I’m back in Snowmass this week, at an elevation of roughly 8500 feet, slick with sweat, moisturizer, and sunscreen, taking notes at the Aspen Summer Words Craft Panels. Just as in 2023, I plan on sharing the insights and soundbites that speak to me, in case they also speak to you.
My plan is to post a summary shortly after each Aspen Summer Words craft talk and panels. If you’re reading this in relatively-real-time, please comment and let me know if these notes are helping your writing practice as well.
Inside Publishing: How It Actually Works | Mon, 6/22
Speakers: Ashley Lopez (Massie McQuilkin & Altman Literary Agent), CeCe Lyra (Agent at Wendy Sherman Associates), Abby Walters (Agent at David Black Agency), Rebekah Jett (Assistant Editor at Scribner)
Moderator: Ryan Harbage (Founder of Fischer-Harbage Agency, Inc.)
I went into this panel somewhat disenfranchised about publishing, as lately I haven’t felt I have any work approaching the publishing phase. I left this panel with the same self-assessment, but now I have hope, and that is a pleasant shift.
And now, the notes...
CeCe mentions she pulls clients right out of the slush pile, which gives me tremendous joy and reminds me how I find the best home goods sitting next to the commercial dumpsters in Snowmass. I bet Cece would have a field day in Aspen's consignment stores.
Ashley says within a pitch email there is typically the pitch and then the first 10 pages of a piece, and she’s looking at the pitch to determine what the author thinks the work is about. Timing is everything in publishing.
Many on the panel talked about the team-nature of publishing. Even if you’re at a small agency, the agent often gets buy-in from other agents before making an offer, and if they are interested, they will bring your pitch to internal team meetings to see if there’s traction.
Publishing is a bunch of book nerds, Ryan says.
The panel is asked to describe what makes them want to acquire a book, and the answer is various forms of “I feel an irresistible emotional connection to the characters.” Ashley adds that she must be able to sell the book, and wants a handy logline to emerge from the reading.
Self-publishing is no longer a dirty word in publishing and can work in tandem with the publishing agency.
Advice for bettering your pitch: talk about your story with others and see what elements light them up—that’s your pitch material.
Finding the Form: How Structure Unlocks Story | Tues, 6/23
Speakers: Jamel Brinkley, Meghan O’Rourke
Moderator: Julie Comins
This was my most anticipated panel because I’ve taken an online class with Jamel Brinkley via MFA For All and loved it. He thoroughly and thoughtfully explained perspective in a voice with such musicality; I hope he reads his own audio books. As soon as my table-mates and I started chatting at the craft panel , I learned they were there for Meghan O’Rourke, and she too has an impressive career and teaching gig. Jamel teaches at Iowa Writer’s Workshop while Meghan’s at Yale.
Is it bothering anyone else that I’m using the panelists’ first names instead of their last? I’m trying to loosen up and it's too far into the article to shift now...
This panel discussion was about structure. Jamel explained that humans are pattern seeking, and writers can use this inclination to reinforce meaning in a piece. Oftentimes, he writes to discover the structure in a short story, then he looks for the patterns in the piece.
Meghan reads her manuscript each day before she starts writing into it again, unless there is a significant break, but this helps her to recognize what is there. Like other Melissa Febos, Meghan is fond of using colored index cards to physically organize the material, with each color corresponding to different elements of her nonfiction: scenes, grief, characters. It helps her to map the problems as well.
It was very hot in the event tent, especially after hiking in, but I stayed.
The best structures are felt, Jamel says. The reader may not be able to articulate what it is but it must unleash some energy that sustains itself over the course of the piece. Structure can be both intuitive and intentional.
Meghan says she obsesses over structure because she understands its importance. Every few drafts, she does a read where she looks for the patterns. What is there that I did not know? Don’t get scared to start over, she says, once you determine a working structure. Don’t get conservative about revision when we should get imaginative.
They both spoke to the structure of a sentence and it’s importance in conveying so much more than what’s on the surface. When sentence structure establishes a pattern, and then that pattern is broken, the reader will feel it. That change communicates a feeling. Perhaps if a character is hiding something, the direct object of a sentence is hiding, or out of typical placement. “Are they loud or quiet sentences?” Jamel asks.
“Structure is not conservative,” Meghan O'Rourke says. “Inhabit it fully.”
