When Ann Patchett finished writing her first book, she placed the manuscript on the floor, took off her shoes, and stood on this pile of paper to see how much taller it made her. Patchett did not reveal her new height.
Last week, I reported that I had finished writing my first draft. I thought I would put it away for a couple of weeks, but of course I kept playing with it, and the story stretched a few hundred words. When I hit 74,000, I said, Enough, and uploaded it to FedEx Office. I picked up the boxed manuscript today. I am 3/4″ taller. (If I had selected double spacing instead of space and a half, I would’ve been 1″ taller.)
I admit this is not the equivalent of the young Mickey Mantle launching a baseball on a 565′ parabolic course into baseball history, but it’s a momentous event in my little life.
On October 1, I’ll start reading. I’ll know going in that the quality of my work was checked by FedEx Office employee 6499086. FedEx wouldn’t have let my book out of their shop if it hadn’t met their high standards.
Today’s recommended reading
The Triggering Town: Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing by the poet and teacher Richard Hugo. This is a well-lit look under the hood of our weird craft, and so charming that it made me want to write poetry, which is not something our world needs. They don’t need it on Earth 2, either.
Hugo (1923-1982) was an original thinker and I’m sure he was an inspiring teacher. I’m inspired by Triggering Town, even though only a small part of the book is about triggers and towns and some of this stuff didn’t interest me and didn’t belong here (for example, politics in academia). Overall, it’s worth your time.
Random lines that spoke to me:
Give up what you think you have to say, and you’ll find something better…say nothing and just make music and you’ll find plenty to say.
You may object that the meaning has changed, that you are no longer saying what you want to say. Never want to say anything so strongly that you give up the option of finding something better. If you have to say it, you will.
…the single-syllable word with a hard consonant ending is a unit of power in English.
25 years of memory can kink a lot of cable
Some things are just meant.
[On notebooks:] Don’t use blank paper. Lines tend to want words.
Next week: I turn to chapter 1, page 1, and try not to be triggered.
Steven Bryan Bieler, Writer 
Whenever a television show includes a writer, showing the manuscript of their new book, it always looks too thin to me. Jerry
That reminds me…My earliest model for a writer came from an episode of The Patty Duke Show. One of the two identical cousins played by Ms. Duke decided to lock herself in the family’s attic and write a novel. With a pencil. She referred to the attic as a “garret,” which is where I learned that word. When she was finished and she showed her novel to her father (or her uncle, I forget if this was Patty or Cathy), the manuscript was as thick as a phone book. (If you are one of my three readers and you don’t remember phone books: They were thick.) It was, of course, an untidy pile with notes sticking out. So THAT was a manuscript! Obviously, this escapade dived straight into my brain.
So when the FedEx employee placed a box on the counter and removed the top, I expected the box to be bursting with paper. The box had room to spare. For a moment I wondered if they had misplaced part of my upload. They hadn’t.
Thanks for reminding me!
(The first three words of Patty or Cathy’s novel: After rejecting “One morning I” and “One afternoon I,” she chose “One night I.” Much approval on the laugh track.)