Janet Zupan

[JanetZupan]

WRITE AWAY, By Elizabeth George

 

“The art of writing is what you get to do once you become familiar with the craft.” The promise in these words by Elizabeth George in the preface of her book, WRITE AWAY, caught my early attention. For me, this is the most important message of her work: talent and passion (obvious plusses in the act of writing a novel) can better thrive once they’re in a framework established ahead of gametime. She strikes down the pervasive notion that writing a novel has to be an experience rooted in artistic suffering and instead shows that the worries over block, direction, and feeling at sea can be lifted through pre-considerations and planning. Through the course of WRITE AWAY, I found helpful methods for building the set—pre-plotting, outlining, character analysis, landscape, setting, elements of dialog.

 

I particularly appreciated that George offered examples of step-outlines from her drafts. After free-writing sketches of every potential scene, she cherry picks among them, then sets to work ordering them into chapters, sequenced in a way that moves the story “relentlessly and consistently forward.” Next step is to close in, to turn back to each scene—fine-tuning, crafting, ensuring that each has a Swiss tick in all aspects (narration, THAD, dialog). It was refreshing to see George’s stalls and questions, to get a real sense of how thoroughly she tinkers prior to actual writing.

 

Through this book, I also gained a clearer understanding of the nuances involved in writing effective dialog. It seems to me, after reading George’s explanations and examples, that there’s a deliberate craft to building a character’s voice before he or she ever speaks. George reveals the importance of fully fleshing out a person (in the pre-writing, free-writing stages) so that any dialog includes diction, idioms, pauses, volume—all elements that can reflect the character’s desires, hopes, failings. I relish the idea of writing dialog using characters I know well—it makes the prospect a more enjoyable one. But George cautions that developing authentic dialog is only half the accomplishment. Mileage is as essential as a natural sounding conversation: each moment of dialog carries its share of the burden of effectively prodding the story forward.

 

Elizabeth George’s lessons fully complement the Commercial Novel Writing Program. I came to WRITE AWAY on the heels of completing CNWP, Part I—already a born-again believer in the importance of l

arning/developing the craft of novel writing. Thus, this book will serve as a guide and additional source of information. One way I plan to immediately join my module work, Part II, to my eagerness to try out George’s suggestions, is to consult her guide as I hash out the scene in the Module 1 assignment at the outset of the second phase of the program.

 

 

THE WRITING LIFE, By Annie Dillard

 

“Aim past the wood. . . aim through the wood; aim for the chopping block.” Dillard’s book unsettled, dismayed, frightened and exhilarated me. It dislodged every pebble of authorial security or certainty I had prior to reading it. At the same time, I was filled with the sense of a dare, a mission. Dillard threw down the gauntlet, inviting foolhardies to attempt heroics. “Are you a woman, or a mouse?”

 

Writing Life helped me recognize (trembling) that having all the keys, the cards in place, does not assure success. A writer has to push, persist, fail, change plans and abandon plans. “Every book has an intrinsic impossibility, which its writer discovers as soon as her first excitement dwindles.” At that point, she says, the writer must ask two questions: Can it be done? Can I do it?.

 

In the early pages, I wondered if Dillard’s book conflicted with the lessons and other readings in the Salon program. She questions the need for and seems to mock the structure I’ve studied and come to revere. (“Process is nothing; erase your tracks. The path is not the work. . . . the page will teach you to write.”)

 

You are wrong if you think that in the actual writing . . . you are filling in the vision. You cannot even bring the vision to light. You are wrong if you think that you can in any way take the vision and tame it to the page.

 

Ouch and ouch. But I thought back to George’s statement that, “the art of writing is what you get to do once you become familiar with the craft.” Then, I found I could better see and gain from Dillard’s guidance because I within the structure, within the craft (if that makes any sense at all). Within the formal structure—the container of crucial needs, the questions that have to be asked and answered—there are no boundaries. Inside the structure, freefall, gambles, spark and surprise and abandonment simmer. That’s when heroics become necessary. “Bewilderment and persistence” perch as vultures on the branches above, waiting for a writer to bring that simmer to a boil or run screaming from the scene.

 

“Nothing on earth is more gladdening than knowing we must roll up our sleeves and move back the boundaries of the humanly possible once more.”

 

 

 

Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Mass

 

Of the books on the list, Maas’s text most closely connects to the spirit and tenor of the Author Salon program. I discovered Maas before discovering Author Salon and worked on my own through his workbook/breakout system. It was incredibly helpful; my progress there set me up for and deepened what I stand to gain through Author Salon.

 

The overall benefit of this book springs from Maas’s enthusiasm for every draft; he insists that, with “skill and hard work, willingness to plan and rewrite [and] the ability to listen to advice and consider it,” every novel-in-progress has promise and the potential to break through. That encouragement keeps me going when I invariably begin to question whether or not I’m on the right (write?) track with my plotting, premise, characters. Writing a book to its full potential involves relentless work (and reward). I found inspiration, too, in the Mass comment that you need to “put yourself on the page and all that you think and feel about life, but do it with discipline; do it with skill.” Like Dillard, he lays down the gauntlet, allows and invites the individual voice, but dares a writer to meet the high standards of breakout fiction.

 

The chapters are organized by concerns, which made some of them most pertinent to me at this point. The section on tension on every page, offers a good, clear line to remember: “the moment the tension slacks off, reader attention slacks off, too.”

 

My favorite chapters in the book include the one entitled, Stakes. This chapter serves to remind me that I need to continue to question, consider and reconsider the stakes I have in place. At the back of each chapter, are helpful BREAKOUT checklists; one suggestion in the Stakes section is to ask, “how could this matter more?” and “how could things get worse?” He points out that the character has to suffer. I’m closer reaching that depth than I was prior to AS, no doubt.

 

This book is a valuable reference as I continue to question and prod my way through the modules and get ready or at least closer to a launch.