21st Century: Novels No Longer Work

Critic Roger Kimball offers up a fascinating, if a bit long-winded, discourse on why the novel might be the best art form for the 21st Century. The article is studded with spectacular insights, well worth your time.

Here are a few:

"The problem with computers is not the worlds they give us instant access to but the world they encourage us to neglect."

"Everyone knows Andy Warhol’s quip that someday everyone would be famous for 15 minutes. Behind the humor—or perhaps I should say “behind the cynicism”—of that remark is the dark prospect of significant cultural diminishment. A quarter-hour’s fame is not fame. On the contrary, it is the demotic parody of fame; it is mere celebrity. It is worth pausing to consider how much of our cultural life—even in its most august precincts—is caught up in the voracious logic of celebrity. It is a logic that builds obsolescence into the banner of achievement and requires that seriousness abdicate before the palace of notoriety and its sound-bite culture."

"It does seem as if there have been important alterations in the relation between life and literature—between life and the world of culture generally—and this is as much due to changes in the character of life as to changes in the character of culture."

Called, but Not Crafted

It never stops grieving me how many Apostolics feel called to the writing ministry, yet so few better their craft by taking workshops once they're out of college. Yes, of course it costs money and time, but most of us take vacations and most of us spend our money on something. Why not our calling? Could we stand to miss a camp or General Conference so that our innate talent can be better-directed by knowledgeable mentors? Are we afraid to be challenged to change ourselves (and our writing methods) so that more can be reached?

The fun of February is in seeing all the Summer Writing Workshops offering their wares. If you want to improve  your craft, then the University of Iowa's Summer Writing Festival offers both week-long & weekend classes, while the Washington University Summer Writer's Institute offers an intensive 8 day workshop worth examining.  For a more general experience in April, check out the Festival of Faith and Writing!

They all exist so that you can be a more effective communicator Christian. Dare to take the challenge?

Big Picture MFA the Franzen Way

Jonathan Franzen offers up a big picture MFA in Creative Writing via a press conference at the world-famous Hay Festival in  Great Britain. Lots of good stuff, like:

A big problem for the novel is that the world doesn’t stop, it’s moving so fast and here you are slowly struggling. You have to be aware of that, keep it in mind and think about how to write a book that will not already be out of date at the time it’s published. You have to have a lot of patience, you have to have faith that it will matter when you’re finally done with it. If you are writing a novel, that can be a faith in God but it can also exercise the same faith muscles without having a religion attached.


As a practical matter, I think it’s very important not to have an internet connection when you’re working. You have to turn down the noise. The thing about the media is that they say the same thing thousands of times a day. You can cut out 99.9 per cent of that and still get what you need. Because what the culture is telling you is important isn’t necessarily what’s really important. The novel’s job nowadays is to listen carefully, cut the noises down and pay attention when the culture is not paying attention.


The most inspiring thing anyone ever said to me about writing was Don DeLillo, and it was simply: ‘The writer leads, he doesn't follow.’

Food for Thought: Live to Write, Write to Live

“I shall live badly if I do not write, and I shall write badly if I do not live.” -Francoise Sagan

Food for Thought: Saved By Mistakes

"Sometimes all that saves me is being willing to make mistakes. There are projects that strike me as so beautiful, important, complicated, or just plain big, that they convince me of my own inadequacy. This awful state of reverence leads to paralyzing brain freeze. At times like that the only way out is for me to decide, ‘. . .  I can’t do it right, so I’ll do it wrong. I can’t do it well, but I can do it badly.’ Sometimes, with luck, while I’m sweating to do it wrong, I stumble on a right way.” -Katherine Dunn, author of Geek Love 

Quote discovered in Poets & Writers, Jan/Feb 2012

It's Not Too Late!

Sign up for Calvin College's Festival of Faith & Writing (April 19-21, 2012) and you'll get the early registration price of $175.

The speaker /session slate is stuffed with biggies like Marilynne Robinson, Jonathan Safran Foer, & Chinamanda Ngozi Adichie, among others.

One of the fun features of this festival is the Festival Circles, where you spend 2 meal periods on a writing topic of your choice. The choices are immense.

This is the premier Christian writing / reading festival in the country. Because it only occurs every 2 years, save your pennies & make an effort to attend in April!

Not Exactly Writer's Block

It wasn't writer's block so much as writer's fatigue. Basically a week went by without being able to add more to my large project, so I sat uninspired before my laptop. Often I add a paragraph, reshape some dialogue or a setting, or even skip down to work out a rough outline of the next pages. All DOA.

Then I felt a pull from an unexpected scene, one I had never even worked on, but it felt promising: what if I wrote a scene from the girlfriend's perspective about my protagonist? (Instead of my usual protagonist's perspective.) Focus on what she would be thinking and feeling (even though she's a minor presence in the "real" story I'm writing.) Maybe it would be their first date. A setting occurred to me that I hadn't planned. An unexpected reaction between the two lit my imagination.

The first date I had sketched out long ago was mild and predictable. This wasn't. His reaction to her surprised me in that first impression. I didn't see him as that romantic, even playful, perhaps hard to get. I was intrigued. This was worth exploring. Soon I had her two (unnamed) friends involved. Plus her mother's reaction to their pairing.

Honestly, I don't see this sequence going into my real story, but I'm writing it anyway. Maybe it will be key backgrounding that will give me crucial insights into my characters and their intertwined history. Probably I will only hint at this to readers of my real story, but that hardly matters. It's working. I'll keep writing it for another couple days and see what occurs - though I won't let it eat up an inordinate amount of my energy or become it's own story that sidelines my large project.

This lark is developing my back story, while pushing me to develop a new voice. Whether anyone else reads it or not hardly matters. I'll be a better writer because of it.

(Image taken from TripleCrit.com.)

What's Your 5 Year Plan?

If you're a freelancer, then you've always got to be hustling to find new projects. Sean Gordon Murphy is a comic book artist, but he's got some great advice for anyone in the creative fields who freelances.

He discusses Talent, 3 Things at Once, Write (or in our case, draw), Branding, Attitude. Most of it is spot on for any creative. Take five minutes and then see if you can answer the question, "What's your 5 year plan?"

What Book Editors Want in 2012

The Andrew Lownie Agency asked 23 editors what they were seeking this year at their publisher. Vampire novels. Kidding! (I think.)

While some of the answers are sadly predictable, some give writers reason to dream, yes? Check it out yourself.

Food For Thought: Shadows Surround Words

Most people think that shadows follow, precede, or surround beings or objects. The truth is that they also surround words, ideas, desires, deeds, impulses and memories. -Elie Wiesel