Even Hemingway had an editor

Some of us were lucky to have great teachers. Others may have had a caring mentor who helped us get started in our career. Dick Elsberry was my manager and mentor in the GE News Bureau (where Kurt Vonnegut got his start). Dick was an irascible character who cared deeply about good writing. When, as a 25-year-old publicist, I turned in my first newsletter copy for his review, it was so bad that he didn’t bother with editing. Rather, he wrote me this pointed letter, pounded out on his manual Remington typewriter, to teach me a lesson about writing which I’ve never forgotten. I am forever grateful to him.

“Joyce -- In future, please submit to me copy as you write it, rather than holding onto it. Thus, if it needs work, you’ll get that direction right away.

On recent copy I detect (no, it is more obvious than that) a very tutorial approach. For example, the energy story starts out by citing the name and title of the energy czar for sector.

The only time you start with someone’s name is if he is (a) the president of the U.S., (2) you are doing a personnel announcement, or (3) it is the Second Coming (i.e. “Jesus Christ, the only son of God, arrived on Earth today and turned the South Bronx into the Garden of Eden.”)

You are not writing term papers anymore but copy to be read by real people, not professors. Thus, we must grab their attention immediately; which sometimes requires a baseball bat. We do not have the luxury of a long, leisurely lead-in. We are writing tight and to the point…there is no room for rambling, or repetition.

So, new rule: as soon as you write it, show it to me. You have a lot to learn about the job you are doing, and you aren’t going to learn living in a vacuum. When you can write copy with proficiency that I believe no longer requires someone else’s review, I’ll be the first to tell you. At that time, you should also realize that you will still benefit from showing someone certain stories … even Hemingway had an editor.”

When Book Characters Become Friends

 

Maybe it started with the pandemic, but the detectives JK Rowling (Robert Galbraith) created in her Cormoran Strike books have become like friends. In particular, I’ve noticed in her fifth book in the series, Troubled Blood, she has painted an even more vivid view into the lives of Robin Ellacott and Strike. While Rowling’s plots are imaginative and intriguing, albeit complex and often difficult to track, the two main characters hold it all together, drawing readers into their growing friendship, hoping that their attempt to veil a longing for each other will ultimately be shed.

Without being able to visit with friends in person, Robin and Strike filled the void as I brought them into my home daily. Checking in with them as I turn each page is like hearing from long-time friends, our relationship spanning more than seven years, since A Cuckoos Calling was published and the duo first met. In one of the latest entries, Robin is suffering through a nasty divorce from the easy-to-hate Matthew, while Strike is showing a side rarely seen when his Aunt Joan dies from cancer: emotional grief.

Others I know, who have been caught up in their story, have shared equal interest in these two and we discuss them as if, indeed, we know them well. Which we do!

As I develop the protagonists in my own novels, I try to generate the same level of interest and intimacy as Rowling has so that my lead characters, Hannah Hart and Mike Gavin, become as real to my readers as they are to me. Gratefully, Robin and Cormoran continue their frequent visits as I devour subsequent additions to the series.

There’s one more thing I must admit. I’ve been watching the C.B. Strike series on TV and have been enthralled by the actors’ depictions of these beloved characters. This is the first time I have found the visual experience as rewarding as the written word. This is a tribute to Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger for having so successfully brought the two detectives to life.