Write the Best Thing You Can: Chuck Sambuchino On How Writers Can Improve Their Work

Chuck Sambuchino

By Sean Tuohy

Are you an aspiring author frustrated by the publishing process?

Join the club.

However, there are plenty of agents and consultants out there willing to take the time to help up-and-coming writers fulfill their dream of being published.

One such person is Chuck Sambuchino, editor and published author who runs the Guide to Literary Agents Blog. Sambuchino answered some of my questions about the publishing biz and how writers can refine their writing processes.

Sean Tuohy: When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

Chuck Sambuchino: From when I was about 20 years old. I wrote a one-act play that won a contest at my college, and was produced. I also wrote some op-eds for my college paper that got attention. Once I saw that writing could actually get into the world, and not just remain a Word file on your computer, I was basically hooked. I suspect it's the same for other writers, as well.

ST: What is your writing process? Do you have any special rituals you have to do before you start writing?

CS: I have no process whatsoever. I just write whenever I have any time throughout the day, and tend to do things just before the deadline. Fiction writers have their own unique processes, and that makes sense because each day requires concentration and creation. Because I write nonfiction, it's all a matter of carving out time whenever I can—that's the key. Many people will say, "Oh, I have no time to write. Where does the time go??" But I personally know exactly where the time goes, and don't blame anyone but myself for when I don't produce enough.

ST: You have written in nearly every category; books, magazine articles, plays, and many other formats, what is your favorite format to write?

CS: Probably books, because they have the widest reach. Plays are great, especially because they are my fiction outlet, but they are extremely limited in terms of how many people see them. You can be all the way across the country and see your book in a bookstore. That's quite a thrill.

ST: Where did the idea for How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack come from?

CS: I was thinking about a movie called “The Full Monty,” which is a U.K. comedy. In the movie, there is a quick, hilarious scene with a garden gnome. That got me thinking about garden gnomes, and how terrible and tacky they were. The more I dwelled on them, the more creeped out I became. I started to wonder if they were peeking in the windows at me right that moment. Then it hit me: Certainly if gnomes scare me, they must scare others. That was the genesis of the book.

#gnomes

ST: There are so many changes going on in the publishing world right now, how can a new writer stay ahead of the curve in this ever-changing market?

CS: On one hand, educate yourself and understand what opportunities exist in terms of self-publishing and e-publishing, because those growing channels may be right for you. On the other hand, don't worry too much about the changes, and continue to focus on the basics:

1. Write the best thing you can. 
2. Build a platform so you have some ability to sell your own work when it is released. 
3. Keep writing and producing content to give yourself the best chance of success.

ST: In this new digital age of publishing do new writers still need an agent or publisher?

CS: Yes. Nowadays, there are two publishing paths you can choose: traditional publishing or self-publishing. If you decide to seek the traditional publishing route, you absolutely should seek an agent, because an agent fights to get you the best deal possible. The path of self-publishing has its merits, but I personally stick with traditionally publishing, and have enjoyed it.

ST: What are some of the most common errors you see in new writers’ work?

CS: New writers submit their work before it is ready. They need to recognize that the revision process takes time. It's a matter of sanding off many rough edges. New writers also have a bad habit of telling, not showing in their writing. Lastly, they don't have the best ability to self-edit their own work. As a freelance editor myself, one of my biggest tasks is showing writers where to cut.

ST: What advice would you give to up-and-coming writers?

CS: Educate yourself. Every hurdle you come across has been jumped by many before you, and those successful writers can explain how they conquered a problem and found success. Besides that, I would encourage people to get out to a writers conference. Conferences are the place where you educate yourself, charge your batteries, make writing friends for life, and meet agents and editors.

ST: Can you tell us one random fact about yourself?

CS: Last summer, I took up competitive gaming for retro video games from my childhood. It's going well, and I currently hold world records for games such as “Contra,” “Street Fighter 2,” and “Bubble Bobble.”

To learn more about Chuck Sambuchino, visit his blog or follow him on Twitter @ChuckSambuchino.

The Writer's Bone Interviews Archive

Who Watches the Screenwriters? 11 Questions With Script Consultant Linda Seger

Linda Seger

By Sean Tuohy

As we’ve mentioned on this website numerous times, a great editor can make a world of difference for an emerging author. The same rules apply to screenwriters.

Linda Segar, author of several how-to books for budding film scribes, has been in the screenwriting consultation business since 1981. According to her bio on her official website, she has consulted on more than 2,000 scripts, including more than 40 produced feature films and approximately 35 produced television projects.

Segar’s mission statement is to “identify, analyze, and help solve elusive script problems while nurturing your creative process.”

What more can an up-and-coming screenwriter ask for?

I was lucky enough to ask Seger a few questions about navigating the screenwriting process and she gave scriptwriters plenty of helpful advice.

Sean Tuohy: How did you become a screenwriting coach and consultant? What is the backstory?

Linda Seger: Out of desperation! I was so well educated that nobody wanted to hire me, and I wasn't a corporate "type." I could see that there were so many scripts that didn't work, and I had developed a method as part of my doctoral dissertation about what the elements are that make a good script. I tried this method on some scripts that didn't work, and found that it pinpointed the problems very well. So, I placed an ad in the Hollywood Reporter and started getting clients. Then I went to a career consultant, Judith Claire, to figure out how to make this a full-time business. The plan worked, and I've been doing this now for more than 30 years.

ST: What is the most common error that you see among first time screenwriters?

LS: It used to be an inability to structure the script, but now it seems to be a lack of focus, which is related to structural problems.

ST: As far as style goes, who is the most original screenwriter, in your opinion?

LS: I think the Coen Brothers have a marvelous sense of style, and I'm particularly fond of “Fargo.”

ST What is the best way to learn the art of screenwriting?

LS: Write. Read books. Go to seminars.

ST: Do you believe it comes to some naturally or is it learned over many years?

LS: It is learned over many years, although some people have more natural talent than others. However, if they don't work at it and keep learning, they're still not going to become a great screenwriter.

ST: Has there been any screenwriters or scripts in the past ten years that have really wowed you?

LS: Absolutely! One of the best screenplays I've ever worked on that left me breathless is stuck in "development hell" in a studio. I have just completed working on a screenplay from a first-time writer from Austria. She amazes me and I love this script and hope she sells it. I recently worked with a Canadian on a first-time script that began as a muddle and has really found its way. I'm so impressed about where she's come through a process of about five drafts. I worked on a script years ago that left me breathless. I think the writer became ill, and I haven't heard from him in many years.

I have worked on many, many scripts that I think are really terrific, and I wish they'd make those into films instead of some of the others that are made.

I can't disclose the names of any of these, but I worked on several scripts that were made into films that I think are quite wonderful. One, called "Courting Chaos," has been winning a number of awards recently in film festivals, and two others were made in Italy that I'm very eager to see. They are titled, "Last Summer" and "Anita B."

ST: What is the most difficult part about writing a full length screenplay?

LS: Having a writing discipline and being willing to continually learn about the art and craft of writing.

ST: What do you believe is the most difficult part about making a good story into a great screenplay?

LS: Knowing the craft of writing so you know what you are doing.

ST: What are some of the first things you notice about a script when you are analyzing it?

LS: I can tell if it's great writing on the first page, but it might take me many pages to realize that what doesn't look like good writing actually has tremendous potential. My job is to bring out that potential in the writer and make that the best script it can be.

ST: What advice would you give to a first time screenwriter?

LS: Write and write some more, and write some more! And if you find great joy in writing, then continue writing. If you don't find joy, then stop.

ST: What is one random fact about yourself?

LS: I live in my dream house, a 1921 log home, in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

To learn more about Linda Seger, visit her official website, like her Facebook page, or follow her on Twitter @Linda_Seger.

The Writer's Bone Interviews Archive

The Editor is In: 9 Questions With Grammar Guru Patricia T. O’Conner

Patricia T. O'Conner and her husband Stewart Kellerman

By Daniel Ford

I’ve always believed that to be a good writer, one needs a great editor.

I don’t understand writers who get pissy about their stuff being edited. Writing is personal, but if you want to hack it as a writer, you need to embrace the samurai sword of a usually much wiser and objective wordsmith. I consider my first editor to be my college professor, the late Kalev Pehme, who required every one in his copy editing class read a grammar book of our choice. Most of the class opted for The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, but I did some research and ended up choosing Patricia T. O’Conner’s Woe is I. That’s really when I found out I knew nothing about grammar.

But O’Conner’s book patiently led me down the right path and I can now realize when I’m making dopey grammatical mistakes. I can also admonish others for using “due to” and “hopefully” incorrectly (although socially acceptable) and have the facts to back it up.

I was lucky enough to talk to O’Conner recently and get her thoughts on writing and editing, her career at The New York Time Book Review, and what it’s like being married to another editor.

Daniel Ford: When did you know you wanted to be a writer? Was it from birth, or was it something you discovered over time?

Patricia T. O’Conner: My original ambition, at age 9 or so, was to be a cowgirl—Annie Oakley was my inspiration. But practical considerations intervened. When I first realized I had to actually earn a living, writing seemed the least painless option. Little did I realize just how difficult it is to write.

DF: As someone who studied journalism in college I have to ask, what was the graduate journalism department at the University of Minnesota like? What were some of the things you covered while you studied urban journalism?

POC: This is a long time ago—the early 1970s. And back then, being in a graduate journalism program was absolutely thrilling. Between classes, we gathered in the student lounge to watch the Watergate hearings. Newspaper reporting seemed the most glamorous, heroic pursuit in the world back then. We were pretty full of ourselves!

What an exhilarating time that was for a young aspiring journalist. This spring marks the 40th anniversary of those nationally televised Senate hearings. People were throwing around terms like “dirty tricks,” “deep throat,” “inoperative,” “smoking gun,” “follow the money,” “the plumbers.” Journalism has never been the same.

In the program I was in, we covered the same things the Minneapolis Star covered—police, courts, legislature. We went out on assignment (when we weren’t busy watching the news on television!), then returned to the journalism building to file our stories on deadline. It was hard work, but not nearly as hard as being a working reporter later.

DF: We’re big fans of The New York Times Book Review here at Writer’s Bone. What was your experience as an editor for that publication like and what was the most memorable book review that crossed your desk?

POC: Working at the Book Review was like no other job in the world. I was there for 11 years, and I learned more in those 11 years than at any other time in my life. There were so many brilliant—and funny!—people crammed into those little offices on the eighth floor of the old Times building on West 43rd Street.

Everybody who was anybody wrote for the Book Review, all the best minds of their time. Even so, their prose often needed tweaking! As a copy editor there, I tried to make sure the writing was as elegant and fluid and accurate as it could be. A review had to make sense and it had to be fair—that is, everything said of the book and the author had to be true. Sometimes the authors complained about how they were reviewed—more than once, Norman Mailer came up to the office to yell and pound on somebody’s desk. So everything said in a review or essay had to be defensible.

I can’t pick a “favorite” review, but one of the best I can recall was a piece Eudora Welty wrote in 1981 about a collection of stories by Elizabeth Bowen. Flawless writing on the subject of flawless writing! I’ve looked up the review, and here’s one of Welty’s sentences: “As it ends the story can be seen to be perfect, and the perfection lies in the telling—the delicacy, the humor, above all the understanding that has enveloped but never intruded upon it, never once pricked the lovely, free-floating balloon.”

Of course, there was bad writing on the Book Review as well—stuff that landed with a thud. But the wonderful writing more than made up for it. You can see why I loved my job there. I also got to write things myself. I wrote reviews and essays.

DF: I remember reading Woe Is I for the first time in college and being blown away by all the things I didn’t know or was doing wrong all my life. I would go to parties with the book and explain all the grammatical things I was learning. What made you decide to start writing books about grammar, and do you think grammar has gotten better or worse since you first published it?

POC: One day in 1994 I got a call at my desk at the Book Review. Jane Isay, who was then the publisher at Grosset-Putnam, asked me if I’d be interested in writing a light-hearted grammar book. At the time, this was a contradiction in terms!

I said yes, and started to compile lists of all the grammar and usage problems I’d run into during my years as an editor at the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier (Iowa), the Des Moines Register, The Wall Street Journal, andThe New York Times. There was a lot of material to work with. For instance, even some senior editors at the Book Review couldn’t get their minds around the concept of the dangling modifier, as in “walking through the woods, a mountain sprang into view.”

So I collected all these problems and set about to explain them in the simplest possible terms. My idea was to avoid the grammatical terminology as much as possible, and to make the examples amusing.

DF: In your experience and research, what’s the biggest grammatical mistake that people make? What’s the most obscure piece of grammatical trivia I can use at the next party I attend?

POC: Pronouns seem to account for the bulk of the grammatical mistakes. Then verb conjugations—people get tenses wrong. The most common problem I notice is the tendency to use “X and I” for every purpose, even when “X and me” is appropriate.

But people make even the most obvious mistakes, using object pronouns like “me” and “him” as subjects. Most notorious example: I was once invited to appear before a large group of school teachers and administrators in suburban New Jersey. A high school principal and one of his colleagues approached me beforehand to apologize because, as the principal said, “Him and me will have to leave early.” This is a true story. My husband, who was standing next to me, is a witness!

DF: I had a professor in college spend a whole class on why email was spelled “e-mail” and not the way it is now. Language is constantly evolving in the digital age, so how does grammar keep up with it? Why are some rules okay to change, while others need to stay the same?

POC: Historically, hyphenated constructions tend to lose their hyphens. This isn’t a grammatical issue, it’s one of style and usage. And the “rules” of style and usage change much more readily than grammar—the bedrock of the language. That’s why there are three different editions of Woe Is I—the book tries to stay ahead of the curve on style and usage. In fact, I have a file of material to use in case I’m ever allowed to do a fourth edition.

DF: We normally ask writers what their process is like, but I’m more interested in finding out what your editing process is like. Do you need absolute quiet, or do you prefer to listen to music while you edit?

POC: The quieter the better. No music. I am a musical person, and I get distracted by what the musician is doing.

DF: You manage a website and have written several books with your husband Stewart Kellerman, who is also a journalist and editor. How have words shaped your relationship and who would you say is the better editor?

POC: It’s sometimes a challenge to keep my cool as Stewart tells me something I’ve written is gibberish. This is a real test of a marriage (we’ve been married for 26 years). Even as I write this (under duress), he’s editing one of my blog items and tearing it to pieces. He’s probably the better editor—as I’m sure he would tell you.

DF: Name one random fact about yourself.

POC: I’m dieting (have lost 11 pounds in the last two months) so I’m cranky right now. As you can perhaps tell from my last answer!

To learn more about Patricia T. O'Conner, check out her official website www.grammarphobia.com or follow her on Twitter  @grammarphobia.

The Writer's Bone Interviews Archive