From the “I Wish I’d Written This” Department:
Margo Rabb’s “How to Tell a Story.”
Even though it’s not possible that Margo and I were in the same MFA program, this story feels so true to my experience (right down to the sentiment/sentimentality lecture) that I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find out that she was sitting right next to me all that time.
I discovered the story years ago, just before my third year in the program. I thought it was so dead on that I sent copies to classmates with the subject line, “OMG! Is she talking about us?!” In the years since, it has served as a reminder that I’m not the only person who had an F’ed up MFA experience. There are plenty more of us out there, and God Bless us all for surviving it.
5,000 Words Down . . .
…approximately 65,000 more to go.
I finished the first chapter of this thing on Monday morning. I’ve decided I like it better than writing a short story. For instance, at about 5,000 words in a short story, I’d be panicking about wrapping it up. Five thousand words is more than most lit journals will publish. Five thousand words is also usually outside of my comfort zone.
By the way, it should be noted that this is 5,000 words of crap. I’m okay with that. I just have to keep telling myself it’s a first draft and I’ll fix it later.
I’m twittering my progress here. It’s a protected twitter feed, but if you’d like to keep up, drop a request and I’ll add you.
Linkage: What Makes Bad Fiction
Ward Six writer J. Robert Lennon recently posted a list of what makes fiction bad (in his opinion) and invited others to share their complaints. I tried coming up with my own list of complaints, but could only think of one:
Fiction that puts artiface or style over the story. There’s a book I started reading recently that had an unusual narrator. That part didn’t bother me, but this narrator was frequently interrupted by vague poetic observations that were usually written in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. These observations were so intrusive, they kept pulling me out of the world of the story and reminding me that the author was trying something very clever. I hate that. I like to be lost in a story. I like to forget that a novel even has an author, so if the story is mainly a conduit for the style (instead of vice versa) it’s going to leave me cold.
Anyway, I encourage both readers and writers to check out the original list and the discussion that follows. I think we can all benefit from being able to talk about why we don’t like a novel or story instead of simply saying that we didn’t like it.
Linkage: A Novel Take On An Ending
Another of my favorite writers, Richard Russo, wrote an editorial for The Washington Post about the Eliot Spitzer issue. It’s a great read for writers and non-writers. In a time when the news media gets away with drawing caricatures of their subjects, Russo reminds us that it’s the fiction writer’s job to get beyond the surface and examine the complexities of character. It doesn’t escape me that the fiction writer may be closer to portraying the truth than the CNN reporter. Just something to think about.
(via The Millions)
