magazine

Can we just get this over with?

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I am sick of writing my serial.

There, I’ve said it.

This week, I’ve resolved to crank this puppy out as fast as humanly possible, because I fear it has taken over my writing life. I haven’t written a piece of fiction in months other than episodes of Glixman in a Fix.

serial title image

Can I just kill off Mendel’s Aunt Rina?

If I didn’t have readers come over to me every couple weeks and tell me how much they look forward to each episode, I think I would have thrown in the towel already.

I have a bad, baaaaaad feeling that some editor will Continue reading →

Story out this week in Binyan: “A Vision of the Future”

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The saddest day on the Jewish calendar will be next Tuesday.

Tisha B’Av arrives on Monday night and observant Jews around the world will fast until sunset on Tuesday to commemorate the loss of both Temples in Jerusalem. Many other tragic events have befallen the Jewish people at this time of year, throughout history.

Today, we see war in Israel, and an upsurge of anti-Semitism has popped up across the globe.

A story to help your tween or teen through this tough time

Now, more than ever, we need to unify with both our fellow Jews and with human beings everywhere. The message of my latest story, “A Vision of the Future,” in this week’s Binyan Magazine (inside Hamodia) is just that: Continue reading →

The new Tablet story my editor is afraid I’m going to get hate mail for

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My newest piece is up on Tablet. When I submitted the pitch several months ago to the Life and Religion editor, Wayne Hoffman, he cautioned me: do you really want to do this?

The topic of the essay is a controversial one in the Jewish community — women wearing Tefillin — and he was afraid I’d get a lot of trolls. And probably some genuine hate mail, to boot.

My original proposal was a much wider topic — the denigration of traditional feminine roles by many “feminists” in the Jewish community. I shot off the query letter in a fit of pique after yet another feminist looked down her nose at my lifestyle and basically told me I was so persecuted I didn’t know that I was persecuted.

The first draft was a mess: too big, too venting, too…too…everything.

I have to really give credit to the very special Mr. Hoffman, who asked the right questions and nudged me in the right direction until I could be proud of the resulting essay. We cut most of the first draft, and narrowed the topic considerably, then tried to focus on the positive aspects of the story.

Anyway, I hope you check the essay out and share and comment and all that.

Writing conundrum: Leaving behind that outline without creating problems

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So, I’m back to cranking out chapters of my serial this week, and this time, I hope to do it a little faster. The quicker I finish the serial, the easier it will be for me to focus on other projects, I think. Anyway, something is happening as I write that I think is worth mentioning, because I sincerely doubt that I’m the only writer to experience it.

In the beginning, there was an outline…

serial title imageIn order to secure my gig to write my current serial for Binah BeTween (“Glixman in a Fix”), I had to prepare an outline. Once that was approved (along with character profiles, the summary, and so on), I started writing. Generally, I write the serial episodes — I might have mentioned this before — in blocks of three, basing them on the outline. Because I’m working from an outline, with characters who are now well known to me, the writing goes relatively quickly. Then I revise the rough drafts once or twice and send them together in a batch to the editor.

Recalibrating

We’re now more than a third of the way in, and more and more often, I find that I’m diverging from the outline. Continue reading →

Analysis: My first writing workshop for adults

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Along with writing and editing, I’ve coached writers one-on-one off-and-on for the last couple years. I’ve presented writing workshops and made author visits to groups even longer than that, but those groups always consisted of school children. Yesterday, for the first time, I combined the two and taught a writing workshop for fledgling writers aged 15 and up. Actual grown-ups attended!

The Crash Course

Since my greatest area of expertise is writing for tots, tweens, and teens, I decided to offer a three-hour crash course in writing for those groups. My husband agreed to whisk away the kids who weren’t in school (some Jewish day school kids attend on Sunday mornings), and I prepared materials and advertised.

Overtime

I thought three hours would be enough, I really did. Continue reading →

Writing a serial: Nickel and dime-ing your way through fiction publishing

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On the way to pick up one of my kids at school on Friday afternoon, one of the other moms pulled me aside.

“We’re really enjoying your new serial in Binah,” she said.

I got a little extra bounce in my step. “Thanks!”

“But getting just one chapter a week is driving us crazy! It’s so hard to wait for the next one!’ she added.

“Sorry!” I replied.

There really isn’t anything I can do to help her, but I feel her pain. Usually, I’m the reader throwing my arms up in frustration at the end of a serial episode screaming, “I have to know what happens next! Argh!”

What’s really funny, is that now as a writer, Continue reading →