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Fiction Debut Author Roundtable
7.
AOTW: Who is your "first reader" or "readers" when you finish your work?
Jill A. Davis: My husband and a few writers.
Michael Redhill: I'm lucky to have a circle of peers to share my work with. I know how these people write and read, and their comments help me to ground my revision process. My partner reads my work as well, sometimes at earlier stages than I'm prepared to show it to peers. I value the comments of these people greatly, and I think of them as the people I must impress with my work.
Jay Nussbaum: Tim. It works like this: I take Tim out for sushi and sake, and get him drunk. During the sober part of the evening, he tells me how wonderful the manuscript is. He says it's my best work yet, and that I should be very proud. I listen quietly, all the while refilling his sake. Then I watch for the signs. His eyes get a little glassy. He starts to marvel at things like the architectural integrity of a handroll, or the self-referential irony of taking the last garbage bag out of the box and then putting the box into the bag that came from the box. That's when I begin pressing him for the weaknesses in the manuscript. I have to work fast because the window of opportunity is limited. Within an hour, I know he'll cross the line from incisive criticism to Japanese whaling songs. But that hour is priceless. Tim's intellect is beyond belief. When he's unencumbered by sensitivity, he can tear apart a manuscript like no one else I've ever known. Once we're through, I help him home, then we don't speak for weeks because I'm thoroughly insulted.
Ali Smith: My partner. Everyone needs someone to trust or/and argue with. I don't show anybody but her what I'm doing till it's really finished, then I show three other good friends, and then I show my publisher.
Terrence Cheng: I am my own first reader. When I finish the first draft, I read it all again myself, chapter by chapter, making edits, notes, and so forth. I come up with a big sheet of changes and problems I recognize --- chapter by chapter, and as a whole work --- then I'll start the editing/revising from page one. But that was before I had an agent and editor. Now, I'll probably write a first draft and send it to my agent and see what she says, and then my editor. I really trust my agent and editor, so if they say something and it makes sense, then I'll make the necessary adjustments. But I'll do it after I have a complete first draft, and not in drips and drabs. I think it's important for a writer to see his or her vision through from beginning to end, and then make changes from there. I compare it to a sculptor creating a statue: you have to have a big pile of clay to mold and whittle and sculpt. You can't build it up inch by inch, piece by piece, constantly scrutinizing each nook and cranny. Scrutinizing a larger, complete work, helps keep perspective.
Karen V. Siplin: My boyfriend reads everything when I'm ready. I also bring the scenes I'm having the most trouble with to the writers' workshop I'm a member of.
Masha Hamilton: My husband is usually my first reader. I do have a number of other readers. All of them are great. I figure anyone who will read my early drafts with attention and offer their comments is truly giving me an irreplaceable gift.
Jill Bialosky: In the past my first readers have been one or two close friends.
Steve Almond: Keith Morris, a fabulous writer and a pal from grad school, is the guy who usually has to read my stuff, the poor bastard. But I have a couple of other folks whose counsel I seek. Other writers, usually, 'cuz they understand how important it is to be straight up.
David Rosenfelt: My wife and agent. They are honest and gentle.
Arthur Phillips: Trusted spouse. If she's not interested, it's not interesting.
Anahita Firouz: I think of my husband as a reader, my children, and also "abstract" readers out there --- those who share my sensibilities and demand good writing and a good story that will matter and make them care. Of course I think of my agent and now my editor as first readers too.
David Benioff: My friend, the novelist D. B. Weiss.
Gary Shteyngart: When I'm finished with something I send it to my agent who is very keen on what works and what doesn't. My friend and mentor the novelist Chang-rae Lee has been immensely helpful with both the first novel and the one I'm presently working on.
Ad Hudler: Because I'm on such a tight schedule to finish my next book, my editor at Ballantine is now my first reader. Often, however, my friends whom I've met at writer's conferences see first drafts of my books and short stories. I send out three or four manuscripts, trying to match at least one of them with a reader who has something in common with some of the main characters so he/she can check for accuracy of the situation.
Stella Pope Duarte: Always, I am the first reader, then a fellow writer friend I trust.
Kate Manning: My vicious best friends Roberta Baker and Amy Wilentz are my readers. I met Roberta in a freshman writing class and hated her from the moment the professor picked her story out and praised it. We somehow overcame my petty jealousies, and have been reading each other's work ever since. Amy and I trade chapters of our respective novels. Both of these women are not, to put it mildly, shy with criticism, but I trust them. They don't flatter, yet manage to find the good parts and jettison the bad ones without making me feel suicidal. Oh, and my husband, of course. He's a marvelous editor and has an uncanny knack for getting to the heart of the matter, which is of course why I married him.
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