Comments on: The Unnoticed Writer

By: The Unnoticed Writer | insaneowl

The Unnoticed Writer | insaneowl — Thu, 07 Jan 2016 18:54:59 +0000

[…] Source: The Unnoticed Writer […]

By: Lyn Farrell

Lyn Farrell — Tue, 29 Dec 2015 14:02:11 +0000

This article really resonates with me. I had interest in my novel from several big agents who rejected it, in the end, saying it was ‘too brutal’ to sell. At this point I could have made major writing changes to make it ‘more popular’ or ‘more saleable’. I decided against this. I even found it slightly strange that agents would react this way as crime novels are often full of dismembered bodies, abused and murdered women and so on. I realised that it was the central character, a child suffering extreme violence, that put agents off.
I recently won the Luke Bitmead Bursary award for the novel and though I’ve accepted lots of advice and amendments from the editor, toning down the brutality isn’t one of them. This is a story I’ve developed over the past ten years, a story I feel needs to be told. I understand that some people might not be able to read it but the solution to that is not to censor my own writing.
I have a handful of book token Christmas gifts – which I’ll use to buy Pearlman’s work. I’d not heard of her before this article so thanks for educating me as to another writer who has struggled with publication.

By: Anne Booth

Anne Booth — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 16:50:00 +0000

That was so helpful. Thank you.

By: Katie

Katie — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 16:28:35 +0000

“You can’t worry if someone is going to be put off by your words, unless of course you’re being blatantly racist or sexist”

I do agree with many of your points, but I’d argue that sometimes racist or sexist text isn’t always blatant … at least to the author. I think it’s really easy to assume your own biases are right as far as marginalized groups are concerned. There are a lot of tropes and character traits used in fiction that actually are really bigoted but we don’t think about because they’re used so often. When you don’t step back and check that your representation of women, people of color, LGBT characters, etc isn’t actually disrespectful or harmful then that’s an issue. Maybe that’s more of a 2nd draft concern, but it’s still something writers need to be concerned about.

By: Laitie

Laitie — Sun, 01 Feb 2015 22:33:52 +0000

This was really hard for me to grasp at first. Unlike most people, from what I’ve heard, I have no reason to share my stories to anybody except to make the reader happy. If the reader isn’t going to be happy with my story, I have no problem keeping it to myself. Within myself. I have no big message to give in my stories. For me, they’re just stories. But the last paragraph helped it click. I want to show people stories they haven’t seen before. I suppose I had already internalized this, though. That I have to listen to myself only when it comes to that. Because that’s how I work. Lol. You’re totally right, too. The writer must be quiet and live in her own world in order to bring her own story to the table. Then let readers do with it what they will.

By: Hot Reads Plus | Zouxzoux

Hot Reads Plus | Zouxzoux — Sun, 01 Feb 2015 14:01:05 +0000

[…] Women Writers, Women’s Books, Anne Leigh Parrish on “The Unnoticed Writer”. Anne Leigh muses about Edith Perlman’s statement, “It’s very important for a writer to […]

By: Deborah Batterman

Deborah Batterman — Wed, 14 Jan 2015 19:52:32 +0000

I think you’re so right re: being true to one’s own voice or vision . . . and the hope of finding an audience should not cloud the authenticity that makes for really good writing. But in more ways than one, the ‘unnoticed’ writer can’t really know the full scope of her audience until she’s out there, getting some notice. The example of Edith Pearlman (I’m a big fan of her work) is as much about writers gaining a following, little by little, in mostly literary circles until one day, often because of a major award or a piece in some high-profile magazine, there’s a surge of interest. If you’re writing, you can’t help but want to be read (i.e., noticed). It is a game of courage,as you point out, not to mention persistence. That ‘quiet, raging corner of the soul’ has some profound things to tell us, if we listen.

By: Lisa Smith

Lisa Smith — Mon, 12 Jan 2015 15:23:05 +0000

What delightfully encouraging words! If we are called to write, then write we shall! When it becomes to fit within a mold, then we lose our creativity.
Thank you for the great article!

By: Kathy McMullen

Kathy McMullen — Sun, 11 Jan 2015 19:54:57 +0000

Spot on thoughts on writing, Anne. Thanks for talking about the courage it takes to write excellent fiction. Also about the importance of learning not to care what others will think of one’s work. It’s so important that a writer be bold and not self-censor.

I finished reading Bernhard Schlink’s der Vorleser a few days ago. The story revolved around the aftermath of a horrific event in Nazi Germany. Unlike an American novel, the horrific event itself wasn’t higlighted; rather how that event effects an unlikely pair of lovers a decade and a half later. Vorleser (The Reader in English)addressed moral questions in far greater depth than is usual for an American novel. I know I’m making der Vorleser sound terribly dry. It wasn’t. When I finished reading it, I lamented that here in America the emphasis is almost completely on whatever story makes the loudest bang, tears at the heartstrings. It is as if the American reader can’t be expected to be effected/moved by/”get” more gently told stories; as if the American reader must be hit over the head or bowled over or made to weep. If an extreme reaction doesn’t occur, the novelist has failed.