Consider the radiance

[pjthompson]

Blackout of the day: I guess there was one. Here in Santa Monica we didn't feel it. I imagine when I get home tonight, leaving the city of Santa Monica for the city of L.A., the power will either still be off or some of my appliances will be blinking on and off.

Writing business of the day: Took my first gander at chapter 19 since I wrote it in April. One of my reviewers was right: too much mush. I'm not going to edit it out at this point, though.

I did one of my periodic "the novel so far" outlines on Friday to see how much junk, er, plot I still had to get through. It is winnowing down, but I see a lot of cutting in my future when this thing is done. Such is always the case with me. My first two novels didn't seem to have that problem, but all the ones since have. I've abandoned many of the "tricks" I employed back then, with good reason, but perhaps there are things I could learn from my younger self? My plots have gotten denser and denser since then, it seems.

Or maybe I just take longer to say things. My voice evolved into something rather more lush than I expected. The roots of the plump-style writing were always there, I suspect.

Developing a voice, it seems to me, is about learning bit-by-bit to be comfortable with who you are; realizing that sometimes that means you aren't who you thought you were when you started out; about being okay with that because you can't really be what you're not. I admire spare prose that packs a lot of punch in few words, but I know I'll never be able to do that. It's not a matter of training. It's a matter of voice. Like the color of your hair and eyes, it's something you're born with, I think. Some way of perceiving and conveying the world that is innate.

Significant milestone of the day: I packed my first box of books last night--the first of thousands. When one has thousands of books, one pays the price. When I moved into my current apartment I had 30 boxes of books. I've bought many more since. This is going to get ugly. Either the book carnage will be mighty and used bookstores and senior citizens centers all over the city will benefit--or I will be packing a lot of fricking books. I'll be curious (and horrified, no doubt) to see what the real box total turns out to be.

The other day I needed to get out of the apartment so I wandered through a bookstore. I felt comforted just being there, surrounded by all those words. I know that's kind of strange--but I know I'm kind of strange. It wound up being a frustrating experience because I found books I wanted but couldn't afford to buy. I bought one anyway, the paper back of Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson, which I've meant to read for ever-so-long because I'd heard it was ever-so-good. This seemed like a good time to read it. And it is good. The writing is quite lovely and it's structured rather novelistically. And I suppose I'll be packing that up one day soon, too.




Ammons is one of my favorites. He can be so simple and spare, or he can be lush and lyric.


The City Limits
by A. R. Ammons

When you consider the radiance, that it does not withhold
itself but pours its abundance without selection into every
nook and cranny not overhung or hidden; when you consider

that birds' bones make no awful noise against the light but
lie low in the light as in a high testimony; when you consider
the radiance, that it will look into the guiltiest

swervings of the weaving heart and bear itself upon them,
not flinching into disguise or darkening...

For a complete, non-plagiarized version of this poem, click here:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15225

Comments

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

I admire spare prose that packs a lot of punch in few words, but I know I'll never be able to do that.

You're the opposite of me. I really admire and envy lush prose, but it's beyond me, like my brain isn't wired to do it. So I stick with the spare and straightforward, and hope it gets the job done.

[pjthompson]

I stick with the spare and straightforward, and hope it gets the job done.

I think it can, quite beautifully. If you feel the subtext of emotion, et al., I think it's going to come out in your prose, even if you keep it straightforward.

[handworn.livejournal.com]

Could you post one of your "the novel so far" outlines so we can see what it looks like? Perhaps with some commentary so we can see what you learn from this practice?

[pjthompson]

Actually, I misspoke a bit. My outline was more "where do I go from here" or "what'sleft to get through." I always know the end point of my novels, but being something of an organic writer, the route to that end point sometimes changes along the way. Sometimes they are small changes, sometimes larger, or sometimes small-leading-to-larger. So I've gotten into the habit of stopping every 30k words or so and mapping the new path in broad terms to see if it's still feasible. This lets me know if I've gone off on a useless digression or if I'm still on course.

I suppose the "novel so far" bit would come in the synopsis I do each time I post a new chapter to the workshop. I do a longer version, hitting the highlights, then force myself to encapsulate the entire novel-so-far into a paragraph or two. Obviously, a lot of stuff gets left out that way--and it helps me see what is essential plot and what is padding or tangents. I usually don't do anything about all that at the time because I like to have a complete first draft before I do major revisions, but it helps tremendously when it comes time for rewrites. I'll probably continue to do this as an exercise even if I stop posting to the workshop because it really clarifies things for me.

[handworn.livejournal.com]

What workshop do you use?

[pjthompson]

Online Writing Workshop for Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. You can click on the Workshop link on my sidebar or click here:

http://sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com/