Creative Writing Corner

How to Get Someone Excited About Reading

I've recently received a new tutoring assignment; I'll be working with a high school student whose parents want to get him improving his general reading skills. Basically, I've been given completely free rein to help this student improve both comprehension and ease when reading, from non-fiction essays to any type of fiction. It's daunting because of how open-ended the goals are, but it's also exciting. And it's gotten me thinking about how I as a tutor and as a writer can get a person excited about reading.

As a writer who can't live without the heart-deep pleasure of the written word, I realize I'm not exactly typical in my deep love for and facility with books. Tons and tons of people find reading a chore or an onerous task. While some people may never enjoy reading, I do firmly believe that a large majority of people who think they don't like to read have just never been given the right books to be excited about. That gives me the challenging task of finding the texts that will light this particular student's inner flame.

After the jump: what reading I'm starting with.

How Experimental is Too Experimental?

  Image from Scienceblogs.com.

As the image at right shows, I am of the opinion that it is definitely possible to go too far when trying to "push the envelope" and be experimental in just about any art form. Art has shown its willingness to try just about anything in the name of experimentation, from choosing strange media to paint in, to not painting anything at all. Writing has its own experimental side as well; many modernist and post-modern books play freely with language, making up words and throwing grammar out the window. Some of it is revelatory and ground-breaking; some of it is tedious and nonsensical. The problem is figuring out which is which.

Really, the line of what is acceptable is a very subjective one and lies somewhere different for every writer and reader. Perhaps these blank canvases at right speak to you as a powerful artistic statement. Perhaps not. I do think that when you're writing an experimental work, it's important to keep asking yourself what your goals are. What are you trying to do? And are you sacrificing your artistic integrity in the name of randomness?

Randomness in work is often where I draw the line. It's fine for a work to conclude that in its view, life is arbitrary and meaningless; that's a legitimate point of view that can find artistic expression. But when the writing itself resorts to randomness, my line has been crossed. When writers scatter random syllables across a page, or let a relationship fall apart for completely arbitrary reasons -- these are cases in which the writer has sacrificed story and plot for the simple rush of being stereotypically experimental. When working a new avant-garde piece of your own, be sure to ask yourself where your line is, and keep asking yourself whether the latest flourish you've put into the piece is valuable to your story, or is just there for its own sake.

Photo of the Week

, originally uploaded by inverselive.

This photo has a strong sense of both character and place. There's a lot to describe, but it's just mysterious enough to let you run wild with your own ideas. Good luck!

Is Pretty Writing Enough?

  Your writing may be pretty.
But is it important and meaningful?

We writers spend a heck of a lot of time "prettifying" our language. We work like dogs to get those smooth, fluid sentences, those unexpectedly apt metaphors, those vivid descriptions. These are important aspects of becoming a good writer -- I would argue that writing anything well is crucial to being a writer, rather than just someone who was lucky enough to stumble upon a good idea. Writing is a craft, and execution is key.

At the same time, there is a need for subject matter that moves readers. No matter how beautifully you write about stepping in gum, there just isn't enough material there to move readers and to keep your writing -- and your name -- in their heads. So writing is not only a craft, but a process of careful and wise choices. You've got to pick a subject matter that is in people's minds, or that people would find interesting to read about today. More than that, you've got to pick subject matter that has important issues wrapped up in it, or important questions that people are asking today. It may not have to be ripped from the headlines, but it should still incorporate some subject matter that people have concerns about, or are interested in, today. It's got to be something that moves people because of its relevance to their situation.

After the jump: what you in particular bring to your writing.

Preparing a Professional Book

As part of the culmination of my senior thesis, my first major book-length work, I'm trying to get it bound in a professional-looking way to give to family and friends. It's a really fun project to see my work turning into a paperback, with all of the design and layout options entirely up to me. On top of that, I'm lucky to have an artist for a sister, who is very design-conscious.

My sister studied feminism and art in college, and as a result she knew a lot of great feminist artists to look at when considering the cover art for the book. (Of course, I don't have permission to reproduce this art, so this copy of the book will not be for sale.) My sister introduced me to an artist from the 70's named Sylvia Sleigh, who has many lovely, humanistic portraits of women. This is exactly what I needed for my book cover; because my stories are all about women, I wanted a good portrait image for the cover. When I'm done designing the cover, I'll post a jpg of the design I've made, which is incorporating a cropped portion of one of Sleigh's paintings.

As for the binding, I'm using the online service Lulu, which seems very affordable and has a nice amount of customization available. I can get my book in a nice paperback size (A5), have glossy color front and back covers, and quality paper in a perfect binding for just about $11 a book. It's a bit of an expense, but I want to send a copy of the book as a present to all of those many people who have inspired and helped me with my writing over the years, including a high school English teacher I'm still in touch with, several college professors, and of course, the parents and grandparents. I'm excited to see my work in a professional-looking format -- even if it's not appearing in bookstores yet!

Make Your Characters Agents

  Make your character be a force in his own life!

A common mistake of beginning writers is to craft a story in which bad things happen to your main character. Sure, that's the framework for many a classic story, from the Odyssey to Oliver Twist, but one thing these stories do is make their characters agents. The main action of the story is not just a character reacting to bad stuff that's happening.

Say you have the classic death-in-the-family scenario. At first you may have your character doing a lot of reacting, feeling grief, sadness, confusion, etc. Those reactions themselves don't make a story. A story needs change to occur, and it needs the main character to make choices, whether for better or for worse. Reacting is often what we see movie characters doing; it's just enough to sustain a movie story, because it is often overwhelmed by spectacle, drama, and fight scenes. In writing, however, it's all about the character and the way he or she shapes the story.

It is the character who must be subordinate to your story, not the other way around, and the best stories are ones in which the character shapes his or her own destiny. You may win a little sympathy for your character if you have a series of unfortunate events happen to her, so to speak, but your readers will get bored and your story will suffer if the character doesn't reach up and grab the reins. I think I can boil it down to a statement I'm sure to repeat many times in the future: stories are about choices. Let your character make surprising or tragic choices, and you will inspire and grab your reader.

Should a Writer Worry in a Bad Economy?

Everyone knows the U.S. economy has entered a long dark tunnel, and at the same time, no one knows when we'll start seeing the light at the end of it. Jobs are being shed like cat hair, and in times like these it's the people in what are considered 'non-essential' careers who have to start worrying about what's going to happen. Sales of luxury goods, whether it's fine wine or high-end cars, are necessarily going to be declining. But does this apply to artists as well, or to writers, often under-appreciated, usually underpaid, and possibly under threat?

Let me first say that I'm not even close to being an expert on what will happen to those in the writing profession; as a writing student and passionate observer of the writing world, however, I can offer my observations and opinions. Even while big old-time publishing companies like Random House are slashing jobs and cutting the numbers of books they review, there still is a tremendous interest and hunger for books, particularly fiction. The big fuss around Amazon's Kindle is proof of this: everyone's going wild! Selling out a product by the millions! All because it is a fancy new tool...for reading books! This is good news for books and for those writing them, not bad news. If technology and convenience is what it takes, then it just might cause more people to read -- and they will read more.

The other thing to consider is the eagerness for writing jobs on the internet, whether it's writing copy, blogging, or reporting. The jobs pay abysmally, but there is still a lot of demand out there for people who can fashion a good turn of phrase. We consume more writing these days than any other time in history, I believe; it's just that not all of it is fiction or creative, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. As long as creative writers like you and me are willing to make a little dough by writing nonfiction, I do think there will be a place for us on the internet.

In conclusion, I think the economic downturn may make it more difficult to be a full-time writer. Writing does not, but really has never, paid well, except for the lucky few bestsellers at the top. But with a little bit of this and a little bit of that, a story sold here, a column there, we'll survive in dribs and drabs. The key is versatility; writers, I think, can outlast this storm.

Photo of the Week

Life in twenty-first century, originally uploaded by Lazyousuf.

I love the action of this photograph -- the hurried nature of the little bird, running briskly along with no time for the dramatic landscape behind. Does it inspire you this week?

Flying Solo

Last week I had some time to myself, as most of my friends were either away or hard at work on their senior theses. I decided to make the most of this time alone and do alone-stuff: seeing a couple of movies no one else was interested in, going for walks, and getting some solid writing done.

Ultimately the weekend was a success and I did see those movies and get that writing done (as well as doing some spring cleaning of my dorm room), but I was extremely glad for the time to be over. It was just enough time for me to remember that time alone to work is precious, but not talking or interacting with others tends to dull our sensations. As John Steinbeck wrote, being alone for long periods of time makes us "revert to a pleasure-pain basis." What he meant was that we need other people to give us the finer shadings of emotion and sensation. Shame, jealousy, mental stimulation, even elation are more difficult to experience when alone, and instead we feel duller, reverting to simple sensations like hunger or fatigue. I could only write well by coasting on the fumes of my previous interactions with people; too much time alone, while helping you shape your thoughts, can leave you with only a fuzzy idea of the way others act and think.

Getting time to fly solo is an important part of writing, and in fact, writers spend more time alone than most other professions. Even other artists often have more interaction with people; artists, for example, usually require models of some sort, even if that is a sort of one-way interaction. Writers could theoretically do their work in a cave, but I think the subtlety of our writing would suffer for it. So remember to get out there, go to the party, babysit the neighbor's kids, and always be observing how others behave. We need others in order to refresh our stores of compassion and curiosity.

Add a Parallel Story Line to Your Story

In a recent meeting with my thesis advisor we were talking about a story I had spent a lot of time reworking. This story had gone through a lot of manifestations; its setting had been changed, several plot points had been finessed, and the ending had been dramatically reworked. They all seemed to be the right decisions and the story was really much better -- but my advisor thought something was still missing.

My advisor told me my story needed another dimension that would both enrich the main storyline and heighten its urgency. It needed a parallel storyline, one that had similar things at stake, that would make what was at stake in the main story stand out all the more clearly. The parallel storyline has appeared in countless literature classics (I'm thinking especially Hamlet), but it also happens in more modern stories. For example, we can see a kind of parallel storyline in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. Of course, Clarissa Dalloway is the main focus of our concern, but periodically we get these curious cutaway moments to the story of the shell-shocked soldier who has returned from World War I. He is deeply traumatized but still has flashes of brilliance and can't stand being treated like a helpless hospital patient by those around him.

At first it is unclear what his story has to do with Mrs. Dalloway's. But when he commits suicide, and a party guest of Mrs. Dalloway's tells her about this, suddenly the life she was thinking idly about discarding becomes real and vital, important and precious. All of the concerns she has had over the course of the day have become intensified and clarified by the tragic end of this parallel story.

After the jump: how to add another storyline to your own work.