A Lifetime of Tharn
Sep. 19th, 2023 09:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jakebeI did nearly everything I set out to do yesterday except for writing! ...and my night-time grooming routine if I'm being really honest. But overall it was a pretty good day.
I was a little slow to get started, but things picked up around mid-morning and stayed reasonably productive. At work, I think my completion rate has obviously slowed down so my aim is to pick up the pace this week to say, normal operating rhythm. I know that I'll get faster as time goes by -- I'll know to look for specific issues first, or to kinda batch parts of my review for maximum efficiency. I could also ask to shadow certain folks who've been here longer to get a feel for how they do it. Hopefully, it wouldn't be too weird to ask.
Still, it felt pretty good yesterday morning having meditated, walked two miles, and taken a shower all before 8:30 AM. I'm still learning how to set myself up for success right out of the gate, to be honest. Today, maybe I'll take 30 minutes at the end of work to prep myself for the next day -- you know, a list of things to do first, notes about where I've left off, the kind of thing that reduces the "blank page" anxiety of a new day. Hopefully if I sit down at my desk with a laundry list of the most important things first it'll give me that small push I need to get started.
I didn't write because...I'm not sure why. Honestly it's most likely that I took the "excuse" of going to the gym (which we didn't do) and the Unreliable Narrators meeting to put myself in a holding pattern after work. Still, despite that I *did* study Duolingo and read a bit of "Between The Lines," a book about the "subtle" elements of fiction writing. The cover held an intriguing promise so I thought I'd give it a go. So far so good, though it's clear the author is from the Gardnerian school of fiction-writing so that makes me bristle.
John Gardner is (I think) one of the most well-regarded figures in modern literary fiction. He wrote "Grendel", which I'm sure is excellent, and has many big opinions on writing. Most, he asserts, don't have the talent or discipline to take the craft as seriously as it should. Each word should be pored over, deliberate, and layered with meaning. Choosing between synonyms should be based on how well they fit the personality of the character, or the tone of the situation. We should know the etymology of words so we know the subconscious associations we make with them and write accordingly. And, if you're not willing to put in this amount of effort or don't have the insight to understand why it's necessary, you won't make it as a writer.
I hate this school of thinking for obvious reasons -- it presents writing as a meritocracy that I clearly don't have the chops to succeed with. And so many great storytellers have been dismissed or discouraged by this way of thinking. Writing IS hard. Full stop. Trying to use something as imperfect and limiting as words to communicate the astonishing richness of the human experience is a fool's errand, but through some alchemy we're able to do this. It does feel like literal magic, being able to say the correct words in a sequence to get someone to say, wildly hallucinate, forgive themselves and others for things they couldn't let go of, or even change the way they see the world. It's amazing, and as writers we should take that seriously no question.
But gatekeeping this way does a serious disservice to our writing, and the grand literary tradition in general. Great stories, and great art, can come from literally anywhere. True, discipline is needed to become a successful writer, and one of the best ways to improve is by really digging into the language because it gives you a nearly-precise level of control over the effect you hope to achieve. The more you know, the more specific you can be with your characters, plots, themes, ideas. But it's not the only way to create great art, and sometimes even despite the unpolished nature of someone's story it shines regardless.
That being said, it's clear to me that I really need to get some basic, foundational shit down first. I'm hoping that reading more great short stories and applying the advice given by those who've come before me will set me on a better path that way. At the very least, I'll be starting with Swiftie's Intergalactic from scratch. I'd like to find a template or something like that and adapt the story to it so I'm learning how to put a story together in such a way that even if the seams show, they're at least attractive to look at. :)
I think, over the next three months, I'd like to become a lot more grounded. That's not easy, but it's well past time I saw -- and said -- things a little clearer.
I was a little slow to get started, but things picked up around mid-morning and stayed reasonably productive. At work, I think my completion rate has obviously slowed down so my aim is to pick up the pace this week to say, normal operating rhythm. I know that I'll get faster as time goes by -- I'll know to look for specific issues first, or to kinda batch parts of my review for maximum efficiency. I could also ask to shadow certain folks who've been here longer to get a feel for how they do it. Hopefully, it wouldn't be too weird to ask.
Still, it felt pretty good yesterday morning having meditated, walked two miles, and taken a shower all before 8:30 AM. I'm still learning how to set myself up for success right out of the gate, to be honest. Today, maybe I'll take 30 minutes at the end of work to prep myself for the next day -- you know, a list of things to do first, notes about where I've left off, the kind of thing that reduces the "blank page" anxiety of a new day. Hopefully if I sit down at my desk with a laundry list of the most important things first it'll give me that small push I need to get started.
I didn't write because...I'm not sure why. Honestly it's most likely that I took the "excuse" of going to the gym (which we didn't do) and the Unreliable Narrators meeting to put myself in a holding pattern after work. Still, despite that I *did* study Duolingo and read a bit of "Between The Lines," a book about the "subtle" elements of fiction writing. The cover held an intriguing promise so I thought I'd give it a go. So far so good, though it's clear the author is from the Gardnerian school of fiction-writing so that makes me bristle.
John Gardner is (I think) one of the most well-regarded figures in modern literary fiction. He wrote "Grendel", which I'm sure is excellent, and has many big opinions on writing. Most, he asserts, don't have the talent or discipline to take the craft as seriously as it should. Each word should be pored over, deliberate, and layered with meaning. Choosing between synonyms should be based on how well they fit the personality of the character, or the tone of the situation. We should know the etymology of words so we know the subconscious associations we make with them and write accordingly. And, if you're not willing to put in this amount of effort or don't have the insight to understand why it's necessary, you won't make it as a writer.
I hate this school of thinking for obvious reasons -- it presents writing as a meritocracy that I clearly don't have the chops to succeed with. And so many great storytellers have been dismissed or discouraged by this way of thinking. Writing IS hard. Full stop. Trying to use something as imperfect and limiting as words to communicate the astonishing richness of the human experience is a fool's errand, but through some alchemy we're able to do this. It does feel like literal magic, being able to say the correct words in a sequence to get someone to say, wildly hallucinate, forgive themselves and others for things they couldn't let go of, or even change the way they see the world. It's amazing, and as writers we should take that seriously no question.
But gatekeeping this way does a serious disservice to our writing, and the grand literary tradition in general. Great stories, and great art, can come from literally anywhere. True, discipline is needed to become a successful writer, and one of the best ways to improve is by really digging into the language because it gives you a nearly-precise level of control over the effect you hope to achieve. The more you know, the more specific you can be with your characters, plots, themes, ideas. But it's not the only way to create great art, and sometimes even despite the unpolished nature of someone's story it shines regardless.
That being said, it's clear to me that I really need to get some basic, foundational shit down first. I'm hoping that reading more great short stories and applying the advice given by those who've come before me will set me on a better path that way. At the very least, I'll be starting with Swiftie's Intergalactic from scratch. I'd like to find a template or something like that and adapt the story to it so I'm learning how to put a story together in such a way that even if the seams show, they're at least attractive to look at. :)
I think, over the next three months, I'd like to become a lot more grounded. That's not easy, but it's well past time I saw -- and said -- things a little clearer.
