Categoría: How to write fiction

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How to write fiction

Authorship: not of self-election

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An author is taken to be someone acknowledged as responsible for a given printed (or sometimes written) work; that is, authorship is taken to be a matter of attribution by others, not of self-election. A writer is anyone who composes such a work. A writer therefore mayor may not attain authorship. A text is the content of any written or printed work, considered apart from its particular material manifestation.

THE NATURE OF THE BOOK. Print and Knowledge in the making. ADRIAN JOHNS. THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS. CHICAGO AND LONDON

Then I’m only a writer because I comment on books about writing or books about books[1]. I have no authorship because nobody has called me an author yet.

That reminds me something I read (by a writer who prefers to use the pen name of a dead writer[2]); people discussing the writer as a person and not as an author. Do we, by denying the authorship of poems and novels to writers and comment, instead, about the author as a person; become the creators of garbage knowledge? Do we really kill the authorship by discussing the person and not the author?

It is a question. I understand why to discuss the writer (or the musician or the filmmaker or the singer) as a person and not as an author. We don’t want authors to become the creators of reality by forcing reality to adjust to what they think reality should be without practicing it. We don’t want, any longer, Jean Rousseaus marauding around.

I elaborate.

In Ovejas y mierda[3],the character of Eudald is capable[4] of messing up with his mother’s car in order to film the afterwards rehabilitation and film true reality. Because, for him, a documentary shouldn’t become the interviews after the incident but the incident itself. In his mind, things have to be shown the way they happen even If you have to help reality to happen. He won’t stop at almost killing or raping.

Sick? It is horrid! This person is an… Yes. That. But he creates wonderful documentaries! (fictitious of course). Such an author should be stripped of their authorship… I understand why we discuss the person and not the author. I’m as emotional as anyone. However, does the person being horrible cancel automatically that they wrote, sing, film… “beautifully”?

I’m a jobless, lazy person. Am I as sick as this character? It worries me. And no, sometimes worrying about is not enough to proof you’re not a horrible person. Should I be denied authorship?

And by worrying a lot more about the last, do I become a worse person than the one I am?

Pasto kalo.

[1] As Mikita Brottman remarks in The lonely vice, now we have lots of books about books. Though I’m starting to think that started much before. When folklorists and writers like Barthes started to write about myths and folklore. They were writing about how stories come to life and what they’re made up. At times when people still took a pen and started writing without a manual.

[2] He is American.

[3] Literal translation of the title: Sheep and shit. Oriol Font i Bassa. 2018.

[4] No one can proof it but it is rumored and the author takes us by a documented (documentary translated into novel) format.

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How to write fiction

Invisible?

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The Hero’s Journey is a skeletal framework that should be fleshed out with the details and surprises of the individual story. The structure should not call attention to itself, nor should it be followed too precisely.

THE WRITER’S JOURNEY ~ THIRD EDITION. Christopher Vogler. Published by Michael Wiese Productions

…. The problem of using a recipe is that, sooner or later you can tell the structure. The problem of not following a structure? There’s no satisfaction for the client.

There are ways to call attention into the structure in order to distract from the plot unfolding itself. Read Witches abroad to discover how. Pasto kalo.

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How to write fiction

Archetypes and again, the collective unconscious

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The repeating characters of world myth such as the young hero, the wise old man or woman, the shapeshifter, and the shadowy antagonist are the same as the figures who appear repeatedly in our dreams and fantasies. That’s why myths and most stories constructed on the mythological model have the ring of psychological truth.

THE WRITER’S JOURNEY ~ THIRD EDITION. Christopher Vogler. Published by Michael Wiese Productions

Mmmm. Mmmm. And more mmmm. No young heros, no wise old men or women and no shadow antagonists in my dreams.  If I were to follow the affirmation above, I would conclude that I am not human, I am deranged or something doesn’t really work there.

In my fantasies I live in a library… I have money enough to rent a Bentley… Sometimes I’m a mushroom goddess…

Fine. I’ll confess: I’m not human. I whished.

Have fun dealing with psychological truth. Pasto kalo.

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How to write fiction

Of manners, food and social standing in children literature

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As a specialized field of study, children’s literature has its own set of works and texts that address food (although these works often build upon theorists like Barthes). One of the first articles to specifically discuss food in children’s literature is Wendy R. Katz’s aptly titled “Some Uses of Food in Children’s Literature.” The article, though humble in its claim, argues that “children’s literature is filled with food-related images, notions, and values” because if one “understand[s] the relations between the child and food…[one] understand[s] the workings of the world of the young” (192). More importantly, Katz discusses the place of food in the child’s “adjustment to the social order”––their acclimation to society–– or perhaps even the adult world (193). […]  As an integral part of reality, food fits seamlessly into fictional narratives, providing a multifaceted and symbolic vehicle for authors to communicate social change or lessons, whichever the case may be.

Stephens, Mary A., «Nothing More Delicious: Food as Temptation in Children’s Literature» (2013). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 50. https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/50

The amount of stuff that can be ritualized, imbued of meaning and worshiped. Human beings are never contented with reading things as they are. Oh, no. They need to complicate everything by creating symbols. Witty ideas about the meaning of images.

Oh, yes I do too. I write. If it is a conscious process or not it is irrelevant. I take the images I can recall from stories or design tools I learnt at school, in order to lie better.

That is the way writing stops being just the literal meaning to become THAT PERFECT MOMENT. The perfect instant in which the image summons the feelings needed. The cliché image as a vehicle of standard communication we need to connect.

Do you ever think what food means in your writing? Have a good time using its image. Pasto kalo.

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How to write fiction

Again, the truth

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The very first thing I tell my new students on the first day of a workshop is that good writing is about telling the truth. We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are. Sheep lice do not seem to share this longing, which is one reason they write so very little. But we do. We have so much we want to say and figure out.

Bird by bird. Anne Lamott

I think the one thing not working here is “the truth”. We don’t want the truth. We want excitement; we want things that aren’t there. We want the spirit of the lion watching over us because it is scary for random things happening; in spite of all our care trying not to fall down the hole we haven’t seen. And this is our first lie: we want the truth.

Sheep lice don’t write because they don’t have to record how many sheep they have sucked to pay taxes (and maybe, omit a few nano-litters in order to not go bloodrup). Add that they concentrate on sucking, not in pretending to be nice beings taking away the over exert of blood pressure for the sheep to feel better. Or, maybe, that sheep fuss is a signal from heaven to keep on sucking instead of letting go.

I don’t know. Maybe this is only because I don’t have such a good memory to remember what I got from the Three wise kings when I was 10 or what the adults said in this or that situation.

Maybe. Enjoy figuring out what you want to write about. If inventing is easier that telling the truth. Pasto kalo.

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How to write fiction

Fiction and debt

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The writer of any book inevitably accrues debts, and when its theme is as interdisciplinary as this one those debts are particularly keenly felt. During the near-decade that it has taken to complete this work, I have received generous help from a wide range of people. I am conscious of the inadequacy of any acknowledgment I can now give in return.

THE NATURE OF THE BOOK. Print and Knowledge in the making. ADRIAN JOHNS. THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS.CHICAGO AND LONDON

I don’t know [to start like a Linkin Park song], but fiction writers owe a lot of what they write to the writers they read.

Sometimes reading earlier authors we hadn’t read before those that we already have [more contemporary ] is a discovery in itself. To know where certain ideas came from is a delight.

Have fun playing detective work. Pasto kalo.

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How to write fiction

HEROPHOBIC CULTURES

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Here and there in my travels I learned that some cultures are not entirely comfortable with the term «hero» to begin with. Australia and Germany are two cultures that seem slightly «herophobic.»

THE WRITER’S JOURNEY ~ THIRD EDITION. Christopher Vogler. Published by Michael Wiese Productions

More than societies being herophobic, I’d like to point out they have realized imagined realities can be misused.  They can be manipulated for governments to push people to go war. Wars in which the only sense is the ego of the fill in the blank with the leader of turn’s title. Too much for spending time in a trench or murdering kids and terrorists by pressing a button. Or too much to blindly go following certain idealisms such as genocide in order to have a proper order of things [ I know… what’s the proper order of things that allows such ideas[1]?]. 

Societies can also realize a single individual can’t be responsible for the actions of many. It was Mahatma Gandhi who came up with the idea of doing things being responsible of what he did himself and only of the things he did himself[2]. Indeed, the author explains Aussies prefer the not so trustable, ethereal hero; since they realized the English had them fighting their battles by using the word “hero”.  I think they have learned cooperation works better. Of course there’s still the need for that one single manager but they know the manager alone can’t do much.

Narrative is not just a hero and their journey. Narrative is minding the imagined reality to make humans feel purposeful and cooperative. It is about making up what’s not there to have us not killing the neighbour. It’s imaginative and varied and truly strange.

Perhaps it is time to imagine something new. Have fun trying. Pasto kalo.

[1] Nonetheless, these ideologies happened and still happen.

[2] Reference to Diana Uribe’s podcasts… don’t ask which.

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How to write fiction

The big questions

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Where do stories come from? How do they work? What do they tell us about ourselves? What do they mean? Why do we need them? How can we use them to improve the world?

Above all, how do storytellers manage to make the story mean something? Good stories make you feel you’ve been through a satisfying, complete experience. You’ve cried or laughed or both. You finish the story feeling you’ve learned something about life or about yourself. Perhaps you’ve picked up a new awareness, a new character or attitude to model your life on. How do storytellers manage to pull that off? What are the secrets of this ancient trade? What are its rules and design principles?

THE WRITER’S JOURNEY ~ THIRD EDITION. Christopher Vogler. Published by Michael Wiese Productions

I know. Not all writers wonder. Perhaps narratologists do. And not all good stories make you cry or laugh. I didn’t cry or laughed with Macbeth or Hamlet. I was enchanted with the body spread on stage (on my mind since I’ve never seen those performed). Am I weird? A little, right?

I also remember books that follow this hero’s journey idea that bored me up to the third or second sequel. The same structure again and again[1]. By the third book I had figured out some female character would need help and this guy, out of an outdated noblesse towards females, would go, lose his liver, an eye, ribs or got a broken leg and; gathering strength from nature or any other pre ordained magical condition, defeat the evil being. Thank you very much, where can I read something that’s not as predictable? Very akin to what happens to some fighting webtoons. Yet, for those; I still wanna know: why does the main character own two bodies?

Dramas that intend to leave behind a moral principle that infuriated me enough to question myself if the writer belittles their audience or if the audience is really that stupid. I always conclude it’s either the writer or the government trying to censure any gray morals. What if anyone feels like robbing a bank? No, we can’t have that. Those who dare may be banned from reincarnation.

Great stories have things in common. Indeed. However, they’re not always the same pattern. Good storytelling is like quantum physics. If you think you understand quantum physics, you understand nothing.

Have fun wondering. Pasto kalo.   

[1] I’m too sophisticated for the franchise story ( except Harry Potter or A song of ice and fire…) but too vulgar for the intellectual quest of revolutionary story telling.

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How to write fiction

The easy way

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“One thing I’ve learned, Calvin: people will always yearn for a simple solution to their complicated problems. It’s a lot easier to have faith in something you can’t see, can’t touch, can’t explain, and can’t change, rather than to have faith in something you actually can.” She sighed. “One’s self, I mean.” She tensed her stomach.

Lessons in chemistry. Bonnie Garmus

Since humans are capable of creating things that do not exist and make of them something real inside their brains and by agreement with many others1; is it possible to influence the universe by believing things?

Have you ever though what would happen if your story were to come alive just because it exists within the realms of the brain?

On the other side. Why can’t we just face things the way they are? Is it too scary?

Pasto kalo.

  1. That is what we should call the collective unconscious. Imagined realities are there by agreement and firmly implanted into the unconscious by repetition. I still open my mouth to answer «amen» when mass ends in movies. Then I smirk. ↩︎
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How to write fiction

Prosody

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All poets use rhythm and all readers of poetry hear rhythm, whether or not they are conscious of doing so, but prosody, the description and analysis of poetic rhythms, can be as complicated as musical notation, and different languages require different sorts of prosody.

In the classical languages prosody was quantitative, based on vowel length or quantity. In Anglo-Saxon (or Old English) prosody was qualitative, based on patterns of stress or accent (with other complex rules concerning alliteration, p. 202). In Slavic languages, like Russian, words can be very long, because such synthetic languages build a lot of meaning into one word by adding prefixes and inflecting endings, but there is also a rule which allows only one stress per word, however long––so Russian poetry is usually analysed with a basis in accent but many variants. In Romance languages, like French, rules of stress are more flexible than Russian but more rigid than English and French poetry is usually analysed in syllabic prosody, according to the number of syllables in each line.

The Poetry Handbook. A Guide to Reading Poetry for Pleasure and Practical Criticism. Second Edition. JOHN LENNARD. Oxford University Press

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New word I’m sure I’ll forget in less than a week. Have fun reading about things you have no idea about , to improve the writing. Pasto kalo.