INKBLOTS, Small Apprentices Under the Supreme Master

Solzhenitsyn wrote what he knew

Inkblots--cool autumn evening, maple leaves carpeting the ground, and three women and three men this evening, several regulars absent--and missed. We tried not to have too much fun.

I warmed over some of my address from last weekend's Fiction Festival on Solzhenitsyn. "It is the artist who realizes that there is a supreme force above him and works gladly away as a small apprentice under God's heaven" (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn). I want, more and more, to see myself as a small apprentice, giddy with delight to serve the Supreme Master Artist.

It is the artist who realizes that there is a supreme force above him and works gladly away as a small apprentice under God's heaven.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/aleksandr_solzhenitsyn.html

It is the artist who realizes that there is a supreme force above him and works gladly away as a small apprentice under God's heaven.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/aleksandr_solzhenitsyn.html

It is the artist who realizes that there is a supreme force above him and works gladly away as a small apprentice under God's heaven.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/aleksandr_solzhenitsyn.html

Sophia led off on her first fiction story since high school. She warned us it was gritty but purposefully so, to show the beauty that change and transformation bring. There is tension and ugliness in the altercation between the husband and wife. I feel it. Sounds, car horn. Delilah undergoing a crushing comeuppance. Opening chapter, then backstory. What are the senses she uses? Descriptive narration is a bit too heavy but could be spread out more, integrated into the dialogue and the rising action, even adding it as descriptors to your attributions. Great reentry into fiction writing.

We talked about swearing in our writing. Should Christian writers ever have characters swear in their writing? Solzhenitsyn uses pretty coarse language in One Day, but then we should never justify doing something using an anecdote in place of hard evidence. I try to be guided by how the Bible depicts evil in speech and action. Do you think Cain swore at Abel as he was killing him, or Peter as he betrayed the Lord, or the coarse Roman soldiers driving the nails in Christ's hands? How does the Bible show me this? Never in a gratuitous fashion, never in a way that titillates, never in a way that glorifies the violence, or the cursing, or the betrayal. I don't want any word, phrase, sentence, or paragraph I ever write to serve as a stumbling block to readers, that nudges open the gateway and provides a conduit to sinning. For me, I don't want to write anything that sets me up to be fitted for new neck wear.

We discussed the tendency to put everything but the kitchen sink in our stories, a bad idea. John reads a later chapter of Saving Grace. Just like we used to... It's been a long time since we had a talk like this... Is this the best way to say this? Actually including the words in the dialogue is a set up for sentimentalism. It can feel sappy, inauthentic. We all know the feeling that comes over us when we hear it, a feeling that makes us want to divert our eyes, avoid eye contact with others in the room, that disjointed lurching inside of us that says, "Something is not working here."

How to fix it? Have her think this, not speak it. Saying it feels contrived. Her thinking it will seem perfectly natural. Grace has found Jesus and hopes that her boyfriend will too. Her lovely green eyes shone... Who is seeing this? When you move from your protagonist to someone seeing her eyes you derail the reader from the point of view you want him to see the world from. Next we are hit with a stunning revelation. Her mother had suffered the violation of a monster and aborted the child conceived by that violation. You have to change the name so that it does not violate the privacy of someone. Alisa said that you can use hard events from the past to inform the present, but here the mom's backstory overpowers Grace's story. Astute observation. I agree (though I don't think I could have put it that well). The mom's emotions are too raw for her to mentor her daughter. Sophia suggests that the mother be more veiled in her revelation with Grace filling in the gaps as she listens. Have the mom be more mature in her revelation. 

Alisa shared a bit of what is going on with the final editing and revision work on Swiftwater, her 1930s historical fiction novel, slated to release early 2017. There comes a point where it begins to feel over worked, too many cooks in the kitchen, to use a worn out metaphor, and how do you know if the editors are trustworthy? I always try to ask myself what is the kernel here? There must be some issue that needs my final attention in revision. Sorting out exactly what it is can be a challenge. We also talked about how there is no single author who does everything perfectly or even well. We need critics who go beyond simply stroking us for our strengths. Inkblots can helps us discover our strengths and hone them, and it can help us discover where the lead breaks on our pencil, our clunks, our default weaknesses that must be overcome.

Same pose as Solzhenitsyn...

On that note, I read two chapters from LUTHER IN LOVE, where I switch from first to third person, intentionally, when Katharina (first person) sets her pen to her memoir in third person. Why am I doing this? The climactic episode of the book is when the third person account meets Katie and Luther in their marriage. Up to that point in Luther's life she wasn't there. From then on it will continue from her primary point of view. Thanks Sophia for suggesting that Katharina needs more fleshing out in chapter 16. I will work on that.

I invite you to follow the sketches of Luther and Katharina's life I am writing in a series of blog posts around Reformation week called REFORMATION ROMANCE.

Next 'Blots meeting, November 8

Money and Writing: Can you make a living just writing books? INKBLOTS

Okay, Inkblots could not help talking about the debate. The what? Has it really come to this? These two individuals are our two options for president of this country? Finally liberals and conservatives can agree: If I were a liberal, I would be sick, disgusted, embarrassed; I am a conservative and I'm sick, disgusted, embarrassed. The debate showcased the violation of basic things about good communication, written or spoken; let's start with honesty, clarity, accuracy. Who won? Lester Holt, slam dunk. Who lost? America, slam dunk. M. W. Jacobs' perceptive observation seems apropos: "There are men (think man and woman) whose independence of principle consists in having no principle on which to depend, whose freethinking consists not in thinking freely but in being free from thinking, and whose common sense is nothing more than the sense that is most common."

Itchy face or was Hillary playing catcher-pitcher with Lester?

The Scriptorium is warm and cozy this mild autumn evening. Debate teeth-gnashing behind us, we launched in talking about writing, about monetary return therefrom, and related topics about marketing and actually selling books. No author makes a living writing books. Authors make money when books sell. Funny thing is, I just had to field this question on the phone today; a man inquiring about the Luther tour asked me about making a living writing books. I assured him no author has ever made a living writing them; it is in the selling of books that an author makes a living. Facts of writing and publishing life. We have a small group tonight, five of us, serious about writing, loving writing (okay, not always), wanting to write better (always). True for all of us.

John leads off with reading a rewrite of a chapter we critiqued last time. A good strategy. It is helpful to hear it rewritten. This was the chapter that needed more fight, emotion, passion. Grace is the daughter of a cop who tends toward being racist, and she is pregnant with the child of a football star, African American. It is a confrontation ready to explode. I think she would not be able to tell him it was the black football player. Have the dad figure it out, incrementally making the connections. The mom seems pretty acquiescent, maybe too much so. The reconciliation seems to come too early in the chapter. Dean, the dad, tells about the black cop partner who saved his life (his wife does; he could come back into the room and finish the story). The dad is having to confront his racism. But wouldn't the fact that he was saved by the sacrifice of his partner have begun the change? There's an opportunity for him to acknowledge that he had not fully dealt with his racism. The reader should not be preached to at this point, but should feel the sense of this being true for the reader too. It is the nature of sin, racism included. And racism is not just one color. It's human. Regardless of race. There is an important opportunity to peel back the dragon scales of this constant in human sin, and to make this book even more white-hot relevant to current events.

We talked about racism. Racism only matters if it comes from a vantage point of power, so says the popular narrative, hence, white people are prejudice (true, let's be honest here), and so are all the other races, on some level. Since the fall. White people (Inkblots is, sadly, mostly, more or less, white people; we eagerly welcome authors of other races, for the record) tend to feel off the hook on our own prejudice when we see the prejudice of other racial groups. The best fiction confronts this, exposes the far-reaching tentacles of racism. John brought up the reality of entitlement and how that mentality destroys segments of our society. "Write what you need" (Lewis). I think this is the key. We will write far more engaging fiction, fiction that matters, that changes hearts (starting with ours), when we are honest about what we need.

Suicide mission. Patrick reads his speculative fiction space station narrative. Space station, Hector One, the telescope through which he had seen the ... The protagonist suffers from claustrophobia. Not a good condition for someone confined in a space station, in a space suit, magnetic boots, mask over his face. Yuck, if you suffer from claustrophobia. Dogwood deactivates his magnetic boots. I wondered how Patrick created all the intricacies of the space station and space travel. Can you show mannerisms, emotions, as he communicates with his loved ones. There is emotion here but it feels flat. Does he have an emotional mannerism. Yes, his breathing and heart rate increase, but it is only from anticipation of meeting the Jade Zealot (comic book character who helps him deal with his claustrophobia), and the launch. John wants to see the protagonist have a more central problem. My thoughts? Good stories are good stories. Regardless of genre. What is his real problem? How does the story confront that problem? And change him, and bring about some degree of resolution? Put in other terms, how is the reader going to be confronted and forced to reevaluate and change? Patrick had good answers to these questions. One of the limitations of Inkblots is hearing only a snippet.

Bob's words of wisdom. His theory of fiction: plot, description, dialogue, character development. Patrick is going to post more of the story so we can see where it is going. This is a short story. I think that is a good idea, and I would like to see more of us in Inkblots do this.

Bob reminds us of his guru from Soap Lake Healing Water Spa in Eastern Washington. Bob is clearly having a fun time with this yarn. Good details about a spa for sale near Spokane. Needs some TLC which may mean he could get if for a steal. So his protagonist Bill negotiates. Good details, smell of a truckload of hay on the highway. Lava lamp, year around iconic image, mostly enjoy all that Soap Lake has to offer... We get the deadpan irony of this. What were they smoking when they wrote that. Most of the buildings dated from the McKinley administration. Town smelled of rotten eggs. Bob is writing humor (Dah), in the spirit of O'Henry, to my ear. Personifying the building that couldn't remember when it had been painted last. Rocking chairs personified, couldn't remember when they had been rocked by someone last. Bob does a great job of putting us there, and he does it with specific details, blue cabinets the color of.  Slam on sophisticated Seattle-lites. We get that. Could Bill run his hand across the surface of the counter top or the mantle, or something, to appeal and awaken the reader's sense of touch? "Well, you're looking at her." Bill did look at her. This was a good segue, glue that kept your narrative and dialogue flowing together. I love the bargaining between prospective buyer (operator) and the seller. We talked about smells, and touch (running his hand across a door frame and getting a sliver, rat droppings behind a chair. And sound as Patrick suggested could come from turning a radio dial and not getting any stations only static and fragments of game shows or the farm report. John thought the seller should interject more in the bargaining.

I read from LUTHER IN LOVE. Bob though maybe that wheezing would make the face red not pale. Using his pet name for Katie, my rib, for the first time is confusing when Luther is having a fit of coughing; Patrick thought it sounded like he was having pain in his rib. Bob comments about the variety of details brought into the story, the sense of urgency, the elements that will come together as the story unfolds. I will post a draft of the first chapter to forthcoming LUTHER IN LOVE in another blog post shortly.  



We meet again Tuesday October 11. 

SUMMER WRITING CAMP--with author Douglas Bond

SUMMER WRITING CAMP

with author Douglas Bond

“The Devil hates goose quills!” (Martin Luther)

Do your kids groan, contort, and make excuses when it comes to writing?

Writing is hard work—but what many kids don’t realize is just how much fun that work can be!

Join Douglas Bond, author of more than twenty-five published books, for a no-more-excuses summer writing camp out on the Bond’s hillside farm. 

From the Optimist Club’s 2015 “Teacher of the Year,” your kids will learn Bond’s C4-Explosive Writing method. Using CS Lewis, Tolkien, and other greats as models, this intensive, hands-on writing camp will launch participants forward in writing fiction, poetry, and essays.

WHERE: The Scriptorium of the Red House Farm (Olalla)

WHEN: August 3-5 (Wed-Fri), 9:00 am to 1:00 pm

FOR WHOM: Young people entering 6-9^th grades

COST: $125 each (sibling discount available; ask about scholarships)

Space is limited

Register today 

Call 253-381-1961 or email bondbooks.net@gmail.com

Let’s give the Devil more to hate!