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"Writing well is the best revenge."
-- Dorothy Parker
Page count, new novel: 135 pages
Today I'm writing against pettiness. I'm writing against smallness of mind, against laziness, and against resentment.
I know a person or two who would rather not see others succeed. I know a person or two who plant themselves like road blocks so people can stream around them, trying to get somewhere.
I'm not talking about editors or agents or literary magazines. I'm talking about everyday people whose only goal is "getting by." That or "biding time" until they can be somewhere else. They are present only in certain moments, and they tune out when asked to do anything for anyone else. They blame, they whine, they complain, and they sap your creative energy.
Those folks make life weary for those of us who fuel ourselves up every day on nervous energy and passion. Who strive every day to achieve a dream.
I'm not better; I'm just driven. But driven doesn't always suit your environment, and like a fly I buzz against the confines of places where the dreary, slow souls of the world tread. They take delight in very little except their own obstinacy. While I'm asking, "How might we solve this?" they're asking, "When's this over?"
So, needless to say, I entered my writing time mad today.
What does it mean for me to write well?
Write 10 drafts and call it a first.
Read that tenth draft aloud, red pen in hand, and mark it up.
Get your butt back in the chair, facing the screen.
Write about the people you dislike (okay, despise) and then step into their shoes. Feel their pain, their angst, and anger against the wrong people. Beat with their hearts as they make their sound and fury known against the tide of life, thinking they've made a mark before they go home and disappear in front of their TVs.
Some people get behind a sports team. They watch and cheer for revenge. Me, I get behind my writing, and this one, I won't lose.
In his Preface to Breaking Ice: An Anthology of Contemporary African-American Fiction, edited by Terry McMillan, John Edgar Wideman writes:
We've always been outsiders, orphans, bastard children, hard-pressed to make our claims heard...Beaten down by countless assertions of the inadequacy, the repugnance of our own skin, we've been forced to enter the skins of others, to see, as a condition of survival, the world and ourselves through the eyes of others. Our stories can place us back at the center, at the controls; they can offer alternative realities, access to the sanctuary we carry around inside our skulls. The African-American imagination has evolved as discipline, defense, coping mechanism, counterweight to the galling facts of life. We've learned to confer upon ourselves the power of making up our lives, changing them as we go along.
What Wideman writes of are some serious obstacles: slavery and centuries of political, social, and economic impression. As a white middle-class female writer, I can't claim as many obstacles, and reading Wideman's statement reminds me of what is working for me, not against me, as I write. I write with a certain boldness and expectation granted since birth that the world wants to hear my voice and that the mainstream will understand my themes; I write with economic and social advantages too numerous to list. Being female is a disadvantage, sure, as is being the highly-sensitive person who bleeds when someone looks at her funny. I've seen both qualities hamper my success. But it's rare that my environment has found me "repugnant." I often confuse repugnant with repulsive, but if I take an etymological note, repugnant is rooted in resistance and fight. As I sit in front of a computer with a day to write, my world does not resist me. Let's remember that.
Let's call what brought me to this computer raging in high umbrage an irritation--a pesky fly. Let's give it note but not let it drain me of vital energy and emotion.I must remember: all of us can be birds, soaring within the sanctuary of skull and soul.
And in honor of the wondrous J.D. Salinger (did he ever write for revenge): rest assured, there ain't no phonies in heaven.
****
Today's Writing Goal: Read aloud a short story in its umpteenth draft (yeah, this story has been in process since college, and I just completely overhauled the point of view, but if I were to guess, it's in draft #17), and prepare for submission. Submit another short story to five more magazines. And begin to read the 135 pages of the new novel, in hard copy, to remind myself of what I've written and circle back to achieve some unity and consistency moving forward.
Writing Prompts: Please note that writing prompts should always be pursued in emotionally-safe environments with the supervision of someone who interested in encouraging good writing, self-awareness, and reflection. A wonderful resource is Pat Schneider’s Writing Alone and With Others.
© Lyn Hawks. Writing prompts for one-time classroom use only and not for publication in any form elsewhere without permission of this author.
Elementary Prompts
• What makes you so mad that you "see red"? Write about a time when you got so mad you did something you regretted.
• List 10 things that make you mad. Which one makes you the maddest? Why?
• Imagine you could start the world over from scratch. You could design a world where no one ever gets mad. What would this world have to look like so that no one would ever get mad?
• Finish this sentence by telling a story. “One time I tried to get revenge by…”
• Now rewrite this story, this time from the point of view of the person you tried to hurt.
Secondary and Adult Prompts
• Write about a time when you got so mad you did something you regretted.
• List 10 things that make you mad. Which one makes you the maddest? Why?
• Imagine you are capable of re-creating this planet. You could design a world where no one ever loses his or her temper. What would this world have to look like so that no one would ever feel anger?
• Finish this sentence by telling a story. “One time I tried to get revenge by…”
• Now rewrite this story, this time from the point of view of the person you tried to hurt.
• Finish this sentence, “Revenge is sweet when…” and share three examples.
• Finish this sentence, “Revenge is bitter when…” and share three examples.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Brevity for the Witty Soul
How did I keep going while writing a dozen full-length plays, forty-four short stories, and five novels that not only didn’t get published but—by standards I did not understand but innately strove for—didn’t deserve to get published?
-- Robert Olen Butler, "Letters to a Young Writer"
Page Count, New Novel: 102 pages
In "Letters to a Young Writer," Robert Olen Butler talks about those several unpublishable novels sitting in a drawer--unpublishable by his estimation, not just others' rejections. I count two shelved novels for me: the one I wrote at age 16, and the one I've been writing the rest of my life.
About a month ago I shelved the Big Novel, in process since 1994, and I'm still fairly sure it will be outed eventually. But now is not its time.
In December I began a young adult novel. It has simmered a while, and had a brief incarnation in my head as a wovel, which would involve blogging weekly with new installments and allowing others to vote on the outcome for the next chapters. But then I realized that the character's story needed my full focus and energy and not a distraction of what others thought. It needed to be a work of art for its own sake and not just a move to build a marketing platform. However, the original plan of making it audience-interactive fueled something my writing sorely needs: a snappy pace and a cause-leads-to-effect plot. At the end of each of the early chapters, I'd write, VOTE: WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? and list options a, b, and c. My audience was definitely in mind, but especially my characters and the world of possibilities they could suddenly access. Every character who is introduced has an impact, and s/he then causes something to happen, and choices have consequence. Every time.
This is not the only new thing in my writing process. Also new is a vow to myself to stay within 300 pages. If I've learned anything from short story writing, it's that one must have a handle on the unity of all things written. I have lost that grip on the Big Novel, and though some of it stays with me, I forgot what happened on page 444 or 666 (and maybe the devil's in the details such as WAY TOO MANY PAGES!!!). Until I can take at least two weeks away from my normal life, I cannot get my head around the whole manuscript. I need to be fully in its space, immersed, transported. But a story of 20 pages? No problem. A story of 200? Not so scary, either.
What I can do with 200 pages is what I'm doing now: write the first 25, then print those out while the next 25 are unfolding. I carry the first 25 in hard copy around the house and grab at them to tweak whenever I get a moment. So those prior pages simmer while the new ones are in process. And when I can't write another new word, I transfer hard copy edits into the electronic version, and that means something is happening. Something is moving forward.
So I have 100 pages and the story still clips along. I discovered the climactic event for the final fourth of the book, one day out roaming around or showering or cleaning; it just came to me. Then another idea hit me of what would spark the climax--the prelude crisis. I can't see the last scene just yet, but I know in my heart and my gut that this story is meant to be.
My intense focus on this project has stopped the blogging and any new short stories, but that's okay; what must be written, must be written.
And all those pages and pages of what I once thought witty in the shelved Big Novel: they are not worth the recycled paper they're printed on. Perhaps when I emerge out of this new novel's draft I will know what's missing to narrow the prior, and how I can achieve unity of time and place, giving it just the right, small space to breathe. For nuns fret not in their narrow convent rooms. The Big Novel may chafe against the drawers where it's shelved, but I trust it's fermenting quite nicely.
Back to edits. Onwards! Here's a story that won't be forever coming, and I do believe I'm really enjoying this ride.
Writing Prompts: Please note that writing prompts should always be pursued in emotionally-safe environments with the supervision of someone who interested in encouraging good writing, self-awareness, and reflection. A wonderful resource is Pat Schneider’s Writing Alone and With Others.
© Lyn Hawks. Writing prompts for one-time classroom use only and not for publication in any form elsewhere without permission of this author.
Elementary Prompts
• What do you love to do that makes you forget about everything else? Describe just what you do, what you are feeling, and why it makes you forget everybody and everything.
• Imagine you could write a book about anything. What would you write it about? Who would you write it for? Why? If you can, draw a picture of the cover, too.
• What's the shortest book you ever read? What's the longest book you ever read? What size of book is "just right" to read, and why?
Secondary and Adult Prompts
• Write about your favorite activity that allows you to disappear into another world. It is an activity that takes you away from all worries, relationships, and concerns of daily life, and when you engage in it, you are completely immersed. Write a brief scene in the present tense where you immerse someone else in this task, helping someone else picture exactly what you experience when you do it.
• You are a finalist to receive a grant of $77,000 to spend a year writing a book. This book can be about absolutely anything, and it must be completed by the end of your year. What subject will you choose? Who would want to read this work? Why will you write it? What must you have in order to write it? Write the proposal that will allow you to win the $77,000--a year of freedom--to write this book.
• What's the shortest book you ever read? What's the longest book you ever read? What size of book is "just right" to read, and why? Write a review of your favorite book and let length be one of the criteria describing this book's excellence.
-- Robert Olen Butler, "Letters to a Young Writer"
Page Count, New Novel: 102 pages
In "Letters to a Young Writer," Robert Olen Butler talks about those several unpublishable novels sitting in a drawer--unpublishable by his estimation, not just others' rejections. I count two shelved novels for me: the one I wrote at age 16, and the one I've been writing the rest of my life.
About a month ago I shelved the Big Novel, in process since 1994, and I'm still fairly sure it will be outed eventually. But now is not its time.
In December I began a young adult novel. It has simmered a while, and had a brief incarnation in my head as a wovel, which would involve blogging weekly with new installments and allowing others to vote on the outcome for the next chapters. But then I realized that the character's story needed my full focus and energy and not a distraction of what others thought. It needed to be a work of art for its own sake and not just a move to build a marketing platform. However, the original plan of making it audience-interactive fueled something my writing sorely needs: a snappy pace and a cause-leads-to-effect plot. At the end of each of the early chapters, I'd write, VOTE: WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? and list options a, b, and c. My audience was definitely in mind, but especially my characters and the world of possibilities they could suddenly access. Every character who is introduced has an impact, and s/he then causes something to happen, and choices have consequence. Every time.
This is not the only new thing in my writing process. Also new is a vow to myself to stay within 300 pages. If I've learned anything from short story writing, it's that one must have a handle on the unity of all things written. I have lost that grip on the Big Novel, and though some of it stays with me, I forgot what happened on page 444 or 666 (and maybe the devil's in the details such as WAY TOO MANY PAGES!!!). Until I can take at least two weeks away from my normal life, I cannot get my head around the whole manuscript. I need to be fully in its space, immersed, transported. But a story of 20 pages? No problem. A story of 200? Not so scary, either.
What I can do with 200 pages is what I'm doing now: write the first 25, then print those out while the next 25 are unfolding. I carry the first 25 in hard copy around the house and grab at them to tweak whenever I get a moment. So those prior pages simmer while the new ones are in process. And when I can't write another new word, I transfer hard copy edits into the electronic version, and that means something is happening. Something is moving forward.
So I have 100 pages and the story still clips along. I discovered the climactic event for the final fourth of the book, one day out roaming around or showering or cleaning; it just came to me. Then another idea hit me of what would spark the climax--the prelude crisis. I can't see the last scene just yet, but I know in my heart and my gut that this story is meant to be.
My intense focus on this project has stopped the blogging and any new short stories, but that's okay; what must be written, must be written.
And all those pages and pages of what I once thought witty in the shelved Big Novel: they are not worth the recycled paper they're printed on. Perhaps when I emerge out of this new novel's draft I will know what's missing to narrow the prior, and how I can achieve unity of time and place, giving it just the right, small space to breathe. For nuns fret not in their narrow convent rooms. The Big Novel may chafe against the drawers where it's shelved, but I trust it's fermenting quite nicely.
Back to edits. Onwards! Here's a story that won't be forever coming, and I do believe I'm really enjoying this ride.
Writing Prompts: Please note that writing prompts should always be pursued in emotionally-safe environments with the supervision of someone who interested in encouraging good writing, self-awareness, and reflection. A wonderful resource is Pat Schneider’s Writing Alone and With Others.
© Lyn Hawks. Writing prompts for one-time classroom use only and not for publication in any form elsewhere without permission of this author.
Elementary Prompts
• What do you love to do that makes you forget about everything else? Describe just what you do, what you are feeling, and why it makes you forget everybody and everything.
• Imagine you could write a book about anything. What would you write it about? Who would you write it for? Why? If you can, draw a picture of the cover, too.
• What's the shortest book you ever read? What's the longest book you ever read? What size of book is "just right" to read, and why?
Secondary and Adult Prompts
• Write about your favorite activity that allows you to disappear into another world. It is an activity that takes you away from all worries, relationships, and concerns of daily life, and when you engage in it, you are completely immersed. Write a brief scene in the present tense where you immerse someone else in this task, helping someone else picture exactly what you experience when you do it.
• You are a finalist to receive a grant of $77,000 to spend a year writing a book. This book can be about absolutely anything, and it must be completed by the end of your year. What subject will you choose? Who would want to read this work? Why will you write it? What must you have in order to write it? Write the proposal that will allow you to win the $77,000--a year of freedom--to write this book.
• What's the shortest book you ever read? What's the longest book you ever read? What size of book is "just right" to read, and why? Write a review of your favorite book and let length be one of the criteria describing this book's excellence.
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