One of my dreams came true just a few days ago—I talked about my debut novel IF I BRING YOU ROSES at Chicago’s Printers Row Lit Fest. My friend, the fabulous Tayari Jones, was on the same panel for her new novel SILVER SPARROW. Tayari and I met years ago at a novel writing workshop taught by Cristina García, one of my idols. After the panel, Tayari and I had lunch and I told her how that workshop changed my life.
“That’s your first She Writes Countdown post,” Tayari said.
I make it a point to listen to people I admire, so here goes.
I’d traveled from Oklahoma, where I was living, to California to study with Cristina García at the VONA (Voices of Our Nation) summer workshop. It was so important to me that my husband took vacation to care for our children while I enjoyed San Francisco and Cristina’s class. We students had sent the first chapter of our novels in advance for group discussion and critique. By chance, my chapter was scheduled last. (Cristina García would read my chapter!) Cristina García is not only a talented writer but a gifted teacher able to pin point the weaknesses of one’s work and offer advice on improvement. I remember clearly that Cristina wore a black gauzy blouse over black pants when she set my chapter down on the table and placed her hand on my typed twenty pages.
“This is a well-crafted chapter with good workman like prose,” Cristina García said, before pointing out a few examples. One was how I’d written something general about my character’s hands when specificity is the secret to good writing.
I sat in that chair como nada without showing how devastated I felt. Another writer later complimented me on how well I could take criticism. Cristina proceeded to teach us an exercise to help us elevate the language in our writing. She had instructed us to bring a volume of poetry which we opened at random and read aloud a stanza or two. A few days before I’d walked to Chinatown and had found a used copy of Sylvia Plath’s Ariel. I opened the book and my eye fell on the poem Stings. I read aloud the following:
Of winged, unmiraculous women,
Honey-drudgers.
I am no drudge
Though for years I have eaten dust
And dried plates with my dense hair.
I told myself it was a coincidence.
Cristina told us how whenever she is at an impasse in her writing, if she turned to a volume of poems, somehow she would be sure to open to a page where a word or phrase would catch her imagination and inspire her writing. This exercise also has the additional benefit of helping to move your own writing out of the assembly line and up to the lofty level of the prose of which you dream. I left Cristina García’s workshop determined to make the time to read poetry before writing prose. I’ve found poetry has helped me to become attuned to the cadences and nuances of the voices speaking in my head. Sentences show their clunker personalities sooner. I’ve also found that it can help me learn to empathize with a character. For example, one of my protagonists in my novel IF I BRING YOU ROSES is a factory worker. I chose WHAT WORK IS and THE MERCY by Phillip Levine to help me understand how a man feels working at a menial job. To gain better insight into the Puerto Rican male, I relied on IMAGINE THE ANGELS OF BREAD by Martín Espada and MARACAS by Victor Hernández Cruz.
After ten years and many workman-like manuscript drafts dumped in the recycling bin, my debut novel IF I BRING YOU ROSES will be published by Grand Central Publishing, August 2011.
On the cover of IF I BRING YOU ROSES:
“A richly told tale of obsessive love…deeply sensual and mysterious.”
-Cristina García, author of Dreaming in Cuban
I still aspire to be like Cristina García, whose beautiful prose is akin to poetry. And I will always be grateful to her for calling my writing well-crafted and workman-like because, although at the time it was very painful, it taught me to be humble about my work yet to strive for beauty. I honestly don’t know if I would be a soon to be published author without that criticism.
She Writers--Has a critique or criticism changed your life?
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Hi Carol! It's never too late to join my party! When it comes to "well-crafted" I guess it means different things to different people. For me, at that moment, it wasn't a good thing because I was hoping for "the writing is so beautiful, so lyrical, it reads like poetry..."
I guess I am really late to the party here. I too am a poet, but I do find reading other poets helps me sometimes to break through a block. But I am curious about your reaction to having your work called "well-crafted and "good, workman-like". What exactly did it mean to you? It sounds sort of mixed to me, but the "well-crafted" part cannot be bad, can it?
I once read the advice that, before beginning to write, you should spend a little time reading a very good example of the type of writing you're attempting. It gets the wheels spinning and, I think, ties in to that old saw about how we play a better game of tennis (or anything) when we're playing with people better than ourselves. This applies to fiction, journalism, poetry, etc.
So beautifully written. Good advice. I'll try reading poetry. Congratulations on your book publication.
I'm not the biggest fan of poetry, but I will give this a try next time I get stuck. When writer's block attacks anything that can break is is necessary.
This is an awesome post. I am a new writer..I have written poems and short stories all my life, but have recently ventured into Mastering the Craft of writing. I will try this.
Criticism has changed my life completely. Shoved me out of my comfort zone and introduced me to many great things I have been missing out on.
Yay, dark moments! I know them well.
Okay, you asked for it! My darkest moment coming up in Wednesday's post!
I agree with Caitlyn...continuing to believe in one's own writing is an issue for every writer, published or not. It would make a dandy post!
Marisel, I think that would make a good blog post - the huge leap of faith to believe you are a good writer. Somewhere inside I think we all have that nugget that believes, in spite of negative feedback, in spite of work "not even being good enough" to garner any feedback, in spite of outright rejections, that we are good writers.
To Helen, I'm flattered that you would like to add a link to this post but beats me if I know how to do that or if it's cool with She Writes? Maybe someone will advise.
Critiques are hard, but you have the option of picking and choosing what feels right for your work. Only you truly know that. It always helps me to listen to my gut. Criticism is something that as a writer you have to come to accept as part of the journey. First, you offer your work to your husband or sister or best friend, then your teacher and fellow students, then your critique group. Once it's ready, then it's the contests you send it to or maybe it's the agents--praying that one will see your talent and take it --and you on. Still, it's not over--your agent has to submit it to editors at different publishing houses who will have their own comments on your work. Before my editor made an offer she called me to make sure that I didn't have a problem with accepting editing. I made sure that she didn't have a problem with my keeping both protagonists. (I was lucky because she made some very good suggestions for expanding certain sections which improved my novel and she didn't try to change my story or my writing.) Once it was in galleys and I asked writers I knew to blurb it, I prepared myself. If they didn't like it, they wouldn't blurb it. Once it's published I have to prepare myself for reviews which are another form of critiques. You can't get away from criticism or critiques but you have to take care to remember why you started writing in the first place and trust that you're good. It's a huge leap of faith but I think that to be a writer you have to have faith that you have something to tell and that somebody somewhere will want to hear it.
Maybe my next blog should be on the faith necessary to write? Using myself as a case study?
I'm new to She Writes, wanted to thank you for this story. It's reassuring to know one is not alone in struggling with the pain of criticism. I've learned, after much sulking and fits of depression and thoughts of chucking writing altogether because I'll never be any good, to actually be grateful when another writer takes the time to comment on my work, even if I don't want to hear what they have to say! I've often found the most painful critiques to be the ones that push me to be a better writer! I wish there was an easier way but, for writers, I suspect there isn't! That's why I tell anyone who reads my work with a view to giving me feedback to be sure and hold my feet to the fire. Ouch, ouch, but letting me off the hook isn't going to make me a better writer! So, thank you so much for sharing your story.
I'm primarily a poet, so I'm often afraid that if I read other poets specifically looking for inspiration, I'll mimic the other poet's voice too much. I do often find myself liking fiction best if the prose is lyrical--but for my own inspiration, I often read well-written non-fiction about something I know nothing about.
One response I got to my own poetry from a friend that has really made me think about style was that my poems were sometimes "too grammatical." Sometimes being overly correct can flatten out your language...
This is wonderful. I would like to reference it in a blog post I'm writing regarding writer's block. Is there a way I can attach a link to your post that would make it clickable by people other than just She Writes members? Here's a link to a previous post.
WritingNurture: "How to Keep Writing"
I recently had a few people read the second draft of my first novel. I was ready for criticism concerning the plot, the sentence structure, rhythm, and language. What I wasn't expecting was that one of my readers would dislike my main character. She said she was unlikable and proceeded to tell me all the ways that my character had alienated her. This I was not expecting. I love my main character and it never occurred to me that someone would find her unlikeable. My reader had all kinds of things to say like "She's really stubborn. Why won't she let anyone help her? Why can't she just get over herself? Why won't she admit what she's really feeling?" and on and on. So I was completely upset by this. But then I put it into perspective. My other two readers loved the main character and the comments they made about her told me they got what she was about and completely understood her motivations and struggles. I realized that there are always going to be people who don't like my main character. We all have a different idea of what makes a character likable. I myself despise the femme fatale type of character. But others love that! So personal taste plays a part in critiques.
What was amazing was that once I got past the fact that someone didn't like my main character I considered all the things she'd said about her, all the questions she'd brought up about her motivations and choices. It ended up being really helpful because most of her questions I could answer but not all of them. She brought up weak points in my character development, her criticism forced me to strengthen my story. I'm thankful to have had a reader who was so critical. Over all, they all liked the book. But it was the criticisms that have helped me make it better for the next readers.
Yes, Leah, I know of Nancy Pearl and your post makes sense to me. For me, writing is always about the language. And, boy, do I have to work on plot.
Marisel- I feel similarly. How do you write a story if you don't love the language? Have you ever heard of the librarian Nancy Pearl? http:/
She Writers, thank you so much for all your great posts. I'm the one that is inspired by such great feedback and generosity from such a talented group. And can we all be amigas? I'd love it if you all would friend me.
I'd like to take a shot at responding as to why I didn't/don't think that well-crafted and workman-like prose is a good thing. When I bake a chocolate cake, I am satisfied if it tastes good and if the sides don't crumble when I frost it. It's a perfectly fine cake and I don't need it to be beautiful so I don't use a pastry bag to pipe chocolate ganache into roses. But when it comes to writing, I want my writing to be beautiful or at least as beautiful as I am capable at the time. I don't want it to be workmanlike (or perfectly fine) and as to well-crafted, well, that's not a bad thing, but don't we strive in our writing to weave a certain magic with our words? The reader shouldn't be able to see the work the writer puts into it but just to be awed by the result and, maybe, wonder "Wow, how did she do that?"
I won't take it personally if you don't agree!
You inspire me, Marisel. I crave such constructive criticism, and I'm off to get some poetry to support my work on my novel about a boy growing up during the Great Depression.
I am in a book club of non-writer. Listening to what readers like and dislike about a book helps me write better. One reader loves when a book includes how things smell. I think of her each time I go back and re-read to see if I've included all five senses.
Thank you for your inspiring story, Marisel.
How has criticism changed my life? Every time I receive feedback, I make a note about how to adjust my writing. Through criticism my writing has become clearer, more succinct, more real, with more depth. One critic gave me a name for my (non-fiction) exercises. Another gave me an idea which morphed into a better book title.
Many of us fear criticism, but we must hear the critic before our book is published, so that readers who buy your book have nothing but praise.
Beautiful entry - very inspiring. I am greatly tempted to pick up your book :)
Sound advice.
Thanks for the great post and congratulations on your novel! There is nothing in the world like holding your own book in your hands. I too had a "poetry encounter" that changed my writing forever. (How Do You Know If You Are A "Real" Writer?) It wasn't a particular crique as much as the realization of what the criteria for good writing must be.
A professor once said to our class, "Your writing is all so... desperate!" From then on, no one died of a broken heart in any of my poems.