On an article that didn't run

Way back in January I got a review copy of local author Therese Fowler's "Exposure," her third novel. I'd reviewed her first novel, "Souvenir," for our paper, and my editor assigned me to write on this one, too, when it came out in May.

It was a good book. It dealt with teenagers who get in legal trouble because of "sexting," taking and sending to each other naked cell phone photos of themselves. Fowler's own real-life son had been arrested after sending photos to a friend who was under eighteen. That is called "disseminating harmful materials to a minor."

I persuaded my editor to do a larger article on Fowler's development as a writer since "Souvenir," and we put that down on the docket. Then there was an editor change at the paper, which is always ticklish, but I succeeded, I thought, in preserving the assignment.

Then after I filed the story this past week, my editor wrote me back and said there was a duplicate feature at their sister paper she was going to use instead. It deals dominantly with the sexting angle, less so with Fowler as a writer.

Which is probably best for the paper's readers. That's the sizzle part of Fowler's book.

I was impressed with Fowler's skill as a writer. She weaves in a Romeo and Juliet theme to "Exposure" that becomes for me the most interesting aspect of the book. The Montague-Capulet families involved have relevant contemporary differences-- one is Southern, traditional, moneyed, the other is non-Southern, bohemian, single-mom run.

The characters, as well, ring true for me as an educator of teenage heroes. Anthony and Amelia, the couple involved with the sexting charge, are romantic performer-types, seniors in high school who want to run off to Broadway after graduation. Anthony's mom, the single one, is a French and art teacher at his private school. And Amelia's dad, Harlan, who discovers the pictures and makes a big legal deal about them, makes sense as a Southern man for whom Amelia is like a crown jewel that needs to be protected and preserved. As a dad of a teen myself, I can certainly identify with that.

Fowler told me in an interview that she aspires to the literary versatility of Anna Quindlan, and I wouldn't bet against that. When her first novel came out, I went to a reading at a bookstore where the man who introduced her, a writing professor and mentor, chided her for being stubborn about taking criticism. Then Fowler stood up to speak and I realized she knew what she was about, knew what she wanted, and didn't need to change stuff in her book that she felt didn't need changing.

This is so important for writers. As an undergraduate I stayed away from creative writing classes, partly because of an experience in a one-day workshop where I was in a group of students who pooled their ignorance, told me what to do with a story, and to whom I stupidly listened. I threw out the old manuscript (there were no PCs back then) and went about changing to the new, and only later realized that I had lost with the old paper the thread of what I wanted to do with the story.

For a long time I was hamstrung with the idea that a novel must come out pristine from one's brain on the first draft. Many years later I got to do some work with an extremely gifted creative writing professor, and that helped quite a bit, and somewhat redeemed the whole idea of critiquing fiction.

But I still think it is extremely important for writers to know what they want. Novels are wickedly difficult to write, akin to getting into a cage with a hungry lion. You've got to have that inner confidence, that reassurance that you are talented and your story matters. Unless, of course, you like getting eaten by lions.

With that, I will now get into my own cage. I've been getting my own feedback lately and need to address that. Rawwr.

 Etwart says, know what you want, author.

Comments

[Lyn]

Definitely going to check this novel out, David. As I gather feedback on my novel, I'm sorting through a large variety of comments and letting them echo in my head till some die out and some stick. I have such a clear idea of my character I know what she can and can't do. I strive to be open and confident simultaneously.

[DF]

Lyn, My only comment is go for it. You've got it, all you need is the one agent that also believes.

[Bob Mustin]

Creative writing is a testy proposition, isn't it? I still have a few early drafts of stories I wrote fifteen years or so ago, and I cringe when I read them. Still, at the time I thought they were "literature."
And a friend recently forwarded an ancient interview with Hemingway, in which he claimed his editor, Charles Scribner, never changed anything but a word or two in H's early novels.
Still, I've come to realize that there's never been a "perfect" piece of creative writing; the writer has to be eternally vigilant for weaknesses in his/her pieces, no matter the level of acclaim or commercial success.