Writer’s Mail
Tuesdays with Story
April 21, 2016
BITS AND BOPS
Last night I attended a presentation by Henry David Huang (Madame Butterfly, Chinglish), who is a Pulitzer nominated and Tony award winning playwright . He is a brilliant writer and speaker, and enlighten the crowd in a number of ways. One take away from the talk was about a technique for tapping into the sub-conscience mind where the really good stuff festers. The technique he learned from Sam Shepard (Top Gun, Steel Magnolias), was to write as fast as you can. This technique prevents the conscience mind from constantly criticizing and self editing. I had to write a one page paper summarizing the talk, so I decided to try the technique. Before I thought of trying the technique, I stared at the blank page wondering what the hell am I going to write. Then the idea hit me to try just writing fast. I quickly blasted through three pages in eight minutes and at the end I was amazed at what I had written. Of course there were plenty of missed commas and a lack of structural flow, but there was great content that I had recalled from the previous night. Not sure if anyone has tried this but I found it very useful.
Who’s up next . . .
April 26:
May 3: Pat Edwards (???), Eva Mays (chapter 4, Dhuoda), Bob Kralapp (short story, part 2, “Wings”), Amber Boudreau (???), and Kashmira Sheth (YA novel chapters, Journey to Swaraj), and John Schneller (???).
May 10:
May 17: Mike Austin (chapter, Before I Leave), Millie Mader (poem), Hannah Marshall (poems), Kashmira Sheth (chapters, Journey to Swaraj), Judith McNeil (short story, part 2, “Just Visiting”), Cindi Dyke (chapter 26, North Road), Jerry Peterson (short story, part 2, “Digging in the Dirt”).
READING ITEMS:
It happened Tuesday evening . . .
Amber Boudreau shared her experiences at Writers Institute with the group. On May 3, Lisa McDougal and John Schneller will share theirs.
Now to the critique roundup:
Mike Austin (chapters 1-3, Before I Leave) –
While everyone in the group seemed to enjoy the prose in, “Before I Leave,” many felt that a direction didn’t come soon enough, or even at all after I tried to summarize what the story is about. The very valid point was made that the narrator’s friend should come into the story sooner, if the story is mainly about the two of them. This has encouraged me to rethink the beginning, and I have actually jotted down a different beginning, though I really don’t want to throw out the walk down the railroad tracks.
Okay, and even as I typed this, I think I have a solution that doesn’t throw it out. Thanks, everyone!
Hannah Marshall (2 poems, “Adult Scupt Class” and “Watching the Eclipse”) –
My first poem, Adult Sculpt Class, was enjoyable but some noted that the tone of the central section was very different than that of the beginning and end, and also too much telling, not enough showing. It was also suggested that I remove the quotes. My second poem, Watching the Eclipse, was well received, though the meaning seemed somewhat obfuscated. I got some suggestions for changes to mostly the first stanza, and Pat suggested I bring back in the animal constellations in the final stanza.
Kashmira Sheth (YA novel chapters 7-10, Journey to Swaraj) –
The group commented on Kashmira story Journey to Swaraj, chapters 7-10. Jerry asked what lathi was and Cindi wondered about Veena’s attitude toward Khimo, the gardner and animal keeper. Pat wondered if the salt march was portrayed realistically in movie Gandhi.
Cindi Dyke (chapter 24-25, scene rewrite, North Road) –
Comments centered around ideas to break up back story and long segments of dialogue. For dialogue breaks, Jerry suggested thinking about conversations people have when they are talking. They ask questions and speak in short phrases. Written dialogue should model that format. Lisa and Kashmira suggested characters could be engaging in some activity as the back story is being revealed. Their actions could be woven throughout the dialogue to break it up.
Bob Kralapp (short story, part 1, “Wings”) –
Jerry Peterson (short story, part 1, “Digging in the Dirt”) – Randy Slagle and others liked the wit and wry humor of Riley Denley, like that of Myrna Loy’s character Nora Charles in The Thin Man movies. Pat Edwards spotted a problem that has to be fixed in the manuscript. The fabric used to line caskets after 1950 has to be polyester, not satin which can be woven from silk.
Eva Mays from the previous meeting:
I really value the critiques given at TWS. Last week many members drew my attention to some of my bad writing habits, namely overusing the infinitive tense and the passive voice. These are deeply ingrained habits and I will have to work hard to learn how to write without them, but I know once I get over this hump it will really improve the quality of my writing.
On writing a memoir . . .
Film critic Roger Ebert opened chapter 2 of his memoir, Life Itself, this way:
Many years ago during a drinking dinner at the house of sociologist Howard Higman in Boulder, he refused to serve me dessert until I had heard him explain the difference between the European and American ideas of family. In Europe, he said, one’s family roots went down, down, into the past. In America, they went out, out into the society. “An Englishman knows who his great-great-great-grandfather was,” Howard said. “An American knows who’s on his bowling team.”
By his definition, I am an American. I didn’t realize until I began to write this book how little I know about my ancestors on either side of the family. It is a custom that all memoirs contain a chapter about the author’s descent from long lines of Italian aristocrats and Mongolian yurt-dwelling camel hair jobbers, with an American bootlegger or Nazi sympathizer thrown in. I will disappoint.
*Ebert was an only child with few cousins. He knew his parents, his aunts and uncles, and one grandparent and that was it for contemporaries and ancestors. He was, by Higman’s definition, like most of us, an American. How about you?
Our Writers Mail editors . . .
For April: Randy Slagel
For May: Lisa McDougal
He said it . . .
“English is a language that simply cannot be fixed, nor can its use ever be absolutely laid down. It changes constantly; it grows with an almost exponential joy. It evolves eternally; its words alter their senses and their meanings subtly, slowly, or speedily according to fashion and need.”
– Simon Winchester, The Meaning of Everything
Tuesdays with Story 
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