Month: June 2010

Reading, Writing

Human mud

sashikaufman

Really liked this quote from an interview with author David Mitchell about writing and how his new book is more preoccupied with what he describes as “human mud” and less experimental in its structure and form.

“The reason we love the books we love – it’s the people.  It’s the human mud, the glue between us and them, the universal periodic table of the human condition.  It transcends.”

Read the whole article in last Sunday’s New York Times magazine.   I read his book Black Swan Green and I’m interested to check out Cloud Atlas.

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Writing

Readers and Revision

sashikaufman

Somehow I have managed to finish a first draft of my second YA novel tentatively titled Go West.  One mistake I think I made with my first YA novel was not letting other people read it early enough in the process.  I did most of my revision without getting outside input and I think I could have stream-lined my revision process by getting input earlier.  Who knows?

This time I’ve asked two English teacher friends to read the first draft and give me some really general feedback.  What works?  What doesn’t?  What are the most exciting parts of the story?  Where does it drag?  What do they want/need to know more about?

When do you first get feedback on your works in progress?  Who do you trust/burden with this task 🙂 ?