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March 2006

Friends Don't Let Friends Write Badly

By Jack El-Hai

How many times a year do we hear that writing is a solitary pursuit? That our work is best when we find a private room free of distractions, open a vein, and let the blood flow? That having a social life inhibits having a writing life? That writers are some of the loneliest people in the world?

None of that is necessarily true. I lean toward introversion and have never enjoyed a big circle of friends, but one of the most important moments of my career came when I realized that being friends with other writers could improve my life. It happened when I was in my twenties and had just unaccountably and amazingly had my proposal approved to write a "Talk of the Town" piece for The New Yorker. Not bad, I thought, for a kid from Minnesota. I got right to work. As was then my habit, I reported and wrote the story in a couple of days. I was about to drop it in the mail to The New Yorker when Dan, a talented writer and editor who had previously published my work in a regional magazine, intervened. "This is important," he told me. "Your career is on the line. Let me see that article before you send it in."

Dan had no good reason for wanting to review my article. Neither he nor his magazine would benefit if he could improve my story. But Dan and I had built a good relationship through working together, and he knew he would prove himself a true friend if his editorial skills served to make my work a better fit for The New Yorker -- thus launching me on the path to literary glory. I heard from him the next day. "You can't send this stuff to them," Dan explained. "The tone is all wrong for the Talk of the Town. You need to report more and dig more deeply. Then you've got to rewrite the whole damn thing."

I disliked hearing that, and his admonitions didn't make me feel friendly to him. I swallowed my pride, however, and put many more hours into the article. When I finished my rewrite, I could see that the story was greatly improved. I let Dan read it before I sent it in. "Now," he said, "there's a chance that The New Yorker will actually publish it."

There's a happy ending here, but not the one you might expect. The New Yorker did not publish my article. (The kill fee they sent, though, was the largest payment of any kind I had ever received for writing an article.) Instead, I learned to appreciate Dan's generosity, and went on to write many more stories for him. I grew close to him and his wife Patty. When Patty took a job in the communications department of a large company, she passed several lucrative writing assignments my way.

A big part of friendship -- the part that Dan knew well -- is about taking satisfaction in helping someone else when you have nothing to gain from it. It's easy to forget that element of camaraderie.

If you know writers who would gain from taking in the wealth of information at ASJA's 2006 annual conference -- coming up fast on April 28-30 -- why not make the friendly gesture of asking them to attend it with you? Members or not, they're sure to benefit from the panels, workshops, keynote address, Information Marketplace, and contacts with writers, agents, editors and others from throughout the world of publishing. As a result, you may watch them get published in The New Yorker -- something I'm still working on.

Jack El-Hai of Minneapolis, Minnesota, is president of ASJA. E-mail the president through www.asja.org/contact.php.