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a writer's journal
Saturday, May 3, 2003
A slower week of writing in terms of page-count. Today
I wrote for four hours and ended up with less than a page. Most of the
time/effort went into a paragraph introducing Lovie, getting her onstage
in just the right way. Despite the low page count, I'm calling it a
productive week. Ahead is the manuscript's first pivotal scene. It's
stacking up to be a major challenge.
An Ernest Hemingway quote, picked up from KY poet
Charlie Hughes: "When I have an idea, I turn down the flame, as if it were
a little alcohol stove, as low as it will go. Then it explodes and that is
my idea." It reminds me of the old TV ad--if you want someone's attention,
whisper. Maybe that's where the ad agency got it from, Hemingway. In any
case, it seems like sound writing advice-- turn down the flame and let the
big ideas explode.
Sunday, May 11, 2003
Sometimes things just feel wrong in the writing. The
sentences work and the paragraphs, and the pages pile up. But it feels
like the story is amounting to less than it should, engaging the reader
less than it should. I'm at that point with the current novel, and I think
the problem goes back to something Dick Jackson once told me--about the
story actions feeling imposed from outside the characters, not arising
naturally from who they are. And right now, that feels especially true of Dex Chalk. He lacks a strong motor. And the reason I've hesitated
strengthening him is because what drives him are those same
characteristics that make him less than likeable to readers. So Dex needs
reshaping--strengthening, really, so the aspects that drive him are the
ones that attract readers. This is not to say he won't be flawed, but the
flaws won't be part of his 'story motor.'
Sunday, May 18, 2003
Okay, that wasn't so hard, although it did take longer
than I'd hoped. Dex is rehabilitated. Most of chapter 9 is unchanged. What
did change was that I cut a few instances where Dex's thoughts and actions
were less than his best. And I showed him striving more for laudable
things, trying to be his very best self. The reader should feel more
comfortable in his skin. Now to round off that chapter, a squabble with
Lovie. Then comes the first major 'set piece' scene, the one that will
send the main storylines spinning off in interesting directions.
Sunday, May 25, 2003
I've felt sick for several days and haven't touched the
novel. I've been reading They Whisper by Robert Olen Butler.
The book is a complete change from his Pulitzer winning story collection,
A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain and from his novel
Wabash. The narrative voice is highly sensual, erotic, the
story almost completely internal. The writing is exquisite, although I'm
still not sure about the characters and story, about how they'll stand up
at the end.
The review of Seven Days in December that
Steve Flairty wrote for "Kentucky Monthly" hit the newsstands yesterday,
and almost immediately I received a phone call from the director of the
Kentucky Book Fair asking to see a copy. So I may be signing there this
November. On the strength of that review, the new Kentucky Artisan Center
here in Berea is looking at it, considering whether they'll buy some
copies to sell when the center opens in late July. And Berea College Book
Store will stock a few copies, too.
Sunday, June 1, 2003
Confirmation came through that I'll be in Robert Olen
Butler's workshop and that I'll be receiving a partial scholarship for the IU Writers Conference later this month. Less than three weeks now. I'm
getting psyched.
I combined the nine novel chapters into a single file
and was surprised to see it totals 85 pages. I printed them out and read
through them. It reads slower than I'd expected, and there are probably
too many curlicues, side trips, and such. The trouble is, I don't know
enough at this point to start pruning it back, because the themes and
directions the story will take are still forming. So I'll wait until it's
much further along before trying to whittle the excess away, mainly
because I can't tell, right now, what is excess and what's essential to
the thing.
Sunday, June 8, 2003
At the beginning of Chapter 10 LeAnn, Lonnie and the
kids are at the airport, waiting for LeAnn's brother's delayed flight to
arrive, sitting just beyond the metal-detectors at Bluegrass airport,
waiting for John. And it took a while for him to come strolling down the
concourse, because I didn't know anything about him, other than name,
gender, and age. He arrived after what seemed weeks while I was mowing the
back lawn. I sketched enough of him onto a note card that he couldn't blow
away while I finished the lawn. Now John can finally come through
Bluegrass Airport's double glass doors.
Sunday, June 15, 2003
Father's Day, a joint card from Grace and Jack
decorates the office this morning, brightening it considerably.
I'd been thinking about "Things Kept," the short story
that has become the opening chapters of the novel-in-progress, thinking
that it might be time to see if it can find a home in print somewhere.
I've always been impressed with "Zoetrope Magazine" and their willingness
to read and publish new writers, so I'm starting there. Their editors read
some of the manuscripts that go through the short story workshop at
Zoetrope Virtual Studios, an online writers collaboration site slanted
toward film. They suggest that route as a good way to be read and
considered for the print magazine. So I sent Things Kept there on Friday.
I guess that makes it my first short story magazine submission, albeit
somewhat indirect.
And, with the IUWC only a week away, I clicked onto
their website, found that they've recently posted a detailed schedule for
the week. Turns out there is a two-hour period set aside on Monday for
readings by the scholarship winners. I'm glad I checked! I'd have arrive
completely unprepared, otherwise. Okay, now, do I read from "TK" or do I
read from Seven Days? Hmmm….
Saturday, June 21, 2003
The comments and reviews thus far on "Things Kept" from
Zoetrope readers has been varied and generally positive. What is most
interesting is how readers are bringing their own slants to it and putting
personal interpretations on the story and 'what it's about.' I think
that's a good thing, that it allows the reader to enter and interpret as
they will. In fact, I have my own idea of where the theme lies, but it is
never stated or implied because, even though the point-of-view is third
person, the pov character is unaware. So the narration appears
free-standing, and readers enter and interpret. And when they do, each
seems to overlay something personal onto to it, to interpret through a
prism all their own.
Reading back a couple months in this journal, I can see
that page output on the novel has fallen behind my expectations of April.
While I wish the pages were piling up faster, I'm satisfied that my
downtime is not wasted time, that the researching, ruminating, and
contemplating all play a part in fuelling the tanks for another forward
burst of progress. Or so we hope.
Now I must get packed for the Indiana University
Writers Conference and Workshop, which begins tomorrow. If all goes well,
I'll be journaling a day-by-day account on a new journal page.
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