Bonus Q&A with Author Randy Susan Meyers

Debut novelist Randy Susan Meyers is the featured author at the Writers Workshop’s upcoming Author Series on Saturday, February 27, 2-4 p.m., at the G.A.R. Hall in Marshfield Hills. She will discuss “The Writer’s Relationship with the Reader,” read a selection from her book, and answer questions afterward. Copies of her novel, The Murderer’s Daughters, will be available for purchase and can be signed by the author. In this exclusive Q&A, Meyers shares details about her writing process, the most valuable piece of writing advice she ever received, and how she overcomes rejection.

Describe your writing process. How much time do you devote to writing each day, each week?

I write full-time. I don’t wait for the muse to hit me; I just sit down and write. Doing the first draft is the hardest part for me. I love revising – give me a finished novel to revise and I’m a happy girl. And I cannot work as steadily on a first draft as on revisions, but I basically do work seven days a week, less on weekends, more during the week.

Right now, since my book just came out, I’m doing more promotions than writing. I’m thankful for my blog because it gives me a chance to keep up with my writing. I’m about to go back into another revision of my new novel.

When you were working on The Murderer’s Daughters, which is written from two points of view, was it challenging to write in such distinctly different voices? Did one character come more naturally than the other?

Craft-wise, it was a bit easier to write Merry, only because she was a little more bad, and writing bad is always easier than writing an undercurrent of resentment or a quiet seething. With Lulu, to show that seething, I really had to just let myself go. That’s where I had to access an inner voice for Lulu that could be kind of harsh. I didn’t want people to dislike her – I love her – but she has a lot of pain roiling around inside her. It was pretty challenging writing her.

Please give us a sense of how long it took to write this novel. How many drafts and how many revisions did you go through?

It took me about 18 months from start to finish, and I revised it many, many times. Everybody revises in different ways. I was having dinner with some friends who are writers and they concentrate more on language the first time around, and I definitely go through for plot the first time and then go back and craft my language more and more and more. There’s so many ways to do it.

It took me about six months to sign with an agent. She had me do some revisions, some clean-up. We signed in June and she put it out to market in September. The nice part about it was that she sold it in eight days. That was a wonderful surprise.

Did any aspect of the plot change dramatically from your initial draft to the published work?

I’d have to say no. I was very lucky with this one. It uncoiled like a ribbon. I spent an awful lot of time outlining it; I spent a lot of time figuring out what would happen, and a lot of time on research.

How many other writers read and offered criticism of your work along the way?

In addition to my writers’ group, a few close friends read it – probably close to 15 people total. My writers’ group reviewed it as I went along, but I’m careful to always be four or five chapters ahead of what they’re reading because I will not go back and rework as I get the critiques. I keep all the comments, write all my notes, and do not enter a thing until I go back through and revise. I have a strategy for how I do it, and it takes time. I really try very hard to weigh everything, and give everything a fair shot. We generally do 100 or more pages per person, so your turn only comes up every few months. We found that doing so many pages at once was much more valuable than doing 15 pages at a time; otherwise, you’re reading in a vacuum.

At one point, I was in a group that critiqued entire novels. We did five novels in ten weeks. It was intense, but it was wonderful. I could only do it once a year. It was a group of five women who all like each other’s work and trust each other’s judgment. We were at different draft stages, but it worked beautifully.

What was the most valuable advice you ever received during the critiquing process?

To stop being subtle. I think that beginning fiction writers, especially, are afraid of being too over-the-top. Jenna Blum (author of Those Who Save Us) told me: “Stop worrying. You’re not being obvious. Let it go in that first draft; you can always pull back later.” That really helped to let me go wild and then skim back. It’s easier to take out than to push in.

Your thoughts on rejection:
Rejection is awful. People discount how strong an emotion disappointment is. I think if you’re going to be a writer, you have to steel yourself to get a hard skin, or let it go. I went through a few novels’ worth of rejections. Very few writers get by without it. I think many writers send out too soon; that’s a big problem with us. We’re so hungry for approbation, but we can’t always expect the first manuscript will sell. Writers do not want to hear that.

The best advice I give myself: if it seems like it’s not right, it’s not right. If you can’t fool yourself, trust me: you can’t fool anybody. We have to work through rejection and learn from it. When I got rejections from agents, I made a spreadsheet. I’m big on spreadsheets. I put down what each one said and I made myself face it. It’s something I learned from my husband. He’s a scientist: what is, is. Just because you’re not looking at it, that doesn’t mean it’s not there. It’s still there. So I reread everything the rejections said to see the similarities. If you have five different agents all saying the same thing, you have to take a serious look at that. If you have five or six agents all saying something different, then you haven’t met the person who’s in love with your manuscript yet. It’s like dating: if five dates all say, “You’re really rude in public,” then you probably you are. But if they’re each saying something different, then they’re just not that into you.

Rejection means that you’re sad. Can you get through that? I’ve cried. I’ve whined. You’re putting yourself out for review. If you can’t stand that, you should get a job where you never have to be out in the public eye. Which is weird because, as writers, it’s a solitary job. It’s a strange dichotomy.


On to your second novel: Did you suffer any ‘sophomore slump’ or ‘second-book syndrome’ anxieties?

I had started the second book, which is called Paper Baby, while the first was out with agents, so it wasn’t a problem. But now that the first novel is published and I’m getting such great feedback on it, I’m starting to panic about the second one. But I do love it. It’s very different from The Murderer’s Daughters, which I think is good for me. But I think that’s hard because you have readers fall in love with the first book and they want more of that. But this new one is also family drama and it’s also life through the prism of different people: the same story told through different people, showing their different views. I enjoyed writing it. It’s a book I would like to read.

To view the full feature, "Taking In The Murderer's Daughters," please visit this link:
http://www.wickedlocal.com/scituate/fun/entertainment/x1068584460/North-River-Arts-Society-hosts-first-ever-author-series