Great Writing Advice: Dance With The One That Brung Ya

Yesterday The New York Times ran a piece about a woman who had a career writing chick lit, but then got an MFA because she wanted to be a "serious" writer. After two years she tried to change the way she wrote in order to be more in line with what her professors wanted, and it ended up diluting her talent.

Students of writing take classes and search for the elusive voice. One of the first sophomoric questions asked of any published writer at a talk is almost always, "How did you find your voice?"

An extension of voice is style, and no matter how much instruction or literary fiction you read, your writing is going to come out that way it does, no matter what. And you shouldn't fight it. Writing chick lit or crime novels or Dungeon & Dragons fan fiction doesn't make you any less smart or serious than someone exploring the roles of modern women in a collection of magical realism short stories. Plot is plot, good writing is good writing. There isn't much more to than that.

It's also important to remember that while there is a lot of great genre fiction, there are also piles of the serious, literary stuff that is downright awful. It takes all kinds.

A Masters In Chick Lit

'The New Yorker' Does Chick LIt

This is a piece I never thought I would see in The New Yorker: a seven-page profile about Jennifer Weiner, an unapologetic writer of [very good] chick lit.

Chick lit gets a bad rep, even if you try to class it up and call it "women's fiction." It's read by millions, has afforded Weiner two homes, yet the literary establishment, as it were, likes to ignore it, like an embarrassing relative at Thanksgiving dinner. I've gotten academic about chick lit before. Good for Weiner for talking about the way the genre is treated. (Hint: not every book written by a woman is about shopping and shoes.)

Chick Lit Done Right: Love Rehab

My appreciation for chick lit is well documented. I get frustrated when people make fun of it. It's a genre, just like sci-fi or detective novels. And like any other kind of book, there are good examples of it and bad ones.

Chick lit, or women's fiction as it prefers to be called, has evolved quite a bit since The Devil Wears Prada came out. It's smarter, less fluffy, and God help you if your protagonist works at a magazine. (Yet they can't seem to update the covers beyond pastels. Pourquoi?)

Love Rehab, by Jo Piazza, is an example of great chick lit. (It was sent over to me by the folks over at Dot Complicated.) It's the story of Sophie, who after being dumped by her boyfriend creates a 12-step program to help woman get rid of bad behaviors that are holding them back in their love lives. It's one of the funniest books I've read in a long time.

So funny, that throughout the book I actually started underlining the best lines. Below is a Top 10 list of the best ones.

10. 

Grandma's entire block was like a line up of discarded ex-girlfriend who had once been adored when they were shiny and new, and then turned in for something sleeker with more reliable plumbing.

9. 

Annie was stomping through the station like a rhinoceros on Red Bull.

8. 

That's what I was. I was addicted to love. (#RobertPalmerWinning.)

7. 

Babies and adventure vacations always fix a bad marriage.

6. 

You know what Duckie Dale is doing right now? Coding for Facebook and shitting gold bricks.

5. 

A sad truth is that at three in the morning many a man will choose greasy food over sex that he likely can't see through to completion.

4. 

The instructor at the Yardville pool had always smelled a little like pedophile.

3. 

When a bat shit Brit asks you to put on your finest outfit at midnight, you should never include a pair of Jimmy Choos.

2. 

Nothing is more chaotic than a Mexican-Jewish wedding.

1. 

All relationships end badly, until, hopefully, the one that never ends at all.

Zelda Fitzgerald: Still A Literary Fascination

Just when you thought I was done yammering about The Great Gatsby, a new book related to F. Scott Fitzgerald popped up onto my radar.

Anyone who knows me knows that if left to my own devices I like to nerd out on my roof deck and read all afternoon. At the very least I like to turn off all my devices at 9:00 p.m. and read until I get sleepy. I actually have more vivid dreams when I do this.

Today I learned about a novel that just came out called Call Me Zelda. When Zelda Fitzgerald is committed to a Baltimore psychiatric clinic in 1932, in her struggle to forge an identity separate from F.Scott, she finds a sympathetic friend in her nurse, Anna Howard. Anna is increasingly drawn into the Fitzgeralds’ tumultuous relationship. As she learns about Zelda’s confessions, written in a secret memoir meant only for her, Anna begins to wonder which Fitzgerald is the true genius.

As a sucker for any kind of smart chick lit, this has been moved to the top of my reading list.

Other Zelda/F.Scott books that came out in the last few months. Study up, kids.

Z. A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerlad	Beautiful Fools

Gatsby Girls	The Romantic Egoists

I should note that just because the name "Zelda" is back on the cultural radar it does not mean that hipster, Brooklyn parents are allowed to use it to name their daughters. The name peaked in the 1910s and should be left there.

Worth Reading: Amy Sohn's 'Motherland'

Source: barnesandnoble.com via JoAnn on Pinterest

Gillian Flynn may be getting all the mainstream attention for her book Gone Girl, (which I still haven't read), but Amy Sohn should be getting equal accolades for Motherland.

Motherland is the sequel to Prospect Park West, which I read with utter verve back in 2009. Both books follow a handful of Park Slope parents out in Brooklyn, which should be a snooze, but Sohn created some intriguing characters and very raw situations. (Read: there's a lot of sex.) Her perspective on New York City is fresh, and unlike a lot of fiction surrounding mothers in New York, there is nary a hedge funder in sight. I'm a big fan of anyone who takes fiction aimed at women to a new level, and anything Sohn writes is well worth the time.

The Singles!

I get very excited when people that I know write books. The Singles was written by Meredith Goldstein, who worked with me at the Daily Orange back when I was at Syracuse. This book could fall easily into the chick lit category -- the plot surrounds the angst of going to a wedding alone -- but it's way more evolved than that. Also, there are numerous Syracuse references throughout, including a few people's real names. Amazing.

Buy a copy here.

New Huffington Post Piece: Chick Lit Grows Up

Source: janegreen.com via E_StyleGirl on Pinterest

In which I get academic and sociological about my insatiable appetite for Chick Lit.

Chick Lit Grows Up

This Is The Book To Read

My never ending love of chick lit brought this book to me: Bond Girl by Erin Duffy. It's chick lit set on a trading floor and it's one of the best bits of chick lit I've read in a while.

It's a pretty smart book, which leads me to wonder: is the genre of chick lit evolving past stories of flustered magazine assistants?

This Is The Book To Read On The Beach

Every summer there is at least one truly fantastic chick lit novel that I can't get enough of. In 2009 it was Laura Lipton's The Mating Rituals of the North American WASP. (Particularly funny if one grew up in lower Fairfield County, comme moi.)

In 2010 Alexandra Lebenthal knocked it out of the park with Recessionistas.

This summer I'm up late reading under a mag light thanks to Molly Jong-Fast's The Social Climber Handbook.

There have been plenty of chick lit novels written about the pre- and post financial crisis era, and some of them have actually been good. The trick, however, is to write about the Upper East Side and not turn the characters into cartoons. It takes someone who knows the terrain to do it correctly, and -- as a card-carrying member of the New York Junior League -- I'm amazed at how accurately and nuanced the uptown crowd is portrayed. Everyone is flawed and the plot takes some great turns. This is chick lit done well.

Whoa. I'm not sure how I stumbled across this in Amazon, but it seems that MTV is spinning off a novel "written" by Snooki from Jersey Shore.

It's Guido Chick Lit, if such a genre exists. (It does now, I suppose...) Who on earth would purchase this, if not for camp value? And I really hope she doesn't do the talk show circuit and try to pretend that she actually wrote this.

Sadly, it won't be released until after Christmas. Quite the marketing oversight.

From Amazon:
It’s a summer to remember . . . at the Jersey Shore.

Giovanna “Gia” Spumanti and her cousin Isabella “Bella” Rizzoli are going to have the sexiest summer ever. While they couldn’t be more different—pint-size Gia is a carefree, outspoken party girl and Bella is a tall, slender athlete who always holds her tongue—for the next month they’re ready to pouf up their hair, put on their stilettos, and soak up all that Seaside Heights, New Jersey, has to offer: hot guidos, cool clubs, fried Oreos, and lots of tequila.

So far, Gia’s summer is on fire. Between nearly burning down their rented bungalow, inventing the popular “tan-tags” at the Tantastic Salon where she works, and rescuing a shark on the beach, she becomes a local celebrity overnight. Luckily, she meets the perfect guy to help her keep the flames under control. Firefighter Frank Rossi is exactly her type: big, tan, and Italian. But is he tough enough to handle Gia when things really heat up?

Bella is more than ready for some fun in the sun. Finally free of her bonehead ex-boyfriend, she left home in Brooklyn with one goal in mind: hooking up with a sexy gorilla for a no-strings-attached summer fling. In no time, she lands a job leading “Beat Up the Beat” dance classes at a local gym, and is scooped up by Beemer-driving, preppy Bender Newberry. Only problem: Bella can’t get her romantic and ripped boss Tony “Trouble” Troublino out of her head. He’s relationship material. Suddenly, Bella’s not sure what she wants.

The cousins soon realize that for every friend they make on the boardwalk, there are also rivals, slummers, and frenemies who will do anything to ruin their summer—and try their relationship. Before July ends, the bonds of family and friendship will be stretched to the breaking point. Will the haters prevail, or will Gia and Bella find love at the Shore?

For everyone who loves MTV’s hit reality show, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi’s sweet, funny, and sexy novel perfectly captures the heat, the energy, the fun, and the drama of Jersey Shore.

This Book Is Awesome

, originally uploaded by La Pauline.

If, on the off chance, two years into the financial meltdown you still don't quite understand how everything played out, then I highly recommend reading this book.

It's chick lit, but it's chick lit done well. It's also a wonderfully voyeuristic (and realistic) portrayal of life on the moneyed Upper East Side, right down tot he competitive preschooling and slightly absentee fathers.

Best part: It's written by Alexandra Lebenthal, of Lebenthal & Company. I tore through it in three days, often keeping TR up since I had the lights on.

New Huffington Post Piece: The New Cliches In New Chick Lit

Out with the pastel colored covers, in with the Hedge Fund Wives.


The New Cliches in Chick Lit