Liars and Saints

Three other tips I've picked up on writing, occasional sources of help for me: * The thing you Googled repeatedly yesterday? That's the thing to write about . Sometimes I *believe* I want to make somber points about "Fun Home," but I have spent twelve hours Googling "show tunes with Gavin Creel." That's telling me the point I have to make is really about Gavin Creel. I could want reality to be "otherwise," but trust me, Creel is the topic you want to read about, if you're looking in my brain on that particular morning. * Aim for a well-stocked cupboard. The reader wants to feel that the writer's mind is "well-stocked," at least on the topic in question. So if you're going to write about Idina Menzel, check to see if you have six or seven points to make about Menzel. You can even jot down the points. Then you won't get lost as you write. If you don't have those points at your fingertips, maybe choose a diffe...

I put off reading "Mrs. Everything," by Jennifer Weiner, because the thought made me feel guilty. Weiner seems to have a "lightweight" reputation, and even though I'd really liked "Good in Bed," I was feeling snobby...I'm so glad I silenced the inner snob and borrowed "Mrs. Everything" from the library. Weiner has a great gift for inventing likable, troubled protagonists and throwing them into dramatic situations. You don't spend chapter upon chapter in plotless "inner" scenarios; you're thrown into high-stakes scenes, and bad, shocking things happen. "Mrs. Everything" follows two sisters through the sixties and onward: One represses her lesbianism in a foolish (and understandable) heterosexual union, and the other struggles with food after having been assaulted at a big party. Both sisters make unwise choices; both seem like people you could befriend, or even people you could become. Sometimes, Weiner is...

Jennifer Weiner's "Good in Bed" became a very big deal in 2001. It sold a trillion copies. One of Weiner's subsequent novels became a Cameron Diaz vehicle. Some people wrote off "Good in Bed" because it had been given the label "chick lit," and the condescension in reader responses became its own news event. "What is wrong with writing for and about women?" Weiner asked. She has been asking this ever since. I'm a bit late to the party--and the info below is likely not news--but a helpful (?) reminder: Weiner writes about an unorthodox protagonist. She is overweight, her happiness isn't ultimately tied to being "coupled," she is extremely smart and professionally driven, and she has a deeply unhappy childhood story. You sense you haven't really seen her before, on the page, and also, you feel, pretty quickly, that you know her. Weiner has a shrewd understanding of psychology. Weiner's protagonist visits a ...