Only As Good As Your Word
My friend Susan Shapiro just published another book, Only as Good as Your Word: Writing Lessons from My Favorite Literary Gurus, her wise/crazy/funny memoir of becoming a writer, told through her interactions with her mentors, with a chapter of straight-on practical tips at the end.
The mentors she focuses on include Ruth Gruber, one of the old pro writers who came to the free writers' workshop Sue used to hold on Tuesday nights at her New York apartment. (Used to for 18 years, that is.) Probably a quarter of the people now writing for magazines in New York city came through her door, no exaggeration.
Sue is insane, and I mean that in the nicest of ways. Unstoppable is another word for it, and she accepts no less from her students -- in the flesh, or in the book. Again, it is a memoir, but you learn by example from just how fucking nuts she is and was (and I have a similar quality) about learning, writing well, and selling her work.
Now, Sue also has the patience of a flea on coke. And again, this is a positive quality. Well, mostly. If you want to get Sue to chew you out fast, just whine or exhibit the tiniest bit of self-pity. When I was working on my book proposal and changing agents, I let a little "poor me" seep through in a phone call with Sue, and she practically took my head off -- and I almost immediately stopped feeling sorry for myself and started feeling the keyboard under my fingers.
Sue, along with my left coast friend David Rensin (whose book on Miki Dora, All for a Few Perfect Waves, will be out April 8), is one of the people in my life who, for years, I've felt breathing down my neck for me to publish books, and I'm totally grateful.
What I like about this book of Sue's is what I tried to convey to the kids I talked to at Uni High (and yes, I started my program two weeks ago -- went great; more about it soon): I tried to demystify the process of how you become a writer, and how you make something of yourself in general. Sue does a great job of this in her book.
My favorite quote from the book, which is slightly different in the e-mailed-from-Sue version I'll paste in below, is her mantra from her "well-known Communist cousin" Howard Fast, "the best selling author of Spartacus and Citizen Tom Paine." Sue writes:
When I told him I had writer's block he said, "Plumbers don't get plumber's block. Don't be self-indulgent, just get to work. A page a day is a book a year."Sue
If you do want to be a writer, while I'm not usually one to recommend workshops, I highly recommend going to one of Sue's MediaBistro nights; either in NYC or in LA. She's simply the best on writing and selling articles and writing and selling books, and she's just thrilled every time a student of in one of the college writing classes she teaches makes a sale big enough to cover their $1000 (per semester) tuition (perhaps, in part, because she makes them buy her dinner, and she's had "hundreds." Toldya she's no dummy!)
If you want to be humbled, check out C.J. Cherryh. Complete "future histories", complete alien languages, masterful and intense dialogue... Search terms: Chanur, Foreigner, Alliance/Union, Wave Without A Shore.
Radwaste at December 7, 2007 8:58 AM
Sue is a total force of nature, a wonder to behold and a complete mensch. I had the pleasure of watching her help her students earlier this week, and was blown away by how much value she gives them so freely and so eagerly. She gets off on helping others to make the most of themselves, shed the baggage and get it written and sold. I was walking on air for two days after basking in the halo of encouragement and possibility that surrounds her.
All that and a fantastic, smart, funny, engaging writer to boot. Just got her latest book today and will be blogging it as fast as I can read it (which should be soon - I read Lighting Up in a day).
Jackie Danicki at December 7, 2007 12:56 PM
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