Update: The Creative Work

I haven't been able to produce as much creative work as I would've liked these last five months (due to working on the essay, I guess). I've started two new drafts of stories and worked on revisions for two others—“Blue Like Babe” and “Under the Weather.” Working with David Long has been a valuable experience for me. His comments and suggestions were articulate, insightful and generous—notes on sentence craft, narrative voice, clarity and mystery within fiction, detailing, character description, symbolism . . . scribbles on books to read, authors to look up . . . comments on writing workshops and writing process—it has been a memorable semester. I think the old “show, don't tell” adage applies to teaching as well—David's comments and suggestions have very clearly shown me how to improve as a writer and that is the most meaningful, lasting, thrilling experience that a student of writing could hope for.

STORIES ARE COMING ALONG . . .

“Blue Like Babe” has gone through some very interesting revisions, starting with 1^st POV present, and reworking itself into 3^rd POV, past tense and reworking it back to 1^st POV, present. What the heck for? Well, this particular story had a rhythm to it that was tough for me to break . . . after I stepped outside of the character I was able to see the world around her differently. Unfortunately the distance was too far . . . I went back and rewrote, working in some of the good stuff that came from the 3rd POV draft. David's notes were all helpful, especially his comments on breaking up a pivotal scene into mini-stages, slowing the pace, and taking the time to really burrow down into what the story is about. A step in the right direction, I think. We'll see what I think in another couple weeks.

My early drafts of “Under the Weather” were written in 1^st POV present and changed to close 3^rd POV, past. In this case , the story dramatically changed—I think it smoothed out a lot, but lost quite a bit of its intensity in the process. David echoed this in his notes . . . he suggested I write from more "inside" the character. I've finished three new drafts of this story so far and writing from more inside the main character has created a wonderful discovery in the story that I didn't anticipate.

BOOKS
In my reading of fiction this semester, I focused on how writers hint at the subtext of a story. The books that most influenced me were all strong examples of how subtext within narrative tone and voice: Stuart Dybek's I Sailed with Magellan, Lorrie Moore's Birds of America, and Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson. Each of these books taught me the varying degrees point-of-view can offer: from the wonderfully rhythmic first-person monologues in I Sailed With Magellan to Ruth's sensitive, distilled outlook of her surrounding in Housekeeping, to the unique twist of third-person in Lorrie Moore's “People Like This Are The Only People Here,” this semester's reading has been intensely rich and has deepened my understanding of subtext and third- person narrative voice.

Other books I've read these last couple months: Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates, Waiting for Dark, Waiting for Light by Ivan Klima, Tell Me by Mary Robison, Heaven of the Moment by John Morrison, Blue Spruce by David Long, The Daughters of Simon Lamoreaux by David Long, Fiction and the Figures of Life by William Gass, The Art of Subtext by Charles Baxter, Writing Fiction by Janet Burroway, Billie Dyer and Other Stories by William Maxwell, What Is Literature? by Jean-Paul Sartre, The Triggering Town by Richard Hugo, and Eleven Kinds of Loneliness by Richard Yates.