Welcome Lisa Kerr!

Join me in welcoming Lisa Kerr to this week’s What Are You Reading?
Hi, thanks for joining me. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Hi Christina and hello to your readers! I’m a long-time writer from Central California. I mainly write fiction, personal essays and I’m a blogger. My blog documented my time in a religious “discipleship” discipleship program and focused a lot on my exit and recovery from the group. My short stories and articles have appeared in Huffington Post TED Weekends, New York magazine, and Rewire. I’m currently at work on a memoir and my first novel, a mystery romance with a strong female protagonist.
Wow! You have definitely led an interesting life. I’m so glad you could join us today. 
1) Tell us what you’re reading this week.
I have quite a few books on craft on my nightstand (and kitchen and coffee tables) right now because I’m working on getting back into my novel after two year hiatus. Yes, two years. My favorite book this week is Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction by Tracy Kidder (Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Soul of a New Machine) and Richard Todd (Kidder’s longtime editor). The book focuses on writing nonfiction (such as narrative, essays and memoir) but is different than a lot of books on craft because they use stories from their decades of working together at The Atlantic Monthly.
2) Why did you choose this particular book?
I recently joined a pretty diverse writing group, but there seems to be an awful lot of journalists and longform reporters in my group. I’ve always thought reporters to be smart and concise, so after reading a lot of their work in recent weeks, I decided I wanted to read a book on writing from a journalist’s perspective. So often I’ve read a poet’s perspective or a memoirists perspective, which are fantastic, but the advice they give is sometimes intangible and I feel entertained, but not armed with tactics to write better. I love books like Bird by Bird by Anne Lammott. I not only laugh out loud at her stories, but I always lean on the idea that even fantastically accomplished authors write “shitty first drafts.” However, I’m at the point in my manuscript where I’ve moved beyond the “shitty first draft” and I need practical, gritty advice that doesn’t romanticize good writing, but really dissects what makes a narrative work. I don’t want to hear another lecture about “writing magic”; I’m not a wizard.
3) Tell us a little about it. Remember…NO spoilers!
The book is as practical as you can get and it gets down to business right away. It’s a smart book but doesn’t talk down to the reader, which is important to me. The book really is as much of a story about the relationship between Todd Kidder and Richard Todd, his longtime editor. Richard Todd, then 32, tells the story of how Todd Kidder, then 27, came to write for him when he was inexperienced and cocky. As Richard Todd tells it, the editor-in-chief (then Bob Manning) sent back one of Kidder’s manuscripts to Richard with “Let’s face it, this fellow can’t write,” scrawled on it. The book takes through his career as someone who “can’t write”  to someone who became a Pulitzer Prize winning author.
4) What are you enjoying about it so far?
I love stories like the one above. Good Prose is Kidder’s history of learning to write well, all summed up into a book on the craft of writing as told with his longtime editor. As writers, we all learn somewhere. Anne Lammott is right: We all start with shitty first drafts. Or in Kidder’s case, the fifth draft that people still dismiss because sometimes two or three drafts just isn’t enough to make a masterpiece.
What I love about the book is summed up in one sentence by Richard Todd: “Kidder’s great strength is that he’s not afraid of writing badly.”
As writers, especially early in our manuscripts, we really need to have the courage to write badly at first in order to get the story from head to page. Todd goes on to write, “The truth was that Kidder was afraid of writing badly in public, but not in front of [me].” We all need someone, whether it’s a fellow writer, a friend or an editor, who we’re not afraid of writing badly in front of so we can move past the bad writing and onto something that moves us and our readers.
5) Is this an author you’ve read before?
No. I’d never even heard of Todd and Kidder before.
6) What made you choose this author and book?
I was going to pick up a book on the personal essay anyway, but this one popped up online and it looked intriguing.
7) What do you like about their work?
I love that it’s not pretentious or mysterious, as so many writing books are. Novelists sometimes treat their craft as otherworldly and magical; something only the “chosen” are born to do. In a lot of ways, writing can be otherworldly and full of magic, but it’s deceptive to say “I was just born a genius writer.”
My best writing days are always inspired by a little bit of magic; but I’ve become a better writer not because of a magical writing fairy who waved a wand, but because I’ve practiced writing well for decades. Good Prose is honest in this way. It splays Todd Kidder’s mistakes and failures out for all of us to see, and takes us step by step through his journey of learning to write really well. It’s just as important for new writers to read books like this, that show great writers in their early days, as it is to read the inspirational books on writing.
8) Would you read them again?
Absolutely. In fact, I’d like to read some of Richard Todd and Todd Kidder’s journalism, too.
9) Would you recommend this book and author to others?
Yes, especially to fellow writers (new or seasoned).
10) Where can we find out more about you and what you write?
I currently write a blog that’s a little more personal than most writers’ blogs. It’s called Stories in the End. I’ve been writing a lot about my writing life lately, which might interest other writers, so take a look at it. Otherwise, my official page is where you (or your readers) can find out any news about me, past publications or information on workshops I’m teaching. I’m also on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram.
Wonderful! Can’t wait to see you online. Thanks again for stopping by!
Thanks, Christina! It was great chatting with you.
 
 
If you would like to be featured on What Are You Reading, please email Christina@ChristinaAlexandra.net