This morning's Boston Globe had George Garrett's obituary.
I met him at the 1993 Wesleyan Writer's Conference, my first conference ever. My first (unpublished) novel, Witness Be Wary was nearing completion, and the Writing Your Novel class at Harvard Extension had discussed writer's conferences.
In those days, I was unaware of these events. Such a newbie. Fifteen years ago! I remember driving down to to Connecticut, full of nerves and excitement. George Garret was critiqueing my 15 or 20 pages. What would he say? Would he like them? Would he trash them? After all, this was genre writing.
Such a nice, kind man, and he said wonderful things about my novel, such as that I wouldn't have any trouble finding a publisher, and it was the best thing he had read from his group--not true, at least as far as the publisher, but still good to hear. His main advice to me was, "don't repeat yourself." Trust the reader to remember information the first time. It's advice I've tried to follow through the next fifteen years.
The conference was sublime, even if the dorm was kind of proletarian. Garret's sessions were not only informative, but he was a showman, as well as Mr. Geniality. When he got going with other writers, it was fun as well as inspiring. Every night there were readings, and I walked up the hill toward the dorm afterward, drunk on writing and writers.
There were plenty of journalists there, all trying to become novelists, and I'm sure many of them did. It was an awesome conference, and George Garret inspired me to keep writing, even after Witness tanked without an agent. The odd thing is, that book, with all its flaws, got more favorable notice from agents than any of the others. Go figure. Plot was unbelievable and crazy. Characterizations equally unbelievable. My learn to write book.
Garret was always known as a great teacher as well as a productive writer who wrote varied novels, or as the globe quoted this morning, in his "quest never to write the same book twice." I think I've written the same book five times. Perhaps now would be the best time to, like Garret, try something new.
Thanks, George, for your encouragement, your humor, your love of the written word. I'm sure many students and writers are repeating these sentiments today.
I met him at the 1993 Wesleyan Writer's Conference, my first conference ever. My first (unpublished) novel, Witness Be Wary was nearing completion, and the Writing Your Novel class at Harvard Extension had discussed writer's conferences.
In those days, I was unaware of these events. Such a newbie. Fifteen years ago! I remember driving down to to Connecticut, full of nerves and excitement. George Garret was critiqueing my 15 or 20 pages. What would he say? Would he like them? Would he trash them? After all, this was genre writing.
Such a nice, kind man, and he said wonderful things about my novel, such as that I wouldn't have any trouble finding a publisher, and it was the best thing he had read from his group--not true, at least as far as the publisher, but still good to hear. His main advice to me was, "don't repeat yourself." Trust the reader to remember information the first time. It's advice I've tried to follow through the next fifteen years.
The conference was sublime, even if the dorm was kind of proletarian. Garret's sessions were not only informative, but he was a showman, as well as Mr. Geniality. When he got going with other writers, it was fun as well as inspiring. Every night there were readings, and I walked up the hill toward the dorm afterward, drunk on writing and writers.
There were plenty of journalists there, all trying to become novelists, and I'm sure many of them did. It was an awesome conference, and George Garret inspired me to keep writing, even after Witness tanked without an agent. The odd thing is, that book, with all its flaws, got more favorable notice from agents than any of the others. Go figure. Plot was unbelievable and crazy. Characterizations equally unbelievable. My learn to write book.
Garret was always known as a great teacher as well as a productive writer who wrote varied novels, or as the globe quoted this morning, in his "quest never to write the same book twice." I think I've written the same book five times. Perhaps now would be the best time to, like Garret, try something new.
Thanks, George, for your encouragement, your humor, your love of the written word. I'm sure many students and writers are repeating these sentiments today.
Photo credit: University of Virginia
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