When I create stories it is important to me to get the facts right and to make sure the stories happen in a place where it matters. By the latter I mean that the place should be integral to the story. After all, if it happens here, it should be happening here for a reason. Now there are exceptions. There is always the conversation of universal constants. There are scenarios and events not bound to a specific place, even if they are bound to a type of place. For example, a rural vs. urban setting changes how a scenario unfolds.
I am thinking about this at present, because I am working on a novella that takes place in a particular city. I wrote half the thing without knowing anything about the city or about the profession of the protagonist. I got a lot wrong. It made me go back to the start and revise and consider what argument I am making with the piece. It humbled me. It brought me deeper in touch with the character. So, in the end it turned out to be okay. By okay I mean that I will probably do this same dumb thing again. As with this time around I will revise and ensure through that process that place and profession and space matter. I spend too much of my writing not honoring the things the characters do or places where they live. I do a good job of the deeper stuff–the stuff I draw from my experiences or from that otherwhere that stories sometimes arrive from. I just need to get the facts in shape.
Some Thoughts:
- I really want my job at the Center for Creative Writing to be about creative writing and making that accessible to people. I feel like that has not been the case. It has largely been about politics and hand holding and listening to people’s complaints about the dysfunction in our office. All offices have disfunction. We just need to find a way to get past it and get back to the point–which is not providing experiences for a handful of friends and people we want to be our friends that we call a ‘local writing community’ and instead get out there into the streets and connect all types of communities through the power of the written word. I need to figure out how to accomplish that goal.
- More and more it is starting to look like people are split on whether to take CV-19 serious or to go about their business by pretending not to take it as serious so they can actually go about their business. I’ve been sitting in the latter category more than I should. Especially when it comes to sports.