Dear Reader.
Happy St. Patty's Day Weekend! I hope you enjoyed the Holiday as I did. I'm feeling a bit hung over actually, which leaves me feeling cloudy-minded and physically weak all at once. I resisted going out and celebrating, but then eventually did just show up to a gathering when it was good for me. Finding the balance between being a recluse and being socially co-dependent is something we all struggle with I think. So i chose to work on editing some things and THEN go out and get hammered. It was as they say, "finding the balance between the order and chaos of life."
I wrote a lot of fantasy this week because I've been reading some George R.R. Martin and he always inspires me. His writing style is something I envy, and in my own right, I suppose I try to emulate not his writing style, but the place from which he can create, which I believe to be something I like to call the "world building riff." It's a key element in the genre of any escapist fiction, especially in fantasy, and damn if George isn't a master. It's so detailed, thought out, and precise, that you almost forget that he's just pulling everything out of his ass, and that is the mark of a great writer of fiction in my opinion. A good world-building riff begins with the characters you have in the scene and expands to the setting in which you are in. Whatever dramatic beat you are trying to instill within the character at that time is told through the channel of a conversation in which the two characters are relating their situation to a situation in the past history (that you are entirely making up, mind you). So you are all at once creating a mood and engrossing your reader deeper into an entirely new level of the narrative. This fleshes out the world for both you and the reader. The world-building Riff can be as big as a foreshadow for the entire story, or as immediate as telling how the chapter might end. Either way, dear reader, I have so much fun reading that sort of stuff and writing it too! It also gives more insight to the characters on top of it all-- you are getting a piece of their mind, and hearing about something that they were inspired by or afraid of, or fascinated with, and I find endless joy in the "world building riff " as I have dubbed it. It's the narrative equivalent to the guitar solo. For me it is an inspiring thing when an author completely indulges into their own world in order to paint the tiniest detail.
This may or may not seem an obvious to you dear reader: "gee delving into details about the fictional world you've created is a good thing...DUH!" Well, it's not obvious to a surprising amount of literary scholars and opinionated critics believe it or not. I can't tell you how many seminars I've listened to that advise you to "trim the fat"and "just focus on the main beats," and as a writer, I have to say that there is nothing more humdrum, cookie-cutter, boring and TERRIFYING than to just hit all the beats to your story arch, then go home.
Okay so yes, OBVIOUSLY do those things: have a rise and fall of action, create tension, follow the formulas of character arches in order to create a cohesive narrative, but what I'm saying is that you must ALSO not be afraid to dive into your world to give it some unique flavor, some depth of history that will offer some context to your characters, and for your world for that matter. Dive into your world as deeply as you may and find a way for that to (at some point) come back into play for your characters. I guess overall what I'm saying is don't edit yourself down to nothing-- your job is to write and write and write, not to fuss and criticize and doubt. You'll be doing those things eventually when you've constructed the narrative, but while your building the skeleton, try not to stifle the thing that made you want to start the story in the first place: your own unique, creative voice.
Hey, speaking of Creative Voices, mine has recently been devalued and rejected! Okay well, in a matter of speaking anyway, I'm not purposefully trying to be put-upon and whiny, but I need to work through some of this sh!t, I guess. I received the rejection letter (if you can call two vague sentences that tell you how great you are, but not good enough,) from a local residency this past week so I've been trying to make sense of it and just move on. The residency (again, local) was looking for young, up-and-coming writers/poets/ etc... to come to the region and to bask in the deep historical connections this region has with American Literature. I thought since me being from this area and with NOTHING BUT TIME on my hands as I desperately shape a narrative, I might be a perfect candidate for the residency. With the added bonus of being paid and receiving interest and validation in my work, I sank a great many hours into this application process, put together what I thought to be an incredibly detailed and enticing project description, and waited only to be shut down in the most casual of ways.
As artists, rejection, doubt and criticism are all just a note in the tune, a step in the dance, par for the course... an inevitability, and if you don't think that someone, somewhere out there is going to think your work sucks you are in for a terribly deluded future, dear reader. There are only two options to be faced with when something like this for example happens: 1.Let it defeat you, or 2. rationalize a way to overcome it. Well, let's assume option 1 is out because we are all passionate little optimists with unshakable spirits who have read the Bhagavad Gita and understood the true nature of their journey is to transcend adversity to eliminate suffering of the self... okay great so we're not going to let the rejection defeat us, so now step 2...how do we not let it?
Well there are many way, dear reader, to not let rejection get to you...The easiest and most prevalent way that it got to me initially was that I saw it as a rejection of my entire self. It wasn't just the work they didn't want, it was that my entire journey as an artist, as a human vessel wasn't good enough for them to give me the time of day. This can be avoided in one simple way: SEPARATE YOUR WORK FROM YOURSELF. This is difficult for many artists for a variety of understandable reasons. For example: much of my novel-in-progress deals with my childhood experiences and conditioning and my home etc, so it's obviously very close to my heart. So when we as artists are told that "This project isn't for us," or "you aren't what we are looking for," it hurts on a whole different level than not hearing back about that application you filled out in the Starbucks at Barnes and Noble.
My advise: do your best to see your work-- as closely tied to your very soul, your essence and being as it is-- as just that: work. Know that it's a product that will give certain people whatever it is your art is offering. Not every company is going to be interested in investing in your product for a million different reasons plus one. So what? Refine the product, fix things that need fixing because it's guaranteed that your product isn't perfect, otherwise it wouldn't be art now would it?
Also, be honest with yourself. Was this the thing that was going to truly save your life and complete you as a human being? I doubt it. More than likely you just either have too much time on your hands, or not enough, and you wanted to throw out some feelers to see who might be interested in your project and it ended up not going the way you planned. So often we put everything we have into something like "a big audition," or "a big date," or "an application to a residency," because we feel lost or misguided or empty. What you need is to FOCUS, and not get bogged down by some superficial event that might validate your existence for a bit and make you feel desired. That sh!t comes an goes in waves, son. So...
1. Separate your work from yourself.
2. Don't give so much power and meaning to external occurrences beyond your control (as the Stoics teach us.)
I'm sure there are 3 or 4 or even 5 good pieces of advise to not getting defeated by the idea of rejection. I guess the most important thing to do is to be honest with yourself about your goals and if your life isn't lining up with them, continue to work towards that goal. It (again) sounds obvious and almost trite... but if you are like me, dear reader, you are so over analyitical that there is no end to the amount of excuses you can come up with to convince yourself to give up. Giving up, letting my potential go to waste, and not sharing my creative gift to the world is like...my personal hell. Once I came to that conclusion, it was so easy for me to get over the rejection. Also, putting it into words for you dear reader gave my thoughts some much needed clarity. SEE, I'M ALREADY OVER HIM, DEBRA, I DON'T NEED HIM IN MY LIFE!
Really though I hope this rant offered you something dear reader. Know that we all face rejection throughout our lives, and it does make us more humble and more resilient if we can find within ourselves the strength to keep our head clear and focused on what we really want. I wish you strength, dear reader!
Until next time.
-CjM
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