Gabrielle V Brown - gabaroo muses

Reality vs. Fiction, According to Tom Clancy

tom Clancy Fiction Reality Quote

Today, April 12th, is the birth anniversary of Tom Clancy.

Tom Clancy was once a Maryland insurance broker with a passion for naval history.

Then he wrote The Hunt for Red October, which catapulted onto the New York Times bestseller list after President Reagan pronounced it “the perfect yarn”. Clancy was known for weaving realism and intricate plotting into can’t-put-it-down suspense novels.

I can readily recall more than a few real-life situations that I’ve transferred to the page, only to find that they were unbelievable. How can that be? It makes no sense that actual events or conversations don’t translate to fiction. Sense or not, the reality is that reality sometimes bends or tests or even shatters the suspended disbelief of our readers. Why is that?

Have you ever written real life situations that were just too unbelievable to be included in your work?

Perhaps the entertaining conversation you overheard on the train doesn’t fit into your story. Or maybe your character wouldn’t be caught dead doing that crazy thing you saw the tourist do at the national park. It could be that what you observed was so jarring that it yanks your readers right out of the story. Speaking of story, did that real-life tidbit actually further your plot or develop a character? Did it serve a purpose?

The possibility exists that, sometimes, truth actually is stranger than fiction, and should be left alone.

For now.

Keep it in your idea arsenal for another time. You never know when your fiction could use that dose of actual real-life.

Photo taken by Gary Wayne Gilbert, 20 Nov 1989 at Burns Library, Boston College and is used under Creative Commons License.

How We Create Magic with Paper – Does It Matter?

Gabrielle V Brown

Robert Sabuda illustrator and author, turns 54 today. He bucked convention and experimented with a variety of artistic approaches to book illustration, including batik, stained glass, and papyrus textures.

Three time recipient of the Meggendorfer Prize (in honor of German illustrator Lothar Meggendorfer), Robert is a multiple No. 1 New York Times best-selling children’s book creator and has over five million books in print published in over 25 languages.

Robert focused on 3-D paper engineering during his studies at Pratt Institute in New York, and his enormously successful pop-up books, both for children and adults, showcase his mad skills.

Most Important Tool of All

Robert reminds us that the most important tool in our craft can’t be bought. Like Robert, we create magic with paper (okay, words, not necessarily on actual paper). He uses folds and engineering, we use language. We all use imagination – the magic emerges from inside our heads. The apps, the type of keyboard, the kind of pen or brand of paper, they don’t matter so much, do they?

Or perhaps they do.

How You Get the Words Down – Does it Matter?

Some of my most intriguing ideas seem to bloom with the flow of actual ink. I organize and plot primarily on a keyboard, making full use of assistive tech for word-processing, outlining, time-lining, world-building, formatting and whatever else I’m forgetting at this moment. If I didn’t have the convenience of online resources and cut-and-paste for my research, I’d probably never get past information gathering. I use all kinds of resources. But the bottom line is, I can use whatever medium is available to get that story out of my head and into the real world. The magic comes from within.

How Does Your Magic Flow?

How about you?

Do you find that the mechanics of how you write has in impact on your creative process?
Does the speed with which you get the words down impact your creative flow?
Does the ability to forego spelling worries in the latest app keep your mind focused on story?
Does slowing down to write words out longhand help you think through the story?

I’ve spent a few paragraphs exploring how the mechanics of writing impacts the process of making a story. I have no doubt it varies from person to person. And now, having reflected, let’s get to writing. In any way you like.

Keep it Brief!

Gabrielle V Brown

That Inconvenient Brilliant Thought

Gabrielle V Brown

I keep a notebook.

A few notebooks.

Well, several notebooks.

I have them in my car, my handbag, my work bag, my gym bag.

My notebooks live on my desk and various horizontal surfaces .

And on my notebook shelf, too.

I review my entries and organize my notes and write things from the inspiration they provide.

I search frantically through each of them for that contact info I jotted down.

Because I wrote it in the wrong one.

And I go through them again and reorganize my notebooks.

I admire my shelf full.

Then I buy more notebooks.

And pens.

I buy pens.

Many thanks to Dvortygirl, who provided the photo I modified for the graphic.

Advice for Aspiring Writers from the Great Danilo Kiš

Gabrielle V Brown

Danilo Kiš photo with quote

Danilo Kiš was born 22 February 1935 in Yugoslavia (now Serbia); he died 15 October 1989, just before the Berlin Wall fell.

Danilo”s mother was from Montenagro and his father, a Jew, died in Auschwitz.

His novels and short stories addressed the politics 20th century Europe.Danilo’s most celebrated book, A Tomb for Boris Davidovich, Danilo explored totalitarianism. He received acclaim for novels The Hourglass and Garden, Ashes.

Literary rumor has it that Danilo was set to win the Nobel Prize for Literature the year he died; it is a fact that he was nominated.

This quote applies to our characters – unscathed characters are boring. They become interesting as they gain scars. Creative writing courses teach us to beat up our characters, make the suffer. As with real live people, our characters’ experiences, good, bad, better, or horrifying, make them who they are. Are you cruel to your characters?

Today’s birthday quote is drawn from Danilo’s list of advice for aspiring writers, found in his autobiography. Some may not work for you ideologically, but more than a few are timeless and worth review. Give them a look, take your time, and consider what works for you.

Advice For the Young Writer

Doubt reigning ideologies and the princes.
Keep away from the princes.
Be careful not to contaminate your speech with the language of ideologies.
Believe that you are mightier than the generals, but do not measure your strength with them.
Believe that you are weaker than the generals, but do not measure your strength with them.
Do not believe in Utopian projects, except in those you are creating yourself.
Be equally bitter towards the princes as you are towards the crowds.
Have a clear conscience regarding the privileges that your writer’s trade provides.
Do not mix the curse of your profession with class oppression.
Do not get obsessed with the urgency of history and do not believe in the metaphor about the trains of history.
Do not board, therefore, “the trains of history,” for it is nothing but a silly metaphor.
Always keep in mind: “he who hits the bull’s eye, misses everything else.”
Do not write pieces about the countries you visited as a tourist; do not write pieces at all, you are not a journalist.
Do not believe in statistics, in numbers, in public statements: reality is that which cannot be seen with the naked eye.
Do not visit factories, kolkhoz, workplaces: progress is that which cannot be seen with the naked eye.
Do not practice economics, sociology, psychoanalysis.
Do not follow eastern philosophies, Zen Buddhism etc; you have better things to do.
Be aware that fantasy is fabrication’s sister, and therefore dangerous.
Associate with no one: the writer is always alone.
Do not trust those who maintain that ours is the worst of all worlds.
Do not trust prophets, you are the prophet.
Do not be a prophet, your weapon is doubt.
Have a peaceful conscience: the princes do not affect you because you are a prince.
Have a peaceful conscience: the miners do not affect you because you are a miner.
Keep in mind that the thing you did not say in the newspapers is not gone forever.
Do not write according to the order of the day.
Do not play all your cards on the moment, you will repent it.
Do not play all your cards on eternity either, you will repent doing this as well.
Be discontent with your destiny, only fools are content with theirs.
Be content with your destiny, for you have been chosen.
Seek no moral justification for traitors.
Stay clear from “absolute righteousness.”
Stay clear from false analogies.
Trust in those who pay a great price for their inconsistencies.
Do not trust in those who pay a great price for their inconsistencies.
Do not promote the relativism of all values: there is a hierarchy to all values.
Accept the awards awarded by the princes with indifference, but do nothing to deserve them.
Believe that the language of your writing is the best language of all, for you have no other language.
Believe that the language of your writing is the worst language of all, although you would not replace it for any other.
Do not be servile, because the princes will employ you as their doorman.
Do not be arrogant, because you will look like the princes’ doorman.
Do not allow them to convince you that your writing is useless to society.
Do not think that your writing can be considered “useful to society.”
Do not think that you yourself are a useful member of society.
Do not allow them to convince you, because of that, that you are a social parasite.
Believe that your sonnet is more valuable than the speeches of politicians and princes.
Have an opinion on everything.
Do not say your opinion on everything.
For you, your words cost you nothing.
Your words are the most precious thing.
Do not represent your nation, for whom else could your represent but yourself!
Do not be the opposition, for you stand not across the princess, you are down below.
Do not stand next to government and the princes, you are above them.
Fight social injustice, but don’t make it into a manifesto.
Do not allow the fight against social injustice to lead you astray from your path.
Become familiar with the thoughts of others, and discard them afterwards.
Do not create a political program, do not create any kind of program: you create from the magma and the chaos of the universe.
Beware of those who offer final solutions.
Do not be a writer minority of the minorities.
As soon as some society begins calling you its own, question what you are doing.
Do not write for the “average reader:” all readers are average.
Do not write for the elite, there is no elite; you are the elite.
Do not contemplate death, and do not forget you are mortal.
Do not believe in the immortality of a writer, that is nonsense taught by teachers.
Do not be tragically serious, for that is comical.
Do not be a comedian, because the boyar are used to being entertained by them.
Do not be a fool of the court.
Do not believe that the writers are the “mankind’s conscience:” you’ve seen too many sons of bitches.
Do not let them persuade you that you are nobody: you’ve already seen that the boyar are afraid of the poets.
Never follow an idea to the death, and persuade no one to die.
Do not be a coward, and despise cowards.
Do not forget that bravery commands a high price.
Do not write for holidays and jubilees.
Do not write laudations, because you are going to repent it.
Do not write obituaries for the heroes of the nation, because you are going to repent it.
If you cannot pronounce the truth – stay quiet.
Beware the half-truths.
When everyone around you is celebrating, there is no reason for you to take part.
Do no favors for the princes and the boyar.
Seek no favors from the princes and the boyar.
Do not be tolerant out of politeness.
Do not require justice from everyone: “do not argue with a fool.”
Do not allow them to persuade you that all of us have equally valid opinions, and that there is no accounting for tastes.
“When both participants in a discussion are wrong, it does not mean they are both right.” (Popper)
“Allowing that the other one is right does not protect us from a greater danger: allowing that perhaps everyone else is right.” (Idem)
Do not discuss with fools about things they have heard from you for the first time.
Do not be on a mission.
Beware of those who have a mission.
Do not believe in “scientific opinion”.
Do not believe in intuition.
Beware of cynicism, even your own.
Stay clear of ideological gatherings and quotations.
Have the courage to say that Aragorn’s poem in Gepeua’s honor is blasphemy.
Do not allow them to convince you that both Sartre and Camus were right in their polemic.
Do not believe in automated writing and “conscious unconsciousness” – you strive after clarity.
Reject all literary schools that are imposed upon you.
When “socialist realism” is mentioned, you leave the conversation.
On the topic of “socially engaged literature” you are as quiet as a fish: you leave that to the teachers.
You tell the one who is comparing concentration camps with Sante (Dante?) to go and take a walk.
You tell the one who claims that Kolyma was worse than Auschwitz to go to hell.
As for the one claiming that only fleas were being exterminated in Auschwitz – same procedure as above.
Segui il carro e lascia dir le genti. (“Follow your own road, and let the people talk” – Dante).

Thank you to Filip Simunovic for the translation. Read more on his literary blog: Filip Simunovic

Another Reminder – The First Sentence Matters

Gabrielle V Brown

Today, January 25th, marks the birthdate of some highly regarded writers.

Gloria Naylor

Gloria Naylor (5 Jan 1950 – 28 Sep 2016) saw her debut novel, The Women of Brewster Place, (1982) win critical acclaim and become an Emmy-nominated miniseries starring Oprah Winfrey.

Gloria Naylor shares her birthday with Virginia Woolf (1882 – 1941) and Robert Burns 1759-1796).

Gloria Naylor (5 Jan 1950 – 28 Sep 2016) saw her debut novel, The Women of Brewster Place, (1982) win critical acclaim and become an Emmy-nominated miniseries starring Oprah Winfrey.

Gloria’s parents were sharecroppers who migrated from Mississippi to Harlem to seek new opportunities. Her father became a transit worker and her mother a telephone operator. Despite their own limited education, Gloria’s parents encouraged her to read and to keep a journal. By the time she was a teenager, Gloria was a prolific writer of poems, short stories, and observations of the world around her.

Gloria’s family moved to Queens in 1963, and she was placed in advanced classes at her new high school. Gloria graduated from high school the year Martin Luther King Jr. was was murdered, and served as a Jehovah’s Witness missionary for seven years. She then enrolled as a nursing student at Brooklyn college, but quickly changed her major to English. Gloria worked her way through college, earning her bachelor’s degree and then a masters degree in African American studies at Yale. Her thesis would become her second novel, Linden Hills.

Gloria’s first published novel, The Women of Brewster Place, as her other novels, addressed social issues such as racism, homophobia, poverty and women’s rights with intensity and grace. She became known for her vivid telling of what it meant to be a black woman in America.

Gloria’s work includes several more novels and inclusion in anthologies. She taught at Cornell, George Washington University, and Boston University. Gloria received numerous awards, ranging from a Guggenheim Fellowship to several National Book Awards.

We’ve Heard it Before – Always That First Sentence!

“One should be able to return to the first sentence of a novel and find the resonances of the entire work.” ~ Gloria Naylor.

We hear it at conferences, in classrooms, at critique groups, on podcasts and on “how to write” blogs. This is timeless advice, folks, and there’s a reason famous authors say it. Time for me to go reevaluate my first pages.

A Good Day to be Born, if You’re a Writer

Gloria Naylor shares her birthday with Virginia Woolf (1882 – 1941) and Robert Burns 1759-1796). My own birthday seems to be heavy with politicians. Perhaps I’ve missed my calling?

Go Slow and Don’t Stop

Gabrielle V Brown

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” ~ Confucius

Today is the birth anniversary of Confucius, who would be 2,568 years old if he’d managed to stay alive for twenty or so extra centuries.

Confucius was born on or about the equivalent of September 28, 551 B.C.E. He was a political figure, philosopher, educator, and founder of the Ru Chinese School of Thought. He was also an author and has been credited with writing or editing the Five Classics and other Chinese texts.*

We hear some version of his advice often these days, don’t we?

Just Keep Swimmin’

Persevere

One Step at at Time

Never Give Up!

Just Do It

The truth is, a hundred thousand words is daunting. I suspect it would be all the more so without my keyboard. Or a pen. Or paper. I’m pretty sure my chiseling skills are woefully inadequate.

Yes we’re pulled in umpteen directions and the clock never stops ticking. But we can carve out a few minutes most days, if we’re intentional about it. And when I say we, I mean I.

Because I’m great about talking about planning my writing. I acknowledge that a plan, a schedule, a timeline would be helpful. And then I get distracted.

Sound familiar?

So, enough talk about writing. Time for me to write. How about you?

*Cunfucius peppered his writing quite generously with adverbs!

I am a Perfectionist Scaredy-Cat Writer

Gabrielle V Brown

“I am a perfectionist and a scaredy-cat.”

~Elizabeth Winthrop Alsop

Today Elizabeth Winthrop Alsop celebrates her 70th birthday. Elizabeth has published children’s, young adult, picture books and historical fiction as well as memoir – more than sixty books since her first, Bunk Beds, in 1972. Elizabeth is best known for her middle grade fantasy classic, Castle in the Attic, and has received numerous awards. She’s recently done a Ted Talk about creativity and risking exposure as a writer. It can be viewed here.

In her Ted Talk, Elizabeth advises writers to follow where their creative urges take them. Wise words. Sometimes my characters seem to have a mind of their own. They insist on acting in ways I hadn’t planned. My stories have been known to fight me in an attempt to veer in unanticipated directions.

I should loosen the reins.

Which is not always easy for me.

I have a plan, often an outline. I am detail oriented, definitely more plotter than pantser. And I may just lean a bit towards having control issues. But then my story twists in a burst of spontaneity I’d repressed with the weight of my detailed notes. Or a character decides to do or say something that I didn’t authorize.

So I pause. And after a while, I can remind myself that my character is making their own decisions because they’re just that real. And that the unplanned variation may improve the story.

But only if it give it a chance.

So I try to turn off the orderly part of my brain and just get the words down.

And the result may be better than I’d anticipated. I like to think I’d planned the perfect novel, but I suppose the creative recesses of my mind have a better idea. If only I can fight off the resistance and follow those creative urges.

Elizabeth reminds us that as writers, we are perfectionists because we get to have our failures privately. I take this to heart when I find myself comparing the ugliness of my first draft with that finished novel on my bedside table. That little activity is one of my own personal private opportunities to see my work as a failure. All alone in the comfort of my own home. Then I shake it off and move forward. And not a soul knows. [Well, I suppose the cat is now out of the bag]. I love the idea of keeping my failures under cover and letting the world see that final polished bit of work.

I’m a scaredy-cat myself. Elizabeth shares that hiding behind our characters allows us to avoid real-life confrontation. So maybe I’ll create a character that bears resemblance to some real-life people who’ve been on my mind. And then I’ll have them slip in a puddle and drop their coffee. Or have the perfect wedding. Or wreck their car. Or contract food poisoning. Or get upgraded to first class. So many possibilities, and limited only by my imagination and the depth of my emotion. How is that not fun?

Go and take 15 minutes and hear what Elizabeth has to say.

My late sister and grandmother shared a September 14th birthday. I’m pleased that I was able to learn a bit about an author who was born on that day as well. I hear each of their voices in parts of Elizabeth’s Ted Talk, and an involuntary little smile tugs. Ms. Alsop, I think you’d have liked the both of them. Thank you, Elizabeth.