Rachel Toor's Blog, page 4

Helen's first interview

Thursday, June 12, 2014Who is in the photo at right?

The less attractive one is me, Rachel Toor. My new novel,  On the Road to Find Out , is being released by FSG this month. The hottie with the big ears is Helen. She’ll be four on August 23. She’s expecting a big party.

What's the occasion for Coffee with a Canine?

On Sundays I don’t go to the café where I write every other morning so we do our usual poop walk and include a stop at the Rocket Bakery where I get a decaf Americano and Helen waits outside tied to a chair while the people inside coo, “What a cute dog! What great ears!”

How did Helen get her name? Any nicknames?
Helen is named after a beloved great aunt who was at the same time fierce and gentle, a Rosie-the-Riveter kind of person who at a young age left her family on the east coast and went to California.

How were you and Helen united?

I haunted the local shelters for months. I did not want a puppy. I had a long list of requirements, in fact, about what I wanted. Not a puppy. Helen’s mom had gotten knocked up, arrested, and then was taken in by a woman who fostered litters for the Spokane Humane Society. I told her what I was looking for and she said, “I’ve raised 500 puppies. This is the best litter I’ve ever seen and this is the dog for you,” and pointed to Helen, who was not even the most attractive of the bunch. She said Helen was a thinker; she was curious, but also cautious. She was really, really smart. So I brought home an 8-week-old puppy who is the smartest dog I’ve ever known.

Are there any Helen-inspired dogs in your new novel?

No. The best character in my novel is Walter, a rat. He was inspired by Iris, the rat I had before I got Helen. In fact, Iris was so wonderful and dog-like that for a while I was disappointed in Helen, thinking I would never love her as much as I loved Iris. Iris was sweeter, more of a pleaser, and also very smart. She’d stand next to the refrigerator and twirl for broccoli. She’d follow me around the house and greeted every new thing as if it were a treat, including the plumber.

Does Helen do more to help or hinder your writing?

Helen has listened to me read my novel out loud three times. She rolls her eyes when I say, “Can I read this to you?” She actually rolls her eyes at me. She’s an eternal teen.

Who is Helen's best pet-pal?

Helen knows the names of all of my friends. Whenever I tell her who’s coming over she goes to the window and waits. She loves my students and I sometimes bring her to class with me. She has a bunch of dog friends—Nadine, Roxy, Sancho—and she has other dogs she wants to eat. She hates golden retrievers and anyone with a little bit of heeler (she’s probably got a bit of heeler in her). Except for the dogs she hates, she makes friends easily.

Where is Helen's favorite outdoor destination?

The Sunday morning long run from Dean’s house when we’re in Missoula, Montana. Helen likes to run with the fast guys. We run most days. If it’s hot, we run near the river so she can swim. (She loves water and is an incredible swimmer. She does the breast stroke, not the doggie paddle.) She did her first race, a half marathon, last winter and was fourth dog. If she hadn’t been leashed to me, she could have won it.

Squeaky toy, ball, stick...?

Yes.

Cat, postman, squirrel...?

Ugh. Now it’s time for true confessions: her kill card is one squirrel, six marmots. The marmots, which are like squirrels on steroids, squeak just like her toys. And they’re fat and not so fast. As someone who loves rodents, I have a hard time with this. We’ve had a lot of discussions about the fact that she needs to work on suppressing her prey drive. She rolls her eyes during these discussions.

What is Helen's best quality?

Her fierce intelligence. And of course, her athleticism. And her wit. She has a great sense of humor, though it’s still a little on the adolescent side. And the fact that she has to sleep on top of me.

If Hollywood made a movie about your life in which Helen could speak, which actor should do her voice?

Actually, the same kind of actor who would play the lead in the movie version of my novel—a younger Jennifer Lawrence or Ellen Page, someone who projects intelligence, fearlessness, and wit. With a deep voice.

If Helen could answer only one question in English, what would you ask her?

I don’t need her to speak in English. I know exactly what she’s thinking. She’s not subtle.

Visit Rachel Toor's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: On the Road to Find Out.http://coffeecanine.blogspot.com/2014...http://coffeecanine.blogspot.com/2014/06/rachel-toor-helen.html

The page 69 test

http://page69test.blogspot.com
TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 2014"On the Road to Find Out"Rachel Toor is currently associate professor of Creative Writing at the Inland Northwest Center for Writers in Spokane, the graduate writing program of Eastern Washington University.  She lives with her dog, Helen, who raced in her first half marathon in February.

Toor applied the Page 69 Test to  On the Road to Find Out , her first novel, and reported the following:

What I didn’t realize when I started working on this novel—about a girl who decides to take up running after being rejected from her first choice college—was that it would be so much about mother-daughter stuff. It had never been my intention to wade into those waters. And yet, I ended up having to put on my bathing suit.

The book opens with Alice’s first run ever, which is okay for seven and a half minutes. And then it all goes to hell. But somehow she manages to keep stuffing herself into her (tragically unhip) jeggings and borrowing her mom’s (too small) running shoes and getting her dejected, depressed butt out the door. By page 69, her shins are starting to feel a little sore and her BFF Jenni advises she take some time off. Alice is surprised to find that she doesn’t want to stop running. So Jenni suggests Alice ask her physician mother about the pain. Alice says she doesn’t want her mom to know that she’s been running because it will make her too happy. Her mom’s been telling Alice to get outside more, to make more friends, to try to find an extracurricular activity. On page 69 Jenni says, “Alice, sometimes you stand in your own way.” This, as it turns out, is precisely what the book is about.

Alice realizes she should tell her mom that she’s been running—but only because she needs to buy some real running clothes. On page 69 Alice reflects on the fact that especially after her college rejection, she has been a real jerk. She knows her mother is just trying to be helpful, but Alice feels like she’s been possessed by a little alien who makes her say assholic things to everyone around her and her mother gets the worst of it. The only one who’s spared the alien treatment is Walter, her beloved pet rat. And Jenni. Most of the time.

The book is about Alice coming to terms with what she sees as failure and finding ways to jump off the hamster wheel of achievement she’d been running on and learning to get lost and enjoy paths less well trod. It’s about a strong and independent young girl, the daughter of a strong and independent woman, who learns to be a little less self-absorbed and a little more understanding of the people around her.

Visit Rachel Toor's website and blog.

--Marshal Zeringue
Posted by Marshal Zeringueat 10:05 AM 

YA Runs a 5K!

Tips for New Runners from Experienced Runner Rachel Toorby Rachel Toor—YA Runs a 5K? Oh yeah!If you ask me, the giant boom in running and marathoning can be traced back to one person: Oprah. When she ran the Marine Corps Marathon twenty years ago (and finished under 4:30) Oprah said to women (and men) all over the world: If I can do this, so can you. You might not be able to get Oprah’s hair, or her shoe collection, or have a personal chef cook meals for you, but you can run a marathon. Anyone can.First you have to commit to the idea of running. You have to get over the thought that you can’t do it, stop believing you’re too weak or too jiggly or too busy or too short or too noisy or too anything. The most important muscle to develop is the will. Nothing can stand in your way once you make the decision to start running.Next, you don’t have to run. Not the whole way. Start out slower than you think you can go and hold that pace for as long as you can and then walk. You might run for a minute and then walk. You might run for four minutes. You might find, if you start out slowly enough, you can run for twenty. Don’t push it. Just get your butt out the door.  And then do it again. And again.Some people get by with a little help from their friends. Some people enjoy having time alone. Know yourself and what motivates you and then go. Stop making excuses. Go. Go knowing that you can do this—anyone can.My YA novel is debuting this month and I’m as scared as I’ve ever been. What if no one likes it? What if reviewers say mean things? What if readers think Walter is disgusting? I’m vulnerable and exposed and, well, terrified.Exactly how many people feel about pinning on a race number. We owe it to ourselves to do the things that frighten us; that’s how we grow. If I can publish a YA novel, you can run a 5K.And when you do, tell me about it. Because you know what? You might like running. You might want to sign up for another race. You might realize that someday, like Oprah, if you chose to, you could run a marathon. Anyone can.—Rachel Toor is a prolific running writer for magazines like Running Times and Shape, and she is also associate professor of Creative Writing at the Inland Northwest Center for Writers in Spokane, the graduate writing program of Eastern Washington University.ON THE ROAD TO FIND OUT is her YA debut, about a high school senior who faces real rejection for the first time in her life and reaches redemption through running.You can WIN a copy of ON THE ROAD TO FIND OUT if you donate to our First Book fundraiser! Learn more here!

MC Alice Davis' playlist at www.allthewritenotes.com

“ON THE ROAD TO FIND OUT” BLOG TOUR – GUEST POST RACHEL TOORPOSTED BY JAY C. SPENCER ON JUNE 9, 2014 IN ATWN GUEST POST, JAY C. SPENCER, PLAYLISTS | LEAVE A COMMENTAS PART OF THE “ON THE ROAD TO FIND OUT” BLOG TOUR, AUTHOR RACHEL TOOR STOPPED BY A.T.W.N. TO SHARE INSIGHT INTO THE TITLE OF HER BOOK, AND TO SHARE THE MC ALICE DAVIS’ PLAYLIST. ENJOY! THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN “ON THE ROAD TO FIND OUT” & “HAROLD AND MAUDE”… I first saw Harold and Maude my freshman year at Yale. Afterward a horsey squash-playing senior named Sissy told me it was the most disgusting movie she’d ever seen. I thought, Did we see the same film? It may be the best romantic comedy of all time. Okay, so it’s about the relationship between a teenage boy and a 79-year-old woman, and sure, the kid tries to kill himself about seven thousand times in the first few scenes, but it’s funny and sweet and the music by Cat Stevens makes you smile and want to cry—sometimes at the same time.The title of my book is also the title of a song from that movie. ALICE DAVIS’ PLAYLIST Cat Stevens – On the Road to Find Out  Just listen to the song and you’ll see that it’s an anthem of growing up. I choose to ignore the religious overtones and focus on the idea of the search—there’s so much left to know.Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run As a teenager I hated Bruce Springsteen because so many people loved him. As a grownup I’ve learned that sometimes things are popular because they’re just that good.Dar Williams – Teenagers Kick Our Butts I wrote a novel that offers up lots of advice to teens because I couldn’t help myself. This song does the same thing, and with some of the same messages: Make sure you make lots of mistakes. B-52s – Roam A great, fun band to run to. A great song to roam to.Talking Heads – Naïve Melody (This Must Be the Place) This might be my favorite love song ever. Robert Frost wrote, “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in,” and we all know what Dorothy said when she clicked the heels of the ruby slippers three times. It’s where I wanna be.Mary Chapin Carpenter – He Thinks He’ll Keep Her During my first 50-mile race, I started talking with another runner. We ran together for miles and then she dropped me, but we became friends. Turns out Sophie is the sister of one of my favorite singers, another smart strong woman with a voice all her own.Elvis Costello – (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes Elvis is King. Who writes better, more literate, more clever and witty lyrics? “I used to be disgusted and now I try to be amused” is a good mantra for teens. And for me.Kate Bush – Running Up that Hill “If I only could I’d be running up that road, running up that hill with no problems.” Right on, sister. Gillian Welch – Look at Miss Ohio I don’t usually like twangy, old-timey music, but I love me some Gillian Welch and the dude who plays with her whose name I can never remember though my friends says he’s a truly great guitar player.REM – End of the World This song makes you run faster. And feel fine.Rachel’s ambition, on graduating from Yale University, was to work on a dude ranch in Wyoming (never having been to a dude ranch—or to Wyoming). Moving to Missoula, Montana, for an MFA in creative writing is the closest she’s come. After a dozen years as an editor of scholarly books, at Oxford and Duke University Presses, she slid down the ladder of social mobility and did a stint in college admissions, quitting to write Admissions Confidential: An Insider’s Account of the Elite College Selection Process (St. Martin’s, 2001) in an attempt to demystify an arcane and brutalizing rite of passage. Since then she has published a memoir, The Pig and I (Penguin, 2005; Bison Books, 2009) and Personal Record: A Love Affair with Running (University of Nebraska Press, 2008). Rachel writes a monthly column in  The Chronicle of Higher Education  and a bi-monthly one in  Running Times  magazine, where she is a senior writer. Her work has appeared in various and diverse places, including The LA Times, Ploughshares, Glamour, Inside Higher Ed, Reader’s Digest, Runner’s World, Ascent,JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association) and variety of other more academically-oriented publications. Her work also appears on the Athleta blog, where she was a sponsored athlete for 2012. Read more at herwebsite or follow her on Twitter.SHARE THIS:7RELATED

Blog tour continues

I'm excited to have the On The Road To Find Out Blog Tour stopping by today! Author Rachel Toor is here with a Guest Post (where she makes a most shocking confession!) and you have the chance to win a copy of her new YA book...
On The Road To Find Outby Rachel ToorJune 10, 2014Macmillan
A funny, uplifting debut about running, romance—and dealing with college rejection and other hurdles
On New Year’s Day, Alice Davis goes for a run. Her first ever. It’s painful and embarrassing, but so was getting denied by the only college she cares about. Alice knows she has to stop sitting around and complaining to her best friend, Jenni, and her pet rat, Walter, about what a loser she is. But what doesn’t know is that by taking those first steps out the door, she is setting off down a road filled with new challenges—including vicious side stitches, chafing in unmentionable places, and race-paced first love—and strengthening herself to endure when the going suddenly gets tougher than she ever imagined.


Goodreads / Amazon / B&N / IndiBound 
by Rachel Toor
True confession: I hate cupcakes.
I’m not a frosting girl, and with cupcakes, I’m sorry, the proportions are usually way off. The good news is that I have a number of friends who like frosting as much as I like cake and we can usually work something out.
My character, Alice, has very definite ideas about food, and I have to say, she has exquisite taste. For example, she loves all things mini. Mini Oreos have a better ratio of cookie to cream than regular Oreos, and are certainly much tastier than those atrocities, Double Stuffs. Alice is a big fan of candy corn, particularly Indian corn, but hates the nasty pumpkins. Shape affects taste, as we all know. Alice loves marshmallow Peeps, but only if they’re stale, and only the yellow chicks. (Everything else is a pretender.) And you have to eat the butt first, and then bite off the head. One of the really fun parts of writing this novel was to set the record straight on these important matters.
Recently I went out for a candlelit dinner at a nice restaurant with a staggeringly handsome man. The conversation was sparkly and, yes, we drank some wine. The only problem was that the food wasn’t very good. The dessert choices were blah and so, sadly, we left without a sugar fix.
In perhaps the most romantic gesture in the history of the world, this man stopped the car and ran into a convenience store while I waited, a little buzzed, a lot happy. When he came back I was even happier. He carried bags of the perfect cap for the evening: Hostess Cupcakes.
So I guess I lied. I don’t hate all cupcakes.
And that’s the thing—about books, about men, about treats—there’s something for everyone and it’s usually just a matter of knowing what you like. Of taste there is no disputing.
*slowly recovers from the shock of anyone hating cupcakes*Thank you so much, Rachel, for stopping by today!
website * goodreads * twitter
Rachel Toor is the author of three previous books. She was an admissions officer at Duke University, a high school cross country coach, and a teacher of SAT prep classes. A senior writer at Running Times magazine, she teaches at Eastern Washington University in Spokane.
Win a finished copy ofOn The Road To Find Out!The awesome peeps at Macmillan have generously offered up one copy for one winner.DETAILS-(US/CAN only)-ends 6/15-must be 13+, one free entry per person-winner will be emailed and must claim prize within 48 hours

Bawdy Book Tour

Welcome  Reviews »  Indie Author Excerpts  Features »  Giveaways  2014 ChallengesOn the Road to Find Out Blog Tour: Q&A with Rachel Toor June 6, 2014  Jessica @ The Bawdy Book Blog  Blog Tour  0Today I am very excited to be a part of the blog tour for On the Road to Find Out by Rachel Toor! I found a lot of inspiration in this book (review coming soon), and I would like to send a big thank you to Rachel for taking the time to answer some questions for us. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed reading your answers, and yes, I really did love Walter!
On the Road to Find Out written by Rachel Toor 
Published by Farrar Straus Giroux, MacMillan on June 10, 2014 
Genres: Young Adult 
Pages: 320 

On New Year’s Day, Alice Davis goes for a run. Her first ever. It’s painful and embarrassing, but so was getting denied by the only college she cares about. Alice knows she has to stop sitting around and complaining to her best friend, Jenni, and her pet rat, Walter, about what a loser she is. But what doesn’t know is that by taking those first steps out the door, she is setting off down a road filled with new challenges—including vicious side stitches, chafing in unmentionable places, and race-paced first love—and strengthening herself to endure when the going suddenly gets tougher than she ever imagined.

As a fairly new runner (currently training for my first half marathon!), I appreciated all the encouragement and positivity regarding running and how runners come in every shape and size. What is the one piece of advice you would give to someone who is a beginner?First, welcome to the club! I think the most important thing to remember is that this is what we do for fun. At around mile eleven, you might start to feel a little tired. It might begin to hurt. Remember: that isn’t real suffering. This is what we do for fun. Many people hate running because they start out too fast and then want to die. It hurts so much they never want to put on their shoes again. If you go slow, you can run farther, and you’ll enjoy it a lot more. Start off super easy and then, if you can, speed up. (And please let me know how your half marathon goes—I can’t say how happy it makes me to hear from people who join this big and welcoming club of ours.)I loved the wall of race bibs at Joan’s store, and how they each represented someone’s story. As an accomplished runner, what bib would you hang on the wall, and why?What a great question, and one I hadn’t thought about. When I read applications to Duke University I used to boil down some of the essays to baseball=life, or violin=life. This is going to sound horrendously corny, but for me, my bib might say something as embarrassing as “running=love.” I only started running because a man I was dating would take my dog for runs and eventually I decided I didn’t want to be left behind. We had all our hard relationships talks during runs. The races I care most about are not those where I won or ran well, but where I made a connection: had a great conversation with another person, figured something out in my head, or was in a beautiful place and felt at home in the world. My most profound experiences have always come from serving as a pacer; I’ve led pace groups at marathons, accompanied other runners for the last 40 miles of a 100 mile race, and have jogged beside a friend in her first race. Those are the times when I cry after crossing the finish line. Often when I’m running my heart gets full of love. It’s that simple, and that corny.Alice is a self-proclaimed “rodentiaphile”, and the way you wrote about her pet rat Walter completely humanized him (and made me feel so much more for Alice!).  I know that you have had several unusual pets. Was there a special pet that inspired you to create Walter?Oh yeah. Walter was based on my darling Iris. She died five years ago and I still miss her, even though I now have a great dog, Helen. Iris was so loving, so funny, so smart, and so very wise. When my mother was sick with cancer, Iris and I drove across the country to stay with her. She called her grandrat “my healer.” In the mornings I’d let Iris out of her cage and she’d patrol the house. Then she would run along one couch, leap onto the arm of the other one, and then pounce onto my mother’s neck. I’d shout, “Incoming!” as a warning. Iris spent much of that summer nestled on my mother’s chest while my mom read or slept. Iris was very bonded to me, but she seemed to know that my mother needed her. They died within two months of each other.On the Road to Find Out is your first novel. How was that writing process different than with your previous books?For one, it was fun. I usually find writing excruciating, especially having to do the kind of hard thinking and emotional archeology required to write a memoir. My editor suggested the idea for the novel to me—which in itself was a different and unique experience—and what surprised me most was how collaborative the process was. I fed him pages as I went along. He had to read a lot of really bad writing, but he just kept encouraging me and made me believe I could do it. He was the perfect coach.And all the weird things that my novelist friends would say about writing turned out to be true. I really did want to know what happened to my characters because, while I had some ideas, I had to learn to listen to them. (That’s sounds so weird.) The plot twisted and turned in ways I hadn’t planned and became something outside of my control. (That sounds so weird.) And it’s funny that after writing three pretty revealing books about myself, there’s more of me in the novel than in anything I’ve ever written. I feel exposed and vulnerable, and protective of my characters. (So I’m really glad you liked Walter. I’m worried that people will make mean comments about rats because they don’t know any better.)I loved the themes of finding your own path and turning something that is initially perceived as a failure into something positive. As a Yale graduate and college professor, was it difficult to relate to – and write about – someone in Alice’s situation?I like to say that the only test I’ve ever failed in my entire life was the written portion of the motorcycle driver’s license—and I failed it twice!—but that’s not true. Well, it’s true I failed it twice and passed on the third attempt, but I’ve failed at so many things, including relationships and friendships. My life and career path have been a series of zigs and zags. Three times I’ve quit a job without having another one lined up and with no idea what I would do next. In my late thirties I spent three years eating popcorn for dinner because that was what I could afford. What I’ve learned, and it’s taken a long time, is to expect to fail and to know that it won’t be the end of the world.Running has helped with this. I fall a lot when I’m doing trail runs. Other people freak out when they trip. I just say, “Oh, right, I fell again,” pick myself off, brush off the blood, and keep going.  There’s a quote that’s attributed to Olympic marathoner Don Kardong about long races: “It never always gets worse.” That’s what I tell myself when I screw up. I still screw up a lot, but I’ve learned to embrace making mistakes and owning up to them. The fact is, by the end of the book Alice is a lot more together than I was at her age, and maybe even at my own age.On the Road to Find Out is the perfect title for Alice’s journey. It’s also a Cat Stevens song that is mentioned in the book, and those lyrics are a perfect fit. Does that song have special significance for you?Thank you for noticing that.  I saw the movie Harold and Maude freshman year at college and have watched it every few years since then. It makes me laugh and it makes me cry and I love the way the soundtrack feels like another character. My BFF Candace suggested I use OTRTFO as the title and, as is so often the case when you have a best friend, she knew better than I did what I needed. It’s a mouthful, but I’m so glad you agree that it’s fitting. I also like it that when you say OTRTFO out loud it kind of sounds like a song.About Rachel ToorRachel is currently associate professor of Creative Writing at the Inland Northwest Center for Writers in Spokane, the graduate writing program of Eastern Washington University. She lives with her dog, Helen, who raced in her first half marathon in February. She was 4th dog (out of 42).Website • Blog • GoodreadsAbout  Latest PostsContributor at The Bawdy Book BlogJessica’s addiction to books began at age 4, going on weekly trips to the library with her mom.After being a young fan of Sweet Valley High and The Baby-Sitters Club, she discovered the thrill of reading a book that made her want to leave the light on and check under the bed. Her all-time favorite author is Stephen King, but she will read just about anything! Her favorite genres are thrillers, mystery, and dystopian. Jessica never leaves home without her e-reader, and considers it the best gift she ever received.

Cool beans

Check out the groovy poster Auntie's did for my reading.

And check out my guest blog on Running Diva Mom's site. 

It's fun out here in the blogosphere. More to come.

Last Swoon Reads post

THURSDAY, MAY 29, 2014 0 CommentsThen they said, “Rachel, this is not a book”: A Guest Post by Author Rachel ToorRachel Toor  They say you forget the pain of childbirth. I don’t know about that, having never grunted a human out of my woo-woo, but I will say that I haven’t forgotten the agony of writing my first book. All too well I remember what it was like to write a few pages and then have to take to my bed, the back of the hand across my forehead while I sighed like the heroine of a Gothic novel.My second book was worse. I’d sweat out a chapter, send it to my agent, and then in less time than it takes to do the dishes she’d write back and say, “Not quite there, Rachel. Try again?”I said things to her in my head that I would never utter aloud, even in the presence of my dog. Then I’d take a deep breath and start with a new blank document. The new version was always better than what I’d sent her.The third book was supposed to be a breeze: a collection of previously published essays. After I’d gotten the manuscript together I asked a group of undergraduates in one of my creative writing classes if they wanted to give me editorial input. They wouldn’t earn any extra credit, but I’d mention their names in the acknowledgments. I figured it would make them feel important and that they’d see what a great writer their teacher was.They came to my house, these four smart girls in their early twenties, and I tried to make them nachos, but since I don’t use my oven for anything other than storing old newspapers, they had to take over before I burned the place down. We chatted and gossiped and then I readied myself for gushes of praise and love.Instead, they looked serious and concerned and finally one of them said, “Rachel, this is not a book. It’s just a random collection of essays. We think you should do what you always tell us to do when we go to revise a draft: start with a blank document and try again.”What?Who did these people think they were?I had a contract for exactly what I’d done. They just didn’t understand how publishing works. They were babies, whippersnappers.After two minutes and thirty-seven seconds of feeling defensive I realized how right they were, and was proud of how well they’d learned.I started over and actually wrote a book. Let me tell you, that process sucked. But every moment, as I struggled to wrangle words onto the page, I thanked Ivory, Robin, Erica, and Mikita.Even though I spend a lot of time complaining about how hard it is to write, these days, like most people who have been published, I now feel confident that I know the secret to success: Getting the butt in the chair.Each morning, often without brushing my hair and usually without bothering to put on makeup or clean clothes, I show up at a coffee shop where the baristas know my name. They pour me the first of my many cups of decaf and I settle at “my” table for three hours. Sometimes writing happens. Sometimes it’s in the form of emails to friends. Sometimes it’s typing “Lucchese cowboy boots on super-sale” into a search engine or clicking “Like” on the posts of 127 Facebook friends.Eventually I’ll open a new document, write a title (probably a bad one, but something to get me going) and embark on a first draft of a column that’s due in three months. When I get stuck, I’ll open a document that’s been around for a while and pick away at it. Adding sentences, fixing sentences, cutting lard, fixing more sentences, realizing it doesn’t have an ending. Realizing it’s boring and self-indulgent. Like that. A lot of time I stare into space. When I get going, I suspect my lips move as I write. I’m pretty sure I look like a crazy person.This, friends, is the glamorous life of a writer.George Orwell, a literary hero of mine, wrote, “Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness.”Amen, brother George.Even though I found that writing fiction is more like playing with your imaginary friends than slogging through the vexing emotional archeology required of memoir, it’s still, let’s not kid ourselves, about as easy as fitting a refrigerator into the backseat of your car. I had to write the first fifty pages of my novel four different times to learn who my characters were and what they wanted. That meant starting with a blank document four times—two hundred pages of scrapped text. I’ve learned be okay scrapping text. It’s work that pays off, even if those words never see print. I’ve learned to bitch-slap the perfectionist in my brain and let my imagination party down and get messy.Most of my students like or love to write, and all of them want to be published. They think publishing will bring them riches and fame and happiness and puppies and lollipops and that once it happens, writing the next thing will be easy. I listen to them and think they’re like the people who believe that as soon as you get married you no longer have to work on the relationship. The truth is, at least for me, it’s always a struggle. You may learn some tricks and figure out your own bad habits but usually, you’re just sitting there on your sore butt with your unwashed hair and coffee breath, moving your lips in time with your fingertips, wishing you were somewhere else.Don’t get me wrong. Writing can be a hoot, especially when things start to come together. Connections that you didn’t see are suddenly there on the page. Your characters become real to you and you are sad when they don’t get what they want and so proud of them when they do. Here’s an embarrassing admission: I cry when I read the end of my own novel. I get so moved by the growth of my main character that it’s like I didn’t think her up or write her story.But I did. I really did. When you’ve gotten a piece of writing as far as you can take it, when you’ve written and rewritten, cut and scrapped and fleshed out, you have something. You can hold it in your heart (even if it’s an published manuscript, a document on a computer) and say: I made this. Out of nothing came this, a brave new world, filled with wondrous creatures. Yes, it’s a god-like rush. Then you find a sentence that clunks and clanks and you no longer feel like you belong on Mt. Olympus.After Orwell commented on the illness-like state of writing a book, he went on to explain, “One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.” And that’s really it. We write because we’re writers. It’s not easy, but it’s what we do and the rewards go far beyond a publishing contract or good reviews or the attention of people we admire and respect. It’s about expressing something in ourselves that we didn’t even know was there. Write on, friends.

Rachel Toor is an associate professor of Creative Writing at Eastern Washington University and the author of three nonfiction books. Farrar, Straus and Giroux will publish her first Young Adult novel, On the Road to Find Out, in June 2014. Rachel lives with her dog, Helen, who raced in her first half marathon this February. She was 4th dog (out of 42).Visit her online at http://racheltoor.com.

Reading at Auntie's Bookstore, Spokane, June 10 at 7PM

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THURSDAY, MAY 22, 2014 0 CommentsIt Doesn’t Have to be Beautiful, It Just Has to be Clear — A Guest Post by Author Rachel ToorRachel Toor  Because I teach creative writing to undergrads and graduate students, I get to see a lot of great ideas and lively stories that are marred by—how do I say this nicely?—bad prose. Tons of crappy lines riddled with mechanical errors. I recently heard a YA author say that he wrote in the first person because he wasn’t good at sentences. In the first person, he said, mistakes made and liberties taken with the English language belonged to his character and that got rid of the problem.Not really, I thought. If you want to write, you have to know how to write well. Then you craft the language so that it reflects how people actually think and speak. In what universe, I wondered, is it okay for a writer to say he’s not good at sentences? Especially as if it’s an immutable fact—like saying you’re short or hate avocado. If you want people to read what you write, you have to care about your sentences.We all need editors to point out our bad habits and tics and to catch our mistakes. We all make mistakes, pretty much all the time. I love nothing more than being edited. I cringe when someone points out a crime against language I knew I was committing but somehow went ahead and perpetrated anyway. I am grateful to be reminded of rules that I may have forgotten, or be taught things I never really understood.One of my favorite books is Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style. I try to re-read it at least once a year. If you don’t have this little book, get it now. You can probably find it on Amazon for 47 cents. Remember that E. B. White wrote Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little and believe me when I tell you that he can make learning grammar fun. Each time I re-read it I am reminded of all the ways that my own prose can go wrong.For example, the authors tell us to “omit needless words.” I have learned to love cutting my own work. I hate flabby writing and try to make sure mine is as lean as possible.In order to do this I’ve collected a little bag of writing tricks, things I pull out to double-check that I’m not getting lazy and that I’m making deliberate choices. I’ll share a few of them here.Most of us learned at some point that the passive voice is not our friend. Especially in fiction, language should be immediate and forceful; using forms of that static verb, to be, often bogs down prose. So I search my manuscript for is, am, are, was, were, etc. and ask myself if I want to use a more vivid verb. (Sometimes I don’t.)I’m also on the alert for nominalizations, a nasty thing that happens when verbs get turned into nouns. Notice how “The police conducted an investigation” is less energetic than “The police investigated.” (Nominalizations often end in tion, -ism, -ty, -ment, -ness, -ance, -ence and can usually be replaced.)Another trick to enliven prose is to scout for “this,” “that,” and “there,” which often turn out to be unnecessary. Getting rid of them can force you into zippier and more concise rewrites.How many redundant words and phrases can I jettison? Does someone need to completely finish something? Or can she just finish it, or complete it? Do I need to sit down, or just sit? Isn’t a gift always free? I try to make sure each sentence, each word, earns its keep.After I’ve got a draft, I read to find things I might be overusing. I hit control F and am sometimes horrified by the results. In a late draft of my novel I used the word “little” 151 times in 300 pages. Good grief! Even given that one of my characters is the size of a hot dog roll, that’s too many littles.Often when you re-read your work many times in revision you end up memorizing it. Each sentence starts to acquire the ring of inevitability. I’ve learned to change the whole thing into a different typeface, something ugly and san serif (nothing looks literary in Arial) or ridiculous (Comic Sans) and see how it reads. Or I’ll load the manuscript onto my Kindle where it feels like a published book—and then I’ll blush to see the clunky sentences and missing transitions.I’ll make the type size really big and look at every sentence to find missing words or awkward phrases, and then I’ll shrink the whole thing down to 25% and see what the shape is. Are there gigantic and intimidating blocks of prose, or is there so much dialogue it looks like a 300 page children’s poem?Sometimes I have to add “run” or “treat” into the reading to keep Helen from falling asleep.I read all my drafts out loud, loud enough that my dog, Helen, can hear them. Things that seemed fine in my head often end up sounding clunky. If I stumble over the language, I know I’ll have to fix it. (Sometimes I have to add “run” or “treat” into the reading to keep Helen from falling asleep.)After I go through my repertoire of tools and tricks, after I’ve rewritten the same sentences eight thousand times, I know that someone else is going to find things I’ve missed or gotten wrong. I know that it’s not my job to be perfect, but I also know that if I don’t work hard to make the sentences as good as I can, the reader is going to have to struggle to make sense of the story. I tell myself that it doesn’t have to be beautiful (though I would like it to be), it just has to be clear. George Orwell said, good prose is like a windowpane.Whatever drives us to write, we should strive to be understood. Impeccable sentences are an essential ingredient.

Rachel Toor is an associate professor of Creative Writing at Eastern Washington University and the author of three nonfiction books. Farrar, Straus and Giroux will publish her first Young Adult novel, On the Road to Find Out, in June 2014. Rachel lives with her dog, Helen, who raced in her first half marathon this February. She was 4th dog (out of 42).Visit her online at http://racheltoor.com.