Betsy Lerner's Blog, page 17

Tommy Can You Hear Me

Beatsbydre

It’s time to talk about it. I haven’t said anything for a long time, but the truth is I do it a lot. LIke every day. I’m talking about podcasts. I listen when I’m doing the dishes, walking the dog, folding laundry. I’m pretty promiscuous. I listen to The Daily, to Ezra Klein and Still Processing. Two personal favorites are Tell Me About Your Father and Sounds like a Cult. The Powers that Be. Sway. The Dating Game Killer. Lots of crime. I didn’t want to let them into my life, but now it looks like they are here to stay. I find them very entertaining. Sometimes informative. But what I really like is that they crowd out all the constant spinning in my head.

Do you podcast? Got any recs?

I’m Not Too Blind to See

My writing partner, apart from being generous, astute, and insightful, is a master at calling out stinkers. Again and again, every line, paragraph, and idea that is either slightly off or completely off, she gently says, “maybe this could come out. Not sure. What do you think?” Oh, gentle lady! If you have someone in your life with a dowsing rod, aka, a stinker meter, don’t let them go. This begs another question, why don’t we know ourselves when we’ve besmirched the page?

Do you know you’ve written a stinker?

I am Yours Your are Mine You are What You Are

foodservicedirect.com

When I was in grad school, the world was divided into two camps: fiction writers and poets. Dogs and cats. Mice and men. It was unheard of for anyone to cross genres. I was a so-called poet and it never occurred to me to write a single line of prose. I was after line breaks. I was looking for images that obscured what I was feeling. A poem was a painting, a grove, a hideout, a cave. I was also trying to be funny. I wrote a sestina called Calories and Other Counts. I called my collection, Venus Envy. A professor I revered compared me to Fran Leibowitz and it wasn’t a compliment. I never wrote another poem after I left graduates school. Ten years later I wrote an advice book. How did that happen?

What’s your genre?

You Will Still Be Here Tomorrow But Your Dreams May Not

Wiki

How do you protect your time to write? How do you make boundaries? Does a long weekend mean more time to write, or more time to feel guilty, or more barbecues, family, scrolling? Are you the kind of writer who needs uninterrupted time? Or will you grab what you can get? Is your writing time sacrosanct? Precious? Elusive? Do you fritter your time away? Are you always reaching or burrowing in? Do you prioritize your work. Do you have a schedule? A niche?

What do you put before your writing?

Are You Lonesome Tonight

wlwt.com

I started three different books over the weekend and couldn’t commit to any. Is it me or is it Memorex? I think I mentioned that I went off of all social media and was hoping for an instantaneous return of memory and attention span. I think now I have to knock off the Melatonin gummies. I feel like sludge in the morning. I am listening to an horrific story on Audible that is riveting. I’m going to keep going with Jennifer Egan’s The Candy House. I’ll be honest, I was never that kid reading under my covers with a flashlight. I was never that into Harriet the Sky and couldn’t stand Little House on the Prairie. For me, the first book I read that jolted me awake and didn’t let go was In Cold Blood. I read it when I was fourteen. Scarred forever. Bitten, too.

What was the book that got you hooked?

I Want You to Show Me the Way

Do you use outlines, do you use notecards, do you keep a notebook, a timeline, a chronology, a map, a blue print, a ledger, an excel spreadsheet? How do you keep it all in your head, keep track, the passage of time, the meting out of information. How, when you walk deep into a forest, do you find your way out? I’m an index card girl. Or was that obvious?

What’s your poison?

You Give Me Hope to Carry On

Mensjournal.com

The other day, a Youtube fitness instructor said, “I love intensity, but I worship consistency.” She was talking about working out but I knew it was going to be my new writing mantra. Meaning do it even when you don’t want to, meaning work through the rough patches, meaning do this every day. I’m firmly in the camp that you can’t wait for inspiration. Just keep writing and writing and writing. You will get better and better and better. I mean it may get worse, but probably not.

What’s your writing mantra?

It’s Something Unpredictable, But in the End is Right

wikipedia.com

I was in the third grade when I started keeping diaries. I have all of my diaries. I have shoeboxes filled with every letter I’ve received. I have a stack of screenplays, a file of “ideas,” a half-written memoir about an elderly potter and the year I took lessons from him. It’s a graveyard of sorts. A garden of the half-baked, ill-conceived, and woebegone.

What’s in your garden.

Work, work, work, work, work, work

tradeinn.com

I can’t believe I’ve never done this before. I decided to see how many times I used the word “like” in a document. Then I searched for “then,” “felt,” “once,” “still,” and “even.” It was SHOCKING. I used “like” over 250 times. I used “then” over 300 times. I spent two days looking at each instance and justified its existence, changed it or cut it. Oh my god. I thought I was a halfway decent writer.

What words do you abuse?

When There’s No Getting Over that Rainbow

NASA

Writers often ask me how important is it to have connections to get published. 100%. For as long as I’ve been in publishing I only know of two books that were discovered in the slush pile (though I’m sure there must be more) Ordinary People and The Twilight series. Not great odds. This is what I say: get connected! First, join a writer’s group and get feedback from other writers. You shouldn’t be approaching agents or publishers unless your work has been workshopped and revised. There are also excellent freelance editors who will edit, give feedback and make agent recommendations. Subscribe to Publisher’s Marketplace where you can see every deal and who represented it. You can see who the agent of record is and go to their websites, get their vibe, research their clients and get their contact information. You can read lots of agents’ blog for meat and potatoes advice. There are hundreds of writing programs, festivals, workshops. You aren’t going to meet your mentor or agent there first time out. But you will soak up a lot of information. I’m still friendly with writers I met at conferences 20 years ago. Part of your writing life and getting connected includes building your community.

Do you have a writing community?