Wordcraft -- Writer's Garret: readings & a new home

Is it possible to find “evidences of grace in a mental hospital ward?” Dallas writer Tom McClellan asked the crowd last weekend at the Writer’s Garret.

His own answer was yes, in abundance. The Garret paired readings from his published essays with a sweet and saucy side of memoir from UNT professor Bonnie Friedman for the first public reading at its new home in the Lucky Dog (formerly Paperbacks Plus) bookstore at 10809 Garland Road in Dallas.

McClellan, a Dallas teacher and writer, chose two essays from his book, Reflections from Mirror City. His writings, described as “Thomas Merton interpreted by Hunter S. Thompson,” by Washington Spectator editor Lou Debose, have appeared in publications as diverse as D Magazine, The Texas Observer, and Christian Century.

After a friendly tussle with Friedman over who would read first, McClellan allowed his wife Carolyn to read for him because of his emphysema. His selections dealt with the ironies of finding grace in the midst of illness, death, and disaster; McClellan spoke with both frankness and humor about his personal struggles against mental illness.

At the end, he took the lectern for the final words himself, concluding an essay on the death of a friend met in a psychiatric ward: “Say these things so your hope will grow, your charity increase.” (For more about McClellan and his writing, see http://reflectionsfrommirrorcity.wordpress.com/.)

The second writer, Bonnie Friedman, comes to Texas by way of the Bronx. Her first book, Writing Past Dark: Envy, Fear, Distraction, and Other Dilemmas in the Writer’s Life, was a Village Voice bestseller. Now an assistant professor in the University of North Texas’ creative writing program, she chose excerpts from a work in progress for the audience.

Despite the differences in background between Friedman and McClellan, their writings harmonized on the theme of grace: hers included a minutely-observed description of her elderly mother, in her words, -- a “sheitel jew” with the mien of a Russian aristocrat. (And enough chutzpah to outface a revolution.)

“At the age of eighty-five,” Friedman began her reading, “my mother lost her job and started running.”

Not running away from anything, of course. Instead, running “for her health” -- a regimen of pre-dawn shuffling up and down the halls of her apartment house that first entangled her and her elderly husband in a lawsuit and ended by charming her persecutor.

A listener, laughingly aghast at Friedman’s vivid descriptions, asked what her mother thought about being the subject of her writing.

Her mother, she assured the audience, has given her permission to write anything she pleases (although without reading the words herself). “I hope she would like it,”
Friedman said. She travels back to New York frequently to keep in touch with her parents (and perhaps to gather more material). For more about Friedman’s works, see
http://www.bonniefriedman.com/.

The Garret will sponsor its next public readings in April. For information about the Garret and its programs, see www.writersgarret.org/. Some online information still references a previous address, but please note the current address is 10809 Garland Road, in Dallas.

Wordcraft -- Stuff nobody tells to beginners

Did we all open our newsletters from Duotrope’s Digest this week in awe of the number of new listings and deadlines? Yes, vacations are over and it’s time to start serious writing again. (Not that we aren’t always writing but. . . )

My light summer writing included critiquing other people’s entries for writing workshops at the ArmadilloCon science fiction and fantasy convention in Austin in August and the FenCon convention in Addison, Texas, September 23-25. And they critiqued mine.

This year’s coordinator of the writing workshop at FenCon, Debbie Waller, sent all of us information on writing critiques, as well as an article entitled “Nobody tells this to people who are beginners.” Inspired, I made my own list of things nobody ever told me. (Or at least, that I didn’t heed the first time.):

Heads up on headings -- those things editors (or workshop readers) so often want at the top of manuscripts to tell them whose work they’re reading and what page of it they’re on. The first time I used them, I didn’t know -- honestly -- that there was a format for headings on the toolbar of my computer.

Using the format means the heading always stays at the top of the page, no matter how much material you add or delete. Not using the format means a heading drifts erratically down the pages the more you write. When I get a new computer, I have to find the heading format all over again. But it’s worth it. Have I seen this issue more than once, even from good writers? You bet.

Page numbers, please -- In an ideal world, pages always come off the printer in order. In my world, when the printer spits them out, some fall on the floor, some slide under the desk, and so on. Then I’m left matching printed pages to the version on the screen to piece the story together. Besides, it’s always easier in a workshop to be able to reference the page number of the item you’re talking about. And yes, the format for adding page numbers can vary from computer to computer. I had to get reacquainted with my toolbar.

Use spell check -- No, it won’t do all your work for you. In fact, it only does the easiest work, picking up strings of letters that obviously aren’t words in its dictionary. But why not delegate some of our work to it? We writers have enough to do as it is.

Don’t JUST use spell check -- I’ve heard people at workshops insist that they never use spell check because it, of course, doesn’t detect every misspelling. Invariably, these are writers who have misspelled words in their manuscripts.

Spell check, notoriously, will pass by an erroneously spelled word if the misspelling is itself a valid word. One manuscript I saw used “query” when the writer obviously meant, from the context, to write “quarry.”

Another spell check trick is to offer you a list of spelling suggestions. How often have we clicked on a likely looking one, only to realize later that it wasn’t what we meant? This is the hard stuff we have to find by reading our pages on our own, sometimes with the help of a dictionary.

(About the picture -- I couldn’t resist using a photo of the grandmotherly sheep doll I snapped at a previous ArmadilloCon to go with this post.)

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Libraryfest at the Lakewood Library, 6121 Worth St., Dallas -- Huge bargain book sale, kids’ activities and live music this Saturday, September 10, from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Members only preview sale Friday, September 9, 6:30 - 8 p.m.

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Writers Garret Open House Saturday, September 10, from 3-5 p.m. upstairs at Paperbacks Plus, 6115 La Vista, Dallas. Connect with others who have strong literary interests and see what the Garret has to offer. Free, but donations appreciated.