Category Archives: Writers – Star Gazing

Signing an Agent

January 15, 1998

Hi, my name is Jane. I’ve written a book. Will you be my agent, please?
Yes, just sign on the dotted line.
What will I get, if I sign?
Depends.
Depends on what?
Depends on if I sell your book.
How do I know you will try to sell my book?
Depends.
Depends on what?
Depends on how good your book is.

–Pause–

My kids like my book.
Of course.
My friends like my book.
What choice do they have?

–Pause–

Why don’t you read my book?
I’m busy.
Doing what?
Selling books.
Books you haven’t read?
I’ve read the book proposals.
Oohhhh…this is a concept market. I get it. Well, then, here’s the concept…
Wait. I need the book.
Why?
Because I need to see how well you write the concept? Can You Write??!!
Glad you asked. Here’s the book.
Could you reduce that, please, to three chapters, starting with the book proposal?

–Pause–

Look, before I go any further, how…if my book is good enough for you…would you sell my book?
Let me have it, and I will give you feedback from the publishers.
How long will that take?
A year…
…or more.
A year?
Are you in a hurry?
Well, I wrote it in a month, I read it in a day….

–Pause–

…I hope you aren’t offended by my asking. Have you sold any books for other authors?
Depends.
Depends on what?
Are you counting future possibilities?
Are you serious? What do you mean?
Well, I’m waiting to sell the first book. Once I do, then I can tell publishers I have sold a book, and then they will buy a book from me.
Wait. If you have to sell a book in order to be able to sell your first book…why do I need you?
Because.

–Pause–

None of the publishers will accept an un-agented manuscript.
What does that mean?
You need me. Sign here.

–Pause–

Are you serious about being a writer?

–Pause–

Depends.

A More Mature View of Delete

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When you work so hard to get a string of words on the page, the worst thing that can happen to a writer is to see this string of diamonds disappear in a flash, the function of hitting the delete key by mistake.

In the early days of the computer, this key was always fatal…the word-killer. Certainly, the programmer who first thought of the Undo key should have earned a bonus big enough to retire on the spot.

Eventually, we writers are conditioned by editors to see our precious words cut and discarded. We learn not to faint when the red pencil takes out an entire page. And if the entire chapter is ripped out of the manuscript, we know we can sneak it out of the pile on the floor and file it back in our cabinet as a keepsake.

Delete key–it’s the key of humility. It’s where a writer takes away something of himself. We start by deleting little words here and there, even though they were our favorite adjectives. Editors show us what to delete..and why. Eventually, we come to accept it as a process by which we can increase our value in the eyes of others. They like our stories better. They give us more praise.

We may feel a sense of accomplishment when we are able to delete whole paragraphs and not save them in folder labeled “deletes for future stories.” When we can actually wipe the paragraphs off the face of the earth forever and feel the world is somewhat improved…that’s when we know we’re actually getting somewhere.

I yearn for the day when I can “delete” the desire to write the paragraph in the first place. Because that might signal there’s hope for this selfish, egotistical, mean and spiteful person–not to have to write it down at all. And if I go without writing it down, maybe one day I’ll be the kind of person who “deletes” the thought itself.

Maybe one day, by the grace of God, I’ll accept His thoughts as all sufficient. And maybe…then…I’ll pay closer attention to what He’s trying to tell me and give up my own thoughts to become a single act of mercy and grace through which God can speak for Himself.

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THE WRITER’S LIFE
TABLE OF CONTENTS

For a completely immature view of delete…Delete

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How Do I Write Thee?

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How Do I Write Thee?

Let Me Count the Ways^{^[1]}

WRITING.

–I. Nouns. [act of writing] writing, composition, collaboration, transcription, superscription, inscription, subscription, redaction, endorsement or indorsement, correspondence, expatiation, description; tachygraphy, pseudography, graphorrhea.

[something written, piece of writing, piece of writing, etc.]

composition, essay, theme, manuscript, typescript, script, piece, copy, paper, article, thesis, treatise; collaboration; draft, rough draft, sketch, outline; note, marginalia (pl.), jotting, record; transcript, superscript, subscript; postscript, adscript; pseudograph, pseudographia; prose; passage, excerpt, extract, text: chrestomathy.

desire to write, itch to write, creative urge, cacoethes scribendi (L.), furor scribendi (L.), graphomania

–II. Verbs. write, write down, write out, put down, set down, jot down, note, note down, record, take pen in hand, doodle, typewrite, type, dash off; inscribe, subscribe, superscribe, transcribe, copy, endorse or indorse; correspond, correspond with, write to, keep in touch with; write about, describe, expatiate on (or upon); enroll, register; edit, redact; pseudographize; cipher, code; communicate (writing, epistle.)

compose, draft, indite, frame, draw up, formulate, turn out; collaborate.

–III. Adjectives. written, scriptural, superscript, subscript, postscript, adscript, in writing, in black and white.

handwritten, longhand, Spencerian, autographic, chirographic, calligraphic, macrographic, micrographic; cursive, running, flowing, legible.

scrawly, scribbly, scrabbly, sprawling, sprawly, cacographic, cramped, illegible, indecipherable.

WRITER,–I. Nouns. writer, scribe, penman, calligraphist, chirographer, yeoman (U.S.Navy), clerk, copyist, transcriber, amanuensis, scrivener, secretary, stenographer, tachygrapher, shorthand writer, phonographer, stenotypist, typist; correspondent, drafter, composer, framer, inditer, inscriber, recorder, redactor, registrar, transcriber, autographer.

author, authoress, litterateur (F.), free lance, collaborator, coauthor, essayist, pamphleteer, tractator; novelist, fictionist, allegorist, anecdotist, fabulist, folklorist, memorialist, narrator, parabolist, romancer, scenarist, serialist, taleteller, storyteller, yarner; playwright, dramatist, librettist, poet; contributor, columnist, paragraphist; hack writer, hack.

A Perfect Scrabble Game

scr I be

A uthoress

me M orialist

tr A ctator

play W right

R omancer

librett I st

tale T eller

an E cdotist

ya R ner

Any way you say it…

I AM A WRITER

_____________________

^{^[1]}The New Roget’s Thesaurus, Norman Lewis, ed., New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1964, pp. 549-550.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

What Are You Saying? And Why?

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It’s fun to study other writer’s styles and read their thoughts about writing. Loula Grace Erdman, describing her life as a writer, helps me accept my own idiosyncrasies. She reinforces my decision to back away from the Christian writer’s conference.

I know I can write short stories that will sell. It’s just that what I want to say won’t fit inside a short story. It can’t be “felt” with the proper passion if I have to mimic a non-fiction narrative style that resembles a Walter Cronkite newscast. Life is poetry. I don’t want my life to end up as a newspaper account next to an advertisement for denture cream.

I know I could write a story about the Cox cable porn programming. But it’s more satisfying to feed the information to Tamara Dietrich at The Tribune. While she busies herself as a reporter for the newspaper, I can write my own book chapters. In fact, I enjoy anticipating how she will weave together the various details of the Cox story and wondering whether I will come off as a nosy busybody or a valiant Johnny-on-the-spot citizen.

Each writer has her own place in the history of the world, and the lure of publishing is a trap to pull us away from our own place. I read writers explain how much they want to be published. It is the proverbial greeting with your handshake at a writer’s conference, “Hi, nice to meet you, Lola. Have you been published?” This is the only area where I feel a stranger in the world of words. I don’t want to publish. I want to communicate. I want to share. I have something to say. And publishing has nothing to do with that.

So far, the writing experts I read say there are too many writers focused on publishing. I say there are too few writers focused on the message. When I run out of message, then I’m finished with writing…no matter how well I can craft a sentence.

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THE WRITER’S LIFE
TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Faster

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Tuesday, September 9, 2003

Two weeks in a row, I’ve gone to Tuesday’s Children. It’s such a blessing to know these friends. Although I still haven’t written something to take for editing, it is an encouragement to hear other women talk about writing, sharing their struggles to write and offering their drafts for critiquing. It offers me hope.

Even now, at home, as I hope to write significant pieces, I walk away from the kitchen stove, a small voice following me. Jane, you needn’t response to each life event with an essay. Relax. Judy came to the meeting today with her idea for an article. Slow and deliberate. It struck a chord. I am wound up, a dog just released from her chain, barking and running everywhere, yet never arriving, and never saying anything worth the bark.

Jesus is the Master of moving with deliberation. Only three years to save the world, yet he had so much time. Time to pray. Time to speak at the well. Sitting on the Mount, he never hurried his sermon to the needy. Time to eat and collect the scraps. And time to retreat, to walk on water, to calm the storm, go to the other side of the lake, and land again alone with time to pray. Even as the people pressed in upon Him, lowered the sick for him to heal, and prompted His rage for their violation of God’s house of prayer…even during all that Jesus accomplished during His short ministry, never do I sense urgency, a quickened pace to get there fast, an impatient tone because He is interrupted on his way by the hand of a woman on the hem of his robe.

Slowly and deliberately, Christ set about to change the world, one person at a time, He shared the gift of life. Never did he despair that his message would die with him on the cross. Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep. Calming the distress of the disciples, he assured them greater things still will you do.

Greater than Christ? And yet, as holy links in God’s chain, each apostle fulfilled his duty, slowly and deliberately, witnessing to the miracle of salvation they were privileged to share. Walking across the continent, lingering years in Ephesus, Corinth, Rome and beyond, they laid the foundation of faith for the disciples after them. One faithful witness at a time, down through the centuries, whether in a full life or one shortened by martyrdom, each person doing his part, a steady procession of witness moving forward and sharing the gospel, with deliberation, knowing that the inexhaustible supply of time belongs to God.

We aren’t called to be fast. We are called to be faithful.

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THE WRITER’S LIFE
TABLE OF CONTENTS

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AT THE FOOT OF YOUR CROSS

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I fall at the foot of your cross,

My Lord Jesus Christ,

And raise my eyes to fix upon yours,

Begging to draw down the power of your love and forgiveness

Offered to me without deserving.

Please, Lord Jesus, carry my longing

With you to the throne of Almighty God,

Holding my heart in trust

Until the day I find myself with you at last.

May I, Lord Jesus, with your love at the cross

As my witness to the power and mercy of God,

Accept the gift of this one day,

Glorifying you and the Almighty

With each thought and deed.

I beg you, Lord Jesus, to stand between me and

Every evil temptation casting a shadow on my path.

Let your brilliance light my way

So that when evening falls,

I might lay my head upon my pillow

And lay my day at your feet as my best,

In love,

My offering of thanksgiving I give, that you loved me enough

To go to the cross as My Light

And My Salvation.

Amen.

Jane Jimenez

All Things Written

Category Archives: Writers – Star Gazing

Signing an Agent

A More Mature View of Delete

How Do I Write Thee?

What Are You Saying? And Why?

Faster

AT THE FOOT OF YOUR CROSS