I have always been in a fight with my potential. I work at a tangled set of crossroads. “Commercial success!” insisted peers and mentors. “Big L Literature!” they preached from academia. Meanwhile the ghosts who haunt us from the books that build writer mythos model invention. Over it all the, by all accounts, timid tenor of of Charles Baudelaire, sneering at any hint of pandering.
Raise your hand if you’ve ever had an agent, editor, reviewer or reader praise aspects of your writing but ultimately condemn the whole as “lacking something” or “missing that special spark.” Or perhaps you’ve heard this version: “You’re a very talented writer, I just didn’t connect with the story.” Such feedback, infuriatingly vague as it…
The other day, I was sitting at my desk, confusing myself. Let me back up a little. I’m on a deadline for my latest novel, Ending, releasing in the fall, and because of the time crunch I could feel coming on, I decided to have a little fun— the last little bit of relaxedness I…
Are you thinking about writing a memoir and feeling spooked about the challenge of selling it? Autofiction might be the middle ground you’re looking for.
Okay, you are committed to finding a literary agent and seeking a traditional publisher. That’s the track you’re on. You’ve been working on your novel. You’ve taken it to critique groups and you’ve taken their feedback, made changes. Before you draw up a list of agents and start querying, there’s one more step that I…