Actually, sending your book into the world does feel like a birth, and – as with  a preponderance of women – post-partum depression can set in. After all, the characters are people you have created and lived with for a long time. I remember when my first book, Widow’s Walk, was finished, I postponed handing it over to my agent until she called with a “now or never” ultimatum.  Cradling my precious pages, I walked into her office, surrendered them, and fled before she could see my shameful tears. I didn’t know then what a common syndrome this is.  It doesn’t even seem to matter for the moment that your book is hopefully going out into the world to be read by thousands (millions?) of strangers, It’s an illogical reaction, but  how logical is it to be a writer in the first place, given the  frustrating publishing scene?

Many of us find an adroit way to avoid reaching that finishing line. Simply don’t finish! Create a problem for yourself with the final pages and there you are, safely stymied forever. I did that with my first short story. When the two brightest members of my writing group disagreed over the last line – one of them saying it was “perfect,” the other arguing for the “penultimate”  one – I was thrown into such a state of indecision that the story sat on my desk for five years! It was finally published, but I don’t remember which line won out.

With my new book, Role Play, I agonized over the ending and  changed it at least seven times.  I was tempted to emulate John Fowles, who gave The French Lieutenant’s Woman two entirely different endings. (Can’t choose between mango and pistachio? Have both!) Then there’s Margaret Mitchell, who let readers fret over whether Scarlett gets Rhett back, rather than supplying her own forecast.  Sort of like deciding not to decide.

In the end (literally) I gave Role Play an ambiguous finale, leaving readers to write the postscript for themselves. I just hope I won’t get irate letters along the lines of, ”How could you…?” On the other hand, that would mean people are reading it!

The only remedy I find for all this angst is to turn on the computer and begin another book.

[What’s your experience with endings? Share at  ahosansky@gmail.com]

Website: www.annehosansky.com

BOOKS:

ROLE PLAY – CreateSpace.com & Amazon.com, also Amazon Kindle

TEN WOMEN OF VALOR – ditto

TURNING TOWARD TOMORROW – xLibris.com

WIDOW’S WALK – iUniverse.com & Amazon.com

I don’t have a fireplace and there aren’t any campfires on my horizon. Yet I was fascinated by some advice I read recently about how to place logs to ensure the best fire. The sentence that leaped out at me was the importance of leaving “breathing space” between the logs. Placing them well, the article stresses, requires as much attention to the spaces in between as to the logs. On the other hand, putting too many in too closely can “douse the flames,” like a bucket of water thrown on them.

Isn’t this true of writing, as well? If we try to cram in too much, to spell out every detail, we aren’t leaving space for the reader’s imagination.

Many decades ago when I was a, college student I was in a course with the promising title, Creative Writing. I handed the instructor a story I’d written, sure that she’d be impressed by how detailed it was. It came back with three words written in capital letters across the top: TRUST YOUR READER!

Her savvy dictum became a guideline, for I had the habit of over-explaining as though a reader would be incapable of filling in the spaces As a result, I tended to sabotage subtlety and force- feed an overdose of miscellaneous information. As a slight example, I would put in such phrases as, ”She felt happy about that,” or, ”He was jubilant about what she said.” As if the reader couldn’t sense that from the action and dialogue.

We should not only trust the reader, but honor his or her imagination and ability to fill in what’s not explicit. To allow for the reader’s own feelings and vision. That’s a major part of the pleasure of reading. When I remember this, my pared-down stories are invariably stronger and more successful.

As a friend who’s a writer informed me, “The most important things in a story are the spaces between the lines.”

Leaving, space applies to relationships, too , but that’s for another blog!

Meanwhile, keeping this one brief, I leave space for you to fill in with your own thoughts.

COMMENTS WELCOME
WEBSITE: www.annehosansky.com
BOOKS: “Widow’s Walk,” available through iUniverse.com; “Turning Toward Tomorrow” -xLibris.com; ”Ten Women of Valor” – CreateSpace.com and Amazon.com. Also Amazon Kindle.

“If winter comes can spring be far behind?” Shelley’s famed optimistic question. These days the answer is far less predictable. After all, Shelley didn’t have to cope with global warming. Nor did winters keep him from writing or sharing his latest poems with his impressive peers.

I live in New York City, which has been battered by sub-freezing temperatures and unremitting snow and ice, making it difficult and dangerous to keep up any routine that involves venturing outdoors. My weekly writers’ workshop is one of the casualties, for we’ve had to postpone too many meetings.

What the workshop gives us, and what we were threatened to be deprived of, is something invaluable known as Feedback. We customarily read  pages to each other that we wrote during the week and receive insightful critiques. This weekly prodding keeps us going with whatever project we’re working on.

I’ve discovered through the years that being a member of a writers’ group also provides motivation. During the week I sometimes complain that I’m not inspired to write anything new, only to discover I can be inspired when Wednesday night – our meeting time – looms ahead of me. It’s a self-created deadline. Amazing what you can do when that’s staring at you. Perhaps necessity is the mother of inspiration, too.

Since every member of my group feels the same way, we came up with a winter solution. Though the frigid weather keeps us apart, it doesn’t have to prevent us from sharing. So we have been sending our latest pages to one another via E-mails. Knowing I don’t have to wait endlessly for feedback encouraged me to begin a new story, and enabled a member who is working on a novel to maintain the momentum she needs.

Without this sharing we writers work in an echoless void. Much as we can give comments to ourselves or pull them from any hapless family member or friend who’s housebound with us, there is nothing to compare to critiques from fellow/sister writers – in any season!

Should I revise as I go along or wait until my manuscript is complete?”

I can’t count the number of times I’ve been asked that question. I think it depends on what works for you. My own technique varies. Some mornings I’ll go over what I wrote the day before and make small changes, mainly as a way to get my “motor” going. Other times, especially with a short story, I’ll wait to make any changes until I have a complete draft.

I think it would be helpful to readers of this blog to know how other writers handle this question, and all the others that come up about writers’ block, rejections, and so on. As the first of a series, I turned to one of my favorite people, award-winning poet and short story writer Juanita Torrence-Thompson.  Juanita’s the author of eight books of poems , currently the whimsically titled “Secret Life of Scrambled Eggs.” Her work has been published internationally in leading magazines and literary journals, and one of her short stories will appear in an upcoming issue of “Conceit Magazine.” As if this isn’t enough for one woman, she’s also the Editor-in-Chief & Publisher of “Mobius, The Poetry Magazine.”  Here’s what this prolific writer says about how she works.

People write poetry or prose the way they want to. But I once had an instructor at the New School in New York who said, “‘Just write it all out first. Then stop and take a look at it to correct your errors. Don’t waste time as you go along to make them.”
          I found that this method works for me because when I am inspired the words come fast and furiously. If I stop to make corrections, I break my flow of thoughts and might even forget the rest of the sentence I was going to write.
         After I make my initial corrections  I set the poem or prose aside for a day or two so I can distance myself from the piece. I notice that my initial corrections are usually the most obvious, like typos. Others I might not notice until two days later, when I revise in earnest.
          Years ago I read an article that said real writing begins with re-writing!

However, nothing is written (or revised) in stone. Writers occasionally (rarely!) find that the first version is the one they end up with.  Juanita adds that in addition to the more than 4000 poems she revised, I have about five poems where I made no changes – or maybe one or two words, or a comma. These were poems I felt inspired to write and I swear they would be on my list of my ten best poems if I made a list!

There are few experiences as glorious for a writer as that moment when inspiration strikes. This happened to me with a recent poem. It came complete as a gift that I’m awed and grateful for (though I did obsessively “tweak” it a bit later).  .But we can’t count on miracles like that. Most of the time I revise . .. and revise . . . as we should all be prepared to do.

As Jack London said, “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”

[COMING SOON: Coping with Writers’ Block]

WEBSITE: www.annehosansky.com
BOOKS: “Widow’s Walk”-available through iUniverse.com; “Turning Toward Tomorrow”- Xlibris.com; “Ten Women of Valor” – Createspace.com and Amazon.com. Also Amazon Kindle.

Recently a friend E-mailed me a challenging question: “How many hours do you spend at the computer each day?” His question shook me up because I’ve become increasingly aware that “all work and no play” makes a lopsided life. I also have to admit that time away from the computer is often spent (and mis-spent) in time-killing distractions.

So I was intrigued when I read Heather Severson’s “pie” advice.. Severson, who writes and lectures about journaling, recommends thinking of your activities in terms of a pie chart and deciding what size “slice” you will allot to each one.

In an attempt to make this non-culinary pie for myself, I began by writing a candid review of the past year. How many hours did I really devote to writing? How much time at the computer was wasted by reading every Facebook, LinkedIn, Amazon, etc. message that popped up in my insatiable E-mails? How much time-killing TV did I watch, instead of reading books that might inspire my own work?

Although I’m proud of my devotion to writing, the opposite side of the coin is that it takes control of almost every waking hour. Too often I turn down social invitations because I want to work on my book. The older I get (another year!), the more I realize how important it is  to make time for people who bring daylight into your life (and to delete the toxic ones who drain your energy). Our emotional landscape would be a lot more barren without good friends. We also need to include museums, concerts, theatre, etc. because they broaden our world creatively, too. I often find that my best rewrites take shape in my head while I’m away from the computer!

So I now take a sheet of computer paper and draw a big circle on it for my 2015 “slices.” Still a large chunk – but reduced to 40% – is labeled WRITING ( book, stories, blogs), 15% for “MARKETING” (queries, arranging author talks, et al), another 15% for LESSON PLANS for the writing class I teach. An unavoidable 10-15% is set aside for medical appointments and domestic chores, and at least 10-15% is reserved for socializing.

I also carve a slice for salvaged minutes of READING , instead of couch-potato TV viewing. (Stephen King, in his useful book ”On Writing,” calls reading ”the creative center of a writer’s life.” )

Being realistic (read, human), I will allow unscheduled moments of resting and dreaming to slip in, for these are necessities, too.

Each person’s ingredients are individual, of course. Only you can decide which slices and what amounts would make 2015 productive for you. Just as how faithfully I adhere to my pie and how flexible I am when life demands revision is up to me.

Happy – Healthy – Creative Year to all.

WEBSITE: www.annehosansky.com

BOOKS: “Widow’s Walk”-available through iUniverse.com; “Turning Toward Tomorrow”- Xlibris.com; “Ten Women of Valor” – Createspace.com and Amazon.com. Also Amazon Kindle.

The word “agency” brings up for me those elusive people known as literary agents. But In his “New York Times” column of November 14th, David Brooks supplied a different meaning. He began by writing about George Elliot, the marvelous author of “Middlemarch.” (If you haven’t read the book, hie thee to the nearest bookstore or library.) According to Brooks, Eliot was an emotionally needy woman who had numerous disastrous affairs. Then one day she gathered courage to write to the man she loved, asserting her own worth and demanding his devotion. Her letter was unsuccessful, but Brooks claims that in being able to speak up for herself she had found her ”agency moment.”

This sent me running to Webster. Reading down a paragraph of definitions I discovered that “agency” also means ”the state of being in action and exerting power.”

What Brooks doesn’t credit enough is that Eliot’s power lay more in moving past her vast insecurity as a writer to produce one classic book after another.

To perform beyond our insecurities, surely this is power. And it’s needed day after day – when rejection letters account for most of our mail, or a critic’s sour dismissal of our latest book jeopardizes years of effort. I once received a form letter from a magazine I won’t name that mockingly listed the reasons a story might be turned down, with an editor’s checkmark in the one that presumably applied. The last box was, “What makes you think you can write?” Fortunately for my fragile ego that one wasn’t checked off.

“Agency” is surely needed when a friend betrays us or a child becomes estranged or an employer coldly cuts us off, not to mention all the other ways this chaotic world threatens to come down upon our vulnerable heads.

How do we claim our power, our strength, and become deafened to the “not good enough” voices from childhood on? Does our sense of self crumble before another dismissive voice or do we “listen to our own criteria” as Brooks so aptly says?

That’s what enables us to put our unwanted manuscript into another envelope or attach it to an E-mail  again — and again — and….!  To paraphrase Brooks, “iron begins to enter our soul.”

WEBSITE: www.annehosansky.com

BOOKS: “Widow’s Walk” – available through iUniverse.com; “Turning Toward Tomrrow”- Xlibris.com; “Ten Women of Valor” – Amazon.com and CreateSpace.com. Also Amazon Kindle.

Share YOUR “Agency Moment” in this space.

Your family has been murdered. Your home – even your country  -are gone.  Would you have the courage to make art  out of the ashes? And is it morally right for any of us to do this?

Recently I heard  an  American poet, Barbara Hantman, give an illuminating lecture about three  of the “Holocaust Poets,” who coped with these questions

Abraham Sutzkever, a Yiddish poet cited by “The New York Times” in 2010 as “the greatest poet of the Holocaust,” was born in what’s now Belarus and grew up in Lithuania.   When the Germans forced him to live in the Vilna Ghetto, he hid many of Judaism’s precious documents inside the walls. His life became a flight from the Nazis, but his mother and infant son were captured.  In what must have been  an unimaginably anguished experience, he testified at the Nuremberg Trials against the man who killed them.

For writers like myself, who think if only we had a quiet space and free time we’d write more, Sutzkever’s experience is humbling. He composed some of his greatest poems while crawling through sewers or hiding in a coffin!  What gives someone that kind of strength?  He was armed with the belief that “as long as I was able to be a poet, I would have a weapon against death.”

Nelly Sachs was a German Jew.  A week before she was due to be sent to a  forced labor camp, she escaped to Sweden where she remained for the rest of her life. The one man she seems to have loved was murdered by the  Nazis.  Haunted all her life by delusions that the Nazis were coming after her, too, she suffered several nervous breakdowns.  Despite (or perhaps because of) what she endured,  she wrote poems filled with powerful images of suffering, death and madness. “I represent the tragedy of the Jewish people,” she said. In 1966 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The poet described most movingly in Hantman’s lecture was a woman she knew personally, Yala Korwin.  During the Holocaust, Polish-born Korwin lived “in plain sight” of the Nazis, as she said, with the aid of a friend’s sister’s Aryan passport, but had to work in a munitions factory.  Her parents and one of her sisters were killed  by the Nazis. Korwin’s poems are passionate portraits of Holocaust victims.  One of the most celebrated is “The Little Boy With His Hands up,” based on a photograph of a terrified child  holding up his hands in surrender. Korwin, who was also a visual artist (hundreds of her paintings and sculptures are in museums) emigrated to France after the war and then to America. She died in New York City earlier this year.

We can all be inspired by the courage of these poets, and their dedication to making the world aware of the catastrophe that befell their people. Yet, if “survivor guilt” is a well-known phenomenon,  is it even harder when your success is built, in a sense, on the graves of those who died?

Any of us who write books based on the death of a loved one –  even  on a far less monumental  scale – have to face this conflict.   My memoir, “Widow’s Walk, ” tells of my husband’s courage during his terminal illness, as well as the ways I forged a new life afterward. When the book was published my pride in it  was diluted by a haunting feeling that success had come at the cost of his death.  Doesn’t that underlying shadow exist for many writers?

We can take consolation from what  Korwin  said in one of her poems :  “The only mitzvah [blessing]  left  to you is to survive and tell the story.”

 WEBSITE: www. annehosansky.com

BOOKS:  “Widow’s Walk” – available through iUniverse.com; “Turning Toward Tomorrow”- Xlibris.com;  “Ten Women of Valor” – CreateSpace.com and Amazon.com. Also AmazonKindle.

COMMENTS WELCOME