An author is born

Posted by Suzy Vitello Soulé on November 15th, 2010 at 08:16 AM | | Tweet

Throughout this process, a wonderful structure lifted from the voice, and once he had that, his work took on a new level of depth and meaning. It shaped itself into being.

One of the most gratifying aspects of my work is when I get a call from a prospective client who is interested in either writing a book, or advancing a draft of a book to the next stage.  I love the editing process: collaborating with a writer who has ideas but needs structure, or one who has structure but needs more imagery, more action, more depth.  Occasionally, I get a client like “Mike” who has been writing for decades, but can’t figure out what to do with the pieces.

Mike invited me to his studio about a year-and-a-half ago, and together we pored over his binders.  He’d written poems, recollections, essays.  Since he had an academic background, writing was never a struggle for him, but he was looking to make something. To draw some cohesive meaning from the sum total of these pieces, and he wasn’t sure what to call it.  “Would it be a memoir?” he asked. “A collection of essays?” he posited.

I wish I could say that I swooped in with a label, sprinkled fairy dust on the writings and, Et voila, there lay the decisive answer.  Alas, that was not the case.  For the next six months or so, we brainstormed the possibilities, the approach, the angle.  And all along, Mike wrote, revised and found new insights, a new energy, which infused his work.  Over the next six months, Mike was a man on fire.  Producing, revising, reliving. 

Throughout this process, a wonderful structure lifted from the voice, and once he had that, his work took on a new level of depth and meaning.  It shaped itself into being.

Last week, I concluded work with Mike on this inaugural book but I suspect there will be more. I feel like a midwife, truly, holding this book in my hand (Mike decided to publish his collection with the help of Portland State University Bookstore’s on-demand publishing enterprise, Odin Ink). I’ve worked with several authors on their books, but this one is particularly dear to me.