Literary craft and Murakami and
Resources for this moment
Last week I taped a series of interviews with author and friend Tope Folarin about the craft of writing fiction. Tope designed and organized these interviews with writers from around the DMV for an online high school creative writing course.
We taped our conversations at Georgetown University and covered some interesting topics. We discussed plot and character and overall structure, with emphasis on revision. To my mind, revision is the core of fiction writing. Tope and I went from “everyone has to do this their own way,” to the notion that plot and character and structure are intimately related and often impossible to disentangle.
I likened this to the process of construction. The reader doesn’t need to take in all these craft elements, just as we don’t think of the structural integrity of every building we walk into. But if these elements are not well-executed, we have a problem.
Such topics are endlessly fascinating to writers; we all have of our theories! I touched on some of them in an essay I wrote for Zibby Magazine about THREE MUSES, called “Ballet Dreams: From the Stage to the Page.”
Republic of Cruelty
Lest you feel that you are alone and powerless, please know there is a lot going on!
Here’s a website that tracks lawsuits to stop egregious actions taken by the administration. I believe there are other lawsuits, such as class actions, that aren’t reflected here.
I rely on Rebecca Solnit’s insights to get through these times. Fortunately, she has just started a newsletter which I commend highly. Solnit is a smart, strategic thinker. Her book, HOPE IN THE DARK, helped me survive Voldemort’s first administration. Here is a link to her newsletter; scroll to the bottom if you want to sign up.
I’m finally reading my first Haruki Murakami book, THE WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLE (actually I’m listening to it). I’m transfixed by the way he blurs reality with surreality. It’s a wild ride.
We’re all on a wild ride right now. Here’s a video I taped this week on the importance of DEI.
I’m sending you wishes for whatever helps you stay upright.
Love,
Martha
ICYMI, here’s a link to last week’s newsletter, “National viola day.”
I admit, I was bummed when I saw you weren't reading THE CITY AND ITS UNCERTAIN WALLS. My wife got it for me for Christmas, and I just started it.
Murakami has this exceptionally distinct style I have always enjoyed, and it's also a kind of psychedelic experience. That's the only way I can describe it. Holes, wells, cats, loneliness, longing objects given almost supernatural significance. And you never have the thought while reading, "Gol Durn! I'm having the best time reading this. I hope it never ends."
But you feel like you're in an alternate dimension at the same time.
Reading Murakami for me is like that David Foster Wallace quote. "I don't want to be transported into another world when I read. I want always to remember I'm reading."And that experience blended with, the world I think I'm living in isn't the world at all.
Why is that its own kind of reinforcing feeling? WIND UP BIRD CHRONICLES is a great book. They all are, and I wish I could discuss THE CITY…because its effect on me is surreal.
Love the video!