Or bought the New York Times
Carol Brennan King May 20, 2024
I want to build on the premise we were exploring last week that to be a good writer, you need to be a reader. And not just a reader in your genre, but someone who reads broadly.
You need to read what people are buying, and figure out why they are succeeding in selling those books. I have heard people say “I write what I want to write. If I like it, someone else will like it too.” That’s OK, if you don’t care about selling many books.
But I would imagine you want lots of people to want to read your work. As I said last week, you need to read in your field. You must also know what is succeeding in your field.
Yesterday, my husband did what he does most Sundays; he bought a copy of the New York Times (for me). I went as I do most Sundays, straight for the Book Review section.
I browse through the book review sections first: Fiction, Nonfiction, and Children’s Books to see who earned top marks. Next, I check out the Features, noting this week Elisa Gabbert. Check out her website, http://www.elisagabbert.com/about/ where you can learn more about her.
Do go to https://electricliterature.com/poetry-six-by-elisa-gabbert/#.pjkv3pvkx , to get a taste of more of her work. This is where I started reading Gabbert. It is also where I would have spent the rest of my morning, had I the time.
As a writer and specifically, of poetry, I will say that I can love a poet, yet not be crazy about everything they write. And as fairly mature people, I assume you and I have the ability to read good work without embracing every line. I encourage you to cultivate the ability to read the work of other poets, consider what you like and why, and then stirred by what you have observed, write your own poems.
Now, these last comments relate to more than poetry. Read good writers, or the ones that show up on the best sellers lists in the New York Times Book Review and consider what it was that got the book that recognition.
Having chosen a title from the Book Review, check it out on Amazon or some other book reviewer, to see what the reviewer had to say about it. Go to the library, and if they have the book, or books, as you read it or them, consider what brought that book that kind of recognition.
Maybe even write your own thoughts about why people liked that book. Then write what you have learned from the exercise. This will not be wasted time. Instead, you are taking a master’s class in writing, and how to write books that last, or books that sell…and maybe, how to write or rewrite something you have been working on.
HONESTLY, I keep this section of the New York Times the way I might keep a good writer’s how to book, or the way I keep reference books or my own class notes to keep me growing as a writer.
OK, this will keep you exploring this week, and I will go to the library this afternoon to see what treasures I can find.
Slow Carol Brennan King
It is quiet now,
still but for the fan moving the air
still but for my own breath moving
nourishing my heart, my brain.
It is quiet now and I feel the spinning
of the earth slowing and the
words on the page slowing and finally
I know what they say, not the meaning of each
individual word, but what the words mean,
when they all come together
in one line, in my brain,
the sense they speak when they come
together, when they are sung together
sotto vocce, to get my attention
but they must come slowly
to find their home in my mind
where they can touch more than my brain
where they can touch my heart.
And I will know
Carol's Notes 