When Eleanor Vincent and I were at pages: a bookstore the other night
discussing our memoirs and how writing helped us heal, we continually mentioned
how it takes a village to write a book.
I’m now
in the process of writing a novel, and I continue to believe in the importance
of many helping hands in the process. I’ve just completed a novel revision workshop
and got useful comments from my instructor and classmates. I also belong to a
writing group, and I’ve used the resources of The Next Big Writers website to
get reviews of my book as I review the work of others.
Here I
discuss how I got my memoir written and published, not only once but twice. A
member of my village helped me connect with my current Dream of Things publisher when my first
publisher went out of business.
Even
though writing is a lonely business, a village of resources helped and nurtured
me from the time I started writing my memoir, Leaving
the Hall Light On. I started with journaling, at first sporadically and
later, after reading and doing the exercises in The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron (Putnam’s Sons, 1992), I wrote my
morning pages, not missing a day of keeping my fingers moving across the pages
of my journal.
After
amassing about three years worth of journal entries I began to think about turning
them into a book. But, I was not a creative writer. My writing experience
consisted of writing, editing, and training engineers on reports and proposals
in the aerospace industry. So I went back to school to learn.
I took fiction,
essay, and memoir writing classes through UCLA Extension Writer’s Program. The
people from my first fiction class formed a writing group, meeting monthly,
sharing and gently critiquing each other’s writing. Unfortunately our group
disbanded when my son who was bipolar took his life. But, one of the pieces
from that first class ended up in my memoir.
A member
of that group spoke lovingly about Jack Grapes
of the Los Angeles Poet’s and Writer’s Collective, who taught classes in the
living room of his family home. Three months after Paul died I enrolled in Jack’s
level one method writing class, and for five years I worked my way up the level
ladder, ending with a poetry editing class. Many of the poems I wrote in the
Grapes class are also in my memoir.
The
prompts in Mourning & Mitzvah—A
Guided Journal for Walking the Mourner’s Path Through Grief to Healing
(Jewish Lights Publishing, 1992) also kept me sane. However, I keep returning
to Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California – my healing and writing place.
Early on I discovered Ellen Bass’ “Writing About Our Lives” workshop and almost
immediately poems started to flow from my pen. I still attend poetry workshops
there with some of the same people I’ve written with at Esalen for years.
Once I
amassed enough material, I had no idea how to put it together. Then my son Ben
introduced me to a former literary agent who reviewed my work, gave me writing
prompts, and suggested I structure my book based on the sequence of poems in my
poetry manuscript. Though the book went through several changes later on, her
suggestions formed my book’s organization. Because I based my book on my list
of poems I was adamant that my poems appear in the book. My publisher agreed
and even asked me to add more.
Once I
had a draft manuscript – edited by a woman referred to me by one of my memoir-writing
instructors – I started querying. Again through an introduction from Ben, Mark
Shelmerdine, a CEO of a small press critiqued and advised me on my query letter
and book proposal. I also used How to
Write a Book Proposal by Michael Larsen (Writer’s Digest Books, 1997). And once
I found my publisher, I spent months revising my book. I relied on
techniques I learned while working on proposals in the aerospace industry and a
group of readers, editors, and reviewers who worked with me until my book was
published.
My
village generously helped me write my book. More later on how it also takes a
village to market a book.
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