{"id":17036,"date":"2024-09-10T19:38:26","date_gmt":"2024-09-10T23:38:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=17036"},"modified":"2024-09-10T19:42:47","modified_gmt":"2024-09-10T23:42:47","slug":"episode-604-benjamin-dreyer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-604-benjamin-dreyer","title":{"rendered":"Episode 604 – Benjamin Dreyer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtual Memories Show 604:
\nBenjamin Dreyer<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/virtualmemories\/Episode_604_-_Benjamin_Dreyer.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>

Subscribe: Spotify<\/a> | TuneIn<\/a> | RSS<\/a> | More<\/a><\/p>\n

“When I started the book, what I was doing was trying to replicate everything that I’ve ever read in somebody else’s style manual into my own voice. I realized a) ‘No, you don’t,’ and b) ‘What is your voice anyway?'”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>Benjamin Dreyer<\/a> joins the show to talk about the joy of good writing. We talk about his career as managing editor and copy chief of the Random House, his post-retirement perspective on that role, the authors he enjoyed working with, the success of his first book, DREYER’S ENGLISH: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style<\/a> (Random House), and his plans for the followup, DREYER’S FICTION <\/em>(!). We get into why he’s leaving NYC and looking forward to Santa Monica (and talk about the books that he can leave behind and those he can’t), the way that writing a Substack newsletter<\/a> has made him a better writer, how the copy-editor’s role is to enhance the writer’s work, not to reshape it, whether his online persona changed after retirement, his love of digressive footnotes, how he feels about “weird” catching on this election season, whether the success of Dreyer’s English<\/em> surprised him, the moment he KNEW it was a hit, and what his authors had to teach him about the process of writing his first book. We also discuss the tension within the pronoun section of DE<\/em> (c.2019), how he hopes to revise it, and why the mind needs to catch up with the soul sometimes. All this & a lot more, so give it a listen!<\/a> And go read DREYER’S ENGLISH<\/a>!<\/p>\n

“The habit of being a writer has made me a better writer, but it’s also made me a better reader.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n