So how's THIS for irony…
The other day I was in the bookstore browsing, looking for something—anything—interesting to read and I stumbled on a new anthology edited by Michael Chabon (the guy that wrote The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay). Chabon's new book, McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales is a short story anthology with this simple concept: “…the stories are driven by adventurous plots and narrative action, in contrast to the current trend toward stories that are ‘plotless and sparkling with epiphanic dew,’ as Chabon writes in his introduction.”
“About time,” I thought. Being a confirmed “genre fiction” reader (and writer), I find that a lot of modern fiction—the stuff that gets filed in the literature section, as opposed to SF, Mystery, etc—bores me senseless. I’m tired of the slice-of-life character study… the “triumph through adversity, oh but I learned who I am” type of stuff. Give me a little action (and plot), actual storytelling and bigger than life adventure in my fiction.
So, while I didn’t end up picking up the book, it’s definitely on my list of must-haves, and it’s been a book I’ve been thinking about off & on since finding it.
Last night I was feeling a little antsy and wanted to do some writing (beyond blogging, that is). But nothing I’ve been working on has exactly been getting me going creatively. Either it’s my script that needs a full and complete rewrite (a daunting prospect, at best) or a couple of short stories that I’ve been reworking that have been going nowhere fast, or my super-secret, keep it under my hat, god I’ve got a lot of research to do if I ever want to write THIS one project… I’ve been a little less than creatively driven, shall we say.
Last month, I’d had to reformat my system and discovered that I had forgotten to back up an entire docs folder—containing primarily, old story ideas and projects. (hmmm, some kind of Freudian slip there, I’m sure.) Anyway, this gave me an excuse last night to go digging through my files to look and see what I had hard copies of and see if there was anything that I could salvage from that little blunder.
In that pile, I came across a piece I’d started years ago… one I’d dumped shortly after starting, bored and uninspired. But last night, rereading the intro, I realized I really liked my beginning, and I had some ideas where to go with the story from there. So I sat down and got to work on it and, a couple of hours later, had a few pages written and some ideas running around for the rest of the story.
(I’m sure the attentive reader can figure out the upcoming irony, but just in case…) Of course, the piece I’m working on is one of those "plotless, sparkling with epiphanic dew" type stories Chabon so aptly dismisses. And, truth to tell, I have no idea what I’m going to do with the damn thing when I finish it (nor, to be entirely honest, where the hell the thing is going at this point). But damn if it isn’t the first piece of writing I’ve done in months that’s got me wanting to sit down and write.
So what the hell… time to embrace the irony and see where my plotless little character piece takes me. I'll keep you all posted.
The other day I was in the bookstore browsing, looking for something—anything—interesting to read and I stumbled on a new anthology edited by Michael Chabon (the guy that wrote The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay). Chabon's new book, McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales is a short story anthology with this simple concept: “…the stories are driven by adventurous plots and narrative action, in contrast to the current trend toward stories that are ‘plotless and sparkling with epiphanic dew,’ as Chabon writes in his introduction.”
“About time,” I thought. Being a confirmed “genre fiction” reader (and writer), I find that a lot of modern fiction—the stuff that gets filed in the literature section, as opposed to SF, Mystery, etc—bores me senseless. I’m tired of the slice-of-life character study… the “triumph through adversity, oh but I learned who I am” type of stuff. Give me a little action (and plot), actual storytelling and bigger than life adventure in my fiction.
So, while I didn’t end up picking up the book, it’s definitely on my list of must-haves, and it’s been a book I’ve been thinking about off & on since finding it.
Last night I was feeling a little antsy and wanted to do some writing (beyond blogging, that is). But nothing I’ve been working on has exactly been getting me going creatively. Either it’s my script that needs a full and complete rewrite (a daunting prospect, at best) or a couple of short stories that I’ve been reworking that have been going nowhere fast, or my super-secret, keep it under my hat, god I’ve got a lot of research to do if I ever want to write THIS one project… I’ve been a little less than creatively driven, shall we say.
Last month, I’d had to reformat my system and discovered that I had forgotten to back up an entire docs folder—containing primarily, old story ideas and projects. (hmmm, some kind of Freudian slip there, I’m sure.) Anyway, this gave me an excuse last night to go digging through my files to look and see what I had hard copies of and see if there was anything that I could salvage from that little blunder.
In that pile, I came across a piece I’d started years ago… one I’d dumped shortly after starting, bored and uninspired. But last night, rereading the intro, I realized I really liked my beginning, and I had some ideas where to go with the story from there. So I sat down and got to work on it and, a couple of hours later, had a few pages written and some ideas running around for the rest of the story.
(I’m sure the attentive reader can figure out the upcoming irony, but just in case…) Of course, the piece I’m working on is one of those "plotless, sparkling with epiphanic dew" type stories Chabon so aptly dismisses. And, truth to tell, I have no idea what I’m going to do with the damn thing when I finish it (nor, to be entirely honest, where the hell the thing is going at this point). But damn if it isn’t the first piece of writing I’ve done in months that’s got me wanting to sit down and write.
So what the hell… time to embrace the irony and see where my plotless little character piece takes me. I'll keep you all posted.
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