Weekend Reading

It's encouraging to read journalistic narratives:

1. It gives me hope that not everyone wants to write a memoir.
2. It's good to know that other people are out there managing to do it.
3. It demonstrates how other people are framing and structuring the stories they're writing.

So, go and read the eight new stories posted in the Nieman Narrative Digest.

category: reading

Tips for Trips for Fall

Conference time again.

In Pittsburgh, the 412 Creative Nonfiction Festival is emphasizing that "nonfiction" means ya got some researchin' to do, even if you're writing a memoir. November 6-11, 2006.

At Harvard, it's Nieman Narrative Conference time, with the usual uber-stellar lineup of people who walk the walk. It's pricey, but honestly, it was worth this much years ago. It runs from 1 p.m. Friday, November 17, till 5:00 p.m. Sunday, November 19.

Check the Assumptions

My husband is a copy editor at the Washington Post. Tonight he edited a 17-inch story about soccer. Only it didn't mention the word "soccer" at all. Makes ya think, huh?

Pitching to the Right Person

Got a great idea for a story? Make sure your query goes to the person most likely to assign the piece. For that, you turn to magazine mastheads and the phone.

You can look up the staff list online--but sometimes what you find there is the staff list for the online version of the publication. Libraries and book stores are lovely repositories for editor information, although there's no guarantee that the magazine you're looking for will be there. You can also to those these resources:
Writer's Market -- online and in print.
Wooden Horse Publishing -- $ involved, but not that expensive. For those of us pinching pennies, buy a short-term subscription and look up all the magazines you might be interested during your subscription.
Mastheads -- a new online compilation of exactly that. Check out the article on the site with a dozen tips for querying.

Titles on mastheads are confusing because the job descriptions attached to the titles vary from magazine to magazine. Some rules of thumb: Staff writers can be called editors or senior editors. Contributing editors are freelancers who write for the magazine, sometimes on a schedule, sometimes on an ad hoc basis. The publisher cares about advertising. The editor in chief tends to be the publisher's wingman.

In addition to the whole title morass, mastheads can go out of date quickly, and responsibilities can change.

The easiest, best way to pinpoint the right person is to call. Ask for the editorial department, then politely ask whoever picks up the phone which editor would be the best one to pitch for a (short piece/feature) on X. The phone script goes like this: "Hi, I'm X. Y. Freelancer. I have an idea for a short piece on FeeFieFoo executives. Can you tell me which editor would be the best one to send my query to? Would that be Sally Mae [guessing from the masthead]"

Get the editor's name--and ask for it to be spelled, too, if it wasn't on the masthead--and try to find out if that person prefers e-mail or snail mail when it comes to queries.

Do not ask to speak to that editor. You don't really want to speak to the editor because editors are ridiculously busy and will invariably say to any *$%# interrupting freelancer to send a query letter.

category: resources

So, Show Me the Money

People are generally clueless about the business of publishing. Since writers are people, it follows that plenty of writers don't know much about publishing either. Here's a rundown by an expert on how publishers figure out how much of an advance to offer for a book.

I found this link on the completely addictive blog called Miss Snark. Miss Snark is a NYC literary agent who posted comments on 100 query letters (works of fiction, but many of the principles apply to creative nonfiction) and answers many questions from us lowly writers about agents in general.

category: resources

Getting Your Book Reviewed

Thanks to Inkthinker, I found the blog done by the book critics council, Critical Mass. Fascinating. It's as useful for writers trying to figure out how to get a book in the public eye as it is for those who want to review books, which a lot of writers do (makes sense, considering how we're up past our eyeballs in the written word).

Except sometimes, one learns more than one wants to. Case in point, in addition to having a Web site for your book, it seems that these days one also needs a video promotion online, too. Eek! Something else to do--and in a format that not all word-minded folks will be adept at. It's the literary equivalent to a music video to release with your song.

category: resources

Making the Call

Making the first phone call for a story is often the hardest part of writing for me. I refuse to psychoanalyze this; eventually I make myself place the call, and freelance life as I know it moves along.

I've heard a lot of people, journalists as well as new writers, stress about calling people for stories they want to do but don't have an assignment for, whether it's a piece they want to pitch to a slick magazine or a story that's likely to be submitted to literary journals.

What surprises new writers is how willing people are to talk, regardless. People are pleased to talk about what they care about or their lives/experience.

You don't want to give anyone the impression that by talking to you, she'll end up in a national feature. Nosirree. Simply introduce yourself as a freelance writer, interested in doing a story on X. Say what publication you plan to pitch the story to. If you can, drop the names of publications you've written for. If you're looking for background information, say so. Something along the lines of "I need some concrete information when I pitch this story to X magazine, and I hope you have a couple of minutes to talk with me."

For background for a query letter, plan on asking only a few questions. If a person is feeling chatty, great--but don't demand a lot of time and info before you get an assignment.

Most people simply ask that if your story runs and they're mentioned, you send a copy of the story. Get their contact info if you don't have a mailing address for them and make a note to do so. (Confession: I am extremely bad at mailing people copies of the finished story; therefore, I now merely say I'll try to.)

If you're calling to see if you can hang out and see if your idea for a story has legs, you might have to persuade people that it's No Big Deal. It's not like you're showing up with a camera crew for a reality TV show. You'll stay out of the way. You'll keep quiet. You just want to see what it's like. (And for pete's sake, when you go there, keep out of the way and keep quiet!) If someone demurs, ask what happens in a typical day. Ask to be around for the part that interests you most.

If you're a student, have some chutzpah, assume that you are going to publish the article (eventually, in one form or another), and don't feel obligated to say you're working on a class assignment. Even if you are a student, you're in exactly the same position as a freelancer trying to put together a query or story. In my experience, people are put at ease by the "I need this for a class" line when you're asking to hang out with them, but experts won't return calls just for a school assignment.

Examining Interviewing

NPR ran a story about interviewing recently (which I had every intention of telling you about that day like a good little blogger, but . . . ). Seems ESPN has employed a consultant, John Sawatsky, to help its reporters interview better. Sawatsky's top three suggestions:

• Don't ask questions that can be answered with a yes or no.
• Keep your questions short.
• Don't use charged words, which can distract your interviewee.

That's IT? The key to great interviews is REALLY what they taught us in Journalism 101? Well, smack my forehead. What will they think of next? Stop signs at four-way intersections?

Interviewing for TV news isn't the same as interviewing for narrative. In fact, Lee Gutkind has a hissy fit if you casually in passing without thinking about it tell him you're going to go interview someone for your story. Our goal is to hang out as long as possible and as often as possible with the people we'll write about. We are not there to pepper our subject with nonstop questions. We're not looking for sound-bite reaction. Our goal is to observe and document

But you're going to have to talk--and ask questions. It's impossible and unreasonable to spend hours with people without saying a word. Here are my working guidelines.

1. When dealing with a public figure, find out the "when, where, who, and what" from other sources so you don't have to start chatting with stuff like, "So, when were you born?" You can confirm the info at some point, but why spend valuable time covering stuff that basic research will get you?

2. Engage in a little chit-chat. At the beginning, to loosen you up with each other. Then, during lulls, it's good time to ask questions about what you've seen or expected.

3. A little chit-chat means a little chit-chat. Jeanne Marie Laskas, one of my teachers at Goucher, said that when she looks through transcripts, she's struck by how many times she says stuff like "Oh?" and "Huh!" and "Really?"

4. If you get a yes or no answer, follow it up with a "why" or "how" question. Asking why can easily put someone on the defensive or leave a person at a loss. It can work better to ask how something came to be, or to ask what happened. Think about it: "Why did you hit your mom?" vs. "How did it happen that you hit your mom?" vs. "What happened that day?"

5. Do not rush in with one question after another. Pauses are good. Many people are uncomfortable with silence; let them fill up the space with talk, not you.

6. If you're curious about something, bring it up in conversation. In a lecture at Goucher, Walt Harrington mentioned that he was drinking in the home scene of someone he was profiling. The place was full of hokey knickknacks. His impression of the people's decorating tastes changed, however, when he asked a question--something like, "Do you collect this type of thing?"--and was told that the dreadful little items were all thank-yous that various people had sent to the guy being profiled.

7. Remember that being a jaded know-it-all isn't going to help you get a satisfying story, one that answers your readers' questions.

category: craft