a writer's journal

 Sunday, January 18, 2004

I've set the novel aside for now. Things Kept is about 135 pages long at this point, the story lumbering forward sometimes, lurching forward other times. It has some well written scenes, some intriguing characters, some pregnant situations. But it doesn't feel like it's coming together right. It feels misshapen in the way Tucson Winter and Being Jericha Mize were, a foot and a half wide of what it could and should be. So I'm setting it aside to work on my technique using the smaller canvas of short story for practice.

I sent out an application yesterday for the Wesleyan Writers Conference this June in Connecticut, applying for a scholarship. Chris Offutt is teaching fiction at the conference this year, and I'd love to have him take a look at the opening chapters of Things Kept, get his feedback on the revised ms. from his rather unique combination of Appalachian and non-Appalachian writing background.

The past couple days I've been writing out short story 'starts', some a sentence long, some a paragraph, trying to accumulate twenty-five or so 'possibles,' from which I can select or combine or cross-breed situations and characters and themes to come up with something solid and worth writing. Mainly, I want to create a cohesion of story that the novel now lacks, learn to create and sustain it without sprawling. And maybe in the process I'll wind up writing something I can place in print. That would be all the better.

Tuesday, February 10, 2004

I've written two stories in the past four weeks, both sort of semi-done at this point.

The first, originally called "Indigo," now "What It Takes," came together slowly and changed directions mid-writing. It is longish right now, 6500 words give or take, although I'd expect the revision to end up quite a bit shorter. My face-to-face group read it and critiqued it at last weekend's meeting. I posted a rewrite on Zoetrope All-Story, and have started getting feedback there. More than one reader has suggested dropping one character and focusing more clearly on the main story conflict. I'll wait a few more days, and then I'll have to do revision based on what comments I've had then. What It Takes will be entered for the Nelson Algren Award at the Chicago Tribune, entry deadline February 29.

The second story, "Colors," is shorter, and it arrived much quicker. It's a first-person story that depends on voice. In this case, the narrator is a girl aged about eight years. I have no idea how subtle or blatant the unspoken part of the narration is. I'll put it up on the Zoetrope site in a few days, and I'll know by how the reviewers there react.

And yesterday I started thinking about a possible third short story, something set in an indoor Kentucky flea market, something with a couple young brothers who essentially live there. There are all sorts of possibilities for stories in that set-up. The hard part may be narrowing it to a single one to focus on. Or maybe the fun part will be choosing from those possibilities.

Thursday, February 26, 2004

The two stories are revised and sent off to the Tribune competition. "What It Takes" was revised based on input from the Zoetrope online group. The primary feedback was that it needed 'focus', that a secondary character seemed to be muddling the story. I revised, shortened, and altered the ending and sent it off. A friend whose opinion I value weighed in on the changes at the last minute. She felt that the later version lacks the voice and subtle 'showing' of the earlier version, that 'focusing' resulted in too much blatant telling. For now, the story is out, and I'll put this one on the shelf, pull it down in a month or three, and see about revising it again when I can read it more objectively.

Speaking of subtlety, the subtext of "Colors", which I thought was fairly straightforward, was missed in part or totally by more than one Zoetrope reader. And now I'm rethinking how much I ought to be reacting to reader feedback there. I'm trying to identify who reads and reviews there with some level of insight, whose comments have value. The population there is quite varied.

I've been reading short story collections, Best of SS, etc. Here's an interesting quote from Antonia Nelson in her contributor's notes regarding "Naked Ladies." "Writing a story is a lot like having a nightmare: we recognize the settings, the characters, the icons, the trouble, the truth, the possibility, the fears, the hidden desires, but they've all lined themselves up askew. I think we like our nightmares better than we admit. Their elements are all ours, but scrambled out of time and context. Why and how they should all be together is where story comes in."

I also recall Robert Olen Butler's comments last summer at the IUWC about the role of the unconscious, the role of a semi-dream state in literary fiction. And those Butler comments, along with the Nelson quote above, makes me wonder whether I should respond in any way when a reader says "I don't get it. Why is Gabby a cook, and what does that have to do with Victor and his birds?"

Wednesday, March 17, 2004

The month-long Zoetrope review period for "Explaining Colors" has ended. Based on early feedback there and from my face-to-face group, I added a little dialogue from the 'implied character,' and made more blatant some of the elements of the story that had been too subtle, bordering on non-existent. As revised, I'm fairly pleased with how it works now. It's ready to send out, probably early in April when my target publication starts reading stories again.

My 'Kentucky flea market' story has morphed into something quite different, taking off on a local news story that appeared in the Lexington newspaper recently. Two short stories I've recently read, one by T. C. Boyle and one by Raymond Carver, seem to be influencing the style and structure of my story, which has no title, yet. I've rewritten the opening pages a dozen times already, each time modifying the two primary characters, refining and redefining who they are. I'm trying to write into the story middle now, to move the story forward. It seems reluctant for some reason, as though something important is still missing from the opening.

The fact that the story is untitled may be part of my problem with getting into the core of it. Titles come late to most of my stories, and they're usually not those brilliant titles I see on others' stories. I do have several good story titles I've picked up here and there. They're written on index cards. Unfortunately, they don't fit the stories I've written, the ones that lack titles. Maybe I should start with my best title and come up with a story to fit? According to her contributor notes, that's what Antonia Nelson did with "Naked Ladies" -- start with a title. That one ended up in Best American Short Stories a couple years ago.

Once the un-named story draft is finished, I'm planning to rework "What It Takes (Indigo)" and get it sent out. I'd also like to pull an old story out -- "Singing Second Part" -- one I wrote five or six years ago. I'll polish it and send it out, too. This may be a good story to apply for the Appalachian Writers Workshop at Hindman Settlement School.

Monday, April 5, 2004

The story with no title is now "First Husband, First Wife." It's a good title in that it's the kind that gets a reader's attention. In truth, it isn't a great fit for the story, having grown out of a paragraph that was deleted in an early round of editing. But it's close enough to a fit that I'm using it. The story is being workshopped on Zoetrope now, and House Writers took a look at the first five pages in last week's meeting.

"What It Takes (Indigo)" is revised now, with the Gabby Moreau character reinserted. Yesterday I mailed it off to The Colorado Review, entering it in the Nelligan Prize Competition. It will probably go a few other places in coming weeks. And later today, I'll pull out "Explaining Colors," give it a quick polish, and send it to a big name/low probability publication. We do aim high, at least initially.

I'm still groping about for the next good character/story idea while reading and reviewing on Zoetrope. I need to add to my Zoe review credits and to build relationships with a few of the strong writers there. It's a very mixed community. And I'm reading published short story collections while looking for that next story to write. For a change, I'd like to try writing bright and sophisticated characters, ones who are wiser and more perceptive than their author on all but his very best days. And while I have a few strong opinions that I'd love to incorporate in stories, coming at it from that perspective always feels forced. In all likelihood, that means the story will end up reading as incredibly pedantic and 'on the nose.' Ideally, I'd like to find a 'character way' into a story, an oblique route that gets me to one of those themes in a non-obvious way. And if it's got a great title built in, all the better.

Friday, April 23, 2004

"First Husband, First Wife" has been through a minor revision based on a first set of reader comments. It's in for a second round of comments now and should be ready to send out shortly.

I've completed a first draft of another story, "Paragon Tea." For a change, the characters are mature (more or less) and have full vocabularies. I'm not sure whether the ending is fully realized, if it has the effect I want. It isn't the ending I was writing toward--similar, but not the same--but it developed in the writing, and it seemed to flow naturally from the characters. So I'm trying to trust it. If there's an opening, I'll get it in front of my face-to-face group next weekend. In any case, it will go up for comments on Zoetrope as soon as the prior one expires.

My application for the Appalachian Writers Workshop at Hindman Settlement School (end of July) is in the mail, as is an application for a Kentucky Arts Council grant to help with the cost. I'm also waiting to hear about a scholarship to Wesleyan Writers Conference (late June). The website indicates that Chris Offutt will be on this year's Wesleyan staff after all. I'd indicated him as my first choice for manuscript critiquing, should I attend.

I'm slated for a month of jury duty beginning May 3. So it looks as though I'll have plenty of reading time, and maybe a few character and story research opportunities, too.

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

Today is the birth date of Raymond Carver. He died in the late 1980's at age 50, and is remembered as one of the premier short story writers of the past century. In an interview, when asked about dialogue in his fiction, Carver went beyond the standard answer, that it ought to advance the plot or illuminate character, with, "I don't like people to talk for no reason, but I really like dialogue between people who aren't listening to each other." That's something I discovered a few years ago, dialogue between characters with different agendas talking at skewed angles to each other.

When asked about how he finds his story endings, Carver said. "For the ending, a writer has to have sense of drama. You don't miraculously arrive at the ending. You find it in revising the story. And me, I revise fifteen, twenty times." Carver's endings are often the quietly satisfying kind, a small character turn or a moment of insight.

And finally, in answer to a question about the secrets in his stories and their tendency to frustrate readers, Carver said, "I don't even know if I know how I write stories. I write. I don't have a program. There are people who are capable of saying a story has to progress, reach a high point, and so on. Myself, I don't know. I write the best kind of story I can write . . . The story ought to reveal something, but not everything. There should be a certain mystery in the story. No, I don't want the reader to be frustrated, but it's true I create an expectation and don't fulfill it." This I need to remember, use it to bolster myself when reviewers insist I explain what I'd rather leave to the reader to find on his/her own.

The full interview, well worth reading, is here.

"First Husband, First Wife" joins its sister stories out in the world looking for publication, "Paragon Tea" is in final phases of review on Zoetrope, and I'm struggling to get the next story aloft under its own power. Jury duty fizzled, and Wesleyan Writers Workshop will have to get by for another year without me. Meanwhile, we await word on the workshop at Hindman Settlement School.

Wednesday, June 30, 2004

My acceptance for 27th Appalachian Writers Workshop at Hindman Settlement School came through. I'm hoping Lee Smith will get my story ("First Husband, First Wife") for critique. This year, I may sit in on sessions other than short story and novel--poetry perhaps, children's fiction or memoir. The schedule requires choices, and I've made the obvious ones in past years. This year, I may try a different approach. Whichever sessions I attend, it'll be great to see friends from prior years there, share meals and readings, front porch rocking chairs, and late night singing.

"Paragon Tea" is out in the world, looking for a place in print. And another story, this one "Lake Charles," is twice-revised based on workshop feedback. I'll give it a final going over in a week or so, and then send it out. "Lake Charles" is 4200 words, more or less, comprised of a single scene. In the early drafts, it had a sizeable flashback half way through. It's been revised to move much of it into the current scene, one character telling another. So far I'm not completely comfortable with either approach. Maybe ten days of aging will help.

I'm thinking about how many of my stories are set in this region, and I'm wondering how to package them as a collection, to what degree the stories do (or can) connect without excessive stretching, what stories might still be written to fill in the mosaic they form. It may be a bit early to consider this, but the application date for the FY2005 Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship is September 15. I'd like to solidify the concept and start planning for how to complete the collection soon, so the full vision is reflected in my fellowship application. I'm hoping the week at Hindman will help me see what's possible here.

There is a start on another story on the laptop, a voice, a few opaque sentences that seem to want to be something. It's nothing like I've written before, and it may come to nothing in the end. But it will be interesting to follow and see. 

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