Read Online Why We Write by Meredith Maran - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Meredith Maran
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to write and revise every sentence, every paragraph, and every page over and over until the rhythm, the cadence, and tone are properly attuned to your inner ear.
Figuring out how to get an agent, how to find a publisher, how to write a good query letter, how to pitch, how to network—all of this is beside the point until you’ve mastered the craft and honed your skills. Banging out a single book, then thinking you’re ready to give up your day job and be a full-time writer, is the equivalent of learning to play “Three Blind Mice” on the piano and expecting to be booked into Carnegie Hall.
C HAPTER S IX
Sara Gruen
The plane had yet to take off, but Osgood, the photographer, was already snoring softly. He was in the center seat, wedged between John Thigpen and a woman in coffee-colored stockings and sensible shoes. He listed heavily toward the latter, who, having already made a great point of lowering the armrest, was progressively becoming one with the wall….
—Opening lines,
Ape House
, 2010
H ave you heard the one about the writer who sits down at her desk, scratches out a first novel, and hits the jackpot overnight? Sales in the millions, legions of adoring fans, wealth, fame, a movie deal that
actually results in a movie
, a staff to regretfully decline an endless stream of glamorous invitations?
That was Sara Gruen’s story, I thought, and I told her so. Laughing uproariously, she corrected my misperception in her Canadian accent.
Water for Elephants
(which has sold more than five million copies in fifty-seven languages and was made into a 2011 movie starring Reese Witherspoon) has earned Gruen pretty much all of the jackpot items above—minus thestaff. Her husband works full-time as her manager. But
Water for Elephants
was her third book, not her first. And the first two were merely “moderately successful.” And
Elephants
was rejected by the publisher of her first two novels. It sold to another publisher, after four months of rejections, for a very modest price.
“
Water for Elephants
came within fifteen minutes of not selling at all,” Gruen told me. Jackpot notwithstanding, there was an unmistakable ring of gratitude in her voice.
T HE V ITALS
Birthday: July 26, 1968
Born and raised: Born in Vancouver, British Columbia; raised in London, Ontario
Current home: Asheville, North Carolina
Love life: Married to former book editor and creative writing professor Robert C. Gruen
Family life: Three sons, ages 10, 13, and 17
Schooling: Graduated from Carleton University, Ottawa, with highest honors in English literature, 1993; honorary doctorate of humane letters, Wittenberg University, 2011
Day job?: Worked as a technical writer until 2001; now writes fiction full-time
Honors and awards (partial listing): Book Sense Book of the Year Award, 2007;
Cosmo
’s Fun Fearless Fiction Award; BookBrowse Diamond Award for most popular book; Friends of American Literature Adult Fiction Award; Alex Award, 2007
Notable notes:
• Along with her husband and children, Sara Gruen shares her home with three dogs, four cats, two budgies, two horses, a goat, and a fish.
• Gruen is a dual citizen of Canada and the United States.
• Even as a technical writer, Gruen needed so much privacy to write that she had extra walls put up around her cubicle.
• Thanks to international sales of her books, Gruen is a taxpayer in 57 countries.
Website: www.saragruen.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=654617064& sk=wall
Twitter: @saragruen
T HE C OLLECTED W ORKS
Novels
Riding Lessons
, 2004
Flying Changes
, 2005
Water for Elephants
, 2006
Ape House
, 2010
Film Adaptation
Water for Elephants
, 2011
Sara Gruen
Why I write
The only thing that makes me crazier than writing is not writing.
I knew I wanted to be a writer as soon as I knew how toread, and I began by making little illustrated books. At age seven, I sent one to a publisher. I’ve always been a stickler for detail, so I folded all the
Figuring out how to get an agent, how to find a publisher, how to write a good query letter, how to pitch, how to network—all of this is beside the point until you’ve mastered the craft and honed your skills. Banging out a single book, then thinking you’re ready to give up your day job and be a full-time writer, is the equivalent of learning to play “Three Blind Mice” on the piano and expecting to be booked into Carnegie Hall.
C HAPTER S IX
Sara Gruen
The plane had yet to take off, but Osgood, the photographer, was already snoring softly. He was in the center seat, wedged between John Thigpen and a woman in coffee-colored stockings and sensible shoes. He listed heavily toward the latter, who, having already made a great point of lowering the armrest, was progressively becoming one with the wall….
—Opening lines,
Ape House
, 2010
H ave you heard the one about the writer who sits down at her desk, scratches out a first novel, and hits the jackpot overnight? Sales in the millions, legions of adoring fans, wealth, fame, a movie deal that
actually results in a movie
, a staff to regretfully decline an endless stream of glamorous invitations?
That was Sara Gruen’s story, I thought, and I told her so. Laughing uproariously, she corrected my misperception in her Canadian accent.
Water for Elephants
(which has sold more than five million copies in fifty-seven languages and was made into a 2011 movie starring Reese Witherspoon) has earned Gruen pretty much all of the jackpot items above—minus thestaff. Her husband works full-time as her manager. But
Water for Elephants
was her third book, not her first. And the first two were merely “moderately successful.” And
Elephants
was rejected by the publisher of her first two novels. It sold to another publisher, after four months of rejections, for a very modest price.
“
Water for Elephants
came within fifteen minutes of not selling at all,” Gruen told me. Jackpot notwithstanding, there was an unmistakable ring of gratitude in her voice.
T HE V ITALS
Birthday: July 26, 1968
Born and raised: Born in Vancouver, British Columbia; raised in London, Ontario
Current home: Asheville, North Carolina
Love life: Married to former book editor and creative writing professor Robert C. Gruen
Family life: Three sons, ages 10, 13, and 17
Schooling: Graduated from Carleton University, Ottawa, with highest honors in English literature, 1993; honorary doctorate of humane letters, Wittenberg University, 2011
Day job?: Worked as a technical writer until 2001; now writes fiction full-time
Honors and awards (partial listing): Book Sense Book of the Year Award, 2007;
Cosmo
’s Fun Fearless Fiction Award; BookBrowse Diamond Award for most popular book; Friends of American Literature Adult Fiction Award; Alex Award, 2007
Notable notes:
• Along with her husband and children, Sara Gruen shares her home with three dogs, four cats, two budgies, two horses, a goat, and a fish.
• Gruen is a dual citizen of Canada and the United States.
• Even as a technical writer, Gruen needed so much privacy to write that she had extra walls put up around her cubicle.
• Thanks to international sales of her books, Gruen is a taxpayer in 57 countries.
Website: www.saragruen.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=654617064& sk=wall
Twitter: @saragruen
T HE C OLLECTED W ORKS
Novels
Riding Lessons
, 2004
Flying Changes
, 2005
Water for Elephants
, 2006
Ape House
, 2010
Film Adaptation
Water for Elephants
, 2011
Sara Gruen
Why I write
The only thing that makes me crazier than writing is not writing.
I knew I wanted to be a writer as soon as I knew how toread, and I began by making little illustrated books. At age seven, I sent one to a publisher. I’ve always been a stickler for detail, so I folded all the
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