Scott Conroe

[ScottConroe]

AS II, Module 8 -- Reviews of Books About Writing

 

 

THE WRITING LIFE by Annie Dillard

 

1. How it helped me, overall aspects

 

Annie Dillard's writing voice combines the practical with the artistic or whimsical, as solid advice mixes with poetic images. She relies heavily on her observations and impressions in her work, to the point where sometimes I wonder where her point lies. But there is no denying her power, the strength of her voice -- you hear it from the page.

 

So I learned from her confident voice, her use of poetic images, and from her lessons about the discipline of putting fanny in seat and working every day, not relying on some muse to inspire me. This lesson is stressed by every writing book -- Anne Lamott, Jeff Gerke, Donald Maass, Stephen King, Frederick Busch -- but I also liked her emphasis on physical places for work besides a home office. I know Russell Banks uses a converted sugar shack on his property. David McCullough, the historian, uses a small building behind his house. Sometimes physical remove is necessary.

 

2. Two or three major lessons

 

I love her idea of following a path made of words, then tearing it apart and saving maybe some sentences but rarely entire paragraphs for the next draft. Dillard stresses that in revision, as the book "hardens," sometimes a writer must sacrifice scenes or plot points that are not needed, no matter how well-crafted they might be. I love her point on page 56, that you shape your vision into a structure "at once luminous and transparent," to be changed.

 

Dillard's image of a book draft as a patient in a hospital room with numerous disorders, a room you enter with dread and sympathy, struck me hard. As a book grows beyond the first 5,000 words, it becomes this floppy thing that has to be trimmed, re-structured, shifted. A chapter might be out of place, a passage might fit better in a later chapter. Then she adds that a book becomes feral if the writer skips a visit or two. A fascinating way to picture a work in progress.

 

Her two major questions, on page 72, struck me as well: Can the book be done? Can I do it?

 

3. Did anything conflict with our novel writing course?

 

Maybe Dillard is too artistic in her approach, as if she is painting something and the reader will either like it or not. She does not think commercially. Many people would appreciate this, saying a writer must write and the heck with whether anyone wants to buy it, but I think that's silly. I like creating something but I want someone to see it, read it, buy it. If I were a painter, I would think the same way. As a photographer, I spent more time over the years on people than on landscapes or abstract designs, thinking people will buy photographs of people (of course, they'll buy landscapes and still lifes too). A book takes too much time and money and effort to write, for me to think I'll be happy if just a few people read it.

 

 

THE ART OF FICTION by John Gardner

 

1. How it helped me, overall aspects

 

Gardner is a supporter of third-person POV, especially the omniscient kind, and I like hearing about it. He talks about the power of establishing the voice, then moving smoothly into characters' heads, which I know can be difficult to master.

 

He discusses sentence structure, including his dislike for sentences that begin with infinite verb phrases such as "Looking up slowly ..." He warns about the temptation to insert too much detail or explanation, hurting pace or flow of the story (reading that prompted me to remove a couple of sentences from my first chapter). He also notes the difference, hard to achieve but crucial, between emotion and sentimentality.

 

I appreciated his discussion of the old idea, "write what you know." He believes a writer should not worry about this. I've heard this issue discussed in other books. I was lucky enough to spend time with T.C. Boyle once, and he said a writer needs to use what he does not know, relying on research and imagination. I plan to do both as my novel progresses, mostly calling upon what I know from my various careers and growing up where my novel is set, but I'm not afraid to take a stab at including something I have not experienced.

 

2. Two or three major lessons

 

Gardner says there are three ways to devise plot: borrowing traditional plots, working back from a climax or "groping forward" from an initial situation. I've been using the third approach, picturing my climax but not in tremendous detail. My novel started with a historical situation that I adapted to my own purposes, then used as backstory for my characters. But I could have started with a dramatic scene, such as my Saxony High School burning down in October 1972, and worked backward; and, in the current narrative thread, maybe started with a battle near a waterfall and bridge, then wondered what led to it. Maybe I'll try that in my next novel.

 

Gardner says if a story is drawn from real life, the writer must determine what part to tell, in the most efficient way. This is a huge question, as a writer can become too entranced by his or her research or knowledge, letting things get bogged down. I am finding this right now as I read Dan Simmons' The Abominable, where the middle third is laden with so much detail about climbing a mountain such as Mount Everest that I began to skim 10, 20 pages at a time. Simmons did admirable research but man, did he lose me.

 

Third lesson, on page 67: At some point the writer must stop planning and begin writing, fleshing out the skeleton of his plan. Again and again, the writer must make decisions. This is what I've been doing with your assignments of the first 50 pages and first 100 pages.

 

3. Did anything conflict with our course?

 

Nothing strikes me as conflicting. Gardner doesn't talk about third-person POV beyond the omniscient, at least from what I could see, and your course does. Your course covers that aspect of narrative better than he does.

 

I didn't think your course was opposed to writers focusing on what they know. You seemed neutral on that topic.

 

 

WRITING 21ST CENTURY FICTION by Donald Maass

(substituted for Writing the Breakout Novel)

 

1. Overall aspects

 

I read this book before taking the course, and overall I learned that modern fiction needs to start quickly and move with more momentum than even fiction of the 1970s. Many of my favorite books would not be bestsellers now, because readers want a more cinematic approach. I recently reread James Dickey's Deliverance and Peter Benchley's Jaws, and I'm not sure they would be as successful now. But some of Maass' ideas are very old, such as his notion that a story is made from scenes and memorable characters.

 

Maass says that the ending of a novel must be "amazing" and not cliched. He stresses the need for fiction to be fresh and original, even defying genre. He emphasizes the novel's outer journey, with redemption or comeback for major characters, protagonists worth knowing, antagonists with complexity, strong supporting characters, action that moves a reader's heart.

 

2. Two or three lessons

 

As someone who hopefully will write a series, I was interested in Maass' ideas for holding back sub-plots, bits of backstory and other story elements, to save them for future books. He discussed finding new conflicts to challenge the protagonist, using an example from Anne Perry, who was despairing over how to write the 25th book in a series; Maass asked if the protagonist, a police inspector, had ever killed anybody.

 

Maass surprised me with his chapter about "beautiful writing." He does not define this simply as writing that is poetic or wonderful to speak, but as writing that is well-crafted, conveys warmth, carries the story with a solid foundation.

 

I appreciated the questions Maass asks about the protagonist: How does this person understand herself or himself at the beginning of the story, what guides him or her? At the end, how does the answer change?

 

3. Conflicts with writing program

 

I didn't sense any conflicts with the program, in fact it felt as if Maass could be one of your guests. His theme that fiction in the 21st century must be leaner, stronger, faster, more surprising to succeed -- it resonates with your lessons, I feel.

 

 

WRITE AWAY by Elizabeth George

 

 

1. Overall help

 

I appreciated George's starting with the importance of character and setting, before going on to discuss plot. She stresses weaving the description of landscape into the narrative, in pieces. I was very glad to see that she uses outlines, where some writers just plow ahead and write. Her story about writer T. Jefferson Parker and his method of writing draft after draft rather than outlining was a nice example, and, like her, I am mystified by his approach.

 

I am not a fan of books where the author uses excerpts of others' work or their own, expecting me to read 12 paragraphs and then get a bit of commentary. Some excerpt is fine, but longer ones -- and she uses one excerpt three times! -- leaves me thinking the writer is lazy. When my students did it, I thought they were padding their papers to achieve the desired length.

 

Like her, I believe in visiting the setting of a novel. One of my characters has moved to Northern New York from Massapequa, Long Island, and I am tempted to travel down there to see Nassau County's suburban sprawl again. I also appreciated George's use of real places, such as buildings, in her work, studying photographs and inserting what she sees into her narrative. I have not read her novels yet because I'm not in the mood for long, stately British mysteries, and her descriptions of places and objects seem to stretch on. Probably I'll tackle one of her books soon.

 

Her writing schedule intrigued me. She writes five days a week, all day, until she has her first draft. I've heard of writers who write every day, even holidays. Her approach is maybe more sane.

 

George explains the use of different points-of-view better than anyone I've encountered so far. First person, third person omniscient, shifting first person, shifting third person -- she explores the challenges of each. I've been wrestling with which other characters' viewpoints to show besides my protagonist's, and I'm not done yet but this discussion was helpful.

 

2. Two or three major lessons

 

George says sub-plots must rise from theme and have the same structure as the main plot, with rising action, climax and resolution. This is important for me as I add my sub-plots and decide if I really need them all.

 

She, like other writers trying to give advice, says plotting comes from conflict and character, as the writer must carefully dole out information. This will be difficult for me to master but I look forward to it. Her quote from Parker, about knowing he's used plot elements too soon when his story stalls, stuck with me.

 

Understanding a character, for George, follows five paths: core need, pathological maneuver (what he or she does under stress), sexuality, a past event and what the character wants. I need to take the time to develop this for most of my characters, main and supporting.

 

Finally, I appreciated her examination of how to build suspense through risk to characters, pursuits, violence, maybe a MacGuffin, long-term promises to the reader via foreshadowing and dramatic questions. clues that tease the reader into trying to solve the mystery, and red herrings. I may try using a MacGuffin, in the form of the track trophy that Brent has hidden away, not knowing its significance to his overall quest -- its significance might not be much in the grand scheme of what is happening, but the trophy's presence years after it was thought to be destroyed might show someone's character.

 

3. Anything conflict with our course

 

The only thing that might conflict with our course is George's belief in challenging rules and conventions of fiction. I feel that while our course has shown us different styles, we've stayed within what is tried and true, to an extent. Maybe that's because we're beginners; some of what George describes might need to wait until we are more practiced at this art.

 

Everything else seemed to dovetail with what we heard in New York City and have read in this online course.