Stuff for Women Writers
FAQs
How did you get started?
Do you need a degree?
How do you know that what you're writing is good?
Do you need an agent to publish a book?
What if I get rejected?
How do you write while raising children?
Do you need an MFA?
Do you always know your point when you start
out?
What's a good writing class like?
How
did you get involved in writing for radio?
How
is writing for radio different from the other kinds of writing you do?
How has writing for radio affected your writing?
How did you get started? Different ways.
ELLEN has a B.A. in Communication Studies, with minors in English and philosophy. Went to graduate school in journalism. While working as an editor at Rand McNally, she contributed copy to two professional women's organizations on a volunteer basis, and took a night course on writing for magazines. That sent her on to graduate school in journalism, which was followed by a gig at an educational publisher. Just before giving birth to her first daughter, she launched a freelance career, with successful queries to national magazines such as Self and Newsweek.
MARY ELLEN, whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and elsewhere, got a B.A. in English, with minors in philosophy and fine arts, and a master's in journalism. Her first professional writing assignments occurred during college internships, one of which was at a Boston newspaper. Her first job: editor for a series of educational magazines in health and science. Freelance for nearly ten years, she wrote Cows on Parade in Chicago, about the Chicago cow exhibition, in about two weeks.
LAUREL got a B.A. in English, took some fiction classes while in college, got a master's in library science, and some 20 years later decided to write a novel. Her residency at Hedgebrook was a turning point.
LEE got two degrees in English, survived two short-lived p.r. stints, then began working freelance for nonprofits and corporations, while occasionally selling articles to magazines and newspapers. For the record, she's never found queries useful in landing magazine assignments, at least not without a personal contact ahead of time or some kind of divine intervention, largely because she's too shy to make the follow-up calls.
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Do
you need a degree in writing?
Depends on what you want to do. For a job in journalism probably. For freelance travel writing probably not. It does help to have some training or a high tolerance for frustration to produce really readable prose, and credentials do tend to open doors at magazines, newspapers, and publishers. For fiction or poetry? There are hundreds of MFA programs, and wonderful writing emerges from them. It depends on what your skills and interests are.
How do you know that what you're writing is good?
Good question, and when you find the definitive answer let us know. Writing is a hard and incredibly insular process. And then there's the issue of what a rejection means. It doesn't necessarily mean that what you're writing is bad. On the other hand -- a rejection might just contain a message worth looking at. This is what can make you crazy.
Many of us at work on longer pieces rely on readers. Luckily, mine (Lee's) have come to me through longstanding friendships. But many people choose professional readers who charge for the service. What they do is walk through your ms with an attentive eye on what is working and what isn't working. Check the back pages of Poets & Writers (online at www.pw.org/mag/classifieds.htm) or contact the creative writing department at a local college.
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Do
you need an agent to publish a book?
Depends on the book. Smaller publishers and there are some great ones -- often welcome non-agented books, especially for poetry. (Check out ForeWord's site, which lists independent publishers and reviews their books). Bigger publishers see agents as the first filter for the thousands of submissions they get each year. So yes if it's a memoir about teaching in an under-funded city school that you think has a national and general (not academic or professional) audience, you probably need an agent.
You join a huge group of writers, artists, and filmmakers, some of us very fine people, (also fine writers, artists, and filmmakers). People have different approaches to the issue. I (LEE) can't stand being pelted with negative comments, and during one project, finally hired a friend to open the envelopes for me. On the next project, I had my agent keep a file and summarize the general drift every three months or so. BO NILES' comment looks toward a current project: "The agent is handling it, and I hope she doesn't send me the rejections; even if everyone says no, I don't want to know. I know that I'm too vulnerable. It would kill me to read them." She adds, "I do remember when reviews came out for the White book, I took the one bad review (in House & Garden) too much to heart, even though it was the only bad one."
On the other hand, another fine writer says that she believes in desensitization: she applies to everything she can, sends her work at every opportunity. That way, one rejection doesn't mean as much as it would if it represented the only commentary on her work - and she enhances her chances of acceptance.
How
do you write while raising children?
How do you write while raising children? ELLEN
BLUM BARISH, who started her free lance career with the birth of
her first daughter, answered this one:
Writing with kids around means getting used to thinking in patchwork.
In unfinished thoughts. The beginnings of thoughts or the end of them,
and yes, finding some way to jot them down. I'll never forget going
to the gym several years ago and sweating for an hour and, boy -- the
ideas were multiplying at a super fast rate and I was determined not
to let them all go. So, when I got back to the house I proclaimed that
no one should say a word to me until I got something down on paper.
I ran to the computer, got down what I could, and about a half hour
later I returned to my family, well exercised and contented with that
feeling of idea completion that only writing them down could provide.
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Do
you need an MFA?
ANNE CALCAGNO, Associate Professor, English,
De Paul University answered this one: -- I earned my M.F.A. in fiction
and poetry, though my primary was focus was then, and continues to be,
fiction. Still, I was grateful to be able to dance around poetry awhile
as I dearly believe the forms inform one another. The principal reasons
for seeking an MFA, to my mind, are twofold. Of greatest importance
is the fact that for two years you are expected, in fact, ordered, to
write. This time is both essential in building up a commitment to your
craft, and essential as learning time, a time to test, make errors,
learn fiercely. I was fortunate to have a full scholarship from the
University of Montana, in Missoula. This is important because I did
not finish school with a huge graduate school debt. If I had (I already
had undergraduate loans) I would have had to work extensive hours to
pay back this degree. At which point you start to trade two years of
time for ten years of no time. That isn't a good investment, to my mind.
If, however, you build up a publication record in grad school, and make
contacts with editors and agents, and work toward the completion of
a manuscript, then you are making yourself eligible for teaching jobs
at the high school and college level. This is when the investment pays
off. It is nigh impossible these days to get an academic job without
an advanced degree. To date, MFA degrees are considered terminal degrees
for writers. But the increasing number of PHD programs in creative writing
may soon displace that terminal degree and make a PhD in creative writing
the essential ingredient for an academic job.
Many of my academic colleagues disagree with me but my feeling is that
you earn a PhD, yes, to become an expert in your field but, two also
to write your thesis which is an essence your first book manuscript.
If you can write and publish a novel, short story collection or book
of poems with an MFA degree, you are coming in to a job, as of now,
still about equal to someone with a thesis.
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Do
you always know your point when you start out?
Goodness no. When it's commercial work, yes, the point is pretty much
dictated by the client who want you to sell, sell, sell those pizza
pans. But when it's creative - a nonfiction exploration of a recent
social phenomenon, or a creative nonfiction dalliance, or the fictional
pursuit of a character's motives or impact - not really. The point develops.
It also hides. It's also sometimes d---- difficult to identify and communicate.
Sometimes, that's the difference between disciplined writing and creative
flashes of expression - the hard work of bringing a point to light.
A very fine editor of mind (LEE's) says that this is one of the problems
with outlining. Outlining assumes you know not only the point, but the
fine points, of what you're exploring. As a result, she can only outline
a piece after she's developed it!
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What's a good writing class like?
Search me (Lee). I've certainly sat through some excruciating ones, including one through the Clothesline organization. Teacher: Would anybody like to read? Student: "Sure, well here it goes" (.writing.writing.writing.childhood trauma.dream that still haunts.does writing about the dream change its impact? etc.) Teacher: "Save it for your diary." The class started out with 40 students, all of whom had paid more than $400 for the privilege, and by the fifth week we were down to seven.
Then there was that terrible run at Stanford, which, when I was there, had its Jones Fellows, many of them quite famous now, teaching undergraduates-tender teenaged undergraduates (who were paying far more than $400 a piece). One friend had a Jones Fellow ridicule her in class so badly that you'd hear about it from other people years later; another had Jones Fellow tell him to give it up, it wasn't going to happen. Both students are happily published; the second one has published four books. I myself escaped that particular in-class torture. Nonetheless, I've never had a good writing class.
Luckily,
Ellen Blum Barish has. She recently came back from Iowa thrilled with
a class so down-to-earth and unequivocally good that she felt edified,
respected, and inspired. This is not the famous full-time Iowa workshop,
but a shorter (and perhaps kinder) one. She recommends it: Iowa Summer
Writing Festival, 100 Oakdale Campus W310, Iowa City, Iowa 52242-5000.
Phone: 319-335-4141. Fax: 319-335-4039. email: iswfestival@uiowa.edu
website: http://www.uiowa.edu/~iswfest/index.html
My suspicions? To make a writing class worthwhile, 1) students must have the leeway to write without fear of insult from peers or professors 2) some of the feedback must be on target and all of it must be constructive 3) respect for the basic human spirit-and the artistic spirit that seeks to express and explore that-must be resident 4) the teacher must be more than a good writer: he/she must have examined the craft, and learned how to teach 5) jealousy bad, camaraderie good.
But
I'm sure there are other opinions out there.
I'd love to hear about good and bad experiences...
How
did you get involved in writing for radio?
We asked CONSTANCE ALEXANDER. Her answer:
I’ve been a writer since 4th grade, when I won first prize in
a poetry contest. Poetry is my first love, and then fiction and playwrighting.
I started writing for radio when I moved to Kentucky and the public
radio station in my community ran commentaries by writers from the region.
Since I am also a newspaper columnist, I was already used to writing
short pieces that had to make a point in a limited amount of words.
Living in a rural region for the first time in my life, I discovered
that public radio was my lifeline to the outside world. I became interested
in writing for radio because of that, and commentaries were a good starting
point.
How is writing for radio different from
the other kinds of writing you do?
CONSTANCE’S answer: A career
radio person might disagree, but I think there are many similarities
between writing for radio and writing for print, broadcast, and online.
Precision of language is important. Clarity of thought essential. Short
sentences work better for the listener than their compound-complex cousins.
Imagery, a gift from poetry, is crucial for radio, much as good sound
is. If you listen to Ira Glass from Chicago Public Radio, you know how
the right natural sound transports the listener and enhances the impact
of the written and spoken word. I strive for this impact in my radio
work, but I feel I have not mastered it.
How has writing for radio affected your
writing?
CONSTANCE, again: My interest in radio
lies mostly in the human voice and hearing regular people talk about
ideas and experiences that changed their lives. I became interested
in oral history after I moved to Kentucky, and saw an opportunity to
create documentary radio pieces out of the lifetime experiences of people
who were displaced by dams built by the Tennessee Valley Authority.
These stories had never been told, and the population was aging. Grants
from our state arts council and the Kentucky Oral History Commission
funded a major documentary series, Connecting People & Place.
The success of Connecting People & Place led to another
radio opportunity. Sound Partners for Community Health, a project of
the Benton Foundation funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation,
was looking for 32 public radio stations interested in programming around
public health issues. Since I live in an area with an aging population,
the public radio station and I teamed up to propose a documentary series
on end-of-life issues called Promises to Keep. Through that
project, I became oriented to civic journalism, and received funding
from a variety of sources—the Kentucky Foundation for Women, the
Kentucky Arts Council, the local hospital, a local church, and the Kaiser
Foundation. Promises to Keep was a semi-finalist for a Batten
Award from the Pew Center for Civic Journalism, and that achievement
has led to writing opportunities online, in the newspaper and in theatre.
And it all started on the radio.
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