By Pam
Webber
During
the editing process for my bestselling debut Southern novel, The Wiregrass, I discovered the
rules (yes,
there are rules) of literary writing. Some I'd followed, albeit unintentionally,
and others I hadn't. As a result, when preparing to write my second novel, Moon Water, I searched for a mentor
who understood how to merge these rules with creativity.
I found such
a person in a class sponsored by James
River Writers, an organization in Richmond, Virginia, dedicated to helping
authors. Traveling there meant a long, weekly trek through the Blue Ridge
Mountains, a trip I initially looked forward to making. During the first class, the teacher, a New York Times
bestselling author, made clear his role. To make us better writers, not coddle
our egos and lavish us with false praise. He wasn’t kidding.
His brutal critiques of our short stories
quickly earned him the nickname, The Flogger. For weeks I limped home with a
bruised ego, questioning my sanity for continuing the class. Eventually, I realized my writing had improved,
by literary standards and my own. After surviving the fall class, several of us
signed up for the spring one. By summer, we'd made such progress, The Flogger
agreed to lead a novel writing group for four of us, a lawyer, an artist, a
factualist, and me, a nurse practitioner.
We all
came to the group with the same goal but different areas of expertise. The
Flogger preached a Puritanistic style of writing that required us to
"interview every word." The lawyer shared grammatical and technical
writing skill. The artist had an eye for multi-layered creativity. The
factualist kept everyone honest, and I brought the ability to create a sense of
place.
For a year we wrote, edited, critiqued,
laughed, cried, and prayed we'd not supply The Flogger with an absurd phrase or
line he'd make fun of the whole night. Somewhere along the way, we became better
writers with skills to challenge and occasionally win against The Flogger's
critiques. I believe this was his intent all along. That we learn the rules,
then choose to apply or not apply them with a confident
author’s voice.
I don't
know if Moon Water will have the
same commercial success as The Wiregrass,
but one thing is certain. The writing in Moon
Water is better thanks to The Flogger and the gifted members of our
group.
Pam Webber is
author of the bestselling debut Southern novel, The Wiregrass and
its standalone sequel, Moon Water (She Writes Press,
8/20/19). The award-winning university nursing educator and nurse practitioner
had previously co-authored a nursing textbook and peer-reviewed research articles before she was
invited to be aPanelist at Virginia Festival of the Book. Pam lives
with her husband, Jeff, in the Northern Shenandoah Valley. Visit Pam at
