Someone Knows My Name

Today, I have read nearly 100 pages of Lawrence Hill's Someone Knows My Name.

Amazing book. It's so real, I can't believe it's fiction!

(I want to write like him)

"Cousin, you live, even if you dance to my tune"

I just picked up a copy of Writers on Writing, Volume II. I was struck by Dorothy Gallagher's essay: "Recognizing the Book that Needs to be Written."

As you know, my thesis is a series of creative nonfiction pieces. I have been struggling with what to include in my stories, how much truth there needs to be and whether everything must be shared.

The complete essay can be found here on the NY Times site. Here are a few exerpts from the essay that I thought I'd share:

I have never written fiction, and this memoir may be as close as I ever get to it. No more than a biography or a novel is memoir true to life. Because, truly, life is just one damn thing after another. The writer's business is to find the shape in unruly life and to serve her story. Not, you may note, to serve her family, or to serve the truth, but to serve the story. There really is no choice. A reporter of fact is in service to the facts, a eulogist to the family of the dead, but a writer serves the story without apology to competing claims.

***

Now you may ask: Just what is the relation of your memoir to the truth?

It is as close as it can be.

The moment you put pen to paper and begin to shape a story, the essential nature of life -- that one damn thing after another -- is lost. No matter how ambiguous you try to make a story, no matter how many ends you leave hanging, it's a package made to travel.

Everything that happened is not in my stories; how could it be? Memory is selective, storytelling insists on itself. But there is nothing in my stories that did not happen. In their essence they are true.

Or a shade of true.

***

What do you think about these ideas?

Snow days are great for productivity

Today was a great day.

Like a kid, I was excited to have a snow day. Usually, I enjoy getting up and going to work -- even on Mondays. But this morning I was still struggling with a mean sickness that has dogged me and the rest of my family for more than three weeks. So, it was nice to see that I'd have another day to recover. In the mean time, I was able to complete another 11 pages of my thesis and FINALLY finish Erik Larson's Devil in the White City. I just finished the book a few minutes before midnight.

If you haven't read this book, go out and buy it today. Fantastic book. It leaves no stone unturned. Great historic piece filled with suspense and mystery, as well as an in-depth look at one of the most influential happenings in our country's history -- the Chicago World's Fair.

The book only left me with one question. As a St. Louisan, I've always held tight to the legend that the massive Ferris wheel that appeared at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair (but which debuted at the earlier exposition in Chicago) was dismanteled and is buried in Forest Park. Larson's book stops short of saying where those massive sections of steel went. So, Erik, if you're reading this, can you help me out on that??

Did I say it was a great book? I need to post some snippets, so you can see what I'm talking about.

Keep the action going

I'm still reading Erik Larson's Devil in the White City. It's still a very good book that concentrates on two stories: the architechts who create the 1898 World's Fair in Chicago, and a maniacal serial killer operating a few blocks away.

Larson is an incredible writer, and he has done awesome research on this subject. No proverbial stone is unturned. But the strong -- albeit sensational -- part of the story is the serial killer. And what I've found is that I'm fascinated by his story. But, as the book progresses (I'm on page 238), his story is interrupted by HUGE chunks of that which concentrates on the architects. When that happens, the action (for me, anyway) slows down considerably. It's frustrating. I want to skip those parts and flip pages to find more about the killer. I won't, though, because I want the full experience the way the author intended.

This does not discount the author's writing ability because I find him to be tremendous. And, in all fairness to the author, this book was in the history section of Barnes and Noble rather than the true crime section. So, I'm guessing that the main thrust (and, obviously, the part with the most archival material) is the architect story with the serial killer just being an added bonus.

I still recommend this title.

Some questions:

Have you had this experience with books before? If so, what titles? (I think the worst was the "Left Behind" series. I did skip around through those!)

Are there tricks to keep the action going, rather than bogging the reader down in detail?

Are writers cheating the reader if we don't provide the "details" -- even if they're mundane?

Tragedy dodged

This is a piece of sound advice from someone who almost screwed up royally:

BACK UP YOUR FILES!!!

This past Monday, I went to pull my jump drive from my pocket and it wasn't there. As panic slowly trickled through my body, I began to realize that more than 30 pages of my thesis (and more than half of my novel) were lost. For two days, my wife and I scoured every inch of our house, our cars and my office to no avail. I retraced my steps and called almost every restaurant I've visited since last Thursday. Then, at 5 p.m. this evening, a co-worker asked if I'd called a restaurant that we visited on Monday.

Guess what. That's where it was!

Thank you, Lord! And thanks to my awesome wife for putting up with a frazzled grad student.

I was ready to throw in the towel and bypass a spring graduation and shoot for the summer. Now, I have a renewed hope to finish this thesis and graduate on May 16.

So please, if you pray, drop one in for me -- that I might stay motivated to complete my thesis, pass my comprehensive exams, graduate and continue writing my novel!!

A new book I'm reading

I hate to admit that I once again put down Sinclair Lewis' Main Street!

A colleague in the Missouri State University's Special Collections and Archives recommended Erik Larson's Devil in the White City. WOW!! This is a great historic novel -- so far. I picked it up at Barnes and Noble in Denver. I started reading it yesterday, and I can't put it down. It's the true story of a cunning and vicious serial killer who was taking advantage of the 1898 World's Fair in Chicago to lure and kill his victims. Larson switches each chapter between the architechts of the fair and the killer -- who could seriously be one of the sickest, most-vile in history. Larson (a former feature writer for the Wall Street Journal, shows that he pays attention to each and every sentence. Well done. I can't wait to get back to it!

It's also very encouraging, since my thesis is creative nonfiction.

Writing longhand

My wife and I still can't afford a laptop. So, while I'm away for five days in Denver, I'll probably spend some time writing longhand. During some of the little spare time I'll have during the conference, I plan to work on my thesis, as well as (hopefully) my novel.

It's amazing how quickly we've lost our "ability" to write in longhand. All of those notes that were passed around in high school and junior high were written in longhand. Back then we were happy to do it, even eager to do it, daily.

Last month, I had to use longhand to write four pages of essays for my linguistics final. It was almost excruciating -- literally -- because I was also writing in pencil. PENCIL??!! I had four of them onhand because there is little worse than writing page after page of single-space with a dull pencil. Actually, over the past year, I've kept several sharp pencils on my desk. There's just something refreshing about pencils.

I used to have pretty nice handwriting. But when I became a reporter, that was all shot to heck. I developed my own shorthand and myriad symbols, which eventually led to some whacked-out mess of ink that only reporters could (amazingly) decipher.

I think I'm going to try to write longhand more often. Books are being published lately dealing with letters that people have written to each other (I'm thinking specifically of books that feature letters between John and Abigail Adams and one that centers on an amazing amount of correspondence to and from Henry James). There was an art to that type of writing. There's something personal, individual, about longhand letter writing. You can almost "see" how the people were feeling when they were writing.

Now we're deluged with sterile emails, that if it wern't for those stupid smiley faces, we'd never be able to tell how the person was feeling -- whether they're being sarcastic, etc.

I've saved many letters that were written to me over the years. They're fun to go back and read. I've saved very few emails.

I think there's an exercise in all of this. I'd like to begin writing more letters to my wife -- something aside from the little notes I jot down in her birthday and anniversary cards. I think she'll appreciate that.

But...that's letter writing. When you want to write a book, there's no better method than typing. I'll probably end up with a hand cramp. But, as they say, no pain, no novel.

Subplots and organization

I'm going to admit that I haven't spent a lot of time on the novel lately, but I am anxious about getting back to it, as I am constantly thinking up ideas.

One thing I've realized is that there HAS to be a series of subplots -- something that is making the job of writing a little harder because I've realized that you can't just concentrate on the main storyline. Basically, there just wouldn't be the depth that I believe a novel requires.

My novel -- right now titled "The Father's Forgiveness" -- deals with several mainstream issues, including the death penalty (I'm intrigued right now with the Supreme Court's decision to hear a case about a guy who is scheduled to die for raping a child), as well as several religious issues which pit Catholic views against other ideologies. I grew up Catholic, and while I still hold dear to many of the Church's teachings, my thoughts on various issues (including the death penalty) differ greatly. Since one of the main characters is a priest, this is making for some great discussion in the book and has prompted a lot of soul searching on my part.

Anyway -- getting back to subplots and organization. I am considering using a tool that I learned about in a screenwriting course. I think I'm going to use 3x5 index cards to write out scenes, and then I will use those cards as puzzle pieces to create the best possible story I can imagine.

Have any of you used this technique in your writing? (I don't get a lot of comments here, but I like to pose questions in case someone stumbles upon this blog and decides to contribute.)

Iowa is perfect setting for twists and turns

I wonder if anyone could write a book as confusing -- with as many ambiguities, twists, and turns -- as the entire Iowa Caucus processes. The processes are different for GOP and Dems. The meetings take place in living rooms and middle school cafeterias -- probably a barn or two. One is a straw poll. The other is ...well...I don't know how to explain it, but there's a lot of bullying going on. But somehow...and I don't know exactly how... it makes sense to politicos and the next US President will emerge. Weird stuff.


P.S. On Christmas, I received $70 total in Barnes and Noble gift cards. I'm very excited to buy buy buy. Any suggestions?

Archival treasures -- and a little apology

First off, I want to apologize for the "little vacation" I took from this blog. It had nothing to do with the blog, other than the fact that I hadn't worked much -- if any -- on the novel or my thesis for about four weeks! I was preparing for a final, writing the paper for my linguistics course and gearing down for the Christmas break, which is now over.

This is crunch time for my thesis, as the first draft is due in February. I'm sticking with the creative non-fiction and have found some new inspiration for some essays that I will write.

Since I have been working at Missouri State University, I've been captivated by our archives in the Meyer Library. People actually donate documents and memorabilia from their lives that -- if combed through carefully -- tell fascinating stories.

When was the last time you "dug" through your own archives?

The Christmas break allowed me some time to do that. I am so blessed to have a mother that has boxed up most of the things from my childhood, as well as momentos, writings, etc. from high school and college years.

In my old bedroom closet sits a wooden toy box with a treasure trove of Eric memorabilia. Right now, it is only of interest to my mother and me; but, hopefully, my sons will one day enjoy browsing through the items.

This Christmas I was on a quest to prove that I was once a promising artist. I was scouring the Eric archives for a high school sketchbook. After locating it (and realizing that that path probably wasn't as promising as I believed), I also found a manilla envelope. In the envelope was the only hard copy of an essay that I wrote in 1994. I hadn't seen this essay since my senior year in high school, and I was very excited to find it.

The essay chronicled a four-hour visit with Baseball Hall of Fame broadcaster and longtime St. Louis Cardinal announcer Jack Buck -- a St. Louis legend, who is father to now uber-popular Joe Buck.

Over the years -- mostly at parties -- I have called forth my memories from that evening at KMOX radio. But this essay, which was written as part of a class project, filled in so many gaps that I had forgotten.

I intend to use this essay to help me write a portion of my thesis. Finding this work helped me to understand just how important "original" work can be -- especially when the goal is to provide accurate history.

I'm also convinced that EVERY life is interesting and adventurous in one way or another. That's why being a storyteller is so much fun!