Nath Jones's Blog - Posts Tagged "complacency"
Best laid plans
So. I had this theory about the On Impulse series--this catharsis to craft idea, about exploring storytelling from raw to refined.
Fine.
The beginning worked great. The War is Language is a total cathartic mess. Totally nailed the visceral rampage of the most base storytelling impulse. That first book even won an award recently, the Eric Hoffer Award for e-Book Fiction.
Great.
Well. As it turns out, I'm rounding out the On Impulse trajectory, getting to the refined part, and I don't know what I'm doing.
I have no storytelling craftsmanship skills. Or, very few.
I'm going to give it a shot. I like the idea of crafting some stories along classic lines. I will follow through to the extent that I can. But. I was never really one to pay attention to technique and structure. As a result, my refined storytelling chops may not measure up to my ability to make a incoherent cathartic mess.
In an effort to imbue How to Cherish the Grief-Stricken with a sense of coherent competence, I'm reading lots of short story collections and, beyond that, everything from a discussion of Pirandello and the crisis of modern consciousness to a memoir written by my mother's cousin. But. Even an exhaustive literature review may not matter. The detritus related to previously held rebellious conviction has become a fairly significant issue and continues to delay completion of the fourth manuscript.
Anyway. At some point there will be another book. But. Let's go easy on the expectations about how well this fourth collection of stories rounds out the theoretical framework for the series.
Deal?
Fine.
The beginning worked great. The War is Language is a total cathartic mess. Totally nailed the visceral rampage of the most base storytelling impulse. That first book even won an award recently, the Eric Hoffer Award for e-Book Fiction.
Great.
Well. As it turns out, I'm rounding out the On Impulse trajectory, getting to the refined part, and I don't know what I'm doing.
I have no storytelling craftsmanship skills. Or, very few.
I'm going to give it a shot. I like the idea of crafting some stories along classic lines. I will follow through to the extent that I can. But. I was never really one to pay attention to technique and structure. As a result, my refined storytelling chops may not measure up to my ability to make a incoherent cathartic mess.
In an effort to imbue How to Cherish the Grief-Stricken with a sense of coherent competence, I'm reading lots of short story collections and, beyond that, everything from a discussion of Pirandello and the crisis of modern consciousness to a memoir written by my mother's cousin. But. Even an exhaustive literature review may not matter. The detritus related to previously held rebellious conviction has become a fairly significant issue and continues to delay completion of the fourth manuscript.
Anyway. At some point there will be another book. But. Let's go easy on the expectations about how well this fourth collection of stories rounds out the theoretical framework for the series.
Deal?
