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- For a previously unpublished writer?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.
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