Jody Flosi

[JodyFlosi]

Jody Flosi

AS BOOK REPORTS

 

THE ART OF FICTION by John Gardner

 

How did the book help you as a writer? What aspects of it taught you something? The most interesting knowledge I gained from Gardner's tome of wisdom was an historical overview of the use of point of view in novels. I'm paying closer attention to POV in my current novel, thanks to the AS modules. More knowledge on this malleable tool was nice. I do wish he had been more organized in his presentation of the topic. I will go back, some afternoon when I need a break from my story, and create a timeline for myself from his ramblings, very nice ramblings, for the most part. I wish I could sit in his classroom. Too late for that.

 

What major lessons did you learn from the book that you can apply to your novel?

 

I learned on page 6 that Mastery must be achieved, but also, in tandem, the art of breaking the rules as I master them. I yearn for Mastery. I have a pretty good handle on breaking the rules.

 

I learned on page 33 not to write "what I know," but to pick a genre, which is what I've done and that is validating. Though I do still write what I know, about the state of mind of a damaged, embattled soul, again and again. But that's okay. Gardner gave me permission to break the rules on page 6.

 

I learned on page 98 that insufficient detail and abstraction are deadly. I know about insufficient detail. I chase the details every word, every sentence, every day, even though I think in the abstract. My original conception of every story always starts in the abstract, some core ambiguity or internal conflict that needs to find expression. And isn't every metaphor the perfect combination of both detail and the abstraction those details embody? I'm just saying, don't throw out the baby with the bath water.

 

So altogether, I learned good deal more about who I am and where I stand today as a writer, chasing down Gardner's ramblings, doing some rambling of my own.

 

Was there anything in the books that obviously conflicted with lessons and readings in our novel writing program. If so, what were they?

 

The AS program is very clear that there is a certain formula, one that can be analyzed and reproduced to align your novel with the current expectations of the mass market. I am so much more interested in reaching the masses than being stroked by the literati. I joined the AS program because it promised to help me accomplish my goal. Gardner's book opens with the assertion that "the search for aesthetic absolutes is a misapplication of the writer's energy." In fact, seeking absolute formulas of what must be done leads to "aesthetic arthritis" and "atrophy of intuition." At some core level, I agree. For that reason I choose not to control a scene before I let the characters into the room. I need to let my people run loose so they can tell me who they really are before I start pushing them around. In this first 110 pages, FBI Agent Martin Chavez kicked his way into the story in ways I hadn't planned, ways that required me to rework the Act 2 structure. And I thank the muses for a solid subplot that crosses over into the primary plot.

 

Chaos and order. Yin and Yang. Whatever works. Usually they work best hand in hand.

 

 

WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL by Donald Maass

 

How did the book help you as a writer? What aspects of it taught you something? I would love to break out, in so many ways. This is the one required-reading book I already had in my library. I read it again when I entered the program. I read it once more today, so I could learn a few new things that seemed important to consider now. This book taught me I could count on it. Along with a number of other craft books on my shelf, I return to it again and again to find new lessons and fresh insight into my current story and my current impasse within that story. The major lessons I refer to below are the lessons gleaned from this third read.

 

 

What major lessons did you learn from the book that you can apply to your novel?

 

I learned I can raise the stakes by spending more time and delving deeper inside my antagonist Lilith's head than I plotted. I started with two pinch points and devised four more appropriate pinch points after my last read for this post.

 

I learned I need to clearly delineate the public stakes in my story, which I will work on as soon as I can articulate to myself what those public stakes are on a gut level (rather than on the intellectual or symbolic level where I love to hang out).

 

I learned that, "For a setting to feel broadly representative, it must be highly specific." I know the setting has to be drawn. I so resent the time it takes to fill up the space around my characters before they get the chance to speak. I love it when my characters speak, especially when they tell me what they need to say, instead of the other way around. Apparently, however, detailing the arena is not just a dull chore. Apparently, it is in the specific details that I make my story and my characters most available to a broader readership. I need to keep that in mind, and of course consider augmenting what's been done so far.

 

Was there anything in the book that conflicted with lessons and readings in AS program? If so, what were they? Both the AS program and this book start with the assumption that a breakout premise can be built with plausibility, inherent conflict, and emotional appeal. Both put forth with confidence the belief that learning and rising to the standards set by the storytelling marketplace of readers along with stellar prose, will most likely bring success. If not most likely, then certainly more likely. Both the book and the AS program support one another. There's disturbingly little conflict between them.

 

 

WRITE AWAY by Elizabeth George

 

How did the book help you as a writer? What aspects of it taught you something? I learned what I needed to learn in the excerpts from the author's Journal of a Novel that introduce the chapters. I saw in these excerpts someone living with a story, battling to face the page and the voices as they are and as they should be, someone embracing with sublime grace the solitude that the story demands. You don't want to lose your story. It's everything. What George taught me is that even during these periods of sublime isolation, I'm not alone. The way George shared her insecurities and meanderings and even poured a little blood on the manuscript with these excerpts was a great comfort.

 

What major lessons did you learn from the book that you can apply to your novel? I learned that understanding a character, for George, requires knowing its core need, pathological maneuver (failsafe under stress), sexuality, most significant past event, and desires. I need to create a table of how these driving forces manifest in my characters, the characters in this novel and those who span the series. I learned I want to do that. George provides an intriguing list of tags. .

 

I was reminded that I need to assess the story scene by successive scene for vigorous causality and realign if necessary into a dragon tail of dramatic dominoes. I knew this but it's nice to be reminded with such a fabulous metaphor.

 

I learned my climax needs a climax. (Now I'm just getting tired.) I'll have to work on that.

 

Was there anything in the book that conflicted with lessons and readings in the AS program? Um, no? The AS Program and George's book seem to exist in different realms. I found some of her points very interesting and instructive (see above lessons learned). But she uses way too long, way too many excerpts, and chats idly about each of them, filling up pages I skip in part (or entirely). The AS Program is more succinct in its presentation of examples. Not really a conflict, just a matter of style and substance.

 

 

 

THE WRITING LIFE by Annie Dillard

 

How did the book help you as a writer? What aspects of it taught you something? This book's best gift is the certainty that I'm not alone. Dillard expresses eloquently how hard and sublimely isolating writing is. Even so, how undeniable. You cannot turn your back on it. And her book made me laugh again and again. I peruse it to read a page or two before I fall asleep, hoping I fall upon or resurrect another moment of laughter with Dillard.

 

 

What major lessons did you learn from the book that you can apply to your novel?

 

I learned that 4.5 billion humans occupy planet earth and maybe twenty people can write a serious book in one year. It takes two to ten years to write a novel. Working full time, Thomas Mann wrote a page a day. John Berryman said a long poem takes five to ten years to complete. Flaubert wrote a big book every five to seven years. I learned it takes as long as it takes.

 

I learned from Dillard's homage to Wallace Steven that I should walk more as a part of my writing routine. I actually started walking my dog not once, but twice a day And I will dance more. Here I come Plumas Bar and Zumba classes. It's a burden, but it's for the art. Seriously.

 

I was reminded that I must write as if I'm dying, which indeed I am. Two life-saving, emergency surgeries taught me that.

 

 

Was there anything in the book that conflicted with lessons and readings in the AS program? If so, what were they?

 

Dillard feels novels written with film contracts in mind stink. She makes no comment on books written based on very popular and lauded films already in existence. Those really stink, because they're a crass grab for money, usually written by a hired writer, invariably a dull, perfunctory re-enactment, with no soul or poetry. Does the medium of storytelling alter the value of the core story? Not really. It is the skill, commitment, and passion (or lack of it) that build a story's value, layer by layer, with love and neurotic tics and laughter and tears.

 

I don't think the AS program has the same slant on it. Nowhere in the program have I tumbled across any warnings to ignore or denigrate the rising arena of storytelling in film, television, and gaming. In fact, the AS program's 6 act, 2 goal structure is amazingly congruent with the current structural demands of both television's one hour series and the film industry. That was one reason I joined the AS program. In my projected series I am building a world, and a collection of people I love and admire that I hope will have the heart and soul to jump into all those storytelling arenas. What writer would want anything less for their story and the people who populate it?