Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category
February 14, 2019
A few years ago I joined a local fiction-writers’ workshop here in Naples, FL, which has helped me immensely in getting my writing done. I have to turn in a new story every few weeks, and I prefer to treat that deadline as sacrosanct, to practice finishing work. In addition, the feedback is excellent, and I am forced to confront my own writing with more and more discerning eyes, working ever to improve. Both of these things have been beneficial.
But perhaps more interesting than how the workshop has helped my writing, a little more than a year ago, I talked with Kristine, the founder of the workshop, about expanding it. We discussed putting on readings, starting a podcast, developing paid seminars and workshops, providing a writing space for local writers, and even perhaps one day creating a literary magazine. A couple of those things have already come to fruition.
I thought I should mention those projects here on my own site. Please visit the Naples Writers’ Workshop website for more information.
I am one of the hosts of our podcast, which launched with its first episode on this first of this month. It’s called Why Is This Good?, and we discuss excellent fiction to try to glean lessons that can help inform the craft and artistry of our own fiction. The first time I discussed this idea with Kristine, I thought it would be a great podcast for aspiring writers or anyone who is interested in thinking about the art of fiction, and I think the results are proving that intuition to be true. The first episode is now available on Apple Podcasts and Google Play, and the next will be available tomorrow (the 15th). Please check it out.
Kristine and I are also running a Teen Fiction Workshop geared to high school students who are interested in writing fiction. The high school curriculum does not encourage fiction writing, and we hope to provide some modicum of encouragement for young writers. So far our students are really excellent writers with enormous potential, and I’m encouraged for the future of this workshop. A few issues have come up, but overall I’m pleased with what we’ve been able to do.
We’ve also been able to host a couple of fiction readings at local venues, and we’re planning for the next one. These have also been successful. You can see some pictures from the events at the workshop page I linked above.
Anyway, I thought I should mention some of the things I’ve been working on this past year other than incomplete drafts of Death and Life, which progresses in spurts now and then as I find moments to press forward with it. We were running a novel workshop which helped, but that was a project we were forced to reconsider. In the meantime, my daughters are getting more amazing every day, and I love being their daddy.
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November 15, 2017
While taking care of my daughters during the day, I have been working nights at various writing projects. These include Death and Life, various short stories, several incipient book proposals, and an academic paper based on my PhD dissertation. I wanted to take a moment to update my website with my progress on these projects.
Last week I finished and submitted the academic paper to a peer-reviewed journal, but I will have to wait four to five months to hear back. If it is not accepted, I will repeat the process elsewhere. I would like to develop these ideas into a critical opus, but that is still some distance in the future.
I’ve written a couple of short stories, and those are currently in rounds of submission, but once again it will take time to hear from the various places, and if they are rejected, I will have to submit them elsewhere. I’ve decided to be bold and aim high in where I am submitting, so the chances of rejection are quite high. However, the rewards if accepted are also great. Meanwhile, I continue to write more short stories.
The book proposals are a bit more difficult. I’ve developed a relatively comprehensive outline for one book based on the theoretical foundation on which my dissertation was based, but I’m having trouble figuring out an engaging way to introduce the ideas to a reader. I need to develop a more compelling introduction so that I can actually sell it. I’ve written several versions of this, but I don’t think I’m there yet. Meanwhile, a few other book proposals are in the outlining stage.
Death and Life moves forward apace, and I’m part of a novel-writing group that forces me to make progress in that writing while also offering incredibly useful feedback and advice. The work is nevertheless slow, as I am splitting my focus quite a bit. But it progresses.
As things go forward, I will continue to update this space.
Posted in Death and Life, Writing
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July 12, 2016
I updated my “Projects” page to reflect the fact that I’ve advanced to candidacy in the PhD program and am now writing the dissertation.
I got a Summer Research Fellowship to support my dissertation writing, and this summer is focused on that writing. I’ve made good progress, though recently I’ve paused writing to read a few books. Within the week I’ll be writing more intensely again.
It’s not novel-writing, but it’s good to be once again so focused on writing.
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March 27, 2013
I’ve been playing with some of the old mythology of Raya that informs The Redemption Saga, revising and reworking some of the short tales that comprise it. I’ve been conceiving of them now as “Short Fiction” that perhaps I may send off to some journals or magazines and see if anything sticks. Even though there is absolutely no chance of its being accepted there, I submitted “The Quest of the Fire Heart” to the New Yorker Fiction. That is the tale of Adhenil Eniwi’s quest to reclaim the Nerrimadhe from Gollithis. See all those weird words that no one who has not yet read the story could ever understand? That’s one reason the New Yorker will never even consider it. Savages.
But in the meantime, I rewrote “the Despair of the Inaya”, the first part of the Anyaria (Creation of Raya). I finally (finally!!) worked out a metaphor for creation that I really like (its presentation still needs work). Ever after reading the Ainulindalë by Tolkien, with its description of the creation of the world being presupposed by music, I’ve wanted to discover something equally cool. I don’t think it’s equal, but what I’ve come up with at least satisfies me on the metaphor-of-creation level. Rewriting the Anyaria also caused me to rename Gollithis to Gollíkur, who is “wreaker of corruption,” rather than “worker of corruption.” This is important. No really.
I’ve long wanted to mimic Tolkien in creating a mythology that is the background for a language or languages. Hence, I spend equal time on the linguistics of the Shayatsi as I do their mythology.
Anyway, the writing of these myths and legends now serves two purposes: first, it allows me to think about the themes of the Redemption Saga which will help inform its new shape; and second, I am writing “short fiction” that maybe, someday, perhaps, who knows, I might be able to sell.
Posted in The Redemption Saga, Writing
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July 11, 2011
It’s probably obvious to anyone paying attention (which is likely no one) that I’m terrible at keeping up this Journal. I don’t anticipate that changing, primarily because (as I noted in my last entry) I’m not concentrating on writing at the moment, but on graduate school, which involves too much reading.
Anyway, my first year of grad school did not end as expected. Just before finals week a tornado destroyed a broad swath of ground through the middle of town and the semester was over. I had to finish writing papers for class, but school was effectively over at that point as we all set about the task of recovering. My house had relatively minimal damage, and my landlord was quick with the repairs. Most of the beautiful old trees that once shaded our street are gone, so the view outside is irrevocably changed. My immediate neighbor’s house was smashed, and another house beyond that was demolished soon afterward. And slowly the city rebuilds.
I’ve been reading this summer and relaxing a bit, and I’ve even done a bit of writing on Death and Life, though nothing substantial. I’m programming a webpage for the English Department, so that keeps me busy (and paid). For the rest of the summer (in addition to more website work) I’m going to begin a directed reading that will last through the end of the year. It’s supposed to be for the fall semester, but because there is so very much to read, my professor and I agreed to start the readings now.
I do not expect to update this Journal very much or at all for a while. The MA program is complete after next Spring, at which time I should graduate, so perhaps I’ll have more time then. However, if I am accepted into another program after that, who knows how long that will last.
Despite having said that, I know that I will write here again, and I will definitely write more on my various projects.
Posted in Death and Life, Life, Writing
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July 31, 2010
It might be obvious that I haven’t made any progress since my last entry. The problem has been that my attention is scattered. I do not think this is necessarily a bad thing, in that I have not really been idle, but have made progress (however limited) on many projects—no less than seven in total.
I think I made the most textual progress on Death and Life and Samantha, which I have discussed in this journal. But I also made some progress with a stage play titled (for now), “What do you want?” In fact, at my wife’s advising, I took a single scene out of that play and tried to strengthen it as a stand-alone ten-minute play, which is easier to get produced, and for which format there are numerous contests.
Additionally, I did some planning and a little bit of writing on a few other novels: The Death of Aaron Jamison, which is an expansion of a short story I wrote in 1998, itself only a sketch of an intended longer work; The Assassination of Prince Rolin en Qarriel, which was intended to be a light and easy work just to give me a bit of freedom—I started writing it because I was annoyed with my more “literary” ambitions and decided to write something purely plot-driven, based on all the tired tropes of pop literature—and instead, it has turned into an attempt at writing a Greek-styled tragedy.
Between the Stars I worked on just a little bit, but the story hasn’t come together for me quite yet. But also this summer an old story I’ve been thinking about for several years got a new bit of inspiration—working title, Immortality—and I wrote just a little bit of that and have a rough framework developed. A new story occurred to me, about a serial killer, but it needs something more, a second piece that eludes me. I sketched a bit of it and wrote a bare introductory chapter, but got no further.
And last, I did quite a bit of work on an essay titled “A Philosophy for Writing Fiction,” which was a response to my experiences on the website “Authonomy.” I will probably continue to touch up that essay for the next few years, and at some point I will post it on my website.
In the meantime, I am about to start grad school. So my current project is now Graduate School, and it is also my primary focus. I do not expect to write very much fiction while I am enrolled. I want to give school as much focus as I can, and to that end, I will not work on fiction with any regularity. Obviously inspiration in such a fecund environment as academia will be ongoing, and once in a while I will probably touch a project or two. I will update this space.
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May 24, 2010
I’ve made a ‘Projects’ section on the main page of the website. This comes out of uncertainty in my next project. I’ve worked through quite a bit of Samantha, but I’ve reached a point where I need to reconsider the structure of the narrative. While I let that problem stew in the background, I’ve started planning The Death of Aaron Jamison, which is based on a Short Story I wrote in 1999 called ‘Funeral’. I’m not sure if I can expand that story into a full novel, but it’s something I’ve wanted to write for a very long time. So I’ve added it to my list of projects. I also included Between the Stars because I intend to work on that as well.
In the future, I will update progress on each of those projects and I will add to the list as I spread my attention. At some point one of those will become my ‘Primary’ project, and that will be reflected. There may come a time when some item on the list will be set aside, put in a drawer, as it were. I cannot predict that, but every once in a while a story dies. It’s happened a hundred times and more through the course of my writing life.
In the mean time, progress is varied and slight. Distractions abound.
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January 20, 2010
I read the book How to Write a Damn Good Novel by James N Frey over the past two days. It was a gift a year or two ago, and I had not yet read it.
I didn’t have high hopes for the book, as my initial impressions of it were of a ‘popular’ novel-writing guide, but I was pleasantly surprised that it had a lot of good things to say. Although in general I consider myself more an artistic novelist than a mere slogger of books, as I pointed out in my discussion of my aesthetic, there is something fundamentally appealing in popular novels, and knowing what it is and how to recreate it can only help, no matter my artistic ambition.
So, like other sources of writing advice I go to, this book helped me focus my desire to write, to guide my thinking just a little bit, and gave me a bit of encouragement that I am not completely deluded. However, I have now picked up John Gardner’s The Art of Fiction for a reminder of the true artistry that novels can reach for, that I want to reach for.
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January 2, 2010
Recently rereading Stephen King’s On Writing, and I came upon his thoughts on plot-driven vs. character-driven stories. I’m always on the lookout for individual thoughts on the matter because I have strong ideas myself (read my essays discussing Narrative Art and Fiction). Here is what Stephen King said:
[likening writing a story to digging a fossil] Plot is a far bigger tool [than most], the writer’s jackhammer. You can liberate a fossil from hard ground with a jackhammer, no argument there, but you know as well as I do that the jackhammer is going to break almost as much stuff as it liberates. It’s clumsy, mechanical, anticreative. Plot is, I think, the good writer’s last resort and the dullard’s first choice. The story which results from it is apt to feel artificial and labored.
[…] [M]y books tend to be based on situation rather than story. […] I want to put a group of characters […] in some sort of predicament and then watch them try to work themselves free. My job isn’t to help them work their way free, or manipulate them to safety—those are jobs which require the noisy jackhammer of plot—but to watch what happens and then write it down.
Yet another [apparent] agreement to my conviction that character should at all times rule plot.
Posted in Writing
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December 24, 2009
I have put up the essay I mentioned in my previous posting here.
I submitted it as part of my application to grad school. It is predominantly a revision of my earlier essay ‘On Fiction‘
If you read it, please send comments! Even though it’s already been submitted, I am interested in discussing the ideas presented in the essay.
Thanks. —JCB
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