The Trusted Storyteller

In theater there are three big categories that plays or musicals can fit into. There are new works, premieres (work that was seen somewhere else, but not locally), and everything else. Everything else is a lot of theater. Most of it, in fact. But “done before” doesn’t mean DONE. I have seen MacBeth five times on stage. Some of been more successful than others, but they were all different. The director chose an approach, worked with the designers, made some cuts to the text (and what gets cut is always very telling), worked with the actors, and a new MacBeth was born. Once in a while I will see a production that I know can’t be topped, but that doesn’t mean I won’t see other productions. I constantly compare, contrast, critique, and learn from new productions.

[I should note--new takes on old favorites are very tough to pull off. But an excellent example of a wonderful retake is Pirates running at the A.R.T. right now. An 80 minute Pirates of Penzance--very faithful to the spirit of the source material, but a completely new take on it.]

Though the playwright is the writer, a director is a storyteller in theater. Again, these are broad strokes (actors, dramaturgs, designers, they all help shape a production tremendously). And so a director will become one of my trusted storytellers in the collaborative world of theater.

I have been thinking about my TBR pile, which is enormous. There are some books on the pile that sounded interesting. But most of the books? Either recommended by a trusted source, or written by a trusted storyteller. The author could be trying something completely different, but I’m in. I will take a leap. I have been thinking a lot about plot, and about characters, and the balance needed to tell a good story. But the storyteller is what really matters.

Am I alone in this? How do you chose your books? Do you have favorite authors who immediately go on your list? Who are some of them?

******************

J.A. Hennrikus is the Executive Director of StageSource. She is a mystery writer. Her short story, “Tag, You’re Dead” was published in Level Best Book’s anthology THIN ICE, “Her Wish” is in Level Best Books’ DEAD CALM, and “The Pendulum Swings, Until It Doesn’t” is in BLOOD MOON. She is a social media fan, and tweets under @JulieHennrikus. She wrestles with allusions of athleticism, is an avid theater goer and a member of Red Sox nation. Her website is jahennrikus.com

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Do you Elance?

I’ve been working for myself since 1996. As an entrepreneur, I’m always looking for new ways to make connections and build relationships with clients. I recently decided to check out Elance.com. I’ve seen a few magazine ads and heard it mentioned on at least one social media site I frequent, so it seemed time to check it out.

Jumping right in.

Normally, I’m Regardless of what you do, there is going to be someone out there who doesn’t like how you do it. With that in mind I intentionally decided to not to look for reviews of Elance.com up front (don’t panic, I’ll get back to this). I stepped right up and signed up for an account. The entry is fairly straight forward, but as with all sites, you must check the box to agree to their terms of service (TOS) prior to clicking the register button. When you follow the link to the TOS page, you are greeted with links to a host of difference documents that all make up the TOS. I will admit to glancing through TOS on some sites, but since we were talking about my livelihood not to mention issues such as copyright and payment methods, I thought it wise to actually print the documents off and read them carefully. If you are considering signing up with Elance, or any of their competitors, I encourage you to do the same. I agreed to the TOS just to get into the site.

When you first sign on, you are asked to give a brief description of your skills and experience. I declined. I didn’t want to give too much information about myself until I’d read the TOS. Since I wouldn’t give specifics, I was asked to pick a general area of interest, I picked Writing/Translation. Other choices include IT & Programming, Design & Multimedia and Legal to name a few. I imagine as you build your profile and portfolio you can blur the lines between those categories. For example, I’m also willing to do some admin work especially for writers who might not be as experienced with marketing as I am.

Almost immediately, I started receiving job referrals. Some of them caught my eye, and I imagine with further refinement of my profile, they’d be more targets and sending me jobs that better match my interests and skills. Right off the top I noticed that some of the pay rates were a little on the low side, but again I figured as I completed my profile this would change.

I found the terms of service to be overwhelming, but I plowed through them. I’m not a lawyer, but I’ve read and signed many a contract, to me these terms felt skewed towards the businesses seeking work for hire. rather than protecting the freelancer. A little more research on their site also told me that Elance.com gets 8.75% of every job from the freelancer. It stands to reason there would be a fee, but there are also fees for making connections with potential job offerers and getting clarifications necessary to make a proposal and actually making the proposal. There are different levels of membership. All include a certain number of connections per month, some include the option to purchase more as needed.

After my initial sign up and reading of the TOS, I started doing more research this time I was specifically looking for reviews. I reached out to Jessica of Balancing Everything  She’s actually been a freelancer and in need of freelancers. With regard to working as a freelancer, she said. “I had the most success finding small freelance writing jobs. I liked the experience overall, and would recommend them.”

I also used Google and found reviews here, here and here. If you are interested in Elance.com I encourage you to visit these pages and read the reviews and the comments. There are a variety of different perspectives and experiences.

For me, I think the cons, outweigh the pros. I am an outgoing person who enjoys networking. I have come to appreciate the value of my skills and experience. I’m the type of person who likes to make personal connections with the people I work with and the Elance model seems to be the antithesis of that. However, I encourage people to check out Elance.com for yourself and determine if it will work for your situation.

Have you used Elance.com or other clearinghouse sites for freelancers? What was your experience?

The opinions stated here are my own and do not necessarily reflect the experience or opinions of other members of the New Hampshire Writer’s Network team. This review was not solicited nor was I compensated in any way for my thoughts.

Lee Laughlin is a writer, wife, and mom, frequently all of those things at once. She blogs at Livefearlesslee.com. Her words have appeared in a broad range of publications from community newspapers to the Boston Globe.

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What I Learned at Malice Domestic

I have already confessed to being a cozy writer. And reader. And I spent last weekend with 700+ like minded folks.

Malice Domestic is an annual mystery fan conference that celebrates the traditional mystery. This wasn’t my first Malice. It was my fourth or fifth–but the last time I was there was 2005. There are lots of reasons to go to a conference, but I was struck by how my experience at Malice has changed over time.  My writing life has propelled me forward in interesting ways. I am more confident of my craft. I have a wide circle of published friends, and many of them were at Malice. I am also on the board of Sisters inn Crime New England, and SinC National has a strong presence at the conference.

Eight years ago I wasn’t as confident, and felt like more of an outsider. This time, I belonged a bit more. Maybe not to the inner circle, but I was definately with my tribe. Though the panels were good, what I really found interesting were the different events that the conference set up for the authors and readers/fans to interact. Since I wasn’t an active author at the conference, I went to these events to support my friends who were participating. And in the process, I learned a lot.

On Friday morning, there is an event called “Malice-Go-Round”. Attendees sit at round tables with two authors. At the sound of the bell, each author has 2 minutes to pitch her/his (mostly her) book. Then the authors go to the next table, and the process is repeated. I went because my friend Barbara Ross was participating for the first time, and I wanted to show support. But watching 60 authors (I think that is the number) pitch, you can’t help but start to think about what is working, and what isn’t. Here are some thoughts, should you ever have this sort of opportunity. (And honestly, you will, at some point, for something. Pitching is part of life.)

Don’t tell us the plot. Some authors really got stuck telling us the story, and two minutes isn’t enough time for that. Instead give a two or three sentence recap, and then turn to the characters. Why should we care what happens? What wrong is the protagonist trying to right? What is the hook? There are a remarkable number of similar plots–what makes your book different is how you make me care about what happens to your characters.

Swag. I knew that it was suggested that each author bring enough of “whatever” for everyone. This varied–some people brought candy, or recipe cards, and one person brought a pen. Most people either brought a bookmark, or a business card with a book cover on one side. So here are some swag observations.

1. Make sure it is a nice piece. Well designed, with information easily accessible.
2. Cute ideas (candy, for example) don’t last once they are used, so the name recognition isn’t long.
3. Make your piece stand out. One bookmark had a ribbon attached to the top. It probably cost a few cents, and took time, but it made me want to keep the bookmark. And when you are collecting that many pieces of swag, a lot of it is going to be dumped. Unless it stands out.
4. Have enough of whatever for everyone. I totally understand the numbers are significant, but not having information to hand out is a lost opportunity.

Smile, have fun, and be professional. Practice your pitch, and know it well. But don’t know it so well that you can’t have fun with the crowd. And remember to SMILE. It must be scary, but 60% of the attendees are fans, and they want you to succeed. They want to find a new author, or series. So help them like you.

What a great opportunity for me to learn, and one I didn’t expect. And props to everyone who participated. It was a great way to start the conference.

***************************

J.A. Hennrikus is the Executive Director of StageSource. She is a mystery writer. Her short story, “Tag, You’re Dead” was published in Level Best Book’s anthology THIN ICE. “Her Wish” is in Level Best Books’ DEAD CALM. And “The Pendulum Swings, Until It Doesn’t” was published in BLOOD MOON in November 2012.She is a social media fan, and tweets under @JulieHennrikus. She wrestles with allusions of athleticism, is an avid theater goer and a member of Red Sox nation. Her website is jahennrikus.com

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The Writer’s Voice – Another Unconventional Definition

Your writer’s voice is all your own. It is not only how you tell your story, it’s which story you choose to tell, and why you must tell it. Your writer’s voice is less about syntax and more about soul, less about punctuation and more about passion, less about eloquence and more about essence.

But, there is even more to it than that.

Though everyone has a story to tell, not every person shares that story with the world. Though we all have ideas and opinions, we do not all put them down on paper or in pixels. In choosing to express her inner thoughts to the world, a writer takes on a serious responsibility.

Writers are keen observers. We are naturally aware of details and nuances, collecting them from our own experience and using them to enrich our writing. We are also born storytellers who seek out the story in even the smallest incident. We see a humble dandelion struggling to bloom through a crack in the sidewalk and our minds leap to stories of other characters who must rise above their circumstances. We witness a surly patron short changing a waitress and wonder to ourselves about what made the patron’s temper flare. We see a child cross the finish line at a local road race and we can’t help but put that moment in context, wondering about all the preparation that went into that small victory and what the accomplishment will mean to the child’s future self.

We see, we wonder, we feel. We observe, explore, and then try to make sense of what we’ve experienced through the medium of words. Like forensic scientists, we patiently unearth and sort out all the bits and pieces so we can string them together until they tell the whole story. And then we share that story because a writer’s ultimate goal is always the same: connection.

The responsibility of a writer lies in that connection.

When you write, you are giving voice to your own thoughts, but you are also helping to shape the thoughts of others. Whether you are a journalist, an essayist, a novelist, a blogger, or a poet, each time you release your writing into the world it has the potential to alter someone else’s perspective. Those shifts, no matter how small or subtle, can change lives.

The writer’s voice is what connects us – to ourselves, to each other, to the world around us … to ideas and dreams and endless possibilities. The writer’s voice is a light that shines into the dark places, making them less scary. It is compassion in times of crisis and encouragement in times of despair. The writer’s voice is both rebel and conscience, the hurricane and the eye.

As writers, we have shouldered the responsibility of helping other people make connections in their lives. Our words provide perspective, insight, and diversity of ideas. Our stories make it possible for a reader to step into the shoes of another, if only for a little while. What we write has the power to change how someone else perceives the world, or his neighbor, or himself.

Remember this, dear writer, when you next pick up the pen or set your fingers to the keyboard. Remember that you are creating connections. You are stitching the world together, one word at a time, one reader at a time. What kind of world are you creating?
 
 

Author’s Note: I wrote this piece in response to the horrific events at the Boston Marathon this past Monday. Watching the news coverage of the aftermath did nothing to help me process what had happened. I felt adrift in a roiling sea of sound bytes and sensational headlines, sanitized press conferences and endlessly looping stats. It wasn’t until I began reading the essays of fellow writers that I was able to feel again. It was their human words and emotions, the context they provided, the stories they told that helped me regain my footing. It was their ability to make small connections that helped me start to piece together my own perspective and questions and thoughts. There are no easy answers in a tragedy like the one that befell Boston on this Patriots’ Day, but it was the writers who threw me a lifeline.
 
 
Jamie Lee Wallace is a writer who also happens to be a marketer. She helps her Suddenly Marketing clients discover their voice, connect with their audience, and find their marketing groove. She is also a mom, a prolific blogger, and a student of voice and trapeze (not at the same time). Introduce yourself on facebook or twitter. She doesn’t bite … usually.

Image  Credit: Jon Pinder

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Some Thoughts. . .

Though I only blog here every other week, I am in constant writing mode. My fiction (which too often takes a back seat), blogs for work, emails, newsletters, grant applications, tweets, pithy Facebook posts. Coming up with this week’s post should have been easy, but instead I have a lot of random but significant thoughts. None are directly about writing, but all of them are about what I need to be able to write.

Community

• I was on an email chain last weekend that was about work, but ended up to be about support for each other as we all struggled with life challenges.
• A dear friend, her son, and his fiance were in a head on collision five weeks ago. CaringBridge.org has kept me apprised of their miraculous recovery.
• This year I am the president of Sisters in Crime New England, and I continue to marvel at this all-volunteer organization, and our commitment.
• I have five friends who all have cozy mystery series coming out in the next few months. We are working on creating a group blog, and are planning on meeting in early June for a writer’s retreat. (I am thrilled at their support, and humbled to be included in this outing, as I am still in the pre-published phase of my novel writing career.)

What is that song, “you get by with a little help from your friends”? These examples are a testament to that. As writers, it is so important to create, acknowledge, and treasure our communities. Notice the plural. It takes a large village to support a writer. It is too much work for one or two people.

Time

Many people marvel at how busy I am, and worry that I work too hard. I am busy. But work too hard? Maybe I do, but I also have a life in the arts, and time bends a bit around that. I have not chosen a 9-5 path. My day job is in theater, I teach, and I write. That is a lot to cram into one life.  But, and I am wrestling with this, isn’t it best to make it as full as possible? When I turned 50 last summer, something clicked. Time is precious, but shouldn’t be treated like that. Instead we need to make sure every moment possible (possible!) is spent in a way that brings joy or ease to our life. I struggle with balance, but that is mostly about going to the gym.

Peace

And this brings me to my last musing of late. I have been taking a meditation class. I have been failing at this class, but I continue to try. I suspect the mind of the writer is very hard to quiet, but that is not an excuse.)= My goal is a quiet mind for a short period of time. Silence the muses, silence the thoughts, silence the judgement. To be present, not thinking too far ahead. Just get the grant written, the blog posted, the chapter outlined. Don’t worry about the review committee, the commenters, the agent. Just focus on the now. And make sure it is what I want it to be. And change it if it isn’t.

How about you? Are you wrestling with some truths right now? Making any changes?

******

J.A. Hennrikus is the Executive Director of StageSource. She is a mystery writer. Her short story, “Tag, You’re Dead” was published in Level Best Book’s anthology THIN ICE. “Her Wish” is in Level Best Books’ DEAD CALM. And “The Pendulum Swings, Until It Doesn’t” was published inBLOOD MOON in November 2012.She is a social media fan, and tweets under @JulieHennrikus. She wrestles with allusions of athleticism, is an avid theater goer and a member of Red Sox nation. Her website is jahennrikus.com

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Reading Aloud, aka A Writer’s Nightmare

There is a phrase in theater–the actor’s nightmare. It is when an actor is about to go on stage, and can’t remember what play they are in, their lines, and/or their blocking.

For writers, I think the nightmare is doing a reading of their work. It is a combination of the audience, reading aloud, and the vulnerability of reading their own work. If it is a work in progress, that can be even tougher. Last weekend Sisters in Crime New England hosted a series of readings called March Reads. Members read five minutes of their work–either published, or in progress. No critiques, just applause. You couldn’t ask for a better audience than other writers, and these are really supportive events. It made me think about what people without that sort of practice opportunity can do to prepare for a reading.

Here are some tips:

• Find out how long you’ve got. If you don’t know how long you have, pick a five minute piece, and a ten minute piece. Or two five minute pieces.
• When choosing a piece to read, aim for a minute less. Leave people wanting more.
• There aren’t rules. You don’t have to start from the beginning. And you don’t have to read straight through. Pick a piece that entertains.
• Bring a friend. In the audience. And/or on the panel.
• Practice. Mark up the piece. Remind yourself to take breaths. If you are doing a introduction, consider writing that out as well.
• Ask for help. Are you reading a new piece? Ask your partner/friend/child/workmate how it sounds. Pay attention to their reactions, and take it into consideration. Are they bored? Chose another piece. Do you stumble? Fix or, or chose another piece..
• When given the opportunity, read. Practice may not make perfect, but it does make it easier.

I will be doing a reading on Thursday, April 18 7pm at the Trident Booksellers and Cafe on Newbury Street. Happily some other people will be joining me, which makes it much easier.

*************

J.A. Hennrikus is the Executive Director of StageSource. She is a mystery writer. Her short story, “Tag, You’re Dead” was published in Level Best Book’s anthology THIN ICE. “Her Wish” is in Level Best Books’ DEAD CALM. And “The Pendulum Swings, Until It Doesn’t” will be in BLOOD MOON in November 2012.She is a social media fan, and tweets under @JulieHennrikus. Her website is jahennrikus.com

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The People in My Neighborhood

I am the Executive Director of StageSource, an arts service organization for the theater community. One of my recent projects was writing a report about diversity, inclusion, and gender parity in the the theater sector, based on several conversations we held last fall. (Here is the report, if you are interested.) One of the metaphors I used (actually, that I borrowed from someone else) is the desire to have theaters (onstage, backstage, in the offices, in the audiences, and in the board rooms) look more like the MBTA during a daily commute.

During this complicated, complex, fascinating, frustrating series of conversations, I thought a lot about stories, and storytelling. The difference of telling a specific story verses a global story. What it means to have a person see himself or herself on stage. And who should tell what stories, and who should dictate how they are told. Lots of layers of conversations.

This made me think about my writing, and the world I am creating. Where can I work on diversity and inclusion in my writing? (I do pretty well with gender parity.) How do I create believable characters who have traveled completely different paths than I have? I know that is my job as a writer, but how can I make sure a character feels real, as opposed to the perception of a middle aged white woman?

I used to think it was enough to create a rough sketch of a character, and then let the reader fill in the details. And that could include race, or cultural heritage. But now, I wonder if that is true. Or is that just lazy? And how do you create a character, but avoid stereotypes or cliches? Or avoid looking painfully politically correct?

And does it matter? I actually think it does. I want the world in my books to look like the world I live in, and that world is a rich mixture of people. One of the suggestions that came out of the report I worked on for the theater community was, when faced with a choice, to always ask yourself “have I considered a woman for this job/opportunity? A person of color? Is this opportunity accessible to everyone?” For my character building, the questions are similar, with one more step.

“How do I make this person believable?” I look forward to figuring this out. And I am committed to trying.

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Fencing Off Your Writing

Of all the graduation speeches I’ve ever heard, the most meaningful one was at the ceremony for a friend who had just become a rabbi. The speaker exhorted these new clerics “to build a fence around their Torah.” He told them that even as they ministered to their congregations and fulfilled their pastoral duties, raised families, and pursued outside interests, they would need to carve out time and space for their own spiritual practice and study.
I’m not religious in any conventional sense and belong to no organized group for spiritual communion, nor do I subscribe to any particular religious orthodoxy. I do have a deep and rich spiritual life, however, one that is nourished by my writing. But putting words on a page doesn’t always put food on the table, money in the bank, or deliver children to soccer practice.
During those years of working outside the home and then driving all afternoon from soccer to ballet to karate with mad dashes to the orthodontist and the grocery store in between, finding time to write was difficult, even with a room of my own. For years, the room I had was unheated, but it was nevertheless where I sought refuge – wearing head to toe polar fleece. On days when I could arrange to write fiction during business hours, I’d be thwarted by phone calls, household emergencies, or simply distracted by keeping an eye on the clock for when I had to start the afternoon driving. So I started getting up early.
Writing while my family slept and before the telephone could ring was the perfect fence to keep out distraction, to allow me the time and space to pursue this writing gig, which keens in me whether I like it or not. I wrote most of two novels in these perfect, early, undisturbed hours when I could focus entirely on my work, because I knew exactly where my children were, and that they were safe – and unconscious. I was not distracted even by maternal worry.

 

And then one day the kids were grown. I retired first from my management job and then from all but the most interesting and/or profitable freelance gigs. My husband built me a heated studio away from the house, with neither telephone nor internet. It’s perfect, and when I’m out there, nothing exists but the words on the page. It’s just like Anne LaMott says in Bird by Bird: I’m really just listening to the characters in my head and taking dictation.
Even so, some days there are daytime distractions, also known as responsibilities, most of which require a telephone and/or internet access during business hours. These include not just the things we all have to do, like prepare our taxes, but also the things we choose to do, like public service as an elected town official, and a juicy, part-time job spearheading a special project for VPR. As much as I fantasize about writing all day every day, the truth is I do many other things as well, some of which I have to schedule during prime writing time.Lately, there’s been a spate of these things, from the ordinary, like taking the car in for service, to the delightful, like traveling out-of-state to dig into special archives  for my current novel. But all these interruptions take a toll.
Writing a novel takes me a long time. I develop characters and situations and settings, writing pages and pages and pages of what I call a first draft but is in truth a messy collection of really good notes. I keep writing, sometimes desperate to discover how to tell the story, and sometimes with faith that I will discover the path.
Faith prevails: I’ve just mapped out the path. I’m ready to rewrite. But the parts I have are so scattered that I must concentrate hard and clear to decide what stays, what goes, and what else has to be added. I can’t do it while waiting for the guy to come fix the furnace; it’s not the sort of writing I can do while waiting for an oil change.
I can and do often write in the odd corners of the day; I think it’s important to be able to write in a noisy cafe and an airport lounge. But at this stage of a 100,000-word book, I need a protected space – a space both physical and temporal, where I will not be disturbed, where I can journey into the heart of the story, the dark places of my characters’ lives. And no one can protect that space for me. I have to build my own fence around it.
Since my daytime responsibilities won’t go away, I have to start getting up early, hours before it’s polite to use the telephone, long before the normal hours when appointments are kept. Early, as in before dawn. Early, as in four-thirty, maybe five.
In order to do that, I have to get to bed on time and sober. I have to turn down evening entertainment, night-time hilarity. I have to be sharp and rested. This is my fence.
A sturdy fence keeps distractions out and concentration in. It requires deeply dug fence posts, which are the pillars of my day, and five – often six – days a week, this means organizing my life so that I can enter that fenced-off place early every morning and write.

photo: M. Shafer

Deborah Lee Luskin is an essayist, radio commentator, and novelist. Learn more at www.deborahleeluskin.com

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When to write – advice from the past

No one expected me to become a writer. I was supposed to become a pharmacist, then a microbiologist, and then a computer specialist. The career of “writer,” for whatever reason, was never mentioned.

Often I have wondered how things might have turned out differently had I been guided at an earlier age. I wish, when thinking about my days spent in youth, that someone had given me words of advice specific to a writer – a bit of inspiration, a smidgen of insight on going forward. How I would have held on to those words and cherished them. How I would have believed that they applied to me, to my life.

But no one did and as we all know, unless you want to mire yourself forever in the tangled webs of the past, you need to move on. You didn’t get what you thought you needed in the past, get over it. You’ll just have to find it elsewhere, life goes on.

This past weekend, while visiting my brother and his family, I was gifted with a box of family photos saved from my parents’ house when they recently moved from Virginia to Connecticut. Amongst the pictures of relatives and childhoods long gone, I found a simple, yellowed newspaper clipping, no date, just very old. I was almost about to throw it away when I took a second, closer look.

I don’t know who saved it, I don’t know who it was for, but the words rang as loudly to me as if a mentor were leaning over my shoulder and speaking directly into my ear.

Quite by fortune, in a box of near-forgotten memories, I finally found the words of advice from my past that are missing no more.

When to Write

by Edgar A. Guest

Now’s the time to write a letter,

Now you have it on your mind.

Never moment that is better

In a lifetime  you will find.

The thought that prompts you to it

Seize immediately upon,

For you’ll seldom get to do it

If you wait till later on.

You may think: “I’ll write it tomorrow,”

But it’s ten to one you don’t

Write it now or to your sorrow

You’ll forget it and you won’t.

In an minutes you’ll have penned it

And be glad to know it’s gone,

But you may not live to send it

If you wait till later on.

Oh the time for iron smiting

Is the moment iron’s hot,

And the time for letter writing

Is today – upon the dot.

Seize the minutes and to do it,

For the odds are ten to one

That you’ll never get to do it

If you wait till later on.

***

Wendy Thomas is an award winning journalist, columnist, and blogger who believes that taking challenges in life will always lead to goodness. She is the mother of 6 funny and creative kids and it is her goal to teach them through stories and lessons.

Wendy’s current project involves writing about her family’s experiences with chickens (yes, chickens). (www.simplethrift.wordpress.com)

And yup, that clipping is currently framed and hanging by my desk.

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The Form Is The Thing

On Sunday I went to a panel/conversation with theater directors. There was a discussion over calling a play “text” or a “script”, and which is more accurate. One of the directors referred to a play as a poem open for interpretation. Which is, after all, the job of the director. To interpret the work of the playwright. Some playwrights exert more control over the process than others–Edward Albee approves casting of his work. And the Beckett estate has strict rules for the productions of his work, though he has been dead for decades.  In the theater, the playwright is the center of the process. Everyone else works on the interpretation of the work, guided by the director. But another director, another time, another theater company, the play can be revisited or rethought. Which is what makes theater a living art form.

The other day I was driving and listening to an interview with Sue Grafton on NPR. She was talking about her Kinsey Millhone books, and how she has refused to let them be made into a movie. Her reason was three fold. First, producers buy the rights to characters, not stories, so the movie wouldn’t be faithful to the novels. Second, her readers had their image of Kinsey, and any casting would upset someone. Let her live in people’s heads. And third, she had adapted work for Hollywood, and knew what that process was. So she decided to keep her novels novels.

A friend of mine, a wonderful poet, takes some of her long form poetry and redacts it. She literally blacks out large portions of the text, honing it down to a chosen few words. Some of these redactions completely change the meaning of the original work. Others bring out a heartbreaking truth that had been layered over by words.

I am a consumer of words. Plays. Books. Poems. Screenplays. Short stories. Lately I have been thinking a lot about how important it is to respect the form. Musicals made into movies, books made into plays, plays made into TV shows. . .this cross fertilization has been happening forever. But with a critical eye, does it always work? Does the second incarnation play homage to the original, or does it usurp it? Is Shakespeare ever as good on a screen as it is on stage? (I can argue either side on that.) Am I glad that Kinsey Millhone won’t be a movie character? When I think of Stephanie Plum, I say yes. But when I think of James Bond, I wonder. And speaking of Bond–who saw Skyfall? I am still pondering, but it may be my favorite Bond movie. And I wonder if it is because it is a new story that also plays homage to the source material.

I recently saw a play that had been adapted from a novel. In my opinion, it didn’t work. The adaptation was too faithful to the novel. It needed to be cut, and adapted into the new form, that of a play.

Sometimes, often, I have an idea for one form, and then when I start working, the form doesn’t fit. A short story wants to be a novel, or a novella. Or an idea for a novel works as an outline, but when I am working on it, it barely hangs together as a synopsis. I am not a poet, but of late I feel compelled to try. So what to do–fight the work and keep trying to fit it to the form? Or admit defeat and adapt?

Do some of your ideas feel like they would fit better in a different form?

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J.A. Hennrikus is the 2013 President of Sisters in Crime New England and the ED of StageSource. Her short story, “The Pendulum Swings, Until It Doesn’t” was published in Level Best Books Blood Moon last fall.

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