BEHIND THE BOOK
Love and Other Four-Letter Words was my first book. It was actually
the first piece of long fiction I ever wrote. As soon as I graduated
from college, I knew I wanted to write a novel about a teenager named
Sammie whose parents have just separated and she basically has to
figure out how to embrace this change and start a new life. A few
years earlier, my own parents had gotten divorced and I was still
feeling so much of that pain and emotion.
But how does one begin a novel? I had no clue. Finally, the fall I
was twenty-four, I enrolled in a continuing ed class at NYU called,
well, "Beginning Your Novel." It seemed like a good place to start –
and in some ways, it was. We talked about how a novel is structured.
I learned about creating back story and knowing all your characters,
not just the protagonist. I learned about which scenes to show in the
story (the ones that move the plot forward) and which scenes you don't
have to write (brushing your teeth and rinsing out your cereal bowl
every morning). But there was also a downer element to the class.
All everyone talked about was how hard it was to get a novel
published, how you can't make a living from writing, how books don't
sell. It was enough to make a girl want to turn and sprint far away
from a dream of writing books. But what would I do then? I've really
only ever wanted to be a writer.
For the next two years, I wrote drafts of Love and Other Four-Letter
Words. I was working various day jobs, doing whatever I could to save
up money, take off some time, and write more. And finally, about
three-hundred-thousand words later, I had a draft I was excited about.
I proofread it a million times and then sent it off to a list of
editors and agents. At first, the rejections came in – it's not right
for us, it's just not funny, etc, etc. I was devastated every time.
But then one morning, I got a voicemail from Jodi Reamer at Writers
House. She had stayed up the entire night before reading Love and
Other Four-Letter Words and she loved it. She wanted me to call her
back. As soon as I heard that, I started shrieking and
hyperventilating. It was one of the most amazing moments in my life
because I knew that, whatever happened from there on out, my career
had begun.
