In the writer’s practicum on Friday we generated a number of methods seemily aimed at getting us into the practice of writing. What ended up on the blackboard was what I think of as “writer advice.” This stuff is good, even necessary—for we can’t produce writing without figuring out how to go about writing.

I myself am more interested in what come after writer advice, the discussions that begin at the questions “What does a story do?” and “How is a story put together?”

From the second question follows a discussion on all the moving parts in a story: its characters, plots, settings, and the styles by which it is conveyed.

The first question leads to a discussion on the ways in which a story gains value in the audience. I think it does this, basically, by grabbing, maintaining, and manipulating the attention of the reader, and subsequently her feelings, interest, and imagination. 

The difficulty with such discussions is that they require a somewhat extensive critical apparatus, simply for organizational concerns. I’ve taken stabs in the last two quarters at laying out such an apparatus, which I’d be happy to share if anyone is interested.

But this quarter I’m here to produce a story. The form I’m working with is the novel, set in the genre of Speculative Fiction. Due to its length, I must develop a structure that is both solid enough to support the attention of the reader, and deft enough to continually engage her insides. Also, because it is a novel, I’m more or less stuck inside it while building it–I must maintain a certain headspace in order to not “lose the thread.” For this reason I might seem at times slightly removed, even pissy—and I apologize about that.

However, my real journal entries, then, are basically self-reflective babble—not about my self, but about my project. As I’ve progressed as an author I’ve found it helpful to hash out my ideas aloud. Since we’re being encouraged to expose our underbellies to eachother, I’ve gone ahead and recorded one such thought-session.

(The volumes shown in this video are all of my own composition. None have been officially published, and all are in process. It’s the nature of my project that I’ve had to write and rewrite its volumes several times in order to get them to do what I want them to.)