Tooting Your Own Horn – v. 2

By pam

May 7, 2013

In June of 2011, I ran a post called “Tooting Your Own Horn,” and decided it was time to bring it around again. Yesterday I received an unexpected email, letting me know that an essay I wrote and read on WUWM, Wisconsin public radio, won an award in the Wisconsin Broadcasters’ Association 2012 Awards for Excellence. My essay, “The End of ‘Pinktober’” won first place in Large Market Radio, Essay/Commentary. If you have interest and about 3 1/2 minutes, you can listen to the essay here. I’m especially grateful to Mitch Teich and Stephanie Lecci of Milwaukee Public Radio for all they do to keep that great program, “Lake Effect,” up and running.

Since many authors — oh, let’s face it — since many people are uncomfortable spreading the word about their successes because it feels like “bragging,” I hope you’ll take a few minutes and consider the importance of “tooting your own horn.”

 

Tooting Your Own Horn

By pam

June 14, 2011

Self-promotion is one of those things some people struggle with, but it’s part of the game if you’re a writer. You MUST get comfortable with letting people know where you’ve had writing success – you are part of the process in driving traffic to your work! I’ve written before of my beloved writing community here in Milwaukee, RedBird-RedOak Writing (RB-RO). One of the things I do to give back to this community that means so much to me and my work, is that I prepare entries for the Wisconsin Writer’s Association newsletters about what’s happening in our community.  Kim Suhr, the director at RB-RO, has developed a wonderful way of making my job simple. On the homepage for RB-RO, she created a link called “Something to Crow About.” Writers post their acceptances, sometimes they post when they’ve finished a novel that they’ve been workshopping, or when a blog post catches on. It’s a great way to keep each other informed and to read each other’s work. Occasionally, I have to remind some of our writers to post and more often than not, squirmy women reply with something like, “I don’t like ‘crowing,’” or, “I don’t like tooting my own horn.” Announcing your acceptances and/or radio visits or publications or speaking engagements is NOT bragging. It’s informing and it’s part of taking yourself seriously as an author.

Please, be okay with tooting your own horn. Or, in this case for me, tooting my friends’ horns (hmmm…..that sounds strange). If you can think of a time you’ve shied away from announcing a writing success, can you still announce it? If you’ve nothing to announce yet, are you working toward that day? Are you setting plans in place to facilitate your own crowing? :-)

Happy #writing.

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Times Square, Tonies and Three Faves

By pam

April 30, 2013

I haven’t been to New York City in decades. While I love the energy and excitement and pace of the City, this small-town girl at heart can only manage it in small doses. Because my college roommate lives in Cortlandt Manor, I get the bost of both worlds while visiting with her and her husband. It’s a calm oasis far enough from the City, complete with hills, flowering weeping cherries and dogwoods, deer, hawks, yards and woods. Saturday we drove in from their house to the City without any problems, except parking, which was his problem, not mine. (Sorry, Josh.) While we waited for him, Laurie and I checked out Times Square, which is quite different from my memory of it — but even before the bombing at the Boston Marathon, I’d been leery of places that would assuredly be very crowded, so my anxiety level in Times Square was quite high.

Some of Times Square looked like this:

 

TimesSquare

We didn’t stay there long, but long enough to hit TKTS and score seats to the show we were hoping to see, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. The Tony Nominations were not out yet, but the blurbs about Vanya and Sonia…. made it sound like a fun show.

Dinner first at Jack’s Restaurant & Bar. Tapas and a yummy Caesar salad for me. A glass of Sauvignon Blanc and the wallet was, surprisingly, NOT screaming. Then off to the play, where a minor misunderstanding about our seats — someone was sitting in them because their tickets looked like they were in Row F in the balcony, but they were actually in Row E and their tickets hadn’t printed well – was resolved in time for us to enjoy the opening moments. David Hyde Pierce (Niles in Frazier; Vanya here) and Kristine Nielsen (Sonia) sat musing about their wasted lives — quickly we learn that their parents were community theater buffs and HUGE Chekhov fans, thus their names. We also learn that Sonia is 52, Vanya, 57 – and they have sacrificed their lives staying on the family home in Pennsylvania, caring for aging parents until their deaths while their sister — Masha (Sigourney Weaver) — has been off becoming a famous actress. It’s a fun, marvelous show and Christopher Durang‘s writing is brilliant. Even if you’re unfamiliar with the multiple Chekhov references, you’ll still enjoy the show — you’ll miss one layer of meaning, but still love it.

I have three favorite things I take with me from this show:

Kristine Nielsen as Sonia – I was not familiar with this actress, although I may well have seen her on episodes of Law & Order at some point. She has been quite active on and off Broadway and has won many awards and been nominated for many. Here’s hoping she collects some of the ones she is nominated for this performance, now including the coveted Tony.  My friends and I walked out of the theater all commenting on her riveting transformation onstage.

David Hyde Pierce as Vanya (now Best Actor Tony nominee) — Without a doubt  my personal favorite part of the show was an incredible rant by Vanya when he loses his cool after Spike (Masha’s boy toy wannabe actor, played perfectly by Billy Magnussen, now also Tony nominated for his role) is texting during a reading in the family living room of a play Vanya has written. Vanya’s rant presents the point of view of the height of the baby boom generation — at 57 now, he represents the people born in 1955, the very peak of the boom. A bit older than me, I couldn’t relate to every single cultural reference that he mourned, but I got most. Pierce held the audience in his spell as he ranted and shouted and screamed and jumped on furniture and spoke of Ed Sullivan and nobody thought it was okay to play video games killing prostitutes or anyone; and when he was twelve he didn’t know what a prostitute was and now three year olds know; and….

“I WORRY ABOUT THE FUTURE AND I MISS THE PAST!!!!!!!!!!” Oh, don’t we all? It was a terrific rant that I can’t wait to find a print copy of one day.

Liesel Allen Yeager as Nina. Liesel is an up and coming actress, a graduate of Juilliard in 2010. She is an understudy in this show and happened to be onstage that night.  Though she has many off Broadway credits, her understudy role in this show is her Broadway debut. I have no way of knowing if I was seeing her very first Broadway performance on stage, but I love the possibility. She was beautiful, captivating and delightful. During the bows, I saw a special smile from her in a particular direction, and I was hoping that out there sat a proud theater Mom who had dreamt of this moment too, and was rejoicing to be alive to see it. Congratulations to Liesel! (And Mom and Dad too if they’re around, and I so hope they are.)

I found a photo from the opening night bows of Vanya and Sonia… :

Photographer: Bruce Glikas, © Broadway.com

Photographer: Bruce Glikas, © Broadway.com

I’m thinking about understudies and the importance of paying our dues as writers, learning from mentors and progressing onward. Not sure if that will become another post or not, but it’s on my mind. In the meantime, my hours in the metro-NYC area are winding down. Back in Milwaukee tonight and back at my own desk tomorrow. Happy #writing to you wherever you are!

 

 

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Feeling Good

By pam

April 8, 2013

Sometimes when I scroll through Facebook, I’ll hit something that I’ll only click on because of a trusted friend’s comment. What I’m about to show you, is a youtube link I opened because of the comment, “this kid is great! his mom is great for standing up for him and Michael Buble is awesome for letting him on stage.. and getting soo excited for him!!! love.”

So many things in there appealed to me — a talented kid, a mama bear in action, a performer generously letting a kid on stage. If you haven’t already seen this one, see if you can watch it without getting goose bumps:

Hope you’re feeling good today. Happy #writing.

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Facing Facts – Final Funeral?

By pam

April 5, 2013

It is April 5th. For regular readers of this blog, you know that means it’s time for another round of Facing Facts on the Fifth, wherein I update about progress on my writing goals from the 5th of the previous month. Facing Facts has been all about setting goals, tracking progress and revising goals as necessary. I wrote about it here on January 1st:

January 1st. In my college and post-college days, January 1st often meant drinking lots of water to reactivate a sandpaper tongue. As I got older, and hopefully a bit wiser, January 1st was sometimes a day to reflect on the year past and consider hopes and dreams for the unfolding year. Not everyone makes New Year Resolutions, but unfortunately, for the many who do, if they forget to make a plan and to check in and tweak the plan as necessary, the Resolutions are likely to remain unfulfilled. Resolve to plan.

Writing Goals

In 2012, for writing goals, I resolved to update my progress and goals monthly here on the fifth of each month. This exercise, Facing Facts on the Fifth, was helpful for me in keeping me on track in many areas of my writing. As I pondered whether I would continue that practice this year or not, I decided I would, but, there would be one significant change. I would no longer post about what I was doing with my novels. I decided I need to keep that part of my writing life to myself, for now. So, it was interesting for me to read a great post today by Lisa Rivero on the importance for many people of keeping goals to themselves. For me, I’m okay with, and need, some accountability, but even before reading Lisa’s post, I had come to the conclusion that my work on my novel needed more privacy.

It’s time to tweak the plan as I said above. It’s time for me to bury Facing Facts on the Fifth — at least for a while. I’m at a point with the novel that I need to focus my lens there, that doesn’t mean I won’t blog, but it does mean I’m not going to be focusing on other writing goals, or tracking them for a while. I’ll miss the updates and the responses about them here, because it was fun to know that sometimes my reminders/nudges to myself were helping some of you move along too. But, it’s time for a funeral for facing facts, which makes me think of Elton John‘s Funeral for a Friend, “Well if the wind of change comes down your way girl, you’ll make it back somehow.” I will leave you with that, and ask, if you’re so inclined that you leave your own eulogy for Facing Facts. :-) Happy #writing.

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Frank Feedback

By pam

March 28, 2013

Frank Feedback – Minus the F* Bombs

Conversations buzzed around me. (See Eavesdropping – Not Just for 007.)  An older woman, after learning wifi would cost $8 on her flight later said, “Oh, I won’t need wifi. I’ve got Sudoku, Angry Birds and I’m completely without responsibilities.” And, she said it with a southern twinge that made this Yankee chuckle inside. A middle aged woman talking to a friend nearby said, “Those boys are picky. The girls would play together, but those boys…just so picky.” I was stuck in Atlanta airport, after being stuck in Charlotte airport the day before. I was tired — bone tired — but my writer brain wouldn’t settle down.  The observations became notes, which might feed into a story sometime, and might not.

I’m thinking about the poor gate attendants and customer service reps for my airlines. They were treated viciously, over and over again, by frustrated, tired, entitled Americans – and, I have to confess, I did it myself. In Charlotte – on learning unexpected BAD news regarding my travel, I dropped an F bomb at the gate attendant. I did. And, I was mortified. I apologized immediately and profusely, and she smiled.  When I finally handed her my boarding pass and wished her a good night with a fourteenth apology, she said, “Thank you, sweet lady,” and I felt better. I could forgive myself for my f*** hurl. Believe it or not, that experience has gotten me thinking about effective feedback in writing critiques. I  could have frankly expressed my disappointment and anger on hearing I would not be able to get home, without descending into offensive language, which could easily have been heard as a personal attack. Likewise, effective feedback needs to be frank,clear and civil, even when there’s something hard to say. And, just like parent-teacher conferences, if the teacher leads with the challenging information first, it’s hard to even hear the positives. Likewise in feedback. The good stuff first. Always. The challenges, opportunities, the potentially hard stuff next….with some sensitivity to language. (This doesn’t mean you can never swear, but you should know and have a well-established rapport before you do so.)

Amid the comments on a manuscript of mine from a newer reader was this gem: “There’s something assbackwards about both of these sentences.” I LOVE that. She’s absolutely right, on second look on my part. There was a time in my writing journey when I might have become defensive about that statement, instead of being open to considering whether it had merit or not. Assbackwards. It happens. It’s fixable and it made me laugh.

Happy travels, whether you’re doing it in the real world or in your writing. Happy #writing!

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“How to Push Past the Bull****”

By pam

March 15, 2013

A writer friend recently introduced me to Chuck Wendig‘s blog, Terrible Minds. I love his irreverent style and humor, and well, yes, I do like the potty mouth. What can I say? It’s not for everyone, I know. My favorite post so far is called, “How to Push Past the Bullshit and Write that Goddamn Novel: A Very Simple No Fuckery Writing Plan to Get Shit Done.” Hope you weren’t sipping coffee when you read that. I nearly spewed mine!

Anyway, his plan is a clear tortoise, not hare routine — slow and steady. Write five days a week. Write at least 350 words. Remember Anne Lamott’s edict about shitty first drafts. Wendig says, “Give yourself permission to suck.” Ha.

At the moment, I’m working on shorter pieces but the plan could still work if I got off track. Hope you’ll check out his post, but if you’re pressed for time, here’s a graphic Wendig posted with permission to share:

chuckwendig

Happy #writing! :-)

 

 

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