Even as a writer and a soon-to-be English teacher, I debated whether I should join in this whole Huck Finn/New South disaster. Not because I don't care, or some stroke of apathy having silenced the miniature Bradbury, which does most assuredly advise me of such things, not unlike Gazoo. The debate centered around whether or not my writing blog (or any other site this might end up) is the proper vehicle for my stance on something of a political nature.
Turns out, whether I like it or not, I have some duty to my forefathers, and to the literary cannon, and should those things come under attack, it is up to the “new” generation of people who don't have their heads planted firmly and squarely into their rectal cavities, to defend them.
First, I think we should have ourselves a little vocabulary lesson, not so much on the words “nigger” or “slave”, even though those will be coming up. Let's start with another word: Bigot. This is a word that gets thrown around a lot in this day and age, and people seem to have forgotten what it actually means.
It does not mean one is racist, but it can be a synonym for that. What it really means is: one who is, or appears to be closed minded.
This, unlike the 'accepted' definition of my peers can be applied to anyone, and not to merely ignorant people with sun-scorched necks. Now, if you need someone like me to explain to you how these words, which are seen as the same and interchangeable, really aren't at all, I would suggest commenting on this publicly wherever you find it, and one of the nice Proctologists in the area will help you find your cranium. I would do it myself, for everyone, but you see I am a busy guy, and I do need breaks every here and there.
The word “nigger” in Huck Finn, and throughout Twain's other works, as well as other works from the time, serves to capture the vernacular of a people, of a place; of a time, of a people. To take that away from those works because our society thinks that is best is like taking dead bodies off the beach in Normandy, like mandating all future wars be fought with paintball guns, and replacing the orphans in Dickens with kids from Campbell's soup cans.
Why should the American people be alright with revisionist history in our history, when we can see from contemporary examples we aren't as cool with it in other places? We shame Holocaust deniers, and people who think Elvis didn't die at home on the can.
If we are so enlightened in this generation, why then do we seem all too willing to look back at history, safe behind our rose-colored-John-Lennon-glasses, and point fingers? Every day somewhere there is a history class calling Puritan men out for what they believe to be their control of their family. Somewhere, I promise you, some Women's Studies major is out there bleeding from the heart for the plight of Puritan women.
I subject to you (because there are source documents to prove it) that neither is the case. That gender roles in those days were what they were, sure, but there was a rhyme and reason. Not only that, but most of these men adored their wives, and their wives sure seemed to think the sun shined out of those mens' asses.
I subject to you that it is the kind of thinking which has been touched upon in these words, and not the language of Twain that is bigoted, and in dire need of alterations. What happens if we live by this line of thinking? Are all the whipping scenes in Roots going to be replaced with tickling? When the bondage of the slaves, tickled or not offends someone, will we cut that all together? Will we, again, remove names like James Baldwin and Langston Hughes from the pages of our anthologies? Are we so afraid to talk to, or fuck up our children that we will forsake our history?
Remember, bigot means closed minded. Now, you know the truth, and to quote a wise man: The truth is just what you make of it. It begins and ends with you.
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Interview with James Bernard Frost
Some time ago, some friends of mine over at The Velvet (www.welcometothevelvet.com) asked me to interview James Frost. Of course they also wanted me to do one with Peter Rock. I did neither, and don't remember why, really, except that Rock was on his way to an after-party.
That said, this interview is something like three years in the procrastinating, and it wasn't as viciously intimidating as I thought back when I was asked to do it. Though, I will admit, approaching Jim on facebook is a hell of a lot less intimidating than trying to snag some impromptu Peter Rock interview in a Powell's store.
CK -- First off, would you mind telling us a little of your background. Where are you from, if not from the Northwest where and what brought you here?
JBF -- I'm from Texas originally, moved to the Bay Area for college, lived in an ungodly number of different places in my early twenties, moved back to San Francisco for seven years, got financially obliterated in the dot-com bust, moved to a tract home in the swamps of Alachua, Florida to save some dough, and found my way to Portland, which seemed the most-San Francisco-like place to live that wasn't as expensive as San Francisco.
CK -- You also write travel books, or I guess that is what you would call them, don't you? Do any of those effect the way you write fiction, or the stories you tell?
JBF -- Totally. Writing travel guides—and in my case, I was writing for vegetarians—forces you to have a keen eye for cultural hotspots and weirdness. I like to write about the anomalies of the world, so when I came to Portland I immediately discovered C.H.U.N.K. 666, Voodoo Doughnuts, Stumptown Coffee, the I.P.R.C. and Reading Frenzy, hipster churches, and agro bicyclists. It seemed something necessary to write a novel about.
CK -- When did you start writing, and how was it in those first few years?
JBF -- You know, I wrote a twenty-page handwritten epic in 2nd grade about how the gods formed all the planets, so that was my start. It was really fine back then: I got an A, my mother was a supportive matron of the arts, and there wasn't a whole lot of pressure to publish ;)
CK -- When did you start to think that writing and you were getting pretty serious?
JBF-- It's funny. I got my first book deal before I got serious. I had this notion that someone should write a travel guide for vegetarians, and so I did the natural thing: I wrote a book proposal for it and sent to a bunch of publishers. A few months later I get a letter from Hunter Publishing, this outfit in Florida that specializes in travel guides for scuba divers saying they were interested. The writing of the book was horrible—I had never taken on a project of such magnitude, had no idea what it was like to write that many words, etc—but eventually I got through it.
So after I wrote my first book, I decided to get an MFA and learn how to write.
CK -- Who locally and in general has had an influence on you and your writing? Who are you favorite Northwest authors, and who are your least?
JBF -- I've always been a huge fan of Douglas Coupland, who lives up in Vancouver BC. The influence he had in defining my generation in his landmark novel Generation X goes completely without comment these days. I also love how unmoored his characters are, and how they struggle with their lack of gods. There's Ken Kesey as well—One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest—which was a huge influence on the novel I'm currently trying to sell, A Very Minor Prophet. Katherine Dunn, Ursula LeGuin, and Chuck Palahniuk should also be mentioned here.
I don't really have any "least" favorite authors here. Every writer who "makes it" out of the Pacific NW generally had to work their ass off to get there, and I respect that.
CK -- How would you define Northwest Literature? What characteristic's does Northwest Lit or Northwest writers have that is distinctly from here?
JBF -- Weirdness, maybe? Edginess? (Although, I hate that word.) Lots of trees in their landscape? We're just not as boxed in here. We're too far away from cultural centers and pop culture and the publishing world. We can't have our friend from Columbia U. send our books to their friend who is an agent. We tend, in our naivete, to just write, and every once in a while one of those works created under the rain and the darkness miraculously makes it to the surface.
CK -- A lot of people talk about Northwest Lit in relations with Literary fiction, what do you think about that? Do you think literary fiction is really a genre or more an ego stroke for literary people?
JBF -- There's definitely a genre—but I think a lot of people writing "literary fiction" don't understand how narrow a genre it really is. If you want to be the next Jonathan Safran Foer, you have to be really f-ing smart, and not many people are actually equipped to be that. As for me, there's literary fiction that I hate (Jonathan Franzen) and literary fiction that I love (David Foster Wallace) and I can't really account for my tastes.
CK -- How did World Leader Pretend come into being? How is it similar and different from your pervious writing and your future writings?
JBF -- I very distinctly remember jogging in Golden Gate Park in SF one day while I was getting my MFA in Creative Writing. I was angry with myself because I had spent the whole day gaming rather than writing. That's when I had one of those hair-standing-on-head moments—I should write a novel about gaming addictions.
CK -- Sort of on a side note, where did the title for the book come from, and were you pleased with the cover? (I ask because I can remember people on the bus asking me what I was reading, and the title and cover together made everyone think it was an anti-Bush book, I wondered if you ever encountered that).
JBF -- Funny. I wrote the book pre-Bush, so there was certainly no intention there. I got the title from the R.E.M. song World Leader Pretend—the lyric "I sit at my table and wage war on myself" sort of my theme lyric for what it felt to be writing. Of course, my original title for the book, The Strangely Peaceful Citadel of Blue Orcs, was way better, but the publisher wouldn't have it.
As for the cover, I hated that motherfucking cover. I even had a sticker artist create stickers so I could plaster it. That didn't make me many friends at St. Martin's, but I never really felt like I was a part of that world anyway.
CK -- Are there any local authors under the radar that you feel should get more attention and recognition? Are there any that you feel have been way over blown and overshadow equally, if not more talented writers?
JBF -- Damn you! So many questions! No one's overblown here, because honestly, even the people who might feel overblown to Portlanders are pretty much nobodies on the national stage. I'm a fan of Monica Drake and Lidia Yuknavitch's work—Lidia has a couple of books coming out though Hawthorne Press in the next couple years that are spectacular. Joe Sacco's graphic novels are incredible, and he stays pretty hidden.
CK -- I have you on my facebook, and some time back you mentioned that you had finished a book and as I remember, called it Jesus.... care to comment?
JBF -- Paul Neilan, a Portlander who's since moved to San Francisco, wrote a book that everyone should read called Apathy and Other Small Victories. Paul and I used to joke about the futility of the "Jesus novels" we were working on, because, despite their total unpublishibility (yeah, I know that's not a word), we were both writing novels that made fun of Jesus. (The title isn't Jesus, it's actually A Very Minor Prophet, but just calling it Jesus is a great idea.) Neither Paul nor I will ever be mainstream writers, because that's the kind of stupid self-destructive shit we do, but maybe that's what being a NW writer is really about—writing stupid shit that no publisher in their right mind would ever buy just to prove that nobody has us by the balls…
http://www.amazon.com/World-Leader-Pretend-James-Bernard/dp/0312352239/ref=si_aps_sup?ie=UTF8&qid=1291267651&sr=8-3
That said, this interview is something like three years in the procrastinating, and it wasn't as viciously intimidating as I thought back when I was asked to do it. Though, I will admit, approaching Jim on facebook is a hell of a lot less intimidating than trying to snag some impromptu Peter Rock interview in a Powell's store.
CK -- First off, would you mind telling us a little of your background. Where are you from, if not from the Northwest where and what brought you here?
JBF -- I'm from Texas originally, moved to the Bay Area for college, lived in an ungodly number of different places in my early twenties, moved back to San Francisco for seven years, got financially obliterated in the dot-com bust, moved to a tract home in the swamps of Alachua, Florida to save some dough, and found my way to Portland, which seemed the most-San Francisco-like place to live that wasn't as expensive as San Francisco.
CK -- You also write travel books, or I guess that is what you would call them, don't you? Do any of those effect the way you write fiction, or the stories you tell?
JBF -- Totally. Writing travel guides—and in my case, I was writing for vegetarians—forces you to have a keen eye for cultural hotspots and weirdness. I like to write about the anomalies of the world, so when I came to Portland I immediately discovered C.H.U.N.K. 666, Voodoo Doughnuts, Stumptown Coffee, the I.P.R.C. and Reading Frenzy, hipster churches, and agro bicyclists. It seemed something necessary to write a novel about.
CK -- When did you start writing, and how was it in those first few years?
JBF -- You know, I wrote a twenty-page handwritten epic in 2nd grade about how the gods formed all the planets, so that was my start. It was really fine back then: I got an A, my mother was a supportive matron of the arts, and there wasn't a whole lot of pressure to publish ;)
CK -- When did you start to think that writing and you were getting pretty serious?
JBF-- It's funny. I got my first book deal before I got serious. I had this notion that someone should write a travel guide for vegetarians, and so I did the natural thing: I wrote a book proposal for it and sent to a bunch of publishers. A few months later I get a letter from Hunter Publishing, this outfit in Florida that specializes in travel guides for scuba divers saying they were interested. The writing of the book was horrible—I had never taken on a project of such magnitude, had no idea what it was like to write that many words, etc—but eventually I got through it.
So after I wrote my first book, I decided to get an MFA and learn how to write.
CK -- Who locally and in general has had an influence on you and your writing? Who are you favorite Northwest authors, and who are your least?
JBF -- I've always been a huge fan of Douglas Coupland, who lives up in Vancouver BC. The influence he had in defining my generation in his landmark novel Generation X goes completely without comment these days. I also love how unmoored his characters are, and how they struggle with their lack of gods. There's Ken Kesey as well—One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest—which was a huge influence on the novel I'm currently trying to sell, A Very Minor Prophet. Katherine Dunn, Ursula LeGuin, and Chuck Palahniuk should also be mentioned here.
I don't really have any "least" favorite authors here. Every writer who "makes it" out of the Pacific NW generally had to work their ass off to get there, and I respect that.
CK -- How would you define Northwest Literature? What characteristic's does Northwest Lit or Northwest writers have that is distinctly from here?
JBF -- Weirdness, maybe? Edginess? (Although, I hate that word.) Lots of trees in their landscape? We're just not as boxed in here. We're too far away from cultural centers and pop culture and the publishing world. We can't have our friend from Columbia U. send our books to their friend who is an agent. We tend, in our naivete, to just write, and every once in a while one of those works created under the rain and the darkness miraculously makes it to the surface.
CK -- A lot of people talk about Northwest Lit in relations with Literary fiction, what do you think about that? Do you think literary fiction is really a genre or more an ego stroke for literary people?
JBF -- There's definitely a genre—but I think a lot of people writing "literary fiction" don't understand how narrow a genre it really is. If you want to be the next Jonathan Safran Foer, you have to be really f-ing smart, and not many people are actually equipped to be that. As for me, there's literary fiction that I hate (Jonathan Franzen) and literary fiction that I love (David Foster Wallace) and I can't really account for my tastes.
CK -- How did World Leader Pretend come into being? How is it similar and different from your pervious writing and your future writings?
JBF -- I very distinctly remember jogging in Golden Gate Park in SF one day while I was getting my MFA in Creative Writing. I was angry with myself because I had spent the whole day gaming rather than writing. That's when I had one of those hair-standing-on-head moments—I should write a novel about gaming addictions.
CK -- Sort of on a side note, where did the title for the book come from, and were you pleased with the cover? (I ask because I can remember people on the bus asking me what I was reading, and the title and cover together made everyone think it was an anti-Bush book, I wondered if you ever encountered that).
JBF -- Funny. I wrote the book pre-Bush, so there was certainly no intention there. I got the title from the R.E.M. song World Leader Pretend—the lyric "I sit at my table and wage war on myself" sort of my theme lyric for what it felt to be writing. Of course, my original title for the book, The Strangely Peaceful Citadel of Blue Orcs, was way better, but the publisher wouldn't have it.
As for the cover, I hated that motherfucking cover. I even had a sticker artist create stickers so I could plaster it. That didn't make me many friends at St. Martin's, but I never really felt like I was a part of that world anyway.
CK -- Are there any local authors under the radar that you feel should get more attention and recognition? Are there any that you feel have been way over blown and overshadow equally, if not more talented writers?
JBF -- Damn you! So many questions! No one's overblown here, because honestly, even the people who might feel overblown to Portlanders are pretty much nobodies on the national stage. I'm a fan of Monica Drake and Lidia Yuknavitch's work—Lidia has a couple of books coming out though Hawthorne Press in the next couple years that are spectacular. Joe Sacco's graphic novels are incredible, and he stays pretty hidden.
CK -- I have you on my facebook, and some time back you mentioned that you had finished a book and as I remember, called it Jesus.... care to comment?
JBF -- Paul Neilan, a Portlander who's since moved to San Francisco, wrote a book that everyone should read called Apathy and Other Small Victories. Paul and I used to joke about the futility of the "Jesus novels" we were working on, because, despite their total unpublishibility (yeah, I know that's not a word), we were both writing novels that made fun of Jesus. (The title isn't Jesus, it's actually A Very Minor Prophet, but just calling it Jesus is a great idea.) Neither Paul nor I will ever be mainstream writers, because that's the kind of stupid self-destructive shit we do, but maybe that's what being a NW writer is really about—writing stupid shit that no publisher in their right mind would ever buy just to prove that nobody has us by the balls…
http://www.amazon.com/World-Leader-Pretend-James-Bernard/dp/0312352239/ref=si_aps_sup?ie=UTF8&qid=1291267651&sr=8-3
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
On Editing, Editors, and new Writers
Lately, I have been working as an editor for a friend who has an amazing gift to put words on paper. His gift primarily is to do so in massive amounts, but he's also pretty fucking good for someone who is an untrained writer who jumped head-first into writing a two hundred page novel.
My assignment here started as just making the work he had already done more readable, and formatting it in an acceptable way to be sent to a small scale publisher. However, I no longer feel this is doing this friend justice. His talent, and his story deserve more than a little sandpaper. Here is why:
A writer does not need to agree with his editor, and the editor with the writer, either. But, the writer should know enough about craft, agreed with or not, to defend his work with the editor, with the publisher, with the critics. A writer worth his pages knows why he did something this way, and not that way, and more importantly should be able to argue his correctness. And even if that writer does not win that argument, plant a seed of doubt in his detractors. That writer should know why people he disagrees with do the things he disagrees with. That writer should know the rules he is breaking or following, and how they are being broken or followed, and why.
The editor is only around to push the writer, make the story better, but remain invisible in the finished product. Your editor cannot make you a better writer, but he can point you to your strengths and weaknesses.
My assignment here started as just making the work he had already done more readable, and formatting it in an acceptable way to be sent to a small scale publisher. However, I no longer feel this is doing this friend justice. His talent, and his story deserve more than a little sandpaper. Here is why:
A writer does not need to agree with his editor, and the editor with the writer, either. But, the writer should know enough about craft, agreed with or not, to defend his work with the editor, with the publisher, with the critics. A writer worth his pages knows why he did something this way, and not that way, and more importantly should be able to argue his correctness. And even if that writer does not win that argument, plant a seed of doubt in his detractors. That writer should know why people he disagrees with do the things he disagrees with. That writer should know the rules he is breaking or following, and how they are being broken or followed, and why.
The editor is only around to push the writer, make the story better, but remain invisible in the finished product. Your editor cannot make you a better writer, but he can point you to your strengths and weaknesses.
Monday, July 26, 2010
On Writing and Other Things
Yikes, sorry for the delay. Just realized this thing actually had a small mass of followers. Maybe it still does. Shame on me using the past tense.
On writing and other things I have been lax, as my duties to other things have become more important lately. Life changing stuff happened and is happening, and maybe one day it can be discussed as writing, but for now, lets leave it where it is.
What brings me back here today is the notion that writing would be therapeutic. I have spent years preaching this to people out there who need help coping with things, or just need an outlet for some of their excesses of energy.
Now, I suppose I should sit down and follow my own advice.
/W
On writing and other things I have been lax, as my duties to other things have become more important lately. Life changing stuff happened and is happening, and maybe one day it can be discussed as writing, but for now, lets leave it where it is.
What brings me back here today is the notion that writing would be therapeutic. I have spent years preaching this to people out there who need help coping with things, or just need an outlet for some of their excesses of energy.
Now, I suppose I should sit down and follow my own advice.
/W
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
starting out
for me writing is a lightning bolt moment. these do happen more if you write every day and you have habits, but its still just a bolt from the blue. for me, it starts with a character name. some weird part of me can picture a whole person from a name.
of course, sometimes it starts with a scene. this is most common if i have not been writing for a while. the best way to get writing again (for me, anyhow) is to set a scene, to jabber about a storm, or a diner, or who the fuck knows. the canary yellow first page of WAR DANCES that vibrates with each pull of a tension headache. just whatever.
very rarely do i start a blank page with a fully formed idea.
of course, sometimes it starts with a scene. this is most common if i have not been writing for a while. the best way to get writing again (for me, anyhow) is to set a scene, to jabber about a storm, or a diner, or who the fuck knows. the canary yellow first page of WAR DANCES that vibrates with each pull of a tension headache. just whatever.
very rarely do i start a blank page with a fully formed idea.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
long time no see
Long time no see...
So, my little experiment is obviously somewhat of a failure. Being that I am neither writing, nor am I progressively talking about writing in any coherent sort of way. However, the existence of this little corner of the internet has led to discussions which have in turn led back to me being here.
For now, I will run totally counter to anything I would have said whenever I was here last. This is not to say any of the past ranting about writing has been proven wrong, or anything. My past rantings fell out of training and a growing understanding of a very specific style of writing. Why we're going counter to that is because when you're not writing, your writing muscle starts to atrophy. When your muscles start to atrophy, you can not just jump back into your regimented workout schedule. Easy does it, and that, yeah?
This is my stipulation for now: Just write. Fuck voice. Fuck style. Fuck. Your voice and your style will keep themselves up. They do that. They'll be there when you find them again. Will they be there the way you left them? Maybe, maybe not. With everything you write, and everything you learn your voice changes. Just like as you get stronger that workout changes.
Friday, September 4, 2009
making dialogue do the work
Every now and then I'm going to say shit that people are going to disagree with. This is probably going to be one of those things.
Just like with making places real. The way people talk makes them real. If someone leaves out the letter g a lot. As in leavin' or fuckin' you as a reader are going to see them in a different way, because you are attributing them with an accent based on the way they're talking. When you make such assumptions, some of the societal stereotypes built around people with the accent you have given this character will also become true.
But wait, there's more. Dialogue and back and forth can be used to paint scenes as well. Isn't that cool? Too often in writing, especially in class settings, people rely far too much on exposition. The big voice adjectives that tell us what everything looks like. There is not anything wrong with this approach. Almost all writers do this. Why not be different though? Take this semi-formed idea from this morning. The location isn't fully fleshed out, but you can see what I'm getting at. A better example, maybe after some food.
Fifty Bucks. He says. Fifty fucking dollars, Man. Didn't your fucking mother teach you to read. There is no more than fifty goddamned dollars in here. Not counting the penny cup, there. He points at the gun. Put that shit down. You won't kill me for a fucking video game and some fucking pennies.
Frank pushes the end of the thirty-eight further over the counter. The clerk looks at him, eyes traveling back and forth between the dark opening of the revolver and the dark holes in the center of Frank's eyes. The clerk, he smiles. It's not even loaded is it, you idiot shit? You don't think I don't have a Remington twelve gauge back here? Maybe I got a Smith & Wesson three-fifty-seven back here under the Swisher Sweets.
The clerk glances my way. He's not so smart is he? Did he even get you a gun? He's leaving you to the crows, Kid.
He thumbs the hammer back; says he's seen this shitty movie before. This asshole doesn't have shit back there. If he had firepower back there we wouldn't be having this talk. Besides, he isn't getting near enough money to shoot someone. I used to work at one of these slushy stands. Frank says this, laughing. They tell you to just give people the stupid money. Your life is worth more than what's in the store. Blah, blah, blah. Anyone willing to knock over a fucking glorified snack bar might be willing to put a few cents worth of lead into your face. It's all the same propaganda, Dude. It's all scare tactics. There's more than fifty bucks. They got a safe hidden behind that cigarette rack. The poster behind it never changes. Why? You aren't supposed to notice. Just hiding in plain sight. Right there is enough money from selling beef jerky to get us to Mexico.
Just like with making places real. The way people talk makes them real. If someone leaves out the letter g a lot. As in leavin' or fuckin' you as a reader are going to see them in a different way, because you are attributing them with an accent based on the way they're talking. When you make such assumptions, some of the societal stereotypes built around people with the accent you have given this character will also become true.
But wait, there's more. Dialogue and back and forth can be used to paint scenes as well. Isn't that cool? Too often in writing, especially in class settings, people rely far too much on exposition. The big voice adjectives that tell us what everything looks like. There is not anything wrong with this approach. Almost all writers do this. Why not be different though? Take this semi-formed idea from this morning. The location isn't fully fleshed out, but you can see what I'm getting at. A better example, maybe after some food.
Fifty Bucks. He says. Fifty fucking dollars, Man. Didn't your fucking mother teach you to read. There is no more than fifty goddamned dollars in here. Not counting the penny cup, there. He points at the gun. Put that shit down. You won't kill me for a fucking video game and some fucking pennies.
Frank pushes the end of the thirty-eight further over the counter. The clerk looks at him, eyes traveling back and forth between the dark opening of the revolver and the dark holes in the center of Frank's eyes. The clerk, he smiles. It's not even loaded is it, you idiot shit? You don't think I don't have a Remington twelve gauge back here? Maybe I got a Smith & Wesson three-fifty-seven back here under the Swisher Sweets.
The clerk glances my way. He's not so smart is he? Did he even get you a gun? He's leaving you to the crows, Kid.
He thumbs the hammer back; says he's seen this shitty movie before. This asshole doesn't have shit back there. If he had firepower back there we wouldn't be having this talk. Besides, he isn't getting near enough money to shoot someone. I used to work at one of these slushy stands. Frank says this, laughing. They tell you to just give people the stupid money. Your life is worth more than what's in the store. Blah, blah, blah. Anyone willing to knock over a fucking glorified snack bar might be willing to put a few cents worth of lead into your face. It's all the same propaganda, Dude. It's all scare tactics. There's more than fifty bucks. They got a safe hidden behind that cigarette rack. The poster behind it never changes. Why? You aren't supposed to notice. Just hiding in plain sight. Right there is enough money from selling beef jerky to get us to Mexico.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Making Places Real
OK, so more thought has come to this project in the interim of last post. I do not want to be the guy who remakes Julie and Julia, but with writing. So, I won't do that. As I work through the book, I will post what I believe is helpful. When that is not happening, I will throw out some stuff which I feel people who are wanting to write should know.
Making your scenes or locations real, this, above all is something which people seem to overlook. People in 200 and higher level college classes still seem to have issues with this, and it baffles me.
For instance, let's say I live in Portland, Oregon, and I want to write a scene on Alberta street, I could just say we're on Alberta. This works for me, since my eyes have seen it, and people in Portland will get a picture, because they have too. This, however, is wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Boring, and fucking wrong.
You could describe the whole goddamn street, right down to the ants walking across the uneven sidewalk. You could, but I submit this is also wrong. It's dry and hard to read, anyway.
Your best bet is to pick a few locations that make Alberta street different than any other place. Any good place has these characteristics and this place is not any different.
Making your scenes or locations real, this, above all is something which people seem to overlook. People in 200 and higher level college classes still seem to have issues with this, and it baffles me.
For instance, let's say I live in Portland, Oregon, and I want to write a scene on Alberta street, I could just say we're on Alberta. This works for me, since my eyes have seen it, and people in Portland will get a picture, because they have too. This, however, is wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Boring, and fucking wrong.
You could describe the whole goddamn street, right down to the ants walking across the uneven sidewalk. You could, but I submit this is also wrong. It's dry and hard to read, anyway.
Your best bet is to pick a few locations that make Alberta street different than any other place. Any good place has these characteristics and this place is not any different.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Points of view: the reluctant/observer
Who tells your story is almost as important as the idea you're writing, hopefully without over-thinking. Over thought is something we will get to when the writing starts, I promise. For now, we're only talking about who is telling the story, and how the hell they're going to tell it to your reader.
There are several ways you can do this, in both first and third person, obviously. This writer prefers first person, and the approach of the first activity in my chosen writing text for this here project. Kiteley calls this the “reluctant” narrator, I call this style the observer. This narrator is more likely to follow someone who is more interesting than himself, presumably. Although, as your story progresses the way your cameraman sees things may become just as interesting or moreso than the events which he is taking in. These observer types will establish authority when it is needed and only then. The pronouns of the first person will appear as scantly as possible with these narrators. Some authors who prefer this are:
-Chuck Palahniuk
fight club
choke
invisible monsters
-Craig Clevenger
contortionist's handbook
dermaphoria
There are, obviously many more, and Chuck Palahniuk has written a dozen novels.
Drowning out the pronouns in your writing sounds easy, but it takes a lot of practice. Kiteley's first writing activity is vague and rightly so, since it throws you into this style head first. What you and I will do over the next, hell, I don't know, twelve hours or so? That sound good? Is to follow this prompt: Write a story of around 500 to 600 words (around two pages courier double spaced) and use the pronoun of I no more than twice, but use it in a way that establishes without question your narrator's authority in the story.
There are several ways you can do this, in both first and third person, obviously. This writer prefers first person, and the approach of the first activity in my chosen writing text for this here project. Kiteley calls this the “reluctant” narrator, I call this style the observer. This narrator is more likely to follow someone who is more interesting than himself, presumably. Although, as your story progresses the way your cameraman sees things may become just as interesting or moreso than the events which he is taking in. These observer types will establish authority when it is needed and only then. The pronouns of the first person will appear as scantly as possible with these narrators. Some authors who prefer this are:
-Chuck Palahniuk
fight club
choke
invisible monsters
-Craig Clevenger
contortionist's handbook
dermaphoria
There are, obviously many more, and Chuck Palahniuk has written a dozen novels.
Drowning out the pronouns in your writing sounds easy, but it takes a lot of practice. Kiteley's first writing activity is vague and rightly so, since it throws you into this style head first. What you and I will do over the next, hell, I don't know, twelve hours or so? That sound good? Is to follow this prompt: Write a story of around 500 to 600 words (around two pages courier double spaced) and use the pronoun of I no more than twice, but use it in a way that establishes without question your narrator's authority in the story.
3 A.M. Epiphany
So, I gave this new endeavor some additional thought, and decided that random ranting is fun, but it isn't going to serve my purposes very well. They for sure will not do it alone. Doing it alone is boring anyway.
Since writer's block and my distinct lack of motivation is what brings us here for the first part of this very not thought through idea, I am going to start where the English major in me would have you start as a writer.
Prompts.
I have chosen The 3 A.M. Epiphany by Brian Kitely. It can be purchased at this link, if you want to do this with me. http://www.amazon.com/3-AM-Epiphany-Brian-Kiteley/dp/1582973512/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1249769788&sr=8-1
The activities in this book start out easy, and anyone should be able to get going with them, and feel accomplishment by doing them, and yet they aren't bull shit either. No describing numb feelings or explaining your favorite color to blind people who happen to be sadists.
Starting today, it's my goal to do one of these a day, and at least talk about how it works or doesn't. No opinion yet on whether or not the finished prompts should be posted here. I will take comments on that one.
We'll see how long it takes to get my own writing coming out, working this way, I mean. Decisions will be made at that point how this project will unfold, but it will continue.
Since writer's block and my distinct lack of motivation is what brings us here for the first part of this very not thought through idea, I am going to start where the English major in me would have you start as a writer.
Prompts.
I have chosen The 3 A.M. Epiphany by Brian Kitely. It can be purchased at this link, if you want to do this with me. http://www.amazon.com/3-AM-Epiphany-Brian-Kiteley/dp/1582973512/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1249769788&sr=8-1
The activities in this book start out easy, and anyone should be able to get going with them, and feel accomplishment by doing them, and yet they aren't bull shit either. No describing numb feelings or explaining your favorite color to blind people who happen to be sadists.
Starting today, it's my goal to do one of these a day, and at least talk about how it works or doesn't. No opinion yet on whether or not the finished prompts should be posted here. I will take comments on that one.
We'll see how long it takes to get my own writing coming out, working this way, I mean. Decisions will be made at that point how this project will unfold, but it will continue.
It starts
My name is not William Pitts, and I may or may not know what the fuck I am talking about or spouting as truth. What I will say is this is going to be a ride for everyone involved. You, me, my girlfriend, my family, and my pets.
It appears at this point that finishing things is not my strong point, and for that matter, neither is talking about myself. Having said this, what's happening here is more or less doomed to failure. Here's the deal: I intend to get myself writing by ranting at random, and with as much honesty about my writing education as I can muster.
There is no game plan for this, and I have no idea what you will see, if you see anything at all. After all, why would you read this? This out of the sea of people talking about themselves.
From underneath the 12 by 12 Mondrian on my celling, for now, until something else comes out of my fingers, goodnight.
It appears at this point that finishing things is not my strong point, and for that matter, neither is talking about myself. Having said this, what's happening here is more or less doomed to failure. Here's the deal: I intend to get myself writing by ranting at random, and with as much honesty about my writing education as I can muster.
There is no game plan for this, and I have no idea what you will see, if you see anything at all. After all, why would you read this? This out of the sea of people talking about themselves.
From underneath the 12 by 12 Mondrian on my celling, for now, until something else comes out of my fingers, goodnight.
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