Does this count as productive?

Do you ever go into a bookstore promising yourself you won’t buy anything and leave with a book you’ve been dying to read and instead of spending your Sunday writing blog posts and doing week-old laundry and otherwise getting your life in order you spend the entire day on the couch reading the book because it’s so good you can’t put it down?*

That’s what happened to me yesterday. The book? The Autobiography of an Execution, by David Dow. (Here’s a review by the New York Times.)

I may be biased because I’m fascinated by the death penalty (not obsessed with being for or against it, just obsessed with learning about it), and I can picture some of the places Dow describes, including the execution chamber itself, because I covered an execution as a reporter in Houston… but this book sucked me in. It reads like fiction. I’ve got fifty pages left, and I hope the ending is as good as what I’ve read so far.

What was the last book that made you drop everything and read?

*This entry written Julie-Kraut style (except she’s funnier). Julie, you should copyright that so people like me can’t steal it.

Mark your calendar: Twitter chat with author Dani Shapiro

Are you reading Dani Shapiro‘s new memoir, Devotion?

I am! I am! Had to buy it after interviewing Dani earlier this month. Partly because I wished I had a book club to discuss it with, I asked Dani if she’d be interested in visiting a vitual book club, through a Twitter chat. She agreed!

Details:

When: Sunday, February 21

Time: 8 – 9 p.m. EST

Where: Twitter! Use #Devotion to chime in.

How: Never chatted before on Twitter? Check out this post about how to participate in a Twitter chat. I recommend using Tweetchat.

Bring questions for Dani! We’ll introduce her and then open it up to readers. And bring friends, too!

TRANSCRIPT: Miss the chat? Read the transcript!

Writing for twenty-seven readers

Every once in a while I come across a piece of writing advice that really resonates with me. And when I reviewed Elizabeth Gilbert’s Committed last week, I forgot to mention that she had one of these bits in her book.

In Gilbert’s prologue, she writes about her difficulties writing Committed, how she ditched her first attempt at a manuscript and started from scratch. She writes:

Ultimately I discovered that the only way I could write again at all was to vastly limit — at least in my own imagination — the number of people I was writing for. So I started completely over. And I did not write this version of Committed for millions of readers. Instead, I wrote it for exactly twenty-seven readers.

She goes on to name those twenty-seven readers, all female friends, relatives and neighbors. As I was reading those names, I realized that I use this technique, too — subconsciously. And I should start using it consciously.

Who do I write for? Not twenty-seven people. Sometimes I pretend I’m writing my book for just one person: a close friend named AJ. (Now that I’m writing this post, I recall Stephen King mentioning something similar in On Writing, how he writes his books with one person in mind, his wife.)

Why AJ? She knows how to tell a good story (like me, she has journalism in her blood). She’s got an attention span that does my writing good — I can imagine her getting super excited about the riveting parts of my book, but yawning and skimming over more boring sections (when I picture her getting bored, I cut). But the main reason I write for AJ is because I know she’ll never laugh at me. She wants to read about my feelings, secrets and embarrassing moments, and she’ll like the book more because of those details. Even when it’s hard for me to reveal personal thoughts to the millions of people who will read my book (hey, you never know), I feel comfortable sharing them with AJ. And so I write for her.

This strategy could work for any genre, but it’s particularly useful for memoir because it helps the writer be honest — utterly honest. The world isn’t going to read the book. Just your friends. No biggie. No pressure. Just be honest. And writing with an honest voice is so important in memoir.

Who do you write for?

Reading this will make you a better writer

Every week I read the New York Times’ Modern Love column. Not because it’s about love (although that helps). I read it because it’s often a good story. Occasionally it’s written really well. And since a different contributor writes the column each week, it always has a different voice.

In other words, reading this column is not only enjoyable, it makes me a better writer.

This week falls into that occasionally category — it’s written very well. This woman’s words are simply pasted together beautifully. And to top it all off, she tells a great story, mixing background into a scene in a way I’ve grown to appreciate since I started writing my book.

But the best part — the reason I’m sharing this story with you — is that I’m betting each and every one of you will relate to it, particularly the last paragraph. And that’s what good writing is about. It’s about telling an awesome story (check), pasting your words together beautifully (check) and weaving together something that will make the reader say, “Wow, I totally get that.” (Score!)

Read it here.

Thoughts?

Despite Committed, I’m still rooting for Elizabeth Gilbert

I don’t usually review books on this blog. Hell, I don’t even know how to write a book review. But because Elizabeth Gilbert’s Committed was the much-awaited sequel to what’s arguably the most popular book in my genre, Eat, Pray, Love, I’m going to tell you what I thought of it.

When I say much-awaited, I don’t just mean by the public at large. I mean by me. I was so eager to read this book that I bought it in hardcover at the bookstore instead of waiting my turn at the library. (Hey, when you’re unemployed, some things gotta go.)

Why? Because I was rooting for Elizabeth Gilbert. I feel like I know her. I don’t really. But the fact that I feel like I do is a tribute to her writing style, the details she revealed in her first book and interviews she’s done since then. In Eat, Pray, Love — which was published in more than 20 languages — she came across as a real person, a human with hopes and flaws (even though the fairy-tale ending irked me). I saw her as one of us, an underdog, a virtually unknown writer who hit it big. And I felt like we had stuff in common besides writing: a love for travel, a lack of trust in marriage as an institution and a belief in speaking up for what we believe in.

But as much as I wanted to, I did not like her latest book.

It wasn’t the writing — Gilbert’s writing is conversational, easy to follow and witty. I love her use of italics. It makes me feel like I’m right beside her as she’s recounting the story. That’s something I’d like to incorporate into my own writing. (And this is coming from someone who used to be against italics altogether.)

What I didn’t appreciate was the way she tried to mix a history of marriage and her thoughts on the subject with her own love story.

I cared about the love story, what happened to her and Felipe after Eat, Pray, Love. And while I could’ve done with a little bit of background on marriage and a few of her opinions woven in, I felt like the book was weighed down with research and rambling. Her findings and reflections were the core of the book instead of the story of her second marriage. And maybe that’s how she wanted it — but I wished it were the other way around.

In fact, I so wanted to read about her and Felipe that I found myself skipping over parts of the book that dealt with her marriage research. It bored me.

It’s ironic, in a way, that I should read this book now, while I’m revising my own manuscript. One of the criticisms I’ve heard from my guinea pig readers is that my story needs more of my own reflection — more analyzing rather than just reporting, as we’d say in the news biz. Reading Gilbert’s book made me realize just how much contemplation can be included in a memoir. I think she overdid it. But I need to do it more.

The book certainly had its strong points. I loved the tale of her grandmother, who had a cleft palate and was expected never to marry. (She did.) I loved that Gilbert delved into why she doesn’t want children. She could have avoided that topic if she wanted to, but baring her soul is what this author is good at. And now that I’m writing a memoir that also includes some soul-baring, I know how hard that can be.

Here’s what I found myself wondering after I finished the book: Gilbert admitted she wrote it once, wasn’t satisfied and started over. What didn’t she didn’t like about the first manuscript? She says her voice wasn’t quite right, but I want to know more. What was that version like?

Hopefully she’ll reveal that in an interview somewhere — maybe on this blog? Elizabeth, if you’re reading this, come visit. Because even though I didn’t care for Committed, I respect you as a writer and a person — enough to buy your next book.

Anybody else read Committed? What’d you think?

What’s on my travel memoir bookshelf?

Every writer knows it’s important to read within your genre.

For me, this is not a reason to read travel memoirs as much as an excuse. I love travel memoirs. I read every one I can get my hands on. And now that I’m writing one, I read them in the name of research.

One of my favorite travel authors is Paul Theroux — I read his most recent book, Ghost Train to the Eastern Star (sequel to The Great Railway Bazaar, pubbed in 1975) while traipsing through Madagascar last year. But what I’m really focusing on now — partly out of interest, partly for research purposes — is travel memoirs written by women, particularly women traveling alone.

This comes in handy for my book proposal, which has a section called “Competitive Books,” where I list already-published titles that will be competition for my book. (Proposal writers take note: It’s also important to explain briefly why your book will be different and better than those titles.)

So what’s on my travel memoir bookshelf?

To help you decide whether to read these yourself, I’ve rated them on a three-star three-asterisk system. Three is best.

• Eat, Pray, Love: One woman’s search for everything across Italy, India and Indonesia: by Elizabeth Gilbert. 2006. Who hasn’t heard of this international best seller? She’s even got a sequel out called Committed, which I’m reading now. ***

• Somebody’s Heart is Burning: A woman wanderer in Africa by Tanya Shaffer. 2003. Her boyfriend in California proposes marriage, so the twenty-seven-year-old author heads for Africa, where she spends most of her time volunteering in Ghana. (Read my interview with Tanya.) ***

• First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria: How A Peace Corps Poster Boy Stole My Heart and a Third-World Adventure Changed My Life by Eve Brown-Waite. 2009. Hilarious memoir by a pampered woman who falls in love with her Peace Corps recruiter and accompanies him to Uganda. She’s only traveling alone for half the book, but it counts! (Read my interview with Eve.) ***

• Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at large in the world by Rita Golden Gelman. 2001. Adventures in Mexico, Indonesia and Bali. A woman in her fifties, newly single, decides to make the nomadic lifestyle permanent. ***

• Without Reservations: The travels of an independent woman by Alice Steinbach. 2002. A middle-aged mother and journalist travels to Paris, Oxford and Milan, trying to learn to take chances. *

• Around the Bloc: My life in Moscow, Beijing and Havana by Stephanie Elizondo Griest. 2004. Humorous coming-of-age memoir. **

• Nothing to Declare: Memoirs of a Woman Traveling Alone by Mary Morris. 1988. Travels in Latin America. On my to-read list. ***
  

• East Toward Dawn: A Woman’s Solo Journey Around the World by Nan Watkins. 2002. After the death of her adult son and thirty-year marriage, the author travels across Europe and Asia. On my to-read list.

Have I missed any memoirs written by women traveling alone?

A quick note on how my book will be different and better, as required by my book proposal. As you can see, very few memoirs written by women traveling alone take place in Africa. And most of these authors were older than thirty, while my perspective is that of a woman in her late twenties.

But most importantly (aside from my literary voice, of course), unlike most women’s travel books, my story is not about looking for love nor running away from a failed relationship. It’s about taking a leap in life, following a dream, and how that in itself — even without a man, if you can believe it — is thrilling and satisfying.