Mmm. Layers.

There are two types of revisers: the reluctant and the thrilled. Maybe it’s the former-school-newspaper-copyeditor in me, or the short drafter in me, but I love revision. At last! Drafting is done (ha) and I can make the damn thing a bit better, or at least I hope.

But revision isn’t as straightforward as it might seem. It’s a layered process, one with lots of nuance and fluidity. The layers I can think of are:

• Flow
• Story
• Voice
• Time
• Tense
• Facts
• Focus
• Pace
• Look
• Ease of Reading
• Grammar/Spelling
• Fun

I’m sure there are hundreds of other layers, if you look for them. But these are the common threads I look for in revision. I try to consider the piece from a reader’s standpoint. What comes before/after? Is the voice accessible or (woe!) dry and academic? Has the piece caved in to the wall o’text mentality or is it sparse and flimsy? Does it clog my throat when I read it out loud? Am I falling asleep with boredom?

As I get into revision, I always start with an assessment of what I’ve written. Usually this consists of me scratching my head and feeling mystified at my word choices and decisions, but then I get down to business and do a paragraph-by-paragraph summary, just a few words to describe each paragraph. Just going through that exercise usually immediately reveals big holes, things begging to be rearranged, things that can go now. It also, strangely, reassures me a bit. Okay, I have a slight idea of what I’m doing, or at least what I’m doing wrong.

I am pretty brutal about cutting, but every once in a while there’s a turn of phrase I find particularly brilliant and can’t bear to let go. This tends to be a warning sign of tunnel vision. Rather than forsake it completely, I force myself to experiment: What if I cut it out and put it in another document of dead darlings? Would it improve things or detract from them? Nine times out of ten it languishes in that file forever as I find I can live without it.

My last gasp is always what I call “the fun pass.” My insecurity tends to show up in wordy academic tendencies that make every sentence into a parenthetical disaster, so I go through one last time and get honest with myself. Is this fun to read? Really?

Since the revision process is a multi-layered one, there’s no right or wrong way. This is maddening and heartening at once.

How about you? Are you a reviser? What’s your favorite revision trick?

My drafts are tangled and confused!

So, you’ve given yourself permission. You’ve made the space. Now it’s time to draft.

I will be frank: this is my least favorite part of writing. I feel like that makes me a freak (do you sense a theme here?) since writers are, you know, supposed to enjoy writing? And I do enjoy writing, but much more the fixing part than the vomiting out raw material part. Because that’s what drafting is for me.

I will be frank once more: though the thought of an outline gives me the chills, I really work better with one. Usually I try to draft too early and the first draft turns into a truncated, Frankenstein-like thing with lots of brackets and indicators of things to add. When I was writing The Heroine’s Bookshelf I would outline each chapter in five lines or less. It helped me know where to go when I got lost (and wow, did I get lost).

Drafting is terrifying to a control freak like me. It all looks so disgusting! It’s weird and doesn’t get anywhere near where I’d like it to go! But beneath all that grossness is a big leap, a sense of “here goes nothing, I am just going to show up and go through this crazy process” that always leads to serendipitous and good things. Drafting is where I really get in touch with my gnarly, confused subconscious, and my best drafts are totally unfamiliar to me once they’ve been written. It’s like creating a ball of tangled yarn. It’s disgusting and weird. I promise. And then it’s over and I can do what I do way better…editing.

How about you? Do you enjoy drafting?

And then there was me, a person who wrote my book in stolen moments at the mall, for chrissakes,, who went to an arts high school but has never considered myself to be an artist. I was at a total loss. I may even have gone into the bathroom and texted a friend something along the lines of “omg these people are all artists omg they will all discover that I’m here by mistake omg can I please leave now?” I’ll leave it to the phone records to tell.

What role does permission play in your writing?

It struck me that my problem might be one of permission. See, I’ve always been insecure about taking up too much space, physically and emotionally. Writing a book is a pretty dramatic statement on space, isn’t it? And pressing for its publication is a very public way of saying “Move over. I have some ideas to share, people.” I spent many years writing to escape my life. I did it surreptitiously and in secret. So coming clean with my identity as a writer meant I needed to find a sense of permission for both the act of writing and the even bigger act of going public with my words.

We’ve all seen examples of great writing that occurs without permission. Passed notes in high school. Secret diaries of people undergoing the most horrific experiences. Without permission, my writing remains trivial and small.

The word “permission” sounds weird, now that I’m using it. It means someone needs to grant it. Over the years, I have learned that only I can grant myself permission to enjoy my work (or not to enjoy it), to struggle, to experiment, to step out into the world as a writer. When I get caught up in envy, comparison, and other fear-based habits, I’m telling myself I don’t have permission to try it anyway, to struggle and to learn. In those (frequent) moments of weakness, I have to wrest permission from my own petty, clenched fists. I have to give myself permission to write as myself, sloppy, undisciplined at times, fear-driven, ridiculous. I’m the only person who can grant that to myself.

What can I say—every writer I know struggles with a sense of their worth as a person. And every great writer I know gives themselves permission to be themselves, to sit at the table and to do it anyway.

A few weeks after the reading, my book won the Colorado Book Award for the Nonfiction-General category. And I stood up on stage, bewildered and still feeling like a mistake had been made, but marveling that space was being made for me. The presenters moved aside, gave me the mic. The room quieted and people leaned forward to hear my words on my book and my experiences. And I gave myself permission to stand there and speak.

What about you? What role does permission play in your writing?

Making space for writing: The final frontier.

When I first started freelancing, writing felt like an interim afterthought. It took up the space that was available during my workaday life, filling in the cracks. I quit the day job eventually, and the challenge became a space war between creative and professional writing. Then I started my marketing and brand strategy business, and in the early days of our partnership, my business partner and I had some long and intense conversations about where my writing fit in to the mix. My business partner is infinitely patient with me and knew/knows that writing is one of my top priorities in life despite my business goals, and we pledged early on to figure out how to make room for writing in our business. This was put to the test when I got my book deal in 2009. First I had to write the book, then make room for promotion, small-scale touring, etc. Just knowing there is room for writing in my job makes it easier to do, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a challenge. For example, the last three months have been extremely intense on the work front, and writing has to be turned into a priority to combat those sweeping pressures.

Then there’s the emotional space I need for writing. I have noticed that emotional strain and family issues occupy the same space my brain partitions for creative endeavors. Similarly, when I’m chewing on a bigger project (as I am now), writing seems to cordon off about 1/4 of my mental space. It’s absolutely necessary that my brain have that room to turn the same thoughts over and over and over again. This is hardly convenient, but I’ve learned it’s the way things have to be.

My actual writing space embodies a lot of those tensions. I write at a dinette set from the ’60s that has been reclaimed and repurposed as my workspace. It sits in the kitchen and is basically in the middle of my life space. I bounce between this desk, a couch at the mall, and various coffee shops and libraries when I’m writing, and the takeaway for me is that writing still sits somewhere between my professional and personal life. Hopefully I’ll continue to give it the space it needs to flourish.

What about you? What kind of space does writing take up in your life, and how do you make room for writing?

Yeah. I write short.

Writer confession time: I write short. Woefully short.

Maybe it’s the years spent writing articles as a freelancer, working to deadline, cutting my own writing down, but in recent years I have picked up a bad habit. Where I used to cut millions of words as a fresh writer, I now find it challenging to get to my word count. It’s even worse when I’m in a real rhythm—when I was writing The Heroine’s Bookshelf, my chapters were all of roughly equal length, and I’d find that I’d slow to a stall right at the appropriate word count, whether I knew how long the chapter was or not and whether the narrative portion was done or not. 

I have to wonder if this is part of my sad habit of writing the bare minimum. See, I love the process of editing with a real passion, but drafting gives me the heebie jeebies. It’s just so messy, so uncertain. It’s the literary equivalent of standing on a street corner naked. The wind whips. People are staring and laughing. It’s awkward.

Instead of trying to break myself of the habit, I’ve instead tried to give myself permission to write the bare minimum. I can begin the process of revision with very little, but there’s got to be something to fashion into something else. Hence, my first drafts are quite short and inevitably expand over later drafts. I write the bare minimum, then let the minimum grow into something more complete.

I feel kind of strange admitting this. There’s a part of me that feels that “real writers” have endless wells of inspiration and words, that they struggle not to exceed their minimum word count by 50 million words, that nothing can stop the unfettered flow of brilliance from their pens. Next to this impossible ideal, my bare-minimum reality seems small and pitiful. Will you see this and dismiss me as a hack? I comfort myself with the thought that the reality that works for me is usually better than the insecure fantasy of what a “real writer” can accomplish. Usually.

How about you? Do you write long or short?

Reading is integral to writing.

It should come as no surprise that reading is a huge part of my writing process.  I’m a compulsive reader, so any word that comes around my eyes will get read at some point.  What surprises me is the breadth of work that helps me through my own writing.  I tend to approach nonfiction like fiction and vice-versa.

Though some complain that reading like a writer is exhausting or depressing, I find it particularly pleasurable.  What’s the voice?  How is the story told?  What details catch the writer’s attention and which are jettisoned?  What about subject matter…what brings the author closer to the story?  What does the actual page look like?  Are the sentences dense or curt or do they vary?  I try to let myself get swept up in the story, but once I’m done, I look back on the experience and try to glean some broader lessons. 

My day job is marketing and brand strategy, and it brings a lot of nontraditional reading material my way.  I inhale everything from long-form investigative journalism to tweets about Britney Spears’s boobs.  Both help me look at words and information in a different way.  Add in some biographies and a few Georgette Heyer novels and you’re just about right. 

I can’t imagine wanting to write without my ongoing reading habit, nor can I imagine being the writer I am/becoming without reading widely and curiously.  For some reason, I’m not worried about other voices imbuing themselves in my writing.  I really can’t afford to miss a thing. 

What about you?  How does reading fit into your writing process? 

Sometimes, ideas just need to percolate.

I’m deep in writing mode lately, which means that I slip off the radar socially.  The social media strategist and marketer in me is cringing, believe me. I don’t know about you, but the real work of writing occurs under the surface for the most part, as things are thought through and sorted out. That’s no excuse, however, for falling out of touch with you. So I’m giving myself a challenge: post ten new blogs over the next ten days.  Just to shake things up a bit, I’m going to be focusing on my own writing process (as opposed to that of my literary heroines). 

Today’s topic?  Ideas. 

I think there’s a myth that writers wake up in the morning, float over to the desk, look out the window on the glistening springtime or pastoral view, and are visited by a gentle muse who bestows a Good Idea.  “Ah,” they say, stroking their chins appreciatively.  “That’s it!”  Then they begin to write in a whirl of inspired bliss. 

Maybe that’s how other writers do it, but my experience is way messier and infinitely more frustrating.  Here’s my process:  Get one idea that kind of stinks.  Go down the path of research, thought, planning, figuring it out.  Realize it’s total crap.  Get new idea.  This one seems downright brilliant.  Tell someone about it—they blanch and stammer something polite but unenthusiastic.  Suffer from crisis of confidence and abandon idea. 

Et cetera. 

This process is repeated multiple times, with fits and starts.  Sometimes it takes a long freaking time (Only this month have I become confident enough about an idea for a new nonfiction project…yes, almost two years since my first book appeared.  Sorry, Harper.). Sometimes it doesn’t.  Sometimes I desperately need the input of my partner, my business partner, or a few trusted writing buddies.  Sometimes I have a sense that if I tell another human being, it will be jinxed forever and will surely fail. For me, the important part is to remain open to the right idea.  Nothing is perfect, but good thoughts sometimes take time to percolate.  I try to read widely, talk to new people, eavesdrop on conversations, give myself long walks and time for random, unstructured thought.  Given all of those inputs, ideas usually come. 

Before I go public with an idea, I always ask myself several questions.  What’s the idea? Is it really unique? How? More importantly, what can I bring to the idea that nobody else can?  Is this something I’m willing to talk about all day, lose sleep over, and devote at least a quarter of my working brain capacity to for the near future? 

If the answer is yes, I freak out.  Oh, God.  Here we go again.  And that’s the place I’m in right now.  Here we go again…

What about you? Where do you find your ideas? 

I'm as giddy as Diana after a few glasses of raspberry cordial!

At long last (or is it long?), the paperback of The Heroine’s Bookshelf has been published in paperback by Harper Perennial!  What does this mean for you (aside from a chance to buy stocking stuffers for the many bookish women in your life)? Why, giveaways, of course!

• Buried In Print is doing a fun giveaway of the book at her blog
• I’m honored to be participating in both #indiethursday and #fridayreads this week…chances to tweet with fellow book lovers, support indie book stores, and win a copy of my book!
• Bitch Magazine is running a contest on Friday
• AnneofGreenGables.com is gracious enough to host a daily trivia question and giveaway on their Facebook page…

…and that’s just the beginning! 

Prizes are currently being shipped to the winners of the Their Eyes Were Watching God readalong…my love of malls was exposed in my author interview with the Vail Daily…and there’s a lot more to come.

If this sound exhausting, it is. And it isn’t, because all of you are so supportive and awesome. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

As you may know, the paperback of The Heroine’s Bookshelf will be released by Harper Perennial on November 15, putting the book in some pretty illustrious company, including that of Zora Neale Hurston, the Harlem Renaissance writer who gave us Their Eyes Were Watching God.  Aside from Colette, it’s the book that’s least known by readers I’ve encountered, and it’s a quick, lush read that grapples with issues of religion, love, and coming home.

Their Eyes Were Watching God: The Readalong will take place on three consecutive Mondays starting November 28. The schedule is as follows: 

November 28: Chapters 1-6

December 5: Chapters 7-13

December 12: Chapters 14-20

Click to download a badge for your blog!

Best of all, Harper Perennial has generously offered to give away copies of Their Eyes Were Watching God to ten lucky readers before the readalong, and they’ll be providing some great Zora-related prizes during the readalong itself!

All you have to do to enter is comment below with your name and why you’re participating in the readalong.

As a fun bonus, if you tweet, blog, or Facebook post about the readalong, just drop me an email with a link to your post to have another entry thrown in the pile. You’ll increase your chance of winning and we’ll increase the chance of having another great readalong! 

Entries will close on Monday, November 14 to give Harper time to mail books to the winners.

Want to share on your blog? Click the small image for blog-ready badges to share!

So…who’s with me?

To celebrate the one-year publication anniversary of The Heroine’s Bookshelf, Erin and I thought it would be fun to create a literary-inspired cocktail list. Okay, truth be told, the idea came from us making fun of the pronunciation of St John River’s name from Jane Eyre. “Sin Jin.” “Sin Gin.” “Sounds like a cocktail!”

What an insane, awesome, fun, crazy, wild year! A toast to The Heroine

Having bartended primarily at theaters for the past decade, I’ve picked up a hobby of inventing cocktails inspired by the plays being performed. Thus, it didn’t take much prompting for me to say yes to creating cocktails inspired by the amazing authors, characters and stories featured in The Heroine’s Bookshelf. I brought in my longtime mixology collaborator Ian Klein, and we stretched our imaginations to consider what ingredients, flavors and spirits best evoked the “spirit” of each chapter’s heroine and author. We adapted some pre-existing cocktails and created some originals as well. Try some of these at your next book club gathering or ask your local bartender to give one a go.

Erin, I raise my glass to you. Here’s to another year of reading and living heroically!

The Lizzie Bennet | Spy-Glass of Faith | Anne With An “E” | The Color Purple | For Francie | The Complete Claudine | Scarlett O’Hara | The Scout Finch | The Long Winter | The Currer Bell | Jo Meets Apollyon | The Mary Lennox

The Lizzie Bennet

As sparkling as her wit, this cocktail in honor of Pride & Prejudice’s heroine evokes popular tastes of the Regency era.

3 parts Sparkling Lemonade, such as R.W. Knudsen
1 part Cream Sherry

Serve over ice; top with floating raspberries

Spy-Glass of Faith

In honor of Zora Neale Thurston and her heroine, Janie Crawford, enjoy this lush drink and its exotic flavors that emerge with every sip.

3 parts Mango Nectar, such as Goya
2 parts Vodka
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
½ teaspoon rose water

Shake and serve up

Anne With An “E”

“Carrots” may have been her least-favorite nickname, but we think Anne would approve of this cheerful reinterpretation.

1 1/2 part Carrot Juice
1 1/2 part Gin
1/2 part Ginger Liqueur

Shake and serve on ice; sprinkle cinnamon to top

The Color Purple

In honor of Alice Walker and Celie, an elegant drink as lovely as night and sweet as friendship.

3/4 part Galliano
1/2 part Gin
1/4 part Creme de Violette
1/2 egg white
1 dash Orange Flower Water

Shake and serve up

For Francie

Enjoy some Brooklyn nostalgia with this fun twist on an fountain-style cherry cola.

1 part Vodka
1 part Cherry Brandy
1 part Cranberry Juice
2 parts Cola to top

Stir and serve over ice with a cherry

The Complete Claudine

Raise a glass in honor of Colette with this indulgently Parisian blend of herbs and citrus.

½ part fresh lime juice
3 parts Gin
1 part Triple Sec
1 splash Green Chartreuse

Shake and serve up in an Absinthe-rinsed glass

Scarlett O’Hara

Peggy Mitchell said “Fighting is like Champagne. It goes to the heads of cowards as quickly as of heroes,” and this champagne cocktail is as tough and sweet as Scarlet herself.

2 parts Scotch Whiskey (Please note: if you can’t tolerate the idea of a drink for an Irish girl made with Scotch, feel free to sub Irish Whiskey.)
1 part Strawberry Liqueur
3 parts Champagne

Serve up in a champagne flute with a strawberry slice.

The Scout Finch

In honor of Scout and her creator, a perfect drink to enjoy on the front porch after a day of adventure and discovery.

Muddle 2 blackberries
1/2 part simple syrup
3/4 part fresh lime juice
2 parts sweet tea vodka

Shake and serve on ice

The Long Winter

Pull up your favorite quilt and warm yourself with this delicious drink in honor of Laura Ingalls.

3 parts Hot Chocolate
2 parts Brandy
1 part Kahlua

Top with nutmeg

The Currer Bell

Jane Eyre’s original readers might not have known Currer Bell was a woman, but we can now enjoy this audacious cocktail in honor of Charlotte Brontë.

2 parts Madeira wine
1 part White Rum
1 part Passion Fruit Juice, such as Vasso
2 dashes Angostura Bitters

Shake and serve up

Jo Meets Apollyon

Named for a chapter from Little Women, this cocktail is as daring and endearing as Jo March.

2 parts Bourbon
1 part Cointreau
Shake and serve up in a Honey-laced glass

Fig garnish

The Mary Lennox

This cocktail starts a bit sour but ends with gentle floral accents, expressive of Mary’s transformational experience in The Secret Garden.

½ part fresh Lemon Juice
3 parts Brandy
1 part St Germain Elderflower Liqueur

Shake and serve up with a lemon twist

Note from Erin: This list was made with love by a dear childhood friend. Thanks so much, Kj and Ian, and thank you to all of the readers, friends, and publishing companions who have made the last year a truly heroic journey. I raise my glass to you!