An Authoritative View On Writing

By Tanjua Damon

Newtown author Rachel Basch spoke with sixth graders at Newtown Middle School about writing and the cycle of publishing a book.

Ms Basch is the author of Degrees of Love that was published in 1998. It was her first novel that took her about three years to complete. Her book has recently been released in Dutch and German.

When Ms Basch began writing her book, she typed it on a typewriter. But once you got an agent and a contract to publish her book, she had to get a computer to help with the process. She showed the students marked up pages with notes from editors and copyeditors fixing the minute details of the book.

“It teaches you how to fix your writing,” Ms Basch said. “It is important as a writer.”

The students asked Ms Basch questions about what it is like to be a writer, how much time does she spend writing, how does she come up with ideas, and how long does it take her to write a book.

Ms Basch responded to the students that being a writer is hard work and that she does not spend hours a day writing. Actually she works as a professor and writes a little bit each day. She explained to the students that her first book came from an article she read about in a newspaper and the issue seemed to creep into her life on various occasions.

“It is very rare to write all day, every day,” she said. “It helps to know about lots of different things. Research is very important.”

She told the students that she knew she wanted to be a writer at a very young age and that she enjoys the process of writing.

“Writing a whole long book is really hard,” Ms Basch said. “You are trying to figure out something for yourself.”

Ms Basch has also written articles for Parenting Magazine and Red Book. She is currently working on her second novel.