2008-03-28 - 5:25 p.m.
I recently had a revelation about what I�m writing. It�s perhaps not very profound, but it�s enormously helpful to me. I�m not writing �essays�, but rather �chapters� in a creative nonfiction book. I had been calling the material I write essays, because I was told they should be referred to that way to distinguish them from fictional �stories�. But they are in fact parts of a continuous narrative, not the disconnected units the term �essay� implies.
My friend went to a publishing convention in LA a few weeks ago. All the publishing house representatives there said their companies weren�t really interested in collections of discrete works unless there was a unifying theme. Wait, I realized. The stuff I�m writing is all part of a continuous thread � me going back to college, older and sicker. I�m in fact writing chapters! My friend said he was glad at least someone had gotten some benefit from his expensive conference ticket, because he hadn�t�
Many creative nonfiction authors I admire (like David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs) also write essays, but these are separate from their books. Texts like �Me Talk Pretty One Day� or �Dry� are continuous accounts of specific periods in the writers� lives. That�s what I�m doing: recounting my time at Brown (and right after graduation, re-meeting Nya). While writing is never �done�, I have about 8 chapters in a form I�m not ashamed of and another 6 or so in development. I don�t know how long my book will be exactly, but maybe 30 chapters?
I found my editor right here on DiaryLand (hi, if she�s reading this!). Her diary�s locked right now, otherwise I�d refer you to it. She�s awesome. She was my original year at Brown and we knew some people in common. She�s a grad student at Boston College and grew up outside the city, so she knows the territory when I write about either Boston or Brown. Plus, we have the same student schedules and are relatively free to work at similar times. I feel honored to have her as an editor. Props to her!
� 2008 Geoff Gladstone
If you�ve ever enjoyed my writing, please donate to the Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis and/or the Montel Williams MS Foundation.
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