July 20, 2011
The Pain of a Book
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For the past week I was in Portland, Oregon, to attend the Tin House writers conference. This is like boot camp for writers. We stay at Reed College and return to the days of hard-as-rock single beds, group showers, constant noise all night, and cafeteria dining. Sometimes I think the Spartan ways of the week help to write. Like committing yourself to a single purpose without creature comforts.
2011 marks my fifth year. There were over 200 attending ... twelve guest author/instructors and then the students. My class of twelve worked hard all week on each others manuscripts, and listening to craft lectures and readings by the authors. It was thrilling but exhausting. And then there were the critiques of our work by others in the class. Not so much fun and often no consensus so you come away trying to decide which opinions to heed, or not.
I don't know if there is any magic number on how long it should or shouldn't take to write a decent book but I sure hope I start to whittle down the five years it took on the first one. My second, "Nothing for Tomorrow" is finished but now will need editing and tightening. The grueling but necessary final touch. I certainly understand why some stop at one... like doing a marathon and then saying, "That was enough already."
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Posted by Nancy Rossman
on July 20, 2011 at 11:10 AM
in Writing School |
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