The first rule about Chuck Palaniuk is do not to talk about Chuck Palaniuk

I recently finished re-reading Chuck Palaniuk's "Haunted", and I didn't realize how much his writing has affected my style.

Palaniuk describes himself as a minimalist writer.  Minimalism is a style of art that focuses on simplifying everything else to contrast the subject the artist wants the viewer to see.  It's about "cutting the fat"; keeping and mentioning only the things that are important.  He often uses things like repetition or broad, abstract strokes to describe his characters and moments.  Typically, using abstract ideas distances the reader because it doesn't give the reader a clear idea of the tangible, yet Palaniuk can capture scenes, expressions, and feelings while using a few short phrase.  That's economy of language.

A great testament to Palaniuk's writing prowess is the fact that his first book, Fight Club, is less than 50,000 words long.  Why is that important?  In publishing circles, your target audience often dictates the length of your book; younger audiences need shorter books, older need longer.  Your typical novel marketed to adults should be around 80k words.  Great fantasy epics (like Game of Thrones, Wheel of Time, et cetera) should be around 120k words.  NaNoWriMo (Nation Novel Writing Month) tries to encourage new writers to write a 50k word story in a month... yet by industry standards that would be considered a novella, and not a novel.  By NaNoWriMo's measuring stick, Fight Club doesn't pass the bar, and yet Palaniuk has maintained a loyal following from a short and should never have been published novel.  Crazy, right?

So why do I say that Palaniuk's style has affected mine? One of the stories in "Haunted" is about a chef who goes around killing food critics who give him a bad review.  In this story, the narrator uses specific cooking terms and injuries/problems that only a person in that particular profession would encounter.  One the stories I had written two years ago was about a catering company and the head caterer managing his people and his deadlines.  I too, use very specific cooking terms and bring up problems that only a caterer would encounter.  Eight years had passed between the time I read "Haunted" and the time I wrote that story, and yet I was writing a story that appropriated elements of Palaniuk's style.

With any artist who inspires you, you'll start practicing their style.  Eventually, if you practice long enough, their style will be incorporated to yours.  With enough influences, your style will become an algamation of multiple aritsts, and eventually becomes "your own".  As I mentioned in a previous post, Lissa Treiman says that your style is much like your signature; it gets practiced so much that it eventually just becomes short-hand for... you. :)

As much as I appreciate Palaniuk, I think he takes too much of a pessimistic view of humanity.  Fight Club often mentions our recycled, consumerist culture and how it has emasculated men.  One of the most popular quotes from the book and film was from Marla Singer's remark that terminall-ill people actually listen to you, and not just "wait for their turn to speak".  Haunted focuses on a group of wannabe writers escalating the pain and suffering they feel (actually commiting cannibalism and dismembering themselves) so that their "survival story" will be more popular by dent of painting their "captors" as truly viscious and vindictive.  The narrator points out that the American dream is about "turning your life into something you can sell".  Not a very appreciative perspective of the human race, to say the least.

I think that while a lot of people lack a certain measure of alturism and empathy, I don't think it is intrinsic to a person's nature, but a matter of reinforced choices they have decided to make.  I want to write stories that encourages people to do good, to think deeply and sharply.  Here's to trying, I guess.

See you next week. :)

Photo cred: https://thesouloftheplot.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/poster_fightclub.jpg

What do you write about?

Beyond practicing the basics of writing, there comes the choice on where to ultimately focus one’s attention on: form or idea.  Scott McCloud’s book, “Understanding Comics” highlights this concept in Chapter 6, and I think that this is an important choice to make when you’ve mastered discipline in writing.

To better explain what’s going on, form is all about technique, being able to tell a story well, while Idea is about what the story says about life, the whole of humanity, and the human experience. These days, I’m focusing on improving on the latter, and sending snippets of my thoughts to a friend.

“Scars are the evidence that life has happened”

“I don’t have the patience to lie”

“Being an adult is about managing expectations”

“Lying is bad habit to have, and a harder one to break”

“Children hope; adults cope”

Etc, etc, etc, etc.

The process is very liberating, and is a much different direction to take my writing.

I have a background in poetry, and I think poetry really helps when trying to write truly fantastic and beautiful pieces:

“Once upon a time, there was a meadow, and it was beautiful and good.  In this meadow were butterflies with wings of every color and hue; prismatic blues and greens, brilliant oranges and reds, violets and purples the envy of any robed emperor or king.  The butterflies would spend their days, floating from petal to pistal, drinking in the sweetness of morning, and the yawning glory of night.”

Wow, pretty… but what does it say about life?

I think a step beyond that, is that a story must somehow address contemporary issues.  Take Watchmen for example:

“Heard a joke once. Man goes to doctor.  Says he’s depressed.  Says life seems harsh and cruel.  Says he feels all alone in a threatening world where what lies ahead is vague and uncertain.  Doctor says ‘Treament is simple.  Great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight.  Go and see him.  That should pick you up.’  Man bursts into tears.  Says ‘But doctor, I am Pagliacci’”

Watchmen was written during the time of the Cold War.  People were scared someone will push a button and end the world.  The poor are starving, AIDs is becoming an issue, everyone is holding their breath, in an uncertain world where the future seems vaguely threatening.  To say that the audience at that time could relate would be an understatement.

Very often I hear people talking about the issues of this generation, but they are not talking about the problems that we are dealing with as much as they are addressing specific, isolated instances.  We have to widen our gaze and look at what we are dealing with today and now.  What are the issues that our generation is dealing with?  What are our feelings towards them?  What can we do to solve them?

Classics become classics because they speak to us across the ages.  Les Miserable talked about the unjust persecution of the poor, something we are still dealing with, and Watchmen talks about how one slip-up in our technology can decimate all human life on Earth.  What will you write about?  Will it stand the test of time?  Will your words be “modified in the guts of the living”?

Keep writing.  Keep dreaming.

How do you get published (a summary)

So I did an AMA on reddit about my novel and briefly spoke about how to get published.  Granted, I’m not publish (yet, I hope I can work hard enough to get published), but I’ve done some preliminary research on how to do it, and I want to share some knowledge.  Here it goes.

The biggest hurdle you’ll have to face is the fact that there are A LOT of people out there who think that just because they know how to write, they also know how to write well. 

And you are outnumbered by them, 100 to 1.

I think most of these folks think that where they lack in skill (or awareness on how bad they write), they can make up for in sheer persistence and quantity.  They are pretty much bashing their face into a keyboard until they make something novel-length(ish), and then they spend however much time, money, and effort to get their stuff published.  I’ve heard stories where people have promised everything from gift baskets to sexual favors to outright bribery to convince a publisher to pick someone up.

For all things holy, lovely, and good, please do not be one of these people.

You *do* need the persistence from these folks to get published though.  The thing that will get you to outpace them is your skill and talent at writing.  Don’t be desperate and impatient, be consistent and focused.  You’ll get there eventually.

So you’ve done your time, you’ve practiced, and you’ve honed your craft.  You can write circles around these talentless yokels.  You’ve made people laugh, cry, and return again and again to your stories and poetry.

But you’re still not getting published.

This is because publishing houses spend A LOT of money to publish a book.  They hire people to design the interior of your book, then people to design the cover, a publicist to convince bookstores to stock up on your novel, they set-up national tours to help promote your work, and they spend thousands of dollars printing it out and getting it ready to ship.  Then they pay you.

I wouldn’t be surprised if a publishing company spends half a million dollars to publish on one writer, and if you were going to invest that much money into someone, you’d want assurances that they will make you money.

Think of a publisher as a bank giving out a loan, and you have no collateral.  How will they know that they can take a chance on you not defaulting on your loan?  You have to have AMAZING credit.  This means submitting your stuff to writing competitions.  Even if you don’t win, getting short-listed or long-listed goes a long way to help establish your credibility.  Convincing a literary agent to represent you also goes a long way, especially if the agent has had a track record of making a publishing house money.

Finally, sending in your manuscript, full or in part, is a waste of time and money.  Like I said before, people send in their stuff all the time, and without a literary agent, publishers simply don’t have the time or energy to sift through the giant stack of stuff on their doorstep (or inboxes).  Literary agents act as filters for publishers; they are the ones to sift through the piles of garbage to find the next Rowling or King. 

These days, if you don’t have an agent and you send in your work, they will most likely throw it away (or press delete).  No return e-mail.  No “sorry, don’t have time/not interested”.  Just gone.  How do you circumvent this?  Submit your stuff to writing contests, network at conventions, and convince a literary agent to represent you.  Hopefully she'll (most of the time it will be a "she") get you published.  Eventually.

That’s it for this week!  Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next Thursday (or maybe sooner).

Ode to an Unbrushed Cheek

Ode to an unbrushed cheek,
With fingers stiff and unmoving,
Tears that stream and trail down
That lovely face of yours

To touch that smooth, uncalloused flesh
Unworn by sorrow, untouched by grief,
And dash apart
This unbecoming corsage
Heresy! I cannot.

For tears have carved
Their place on cheeks
And have drenched
My stiff
And unmoving
Hands.

Don't Talk To Me, I'm Introverting

The thing about being human is that you always want someone you can relate to.  The thing about being an introvert is that once you can relate, you never want them around.

Shane Koyczan once said that we all carry heart-shaped jars in our chests, and that we go up to everyone we meet, screaming, “Open this for me!” 
They always say, “Not unless we break it.” 
More often than sometimes, he tells them, “Go for it.”

It’s hard to describe exactly how I feel about stuff.  I could use allegory, draw examples, project metaphors on these pages, but you’d only get a glimmer of what I’m thinking.  Every thought I have is a seed of myself, and it grows into the idea of me.  I try to plant my thoughts into everyone else’s mind, and yet they never grow into what I expect them to be.  I guess I shouldn’t feel so discouraged; afterall, I don’t expect nor want people to be like me.  Not exactly anyway.  I guess it’s true what they say: being an adult is about managing expectations.

People ask me questions to figure out where my fears and anxieties come from; they are trying to rationalize them out.  The problem is that my fears and anxieties are irrational.  They wouldn’t be fears and anxieties if they were, and I’d be lying if I said I never tried to rationalize them too.

When I was writing this, there was a party going on downstairs, and all I could think about was wanting to finish editing my book.  That and trying to express what I’m feeling in that moment.  They say that introverts feel that they express themselves better in writing than in person.  I guess this is true; give an introvert time to think and mull over what they want to say, smoothing every crack and dent, perfect the mirror-like finish of what they are thinking, you’ll see something very thoughtful and insightful.  It makes sense.  I also think it gives an introvert time to fully articulate their emotions and opinions, and it gives the reader the option to do something more worth their time so the introvert doesn’t fear monopolizing someone else’s.

It’s not the fact that we don’t value ourselves and what we say and think and feel; it just that we know some people don’t value stuff as much as we do, and it would be pointless to try to point that out otherwise.  It’s managing our expectation for other people to care as deeply as we do.

People stress me out.  Sometimes stress is a good thing, and there is this ache I sometimes have, a desire to know someone who could relate to me.  Then I realize that I’d probably get stressed out from them just being around.  I don’t know how people don’t feel stressed out by other people (and I don’t mean the day-to-day drama of living, I mean just interacting with people stresses me out).  Sometimes I envy them, just being able to switch everything off and enjoy themselves.  More often than sometimes, I never want to give up what I know and feel.

“But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I spread my dreams beneath your feet,
Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.”
~WB Yeats, Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven