5 Q's with Lynn Harris

Lynn Harris was another discovery from the very funny anthology Single State of the Union . She’s a contributing editor for Glamour and has also written for The New York Times , Salon.com , Nerve.com , and many other places. Her book, Death by Chick Lit , was recently released, so it seemed appropriate to pick her brains about writing.
Urban Muse: What inspired Death by Chick Lit?
Lynn: I knew I wanted to write a sequel to my first Lola Somerville novel, Miss Media, a pop culture satire wrapped in a caper. Problem was -- as a journalist and non-fiction writer -- I’d joked when I wrote Miss Media that I’d had one idea for a novel, and that was it. So square-one of my brainstorming was: okay, let’s say Lola (also a writer) is casting about for her next big idea. I knew that I wanted Lola to be solving another mystery in which she had a stake, and I wanted it to flow naturally from Miss Media, yet still stand alone. And I knew I wanted to continue in the vein of media satire. Then I thought "Murder: that could be fun." And then I thought, "Which media -- rightly or wrongly -- provoke murderous rage?" It wasn't that far from there to (a) someone's killing successful chick lit authors, and (b) Lola halfway wishes she were next. So it’s it's a satire of hype and competition in commercial publishing without being a satire of chick lit per se. But really, you don’t have to be in publishing to relate to the themes of loyalty and ambition, or the jokes about pregnant Jennifer Aniston action figures.
UM: Tell us about Breakup Girl.
L: Breakup Girl is the only superhero whose domain is love, or lack thereof. She helps both men and women with romantic emergencies, from breakups to makeups and hookups and beyond. My creative partner, super-genius Chris Kalb , and I created BG in 1996 as the narrator of a book about surviving a breakup . We figured hey, we have superheros who can bend steel bars -- how about one who can mend broken hearts? We launched BG’s online headquarters, BreakupBirl.net, in 1997, as the locus of her ongoing advice and adventures, and the site has been around ever since, winning awards and a bit of a cult following along the way. (I don’t write the advice column anymore, long story short, but you can search the thousands of letters in our years and years of archives, or link from breakupgirl.net to my dating advice column at MSN.com.) We’ve also done TV, a live show, another book , and now new BG comics can be seen at lifetimetv.com and also (via subscription) on Lifetime Mobile. (This means “on cell phones,” which I learned when they called us and asked us to do it.)
UM: Any tips for beginning writers?
L: In terms of getting published,
a) Know your target. If you have an idea for a story/an article, choose a specific section of a magazine/newspaper/online publication, familiarize yourself with it, and then start writing. NOT the other way around. If you want to write for enjoyment, fine. But if you want to write for publication, don’t write a piece out of the blue and then try to find a home for it. Publications have pretty set rules about what they do and don’t run -- for example, don’t pitch a first-person article to a publication that clearly never runs any -- so don’t even try to bend them. Look for “writers’ guidelines” or “submission guidelines” on their websites and take it from there.
b) Keep at it. Rejection (assuming you get a response at all, which is one of the ill-mannered realities of submitting work) is an investment. Consider The Gretzky Rule: Wayne Gretzky used to say you’d score a goal in one out of every ten shots. So when you’re up to 7 rejections, you can think, “Yay, I’m getting there!”
UM: Where do you do most of your writing?
L: Right here at my desk in my home office. It’s all business, totally unromantic. Contrary to popular belief, as a freelance writer, I do not, like, go to the park and journal.
UM: What are you working on next?
L: Another Lola Somerville mystery. Let’s just say that this time, she’ll be sleuthing for two.Thanks, Lynn!