Lowell Mick White
  • Home
  • Writer
    • NORMAL SCHOOL
    • BURNT HOUSE
    • Messes We Make of Our Lives
    • Professed
    • That Demon Life
    • Long Time Ago Good
    • Single Story Ebooks
    • Stories and Miscellaneous Writing
    • Interviews, Criticism
    • Misc Audio/Video
  • Teacher
    • Alamo Bay Writers' Workshop
  • Editor
    • Alamo Bay Press
  • Lowell
  • Blog
    • Podcasts
  • Links
  • Contact

Ordinary Horrors

I Answer Some Questions about Writing XII

2/6/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
The usual sage-on-a-page wisdoms and revelations. BYOQ....

  • I don't think they have to, but I like it when they do....
  • I really like, say, Oscar Casares's Brownsville. Stories connected by setting.
  • Sometimes you can get a novel-in-stories, where there is a connecting arc throughout the individual stories. (The kleptomaniac story we read a few weeks ago is the first "chapter" in Jennifer Egan's wonderful novel-in-stories A Visit from the Goon Squad).
  • But even when there is no overt connection, a story collection is still usually connected as a representation of whatever is going on in the writer's head at that given time....
  • Dictionaries and character listings would be a part of the text, and the writer would have control.
  • Maps? How good an artist is the author? if the map is important and the author is a good artist, they will use the author's map. If the map is important and the author is a lame artist (like me, say) the publisher will use a map and hire an artist to make it (and find a way to make the author pay for it).
  •  (I love maps—I wish more students would use them!)
  • Authors have very little input on covers. Almost none. The books I edit, I discuss ideas with the writers, but the final decision is by me and the press.
  • For a previously unpublished writer? Complete. Done. Done and revised until it is as close to perfect as possible. (Close—all texts are flawed).
  • In the meantime, while you are completing and revising, try to get your shorter work published in journals. Maybe start sharing your work online....
  • I wrote my first book while working as a cab driver (I actually wrote it in the cab, between passengers). Cab driving is a hard way to make a meager living. I thought—Oh! I'll go to grad school and get an MA and maybe a teaching certificate and teach at a community college or a private school or wherever. And then on the first day of grad school I fell in love with it and decided that first week that I needed a PhD.
  • I'm very lucky.
  • I'm seeing these as three different things—needs, theme, life lesson.
  • Needs. Your character's needs are the holes in the character's heart. How is your character damaged? (Just about everyone in this world is damaged). What do they need to be happy? What are they doing to fill that hole? Look back at Monica in "Fight Like a Man"--what is she doing to fill the hole in her heart? You will learn about your character as you write, but you should be at least familiar with them when you start.
  • Theme. As you know by now, I am a big believer in outlines. But I also kind of think that you should, at the beginning, remain open and uncommitted on the theme of your story. A general idea is good, but you don't need more than that.
  • Let the theme emerge organically from the text.
  • How does that work?
  • Let’s say you’ve written a successful children’s book, and you want to write an adult story in the same world. You want to write—oh, a quest story. There’s this hobbit that has a magic ring and has to destroy it. The hobbit has to travel a long way—it’s going to be a big book! Okay. You make an outline hitting the important action/plot points along the way. And then you start writing. And as you write along, your themes emerge. You find that your story is about—friendship, and honor, and love, and loyalty, and duty. (And about your unacknowledged colonialist beliefs). And you keep writing. And the plot takes some turns you hadn’t expected. (You update your outline). And the friendships go deeper, and the love comes through, and there’s a layer of intense aching sadness over everything. And then—after four years of writing—you find what you’ve actually written a reflection of your own experience in World War One.
  • Life lesson. I would caution you a little about "life lessons." Many readers really really really resent heavy-handed "teaching" on the part of writers.
  • (I’m one of them).
  • Yep, I sure do. Tom Wolfe, especially, bears down on me. But he's sadly dead now and won't have any new books, so I guess I'm safe.
  • It's actually pretty common.
  • Some writers I know will only read things way outside their genre while working on a book—pulp detective stories or pulp science fiction. That seems like a lot of extra work, unless you like reading those things.
  • Better just to smooth it over when you do revision, like spackle.
  •  (I've actually had students tell me that they don't read ANYTHING, for fear that they will be influenced. Please don't tell me this—I will be disappointed in you).
  • (Being influenced is good thing).
  • I guess it depends on what you mean by "success."
  • But the basic answer is—sure.
  • Example: My acquaintance XXX XXX is a critically acclaimed novelist and, sadly, their books don't sell enough for to make a living, so they work for the government.
  • And many, many writers  teach.
  • And--day jobs are a good thing! Think—HEALTH INSURANCE.
  • The point of the story list we went over a few weeks ago is that any plot/theme can make for a good story—if it's written well.
  • So perhaps instead of focusing on a good idea, focus on a good character, an interesting setting, and strong beginnings and endings....?
  • Here are some "plots" from some of my stories:
  • woman fed up with her boyfriend
  • man returns home to find wife on drugs
  • man fired from his job
  • woman fired from her job
  • there’s a fish stuck in the toilet
  • man takes drugs, plays softball
  • man ignores wife’s (valid) complaints
  • Kind of boring, right? There is nothing at all exceptional about these "plots." Yet the stories are at least competent because of character and setting and language and they were published....
  • All your ideas have potential. You just have to find a way to use language to realize that potential....
  • Well, it's not just like you can just decide to do trad publishing—you have to sort of earn it. Get your name out there, publish in journals, etc.
  • Anyone can publish through Amazon. But are their books any good? Not just as a text—is the book as an object any good? Covers are especially hard for beginners/amateurs.
  • This is why I tell students (here I am telling you)—learn some skills. Learn at least the rudiments of Photoshop and InDesign. Get a website up, and a blog. Use twitter. Research book design. Etc.
  • And then learn some PR—even with trad publishing, you'll have to do much of your own promotion....
  • There's a lot to this book writing thing—but it's all things you can learn....
  • I'd have to see some examples, but—very generally--
  • A lot of the excessive telling I see comes in backstory info dumps. Solution—get rid of backstory. Most stories don't need it.
  • A lot of excessive telling comes in 3rd person interior dialogue. Solution—switch to 1st person, and the narrator can talk directly to the reader.
  • Very very generally: try staying in the story-present, focusing on action. (Dialogue is an action).
  • But, like everything else in life—it depends.
  • What are your goals as a writer? How much are you willing to work? Will you have to make sacrifices in your personal & professional life?
  • (I sort of answered this upthread...).
  • Yes, and I love it.  I can disappear down a research tunnel like you wouldn't believe—especially photo archives.
  • I'm curious—I like knowing things!
  • Everything I learn has an impact on what I'm writing and on what I've already written. This is one of the purposes of revision....
  • (One of the purposed of education, too).
  • I'll repeat here something y'all are probably tired of me repeating—creative writers do research.
  • So, for mysteries. There is a series called Best American Mystery Stories. Comes out every year. Read the past 10 or so volumes and see what contemporary mystery writers are doing.
  • While you're reading those mysteries, start going through some newspaper archives and look for obscure, forgotten, and odd crime stories. Small and mid-sized towns are the best. I think Evans Library has a subscription to newspapers.com -- it is very helpful (a place, as per the previous thread, that I can get totally lost in).
  • And then start thinking about your characters and your setting. Even though plot is more important in mystery than in literary fiction, character and setting are still crucial....
  • Research research re-research.....
  • In the next section of the class we will be focusing on sharing your work....
  • So—social media, blogs. And then start submitting stories to journals.....
  • Research...general or specific....
  • I want to see what other people have done. (How can I improve on what they've done? How will my person experience make what they've done different?)....
  • Then I sit down and start visualizing my outline—and then I write the outline....
  • I think that just depends on what your personal values are. There's no wrong here—it's just a way of looking at language and looking at a career....
  • And you will almost surely think differently and writing as you age....
  • My advice: get good at something now. You can always try something new later....
  • Go around the wall.
  • Seriously.
  • Ideas are very hard to write, which is why I tell students to focus on characters. A character can always do something different and unexpected. They are not hemmed in by a concept.
  • Your story will succeed or fail based on the quality of the writing, not on the underlying idea or concept....
  • I'm always looking for new books, poems, stories. That said, I've been using Ordinary Genius and Brownsville for several years now--they're really good and get across the important writing things I want to get across. The stories in the first part of the semester get rotated around....
  • I grew up in a family of storytellers. It just seemed—natural—to try and take it another step and write....
  • The process is pretty basic—you send stuff out, and get rejected, and send it out again and again and again....until you hit.
  • It takes only one person to like your work--but it might take some time to find that person. You have to be persistent.
  • Right of passage? Sure. Validation is a good thing!
  • I think it's important to somehow make time to read. Even if it's only fifteen or twenty minutes before you go to sleep....
  • Yep. I have lots of journals and notebooks and I use them!
  • I have a daily planner, a daily diary—both of those are hardcopy—and my Pandemic Diary (on my computer)—I update those every day.
  • I have an evening diary and a dream diary—both hardcopy—I update those several times a week.
  • I have prose notebooks and a poetry notebook—all hardcopy—I update those as needed.
  • I have a pocket journal I use when I go out in the world, but it's been unused since the pandemic started....
  • I can write just about any place that doesn't cause me back pain. Right now—my recliner. I wrote my first novel, That Demon Life, in a taxicab...I wrote Normal School and Burnt House in bed...I wrote most of Professed in a coffee shop....
  • So—I'm flexible. Except for the back pain part.
  • In bed.
  • I came to poetry very late, as I think I said a couple of weeks ago.  I was in my 40s...But I already knew how to write—how to make good sentences. So that part came quickly. And I had the great Adrian Matejka coaching me....
  • Authors that have a unique writing style...? Cormac McCarthy—go read The Road...Tom Wolfe—go read The Right Stuff...Megan Abbot—go read Dare Me.....
  • Contemporary writers? Megan Abbot (Dare Me) and Elizabeth Hand (Generation Loss) are terrific and I love their work...!!!!!!!!
  • Good ol Hemingway was the writer who changed my life....
  • Oh, yes—screenplays operate from a totally different paradigm than prose or poetry. And there are a lot of books on screenwriting.
  • And—indeed—you can be inspired by movies! I sure am. Go watch Sunset Blvd.....
  • ABSOLUTELY A SKILL THAT CAN BE LEARNED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • None.
  • Because it's not the plot or the theme or the action that makes a story "original."
  • It's what's in my heart that makes a story original. It's the way I see the world that makes a story original. It's the way I render the world through language that makes the world original.
  • That's the whole point of this class. I want you—all of you—to encounter the world through the personal lens of your understanding.
  • You heart is original. Use it.
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Lowell Mick White

    Author of the novels Normal School and Burnt House and Professed and That Demon Life and the story collections  Long Time Ago Good and The Messes We Make of Our Lives.

      Sign Up for Occasional Updates

    Submit

    RSS Feed


    Categories

    All
    1920s
    1960s
    1970s
    1978
    1979
    1980
    1981
    1982
    1983
    1984
    1988
    1990s
    2000
    2020
    2021
    9-11
    .99 Cents
    Academia
    Advice
    Aging
    Alamo Bay Press
    Alamo Bay Writers Workshopdcff08d18c
    Alamo Hotel
    Albert King
    Ali
    Alice Flaherty
    Allan Shivers
    All My Children
    Allusions
    Alysa Hayes
    Amazing
    Amazon
    #amediting
    American Eagle
    #amprepping
    #amwriting
    Amy Winehouse
    Anger
    A Night At The Opera
    Animal Industries
    Annie Leibovitz
    Answers
    Anxiety
    Aong And Twenty Miles
    Apache Trout
    Appalachia
    Architecture
    Armadillo
    Art
    Atomic Mutant Dogs
    Austin
    Austin Central Library
    A Visit From The Goon Squad
    Awards
    Awp
    Baby
    Back Pain
    Bad Baby
    Bad Behavior
    Bad Guts
    Barn
    Bars
    Baseball
    Basketball
    Beatest State
    Beer
    Bergstrom
    Best
    Big LAAH
    Big Tex
    Big Tex[t]
    Birth
    Birthday
    Black Box
    Blizzards
    Blocker Building
    Blood
    Bluer Even Than The Sky Above
    Bob Dylan
    Body Count
    Book Club
    Books
    Bookstores
    Book Trailer
    Boredom
    Bourjaily
    Bourjaily Writing Quote
    Bow Wow Wow
    Brag
    Brains
    Bricks
    Bridges
    Brilliant
    Brindled Pit Bull
    Bruce Noll
    Buda
    Bullying
    Burnt House
    Busy
    Cab Driving Story
    Carnegie Library
    Cats
    Chance
    Change
    Chaos
    Character
    Chattanooga
    Chekhov
    Childhood
    Child Labor
    Christmas
    Chuck Taylor
    Cicadas
    Civil War
    Clash
    Club Foot
    Comp
    Complaining
    Conroe
    Country
    Coup
    Covid
    Cox's Mills
    Crazy
    Creative Writing
    Creativity
    Crime
    Cursing
    Dachshunds
    Dakota
    Danger
    Daniel Pena
    Dare Me
    Dave Oliphant
    Dead Professors
    Deep Eddy
    Denver
    Depression
    Desk
    Destroy All Monsters
    Deven Green
    Diane Keaton
    Diane Wilson
    Dirty Mind
    Dissertation
    Distractions
    Disunion
    Dogs
    Dog Soldiers
    Dope
    Dorothea Lange
    Drawing
    Driving
    Driving At Night
    Driving In The Rain
    Driving In The Snow
    Drought
    Dry Line
    Dullness
    Dystopian Romance
    Eagles
    Ebook
    Editing Process
    Editings
    Education
    Election
    Elizabeth Hand
    Emerson
    Engl 347
    Enrest Hemingway
    Eternity
    Extended Narratives
    Eyeballs
    Faculty Incivility
    Falklands
    Fame
    Fascism
    Fiction
    #fiction
    Five Things
    Flannery O\'connor
    Flat Tires
    Fly Fishing
    Found Items
    Fredo
    Free
    Friction
    F. Scott Fitsgerald
    Furniture
    Game Of Thrones
    Gang Of Four
    Garbage
    Genya Ravan
    Ghosts
    Gila Trout
    Gival Press
    Giveaway
    Glue
    Godfather
    Goodreads
    Gorillas
    Grackles
    Grading
    Grad School
    Grand Central
    Greatest
    Great Gatsby
    Grubbs Hall
    Guilt
    Gulag State
    Gulf Coast
    GUTS :(
    Gutter Brothers
    Handicapped
    Handwriting
    Happiness
    Happy Endings
    Harvey
    Head
    #heartbreak
    Higher Education
    History
    Holidays
    House
    Hunter Thompson
    Ice
    Ice Storm
    Ideas
    Impeach
    Improvisation
    Insane
    International Relations
    Internet
    Intertextuality
    Interview
    Intro
    Irs
    Isaac Rosenberg
    Its A Wonderful Life
    Jack Kerouac
    Jake Pickle
    Jennifer Egan
    Jimmy Carter
    Job Interviews
    John Domini
    John F. Kennedy
    John Kelso
    Johnson City
    Kansas
    Keith Richards
    Keller Bay
    Keos
    Keybard
    Kim Addonizio
    Kindle
    Koop
    Larry Heinemann
    Larry Mcmurtry
    Laura Leigh Morris
    Laziness
    Leakey
    Leaves Of Grass
    Lebron James
    Lee Grue
    Lewis County
    Lightning
    Lightnin Hopkins
    List
    Lists
    Literacy
    Long Time Ago Good
    Louisiana
    Lou Reed
    Love
    Lowell
    Lowell Mick White
    Lucinda Williams
    Lumbar
    Lust
    Lyndon Johnson
    Mad Max Fury Road
    Malvern Books
    Malvinas
    Mankato
    Manure
    Manuscript
    Marc St Gil
    Masks
    Maud Hart Lovelace
    Mavis Staples
    Mckenzie
    Mcmurtry
    Memoir
    Memorial Day Flood
    Memory
    Messes We Make Of Our Lives
    Mexican Brick
    Mick
    Midnight Disease
    Minneapolis
    Miracles
    Misfit
    Mistake
    Morgantown
    Mortality
    Mother Earth
    Movies
    Moving
    Murder
    Muses
    Music
    My Sharona
    Mystery
    Nature
    Nebraska
    New Haven
    New Mexico
    New Orleans
    New Years
    Nixon
    Noir
    Norah Jones
    Normal School
    Nose
    Notebook
    Novella
    Novels
    Now Playing At Canterbury
    Office
    OJ
    Olivia
    Oscar Casares
    Outerbridge Reach
    Outlines
    Out Of Context
    Out-of-print
    Pain
    Pandemic
    Pandemic Life
    Parades
    Parker Lane
    Passion Planner
    Pedagogy
    Pens
    Photo Archives
    Photography
    Phrenology
    Pickup Trucks
    Pinball
    Planner
    Podcast
    Poetry
    Police
    Porn Star
    PowerPoint
    Prince
    Prison
    Productivity
    Professed
    Prophecy
    Psu
    Ptcd
    Punctuation
    Punk
    Questions
    Radio
    #rage
    Rain
    Ralph Nader
    Rant
    Raul's
    Ray Bradbury
    Reading
    #reading
    Readings
    Realization
    Rebel Drive-In
    Recapitulation
    Redneck Village
    Rejection
    Reji Thomas
    Reliction
    Republican Debate
    #research
    Rest
    Reunion
    Revelation
    Reviews
    Revisions
    Riff Raff
    Riff-Raff
    R.L. Burnside
    Robbery
    Robert Caro
    Robert Olen Butler
    Robert Pirsig
    Robert Stone
    Rock And Roll
    Rocky Fork
    Rolling Stone
    Rolling Stones
    Ronald Reagan
    Rosanne Cash
    Salmon
    San Antonio
    Sand
    San Quentin
    Scapple
    Scar
    Scary Objects
    Scholars
    Scrivener
    Self-loathing
    Shade Trees
    Sharks
    Shelby Hearon
    Shindig
    Shitty Jobs
    Shoot
    Skinny
    Sleaze
    Sleep
    Soft Eyes
    Soiree
    Solace
    Soundtrack
    Soundtrack Sunday
    Speed Of Sound
    Spring Break
    Squalor
    State Fair
    Steelhead
    Stevie Ray Vaughn
    Stoicism
    Storms
    Stuckness
    Students
    Stupid Job
    Sub
    Sublime
    Sucker-punch
    Suicide Commandos
    Summer Fun
    Sun Also Rises
    Sunshine
    Super Bowl Kickoff
    Super Bowl Kickoff Time
    Sway
    #tamucw
    Taxicabs
    Taxi Driver
    Teaching
    #terror
    Texas
    Texas A&M
    Texas Graves
    That Demon Life
    The Best Years Of Our Lives
    The Clash
    The Dead Weather
    The Edge
    The Forgotten
    The Future
    The Last Educations
    The Man Who Came To Dinner
    Themes
    The Past
    The Wire
    Thom Jones
    Thugs
    Thunder
    Thunderstorm
    Time
    Tolstoy
    #TolstoyTogether
    Tolstoy Writing Quote
    Tomcat
    Tom Wolfe
    Tornado
    Torture
    Transcendentalism
    Treason
    Tropes
    Trout
    True Believers
    Turkey
    Tweet
    Twitter
    University Of Texas
    Vaccine
    Video
    Violence
    Virus
    Vision
    Vote
    Vultures
    Wall
    Wallaby
    Walt Whitman
    Warren Zevon
    Watergate
    Watermelon
    Weather
    Weirdness
    West Virginia
    Where I Lived
    Wildlife
    Wildlife Rehabilitation
    Windows
    Winter
    WIP
    Wisdom
    Witness
    Wonder
    Word Processing Software
    Work
    Working
    Writer At Work
    Writers
    Writing
    #writing
    Writing Process
    #writingprocesses
    Writings
    Writing Tools
    Wrong Number
    Xmas
    Yearning
    Young Adult Reading
    Youth

    Archives

    July 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    October 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    January 2012
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    November 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010

    RSS Feed


    Sign Up for Occasional Updates!

Submit
  • Home
  • Writer
    • NORMAL SCHOOL
    • BURNT HOUSE
    • Messes We Make of Our Lives
    • Professed
    • That Demon Life
    • Long Time Ago Good
    • Single Story Ebooks
    • Stories and Miscellaneous Writing
    • Interviews, Criticism
    • Misc Audio/Video
  • Teacher
    • Alamo Bay Writers' Workshop
  • Editor
    • Alamo Bay Press
  • Lowell
  • Blog
    • Podcasts
  • Links
  • Contact