture the vision. I loved seeing this side of comics. Every time I open one from my collection I wonder what the writer wrote on paper in the script to achieve the end result of full color graphics. Perhaps most fulfilling was getting to type THE END. Gene led me through new territory for my writing and, while it was a lot of work, it was a hell of a lot of fun. I also learned how much better I am when it comes to writing girl characters than boy characters. My Critical Thesis should have clued me in on that but three out of the four stories I worked on while at Hamline had female protagonists—and the one that didn’t was a sidekick narration by a brother about his sister.

What changes have you seen in your writing during your studies?

There are so many changes but they are all for the better. I had a nasty habit where I would show something and then I would immediately TELL the reader the same information. I thought, perhaps, I didn’t trust my reader. Then, I realized, I was the only one who read the material. I had to learn to trust myself as a writer and not be a perfectionist. Anne actually had me write a paper during our semester together on perfectionism in writing. It was an eye-opening experience for me. Foreshadowing and reader expectations became a big part of my story too. I think of it like that movie A Christmas Story. Everyone tells that annoying kid with glasses that all he will do is “shoot [his] eye out” with that silly BB gun and sure enough in the final act, what does he do? He shoots himself in the eye with the BB gun! The viewer of that movie experiences a great payoff when that happens. I talked about that experience a bit in my critical thesis. I called it the Narrative Payoff. I love it when a story I write has multiple narrative payoffs. I try to avoid the opposite, the narrative letdown, at all costs. In Liberty, my graphic novel, I think I provided the reader with a few of those moments. At least, I hope!

With packet deadlines removed as an incentive, do you anticipate it will be harder to keep writing? Any plans for your post-Hamline writing life?

I think it will be tough to keep writing for a little while. I can tell myself to write a page a day or write for a half hour everyday but when it comes down to it, I just don’t know. I hope to be enrolled in a PhD program by the fall so hopefully I will have more deadlines for that so I can keep writing on schedule. I will probably take the spring and summer to put some polish on my graphic novel so I can send that out for publication. There is a Urban Fantasy/Horror series with comedic elements that has kicked around in the back of my mind since 2009 that I want to write. I think that will be my next big writing endeavor before jumping into my PhD program.

Any thoughts for entering students or for people considering the program?

Just do it. The MFAC was seriously one of the best things I have done in my life. I’ve made friends that will last a life time and learned so much in two years. Yes, it is a lot of work but that shouldn’t turn anyone away. I came in an okay-at-best writer and learned so much to help my craft. You learn about yourself too. Each process letter, each essay, each story you work on might make a light bulb in your brain turn on. I’d also suggest you don’t limit yourself to just one story/genre. Diversify your own portfolio. You may start something you never come back to but the faculty here is diverse and has so much to offer. Don’t discount picture books if you “only write” YA realistic fiction. Picture books help you be concise and cut, cut, cut out the garbage. Try some fantasy. If you can build a cohesive world in a fantasy setting, you can build on in a real-world setting. Circle some advisors you wouldn’t normally because all of them will help you learn some amazing stuff. Next, when it comes down to the big critical, find a passion and pursue it. My critical was a ton of work and I had to spend time reading the most depressingly passive characters ever. Not only was it insightful, but it made me look at my own writing in ways I never saw before. I now have a passive character checklist when I write. If my character falls into passive behavior, I make sure to give her the agency she needs to establish herself on the page. Finally, HAVE FUN. You’re writing for children and young adults. Those books are supposed to be read for pleasure. It’s okay to take a step back and laugh at yourself when you’re up at 3 am putting revising your essay or fiction for the umpteenth time.

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The public is welcome to attend the graduate recognition ceremony on Sunday, January 18, 3:30pm, (Anne SimleyTheatre, Drew Fine Arts Building). Linda Sue Park is the speaker.

Meet the Grad: Nikki Ericksen

On January 18, 2015, on the final day of the upcoming residency, the MFAC program will have a Graduate Recognition ceremony, honoring the men and women who have just completed their studies and will receive an MFA from Hamline University. Between now and residency we'll be posting interviews with many of the grads. Nikki Ericksen is today's grad; she lives in Youngstown, Ohio. You can follow her on Twitter (@pmsmrsmoose); she also reviews book on Bookalicious.

Nikki Ericksen

What do you do when you’re not working on packets?When I’m not working on packets, I tend to do lots of things. I like to spend time with my son, read, play video games, watch Netflix, and message my husband—since he is still gone.

How did you hear about the Hamline MFAC Program?
I was looking for a grad school that I could still attend while not located in one spot, because of my husband being in the military and we were supposed to be moving to Washington. I asked one of my undergrad professors, Christopher Barzak, and he suggested looking into Low-Residency programs. I found Hamline and Vermont, but ultimately chose Hamline because of the faculty and it’s a Midwestern school . . . and I’m not going to lie—the mascot sealed the deal a bit, too.

What was your writing experience prior to entering the program?
I was in the Professional Writing and Editing program at YSU and worked at the Writing Center, so most of my writing was either technical or editing. The three fiction writing workshops I took were great for a start, but the criticism and mindset of some of the students was horrible. People would say mean things because they were threatened, or they would say things that were nice, but not helpful.

Hamline mascot.

What do especially remember about your first residency?
The first residency was a whirlwind for me, I stayed in a different hotel, was away from my son for longer than a day or two for the first time, and I felt awkward. Then, I met my buddy Nina and started talking to other people in the program and remember feeling like I had finally found my people.

Have you focused on any one form (PB, novel, nonfiction; graphic novel) or age group in your writing? Tried a form you never thought you’d try?
I started the program working on a YA Fantasy novel. I absolutely hated reading contemporary fiction because I like to escape the everyday drama. Then some things happened in my life and I thought I would give a MG [middle grade] contemporary novel a shot. Never in a million years did I think I would be writing a MG contemporary novel.

Tell us about your Creative Thesis. My creative thesis is called Reveille & Retreat. It is a MG contemporary novel about what happens during deployments for military kids, and especially what happens when there is a casualty. I wanted to show how a community can ban together and be there for each other when our blood family isn’t. There aren’t a lot of books for military kids, and one that deals with casualties isn’t out there, which I think is because it is the biggest fear we have in the military community. It has been one of the hardest things for me to write, and yet one of the most therapeutic. I have been an Army wife for almost 15 years, and being able to poke fun at the Army has been great.

What changes have you seen in your writing during your studies?
I have seen my writing grow leaps and bounds. I came into the program without any filter, only understanding how to write in first person, and being closed minded about other forms of writing. I go back and look at my piece I started the program with, and I want to change the point of view, amp up the snarkiness, and make the characters more complex. I have also seen more of my own voice developing. I also learned I don’t have to use big words to get my point across. Sometimes, simple is better, and the big words get in the way of the emotions.

With packet deadlines removed as an incentive, do you anticipate it will be harder to keep writing? Any plans for your post-Hamline writing life?
I think the deadlines helped a lot, but I plan on giving myself deadlines and rewards. I am hoping to teach either creative writing or YA lit but am looking for any job in the realm of writing or publishing. I plan to finish my current novel and go back to my other novel and rewrite it in third person.

Any thoughts for entering students or for people considering the program? Do it. Be selfish about your creative wants and needs and use every tool that is at your disposal in this program. Don’t be afraid of the work, or afraid of sharing your work with others. This is really a community you can feel safe to be a part of, and a family full of love and respect. I feel like I have found my niche in the world and that I will always have people on my side who understand what I am going through. Have fun, and allow yourself to grow. 

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The public is welcome to attend the graduate recognition ceremony on Sunday, January 18, 3:30pm, (Anne Simley Theatre, Drew Fine ArtsBuilding). Linda Sue Park is the speaker.

Alumni Voices with Mandy Davis: The Other 364 Days

As a kid, the entire Christmas season lead up to that moment on Christmas morning when I got to open up all my presents. I’d wake up much too early, run into my parents’ room, and let them know that it was TIME FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was a big moment.

There are a lot of Christmas mornings in life of a writer. The day you get that book deal. The day your book receives a starred review. The day your book wins that award. (You know the one I’m talking about.) These moments stand out there on the horizon, beckoning us toward them, and promising so much happiness and fulfillment if we can just get there.

One of the reasons it’s so easy to get lost in our big author fantasies is because the writing itself is so hard. When you write you don’t just have to reinvent the wheel, you have to reinvent the axle it attaches to and the motor that moves the axle and then you have to create the body of the car and the people in it and the place they’re going and then you have to give them a good reason to be going there but also a good reason not to be going there and so on and so forth until your head just hurts and you have to go lie down in a dark room for a while. Creating stories seems impossibly complicated, yet we do it, and we do it well.

You do it. I do it. We all sit down with our words, and we all know what to do. Yes, we get help from critique groups and teachers and editors and books and blogs and many, many other sources, but we still sit down alone. And alone, somehow, we manage.

I think we sometimes we wait for the world to tell us we are good enough before we let ourselves believe it. I think that’s another reason why those big moments feel so important to us. We’re waiting for that external validation. I got that validation last summer when I sold my book. And I felt so confident—for a while. But when I actually sat down to write again, the warm fuzzies had all worn off and all the doubt had returned. Nothing had changed except for the fact that I now owed someone a book—a book that had to be good enough to publish. (Cue that famous Queen and Bowie collaboration “Under Pressure.”)

The day I got my first set of feedback from my editor was one of the scariest days of my life. How was I ever going to do what she was asking me to do? Then, I actually read the feedback. Then, I actually sat down and started working through it. Four days later I had a new first chapter. And this new chapter was better than the old one. So. Much. Better. Then, I started working on chapter 2. Then, chapter 3. Eventually, coming to the chair became easier. (Notice I said easier, not easy.)

Everyday, right before I sit down, I wonder if I can really do it. I get this intense urge to clean the toilet or go grocery shopping or reorganize the basement. But then I sit down anyway. And prove to myself, one again, that I can do it.

I am always good enough to do this work, but only when I’m sitting down and actually doing it.

Will there come a day when the fear of not being good enough is completely gone, and I will skip and dance my way to the chair every morning? I’ve not been doing this long enough to know. What I do know is that the longer I go without writing, the more scared I get of it. And the more I write, the easier it becomes.

Mandy's writing chair and Christmas tree.

The biggest and most important moments of this writing life are not the sales or reviews or even the awards. For every December 25th of the year, there’s also a December 18th and a September 21st and an April 4th. It’s the other 364 days of the year that really matter. That’s when we prove to ourselves over and over and over again that we can actually do this work.

I moved my writing chair into the living room next to the Christmas tree. My days of spending the season waiting for that big Christmas morning moment have long since passed. Now my favorite Christmastime moments are those small ones, like right now, when I’m wrapped up in a blanket, sitting by my tree, watching a glittery snowflake twirl back and forth, and writing.

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Mandy Davis is a 2011 graduate of the Hamline MFAC program. Her first book, Stuperstar, will be published in 2016. She lives and writes in Minneapolis, MN.

Faculty Voices with Kelly Easton: Monomania and Writing

Kelly Easton

Last night I saw a play called O.P.C. at the American Repertory Theater in Boston, and it reminded me of a writing issue that arises in books I read and plays I see. The play, by Eve Ensler of The Vagina Monologues fame, is described as a comedy, and there were many funny moments of satire (most notably parodies of Oprah and Barbara Walters). The primary messages, though, are dark indeed. I won’t go into the plot further except to say that it was a struggle between two of the characters that repeated in variations. The other characters were what-I-call serving characters, or foils. The vast majority of the dialogue is a polemic spouted by the main character regarding atrocities wrought by humans: global warming, poverty, sweat shops, consumption, trash, and pollution. The play was, in many ways, brilliant and meaningful, and had much to recommend it. However, by the time I hit the 40 minute mark of the three hour play, I was jaded and bored. As my husband put it, “This play feels like someone is jackhammering in my brain.” 

I have a term for this writing issue, which is monomania, an obsession with one thing. In the literary context, this is when the writer fixates on one plotline, or character, or theme, shrinking the world of the book. Think about it. How many YA books have you read that revolve around only the main character’s concerns, or where the dialogue reflects only the bottom line of the plot, or theme.

A. Chekhov

Lest I be misunderstood, I want to clarify that it is the writer’s monomania that is the issue, their compressed vision. Chekhov was a playwright who wrote about characters with monomania. There are characters obsessed with billiards, the past, birds, philosophy, utopia, lovers, the trees. But Chekhov’s concerns were vast and filtered through every nuance of the dialogue. Chekhov’s plays are brilliant in the characters’ mental wanderings, and the metastory. Here is Nina in a play within the play of The Seagull: “Men and lions, eagles and partridges, antlered deer, geese, spiders, the silent fishes dwelling in the water, star-fish and tiny creatures invisible to the eye--these and every form of life, ay, every form of life, have ended their melancholy round and become extinct. . .” (Chekhov). The characters’ interests carry the script to far-flung ideas. And in Chekhov, there is no such thing as a serving character. Each one is fully developed in their own life purpose and plot line, as we all are. A classic example from The Cherry Orchard is Fiers, literally a serving character—a faithful servant, but, figuratively, the most important symbol at the heart of the play, a metaphor for the passing of Russian aristocracy. At the end, he is forgotten by the family to whom he’s devoted his life, locked in the house and left to die, as the cherry trees are chopped down around him. Even so, he is worried about them. “And Leonid Andreyevitch will have gone in a light overcoat instead of putting on his fur coat.”

When I read something where I am battered with the same repeated message or character details, I begin to ask questions: Why does this character have no memories from the past? Why don’t they have hobbies? Or music they like? What are the quirks of the mailman who delivers each day, or the crossing guard? What objects are in their room? What are they writing their school report about? Is it Darwin? Is it eco-terrorism? Or Chopin? How can that play into the piece? Why does their mother not have any plot of her own, or memories, or a career? Who is shoveling the snow outside? Who is the mayor of the town? What is going on politically? What is the story behind the statue in the town square?

Truly, we all have something to say, but if we’re locked too tightly into that message, or plot, or one character (who is coincidentally a lot like us), we might consider looking out the window; or reading a magazine about birds; or talking to some strangers on a city bus. We might ask our neighbor for their stories and listen for a long, long time.

Alumni Voices with Danette Lane: The Toothbrush and the Pen

Jane Resh Thomas once told me “understanding clears obstacles.” I love the simple truth in this wisdom and remind myself of it frequently.

If there is one obstacle in my writing life that I have earnestly sought understanding for, it is the obstacle to writing every day. I know I do not suffer alone with this problem. Jamie Swenson taught us “how to get [our] butt BACK into that chair” in November, and Jennifer Mazi wrote an open letter to her distant muse just last week. In general, we writers spend a lot of time talking about our problem of not writing.

Why is that? Shouldn’t writing every day feel just as important to us as brushing our teeth?

I have worked on my writing obstacle for years. The easy BIC! fix never cut it for me. Then last month, while exploring various topics for this post, I discovered some blessed understandings that have shifted my writing paradigm. Disclaimer: What follows may only be ridiculous convoluted theories that have absolutely no basis in reality. (But they’re working for me.)

Here goes…

#1: What the obstacle to writing is not. It is not fear (What if I don’t get it right?); it is not doubt (I am not the one to tell this story); it is not procrastination (Today I will make a story collage); it is not laziness (ZZZZZZ); or interruptions (“Candygram!”); or even distractibility (Look! A chicken!). The obstacle is not any of these things--or all of these things. These issues are surmountable.

#2: What the obstacle to writing is. The obstacle is a basic failure to understand who we are as writers and how we are created to process the world.

Creative writers are a highly intuitive clan. Significant portions of us fall into the “Intuitive Feelers” or “Intuitive Perceivers” personality types when we take the Jung Typology test. This means we gather information using the five senses like everyone else, but we then take in additional data that goes beyond our senses: wispy connections, patterns, relationships, gut instincts. I’m not sure how much of this input we are even consciously aware of. While these pieces of data are not typical facts and figures, they are still a form of intelligence. It’s a mystery how this intelligence is stored within us, but we don’t seem capable of accessing it in the same manner as recalling facts and figures.

#3: The understanding that clears the obstacle. Additional tools are needed to cull and extract intuitive intelligence. Artists use paint. Monks use prayer. Writers pick up the pen. We rely on the writing process to access and free the unconscious knowledge our intuition has gathered and stored. This understanding offers us a serious motivation to write: To not write means leaving a considerable portion of our humanity and intelligence lying fallow within.

So being all I am created to be depends on me picking up the pen every day.

This new level of self-understanding has turned the simple act of brushing my teeth into a strange otherworldly experience. Every morning I pick up my toothbrush, and I see a pen. I pick up my pen, and I see a toothbrush. My intuitive intelligence must be working overtime, making a connection in the relationship between these two implements. Oddly, I feel thoroughly empowered by the visual reinforcement the delusion provides.

           

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Danette Lane is a 2010 graduate of the MFAC program. She carries her toothbrush (and pen!) back and forth between her residences in Florida and North Carolina.

Faculty Voices with Laura Ruby: A Lot of Rewrites

A few weeks ago, one of my students asked me how many times I rewrite a book. My usual answer is something like “umptyjillion” or “HAHAHAHAHA.” I’m only being somewhat facetious. I honestly don’t have any idea. All I know is that it’s a lot.

Pictures of the “Alot” ©  Allie Brosh
Hyperbole and a Half

Many people believe the primary work of a writer is getting that first draft down. Even professional writers believe this. Drafting can be so painful and take so long—months, years. Who could bear to imagine that the first draft is only the beginning? Who could stand one more holiday with your dad saying, “Are you still working on that thing? When do you get paid for this stuff? Somebody’s going to pay you, right?”

So, as we’re drafting, we don’t think about revision much at all. We can’t. (I can’t). Instead, we tell ourselves: “This is working really well!” and “I’ll just have to fix this little thing here or there!” and “I love this story sooooo much!”

©  Allie Brosh
Hyperbole and a Half

 These little tales are a defense mechanism, stories we tell ourselves in order to survive the drafting process. Because if we didn’t tell ourselves stories about how much work our books don’t need, all the rewriting we likely won’t have to do, we might scoop out our own eyeballs and use them as martini garnishes.  

Which is why critical feedback from readers, advisors, agents & editors can be such a shock, and why this feedback can make us feel so frozen and resistant. If you’ve talked yourself into believing that the hard part is done, that the only thing your book requires is a few minor tweaks, it’s devastating to hear that your whole plot is bananas (and not in a good way).

Here’s what people like to imagine revision is:

·         Correcting and/or defending one’s charming little grammar idiosyncrasies

·         Futzing around with a line here or there

·         Reworking that one annoying chapter in the middle of the book

·         Spellcheck!

·         Cutting adverbs and/or the words “sigh” and “shrug”

·         Giving your main character an interesting pet (a hedgehog named Amelia!)

·         Futzing around with a few more lines

·         Swapping out the interesting pet for an even more interesting pet (a quokka named Coughdrop!)

But this is polishing, not revising. This is what you do with a manuscript that’s already been revised.

Here’s what revision really is:

    ·         Starting the book in a different place

·         Ending the book in a different place

·         Ripping out entire characters or plotlines

·         Amping up conflict in every scene

·         Building a tangible world using all five senses

·         Deepening characterization across the board

·         Reordering scenes and events across the narrative for maximum effect

·         Recasting the book in a different tense or POV

·         Keeping the characters but inventing a new story

·         Keeping the story but inventing new characters

·         Identifying and focusing in on primary themes

·         Rewriting the opening chapter till your fingers bleed

·         Chucking the entire first draft and starting fresh

·         Doing a whole bunch of other stuff I can’t even think of right now because YIKES 

Tackling any of the above work is difficult, but not as difficult as simply accepting the idea that any of this work must be done.

Plus, complicating the revision process is the fact that you will get conflicting feedback. One reader tells you that he loves the voice of the piece but thinks the plot is wonky. Another reader says that the plot is amazing but the voice is off-putting. You revise the plot to please the first reader, and then he comes back and tells you the voice is off-putting. What are you supposed to do with this except to conclude that everyone, everywhere is insane?

When you first start out as a writer, you try everything people suggest. They say the beginning is slow? You speed it up. They say the ending isn’t earned? You rework it. But Neil Gaiman said: “When people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.” (Well, maybe not your Hamline advisors, ahem).

When I was working on my latest novel, my agent told me that she really wasn’t that keen on Roza, one of my point-of-view characters. She didn’t like Roza as much as she liked Petey, another POV character. Maybe I should cut Roza, she suggested, and write the whole book about Petey. My dear friend Anne, on the other hand, told me that Petey was taking over the whole book and that maybe Petey should be cut back.

Needless to say, this was confusing.

What I had to do was take in this seemingly contradictory advice and drill down to the essential issue. Why would these two amazing readers have such strong opinions about these two characters? Why favor one character over the other? And the issue, I decided, was one of balance. Roza’s voice was so quiet that her chapters couldn’t stand up to the passion of Petey’s. To solve the balance problem, I had to amplify Roza’s voice as well as dial up the drama in her chapters. I took Roza’s chapters out of the narrative and completely rearranged and recut them (at least four different times). In a sense, I took the advice of both these readers, but I found a way to solve the issue that didn’t conflict with my vision of the book.

I call this the 13^th way. 12 people will identify 12 different problems, but it’s up to you to find the real problem underlying most of them. Then you have to find your own unique solution to that problem.

You do that for each of the problems identified. Over and over and over again, times umptyjillion, HAHAHAHA.

Revision is a ton of work. And it can be exhausting. In an interview with NPR, the late Kent Haruf said, “It doesn't seem to me there's a scarcity of talent among students who want to write. But what there is a lack of is a talent for work, that it's so difficult to write and it takes so long to learn how to write well that most people give it up before they get good enough.”

So, tell yourself all the tales you need to as you draft. But when it’s time to revise, do not give up before you get good enough. It often takes many sweeps through a manuscript, many drafts before you find the real story you needed to tell all along.

This is Jacqueline Woodson on her Tumblr, relating an exchange she had with her daughter about her National Book Award Winning novel BROWN GIRL DREAMING. 

The 12 year old: Mommy, how many times did you rewrite Brown Girl?

Me: I stopped counting after 31.

©  Allie Brosh
Hyperbole and a Half

Some revision links:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/oct/23/how-to-write-fiction-mj-hyland

http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/snowflake-method/

http://www.darcypattison.com/revision/shrunken-manuscript/

http://www.amazon.com/Self-Editing-Fiction-Writers-Second-Edition-ebook/dp/B003JBI2YI

http://store.savethecat.com/collections/products/products/save-the-cat-the-last-book-on-screenwriting-you-ll-ever-need

http://www.mckeestore.com/Robert-McKees-book-STORY_p_11.html

Alumni Voices with Jennifer Mazi: Open Letter to a Muse

Dear Sharon,

I’m writing an open letter to you because that seems to be the thing to do these days and since we broke up, I haven’t had a single, fresh idea of my own. In fact, I can’t even find proper writing tools in this snowglobe of a house I live in, which explains why I’m scribbling this letter on the back of a Wild Things color sheet from the library in pink marker.

That is how bad things have gotten between us. So let’s talk.

(Come closer!)

Oh, you have somewhere to be?

I get it.

I see you out there, speeding through the woods across the street, blowing your pouty whistle to rub in my face that you are moving forward...without me.

Tracking down the muse: Of course, 
the morning I go out to find her, 
Sharon is nowhere to be found.

I hear you right this instant—the whole neighborhood hears you too, by the way—whining about how I’m not doing my part to woo you, that I’ve been distracted by a four-month long Good Wife binge and what the world is doing on Facebook and untouched stacks of overdue library books.

(In my defense, I’ve read all the picture books, several times, at least. I read Oliver Jeffers’ It Wasn’t Me maybe 92 times this month alone. And I gave The Goldfinch a shot but it was so heavy my arms hurt by page 20 and there weren’t any pictures.)

You say you feel neglected, but the truth is: I don’t know how to woo 240 tons of iron and steel. I miss the version of you that climbed up onto my lap and purred wild word after word into my ear. Now, I strain to even hear you ramming your cars into each other at odd hours, drowned out by the sound of Mahna-Mahna on repeat and four people hollering that they have no clean underpants.

A friend e-mailed the other day to let me know about a free two-hour Scrivener workshop I might be interested in.

Which I would have been, I told him, except I don’t write anymore, and haven’t since you crawled out the door dragging half of my brain with you in search of a clear route west...all because YOU wanted to see what the moon looked like over the Grand Canyon and I wouldn’t drive you.

I guess it’s not entirely true, that I don’t write. I tweet, although I get scared and delete them before people comment. I write Facebook rants about ridiculous tools I need but don’t have, and notes for my kiddos’ lunchbox napkins when I remember. I can manage a decent obituary and the occasional newspaper article, but that doesn’t cover the bills.

Our projects? The ones you and I loved like children, that we named and hugged and whispered to and envisioned in glossy Pantone colors with double-fan adhesive binding before sending off to yet another not-the-right-agent?

I haven’t seen them in months.

If we wait a bit longer, “months” changes to “a year.”

They cry for us, sometimes. (Doesn’t that just break your heart? Do you even have a heart?) We left so many of them dangling on the edges of various cliffs and ravines. They deserved a chance to reach The End, but you needed your own adventure, and I was too tired to drive to Arizona.

I’m sorry. Let’s stop blaming each other. I’ve changed, or at least I am trying: I only watch TV when I fold laundry now; I switched my Facebook password to something so complicated I couldn’t remember it if I were a World Memory Champion; I am reading longer books again, or at least, I will be once I return that stack in the corner to the library.

Just come back inside. My lap is empty, and I’m allergic to cats.

* 

Jennifer Mazi is a 2011 graduate of the MFAC program. She lives in Missouri.

Faculty Voices with Claire Rudolf Murphy—A Writer’s Gratitude List: John Lewis #1

Claire Rudolf Murphy

I began this post before Maggie Moris’ thought-provoking gratitude post. Thank you, Maggie, for reminding us about the deep work we writers do—every day. I too am grateful for the challenges my writing life presents and for other aspects about this life that I don’t always appreciate—my supportive friends and husband, agents and editors who tell it straight and send me back to the work, the students, alums and faculty of the Hamline writing community that feed me in so many ways. And I am thankful for one of the most incredible experiences of my writing life that took place out in the world, not at my desk.

Please bear with my excited verbiage about my recent trip to Washington, D.C. for the National Council of Teachers of English conference. I am so very grateful. I flew out two days early to experience our nation’s capital again. Because I write about history, I wanted to visit the halls of power again where so many decisions have been made, to be reminded again about the evolution of our country. Thanks to Hamline alum Ellen Kazimer, a history geek like myself, we got around brilliantly. The second day we visited Mount Vernon where I came to appreciate our first president more deeply and to embrace the fact that he graces the cover of my new book My Country Tis of Thee, rather than Aretha Franklin. We also met an awesome fife player and guide whose interactions with third graders on our tour modeled ways to help young people enjoy history.

But the first day rocked my soul. Ellen and I toured the Supreme Court and the capital. Across the hall from my senator—Maria Cantwell—is Al Franken’s office. Ellen and I were delighted to take a photo in front of the Minnesota college pennants on his wall and tell the office staff all about the Hamline MFAC program. Then we heard testimony on immigration on a mostly empty Senate floor, some of it inflammatory behind belief. But I want to focus on the positive, on what came next.

Ellen and I arrived at Congressman John Lewis’ office about fifteen minutes ahead of the interview time. I had met John at ALA last summer and he had agreed to discuss my new book project with me. Even so, I was delighted when his scheduler set me up with a face-to-face interview, only requesting the questions ahead of time.

We had to wait awhile as the House was actually working that day, voting on some bill. Like a cat on a hot tin roof, I could barely sit still. Ellen admitted later that she was surprised how nervous I was. I was too. But John Lewis was my hero—Freedom Rider, speaker at the March on Washington, a member of Bobby Kennedy’s presidential campaign staff and, most importantly, the last civil rights activist serving in Congress. The 45 minute delay was a blessing. Ellen and I were allowed to stand in his office, which is like a museum to the Civil Rights movement and full of plaques honoring John’s service to our country. Bobby’s poster can be seen in the photo Ellen took of me and John.

He’d been on the go all day, but when he arrived, he asked us if we needed something to drink. To drink! I know, I know. My students are thinking to themselves how much I abhor exclamation marks. But . . . that’s how it went down. He was gracious and thoughtful and considered every question. We had a great conversation about his time with Dr. King and the Kennedys. All my questions were answered, and I only glanced once at my list. In closing I asked him what I should write about today’s racism challenges, what I should say to young people.

“Tell them never to lose hope. We have to have hope.”

John Lewis should know. He’d been beaten senseless as a Freedom Rider in 1962, lost Dr. King and Bobby within two months of each other in 1968, seen Congress devolve to petty partisan politics. He didn’t cover up his pain during our interview. He’s just risen above it. He’s used that pain to keep going. My hero gave me sixty minutes of his precious time. Afterwards he left to receive another award - from the Washington Historical Society. But he talked to me like he had all the time in the world.

NCTE was wonderful. I got to meet librarians, teachers and college professors who love kids’ books as much as do. I had coffee with the amazing Emily Jenkins and we chatted about our upcoming residency. I listened to Bryan Collier discuss how he painted the illustrations for My Country Tis of Thee, and learned that he stood on the Rotunda that cold, cold January day with his five year old daughter when President Obama was inaugurated and Aretha sang.

I will never forget that hour with John Lewis. Whenever I get down and out about my writing, politics or global warming, I am going to remember his words: “We have to have hope.”

John Lewis, you give me that hope. I can only pray for a smidgen of the courage you have shown us all. And writers out there, don’t ever hesitate to ask for an interview with one of your heroes. We need their stories, and you just might be the one to write it.