Wednesday Wanderings

1.) I recently became enamored with a Facebook post by Poet Thomas Sayers Ellis. In this post Ellis lays out "Ten Rules to Change the Game." He's speaking specifically about poetry but his "rules" extend to all of us and I immediately thought about them in regard to fiction. These rules can be found at WE WHO ARE ABOUT TO DIE a collective blog. (This particular post was compiled by Daniel Nestor.) Or see Ellis's FaceBook page.

Ellis's latest book is Skin, Inc.: Identity Repair Poems newly released (August 31) from Graywolf Press.

2) Danielle Evan's book Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self (released September 23) has received rave reviews, including a fabulous video review from Ron Charles of the Washington Post. You can see the review all over the net but check it out on Tayari Jones's blog where you can register to win a FREE copy of the collection.

3) This blog began with my desire to talk about book trailers but it became too complicated so I decided to post Sena Jeter Naslund's book trailer for Adam & Eve  (released Sept. 28) and post some links about book trailers. Those of you in KY can see Sena at 6 p.m. Friday at the Speed Museum in Louisville. See Sena's FB page for details.



See These links for more about book trailers. They come as mini movies, discussion, slideshows, etc. I find them fascinating:

Publisher's Weekly Blog ShelfTalker from 2009 by Elizabeth Bluemle. Shows several example trailers.

The 2010 Moby Awards for Best and Worse Book Trailers. I had a great time looking at these winners and losers.

The Book Deal--Keeping It Real

Someone told me the other day that most publishers want a fiction writer to have at least 2,000 Twitter friends that could turn into solid book sales before they will consider publishing a first novel in today’s market even if they have other publications.

 I am new to Twitter and looked at my paltry 500 followers and sighed, then laughed. I suppose the 20 or so who have promised to enlarge my penis,  guarantee me an instant 1,000 followers or invited me to their sex site don’t count.

This person also said I needed a blog and a million billion Facebook friends. I laughed again. I do have a lot of FB friends but that is because I’m (for all intents and purposes) a hermit and I can stay attached to the art world, the book world, relatives and friends via FB without leaving my living room. I equate the click of my LIKE button to going to an elbow rubbing event or conference but I guess it’s not the same thing.  I’ve never considered FB as a marketing ploy but maybe it is. Hmmm.  

This person also said that my FB posts should be strictly writer-ly. So I guess talking about my daughters and their broken down cars and broken down significant others; play fighting with my partner Ron Davis; or talking about how I went over my Weight Watchers points  in front of my 1900 FB friends doesn’t count.

This person also said that I should keep a register (like you sign at weddings and funerals) with me so that when I did book signings I could have people sign it. I don’t think I can do this. I like shaking hands with the people I meet when I sign books and a smile or an “I look forward to reading this,” is really all I expect from them and not even that really but that’s nice. They’ve already purchased my book what more could I ask of them. I suppose I could disguise it as a giveaway and have these potential readers slip it into a box for a chance to win…uh…a gift certificate from a local bookstore.  (well that one doesn’t feel quite as manipulative but…)

She said that I should start a blog specifically because that would look good to publishers and that too should have 400,000,000 followers at least. So I suppose that everyone who reads this (all 40 of you) should be duped…I mean encouraged…into to buying my book whether you want to or not. I started a blog because I thought that perhaps once a week I’d have something to say about writing or be able to tout the books of writers I knew or wanted to read or have read and that folks might share their responses with me. I also wanted to blog about the publishing world but I’m not sure I know much about it all.

Are y’all game? I suspect that if my book ever gets published it will be under $25 so maybe you should start saving now.

Look into the screen at this blog and become hypnotized. Say it with me now and put your hand on your copy of Franzen’s FREEDOM, “I SOLEMNLY SWEAR TO BUY CRYSTAL WILKINSON’S BOOK (THE BIRDS OF OPULENCE) WHEN AND IF IT IS PUBLISHED.”

And I’m counting on you to whisper it into the ears of other potential buyers or post this on your Twitter and Facebook pages so that I can have a “word of mouth” campaign going at least a year in advance. BUZZ, BUZZ, BUZZ.

If you know someone famous—a publisher, an editor, a reviewer or reporter (preferably one with a huge publishing house, newspaper, magazine or NPR connections)…maybe Oprah’s assistant to the assistant to the assistant tell her too.

 In fact you can take slips of paper with THE BIRDS OF OPULENCE on it and stick it in between the peaches and the lettuce. Send me your address (INSERT SARA PALIN WINK HERE) and I’ll send you a little box of paper slips so that you can do this.

If all else fails, I urge you, compel you, conjure you to just blurt out BIRDS OF OPULENCE at any soiree or cocktail party or family reunion you may be attending, especially if there are editors of big publishing houses in the room.

I always thought that I’d write a book and I’d put it in that Moses basket and send it on its way across the pond and I would stand on the other shore and watch it float where it might. And maybe Pharaoh's daughter would pick it up and take care of it and show it to the world.

I guess this is not true anymore.

My conversation with this person was depressing. I never wanted to hawk my books like I was selling hotdogs, “GET YOUR BIRDS OF OPULENCE HERE!” And I still think that’s annoying when I see people doing it.

What am I going to do to keep my books afloat in this market? I’ll keep listening and watching to what’s going on out there. I’ll ask my agent for advice and let her be Pharaoh’s daughter. If my third book gets published of course I’ll do what I need to do to help it sell; I do have a public relations background after all.

Maybe I'll keep dieting someone told me once that I needed to be cute and perky before I would be selected for an interview with Matt Lauer. But I'm not sure how cute and perky a 40+ woman can be.

Maybe I’ll hit you up to follow or friend me. So be ready. Feel free to feel sorry for me and follow me back. (INSERT THE SECOND SARA PALIN WINK HERE ONLY WITH MORE SEXY IN IT. A COME HITHER TO MY BOOK LOOK.)

I’ll keep my fingers crossed, sacrifice wine and cheese and good Kentucky bourbon to the book goddess. Maybe I’ll close my eyes occasionally and pray “BOOK POWERS ON HIGH...”

But mostly this fall  I’ll do what makes me happiest—keep writing as passionately as I know how on the next story and the next and the next as they come.

Dreams And Your Creative Power

"My whole life has been dreams. Some times day visions. They would take advantage of me. No one taught me to paint. It came to me."--Minnie Evans folk artist



Folk Art by Minnie Evans

 For years I had a recurring dream: I was in a house with many doors. Every door led to another maze of rooms with other doors. In this dream my heart beat with desperation as though there was something that I was driven to find and just couldn't choose the right door. Of course this had everything to do with the stress of my life and my fear of decisons--making the right one--making the wrong one.

When I was pregnant and found out I was having twins, I dreamed of myself in a large waterbed and two crying babies in a crib. As hard as I tried, I couldn't get to those babies. Every time I tried to reach them a whoosh of current pushed me farther and farther away.

These days not only do dreams help me psychoanalyze myself in relation to what is going on in my life, they serve as fodder for my fiction. I use a common exercise to help me engage with my character's subconscious thoughts. Last night she dreamt about __________________. That's all the prompt I need to delve underneath my character and find things I may have missed while writing only their waking life.

At other times, I find getting into a deep state of writing where everything else fades away, is a sort of dreamstate which Robert Olen Butler so eloquently talks about in From Where We Dream.

Plots, subplots, characters also come to be sometimes as a waking dream. I get an image and suddenly a door opens in my novel that I didn't know previously existed. One such discovery is one I speak of often regarding my completed but unpublished manuscript The Birds of Opulence. I was having difficulty with the point of view and then suddenly it came to me that I could control the point of view if I thought of it as a bird. There are other birds throughout the book (the tangible variety) but this invisible bird gave my novel a clear concrete shape.

I'm sure there are many guides online to writing your dreams online Writing Effective Dreams is one I found.

Of course on the other hand tricking a reader by writing an entire scene then simply writing Then she woke up is a cop out and your reader never enjoys being manipulated.

Other artists also use dreams to tap into their creative spirit. One of my favorite folk artists Minnie Evans based her life's body of work on strange dreams that had haunted her all her life: giant birds, biblical figures, flowers, faces, etc. Ms. Evans, a native of Long Creek, North Carolina continued to channel her dreams even when she was steeped in poverty, was shunned by the art world because of her lack of training  and her family called her crazy.

According to Painting Dreams, a book about Ms. Minnie's life as a visionary artist she painted on brown bags, old stationery, poster board or canvas--anything that was available to her. She sketched her dream in pencil and then would go over it with oil paint, watercolor or even crayons. Sometimes she would draw an entire dream and then erase it and spend days drawing the same dream again. "I keep putting down something till after a while something says, 'That's right, Minnie, that's right. All right.'" (Painting Dreams, p. 25)

Isn't that what we all want our art to say when we get as close to the dream as our talent allows? "That's right. All right."

Ntozake Shange's NEW Novel Overshadowed by Tyler Perry Adaptation?

Click HERE and decide for yourself but there is lots of  buzz about the pending release of Tyler Perry's adaptation of Ntozake Shange's seminal work, For Colored Girls Who Have considered Suicide When the Rainbo is Enuf,. Perry's adaptation (scheduled to be rleased in early November) like most of the films he produces, has received both postiive and negative responses but most people seem to have missed the fact that Shange and her sister Ifa Bayez have a newly released book entitled Some Sing, Some Cry: A Novel

The novel was released September 14.  See more about it below:

Shange and  award-winning playwright Ifa Bayeza achieve nothing less than a modern classic in this epic story of the Mayfield family. Opening dramatically at Sweet Tamarind, a rice and cotton plantation on an island off South Carolina's coast, we watch as recently emancipated Bette Mayfield says her goodbyes before fleeing for the mainland. With her granddaughter, Eudora, in tow, she heads to Charleston. There, they carve out lives for themselves as fortune-teller and seamstress. Dora will marry, the Mayfield line will grow, and we will follow them on an journey through the watershed events of America's troubled, vibrant history—from Reconstruction to both World Wars, from the Harlem Renaissance to Vietnam and the modern day. Shange and Bayeza give us a monumental story of a family and of America, of songs and why we have to sing them, of home and of heartbreak, of the past and of the future, bright and blazing ahead. See an interview with the sisters on PW.

Stop Whining. Just Write.

I don't want to hear whining about how it's so difficult. Oh, I don't tolerate any of that because most of the people who've ever written are under enormous duress, myself being one them.—Toni Morrison

I'm trying to stop whining.

Black and Blue by upfromsumdirt aka Ron Davis (sold)

Too many papers to grade. Got to cook. Need to wash the dishes. The dog needs water. I haven’t seen you for years. This means let’s talk for three hours during my writing time. My head hurts. I’m tired. I’m stressed out. My daughter needs me. I need my glasses adjusted. My son is in jail. Grocery shopping: I forgot the butter. My son’s girlfriend is crying. Too many bills. Bill collector called. Boy scouts. Girl scouts. True Blood. Dateline. Bill Moyer. Young and the Restless. Mad Men. Oh an Angel re-run! I’m tired. I don’t believe in writer’s block but I have it. There is a reading I need to go to. That lecture is tonight? Oh that movie comes out this weekend? It’s snowing. The rain is depressing. It’s too cold in here. It’s too hot in here. Someone made me mad! Messed up my flow. My mother called. Can’t enter my story again after interruption. I need a retreat. The sun is causing a glare on my computer. It’s too dark in here. I need some coffee. I need a muffin. It’s too hot. The refrigerator is humming again. Someone’s knocking on the door. Let me just check Twitter. It’s cold. Let me check FB. Let me check FB again. Friend calls …Did you hear what happened? The intention was to tell her I was writing but I had to listen to what she had to say. Another bad book got published so “Why bother!?” Had a bad writing day so “Why bother!?” The dog is barking. Email. The mail. The floor needs sweeping. I can’t write anyway so “Why bother?!” I overslept. I had a good writing day yesterday so I can’t top my best so “Why bother?!”

I’ve used each of these excuses at one time or another. My excuses present themselves in a myriad of ways. And usually my own self sabbatoge works.

A writer writes.
A writer writes.
A writer writes.

I have recently changed my writing schedule to write with my partner Ron Davis. Sometimes Ron writes too. Sometimes he makes art. We sometimes stay up until 3 or 4 a.m. arting or get up at 3:30 a.m. to put in our hours. If one of us flakes out, it doesn’t deter the other. We have re-dedicated ourselves to our artistic lives. And we are happier, more serene creative beings even in the midst of chaos.

And we are continuing to find ways to make it work. No more excuses.

When it's time to make art, it's time to make art. The other work (that pays the bills including our journal ) and the little personal storms that are ever-present in our lives (especially with our families) will be there when the sun rises. We are on our second week of our new schedule and though we work hard during the other times to clear our to-do lists, this art time is sacred and remains untouched by any outside forces. Our art time is a dedication, a meditation on what we love, like a prayer.

Author Crush: Edward P. Jones

Edward P. Jones (The Known World, Lost in the City, All Aunt Hagar's Children) is my author crush for the week. I asked him recently what he was working on and he said he had done nothing in a very long time And nothing was planned on the horizon, which made me sad but even more curious. I didn't pry further but I wanted to.

I have hung above my desk this excerpt from his short essay "Writing Stories." I often have my students read it and I try to read it at least once a week myself.

"We get up to our day, however wonderful, however horrible, as they have been doing since before there were white blank pages, before the blank computer screen, when there were only grunts and hand gestures, and we tell stories. Some of us talk to God, and some of us talk to the mountains and the wind. We cannot help ourselves. People come into our heads and they begin to live, or die."--from "We Tell Stories" an original essay on Powells.com

There is also a wonderful interview written by Neely Tucker in the November 15, 2009 Washington Post where Jones speaks more on his writing habits and process. An amazing article. He is truly an artist and lives the life of an artist not just a writer who seeks to be published. I think he has amazing integrity in today's crabs-in-a-barrel publishing world.






 

Tips on Writing Dialogue

Writing fiction is about creating the illusion of real life. It’s our jobs as story tellers to give our readers the right amount of smoke and mirrors so that they leave our stories, our books feeling as if they were included in the lives of real people, with believable situations and who speak in a believable way.

Nearly every fiction lecture I’ve ever given begins with this statement.

As I am thinking of dialogue, I am reminded of Grace Paley who I heard say that “Is that true?” was the question she asked herself in revising everything she ever wrote. Is this character real? Are their circumstances real? Is their speech real? Have I honored the spirit of the character and what they would do and not interjected my own thoughts and beliefs? And so forth.

 This could not be more important, in my opinion, than in the case of dialogue.

 I don’t believe in rules. I believe in guidelines. Nearly every rule about writing has been broken beautifully and effectively. You can get away with anything in writing (IF it works).

 Below are some of the guidelines that have been effective for me and some that have been given to me by a few brilliant writers.

 1. Dialogue is Spice Not the Main Course. In fiction narration and scene are your meat and potatoes—your tofu and vegetables—and dialogue is merely salt and pepper (at least in most cases). Narration for the sake of story. Dialogue for the sake of characters.

2. Avoid the dialogue trap. If you rely too heavily on dialogue you could easily find yourself in talky talk hell where your characters are paper dolls talking back and forth about nothing for pages. “Hell how are you? “”Fine how are you?” “What did you do today?” ETC.

3. MIC. Dialogue has to work hard, even harder than narration. If you are writing at your height your dialogue should (M) move the story; (I) inform the reader; and (C) characterize. I recommend making sure your dialogue is doing at least two of the three.

 4. Boil it Down. Distill your dialogue down to its essence. Cut, then cut some more. Makes sure what’s left is important. There should be no talky talk hell left on your pages.

5. Three lines. Sometimes I have to trick myself into revision. One thing I find that works is to go through each passage of dialogue on my pages. If I have more than three lines of dialogue that is not intentionally a didactic passage, then I know I have work to do in paring it down in some way.

6. Your characters have bodies. Don’t ever forget that you are not creating Flat Bob on the Page but living breathing people who inhibit bodies. Instead of just having words flying back and forth between characters, allow them to inhibit their bodies and to live, breath, act, react, be silent in them.

7. Be authentic. Pay attention to the ways in which your characters speak. Find other ways to highlight your characters' region, race, ethnicity, etc.

I asked a few writers that I'm aquainted with what advice they would give on dialogue in a word, a phrase or a sentence. Below are some of the results.

 Two writers recommend eavesdropping. I’m a fan of it myself, though my reasoning is simply because I’m nosey.

 Randall Kenan--Wonderful exercise: Keep a wee notebook. Eavesdrop on folk in public places. Examine later in quiet. A moving way to study American English.

Chris Offutt-- Eavesdrop, then write it down.

Zelda Lockhart --Show expressions between dialogue.

Robert Olen Butler-- All good literary dialog has subtext.

Janice Eidus --Be natural , authentic , and as true to the unique voice of your individual character as possible. Reading plays to see/hear dialogue is inspiring and illuminating. I read, among others, Garcia Lorca, Tina Howe, Beth Hemley, Anna Deveare Smith, Tennessee Williams, David Mamet.

Of course there are many more writers of note out there with great things to say about dialogue. I only asked a few friends as I want to tap others of them for other craft issues for this blog in the future.

What are your opinions on writing dialogue? What problems do you find yourself grappling with regarding this topic?