Category: Questions

I Answer Some Questions About Writing XI

1/22/2021

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Outlines...?
Make a list of 30 things you want to have happen in the novel. Bullet points are fine.
Each bullet point is a day's writing. Then double it--number it 1a, 1b...15a, 15b, or whatever.
Does your bullet point take up less than 800 words to tell? Well, no it doesn't—there is always something more to say about anything.
Don't let your internal editor worry you about continuity and/or "quality"—just keep moving forward.
Eating is a profound rhetorical connection between writer and reader. So—do it. Use eating.
Remember that eating is about memory as much as it is about nutrition. (Watch some shows on Food Network and see how chefs and cooks present their food—very often they start with a memory).
Making coffee becomes an anchor for a memory.
Meals eaten with two or more people are about how the people relate to one another.
Go back to Food Network again and see how Guy Fieri describes food. He's kind of annoying but he's good at what he does. Watch almost any episode of The Sopranos. Read writers to see how they do it. Research is fun!
I always look for new things to try—these Participation Questions are a pandemic adaptation....
I would rather not be confused.
People have lives—they are very busy!
Most writers pay—or at least buy dinner for—their beta readers.
This might sound glib, but—pretend to be confident?
The people reading your work do not and will not know you. So if you pretend to be confident, they will think you're confident.
Writing is about acting as much as it is about putting words on a screen or a page....
Also, I sense a writer's confidence by how the scenes unfold early in a story. The beginning works, then the next scene takes the story another step, then another. The writer shows that they know what they are doing structurally.....
So....maybe pretend to be confident while you learn structure...??
For a long time I subscribed to several word-of-the-day email lists, and any work I found interesting would go into my writing. I particularly liked the one with archaic words. ("carking" made it into my novel). But imagery can be constructed with basic words, too....
I read Lord of the Rings when I was in the 6th grade and I wanted to do what Tolkien was doing. A year later I read Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises and it changed everything in my life....
I've had a few poems published, though not many. I tend toward narrative poems—stories that have been stripped down to 14 or so lines....
Here's a poem....

The writer should always interrogate themselves about how they are using the character who is unlike them. Is the writer appropriating a story? Is the writer stereotyping or exploiting?
The first step is always empathy. And empathy doesn't come naturally, you have to work for it and learn it.
This is something I do not know! I've had students who are game writers--I assume there are books written about game-writing....
When I started I was in a class like you all, and I just wrote the story as it came out. I did a LOT of reading outside of the classes—I went to the Best American Story shelf in the library and worked through about 40 years or so, and I subscribed to multiple literary magazines. And I wrote a lot, which is also a way of learning. And as I learned more I became more methodical--planning the story with—yes—outlines, and focusing on revision rather than generation.....
I started calling myself a writer fairly late--probably about the time I got the Dobie Paisano Fellowship. Even though I'd been writing for a long time, that was a big external validation....
Keep them simple--only describe what the focal character is seeing/experiencing....
Also keep in mind that fighting is really hard. And exhausting. And most fights are settled swiftly....
I've had students totally turned off by Christine Granados or Oscar Casares because their characters code-switch. But I look at those writers and see that the dialogue is totally in context and understandable. So—make sure the context works....
I love Tolkien and I would BURN those stupid fucking LOTR movies if I could! ha!
But—the Godfather, Parts 1 & 2, is/are the best adaptation ever. The Godfather novel, by Mario Puzo, is very mediocre. But Francis Ford Coppola, in his adaptation, found the inner story and elevated it to greatness. You can buy a book, The Godfather Notebook, by Coppola, which contains his annotated copy of the novel and the shooting script. It's a revelatory insight into the creative process....
Oh, yes! Absolutely! You can learn a whole lot about the structure of narrative by watching film. Film structure is different from literary structure in its details, but the scene-to-scene structure can be really helpful....
Start by knowing that your revision will take multiple passes.
Each pass you will focus exclusively on a different aspect:
character (a pass for each character)
setting
scene transitions
beginning
ending
plot holes
widows & orphans
weasel words
Then read it aloud!
Then read it aloud—backwards!
This is the fun part of writing....
Pre-pandemic I would take a week to 10 days to grade, now with the pandemic friction, it's 10 days to two weeks....
All assignments are good—some are terrific!
I wouldn't worry about plot holes until until you begin revising. As you consider (and reconsider, and re-reconsider) your work, the holes will become more and more apparent....
Maybe...something political and topical? The protagonist's significant other (or father or mother) becomes enveloped in conspiracy theories or fascism or white supremacy. What then to do...?
This is a problem that many, many people are facing right now.
Don't look at your story as a whole. As an entire story. As a plot.
Look instead at the writing.
At each sentence, ask—Is this the best sentence I can write?
Seriously interrogate your work and your writerly self.
You'll find things to fix!
Every semester someone does something truly terrific!
Too many students focus on plot. A story is much more than a plot.
Any plot can make for a good story if it's written well.
If you focus on character and setting and language you'll be successful....
I come up with a character, then find an idea to put them in, then a setting. Then I figure out what will happen (the plot)....
Sometimes that's simple—my current work is a sequel to my last book, so the character and setting are done.
A lot of my stories are set in Austin, so there's a setting I know well. I'm able to visualize my characters doing stuff in the setting....
That's part of the outline. I make an outline and then update it every couple of days—motifs, themes, maps, are all part of it....
Thanksgiving’s my favorite holiday! Because I get turkey and beer! Especially now that I'm an adult (an adult for many years) and can organize things however I want and get all the turkey!
I think I'm going to zoom happy hour with a friend. And then sleep.
What are you going to do?
Well, stories are about characters. They can have objects, or they can interact with objects.
Oh my gosh yes!
Several students have won awards for work they've done in my classes, and several others have been published.
In fact, two stories from this semester are very close to publishable....
Still—personally, I would not feel safe teaching a face-to-face class. And I'm very happy I'll be teaching online next semester.
My guess...is that nationally the pandemic will get worse before it gets better. Cases are going up all over the country right now.
Please keep wearing your masks and doing your social distancing
Yes! In fact, you're going to read one of them a couple of weeks from now.
It's a story that was published and, yes, I was dissatisfied with it, so I revised it while teaching a class of Advanced Fiction Writing, to show students methods of revision....
You'll read the original and the revised version, and you are not under any obligation to like either one!
By looking at the photos, perhaps we become more absorbed into the memory/story...?
I call it a memoir. Or a work of creative non-fiction....
Collapse.
I can get TOTALLY lost in old photos! Sure—I could go on and on.
Women tend to be judged harshly—harsher than men—for marital infidelities.
There are a lot of different thoughts about how to arrange a story collection. I tend to go strongest story first, next-strongest last, weakest in the middle.
A writer writing about a murder in Texas would frame things differently....
This was scanned in—the scanner made errors. Sorry about that! Typos are distracting--
Sure—we can look at the photo, read the text, look back at the photo, contemplate the person as someone who once lived....
Guilty.
Yes—I sure do. They really help to bring it to life....
People often feel trapped. Very often. Trapped by economics, church, gender, family....
So, sure—to a trapped person it might seem easier and quicker to murder your husband than to get a divorce.
Mental health needs to be addressed everywhere!
It’s a tawdry illusion with a rotten core...
No.
To make money.
I'm thinking she was guilty....
Memory is a construct—it's always changing. Incidents get compressed and expanded and rearranged....
There's legal trouble? You need a lawyer. Also in this case, a comfort factor....
I don't think Didion likes this place—she finds it cheap and gaudy and shallow.
That's an interesting question!
My answer is...maybe?
Family cohesion can help people stay strong in a crisis. On the other hand, some families might be lax in social distancing and have a get-together that turns into a superspreader event!
Maybe, sort of...? The Hunter Thompson novel is about the sixties, but it's about drug-induced madness, and not so much about tawdriness and shallowness....
This might make for a good essay question...!!!
Collapse.
The Granados book is set in the right now. But I hadn't considered the time-perspective in the other books....
No, they were just sinners. They believed and fell short....
It's popular across all of literature. Stories need conflict—marital discord is conflict!
Almost all prisoners in state prisons get parole at some point—that's the (theoretical) goal of incarceration—get people ready to reenter society. (Maybe).
Murdering someone for the insurance money is not a good thing.

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I Answer Some Questions about Writing X

1/8/2021

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Reading out loud works for me. You can feel the rhythm of the words....
Make your poems literal. Nothing wrong with that! Close observation of the world makes for excellent poetry!
You can impose a type of exterior order on your poems by making each line the same length. (Counting syllables is a good way to do this--make each line 11 or 14 or whatever syllables long)....
Nope. Little narrative poems generally work best for an assignment like this—but any theme you want....
Well, what do you care about?
If you don't care about what you're writing, your lack of care will come through.
That said, "feelings" are usually kind of abstract and hard to write about. Personal experiences are good beginnings for a story, but they need to be better—that is, more story-like—than "real life."
Social topics can work if you don't preach at people—put your character in a situation that illustrates something (like roommate tension during pandemic quarantine, for a very good example).
Like my fave TV series. The Wire is the best show in tv history. (It streams on Amazon and HBO). It's cops chasing drug dealers, but it's really about people and the problems they have—funny, exciting, suspenseful, heartbreaking—and the society they live in. Covers social topics and doesn’t preach.
Most of my poems are short stories that didn't work as short stories—I just keep whittling them down to about 14 lines or so....
And—observations of the world. Something that catches my eye. It doesn't need to be much....
I try very very hard not to get all philosophical.....
Don’t overthink it. Poetry's not (necessarily) about making grand pronouncements on the Meaning of Life. It's about observing the world.
Go look out your window. What do you see? That's your living poem.
That's enough. That's plenty.
As I said upthread, most of my poems are stories that didn't work as stories. They're narrative poems.
Some of my poet friends write their poems in paragraphs—descriptions or stories. They get the sentences right, the punctuation right, and then they break it into a poem with line breaks.
Try writing four or five sentences about something concrete you know about. (How to drive a car. How to tie your shoe. How to pour milk on cereal).
Break it into lines—make each line more or less the same length by syllables.
Elevate the language.
Boom—a poem.
Don't overthink it. Don' try and be profound.
Just look to the world for inspiration and you'll be fine.
Poems are usually written in sentences—so, just put the commas and periods and em-dashes where they would usually go in any sentence….
(Maybe avoid semi-colons, which I’ve always seen as elitist punctuation).
(That’s just a personal maybe, though).
And, that said—punctuation is really important in poems. Poems are so short that the punctuation really draws attention to itself.
(Unless, on occasion, you don’t use any punctuation at all).
I write about the world I observe or remember....I stay as concrete and real as possible. (I hope you do, too!)
Just describe it as it is. Later, when you revise, you can search for the right metaphor (and maybe you don't need one!)
Obviousness can be the right thing!
I might add on a technical issue that your secondary characters could become very important as they interact with the protagonist....
Sure! Read a lot. That's part of the research. You want to see what's been done before, so that you can do it better!
One of the odd things I noticed when I first started teaching creative writing was that student stories often went on just a bit too long. That the endings were over-explained. And that the easiest way to fix a story like this is to lop off the last sentence or paragraph or whatever. It's like a miracle!
That said, happy endings have to be earned....
And that said—it could and might well be that the problem in the ending lies earlier in the story.
One of my fave writing quotes is by movie writer/director Billy Wilder: "If you have a problem in the third act, that means you have a problem in the first act."
Keeping in mind that you're always writing a story about people, not about magic or science. People who engage in magic or science. (If your protagonist is a robot, it's an essential person).
Why is a lot of dialogue a problem? Who says it's too much dialogue?
Hemingway was the writer who changed my life, and he was big on dialogue. So, guess what? I've always been big on dialogue! Who's gonna stop me?
That said—if you're a dialogue-heavy writer, your dialogue should be sharp and well-punctuated....
Now I'm scared. Did I not warn everyone not to be literal about "hero sets off"? Like--it's a protagonist, a focal character. They don't have to be Achilles....unless you want them to be Achilles or whoever....
But, anyway...Me? I don't worry about category when I'm pondering a story. Character first, then setting, then action. The category will emerge organically from the action as it develops.
(Obviously, I'm not writing for a class where I have a cranky professor who's trying to nudge me into trying New Things).
I've been reading a lot of detective/crime/noir fiction the past few years. And—Elizabeth Hand has a new Cass Neary novel out! And Tana French has a new novel out too! They're great--highly recommended....
That's the function of the outline.
I truly see the outline as the First Draft. I spend a lot of time on it before I start writing and update it often as I write.
And—outlines for short stories don't have to be detailed--just a handful of bullet points will work. But it's good to have the from-here-to-there thought out, even if you change it as you write....
Most published stories are about 12-20 pages--3000 to 5000 words. The trend is shorter and shorter. There's just not enough space for longer stories.
We go six to eight pages in class because grading. But—don't stress! Make the story as long as you need it to be....
(That said--if everyone in both classes went three pages over, I'd have an extra 108 pages to read. It adds up).
I'm fond of all my characters. Even the villains.
Tom Holt has been in three books--Professed, Normal School, and my current work in progress. So I apparently have lots to say about him.
I'm very fond of Linda Smallwood in That Demon Life....
I think this might happen more with freelance journalism than with fiction....
But I think it would depend on how you approach it, what kind of limits you set between internal deadlines and external deadlines, and the pressures and stresses of whatever else is going on in your life....
I think about my character a bit--who they are, how they got to be the way they are. Then play around with an outline. Then I get serious about the outline, etc.....
Great idea!
Novel or story? You probably don't need too many characters in a short story, so introducing new round characters late might be a problem. (A flat character might be easier, since they don't have to be People We Care About).
Adding new characters late in a novel is usually not a problem unless they totally take over the narrative.
(I'm looking at you, Alexander Solzhenitsyn).
If you're with a major press and if the company is making lots of money off of you, they will take care of your publicity. If not—especially if you're an unknown writer—PR is up to you. Be on social media, send out review copies, hustle for interviews and bookstore appearances, etc.
Okay, triggering incidents. Where do story ideas come from? Example—my story collection, The Messes We Make of Our Lives.
Maybe three of these stories came from dreams—not the whole story, just an image or idea.
(Do you keep a dream diary? You might want to).
Most of the others have a triggering incident that more or less happened in "real life," something that I then applied imagination to and made better than real life.
(Imagination is simple--it's merely looking at something an asking "What if?)
The story "Quiet Sport," for example. I was once fishing the Shoshone River in Wyoming, sort of near a campground just outside Yellowstone. And I was doing my thing, and this kid, maybe 13 or 14, starts throwing rocks right by me! I was PISSED! And I thought—I'd like to throw that kid in the river. And so I wrote a story where the protagonist throws the kid in the river! Ha! Victory! The End.
The story "It May Be a Day..." is also sort of based on something I saw. Back when I was your age, I was witness to a murder. But—when I wrote the story, I wrote it not from my puny witness POV, but from the POV of the murderer. Some months after the murder, a cop told me that the murderer got turned in by his sister. That was my "what if?" moment—I wondered what happened between them. (My first published story...).
And so forth. Moral of this post: make your stories better than real life.
Also a moral—your life is your most precious resource.

Life gets in the way sometimes but don't stop!

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I Answer Some Questions about Writing VIII

12/11/2020

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One word at a time....

Fan fiction can be very good practice.
And of course stories from the Bible, Shakespeare, mythology, fairy tales are all continually rebooted and re-imagined.
Remember—there are only (maybe) three basic stories!
A difficult and important question! And—I don't know the answer.
I remember when I was finishing up Burnt House—I was totally mentally exhausted, and the semester was beginning and it was very difficult.
My reading indicates that hating what you do is a big part of burn out, and I really do love what I do. So—was I just tired?
I guess.
Maybe here's some advice. I haven't worked on my work-in-progress for four days. Just sort of tired of it. And I'm feeling the guilts about being sort of tired of it and slacking off.
But something reminded me of an old abandoned project sitting on my hard drive, and so I opened that up and loved it and worked happily for a couple of hours.
So...maybe try working on a different project to get around burn out?
(If it is burn out?)
I didn't write much from 1984 to 1990 or so. I was doing stuff, but not writing. Depressed and angry. But I took a class like this and ending up publishing all three of the stories I wrote in it, and I was off....
You can do this, too....
Well, I'm pretty much always thinking about my writing (I have writing dreams), so when I finally sit down I'm ready to go....
But I always have a hard time starting!
I do not write in the mornings.
I don't mean to abuse you if you're a morning person. At all times be your best self!
But my peak efficiency time is from @1100pm to @100am. That's my writing time.
Robert Olen Butler, a very fine writer, in his craft book, From Where You Dream, advocates for early morning writing because the writer will be close to their dream state.
Bob, you can sit down and shut up. While you're writing, I'm sleeping....
How long to let a project sit? Maybe 20 years? (Sort of serious—look at next week's reading!)
But 20 years is extreme. Sure, let it sit for a while and write something else—maybe a couple of something elses. When you come back to it, you'll be a better, more experienced writer than you were when you wrote it....
Graphic novels are terrific! I couldn't do one—I can't draw and I also don't have enough knowledge to theorize one....
I like stories that are physical and sensual, not stories that are abstract....
Humor is always totally subjective. A lot of my friends, for example, love David Sedaris, and I just don't get him (I love his sister, comic actor Amy Sedaris!). I think America's greatest comic novel is A Confederacy of Dunces (it was a big influence on my first novel), and a good friend of mine thinks it's tragic and depressing.
I find a lot of dark humor in Hemingway, and few other people do.
Here's a recommendation: Tom Wolfe. His nonfiction book on the space program and the first astronauts, The Right Stuff, is a hoot. And his big novel about greed, Bonfire of the Vanities, is full of fun unlikable people doing outrageous things.
But what I think is funny you might not....
I think you should share your writing. But not big chunks like whole chapters. Try what Austin Kleon suggests in Show Your Work....
Plagiarism shouldn't be a worry. But publishers want first exclusive crack at what you've written, and if half the book is on some lame amateur website they will be discouraged.
Why not start sending your work out to reputable publications? Why not get published for real?
Do writing practice. Maybe try three pages a day (handwritten, in a notebook). Do it for a month and you will be a better writer.
What to write about in writing practice? Anything! Everything! Since no one will ever read it, you shouldn't feel pressure from your internal editor.
Just put down words one after another after another.
And read—two or three books a week. Read like a writer--always be looking for how the author did what they are doing....
Do this and at the end of a year you'll be the smartest person you know.
Go for it!
I went to grad school and fell in love with it....
I try to force myself. Just open the file or the notebook and at least LOOK at the work. And when I look, and I'll usually see something to fiddle with, or more....
When you think about grad school, look at the professors—look at their websites—find people you want to work with.
And then—also, REALLY—look at what kinds of financial support they offer....and then compare all the schools and then compare them again.
Do research.
I'm going to try to write every day this month, but I'm not trying to write a whole book this month....
Try doing timed writing sprints and see how much work you get done....
Hemingway (allegedly) said, "Write drunk, revise sober." But I think he was speaking metaphorically!
No, nothing special for me...
Every writer has to find what works for them....
Experimenting is part of the process, and it’s a fun part.
I read a lot of history, and quite a few biographies....
For fiction—recently I've been reading mostly horror and noirish crime....
Sure—travel changes your perspective. It de-familiarizes your base location. You see it new—and this will often emerge in your writing.
And the more observations you make, the richer your writing might be....
Discouraged?
Nobody tells me what to read.
Again: it's never the book in your head. It will never be as good as what you envision. Just get used to that and do the best you can.
Also—don't judge your first draft. Really. AT ALL. The first draft only needs to exist for it to be fine.
In the seventh grade I read The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway. Changed everything!
Some very few people can make a living as writers. Most writers have day jobs. (Or inherited wealth).
Sometimes I get asked to write a book or music review. I have a really hard time—the critical hat does not fit well on my ginormous head.
Also I have a hard time with academic writing. I usually have to imagine LOVE or HATE for my subject to get going....
No! No! NO!!!!!!
Why would you want to delete your writing?
Even if those words are not the right words, you might want them later!
Probably The Lord of the Rings when I was in the sixth grade....
I was always reading as a kid. I went with my mom on weekly trips to the library and loaded up on books. And my parents bought me any book I wanted. I started reading adult literature when I was in about the fourth grade or so...
Every character is me, or an aspect of me. Heroes, villains, men, women, whatever. I always try to see the world through the eyes of my characters....
That said—I'm not an autobiographical writer, I'm an experiential writer. I use the experienced observations I make of people and places and things to inform my writing, though my writing is not based directly on my lived events....
The racial divide in America as a whole has been wide throughout our history....
The antagonism and hatred of the Texans toward the Comanche was a real thing—and perhaps even more extreme than shown in The Searchers....
Big themes told through the actions and lives of individual characters can make for compelling narrative in either literature or film....
Yes! I think the context is--let's untie ourselves from the past and create a new and free life/society/world....
There's also a line very early in the film..."You live in a place, you should know something about it” —which I think implies that if you truly know something about a place, you can then understand it and deal with it. Whitewashing the past or embracing a false past leads to ongoing problems....
(Like, look around…),
Assimilation—the old "melting pot' theory of Americanization, where you give up your past and blended into a new life....
Change is a constant. Young people are always growing up in a New America, where the past is being simultaneously forgotten, rediscovered, and reinterpreted. This can certainly cause misunderstandings and strife!
There is also an inherent conservatism in the way so many people hold onto what they were taught when they were young and how they are resistant to new interpretations of the world....
Yes! I hadn't even considered that! But--yes!
Maybe sort of...no? I'm seeing it more about using time as a setting...
(In my cw classes I'm always or at least often haranguing students about time as a place...).
Most westerns made back in old Hollywood days were low-budget shoot-em-ups. But there were always higher-budget prestige westerns, too. So—critical acclaim and awards were not uncommon for westerns throughout movie history....
It's absolutely important.
It doesn't totally match up but there is something going on there.
Go big or go home?
Thematic ambition, in the right hands, can make for a powerful story or film....
It would be nice! But there is always a resistance to change and new views on old topics....
It sort of seems that corruption is more or less everywhere, and seems to go in waves. Our second Gilded Age—the Right Now—is sadly quite corrupt....
Maybe because it's a form of conflict, and all stories need conflict. And because it's pretty common....
Generations. Borders. History.
The guy who write the script for Chinatown was inspired by a line he read in an article about the history of Los Angeles: "…at least part of the personality of a city devolves from the crime we perceive to be committed there…."
The crimes will differ from location to location and throughout different eras.
But there is a lot of dark history out there in America, if you look for it.

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I Answer Some Questions About Writing VII

11/27/2020

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Giving thanks for the defeat of the traitorous slaver armies in 1863....

All the exciting answers, none of the boring questions...Thanksgiving Edition!

Turkey legs & turkey leg pie!
I've written a Holiday/Christmas story—it's in my book Burnt House. It's pretty grim!
I didn't want to drive a cab any more....
People have appetites; how do they sate those appetites?
When people dine together, they talk. Food gives them something to do. (A lot of dialogue I read seems to take place in a vacuum).
Also, food is itself intrinsically interesting for most people. (Always be looking for ways to connect with an audience).
Be humble.
Big picture hope: I'd like to see America healed. It's going to take some time!
Personal hope: I hope I live long enough to get all my books written. (Which might take a long long time and that’s fine!)
But there will always be a demand and desire for stories.
I miss hanging around the Teacher's Bar and bragging about my students!
Basically, what I said upthread—cultivate Humility and Patience.
Writing doesn't happen overnight. Many young writers find this discouraging.
Humility will win the day.
And I would encourage all of you to follow Lev Nikolayevich's example—be excited about your next project!
I've learned to adapt and survive (so far).
Horror.
Everything is equally easy or difficult, depending on the writer's state of mind....
But here's some advice: don't wait to tell your stories!
So I sat on it, and waited until I was "good enough."
And I never wrote it.
I should have written it immediately! It would have sucked, but who would have cared? (Other than my ego).
Moral of the story: don't wait! Write—now.
Everyone needs to read more.
Those of you who already read a lot need to read more.
Those of you who don't read a whole lot need to read more.
Every book you read helps build your Writer's Toolbox. You'll be able to see all the options you have as a writer.
I think just about everything is important enough to write about—if the writer takes their writing seriously.
Understanding what a story is, and making it happen....
Go with what's in your heart. That's vague—but true.
What poems do you feel strongest about?
Activities: keep a journal. It doesn't have to be complicated and sound like the all-knowing voice of whatever. Just write down your observations about what you see and experience. It can be a list. Or photos!
(Actually, if you use social media, you are in fact keeping a journal).
The world is always changing and slipping away. Notice the changes! (It takes practice).
Develop HUMILITY and PATIENCE.
It takes a long time to get really good at writing fiction. A writer's ego and perfectionism can in the way.
And also be PERSISTENT.
Pretend to care.
Make it a game. In the end, everything you write is just words.
Watch how one scene flows into another. Look at how the dialogue is edited and cuts from one character to another. Look for how setting is used. Look for how it is lit and filmed. Read the movie like a writer....
I don’t buy it.
I’m seeing the Stranger as an idealized romanticized personification of America itself. The Cowboy! Honest, straightforward, kind, respectful. How America sees itself reflected through media/Hollywood....
That may not be factual, but it's True enough to be a starting point for a novel or a film....
Though I wouldn't want to hang around with him....
The drugs are definitely making him irrational.
There are easy-going, good-hearted stoners everywhere.
I see him as the innocent victim of capitalism….
Nihilism is the denial of the value of reality, so here the nihilists are the cats-paw of capitalism, which believes in nothing outside of profit/greed/gain....
I liked it. Dark and funny.
We've had some grim readings and viewings this semester—I thought it might be nice to close with a comedy....
The War on Drugs has been a catastrophe for our country.
Food.
This job is easy when you have a lot of great students!

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I Answer Some Questions about Writing VI

11/13/2020

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All of the answers, none of the questions....

Sure, it's very satisfying to finish something. Take a couple of days and be happy, or happyish.
But—then you have to get to work to get your project published.
And then you start on a new project.
Writing is a way for me to understand the complicated world I have been born into….
Sometimes! But it's changed over the years.
I usually listen to the Clash before starting work....
Well, it's capitalism.
Percival Everett once told me that "the writer's true self will always elbow its way onto the page."
For most of us, our fears are very deep and usually unspoken.
We are all complicated!
You can just skip a space, and then the narrator can begin the next section, "Months later...."
The best thing about teaching CW is working with energetic young people....
Stories can come from everywhere, and do.
Once a piece gets published, it's pretty much done. But until it's published, feel free to go back and back again, if you want, until you are truly satisfied....
Many writers have a tendency to overwrite the ending. Just cutting off the last couple of paragraphs or so, or even the last words, can be an easy fix to make the story better.
There are no definitive endings in nature. Abrupt is often better...?
In a short story, you don't want to have very many characters. There’s not enough room for them!
I know my first drafts are flawed. I know that every text is flawed. So—of course, I've written a flawed text.
Then I revise—and I fix the flaws.
My advice—accept the flaws and move on and finish. Then fix the flaws.
Of course, I grew up in the 1970s, and these things were little understood....
The more you write, the better you get. It really is a learning process....
Paragraphs!
You probably want to leave with the impression that the life of the protagonist is....going on....but it's going on differently because of what happened in the story....
Yes. Keep moving forward. Finish the story.
Then—abandon it, or revise it. But finish it.
Please don't ever delete your work!!!!!!!! You might want those words later. THEY ARE PRECIOUS.
Well...it took me 45 years to finish writing my first book. But—from first word to final draft? About three years.
The idea what to write—well, I have hundreds of ideas. I'll never write them all. But I chose the one that spoke to my heart.
Make significant changes. Look deep into your story and your poems. Elevate them.
Just making grammar/spelling/punctuation changes are not enough....
For me, the crisis we're living through is a spur to get going and keep going. "I will not be defeated," etc.
Try taking your response—anger, sadness, whatever it is you're feeling—and put it in your writing. Engage with your environment.
"Anger can be power."
Pandemic is putting the kibosh to FTF networking.
Keep writing. Keep learning. Support other writers. Be a Literary Citizen.
Make everything better.....
There are many ways of telling stories....
NO!!!!!!!!!
Again, I grew up in the 70s. So, yes. And there are stories about that.
America has always been a tense and violent place.
You have heroic rescuers! Anguished loved ones! And the tick-tock final breaths of the unfortunate trapped human....
Yes, a contemporary rebooted version of Ace in the Hole would probably add more moral complexities....
It would be a heartwarming human struggle which would take our media minds off the grim pandemic/political news.
People would go crazy for this!
(Let's pool our money and acquire the rights....?)
A novel? One....
Stories? Maybe eight or ten....
I think he was going for bleakness—the (apparent) emptiness and desolation of the desert….
But my favorite is--The Big Lebowski!
Best movie about journalism? His Girl Friday, with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. (Streaming on Amazon).
Every little town had a least one newspaper.
All kinds of madnesses are out there....
We get to talk about it next week!

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I Answer Some Questions About Writing V

10/23/2020

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All of the answers, none of the questions....

I think an occasional ALL CAPS might work. Italics are the usual way of emphasizing.
Be careful—readability is very important....
Guilt won't get your book written—it just makes you feel bad.
Find something that makes you feel good—knitting, fly fishing, basketball, old movies, video games....
The process of learning something is for me the best part of any activity....
Playlists for books are a great idea….
Do it.
The "real" person will be transformed by the magic of imagination and the exigencies of the story into a "fictional" person.
My response was pretty basic—don't base your characters on people who will be hurt.
Your life as you live it is your most precious writing resource. Don't be afraid to use it.
What does your focal character see? There's your description—maybe, if it's needed
I actually think Tolkien was doing this….
The best novel? Oh—War & Peace, by my boy Tolstoy.
You'd don't want your best writing buried where no one will notice it!
Setting is always important, unless your characters are floating around shapeless in a formless void. They are some place.
Remember—the BODY is also a setting....
Probably The Great Gatsby, for the punctuation.
Yes—I am inspired by em-dashes and commas!
I may have talked about this before....

Shelby Hearon, my first creative writing teacher: "It's never the book in your head."

Larry Heinemann, my last creative writing teacher: "Revision is where the money is."

You can tag the dialogue through action or setting, too.
What are your characters doing while talking? What are they seeing?
Read it backwards, aloud.
This removes the context of the paragraph, and you can see (hear) each sentence in all its glory/ignominy.
Fifty-one years, ha!
You have to be persistent.
I think foreshadowing is best accomplished as an aspect of revision.
In your first draft, going forward, it's more important to just get to the end.
They disappear into the background—which is what we want.
Obvious isn't always bad, and what's obvious to you—the author—isn't necessarily going to be obvious to the reader....
Are they talking on the phone or face to face?
They could be walking, shooting zombies, fishing, watching tv, washing dishes, sitting on the can, shopping, driving, in church, in a meeting, fighting—they could be doing whatever it is people do....
Also—it's important to think: are they actually listening to each other?
I mean, really—how many times do people actually fully pay attention to one another?
Good question! I'm trying to figure this out myself!
Try going for empathy.
No one is really frightened.
I would keep moving forward and get the story written and then look critically at what you have.
Do you really need a backstory with past relationships? Maybe—but maybe not.
You take something you've written that has a lot of problems (all texts are flawed) and then you fix the problems.
It takes time and attention and is really rewarding.
I think the aging process has left me more easily distracted than I once was.
The problem with writing is that life gets in the way.
How much time can you afford to spend on writing? For most of us—not enough.
Having a roof over your head and food in your belly is probably more important than writing!
A lot of writers do practice writing….
It's great to treat yourself when you accomplish something! Everyone needs to do this!
For me—champagne and turkey legs!
Many years ago in a class like ours I wrote a story I thought was pretty good. But I know now it was a good student story....
I know for a fact that at the time I wrote it, I didn't know what the heck I was doing….
There are any number of writers who have gone down the road of pomposity.
The best writers—the best revolutionaries, the best eye doctors, whatever—are informed by a sense of humor.
My advice--always be aware of the absurdities and ridiculosities. And embrace them.
My whole life up to the point I finished...?
The difference is—LIFE.
A LOT OF TIME.
Just keep going down one path or another until you find the right path....
DO NOT DELETE ANYTHING! Keep all your variations. Trust me—you have room on your hard drive.
Each round of revision I focus something else—dialogue, setting, transitions, colors, textures, whatever....
Write a story with a strong beginning.
From looking out the window, from the things I see in life. From dreams. From snippets of people talking that I overhear. From things I learn....
I look at a situation and ask, "What if...."
There are often big big BIG differences between "Truth" and "Fact."
The highly personal voice is always very engaging. You can do a lot with a memoir
Do you have a citation for that?
(I could also be stupid!)
Borders are interesting—they are where things come together, and where things come apart....
Life gets in the way. You just have to do the best you can with the time you have....

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I Answer Some Questions About Writing IV

10/9/2020

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As usual, all answers, no questions....

I'm a huge procrastinator, too.
This works.
You'll have to experiment around and find the best time for you. Me, I write at night….
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 autobiographical relationship of poet and poem.
Poems tend to be more personal than stories—there are fewer places to hide in a poem.
I would always prefer that students analyze a text rather than talk about their feelings about the text—analysis over autobiography.
A university class is not a book club.
As writers we might strive to be perceptive, rather than judgmental.
It’s (mostly, probably) perfectly okay to find the behavior of a fictional character repellent!
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.
Factual aspects of a story can always be researched, and research is always important to a creative writer.
Take your knowledge of these emotions and give them to your characters.
It means reading for HOW a text means, not what a text means. It's reading as perception, not judgement.
It's maybe like when dreams fade once you wake up.
When you're bored with what you're doing.
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.
When you've accomplished one thing and want another challenge.
When your vision of the world changes.
When you learn something new.....
Keeping notes is a really good idea! Most writers I know have overflowing notebooks with will all sorts of ideas and inspirations....
I think this would all have to depend on the writer and where they are at that moment in their lives....
Said is NOT dead. I would strongly advise you to stick with SAID and ASKED (almost) 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.
Maybe try skipping the things you're having trouble with.
Add those things later as part of the revision process...?
Is this writer's block or is it the voice of your internal editor?
Not necessarily.
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 man 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 at least 40 pages or so into the first draft. But even better is a BIG outline.
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!
Show their character through action. Just like every day 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.

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I Answer Some Questions About Writing II

9/4/2020

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In a face-to-face class I get to talk to the Young Scholars about writing and what-all—but!—now that we’re all on Pandemic Zoom, basic interaction is more limited. So I have the students post written questions about writing or about the readings. Here are some of my answers from this week….

(Yes, just the answers—no questions).

Who are the characters? Are you going for comic or tragic?
The answers to each of these questions will lead to an ultimate answer....
But don't be afraid to change the outline when you get better ideas! It's not a contract!
Once you figure out what might sort of happen, start—writing.
It might help to think of the story as a photograph—a moment caught in time.
This exercise really is writing practice—it's to get you used to thinking in words and images.
Like with any skill you're practicing (and writing is a skill, not a talent), you will get better at it.
I love it when students relate their writing to the world around them.
What's the world around us like right now? It's sadly messed up, with a lot of material.
Just keep moving forward. (Until it’s time to revise).
You are going to live a long time—you have time to write all the stories. For today, just choose one.
Too much information will kill your story. (Creative writing teachers have a term for this: "the page two info dump" though often the info dump will take place about halfway down page one).
Does the reader need all the background info? Really? Probably not.
People have been trying to figure that out for a long time!
People are individuals and respond individually to what appeals to them. But—time moves on, the culture moves on, and what appeals to people moves on.
The libraries are full of books by excellent writers who are totally forgotten now....
I like to know where I'm heading—on a trip or in a story—but I have free will and can change my destination at any time.
Still I start with an objective in mind.
I'm not especially witty, but some few people think my writing is funny. I just put people in incongruous and difficult situations and let everything fall apart for them....
I wouldn't worry about it too much...?
Your personal style will develop over time—and change over time, too.
There are a lot of things at stake for all of us, all the time. Look out the window—we live in an increasingly dystopian society in the midst of a pandemic. What's at stake?
Sure, you can put a Dad character in there wherever you want. A good dad, a bad dad, a drunk dad, a sad dad—all these different dads would add depth to your story...
Clichés are popular because they are often true were maybe at one time satisfying. But you probably don’t want to write a cliché.
We live in a world where all the stories have been written except the one you’re about to write.
Try turning a stale idea around. The buzzer beating shot clanks off the rim….
It might be a very difficult story to write. But give it a try—ambition counts!
For our stories, you're limited by a very tight narrative space. So you might want to hold back on all the subplots.
Love your writing! But always read it like a writer. Don't be afraid to cut and cut and cut….
(And when I say cut—I don't mean delete. Save those words—you might want them later...).
Do you care about your story? If not, find a way to care about it.
Pretending to care about it will work until you really do come to care.
The real danger is not making any forward progress because you go over and over the same passages trying to get it "perfect."
If your characters cuss, then use real actual cuss words.
I'm thinking romantic love. You can do a lot with human emotions.

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I Answer Some Questions About Writing

8/21/2020

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I often have students post written questions about the readings or the class or about writing in general. I did that this week, and the answers are below. Just the answers—not the questions. (I didn’t ask the students for permission to use their questions!)

If you like questions so much, you can make up your own questions….

Me, I go with a lot of dialogue—probably too much dialogue. But then I will slow things down with more exposition.
You're a young writer, so I would advise you to try different things, to not overthink the perfect balance, to discover how you see the world and what works for you....
Plot is just not that important. Writing is what is important. And most short stories do not have rising action, etc. That said, you can do a lot in six pages....
Six to eight pages is a very compact narrative space. Start by making a good outline before you write.
Character and setting are both far more important than plot. Come up with them first.
Name the place. Always (almost always) name the place. Use google streets. And google in general. Creative writers do research!
This might sound sarcastic, but I'm totally serious: try writing a romance story about two people who are clunky and awkward.
Observe your friends who are in relationships—what do they do? How do they behave? Use that material.
You're writing a story, not an idea. Nobody wants to read a concept.
The best book I've ever read on writing is The Midnight Disease, by Alice Flaherty.
I keep going hard because I know I won't live long enough to tell all the stories I know. Got to get them on the page while I can.
But also look at the stories we read—they are all fine.
You don't have to worry about those weird commas when you write an essay….
You can learn this. It just takes practice....
Me—I’m an oddball. I'm a writer.
My job is to bear witness to the world I was born into. I have to pay attention—I have to tell the stories I witness.
I assume my first drafts won't be any good—that's why revision was invented.
But that's me—everybody needs to find their own individual path.
Are you a better writer now than you were when you drafted the older stories? You probably are. Why not apply your steadily increasing knowledge and skill to new work?
Make every sentence 25 words or longer. Make every sentence 5 words or less. Do a story entirely in dialogue. Write a story with no dialogue....
My former teacher and friend, the late novelist Larry Heinemann, said that "revision is where the money is." Revision is your chance to make sense out of what you've written....
Try writing in the first person. And then just look through the character's eyes and see what they see.
The great crime novel writer Elmore Leonard said that he always cut anything that "sounded like writing."
You could try that.
Just write the way you talk.
My very first creative writing teacher was a novelist named Shelby Hearon. Shelby once told me, "It's never the book in your head." It took me years to realize how true that was! That the brilliant idea you have in your head for the story or poem or book, by the time it travels out your fingers to the keyboard, is not the idea that was in your head. It never is.
That's one answer to your question.
Another is really boring: treat your writing like a job. Ignore inspiration.
Do the work of writing and learn to take pleasure in the work.
This might sound boring, but it's real.
I know a lot of writers, and I've never met one who talks about inspiration.
But! We can take this in a different direction. Think about what inspires you. Then work toward filling your life with whatever the heck that is.
What you're feeling is normal. At some point your true writerly self will emerge.
(Hint: something BIG is always going on).
It takes time and practice. Be patient with yourself.

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Ordinary Horrors

I Answer Some Questions About Writing XI

I Answer Some Questions about Writing X

I Answer Some Questions about Writing VIII

I Answer Some Questions About Writing VII

I Answer Some Questions about Writing VI

I Answer Some Questions About Writing V

I Answer Some Questions About Writing IV

I Answer Some Questions About Writing II

I Answer Some Questions About Writing

Lowell Mick White

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