Re-entry is always a challenge. I have my comments back from my agent. There are six things she wants me to address (add, edit, massage). Six–and then we take the book out on the open market . . . This is exciting and nerve-wracking. I sat down on Monday to begin to address these things. I copied them from...
Five Way to Fight Self-Doubt: With Help from Gertrude Stein and Dr. Seuss by Elizabeth Stark
“. . . or you write a book and while you write it you are ashamed for every one must think you a silly or a crazy one and yet you write it and you are ashamed, you know you will be laughed at or pitied by every one and you have a queer feeling and you are not very...
Writing is Rewriting . . . and Rewriting . . . and Rewriting . . . by Elizabeth Stark
I am deep in a final revision (final, that is, until the next round–led, I hope, by editors who want to publish my book or, if must be, by my agent) of my novel-in-progress. I thought I’d share a bit about my process for editing myself. Devi, our blog editor, recently re-published some of my posts about editing yourself, if you...
Letter to Myself: Remembering What You Love About Your Writing: by Elizabeth Stark
This evening I will meet with my writing group to discuss the overhaul of my manuscript. Did it work? Is it better than the earlier version, worse or just different? What’s missing? What doesn’t make sense? What threads did I start and neglect to finish? Do they buy it? Did they love it? What will I do next? Before I...
Playing and Editing
“The most maddening paradox of recording is that what you hear in the playback does not resemble what you’re sure you played. You hear two tracks at once: what you desire and what you have produced. Notes dangle before you without their motivations, minues the physical struggle of playing them; my muscles twitch strangely while I listen. The microphone alters...