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Book Report, Stephanie Hansen


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Book Reports:

Gardner

The Art of Fiction taught me that there are no absolute rules when it comes to fiction. For example, a term used often with regard to creative writing instruction is “show don’t tell”. For many beginning writers this is good advice especially if they are drowning in abstraction. However, for the art of fiction to be entirely void of exposition is disastrous, turning a novel into a screenplay. While these rules can be helpful tools, the writer has to assess them and use them fittingly. One vital lesson from this book is “What Fancy sends, the writer must order by Judgement”. An author may discover a tantalizing plot point but if it is not blessed with engaging description, it will sink like the anchor of a ship holding the fiction from flowing. The second lesson I learned is that, while a writer cannot just “show don’t tell” as exposition is essential, the importance of physical detail cannot be overlooked. An author must give readers somewhere to go within the fictional dream, somewhere believable that the reader can hear and taste. Not the final lesson but as I’m limited to three per assignment I give as a quote because nothing I write can surpass it. “Then must follow that the first business of the writer must be to make us see and feel vividly what his characters see and feel.” Since I grew as a writer from the Novel Writing Program and this book was included in the program, there were no obvious conflictions. “Show don’t tell” is used early in the program and if a writer were to quit at that point, it would be awful. The program moves onto exposition later so it beautifully covers the “a rule cannot concretely exist” theme within Gardner’s book. One must complete the program in order to experience this sweat inducing and knee bones grinding through cartilage reverie.

Maass

Writing the Breakout Novel taught me that “Conflict is essential to a story. Nothing to fight against, nothing to win, nothing to lose … why bother reading it?” and “Great novels – ones in which lightning seems to strike on every page – result from their authors’ refusal to settle for being ‘good’.” I’m using some of Maass’ techniques even now in my writing of chapter ten. I will not call them out more than that as I believe it to be superficial to point out one’s own purposes as a writer. If they’re not seen by the reader himself, they didn’t really work. One important lesson I learned from this book was that a “paperback shipping less than ten thousand units is a level that today is a certain kiss of death” made me question the Novel Writing Program’s involvement with the Book Expo of America. If I am published, I would like to be involved in the Expo and give breath to my novel’s lungs. The second lesson I learned fortified my first experience at an Algonkian New York Pitch Conference. I came there with a novel in hand, my first, and quickly realized I was batboy at a Major League baseball game. I wanted to become the batter hovering over the plate so that the pitcher would throw an inside ball to make me back away and, after I backed an inch, would give me the outside second pitch right in my sweet spot. The success in doing this is still at best a thirty percent average. Batters choke and pitchers find curveballs that make one dizzy. “Starbursts” is my mantra because, if in a high stress situation, I am able to visualize fruitful explosion in my mouth, it decreases the chance of choking. Playing a game of online Euchre before one writes can also diminish the drama of the day and regain the fictive dream but this may not work for all. Euchre may not be your freedom of choice, but if you can find the spitting on the plate when the wind is in the catcher’s direction, grab hold. That being said, help should not be unwelcomed. Even if it negates your beliefs, you have the power to choose what you take. As a leftfielder, if shortstop gives you the sign of an inside pitch on a right handed batter, better cover the foul line. Auctioning the history of the batter and the wind, one may find a line drive to catch while sliding underneath, forget the one hop. A true batter is not one who naturally hits over the fence, but one incapable of such tasks but being able to read the holes in the field, a double RBI is as good as a single homerun. I’ve gone on for far too long and must close. Again, this book was part of the Novel Writing Program so how can I point out confliction. Well, for a breakout novel one must have a breakout premise. While, the Novel Writing Program entices this, it does not force it. Breakout can only come from within, I’m sorry to say. I do not believe this can fully be taught. It is from one’s own experiences that they can truly adopt this. I would like to run a course following author’s life events and how that moved their writing. One may be surprised to find how much one’s own life events can sculpture their writing. The beautiful thing about life and certain death is that all of us have gone through certain depths. We must lasso and pull those feelings into our detail of our novels or become a non-swimmer in the middle of a murky sea.

George

Write Away taught me that if you’ve been through the learning process, one must just write away free of hindrances. So many things can hold a writer back if they let them get beneath their skin. Yes, learn from what is being told to you but not to the point where you meet a brick wall. Running cross country, I personally loved the brick wall. Breaking through it caused endorphins to seize my body. The craft of writing can be taught, if the student will listen and endure. Elizabeth somewhat conflicts Maass’ findings from the get go. She states that character is more important than social problems whereas Maass found that a successful author became more triumphant when mentioning social issues. So there do I find the conflict between two assigned readings to be in against with the program itself. I don’t know. I do know that critique as well as instruction has to be taken with a grain of salt. Respect should be shown as these people have faced what we as a writer are about to but in the end it is our own art, our own craft, and our own baby. I like to sprinkle in all good criticism into my work, but as an individual, obviously not every guidance given will work. Allowing appreciation is key. The program allows the writer to map out setting and plot prior to writing. This allows the writer to remove the scaffolding from the building far beyond the first and last pages. No writer can put a price on that.

Dillard

I acquired The Writing Life through audio discs as my then current client required commute. I don’t remember the specifics, but do recall her language pouring through my writing. I wish I could enlighten better detail, but am met with a loss. Sometimes the dribbling ink from a quill pen drops onto a page without your intentions. Sometimes writer’s techniques cause one to see the world in a different light. No longer does the garage not have an electronic opener, but reveals a different world with every pull of the rope, wheels and springs grinding it to existence. The book made me feel comfortable with my lost feeling as a writer. A feeling the program structured through practice to make what I believe to be my first step forward as a good writer. Is it the best, probably not? One must “think with the heart but smart” as Michael Neff put it. Having to write an entirely different novel than the one you’ve bled through can be daunting. I have been unconscious on an I.C.U. bed while my husband had to find a sitter for our one and two year olds, gather my Will, and find a priest. Trust me, having to write another story, if writing is your passion, is another attempt at beating your own 5K time, it can make or break you but that is completely up to no one but yourself.

Stephanie Hansen 913-530-3304

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