Authornomics is an author interview series created by Andrea Hurst and Associates agency. The August 16, 2012 interview I did for the series was chosen as one of their year’s best. The many good questions the agents there asked gave me the opportunity to discuss writing and the writing life in ways meaningful to me. It also gave me the opportunity to create a document with information about my work all in one place. To reprint this document in this week’s Writing It Real, I updated it. As you read the questions and answers, my hope is that you will consider asking yourself similar questions or questions you customize in relation to your specific writing life–whatever your answers, you will be viewing your writing life as whole cloth, a body of work and attention, commitment and aspirations of which you are proud. At the interview’s end, I offer more words on this subject of you writing an interview of yourself on the subject of your writing.

[I thank the agents at Andrea Hurst and Associates for permission to reprint this interview.]

The title of the interview series, Authornomics, appealed to me. I looked up the suffix “-nomics” in the hopes of finding out why. I learned it may be derived from the Greek nomos, which means “law.” Wikipedia says then, “The fields ending with -nomics thus mean “law of” whatever the prefix is.” Law of authoring–how wonderful!

Authornomics
As an author of poems, essays and memoirs, what has been your favorite genre to work in?

Sheila
It is hard to say I have a favorite genre. Once I get into the meat of any piece of writing, I feel completely absorbed in finding its shape and the insight it is moving me toward. I read poetry, essays and memoir, and these days, I do write a lot of prose. However, when something snags my emotional attention, when an image or a sound won’t go away, when I want to see what there is at the bottom of my mind and heart, I usually write poems. But as a writer, I know that our obsessions remain the same whatever genre we are writing in; we examine the world through the lens of what preoccupies us. So, although I’ve written a poem on a subject I am investigating emotionally, that doesn’t rule out writing prose. It is kind of fun to alternate longer relaxed lines and paragraphs with the compression a poem demands. And then, of course, there is sudden nonfiction, like the kind Brevity magazine publishes online, where the prose poem and short nonfiction run into each other. That is a very enjoyable genre to work in.

Authornomics
What inspired you to start teaching writing and publishing books on how to write?

Sheila
By the time I began writing as a poet, I had already been a classroom teacher for middle school students, a day care center director and staff trainer as well as a parent educator. Teaching is what I do. So, once I was a publishing poet and earned a Master of Arts in Creative Writing, I could teach freshman composition and research writing as well as poetry and fiction classes at colleges; it was a natural jump for me to write instructional books and articles on writing. I saw in the college classrooms that when it came to writing, I was teaching differently after having studied with poets, than I was taught as an undergraduate. Combining the lessons of the poets with my English major background in rhetorical styles allowed me to greatly facilitate my students’ writing and they wrote beautifully. Some of them eventually published pieces they wrote for class. I love what I can do as a teacher in facilitating others to tell their stories. Therefore, deciding to write instructional books for those who want to write was a task I eagerly took on. And happily, people tell me the books I’ve written have helped them start and continue writing.

Authornomics
One of your goals as a teacher is to help writers revise more effectively. What are some of the common revision problems you see?

Sheila
I think the most common revision problem I see is that people haven’t learned to listen to where their essay or poem or memoir is headed—on its own, without them as author directing it or trying too hard to fill people in so they’ll notice the author writing the piece. Our words are smarter than we are, my poet teachers often said. They are, if we let them take over. Where is the work in flow? Where is it labored? Where does the writer seem to be trying to write the story rather than writing it—giving us background info that slows us down as readers, for instance, or using abstract words instead of using specifics that allow readers to be in the experience rather than merely being told about the experience and the writer’s reaction to it. I could teach for days about revision, but the quickest way to help a writer who faces revision is what I call my three-step response method. A trusted reader will tell the writer three things: what phrases and words struck them, how they felt reading the piece (both feelings they knew they were supposed to have and feelings that got in the way such as confusion or feeling lost or left out), and where they are interested to know more. Having this information is very valuable to the writer who must revise. It is empowering to know you were heard and to know where your words may have led your reader astray and that the reader wants to know more. You may not have to tell them everything they want to know—fixing up places where you left them out or confused them fixes a lot of problems and leads to reader satisfaction even without all of the questions answered. Some of the questions readers report about drafts of writing come from not being able to figure out exactly what the piece wants them to focus on.

Another problem in revising is jumping too soon to the polishing stage and forgetting to linger over the shaping stage. The three-step response method helps the writer see more of the shape of their work and how to sculpt it before the critical editor voice does its work—spelling, paragraphing, sentence variety, punctuation. The editing stage is very important, but I always tell my editor brain to hold off—if it gives me time to shape well, there will be a much better piece for the editor brain to work on, and I will really value that work.

Authornomics
Your memoir, A New Theology: Turning to Poetry in a Time of Grief came out in 2009. How instrumental do you feel poetry is for writers who need an emotional outlet? Is there any advice that you could give to writers who want to try their hand at poetry?

Sheila
I think writing poetry helps any writer—the use of metaphor, compression, images and sound create the lyric values that enliven all writing. Trying one’s hand at poetry is a way of concentrating on these craft elements and seeing how powerful images and sound are for relaying experience and emotion. However, if someone is “afraid” of poetry or feels they “don’t get” poetry, I’d leave it alone and read prose that has the same lyric values. Maybe reading Naomi Shihab Nye’s book of paragraphs Mint Snowball would be a good idea. Or someone interested in the lyric elements of the writing craft who doesn’t like to read poetry might find inspiration in the short pieces on Brevity magazine or those in another online magazine, fraglit.

All creative writing provides an emotional outlet, and all writing does involve poetry. Some prose writers just don’t identify their voice as being poetic because it is not flowery or difficult to access like they imagine poetry must be. Reading the poems of Billy Collins or Ted Kooser will demonstrate the fact that some contemporary poetry is not difficult to understand.

Authornomics
Most of your published books focus on teaching others how to write, but your memoir, A New Theology, is much more personal. How did these writing experiences differ?

Sheila
For one thing, writing A New Theology (read a recent review here) took much longer. When I write instructional books, I am looking for the most effective, hands-on way to help others write what it is they have to write. Since I spend a lot of time in classrooms and teaching workshops, I have many tricks up my sleeve that I can translate into my books of instruction. Writing a memoir about the months after the death of my son, however, meant asking questions that would be hard to answer, but questions I was burning to know the answer to: How will our family and the family of my son’s fiancée live through the day they would have married, five months after the snow boarding accident that took his life? What is mortality? What is immortality? How will I go on without the presence of my son? How will I remember him? It takes time, and for me, much writing to find answers. And then even after the manuscript I wrote answered those questions, to be of value to readers, my book had to make contact with them—one editor told me that my prose had to be as accessible as my poetry—that was very interesting to me as I usually think more people find poetry inaccessible. I learned from her how to let the prose stand for itself without what she called “an overlay of grief” blurring the content. In making the book work for readers, I found it worked at a deeper level for me.

Authornomics
In your books, you often focus on the importance of journaling. Do you still keep a journal? How does journaling shape your own writing experience?

Sheila
Journaling for me now is the act of making sure I write every day—whether that is email, beginnings of new poems or essays, instructional articles, or phrases that come to me or ones I borrow from my reading or overheard conversations. There is a lot of writing in my life, and I try to keep it organized as if it were all one journal, whose contents I might use in any combination.

Sometimes, when I keep a print journal, it is a box of slips of paper. Other times, I have purchased notebooks for journals during a trip or during a repeated activity like biking—I take myself out on my bike, stop for a break, journal, and continue biking. The importance of journaling for a writer is to write, write, write and if you use prompts in journal writing, you may start creating new work without even having intended to do so. Also, journals are wonderful places to record your thoughts, questions and findings when you are working on a longer project. Journals offer a place to come to as a writer, a space to be a writer, away from the tasks that make one feel “not a writer.” However, when you are a writer, everything is writing, and what you do during your day, as long as you record it and write about it, is part of your writing life. Lifejournal.com has an add-on called LifeJournal for Writers, for which I wrote content. The product has just come out with an online edition and provides an organized place for keeping one’s writing, whether it is spontaneous, from prompts or part of a whole.

Authornomics
For many years now, you have been reading the work of young writers and judging various contests featuring personal essays. How have writing styles and themes changed in young writers through the years?

Sheila
Actually, one of my most recent judging positions has been for Oasis Journal for their contest for writers over 50. They write about caretaking parents, what it feels like to age, relating to adult children, becoming grandparents, maturing in marriages or in separations. They write about changing careers, about their gardens, close calls, neighbors and travels.

What I notice about younger writers is that they often wonder about their futures and write about alienation from the way things are. The youngest writers write what is right there for them: on a panel I did recently, writer Judith Kitchen told a story about a young writer from years ago in one of her author-in-the schools visits. When asked to write what grass would say if it could talk, he wrote: “Grass doesn’t talk. The crickets speak for it.” I love these two lines together. I think they demonstrate how the concrete thinking of younger writers brings poetry onto the page. I think the differences between younger and older writers may be mostly ones of trusting images—the older we get, the more schooling we’ve had, the easier it is for us to think that abstractions and summaries are more important than the concrete.

I love reading writing from any age group.

Authornomics
You mention on your website that you wish to help writers allow writing to take a more serious place in the writers’ lives. Do you have any advice on how to make writing a serious priority in a world full of so many distractions?

Sheila
I think one way is to start by committing a doable amount of time to your writing. In the classes I teach, we accomplish amazing writing in 10 to 20 minute exercises. I think we all need to look for those ten minutes that we can commit to writing. My idea is that after we have words on a page, the writing will find a way to make us sit down for longer. I think that keeping a pad and pen or a laptop or iPad with you in your car and arriving at work a bit early and writing in your car before you go into work is one way to find this time. Another is at lunch, of course, or right when you get home from work. It isn’t the ten minutes that is so hard to find—it is feeling like you can shift from not writing to writing. You can. Imagine you are at a cluttered desk and instead of cleaning it up and organizing the papers so you can write, you just put your arms out in front of you and push the papers and clutter away to each side of the desk. Now you have the space to write for ten minutes. Set a timer if that helps. After you have written, you can pick up the clutter of life.

And you have to feel free to write what is in your heart and mind with specifics that appeal to the five senses. The specifics and sensory information are what allow you to enter the experience you have already had and are now writing about. If it is hard to “just” write, I recommend keeping prompts nearby (many books and websites are out there with scores and scores of prompts) . You can make your own prompts easily, too: Write a letter to someone you really want to know about your life right now. Turn the radio on and off and write from whatever snatch of conversation, lyrics or instrumental music you heard. Open a book and point. Copy the phrase your finger points to and let yourself write whatever you think of because of that phrase. Open the dictionary and find a word you don’t know the meaning of. Make up a definition. Or read the actual definition and write about what it makes you think of in your life’s events.

Authornomics
What is the most important advice you would share for someone who is just starting out as a writer?

Sheila
Believe in yourself. Believe that it is important that you write, that as you write you will learn more and more about yourself and about how to put more on the page. And find a group of writers to belong to who will affirm this—whether they are group that meets together to write, meets together to listen to one another’s writing, or functions as a writer’s group that is hoping to develop and polish pieces of writing.

Authornomics
Your magazine, Writing It Real, was launched in 2002. Can you talk about the magazine offers writers and why you decided to publish it online?

Sheila
The magazine and website offers people writing instruction, inspiration, and craft discussions aimed at helping them keep on writing. The articles offer writing exercises, sample revision processes (we show drafts of essays and poems from beginning to end and the three-step responses that helped the writer write her way to a finished piece). We have author interviews with working writers and samples of their work and much more. The articles feel to me like what I’d do in a classroom—teach, bring in guests, enjoy the work of people writing in many genres.

In 2002, I’d already published many books on writing, and I knew how long it took to get the instruction out to people because of book publication timelines. Online meant I could offer something every week. And my husband, who still is co-publisher with me, is a professional computer expert. So, I had what I needed to launch. Today, through the website, I offer much more than just the articles. With our new design we have a community discussion where Writing It Real can post not only questions and answers about writing and writers, but information about their own books, blogs, and websites. I am excited to be able to make the Writing It Real community of writers more visible. It is the kind of community I was advising writers to find when you asked me what advice I’d give new writers. And I offer online classes in groups of five people and often these people become committed online writing groups that stay together for years.

Now I am writing an essay about the logistics of starting and maintaining an online business for an anthology aimed at helping women do business online. You never know what writing opportunities will come up!

Authornomics
You have several books published targeted to writers. What are the avenues you have used to get your books published?

Sheila
My first book was co-written, and we published with Warner. Through a friend, I had met a young man who was off to New York for a publishing internship at Warner. I told him about the book. When he got to his new office, he interested the editor he was working for in taking a look at the book. Meanwhile, the same friend who introduced me to him, led me to a friend who led me to the agent my co-author and I then hired, a woman starting out on her own, who was interested in acquiring a list. Ultimately, the agent and the editor helped us shape the book a bit and it became a stronger manuscript by the time Warner published it. That book went on to have a second longer edition published by Blue Heron Press, a regional press we connected with at a writers’ conference). When they went out of business we published it again with Booktrope, an organization that offers free electronic books as well as print editions. They came to my attention when my sister called me to tell me about a friend of hers who was involved.

Elizabeth Wales was the agent and she later sold my book on essay writing to Writer’s Digest Books and then that press asked me to write three more books for them. When those books went out of print, I retrieved the copyright (just the formality of requesting it) and have seen the books republished in print and electronic form. I met a small publisher in San Diego through a book publicist, and he brought out Writing and Publishing Personal Essays, Second Edition. My colleague Ruth Folit of Lifejournal.com has made two other of my out-of-print books, Writing Personal Poetry and A Year in the Life, Journaling for Self-Discovery, available as ebooks. Soon, I hope to be publishing with another small press interested in bringing out a series of Writing It Real books.

I have also published with McGraw-Hill’s education department. They approached me about writing books for two of their series: their Perfect Phrases series (I wrote Perfect Phrases for College Application Essays, about perfect phrases for researching oneself for material and phrases for creating order in an essay) and their DeMystified series (I wrote Creative Writing DeMystified). I’d been asked to write the Perfect Phrases book when a book packager for McGraw-Hill contacted my boss at Accepted.com, an organization for whom I was then an editor. Later, the McGraw-Hill editor for that book contacted me directly for the DeMystified book.

My memoir, A New Theology: Turning to Poetry in a Time of Grief, was turned down by my agent and one other agent. Both said it was powerful and ought to be published, but they didn’t feel they could sell it. I was eager to have the book published because I wanted to raise money with the proceeds for a camp scholarship fund in my son Seth Bender’s name. One night, I sent a query by email to about ten presses. I heard back from three and sent the book out to all three presses that expressed interest. One was the University of Nebraska press, known for being a memoir press. Imago Press was ready to publish it but the publisher graciously said she felt I had to wait for the university press to let me know their decision, as it would be prestigious for them to publish the book. It took months, but I finally received a lovely rejection letting me know turning my book down had more to do with the press than my work. Leila Joiner at Imago went right to work and the book still came out in a timely way. If a big press ever wanted to pick that book up, it would be wonderful as more people would hear about the book. Those who read it tell me about the healing affect it has on them.

I’m excited to have a new book of poems recently released from Pixelita Press here in Port Townsend, where I live. Behind Us the Way Grows Wider includes new and collected work. Pixelita also created a video in which I discuss writing and teaching writing. You can view it here. 

Now I am working on a book a new ebook publisher has approached me to write. I hope to have it finished by the New Year, 2013. It’s a wonderful opportunity because this book will contain photographs to write from and digital publishing is the way to go to avoid expensive editions when you use color photographs. I look forward to creating writing exercises that benefit from the color photographs readers can view.

I think that not turning down opportunities has been key to getting published again and again. That and staying focused on what I like to offer others.

Authornomics
You organize an annual writers’ conference with Writing It Real. What can writers get out of your conference that they might not find elsewhere?

Sheila
First of all, I think there are several reasons to attend a writer’s conference—the days you attend are earmarked for submersing yourself in the life of a writer. And then you receive enrichment in lectures, writing sessions, and networking, and you meet new colleagues to connect with in an ongoing way after the conference. It is a treat to experience so much of what you love to hear about all in one place and time. One of the great benefits to me of teaching is being invited to present at conferences, because outside of giving my presentations, I get to be an attendee and enjoy the perks of the weekend.

And, of course, I think attending the annual Writing It Real conference is one of the best things a writer can do! My two colleagues, Meg Files and Jack Heffron, and I make our conference a working conference for writers–the conference fee includes one-on-one consults, manuscript workshops, exercises for creating new writing during the weekend and craft lectures. We pack a lot in and people really do take their writing to the next level as we promise in our promotional material. This year the conference is in Nashville, TN, a new location for us and one we are thrilled to have scheduled.

Anyone interested in learning more can email conference@writingitreal.com for information or read the material on our website for this year’s conference. For 15 years, Jack Heffron, Meg Files and I have come together to teach. We love offering craft lectures and exercise sessions and individual consults as well as manuscript workshops.

Authornomics
Do you have any upcoming projects we should look out for?

Sheila
My online classes are my ongoing project. I try to make the logistics simple: small groups of five, weekly assignments for four to five weeks, lots of response to participants’ work and done on everyone’s own time during the week. Additionally, I love teaching in person.

I look forward to co-facilitating a day-long writing retreat (scroll down) with Andrea Hurst in Coupeville, WA on January 13, 2013. (Perhaps one of our exercises should be to write an interview with oneself.)

I also look forward to leading a writer’s weekend retreat in Roundtree, TX for Story Circle Network on March 8-10.

Another teaching opportunity is coming up for me this June (a weekend writing workshop) and July (afternoon workshops during a two-week writing conference) at Centrum Foundation’s Writer’s Conference afternoon workshops. Both before and after I attended graduate school, I studied at Centrum. Did I dare dream of teaching in their program? Of having a writer’s life like the writers teaching me? Of course! To have fulfilled some of my dreams is more than gratifying — it makes me realize how much work I have done in a field I cherish.

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Whether you have accomplished as much as you hope to or haven’t yet reached that goal, when you interview yourself, make sure you put a positive spin on your accomplishments and articulate clearly your dreams of the projects you want to begin. Remember that where you are in your writing life, if viewed through a positive lens, is a strong platform for affirming yourself as a writer.

Many years ago, I attended an evening with a stand-up comic presenting on the motivation to do one’s life’s work. He had recovered from an aggressive form of melanoma when he was in his twenties. He realized then there was no time to lose in becoming the person he wanted to become. He told us that when you love, to love like a poet, but when you pray, to pray like a lawyer.”

In other words, be specific about the way you visualize your dreams. When it comes to your writing and writing career and the place of writing in your life, ask yourself, “Are there upcoming projects I would like to describe?” Think of the ones you hope to accomplish — from writing poetry upon particular life occasions to finishing a memoir you’ve started to attending literary readings or reading books by particular authors.  Write the specifics of projects that fit into your understanding of yourself as a writer whose life is a writer’s life. If you can make links to material on the Internet, do it. Build a solid portrait of yourself as a writer, no matter what stage of writing and building a writing life you are in. Seizing an opportunity to hone your perception of yourself as a writer just might help new writing opportunities find you.