Voicing (what others call dialog) for me is the main challenge of fiction writing. In Fishbein, all that was required was my recalling what teenage boys talked like in the rural Midwest in the late 1960s, one ofthem being born and bred there with the other being an immigrant who’d earlier been around young gang …
How to write my novel: Installment 7-Dialog dilemmas Read More »
Message changes for me at times while writing fiction, though typically I cast off from the shoreline unfurling intended themes. Sometimes I’m surprised at what emerges, but I don’t know that I’d write an extensive work without a basic notion of what my point will be. My current novel in draft, The Termite Vector, considers …
Think I’ll veer off course for a bit, addressing message in Fishbein, Ascending. Recall the old expression? If you must explain a joke, it’s not working – so, it’s not funny. What follows isn’t an explanation of Fishbein, but is an interpretation from Jungian canon, from the perspective of the late Marie-Louise von Franz of …
George S. Bonn was a connoisseur of travel to exotic South Seas islands, dry sherry and macadamia nuts. My graduate school advisor was as “gabby” as Moses. One Saturday he confided his role as professor was to make his students “intelligent skeptics.” He chuckled when I responded that I welcomed greater intelligence, pointing out that …
How to write my novel: Installment 5 – Detail attention Read More »
Who animates a story means contriving characters composed of persons an author has encountered or at least observed enough to imagine their possible roles. Blessed to know a wide range of people shuttling between East Falls Church, VA (somewhat quiet spot) and Naples, Italy (discordant, noisy spot), I’d crossed paths with varied fortunes, ethnicities and …
How to write my novel: Installment 3 (characters) Read More »
Deciding on the vehicle for a novel’s message allows wandering through my personal experiences and prior relationships. It’s like being a casting director and locations guru. Place, first: I was fortunate to have access to water courses and bodies growing up, from the Bay of Naples to Four Mile Run in East Falls Church. Four …
I just received by snail mail “Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques” by Prof. James Hynes. It’s 24 DVD lectures and a book of the same title by an experienced novelist and fiction writing teacher. Looking forward to getting acquainted with James’ wisdom. Until now, Stephen King’s On Writing and John McPhee’s Draft No. …
