Mark Orrin - Self-Interview

Professional:

Describe your perfect client.

Fine storyteller or expositor – rather than a stickler grammarian – with a healthy ego evidenced by strong streaks of humility and willingness to learn and work.

Describe your nightmare client.

Foul-egoed, defensive and over-protective about writing, praise-hungry, but work-averse.

Do you refer clients to literary agents, and how much do you charge for that?

No, I see development of possible ethical conflicts in that practice. I do help clients learn how to search out agents for themselves.

Is it easier to edit fiction or nonfiction? Why?

Not much either way, but fiction (or fiction-style narrative) seems easier, because plot and character issues are easier for me to deal with than “architectural” issues involved in exposition.

What levels of editing do you perform and what are your definitions of each level?

Developmental (analysis/adjustment of structure/architecture, search for plot/exposition anomalies); line-by-line (for grammatical, formatting, “jot-and-tittle” continuity, narrative “mechanics,” etc.

What do you like most about your job as a freelance writer/editor?

One-on-one interaction with authors outside constricting classroom and workshop settings.

How long should I stick with an agent if she/he doesn't sell my manuscript?

Eight-10 months max – if you have a contract you can get out of.  “Fee-paid” agents (not the best of the lot) require you to pay many of their mailing, phone costs, etc. involved in representing your book. While charging you for these services on your own behalf isn’t considered unethical these days, the best agents represent you taking the brunt of the risks, charging you nothing for their efforts.

What led to you becoming an editor?

Joined much experience (in education, fund raising, journalism, corporate communications, free-lance ghosting, writing staff supervision, etc.) with advancing Internet technology that allows me to do this exciting work in complete independence.

How do you, as an editor, help a writer improve his or her book?

Most importantly, with informed, non-friend-or-family perspective that lets the writer see “the woods that surround the trees.”

What you you feel is the editor's role and what is the writer's role in the revision process?

To begin with, helping the writer to see (many don’t really know) why her/his writing works or doesn’t work and where, then setting the writer the vital tasks that will ready the manuscript for fine-tune, line-by-line editing.

What's the difference between "editing" and "correcting"?

Any competent grammarian can correct, spelling, syntax, etc.; it takes a skilled editor to get an author to see the big picture and how the small pieces meld together to make a living, organic whole.

What does a writer get out have having her/his book edited?

I hope he or she learns how to think, see and say more clearly her/his vision with words.

Do you like genre fiction? If so, which genre(s), and why?

Sure do. Enjoy sci-fi (imaginary worlds with their own palpable inner realities), combined romance-suspense, political intrigue-thrillers, mysteries, horror.

What kinds of authors do you enjoy working with?

See “perfect client” answer above.

What kinds of authors are difficult to work with?

See “nightmare client” answer above.

What makes a good author?

Openness, inner vision, energy, peseverance, growing capacity to choose, not just “lightning bugs,” but lightning-charged words.

A good book?

An alchemy of words that so absorbs you in its story and/or ideas, you forget it even had a writer.

Do you help your clients with the book proposal?

You bet, including all components, from query to synopsis, chapter outlines – most crucially in the difficult but necessary changing of hats from author to project-hawker!

Do you help your clients with agent/publisher selection?

I help them think through why they want to approach particular agents or publishers of their own choosing. I also teach them how to act as their own agents, to help secure agent representation or approach publishers directly.

What do you consider to be the main elements of great fiction?

Character-conflict-challenge-dilemma-driven plot-forging.

Is there any material you refuse to edit?

Hard-core porn, though I’ll edit tasteful, passionate eroticism; works graphically depicting extreme violence and/or torture.

Do you prefer to work with character-driven or plot-driven fiction?

I like character-driven fiction with solid plot foundations. No matter how sharply characterized, fiction (including “experimental”) without strong plot underpinnings is mere jellyfish-sketching.

What is the most common piece of advice you give to new authors?

Find the optimal place in your overall plot scheme or material-mass at which to begin your telling, and you’ll solve at least 95% of whatever writing problems you might have with it.

What are common mistakes you see when editing fiction/nonfiction?

Beginning the book in the wrong place; not observing consistent “novel time” passage; dialogue “mechanics” (i.e., confusing readers about who’s saying what when, especially in multi-character scenes); deus ex machina and other cop-out plot pseudo-resolutions; exposition without substantiation; use of terminology without (or sans adequate) definition or explanation; presuming prior reader knowledge of events or idea-sets.

Are there any books of fiction that you use as examples of great writing?

I often refer to Ken Follett’s Key to Rebecca to illustrate skill in shifting points of view, any Elmore Leonard about handling dialogue, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness for vivid description – all depends on the issues the writer needs most to address in the work at hand.

Are there any books or television shows that you use as examples of great characterization?

Tolstoy in War and Peace vividly characterizes even single-appearance, minor characters; “House” is a great, edgy T.V. character.

Personal:

What are your top five favorite fiction books of all time?

Heart of Darkness, Ulysses, East of Eden, To Kill a Mockingbird, almost all in Sue Grafton’s “Alphabet” series.

What are your top five favorite nonfiction books of all time?

The Last Lion (Wm. Manchester on Winston Churchill), In Cold Blood, The Cuckoo’s Egg, My Life (Shelly Winters autobiography), The Groucho Letters (correspondence by and to Groucho Marx).

Has any book changed your life? If so, what book and how?

The Book of Nightmares (poetry by Pulitzer/National Book Award winner Galway Kinnell), showing me that writing of epic scope is possible in our times, and by beginning a friendship.

Do you have a favorite author?

Almost impossible to select one, but I find Graham Greene a consummate craftsperson.

Least favorite?

Despite his prodigious genius and influence, Ernest Hemingway, for instilling in so many novelists I work with most of the evil habits from which they need weaning.

What's your favorite movie or TV series of all time?

“On the Waterfront,” which for acting, screenwriting, music (by Leonard Bernstein) and good plotting, is still a “contenduh.”

If you could make a cameo appearance on a TV drama or sitcom, which one would you choose and why?

“House,” ‘cause it’d be fun to play sick and crazy and act vs. Hugh Laurie.

What's your favorite talk show?

O’Reilly, ‘cause I supply him with so many words (“truculent,” etc.) about how not to write to him.

What is your favorite kind of music?

Blues (have headed several bands).

What do you do when you are not writing or editing?

Make love and music, read, watch old movies, do performance poetry (combining music, mime, dance and vocals).

Name some books you can read and reread and still enjoy.

Any/all of my top ten favorites.

If you could visit (or return to) any place on Earth, where would it be and why?

The Netherlands, to see personally all the great paintings there.

Are you involved in community service?

After a fashion – I brought ongoing poetry Readings/performances to Las Vegas massive First Fridays street arts festival.

Do you work with any charitable organizations?

Las Vegas Poets at First Friday – plus, I’ve raised some $1.5 billion in small donations for non-profits. From early 1984-1998 I was considered one of the nation's top direct mail writers for non-profits.

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