I Answer Some Questions about Writing VIII

One word at a time....

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• 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.