Toni Morrison’s rejection letters

No, not the letters she received as a writer querying her own work, but those she wrote to authors when she was an editor at Random House (back in the day when authors could/would directly query the publisher). Los Angeles Book Review has an interesting post, not just on that collection and other correspondence she wrote as an editor and her responses to the consolidation of the publishing houses (which gained steam during that period, the 1970’s) and the ill-effects of this consolidation on books.

But perhaps most interesting is the craft advice of her letters. This bit caught my eye:

What Morrison repeatedly stressed, trusting her exceptional acuity as both a reader and writer, is that writing is a skill of its own—one that doesn’t automatically follow from intellectual brilliance, nor from simply being an interesting or important person. She told one young writer that his ideas were good, but warned that concept was the first and lowest hurdle he would face:

“Your work needs force—some manner of making these potentially powerful characters alive and of giving texture to the setting. Giving details about the people—more than what they look like—what idiosyncrasies they have, what distinguished mannerism—and details about where the action takes place: what is in the room, what is the light like, the smells, etc.—all of that would give us texture and tone.”

I do recommend hopping over and taking at look at the whole thing on LABR.