Pep talks for writers
Plus a Creative Hour this Sunday – and thoughts on the horrors and delights of proofreading.
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Here are a few things happening in my life-in-words this week.
The first proofs of my book have arrived. What I mean by this is that the now-edited book has been laid out by the typesetter, with all its fonts and stylistic twirls (like the big capital letter at the start of each chapter, apparently known as a drop cap) – so that it actually looks like the pages of a book. The publisher has sent me this version to proofread and check for typos.
The expectation at this stage is that very little should need correcting – after all, I’ve already read it 47,000 times, and so have my brilliant editor Laura Barber and the excellent copy-editor Jack Alexander. Yet there they are: commas where I shouldn’t have put a comma, and mistakes that have sneaked in during the back-and-forth of different versions. It makes me wonder what kind of errors will still be hiding in there after publication.
The next step (I think) is that bound versions of these uncorrected proofs will arrive in a week or so, looking very much like books, except without the final cover art. They’ll be sent to journalists (still containing my errant commas) – which means that from May, for the first time, people who haven’t worked on the book might be reading it. Thinking about that makes my heart speed up slightly. I can’t wait, and I’m dying to hear what they think, and simultaneously I want to go into hiding, never to be heard from again.
Speaking of bound proofs, I’ve been very lucky to get my hands on Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s forthcoming second novel Long Island Compromise, which I’m reading at the moment.
If you’ve read Fleishman Is In Trouble or any of Brodesser-Akner’s New York Times celebrity profiles, you’ll know what a master she is in drawing a character on the page. The writing is so sharp and honest that it’s almost merciless, but it’s also very, very funny, and she creates such a rich and specific world. She can turn our attention to the inner workings of investment banking, or of a polystyrene factory, or of a rich American family descended from Holocaust survivors, and all of it rushes along and sparkles on the page. For me it’s the most pleasurable kind of fiction, so I’m reading it very slowly and eking it out. Hard recommend.
I told you a few weeks ago that I’d joined TikTok; it nauseates me to add that I have now started posting videos of my big talking face.
If you like this newsletter, and particularly if you’re an aspiring writer, you might get something out of a video series I’m making called 100 Things I Know About Professional Writers.
At this point in my journalism, podcasting and authoring career I have interviewed dozens of professional writers (maybe a hundred of them), and I’ve picked up so many helpful insights (definitely a hundred of them). On TikTok I’m sharing these in a short, snappy way. Some of them might be inspiring on a creative level, others might be practical, and I think most of them will be reassuring to any writer who sometimes feels that they’re flailing (which is all of us). Essentially, they’re video pep talks, with juicy snippets of advice from conversations I’ve had with people like Jesse Armstrong, Emily St. John Mandel and Brandon Taylor.
If you’re a TikTok user and this sounds up your street, follow me at @in.writing.hattie. Let me know here in the comments if there’s anything specific you’d like me to cover.
I’d love you to join our In Writing Creative Hour on Google Meet this Sunday 28 April at 5pm UK time. If you’re not in the UK, you can figure out what time that is wherever you are with this timezone converter.
We get together for a Creative Hour roughly twice a month – I find them hugely helpful in my own writing. They’re open to anyone with a full subscription, which costs £6 a month or £60 a year.
I’m really looking forward to seeing some of you on Sunday. Until then, good luck with your writing!
I've been enjoying your TikTok videos, Hattie! And I'm looking forward to your book. Hope all goes well with its launch.