alexandra alger

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Archive for the category “Writing”

02 Feb 2014

How I Got Turned On To Peyton Manning

Yikes, I’ve been out of touch for a bit, haven’t I? I spent January in a frenzy of rewriting, embellishing character, refining plot, all with the goal of finishing this draft by month’s end. And I’m not. I’m not! I keep telling myself, It’s okay, it’s okay, the important thing is to get this one right. This draft is really an amalgam of four or five, because the editing of one chapter tends to send me back to an earlier one, to make sure everything is fitting. Invariably once I look back on a chapter I see a word that isn’t quite right, or a phrase that sounds awkward, or a piece of dialogue that sounds off, and next thing you know every step forward means a step back. This is probably an inefficient way to revise. But it’s what comes naturally.

Enough of my revision angst. It’s Super Bowl Sunday! Like the other Americans who are not football fans–there have to be at least a few thousand of us in this country of 300 million–I’m mainly interested in the nachos. I have two bags of tortilla chips on my kitchen counter that I surely would’ve devoured by now save for the vision of nachos smothered in cheese and black beans, with a sprinkling of scallions, and guacamole on the side….

I’m off topic again. What I really want to say is, even though I rarely watch football I’m excited to see the game today, thanks to the Wall Street Journal’s Jan. 31 Superbowl coverage. Yeah, the WSJ–can you believe it? The Journal’s business writing has always been unparalleled, but in recent years it’s developed a flair for all kinds of other stories.  The sports section drew me in with a front-page Super Bowl preview. The Journal cleverly used skier terminology to offer game perspective for three kinds of viewers: beginner, intermediate and advanced. I loved this! And I was pretty proud of myself for zooming down the intermediate run. (As in skiing, I had trouble negotiating the terrain of the black diamond.) Once I was inside the section, I saw an article with the headline, “Peyton Manning: Mr. Annoying.” Hello–really? Well, no–just a brilliant headline–but the story did turn out to be a fascinating, semi-humorous look at Manning’s relentless drive, an intensity bordering on obsessiveness that can get on his teammates’–and his coaches’–nerves. Writer Kevin Clark did what the best writers try to do: He made Manning human. You saw how a guy with his kind of talent becomes great–he thinks and works harder than everyone else.

You may be wondering, am I now a Peyton Manning fan? Am I going to root for the Broncos? Nope. I say, Let the best team win! Either way, those nachos are really going to hit the spot.

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10 Jan 2014

The re-vision process

This is my first post of 2014–this may be the first time I’ve written “2014.” Somehow I’m comfortable with the idea of this new year already, only nine days in; I was ready for it. This is the year I’m finishing my book. This is the year I’m finding an agent and a publisher. The penultimate sentence I type with reckless, relieved confidence; the latter, not so much confidence as hope. But that’s okay, first things first, one step at a time. I’ve got to focus, though. I’m close to finishing a revision that could be the last. I desperately want it to be the last. But I’ve got a haunting fear that I’ll read it through and find it wanting, that I’m facing a whole new re-vision.

I’m a perfectionist. It’s not a good trait for a writer, because perfectionists have trouble letting go. Kristen Lamb wrote on her blog a few days ago about knowing when to quit–when to put aside a manuscript, when to go on to a new project or even a new genre.

Deep breath. All right. I’m finishing up this draft this month and sending it to my two fantastic critique partners, Jodi Kendall and Gina Carey. Here we go.

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25 Dec 2013

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Christmas Eve. Decades out of childhood, years after my own children stopped believing in Santa, I still feel the thrum of anticipation, a sense that something exciting is about to happen.  Some of this is the thrill of giving presents to loved ones (surely my teenage daughter will like that necklace?); and the undeniable pleasure of receiving presents (my son’s giving me the Nora Ephron collected works!); and the food, that’s huge. I’m making an eggnog cheesecake and a pear upside-down cake to bring to my sister, who’s hosting us all for a holiday meal. Taken together these are rich, gorgeous, extravagant displays of love that we don’t show each other any other time of year. Alas. I’m trying to love people more all year. I’m getting to an age at which I realize that I can’t be unthinking, thoughtless. I won’t have forever with the people I love.

Here’s what can only happen in New York on Christmas Eve. My husband Dan and the kids and i had dim sum at Nom Wah in Chinatown.  We went there on a whim; we had no plans and couldn’t remember the last time we’d had dim sum. Nom Wah was new to us, but it’s been around since 1920. It was practically empty, to our intense pleasure. We sat down and ordered. Sometime between the soup dumplings and the pork buns, Vanessa started mouthing something to Dan and me across the table. “What? What?” Dan said. I shrugged helplessly. Finally we got what she was telling us: Jake Gyllenhaal and Maggie Gyllenhaal and their immediate family–their mother, Maggie’s husband Peter Sarsgaard, and their two daughters–had sat down next to us. Naturally, being a New Yorker, I didn’t look around. I know how to give movie stars space! I managed a casual glance to the left and saw Peter’s close-cropped salt-and-pepper head (poor guy–he’s losing his hair.) Standing to go I finally got a look at Jake in the mirror by our table. Jake, with hair to his shoulders and a beard. “Did he look hot?” My sister Nicole asked later. It was just the right question. And you know the answer. 

Merry Christmas!

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10 Dec 2013

Getting Dialogue Right

In his recently published How to Write a Novel,  middle-grade writer and former literary agent Nathan Bradford makes a key point about dialogue: Characters should speak more clearly and grammatically than real people.

Bradford writes:  “In real life, our conversations wonder all over the place, and any conversation transcribed from real life will be a meandering mess full of free associations and stuttering. In a novel, good conversations are focused, and they are, for the most part, articulate.”

He’s right. If we had to read  a character’s every “umm” and “you know” and “what’s that thing called again?” we’d lose interest fast.

It’s not as easy as taking out the umms, though. Especially if you’re developing middle-school characters, as I am. There is nothing more challenging than coming up with an authentic voice for each of my young characters. I want them to be well-spoken, but not too well-spoken. They can’t sound like mini-adults; they can’t sound like older teens, either. They have to sound like young people who are in the midst of growing up, still vulnerable but questing for independence and a sense of self. It’s a tough balance. Maybe this is why so many novels feature a verbally precocious kid who sounds like an adult. We adults love these kids–how could we not?  They’re the ones who will actually talk to us, instead of grunting or ignoring us completely–and let’s face it they’re easy to create. Easier. Nothing about writing is easy.

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07 Nov 2013

Agents, schmagents….

Agents, Schmagents…

Have you heard of schmagents? I had not until recently, when Brooks Sherman of Fine Print Literary mentioned them in an excellent Writer’s Digest webinair on writing queries for middle-grade manuscripts. Schmucky agents: In gentler terms, agents who act unethically. They charge fees to read manuscripts or take on clients (a reputable agent does not do this), steer your work to vanity publishers or pressure writers to buy editing services. Then there are agents who just don’t know what they are doing and can’t sell a book to save their lives. Morale: Do your research! Writer Beware (www.sfwa.org), the website of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America’s Committee on Writing Scams, has got lots of useful and updated information.

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30 Oct 2013

Joke of the Day

How many surrealists does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A fish.

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22 Oct 2013

Picture Books: Do They Ever Get Easier?

When the amazing, inimitable writer-illustrator-teacher Pat Cummings told me about the PB contest organized by Atlantic Avenue merchants (we’re talking Brooklyn here), I thought, “Why not?” It’s a writing contest in my own backyard with cash prizes  (a grand for first place!) and a fantastic panel of judges (Bruce Degen!).  

Then I sat down to write. Immersed in a MG world for the last several years, I had forgotten all about the easy treachery of the picture-book manuscript. Do you know what I mean? I had an idea. I jotted down a few notes. I wrote a few lines. I liked them. I kept going. In no time I had three hundred words. The perfect length. (Have you noticed how few words BPs have these days?) I stopped, rather smug about doing such a good first draft. I read it over the next day, and it was terrible! Not total crap, but not good, either. And then I remembered my stack of PB manuscripts that were never quite…right. Rapunzel, who got put in the tower because she liked math. The blankie story. The sex book. (If only I were Dr. Ruth, I might’ve sold it.)

Not that I’ve given up. Nope. I haven’t given up. I’m going to keep trying. I’ll send something to the Atlantic Avenue BID. I have almost two weeks…no, actually, I’ve got just over a week to craft this baby. I have nothing to lose, right?

If anyone reading this wants to know more about the contest, go to atlanticavebid.org. The deadline’s Nov. 1 at the stroke of midnight.

 

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