Writer's Lounge

Writing Warm Ups

2009-04-06T10:04:43-06:00

Some writers warm up by doing crossword puzzles. If I get two words on the New York Times crossword puzzle, I feel that is an accomplishment. Other writers drink. I don’t want to do that. Does anyone know of any good warm up exercises to get the writing blood and drive moving?
Bill

Copy Editting Career Advice

2009-04-07T10:28:26-06:00

Hello All,
I know someone who is going to graduate from St. Xavier Univ. in May. She is looking for any advice on how to pursue a career in copy editting, or some simliar type of venue (venue is my word). Can anyone help or offer advice? Thanks,
Bill

Shaggy Dogs and More

2009-04-04T10:25:29-06:00

Speaking of shaggy dog stories, as mentioned by Jill in class Wed., I had never heard of them, and now I just bumped into this web link off of the Downers Grove library… http://www.awpi.com/Combs/Shaggy/
pegged as the first and only shaggy dog story website.
Opposite vein of frivolity of a shaggy dog story: I just read an article this morning in the Weekend Journal of The Wall Street Journal, “Lost in Fiction,” by Alexander McCall Smith, author of the “No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” series, talking about the importance of morals in fictional characters, that he has noticed in feedback from his readers, and that he said often reflect upon himself, the author in spite of it all. He has to constantly remind people, “It’s just a story.” “When readers think fiction is real:” http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123880307592488761.html#mod=todays_us_nonsub_weekendjournal

Dialogue

2009-04-01T08:35:58-06:00

I feel as if I’m in a constant battle, trying to make my wooden dialogue flow flawlessly, like we saw in the readings for today. I really enjoyed Richard Baush’s story “Aren’t You Happy For Me?” I liked how the whole story was crafted around a phone call between father and daughter and the reader learns of the conflict via what’s being said and also what’s not being said, in the tone of voice. I also really enjoyed reading Francine Prose’s story, “Talking Dog.” Even though it was a weird story, the dialogue in it’s authenticy, really impressed me. I absolutely loved the part when the narrator hates her sister, “For always getting her way, for always outlasting everyone and being so weird and dramatic and never letting you know for sure what is real and what she was faking” (page 507). Now that’s some real dialogue with feeling, and I can only hope with a bit of practice, my dialogue will get better as well.

where to listen and observe

2009-03-18T22:27:56-06:00

I am looking for suggestions for places to go to observe people and listen to their conversations, and not be observed myself. Does anyone have any ideas? This will be for ideas and characters and dialog for writing.
Bill Dollear

RAW--The Spring Session

2009-03-17T19:22:42-06:00

Hey readers,

I hope you’ll all respond to this post--or of course, start your own--so we can keep the discussion going from class.

If you’ve been working on the essay response or preparing to present your story, feel free to post your notes here. Sometimes it’s nice to be able to read a piece after we’ve discussed it and see even more in those words.

See you tomorrow night.

Salt as Love

2008-11-16T15:49:55-06:00

There is an old parable that goes ‘I love you as meat loves salt.’ Likely the source material for Shakespeare’s King Lear. (or culled from it) As in Lear, The parable tells of the favored daughter answering her father’s question about how much she loves him with metaphor. ‘As meat loves salt.’ Father, not being a poetic soul finds her answer unsatisfactory and banishes her from the house. The remaining siblings squabble and Father dearest is driven nearly to distraction. The kitchen staff finds the need to take on a new cook. This new cook hides her identity and keeps to the shadows of the house. Then one evening during a feast, the food comes to the table inedible. The meat is without flavor, and possibly tainted as well. No salt. The cook is revealed to be Father’s dearest daughter having spoiled the dinner but having fully illustrated her point.

Salt is love. Sustenance. Life force. Salt of the earth. And yet what happens when we salt the earth? Death and destruction. Terminal generation.

So I find myself wondering what Monique Truong meant by writing The Book of Salt. Love, the word, is thin on the ground throughout the novel. And yet it does seem to be the quest object for Binh.

Binh seeks love in it’s many incarnations. Approval. Desire. Acceptance. Community. Maternal. Familial. Yet, rarely, if ever, does he name it. The physical properties of salt, however, surface and resurface. In relation to food prep, the sea, sweat, and blood. Salt is a fact of life. There is evidence of salt. It is tangible. Love is not. Kierkegaard even proposed that any time one can articulate a reason for love, they have invalidated it by making it about the reason and not the love itself. (I paraphrase here.)

So, The Book of Salt might well be called the Quest for Love despite its non appearance in the text.

Books We Mentioned in Class

2008-10-08T12:58:35-06:00

David Liss, Conspiracy of Paper
Geraldine Brooks, People of the Book
Geraldine Brooks, March
Charles Baxter, Saul & Patsy
Ian McEwan, Atonement
Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible
(?), Healing Stones
(?), The Last Kabbalist

What else?

What I was trying to say …

2008-10-07T14:08:29-06:00

Okay, Hi all. The word I was searching for last night in our discussion of language in Salt was syntax. In addition to the use of decidedly anglo saxon words, Binh’s syntax did not have an asian flavor to it. At least not in the narrative itself. Different branches of languages tend to go along with pre supposed syntax, and when a novice to a language is feeling their way through a sentence, they might get the words right but change the placement of subject, object, etc.
The word syntax came to me in a dream last night and I woke up to jot it down. I dreamed actively last night. Our discussion in class along with the 40 more pages I read when I got home, interlaced with snippets on NPR from my drive home, pushed me out of bed this morning and to my laptop. Common for many, but rare for me to feel so compelled to write before setting the household to life. Good on you all. - Delia