Of Readers and Reviews

Of Readers and Reviews

Find your favourite first page. Think about why it's your favourite. What about it captures your attention?
Is it the first line? The first paragraph? Is it the tone or an image that it creates? Think about the feeling that page evokes in you and see if you can identify what makes you love it.

For many twenty-somethings like me, the page above was the first page of our lives. I was seven when the first book was published, eight when I read them, eleven when I realised that I was doomed to muggledom and seventeen when I did my maths coursework on 'How Eponymous is Harry Potter?' I, along with millions of other youngsters-turned-teens-turned-young-adults, listened to the lovely voice of Stephen Fry every night, and in my case The Prisoner of Azkaban all the way to Scotland and back. Similarly, I was one of those lined up in Tesco at midnight after a Shakira concert in my fervour for Book Four, then again for Five, Six and even dressed up in full wizarding garb for book Seven. I have all the receipts for the books tucked into a scrap book and I found a letter my cousin and I stowed in an empty shampoo bottle, asking Sirius Black to save us from Voldemort and telling him that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had shrunk Harry Potter into a dolls house. 

Some say JK.Rowling cast a spell over a generation - our generation - but it's more like she overwhelmed us with the magic of her writing. As you can probably tell from the shampoo-bottle-letter, she inspired us and begged us to use the imaginations that other books failed to encourage. That's not to say that all over books failed, far from it, but something special happened on that train when JK scribbled her first words onto the billion-pound-napkin. The origins are described as if some strange spirit dubbed Rowling worthy and she claims that:

"I had been writing almost continuously since the age of six but I had never been so excited about an idea before. I simply sat and thought, for four (delayed train) hours, and all the details bubbled up in my brain, and this scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who did not know he was a wizard became more and more real to me." 

There are a couple of things that we then have to think about - she wasn't given a book deal immediately, it was a long hard slog and a lot of determination that finally succeeded in putting Harry Potter on book shelves everywhere. Similarly, Harry Potter was begun in 1990 (the year I was born) and it took seven years before the first one was in print. If there's ever a story about 'Don't-Give-Up' when it comes to writing, it has to be this one. 

Did you know that those opening pages were dismissed again and again for 'telling instead of showing', the Dickensian style caricatures that describe the despicable Dursley household, the Dahlian morbidity of Harry's dire, neglected childhood - there's something about these that capture our imaginations, taking us back to the way we read when we weren't too old to walk through the children's section of Waterstones without feeling awkward. I think it's important to think about those first pages, those things that draw us in and make us believers despite the surreality of the content. I think it's important for any writer to know what appealed to them and thus what might appeal to others. It's your first impression, the quickest way to your audience. So spend a little time thinking about what OTHER writers do instead of just focusing on you. Furthermore, to mention briefly the 'review' part of this post: listen to what others say and don't take affront when someone offers you criticism. Yes - JKRowling was lucky and she powered through the years of refusal but a child read that book and it was published and look at it now - it's a perfect hollywood tale. However, you're not JKRowling yet (unless you are but that's another story) and you still should listen to what others make of your work. The world is at the tip of your pen, don't scribble all over it just because you can.

Je serai poète et toi poésie,
SCRIBBLER

Four Way Books Poetry Competition

THIS, my dear readers, is an opportunity and I gladly suggest that any poets out there take this moment to think about whether or not they have enough of a corp us to enter into this competition. It comes highly recommended and the judge is a great writer himself.  Read below for all the details you may desire. 2012 FOUR WAY BOOKS INTRO PRIZE IN POETRY  Judge: D. A. Powell Submission Dates: January 1 – March 31, 2012 (postmark or email deadline) by online submission manager or regular mail. Postmark deadline March 31 and email deadline (by 3 am EST April 1). Awarding publication of a book-length collection and $1000. Open to any poet writing in English who has not already published a book-length collection of poetry. Submissions accepted on-line (preferred) and by mail. Please read the following instructions carefully. Online submission: Submitting to us online is easy, saves you money, and saves trees. • Fill out our online entry form and follow the directions for online credit card payment on our secure site. • You will be assigned an online entry number. You will then submit your manuscript through our online submissions program. By mail: • Submit a previously unpublished, full-length poetry manuscript by regular mail (USPS only). • Please include a completed Entry Form. Click here to download the Entry Form (PDF format). (You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view and print the Entry Form.) • Include one cover page with the title of your work and all of your contact information, including your email address if you have one. Your name and contact information should not appear anywhere else in the manuscript. • You must include a second cover page with just the title of your work, no other contact info. • No more than one poem per page, please. More than one section of a poem can appear on a page, of course. • No page limit, but we recommend a length of between 48 and 80 pages of poetry. This page limit does not include your title page, notes, etc. • Do not include art work. • Please use a legible font of 12 point. • Include an entry fee of $28 with your submission, by check, made payable to Four Way Books. A stamped self-addressed postcard may be included to confirm receipt of manuscript. Multiple submissions may be mailed together. If you submit more than one manuscript, please supply contact info for both and an increased fee ($28 per submission). Mail submission and entry fee to: Four Way Books POB 535 Village Station New York NY 10014 GENERAL GUIDELINES (for all submitters) • Please let us know immediately if your manuscript is accepted elsewhere. • Material in your manuscript may have been published previously in a chapbook, magazines, journals or anthologies, but the work as a whole must be unpublished. • Translations and previously self-published books are not eligible. • There are no length requirements save that book-length collections of poetry usually run between 45 pages of text and 80 pages. NOTFICATION The winner will be notified by email or phone no later than Labor Day. Submitters will be notified by email only. The result will also be posted on our website by Labor Day. We do not return manuscripts. We do not offer editorial feedback to submitters. Our Reading Policy Each manuscript is delivered to our readers as a blind submission. That is, it is stripped of identifying material. Only the manuscript, inclusive of any text notes, is sent to the readers and, if chosen as a finalist, to the judge. We do not give a list of submitters to the judge. Please do not submit to this contest if you are close enough to D.A. Powell that his integrity, your integrity, and the integrity of Four Way Books would be called into question should you be selected as the winner. You may query us if you have questions regarding this matter. We will allow you to submit to us outside of the contest if you feel that you are treading deep water in this regard. Please query by email toeditors@fourwaybooks.com. Our preliminary readers for the contest are selected by the director of the press and are published poets, experienced editors, and/or poets who have received a graduate degree in creative writing or literature. Each manuscript is read by at least two readers. We regularly rotate our readers. Our readers select approximately 50 manuscripts as finalist selections. They look for work that is beautifully crafted, manuscripts that feel whole and well shaped. They do not try to second guess a judge's preference. Rather, they look to present a wide range of excellent work to the judge. Finalists are notified in May that their work will be sent on to the judge. On occasion, a judge may ask to see more work and the judge is not allowed to ask for specific work by a specific writer, but may ask to see a wider sampling of strong work. If that is the case, the press reviews the submissions again and more manuscripts are sent to the judge as finalists. Therefore, we do not inform the public of finalist selections since that list may grow after May. The judge is instructed to notify the press of any indiscretions. If a submitter contacts the judge regarding the contest, that person will be disqualified. If the judge does not select a winner, the press's director and senior editors will select a finalist's manuscript to publish.

GOOD LUCK DEAR SCRIBBLERS - HAPPY WRITING!!

Je serai poète et toi poésie, 

SCRIBBLER

Of Quibbles and Questions

Prompt of the Day #15

Take an idiom, proverb or frequently used moral and either manipulate its meaning, add something to it or develop it into a story. Think of people like Oscar Wilde or Woody Allen, they're rather well known for doing this.

There are two parts that I'd like to look at for this image. The first is simply: you should be the Opportunist. You need to be otherwise you're likely to fail. Your writing can be one or many of the above but ultimately you won't go anywhere with your writing if you don't make the most of every chance that comes your way. I say it a lot, I know, but don't forget it. The second is, don't you find the addition of the third 'character' to be pretty interesting? Something like this image, simple though it may be, adds a new character to the story making it more dynamic. It's comic, your mouth twitches into a grin, maybe a little giggle bubbles up in your chest. Innovative? Yes. 

You're telling a story, let's take a standard example: boy meets girl. Do you think that the reason we're drawn to a very simple, fairly mundane tale, is because it's familiar? Do you think it dominates bookshop shelves because we like reading the same things over and over? Of course not, there's an element of reinvention. 


All you need in a little spark of something new and you revitalise the banal and overdone. 

Je serai poète et toi poésie,
 SCRIBBLER

Genius and Nurturing Creativity

Elizabeth Gilbert Talks about Creativity

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love talks about the future of creativity

In this world there are many types of 'genius', and here Elizabeth Gilbert talks about creativity as it's impetus. She talks about fear, fear of failure and of too much success. She talks of her own love of writing, fascination with her trade and much much more. Inspirational and wonderful. Take from it what you will. This week is going to be about GENIUS. 

Je serai poète et toi poésie,
SCRIBBLER

Of Personae and Print

Prompt of the Day #15

Think about a writer. What does s/he do? How does s/he think? What does s/he struggle with? How do you stylise them? What relation do they bear to your own sense of writerly-ness? 

Write about a writer.

One of the curious things said of James Wood, was that he is, in many senses, a literary figure - a creation of his writing that would need another of him to fully analyse and comprehend. 

Roland Barthes said that 'falling in love involves telling ourselves a story about falling in love'. This much can seem true. Many of us will admit that 'the chase' is more exciting than the endgame. Is this not because we are treating ourselves as characters, imagining the twists and turns, the internalistic emotions and such? Is this not because we are more in love with the fictions than with the reality? We like to live in stories. 

I'm going to admit that I'm one of those old fashioned thinkers. I don't think there's a balance that can be struck between life and work for a writer because life is the work of a writer. That doesn't mean I'm another disciple of the House of Wood. I'm not advocating Realism and the be-and-end-all of good literature. I'm the kid that sits there reading Ulysses and thinks 'this is so true to life' and then reads The Redemption of Althalus and muses over the same thing. No, when it comes down to it, I believe that life is the ever present muse of the writer because anything that happens in real life can transform into fiction. In fact, it's a little like the epistemic dreaming argument - we can dream something lifelike but what we do in dreams may be impossible. Here, as writers, we can fictionalise life but we can't always live fiction. The trick is to make the reader believe that perhaps our novel, story or poem etc is somehow possible. Part of that is done by adopting a voice, a perspective, a form that encourages the reader to put faith in fiction. This is you as the writer. 

I will end by denying a view that I began with: the author is not dead, not entirely, no matter what Barthes said. You have power as a personae in print although your presence is not a determinant of interpretation.  Reading what you write, why not wonder where you find yourself. Hopefully, it's not as a Mary-Sue.

Je serai poète et toi poésie, 
SCRIBBLER

American English

Dear America,

The Queen of England has one small request to make. Please take heed and realise, we could care less about your odd pronunciations, but do try to at least make sense. 

Love, 

David Mitchell. Comic Genius. 

Of Opportunity and Online Influence

Prompt of the Day #13

Pick your favourite short story or poem, reread it, make any last minute changes. And submit it. Send it to a literary magazine or an online newsletter; give it to a favoured teacher or a extremely critical friend; thrust it out into the world and accept whatever praise or criticism you receive. 

Do it.

 Now. 

Nothing is ever going to happen if you don't make the move to make it happen. 

Scribblers, the modern world is at our finger tips. You're taking part in it right now by reading this blog.  

Do you really want to live like this?

Carpe Diem! said Horace, Seize the Day! You should be doing the same. Everyday that you write you're engaging in an art that will only come to fruition if you make the move to make it happen. You can't sit and hope that dreams come true, writing isn't about that. Writing is about publicity, in many ways the audience is more important than you are. Which means you have to go out and find one. Even before you publish, you need to think about who you're trying to engage with - even if it's people just like you. 

The online community is huge, there are hundreds of writing websites out there: Writing.com, Figment.com, Helium.com etc etc. 

You have no excuse not to show at least extracts of your work to someone. You can put them up briefly and take them down once you have a second opinion. You can accumulate a portfolio and create a cult of personality for your authorial persona. These are easy, abusable opportunities you can't afford to waste. Everyone else can use them, do you want to be left behind?

When you apply for internships (which I'm doing right now) or seek any kind of employment, you don't apply to just one or two names or businesses. You send off dozens of letters, print page upon page of CVs, spend hours composing emails that you know will likely not be replied to. And when you don't here back you keep calm and carry on with a little bit of your heart aching but knowing that you have no choice but to keep applying and keep trying. 

If you meet someone who might be able to help you, whether it's at an event, a conference, your local book store, on the train or because you accidentally picked up the wrong bag at the airport, use them. Make contacts, find out their details and email them or call them as soon as is polite. Don't ever pass up an opportunity that comes your way because you don't know how often they'll come up , or at least not without thinking about it. It's good practise to find out more about any chances you're given.

Think about some of the 'famous' today - you have singers such as Birdy, whose angellic voice arches away from her gawky, fifteen year old self and is beloved by many because she was discovered on youtube. Similarly, Bo Burnham, a 20-something American comedian was discovered on youtube and consequently sang at the Youtube Awards and was awarded a prize at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Charlie McDonald, Phil DeFranco, Jenna Marbles - they're all youtube sensations. Blogger Neil Pasricha has just published 'The Book of Awesome, after his wordpress blog became somewhat of a positive thinking cult. How do you think the Huffington Post started by the way? Or Perez Hilton? Or The Daily Beast? If those don't count as success stories I don't know what does. 

So seriously Scribblers, take every opportunity you can and use it well. You never know when you might finally break through into the real world. Then again, my favourite version of my favourite song by Otis Redding sit below and the singer, whose powerful voice collects silver coins on the streets, claims that he's in 'the joy industry'. Hopefully those things don't have to be exclusive principles for us. 

Je serai poète et toi poésie,
 SCRIBBLER

The Hand that Holds the Pen

When we first started this project we knew that we wanted to dedicate at least some small corner to the Novel, so we asked aspiring scribbler Chesnaye Long (aka Quaddy) if she'd mind taking part in our blog as a contributing think-tank. Little did she know that we secretly harboured a fervent desire to victimise her latest novel: Eve of the Gods. The twenty-four year old Floridian, who claims the mental age of nine and the humour of the snarkiest version of Elizabeth Bennett you can think of, was interviewed earlier this week. This is what she had to say for herself:

The Scribbler: Off-camera (or before the pen hit paper) you talked about yourself as having been at [novels] for years. How long is that exactly?

Quaddy: A really long time - I've had an online portfolio for ten years now.

TS: That would put you in your early teens! Why do you write? What inspires you?

Q: Well history, mythology... I'm a massive fan of the BBC series, Dr Who. That's played a key part. But I write because I love stories. I love telling them and reading them. If I didn't have such horrid stage fright, I'd act them out more too. 

TS: History and Dr Who, that's an interesting mix. What about authors and books?

Q: Oh goodness...Neil Gaiman is up there. Christopher Moore’s Lamb, however, is possibly the one book I’ve enjoyed most in the whole world. Jane Austen always delights. But to name them is not to discredit the hundreds of other novelists whose works inspire me daily. If I had to pick books. Hmm... Chris Moore’s Lamb, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Gaiman’s American Gods... have influenced even my religious beliefs, or perhaps mirrors them. Either way, it speaks to me. 

TS: Pick one: out of those three, who would you most like to meet?

Q: I would love to meet Gaiman, but I’m afraid his genius might overshadow mine to such a degree that it would snap whatever thread of self worth I feel. I am definitely a self-loathing author.

TS: I think that's a trait a lot of us have in common. Is self-loathing something you struggle with as an aspiring author?

Q: Yes. Hating what I write, combined with not going back to edit. I need to finish before I edit. With Eve of the Gods, I am, on one level, very pleased with the characterization, but on another, I am not. Lucifer is, I suppose, alright because he is a refutation of his reputation, but Conrad needs more. There is a sense of foreboding missing. And chapter one is rubbish. So, I think the hardest part of writing a novel is myself. I am, as I have described, a self-loathing author.

TS: So where would you want to be in 10 years?

Q: Literally? Out of South Florida. In the figurative sense of one’s life plan? Published. I would like to be published. It would be a validation. Society values the tangible too much, and I feel sidelined, unsuccessful, maligned, for my lack of outward success. Right now I work at a coffee shop... not unlike an actor...

TS: (laughing) Out of South Florida?

Q: Yep, Florida aka the Depths of Hell. I suppose one of the higher levels, as it's all sorts of hot here.

TS: Feel free to visit Scotland sometime, maybe we can swap some sun for some snow. So tell us about your novel.

Q: That's hard. It took me hours to come up with a way of explaining this when I first tried to summarise it... So... the gods' realm is dying, the strength of belief fading and stealing from them their homes and, in some instances, their very existences. But there comes a threat that would finish the gods forever, a death knell that would leave nothing in its wake. For gods do not have bodies and they do not have souls; they exist as an idea given form, and belief is necessary to shape that form. As any entity does when faced with nonexistence, the gods turn to an ally. Evelyn Sinclair can save them because she believes, and belief is all that matters when shaping the world. But Lyn is more than what she appears, and when memories get involved, belief becomes all the more dangerous a force to reckon with. And worse, what does one do when one's other ally is an entity whose name is a byword for evil?

 TS: Sounds complicated. What inspired this? 

Q: That's easier! (laughing)Neil Gaiman and Jane Austen. 

TS: Probably should have guessed that... 

Q: Yep. My first decision was that I wanted to write a story that could be a marrying of both writers’ worlds. Not literally, of course, but conceptually. The story, full of “OMG, WTF have I done?” moments and a Mr. Darcy to end all. Sort of—a Darcy without the fear and arrogance, I think... as well as my heroine that perhaps isn’t what society wants her to be, is all Austen. But the world...that, I hope, is Gaiman. It is a reimagining of the cosmos, of Gods and gods, Angels, Demons, the power of belief and of history...this is my homage to Gaiman. Perhaps without his genius, but with a creative twist of its own, I hope. I just hope that neither author would be horrified by my homage to them.

TS: I'm of the opinion that imitation is one of the greatest forms of flattery. Did you enjoy writing it?

Q: I am still writing it. I have 50k words, what was required for NaNo, but then I put it aside because my brain was just...done. And then I got distracted. I am always distracted. But Lyn and Lucian deserve more, as does Hermes...

TS: NaNo? Lyn? Lucian? Hermes?

Q: I wrote it for NaNoWriMo - a novel writing competition held every November. You write 50K in thirty days. It was coming down to crunch time (November 1st) and I hadn’t a bloody clue what to do with myself. So I thought about it one night and the idea of Adam and Eve came to me. And the concept of history as belief. How much of history is what we believe it to be? Does history change because we act upon what we believe to be history? And, of course, the ability of humanity’s belief to shape the cosmos. Do Gods come about because we believe in them, or do we believe in them because they exist? All of these concepts came together into the story that is Eve of the Gods.

 

TS: I can certainly see how Gaiman has influenced you there. 

Q: It's certainly something I think he'd think of. But I’m a philosopher at heart, and a lot of my stories reflect my personal philosophies. Or are a chance for me to actually use the History degree I worked so hard for. Even if it isn’t apparent, everything is a reflection of my personal beliefs.

TS: Can we see that in any of the characters? Do you have a favourite?

Q: My goodness. I suppose ... Lyn. She is my main character, my own creation. A reflection of me. But [my favourite] is Hermes. I have a great fondness for Hermes as a god, and have a great relationship with him as one of my Patrons, and writing for him has been great fun.

TS: What do you think is the biggest challenge a head of of you now?

Q: Finishing the actual story. Editing. Editing is my bane as a writer. Always has been. I hope to get over that eventually. 

TS: We certainly hope you will, and with a little luck and some pushing from us at The Daily Scribble we hope to help you do that. 

Q: (raises a sceptical eyebrow) Thanks?

For more on Eve of the Gods you can visit Quaddy's online portfolio or go directly to her work HERE.

For more on NaNoWriMo, visit HERE.

For more on the mutually appreciated Neil Gaiman, visit HERE.

Je serai poète et toi poésie, 
SCRIBBLER

Love the Literary Critic

Question of the Week

Do I need to think about appealing to literary critics?  

Friends will often mock my ardent love for a slightly different type of bible and a less-than-Christ-like character. His name features in almost every literary essay (and several philosophy papers) since I was awarded his book for my accumulation of the Most Random Facts About Authors. The book was 'How Fiction Works' and although I first eyed it with awe because it was selected by my charismatic tutor, that awe swiftly passed onto the authorial voice of the book. The Guardian describes how 'by examining the minutiae of character, narrative and style in a range of fictional works that starts with the Bible and ends with Coetzee and Pynchon, he fondly and delicately pieces back together what the deconstructors put asunder'; Vulture satirises him as the 'new literary sheriff in town, [for whom] you'd better walk the stylistic straight and narrow. Too many adjectives in your first novel, and you'll be strung up, cowboy'; my personal favourite comes from The New York Magazine:

[He has] established himself as one of the strangest, most vivid critical characters on the scene. He’s been, by now, pretty much universally acknowledged—grudgingly, fawningly, eagerly, nervously, warningly, or mockingly, depending on which journals you subscribe to—as the best book critic currently classing up the back end of America’s magazines.

Doesn't he sound intriguing? Exciting? Strange? Different? Indeed, he does, and I'm sure this is why his allure is so compelling. His name is James Wood, he looks rather like the stereotyped artist who belongs behind the click-clacking keys of a type-writer. Or in other caricature guises: a dictatorial pen-wielder or a lackadaisical journalist. He's the much lauded 'best literary critic in the world', which I won't cast aspersions on but which, even if I do agree with the sentiment, I will note with a raised eyebrow (in the world... how do they know?). 

Writing critically is now punctuated with the question: What Would Wood Think/Do/Say? Reading is incomplete unless I've compared the content to what he has said of other works. Criticism is read with his voice agreeing or disagreeing in my head as I juxtapose ideas against ideas. This is not to say that I hold no original thoughts, I like to think that I do, but that when I read I hope to convey my ideas with similar charm and insight. I admire him. As a literature student, it is nice to come across a critic whose voice holds the enthusiasm you thought was lost in page upon page of poorly translated Derrida; whose approach is to collect the 'dewdrops' of text into a kettle full of water. 

But when I'm trying to write something creative, am I drawn towards Free Indirect Style because of his praise or do I appeal to the transient laws of high-realism? This is unlikely - having taken a brilliant course on Realism with Dr. Marsha Collins (UNC), I found contextualising Wood against the Realist movement intriguing, exciting and illuminating.Writing about Hegelian dialectics in Dostoevsky, Zola and Dickens can only be described as a pleasure. However, I would argue that it is not because of Wood that I would adapt to the style of any of the authors studied on the course - it is because we are hysterical as a race, our instinct is to dramatise the life that we lead. Expressions from songs: 'she keeps her face in a jar by the door, who is it for'; telling facebook that you 'just had ate three apples'; declaring that we are 'starving', that we 'hate' this or 'love' that, that a headache feels like a man 'drilling a hole in your skull' etc etc. We like to create monsters under our bed, extremities of emotion. Authors such as these appeal because they capture our insincerities, insecurities and idiosyncrasies. Raskolnikov rambles on and on about his desire to be Napolean, a man historical; Therese Raquin is bound by the 'blood and horror' to a man she once imagined being 'happy' with 'forever and ever'; the 'metallurgical Louisa' wants to 'burst out' of her imposed 'character' whereas Bounderby wants to 'burst into' his portrait and 'futurity'. There are idiosyncratic parallellisms that appeal to us as readers, struggles that we impose upon literature through interpretation. 

As a writer, these sort of things appeal to me. I'm interested in psyche and the interpretation of the real. Did you know that any more or less than a 30ft distance and your vision is distorted beyond true 'reality'? Wood appeals to me as a critic because of his tone, his authority, his characterised narrative but most of all because of his reading list. Saying of himself in an interview for The Morning News:

If one were [ask]ing, “Well what is Wood’s taste based on?”—a certain level of intellectualism. Certainly verbal exuberance and complexity. Updike. Bellow. Roth, too. A certain love of voice. 

So yes, I would want to appeal, in some way to what he demands of his favourite writers and adhere in part to the style of those novels he praised. This choice though is not to do with him - it is to do with my own preference. I like what he likes. He's written the things that I want to say when I can't find the words. Don't try and fit the critic, fellow Scribblers. Seek a critic that fits you - find one, love them and take what they offer to heart. If you admire someone but realise that your novel is the epitome of all that they loathe, either respect your different values or use the techniques that apply to your work and only use those. Your style is your own, let yourself grow into it by interfusing it with ideas from those you admire. Accept criticism, accept that not everyone will favour you and that you cannot appeal to everyone, and lastly: keep learning. You can never have too much craft. 


Je serai poète et toi poésie, 
SCRIBBLER

Of Nuance and Narrative

Prompt of the Day #12

Pick a fairytale that you connect with and retell it as if you are a narrator at a dinner or function. Imagine the setting you are in, think about the story and what it may mean or symbolise, now consider the audience you are recreating the scene for. Reinvent the story in your own words. 

Depending on what critic you're reading, the house of fiction has a million windows or a punitive number of doors. This is the metaphor applied to narrative perspective - we can read a piece of fiction in a variety of ways, we can approach it from many angles, but when you're writing it you can only write from a perspective. This is the narrative voice. Whether that voice is your own, a fictional first person, the third person limited, third person unlimited etc. You could probably write in the first person plural, though perhaps it would feel like a royal 'we', and I can think of a few children's books and 'adventure quest books' that are written in the second person but there's a leading voice in that case, which makes me hesitate to cast judgement on how well it's ever used. 

My point is that the way you present your story, your narrative style, is the foundation of everything you write. Most of the critics I'm thinking of apply this view to stories and novels, although I'd hasten to add that it is just as vital in poetry. If you wield your narration well you can write just about anything without recourse. 

"But what on earth does that mean?" You may very well be asking. I will try to reply.

Narrative is a story. It's the form of narration, which is how you tell the story. And no matter how hard you try, it will always have a 'narrator' lurking in some corner of the subconscious text. Even if the touch of the 'author' is as fleeting as a love on the dancefloor, that voice is still coming through. Narrative is how you stitch it all together, how you weave your words into a pattern which turns into a tapestry of tales. You can do this like Balzac who saw himself as a 'historian' depicting the actualities of contemporary French society and frequently breaking into unexpected, decidedly 18th Century style commentary; you can do this like the Father of Modern Narrative: Flaubert who was concerned about 'writing a book about nothing' and whose presence in his works is hardly detectable. You could write like Nabokov with complex unreliable narrators such as those from 'Despair' and 'Lolita', or like George Eliot with her reliable, third-person omniscient narration. Or you could be writing the next modern epic, puzzling many of these aspects together as Joyce does to some extent in Ulysses. 

Which ever you decide, narrative style is a crucial aspect that you need to develop. You don't have to maintain a single style though all of your work, nor even continue it through a single poem, story or novel. 

Lemony Snicket - Will You Ever See His Face?

Lemony Snicket uses a Dickensian style of narrative through his authorial persona, he has developed a narrative voice and has crafted his own space within his fictional world to great amusement and success. His style also allows for a sense of authorial reliability, albeit with a tinge of reluctance, whilst also conveying the author as far from omniscience. Journalistic, investigative language creates this effect. But if you read the Odyssey there's a sense that we cannot always be certain what is truth and what is rumour when it's not Odysseus' voice narrating his tale. Throughout the epic, examples of how other 'bards' have told the tales of Greek heroes returning home, including the eponymous hero, have distorted reality - thus we see examples of both reliable and unreliable narration.

It doesn't really matter whether you want to be 'part' of your narrative or not - nor does it matter if you want to fashion yourself after a favoured writer or if you want to create a style that's uniquely yours. What's important is to develop the write style for your poem or prose. Using the first person might mean that you limit the amount of action your character can follow and therefore require a lot of explanation. Using the third person omniscient might seem too antiquated for a tale set in the modern world. If your work is meant to be 'light reading' or 'pleasure reading' maybe you don't want to create an unreliable narrator, or you might benefit from exactly that if you want an active readership, as you might if you were engaging them in a mystery or something similar. 

The nuances of language and storytelling are captured when a reader engages with the narrative. It's the little things that become striking when it's well done. So turn your work into something literary and exciting. Develop your own narrative style. 

Of Music and Melancholy

Prompt of the Day #12

Come up with a playlist that fits the plot of your story or poem. This could be based on the emotional aspects of the content, the diction that you use, descriptions, voice or characterisation. Or pick three songs and write a piece based on your response to them. Try and do this without it becoming a 'song-fic'.

This was meant to be posted on Valentines Day but when your computer gives up on the internet there's not a lot you can do to stop it. Instead, I spent a lot of time planning essays, thinking up interesting prompts for you all, drinking cup after cup of tea and catching up on my Joyce criticism. Sounds like an ideal Valentines. However, this prompt was lurking around in my head even before the technological gremlins vacationed. At first I was focused on the Melancholia but having watched Drive before heading home on Tuesday evening, I became incredible aware of how much effect music has on our interpretation of a scene. 

Of course this is no huge revelation to anyone. Would Jaws be scary with it's sinister two note theme circling our psyche? Or would Casablanca strike our hearts so deeply without the nostalgic notes struck when Elsa bids in her low, whispering voice "Play it, Sam." Indeed, I think it is safe to say that music in many ways communicates to us on a level that mere words cannot. Drive reminded me of the way music can move so much of the drama of play or a film, perhaps because so much of it relies on the cinematic framing of Ryan Gosling's face accompanied by eery, tension-building 80s tunes. Much of the 'peculiar stillness' of the movie,  is caused not by the lack of true script - much of the film goes without conversation, nor by the 'laconic', nameless protagonist; the music tells us where the film is headed, where our mind should move as our ears are reacquainted with eighties synth-pop. 

In 'Musicophilia', Oliver Sacks states that 'Music is part of being human'. He also alerts us to the fact that Darwin speculated:

"Music tones and rhythms were used by our half-human ancestors, during the season of courtship, when animals of all kinds are excited not only by love, but by strong passions of jealousy, rivalry, and triumph” and that speech arose, secondarily, from this primal music.

This could be true, or it could be mere 'speculation' as Sacks suggests. What is key is that music, for many, is a thread that binds them to emotion, ties them to humanity, reminds them of life or reflects the Beautiful. It inspires, moves, remedies, offers support or conjures a spectre of some dimly remembered history. It is no wonder then, that so much of art is inspired by music. 


Classical writers, for whom a poet was a 'bard',  saw their work integrally tied to music. This is partially to do with mythological gods such as Pan with his flute, particularly in madrigals and Georgic poems. Orpheus cannot be neglected, for who else appears so regularly in Miltonic verse, emphasising the mortal song and emphasising the problems of the incomplete. Phoebus (or Apollo) whose 'Aonian harp/lyre' was the sweetest, after whom English literature references the 'Doric lays' and who was also the 'prophetic god' is the symbol of ideas such as Vates, the poet-prophets and the figure that Socrates claims his destiny from. 


What is clear, though I wish I had more time to go into details: from Shakespeare whose famous line demands that 'if music be the food of love, play on!' or Stevie Wonder saying that 'music's a language we all understand', it is clear that music is one of those mutual loves of numerous great writers. It also cannot help but be connected to the art of writing because if you look at the geneology of literature it can always be traced in some way to the musical, the rhythmic.


In 'Il Penseroso' and 'L'Allegro', Milton accepts the connection between music and poetry - the titles of these paired poems are in themselves musical expressions - accentuating the idea that music both unifies a community (L'Allegro) but can equally 'dissolve' and individual 'into ecstasies' (Il Penseroso). These poems, whilst debating the benefit of Mirth or Melancholy, use music as a symbol of the relationship between external and internal worlds. 


When you're thinking about the future and your tenebrous, uncertain position as a writer, you may feel overwhelmed by the challenges ahead of you. In those times, it's time to figure out what inspires you, consider how you can connect with your characters or deepen a poem. Sometimes you have to turn over the struggle you're feeling and examine it, create what you can from what you're feeling - this is what Milton's doing, he's contemplating his future and examining the path he hopes to follow. Furthermore, he's relating to his dilemma through his relationship to music, using something that effects both sides  mutually, albeit differently, thus steeping his writing in something that appeals on a universal level as well as a personal one. 

Of Learning and Love

Prompt of the Day #11

What does the future hold? Is it a scary place? Is it a Utopian, Golden Age? Where do you or your character want to end up? Do you miss the way things were? What do the older generations think about it? 

Write a poem or story about the future - whether its an idealistic or apocalyptic world. 

After a long couple of emails back and forth between myself and a writer in a funk, it was decided that this week will be dedicated to two things: 'Love', as it is Valentines Day tomorrow, and different ways of 'Learning' how to improve your own writing. These two themes will involve: 

• looking at some of the love poetry of Ovid, Catullus and some more modern writers; 
• thinking about relationships between characters and voices; 
• considering your relationship with your own work
• learning ways that you can make yourself a better writer. 

That's why I started today with a prompt about the future - you know what you want, you know your pen, it's up to you to achieve what you want, no one else. So I want to keep this very short today and let you think about these things. 

If you want to be taken seriously the only person who can force the world to take notice is you. 

Now I'm going to point you here: 25 Things Writers Should Stop Doing. 

Think about it.

Je serai poète et toi poésie,
SCRIBBLER 

Your Favourite Writer

Your favourite writer says something about you. This image is by Abigail Larson, possibly one of my favourite illustrators out there. She's designed dozens of beautiful images, including this one of Edgar Allen Poe and another of HP Lovecraft. There's no reason why your favourite writers can't influence you. Take what you love from them and mix it into your own writing. Embrace them, love them, nurture them. Don't plaigerise them but by all means quote, reference, make sneaky allusions to them. They'll probably be flattered. 

As long as you don't screw up. 

Of Kirilov and Kleos

Prompt of the Day #10

What makes your character unique? Or what's the point in your poem? For that matter, why are you writing? Do you have a purpose? Is there a reason for your actions or the actions of your characters? What contributes to the purpose/purposelessness of your writing? 

Becoming a writer is tough, we all know that. I imagine a bunch of you have the same days as I do: sitting, pen in hand, the dim glow of a dying bulb glancing over the page, computer battery dead and notes upon notes scattered about with their pigeon-scratch-scrawl glaring accusingly at your ineffectual attempts to write anything worth reading. Or maybe you've just opened the mail and received yet another rejection generically printed out by a publishing company that hasn't quite forgotten its manners. Perhaps you've been perusing the new best-sellers and bemoaning the fact that your work is so much better than this. I don't doubt we've all been there at some point. The industry does not work in our favour. It just doesn't. There are too many of us for it to do so. So what's the point? 

Point One for the day is this: Think about what motivates you, because if it's money and fame, then you're probably deluded. If you think it'll eventually happen or that someone will notice you, then your naive. Seriously, you'll probably never be published by one of the Big Six and you shouldn't hold out hope that your luck will change. It might never be your day. So what's the point?

You've noticed by now that I'm deliberately being antagonistic and demoralising. I've also been incredibly unsubtle and used a wee epistrophe for my own entertainment. 


This week has been all about Freedom - we've tried to offer you prompts and examples of how some of the best writers out there have reflected the issues surrounding freedom in their work. Here, in the SUNDAY SUMMARY.  We want to address one last point: Purpose. Freewill in Literature almost always ties into the purpose of a character. 


If a character, like our 'metallurgical Louisa' from Of Gradgrinds and Great Expectations, is in your story then she will play a symbolic role - representing the pull of two factors and the way that these twist within her own life, or depicting the inner tug-of-war between personal and social identity. Her purpose as a character is as an illustration of how much or how little one's life is determined. If you have an Aragorn or a Frodo or your story is about a Quest type journey, then you'll be considering the relationship your characters have with their 'destiny' or the 'inevitable'. If you have a Voyage and Return style plot then you might be playing with 'The Reluctant Hero' or you you might be looking at the way they develop, what spurs them on. Or if you're looking at ideas of personal identity, then you might be using concepts that philosophers still puzzle over: to what extent we remain ourselves through time, how much is nature vs nurture, whether or not freewill is important to our sense of self. 


When it comes to poetry, you might be writing inner-monologues where a character frets over their purpose or lack thereof, or using symbolism that reflects a conflict between freewill and determinism. You might be looking at the works of T.S.Eliot and the post-modernists who look at the new sense of existential freewill, what that means for society or you might be leaning more towards a  discussion lie that in 'The Road Not Taken'. Maybe you're a determinist or you find glory in the idea of a higher power - in which case maybe you'll look at the poetical techniques and symbols in Psalms or at writers such as Gerald Manley Hopkins. 


When it comes down to it, a lot of things seem pointless if you don't have freewill. It would feel like we were in our own Sisyphus style existence, constantly struggling towards something that will only happen if it is determined. With freewill, there's a sense that we can do anything, that choices can be made and we can thus define ourselves - or as Kirilov in Dostoevsky's 'The Possessed' suggests: become God. This is rather wonderfully illustrated in one of the many philosophical discussions of the novel -

 God is necessary, and so must exist.But I know that He doesn’t exist and can’t exist.But don’t you understand that a man with two such ideas cannot go on living?

And is later followed by the more extensive consideration of his own sense of inevitable necessity.

Is there no man on this planet who, having finished with God and believing in his own will, will have enough courage to express his self-will in its most important point? […] All man did was to invent God so as to live without killing himself. That’s the essence of universal history till now. I am the only man in universal history who for the first time refused to invent God. […] To realize that there is no god and not to realize at the same instant that you have become god yourself – is an absurdity, for else you would certainly kill yourself. If you do realize it, you are a king and will never kill yourself, but will live in the greatest glory. But he who is first to realize it is bound to kill himself, for otherwise who will begin and prove it? […] I am still only a god against my will, and I am unhappy because I am bound to express my self-will. […] Fear is the curse of mankind. But I shall proclaim my self-will. I am bound to believe that I do not believe. I shall begin and end, and open the door.

He feels that he MUST 'open the door', that in order for any to realise their freedom to act as they will, he must prove it so. There is much more to be said of these passages and of Kirilov but I want to focus on that idea of necessity. Kirilov is a symbolic figure in the novel but he is endlessly interpretable. We see him as he does, 'absurd' in his actions and suicide; we see him as committing a 'Christian suicide'; we see him as an opposite to characters such as Shatov as Orthodox Russians; we see him as a representative of political thought, as a figure of nihilism, a moment of inwardness, seeking kleos. 


On this note we're going to conclude our week on Freedom - it's up to you now to decide why. 


Je serai poète et toi poésie,
SCRIBBLER

Of Jumanji and Journeys

Prompt of the Day #9

You are on a journey that you didn't want to take. What forced you to make it? Why didn't you want to go? How do you feel now that you're on it and what life do you envision when you reach its end? Write a story or poem that considers one or many of these questions - pay attention to where you are and why you didn't want to go and the difference between before and after. 

Jumanji is oddly one of the best examples of what I want to talk about today. You have the unlucky teen who's sucked into the board and is freed only when more foolish youths roll the dice to draw him out, only once he's out, he's forced to become the protector of all the others - despite wanting nothing more than to go back to the life he left behind. As a group, they have to journey through their own issues to eventually conquer the game (aka 'The Call'), save the people they love and allow them to return to the normal lives they wanted. This is the The Reluctant Hero and he's embarking on A Fated Journey.  

Gandalf says something rather interesting in the letter to the hobbits at Bree, he sends them a poem that contains the famous, exquisite line: 'Not all those that wander are lost'. The poem is repeated by Bilbo when he tells Frodo about how Aragorn's true identity was revealed to him and it relates to his transformation from Ranger to the rightful King of Gondor. Aragorn, the reluctant hero, hiding his name and heritage takes both a literal and inner journey alongside his Fellowship companions. It's one of the most simple and perfect examples of how a journey has to be made, how sometimes someone who looks unimportant is crucial to success and how avoiding Fate is never possible (at least in most fiction). 

The reluctant hero (what TV Tropes calls the character who 'Just Wants to be Normal' but eventually is 'Resigned to the Call') is a fairly standard character type in literature. It's not just people like Aragorn, AKA Strider, or any of the Hobbits - Harry Potter spends a tonne of time, especially in 'The Order of the Phoenix' asking 'why me?' before he knuckles down in 'Deathly Hallows' to accept that though he feels 'beleaguered and blackmailed' he is now ready to 'go out and greet death as an old friend' just like the Third Brother. What about the almost hilarious repetition of the 'why me' clause in The Belgariad? Or the moments in classical epic where Odysseus and Aeneas stop and wonder whether or not continuing on their journey is really worth it - it would be nice to stay with Circe or with Dido. 

This trope isn't restricted to (High) Fantasy though: Jack from Lost is recognised as a 'reluctant hero', and the whole premise of Hancock is that he doesn't want to be a hero. Even more 'real' are characters such as Maggie Tulliver in Eliot's 'The Mill on the Floss' and Sherlock Holmes will always claim that he's just a brilliant observer; the Baudelaire Orphans are thrust into the center of 'unfortunate' adventures after the death of their parents and can you name a teenage-aimed television show that lacks this character trope? 

What is creates a character of this type is the inclusion of a 'Call' which they realise they cannot deny and usually a moment where they either scream to the sky (or muse aloud) complaining about their involvement, or they might even leave (something which is all too often seen in Hollywood Movies for 'dramatic effect'). They always come back - that's the whole point - but they also go through a struggle that we empathise with. They are forced to grow, change, adapt. Often there's an element of self-sacrifice, or a moment-of-revelation when the reluctance is thawed out completely and s/he becomes infused with Heroic Willpower for the end scene. The whole point is to make this character human, that's often all they want to be after all, and their journey involves a struggle then acceptance of Fate or Necessity. 

So why not consider what odds your characters have to face? Or what high powers dictate the movements of your plot. If you're writing a poet, imagine the internal monologue of a wo/man that's placed in this position, or even consider the voice of Fate. Maybe you can consider the role of Freewill and to what extent it can play any role in literature. More often than not Inevitability drives plot. Play with these ideas and see where they take you this time.

Of Ideas and Implants

When you think about it, how many of your ideas are your own? Create a story or poem about discovering that everything you know is a dream, an idea plotted into the fibrous neurons of your brain. Or imagine a character who realises that they've been injected into another person's life.

Consider the implications this may have on your sense of personal identity and how this could effect societal structure such as the Justice System or creative industries etc.

Of History and Hair

Prompt of the Day #7

Write about a world before or after today. This can be the distant past, the faraway future or last year or next month or even just tomorrow. How is it different? How is it the same? Has something dramatically altered the shape of society? Do people communicate as we do? What are they wearing? Is anything consistent? 

Sorry this is late everyone, the UNC vs Duke game was on and since the whole school cannot help but give our soul to the Tar Heels, the last few hours have been spent asking 'is this real life?' and 'did that really happen?'. This was one of the tightest games of basketball I've seen, with a Dookie shooting literally on the second mark and the ball going through the net after it hit 00:00. The bar we were in fell silent, everyone stilled in their seats where moments ago they'd been wriggling with anticipation of rushing Franklin Street. Then a girl pipes up, "Did that seriously happen?" 

It had. UNC had lost by one point after a three pointer from the Blue Devils and no one knew what to do. It was then that the 'what ifs' began. What if Zeller hadn't batted at the previous Duke throw? What if he'd scored the second free-throw? What if Duke had been fouled in those last seconds? Why didn't x do y and a try b? 

Time is a funny thing, we imagine the possibilities and extrapolate scenarios based on the historical past. We're fascinated by the past, spending hours relating our days to our friends, our life stories to new acquaintances. We're proud or dismayed by our family legacies. All to often, we find ourselves engrossed in discussions such as: what you want to call your kids, or whether or not you'll let them read Harry Potter all in one go. Furthermore, we watch shows about history or set in history, make up stories of the future, aims and achievements that society should strive for. We're a very funny race. 

With a story, little things can help you to develop a sense of 'when'. Does the woman have her hair pulled back to reveal her 'shapely neck' and does the man admire it? Does she wear it in a beehive and match it with coral coloured earrings or a yellow polkadot dress? Does he look dapper in a suit or swagger through the streets with that particularly modern suave? Maybe it's a post-apocalyptic scenario - are they split into groups where some are selectively allowed to thrive and others bear the brunt of social decay? Simply describing someone's hair can convey an era. This is what we see with the descriptions of women figures in Hedda Gabler - there is a sense of how a woman who embraces her femininity will wear her hair loose but Hedda will no. Or if we look at the novels of Austen or Welsh or Joyce, you see a fascination with the way particular character bind or loosen their hair, as if one transforms from Virgin to Whore (Freudian terms I assure you) through the way ones hair is done. 

The thing that really marks how this evokes a sense of time is how these are appreciated by on lookers and how we interpret them. Something such as hair and the reactions towards it, show the limitations or unfreedoms imposed upon a figure. It doesn't have to be just the woman effected - it's society as a whole. This is particularly poignant for us as modern writers because of our concepts of fashion and anti-fashion. We want to combine our ideas of what is acceptable, our ingrained sense of fashion, with our knowledge of history.

In poetry, you can use tense to slip and slide through the past, present and future. In 'For the Union Dead', Lowell spends the majority of the poem in the past yet only 17 of 60 lines are in the past tense. This adds to the sense of how the world is being transformed, the structure and sense of the poetry being confused by the 'shaking' of the earth by 'civic machines'. As with 'hair', small details can hint at the time that you're setting your poem in. Even if this is usually the 'present', clues can be found in the use of colloquialisms or current figures. If you're writing about the past or future, this can often help to evoke a deeper level of understanding. Just think about political or satirical poetry, even if you're not trying to talk about these things directly or appeal to my favourite British genre, by including or hinting at contemporary images or figures, you're asking people to engage in the world which inspired your writing. 

When it comes down to it, history is about freedom. Something as small as hair can convey the ways that society changes and the way that freedoms shift and alter civic relationships. This is why I'm going to leave you with my favourite quote from Ulysses:

"History is the Nightmare that I am trying to escape," said Stephan

.... What if that nightmare gave you a kick?"

Je serai poète et toi poésie,

SCRIBBLER