Jane Friedman's Blog: Jane Friedman, page 210
July 19, 2011
Borders Failure Is a Small Part of Bigger Phenomenon
Today I was on NPR's Morning Edition, offering
my take on the Borders' liquidation.
Click
here to listen.
Many of my colleagues insist Borders' failure had nothing to do with e-books. Yes,
bad management played a big role here. Borders has been a weak player for years, and
it's survival of the fittest out there.
But even Barnes & Noble is scaling back their bricks-and-mortar presence and focusing
on e-books and online sales.
I love what Peter Turner commented on my Facebook post:
Judging from what one hears anecdotally from booksellers,What do you think? Would you invest your money in a national chain physical
seems like the biggest factor is the change in customer behavior. People are increasingly
using bricks & mortar stores as a show case and then go buy online, where Amazon
offers the best service. One bookseller told me jokingly that he sold a ton of eBooks.
I asked how so, as he isn't part of the Google Books program. He said, "Oh, folks
come into the store with their Kindle and iPad, browse the tables, download their
eBook, and walk out." B&N has survived all this, but I wouldn't be surprised if
they'll be fewer stores with a smaller foot print in their future.
bookstore today? If so, what kind?
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Borders Failure Is a Small Part of Bigger Phenomenon
July 18, 2011
Why Take the Time to Read Your Work Out Loud?
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On July 11, I was a featured speaker at True
Theatre. True Theatre is a Cincinnati storytelling
event, where everyday people tell true stories about their lives to a general
audience.
Each evening has a specific theme—independence was last week's theme—and I told a
story about traveling
to Thailand on my own, and getting stuck.
To prepare for this spoken word event, I had to spend time, at first, reading the
story out loud, then memorizing and rehearsing it.
Aside from the lessons I learned about storytelling (to come in another post), I learned
the value of reading a piece out loud.
Now, up until this point, I was probably like most of you. I've seen the advice to
"read your work out loud" many, many times. I didn't practice this technique (except
for poetry), and found it irrelevant, unhelpful, uncomfortable, and time consuming.
Who cares how something sounds when read aloud, unless it was meant to be heard?
But for important short stories or essays, I'll be using this technique. Why?
It quickly reveals what sentences or sections I don't care about or believe in. Sometimes
when we write, we create filler. We don't think deeply about what we're saying. We
include throwaway lines. Reading something out loud has an unusual way of bringing
this to your attention. You suddenly don't have your heart in what you're saying.
Especially for short pieces, you should care about delivering every line. If you have
the desire to skip over parts, or leave something out, then you should edit it out.
It emphasizes boring or dead description. It was easier, when reading aloud,
to realize how the description needed to be relevant to the point at hand, by either
helping with characterization, or helping move the story forward.
It helps develop perspective and voice. Listening to yourself—whether in the
moment or recorded—more closely identifies the writing to YOU, and you start to think
more carefully about whether the events, details, and intricacies of the story reflect
YOUR perspective. (Sometimes we write in an "objective" mind, or with a stale and
soulless approach.) Reading aloud helps you think more about how this is YOUR story,
and that it's YOU who uniquely decides what story you want to tell.
I'm not sure yet whether this technique would be as appropriate or effective for a
book-length work. I hope you'll offer your thoughts in the comments.
(And, if you live near Cincinnati, I encourage you
to check out True Theatre for wonderful storytelling.)
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When Mom Was My Age (#39)
Mary Carla Ligon (1987 & 2011)
[/caption]"When Mom Was My Age" is an interview series between daughters and mothers. New interviews appear every Monday. If you would like to participate, contact Jane. The following interview is with Carla Ligon (age 56), reflecting on her life at age 32, interviewed by daughter Michaella Hammond.
When you were 32, the year was 1987. Where did you live?
At 32, I was a single mother of two beautiful daughters, the lights of my life. My divorce was two years prior and I had purchased my first home all by myself for my girls and me—complete with a swimming pool! We lived in Blue Springs, Missouri, where you attended school. Our home had 3 bedrooms and was the largest home I had lived in since graduating high school!
What did you do for work, and what was your typical day like?
I worked for my mother at our chain of small community newspapers as the Vice-President. This entailed typesetting, writing, laying out the blue-line boards (this was pre-Mac, pre-digital layout), and delivering the boards for all papers to our printer in Liberty.
Our workday usually began at 9 a.m. with Friday nights usually lasting until midnight. Once we purchased our own presses, it was not uncommon for me to work Saturday and Sunday, depending on equipment difficulties.
A typical day would entail getting you and Jenna ready for the school day as well dressing for my workday. On the days I kept regular hours, I would arrive home by 6 p.m., pick you up from the sitter and go home to make dinner. Weekends that entailed work, I would take you and Jenna with me, bring your sleeping bags, a small TV and any snacks on hand so you could bed down in my office while I worked. I was happier having you girls with me than with a sitter on those nights!
What did you worry about the most?
Being able to support and take care of my daughters alone. It was important to me to give my girls a good life even though I was a single parent.
After you faced that fear and were able to support us, how did you feel?
I was really proud. It was something I had never thought about doing all by myself. I was very proud that I was able to do that. I had more hope for my daughters—if I could do it at my age, then the future looked very good for you guys because things were changing.
What do you mean by "things"?
The current economic and political climate as far as women in the workplace. It started changing—the stigma against working mothers—when I was in college and when I was a young mother. For me to be able to get a good paying job to take care of my two daughters and buy a house, then I knew the future looked bright for my girls, too.
What did you think the future held for you?
I hoped the future would hold promise for my girls, a measure of peace to my personal life—freedom from strife. I hoped to use my education to secure a position in art, somehow.
How do you look back at age 32 now?
I was very naive at 32, but learned a great deal. I was starting life over, rebuilding after a failed relationship and I was full of hope for the future.
From Michaella
One of the things that really moved me about my mother's interview was that I hadn't considered how scary and exhilarating starting over must have been when my mom and dad divorced.
When I was done interviewing my mom, I felt inspired and humbled by her choices—I am incredibly happy and grateful to have a mom who saw opportunity in her life even when the future was uncertain and sometimes painful.
I also had no clue my mom was vice president of my grandmother's chain of community newspapers in suburban Kansas City, Missouri. I just thought she was a graphic designer at the Pony Express. I vividly remember playing in an old darkroom in the newsroom with my younger sister Jenna. In 1987 I was 9 and my sister was 6. We routinely asked the layout people for rubber cement and X-Acto knives to make our own newspapers; I also remember getting cellophane-wrapped hard candies from the pressmen. The smell of newsprint still permeates memories of my childhood. I have always loved my mother, but I never realized how her quiet, gentle strength has shaped who I am as a professional.
I majored in journalism at the University of Missouri even though I swore as a child I would not have the crazy hours my mom and grandma did. My mother showed me that hard-working, smart, and capable women are all around us, and they are tremendously influential.
Long before I read Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own or heard Dan Quayle's infamous "Murphy Brown speech" in 1992, I had my mother's pioneering example. I am so glad she took me to work with her when I was younger. I grew up knowing—never doubting—that women could be whatever they wanted thanks to my mother.
Why Take the Time to Read Your Work Out Loud?
July 17, 2011
Reading Notebook #33: Marriage Is About Solitude
I have my friend Nath to thank for this, who sent me a book in the mail with no note, only passages highlighted. From Rilke On Love and Other Difficulties:
I hold this to be the highest task of a bond between two people: that each should stand guard over the solitude of the other. … It does not occur to anyone to expect a single person to be "happy,"—but if he marries, people are much surprised if he isn't! (And for that matter it really isn't at all important to be happy, whether single or married.) Marriage is, in many respects, a simplification of one's way of life. … Marriage is … a questioning of the strength of and generosity of each partner and a great new danger for both.
… a good marriage is that in which each appoints the other guardian of his solitude, and shows him this confidence, the greatest in his power to bestow. A togetherness between two people is an impossibility, and where it seems, nevertheless, to exist, it is a narrowing, a reciprocal agreement which robs either one party or both of his fullest freedom and development. But, once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue to exist, a wonderful living side by side can grow up, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes is possible for each other to see the other whole and against a wide sky!
Best Tweets for Writers (week ending 7/15/11)
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I watch Twitter, so you don't have to. Visit each Sunday for the week's best Tweets.
If I missed a great Tweet, leave it in the comments.
Best of Best
Put Your Personality at the Center of Your
Brand
@DanBlank
Five MUST-DO Book Publicity Tips
@Writeitsideways
10 Ways to Beat Online Obscurity
@copyblogger
Getting Published + Agents/Editors
LiteraryCraft + Technique
agents try new role as self-publishing consultants @missadventuring
Don't submit your novel this week! Find out the worst
times to pitch publishing professionals
@GalleyCat
A deep editing analysis that demonstratesPublishing News + Trends
the power of cadence and specificity in writing
@jhansenwrites
7 Keys to a Thriller That Actually Thrills
@WritersDigest
15 Excellent Tips for Writing a Book
@stevesilberman
Thrillerfest Wrap Up: Thoughts on Traditional
Publishing, Agents and Self-Publishing
@Bob_Mayer
Marketing + Self-Promotion
Join @TheCreativePenn for free webinarWebsites + Blogs
on how to create & edit your Podcast on July 22
@BookBuzzr
Author Lee Goldberg on why you shouldn't make a book
trailer
@victoriastrauss
Why copywriting is the secret to building
a popular blog
@elizabethscraig
Great aggregation of advice: 33 Must-Read Tips &
Tutorials for Bloggers
@dbschlosser
Social Media
Does social media presence give you a betterSelf-Publishing + E-Publishing
chance? Agents & editors answer
@RichardMabry
Novelist
John Green uses social media to push unfinished book to #1 on Amazon and Barnes &
Noble
@teleread
7 Things You Can Do Today to Improve YourOnline Tools + Resources
Book Design
@JFbookman
Interested in starting a Google+ Hangout
for writers? Some tips for using the new tool
@GalleyCat
Most Worthy Posts on Writing
@writerWyoming
Writing Life + Fun
A Writer's Must-Read List
@on_creativity
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Best Tweets for Writers (week ending 7/15/11)
July 15, 2011
More and More Days
Today's guest post is by longtime NO RULES favorite Darrelyn Saloom. Follow
her on Twitter, or read
her previous guest posts.
I have never met Cynthia Newberry Martin (pictured
above), but it seems like I've always known her from perusing her blog she describes
as "a net for catching days." I've rarely missed a post since I first read Catching
Days and almost always leave a comment. But there have been times I sat in stunned
silence and did not respond.
On February 21, 2011, Cynthia posted "Obsessions" and
I've been unable to shake off her words since that day. In a short, simple post she
depicted many of her obsessions:
Pine trees that are all wiry and taller than theShe followed with photographs to match her words and asked, "What's on
other trees so they stick out, different textures coming together, abandoned things
and places, stairs and thresholds, rainy days and fog, sunrises and sunsets, doors
and windows, trains and tracks, lines of laundry, row houses, fall leaves, a full
moon, the ocean …
your list?" Awestruck, I could only stare at the pictures. But her words tracked me
from winter into spring and then summer and coaxed me to pay close attention to numerous
obsessions of my own:
Southern live oaks with thick biceps and elbows, weathered tin roofs atop century-old
houses and barns, horse stalls and walking wheels, back roads and antique malls, small-town
squares with a courthouse and bookstore, sidewalks and trails, soaring hawks, still
owls, an elusive chicken in my yard, Louisiana sunsets …
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Cynthia illustrated a blog post need not be long to be potent. Like a riveting poem,
story, or essay, it must portray its subject from another perspective, leave us changed,
educated, inspired—amazed. Always written with care and revised as if the editor of
your favorite literary journal may read it.
I cheered when Catching Days' author became Review Editor at Contrary and
co-editor of Hunger Mountain's new section,
"The Writing Life." As she continues to grow as a writer on a trek towards an MFA
at Vermont College of Fine Arts, I look
forward to tagging along on her journey as she fills her net, and I fill mine, with
more and more days.
Pictured above: Antiques in Sunset, Louisiana
Pictured below: Louisiana sunset
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Want to read more from Darrelyn? Check
out her most recent article for Boxing.com, on equal pay for female boxers.
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More and More Days
Jane Friedman
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