Join us for afternoon of editing tips and tricks with editors Ralph Scott and Emily Conway as they discuss how to develop our inner self-editing skills, and how to prepare your manuscripts for working with an editor. Demystify the editing process and learn more about the various types of editing (developmental editing, copy or line editing, and proofreading).
Mary Rakow will be leading the “Make Your First Pages Shine” workshop at the Marin Writers Conference on April 22. We talked on the phone last week about what makes a great first page, how she works with writers, and how authors can tell if an editor is right for them.
I’m primarily a writer. Freelance editor is my day job. I learned editing and critiquing from many years in a writing group in L.A. We met twice a week, with a teacher, Kate Braverman, who was very rigorous, who also opened up the critique to the group.
Recently, we reconvened that group again, and I go back to L.A regularly. We spend the day together. First socially, then we switch into work mode. It’s so worth it.
Couple different things. I recently did first-page editing at San Francisco Writers Conference. Eight-minute time slots. I like to see the actual work, not just the pitch. The pitch is someone telling you about their boyfriend. I want to meet the guy.
I work in a variety of ways. I meet one-to-one, I read full manuscripts, partial manuscripts. I do workshops.
Recently, I met on the phone with an author from Silicon Valley. She gave me fifty pages. In the first three pages, she mentioned something about people lining up in straight lines, and then there was a character mentioning things being in straight lines. I asked her about that.
She said she studied at RISD (Rhode Island School of Design). Is there something deeper, I asked. Something else going on? She started crying. Told me this story, all about identity. She’s left Singapore. She has two graduate degrees. She breaking rules she grew up with. I noticed this tick. That’s where the story is.
No, not a therapist. Not trying to heal. But providing the perspective that the writer doesn’t have. Deep attention. Deep listening to the work. It’s not a checklist. It’s about finding that distinct voice.
The main thing is that there’s a sense of encountering a new sensitivity, meeting a unique consciousness.
You want them to focus on what’s deep for them in their writing.
When I have only eight minutes with an author, there are things that jump out at me. The same word over and over again. Who the narrator is. For example, there was one for whom every single observation was negative. That’s hard for a reader to live with.
I’ll tell you one that I’m guilty of. So many writers are. This critique group I was in, we did seven pages each meeting. We continued on our own after our teacher moved away, and we had what we called Queen Day—we were an all-woman group at the time—and we would read the whole manuscript and give all day for feedback.
One of my friends, she says, your book doesn’t take off until page 50. You’re warming up the engine. We often think readers need all this introductory stuff, but we can drop them in the middle of the action. The reader can catch up.
There’s also a pattern I see with beginning writers, a tendency to say something in dialog that has just been established in the narration. Lot of editing is taking things out, and here and there going deeper.
Another common thing is the desire to be in control. There’s a misunderstanding that certainty is important. But that’s not the way art is. You want to take risks.
They say you should write what you know. But the core of any work, whether it’s symphony or a novel, is engaging where you are uncertain. Move out of your comfort zone. Tolerate degree of chaos.
If you go into that painful place, then you can organize your feelings. You increase your comfort zone and go deeper. You’ve ordered the chaos. That is art.
I have varied clients. Some doing thrillers, sci fi, young adult, poetry, academic work for general public. It’s fun for me. I go where they are.
I mostly edit what I don’t write. My peer group is all literary writers. But my day job isn’t, which is fine with me.
For me, it’s when the editor makes a suggestion and it makes you excited, when you say to yourself, oh that’s exactly what I’m trying to say, when it makes your own work more yourself.
That’s why editing is so much about listening. There something alive in every single manuscript. My job, even if it’s a book I would never read, my job is to get quiet enough to hear the beautiful thing in the work. Listen for the pulse of this person’s work.
If you’d like your work edited as part of the workshop, email one to two pages to marincwc@gmail.com. Register for the Marin Writers Conference here.
Join us April 22 for a daylong conference covering fiction and nonfiction writing, with five literary agents available for pitches. Morning coffee and bagels are included, along with a bag lunch, in the registration. Vegetarian and gluten-free options are available. To register, and read more about presenters and agents, go to cwcmarin.com/marinwritersconference.
[ conference flyer | registration | payment | presenter bios | volunteer signup | agent pitch signup ]
Join us April 22 for a daylong conference covering fiction and nonfiction writing, with former agent and keynote speaker Michael Larsen, two-hour live-editing workshop on First Pages with Mary Rakow, a Self-Publishing panel, and an Agent Panel and five literary agents available for pitches, including Jennifer March Soloway of the Andrea Brown Agency, Carlisle Webber of Fuse Literary Agency, Kimberly Cameron and Dorian Maffie of Kimberly Cameron and Associates, and Peter Beren of Peter Beren Agency.
Morning coffee and bagels are included, along with a bag lunch, in the registration. Vegetarian and gluten-free options are available.
For a chance to have your first pages workshopped, please submit First Pages by April 15th to marincwc@gmail.com. If time allows Mary Rakow is open to live editing more works on the spot, provided that you bring enough copies for attendees to view.
To pitch to an agent, please read their bios below and submit your request to marincwc@gmail.com. First come, first serve.
Attendees will also have the opportunity to join us for a no-host dinner at Il Fornaio with Michael Larsen afterwards (sign up is first come first serve at the Conference, with 1 free meal door prize at Il Forniao for one lucky attendee)!!
To register, you must complete the registration form and provide the payment. You may fill out the form below and mail with a check (payable to CWC-Marin) to: Mary Krefting, 38 Estates Court, San Rafael, CA 94901. You may also pay by credit card or PayPal via the PayPal button. (Cancellation policy: Requests for refunds must be made 14 days before the conference.)
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Select the New Membership & Member Rate option to become a member at the partial year membership rate of $42.50 and to register for the conference at the member rate. This is an instant $30 savings — it’s like getting the membership for only $12.50! Plus, as an active member through June 30, you will not only receive discounts to exciting CWC programming, but you won’t have to pay the extra $20 new member fee at renewal time — an even greater savings. Become a member today!
MICHAEL LARSEN is an author coach who loves helping writers. In 1972, he co-founded Michael Larsen-Elizabeth Pomada Literary Agents, which sold hundreds of books to more than a hundred publishers and imprints, before it stopped taking on new clients.
Mike’s books, How to Write a Book Proposal, has sold more than 100,000 copies and is now in its fifth edition, co-authored by Jody Rein. Mike also wrote How to Get a Literary Agent and co-authored Guerrilla Marketing for Writers. Elizabeth and Mike co-authored the six books in the Painted Ladies series, which sold more than 500,000 copies. Publishers Weekly chose the second book in the series, Daughters of Painted ladies, as one of the best books of the year.
Mike is co-founder of the San Francisco Writers Conference, which takes place in February at the Hyatt Regency, and the San Francisco Writing for Change Conference, which will take place on September 8th.
MARY RAKOW, Ph.D. comes to fiction with advanced degrees in theology from Harvard Divinity School and Boston College. Her latest novel, This is Why I Came , has been described as “miraculous,” a “Blakean tour de force,” “rapturously beautiful, tender, complex,” receiving outstanding reviews in The Atlantic, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Ploughshare, Commonweal, and Christian Century. Selected by O Magazine as one of “16 Books to Start 2016 off Right.”
She lives in San Francisco where she mentors writers and edits fiction, memoir, nonfiction, YA, sci-fi, poetry and academic work. Please visit maryrakow.com and thisiswhybook.com. “Mary is a legendary editor,” says Ilya Kaminsky, winner of The Tupelo Prize.
As a Book Midwife, RUTH SCHWARTZ helps authors get clear about the steps needed to turn out a professional book that looks as good as anything coming from a traditional publisher. Ruth helps you get past the stuck places, getting through the decision-making and design process quickly, birthing your book with ease.
She works with you to turn your finished manuscript into a finished book, complete with professional cover design, interior layout, and ebook editions,—all up online and available for sale.
Ruth brings over 40 years of book publishing, design and printing industry experience to every author’s project and has worked on over 100 independently published books since 2012 when print on demand technology enabled the current indie publishing revolution.
KIMBERLY CAMERON has ben a literary agent for 25 years. She recently sold Senator Barbara Boxer’s Memoir, The Art of Tough to Hachette, and has started the careers of many debut authors. She co-founded Knightsbridge Publishing Company with offices in New York and Los Angeles. In 1993 she became partners with Dorris Halsey of The Reece Halsey Agency, founded in 1957. Among its clients have been Aldous Huxley, William Faulkner, Upton Sinclair, and Henry Miller. She opened Reece Halsey North in 1995 and 2009 the agency became Kimberley Cameron & Associates. She now has several agents working with her agency. She resides and works from Tiburon, California, and France, with many visits to New York to make the rounds of editorial offices.
She is interested in writing that makes a reader feel something, whether it be fiction or nonfiction. Some of the genres she particularly enjoys are mystery and crime, thriller, science fiction, women’s fiction, horror and literary fiction. Non-fiction genres are health, science, biography, memoir and history.
DORIAN MAFFEI began at Kimberley Cameron & Associates as an intern in 2013. She has since become a literary agent and is now looking to build a client list of her own in both YA and adult fiction. She is interested in magical realism, upmarket women’s fiction, literary science fiction, unique voices, and innovative storytelling that provokes a deep-rooted connection after the last page and explores the peculiar within the mundane. She is always open to submissions with diverse experiences and characters, and welcomes underrepresented and marginalized voices.
JENNIFER MARCH SOLOWAY is an associate agent with the Andrea Brown Literary Agency. Although she specializes in children’s literature, Jennifer also represents some adult fiction, both literary and commercial, particularly crime, suspense and psychological horror. Regardless of genre, she is actively seeking new voices and fresh perspectives underrepresented in literature. Jennifer is actively building her client list and welcomes queries to soloway@andreabrownlit.com. To learn more about Jennifer, follow her on Twitter, @marchsoloway, and find her full wish list at andreabrownlit.com.
Editorial agent CARLISLE WEBBER holds a Professional Certificate in Editing from University of California, Berkeley, belongs to the American Copy Editors Society and Bay Area Editors’ Forum. When editing, she aims to make a book the best possible version of itself, shaping it in a way so it can best use its unique voice to appeal to a wide audience. Carlisle is looking for high-concept commercial fiction in middle grade, young adult, and adult. If your book is fresh and exciting, tackles difficult topics, reads like a Shonda Rhimes show, or makes readers stay up late turning pages, she’s the agent for you.
Diverse authors are encouraged to submit their fiction. Within the genres she represents, Carlisle is especially interested in stories by and about people of color; with both visible and invisible disabilities and illnesses; who are economically disadvantaged; who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or queer; or who are members of religious minorities. Take a look at her manuscript wish list.
PETER BEREN is a former Publisher of Sierra Club Books, VIA Books; V.P. for Publishing at the Palace Press Group; an Acquisition Editor for Jeremy Tarcher; a literary agent at The Peter Beren Agency, and a publishing consultant with more than 40 years experience in Book Publishing.
A member of AAR, his is also the author of seven published works, including The Writers Legal Companion (with Brad Bunnin) and California the Beautiful (with the late photographer, Galen Rowell). His best-known Agency clients include photographer Art Wolfe (The Earth Is My Witness), graphic novelist Jack Katz (The First Kingdom), and Chakra expert Anodea Judith (Eastern Body, Western Mind). A founding staff member of The Boston Phoenix, he has published articles for a variety of magazines including Mother Jones, Berkeley Monthly and Tufts Magazine. peterberen.com
At our September 24 meeting, David Corbett packed a book’s worth of insightful advice on developing characters who will drive your story. As a matter of fact, he’s written that book, The Art of Character, which Elizabeth Brundage calls “a writer’s bible.”
He covered far too much to distill into this summary, so here are just a few highlights. You can read his book for more. (He’s a frequent speaker in the Bay Area and he’ll be at Book Passage again on October 8.)
These short takeaways don’t do justice to the wealth of valuable insights Corbett shared. I have read and studied his book and I recommend it. He has helped me make my characters richer and more compelling.
Next month, I’ll be presenting When Plots Collide — Create Suspense by Weaving Multiple Storylines.
This workshop will be more focused on mapping out plot, but of course, as Corbett would say, what happens in the story has to organically grow out of the character’s yearnings and wounds and passions. If you create a plot that doesn’t honor the characters, it won’t ring true.
Hope you can make it.
Join us September 24 for the always-compelling David Corbett, award-winning author of six novels, as well as The Art of Character, which Elizabeth Brundage calls “a writer’s bible.”
You’re also welcome to join us for our informal and interactive Opening Act, where we’ll read a page of dialogue and then share feedback on how to make it snappier.
