Thaisa Frank - Finding Your Writer’s Voice

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This book is dedicated

to the loving memory of my mother,

Gladys L. Frank

And to my father,

Robert W. Frank

they taught me to write the truth

and hear the music in human voices

T HAISA F RANK

For Bill and Lisa

D OROTHY W ALL

I first want to thank my coauthor, Dorothy Wall, whose excitement and imagination have infused this project at every phase. I began our coauthorship confident that a third writer would actually write this book. This third writer would get up every morning in an excellent mood. She would combine our ideas and voices effortlessly. She would finish the book in a year. What a surprise when this third writer never appeared and I began to learn that each writers rituals are as singular as voice itself. Fortunately this invisible clone was never needed. Our two voices learned to coexist. We became tolerant of each others work rhythms. I am extremely grateful to Dorothy for being my companion on this exhilarating journey.

I also want to thank the following writers, colleagues, and friends, for hours of patient listening, advice, and encouragement: Sandy Bails, Brad Bunnin, Jon Carroll, Patricia Dienstfrey, Tom Farber, Lenore Friedman, Steve Kaye, Brenda Kienan, Karen Kevorkian, Elise P. Morgan, Rosalie J. Lamb, Nancy Pietrofesa, Carol U. Lewis, Robin Palanker, Carol Piasante, Steven Poling, Dierdre Snyder, Joan Tollifson, Frances Whitney, and Martha Graham Wiseman. Members of the Writers Conference on The Whole Earth Electronic Link (the WELL), gave invaluable support. My cohosts in that conference, Joe Flower and Sally Randolph, allowed me to disappear when I needed time. Joyce Jenkins and Richard Silberg kept voice alive through articles in Poetry Flash. The Dorset Writers Colony gave me a haven. Sue Smith deserves special thanks for allowing me great freedom as a teacher, and the chance to share techniques I first used in my own fiction. So does Anne Fox for encouraging me, long ago, to write down my ideas about writing.

Anne Dubuisson of the Ellen Levine Literary Agency has guided this manuscript through every stage. I am extremely grateful for her boundless support and enthusiasm. George Witte of St. Martins Press has provided painstaking, perceptive, hands-on editing. His editorial assistant, Ann McKay Farrell, has answered endless questions and kept track of innumerable details. Its been a pleasure to work with both of them.

My family lived and breathed this book for much longer than they ever expected: My son, Casey Rodarmor, ate many frozen pizzas with aplomb and came up with titles and chapter headings that cheered me up. My father, Robert Worth Frank, offered sound advice based on his own experience as a writer and editor. And my husband, William Rodarmor, has been an admirable example of grace under pressure. In the midst of his own writing, editing, and translation deadlines, he helped with faxes, mailings, gave editorial advice, found misplaced manuscripts, and provided a challenging sounding board. Above all, he listened with all his love and support. I couldnt have written this book without him.

Finally, I want to thank my students, who taught me much more than I ever taught them. They struggled to become the writers they wanted to become and succeeded. They took my suggestions and pushed them to explosive possibilities. They were also wonderful to talk to about the mysterious, often lonely, process of writing fiction. A hundred names come to mindand a hundred more after that. These writers are the guiding spirit behind this book. Im grateful to every one of them.

T HAISA F RANK

The path that led to this book is one I could not have found alone. I am deeply grateful to my coauthor, Thaisa Frank, for her extraordinary gifts of imagination, insight, and fresh vision. Her ideas pushed mine, her voice fed my own. Despite endless rewrites, tinkering, wholesale dumping, going back to square one, lost drafts, and incompatible computers, the book emergedricher for having had two guides. I have been inspired and enriched by our partnership.

The hundreds of students and clients Ive had the privilege to work with have also shaped this book in a powerful way. These writers provided an essential laboratory to forge and hone these ideas, and have enhanced my life as well as the book. My sincere thanks to all of them for their thoughts, questions, puzzlements, humorand most of all, their voices. Special thanks to Lisbeth Blum, Roy Glassberg, Madeline Moore, Jan Potts, and Sofia Shafquat for allowing me to refer to or quote their writing. My continued appreciation goes to Sue Smith and Liz McDonough at University of California Berkeley Extension, and to Meera Lester and the staff at Writers Connection for giving me the opportunity to teach my workshops and classes.

Weve had a wonderful, patient, and wise agent guiding this project, Anne Dubuisson. She managed to balance superb professional skills with personal support in a way few people can, and I appreciate all her efforts. Heartfelt thanks go as well to our editor at St. Martins, George Witte, who saw the potential in this project when it was still sketchy, and hung in there with us all the way. The book would not be what it is without his astute direction and editorial eye. Thanks to Lee Smith for his thoughtful editorial comments, and to all the people at St. Martins who have lent their expertise and energy, especially Ann McKay Farrell and Laura Mullen.

Ill always feel a special gratitude toward Kathleen Fraser, Mark Linenthal, and Stan Rice, who encouraged my voice from the start, as well as toward Charles Entrekin, Stewart Florsheim, and many other members of the Berkeley Poets Cooperative, with whom I spent countless evenings on a shag-rugged floor, reading one anothers work, sparring, and spilling wine. Other friends offered their stories, provided amusing brainstorming sessions, and kept me company along the way: Myrna Cozen, Aaron Cozen, Malcolm Lubliner, Nancy Bardacke. Susan Hoffman and Shelley Nelson supplied cheer and sharp comments on early drafts, and Susan Page gave her publishing pointers, warm collegiality and enthusiasm. I also remain extremely grateful to Peggy Schaefer and the late Joe Schaefer for their faith in me early on, when it mattered most, and their generous support.

My aunt and uncle, the fine singers Nancy and Gordon Ewing, offered invaluable information and insight about the parallels between singing and writing. Thanks to my mother, Barbara Mortensen, for her interest and creativity, and to all my sistersSuzanne Orcutt, Alice Westwick, Martha Wall, Laura Wallfor being there. My daughter, Lisa Swatt, is in this book in more ways than she may know. Im grateful to her for letting me sketch her as a character, and for inspiring me as she develops her own voice as a dancer. Most of all, my partner, Bill Barnes, has been behind the book as a steady ally, willing to spend long hours listening, reading, offering suggestions. His editorial acumen, unflagging support, and pasta primavera are appreciated beyond measure.