Advise to Revise.

I love revising my work. For me, the hardest part about writing is getting all of my ideas  down into some sort of cohesive plot.  Granted, like all writers, I can get too attached to a phrase or scene which make it hard to edit. That is why I make a new save file for every time I edit something. It is easier for me to cut things out as long as I know they aren't gone permanently. Writer's Digest has a good article about revision. However, the thing that helps me the most is when I take a step back from it. I have to be able to see my work from an objective point of view. However, if I wait too long, I have a tendency to lose my enthusiasm for the piece and then I give up on it altogether.

Blog With a Blog

I like blogging, but I don't actually putting my fiction on it. I'm very self conscious about my work. The only time I  share anything with anyone is when I am in a class and I am forced to. I prefer to use blogging in a more abstract way. This blog is obviously for class, but on my personal blog, I tend to ramble about random things.

Although I don't use it for such, I can see the benefits of using a blog to get work out there. I just don't think that I am quite ready to have an uncontrolled audience see my work. I think that is also the reason why I haven't seriously sent out my work to get published. In the words of Marty McFly, "I don't think I could handle that kind of rejection." Well, not yet, at least.

You begin to read an awesome blog post.

Although I have never tried my hand at it, I think that the most interesting point of view to write in is second person. I feel that there is a level of intimacy involved that no other point of view can quite grasp. With the second person, you are transported into the story. The author tells you what you are doing and there is nothing you can do about it but stop reading. If you continue to read, you are at the mercy of the writer. They say "You walk down the street," and you are walking down that street whether you want to or not. You are forced to think "I don't want to do that" rather than just "Oh, I wish the character wouldn't do that."

When the story is written in first person, you join the main character in their story. When the story is written in second person, you are the story.

***

You slump back in your chair, feeling disappointed. That wasn't awesome. That was barely even a post. Way too short, first of all. Second person points of view are dumb, you think to yourself. There is no level of intimacy. There is no way that she could tell what you are thinking. Whatever, you think to yourself, that's what I get for reading dumb college blogs anway. 

Any Creative Title Would Be Too Mean: My Post About The Pink Institution

I have a complicated relationship with The Pink Institution. The best way I can describe it is that I became begrudgingly invested in the story. I didn't really like the content at all, but I needed to know what happened next. If I don't watch myself, this post is going to turn into a hatefest and I don't want that. The book was definitely thought provoking, but the way the way it was written was off-putting to me.
       On page 58 was where I became interested in the plot. Saterstrom used the same vocabulary describing Azalea's actions to Aza as she did with Willie's mother's actions to Azalea herself. The use of cyclical action intrigued me. I also ended up having to make a family tree because I kept forgetting who people were.
      The book that this most reminded me of was the Crank series. I tried reading it, but it was also using poetic style to write a novel and that just isn't something I enjoy.

Show Me The Millions

Literary websites come in a variety of flavors. Some you can post your own work and some are just about the world of literature in general. One of my favorite sites is The Millions. It is the perfect mishmosh of essays, reviews, and other aspects pertaining to literature. With the popularity of sites such as Buzzfeed, it would be understandable for a site such as The Millions to fall to the wayside. It is over ten years old, after all. However, it has successfully kept up with the times and includes more hip aspects, such as lists like this one where the writer discusses five crime novels that have female detectives. The Millions has proved that it is flexible enough to continue to be relevant in an age where there is little to no attention span on the internet. If it continues on its path, I believe it will make it past its 20th birthday and then some.

It's Hard Out Here for a B****

Lust is a story by Susan Minot. It is fascinating because it looks at sexual relationships from the point of view of a "loose" girl. Some would even call her a slut. This story has effective storytelling techniques because it chooses to be from the point of view of a character that might have been an antagonist in a different story. Girls that have a lot of sex are normally vilified for some reason, both in society and in media. Minot manages to show a girl that would have been looked down upon and makes her extremely sympathetic.

***

"What are you complaining about?" says Jill to me when we talk about [boy] problems." 

"Yeah," says Giddy. "You always have a boyfriend." 

I look at them and think, As if.

This passage is great because the reader is given insight into the character without her having to really say anything. From that one thought, we know that the narrator feels that she has boy problems, but she doesn't feel comfortable with revealing that to the rest of the girls. It is worth noting that the narrator never names herself. A possible tactic that Minot could be using for that is that the narrator doesn't feel that she is worth naming. Throughout the story she drops hints that she is disappearing and feels invisible. One way of disappearing and going unnoticed is to be unnamed.

 

 

Just Keep Swimming!

The hardest thing about writing is actually writing. As odd as that might sound, if you are a writer, you know that it's true. You just have to sit down and make yourself do it. You might need to give yourself deadlines or you might need to set aside a little time each day to just write. If you can do that, you will have passed the biggest hurdle there is as a writer. And once you get into a groove, you won't be able to stop! Just start writing, and see what happens. I am sure that you'll be pleased with the result. :)

The Beginning of the End

The story that has the most interesting introduction is Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story. The cool part of that story is that the narrator wants to distance himself from the story. Normally the point of a story is to have the distance between the reader and the characters be as small as possible. Russell Banks effectively uses the introduction to have "Ron" have a really close distance to the reader and then effectively have the distance of the characters change around.
       One of my favorite books is A Clockwork Orange. In a way, the beginning is almost like Sarah Cole. However, that is only because the two stories start out so differently from almost all other novels or stories.The cool thing about the introduction of A Clockwork Orange is that there is a plethora of new vocabulary. One of the first sentences of the novel is "The Korova Milkbar was a milk-plus mesto, and you may, O my brothers, have forgotten what these mestos were like, things changing so skorry these days and everybody quick to forget, newspapers not being read much neither." There is no glossary or anything for the words that the author introduces, so you have to use context clues to figure out what the author is saying. The first time I read the book, I referred to the vocabulary list only a few times to make sure that I was defining the words correctly. The beginning is harder to understand because as a reader you aren't used to the new words. Without knowing it, the work gets easier to read because you get used to the new vocabulary.
       As crazy as the beginning of the story is with all of the new words, the most interesting part of A Clockwork Orange is the ending. Most people are familiar with the film directed by Stanley Kubrick, but what most don't realize is that the ending of the film isn't the true ending of the story. In the British version of the novel, there are 3 parts with seven chapters each. That makes 21 chapters in total and it was done on purpose because the number 21 is associated with human maturity. However, when it came time to publish the book in America, the publisher wanted to cut the last chapter out, which is what Kubrick based his movie off of. Since the author, Anthony Burgess, was just grateful that his book was getting bought by anyone, he allowed it to happen. The final chapter changes the whole purpose of the novel. *Do not read any further if you do not want the A Clockwork Orange spoiled for you* The novel itself is ultra violent because Burgess was trying to cope with the murder of his wife at the time and explore why humans do such things. The main character, Alex, ends up getting "treated" for his violent ways by getting brainwashed. The 20th chapter ends with him reverting to his old ways because he was struck on the head and the brainwashing was reversed. The 21st chapter ends with Alex changing and becoming less violent on his own. Burgess did this because he wanted to show that people could changed. As I stated earlier, with a single chapter omitted, the entire story changes. Without it, it is just a story of pointless violence. With the 21st chapter included, it becomes a story of the human ability to change and outgrow nasty habits. The final chapter is one that promises hope for humanity as a whole instead of hopelessness.

Travels With Steinbeck

My favorite book of all time is East of Eden by John Steinbeck. I've always been interested in reading, but it wasn't until I read East of Eden that I became seriously interested in writing. Not only is the story excellent, but I found myself drawn to Steinbeck's writing style. A quote from his Nobel Prize acceptance speech that really speaks to me as a writer is, "I hold that a writer who does not passionately believe in the perfectibility of man, has no dedication nor any membership in literature."East of Eden is Steinbeck's modern retelling of the book of Genesis continually through several generations of the Trask family. One of the most powerful scenes is as follows:

Lee's hand shook as he filled the delicate cups. He drank his down in one gulp. "Don't you see?" he cried. "The American Standard translation orders men to triumph over sin, and you can call sin ignorance. The King James translation makes a promise in 'Thou shalt,' meaning that men will surely triumph over sin. But the Hebrew word, the word timshel-- 'Thou mayest'-- that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if 'Thou mayest' it is also true that 'Thou mayest not.' Don't you see?"

"Yes, I see. I do see. But you do not believe this is divine law. Why do you feel its importance?"

"Ah!" said Lee. "I've wanted to tell you this for a long time. I even anticipated your questions and I am well prepared. Any writing which has influenced the thinking and the lives of innumerable people is important. Now, there are many millions in their sects and churches who feel the order, 'Do thou,' and throw their weight into obedience. And there are millions more who feel predestination in 'Thou shalt.' Nothing they may do can interfere with what will be. But 'Thou mayest'! Why, that makes a man great, that gives him stature with the gods, for in his weakness and his filth and his murder of his brother he has still the great choice. He can choose his course and fight it through and win." Lee's voice was a chant of triumph.

The reason that I love the story, this scene especially, is because of what it means to characterization. By having the power of choice, it gives full responsibility over to the characters of their own lives. Ever since reading the novel, I have found that a large part of my writing revolves around the choices of my characters and how they must choose to be either bad or good.
        Obviously Steinbeck wouldn't have such a profound effect on me if I just liked one of his novels. I like his writing style a lot and unfortunately he is no longer alive so he doesn't have anything he has posted online. One website has 6 tips from when Steinbeck was still living that I like. My favorite is his comment on character speech. Whenever I write, I tend to mutter to myself the bits of dialogue to see what fits for each character. I also just really love his Nobel Prize acceptance speech in general because you can just tell of his love for the craft. You can also tell that he has such faith in the human race that I find so refreshing, especially with someone that saw the horrors of World War II as a war correspondent.