Poetry Nowadays
Posted by Jenna Cooper in 
Do you like poetry? I mean, really, really like it to the point that you give it more than a cursory glance every few months? And if so, what percentage of your reading material is poetry? I find it amazing that “creative writing” is so commonly divided into “prose or poetry,” and yet I read poetry maybe 5% of the time. Poetry is something I seek out when I want my reading material to evoke a more immediate and visceral response. I know you can find those moments in most well-written books, but poetry is a concentration of powerful images. If I want to feel macabre, I read Baudelaire or Poe. If I want melancholy, I read Keats. (You see, I need more reading material other than the melancholy musings of long-dead white guys.) read more
Whatcha Readin’?
In light of next month’s book club read, I have to put down my newest fix. Neal Stephenson’s latest novel Reamde is a smart tech thriller about…well, at this point (page two hundred-something out of a thousand or so), the Russian mafia, a virus called Reamde that infects one of their files, and an MMORPG called T’Rain where the virus originated. read more
The Words We Choose
One of my favorite writing exercises is also one of the simplest. It consists of picking ten words and using those words to create a plot synopsis, description, or a bit of dialogue–whatever feels “right.” This exercise is great because it increases vocabulary recall, encourages you to engage with words on multiple levels, and can prompt a new story or poem. It’s focused stream-of-consciousness writing, and that balance can optimize creativity. Sometimes I pick from a dictionary if I’m hankering for new words, and other times I intentionally choose words with the same root language or theme. You can easily tailor this exercise to your own needs.
This exercise, which I’ll call “Take Ten,” is great for writer’s block. For example, I’m in a major funk right now. read more
Water For Elephants: Worth the Hype?
If you want escapism, a step above a beach read, Water for Elephants is a viable choice. I read the book in two days. While I enjoyed immersing myself in Sara Gruen’s rich descriptions of Depression-era circus life and a sweet love story, I found myself annoyed with several things. Narrator Jacob Jankowski loses his parents while he’s a senior vet student at Cornell, quits school during his final exams, and just happens to hop a circus train that needs a vet. Now that’s a strong (if a little too convenient) set-up, but the way Gruen portrays Jacob’s loss lacks depth. Jacob doesn’t grieve much over his parents except immediately after their death, and the whole ordeal seems like a mere plot mechanism by the end of the book. It’s not that Jacob reads like a stock character–despite sometimes acting like a “callow youth”–but that he seems so unshaped by his life before and after the circus. read more
Benson & Hedges & Writing
I used to make New Year’s resolutions, then gave up a few years ago because I never followed through. This year, though, I thought I’d make a go at resolutions differently, particularly when it comes to writing. My approach to writing-oriented resolutions is a little unorthodox, but it worked for me in a different context:
(Preface: For everyone who smokes cigarettes, I have no intention of preaching. I still get perturbed when nonsmokers give smokers grief for things they already know. Like “It’s bad for you.” Please, tell me something I didn’t learn in kindergarten.)
I quit smoking cigarettes last February. read more
Using Local History for Inspiration
Look familiar, Austin?
When I was a child, my family didn’t go on vacations (no money, no time). Since I read voraciously growing up, I got a lot of literary inspiration about places I still haven’t gone to yet. San Antonio, my hometown, isn’t a commonly used setting and I only encountered it in books maybe once or twice. I used to get annoyed that I wasn’t born someplace else–New York, London, Paris–you know, the locations authors use ad nauseum. I spent eighteen years in San Antonio, enough time to know it thoroughly, but I didn’t have transportation to go to all the “interesting” places. So, I dismissed using my hometown as literary inspiration because all I really knew were the suburbs and strip malls. And after being in that atmosphere for two decades, I scarcely noticed the details and oddities of my surroundings.
If I’d had the foresight, I would’ve dug deeper for local inspiration. Nowadays, I’m still broke and unable to travel to many of the literary hubs I know about vicariously. But I found a way to deal with it. So, what do you do when you’re strapped for cash, can’t travel, and want to see your hometown through new eyes? read more
Too Lazy to Come Up With a Title
This is like, the symbol of my writing right now
Is there such a thing as a…slacker writer? Meaning, can you call yourself a writer (a real writer) if you find yourself more often than not twiddling your thumbs, feeling strapped for ideas, so you give in to your guilty little time wasters?
I suppose that’s unanswerable, but it’s something I’ve been grappling with ever since I realized I was a slacker. There are time-wasting booby traps all around that ensnare me many times when I sit down to write. My personal pitfalls, ladies and gentlemen: read more
The Music of Editing
I once thought of editing as a formulaic process, like following a to-do list. A few years ago when I wrote mostly academic papers, I approached editing simplistically. Yet I’d agonize over whether I should’ve used a complex sentence or if I could’ve used a less sophisticated verb instead of something frou-frou. I was looking at editing logically instead of thinking of it musically. Yes, musically. That entails hearing your writing like a composer would a musical composition. Punctuation is the equivalent of rests and adverbs and adjectives are like articulations. It may be an old trope, comparing words to music, but that doesn’t diminish the truth of it.
Now that I’ve spent more time writing things other than literary criticism (and mostly free verse poetry), I’m more flexible with how I edit because I place more importance on “what sounds right” in different types of writing. It’s intuitive and less stressful. I still reference Elements of Style and On Writing Well occasionally, but I find that the best teachers are ultimately practice and reading a variety of literature. Learning how to edit is like learning a language in that immersion is an effective way to achieve fluency. I’ve also learned a few specific lessons that you can apply to all kinds of writing, and they’ve helped make editing a painless necessity. read more
Dysfunctional Family Lit 101
I thought I’d write about editing today, but Thanksgiving inspired me to write about “dysfunctional family lit.” Reading about someone else’s family, real or fictional, can feel cathartic when you’re dealing with your own.
Below is a list of my personal favorites from the genre, minus works by Jeffrey Eugenides and David Sedaris. They make almost every literary dysfunctional family list (Google search “dysfunctional family lit” and you’ll get plenty of results), whereas people often forget about pre-twentieth century authors who painted destructive family dynamics as anything but quirky.
The first three novels read more
The (First Draft) Hangover
Sometimes revising a draft feels as awkward as cleaning up a spilled drink when you’re drunk. You think to yourself, I’m in no shape to do a good job here. Every time I move I make things worse. But it’s gotta get done or else feelings of shame and self-loathing will consume you. Or maybe not, but you’ll end up with a sticky mess as a horrible reminder if you let it go.
I wonder–can revising ever feel as fluid and liberating as drafting? Or at least perversely enjoyable? I often find myself perpetually cringing in dismay while patching up content. My mental monologue goes something like this: Did I think I was being clever here? Why did I use “crimson” instead of plain old “red”? Useless information…non sequiter…typo…non sequiter…ah, I think I’d rather play a computer game right now…
Of course, thoughts like these are counterproductive, so as I revise my own manuscript I make a monumental effort to appreciate the process. In general, I still don’t like revising, but I found a few ways to make the hardest part bearable. read more
Just in Time For the Holidays
Right now, my cat is missing and I have second-degree burns from a kitchen accident on a third of my right hand. As they say in the vernacular, “FML.” I’m also in the rat race to find a second part-time job. I had better luck when I was an inexperienced teen getting a job than I do now. I’m sorely tempted to reactivate my WoW account and spend some hours (days) in Azeroth with the Beatles’ later stuff playing in a loop and a bottle of gin by my side. read more
The Fiction of Becoming a Writer
Aundraya Ruse’s “When Is a Writer a Writer?” inspired me to take a break from the act of writing to meditate on what all this means to me. (“This” refers to writing.) Do you ever stop and wonder why you write? Sometimes I find myself thinking about writing like it’s a necessary task. I have to do it and keep at it, even when it feels frustrating. If I don’t…well, it’s not like I’ll stop functioning. (Or will I?) But I imagine feeling like something huge was missing from my life.
That’s when I figure it’s good to remind myself what initially excited me about writing. I suppose all writers have their unique origin stories. I remember as a child feeling about words the way some kids felt about crayons. Words sounded as luxurious as Midnight Blue or as striking as Neon Yellow looked. Before I learned how to write my ABCs, I drew little symbols that meant real words on the pages of my sketchbooks and hoped that someone could read them. I felt that I hadn’t entered into the world of “grown-up” letters yet, but I was determined to get there as fast as I could. read more
Spooky Stories
‘Tis the season for reading, writing, and talking about horror. The last book I read that really scared me was The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. Whenever I mention this book to fellow readers, I usually get one of two reactions. They either say something along the lines of ‘Oh, that book scared me shitless’ or ‘What’s it called again? Oh, is it what The Haunting is based on? That movie sucked…’ But as any bibliophile knows, the book is almost always better than the movie or TV show. In the case of The Haunting of Hill House, that’s definitely true. (Although I’ve heard the 1963 movie was well done.) read more
Where Writers Fear to Tread
Right now I’m reading Chris Adrian’s A Better Angel. It’s a collection of short stories and the themes of the collection are death and grief. Sounds like the short story version of Nicholas Sparks, huh? No—far, far from it. It’s a mix of magical realism, dark humor, and transgressive fiction. Overall, I’m enraptured with Adrian’s work, excited to find an author whose prose reads like crème brûlée for the mind.
I found only one of the stories, “Stab,” hard to read. The protagonist, an eight-year-old boy, befriends a girl his age who takes him on nightly adventures to kill and mutilate animals. I won’t tell you the ending, but I will say that the girl’s actions drive the plot. Normally, I have a strong stomach—the stomach equivalent of Hercules—but I can’t read about animals getting harmed without tearing up. If I wasn’t on the bus at the time, I would have cried. I can’t even imagine writing scenes that depict animal cruelty. I’d probably go mad, a crazy granny-nightgown-wearing-cat-
Oh, the Places You’ll Go (to Write)
I’ve been thinking a lot about where I write recently. I share a four-bedroom house with five other people (one is my boyfriend of six years), so I don’t get a ton of privacy. Plus, the place is generally messy. And mess drives me batshit crazy. This week I finally worked up the gumption to make my house a writer’s nest. Personally, I need a clean space to feel mentally “clear.” It was well worth it, and it only took a a few (five or six) hours.
Do you ever have that problem? You know what kind of environment supports your writing, but you’re too damn lazy or busy to make that environment a reality? Luckily, I almost always prefer to write at home. All the coffee and snacks I need, incense, and a bed where I can lay in total dishabille. read more
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