If you need a gift for a literary geek and happen to have $20,000 lying around, Cormac McCarthy has a typewriter that you might want to look at. For those who don’t have that kind of cash but need ideas for the booklovers in your life, three indie booksellers have some recommendations. I know I’m hoping Santa leaves some books under the tree for me this year!
On a rainy morning
This is the kind of morning where I wish I was curled up with a good book. It’s supposed to be a rainy day, which will make it difficult to get motivated to do anything. However, I have a few goals for the day, including writing goals. As always, going to the critique group inspires me to write even more. My current plans involve parking myself on a stool after work with a porter in hand and letting the Muses speak to me. Before then, I hope to send off at least one submission today.
Two things to share that I found in an E-mail newsletter this morning: first, this story from the Independent about how the celebrity memoir genre might finally be dying off (at least in Britain). It makes me wonder how they are selling in the US. I’m all for a good memoir, but most of the celebrity memoirs I’ve seen are anything but. The second link I wanted to share is DailyLit, which is a free service that delivers books in installments to your E-mail for your reading pleasure. It seems like an interesting concept, so I’m going to give it a shot. I can definitely see it working with works like Dickens which originally came out in installments.
The rise of the essay
Interesting article in the Guardian by Zadie Smith on the rise of the essay, how essays compare to novels and what implications it has on early 21st century literature. I’m still processing my thoughts on this. Perhaps it will be the subject of a post in the near future, but I wanted to share in the meantime.
Post-rejection
I think I might’ve hit upon a successful strategy in dealing with getting a submission rejected. Yesterday, following yet another rejection, I pulled myself up by my boot straps, wrote for a bit then sent off another submission. Granted, I aimed pretty high and probably won’t have that submission accepted, but through the entire process, one thought went through my head — what do I have to lose? I love writing, and I’d love to be able to share my writing with others. Why not just submit wherever I can and see what happens? I’m preparing a few more submissions that I hope to send off in the next day or so which I feel are more likely to result in acceptance. However, if I get rejected again, it won’t stop me from writing or from sending out more submissions. If nothing else, I can enjoy the process of writing and say that I tried to share what I do.
The Future of Books
A common subject on my blog has been the future of books and the publishing industry. At 11 AM EST, The Diane Rehm Show will turn to the subject as Diane talks with Robert Darnton, an author and librarian at Harvard. For those that are interested, definitely tune in. Also, if you’re interested in learning more, Darnton’s latest work on the subject is The Case for Books: Past, Present, and Future.
A Few Writing-Related Stories for the Morning
After a busy week, I thought I’d wind down by sharing a few writing-related stories that have piqued my interest today. First up is a story from the Guardian about Chinua Achebe in which he talks about African literature and rejects the label that’s been assigned to him as the ‘father of African literature.’ An amazing author in his own right, I am ever more impressed by this great man recognizing the works and contributions of others in the field. African literature is one subject that I developed an interest for in college. The literature and the history of the continent are so intertwined, and the works that I have read have greatly enhanced my understanding of the continent that so many people pity yet cannot comprehend. Some personal favorites of mine and often-recommended titles include Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Petals of Blood, Amos Tutuola’s The Palm-Wine Drinkard, and of course, Achebe’s classic Things Fall Apart.
As I have alluded to prior, I am greatly concerned about the lack of general writing skills of the American population. Thus, I share this article which discusses that very subject. Too many have gotten too spoiled to spellcheck and autocorrect when they even bother to worry about proper spelling and grammar. While alternate spellings and new grammar styles that have broken traditional ‘rules’ have been useful in the past in the development of the English language, what we’re seeing now, especially with students, is a grammatical malaise that bodes ill for effective communication in the future.
Likewise, research skills have suffered as we’ve gone further into a digital world. Thus, I share these two articles, one about digital libraries and one about online research beyond Google. As someone who is dependent on online resources for research, both for work and my personal endeavors, I recognize the potential power and benefit of online tools. However, I also recognize the shortcomings since search engines such as Google do not discriminate or in any way distinguish a valid source from pure fiction that someone came up with off the top of their head yet posted as truth. It is up to the user to make that determination, which some people do yet others believe erroneously that everything that comes up is true. Those are just a few things that drew my interest this morning. Now let’s see what the afternoon brings!
Barbara Kingsolver on the Diane Rehm Show
I wanted to share this link with all those who might be interested. Barbara Kingsolver was on the Diane Rehm Show yesterday and spoke about her new novel, The Lacuna, as well as her writing process. I haven’t read anything by Kingsolver yet, but the segment interested me enough that I am adding some of her works to my reading list.
The Lost Art of Letter Writing
Since hearing an interview on NPR with the author of The Tyranny of E-mail, my thoughts have been filled with what has been lost in the fact that as a society we do not write letters anymore. It seems with our increase in the speed of communication, we’ve lost some of the reflection and contemplation that came with sitting down to compose a letter. In terms of looking back at prior times, letters have been valued as a way to get through the public myths into the private realities of the time. Indeed, an entire genre of writing, the epistolary novel, developed from the art of letter composition in order to present a story in a more true-to-life form. I wonder how difficult it will be for future generations to get a sense of the thought processes occurring in the present day if they are left with E-mails and texts as the ‘writing’ of most people rather than letters, or whether even those will stand the test of time and not just vanish with the click of a button to be lost to the ages.
Any modern attempts to recreate the lost art naturally could not or should not bother with merely relating the everyday minutia unless it serves to supplement a grander purpose or expand upon another topic of conversation. Letters are not needed for the purpose of playing catch-up on everyday goings-on and business anymore. However, the form is still useful as an examination of and for conversing about more academic and/or philosophical subjects. One idea that has come to mind is developing a letter-writing/book-reading club, using letters to communicate thoughts about books read and creating a dialogue that builds upon ideas found in the course of reading. I’d love to hear other thoughts/ideas related to letter writing.
Writing in November
November’s just begun, but it feels that there’s more than enough to keep the entire month busy for me in terms of writing. The last few days have been spent more in research mode, but I have gotten some work done on the Outer Banks novel after the critique group last week. It seems to be coming together ever more in my mind, and I’m trying to push myself to get words on paper. Also, I need to push myself to send out more submissions since my last submission was sent out in August. I’ve got a few short stories that have languished in limbo as other things have taken my attention that I need to get around to finishing. On top of all of this, I’m starting to make plans for next year and what I’m going to need to/want to do and what I hope to accomplish. I think about all of those things, then I put it into perspective by thinking of what ultimately matters — actually writing.
Pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, it’s all the same. This month is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). If I’ve learned anything this year, it’s that, no matter what, I have to keep the idea of “literary abandon” in mind in order to overcome the uncertainty and insecurities that accompany the process of trying to get published. Ultimately, it’s those long hours spent writing and rewriting, rethinking and revising, losing myself in the words and the story, that’s what will be remembered and that I will cherish in the years ahead no matter how my writing career ends up. It is for that sheer joy that I have let the words flow onto the page since the first time I picked up a pencil. November shall be a busy month for writing not so much because of all the things on my to do list but because I have so many thoughts and ideas I wish to flesh out on paper, that I want to develop into strong works that stand on their own. To do lists will come and go, but the sensation of ‘literary abandon’ is the rock on which everything else is built.
Why to blog
Going to my short fiction critique group always leaves me with food for thought. One of the topics of conversation last night was about blogging, and someone who doesn’t blog asked the question “Why? What do you get out of it?” I’ve reflected on that question in order to determine the answer for myself and my blogging. I currently have two main blogs, this one and my political blog. The political blog has more of a specific agenda, naturally. However, this is the blog that I feel is more for my own behalf. Another person made the comparison of a blog being comparable to a journal left on the table in a library for all to read. In my case, a public journal is a good thing. Not only does it allow me a chance to contemplate and expound on my thoughts, it also allows for comments in order to get a feel for other trains of thought. Traditionally, writers don’t just write for themselves. We write to express. We write to get our ideas, our stories, our words out there for others to read, to contemplate, to react. To me, blogging can allow me to be a part of a conversation that I greatly miss. Some of my fondest memories of college were the conversations that developed from the classwork, both during and after class. I remember talking for hours to friends about literature, writing, history, etc., etc. Blogging to me is a way to tap back into that expression and exchange of ideas, of interacting on a level beyond everyday necessary discourse.
One of the concerns that I’ve had with my blogging is allowing it to become the primary means of my writing versus a supplement to the main vein of my writing. Some enjoy for the majority of their writing to be through their blogs. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that. Writers and writing are as varied as the colors of the rainbow. In fact, it’s intriging that blogging has almost taken off as a seperate genre of writing, akin to the art of letter-writing and journaling yet operating in its own form and with its own distinct flavor. However, for myself, my primary writing goals are not centered around blogging. Thus, it affects how I approach this enterprise, the execution and the impact of it. I’ll probably never be a once a day blogger. I’m not sure if I could (or should) establish any set schedule for blogging. If I have something to say, then I say it. If I want to share something, then I share it. Otherwise, I’d rather not blog just for the sake of blogging. Like all writing, I feel that blogging should have a purpose of some sort, be it to inform or to entertain. However, its purpose should not be to constrain me to a computer once a day to fulfill an obligation to post something new. It fulfills a purpose of remaining part of a public stream of thought and of allowing me a chance to lay my thoughts down in order to see them clearly instead of while I’m in the midst of them. I’m always interested in hearing other views, so please feel free to comment and leave your two cents about why you (or if you don’t, why you don’t) blog.
