Ordinary Horrors: A Blog

I Answer Some Questions about Writing 16

5/14/2021

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"Because I said so."

Still, BYOQ....

Probably the best way to get a feel for short stories is to read short stories. They are actually very odd constructions.
Observe the world. That's it!
Pay attention to the world around you.
Imagination is very simple—it's just looking at something and asking, "What if...?"
So—see things and then apply imagination--
You rely on your memory and your observations of other people.
You've been sad, right? You remember what that was like, and paste it into your character.
This is what actors do! This is how writing is like acting—you are inhabiting a character.
Please do!
Too many students sadly end up taking a very bland approach to their writing and end up writing about...nothing....
Funny odd bizarre openings. (Please see the story "Chango" in the Casares book).
Oh, writing a short story is much much harder!
Short stories have to be really super focused. Novels can spread around all over the place....
I'm very happy when students are deeply engaged in the real world and write about all the problems that arise from the real world.
I got some great pandemic stories last semester! I'd really like to see MORE!
Try writing longer sentences—70, 80, 100 words....
I don’t forbid writing serial killers in my classes—I just say it is really hard to do, and I discouraged it.
But sure—why not murder? In the past five years, I've received 59 stories that had murders in them....
Life. The world I see around me. I write to understand the world.
OMG—dissertation time! Ha!
I'll ask you a question. How do we see the world differently than in, say 1900? (You weren't around in 1900, but you can guess....)
The class is "creative writing," and I have long felt that CW classes don't spend enough time on the creative aspects.
Criticism as in people hated it?
Depression and grief. These are deeply interior emotions that are hard to describe. How to display them? Have a secondary or teriary character interact with the depressed protagonist and make them—do something.
Anger, is, interestingly, apparently difficult for some people to write. Very often written depictions of anger turn out as sarcasm or snark.
All three emotions are difficult, maybe, because our society disapproves of their open display...?
I just sort of visualize what happens in the story, then I make a quick outline—bullet points for the title and character names and the basic action. Then—I write. I assume the beginning will be bad, but I know I can make it better with revision.
For many stories, it's best to start as close to the ending as possible.
I guess I still have a soft spot for the novels of James Michener, who had huge bestsellers in my youth and is much forgotten today (except for his charitable contributions, which last on in his name). I liked a few of the techno-thrillers of Tom Clancy before he got too right-wing political.
I like Stephen King a lot, though by now he's such a part of our popular literary culture that he transcends high/middle/low culture formulations. The crime novels of Elmore Leonard are in a similar cultural position.
He's my advice: don't feel guilty about any work you take "pleasure" in—music, film, books, food, whatever. Pleasure’s often hard to come by in this world. Take it when you can.
But we can go over them if you want!
Transitions between scenes are important. When revising, take a pass focusing just on transitions.
For the how-do part of your question, look to our readings. They all do this really well, especially Jennifer Egan’s "Found Objects."
Please be careful with some writing software! Students in the past have had trouble producing properly formatting stories (and, yes, that is something I notice!)
But you should always know the tools you use.
I was mainly talking about length and complexity. But movies of any kind differ from prose stories in that they are totally external—they're visual, and unable (even with a voice-over) of getting into a character's thoughts
Or you can get really close inside the character's head. Don't write the story—live it through the character's awareness....
I've been writing in first person a lot recently. I am interested in voices, and how we communicate.
I often push students toward first person also—it's easiest....
Background in a short story can be dangerous. It's easy to get carried away!
Try to stay in the story present as much as possible.....
A short story outline need only be a few bullet points—a title, character names, a few bits of action that will happen in the story.
Novel outlines are more elaborate. The outline for my work-in-progress is at 24 pages and will be longer....
Why people give up so easily.
There is always peer pressure to like certain artists. You can always focus on their craft, if not their content....
By using a world that's already created—like the beautiful world we are lucky to live in.
Also—try writing about action—about people doing things. Not about abstractions.
Too many metaphors and similes. They get in the way of the narrative.
An engaging character (usually). The threat doesn't have to be overwhelming....
It's important to remember that Europeans had no idea what they were looking at when the first arrived. Almost everything was new and outside of any context.
She was interested in nature and the world around her. Simple as that.
Well, just about everyone who doesn't live in a dome has to deal with weather. But the weather is different in different places.
The themes will be about the usual English class stuff--race, violence, climate, power....
Yep, she was out there in the desert paying attention to the world....
Not so much. But it's always good to keep in mind....
I think the ending is perfect.
Wealth and power almost always do win out, sadly!
But I really do think that where we live affects how we live, and so geography is important....
They sure will!
I'd advise you to just read everything....
They probably have the same effect. But it's interesting that artists build off of one another, and are influenced by one another. No one works in a vacuum.
No, not really. (The crew in Blood Meridian is out to make money, but it's not treasure!).
Our old friend J. Frank Dobie wrote a couple of books about lost treasure—but he was presenting it more as folklore than as fact....
I had a great uncle who moved out to the Mojave Desert when he retired. He got water trucked in--once a week a big tanker would come and fill up his cistern.
So—if I had water delivered, sure, I'd be fine. Otherwise I'd be reduced to dust....
It might come up. Aridity always lurks in the background in the Southwest....

"That text is flawed."

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Personal Pandemic Status 25

5/14/2021

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Haven't posted for a while because of late semester exhaustion. Everyone around me is traumatized. I'm traumatized. A disaster!

And yet the CDC announced loosened mask recommendations. I don't know. I'm fully vaccinated but I don't trust the wheezing coughing people I see around me! So I will continue to mask indoors around the virus-laden public. Indices are mixed.

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I Answer Some Questions about Writing 15

4/2/2021

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The work-in-progress can be unruly....

Yes, still BYOQ....

They demonstrate something about writing that students need to know.
I do.
But—not necessarily autobiographical. Just something you see/hear/touch transformed into a—story.
Flannery O'Connor once said that by the time a person is 17 years old, they have experienced everything there is to experience in life.
(Think about whether or not that is true, or how it might be true...).
We'll stick with imagery and emotion.
But if you want to write a sonnet or a villanelle, have at it....
Go read some writers from @120 or so years ago—someone walks into a room and there's page after page of room description.
Yeah. No. We don't see the world like that anymore.
Look at it this way:
Your protagonist walks into a room.
What do they see?
What do they see that's important?
Focus on what's important.
Gatsby was out of print when Scott Fitzgerald died. Moby-Dick was forgotten when Melville died. They both died thinking they were failures.
Me, History can look after itself. I try to live in the near-future (or the near-past)....
Some cases of Writer's Block are a form of depression and can be treated with SSRIs. Most (way the most) cases of writer's block are merely the voice of the writer's internal editor telling the writer that they are not good enough. We all have that voice. The trick is--to slip past it and get work done....
We can discuss "how-to" as the semester progresses.
For anyone interested in this subject (and I get questions about writer's block all the time), I highly recommend The Midnight Disease, by Alice Flaherty. The best book on writing....
You don't. At all.
Once a story (book, poem, whatever) leaves your hands it's not yours any more. It belongs to whomever reads it.
And—they might not like it. You have no control over whether someone likes your work or not.
What you have control on—total control—is the text itself.
Write for yourself.
Nope, no prescribed topic.
The cw teacher and novelist John Gardener once said that there are only three basic stories:
…the romance/relationship story….
…stranger rides into town….
…hero sets off to find their fortune….
So...you'll end up writing one of those stories. You'll be fine!
I'm glad you asked this question!
When I was young? I wish I’d found a (better) way to deal with depression.
Nope. I wish more students would write horror.
Excellent!
Me, I'd just read the whole thing. It's short....
Yep, you do the readings and writing assignments outside, on your own.
We'll be talking things over—the readings, these questions, stories, poems, weather, whatever....
There are indeed reasons for this—very good reasons, to my mind. But it's easier to explain orally than in writing--
Thanks for asking this question!
The revised edition is fine!
I usually ask for six poems as part of the poetry assignment....
But you can write as many as you want (and probably should...).
Yes—our class is a little literary community. And we Venn Diagram out into the larger Literary Community....
You sure can! Start a conversation! Express yourself--
That's a good thing!
I'm pushing you more towards free verse. But if you want to write a sonnet or a villanelle, that's fine....
It's always good to see other people when you talk to them, and see the occasional cat or dog wandering by....
But if you have a problem with it, that's fine. Put yourself first.
(Last semester a young man zoomed in from a hot tub. He won the semester).
Sure—every text has multiple audiences. Here are some that you will have:
Me
The other people in this class
An ideal audience that you would like to write for
Keep all of audiences in mind. At the same time, write something that reflects your own heart.
It's tricky!
In our zoom meetings, I'll go over these questions and answer some of them at length, and maybe I'll go over a story or two or we'll look at some slides or whatever....
Basically, we'll talk about writing. That's my teaching method....
It's due at 1159pm...
It might be nice to read it before class, but not required....
I sure hope so! But people are individuals, and will react individually to different things.
Maybe an appreciation for the complexity of this beautiful and fascinating and tragic world...?
My fave part changes every semester. My favorite film in this class is "The Big Lebowski," which we'll close the semester with....
Nope. We will press on relentlessly.
The pandemic teaches us to be flexible and resilient. If we have to cancel a class meeting...we'll find a way to get around it....
Usually a work set in the Southwest. Or maybe about characters from the Southwest doing things elsewhere....
But usually—almost always—setting....
Where we live affects how we live. A story set in the gloomy rainy forests of the Northwest will have a different feel from a story set in the arid Southwest...And the characters will be doing different things and have different priorities....
Sure. (See above). Where we live affects how we live.
Maybe 10 days or so....
Just do the work.
I often get this question in my creative writing classes. My usual response is, "You don't have to 'like' something to learn from it."
(That said—it's more fun when you "like" something. Try pretending to "like" something).
You can also make the class into a game, to keep yourself amused. (This is how I got through grad school).
One of the cool things about teaching a class is that I get to choose books/movies I like....
But as the course proceeds you will see, I think, that there are thematic connections between them....
Oh, yes. For one thing, we're online instead of face-to-face. That makes a big difference in how we relate to one another.
And this has caused some changes in material. For example, I use far less visual art than I would ftf. Less emphasis on music and food....
I teach Texas Lit occasionally. There is some overlap between the two courses, since Texas is partially in the Southwest. But part of Texas is also in the South. And while the Panhandle is part of the Southwest, it is also part of the Great Plains....
So—in Texas Lit, I try to represent all regions of the state....
We are going to cover the books faster than I would like (or you would like, probably)....
But the readings slack up toward the end of the semester....
They are essays. I will post three or four prompts, you'll choose one of them, and write an essay....
I'll put the prompt up maybe 10 days before the due date.
There are a lot of places that have used copies of these books—so, shop around.
You will need to purchase the books.
As I think I said upthread, I think you will see themes emerges. The texts talk to one another....
I deal a lot with writer's block—both as a novelist and as a teacher. Most of the time it is merely a writer's Internal Editor telling the writer that what they are writing is not good enough.
I am here to tell you that what you are writing—will write in this class—is good enough.
The trick is to find a way to believe that and integrate it into your writing/studying practice.
We can discuss this in more detail going forward.
One of the best classes I had as an undergrad was "Art and Photographic History of the American West." It was great! And then I got a nice summer gig as a research assistant for the prof, Dr William Goetzmann. Here's his book: The West of the Imagination
My fave visual art—painting, probably. Though photography is great, too.
In class I just run some slides past you....
It's pretty basic—environment, violence, race, family, gender. How do these elements work in the texts we cover...?
The region we're looking at was once part of Mexico, and there are plenty of Latinx people living in it and telling stories....
So, sure--
You can get by just using the class readings, sure. But you might want to dig a little deeper and use other sources....
Sure. I won't offer a detailed written critique (there is not enough time!), but I can give you some ideas in office hours.
Sure, if someone gets close I usually bump them up....
I got interested in SW Lit back when I was the Dobie Fellow—I got stranded out there for five weeks—the low-water crossing was flooded, so I read a pile of books by Dobie and his friends....
Books that speak to me. Books that speak to the diversity of the Southwest. Those are the main criteria....
Grading is the least favorite part of this job! It's WORK!
What makes grading difficult is knowing that so many students place a high priority on their grades....
Basically, go north on I-35 until you hit Wichita, KS. Then hang a left and keep going west until you hit the Pacific Ocean. Everything to your West and South is the...Southwest.....
We might look at some maps on Thursday.....
Yep—at one time Tennessee was the Southwest. (Ohio was the Northwest!)
But you can see how this was formed, right? By someone standing in Boston or New York and looking...West....
How did the people who lived out here conceive of where they were when they looked...east? Or anywhere?
Write a (good) short story. I
And you definitely want to pay close attention to the Christine Granados book--she is a fine short story writer.
This is a tough question! Every writer we read will have an individual style....The style that works best is one that has an encompassing vision of wherever the writer is located in space or time….
You can be several things: I'm an Appalachian Writer, I’m a Texas Writer, I’m a Southwestern Writer....and I'm an academic who is interested in Regional Literatures....
Don't be a perfectionist. Nothing is more deadly to a writer than perfectionism.
Know that whatever you write will be flawed because ALL TEXTS ARE FLAWED.
Accept that, and work to make your text(s) better.
And, most of all: KEEP—MOVING—FORWARD
They are all available at the library. You can also find cheap used copies.
Believe it or not, they are all faves in different ways—they all speak to different aspects of my personality and writerly being....
"Write what you know" is a convention that privileges experience. It's not totally wrong! But it’s definitely not totally right!
Here are two ways to look at it:
There are different ways of knowing. (Physical, emotional, etc).
You can write what you learn. Creative writers do research!

"Is this your text? Do you know it's flawed?"

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Personal Pandemic Status 24

4/2/2021

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Look! I made a little graphic of where I started the pandemic, and where I am now….

Zero to Boom. A year.

I got my teaching schedule for the fall—I will be teaching classes face-to-face. A mistake!

Rage—up! Terror trending...down....

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Personal Pandemic Status 23

3/26/2021

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I started making covid graphics a little over a year ago. This is the first one:

I started making them daily March 29, the date I also started keeping a written covid diary. Right? I thought—I’m in a world historic crisis, and I might die at any time, so I need to document it all. Also—that first week, I had a weird sore throat and a cough. Was I sick? Maybe! (Probably not). But it all caught my attention, and I began documenting. The diary now runs to about 42,000 words—a compendium of rage and terror and heartbreak. I began making blog posts of it all some 23 weeks ago, whenever that was. I’ll keep posting about covid until this sad shit is over….

This week! I got my second shot on the 19th and was pretty darn sick for four days. Terror is trending down. But—Rage is trending up! The Provost announced this week that we will be teaching face-to-face this fall. An incredibly unwise decision….

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I Answer Some Questions about Writing 14

3/19/2021

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"Your words are FIRE."

As always, BYOQ....

I like them.
They demonstrate something about writing that students need to know.
Addonizio just does a terrific and generous job of showing how to write a poem....
Your poetry assignment is usually six poems. You can write as many as you want in the writing assignments, etc....
I do.
But—not necessarily autobiographical. Just something you see/hear/touch transformed into a—story.
Flannery O'Connor once said that by the time a person is 17 years old, they have experienced everything there is to experience in life. (Think about if that is true...).
Go read some writers from @ 120 or so years ago—someone walks into a room and there's page after page of room description.
Yeah. No. We don't see the world like that anymore.
Your protagonist walks into a room. What do they see? What do they see that's important?
Focus on what's important.
Where? There's no "One World" literature.....
What is success, anyway? As far as the US goes....Gatsby was out of print when Scott Fitzgerald died. Moby-Dick was forgotten when Melville died. They both died thinking they were failures.
Me, History can look after itself. I try to live in the near-future....
Some cases of Writer's Block are a form of depression and can be treated with SSRIs. Most (way the most) cases of writer's block are merely the voice of the writer's internal editor telling the writer that they are not good enough. We all have that voice. The trick is--to slip past it and get work done....
We can discuss "how-to" as the semester progresses.
For anyone interested in this subject (and I get questions about writer's block all the time), I highly recommend The Midnight Disease, by Alice Flaherty. The best book on writing....
You don't. At all.
Once a story (book, poem, whatever) leaves your hands it's not yours anymore. It belongs to whomever reads it.
And—they might not like it. You have no control over this.
What you have control on—total control—is the text itself.
Write for yourself.
Nope, no prescribed topic.
The cw teacher and novelist John Gardener once said that there are only three basic stories: the romance or relationship story / stranger rides into town / hero sets off to find their fortune
So...you'll end up writing one of those stories. You'll be fine!
Nope. In fact, I wish more students would write horror.
Me, I'd just read the whole thing. It's short....
Yep, you do the readings and writing assignments outside, on your own. For Thursday meetings we'll be talking things over—the readings, these questions, stories, poems, weather, whatever....
There are indeed reasons for this—very good reasons, to my mind. But it's easier to explain orally than in writing—we'll go over this Thursday.
Thanks for asking this question!
The revised edition is fine!
I usually ask for six poems as part of the poetry assignment....
But you can write as many as you want (and probably should...).
Yes—our class is a little literary community. And we Venn Diagram out into the larger Literary Community....
You sure can! Start a conversation! Express yourself---
That's a good thing!
My office hours will be on Tuesdays. Shoot me an email saying that you want to meet up, and we can decide on a time that suits both of us....
Then—we get on zoom--
I'm pushing you more towards free verse. But if you want to write a sonnet or a villanelle, that's fine....
It's always good to see other people when you talk to them, and see the occasional cat or dog wandering by....
But if you have a problem with it, that's fine. Put yourself first.
(Last semester a young man zoomed in from a hot tub. He won the semester).
Sure—every text has multiple audiences. Here are some that you will have:
Me
The other people in this class
An ideal audience that you would like to write for
Keep all of them in mind. At the same time, write something that reflects your own heart.
It's tricky!
In our zoom meetings, I'll go over these questions and answer some of them at length, and maybe I'll go over a story or two or we'll look at some slides or whatever....
Basically, we'll talk about writing. That's my teaching method....
It might be nice to read it before class, but not required....
I sure hope so! But people are individuals, and will react individually to different things.
Maybe an appreciation for the complexity of this beautiful and fascinating and tragic world...?
My fave part changes every semester. My favorite film in this class is "The Big Lebowski," which we'll close the semester with....
Nope. We will press on relentlessly.
The pandemic teaches us to be flexible and resilient. If we have to cancel a class meeting...we'll find a way to get around it....
Usually a work set in the Southwest. Or maybe about characters from the Southwest doing things elsewhere....
But usually—almost always—setting....
Where we live affects how we live. A story set in the gloomy rainy forests of the Northwest will have a different feel from a story set in the arid Southwest...And the characters will be doing different things and have different priorities....
Just do the work.
I often get this question in my creative writing classes. My usual response is, "You don't have to 'like' something to learn from it."
(That said—it's more fun when you "like" something. Try pretending to "like" something).
You can also make the class into a game, to keep yourself amused. (This is how I got through grad school).
One of the cool things about teaching a class is that I get to choose books/movies I like....
But as the course proceeds you will see, I think, that there are thematic connections between them....
Oh, yes. For one thing, we're online instead of face-to-face. That makes a big difference in how we relate to one another.
And this has caused some changes in material. For example, I use far less visual art than I would ftf. Less emphasis on music and food....
I teach Texas Lit occasionally. There is some overlap between the two courses, since Texas is partially in the Southwest. But part of Texas is also in the South. And while the Panhandle is part of the Southwest, it is also part of the Great Plains....
So—in Texas Lit, I try to represent all regions of the state....
We are going to cover the books faster than I would like (or you would like, probably)....
But the readings slack up toward the end of the semester....
There are a lot of places that have used copies of these books—so, shop around.
As I think I said upthread, I think you will see themes emerges. The texts talk to one another....
I deal a lot with writer's block—both as a novelist and as a teacher. Most of the time it is merely a writer's Internal Editor telling the writer that what they are writing is not good enough.
I am here to tell you that what you are writing—will write in this class—is good enough.
The trick is to find a way to believe that and integrate it into your writing/studying practice.
We can discuss in more detail going forward.
One of the best classes I had as an undergrad was "Art and Photographic History of the American West." It was great! And then I got a nice summer gig as a research assistant for the prof, Dr WIlliam Goetzmann. (Here's his book, The West of the Imagination (Links to an external site.)).
My fave form—painting, probably. Though photography is great, too.
In class I just run some slides past you....
It's pretty basic—environment, violence, race, family, gender. How do these elements work in the texts we cover...?
The region we're looking at was once part of Mexico, and there are plenty of Latinx people living in it and telling stories....
So, sure--
The University Writing Center helps everyone. They are really good.
I got interested in SWLit back when I was the Dobie Fellow—I got stranded out there for five weeks—the low-water crossing was flooded, so I read a pile of books by Dobie and his friends....
Books that speak to me. Books that speak to the diversity of the Southwest. Those are the main criteria....
Grading is the least favorite part of teaching! It's WORK!
What makes grading difficult is knowing that so many students place a high priority on their grades....
Basically, go north on I-35 until you hit Wichita, Ks. Then hang a left and keep going west until you hit the Pacific Ocean. Everything to your West and South is the...Southwest.....
At one time Tennessee was the Southwest. (Ohio was the Northwest!)
But you can see how this was formed, right? By someone standing in Boston or New York and looking...West....
How did the people who lived here conceive of where they were....?
Write a (good) short story.
And you definitely want to pay close attention to the Christine Granados book….
This is a tough question! Every writer we read will have an individual style....
I'm a Southwestern Writer....and I'm an academic who is interested in Regional Literatures....
Don't be a perfectionist.
Nothing is more deadly to a writer than perfectionism.
Know that whatever you write will be flawed because ALL TEXTS ARE FLAWED.
Accept that, and work to making your text better.
And, most of all: KEEP—MOVING—FORWARD
They are all available at the library. You can also find cheap used copies.
Believe it or not, they are all faves in different ways—they all speak to different aspects of my personality and writerly being....
"Write what you know" is a convention that privileges experience. It's not totally wrong! (Or wholly right).
There are different ways of knowing. (Physical, emotional, etc).
You can write what you learn. Creative writers do research!

0 Comments

Personal Pandemic Status 22

3/19/2021

0 Comments

I missed posting last week because of more pandemic exhaustion. (This is common! I have noticed that my students are physically and mentally stretched very thin. And we don’t have spring break this year, so the exhaustion will be worse next month).

Some good pandemic news: I got my second shot—today! Terror is leveling out—it may even drop in the coming weeks.

Rage still up, though. Trumpism/Racism is too fucking prevalent in our society….

Well-organized drive-thru inoculations!

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I Answer Some Questions About Writing 13

3/5/2021

0 Comments

The struggle.

As always, BYOQ...

Keeping notes is a really good idea! Most poets I know have overflowing notebooks with all sorts of ideas and inspirations....
Prose or poetry, I write to come to a better understanding of the world I live in....it's an absurd & ridiculous & mysterious place! Writing helps me sort it all out....
I didn't write my first poem until I was 42 or so years old. I was in grad school, and I was working at a really fine literary journal, Callaloo.
The editor was a poet, the managing editor was a poet, and the young woman I shared a workstation with was a poet. And so I started writing poems, just to keep up with them all. And I was so lucky, because the managing editor, Adrian Matejka, is a really really fine poet, and he was around the critique my work. And I got a few poems published right away....
But! My first poems were all narrative poems. They were short stories that didn't work as short stories, and so I stripped them down layer by layer until there was only 12 or 14 lines left. You can do this too!
I don't know. But a lot, I hope, because you deserve a lot!
(All of you deserve a lot!)
We learn from Alice Flaherty's Midnight Disease, my favorite book about writing, that "writer's block" is a real thing, related to depression, and can be treated with SSRIs like Prozac.
But--
—most people do not have true writer's block. They have an interior editor that tells them that their work isn't any good and will not be any good.
All writers have an internal editor. I sure do! As writers we have to find a way to shut up that voice, dodge around it, suppress it.
A trick that works for me: timed writing sessions. Set the timer on your phone for 20 or 25 minutes (no more than 25). Then just—write—until the timer beeps. Do not stop to think! Do not pause at all! DO not take your hands from the keyboard or pen! And when the timer beeps and you're done, go do something else.
This works. I've written several books this way.
You'll have to experiment around and find the best time for you. Me, I write at night, and I'm most productive from @1100pm to @100am.
I'm a huge procrastinator, too. The easiest thing in the world is to not write—this is true for everyone.
I hate getting started. But once I start, I'm fine.
Most of the time we'll never know the relationship of poet and poem. (Or writer/writing of any kind). Once you get to grad school you'll have theory dealing with the "implied author" but until then just assume that the narrator is the narrator, unless the author tells you differently.
Poems tend to be more personal than stories--there are fewer places to hide in a poem.
Poems seem best drawn from any sort of concrete (not abstract) human experience--for experience that is physical and involved with the world....
I would always prefer that students analyze a text rather than talk about their feelings about the text—analysis over autobiography. (I’m thinking this is somewhat of a pandemic problem, since if we met three times a week ftf, I’d be bugging people about this constantly). When a person says that they “like” or “don’t like” a story, they’re not really talking about the story—they’re talking about their own feelings.
(Liking or not liking a text is of course fun when you’re reading like a civilian, but a university class is not a book club).
The discussion of likeability in female characters is something that has been floating around the literary world for the past ten years or so. We can all see that the patriarchy puts constraints on “acceptable” standards of women’s behavior. Many readers carry those constraints over into their reading, and negatively judge female characters in a story or novel or film. Male characters are usually judged far less harshly than women characters, even when they are doing much the same thing.
As writers we might strive to be perceptive, rather than judgmental. To wildly paraphrase Anton Chekhov, ‘I don’t need to say that stealing horses is evil. Everyone knows stealing horses is evil. I want to write about why people steal horses.’
(So…why does Monica behave the way she does? (Hint—whatever it is, I’m pretty sure it’s not really hypocrisy)).
Roxane Gay has written a terrific essay on this topic. A quote: “In many ways, likability is a very elaborate lie, a performance, a code of conduct dictating the proper way to be. Characters who don't follow this code become unlikable. Critics who fault a character's unlikability cannot necessarily be faulted. They are merely expressing a wider cultural malaise with all things unpleasant, all things that dare to breach the norm of social acceptability… Why is likability even a question? Why are we so concerned with, whether in fact or fiction, someone is likable? Unlikable is a fluid designation that can be applied to any character who doesn't behave in a way the reader finds palatable.”
In short—as a reader, it’s (mostly, probably) perfectly okay to find the behavior of a fictional character repellent! But as a writer you should be analyzing how and why the author created this character the way they are and how they used language to get the character across….
Having a super-badass character kind of removes any tension to the action/plot or opportunity for character “growth” if you’re interested in that. The character becomes—flat.
The super-badass character is also aspirational for many readers….
The discomfort perhaps comes as we recognize the limits of our empathy and the difficulty of truly imagining the experience of another human. But it can be done! My advice: make your character an individual first, and a social construct second.
Factual aspects of a story can always be researched, and research is always important to a creative writer. You don’t just go around making things up. The emotional aspects of a story…that’s another job for writerly empathy. We can learn this by watching how people behave in different situations, by imagining how we would behave in a similar situations.
Also: Flannery O’Connor argues that by the time you’re 17, you’ve experienced everything there is to experience in the world—love, hate, anger, joy, fear, etc.
Take your knowledge of these emotions and give them to your characters.
Good question!
I would like it if students would “read like a writer.” What's reading like a writer?
It means reading for HOW a text means, not what a text means.
How the writer used language, sentence by sentence, to construct the story under analysis.
How language is used, not necessarily whether it is successful or unsuccessful.
It's reading as perception, not judgement.
dialogue
point of view
tense
setting
punctuation
action
exposition
Every student in this class can learn about these aspects of fiction from the stories we’re reading this semester.
It's maybe like when dreams fade once you wake up. it's probably important to strike while the iron is hot, before the forgetting mind takes over!
I like much of the King book (I like King in general), but I have a few reservations. He doesn't seem to understand that his success gives him a level of privilege that less successful writers do not have. But--many students have gotten a lot from it. Read it and make up your own mind.
Here are two craft books I like a lot:
From Where You Dream, by Robert Olen Butler.
Making a Literary Life, by Carolyn See. (We're going to read her chapter on revision in a few weeks).
When you're bored with what you're doing. When you've accomplished one thing and want another challenge.
When your vision of the world changes. When you learn something new.....
I think this would all have to depend on the writer and where they are at that moment in their lives....
I would strongly advise you to stick with SAID and ASKED all the time. They are inoffensive little words that become invisible. When they are invisible, readers can actually focus on your character's brilliant talk.
Please don't distract your reader.
(For a similar reason, it's a good idea to avoid connecting action to dialogue).
Try skipping the things you're having trouble with. Add those things later as part of the revision process...?
Also—is this writer's block or is it the voice of your internal editor?
Not necessarily. The stranger can certainly be the focal character—the protagonist's first day on a new job, the first day at a new school, a traveler stopping to get gas in a new town....
(All the same story, rebooted over and over again...).
(Also—the focal character doesn't have to be a guy!) (Or a gunslinger/samurai)....
In a short story, you can get by with only one "round" character. You can distinguish between secondary characters by giving them distinguishing physical characteristics. (I learned this from my boy Tolstoy, in War & Peace).
For a long work like a novel, you want to keep character notes just so you don't suddenly change their educational background or eye color or whatever.
You can improvise as much as you like, but keep notes on your improvisation.
I feel pretty confident starting when I know more or less how I want the book to end, and I have an outline that will get me 40 pages or so into the first draft. I will work on and expand the outline almost every day, so that it keeps that 40-page buffer always ahead of me. It's like driving at night with your headlights on....
I use both. I love my little notebooks, and I love my phone.
An advantage of the notebooks: when you're at a meeting (in pre-pandemic times) it's considered impolite to mess with your phone while someone is speaking. But you can write in your notebook and say whatever you feel like saying, even if you're slagging the speaker! It's fun.
Getting any book out is a big deal. After that, you can't control how many people read it, and you really can't control who likes it.
So much of what is considered success is luck. But--you have to work hard to put yourself in a position to have luck.
Research! Creative writers do research! Really, they don't go around making things up....
So—say you're writing a novel set in New Mexico at the time the atomic bomb is being built. You want to stay pretty close to facts, but you could have your (fictional) characters interacting with real people. Or you could have an alt timeline where everything goes off in a different direction. Or....
But still—base your story around research....
Show their character through action. Just like everyday real people show who they are by how they act....
Yes, I think all of us should be writing in response to the pandemic.
This historical crisis we're going through right now is complicated and exhausting—it calls for writers to pay attention to it.
But—you don't have to write about the big picture, and maybe probably shouldn't. Focus on the personal and the small.
Don't make it the last six months--make it 15 minutes out of the last six months....
A student wrote a FANTASTIC story about pandemic roommate conflict....it can be done!
That's what fiction does best—focus on how people live their lives.

People are mysteries....

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Pandemic Status 20

3/5/2021

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I missed posting last week because I was fucking exhausted.

The pandemic wears us all down.

Positive: got my first shot of the best available Moderna!

Negative: our stupid governor has removed the mask mandate, an active of passive eugenics. His withered hands will be covered with bloody sputum.

Fuck that guy.

This blog is a mask-mandated zone.

All goddamn indices are up. Rage leads the way.

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Treacherous Stressful Living

2/20/2021

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AS I age I’ve become aware that I’m in danger of becoming one of those old-timers who go “Well, now, back in my day….” while the eyes of people trapped anywhere in the vicinity glaze the fuck over. I’ve always been especially and unfortunately fond of saying to my young trapped students, “You think it’s cold now? Ha! It snowed TWICE in Austin in 1985!”

But! Now it’s gone and snowed twice in College Station in 2021, so I have something more contemporary to bore people with.

The first snow was on January 10 and it was fun! It was slushy and soft, perfect for snowballs or snowpeople. I went for a couple of very pleasant walks.

(Found this on twitter. Don't know who made it, but I approve).

The second snow, just this last week, pretty much sucked. I just saw a blog post that said the storm was unexpected. Maybe—if you weren’t paying fucking attention. The weather models were showing something big two weeks out and they weren’t wrong. When the storm arrived Sunday night, it got cold first and then windy and then the snow came. I went for a quick walk just after midnight—the snow was dry and hard and gritty. Too cold to fluff up. Pretty as it blew swirling past the streetlights, but unlovable.

About 230am Monday, the power went out. This was also not unexpected, and I was ready with battery lamps and extra device chargers and pre-cooked food. The indoor temp by morning was down to the low-50s, but I could dress warm—and cold is a state of mind, anyway. (That’s an ancient Bud Grant reference).

By midday, the power came on and then started to cycle in and out, half-hour on, half-hour off, and stayed cycling that way throughout the week. On Wednesday a second wave of weather brought an ice storm, which I was too wise to venture out into (I’m still pissed at fucking Pittsburg State for not clearing ice off the goddamn sidewalks fuck you) but from my doorway looked grim and bleak. (Perhaps I was projecting my emotions onto the innocent ice). So I stayed inside and I did stuff in my power half-hours, ate and charged devices and whatnot, and then I could contentedly sit in the dark and read on my tablet.

So I had it pretty easy! The power situation was annoying but endurable. But the suffering elsewhere in the state is immense and ongoing. It's a Texas Chernobyl. The snow and the cold and the mid-week ice storm were natural events. But the power situation (and water situation, and sewage situation) are man-made, the result of crazy-ass libertarian anti-government sentiments that have dominated Texas since forever through gerrymandering and voter suppression and general fucked-upedness and ignorance. These people (I use that term loosely) don’t think there is any role for government in American society. This shit has got to stop.

Don’t mourn—thaw out and organize.

What would Lyndon Johnson do?

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