Ask the Author: Jason Howell
Answered Questions (3)
Jason Howell
What a question, Shannon.
I try really hard not to use game mechanics as a motivational tool. It's one of the aspects of the internet I like least because I know it's only there to keep me "engaged," to keep us all staring at our phones so that we'll see ads, and I don't really want my work to be driven by a compulsive kind of a thing like that.
Not that it can't be useful, or hasn't been for me in the past. Gamified environments can be good places for learning and building confidence. I just personally don't like them as SOP.
Conversation and sharing are two of the things I like most about the internet, and I try to keep them as the central motivator. I like talking to writer peers about most anything, and if we hit on something interesting, I like to share those conversations. If I happen to write a good piece of fiction, I'll make sure and package it and extend from it in a way that makes it as shareable as possible.
So goals are to do good work, keep trying new stuff, keep talking to people, keep sharing. If I get too wrapped up in "scoring points" or whatever, it really takes the life out of things for me. I know because I lean too far that way every so often. It's almost impossible not to.
What about you?
I try really hard not to use game mechanics as a motivational tool. It's one of the aspects of the internet I like least because I know it's only there to keep me "engaged," to keep us all staring at our phones so that we'll see ads, and I don't really want my work to be driven by a compulsive kind of a thing like that.
Not that it can't be useful, or hasn't been for me in the past. Gamified environments can be good places for learning and building confidence. I just personally don't like them as SOP.
Conversation and sharing are two of the things I like most about the internet, and I try to keep them as the central motivator. I like talking to writer peers about most anything, and if we hit on something interesting, I like to share those conversations. If I happen to write a good piece of fiction, I'll make sure and package it and extend from it in a way that makes it as shareable as possible.
So goals are to do good work, keep trying new stuff, keep talking to people, keep sharing. If I get too wrapped up in "scoring points" or whatever, it really takes the life out of things for me. I know because I lean too far that way every so often. It's almost impossible not to.
What about you?
Jason Howell
More and more I've come to think of literary stuff as being out of sync with the rest of fiction in two ways:
1. Its proximity to poetry
and
2. its insistence on not being interchangeable with other forms of storytelling, that is, it's careful to do in prose what can't be done better in movies, games, whathaveyou. The whole idea that the text isn't only a delivery system for a story, but a "thing in the world" with it's own formal integrity. The way a poem might be.
I guess I could combine 1 and 2 (heh, woops).
But then you notice that, in a way, this could be said about any book that hangs together well enough, in any genre. Which might be why I don't really consider "literary" a genre, more just what we call books that have these qualities turned way up on the dial.
So yeah, this stuff interests me too.
When it comes to literary stuff being alienating to most readers... I sort of see reading as being alienating on its own. Reading selects for people who're willing to do a certain amount of work to get their art/entertainment, since the difference between a reader and a listener or viewer is that readers don't just have to pay attention or interpret what they're paying attention to, they have to *perform.* So that eliminates a lot of people right off.
First you have to be literate, then you have to bring your own worldview and sensitivities to bear on the text, so the more developed you are as a person, the richer the reading experience. (Assuming the book is decent.)
I think what we call literary just takes all this and turns it way up, asks the reader to do even more, and what it asks is probably not going to be something the reader is prepared to deal with, which means the reader is going to have to stretch. So yeah, that's not everybody's bag. Too much like real life. Most people read to escape all that.
I guess where it does become just another genre is when the writers of it celebrate sophistication or learnedness for its own sake, and then inflict all that on the reader, dismissing any reader-who-doesn't-stick as being too dim or *too short to ride this ride.* You know, all that egotistical shit.
We could just replace "genre" with "for its own sake." Literary for literary's sake. Romance for romance's sake. Erotica for... and so on. Some readers & writers enjoy that kind of thing.
So maybe Amis was succumbing to some of that in his ideas there.
But then you have the Vonneguts, the John Greens, Margaret Atwoods, RR Martins, who are shelved in certain sections of the bookstore, but, in spirit, don't box themselves in that way (I don't know who that person would be in Historical. Maybe yourself? My GF, a good reader, is a fan of all your books).
I dunno. What do you think?
And thanks for reaching out, by the way. It's rare I'm asked to comment, so I went a little ham. Price of being known for my questions more than my answers, maybe. :)
1. Its proximity to poetry
and
2. its insistence on not being interchangeable with other forms of storytelling, that is, it's careful to do in prose what can't be done better in movies, games, whathaveyou. The whole idea that the text isn't only a delivery system for a story, but a "thing in the world" with it's own formal integrity. The way a poem might be.
I guess I could combine 1 and 2 (heh, woops).
But then you notice that, in a way, this could be said about any book that hangs together well enough, in any genre. Which might be why I don't really consider "literary" a genre, more just what we call books that have these qualities turned way up on the dial.
So yeah, this stuff interests me too.
When it comes to literary stuff being alienating to most readers... I sort of see reading as being alienating on its own. Reading selects for people who're willing to do a certain amount of work to get their art/entertainment, since the difference between a reader and a listener or viewer is that readers don't just have to pay attention or interpret what they're paying attention to, they have to *perform.* So that eliminates a lot of people right off.
First you have to be literate, then you have to bring your own worldview and sensitivities to bear on the text, so the more developed you are as a person, the richer the reading experience. (Assuming the book is decent.)
I think what we call literary just takes all this and turns it way up, asks the reader to do even more, and what it asks is probably not going to be something the reader is prepared to deal with, which means the reader is going to have to stretch. So yeah, that's not everybody's bag. Too much like real life. Most people read to escape all that.
I guess where it does become just another genre is when the writers of it celebrate sophistication or learnedness for its own sake, and then inflict all that on the reader, dismissing any reader-who-doesn't-stick as being too dim or *too short to ride this ride.* You know, all that egotistical shit.
We could just replace "genre" with "for its own sake." Literary for literary's sake. Romance for romance's sake. Erotica for... and so on. Some readers & writers enjoy that kind of thing.
So maybe Amis was succumbing to some of that in his ideas there.
But then you have the Vonneguts, the John Greens, Margaret Atwoods, RR Martins, who are shelved in certain sections of the bookstore, but, in spirit, don't box themselves in that way (I don't know who that person would be in Historical. Maybe yourself? My GF, a good reader, is a fan of all your books).
I dunno. What do you think?
And thanks for reaching out, by the way. It's rare I'm asked to comment, so I went a little ham. Price of being known for my questions more than my answers, maybe. :)
Jason Howell
I was reading a lot of threads in relationship forums online at the time -- people discussing problems with their marriages, infidelity issues, sexual issues, emotional affairs, grievances, and so on. It's actually extremely emotionally charged, naked writing -- folks reaching out to strangers anonymously in desperate states of confusion about the most intimate parts of their lives.
But the thing is, these people aren't natural writers (for the most part), so you wind up being moved by these stories made of ad hoc spelling, bent syntax, and all around non-eloquence, which I thought was pretty interesting.
So I wanted to take the discussion thread form and see if it could work for short fiction; but I also wanted to take the sort of sloppy everyday language I was seeing and exaggerate it -- see how jagged I could get it and still have the character's voice be emotive and transparent to something.
The opening line came out:
"Please excuse. Never before will I whine like this."
And the Yakov character just kind of grew from there.
Killer question Shelley. Hope that was some kind of an answer.
But the thing is, these people aren't natural writers (for the most part), so you wind up being moved by these stories made of ad hoc spelling, bent syntax, and all around non-eloquence, which I thought was pretty interesting.
So I wanted to take the discussion thread form and see if it could work for short fiction; but I also wanted to take the sort of sloppy everyday language I was seeing and exaggerate it -- see how jagged I could get it and still have the character's voice be emotive and transparent to something.
The opening line came out:
"Please excuse. Never before will I whine like this."
And the Yakov character just kind of grew from there.
Killer question Shelley. Hope that was some kind of an answer.
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