The Year to Come

Before I leap into the second year of this blog, I have nothing but gratitude for the year behind me. Of all my experiences as a writer: grad school, short story publications; the novel Sand and Asbestos, my work with Umbrella Factory Magazine and RocketHouse Studios, I must admit that this blog has been the most rewarding for many, many reasons. First, I've loved the actual design and development of it. Blogspot has been a fun thing to learn and navigate. This second year, as far as the logistics of it all, will probably stay the same.
For any of you who read this, I urge you to begin a blog. It's a great way to showcase work and focus ideas. Blogspot is free, so even that makes it perfect for developing ideas since there is nothing binding you to it. Free press. Right?

Story of the Week, although tricky to keep pace with, will be a constant focus for this second year. The very notion that I'd want to write a short story a week and post it here is difficult to do. I hope the second year proves another 52 short stories, but it's a tough pace. Admittedly, I will post some of these stories more than once. The goal again this year is to attempt submission of the Story of the Week to some magazine or other. Again, it is a tough pace.

I have refreshed the focus of the blog: Reading, Writing, and the Teaching of Writing. I plan to keep the seasonal reading lists for no other reason than they have been a great way to focus. The posts of June and July will be reading heavy with the revised curriculum reading lists.

As far as the writing portion, stay tuned to Story of the Week, RocketHouse, and the novels at the footer of this page. Additionally, I plan to do a little more work in the “Small Press” series this fall.

And the teaching of writing? New series are in the planning stages. New topics too. We'll see where that leads.

I have applied to Portland Community College for consideration of an adjunct instructor position. Should that come to fruition, don't be surprised, or offended if the curriculum shows up here.

The long and short of it, I feel another year hitch ought to be every bit as rewarding as the first year was. The learning curve was gradual. A second year of deeper study, deeper thought and fine tuning should prove every bit as fun and rewarding.

The last entreaty, simply, thanks for reading. Thanks for the support and the kind words. Please tell anyone you know who might benefit from my words to read this blog. Of course, tell everyone you know to follow. Thank you all for the opportunity. I hope this blog has been helpful to you

Anthony Ilacqua's year end review

Int. Office. Day.

Boss

Well, welcome to your annual review.

Blogger

Thanks.

Boss

How long did this take?

Blogger

How long did what take, sir?

Boss

Okay. Yes. A whole year.

Blogger

You did say annual review.

Boss

Yes. Let me see,what we have here. Okay. First year on the job was it?

Blogger

Yes.

Boss

Well, before we get too far into this, let me tell you how I'm going to score this. You will be judged on attitude, contribution and results. So, if you're ready. (Beat) Attitude. Mostly serious. Mostly professional. Sometimes academic. There were Guerrilla moments, moments of honesty and there were abrasive moments like the “Timeclocks...” post and the “Past, Present and Future” post. The blog overall had a feeling of a young writer who paid attention to just enough of the world's advice and its nonsense to make himself dangerous. You felt natural in many discussions, and the general flow felt real, really good. In fact, you scored very well in this department.

Int. Blogger's face. Close shot. Day.

Blogger (voice-over)

I wonder how much it's snowing in the alps? Name this guy needs to trim his eyebrows. It that a poppy seed in his teeth?

Int. Blogger's eye. Very close shot. Day.

Blogger (voice-over)

Poppies. Poppies.

Ext. Hillside with poppies. Day.

Wind rolls over the poppies, we're in California, the orange poppies are foreground, Eucalyptus Trees are in the distance. Play any Housemartin's tune. Enter girls. Dancing girls all clad in 1980s teenage night club apparel. Blogger pulls off his tie and starts dancing too.

Blogger

How's this for attitude?
Girl dances around him and smiles.

Blogger

This is what I've been missing.

Girl

Sound good?

Blogger

What?

Girl

Any questions?

Int. Office. Day.

Blogger

What?

Boss

I said, any questions? Does it sound good?

Blogger

Um. No.

Boss

This is your copy of my copy. (Beat) Now if you're ready.

Blogger (voice-over)

Now if you're ready? Isn't that what Clint Eastwood says? Tough guy.

Boss

Contribution. First off, this was your first year, and we had no real expectations of you. None. Zero. You contributed one blog post per week. Good job. You kept close to the task at hand. Reading, writing and the teaching of writing. Not bad. Your reading list series was okay. Short Story for the Editor made some impressions. The anecdote may be my favorite. The Jumpstart? These were all good, you held true to what you said you were going to do. We had no real expectations, hell, we're not even here. This office? Me? I'm a figment of your imagination. As far as daydreams go, this one's not even that interesting. Don't you have daydreams or delusions better than this?

Blogger

Daydreams? Delusions? I don't know. Sometimes I feel like gumballs should be like raindrops. Or should raindrops be like gumballs?

Boss

Right.

Blogger

Right? Which one is it?

Boss

The former. Well, no, the latter. Gumballs? No, contribution. You held true to the reading, writing and the teaching of writing bit. Weekly too. Good job.

Blogger

Thank you.

Boss

Now. Results. Are you ready?

Blogger

Hold on, not quite. Give me a moment.

Ext. Circus tent. Day.
Elephants and a chimp on a unicycle pass. Enter balloon tying clowns. Old Siouxie and the Banshees echo overhead. Scratch record. Donovan plays instead. Everyone wears some psychedelic clothes. The place looks like candy land. Enter the Beatles, the Yellow Submarine Beatles. Everything gets groovy. The sky becomes a chalkboard. Numbers and formulas roll across it. Enter Miss Macintosh (third grade teacher) with her yard stick which looks like a 2 by 4.

Miss Macintosh

Pay attention. We're almost done.

Blogger

Almost done?

Miss Macintosh

The results we need to talk about results.

Blogger

Oh, yes, the results.

Int. Office. Day.

Boss

Yes. The results. Here they are: 52 posts. 14 Comments. 4 posts on reading. 4 writing workshop series. 3200 page views. The design is okay, the presentation is inviting. For the first year, this is good. As I said, we had no expectations and I don't exist.

Blogger

It has been a good year. A successful year. Don't I get a raise?

Boss

Sure. What do you want?

Blogger

What are we talking about here? Percentages? Honey baked hams? Rupees? What?

Boss

Whatever you want. You can choose three.

Blogger

Like wishes.

Boss

Is that your first one?

Blogger

Gumballs.

Boss

Okay.

Blogger

More time. Can I have another year of doing this?

Boss

Done.

Blogger

Can I have something to say?

Boss

Say “thank you” you've had readers, viewers, friends, strangers and colleagues visit this blog. Thank them for reading.

Blogger

Thank you all for reading. Thank you for your support and kind words. It's been a real joy this first year, a real blessing. Thanks.

The Novel, Guerrilla Style Part 8: The Reprieve (Second Interlude)

I am not a self-editing, self-censoring, or self-conscious writer. I am not a writer who seeks perfection either. Seeking perfection, I think, is another form of procrastination. Perfection generally leads to self-editing, self-censoring and that leads to bad things. Do not fall into these pits. So often when I talk to writers and we begin with these “how do yous,” and “what's next” conversations, I always say: “Well, I'm a hack, I love to be a hack and being a hack is my greatest ambition.” I feel this way because a hack, if nothing else, is someone who really just wants to write. Whether you are a hack or a novelist committed to the ages, you must write. Just write.
We've been on this Guerrilla Novel kick for several weeks now, about 2 ½ months. It's been just over a month since the first interlude. As the novel builds, and as our work habits progress, now is the ideal time to reorganize our habits, reconnect with our initial commitment and reevaluate our project. In this 17 week program, we are now half way there.
Spend a few minutes looking at your work habits. Did you commit to this project everyday? Or on a prescribed plan? Did you try different times of day or different durations? Have you found frustration and anger or joy and accomplishment? What have been your greatest moments? Notice I'm not asking you what you did well. Sometimes the greatest moments were the uncomfortable ones, right?
At the half way mark, it is not too late to change modes of work. It's not too late for anything, really.
I'm writing this post as I've recently finished Sand and Asbestos. Funny part about it Sand and Asbestos, it was getting published before it was completed. Writing this piece was difficult only because of the logistics. Since I sent a chapter at a time on Fridays, it made me reanalyze the project and the process weekly. As a new experience for me, I was grateful for the challenge. I can say this, weekly, I looked at the work and the process and had to plan accordingly. Things that worked well one week may not have worked well the next.
Taking a little time from your writing schedule to analyze the process on the whole is refreshing, it is (or should be) beneficial. Two steps back and a deep breath and it's easier to see the project as a whole.
This week, know we are half way there. That may mean 25,000 words, and it may not. The question is, what and how will you complete the project at the scheduled time and what have you done so far?
I don't think it's out of your field of vision as a writer, and in this case a novelist, to adjust your work schedule accordingly.
It's been my experience that the mid-way point is about the ideal time to begin an understanding of the work and of yourself.
Ask questions of yourself. If you have someone in your life intimate with this project, ask them questions. Ask them about the work if you're sharing it. Ask them what their impression is of the task that you have now spent the 2 ½ months undertaking.
And I suppose my only question for you is this: are you enjoying yourself and your work?

The Novel, Guerrilla Style Part 7: Hooks set and Realized

I spent an hour wandering the aisles of a fishing supply store a few weeks ago. Admittedly, I spent most of my time looking at the bright and shiny, big and small lures, tackle and hooks. My mind raced with possibility. I am no great fisherman, and in fact, I am no fisherman at all. The last fishing excursion I had was in the backyard of the Monroe Street house. In the warm days of the spring of 2008, I stood near the house and cast again and again trying to land the fly in the bird bath some 20 feet away. Not a proper fishing excursion by any means. The truth is, I really don't care much about catching fish, but casting is fun. So, meeting the technique of casting the fly into the birth bath, I feel confident that I could, should I choose to try, catch fish on a day set aside for such an activity. Practice, yes.
Setting hooks in your novel is not unlike the two activities mentioned above: walking the aisle of a fishing store and casting toward the backyard bird bath.
Think about the fishing store analogy as research and ideas about the excursion to come. When you read novels, and I hope you are reading, it is like shopping for lures, bait and especially hooks. When reading, you will get to know the ways writers hook a reader. For instance, in the second part of Ian McEwan's Atonement, we as readers follow Robbie and the retreating army through France to their rally point at Dunkirk. Also in this portion of the novel, McEwan paints a portrait of London before the blitz. We see Celia on the lawns around the Thames enjoying the day, and band music in a fictional setting of a city yet to be leveled by the Nazi blitz of the Battle of Britain. On the surface, these scenes, these small snippets of the story arc do not seem like hooks, but they are. We do not see the realization of these hooks until the end of the book, or the final denouement of the story. These hooks, London and Dunkirk are well executed scenes with haunting and potent detail.
As I read this novel, I took these scenes for what they were, wonderful storytelling wrapped up in the tableau of World War II. As a writer, I knew these scenes were the sort to hammer something later, and when there was still half the book ahead of me, I knew it was going to be good.
You, as a writer, must engage in reading from this moment forward and you will look for these hooks in everything you read.
The second part of the analogy, the practicing in the backyard part, start setting hooks in your writing exercises. Setting the hook takes practice. It's part of the exposition of the story. A writer must engage the reader enough and trust the reader enough to give them small pieces of needed information. To bring John Gardner and the Fichtean Curve back into this, the suggestion is mini climaxes and these being only small hooks set and realized instantly.
Some other terms may be, literary harbingers, foreshadowing, flash forward or even a red herring.
Now, to “realize” these hooks.
I must refer back to an earlier Novel Guerrilla Style post. In “Anthony's three in one system” I explained my method of writing three drafts at one time. If the first draft is the pen and ink step. The second draft is the transposition to the computer. The third draft is the natural place to set the hooks.
Imagine, if you will, that in this system, I will write 5,000 words long hand. The second draft is a cleaner, more fluid version of the first. In the second draft, I'll generally take the 5,000 words of the first draft and shrink them by half. Once that's done, I'll resume the first draft again. I have a good understanding of my work at this point. During this third draft in its current plot position, I have seeds in earlier portions of the novel. As the third begins, I find that hooks are easily reveled therefore easily get the realization that happens later, but written concurrently. Does this make sense? The final punchline is this: it takes practice. Study it in what you read and practice it in what you write.
Your task this week: find the realizations in your piece and work backwards, work back to the logical place and set a hook. Then ask yourself, does this make your piece more complex and more engaging.
As always, good luck and happy writing.