We're No Longer Cuban

"The point of those stories isn’t that writers should always close themselves off to editorial suggestions, but you do need to know what your core values are as a writer, and commit yourself to expressing those values through your writing to the best of your ability at any given moment."


-- Ron Hogan

Image found here

While at the NCAGT conference in Winston-Salem, I went searching for a restaurant I'd enjoyed the year prior. I recalled an outdoor restaurant that offered the cool air and nice bustle of Fourth Street while enjoying savory Cuban food. I found the restaurant, but with an American bistro menu. There were a few items of perhaps Mexican or Latin-American fare but not what I remembered. I said to the owner, "Was this once a Cuban restaurant?"


"Yes," he said, "but we found there really wasn't a market for it. So we changed our menu."


Not a market for Cuban food.


I ordered what turned out to be a fairly bland set of fish tacos with cheddar cheese--the shredded, cellulose kind--and unremarkable salsa. The fish tasted too fishy. 


But the appetizer--the fried artichokes with bok choy -- now that was something to remember. Those got gobbled and made the meal. 


The host and owner was gracious. He worked as hard as his servers. He was fully committed to the enterprise. You could tell he valued every customer.


Even though I didn't love those fish tacos--the ones I'll call "dumbed down for the market"--I'm going back. The appetizer rocked, the ambiance was great, the staff was kind, and I was surrounded by happy customers who either knew the host or who were Winston-Salem arts students with eclectic tastes. Maybe there's something else on the menu worth a try. I'm open.


If I sound like a prissy artist who's about to segue into a diatribe against The Evil Market while elevating artistic integrity, you're half-right. It's ridiculous that the Cuban-specific menu is no more. Winston-Salem denizens and Winston-Salem tourists, shame on you! I said to myself while walking off my meal. Shame on you and your bland palates. I daresay if you ate a greater range of savory foods, you'd find both your lives and waistlines happier and healthier!


Or is it that Winston-Salem doesn't draw enough diverse tourists to merit Cuban food? Is the restaurant located near too many other diverse ethnic choices or bland American crack fare (Doritos and gummy worms kind of satisfaction, the stuff-your-face kind of glee, that I'm certainly not immune to)? Publishers and agents are dealing with all these variables when they tell you, "I'm sorry, but your work you think is literary beauty, your baby that you think is the best thing ever, not enough people will buy it."


I am not critiquing the restaurant's choice. Note this restaurant is still alive, kicking and serving. As I rewrite my novel and think up a more market-worthy synopsis, one that average 16 year-old teen girls can hang with, I face the fact that what I had before while interesting, complex, and rich in characterization, it lacked enough to sustain the average reader's interest for the long haul. This average reader is me, too--addled by TMI and overwhelmed with too many electronic places with unclosed loops of communication. We have tight schedules committed to productivity, and to be honest, reading doesn't feel all that productive somedays. So when we sit down, that page better turn itself.

"Average" 16 year-old teen girls are kept dumbed down by our society: we prefer them highly distracted by boys and drama, hair and drama, make-up and drama, babies come too early with drama, and with grades and college as afterthoughts. These girls do have deep thoughts and read deep books on occasion, but only under duress. Their brains aren't fully developed and societal pressures say, Look good first before you open your mouth. I remember the smartest ones in the classroom being girls who affected "dumb blonde" accents and slang instead of holding forth in intellectual ways. But, these "average" girls do buy books. And I know that despite the dumbing down features of our society that elevates the Kardashians, I know these girls are smarter than they appear, have the potential for deeper thoughts, and can soar to greater heights than they're being challenged.


The trick is writing a book that hooks them, gets them thinking hard and fast about issues they care about...while sneaking in literary elements--flights of figurative language fancy, deep emotional digging, and unified plot, setting, and character with rich, specific elements. These girls can find their inner Cuban and like it. And let's just say I picked up a current YA bestseller and it took me 15 pages to see that while the plot sings with promise, the people were as interchangeable as blank paper dolls, perhaps with red or black hair plopped on top. That will not be my book. Not at all. Wendy Redbird Dancing and her crew are for real--so I must make every action taken "for real" and irresistible.


And those, my friends, are my core values.


This week Hope Clark tweeted, "There's nothing so captivating as smart simplicity--remember that in your writing."


As I dig deep for my core, I'll keep her wisdom in mind.

Oh, and by the way: the restaurant's new name is Encore. 

Writing Prompts:

•  When faced with the choice of encore or hiding, what have you done? Have you walked out on stage with a new costume, or did you hibernate for a while? Write about a time of standing in the spotlight with a new set of clothes, or, about a time when you went underground, and why.
• What are your core values as a teacher? As a writer?
• This week I spoke to teachers about digging deep to find the "Big Ideas" of a literary text, especially those old-school texts that students love to hate (Shakespeare, Twain, and Conrad). I spoke about how these texts aren't dry and dusty but full of relevant, passionate feeling--feelings our kids can relate to. Love. Envy. Courage. Lust. Hate. Fear. Inspiration. Loyalty. Deceit. Can you find the Big Idea of your story? Of your life right now? Write about what you are trying to convey in your fiction or nonfiction, and then go back to your writing and see if the concept resonates through character, scene, detail, setting, and language.
• Three-Minute Fiction has another contest. Enter it.

Start Over

Was it possible that I had found my calling only to discover that I really sucked at it? Could the world be that cruel? I was certain it could. But somehow, whether from sheer stubbornness or a refusal to accept what I believed to be the truth, I stuck with it. It was not until years later that I would understand that doubt is oftentimes a good signifier of talent, that it actually is talent.


-- Eugene Cross, "A Powerful Sort of Doubt"

Image found here

How many times when I've graded student essays or edited friends' stories do I cover their pages with my ink, tracking heavy with my changes? All those notes, edits, deletions, additions--they are my well-intentioned help. Right?

Many times, without saying it directly, I've basically shouted to apprentice writers, Start over. This sucks. 

Now it's my turn, and I mean, really my turn.

My agent has asked me to start over.

I've wrestled with every kind of reaction, ranging from

• Oh he-e-e-e-ell no. I've done three major revisions this past year--and several before that!
• Start over? Sure. I'll leave traditional publishing and start over with self-publishing!
• But so-and-so on such-and-such bestseller list commits worse literary sins than I! 
• But-but-but I won that award for the first 100 pages!
• Maybe 16 year-olds I know won't read this.
• Maybe I really do need to rip this thing up.

This is a crossroads moment where I've had to consult spirit and soul (they're very helpful if I would shut up once in a while) and where I've leaned on every patient family member and friend. My husband gets the medal alongside my parents, sister, and several pals who've heard the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement of my literary crisis.

Crisis! That's what HOW WENDY REDBIRD DANCING SURVIVED THE DARK AGES OF NOUGHT is lacking. It's a post-po-mo sort of meandering trek through a lot of cool scenes with sharp dialogue. And these scenes lead nowhere for the modern YA reader--the 16 year-old girl who might willingly gobble up my book, writ right. 

I've come to the conclusion that however interesting my current draft might be to me, I have the opportunity to attempt what Sarah, my agent, asks and do what I've coached other writers of all ages: Come on, give it the old college try.

So what if you started this story in 2009. So what if it's 2012. So what if people's interest in Michael Jackson, Tim Tebow, Millennials, and various cultural phenomena might be waning--elements your book echoes--because remember--REMEMBER!--your book was not written to showcase these folks or hop aboard a pop culture train. Will this book sustain interest? Will it sell? These are the questions my agent is asking, and she's asking me to forget the prior drafts, forget the sweat and enslavement, to see the work anew and ask myself, What's the story? What is the story.


Serious writers walk hand in hand with doubt. Author Eugene Cross reminds us in "A Powerful Sort of Doubt" to stay doubtful. Serious writers know when to listen to a range of voices and when to cover their ears and yell la-la-la-la-la. Serious writers can be coached and still not compromise.

That's right, coached. The image of the author in the garret struggling to write alone is no more for me. In fact, I abandoned that pose back in 2003 when I applied for an intensive week-long workshop with author Doris Betts. There I met lifelong writer pals Nancy, Bob, Susan, and David--all with fascinating writing projects and blogs. The moment you give your baby up to the group for commentary, and they dig in with knives, cheers, and questions, you've sent the world a message that you care what it thinks.

To brainstorm through your outline with someone else--to trust that someone else might know audience and story development better--to gamble away scenes, characters, and assumptions--that's a tall order for me. But these last two weeks, I've been doing it. I've sent off a two new synopses with the faith that around this blind curve is a new story line, like a freshly-paved road.

What do I want to be doing 20 years from now? What will get me published without losing my artistic integrity? Those two questions juggle career, audience, publishing, muse, and soul for me. I will try to keep Wendy who she is while taking her on a new journey in her present. Starting over could mean scrap Wendy's past history of abuse and make her live it in real time--a tall order for sure. How I will keep her unique faith in Michael Jackson's sainthood is another challenge. All of this overhaul is in the quest to get Wendy to actively pursue something very focused in the present, react to real conflict and change with simplified action, and to then resolve the crisis that forced her out of her cave.

I may also try this and find none of it works. I have to live today in that not knowing of the restart.

In all the one-on-one tutorials and thousands of coaching words I provided students, I never directly said, Start over, but perhaps I said, Good start, but you've got a lot of work to do. Or maybe I said, Let's go back to your outline. I know teachers who write alongside their students, crafting the same academic papers, and if time permits (which it does not), it certainly is an ideal exercise. For all those years I didn't start over with my kids, well, rest assured I am doing it now.

What goes around, comes around, kiddos. In the end, we all have to sweat after our grades and our dreams. And what I'm asking today is how I will get an A in this market and whether it will be worth the sacrifice. I must live in the gray, that hybrid space of not knowing my next steps, and see if my head, heart, and soul can hang with the twists and turns.

Writing Prompts:

• There's a hand out called "20 Ways to Say 'You're Wrong,'" meant for teachers to use while steering kids toward better answers in discussion. What are some ways you tell people No, start over, but nicely? How has one of those situations led to a difficult but meaningful encounter? Is there a story there?
• Is your writing market-driven or muse-driven or both? How do you know? Write a love letter to your manuscript and tell it what it needs to hear about its integrity and purpose.
• Write a poem called "To Market, To Market."
• How badly do you want to be published? What are you willing to do--and not do--to see your name in official print from a traditional publisher?
• How does your coaching of other writers (whether young students or professional colleagues) reflect honesty and kindness? How can we be better critics of one another's work? 
• Go find a piece that's not working and start over.