Tag Archives: writing

Three Requirements of a Book Review (?)

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In a post entitled, “How Not to Write a Book Review,” Robert Pinsky, who has been writing reviews since typewriter days, discusses a famous and venomous book review a critic leveled at John Keats in 1818. http://www.slate.com/id/2299346/pagenum/all/#p2.  The review, by Irishman, John Wilson Croker, founder of modern political conservatism, became known as “the review that killed Keats.”  Croker really is nasty, but by himself,would not inspire me to write a blog post.

What I found noteworthy in the article are the basic principles Pinsky has used for decades to write his reviews.  In the 1970’s, when he wrote freelance for newspapers, one of them gave him a mimeographed style sheet with three rules  for every book review:

1. The review must tell what the book is about.
2. The review must tell what the book’s author says about that thing the book is about.
3. The review must tell what the reviewer thinks about what the book’s author says about that thing the book is about.

At first reading, the list seems to apply to non-fiction more than fiction.  Novelists don’t really say things about what their books are about except during interviews, but if we are less literal, do these criteria work?  As an experiment, let’s consider Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, which I’m choosing because it’s pretty well known.

Criterion #1 is really the synopsis:  A lonely orphan discovers he is a wizard and finds allies as well as a deadly enemy at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  I like to set a story in context with (relatively) objective information.  For the first Potter, I might discuss characteristics of middle-grade fantasy – a magical world must be internally consistent, but does not require a detailed explanation:  some people are wizards and some are muggles, and that’s how it is.  This is common in middle grade, while adult fantasy needs more – a theory of mutant genes or something like that.  This first criterion, a summary of what the book is about, is essential for any review.

Criterion #2, is phrased in a strange manner.  An author writing a history of the Third Reich will have things to “say about that thing that the book is about,” but J.K. Rowling doesn’t.  For fiction, I interpret this as detailing what the author does to flesh out the plot and make it dynamic.  Rowling’s main characters, for instance, are so well drawn that they feel like people we’ve known.  You feel like you’ve met Hermione, Snape, and Hagrid, whether or not you have.  In addition, this is where I would speak of the richness of the world of Hogwarts, and maybe research a brief history of academies of magic in fiction and legend.

Criterion #3 is a tongue twister that boils down to my take on #1 and #2.  For Potter, I might talk about how it evokes the longing for connection; how sometimes we all feel like orphans longing for a virtual family  of kindred spirits like Ron, Harry, and Hermione.  How Hogwarts is an endless world our imaginations want to explore.  In other words, if I can find words for my deepest reactions, presumably – hopefully, others will know or echo what I am talking about.

I enjoy reading and writing book review as do a lot of bloggers I follow.  The exact phrasing of Pinsky’s rules seem a little too cutesy, but they got me thinking and I can come up with lots of ways to conceptualize the same thing. Here is one, off the top of my head:

1.  What is the story about?
2. How does the author make it uniquely their own?
3. Does it work for me?

Can you write an effective review with less than these basic criteria?  Are there others that will make it more effective?  Is it possible to do all of this and still wind up in left field?

Thank You

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I usually think of summer as the laid back season, but not this year.  The last few weeks have been a blur of major construction projects around the home, remedial training for our two rescue dogs, and unwanted interuptions such as the seeming immanent failure of Mary’s hard drive.  There hasn’t been a lot of time for quiet reflection, so I was all the more surprised and grateful when the good people at WordPress chose a recent post of mine to be Freshly Pressed:  https://thefirstgates.com/2011/06/27/a-year-of-blogging/.  I appreciate everyone who stopped by to look and those who left a comment.  I spent some wonderful hours reading and responding to comments and looking at blogs I had never seen before.

The comments that moved me most came from other bloggers, some just starting out, who said they found encouragement in what I had written.  No feedback I have ever gotten for writing means more to me than that.  A few said they were dipping their toes in the water, afraid their writing wasn’t good enough.  I think every writer feels like that on occasion.  Here is what T.S. Eliot, my favorite 20th century poet, had to say on the matter:

So here I am, in the middle way, having had twenty-years –
Twenty years largely wasted, the years of l’entre deux guerres –
Trying to learn to use words, and every attempt
Is a wholly new start, and a different kind of failure
Because one has only learnt to get the better of words
For the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which
One is no longer disposed to say it.

But Eliot doesn’t stop there, and neither should we.  He goes on to say,  For us, there is only the trying.  The rest is not our business.  Elsewhere he said, Take no thought for the harvest, but only for the proper sowing. 

 At 18, in my first semester of college, I saw a phrase that has never left me:  the invocation at the start of Homer’s Odyssey:  Sing in me muse, and through me tell the story…  I remember and sometimes use that phrase because it reminds me that the ego, the small self of “me” and “mine” that worries about results is not the self that can bring them about.

Does anyone else find there is something impersonal about creativity?  It feels very much as if a muse or spirit of inspiration is there to take over the keyboard, if I can just get “me” out of the chair.  Carl Jung said it another way:  “I realized my thoughts were not really my own, but were more like animals I encountered on a walk through the forest.”

One summer when I did some freewriting every day I made a startling discovery – if I allow myself to be lousy, I seldom am.  This doesn’t mean there won’t be editing afterward if I find that one of my seed ideas is worth expanding.  It just means that while I am writing, everything goes better if I’m not looking over my own shoulder.

Several people who commented here said the same thing – their blogging took off when they realized they didn’t need to be perfect.  Thanks again to everyone who stopped by to encourage my imperfect progress!

Six Writer’s Digest Short Story Competitions

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I just received a notice from Writer’s Digest, announcing six short story competitions in six different genres:  http://tinyurl.com/3bdoueq.

In each genre, the first prize is $1000, plus $100 worth of Writer’s Digest books, and the 2012 Novel & Short Story Market.  Second prize is $500, $100 worth of books and the Novel & Short Story Market.  Honorable Mentions receive the Novel & Short Story Market.  The three top entries in each genre will be published in “a Writer’s Digest outlet.”

Stories must be previously unpublished and not accepted by any other publication at the time of submission.  WD retains “one time publication rights” for the “outlet” mentioned above, their website or magazine, I imagine, though they are not specific.  Entries are $20 each, and the maximum length for all genres is 4000 words.  The genre competitions have different deadlines:

Science Fiction/Fantasy – Sept. 15, 2011
Thriller                                – Sept. 15, 2011
Young Adult                       – Oct. 1, 2011
Romance                             – Oct. 15, 2011
Crime                                    – Oct. 22, 2011
Horror                                  – Oct. 31, 2011

Short story competitions pick up in the fall, so here is a chance to explore something off your beaten track.  It was a dark and story night, y’all!

Disruptive Technologies and the End of Borders.

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In the electronics industry, one of our truisms was that change is the only constant.  We also talked and thought a lot about “disruptive technologies.”  The term was coined by Clayton Christensen in a 1995 article and elaborated in his 1997 book, The Innovator’s Dilemma.  Even well managed firms (and Borders does not seem to have been one of these), can be blindsided by failing to recognize “the next big thing.”  This is because its first manifestations tend to be clunky and crude.

The makers of fine coaches were probably not too worried when the first loud, dirty, and expensive horseless carriages appeared.  The empty factories and smokestacks in Rochester, NY are mute witnesses to Kodak’s failure to recognize the threat that digital photography posed to their chemical business.  Tower Books, which I loved, failed to develop an online presence, and Borders, among other things, was late to the eReader party.

There is no good news in this for anyone, least of all the 11,000 employees who are out of a job.  Or everyone who found wonderful things while browsing the stacks.  Even the idea that disappearing big-box bookstores will give indies a second chance seems unlikely.  One writer interviewed on NPR, whose books are carried by Borders, suggested that future bookstores may resemble what you find in airports:  “cookbooks, vampire novels, and celebrity tell-alls.”  http://www.npr.org/2011/07/19/138499967/mich-book-chain-borders-closing-after-40-years

I remember a college town where a wonderful independent bookstore closed soon after a Borders opened. Now it has come full circle and both are gone.  All I can think of are these words of the late George Harrison: All things must pass.

Harry Potter Fan Fiction

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Harry, Ron, and Hermione in The Sorcerer's Stone, 2001

Fan fiction did not begin with Harry Potter or the internet.  According to Lev Grossman’s article, “The Boy Who Lived Forever,” in the July 18, issue of Time, xeroxed fanzines appeared after the premier of “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” in 1964, and really took off with “Star Trek.”

In the broader sense, telling original stories with borrowed settings and characters is nothing new at all.  Homer did not create the Trojan War, Achilles, or Odysseus.  Shakespeare did not make up either King Lear or Henry V.  But with the internet and Harry Potter, fan fiction has exploded.  There are more than 2 million pieces on fanfiction.net and more than a quarter of these are based on Potter – everything from short stories to full length novels.

The final movie will not be the end of original Potter creations

Grossman explodes most of the stereotypes of those who write and read these tales.  One 38 year old writer and actress says it’s like character improvisation.  A best selling fantasy writer whose novels have been optioned by Peter Jackson says, “Fanfic writing isn’t work, it’s joyful play.”  This raises the key question of why writer’s of fiction write.  Joyful play, a platform, and an appreciative audience are there – and it’s not like many creators of “original” stories get to leave their day-jobs.

Well known authors fall on both sides of the unanswered copyright issue.  J.K. Rowling and Stephanie Meyer encourage new fiction based on their characters and worlds.  Orson Scott Card, Anne Rice, and George R.R. Marin, author of A Game of Thrones do not, and threaten lawsuits.  It may or may not be coincidence that the authors Lev Grossman names as supporting fanfic are more recent and write for a younger audience than those who are in opposition and write for adults.  So far, all cease and desist requests have been honored, so there are no legal precedents in the world of fiction, though court cases involving music have been liberal in their interpretation of what constitutes “fair use.”

This begs the interesting question of who a character or world belongs to.  Groosman says that until recently:

Writers weren’t the originators of the stories they told; they were just the temporary curators of them.  Real creation was something the gods did…Today the way we think of creativity is dominated by Romantic notions of individual genius and originality and late-capitalist concepts of intellectual property, under which artists are businesspeople whose creations are commodities they have for sale.

Personally, I have always loved the poet’s invocation at the start of The Odyssey:  Sing in me, muse, and through me tell the story… 

In my experience, the “I” does not invent worlds or characters.  Whether you call it the muse, the gods, or the collective unconscious, fictional worlds and imaginal people come from somewhere else.  With a bit of luck and humility, the “I” may get to witness what happens, and may even get adept at finding new rabbit holes.  To me, the idea of “owning” a “product” of imagination smacks of hubris.

There is no real data on whether fanfic hurts an author economically.  Intuitively, I can only imagine it benefits Rowling and Meyer.  I hope so.  Creativity is creativity, regardless of what spark ignites it.  I’m thinking of dropping by some of the sites to see what these authors are up to.  For those who write for the joy of it, I wish them a lot more.

Victory to the Outsiders?

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In 2009, 288,355 books were traditionally published in the US, and 764,448 were self-published.  The numbers for 2010 were similar, though I don’t have the exact figures handy.  A million new titles a year.  No wonder my book queue does not grow any shorter!

As the sheer quantity of books in print grows, the amount of advice for writers seems to grow too.  Four smiling faces stare at me from the cover of the new Writer’s Digest, next to titles of the following articles I will find inside (this is their “10” issue):

  • 10 Markets Open to New Writers
  • 10 Writing Myths Busted
  • 10 Ways to Start Scenes Strong
  • Bestselling Secrets for 10 Top Genres
  • 10 Ways to Stretch your Creativity
  • 10 Tips for Beating the Fear of Rejection
  • Take your Writing on the Road:  10 Inspiring Destinations.

Last week at the gym, I had a minor epiphany.  The talking-heads were doing their thing on CNN, and I realized the TV financial advisors and those who offer writing advice have a lot in common.  They can inspire; they can stimulate the flow of ideas; at the right moment, they can spark individual creativity, but no one who depends on them, who tries to practice their often contradictory advice is going to do better than average in either arena.

After my workout, I took a book out to the pool area for a read and a swim.  Summer poolside reading is a pleasure I jealously guard.  No reading to self-educate.  This is where I let stories carry me away.  Where I forget the million titles a year for the one I hold in my hand.

This time at the pool, I was rereading passages from the wonderful, Emerald Atlas, by John Stephens, that I reviewed here:  https://thefirstgates.com/2011/06/08/the-emerald-atlas-by-john-stephens-a-book-review/.  This time, because of my earlier thought train, I noticed all the rules Stephens broke in his novel.

Common “wisdom” says that not only is the omniscient viewpoint passe, but it confuses middle-grade readers – and yet here it was, masterfully executed and just right for the story.  Similarly, the consensus on the proper age for middle-grade protagonists is 12, yet  Kate is 14.

Fortunately for us, John Stephens had a successful career writing for television before he started his novel, so I’m guessing he hasn’t read how-to articles for writers in quite a while.  For here is a built in contradiction – if a million books are published each year, and the brass ring goes to those that step”out of the box,” we are not going to get there by heeding advice on how to get into the box!

I want to be very clear:  I am not disparaging learning one’s craft – badly handled omniscient viewpoints aren’t pretty.  What I am saying is that if we slow down and listen, won’t our stories tell us what they want?  If stories come from deep in the part of ourselves that dreams, isn’t it somewhat rude to meet them with an armful of rules?

I find myself wondering how many truly original novels were written by outsiders, people who bypassed the whole seductive promise of 10 Ways to Break Into Print.  Suzanne Collins, author of The Hunger Games was a TV writer like John Stephens before she wrote her novel.

Stephanie Meyer had not even written a short story before Twilight and had considered going to law school because she felt she had no talent for writing.  The idea for her vampire tale came to her in a dream, and she started writing because, after the birth of her first child, she wanted to stay at home and be a full time mom.  Echoes of the now-famous story of J.K. Rowling.

My cousin knew Jane Auel as a neighbor in a wooded Portland suburb, and never dreamed she was writing Clan of the Cave Bear at the kitchen table.  I doubt that the Inklings tried to tell Tolkien the proper age for Hobbits – 30 rather than 40.

What I am suggesting here – mulling over aloud, actually – is that all our lists of 10 Ways to do things are far less important than finding ways to remain Outsiders.  Outsiders who can dream without any fetters.  It isn’t easy, as anyone who even attempts it discovers, for the promise of an article or a friend’s advice on how to break into print can be as seductive as the lotus blossoms to the men of Odysseus’s crew.  Yet I am coming to believe it’s necessary to learn how to drop it all for extended periods of time.

For as the great Japanese teacher of Zen, Shunryu Suzuki said, “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.”

Midnight in Paris: A Movie Review

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https://i0.wp.com/cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width/hash/48/f6/48f651f5883697520af2afd5b5372777.jpg

Midnight in Paris, written and directed by Woody Allen, is a delightful romantic comedy and another of Allen’s meditations on the relationship between art and life, this time with time-travel in the mix.  Want to see Ernest Hemingway speaking exactly the way he wrote?  Kathy Bates holding forth as Gertrude Stein?  Want to see an insufferable pseudo-intellectual get his comeuppance, and the right couple go walking off together in Paris in the rain?

Gil (Owen Wilson), a successful screenwriter visits Paris with his fiance, Inez (Rachel McAdams), and her family.  Gil dreams of moving to Paris to finish his novel about a man who opens a nostalgia shop.  Inez wants her parents to help her talk sense into Gil and get him to settle down in Malibu.  Gil wants Inez to walk with him in Paris in the rain.  Inez tells him not to be silly, they would get wet.

After a wine tasting with Paul (Michael Sheen), the sort of pompous know-it-all that Allen loves to parody, Gil decides to walk home by himself.  At the stroke of midnight, an old-time car pulls up beside Gil.  Revelers invite him in and transport him to a party where he meets F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, who introduce him to Hemingway, who takes him to Gertrude Stein, who agrees to read his novel.

Even Inez notices how strangely Gil begins to act – sequestering himself to write by day and taking long walks at night.  He tries to demonstrate how he travels into the past, but she stalks off just before midnight and misses the car when it pulls up.  Gil meets Pablo Picasso and his beautiful mistress, Adriana (Marion Cotillard), who instantly captures his heart.

While shopping for furniture with Inez, Gil meets a sweet young antiques dealer, Gabrielle (Lea Seydoux), who shares his love of the 20’s and Cole Porter.  He discovers a battered copy of Adriana’s diary and finds a loving passage describing himself.  Returning to the past, he confesses his love to Adriana, who has left Picasso.  That night an ancient coach pulls up to carry the pair to her Golden Age, La Belle Epoque.  They stop at Moulin rouge and meet Toulouse Lautrec, Degas, and Paul Gauguin.

Adriana begs him to stay, but as Gil sees the famous painters dreaming of the Renaissance, he sees through his Golden Age illusion and decides to return to his present.  On the way, he stops off to see Gertrude Stein, who has finished his novel.  She likes it but thinks it needs a touch of the supernatural.

Back in his own time, he confronts Inez about her affair with Paul (Hemingway brought it to his attention).  She and her family leave.  Gil is left by himself in a storm, on his own, in the “ordinary” streets of Paris – which might not be so ordinary.  He runs into Gabrielle who loves to walk in the rain and says she would like it very much if he walked her home.

My brief description does not do justice to story and all the whimsical sub-plots – like the detective that Inez’s father hires to follow Gil, who makes a wrong turn and winds up lost in the court of Louis XIV.  This is a delightful movie.  If the story seems at all intriguing, I guarantee you will laugh out loud during the movie and walk out with a smile on your face.

Writer’s Digest Monthly Short-Short Story Contest

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In addition to a number of annual contests, Writer’s Digest hosts a monthly short-short fiction challenge.  They provide a prompt, often just an opening sentence.  Interested writers submit a story of 750 words or less.  The WD judges select five finalists, and the winner is chosen by votes of registered members of the Writer’s Digest forum.  You need to register for the forum, but once you do, you can read the current finalists as well as the stories of past winners, which is an education in itself. There is no money involved but winnning entries are posted in the print magazine and on writersdigest.com

http://writersdigest.com/YourStory/

I had the notion that I could never write this kind of story until last fall, when I really needed a mini-vacation from my major project.  It was mid-October so my thoughts turned to ghosts, and over the next few months I wrote several very short stories.  Now I find them rewarding, like quick sketches, like a way to test ideas or try out another genre.  A chance to visit Mars, or Paris, or Hoboken.

Save the link.  One day it may be just the change or breath of fresh air you’ve been wanting.