Here is what happened:
Sent: Thursday, September 17, 2009 3:56 PM
To:
Wheeler, Maggie
Attachments:
What's up, Maggie? You want to talk on the phone. I'm in my office for
the next 40 minutes -- XXX-XXXX -- give me a call.
Dan
On Sep 17, 2009, at 3:52 PM, Wheeler, Maggie wrote:
> at 3:52. Not having a productive day. I'll try again later.
So I did and I'm SO glad that I did! Here is my task:
"Why I Can't Write My Novel"
My assignment from Dan is to put what I told him in writing. Why I gave up today was because I am having a bad day. I'm emotional, my head hurts, and I still haven't gotten over my sinus infection. But really, the problem I've been having, today and in the past is that I have viewed writing as an emotional process, so therefore, if I am having a hard time, the last thing I want to do is deal with those emotions and if I'm writing, that's what I'm doing. So if I'm upset, the last thing I want to do is work on something that upsets me, right? What I need to do is make it simply about putting words on the screen and divorce my own emotional needs from the process. Perhaps I need to view writing as an escape as I do with reading! Wow! that just really hit me just now as I was writing that! If we all viewed writing as a fun escape from reality, what a huge difference that would make! Hot damn!
The other thing that I got clarification on is the whole idea of conflict. I've been worried that in discussion I've been wrong in the things I've said. I feel like I've been grasping for profound crap to say and trying to sound like I have found the Holy Grail for fixing everything. But when it comes to both the writing and the discussion the main thing is conflict. And if that exists in the story, it doesn't matter if it needs more of something or less of something. Conflict is the stone, the ripples are everything else. BAM! What a freaking AH HA phone call!
So I guess, now, I really can write my novel now! :-) Thanks Dan!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
First story workshopped
Last night, I got my first trip in the "hot seat" over. It went better than I feared, based on Dan's comments to the guy last week. Here are his comments:
Maggie,
Your writing is powerful and fluent, and you have a good command of the drama in ordinary moments. I liked, particularly, the moment when she walked into the room and heard the "gunfire". That moment says a lot about him (and her), and it effortlessly ups the ante on this subtly dramatic situation for those few moments that we don't know what kind of gunfire you mean.
Still, I find this piece to be mostly skirting around the real drama. There's so much drama near this piece, but you always seem to be finding some way around it. There were two opportunities for dialogue here, and in both cases, you found a way to avoid it. That left me wondering if that was because the piece demanded that avoidance or if you (the author) was more comfortable just not getting into it.
During the workshop, I'll talk at length about all the drama that is inherent in this piece and the choices that were made to avoid it--we'll discuss whether they were good or bad choices. For right now, though, what I want to say is this: when you avoid drama--that is, decide that telling your story is more important that letting your story tell itself -- you want to be aware of the cost of that behavior. Yes, maybe they don't have anything to say to each other in their last moment together as a couple. Yes, maybe the mom doesn't have anything good to say to her daughter. But think about all that you're missing when you pass those opportunities by. Think of all that might have been revealed in those contentious moments. You'd better have a good reason to not let us find out.
Best,
Dan
So, not too bad I guess, right? I felt better after I read the comments when I got home. I'm not discouraged. I mean, I got into the program, so I know I don't suck. I think the thing that bothered me is that like half the students didn't have any comments, which kind of made me feel as if they were indifferent. Either that, or they didn't know what to say because they didn't know if there were supposed to be problems or not. IDK. I guess I'll see when I read the written comments from them. I'll post some of those after I read them. So, the good thing is that I got the first submission over and now I kind of know what Dan wants. I think next time I'll submit chapter one of Ghost. He wants drama! That's go DRAMA! ;-)
Maggie,
Your writing is powerful and fluent, and you have a good command of the drama in ordinary moments. I liked, particularly, the moment when she walked into the room and heard the "gunfire". That moment says a lot about him (and her), and it effortlessly ups the ante on this subtly dramatic situation for those few moments that we don't know what kind of gunfire you mean.
Still, I find this piece to be mostly skirting around the real drama. There's so much drama near this piece, but you always seem to be finding some way around it. There were two opportunities for dialogue here, and in both cases, you found a way to avoid it. That left me wondering if that was because the piece demanded that avoidance or if you (the author) was more comfortable just not getting into it.
During the workshop, I'll talk at length about all the drama that is inherent in this piece and the choices that were made to avoid it--we'll discuss whether they were good or bad choices. For right now, though, what I want to say is this: when you avoid drama--that is, decide that telling your story is more important that letting your story tell itself -- you want to be aware of the cost of that behavior. Yes, maybe they don't have anything to say to each other in their last moment together as a couple. Yes, maybe the mom doesn't have anything good to say to her daughter. But think about all that you're missing when you pass those opportunities by. Think of all that might have been revealed in those contentious moments. You'd better have a good reason to not let us find out.
Best,
Dan
So, not too bad I guess, right? I felt better after I read the comments when I got home. I'm not discouraged. I mean, I got into the program, so I know I don't suck. I think the thing that bothered me is that like half the students didn't have any comments, which kind of made me feel as if they were indifferent. Either that, or they didn't know what to say because they didn't know if there were supposed to be problems or not. IDK. I guess I'll see when I read the written comments from them. I'll post some of those after I read them. So, the good thing is that I got the first submission over and now I kind of know what Dan wants. I think next time I'll submit chapter one of Ghost. He wants drama! That's go DRAMA! ;-)
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Our first actual "workshop"
Last night was the first time was actually workshopped a story. We had two, but because we had an early class so we could go hear our first speaker in the Visiting Writer's series, we only go through the first one. It was the first chapter of a novel and I hated it. The main character was two-dimensional and had NO redeeming characteristics. Plus, he killed cats as a way of determining the amount of poison he could use to make his infant daughter sick without killing her. And you all know that I do NOT enjoy anything that contains cruelty to animals. I just refuse to read the rest if I come across that shit. But I had no choice in this case. So we went around the table and everyone was gushing about Alex, how great the story was, how they loved the character, blah, blah, blah. My stomach started to churn. Was I the only one who wasn't in love with Alex and his character? This is the shit I hate aobut workshops. I always feel like if I don't agree with everyone else, I'm in the wrong. Luckily Corey had some valid criticisms, so I felt better.
And then Dan said flat out that the novel would never get published and no one would read it as written. Harsh, but true. I would not have read past the first page. And the lesson was that you have to hook the audience from the first page, which I already knew. And which I try to practice at all times.
So now, I have to submit for next week and I'm VERY nervous. I don't really care so much what my classmates think. It's Dan I'm worried about. He's blunt. Very blunt. And I'm terrified he's going to be blunt with me and I will be upset. The worst thing I could do is cry in class, and that's my fear. I'm going to be a nervous wreck on Wednesday. :-/
And then Dan said flat out that the novel would never get published and no one would read it as written. Harsh, but true. I would not have read past the first page. And the lesson was that you have to hook the audience from the first page, which I already knew. And which I try to practice at all times.
So now, I have to submit for next week and I'm VERY nervous. I don't really care so much what my classmates think. It's Dan I'm worried about. He's blunt. Very blunt. And I'm terrified he's going to be blunt with me and I will be upset. The worst thing I could do is cry in class, and that's my fear. I'm going to be a nervous wreck on Wednesday. :-/
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Week 2-- a downer
I don't know what is it, but last night I just wasn't feeling the love. Dan told us that we were going to workshop two stories a week, so that means we each have to go about twice. Then the days when class had been canceled because a visiting writer was going to be presenting at the same time, now are not canceled, instead we're having class at 4:00. I guess that all kind of deflated me a little.
But I think more than that was my dismay when he told us we should be working 2-3 hours a day, not just the original 48 minutes, and we need to schedule our work for a specific time every day. I nearly cried when I thought of it, because the past week the writing has been painful. I think the main part of that is that I just have not been excited about what I was working on, a project I started because I thought it would be a good "literary" thesis project. But I hated it almost from the beginning. I like the idea, but I think I just had not spent enough time letting the idea ferment and not enough research. So my choice was to do one of two things--continue with a project I don't like right now or go back to something I enjoyed working on, something that I doubt is literary.
Today, I came up with a compromise. My short stories naturally tend toward the literary, and I had already been working on the short story collection anyway, so I started work back on one of my favorite unfinished novel, A Ghost Of A Chance. And I wrote more in one 48 minute period than I did all last week. So for the literary, I'll work on the short story collection, for fun, Ghost. After I made that decision, I felt a lot better about working 2 hours a day.
Next week, we workshop tow stories and then go to our first reading. I glanced at the first story, actually it seems to be a novel chapter, and I am afraid I'm not going to like it. *Sigh* This is why I hate workshops! And I stupidly volunteered to submit for the following week. I thought it better to at least get one submission done and over with early on.
Here's to hoping next week is better!
But I think more than that was my dismay when he told us we should be working 2-3 hours a day, not just the original 48 minutes, and we need to schedule our work for a specific time every day. I nearly cried when I thought of it, because the past week the writing has been painful. I think the main part of that is that I just have not been excited about what I was working on, a project I started because I thought it would be a good "literary" thesis project. But I hated it almost from the beginning. I like the idea, but I think I just had not spent enough time letting the idea ferment and not enough research. So my choice was to do one of two things--continue with a project I don't like right now or go back to something I enjoyed working on, something that I doubt is literary.
Today, I came up with a compromise. My short stories naturally tend toward the literary, and I had already been working on the short story collection anyway, so I started work back on one of my favorite unfinished novel, A Ghost Of A Chance. And I wrote more in one 48 minute period than I did all last week. So for the literary, I'll work on the short story collection, for fun, Ghost. After I made that decision, I felt a lot better about working 2 hours a day.
Next week, we workshop tow stories and then go to our first reading. I glanced at the first story, actually it seems to be a novel chapter, and I am afraid I'm not going to like it. *Sigh* This is why I hate workshops! And I stupidly volunteered to submit for the following week. I thought it better to at least get one submission done and over with early on.
Here's to hoping next week is better!
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