Interview with Julie Metz

Julie Metz’s life changed forever when her husband died of a pulmonary embolism at age 44. At first she thought being a widow was the worst tragedy, then still grieving six months after his death, she learned she hadn’t really known her husband. The proof: he had racked up a lot of debt she was unaware of, had been serially unfaithful, and had,  in fact, been in the midst of a three-year affair with one of her friends. That’s when things got really bizarre because Metz did what many wronged woman longs to do: she unlocked her husband’s secrets and confronted the women who had slept with him. And then she rebuilt her life. This story is the basis for her searing memoir Perfection: A Memoir of Betrayal and Renewal published in 2009.

I’ve often advised writers that betrayal is fertile territory for exploration because it cuts so deeply into our lives and hearts. You go into this topic with intense depth in your memoir Perfection. What made you decide to write about these difficult events and realizations?

I was not a writer before I wrote Perfection. While I was living through the events, first widowhood and then betrayal, I kept a journal and I wrote letters to friends. I found this writing to be a comfort and the letters and journal became the raw material for the book. A few friends suggested that I write a book, and while I dismissed this idea at first, I saw that while novels and stories deal with these kinds of dramatic life events, there wasn't much out there on this topic in the nonfiction category.

In Perfection you mention that you looked “at Henry's dark side with eyelids peeled open.” Could you talk about this a bit more and how you found the courage to face so many areas with honesty and courage?

I know that many people wouldn't want to know the details but for me this examination was essential. Perhaps there is something of the detective in me. I felt strongly that I would never be able to remake my life without looking at the truth. I wanted to start over with as complete an understanding of what had happened as I could manage so that I would not make the same mistakes again.

Could you comment more on using Perfection for the title and what it meant to you during your marriage and what it means to you now?

I think so many of us are struggling with this idea of perfection. We want perfect bodies, perfect kids, perfect houses. To that end we become concerned with the appearance of things, and while I was married I spent plenty of time trying to create a surface that looked good to the outside world. At the time of his death Henry was writing a food book about “umami” (a Japanese word that describes the moment of perfection), so my title evolved as an ironic comment on the futility of achieving perfection. Insisting on perfection gets us into a lot of trouble. We make choices that might create a surface impression of perfection but underneath that is a deep-seated unhappiness and a sense that we are living an inauthentic life. I make mistakes every day and now I just try to learn as much as I can from them.

In your memoir, it’s clear that you’re using a lot of narrative techniques although this is nonfiction. The opening pages especially contain a great deal of suspense. How did you work on crafting these techniques?

I wanted to write a factual memoir that would read like a novel. I am mostly a fiction reader and I know that what readers find compelling is a well crafted story with great characters. While writing, I read many novels, classic and contemporary, to see how other writers took readers into their stories. I wrote and rewrote the opening section many times in different ways. One day, after many failed drafts, I was trying to explain to my boyfriend the feeling I wanted to create. I just started speaking the words. He said, “Write it just like that, with that sense of urgency.”

How has your life changed since Perfection was published?
My book has received a lot of review and media attention. This took some getting used to as it was my first experience in a "public" sphere. I do receive a lot of mail from readers, women, men, even a few high school students. Most of the mail is from women who find themselves widowed or divorced, and dealing with betrayal. Many are in the anguished place I wrote about and that I remember so well. I am so glad to hear that my book gives them comfort. With any controversial topic, there will always be critics and I have had to deal with that as well. A wise writer friend remarked that unkind anonymous reviews reveal more about the reviewer than they do about the book in question. As a writer, you just do your best, you put your work out there, and then it has a life of its own. For me this has been an overwhelmingly positive adventure.

My family life is very little changed. My boyfriend and my daughter have been incredibly supportive and we continue to live much as we did before. My daughter is now a teenager. She tells me she is proud of me and what I have accomplished, describing my book as "a real woman's story." The most important change in my life is that I now see myself as a writer. While I am just as insecure as most writers I meet, I do feel more confident that writing is a calling I want to pursue in my life.

Can you talk a bit about your writing process?
Hmmm. I had a feeling you might ask me that, and I am chuckling here, as I sit tapping on my laptop at the dining room table where I write, surrounded by yellow post-it notes and 3 x 5 cards. For now, my process involves juggling writing with my design work and my parenting life. I know that many writers have a ritual in place and that is a goal of mine! As a freelance designer for many years, one talent I have is my ability to work with many distractions. I do not need a perfect working environment, though the few times I have experienced that have been so wonderful. My weeks at The MacDowell Colony were amazing. To have quiet, space, and time to work is truly a gift for any artist. Meanwhile, I just try to do my best with every day, moving forward a page at a time.

What are you working on now?
I am working on a novel...wish me luck!

The Paris Review has launched a blog: 
A Letter from the Editor
June 1, 2010 | by Lorin Stein
To the Reader:
Welcome to the The Paris Review Daily, a culture gazette brought to you by the editors of The Paris Review.
Since its founding in 1953, The Paris Review has devoted itself to publishing “the good writers and good poets,” regardless of creed or school or name-recognition. In that time the Review has earned a reputation as the chief discoverer of what is newest and best in contemporary writing.
But a quarterly only comes out…well, you know. We have been looking for a way to keep in touch with our readers between issues, and to call attention to our favorite writers and artists in something close to real time. If the Review embodies a sensibility, this Daily will try, in a casual and haphazard and at times possibly frivolous way, to put that sensibility into words....

"I call it 'underpainting,' because it's done for the same effect (and is just as tedious to do) as the sort of work done when constructing an oil painting--the laying of sub-layers, half-transparent glazes, bits that aren't seen directly, but add to the depth of the final painting.

In literary terms, the technique involves a good deal of body language and inconsequential small actions. The reader is conscious of the main thrust of a paragraph, page or scene; the spoken dialogue, the main actions. Subconsciously, underpainting brings the scene alive in the mind's eye.

Oddly enough, I got advice from the Bible: "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." In other words, concentrate only on what you're doing--don't allow yourself to be distracted from the work by worrying about whether it's good/who will see it/will anyone buy it. If you just work, the world falls away, and words on the page start to live." ~ Diana Gabaldon

Writing as Craft and Art

Yesterday the sun finally broke through and the world warmed up for awhile. I was checking out my flower beds to see if my dahlias are coming up (only about half are) and moss is invading, spreading green everywhere.

But I want to talk for a bit about William Zinnser’s observation that writing is a craft, not an art. I believe that writing is both craft and art and I especially favor artful language in storytelling since it accomplishes so much, especially adding to the mood and tension.

Last week the critique group that had been meeting with me since October ended since they’d rewritten their entire novels. During this session as in times past, I was able to observe how craft works, word by word, page by page, scene by scene. All the writers improved immeasurably since we began meeting in October.

So what is craft? I like to imagine the craft guilds that flourished in the late Middle Ages—they included architects and book binders, painters, embroiderers, bakers, and goldsmiths. They would meet and decide on a set of standards, would set prices, and were an important aspect of life before the Industrial Age. The craftsmen went through three stages—first training for five to ten years with a master to learn the trade; then becoming a journeyman which meant he was paid for his work, and finally he became a master (although he could remain a journeyman) meaning he could set himself up in business and train apprentices.

These guilds were vital to everyday life and guild members paid dues and were protected in case of illness and their funerals were provided by the association. I like to listen for the long-ago echoes of these workers, visit their works in museums, marvel at the details in a manuscript or gold chalice.

In my critique groups the topics we discuss range wide. Sometimes we talk about life—one member’s Siamese was lost, a writer’s godson died, another woman told us about her childhood influences and how she ended up in Portland. But these are asides,even when the conversation discusses hard issues like death and loss,to the real conversation about how to take their stories deeper. So I ask about their themes and how the decisions characters make reflect them. I ask them probing questions about character arcs and plot structure. We all notice when exposition dumps slow down a scene and when a scene goes by too fast. We discuss when a character’s voice or dialogue sounds off, when a detail doesn’t make sense, when an important scene falls flats, when a character’s motivation leaves us scratching our heads. Mostly we have fun and we express support and enthusiasm for each writer's efforts.

When I first started teaching I was surprised at how a writer could improve with only a few lessons. In my years of teaching I’ve met only a few writers who couldn’t improve with coaching and these individuals always puzzled me. Most of us can write better with practice just as the apprentices did in those long-ago guilds. With patience and guidance and respect for the craft.

How can it be June already? 

   As I face the hard fact that it's June already, I'm trying not to panic. June with its beginnings and endings--the beginning of summer, the end of the school year. Summer is always a busy time--my conference in Manzanita is coming up, my garden needs attention, I've got a few trips planned, and the sun, if it ever returns, will beckon me away from my desk. Are you on track with your writing goals for 2010? How are going to write during summer's usual distractions?  As for June on this blog, I'm planning on interviewing more authors, especially asking questions about their first book that was published and focusing on the habits of successful writers. Let's call these habits writerly.  Your suggestions for content are always welcome at jessicapage(at)spiritone (dot)com.

"The creative process requires that you leave the external world and go to your private inner one. Think of solitude not as just a mood or sentiment but as your entrance to the imaginative theater where you project the illusions of sailing on the open sea, or taking a leisurely walk through a mountain village, or driving along city streets teeming with life, or sitting contentedly at home in your favorite chair." Hal Zina Bennett

Poets for Living Waters

Call for Work – Gulf Coast Poems

Poets for Living Waters is a poetry action in response to the BP Gulf oil disaster of April 20, 2010, one of the most profound man-made ecological catastrophes in history. Former US poet laureate Robert Pinsky describes the popularity of poetry after 9/11 as a turn away from the disaster’s overwhelming enormity to a more manageable individual scale. As we confront the magnitude of this recent tragedy, such a return may well aid us.

The first law of ecology states that everything is connected to everything else. An appreciation of this systemic connectivity suggests a wide range of poetry will offer a meaningful response to the current crisis, including work that harkens back to Hurricane Katrina and the ongoing regional effects.

This online periodical is the first in a planned series of actions. Further actions will include a print anthology and a public reading in Washington DC.

If you would like to submit work for consideration, please send 1-3 poems, a short bio, and credits for any previously published submissions to:

poetsforlivingwaters@yahoo.com.

Memorial Day, 2010

Deluge falling from the sky this morning and the world is wet beyond wet.Although I'm a cloud watcher, a little sun around here wouldn't hurt.

According to Yale historian David Blight, Memorial Day got its start after the Civil War, when freed slaves and abolitionists gathered in Charleston, S.C., to honor Union soldiers who gave their lives to battle slavery. They opened a mass grave and dug individual graves for the dead. It was a ten-day project and culminated with a celebration of peace, freedom, and hope. Blight's book, Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory is one of the best resources for information on this subject.

Meanwhile, huge thanks to all the men and women who wear our uniform and to their families who give too much.

SUBMIT TO "THE LIFE POETIC iPOEM CONTEST"

Submission deadline: July 4, 2010

Sage Cohen invites you to submit up to three, unpublished poems that represent "the life poetic." She'll be choosing 365 for inclusion in a "Life Poetic" iPhone app that features a poem a day. Enter to win prizes valued at more than $400! 

Get all the details: http://writingthelifepoetic.typepad.com/writing_the_life_poetic/2010/04/youre-invited-to-submit-to-the-life-poetic-iphone-poetry-contest-.html

Jennie Shortridge

As promised (drumroll please) I'm starting a series of interviews here on writing and writers.

Jennie Shortridge is on a roll. Her luminous fourth novel When She Flew, was inspired by true events, and after much research, she let her imagination run wild to create this evocative story of an Iraq war vet raising his daughter in the wild and the single mom/policewoman who breaks all the rules when ordered to separate them, risking everything to help them escape. This story explores the issues of raising children in today’s world, living within the system as opposed to rejecting it, the toll of war on families, and introduces a young heroine raised in the forest who thrives through the worst of circumstances.  Publishers Weekly says, “Examining people willing to sidestep the rules in pursuit of a greater good, Shortridge’s fourth novel recalls Barbara Kingsolver’s Pigs in Heaven…” . Jennie's appearances and popular workshops are filled with her signature grace, humor, and common sense about crafting stories that linger in a reader's imagination.

Are you a full-time writer or part-time, and how do you organize your writing time?I have been a full-time writer since 1995, and have always found it best for me to write in the mornings, and then do business in the afternoons. During book promotion cycles that goes a bit catty-wampus, of course. It's like the gym: I'm always trying to get into a good solid routine.

When did you first start writing and what did you write?

Well, FIRST first were slews of stories my entire childhood, and poems, and then songs when I was a working musician, and then ad copy and marketing materials when I was in business, and then . . . well, then I became a writer. I started out writing magazine features, but always wrote fiction on the side.

What is the toughest part about being a writer for you and how do you get past it? The actual business of being a published writer is not for sissies.  I've developed a Gore-Tex like skin and a circle of writer friends who will drink with me when necessary.

Could you talk about your writing process?

From a mechanical standpoint, I take a couple of months to fully develop a story idea that has been floating in my consciousness for any number of years, meaning, I do a lot of writing about the story, about the characters, and as the characters. I do research if necessary, before and during the writing. Once I launch on a draft, it takes me roughly a year to get the story down, which I do linearly, from beginning to end. Then, after I get input and feedback from various readers, I begin revisions, which may take anywhere from three months to another year to complete to my editor's satisfaction. I write in the mornings when drafting, on my computer, with my email and Facebook shamefully turned on. I get up every hour or so and take a walk around the house or stretch or gaze into the fridge. That pretty much sums it up!

How do you take risks with your writing?

Because I know I will most likely write from the same life themes, no matter how many books I write, I endeavor to write completely different characters in unique situations. And because I don't think a book is worth writing if it doesn't wring something deep and dark out of your soul, I do my best to go "there," to expose some kind of emotional and universal truth that doesn't necessarily get much coverage elsewhere.

What books are on your nightstand?

Four books I've been asked to blurb, along with The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi Durrow and An Alphabetical Life by Wendy Werris. I will get to the first four. The last two may take a while.

 

What are you working on now? I enjoyed the experience of writing a story inspired by true events with When She Flew, so the next one  springs from a news story as well. A few years ago a man left his Olympia home on a short trip and went missing for six weeks. He turned up many states away on the TV news as a John Doe with amnesia. His fiancee found him and brought him home to begin life anew together, even though he no longer remembered her. I've switched genders and have a female character who flees Seattle, ending up in San Francisco with amnesia. Her fiance goes to get her and she becomes almost an amateur sleuth as she tries to remember and unravel what happened to her. As it turns out, quite a lot did!

 Jennie is going to be the keynote speaker at Summer in Words, June 25-28 in Manzanita, Oregon. For more information on the conference contact me at jessicapage (at)spiritone (dot)com.

You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.  ~Ray Bradbury

"When nothing else subsists from the past, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered· the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls· bearing resiliently, on tiny and almost impalpable drops of their essence, the immense edifice of memory." ~Marcel Proust The Remembrance of Things Past

Feel good story:

Go to NPR to hear about how the New York Botanical Garden has recreated Emily Dickinson's garden. 

"In the greatest confusion there is still an open channel to the soul. It may be difficult to find because by midlife it is overgrown and some of the wildest thickets that surround it grow out of what we describe as our education. But the channel is always there, and it is our business to keep it open, to have access to the deepest part of ourselves."
-- Saul Bellow

Luck

And here's a thought-provoking post on the role of luck in a writer's life by David Rocklin:

Get lucky. Stay lucky. Most writers, not to mention those who read them, follow them, wish them on to success, count those two among the most important of elements to the writing life.

Get lucky. Write something that lays a beating heart on the page. That captures the right agent’s attention. That finds its way to a publisher who values it, changes it not at all or for the better, and clears the shelf-space decks for it.

Please file under a disturbing thought provocation:

The Guardian is reporting that children are more likely to own a mobile phone than a book. Words fail me. 

More Elements of Successful Storytelling

Narrative is woven from adversity. Unless you’re writing inspirational essays, most stories aren’t about happy events. Stories stem from adversity and someone in the story is somehow vulnerable. While there have been memoirs published about triumphs and good times, most clever memoirists, like their fiction-writing comrades, know that a reader turns the pages when the person in the story is in the worst trouble. Vulnerability is the key to making conflict sizzle because invulnerable characters rob a story of suspense and tension, while vulnerable characters make us worry and fret. While events in your story might lead to a happy ending, the road to happiness is paved with misery, danger, and gut-wrenching choices.

The adversity in the form of the main problem or conflict in a story must first of all be inescapable and if possible, provide a fresh perspective on the human condition. Think about how in Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park he uses an island to isolate his characters amid the gigantic beasts, stirs in a big dose of human greed, and then a fierce storm swoops in to complicate matters, which in turn sets the dinosaurs free, including the devious, man-eating velociraptors. Escape from the wily monsters seems impossible because the characters are in the middle of the Pacific while the storm rages and two of the characters are unarmed children, and are thus doubly vulnerable.

Adversity also comes in the form of dilemmas. Whenever possible give your protagonist a difficult moral choice or decision, or series of them. In William Styron’s Sophie’s Choice, when a mother must choose between son and daughter for immediate death camp extinction, it’s clear that she’s faced with a damned if you, damned if you don’t dilemma. Generally your characters will want to avoid making the choice, will feel guilt or repercussions from the choices, and factors that complicate the choice will keep piling up until they choose the lesser evil or take the moral high ground. Often a choice is embroidered into a story because the character arc –the particular way a character must change in the story--demands it to prove the character has been transformed by the story events.

Your theme is the central unifying idea or concern of the story; runs throughout the story; the protagonist is centrally involved in the theme; and is often a fairly simple concept such as justice or greed. For example, Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park is about greed. Theme works as glue in the story, adds to the unity, and provides connecting threads that lend it significance and cohesion. Theme is not the message, it is more like the soul of your story, providing its boundaries. You make decisions about your story based on your theme

As a character creator you’re part terrorist, part angry god, part puzzle master. Fiction is about interesting people in a dizzying passel of trouble. Readers are not interested in dull, passive or lazy characters, the type who would rather complain to his or her therapist than make a move or take a risk.

Readers don’t want to slip into a world where everything is lovely and easy and static. They’re longing for a character whose life is much messier than their own. Don’t you find this aspect of fiction writing fascinating? In real life, we fret our way through a crisis, but cannot stand a fiction character that is not up to her eyeballs in havoc.

Protagonists and main characters are people with baggage and emotional needs stemming from their pasts. These needs, coupled with motivation cause characters to act as they do. For example, in Silence of the Lambs Clarisse Starling is propelled by childhood traumas to both succeed and heal the wounds caused by the death of her father.

These emotional needs are linked to inner conflict A fictional character doesn’t arrive at easy decisions or choices. Instead he or she is burdened by difficult or impossible choices, particularly moral choices, which often make him doubt himself and question his actions. Inner conflict works in tandem with outer conflict—a physical obstacle, villain or antagonist--to make the story more involving, dramatic, and events more meaningful.

Finally, effective stories teaches us something about about the human heart.

More Elements of Successful Storytelling

‘Tell me a story’ is an appeal from our most primeval selves. You can aspire to explore the human heart, to analyze cultural conditions, to propose social reforms and to discuss philosophical ideas, but if your want to fascinate, to hold on to your readers, also tell them a good story.” Jerome Stern

Storytelling or narrative is at the heart of entertaining and informative writing. We recognize when narrative is absent in writing, as when it’s lacking in a dull report, a vapid memo, or a rambling speech.Readers instinctively want an underlying structure, tension and drive in the words you string together. They also long for intimacy, to be allowed into the mind of the reader and/or characters. You see, a writer creates worlds and story people and translate them through his or her fingertips, and sometimes the stories that emerge are coherent and deep and roiling with conflict. And sometimes the story in our head gets lost in the translation of tracing it onto paper. So to help with your translation, here are more elements of successful storytelling:

A plot begins when the status quo the ordinary world occupied by the main characters, is disrupted by a significant event. This event—called the inciting incident— pushes the story forward quietly or like a rocket launcher, but it always introduces threatening change. Once this event occurs, the world will never be quite the same, the character (the protagonist) who usually is caught off-guard, is propelled to take action, forced to make decisions often based on self protection, and to establish his first of several goals.

Compelling fiction is based on a single, powerful question that must be answered by the story climax.This question will be dramatized chiefly via action in a series of events or scenes. If you are writing a romance, the question always involves whether the couple will resolve their differences and declare their love. In a mystery the dramatic question is usually about the murderer and his or her motives. In The Old Man and Sea the dramatic question is will Santiago catch the big fish and thus restore his pride and reputation.

The storyline focuses on the most significant and interesting events in the protagonist’s life. In non-series fiction and memoir, these events are likely to leave a lasting imprint.

Motivations are entwined with backstory. Motivation, the why? of fiction, is at the heart of every scene, fueling your character’s desires and driving him to accomplish goals. It provides a solid foundation for the often complicated reasons for your character’s behaviors choices, actions, and blunders. Motivating factors provide trajectories for character development and arc, as a character’s past inevitably intersects with his present. Your character’s motivations must be in sync with his core personality traits, values, and understanding of the situation.

Desire is the lifeblood of fictional characters. Not only do your characters want something, they want something badly. Santiago, in The Old Man and the Sea desperately wants to restore his reputation and also wants his friendship and partnership with the boy to resume. And in the lonely hours when he is far out at sea, struggling to hang on to the fish and fighting off sharks, we see his fierce desire acted out and the price he pays.

Fiction, as does memoir, focuses on a series of threatening changes inflicted on the protagonist. In many stories these threats force him or her to change or act in ways he or she needs to change or act. Often too, what the protagonist fears most is what is showcased in a novel or short story. It can be fear of losing his family, job, or health with this dreaded outcome providing interest, action and conflict.

A story builds and deepens by adding complications, twists, reversals and surprises that add tension and forward motion. Plots don’t follow a straight path; instead there are zigzags, dead ends, and sidetracks. Each of these elements adds more obstacles, more decisions to be made, paths to be chosen. At each twist or reversal, chaos, disorder, arguments, struggles, bewilderment, and dilemmas should result.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Eat your words is a Pacific Northwest literary journal whose founders believe in art as food for our creative selves. What should you submit to us for publication? The piece that feeds you, the piece that reminds you what the hell you are living for, creating for. We are seeking short fiction, flash fiction, poetry, letters, reviews, creative non-fiction, essays, illustration, photography, audio, found art, and perhaps something we haven't thought of yet. Please send your work in a format we are likely to be able to open to: SUBMISSIONS@EATYOURWORDS.ORG. We offer no monetary compensation at this time for your original, unpublished work. We only offer to celebrate your work among other talented artists in a venue anyone with an Internet connection can see. Artists retain all rights to their own work.

Deadline for Issue #1: Wednesday, June 30

Almost AWOL

Sun coming through after days of rain. In case you're new to reading this blog, almost two years ago I was rearended while parked in traffic. Since then I've had more symptoms than I have time to list, but thankfully have continued to improve. That is, until about a month ago when it's become clear that my eye/brain injuries are causing me lots of problems again. This means I'm going to need to spend less time staring at a computer screen and more time lying in the dark with my eyes closed and performing some new eye exercises. I'll probably return to my acupuncturist and his kindness, because somehow under his touch, I don't even wince when he places needles near my eyes.

However, I love to add to this blog and I'm going to keep gleaning beautiful quotes and helpful information about the writing life. But I'm also going to cut back on my computer time.  With that in mind, since I've always loved interviewing authors, I'm going to put together some interview questions and then post interviews on this blog. I'm especially interested in asking writers about craft and how they persist during hard times.If you are an author interested in being interviewed or know any, please contact me at jessicapage (at) spiritone (dot)com.

When I wrote my latest book Thanks but This Isn't For Us for Penguin, I was really ill from my head injuries and had to stop writing for about three months and when I continued, would write for 20 minutes, then go to bed for two hours. Write. Go to bed. Repeat. It wasn't much fun, but I managed. It also helped me to have something to focus on (although my ability to focus was pretty laughable). So every time someone writes to me and tells me that the book was so helpful or funny or wise, I'm both amazed and proud of myself. Persistence does work.
Keep writing, keep dreaming, have heart