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a writer's journal
Friday,
October 4, 2002
I have no idea how this journal thing will work. Gin has a papermaking
journal, and she updates it daily. I don't think I can do that. I'm
writing novels, after all. Her journal tells what pulps she brewed, what
paper she pulled. She posts swatch pictures. But fiction is a different
beast. Can I post a plot twist that may or may not be working? Can I quote
some new line of dialogue, post it here like a sample of cattail laced
hosta? No, fiction is too fragile-- diaphanous, tenuous, spun candy when
it's new. So what belongs here in this journal? And how frequently? And
will it be worth anyone reading? Or worth me keeping? Well, I guess we'll
see. At least I'll see. And if it turns out to be of little use to anyone,
I can always hit 'delete.'
Oh yes. One more thing. I'll make every
effort to write my journal with good grammar and spelling. But I will not
waste time and effort double-checking and editing. What you'll get here is
first draft, best effort text.
I'll finish with a writerly quote:
"When you write, you lay out a line of words. The line of words is a
miner's pick, a woodcarver's gouge, a surgeon's probe. You wield it, and
it digs a path you follow. Soon you find yourself deep in new territory.
Is it a dead end, or have you located the real subject? You will know
tomorrow, or this time next year." --Annie Dillard, The Writing Life
Saturday, October 5, 2002
Today was a day of website work and lawn mowing and, yes, some playoff
baseball on TV. But lawn mowing is one of my best pre-writing times. The
mower's rumble, the slow back-and-forth across the grass, mindlessly
following the last lap's track, what better time to think through plot
problems, to try out 'what-ifs' at a safe distance from the manuscript.
Today, I remembered, and thought about, what Lee Smith told me at Hindman
this summer:
"Remember that the reader is always more interested in the characters'
inner lives than in the mere events of any story."
I've since rewritten "Things Kept," the short story she read, the one that
elicited the comment above, and I think I've done a better job of showing
the viewpoint character's interior, her thoughts and feelings. Part of my
problem may be trying to imply too much, or assuming that the reader reads
into the text, through empathy, what the character must feel. I know that
Lee Smith is right, about where the reader's interests lies. And maybe
I've assumed too much about what a reader can or will 'read in.' But I do
know that I will not produce writing that is weighted down with named
emotions. "LeAnn felt sad." "The joy in Cass' heart had erased every bit
of yesterday's jealousy." "Charles' hatred for his father filled his soul,
squeezing out all thoughts of reconciliation, leaving him steeped in dark
urgings of revenge." The trick, it seems to me, is to reflect a
character's inner life somewhat indirectly, with some subtlety, but not so
minimally that readers don't get it. Maybe that's where the art comes in?
Monday, October 7, 2002
Yesterday I pulled free from website tweaking and added a few paragraphs
to my young readers novel. It has been stuck in a long scene where three
storylines temporarily converge--around page 93. I found a way to end that
scene and jump into the next. This is a first draft, and I need to
continually remind myself of that fact. I see problems in the story,
pacing flaws, motivations that aren't well-developed or might appear
inconsistent. Seeing these, I find it difficult to write forward. But this
is my third novel, and I know there will be time for fixing, for
rewriting, for clarifying when the first draft is done, when the shape of
the whole thing is known.
Strangely, I enjoy the rewriting more than
the first writing. Maybe that's why I find it so hard to push forward when
there's revising to be done.
The analogy that comes to mind (or maybe I read it somewhere) is of a
sculptor slabbing down clay. That's the first draft process. Then you can
stand back and see if you've got an elephant, a panther, or a moose. Only
then will you know which revisions make sense, where you need an added
lump of clay, where to yank fistfuls out, how to shave and smooth the
surface to a create realistic shapes. All steps are essential. But first
you must slab it all down.
This is one of those lectures I frequently need. Hope I'm listening.
Tuesday, October 8, 2002
Good day of writing yesterday, and a good day today. Most of the reason, I
think, is that I've finally gotten past 'the lull'. How much of a lull it
will seem to be for the reader, I don't know. I'll take a careful look
with more perspective when I get to revision time.
This is a young readers novel. Writing it is quite different from my
previous two. Even though Tucson Winter was also narrated by a twelve-year
old, it was written from an adult perspective looking back. Even though
the character's thoughts and reactions were true to his age, the fact that
an older version of him was telling the story allowed the use of a more
adult language, and, as importantly, sophistication of thought. The book
was meant for adults as well as children (think To Kill a Mockingbird,
that's the narration style). The current one is written in a young girl's
voice, and it is meant for young readers. That does not mean it is 'dumbed
down' in any way, or that a life is 'prettied up.' It simply means that
the language, the degree of sophistication in thought, and the
interpretations of things must be true to the narrator's age. There is
much less use of metaphor, analogy, or simile. And those that are used
must be a one's that would come to mind for a young girl.
So, the writing, which will read simpler, actually goes significantly
slower. In addition to the usual mental filters that words and sentences
go though before being put onscreen, there are added questions: how the
young narrator would perceive things, and how she would say them--or avoid
saying them. It's like ventriloquism being more difficult than public
speaking, to use an analogy, one that a twelve-year-old would most
definitely not.
Wednesday, October 9, 2002
Seven Days in December is a collection of four novellas, one of which,
Prologue, is mine. I wrote Prologue in December, 1999. The publisher went
out of business before publishing it, so we four authors decided to take
it to press ourselves. Today I did an email interview about writing the
novella for an online article in "Inkspin". It was interesting to think
about the process of writing it (written entirely in seven days in
December). After nearly three years, my perspective on the whole process
is quite different than it was while going through it. I hope I gave the
guy something worth quoting.
Other than that, I added a paragraph on the young readers novel, and
edited a little on the last scene. Just minor touch-ups, really. We have
company coming to visit for the next few days, so I'll probably not get
back to the novel (or this journal) for a few days. Hey, sometimes
hiatuses are good things. And I am at a good pausing point.
Wednesday, October 16, 2002
Has it been a week? Amazing! Our house guests have come and gone.
Yesterday was my House Writers meeting. That's my Lexington, KY, group.
Reading and critiquing two pieces of fiction (plus the meeting itself)
takes most of the day. Now, it's back to working on my novel.
I also belong to a second writers groups, Richmond Writers Critique Group.
Sometimes I'm active in these groups and sometimes not, depending on where
I am with my writing. Deep into a novel and working toward some deadline,
I tend to back away. But the contact with other writers is energizing, and
I do miss it when I'm 'hermitting.'
Friday, October 18, 2002
"Description is what makes the reader a sensory participant in the story.
Good description is a learned skill, one of the prime reasons why you
cannot succeed unless you read a lot and write a lot. It's not just a
question of how-to, you see; it's also a question of how much to. Reading
will help you answer how much, and only reams of writing will help you
with how. You can learn only by doing. --Stephen King, On Writing
See. Hear. Taste. Smell. Feel. Those words are taped on my computer desk.
Silas House says he tries to employ all five senses on every page. If you
look closely, you'll catch him skipping a sense now and then. Not often
though. I suspect King would say House's fiction is overly rich in
description. But it reflects his style; it fits his characters and
stories. I've tended to go with minimal (but hopefully well-chosen)
descriptions in my two plus novels. More isn't always better. Said another
way, one plus one can equal one-half--that's a hard lesson to learn. In
short, the answer to King's 'how much to' question is often 'less.'
Sunday, October 20, 2002
The novel pages I wrote today should read as a distinct change of pace.
For the first time since page one, there is a noticeable pause in the
action, something longer than two beats. More like three pages, maybe four
in this draft. Since I'm near page 100 right now, that should be okay. And
I hope it gives the reader enough time to step back from what's happening
and at the same time get a closer look at how the narrator feels about it.
I haven't resorted to spelling it out, but the girl is certainly acting it
out, primarily internally, but somewhat, too, in her interaction with
minor characters. I did let her use the word 'angry' one time, but even
that referred to a physical sensation and only indirectly to her mood.
This interlude will probably get condensed in revision in order to not
risk losing my young readers to momentary boredom. But I'm letting it
stretch long in first writing, to be boiled down to its essence later.
Maybe a page and a half of this would be about right. We'll see how things
read, once this first draft is through.
Monday, October 21, 2002
Salman Rushdie, speaking about why he likes to read poetry while writing
fiction, during a Q&A at the National Press Club on Oct 9, 2002:
"There is a difficulty about a novel which is that it is a long piece of
writing, and as a result, there is a great temptation in terms of the
language to settle for easy solutions, just in order to get to the end of
the paragraph or to the bottom of the page. … There is actually no reason
why prose fiction should not pay the same degree of attention to the
language that poetry does, except that it takes longer to write it. If you
are willing to allow it to take longer to write, then you can write novels
with the same concentrated attention to language that poets habitually
pay."
I have to wonder where the line is between 'settling for easy solutions'
in the writing and obsessing over every word and turn of phrase. Does
Rushdie ever say 'good enough,' or does he really hold out for 'perfect'
in every case?
Thursday, October 24, 2002
Last night I drove up to Lexington for Silas House's reading at Joseph
Beth Bookstore. Silas has developed quite a following in the region. With
all the 'public time' he invests for sake of his career, I wonder how he
can be writing on a third novel. The guy must be good at multi-taking.
Good at multi-tasking--which I am not.
If I'm working on the website--not this journal, but the Seven Days in
December website--or promotion materials for that book, I have trouble
getting back to adding pages to my current manuscript. And I know that's
where my major effort need to be. The other stuff is fun and it may come
to something. But a betting man would say this next one is my best chance.
A betting man--which I am.
Wednesday, October 30, 2002
I printed out copies of "Singing Second Part," a short story that I wrote in
1996, and asked House Writers, my Lexington writers group, to critique it.
It was an interesting experience. I hadn't looked at it in years. There
are some things I'd do differently now, primarily narrator dialect which
doesn't ring true, and a verb tense shift which seemed brilliant back then
but reads as an authorly affectation now. Those aspects aside, I am
pleased overall by the story and how it unfolds. And the critique group
seems to agree. The upshot is, once I get through with the draft of my
current novel, I'd like to rewrite "Singing Second Part" using what I've
learned in the past six years. Then we'll see if the story might find a
home in Appalachian Heritage, Now and Then, or a similar magazine
publishing fiction of the region.
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