George Orwell's Six Rules for Writing in Plain English, 1Q84, & The Elements of Style

I got my copy of Haruki Murakami's English translation of 1Q84 today. If you follow me on Twitter, you know that Amazon made me quite unhappy this morning given the condition of said book. I've already taken steps to get a replacement copy, but in the meantime I've decided I'm going to read as much as I can before the time limit to return it expires (30 days).

Inevitably thoughts turned to George Orwell.  1 Q (which is the way to pronounce the number nine in Japanese) 84 might seem the reason why, but it's actually moreso because E.B. White and William Strunk Jr. cite Orwell in The Elements of Style (II. Elementary Principles of Compostion #12 Use definite, specific, concrete language).

"To show what happens when strong writing is deprived of its vigor, George Orwell once took a passage from the Bible and drained it of its blood..."

Below is Orwell's translation followed by the verse from Ecclesiastes  (likely from the King James' version of the Bible).

Objective consideration of contemporary phenomena compels the conclusion that success or failure in competitve activities exhbits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must inevitably be taken into account.

I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, not yet riches to men of understanding, not yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happenth to them all.

The citation is taken from Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language" published in Horizon in April 1946 criticizing contemporary English.

In the essay Orwell advocates the use of Plain English and devised six rules to guide writers, that:

"...cuts out all stale or mixed images, all prefabricated phrases, needless repetitions, and humbug and vagueness generally. But one can often be in doubt about the effect of a word or a phrase, and one needs rules that one can rely on when instinct fails. I think the following rules will cover most cases"

The rules are:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Now I don't want to stop talking about Orwell, at least not at the moment because let's face it my posts today have been not the most inspirational.

That being said, Monsieur Redacteur and I don't always see eye to eye on the writers we love. I don't like Hemingway much when it's all said and done. I think Joyce is boring. I brought "Ulysses" and "The Sun Also Rises" with me on vacation once and as boring as I found Las Vegas it was still more interesting to me than either of those books.

But we agree on Orwell. We've both read 1984 a couple dozen times. Once I was so inspired having re-read Animal Farm that I didn't realise all the writing I did was Animal Farm with vegetables.

Orwell's essay, "Why I Write" is one of themost inspiring things I've ever read on the reasons why "we" write. The first time I read it, I cried. Only one other piece of this personal nature written by a writer I greatly admire has ever had such an effect on me* heart, mind, body, and soul, but nothing moves me as much as these words Orwell wrote:

"...After the age of about thirty they almost abandon the sense of being individuals at all — and live chiefly for others, or are simply smothered under drudgery. But there is also the minority of gifted, willful people who are determined to live their own lives to the end, and writers belong in this class..."

I'm 30-cough-something and as the clock tick-tick-ticks away there is more external pressure being forced upon me to have as a Rastafarian I met the other day advised me,"four or five babies". I'm not a moron, I sense the changes in my body, but children are a lot of work, and I'd rather write books than have babies. (Insert birthing literature joke here.)

Sheer egoism. Desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be remembered after death, to get your own back on the grown-ups who snubbed you in childhood, etc., etc. It is humbug to pretend this is not a motive, and a strong one. Writers share this characteristic with scientists, artists, politicians, lawyers, soldiers, successful businessmen — in short, with the whole top crust of humanity. The great mass of human beings are not acutely selfish. After the age of about thirty they almost abandon the sense of being individuals at all — and live chiefly for others, or are simply smothered under drudgery. But there is also the minority of gifted, willful people who are determined to live their own lives to the end, and writers belong in this class. Serious writers, I should say, are on the whole more vain and self-centered than journalists, though less interested in money.

I see what I want to see in Orwell's words above, but I'm also honest. That's why I made sure to cut and paste the bit in it's - uncensored for my own personal comfort zone - entirety. I won't go as far as to point a finger at my motives for wanting to be a writer, but I'll own up to my healthy vanity and my love of all things me, me, me.

I'll even go so far as to tell you a reason of my own.

When I was four I decided that words were the only way for me to make people understand that because I had a magical power to screw up my eyes and look at the world out of focus that I was in great danger. It was a great burden to possess such a frightening power in case I was kidnapped by street pirates (who had boats that looked like cars) who would force me to use my magical power for evil - that I should find a way to explain it to a few people I trusted (my grandparents) in case I ever went missing and as my sidekicks they'd have to understand how to help me turn off my power if such a thing ever happened.

Then one day there was a terrible storm and after the storm cleared and the sun came out there were all these poor earthworms dying in our garden. I tried to use my magical power to save them, but it was no use. All I could think to do was grab a metal bucket, fill it with drier dirt, and airlift the ones still alive and wriggling in the muddy puddles with my fingers. It grossed me out, but I worked as fast as I could. The sun's hot light shined down on a graveyard. I dumped my dirt bucket full of earthworms on a dry patch of grass under the roof of the house and cried my heart out over those I couldn't save.

I scratched into the damp earth squiggles. Lines that looked much like the almost fossilised earthworms themselves, but in my mind I was telling a legend of the great struggle against the sun that oppressed them and of a hero that was sent from the gods to carry them to safety. It was a legend that the earthworms would tell to their children and would never be forgotten.

I still remember this legend though I'm sure the earthworms have forgotten it. It would be another couple of years before I'd learn that earthworms have two hearts but no brains...

I write because deep down I believe it's my magical power (procrastination, television, movies, blogging, and nearly everything else being my Kryptonite).

And if you understand that it's not just my ego that makes me believe that, then maybe writing is your magical power too.

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Back to the Basics - Strunk & White's "The Elements of Style"

In September I posted about good reference books for writers. You'd think I would take my own advice, but after editing the first "section" of my manuscript it became obvious I hadn't. I wrote on the biggest Post-It on my person to jog my memory,

Re-read Strunk & White ASAP!

and so this morning as I organised my desk it stared up at me. I made some good coffee (Monsieur Redacteur being a practical man often just drinks instant in lieu of using the French press or cafetière, which takes more time to make) and Monsieur Redacteur fished out a copy of The Elements of Style.

I once had five copies of this book in various editions. I now only own three copies, each a different edition- though quite honestly I wish I hadn't spent so much time nitpicking on which edition was better than which - mostly because there were so many copies for sale on Amazon. For just about anyone the 1999 fourth edition is more than adequate.

That is, if you want to purchase it at all. There are those who think The Elements of Style isn't actually good advice at all. Here are extras on the subject that are worth a look: 50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice and a forum where the book's merits or lack thereof are hotly debated on StackExchange.

I get the feeling Monsieur Redacteur isn't a fan of the book either because when I read this bit in The Elements of Style to him he said it was pretty much "useless" to me because I'm writing a "narrative".

II. Elementary Principles of Compostion

17. In summaries, keep to one tense.

In summarizing the action of a drama, the writer should use the present tense.  In summarizing a poem, story, or novel, he should use the present, though he may use the  past if it seems more natural to do so.  If the summary is in the present tense, antecedent action should be expressed by the perfect, if in the past, by the past perfect.

Now I didn't really understood what that meant mostly because the "perfect" doesn't exist in  French. 
I asked Monsieur Redacteur to explain it and he gave me the following chart at the back of some Engish grammar book he uses to teach.

Here are the important bits of the chart:

Present perfect (I have done)
Present perfect and past (I have done and I did)

There is no future tense in English (no conjugation of the verb).  You have to use I will or I'm going to.

Past continuous (I was going)
Past continuous (I was doing) and past simple (I did)
Past perfect (I had done)

Since I sort of understand it and sort of don't, I'll be attending Monsieur Redacteur's Sunday English class. The sole other student will be 9 years old. I'll update to let you know who gets it first. The 9 year old native French-Dutch speaker or me the 30-cough-something native Korean-French speaker.

My money's on the kid.

I just discovered this article on The New York Times website  when I was looking for a picture I remembered of E.B. White's typewriter with The Elements of style. It's definitely worth a read.

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Andre Malraux - Statesman, Adventurer, & Author

A few years ago I met a man outside of a bookshop in Paris. His name was Olivier Todd. He wanted to sell some books out of his library. We spoke for about ten minutes and immediately I was fascinated by this impressive monsieur. He was a disciple of Jean-Paul Sartre for starters. He also wrote a few biographies I had long since known were important on Albert Camus and Andre Malraux. It was then because of his knowledge of Camus that I was always tempted to contact him again and ask him for a coffee, but quite honestly I felt my 'from the gut appreciation' of Camus (and my bare bones knowledge of Malraux) wasn't quite up to snuff.

Malraux has a reputation for being skimmed rather than read in France. I have read two of his works: La condition humaine (Man's Fate) and my personal favourite, Antimémoires (Anti-Memoirs).

It's a vastly important book. Malraux was a part of some major events during his lifetime: the Chinese Revolution, the Spanish Civil War, the French Resistance during WWII, and then as a minister in France for Charles de Gaulle. This book is the memoir of a man who was wounded and captured during WWII, only to escape to join the French underground movement to be captured and to escape again.

Or is it?

Malraux and his life have since been coined as "Malrucian legend". It was mostly invention. There was no relationship with Mao for example. They met, yes, but Andre made most of it up.

So here's some of the real skinny, courtesy of Monsieur Todd's biography:

He went to Cambodia and basically stole priceless works of art. When he was arrested the "Andres" came out in full force in support of Monsieur Malraux. Andre Maurois, Andre Gide, and even Andre Breton. He was then moved to Vietnam.

He met with Trotsky who claimed that Malraux "is incapable of moral independence; he was born biddable". Malraux abandoned Trotsky for the winning team. The problem is, given that de Gaulle was the last great president of France (in my opinion), it's hard to blame Malraux for hitching his wagon to de Gaulle's 5th Republic.

Considered by some as the French Hemingway, Malraux lived his life in search of fulfilling his love of myths. In La Voie Royale, Malraux wrote that "every adventurer is born a mythomaniac".

Malraux inscribed many of his letters with a cat - perhaps an indication of his many lives, but just before his death he scrawled the words, "it should have been otherwise".

In Antimémoires Malraux wrote something even more fitting that has always stayed with me: "La vérité d’un homme c’est d’abord ce qu’il cache." - The truth of a man is before that which he hides.

Perhaps that is what inspired Monsieur Todd to write his biography on Malraux, but I have always admired the man whether or not ''Ce n'était ni vrai ni faux, c'était vécu.'' - because regardless of whether or not the myth of Andre Malraux stands up to the truth because as he said in his Prix Goncourt winning book La condition humaine, "it was neither true or false, it was experienced".

And if you read Anti-memoirs, you'll see more clearly why I feel a certain love for Malraux. What he hid was a very sad life, but he certainly tried to make the best out of it. And sometimes he did.

Malraux putting together one of his "museums without walls", which is what he considered art books.

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This Month's Posts

Found this today on GadgetHovel and thought it was wildly appropriate as I'm dedicating all this month's posts to NaNoWriMo related stuff. I'm tripling the challenge of writing 50,000 words before November 31st with writing a daily blog, and Twitter'ing helpful tips to other "NaNoWriMos" across the globe in 140 characters or less.  You can follow me @LaFemmeFlaneuse on Twitter!

If you missed today's NaNoWriMo inspired post about Kurt Vonnegut's 8 Rules of Writing Fiction you can read it here.

Keep on writing NaNoWriMos!

I'm going to get back to it myself now.

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Writing Advice for Day 2 of NaNoWriMo from Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut's 8 Rules of Writing Fiction

1.Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.

2.Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.

3.Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.

4.Every sentence must do one of two things — reveal character or advance the action.

5.Start as close to the end as possible.

6.Be a sadist. Now matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them — in order that the reader may see what they are made of.

7.Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.

8.Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

Bon courage NaNoWriMos and Happy Writing!

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You Can Now Follow Me on Twitter!

Click here to follow me on Twitter!

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What jack-o-lanterns look like after a rough night of Halloween

Thanks to Jackie for the pic!

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Getting Ready for NaNoWriMo

November is National Novel Writing Month. Last year I had all these plans to participate, but of course life is what happens when you're making other plans, but this year my other plans were all about getting ready for NaNoWriMo.

Now technically speaking you're not supposed to start early, but planning and notes are allowed, so that's what I've been working on. All my notes, clippings, post-its, random napkin scribblings, and the like are now starting to amass. I keep anything I write on, so eventually I'll take all these "things" and use them. Or I won't and maybe I'll use them somewhere else another time.

Now 50,000 words isn't going to be the length of my novel. I have calculated my novel will be around 65 - 70,000 words. The 50,000 words are supposed to be a rough draft too. Since I've decided to rewrite the 130,000+ words I've already written, I'm basically starting a new novel.

Last week I worked on writing a synopsis. I called myself out by asking friends on Facebook if they would be willing to read my novel. A few of them said send it over. I wanted to send a synopsis first, so I had to write one. It's damn hard work mostly because you're not supposed to write a synopsis until you have a finished book. I wrote a synopsis and now I'm using it as an outline. My friends are impatient.

One month of writing not for quality, but for quantity. Catharsis. Respite from the pursuit. 50,000 words just for fun. A challenge. A deadine.

I can't wait.

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The Thoughts Occupying My Mind

Last night I posted the following to my Facebook page:


I have helped to write so many cover letters and online applications now for firms like UBS, GS, BarCap, MS, JP,etc. that I now feel like I could probably get a job as a quant myself. Except for the fact I'd pretty much like most of these places to burn to the ground.

And then I posted this amazing article from the New York Times/International Herald Tribune written by Thomas L. Friedman: http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=860524&single=1&f=28 . I encouraged my friends to read it because while I've been really quiet on the subject I am 100% in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement and the other "Occupy" movements happening around the world. Quite frankly, I think it's about damn time the people, the real people, the 99% of us who aren't billionaires or near billionaires, get pissed off.

I tend to not talk about politics on my blog. I worry that I am not well-informed enough and that I could possibly spread misinformation, but I wrote the following off the top of my head. It's my view on politics. It's what I would like to see happen. It's what pisses me off. It's what in my opinion has gone wrong and what needs to change.

It's why I'm 100% behind and in support of movements that could affect change.

I believe that:

Lobbying for any interest, think tank, or industry should be made completely illegal and the only way to insure that lobbying does not dictate government is to change the election process entirely.

If all campaigns were paid for by public funds and if each candidate were allotted the same amount of funds, not only would this insure that future politicians wouldn't already be "in debt" to contributors, but it also means that ANY person who met a list of criteria (in sync with the Constitution) could run for public office. This means that the real people with real issues and a real understanding of what concerns the people could actually make decisions for the people they represent - which is the very premise that the American republic (because it's not a democracy) was founded on.

The deregulation of the banking industry is a crime against the American people. Big banks need to be broken up not only to avert catastrophe in times of financial crisis, but because there is an obvious conflict of interest. The greatest con in American history  was getting the government and American taxpayers to bail the banks out when the failure of these institutions was due to greed, negligence, and a complete disregard for what little regulation remained.

Why people are angry now is not only because they have less money, less jobs, and less opportunities to accumulate their own wealth - but they also need to be angry about the fact that the same lobbyists pushing for further deregulation screaming "big government is communism" is the same fucking industry that accepted a bail out and didn't admit that by doing so they were actually accepting a level of government help that is more akin to socialism. Terms like "government interference" are thrown around loosely to confuse those Americans who see the involvement of the government as a bad thing and rightfully so in many cases. With the propaganda used against the American people, it is no wonder that many Americans don't understand the inherent differences between a communist government and a socialist one. Why should they? Reagan pretty much made it his sole purpose during his presidency to make Americans fear communism and socialism as "evil" without bothering to explain they are not the same systems even by the simplest of definitions.

In France the govenrment has a history of bailing out big French companies such as TGV/Alstrom and Air France because letting them fail was worse for the greater good. It meant that tens of thousands of people would lose their jobs and the impact to the French economy and the reputation of French industry was too high a price for the French people to pay in the long run. However regulations were tightened further as a preventive measure and to give people more faith in the government's abilities.

Let's be clear: bailing out the banks was better for the banks. The American people were given no choice but to pay for the mistakes made without their knowledge. Instead of the brunt of the impact being absorbed by the government, the impact was felt in every wallet of every American who doesn't sleep on a mattress stuffed with bills in a massive McMansion that also contains a "Scrooge McDuck" room where they could (if physics didn't mean you would die instantly upon impact) dive into massive piles of gold.

I am sick of seeing the wealth that is built upon the backs of the people. I am sick of seeing people profit from the human need to simply be physically healthy in order to live free of disease and pain.

I am tired of the consumerism and the resulting problem of what happens when you can't actually keep up with the Jones' - and all in a country where a vast majority of the population adheres to a religious principle of "do not covet thy neighbour's goods". Thankfully in America (and other countries thanks to America's biggest export: capitalism) if you can't keep up with the Jones' you can always get a high interest credit card with the actual terms in extremely fine print.

Nevermind that the company might a) be owned by a bank or b) that the cardholder can pay up to $0.40 on the dollar for the priviledge of owing these credit companies money, without accounting for other fees and costs they don't understand but will eventually be held accountable to pay or c) that banks make a tremendous profit from selling these debts on the market.

I am further disgusted by the religious right that won't support universal health care; that judges when they should not lest they be judged; and have essentially turned religion into a for-profit industry while maintaining 501(c)(3) tax exempt charity status that allows groups like the Mormons to throw $40 million at halting gay marriage because it conflicts with their belief system or the billions of dollars spent by the Catholic Church to overturn Roe vs. Wade.

As long as government officials can be bought and paid for by those who have no interest in helping the American people in any way except to continue to profit off of their hard work, pain, and suffering there will be no real change for America.

The rich 2%  will weather this crisis as the rich weathered 1929 and other economic recessions. As the gap widens more and more people will fall into it or, as the bail outs proved, be thrown into it.

Combine economic depression with lobbyists fighting against the people on every possible level from religion to destroying the environment to insuring that health care will be more and more unaffordable for the middle  and lower classes - and the only thing that can and must happen is that every individual who sees the real problems must then communicate their knowledge to another individual until there are enough people to stand up and say NO, WE AREN'T GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE.

I broke my rule about writing openly about politics because I can't be in New York right now standing alongside the protestors in Liberty Park. I want to be. I want to be there because I represent a contingent that the media says isn't present in Liberty Park, but I can assure you is.

My friends aren't hippies. My friends are highly educated with degrees from Wharton, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, and my alma mater, M.I.T. We represent a generation that was told that by accumulating these degrees we were insuring our future success. Some of our parents took out mortages to pay for our expensive educations. Some of us have hundred of thousands of dollars worth of debt from getting these degrees.

The media wants to pant the protestors with the same brush, but the real beauty of what is happening in Liberty Park is that the real America is there. There are people from each and every walk of life - bankers who quit their jobs to be there because even they can  no longer ignore the obvious stink wafting around their offices; teachers who are fed up with cuts to the education budget who see the disadvantage these cuts inflict upon the young; the people who without them there would be no infrastructure, no order, no basic services.

Regardless of where you come from or what you "have", the same government makes decisions that effect everyone except the 2% who use their wealth to purchase a "have it your way" government that only benefits their profit margins that didn't even translate to profit for Burger King when it was their company jingle because it is not profitable to let people have exactly what they want whether its burgers or banking.

The people need to make those in government accountable to the people again and for the first time in a really long time, I feel like real change is going to happen.

If you are one of the people standing up for the rest of us, I just want to say thank you. While I cannot be in the US right now, I am doing what I can and that means speaking up, staying informed, and offering my support albeit from afar.

The tenacity, resolve, and solidarity that the Occupy movement has displayed across the world has made me want to give more to the world I live in and to stand up for what I believe.

The OWS retweeted a quote I posted the other night: "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything".

Monsieur Redacteur would like to add, "You don't have to know what you're fighting for, when it's clear what you're fighting against", said by George Orwell.

So let's stand up and fight!

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Secret Origins, The Story DC Comics

When it comes to the two big names in comic books (DC and Marvel), I am entrenched in neither camp. I love certain Marvel characters, their creators, writers, and artists - like Jean Grey (X-Men), Galactus, The Silver Surfer, Magneto - too much to declare myself full on Team Marvel, but my first brush with comics came courtesy of William Moulton Marston's star spangled Wonder Woman and she has always been my favourite. Then there's Batman, The Green Lantern, and Julius Schwartz's revamp of The Flash.

It took me a long time to hunt down "Secret Origins, The Story of DC Comics" and am I glad I did. To hear greats like Neil Gaiman (whose reimagining of The Sandman was genius), Alan Moore, Jim Lee, and see the old clips and the old timers was worth the effort. It was like watching a movie about my friends. Not just the heroes, anti-heroes, and even the villains that I adore, but the people who brought them to life.

Comic books have had a special place in my heart for nearly three decades. I fell in love with Wonder Woman comics before I could read. I knew from the pictures she could deflect bullets with her bracelets and that she was on the side of "good". I aspired to, like my heroine, do good deeds.  This idea that good people do good things has stuck with me ever since.

I literally cheered during this documentary. Cheered when I saw Julius Schwartz and Neil Gaiman herald Alan Moore as a genius because he is - The Swamp Thing, Watchmen, V for Vendetta prove it. I was inspired by these people who loved something so intensely. Just as I cannot police the universe because I don't have Hal Jordan's power ring, I was not blessed with the gift to draw comic books. I'm not even sure I could write them. I say not sure because before seeing this documentary I'd have said I couldn't even write them.

Now I feel a little differently. Now I see that same passion and fire for comics I feel has been infused into every comic book ever written, so maybe one day. Maybe one day I'll toss off my glasses and ummm peel off all my clothes and I'll be a hero...

And if you feel inspired to read comics and never have, let me give you a few tips.

• Start from the beginning.
• If you can afford it, buy colour omnibuses.
• Watch the films made about comics to see who you might be interested in knowing more about. I recommend: Stardust, Watchmen, X-Men First Class, Batman (Tim Burton's or Christ Nolan's series based on Frank Miller's Batman), and certain cartoons such as the 90's Batman, Superfriends (which was amazing), and the animated X-Men series (which was also amazing).
• Ebay.
• Enjoy.

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Beyond the Nuts & Bolts

Since producing a rough draft of a manuscript, I've been more and more aware of what the heck I should be paying attention to as the time approaches for me to seek representation and eventually, publication.

It's a vast and confusing world out there for writers. What kind of agent should you be looking for? What kind of contests can be a springboard for your career? What should you avoid? All kinds of questions are filling my head these days, and I've been dedicating one hour a day to answering these questions.

I found a very useful resource for this kind of information, but I can't repost anything here without permission. Hopefully I'll hear back soon and will be given permission to share, but in the meantime, here are a few things I've learned from my searches this past week that I've noted as particularly important for us first timers:

• Start learning how to read contracts and fine print.
• It might not be a bad idea to have a lawyer in mind that is used to working within the publishing industry for when you need one, and undoubtedly you will.
• Same goes for an accountant.
• Make sure the agents you query are "reputable" meaning:

1. They've sold work for other authors to commercial publishers. There are a lot of scams out there. Agents who try to refer you to vanity presses they own for example. In the end you pay an agent and you pay to publish your own book.
2. The fees they charge are not out of the ordinary. You have to find out exactly what fees the agent would charge you in advance. While certain fees are just outright scams there are some fees which appear to be "okay". Such as fees incurred over the ordinary cost of business to market your manuscript to potential publishers. In this case you need to know if they're going to charge you, what for, and how you will be billed. Ideally your agent believes in your work and agrees to deduct fees from your advance.
3. The agent provides a service worth paying for. Is your agent going to represent your manuscript? Or is the agent going to shove it with a bunch of others and send them off? Very few publishers accept non-solicited (meaning agent represented) manuscripts. An agent is almost mandatory. Is your agent going to make sure your manuscript gets read? Do they already have ideas of which publisher might want to accept your manuscript for publication? These are questions you have to ask and answer before signing anything.

Now when it comes to agents, I'm working on making my top three choices. I'm looking for agents who have a lot of experience with what I think of "after publication", meaning not only will they shop your book, but they will help you with film options, foreign rights, etc.

My weapon in finding an agent besides "The Writer's Market" is a little website I found www.querytracker.net.

I am really impressed with this website, and if you're going through the same process as me, you might be too. I didn't take a premium membership, but I'm not sure I'm not going to if only to toss a little money (it's $25 a year) towards the people who made this site.

Here's a quick run through of why I like this site:

1. You can search by author to see who represents them.
2. You can also search by agent.
3. Once you find the agent that represents the author, or you would like to represent you, there is an option to generate a "query report". The query report allows you see reponses of people who use the site as regards to their interaction with said agent/agency from the delay in response time, how they agent/agency prefers to be queried, how many people were asked to submit a partial MS or full MS, and whether or not they were offered representation.
4. You can see how people were rejected. Form letter, helpful rejection, etc.
5. You can keep track of agents you'd like to query in the future or have already queried.

Here's a snapshot of the querytracker website, click on it to enlarge for a closer look at the report the site generates or visit the site and perform your own search.

Now using this website has been a bit disheartening. The two agents on the top of my list aren't really accepting manuscripts at the moment. Great. They also have relatively small amounts of queries. I happen to know they're pretty good agents and rep some pretty fantastic authors, so to compare, I clicked on one of the most queried agents via querytracker, Diana Fox at Fox Literary.

Now keep in mind Diana Fox seems to accept almost every genre I can think of, and when I clicked on the Amazon links of her clients it came up with a lot of horror/sci-fi/fantasy type stuff mostly written by women. Now if that was my genre I'd take that as a good sign given I'm a woman, but it's not my genre.

When I generate the report for Diana Fox I learn that she prefers emails, doesn't send paper rejections anymore, and that she's been queried 1700+ times, of which she rejected 1400+. She did send out 85 helpful rejections though.

If you're in the querying phase now, be sure to check out this site. I however will never be in the querying phase if I don't get some actual writing done, so I'm off to walk the hound, and spend my afternoon doing exactly that.

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A Well Deserved Bit of Thanks

I really need to say thank you. I was a bit of an absentee blogger there for a bit. I can say I was busy, yada, yada, yada, ad naseum - and that'd be the honest truth, but to anyone who reads my blog regularly it's okay to be a little pissed off at me. Usually I'm better about blogging. I swear.

I'm hoping to have a few more exciting things to blog about in the near future, again, I swear. But in the meantime just know my thanks is sincere and from the heart. I just needed to recover from the shock that people keep on reading, even when I've neglected them (and should receive a thousand, nay, two thousand lashings for doing so).

But seeing the people who visit, well it makes me want to give you more to read. So I shall make it a priority to blog this week. In the meantime,

It's you, the reader who keeps me motivated to blog. Sometimes (well not lately) it's the only writing I do. It keeps me from wanting to pull my own fingernails off when I fail to write elsewhere.

So check back this week. I'm going to find some great books to talk about this week and share some good news if things pan out.

Bonne nuit et à demain!

(Good night and see you tomorrow!)



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More on the Diane Arbus Exposition @ Jeu du Palme

"The first part of my story is mostly taken from my imagination.

You also must use some imagination. I am not born yet..."

I've been to the Diane Arbus exhibition (in French it's exposition) and was I ever glad I went.  Plus, I had the benefit of going with a really talented photographer, my friend Nina. It was really worth the trip. I don't rave often about exhibitions, but when I left this one I had an urge satisfied. I felt like I understood Diane Arbus, her life and her work better than ever.

I'd like to share how I first discovered Diane Arbus. I was 14, taking photography in school (having bought a Pentax K1000 for the purpose and yet 20 years later I used my friend's and couldn't remember how to advance the film.), and I got this idea to run away to New York with said camera and take pictures like her. I made it to the bus station in Boston and from there I took a Greyhound bound for New York City.  Except it made a stop before Port Authority. In Harlem.

Needless to say Harlem wasn't the gentrified place it is now in parts, but a nice old man gave me money for a cab to take me to the Port Authority. He made me promise that I'd go straight back to school. I didn't get to snap a single picture. But the love continued.  When I finally got to visit New York City when I was older, I made it a point to take a few pictures. Obviously compared to Diane's they were quite crap, but I took them. I even borrowed a Pentax K1000 to make it official. They have since been lost or are packed up somewhere.

At the end of the exhibition there was a room with tables and the various books being offered for sale in the museum giftshop stowed away nicely in these desks that were built for the event. In the same room where quotes of Diane's all over the wall; her camera bag and a few cameras; her agenda; a notebook opened to two pages (which were hard to read because Diane tended to let her words run together in cursive); and my favourite bit - books from her library.

I didn't want to shell out for the book that was printed by the Fraenkel Gallery, but you can purchase the book here if it interests you. Instead I sat down at one of the desks and wrote down all the books that I had in my library that matched Diane's and all the ones I didn't have. Some were a surprise, others were not. I also have a little theory.

If you'd like to see what this picture (and some other famous pictures have sold for at auction click here.
If only I could find $7000 in my sofa cushions...I'd hang it on a wall in front of my writing desk.

In 1968 Diane photographed Jorge Luis Borges in Central Park. She also took a picture of Borges with his wife. What little I can deduce of Borges' personality from reading his conversations and various interviews, I'm pretty sure Borges must have recommended Diane a few good reads. After all, despite the misprint in the Fraenkel Gallery's book of her library, Diane had three copies of Louis-Ferdinand Celine's "Journey to the End of the Night" (Voyage au but de la nuit). She also had several other books that were beloved by "the librarian" such as Dante's "Divine Comedy", Rimbaud's "Illuminations", and two works by Borges himself ("Ficcones" and "Inquisitions" - which we have the same copy of).

I didn't write down all her books of course, but here are the highlights, and I've included every word I wrote down from Diane's notebook as well. It would be my wish that everyone could see this exhibition. In a world that often focuses on the external and superficial, Arbus' pictures force you to look deeper. I've never reacted to a photographer's work as I first responded to Arbus' many years ago. I sometimes wonder if I ever will.

Books in Diane's library and mine:

• First Edition, Tuttle Publishing, "Zen Flesh, Zen Bones"
• J.L. Borges, "Ficcones", "Inquisitions"
• New Directions, Arthur Rimbaud, "Illuminations"
• Louis-Ferdinand Celine, "Journey to the End of the Night", "Death on an Installment Plan"
• various works of Henry James
• Edith Wharton, "Age of Innocence"
• various works of Thomas Hardy
• Dante's "The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso"
• Thomas Mann, "The Magic Mountain"

Books in Diane's Library I'd like to maybe own:

• "Complete Home Care of Your Family Wardrobe", Constance Talbot
• "Division Street America", Stude Terkel
• "Fingers Pointing Towards the Moon: Reflections of a Pilgrim on the Way", Wei Wu Wei
• "Beasts and Man and The Seed", Pierre Gascar
• "Writers On Revolt", featuring the writings of Terry Southern and Alexander Trocchi
• "Oblomov", Ivan Goncharov
• "Autobiography of a Schizophrenic Girl", Marguerite Schehaye
• "Marius the Epicurean", Walter Pater
• "The Temptation to Exist", E.M. Cioran
• "The Inheritors: An Extravagant Story", Joseph Conrad and Ford Maddox Heufer (he didn't change his last name to Ford until 1919)

Here is the text I wrote down from Diane's notebook. I'm pretty sure it refers to subjects from photographs she took while visiting a mental hospital.

(Left page)

Phyllis is the one with glasses and large eyes. Solemn, intelligent mongoloid.

Barbara is sweet and bright and modest.  When I did her in bed in her flowered nightgown she lowered her eyes before raising them.

I think Johannes, the one with the cowboy hat.

At night they sat on their beds and said prayers in unison.  Hail Mary full of grace...I pray the Lord my soul to take.

I want to runaway from here and I don't know how to run. I don't like the girls in my building.  They boss me, call me low grade.  No one comes to visit me.  You're better off dead.

(Opposite page, right)

Marlene Woodruff posed in the rose garden.  I've got a boyfriend.  He says I'm beautiful.  I told him you haven't seen the pretty parts.  Eddie, 45, going to school.  Around her neck on a string was a key.  Her girlfriends gave it to her before she died. It's so to remember people who die.

Then pocketbooks seem to keep her alive.

Nancy is the slightly bearded one who lay in bed like an odalisque against the wall on _?_. (Couldn't make out the word.)

Sally is blind in a wheelchair laughing (25). 'Reading" her name. Red hair.

Carmelia is fat and crosseyed. Julie is her blonde friend.


Here are some other works of Diane's from the exhibition:

And Diane herself, at work in Central Park.

If you are in Paris or planning to be, make sure to check out this exhibition. It's worth a visit.

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Coming Backwards from Dylan

What a weekend. Sunday to Lille...

So yes, I saw Bob Dylan in Lille. It wasn't "amazing", but we were fairly close to the stage and I got to see Bob rock the harmonica, met a Dutch guy who has followed Dylan for what appears to be a long time, and while I didn't get to ask Bobby if he remembered the 12 year old me (I met him with Jerry Garcia) - it was still a great weekend.

Mark Knopfler opened for Dylan with his band and let me just start by saying I was amazed. His voice is still in good shape and the little guitar riffs that made me air guitar to "Money For Nothin'" are still present in his new music. Not to mention one of his band - the guy who played the fiddle - could really play the fiddle.

What was disappointing is that the song I most wanted to hear, "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" wasn't part of the set list for Lille, but he did play it in Paris. The other disappointing thing is how disappointed people were - they started leaving the concert around the time Dylan played "Jolene". It was so hot and crowded on the floor that I popped out to the WC (unfortunately just as he played "Like a Rolling Stone", and when I stopped outside for a ciggie I overheard all the disappointment.

Does Dylan sound like the other times I've seen him live? I forgot I also saw Dylan at the 1994 anniversary of Woodstock. But no, he doesn't sound like he sounded nearly 20 years ago. But he doesn't sound that bad either. Was I dissapointed, on some level yes. Mostly because Bob never once picked up the guitar. I knew there was a chance he might not be as good as before, but he was animated and seeing the poet and legend still loving music at 70 was well worth the fuss and cost of going to Lille to see him.

But let me leave you with this beautiful story. I met a Dutchman at the concert who told me if he took all the money he spent seeing Dylan over the years he could have bought a beautiful house, but he would rather have the music. From the other little stories he told (about the Swiss woman who jumped on stage and Bob let her sing harmony with him) the love was obvious. I hope one day he meets Dylan and gets to share those stories with the poet himself.

If one day I ever write a book and a fan were to tell me a story with their eyes full of the same light and emotion, I think well - I think it would be just about the greatest thing I could ever imagine hearing. That somehow something I put out into the world gave someone so much. That's the whole reason I want to be a writer.

If you're a fan of Dylan you should check out this website that was recommended to me by the same Dutch guy, www.boblinks.com that is run by a gentleman by the name of Bob Pagel.

And if you're the Dutch guy I met, you might remember us, and if so, please send me an email as we'd like to ask you a little "favour"! (lafemmeflaneuse@gmail.com).

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Recapturing Youth - A Bob Dylan Roadtrip

Paris is not the best place for big name music. After New York and the endless gigs Paris has been a gig disappointment. The venues aren't great, artists charge upwards of 80,00 euros (yes I mean you Tori Amos), and it's difficult to get tickets if you don't act quick.

So I missed my chance to score Patti Smith tickets. I tried to pretend like I wasn't upset. Then I couldn't get Dylan tickets for his night at Bercy. I even contemplated going the scalper/eBay route until I saw what they were asking (about 150 euros a ticket).

Then my friend Danielle proposed we go to Lille and see Dylan. There were tickets for 63,00 a pop with some minimal costs for booking fees and a 1 euro donation to a good cause. She booked the tickets. Then we had to figure out how we were going to get to Lille...

There was the idea of renting a car, taking the train, or doing what is really the truc (thing) now in France covoiturage (rideshare). After some emailing and lots of Facebook, texting, and calls we've now decided on the train.

I'm in my 30's. I can take a certain amount of discomfort for the sake of saving money, but the less money you spend the more you have to deal with hassles. Since Danielle has to be back in Paris for a shoot Monday morning, we can't afford the hassles.

France is really bad when it comes to long distance trains. Either you can cross the country for 19,00 euros (if booked six months+ in advance) or you book a few days before and the ticket that could be 20,00 euros is now 80,00. Though discussions about the British Rail have made me a bit more sympathetic towards the SNCF.

Tickets departing Paris to Lille on Sunday in the afternoon and returning Monday early morning are now 122,00 euros for both of us. I got a special last minute fare, yay! That's 30,00 euros saved and we're not having to leave Lille at 7 am.

Now we just need to book a not-too-cheap hotel near the train station and the details for our "adult" roadtrip are settled. Now to the good part...

We're not just going to see Bob Dylan (whom I haven't seen since I saw him play a few sets with The Grateful Dead when I was 12 years old!), but Mark Knopfler, who is also on the tour.

Now for those who don't know Mark Knopfler is the lead guitarist from Dire Straits so yes, if you want your MTV you might want to catch him on this tour. Knopfler worked with Dylan on a few projects, including Infidels.

But what makes this sort of significant really is that if you've read my blog you know what a massive fan of I am of the film "The Princess Bride". Maybe in a surreal moment, Knopfler might play a bit of the score, though I highly doubt it.

I think I'm in for a real treat and since my co-pilot on this adventure is a photographer, be prepared for some beautiful photographs when I return.

Dylan's famous for not playing old music at his shows, but if I had one wish it'd be to hear him play either "It Ain't Me Babe" or "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue".

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