At StoryStudio, we encourage each other to keep notebooks handy for jotting down day to day observations, since you never know when you’ll hear a random sentence that sparks an entire story, or discover the shoes your main character would covet on the feet of a fellow CTA rider. Fortunately for us, Lauren MacIntyre had the same idea – except rather than just jotting down details to infuse into her own fiction, she was also keeping track of the lessons and insights she was gaining as a staff member at The New Yorker.
On Wednesday, February 15, she will bring her fifteen years of observations and experience to StoryStudio’s Chicago location in our new single-session class, Lessons From The New Yorker—but first, she told us a little bit more about herself, The New Yorker, and what her class has in store for us.
Tell us about your time with The New Yorker.
I worked at the magazine for over fifteen years. When I started, in my early twenties, I worked in the typing pool. Part of that job was to act as a floater, covering for people who were sick or on vacation, so you could find yourself anywhere on a given day: the cartoon department, the reception desk, assisting the editor-in-chief. It gave me a great overview of the place.
Was there a particular event or observation that prompted you to start taking notes and keeping track of the lessons you were learning there?
I’ve always been the kind of person who jots down quotes or funny things I overhear on the street, so there was no real inciting moment. I was very aware, though, that great insights seemed to be raining down around me every day. I remember talking once with Roger Angell, a longtime contributor and fiction editor at the magazine. We were talking about one of the characters in a story we’d both read, and he said, “All a writer has to do is show the reader once—just once—that a character is charming"—or funny, or grim, or whatever—"and the reader will believe it.” That one made the notebook.
What sorts of lessons should students expect to explore in class?
I’m hoping, most of all, to pass on observations that will help students sharpen their own writing. And there will be a few long rants about perseverance, too, probably. That, I’m beginning to think, is one of the most important weapons a writer can have.
Will you discuss on publication strategy?
Yes, there will definitely be some of that. I can’t offer any tricks or easy avenues for getting published in The New Yorker, of course, but I can offer some illustrative stories that might be helpful to writers who are looking to find a home for their work. Here’s an example. When I first started at the magazine, a bunch of us were asked to read from the slush pile, which is the name for the mountain of stories that people have sent in, hoping to be considered. This was back before people submitted electronically, so there were hundreds of stories to read, maybe thousands, all piled up in big metal baskets that were stacked on shelves from floor to ceiling. It was a very intimidating job, one, because there were so many stories to get through, but also because most of us were writers ourselves and we felt pretty sheepish about rejecting other people’s work. After a few days, the editor came back, eyed what we’d done, and shook his head. “You’re reading too slowly,” he said. “If a story doesn’t grab you within the first page or two you need to move on. The story may have merits, but it’s not where it needs to be. You need to save your energy for those writers whose work is hitting all the marks.”
The takeaway for students here? Work hard to create a compelling opening!
These are the sorts of things I’ll be talking about, and I’m hoping they’ll be helpful to writers who are submitting work anywhere. Not just The New Yorker.
Will the class focus more on fiction or non-fiction writing?
We’ll definitely delve into both. I’m putting a section together right now about character, so there may be moments when we veer into fiction-writing territory and encamp there for a while. But a lot of the ideas we’ll be exploring---the importance of clarity, developing a voice---apply to all kinds of writing, not just fiction. It should be a pretty equal-opportunity experience.
What students would most benefit from Lessons from The New Yorker?
Anyone, I guess, who’s looking for ways to improve their writing. A curiosity about The New Yorker would certainly help, but I don’t think it’s a must. One of the things I’m planning to give students at the end of the class is a list of recommended readings, and I’ve had a lot of fun compiling it. You would think that after fifteen years in a job a person might start feeling bored or jaded. And I certainly had my days. But I’m finding, even now, that certain pieces in The New Yorker still have the power to take my breath away. If I’m able to pass that on to a few new readers, I’ll be pretty happy.
Lessons From The New Yorker is Wednesday, February 15 at StoryStudio’s Chicago location. You can learn more or register here.
Start early, or come to it late. Write your first sentences with reckless abandon, or with apprehension and anxiety, worrying about things you’ve been trained to fear: spelling, grammar, punctuation. Hide your story in a notebook at the bottom of your briefcase or in a secret file on your computer.
Start again. Discover the giddiness of free writing, of spinning around on the page and capturing images in words. Begin a thousand little stories and essays you’ll never finish. Fall in love with sentences and paragraphs. Play with punctuation. Seduce the semi-colon. Eavesdrop on conversations and attempt to recreate them on paper. Kidnap characters from real life and drop them into your pages: the old woman shopping for mangoes at the grocery store, the small child among the pigeons, the man with two laptops on the bus.
Spend a lot of time gazing out the window. Notice moments in the world and think “my character would do that!” Remember fragments and tales from your own life that would be perfect in a memoir. Read everything you can get your hands on. Stop in the middle and study a sentence in awe. Read more.
Lose your momentum. Doubt yourself. Wonder if it’s this hard for everyone.
Seek help. Find a friend who will meet you at a coffeehouse every Sunday, not to talk but to write. Come to a Write-a-Thon and curl up in a corner for a whole afternoon, writing your way through a scene you’d thought impossible. Write more. Join a workshop to get feedback on your drafts.
Take a class. Find a community. Keep going.
This interview was originally posted last October. Laura Ramos Hegwer’s class, Poetic Imagery for Non-Poets, returns to StoryStudio’s North Shore location next Monday, January 30. Read on to learn more about Laura Ramos Hegwer and how poetry can change your prose!
At StoryStudio, one of the first questions I ask when I get to meet a new student is “What kind of writing are you interested in?” Most of the time, the first answer that student gives is either “fiction” or “creative nonfiction” followed by, “but I started out writing poetry.” It’s a familiar answer, because mine is pretty similar: I started out as a poet in high school, and moved into fiction a few years later. So what is it about poetry that makes even us future prose-writers begin our writing journey with a poem? And what do we carry with us into the world of prose? What can writing a poem teach us that writing a story can’t?
We’ll get to explore the answers to some of those questions when Laura Ramos Hegwer brings her knowledge of poetic imagery to StoryStudio’s North Shore location in Poetic Imagery for Non-Poets. This single session class will focus on generating poetic imagery to enhance fiction and nonfiction projects, as well as explore the process of developing that imagery so writers may continue to use their poetic skills in future writing--but before we start tapping into our inner poets, we asked instructor Laura Ramos Hegwer a few questions about poetry and what to expect from her class.
How can an understanding of poetic language and imagery better inform prose?
Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, your writing can benefit from reading and writing poetry. Poetry is like cross training for other genres because it helps you build key skills that you need to be successful. I take pilates, and I feel like poetry works in the same way to strengthen your writing “core:” your metaphors, your syntax, and your ability to stimulate the senses.
Put another way, well-written poems contain lessons for all writers. For example, a narrative poem can take us somewhere unexpected in just a few lines. The poems of Sharon Olds come to mind—they really are like short-short stories. Other poets, such as Atsuro Riley, remind us writers about the musical pleasures of language. And then there is the imagery of poetry: Good poets understand how to craft unusual and layered metaphors—the same qualities that can make our fiction or nonfiction more palpable and meaningful. The poems of Jane Hirshfield, for instance, can teach us a lot about effective imagery, particularly from the natural world.
What kind of poetry most inspires you?
I mostly read contemporary poets, and I have different favorites for different moods. This year, I’ve read a lot of Li-Young Lee, Thomas Lux, Maxine Kumin, Richard Jackson, Mary Ruefle, and Tadeusz Rozewicz. I try to read at least one poem a day, usually before I start writing.
For writers who are new to poetry, anthologies can be a great way to “speed date” a variety of poets and see what you like. When you find a poem that resonates with you, read a book by that poet.
What can students expect from your class?
During our class, we’ll focus on creating poetic images that students can use to enhance their fiction and memoir projects. We’ll read examples of contemporary poetry, flash fiction, nonfiction, and novel excerpts that contain particularly strong images. I’ve had so much fun picking the examples—I hope the students will be blown away and inspired by what they discover in class.
We’ll also spend some time practicing how to create our own images using different writing prompts. Then we’ll discuss some ways to integrate the images from class into our own pieces. We’ll close the session by discussing how students can incorporate reading poetry and playing with images into their own writing practice.
Poetic Imagery for Non-Poets takes place Monday, January 30 at 12:15 PM, at StoryStudio’s North Shore location. You can learn more or register here.
It’s not even the end of January yet, but here at StoryStudio, it’s already been an exciting year. So far, 2012 has included new classes, the opening of the Writers Room, and the welcoming of our first ever Writer In Residence, Kate Harding. But that’s just inside the Studio! Outside our doors, the StoryStudio community has also been busy making it a year to remember:
- Advanced Fiction student Steve Trumpeter (pictured right) had a short story published last week in the Chicago Reader. Check out “Sky Boys” on the Reader’s website.
- Former SSC student and Cooler blogger Michael Greenwald placed in the top 25 finalists of Glimmer Train’s Family Matters contest, for his essay “In a Dark Mind.”
- SSC Instructor Ellen Blum Barish’s radio essay, a reflection on how Martin Luther King, Jr., inspired her father to join the civil rights movement, was featured on WBEZ on Martin Luther King Day. You can read or listen to it on WBEZ’s website.
Congratulations, Michael, Steve and Ellen!
Ever wonder what this How to Be a Writer class is all about? We developed the course to help students learn to build and keep a writing practice while leading busy lives. SSC student Michelle Lawless, who took Jack Helbig’s How to Be a Writer last year, shared her experience of the class with us:
What were you expecting How to Be a Writer to be like before you arrived?
I came into the class not “expecting” anything. I had been struggling for a long time trying to incorporate writing into my demanding schedule as an attorney. Specifically, I was having trouble finding time and emotional space to write, keeping a consistent schedule, and being able to sustain a writing schedule for any period of time. I think in the first class we went around the room and talked about all of our different experiences with writing, and I had said I felt like I had tried everything: writing in the morning, at night, only the weekends, only in large blocks of time, small snippets each day etc. But I never felt like I hit a rythym and was able to keep to anything. So I was looking to the class to help me explore ways of fitting writing into life.
What was the most surprising thing you learned in class?
You actually can produce good stuff if you sit down and force yourself to write for just 10 minutes non-stop! Things will come out that wouldn’t have otherwise come out if you just sit there pondering over each and every word and worrying about correct sentence structure, etc.
I was suprised that virtually everyone in the class had the same problem with which I had come to the class: when to do it and how to approach it when you have a million other things that need to be done. I also think it’s
important to realize that not everyone will be able to have the same schedule. What works for one person doesn’t necessarily work for another. What is right is what works for you.
Did you have any “aha” moments? Did the class change any of your thoughts or approach to your own work?
The class completely changed my approach to writing. My “aha moment” was when Jack talked about having to think of yourself holistically as a writer. He talked about how it was important to take care of yourself, excercise, eat well, and get enough sleep. If you are not doing those things, you are hurting yourself, and your writing will naturally suffer as well.
I think for the first time after that class I started thinking about myself holistically as a writer. It’s not about cramming 30 minutes of writing into your day just to check it off of the to do list. It’s about thinking of yourself as a writer and putting yourself in the best position possible so that when you write you can be thoughtful and productive. When I am running, doing yoga or other exercise, I don’t compartmentalize the activity and feel guilty that I am not writing because I chose to exercise. “Writing” isn’t just about sitting down and putting pen to paper (although that is vitally important!) You also need time to fuel your mind, experience life, and organize your thoughts. Exercise, cooking, spending time with friends and family can be valuable experiences to fuel your writing.
Any other thoughts you’d like to share with people thinking about taking How to be a Writer?
If you are reading the course description and wondering if the course is for you - it is!
Jack Helbig’s How to Be a Writer starts Saturday, January 28 at StoryStudio’s Chicago location.
Next Page
