Offerings From the NULC

Today began the National Undergraduate Literature Conference. I decided to submit even though I 1) graduated in December (found that this does not break the rules) and 2) had missed the deadline by several days. Did I let that stop me? Not after being shut down by them last year. So having learned my lesson about genre-bigotry I submitted, lately as I mentioned, my story Last Dance of which I have referred in posts past. Despite these things the story, ungenred as it was, had no problem getting me in.

Since most of my readers are aspiring writers, I have decided to put down the things that I learn and the things the authors said at the NULC here and hopefully you will get something worthwhile from them. Or maybe you will just end up reading big long stories about how cool I think everything is. Okay, here we go.

Eleanor Wilner

The convocation was given by Eleanor Wilner, a celebrated poet. She spoke of what in the States we derisively refer to as “political poetry,” but that in Russia is fondly called “citizen’s poetry.” In other words, poetry that is concerned with social and political wrongs. She said that the poet’s trade is in words, and because of that the poet has a responsibility to make sure that the right words are being applied i.e. that a duck is being called a duck and not an amphibious feathered bird of interest. You get the idea, I’m certain. She read stirring poems by (forgive me for not being up on the poet scene) important poets in the fight for truth regarding the state of our affairs in the world. It was filled with rhetoric, but very powerful and if I didn’t feel like a poem’s power lay in its syntax I would try to paraphrase some of the poems that she used in her speech. In referring to violence in writing (she was referring to poetry specifically) she quoted the great writer Willa Cather (in a quote that I can’t seem to find on the internet to get right, so you’ll have to suffer with my paraphrase) saying that it is the thing unmentioned (not shown?) that is haunting. I think of the powerful climax in Oh! Pioneers and I would say she knew just how much to put in to make that scene linger, even without graphic detail. Wilner spoke of how even though there are very few now who believe that we are at war for the reason the government tells us that we are at war that “silence is consent.” She may have been quoting someone else on that, but I only recall the message.

Today she did a reading of her own poetry. One poem that she read was called, I think, “The Muse.” She introduced it by reminding the audience of the Gordian Knot, the person by whom it could be untied being worthy to rule the world. When faced with the Knot, Alexander of Macedonia, called the Great, pulled his sword and cleaved the knot in twain “setting the precedence for Western problem solving ever sense.”

Geoffrey Wolfe

At the Banquet, Mr. Wolfe read a monologue set as a presentation to a Senate committee in the not too distant future where as an investigative reporter, at that point “a person of interest,” was being forced under duress to answer the question “How did we get here?” in regards to the stripping away of civil rights in the name of defense against the elusive enemy, terrorists. He did not do much by way of explaining his craft, just read the monologue which thoroughly disturbed most everyone in the room for one reason or another.

Bret Anthony Johnston

Two years ago Lackhand and I went to the NULC together and met BAJ. If anything I say here seems unbelievable, LH can probably vouch for the apparent character of the author based on our shared experience with him at that time. He has written a highly acclaimed and very moving collection of short stories called Corpus Christi and is the Director of Creative Writing at Harvard.

Yesterday as I was walking out from the Convocation a few minutes early to catch my ride, there was BAJ talking to someone in the hall. He stopped his conversation and, offering his hand, said, “Hey, it’s Riotimus, isn’t it?” Yeah, in real life I am riotimus too. Actually I think riotimus may be a state of mind as well as a historical figure, but I digress. So he says he saw my name in the program and that it is good to see me again. The timing of this was great, because I had just been felling nettled about coming on time to an event (an event that I was dropped off for and had to meet my ride at the specified ending time, hence my leaving on time when the event was not over; I digress again) so I was on time and feeling a little vexed by the way the Conference Coordinator and the authors were sitting exclusively in the front row being important as the clock ticked on. The earnest friendliness of BAJ forced me to abandon my conclusion that success and becoming a self-important chump were inevitably linked.

Doing the play by play is making me weary, so I am going to just try to nail the main points. After all, earlier I said 'today' but since I’ve been working on this for three days I don’t know which ‘today’ it was. I had the opportunity to spend a decent amount of time with BAJ at the conference. I found him to be earnest, encouraging, and much less impressed with himself than the far-less-successful Conference Coordinator. I was going to write out some of the conversations we had as evidence of my conclusion, but you’ll just have to take my word for it and corroborate it with Lackhand’s experience with him two years ago.

BAJ spoke at the luncheon after the Conference Coordinator talked about how much work and sacrifice it is if we want to be a writer. BAJ took the podium and said, “I must humbly disagree with [Conference Coordinator]. You already are writers.” He went on to say that it is the act of writing that makes a writer, not number of published works or money generated by works, etc. He went on to say that he doesn’t believe in talent, inspiration, or the muse—he believes in work (or [butt] in chair time], that writing is a vocation, an act of witness, and that there is nothing more important that we can do. He then read his essay On Rejection; or Dear Author, After Careful Consideration a very humorous look at the not-so-humorous facts of writing and rejection.

At a reading later in the day, he talked about how the story needs to be greater than the author, and that the “story that turns out the way the author intended it to sucks.” Regarding character, he said that the two most important things to know about your characters is what they want, and what they’ve lost. He likes to try to see the world through his character’s eyes, then put them in a vice until either they or the vice break.

Question and Answer

The NULC ended with a Q&A, which I will write about today, 'today' meaning the fourth 'today' involved in recording my thoughts and observations about the conference. Different students asked questions, some of which either the questions or the answers were not worth transcribing here, but those that I found helpful or thought could be encouraging to the writers that read Write On I am going to put down. The author’s answers are paraphrased unless in quotes. Here it goes:

What tips do you have for young writers?

BAJ: Establish a writing habit. It takes 21 days to establish one, so get to where on the 22 day if you don’t write it all feels wrong. Read what you want, write what you want. (I have to insert here that the previous question which I did not bother with here was about what they read. Their answers varied, but BAJ said that if he came across a subject that was completely without interest to him that he would seek out information on the subject to find out what about it was uninteresting. In this way, he said, he “has come up with many story ideas in a mercenary kind of way.”

EW: “It’s like that verse in the Bible about how “habit is the chain that ties the dog to its own vomit.” Or maybe I changed that one to suit my own purposes. Change is a constant in the human condition and I am terrified of habit.”

GW: All the writers he knows that are glad they are writers are voracious readers. Have patience. Work to be in a state that when you finish a story you ask yourself, “How can I make this better?” Don’t believe in “sample prophecy;” meaning don’t take the failure of one story (either personal dissatisfaction or rejection for editor/publisher) as a prophecy of all things to come with your writing.

EW after hearing GW’s answer: Read. We learn from osmosis. Listen to the world around you and to other people. I think that she was talking about catching the details having awareness of what is going on in the world, not letting others constantly change your direction; I base that on the fact that even though she is a poet what she mostly reads are political rags and newspapers, and if you find a sample of her poetry you will see that she has no fear of being outspoken.

Does a writer have to have connections to get published?

BAJ: “A writer has to believe that good work will find an audience.” Connections aren’t necessary. Literary journals always want to claim they’ve found the next big thing, so they are a good place to start for the unpublished. If you have some unknown publications, that should at least build your confidence, which is a key ingredient to making it as a writer. BAJ came to the NULC 13 years ago and author Ron Carlson was one of the authors. Carlson said that “If you do anything for fifteen years you will succeed.” BAJ took the challenge and published his first book in ten. He talked about a line from the movie, The Shootist, in which someone tells John Wayne’s character that if he would wear his holster in a different place he could draw faster. I couldn’t find the quote online, but the response was something like, “You don’t have to be fast, you just have to not miss . . . “ Wherever the Duke was going with that, BAJ said that you don’t have to be a fast writer, you just have to show up and write every day.

EW: Don’t worry about publications. We are young still. Learn and write and try new things. Learn the craft. Don’t worry about what publishers and editors want, just find your voice.

Do you outline?

GW: He does a course chronological outline on 3x5 cards (and then, and then, and then . . .) then he mixes them up and puts them back together in “a more cohesive way.”

BAJ: Outlines stifle. “Writing is an act of discovery.” The novel he is currently working on had a six-hundred page first draft. The second draft he cut to three-hundred-and-fifty pages without missing anything. It has four distinct story lines, so he took a different colored sticky note for each story line and put a sticky note on some poster board for each of the lines. If there is a clump of yellow, he will mix in some pink, etc. However, that is after a complete draft or two have been completed.

How can writers contribute to the world?

EW: “Use what you have, say what you think.”

BAJ: He doesn’t believe in theme. He believes in stories of empathy, and that what the writer can offer the world is to engage in an act of empathy on the page.

GW: He quotes writer Stanley Elkin as saying that writing is “revenge against bullies,” and said that writing can offer a correction of balance. To illustrate this he talked about how good stories are about the underdog, not the top dog and the writer can level the playing field.

How do you make a living as a writer?

BAJ: Very few fiction writers don’t have a day job. He teaches. There have been times that he has made enough to not have to work, but he is good for five or six hours of writing. After that he said he would just be hanging out with other writers talking about writing, so why not do it in a classroom setting. As a writer, make a living any way you can that won’t keep you from writing.

Last tips?

BAJ: Don’t let anyone convince you that writing is an indulgence. We write because of our fascination with twenty-six letters and the combinations that only we can come up with.

GW: “Do not be suckers.”

Conclusion

So sharing this has ended up being a more massive undertaking than I initially envisioned, but it was good to recollect the things I saw and heard. I hope that all of you take some tip or encouragement away from this. If you have any questions about something that I didn’t address fully or anything really, please ask.

I have to thank Elyena for all of her support and encouragement, and for making it possible for me to have attended the NULC. I would also like to thank the Word Counter’s Union for their presence and impatience here as I get my bearings back. With this post done, I will get back to my fiction.

Write on.

Riotimus