Devoted to publishing, publishers and to those who craft the written word

"A bit of advice is worth repeating: don't listen for praise, but for constructive criticism, the kind that you can take home and use to better your manuscript ... [because] we all want our writing affirmed, and affirmed as quickly as possible after we've struggled weeks, months, or years with a manuscript." 

That's an excerpt from Lance Olsen's writing handbook, Rebel Yell.  His training manual for writers has become a trusted staple of professional writers and writing programs.

Lance Olsen has written nine novels and his work has appeared in scores of magazines. This week he is our special guest, discussing his new book, Anxious Pleasures and sharing tips for fledgling writers.

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing.

Jason Boog:

In Rebel Yell, you talk about the importance of showing your work to "your writing community" during the later stages of revision. How did you find your personal reading community? How do they help you? Any advice for writers looking to build a similar, supportive community?

Lance Olsen:

My own reading community has taken (I kid you not) the better part of thirty years to grow into its present incarnation. Continue reading...

 

 At the end of the day, it's composed of a tiny handful of voices I've learned to trust that can and do continually challenge my writing in fruitful ways.  That is, they know what it's about.  They know what questions to ask.  They know where to press.

To give your early-stage writing to another is to begin to see it through fresh eyes.  That, I suspect, is what I gain most from those voices: a kind of Brechtian defamiliarization effect by means of which I can begin to re-view my own work through Another.

I've also been terribly lucky.  Andi, my wife, over the decades has become an astonishingly perceptive editor of my work.  While I may not always adopt her advice, I do always take it to heart, live with it for days, let it become part of me.

The proximity to such voices is dazzling, like stepping off a plane for the first time in a radically foreign country.

My only advice for writers looking to build a similar community is to take your time, remain skeptical, listen closely, weigh fairly, never look for yes men, always embrace those who nudge you away from placidity.

Placidity is blue-eyed death for authors.