down the writer's path

What type of writer should you be?

Time for a little nonsense after the wonderful intervew(s) with Art Plotnik the past two weeks. Thanks to Georganna over at Writer's-Edge for this one. I found it interesting as I have no interest in film writing at all. I consider it a good movie-going year if I make it to one or two in the twelve months; but it is true that my joy is in the storytelling and my stories range far and wide. I've always been strong in the dialogue department, too, but that film strip-in-the-mind thing belongs to my friend Heather over at Blog Trek, not me. I don't "see" my stories at all.

You Should Be a Film Writer

You don't just create compelling stories, you see them as clearly as a movie in your mind. You have a knack for details and dialogue. You can really make a character come to life. Chances are, you enjoy creating all types of stories. The joy is in the storytelling. And nothing would please you more than millions of people seeing your story on the big screen!

What Type of Writer Should You Be?

(Oh, and I'll definitely take the millions of viewers if someone else does the screenplay of my book....)

Curious about your answer? Check out Blogthings.

Arthur Plotnik talks about the changing role of editors

Arthur Plotnik was kind enough to answer a few questions directly for Down the Writer's Path. This segment continues an interview that runs the rest of the week. Plotnik is the author of the newly released, Spunk & Bite: A Writer’s Guide to Punchier, More Engaging Language & Style. Copyright Vikk Simmons, 2006.

As a writer, author, and editor, do you think the editor's role has changed? What realistic expectations and appropriate attitudes should writers hold when they begin their interactions with editors?

Forget any myth about hand-holding editors, outside an occasional small press. Editors are mainly pivot points in cross-media enterprises. They look for “product” that can be sold in multiple formats and/or for authors that can be branded. They juggle scores of projects developing over two-or-three-year cycles. They spend half their time working with quantitative projections and going to meetings.

That said, there are times when an editor (book editor) is pleasantly focused on you and your submitted work. “Acquiring,” or “developmental” editors read your proposal (usually sent by an agent) with its samples of the writing. They offer the contract, and they answer a reasonable number of questions as you work toward the deadline. They read the final draft, suggest general revisions, and check them quickly. Then, usually, the work is handed off to a freelance copyeditor–whom you will rarely be allowed to deal with directly. Acquiring editors intercede if you have problems with the copyediting. During the months of production and upon publication, they and marketing staffers will exchange promotional ideas with you. They’ll expect you to do the legwork on specialized publicity lists---pertinent media, associations, and other contacts.

Believe it or not, through all of this you sometimes form a friendly relationship with your well-intentioned but overloaded editor editor—who comes to respect your opinions and gets behind the work even after publication. That is, if you’ve first obeyed these seven rules of highly successful interaction with editors:

—Be courteous, patient, businesslike, and brief.
—Never get chummy or personal, unless explicitly encouraged. (It’s okay to use first names after the contract is signed and to mail holiday greetings.) If the editors have assistants, get to know them by name; they can be helpful. But don’t try using them to end-run the editor.
—Never miss a deadline. Ask for drop-dead (more realistic) deadlines if necessary.
—Keep track of length. Ask for a maximum word count, not page count. Never write longer than your assigned wordage except with permission.
—Understand the provinces of editors: For example, editors make the final call on titles, design, cover, and cover copy. Offer genial input, not insistent argument.
—Even if it kills you, be positive and constructive at all times. Talk about “challenges,” not problems. Don’t expect special attention. Unless asked to phone, avoid phoning editors when e-mails will do. And never vent anger or badmouth other staff. Once you are tagged a “problem author,” you’ll be handled at arm’s length or even dropped.
—Put yourself in the editor’s place: Dealing with dozens of agents, authors, deadlines; piled high with manuscripts, pressured and hectored by a hierarchy of publishers and managers; and, of course, put there to generate the most profit possible with the fewest resources. Any way you can make their lives easier earns you golden halos and, often, invitations to do another book.

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With many thanks to Art and his kind generosity, today ends my interview. If you've come to the party late, read the previous posts this week and all those that comprise the interview by Brigit Ganske posted last week. Check out Spunk & Bite and see for yourself why so many are praising Plotnik's latest work. You might also want to visit Art's website, Spunky's Blogrr, and read his official bio. If you haven't already, take a look at my review of The Elements of Authorship.

Arthur Plotnik on the future of language and style

Arthur Plotnik was kind enough to answer a few questions directly for Down the Writer's Path. This segment continues an interview that runs the rest of the week. Plotnik is the author of the newly released, Spunk & Bite: A Writer’s Guide to Punchier, More Engaging Language & Style. Copyright Vikk Simmons, 2006.

Any thoughts on current and/or future trends in language and usage? Is there anything anything you see currently that strikes you as positive and interesting to watch? Any usage or style that provokes caution?

I think that style—in the sense of a distinctive voice—has become as important as content and story for one’s breakthrough. After all, everything’s been said a thousand times over. Why publish another memoir of addiction and recovery, for example, unless the style somehow distinguishes it? Before James Frey was pulverized and Oprahsized for lying in a A Million Little Pieces, critics were raving about his “intense, punchy prose,” and its “electrifying immediacy.”

A very successful style trend I’ve observed is the mixing of high and low diction, breaking down the old barrriers between educated and street English. In novels by T. C. Boyle and Benjamin Kunkel, for instance, you get phrases like, “peripatetic dirtbags” and “the widespread contemporary prevalence of things sucking so much for so many people.” I love the mix.

Wired messaging has created an abbreviated style, a Rebus language that seems goofy outside messages. But b4 its 2 L8, writers should understand that the opulent style—textured, indulgent, even antique,  la Vladimir Nabokov, John Banville, or historical novelists like Geraldine Brooks—can still delight editors and readers if masterfully executed. It’s probably not for blogging, though.

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If you've come to the interview late, be sure you read the previous posts this week and the one by Brigit Ganske from last week. Check out Spunk & Bite and see for yourself why so many are praising Plotnik's latest work. You might also want to check out Art's website, Spunky's Blogrr, and, Plotnik's official bio. If you haven't already, read my review of The Elements of Authorship then return for more soundbites from the Great Plotnik!

Arthur Plotnik on the future of e-books,

Arthur Plotnik was kind enough to answer a few questions directly for Down the Writer's Path. This segment continues an interview that runs the rest of the week. Plotnik is the author of the newly released, Spunk & Bite: A Writer’s Guide to Punchier, More Engaging Language & Style. Copyright Vikk Simmons, 2006.

Digitized publishing is growing. Libraries now actively acquire e-books. Any thoughts on the future of electronic publishing? Will it have any influence on writing style?

I think e-books will take hold—given how the industry is pushing them and improving the reading devices, and how Gen-Y is conditioned to the medium. Libraries find they fit the research parameters of many of today’s students—“Dude, like if it don’t be on the screen, it ain’t worth checkin’ out.” Publishers would love e-pubs to displace print and all its costs and bizarre logistics; but, with the help of Barnes & Noble, Borders, and beautiful readers, e-books will remain only an alternative to bound books for some time.

Again, good writing is good writing—more spunky and bitey today, perhaps, than was necessary in a less frenetic media environment. In e-books, however, readers may be inclined to skip around more, auto-searching names and topics and following links. All that painstaking development writers put into an idea, a character, an ambience, may be lost on such “viewers”—but there will still be readers who come to writing to be stimulated or transported by cumulative effects.

A cautinary note: When signing a publishing contract, make sure e-book terms and royalties are spelled out, including what happens when the publishing house is sold.

Self-publishing and now POD (print on demand) books are two growing avenues toward publication that entice many new writers. What are your thoughts on this part of the industry? Should writers be cautious?

Cautious yes, but not dismissive. “Cooperative” or “collaborative” publishing has improved so much since the “vanity”days when writers were bilked out of ten grand or so for a pile of hideous-looking, unedited books.

Publishers like iUniverse seem to be pretty up-front on terms. They’re affordable and efficient. The production quality is good, the POD a great alternative. Extra services, for extra fees, are well delivered. The sole illusion, perhaps, is marketing. I think the only marketing that’s going to sell such books is your own—an intrepid campaign of appearances, e-mailing, blogging, begging, and strategic shipping of press releases and copies. Although self-published authors have to live with the stigma of second-class citizenry, some mainstream reviewers (such as Booklist) are starting to respond to (deft) appeals for attention. It all sounds daunting, but hey—it’s pretty much do-it-yourself marketing with trade publishers, too, at least until you’re a brand name.

There are still a few few scoundrels out there, by the way. Beware of little-known publishers who ask to see your manuscript, then send a series of letters expressing their mounting excitement over your work, each time hinting that you’ll have to take a greater part ($$) in this can’t-fail cooperative venture. Who can resist someone getting all flushed and trembly over their novel? But, of course, it’s a faked orgasm.

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If you've come to the interview late, be sure you read the previous posts this week and the one by Brigit Ganske from last week. Check out Spunk & Bite and see for yourself why so many are praising Plotnik's latest work. You might also want to check out Art's website, Spunky's Blogrr, and, Plotnik's official bio. If you haven't already, read my review of The Elements of Authorship then return for more soundbites from the Great Plotnik!

Arthur Plotnik: Why blog?

Arthur Plotnik was kind enough to answer a few questions directly for Down the Writer's Path. This segment continues an interview that runs the rest of the week. Plotnik is the author of the newly released, Spunk & Bite: A Writer’s Guide to Punchier, More Engaging Language & Style. Copyright Vikk Simmons, 2006.

Let's talk about blogging. You've done some yourself. Does it demand a particular type of approach in dealing with language? Does it warrant a place in a writer's aresenal? Do you think it can be an important platform for writers? Some bloggers have been able to leap frog into a book contract as a result of their efforts. How should a writer approach blogging?

The recent YearlyKos convention of bloggers in Las Vegas—attended by a Who’s Who of luminaries and a gaggle of mainstream media correspondents—gives some idea of the power and potential of bloggery. But to think that putting up a blog will make you a Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (king of political bloggers), with book contracts pouring in, is akin to sending off a novel and waiting for the check by return mail.

Yes, writers should have a blog, with occasional posts, either as part of their own site or on a host platform. It’s an expected part of your digital business card these days, a presence that proclaims, “Hey, I’ve got something to say, too.” But one has to realize that, with virtually everyone having a blog, yours will have all the impact of a sandwich sign worn on Main Street—unless you dedicate yourself to it and its marketing. And then you’re taking time and energy away from the conventional writing pursuits, aren’t you?

The most avidly read blogs seem to be those that are ends in themselves—complete heads-up reporting, investigative scoops, vital information, select links, and name contributors. Or, good blogs lucky enough to catch the eye of some mainstream power. Yes, a fetching blog might interest a book editor, but so might writing and sending out interesting manuscripts and proposals.

I do a couple of blogs in the voice of an imaginary dog—Spunky—a pooch from the cover of Spunk & Bite. I do it for laughs, and to offer some realistic advice or cynical perspectives on publishing that would seem self-serving or petulant in my own voice. This is my blog presence. If someone looks for me, I’ll be there; that’s the main idea.

I blog in natural, conversational language, in the spirit of the personal “log” that blogs are supposed to be. I include useful links, but not so many as to launch the reader into otherspace. Fortunately, my host’s meg capacity discourages graphics, which can be distracting when overdone—just look at some of those MySpace blogs; they’re like The Matrix double-exposed over X-Men. I do a post every few weeks, disdaining automated notifications to a subscriber network (does anyone want those endless alerts?) It’s a very small effort, leaving me strength to write columns and books.

Here, by the way, is an interesting new view on why daily posting to your blog is very yesterday.

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If you've come to the interview late, be sure you read the previous posts this week and the one by Brigit Ganske from last week. Check out Spunk & Bite and see for yourself why so many are praising Plotnik's latest work. You might also want to check out Art's website, Spunky's Blogrr, and, Plotnik's official bio. If you haven't already, read my review of The Elements of Authorship then return for more soundbites from the Great Plotnik!

Arthur Plotnik chats about publishing's Internet dance

Arthur Plotnik was kind enough to answer a few questions directly for Down the Writer's Path. This segment is part of an interview that will run the rest of the week. Plotnik is the author of the newly released, Spunk & Bite: A Writer’s Guide to Punchier, More Engaging Language & Style. Copyright Vikk Simmons, 2006.

The Internet is a vast, growing force that the publishing industry has been slow to embrace. Do you see the Internet having any impact on language? Is it a positive or a negative force? What do you think about text messaging?

Deep questions, and I’m not the deep sort. But the industry’s Net-groping seems pretty hot and heavy to me, considering that every major publisher is invested in Internet publishing projects. But if they’re stuck at first base, it’s over how to sell the value of virtual publications. It’s hard enough to make people buy a tangible book, so shiny and cuddly, convenient, portable, giveable, keepable. But outside technical publishing, even with sites that draw advertising, very few publishers are cashing in on packages of digital content—not in a medium whose concept is the free exchange of free expression.

What publishers have to offer, over free Internet writing, is value-added content. What value do they add? Screening and editing. Theoretically, a publisher has separated the wheat from the chaff and refined it to the highest quality. That’s why busy readers in search of excellence—excellence of form, language, and style as well as content—still pretty much go to books. Add these values to the Internet’s strengths—vitality, currency, and interactivity—and there might be a product worth paying for.

Internet affects language by changing it faster than pre-Internet usage ever did. It pours seas of new words and slick locutions into the vernacular, and many of them stick. It pushes trendy locutions into Cringeville in a hurry. But I don’t think it changes the principles of forceful or elegant writing. Such writing dazzles as much in pixels as it does in print.

Text messaging leaves me cold. But that’s just I, who agonize over words. If I were 19, messaging the young woman with the compelling tattoo across the café, I’m sure I’d dig it.

As a follow up, how do you think today's writers should approach all the many and varied opportunities the Internet affords, particularly given its enticing instant publication gratification?

Step up and choose your level of interaction. For example:
---If money isn’t the whole point, commit to being an Internet author, exploring every possible publishing site and concentrating on those that offer the best framework, editorial service, and exposure for your writing. Create your own appealing site to help showcase what you’re doing throughout the medium. The goal: What you want to say gets out there, well presented and permanently findable. You are heard.

—Use the Internet to build the “platform” that print publishers are demanding these days. Disgustingly, publishers now want you to have an audience in hand, a following, before they’ll take you on. Put some of your work on a writing-community site and/or your own blog. The friend-making machinery of such sites as MySpace.com can help you recruit followers in a flash. Use the “viral spread” techniques of the Net (two mentions leading to four, etc.) to get your work noted or linked to---to build the Googleability of your name. If you’re writing nonfiction, work the online communities in your subject field.

—Focus on publishing in print, but use the Internet to supplement what you do there, as well as help promote it. Want a good example of an author’s site so helpful and engaging that it warms you to anything else its author does? You’re looking at it (“Down the Writer’s Path”).
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For more on Plotnik's views, read last week's interview conducted by Brigit Ganske. Check out Spunk & Bite and see for yourself why so many are praising Plotnik's latest work. You might also want to check out his website, Spunky's Blogrr, and, his official bio. If you haven't already, read my review of The Elements of Authorship then return for more soundbites from the Great Plotnik!

What's in your wastebasket?

My morning ritual begins with a daily bit of reading. Today I dipped into Chicken Soup for the Writer's Soul and happened upon this bit of wisdom from Larry Wilde:

One thing all successful writers have in common: a stomach for failing.

Repeatedly. Perhaps years on end. A true professional has a wastebasket full of paper, a drawer (or more) full of rejections, and, of course, another work in progress.

Like all creative souls, writers learn over time that while they may be failing, they are not failures. They learn from their mistakes, and they keep on going. When it seems they've hit a stone wall, they find a way to move ahead. Even if it takes them down a radically different path.

Looking back on my checkered career, one lesson stands out: Failure is opportunity in disguise.

I hope you enjoyed the week-long interivew with Art Plotnik conducted by Brigit Ganske. If you missed it, begin reading here. Art was kind enough to sit for a virtual inteview and I'll run the results the rest of this week. Be sure and return to find out what Art thinks about the new media, texting, and other new writerly applications.

Arthur Plotnik gives names, talks MFA programs and the Iowa Writers Workshop, and offers a bit of advice

Day 5 in Down the Writer's Path's series with Arthur Plotnik. This segment is part of an interview with Arthur Plotnik, author of the newly released, Spunk & Bite: A Writer’s Guide to Punchier, More Engaging Language & Style by Briget Ganske, Spring 2006 and posted with their permission.

Which current writers do you most respect or admire? Why?

Recent favorites for style or sheer power include novelists Roth, Tom Wolfe, Dom DeLillo, E. Annie Proulx, Margaret Atwood, Fay Weldon, and Mark Leyner. Poet Billy Collins. Critics Anthony Lane and David Denby. Columnist Maureen Dowd.

I like the linguistic bravado, the inventiveness, of some of the British novelists—writers like Martin Amis, Rupert Thompson, Will Self, Zadie Smith.

My most recent discovery in language reference books: Garner’s Modern American Usage, by Bryan A. Garner. Should be on every writer’s desk, as they say. Right next to my works.

Where did you go to undergrad? Did you concentrate on writing there?

In my third year at the State University of New York’s Albany campus, as editor of the school’s literary magazine, I published a few stories then considered off-color for a teacher’s college. The worst of the offending tales was mine. A city-wide, freedom-of-speech hullabaloo erupted, and ultimately the university president himself booted me out. (I was since named an honorary alumnus. Yay.)

I’d lived by the pen during those years, and now I’d died a small death by it; the karma was in play. I sold my first short story the next fall to a men’s magazine, then got myself into the state’s young, open-armed Binghamton campus, where I edited the literary mag and studied writing under a nurturing English faculty.

Tell me about your experience at the Iowa Writers Workshop.

Exhilarating and terrifying, as I imagine most such programs are. Imagine that first day in the Fiction Workshop, when a tall, intense, 26-year-old snapped the creases of his chinos, settled himself on the front edge of the instructor’s desk, and announced softly, “I’m Philip Roth.” Or when Lost-Generation novelist Vance Bourjaily handed back a comic story saying, “I laughed all night.” On the other hand, picture our barracks classrooms as the frigid Iowa nights descended, when the reading of a student’s best effort drew a killing silence from sourpussed classmates, or when the nastiest critics, smelling blood, swooped in to pick the poor student clean.

What do you think of MFA programs in general? Are they necessary for writers?

Many writers succeed without them; ergo, not necessary. But they’re a good framework, a motivation, for coached writing and revision, for learning to profit from criticism, for getting to feel like a writer in the writing community and perhaps finding your niche. Of course, you’re gambling a year or two of time and tuition that might be spent on a more practical graduate degree, like information science, education, or journalism. If aspiring writers can get the workshop experience within other degree programs (as I did for an M.A. in English), they should consider doing so.

MFA programs vary, but I suspect most of the fiction workshops teach the basic lessons described in my autobiographical writer’s guide, The Elements of Authorship. In brief, they tell you to understate, surprise, reward, focus, be accurate, particularize, justify actions. dramatize, get attention, and be sincere.

Your books are packed with useful tips, but if you had to give just one piece of advice to writers, what would it be?

Language counts, even in this supposedly dumbed-down world. People will care about language as long as they use words to symbolize everything they care about. Has anything stirred juices and moved souls more than the well chosen word? People may be dazzled by graphics, by Manga, by video, by offensive cartoons—but what do they want to do next? Talk about it. In words.

And if you want your words to stand out from the competition, the secret is freshness—the power of novel, inventive expression. If a modifier, a sentence, a passage seems stale, spavined—forceless—then labor over it until it feels newborn. Yes, everyone else is out there having fun while you’re moiling away with words. But you are a writer, and your kind of fun is, well, different.

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If you've come to the interview late, be sure you read the four previous posts. Check out Spunk & Bite and see for yourself why so many are praising Plotnik's latest work. You might also want to check out Art's website, Spunky's Blogrr, and, Plotnik's official bio. If you haven't already, read my review of The Elements of Authorship then return for more soundbites from the Great Plotnik!

Arthur Plotnik tells all about living the writer's life

Day 4 in Down the Writer's Path's series with Arthur Plotnik. This segment is part of an interview with Arthur Plotnik, author of the newly released, Spunk & Bite: A Writer’s Guide to Punchier, More Engaging Language & Style by Briget Ganske, Spring 2006 and posted with their permission.

Do you find it difficult to live as a writer? Specifically, do you find it financially difficult to support yourself by writing? And more generally, do you find living a "writer's life", however you want to define that, a difficult thing to do?

The only time I tried to support myself exclusively as a writer—a two-year period of decent paychecks —I ended up on the couch, with a psychiatrist telling me “the golden-haired boy needs a haircut,” whatever that meant. But I took it to mean: stop isolating yourself in a small room with made-up thoughts and big dreams—and engage in a real profession. Of course, for the most part I’d been writing erotic pulp novels, one a month (see later question), which wasn’t the healthiest kind of isolation.

After that episode, with a specialized degree and full-time editorial work, I was able to balance the writer’s inward life with a clean, well-lighted, outward life—one whose restraints were both disciplining and motivating for writing done at night and on weekends. The limitations of a job can act like a compressor of creative energy, which explodes at night in manic writing sessions.

Anyway, the dough earned from those extra efforts—averaging maybe seven or eight grand a year over the uneven decades--- has been gravy. Even now, my post-editing career as a writer only supplements basic income.

I think the so-called writer’s life is an escapist fantasy. You know—the seaside cottage, the cats, the breaks for beach walks, and by night the cultivated friends and exquisite wines. Serious writing is more about 60-hour weeks of research, keystroking, screen-staring, and wall-pounding. It’s about the freedom to obey agents, editors, and publishers. About deadlines and self-doubt, competition, continuing education, and plenty of costly outlay. And—if you want to retain some personhood--- about getting out of yourself and serving the needs and aspirations of those around you.

Have you had difficultly getting published?

Of the seven nonfiction books attempted, all have been published—the first three without an agent. But literary fiction, poetry, novels—it’s such a lottery, and I probably don’t play enough to win. As for the columns—editors have, happily, come to me. You want to get published? Write something of compelling interest to an identifiable, paying audience, and write it in language that beats the competition in expressiveness and force. Learn how to write queries and proposals. Then keep hammering at the gates of agencies, media, and publishers.

Describe the process you undertake to get published.

Short stuff? I write it and send it to likely markets. Nonfiction books: I write a complete proposal, the most excruciating act next to chewing off an arm. But it has to be done and done right, even before sending it to the agent. You or the agent send the proposal to editors, along with a few sample chapters, hoping for a contract. If you get one, you write the rest of the book.

Book-length-fiction proposals require a synopsis, which is like chewing off both arms and one leg.

A good primer on writing nonfiction proposals can be found at the New England Publishers site. (Scroll down through several topics.)

I read in a profile online that you have published numerous paperback novels under a pseudonym. Why do you use a pseudonym? Do you think of these books as unrelated to the work you publish under your own name?

Those books are ancient history. Along with Don Westlake, Lawrence Block, and others in a stable run by the Scott Meredith Agency, I wrote a sexy pulp novel every month under various pseudonyms. I happened to be ghostwriting for one of the regulars, but I did 22 books netting about $900 each—a goodly sum in those days. Almost prudish by today’s standards, the books contained no profanity, only the usual action described in purple metaphors—trains, tunnels, pistons, furnaces, and the like. The titles were probably the sexiest thing about them: Lust this and Slut that.

The thrill of being a young, bona fide, published novelist soon faded in the grind of hack writing (literary touches were discouraged). Did anything worthwhile come out of it? I got rid of a lot of bad plots, learned to manage massive output, and used the dough to go back to grad school. And maybe I made a soldier or two happy.

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Come back tomorrow to discover writers Plotnik admires, as he considers the value of MFA programs, and offers a little bit of writerly advice. Be sure you check out Spunk & Bite and see for yourself why so many are praising Plotnik's latest work. You might also want to check out Art's website, Spunky's Blogrr, and, Plotnik's official bio. If you haven't already, read my review of The Elements of Authorship then return for more soundbites from the Great Plotnik!

Arthur Plotnik answers the big question: Why Write?

Day 3 in Down the Writer's Path's series with Arthur Plotnik. This segment is part of an interview with Arthur Plotnik, author of the newly released, Spunk & Bite: A Writer’s Guide to Punchier, More Engaging Language & Style by Briget Ganske, Spring 2006 and posted with their permission.

Why do you write? Or, why do you feel compelled to write?

I ask myself these questions when the going is bad. Then the answer is, “Because I’m so invested in it, because I write better than I play piano or golf, and—to paraphrase Al Franken—gosh darn it, people like my stuff .” When it’s going well I don’t ponder the why of it, because the answer is self-evident: It feels wonderful.

Should others write? Yes, if only to find the words that encapsulate and give shape to experience. Writing can be transformative–as who doesn’t know? It can make the larval you into the chrysalis you, and maybe even you the big butterfly. One can write to engage and stimulate audiences, too; it’s what most of us scribblers do. But a writer must never tie self-esteem to the crapshoot of fame or even publication. The writing gives you the gift, says E. L. Doctorow. If you don’t feel that (eventually), don’t write.

At what point in your life did you become interested in writing?

Third grade. The town paper (White Plains, N.Y.) ran a weekly “Junior Page,” and something I wrote for class made it there. Once I beheld that byline and felt the wonder of expression-made-tangible, the Writing Devil had my soul. I never stopped: School publications, freelance fiction, newspaper reporting, pulp novels; government, trade, and professional writing; magazine columns, nonfiction books, unpublished masterworks; and some low-commitment poetry and blogging.

At what point did you become interested in writing about writing?

As a mentoring editor. I fell into several editorships early on—school literary magazines, specialized newsletters and magazines—with staffers and writers asking for advice. I offered more than I knew before I came to know a few things. (Sorry, those of you I misled!)

My first published advice was to editors in The Elements of Editing, but much of that advice appealed to writers—for example, the criteria for judging a manuscript, or the relationship between editor and writer. When that book hit the jackpot—paired with The Elements of Style by the Book-of-the-Month Club—I fancied myself an author with a knack for explaining what I know. And what else did I know but writing? Besides, it’s gratifying to help writers; some of them thank you in the most expressive ways.

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Come back tomorrow when Plotnik tackles "living the writer's life." Need a great book on language, grammar, and style? Or maybe you'd like a healthy dose of grammar-inspiration? Order a copy of Spunk & Bite and see for yourself why so many are praising Plotnik's latest work. You might also want to check out Art's website, Spunky's Blogrr, and, Plotnik's official bio. If you haven't already, read my review of The Elements of Authorship then return for more soundbites from the Great Plotnik!