Sunday, April 22, 2007

THE ‘FRYING PAN’ APPROACH — by Steve Nadis

Twenty years ago, I wrote an article about a mathematician with whom I’ve since kept in occasional contact. Now he’s offering me advice about writing. That might seem galling, except for the fact that I soliticited his advice. And what’s more, the advice he’s given me is good. For too long (going on six months now), I’ve been struggling with a book proposal and, given that the book is about math, I called on my mathematician friend for advice. He couldn’t understand why I was having such a problem winning over my agent. “I’m sure all the stuff you need is already there in the proposal. Now you just have to hit them over the head with a frying pan.” That image stuck vividly in my mind, perhaps because, embarrassingly, I watch Boston Legal from time to time–a show in which the frying pan often proves to be the weapon of choice. And I, too, will soon take up the cast-iron skillet in the hopes of leaving a lasting impression on a relcalcitrant literary agent.
Posted by Snake at 05:57:55
Comments

6 Responses to “THE ‘FRYING PAN’ APPROACH — by Steve Nadis”

  1. gatemouth says:
    April 23, 2007 at 10:55 am

    This could start a whole new trend: asking lawyers for medical advice; poets for engineering advice; murderers for child rearing advice.

    In fact, it could bring about some major paradigm shifts, just like when scientists discovered that ceramics could actually be super-conductors. (Thus forcing us all to use plastic bowls to eat cereal during a lightning storms.)

    I think I’ll call up my high-school shop teacher right now and ask which stocks he recommends!

  2. Snake says:
    April 23, 2007 at 11:25 am

    Thanks Gatemouth. At first I didn’t realize how brilliant my idea actually was.

  3. Oldroses says:
    April 23, 2007 at 11:12 pm

    Does this mean that I will be seeing you on the evening news? “Author arrested for assaulting his agent”

  4. Snake says:
    April 23, 2007 at 11:19 pm

    I hope not. The idea was to communicate more forcefully; the frying pan is supposed to be a metaphor for getting the message across. Now it’s up to the frying pan to play ball.

  5. marco polo says:
    April 24, 2007 at 12:11 pm

    “I’m sure all the stuff U need is already there”
    How is he so sure? Did he see the proposal?
    Or maybe he saw the glint of the metal…

  6. Snake says:
    April 24, 2007 at 12:19 pm

    How people know things is always a mystery, especially when you’re talking about mathematicians.

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