Writing Life

I stumbled across an interview with John Ajvide Lindqvist, the author of the novel Let the Right One In. When responding to a question of why he turned to writing horror stories, he said:

Yeah you could say that. I tried to write in other genres and also to write more conventional literature, but it caused me to start struggling terribly with the language, and I tried to behave like… well ’How would a REAL author write? Hmmm… probably like this…’ and I made these heavy, long sentences and it was very concious of style and very bad. And it wasn’t until I kind of allowed myself to try and write a horror story, this genre that I actually know and really love… It took me many years, what was I? 32 or something. When I finally tried writing this genre, it was the first time that I was writing and discovered, ’Good lord – this is EASY! I can do this. I know what’s going to happen next. It’s just about writing the story as effectively as possible. Not worry about the language or that it’s supposed to be literature. I’ll just try to throw in a story that’s as exciting as possible, and heartbreaking, and do it to the best of my ability.

Okay, it may sound like common sense but it is so nice to hear an author say this out loud. I’ve had the same dilemma, struggling to fit a specific genre or write like “a writer” (whatever the fuck that is). I’ve had Mr. Lindqvist revelation myself. But, I can’t stress it enough that it needs to be restated often, maybe before each time you sit down to write because doubt is the greatest killer of creativity.

I’m so glad I ran across this.

In my previous post, I celebrated the election of our 44th President, Barack Obama. It’s been 8 days since that glorious night and I’ve been reflecting on my comment about that being a great way to go out with this blog. I haven’t been blogging as much lately, partly due to having a contract that took up a great deal of time over the last few months. I wrapped that up yesterday and will finish out some other volunteer work in the next few days.

So, what’s next? Back to writing. Full-time writing. Working on my novel and potentially a book on my experiences working in the electoral politics arena during the last three election cycles. I think that blogging might detract from my writing, i.e., give me an excuse to burn words here instead of in my novel. While I’ve had a ball blogging, it is very distracting. I think I want to let it lie.

Additionally, I’ve made snide and sly comments to people lately about blogging in general. It’s very egotistical to put out your own thoughts as if someone else just has to know what you’re thinking. You might respond that that’s precisely what I’m planning to do with a novel or a book. For some reason, that seems different to me. Blogging too has evolved, going more mainstream with hip new writers and former reporters working digitally instead of in newsprint. There are still outsider blogs out there, especially in the art scene and local politics. I’ll probably still read those on a regular basis.

And, for those who are interested, I don’t think I’m going to be able to give up my twitter fixation. Microblogging (140 characters or less) is really something I’ve taken to and perhaps a better format than a full-fledged “blog” to convey my thoughts. I’ve always loved writers’ notebooks, little sketches of plot, a one-line piece of dialogue, or an idea for a story written down. I think I’d like to use twitter that way. If you want to follow my tweets, just head over to my Twitter page.

For those who’ve read my posts, and especially those who added a comment, I thank you. To anyone who happens upon this blog, I hope you enjoy it and find something of value to take from it.

Cheers!

I just finished reading Natalie Goldberg’s book on writing. I don’t know how the book ended up in my hands but now that I’m writing, I was intrigued. Overall, I was disappointed. Parts of the book I found classist and other parts bordered on racist. The book is part of Bantam’s New Age collection, so there’s a lot the author tries to convey in a spiritual/philosophical vein. However, her tone seems to conflict with the message she says she wants to convey. As for the book’s structure, I don’t think there was any. There was no flow between sections, no organization, no building upon previous lessons. This work should have been edited down by about 100 pages and forged into a coherent progression.

There are two things I’ll take away from this book that are incredibly useful. First, she gives four things you must do in order to be a writer and do writing: (1) keep your hand moving; (2) lose control; (3) be specific; and (4) don’t think. I liked these so much I printed them on an index card I keep in front of me while I write. Second, her advice to would-be writers: “If you want to write, write. This is your life. You are responsible for it. You will not live forever. Don’t wait” (p. 45).

Most have already heard that Kurt Vonnegut passed away last night. I was working through my political stuff before coming across it. It kind of knocked me back a bit. Here’s one of the authors I read in high school (which I know was a long time ago), but still, to hear that someone who’d put such interesting, and sometimes twisted, ideas into my head had died kind of shakes you a bit. I think I came to appreciate Slaughterhouse V many years after I’d read it. It was a fun story but also had some deep thoughts to it, and not in a Jack Handy type of way.

While reading the NY Times obit on Mr. Vonnegut, I was struck by this paragraph, on the 2nd web page of the article:

In Chicago, Mr. Vonnegut worked as a police reporter for the Chicago City News Bureau. He also studied for a master’s degree in anthropology at the University of Chicago, writing a thesis on “The Fluctuations Between Good and Evil in Simple Tales.” It was rejected unanimously by the faculty. (The university finally awarded him a degree almost a quarter of a century later, allowing him to use his novel “Cat’s Cradle” as his thesis.)

It sounded a bit like me and what I want to do. Before World War II, Vonnegut had gone to what was to become Carnegie Mellon University to study mechanical engineering. After war service, he then turned to the above quoted part of his life. I went to school for computer science, had a career in that and then returned to school for anthropology (an MA earned in 2003) over a decade later. While in politics now, writing has always appealed to me and I still want to move in that direction. Vonnegut, even in death, may be causing me to reevaluate yet again.

Here’s a sampling of things to check out today, if you’d like to:

• Rigoberta Menchu, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Guatemalan activist is likely running for president of that country. That would be fabulous!
• One of the anti-noble-peace people people, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), is worried that American opinion will change if there’s a Vietnam-like Tet Offensive in Iraq. Tet, which I believe is a celebration of New Year, in 1968 saw a fierce attack by North Vietnam that turned the war around and seemed to cement mainstream American opinion against that war. Unfortunately for Mr. McCain, he misses the fact that Americans have already turned against our current war in Iraq, and not just because over 3,100 American soldiers have died. I’m sure he noticed the Congressional midterm elections, which turned on the Iraq issue. His party lost control of both chambers. His party’s ideas (and his own) were put to the test and seen wanting. Mr. McCain, give it up.
• Oh to have been a fly on the wall of that conference room! Former Vice Presidential candidate and Senator John Edwards (D-NC) gets to have his cake and eat it too. One of the bloggers who he said he’d stand by just turned in her resignation. Her name’s Amanda Marcotte. To catch up on that scandal, there’s backstory in the article and you can also read Chris Cillizza’s Fix piece. One of the comments, which I swear I didn’t read before writing this entry, notes that “of course she wasn’t pushed, and of course Edwards is the golden boy.” I couldn’t have put it better myself! It’s also an issue close to my own heart and experiences, so I’ve been following it but not really blogging about it. My saga, perhaps, continues today, though that’s for offline comment.
• UPDATE! The other Edwards blogger, Melissa McEwan, has resigned from the Edwards campaign. She says she wasn’t forced out, but you just have to wonder.
• Attacks against Obama continue. Thanks to Media Matters for this story. And to show it’s not just a one-time event, see this Wonkette post from yesterday about a Salon article that’s since been sanitized / Orwell-ized.
• What do the FBI and Maryland hospitals have in common? They can’t seem to stop losing important things! See FBI losings weapons and secret laptops and read about Maryland hospitals losing a quarter of a million personal records! WTF.
• Okay, when are we going to ban guns in this country! Also see this story from Philadelphia. The time is now.

I just read her obituary, which I totally did not expect. She died of breast cancer, which she had been fighting for the THIRD time this year. She was an amazing woman who could turn a phrase like nobody’s business. I loved reading her in the Progressive where I first encountered her. I then read her regularly in op-eds from the New York Times. Her unscathing attacks on President Bush could brighten even the darkest of my days. To quote from the article, which quotes Ms. Ivins from a 1997 piece she wrote on why she goes after the powerful instead of the powerless:

The trouble with blaming powerless people is that although it’s not nearly as scary as blaming the powerful, it does miss the point. Poor people do not shut down factories … Poor people didn’t decide to use ‘contract employees’ because they cost less and don’t get any benefits.

Long live Molly Ivins’ spirit, chutzpah, and ideals!

I have to note that the best part of this trip started before we ever landed in Jamaica.  While flying in, Diane filled out our customs and immigration forms.  I was dead asleep, exhausted after happy hour on Friday and packing/shopping on Saturday: 4 of the shirts I wore in Jamaica I bought on Saturday, around 6:30 PM!

The best part was that in filling out my occupation on the immigration forms, Diane wrote “Writer”.  That was one of the best moments of my life.  I really was taken aback and also all warm and fuzzy.  I love my honey!

A Word a Day sends out a great weekday email highlighting a word, its usage and background. Each week, the words are grouped around a theme. I’ve been reading this since forever and really love it. But, my favorite part is the quote of the day that’s at the end of each email. Today’s was particularly relevant, both for what I do as part of my job and what DC does best: spin and obfuscation. The quote is from George Orwell, best known as the writer of 1984 and Animal Farm.

A mass of Latin words falls upon the facts like soft snow, blurring the outline and covering up all the details. The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink. In our age there is no such thing as “keeping out of politics”. All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia. When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer.