So many teachers of craft talk in such generalities that it's hard to put what I hear into practice. Your unique gift is being very specific about highlighting actual text (yours but mostly others) to show me what you're pointing out. Show, don't tell, applies to craft advice as well as narrative.
Please write a craft book! I refer to your lecture on beginnings and endings all the time! Same for interiority! I'm loving Steve Almond's Truth is the Arrow, Mercy is the Bow. I imagine your craft book would be a more current version of Francine Prose's Reading Like A Writer mixed with Home Edit's rainbow themed highlighters, plus a great reading list in the back.
This is one area that I became fairly adept at when writing about prison, because you meet so many characters, and you have to learn to quickly convey an image of them and something crucial about their personality. I hope I'm not being too obnoxious by sharing probably my best example:
"It helps considerably that a new arrival has taken quite a shine to me. His name is Tim, but he goes by Thumper. That’s a pretty good nickname for someone who looks like a welterweight boxer. He’s about 5'9", defined and tattooed, with a crooked nose that gives his face just the right amount of off-kilter handsomeness. His brown eyes are darkly Slavic, but his smile sparkles like he’s in a Pepsodent commercial. He is seriously sexy; the kind of man who could spend an hour chatting up guests at a party and leave every woman – and quite a few men – thinking they’d had a “moment” with him. After several such “moments” with him, I have concluded that what really turns him on is seeing how much he turns you on.
Perhaps that’s the definition of narcissism, but I tend to be very forgiving of a high level of self-regard in a beautiful man. (An ugly narcissist – now that’s unacceptable.)"
P.S. I would buy a Makkai primer on writing as well for sure.
I love the Pepsodent detail. Really establishes, for me at any rate, a feeling of the 1950s. If that's not the time period, then it makes me curious as to why that would be the simile in this world.
That's true, it is slightly anachronistic, as the memoir covers 9 months in 2004. But I was 44 at the time, so I was true to my personal historical time frame, as I grew up with Pepsodent ads. But you accidentally point out a theme of the book -- which is how little prison culture changes, the slang and the attitudes passed down, year after year. In the decades since I was incarcerated, there has been more desegregation (though races are still largely separate) and the smuggling in of cell phones is rampant. Plus there is some limited access to email. But when I was there, it might as well have been 1958, 1978 or 1988, really. Though harsher. No "reform" and very limited dental. A lot more overcrowding. (That's better recently though, at least in California.)
Ahhhh, another great post from Makkai. So, so helpful, Rebecca. And what a treat to read passages, each so different from the other, from such great writers. Thank you.
Yes, do write a how-to! I highlight nonfiction but not novels because I’ll never reread if they’re in technicolor. I use abbreviations in the margin, such M for zingy metaphors and similes, D of C for a description of a character.
A craft book? YES! I took your online Toolbox Story Street and the content you shared was like receiving a serial craft book. I saved every page. This post is just what I needed to add to your collection in my file. Please go for it!
BTW congrats on The Great Believers making the NYT best 100 books of the century. 👏👏👏
This is the first post I’ve read after subscribing and I’m already making plans to go out tomorrow and buy a set of highlighters and colored Post Its. I’m looking forward to putting them to good use. And to work my way backwards through all the posts thus far. If this is a craft book in the making, its like I’ve opened it at random on some middle page, and now I need to go back and read from page 1!
Read this when you first posted it, loved it, keep coming back for the serotonin boost I get from seeing the picture of the highlighters against the lavender background. Also the last picture! The aesthetics are insanely satisfying.
Also yes write a craft book!
One of the things I love about this substack is the abundance of useful pointers that I haven't seen elsewhere in my years and years of reading books & articles on craft. For example, the clothesline metaphor in "Interior(ity) Design Fails" was SUCH a lightbulb moment for me! (That whole post was an incredible troubleshooting tool, tbh.)
So many teachers of craft talk in such generalities that it's hard to put what I hear into practice. Your unique gift is being very specific about highlighting actual text (yours but mostly others) to show me what you're pointing out. Show, don't tell, applies to craft advice as well as narrative.
Please write a craft book! I refer to your lecture on beginnings and endings all the time! Same for interiority! I'm loving Steve Almond's Truth is the Arrow, Mercy is the Bow. I imagine your craft book would be a more current version of Francine Prose's Reading Like A Writer mixed with Home Edit's rainbow themed highlighters, plus a great reading list in the back.
This is one area that I became fairly adept at when writing about prison, because you meet so many characters, and you have to learn to quickly convey an image of them and something crucial about their personality. I hope I'm not being too obnoxious by sharing probably my best example:
"It helps considerably that a new arrival has taken quite a shine to me. His name is Tim, but he goes by Thumper. That’s a pretty good nickname for someone who looks like a welterweight boxer. He’s about 5'9", defined and tattooed, with a crooked nose that gives his face just the right amount of off-kilter handsomeness. His brown eyes are darkly Slavic, but his smile sparkles like he’s in a Pepsodent commercial. He is seriously sexy; the kind of man who could spend an hour chatting up guests at a party and leave every woman – and quite a few men – thinking they’d had a “moment” with him. After several such “moments” with him, I have concluded that what really turns him on is seeing how much he turns you on.
Perhaps that’s the definition of narcissism, but I tend to be very forgiving of a high level of self-regard in a beautiful man. (An ugly narcissist – now that’s unacceptable.)"
P.S. I would buy a Makkai primer on writing as well for sure.
I love the Pepsodent detail. Really establishes, for me at any rate, a feeling of the 1950s. If that's not the time period, then it makes me curious as to why that would be the simile in this world.
That's true, it is slightly anachronistic, as the memoir covers 9 months in 2004. But I was 44 at the time, so I was true to my personal historical time frame, as I grew up with Pepsodent ads. But you accidentally point out a theme of the book -- which is how little prison culture changes, the slang and the attitudes passed down, year after year. In the decades since I was incarcerated, there has been more desegregation (though races are still largely separate) and the smuggling in of cell phones is rampant. Plus there is some limited access to email. But when I was there, it might as well have been 1958, 1978 or 1988, really. Though harsher. No "reform" and very limited dental. A lot more overcrowding. (That's better recently though, at least in California.)
I agree, it would be great to see a craft book by you. Count me among the guaranteed pre-orders.
Will preorder anything you write! ❤️
Ahhhh, another great post from Makkai. So, so helpful, Rebecca. And what a treat to read passages, each so different from the other, from such great writers. Thank you.
Thank you Rebecca. Your concrete examples and the clarity of your craft advice are just what I needed right now.
Yes, do write a how-to! I highlight nonfiction but not novels because I’ll never reread if they’re in technicolor. I use abbreviations in the margin, such M for zingy metaphors and similes, D of C for a description of a character.
A craft book? YES! I took your online Toolbox Story Street and the content you shared was like receiving a serial craft book. I saved every page. This post is just what I needed to add to your collection in my file. Please go for it!
BTW congrats on The Great Believers making the NYT best 100 books of the century. 👏👏👏
This is the first post I’ve read after subscribing and I’m already making plans to go out tomorrow and buy a set of highlighters and colored Post Its. I’m looking forward to putting them to good use. And to work my way backwards through all the posts thus far. If this is a craft book in the making, its like I’ve opened it at random on some middle page, and now I need to go back and read from page 1!
Read this when you first posted it, loved it, keep coming back for the serotonin boost I get from seeing the picture of the highlighters against the lavender background. Also the last picture! The aesthetics are insanely satisfying.
Also yes write a craft book!
One of the things I love about this substack is the abundance of useful pointers that I haven't seen elsewhere in my years and years of reading books & articles on craft. For example, the clothesline metaphor in "Interior(ity) Design Fails" was SUCH a lightbulb moment for me! (That whole post was an incredible troubleshooting tool, tbh.)
Thanks -- it means a lot to know these posts are reaching people!!
Thank you for providing so much useful information in such a friendly, helpful way! I always look forward to the creative boost I get from your posts.