Tuesdays with Story

“Deus ex machina is a useful phrase to remember. It never works to have a new character solve the hero’s problem, or have fate step in, or a miracle, or God. If it is John’s problem, let him deal with it if he can or fail if that is what the story demands.” — Kate Wilhelm in Storyteller

Writing Friends

British science writer Dr. John Gribbin has authored more than 100 books which mainly have popularized science. However, his recent fame came by accident — Tiger Woods’ auto crash. News video showed Gribbin’s out-of-print Get a Grip on Physics in the wrecked vehicle.

Although the headlines reported “author’s sales soar,” that result described the rate of sales, not a high total number or dollar figure. Amazon only had 100 copies in stock and sold out in a day. As Gribbin himself explains in an ITN video interview, Woods’ accidental endorsement was no way to get rich: http://www.writerswrite.com/blog/1214091. Thanks to Alicia Connolly-Lohr for this item.

Resolve to write:  Thanks very much to Tuesdays with Story members for all contributions during December. However, 2010 is upon us: Now we need articles, news and information about writing, writers, words, publishing… and ideas for the January 7 issue of TWS News. Please send your material and suggestions to our next newsletter editor, Cathy Riddle, or post in our Yahoo! Groups file “Stuff for the Editor.”

Commit to edit: Even basic copy and content editing of TWS News provides practical lessons in writing. That’s not the only reason to help edit this newsletter for a month or so, but it’s one that will help you get published.  I’ve already snatched up editorship of August and December 2010 issues — I need the practice! — but  other months of TWS News remain open to new editors, including February, March, April, etc. Please join Jerry, Alicia, Cathy, and me! — Clayton

Last Meeting

On Tuesday, December 22, 7:00-9:15 p.m., five TWS Second-and-Fourth members and one guest — Anne Allen, Holly Bonnicksen-Jones, Jack Freiburger, Terry Hoffman, Patrice Kohl, and Clayton Gill (from First-and-Third) — met at Jack’s Hickory Knoll Farm south of Madison and enjoyed a glass or two of “solstice wine” during their literary discussions.

First up, Holly read an excerpt from Chapter 12 of Coming Up for Air, her “mature chick-lit” novel in which Liza Ransom signs the final papers of her divorce, her teenage daughter appears to side with her ex but still helps her mom, and Liza decides she’s ready for an “Independence Party” hosted by her female friends. The party’s host shows the documentary film The Vagina Monologues in order to inspire Liza’s new independence. Patrice wondered whether seeing the film is supposed to cause an epiphany in Liza, which was not yet apparent in the chapter. Terry pointed out that Liza already had reached an epiphany in her decision to divorce and acted on that decision in signing the divorce papers. The party and film help to show alternate futures now open to Liza, illustrating how other women have coped with comparable crises. Jack noted that referencing the film — or any film or book — without making some part of that creative work explicit and important to Liza’s personal story could be frustrating to readers, especially those who are not familiar with the referenced work. He asked whether something more dramatic should occur prior to the party to show Liza’s epiphany. Terry suggested that Liza’s relationship with daughter Taylor and her ex-husband’s new spouse Brittany represent opportunities for powerful drama. “Kids speak truth,” Jack said, noting that Taylor could tell the reader much more about Liza. Patrice said Taylor was not a sympathetic character, perhaps because little was known to cause her apparently nonplussed behavior, both before and after the divorce. Holly said she wanted Chapter 12 to carry Liza’s message “hear me roar!” A suggestion was for Holly to write key scenes again, “and see what the characters tell you.”

Next, Patrice read a “book description,” part of a proposal for her non-fiction book Beastly Banquet: How Feasting on Wild Foods Can Improve Dietary Health and Help the Planet Flourish. Patrice’s summary statement was that the author “illuminates the dietary and environmental benefits of embracing wild foods and provides a practical guide to responsibly balancing wild food choices with cultivated options.” Patrice acknowledged she was looking for a more accurate and stimulating title. Nonetheless, her title and three paragraphs generated an animated, wide-ranging discussion among Second-and-Fourth members which demonstrated their intense interest in her topic and her effort to interest publishers. Members first discussed the best approach in a non-fiction book proposal, including recommendations for a short query letter versus a much more detailed letter and extensive sample content. Terry offered her own experience with book proposals, noting that her most recent book proposal consisted of 500 pages, which had been sent to five publishers and accepted by one of them. Jack said that Patrice had an excellent location — Madison and Wisconsin at large — in which to research her topic and find numerous historic and current examples of efforts to conserve wild animal and plant varieties and enable private landowners to help sustain wild biodiversity. Clayton wondered whether the book would reach beyond the USA and other developed countries, noting that uncontrolled hunting and foraging in developing countries often hastened destruction of wilderness and extinction of endangered species. Anne and Jack suggested a title using the verb “rewild,” such as Rewilding Our Diet.

Jack read two poems — “Last Hay” and “The End of Stars As I Knew Them” — which both received positive comments from Second-and-Fourthers. Jack said impetus for “Last Hay” came from Gary Snyder’s poem “Waiting for a Ride.” As in Snyder’s poem, the narrator of “Last Hay” passes time in recollection that starts with earth-bound matters, then rises to contemplation of stars and galaxies before returning to earth and attention to earthly matters. However, Jack’s poem begins with the work of haymaking and ends with narrator’s head filled “with the fragrance of your hair/and new mowed hay.” The phrase “sky percolated with pinpoints” (stars in the night sky) garnered special praise, while “our imagined earth” drew questions and discussion from members. Jack’s poem “The End of Stars As I Knew Them” also carries strong imagery of earth and night. However, this poem narrates the sad remembrance of human passion, which at first is confused with lust like that of deer in rut, then requited in separation, but carries on with caution for deer that may leap in the dark from the hedgerow into one’s path. All members remarked a particular stanza:

 Had I sought

to love you

with my body

it would have been

with bent back

unto

the end

of days

 

Who’s Up Next

January 5 (First-and-Third): John Schneller (Chapter 9 rewrite, Broken), Amber Boudreau (Chapter 4, YA novel), Judith McNeil (???), Alicia Connolly-Lohr (new chapter for Lincoln’s Slave Trials), Danny Dhokarh (poem, “If my love for you shall cease”), Millie Mader (Chapter 15, Life on Hold), Clayton Gill (Chapter 6 “and a half,” Fishing Derby). Meeting at Barnes & Noble West, 7:00 p.m.

January 9 (First-and-Third and Second-and-Fourth): New Year’s Resolution Party hosted by Jerry Peterson at his home in Janesville. RSVP notice and driving directions to come in the first January TWS News.

January 12 (Second-and-Fourth): Please let January’s TWS News editor know soonest: Cathy Riddle.

January 19 (First-and-Third) and January 26 (Second-and-Fourth): Please let Cathy know!

What We’re Reading

Alicia Connolly-Lohr reviews Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (Random House, 2009):

Honestly but regretfully, I can only give Let the Great World Spin (2009 National Book Award winner) a B-minus. It is a 349-page, avant-garde novel, more like a collection of first-person, long vignettes from the lives of numerous people living in New York in the 1970s. Linking the diverse people’s stories is the historically real scene of the man who, incredibly, walked a tightrope between the two World Trade Center towers in 1974. That event is the factual and symbolic, beautiful, transcending glue which connects the stories to each other. An Irish priest lives incognito with the poor and falls in love with a South American single-mother nurse. Mother-daughter prostitutes befriend the priest but a hippie-artist woman and her husband kill the priest and prostitute-daughter in a car crash as the priest, who is driving, cranes to see the tightrope walker. An Hispanic youth roams the city with a camera, seeking unique pictures, and catches a great shot of the tightrope walker. Computer geek groupies of a Viet Nam vet hack into telephone booths and speak to New Yorkers watching the tightrope walker live. A wealthy white Park Avenue woman befriends a black woman from the Bronx when they both join a support group for mothers whose sons died in Viet Nam. And there are more characters and more inter-connections.

I see a strong influence of Thornton Wilder’s The Bridge of San Louis Rey, the 1928 Pulitzer Prize winning novel that tells the story of the people who die with the breaking of a rope suspension bridge in Peru. For example, in Wilder’s book, a friar witnesses the incident and looks into the lives of the victims, seeking a cosmic answer for their deaths. Also, there are parallels with the 1989 movie, New York Stories, which comprises three separate personal dramas linked only by New York City itself.

The concept of Let the Great World Spin was creative enough but a bit too esoteric. An epic poem might have been a better format. It’s a matter of taste, but I dislike the New Yorkishness of this book. Stories and movies and novels that carry the reader into New York with all its grit, ugliness, crime, caste systems, injustice, prostitution, lost souls, broken systems, and the general inhuman morass have been done again and again. If it were not for the supplemental “A Reader’s Guide” at the end of the book — which includes an essay, “Walking an Inch Off the Ground,” an author interview, and discussion questions — I don’t think the average reader would grasp the philosophical ironies that the author intended, looking back through a post-9/ll lens.

Nevertheless, Colum McCann clearly is a highly skilled writer. His writing is extremely detailed and realistic word painting, right down to the toenails. He captures the voices of these diverse people very artfully. I would grant that McCann is a master of technique in creating scenery, story lines, dialogue and is very clever and creative in linking diverse life stories. While he is expert at weaving these things together, I would not call the book a masterpiece, as others have. I did not find the book to be delightfully entertaining, but it drew me, with intense curiosity, into the lives of these New Yorkers. It is a kind of page-turner, but in a rubber-necking way. McCann’s novel is like a close-up of a Jersey trash heap: It’s obviously ugly until the author points out the surprising, human beauty, which can still be found there. Let the Great World Spin is an elaborate, diamonds-in-the-rough story.

Words and Language

Tuesdays with Story members are familiar with “whodunit” genre of popular fiction. How about “wheredunit” mysteries? Found at Paul McFedries’ Word Spy website (http://www.wordspy.com): wheredunit, n. A murder mystery or detective story where the location of a crime plays a central role. Also: where-dunit.

Example citation: In some mystery novels, the wheredunit is as important as the whodunit. The locale, rather than merely serving as the backdrop to the plot, is an essential ingredient that lifts the story out of the ordinary, providing an ambience found nowhere else. — Robert Wade, “Blood flows in the wilderness as fast as it flows in the city,” The San Diego Union-Tribune, September 19, 2004

Asking Again: Invite a Pro from UW-Madison Writer’s Institute?  The last issue of TWS News included the question: What about getting one of the UW-Madison faculty who lead the Writers’ Institute — or more than one! — to a combined First-and-Third and Second-and-Fourth meeting? This editor would prefer not to invite one of the event organizers, rather, one of the authors, editors, or publishers who conduct the workshops. For example, Institute instructor and local author Marshall Cook has met with us in the past. What do you think?

Here’s a link to the Institute: http://www.dcs.wisc.edu/lsa/writing/awi. Let me know if there is interest: Clayton Gill.

Nathan Bransford, Literary Agent

How would a literary agent pitch his own book — for example, a “middle grade science fiction novel” — to a publisher without trying to call in favors or promising anything unethical? Read about Nathan Bransford’s experience with Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow (http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2009/09/introducing-jacob-wonderbar.html).

Also, Bransford’s December 21 blog is interesting. He confesses, “I have the new book jitters.”

He writes: “As many/most/all of you know, starting to write a new book can be a hugely daunting task. I liken it to staring down at a deep, dark abyss. You know it’s a long way down and it’s pretty scary to jump.

“Some writers I know just try and block out how much work they have ahead and just chip away as best they can. I always try and remind myself that it will get done eventually with just a little constant steady progress….” For more: http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2009/12/staring-at-abyss.html

Talk About Technique

From John Gardner’s The Art of Fiction:  “After the individual word, the writer’s most basic unit of expression is the sentence, the primary vehicle of all rhetorical devices…. Long sentences, one soon learns — and I mean not fake long sentences, wherein commas, semicolons, and colons could be changed into periods with no loss of emotional power or intellectual coherence, but real sentences — can be of many kinds, each with its own unique effects…. Short sentences give other effects. Also sentence fragments. They can be trenchant, punchy. They can suggest weariness. They can increase the drabness of a scene. Used for an unworthy reason, as here, they can be boring.”

The Last Word

The eagle-eye of Sheldon Ellestad spied this editor’s error in the last edition of TWS News. I wrote, “If the diagnosis (of ‘frugal fatigue’) is confirmed, you could be in even deeper economic downturn do-do (sic).”

Shel responded with tact: “Far be it from me to be a grammarian, but isn’t ‘do-do’ spelled doo-doo?”

Of course, Shel’s right: I meant “doo-doo” whereas “do-do” is the bird. See both terms applied at http://www.amusingfacts.com/facts/Detail/nauru-bird-droppings.html — Clayton