Create a first draft that is close to the final draft? Impossible, a writer may think, staring at the page, wrestling with writer's block and courting the muse. Yet, according to the author, it's an achievable goal. Leading the writer through each phase of the writing process, from organizing physical space and managing time, through researching and interviewing, to polishing the final draft, Fryxell reveals how it's done.
Readers will learn the importance of the "O" word, what "fat-free" writing is, and how an interview is like a seduction. Fryxell explains how to utilize "head work" to build creative pressure, and ways to get into and keep the "flow." Exercises give the reader the opportunity to apply the techniques.
With more than 100 awards for his work, Fryxell is currently the publisher and editor for Desert Exposure and a contributing editor to and former editor-in-chief of Writer's Digest; he has taught at the Maui Writers Retreat. Here, he draws on experience early in his career as a "roving newspaper columnist" cranking out three to four feature columns a week.
"Your focus must come first," Fryxell explains. "Once you've found your focus, you can discover the secret of structure: how easily you can build a story on the foundation of that focus." Like the astronomer narrowing his "field of view" to one small portion of the sky, Fryxell advises readers to narrow the story into "what's called the high concept in the movie biz." Once a writer has found focus, "structuring the story is like building a wall. One by one the bricks are mortared into place."
Readers will learn the art of the interview. Fryxell advises a subtle approach: "your goal is to establish a rapport, not to crack their defenses . . . You're aiming for an easy, comfortable time." By making it seem less like an interview, the interviewer is more likely to get the subject to open up. Fryxell advises staying tuned to conversation beyond the official interview. The "spirit of the back stair" may reveal a golden nugget.
With a fresh, direct, and humorous tone, each page teems with tips. Fryxell blends organizational techniques for project and time management with years of real-world experience in this invaluable writer's resource, swirling with advice for writers of both fiction and nonfiction.
Fryxell encourages writers, armed with the plain truth about writer's block and practical strategies designed to help them write faster and better, to open up the file drawer marked M and tell the muse, "Get to work." (May)
Sharon R. Winberg
ForeWord