Jim Tomlinson
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a writer's journal
Friday, October 4, 2002
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
"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?
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.
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.
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.
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.'
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.
"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."
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. |
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