A Guest Stops By

Our guest blogger today is Sarah Freese, a young writer and editor who I thought had something interesting to say. Sarah, like me, is a short story lover and an editor. She is going to do a short series of blogs, touching on some topics I think will be of interest.

During graduate school, I was the creative non-fiction editor for The Cream City Review, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s graduate literary journal. Reading through the slush pile in this journal allowed me to read for plot and story arc. It encouraged me to generate ideas and hear what other authors were writing. It allowed me to channel my own creative ideas, so that by the time I submitted my thesis, the big ideas—plot arc, character, setting—generated into my own ars poetica (aesthetic—the art of poetry). I knew what I wanted to write. The light bulb turned on, if you will.

“Do you know who I am?” These are the first words that Chip MacGregor said to me after I handed him my master’s thesis at the 2008 Festival of Faith and Writing Conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Having just spent 2 years obtaining an MA in creative writing and an MLIS in library science, I thought myself knowledgeable about all things literary. And, unlike those “other” writers, I actually had a full length manuscript.

Only, it wasn’t a full-length manuscript; it was a collection of short stories.

And, yes, it fit the requirements necessary for me to pass my thesis in that it supported my reading list (or my reading list supported it); it met the page requirements; the arc was appropriate; the characters developed throughout the story; the plot flowed well; and the language was decent.

But it wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t publishable. And Chip is a literary agent, selling publishable manuscripts.

Language and Details. After my conversation with Chip, and after I graduated, I took some time to read. I hadn’t read books in quite a while, as graduate school tends to suck life out of you. I read everything I could get my hands on—some of my favorite Christian writers; some bestselling non-Christian novels; and, finally, literary short stories. The latter, I read aloud.

And kept reading them aloud. And I started emailing the publishing companies asking if I could either read through their slush piles or help edit their stories. I had fallen in love with language. Some ignored me, some replied with “Thanks, but no thanks,” and a few responded with: “Absolutely!” Eventually, one company clicked well with where I was in my writing/reading/editing process, and the relationship that I had with the editors grew.

Through working with the literary journal, I am able to focus on language—the way the words move to form a picture. But, I am also able to focus on patterns. For example, I recently edited Allan Shapiro’s, The Butcher and the Breather. Allan has a fling with coordinating conjunctions in that he likes to use them a lot. I noticed this as I edited his manuscript. Consider it his ars poetica. While this did not present a problem, it did present an artistic challenge. As an editor, I needed to make sure that each comma and coordinating conjunction was used appropriately. However, Allan often liked to string together sentences with the word “and”. It is my job to know that commas need to come before coordinating conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so), if both parts of the sentence are independent clauses. However, if I were to do this every time Allan included “and”, I would be inserting about 350+ commas. So, instead, I removed every comma before “and” (sometimes he had included it, and sometimes not). He also used other coordinating conjunctions. In front of those, I made sure to integrate the commas because he did not string them together as he did with the “ands”. So, I enhanced his ars poetica by maintaining consistency among his use of commas and coordinating conjunctions.

So What? As a writer, you might be thinking that it’s really boring to pay attention to things like commas and coordinating conjunctions. Wouldn’t I rather focus on the bigger issues? Sure. No. I like the details. The details help me write fan-damn-tastic stories of my own (For an actual comparison, see pre-language editing: http://www.prickofthespindle.com/fiction/2.1/freese/genesis.htm and post-language editing: http://www.elimae.com/2009/01/Kalila.html). They help me remove excessive adverbs, as Chip STRONGLY suggested in our initial conversation at the Festival of Faith and Writing. The details are like employees washing their hands before returning to work—they help not spread diseases within my own writing.

They help me know who I am.

Sarah Freese

Sarah Freese is on the Writing Initiative Faculty at Colorado Christian University. Sarah and Chip MacGregor met at the Calvin Festival of Faith and Writing, which we consider the BEST writing conference around. It will be held again at Calvin College in Grand Rapids. Michigan, April 15-18. Chip is serving on the faculty, and Sarah will be in attendance. 

Comments

[patriciazell]

Hi, Sarah! As a high school English teacher, I am well aware of commas and coordinating conjunctions. I also have students who like to string independent clauses together with a lot of "ands." Like you, I really get into the little details that make writing an art form. I received my wake-up call about using too many adverbs back in the mid-1990's when I took a writing course and read the book, Write Tight (imagine the title italicized). Thanks for your post!

[Cheryl Barker]

I read my work aloud all the time as I write and revise it, but I hadn't thought about reading the books/essays, etc. aloud that I'm reading. What a great idea. Thanks for turning the light bulb on, Sarah!

[Iheartya.wordpress.com]

Thanks for the comments, ladies!

Patricia: I don't teach high school English, but I do teach college English composition and research writing. Betsy Lerner's _The Forest for the Trees_ is another excellent book on editing.

Cheryl: You're welcome! Reading other's writing aloud is like discovering their writing rhythm. Also, if you ever get the chance, attend an author's reading. This helps you to hear language in a whole new way. It's fascinating.

[Meg Moseley]

Sarah, you've wrapped up a lot of key elements in one short post: Being teachable. Loving language. Seeing the big picture. Delighting in the details. Reading, reading, reading. Knowing who you are and what you want to write.

Thanks for sharing with us.

[Nicole]

Very cool that you didn't try to alter Allan's style but chose to improve his way of expressing it.

[Genny]

Hi Sarah,

Similar to Cheryl, I read my own work aloud, but I haven't read other works aloud. Thanks for the suggestion!

I tend to use coordinating conjunctions a lot and this post made me more aware of that. I don't want to make an editor's job more difficult than it alread is. Thank you!

Genny

[Iheartya.wordpress.com]

Meg: Thanks for reading! I love being able to share my thoughts with others, and I am especially thankful when they are heard. ;)

Nicole: Yes--it's all about the author, and has nothing to do with me (in this case, the editor). I don't want people to hear my voice when I am editing.

Genny: Recognize that CC's are only a small part of the big picture. ;) Don't only focus on that, but do focus on making your writing the best that it can be. Reading aloud is probably the suggestion that I would encourage you to follow the most! ;)

Thanks for reading!

You all are awesome!

[Laura Droege]

I'm curious: What exactly made your short story collection unpublishable? I got the impression that, while the characters/plot/etc., were good, the language/rhythm wasn't as good as it could have been. Was the language suffering because you hadn't had the time to read books during grad school? I know when I was doing my MA in English lit, I spent so much time reading literary criticism & analyzing literature that I forgot how to read for enjoyment and forgot how lovely and powerful and dazzling the rhythm of words on a page can be.

[Iheartya.wordpress.com]

Good question, Laura.

I started my MA/MLIS a few months after my cousin passed away. My cousin and I were quite close, so I was running on adrenaline for about the first year and a half of grad school due to the effects of his death/my not wanting to deal with a lot of things. Essentially, the rest of the world moved too slow, and I never slept and always worked on something in order to not think about the loss.

Then, the last semester hit, and I started shutting down. I faked it well (I think--although, I am pretty sure some of my professors realized this and just didn't say anything), and I made a decision to finish everything within a semester--remember, I wasn't only working on one degree. So, I was taking 4 graduate classes (16 credits), plus I was working about 40 hours a week at various jobs. All of this while I was preparing my thesis and getting ready for comps(how they test you for the MLIS part of the degree--lock you in a room for four hours and make you crank out three essays, plus you have to write a take home exam).

Thinking back, I am not surprised that my thesis wasn't publishable. I am surprised I didn't throw myself off a cliff during all of this. Of course, Milwaukee doesn't have cliffs, so that's probably why.

[Custom Thesis Writing]

this kind of blog always useful for blog readers, it helps people during research. your post is one of the same for blog readers.

[Tina]

Thanks for telling me about this post, Sarah. Good stuff. Isn't it funny how we can get so caught up in our story that we neglect seemingly small things like commas and conjunctions? I know I do it too. We are always learning. That's why I like the editing portion.

I hope you continue to blog here, Sarah.

Chip, I hope you are reading this. I like Sarah's posts. :-)