Day 4 and Day 5

Day 4 was July 4! What?! Yes, I took that day off.

Day 5 Thinking about what makes a short story. Writer Ken Kesey said, "What someone wants and is going though to get it."

Here is a writing prompt that I ran across today, try it out, I thought it was an interesting one and may use it in my fiction class this fall. From, Story Matters, (p269)

"...invent the most difficult, painful scene you can imagine. Write it using simple language. Don't flinch."

Day 3: Reading, Reading, Reading

Reading makes the best writing. Today was a research day, and lots of reading. Here is my reading list today:

1. A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner
2. The Lottery by Shirley Jackson (love, love, love)
3. Every Tongue Shall Confess by ZZ Packer
4. The Mannequin of Soldotna by Melinda Moustakis
5. Red Moccasins by Susan Power

What did you read  today? Do you have a "go to" story that gives your own writing a jump start?

Day 2 Giving Way: Where the Story Starts

It's always a challenge to know where the story starts. The old wisdom is "in media res"  or begin in the middle. Some inciting event that hooks the reader enough to follow you, so that no matter where you take them after, that opening image resonates.

I like this quote from Julie Checkoway, "Fiction generally catches characters in the middle of their lives, at the point in which their habitual way of being in the world is about to give way (Creating Fiction, 172-3)."  This idea has stayed with me over the many years that I first read it. Maybe because these "giving way" moments are also the points in my own life I remember most.

 Beginnings then beg the question, which One Penny raised today, then where does the story end? Of course at this stage you just want to get the story on paper, write all that you can as fast as you can. But the more I write, the more I like to look upfront, or keep coming back to, the conversation between the opening and closing scenes of the story. Not as much bookends as scaffolding, a structure you can see through, rearrange, and move to the left or right as needed to tighten the tension. But a structure all the same.

So ends Day 2: a title, a main character, a theme, and two pages. Enough for me.  Happy writing.

15 Day Story Challenge

Writerly types, you know you want some...July 1 starts the 15 day story challenge.

My Writing Process/Blog Tour

So thrilled to be back on my blog after a long hiatus, and that fact requires a major obrigada/gracias to my compañera, the mighty Rosebud Ben Oni for inviting me to participate in the writing process blog tour.  She remains the cat who knows where it's at. Without further ado, the four questions that need answering.

What are you working on?

What I'm working on changes daily, and that too needs to change. But currently,  I'm devotedly finishing edits to my play, The Widows of Whitechapel, redrafting a novel manuscript (that is  an unholy child which I sometimes wonder if I must forever carry and never birth), then finishing a short story collection, and collaborating on a graphic novel with artist Matthew Schultz. Then there’s poetry. But I don’t want to talk about that right now. I do not recommend this schedule but it's mine, so until further notice, read how Juno Diaz describes becoming a writer. 

How does your work differ from others in your genre? 

That's tricky, but I can say that my writing is situated at the crossroad of the grotesque, where hybridity and transformation are always at play, where beauty and violence intersect. That is what I know life to be and my best work turns that creature loose on itself. 

Why do you write what you do?

I write what I do because it's mine. Because I am trying to breathe in this world, and writing my stories, my voices, those authentic to me is the only way I know to fill my lungs. I believe the voices that come to me are essential stories and I try not to fail them. With that said, I'd rather fail miserably  at writing well than be in any other fight. Even if I’m getting the shit knocked out of me on the regular. Devoting my heart to anything less than my authentic voice is pretense.

What is your writing process?

My writing process is basically months of very organized early morning writing, followed by months of complete and utter terror and disorganization, lost files, teaching, grading etc. Rinse and repeat. Procrastination thy name is Sayre Baptista. However, I try to write something every day, and if I go more than a few days without writing, I will cut someone, and swiftly. My mantra?Write brave. Write often. Write home to your parents on occasions other than, I need money.

One of the great blessings of being a writer is the fellowship of others creative minds, so please watch next Monday, July 7th for two of my very favorites, two gentlemen you must read and follow on twitter...

 A.D Carson is a Writer-Rapper-Poet-Student-Teacher-Person. He is the author of a novel, COLD, and The City: [un]poems, thoughts, rhymes & miscellany and hear him rap right here.

Jim Warner's poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in various journals including The North American Review, [PANK] Magazine, Drunken Boat, The Minnesota Review, Midwestern Gothic, and is the author of two collections Too Bad It's Poetry and Social Studies (PaperKite Press). Currently, Jim is the Managing Editor of Quiddity housed by Benedictine University at Springfield, and writes the weekly column Best Worst Year for SunDog Lit. 

The Point is to Walk It

Last night I dreamed about walking. Perhaps because I am in Lisboa and walking a great deal, reading maps and finding and losing myself in where I am going. Finding that the places you planned to go are not nearly the gift of the places  you often end up by misake. Or perhaps the mistake is a plan you simply cannot see being written.

Recently,  a new poet friend, Oscar Bermeo said, in regards to the road and Machado's poem about the same, "The point is to walk it."

PROVERBIOS Y CANTARES - XXIX

Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino y nada más;
Caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.
Al andar se hace el camino,
y al volver la vista atrás
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.
Caminante no hay camino
sino estelas en la mar.

Wanderer, your footsteps
the road, and nothing more;
wanderer, we have no road,
we make the road by walking.
As you walk you make the road,
and to look back
is to see that never
can we pass this way again.
Wanderer, there is no road,
only traces in the sea.
 -Antonio Machado
 

Last night I dreamed of walking. Today, I wrapped my lunch in a map of the city and set out to find what I cannot yet imagine.

Seven Gables and 22 Artists

How many times has someone mentioned, you should see this (fill in the blank) exhibit, film, theatre production...and you don't. They make a point to tell you how incredible the experience was, and you still don't see it. If you are like me these opportunities missed happen all the time. Because we are all so terribly important and very busy, right? From now on, I'm skinning that excuse. Live. What is anyone ever waiting for? Life to show up at your front door? Tyler Durden, one of my favorite literary characters, said, " I want you to hit me as hard as you can." Art should do that. And the best work does, it gets in your face making demands and asking questions running the spectrum of terrible to beautiful. Today was on that spectrum.


This week, the beloved and talented Michael Houser, mentioned The House of Seven  Gables exhibit at The Visual Arts Center in Normal, Illinois on the ISU campus. And thankfully, I packed up with a pal and went. You can too, until April 7th. Here's me saying to you, check it out. You can spend an hour or three.

The exhibit includes mix media pieces, assemblage, film, and canvas. The work speaks to space or the lack thereof, how space is denied, in particular family spaces, distorted realities, and claustrophobia. And a few nooses. That's really not a description, you have to experience it. Warning: don't go behind the black curtain if you are faint of heart, or fear shag carpet. That was my second favorite feature. My favorite was an assembled book by artist Dario Robleto. The description of his work alone was worth the trip.

I researched his work once I got home. If you are anywhere and can see what he does, do so. His visions come to life are a wonderment. Here is a link to an interview with him at  Guernica online. My heart was set on Hawthorne today, and I came home with Robleto. You won't be sorry to see The Witch Stick by Brian Kapernekas, either.

You may not find favor in the pieces that I did, but something will speak to you. In The House of Seven Gables, Hawthorne wrote, "Life is made of marble and mud." What glorious and mysterious works we make of it with our hands.