Be the Character

Fiction: fantasies, sci-fi, historical dramatizations, novels. But what is fiction? To me, as long as a story is not narrating a documented event, anything and everything can fall under the category of “fiction.” While the typical format to a story contains a beginning, climax, and end, with creative stories, there is freedom to stretch these guidelines. This is why I enjoy writing fiction. Once a story begins to flow onto paper, there is no right or wrong way to progress a plot; I have creative license.

However, before I can reach the point of “creative licensing,” I must begin sculpting a piece of fiction. I have always fought writer’s block. I know what I want to have happen in each story, but I can never seem to reach the end. The middle becomes like wading through mud and traps me with a slow, dull plot line until I am stuck. The best piece of advice that allowed me to overcome my writer’s block was simply to let the character write the story. This came from Anne Lamott’s chapter on “Character” in her book Bird By Bird.

Previously, I had always made the mistake of trying to get my character to conform to my desired plot. This would make for very dry prose, full of specific descriptions. Just the other day, I attempted to write a short piece of fiction, but kept on stumbling over illustrating a scene to my reader. Lamott’s suggestion to dig deep while getting to know your main character was what saved my story from being boring and me from stress. While writing, I tried to put myself in my character’s shoes: thinking about the little things that are important to her, discovering the way she thinks, opening myself to her opinions. The moment I did that, the story flowed. I removed many of the dry descriptions and began to show the depth through my character’s reactions and feelings. Looking through her eyes allowed me to get a glimpse into another life and, hopefully, convey that to the reader.

While I have tried to write novels and short stories before, I found doing so problematic. It was not until this last short fiction attempt that things finally came together for me. From now on, I will definitely be taking Lamott’s advice and molding the plot to the character instead of the character to the plot.

Pondering...

When I was younger, I always loved Nancy Drew mysteries; now that I am older, I devour books such as A Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Gailbraith. The cliffhangers abundant throughout mystery novels make them impossible to put down. They leave the reader wondering “why?” or “how?” after each sentence. This thought-provoking characteristic draws me to mystery stories. While not a novel, Sharon Krinsky’s collection titled Mystery Stories is no different.

While each of Krinsky’s stories is only a brief paragraph, they capture my attention. It intrigues me how she can illustrate an image or conflict in no more than five sentences. Upon first glance, the stories seem to be relatively straightforward. Krinsky is simply telling her readers about something that happened. However, she is careful never to quite reveal the full story. With each piece, she leaves me wondering and guessing about the significance of minute details. My favorite example of this was Krinsky’s piece “The Red Coats:”

I wear two red coats to a party. I deposit them on the bed. When I go back to get them, one of them is gone. The one that is there is missing its top layer. It is not red anymore—it’s grey with a black lining.

In this piece, Krinsky leaves a number of unanswered questions. The most prevalent in my mind are, “what happened to the one red coat and the top layer of the other?” and “why would someone only take the top layer of a coat?” Krinsky’s deliberate elimination of details leaves the reader to speculate. Was the man remembering wrong? Why would he wear “two red coats” in the first place? What about the missing coat? Could someone have mistaken the coat for his own? What makes him think the grey and black coat is his? There are infinite possibilities.

Despite the inconclusiveness of “The Red Coats,” I like it. My mind will keep coming back to this story, thinking of the many unanswered questions. These Mystery Stories are very memorable. Whether or not a reader likes them, he or she will not be able to read them without pondering the puzzling details.

"Don't judge a book by its cover."

“Don’t judge a book by its cover.” But why not? The cover art from City Eclogue perfectly depicts the collection of poems within. The image on the front of the book is unique, purposeful, chaotic, and colorful. It gives little glimpses into a busy city block. In City Eclogue, Roberson seems to tell us a story in his own unique, purposeful, chaotic, and colorful way. In a matter of 120 pages, City Eclogue evokes an image of the bedlam of city life.  

Roberson paints vivid pictures with his words, making the reader feel like he or she has stepped into another world: “dirt mouth curse and graffiti,” “the street as it crested the hill,/the buildings on each side   the railings/of a moon bridge.” With each of his poems, Roberson introduces yet another aspect of city living. From the trash heaps to the transportation, from the buildings to the small natural oases, he touches on it all.

To capture the image, Roberson completes the impression of the city by appealing to the senses. He describes the running of an engine, “as noise in/an otherwise harmonious/system/the blues.” Or the quiet as, “simple quiet not the same as no birds sing,/definitely not the dead of no birds sing…a not quite here running/sound underground, sidewalk’s grate vibrationless.” The mass of humans at a train station are compared to the restlessness of gulls. The ever-changing train schedules portrayed as “a flock of tin birds taking off.” Even the simplest of Roberson’s details, forces his readers to look at the world in a new and distinctive way.