The rumors of my death have greatly exagerrated...again

I bought a peach today the size of a softball.

But that is not what this is about.

Or maybe it is, I don't know. This may not be about anything. Of course that's not true. The very fact there is something on this page, er, screen, is something. It might be nothing more than an exercise to get my fingers comfortable with tap-tap-tappin' on this keyboard again, but it most definitely is something. Something most likely not resembling greatness, but hopefully, at least, resembling English.

I've been reading lately, and I have found the more I read, the more I want to write. Don't get me wrong, I have always been a reader. Those who know me know there is nothing I am more snobbish about than the books I
(and others) read. My cousin, who shall remain nameless, reads nothing but non-fiction. I don't know how she does it. What truth can possibly be found in such works?

I have a stack of novels I have been catching up on. I eased back into things with Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. This is a book I have already read, so I thought it might be good to start with. You know, learn how to read literature again. Cormac McCarthy is probably my favorite living American writer. It is rumored to be an upcoming movie, but I have difficulty imagining an adaptation because in case you haven't read it, Blood Meridian is a hyper-violent novel.

The second novel recently completed is The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon. Excellent.

The novel I am involved with right now is The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco. So far so good. Next up is Cloud Atlas.

There is no reason you need to know what I'm reading, but I needed to fill space. I couldn't have my first post in almost six months be two paragraphs. Bad form.

I have a beer resting on a treadmill with Californication on the television because I love Hank Moody, and this show also makes me want to write.

The beer on the treadmill has nothing to do with me writing.

I should clarify. I always want to write, but these pop culture inspirations make we want to put fingers to plastic. At least I think they're plastic.

Are they plastic?

Beginning exercise #1 - "Naflk"

I think many of the forthcoming posts are going to be fiction-centric - at least in the short term. I have been playing around with an exercise I learned to get started. I have a program generate five random letters, and then I form a first sentence from the sequence and see where it goes. Some may go no further than a paragraph, like the one below, but one may lead to something big. Anyway, I would like to share what I come up with, even if it's short. As always, I welcome comments. And since this is fiction, the more honest the better. Cheers.
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"Naflk"

Noon, and Frank laughed krazily. That’s right, krazily. With a k. Krazy spelled with a k takes things up a level, raises the stakes. Krazy has an element of the absurd, it carries with it a whimsical, unpredictable nature. Crazy, while crazy, is not krazy. Crazy has a method to its madness. With krazy, all bets are off.

Frank laughed krazily.

But this isn't about Frank. In fact, Frank may not even be that guys name. It was noon, though. And that guy did laugh krazily.

It’s not the who we should be concerned with, but the what. What could cause a man to laugh krazily?

Fiction's fictions

The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated…


Here’s the thing about fiction: it’s fake. Profound, I know, but true nonetheless.

This is one of the things I have been struggling with over the past few years, and why I think my output has been, well, slim. I love reading fiction. I prefer it to nonfiction by quite a bit. But I have a problem with developing a strategy to write it.

The central reason for this is I can’t fully embrace any of the points of view one can choose from to tell a story. The three most popular are first person, third person omniscient, and third person limited. I have been out of school for almost ten years, so I apologize if this discussion comes across as amateurish, but I need to get this out.

First person is odd for me. I don’t think I’ve ever written anything in first person. I have inserted myself in stories, but that is not really the “I” of first person. The “I” of first person is not really the author, but rather a character the author is playing. I know this gives the author the opportunity to tell a story from a narrow point of view and with a unique voice, but I question what makes an author want to do this. Perhaps it is a vehicle for the author to imagine themselves as another person, some sort of fantasy. Or perhaps it is so the author can say things they would not usually say. Either way, it doesn’t sit quite right with me.

Third person omniscient is an artifice. There is nothing like it that exists outside of literature. This could be why it is so popular - it gives the author the chance to act as the supreme puppet master, and gives him/her greater control over the direction of the story. It is, of course, an essential construct for literary pursuits, and one that for the most part exists only in fiction. It is useful for storytellers for the narrator to know what all the characters’ thoughts and motivations are. There are non-fiction instances when an author, through outside research, has been able to glean what interested parties were thinking in particular settings, and recount all of them in one scene, but it is always after-the-fact. A person of normal means cannot walk into a room and know what everyone is thinking.

Third person limited makes for the most interesting stories, but is maybe the least real for fiction. I love stories where the reader doesn’t necessarily know what is going on in any of the characters’ heads. Or maybe they know about just a couple. I am particularly fond of unreliable narrators. But there it is, right? While the narrator may be unreliable, the author is not. The unreliability of the narrator is itself a construct of the author. This is why I find it the least real in a fictional setting. The author knows the motivations of all the characters even if the narrator does not. This is why the narrator must always be considered a character in the story,

I have this huge idea in my head I have been thinking about for a couple years that takes the idea of a narrator to its absurd end. I have no idea how to execute it yet, but I can’t shake it.

I have some ideas about tense as well, but that’s for another post. I feel I am overthinking all of these things, and I just need to put my thing down. All encouragement is welcome.

2010: The year I make contact

My thanks to Arthur C. Clarke, who allowed me to come up with such a snappy title. And my apologies to my readers who have been without a new entry in over a month. When the holidays rolled around, it seemed time got tighter and tighter. This entry is going to be a short one. I really just needed something to get me back into the swing of things again.

The title refers to my main goal this year. I would like to keep in touch with my friends and family better than I have to this point. Never before in history has it been so easy to reach out to people, and yet I find myself feeling like I speak to very few people on a regular basis.

When I say I want to keep in touch, I mean beyond posting comments on Facebook pages. The three methods I would like to utilize more are phone calls, emails, and actual in person meetings. Yes I said it. I would actually like to meet with people. In particular with my family members. All but one of my cousins on the paternal side of my family live in Colorado, and it seems the only time I see them is at special occasions. I would like this to change. Of course, this holds true for my local friends as well. My plan is to try and reach out to no fewer than three people a week over the next month or so. We’ll see what happens, but I hope at least a few of those stick and turn into something consistent.

I hope I can accomplish my goal. I will put my plan into action this week since a goal without a plan is just a dream. No man is an island, but if I must be, I want to be a big island like Australia, with room for lots of people.