Neal Abbott's Blog, page 14

Top Ten Ways You Can Celebrate Bloomsday

 One of the most celebrated novels is James Joyce’s Ulysses. It details the events of a single day in the life of Leopold Bloom. This day is June 16, 2904. And so, every June 16th is celebrated as Bloomsday. Maybe you’ve never honored Bloomsday or even knew it existed. Or maybe you keep it every year. Regardless, here’s a few things you can do today to celebrate Bloomsday.

10. Enjoy a fried kidney for breakfast along with a cup of hot tea.

9. Discuss the nature of Hamlet’s ghost with yoiur friends.

8. Buy a container of potted meat, without with no home is complete.

7. Mourn loved ones.

6. Insert the word Yes in the middle and at the end of sentences.

5. Write a poem while on the beach

4. Write a love letter and sign it Henry Flower.

3. Duck into the National Museum.

2. Visit a maternity ward in a hospital.

1. Talk about love with those who need to hear it the most

All these and more go on in Joyce’s Ulysses. Do them all and enjoy them. Find other things in the book you can do, as well. Regardless, make sure you live today and every day in contentment regardless of your lot and love all you meet with the compassion they deserve.

 

The Mount Rushmore Of Literature

Basketball star Lebron James made news earlier this year when he said that belongs on the Mount Rushmore of basketball players. Some agreed, others disagreed, but my opinion varied from all others I heard.

James was claiming to be one of the four best players ever and the debate revolved around that. The debate missed the point because of a flawed assumption. The assumption has nothing to do with Lebron James, but rather with the four presidents represented on Mount Rushmore.

The presidents figured do not represent the four best presidents. But rather the single best president to signify a certain aspect of American greatness. George Washington stands for Independence. Thomas Jefferson represents Freedom. Abraham Lincoln symbolizes Equality. Theodore Roosevelt emblemizes America’s role in world affairs.

It’s common to miss this point and consider the four best of anything to be the Mount Rushmore of this or that. So if I were to ever talk about the Mount Rushmore of Literature, it should follow the same pattern as the original intent.

The Mount Rushmore Of Great Authors

The literary equivalence to George Washington is Walt Whitman. He stands for American independence from the British literary tradition more than any writer of his time. Some would suggest Twain or Poe, which are fine options. But to me, Whitman breaks away from the British model and creates an American literary tradition all other American writers would follow.

Ernest Hemingway certainly walked down the trail blazed by Whitman, but he demonstrates freedom in a way that is different than the notion of independence. Hemingway composed in a way that was free from the patterns and the rules that governed most of the world’s literature, with the possible exception of the Russian writers of the 1800s.

If there is an American author who principally stands for equality, it is John Steinbeck. He believed in the concept of the oversoul. In this way, all living people are connected. So in a work like The Grapes Of Wrath Steinbeck demonstrates that we should care for all people and not just our family.

To find a writer who deals with the affairs of the world, I had to go outside of the American catalogue. William Shakespeare more than anyone who has ever lived expertly wrote of how it is to live the life of a human, regardless of when or where they lived. His plays handled a wonderful universality that makes his tales utterly timeless.

The Mount Rushmore Of Great Literature

But how about the four best representatives of written works? I would begin with The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn. This masterwork by Mark Twain is arguably the novel that began American literature, at least in novel form. It not only addresses American issues, but it does so with an American tone and style. This story could not have been written by any of Twain’s contemporaries in Europe, and definitely not in his voice.

Just as Hemingway ventured from the old ways of writing novels, T.S. Eliot broke new ground with his poem, “The Waste Land.” It was not only a new way of composing poetry, it addressed a subject matter new to the literary scene. Arguably “The Waste Land” dealt with the emptiness of the Lost Generation following the Great War and all of its skepticism and disillusionment. Others wrote of this subject before and after this work, but none did it with the indelible ink of Eliot.

There were many American novels written in the 1800s that dealt with the sin of slavery, but Absolom, Absolom! handled the matter in the most unique way possible. The main character is appalled by a mixed race relationship but doesn’t bat an eye at incest. In the novel, those one-eighth black were called octoroons. One character comments that black blood must be strong if one-eighths of it in someone can overpower the remaining seven-eighths white blood.

Just as Shakespeare wrote stories with universal appeal, James Joyce authored the ultimate timeless novel with Ulysses. Joyce took Homer’s epic that covered twenty years and reduced it to twenty hours. And even though everything in the story deals with the adventures of one man, a Jewish advertising agent in Dublin, and everything takes place on June 16, 1904, Joyce nails down the universal message of love better than anything else I have ever known.

I know this is all my opinion. You may think of other writers or works that best suit the notions of independence, liberty, equality, and universality. That’s fine, in fact I encourage critical thinking on this and any subject. Make your own Mount Rushmore of Literature. Share it if you’d like in the Comment section below. In any instance, enjoy the construction work ahead.

Five Star Amazon Review For The Gatsby Reader

It has been said that reading F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel The Great Gatsby is a mysterious experience—something like eating a bowl of whipped cream and, once you are done, feeling totally full and satisfied. This may be due several reasons: the characters are simultaneously exaggerated and real; both the story and the situation capture an essentially American experience, one replete with longings, triumphs, and failures; and then there is, of course, the luminosity of Fitzgerald’s prose. For almost thirty years, as a student and professor of American literature, I have sought to unravel the mystery of this book and have resolved to teach it as often as possible until I get my lectures just right. This has yet to happen.

Nevertheless, Neal Abbott’s insightful examination of this most American of texts brings me closer to this gold ring: his perspicacious reading calls into question some of the most established assumptions of the story, about who killed Myrtle Wilson and even who killed Gatsby himself. Also, once he lays out his argument that Gatsby is on a grail quest, it seems so obvious that one wonders why it wasn’t seen before, let alone why it isn’t one of the more popular and established readings of the book.

Again, I have tried for many years to perfect my teaching of The Great Gatsby and, because of Mr. Abbott’s little book, I feel I am much closer to that goal.

Dr. Eddie Tafoya

Professor of Creative Writing and American Literature

New Mexico Highlands University

Deus Ex Machina, Or, Wouldn’t This Be A Good Time For A Piece Of Rhubarb Pie?

As Writer we think we are smart. Sometimes too smart. Even the best of us will occasionally put on our clever trousers when we sit down to write. We have put in the ultimate fake-out ending. When readers reach our magnificent O’ Henry twist, we expect them to smack their heads and exclaim, “I didn’t see that coming!” Normally they just scratch their heads, and say, “Where did that come from?”

You have pulled a classic Creative Writing blunder known as deus ex machina. It is Latin for “God in the machine.” It comes from the Middle Ages where the plays were so bad that writers couldn’t think of anything else. The hero would get himself into a jam he could not manage, and then an actor would be lowered from the top of the stage (on the machine) playing the role of Jesus, or Apollo, or Isis. And by a wave of their divine hand, the problem is fixed miraculously. We are left with a warning, some bit of heavenly wisdom normally regarding pride, greed, or anger, so that we in the audience will not make the hero’s same mistake.

The Cure

The way to avoid the hero’s salvation coming out of nowhere is by the use of foreshadowing. Don’t send the cavalry over the hill if we have not yet read about the cavalry. If you want an O’ Henry twist, then do it, but throw down some bread crumbs throughout the book so that we are not so dumbfounded.

You are not in danger of giving away the ending if you foreshadow properly. Conversely, you are in true peril if you fail to foreshadow. Your reader will not think you are a clever writer, just a bad one. You don’t create fans by giving the impression that you are stupid. And to think this failing is impressed because of an effort to seem ingenious.

Mea Culpa

If I may embarrass myself for a moment, I recently did it. That’s right, I pulled a dxm, as I now call it. My hero got pulled from the fire by a character who did not exist until the last page. Okay, he did exist, but no one knew that but me. And this character does appear twice, but as someone else.

So I had to make some changes, but don’t we all when we’re writing? I had to toss around some bread crumbs. I know how it is. We who are clever writers don’t want to spoil the surprise, so we leave no information at all. But instead of clever it’s obtuse.

You can foreshadow your ending by mentioning careful and appropriately placed bit of information that seem innocent enough, but are the tidbits the reader can use. So when our fans reach the end of the book and see what we have done, they can remember what they have already read and put things together, and then you will have the head smack and not the scalp scratch.

Rhubarb Pie Fixes Everything

Garrison Keillor, host of the weekly NPR radio show “A Prairie Home Companion,” is a masterful entertainer. He uses fake sponsors as part of the gimmick. One of his regular “sponsors” is Be-Bop-A-Re-Bop Rhubarb Pie & Rhubarb Pie Filling.

Garrison tells a tale where he puts each member of the audience individually in the center of his story. First one thing goes wrong, then another, and pretty soon you are over your head. And when things could not possibly get worse, Garrison cuts in with the happy music and says, “Wouldn’t this be a good time for a piece of rhubarb pie? Nothing removes the taste of shame and humiliation like a piece of rhubarb pie.” And then everyone sings the cheerful jingle.

Garrison is pulling a good ol’ fashion dxm, that’s for sure. But he’s intending to do it for humorous reasons, and for him, it works. When we dxm the end of our novels, it is not entertaining at all. All of our anticipated “Ah-Ha” moments will dissolve into “Uh-oh” calamities, and there is nothing funny about that.

New Release Available

Think Like A Writer is now available on Amazon and Kindle

Think Like A Writer: neal abbott: 9781499503777: Amazon.com: Books

Top Ten List: My Favorite Humanitarian Novels

A Humanitarian novel is one where the story addresses the inequality between classes, and particularly the sin of such respect of persons. These differences may be ethnic, economic, or geographical. Quite often there is overlap between these three categories. Sometimes the issue could be political, but I did not include any such novels in this because the emphasis is politics and government. Any story that deals with an Us and Them dichotomy would serve as a Humanitarian novel.

10. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton – Set in 1965 Tulsa, The Outsiders sets the Greasers against the Socs. Two Greasers kill some Socs who attack them and they are on the run. On their own, they are neither Greasers nor Socs, but just human.

9. To Have And Have Not by Ernest Hemingway – Harry Morgan is a boat charterer in Florida who is harassed by several manifestations by The Man. He gets the rough treatment from the rich, crime bosses, and law enforcement in the U.S. and Cuba.

8. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair – This novel deals with the suffering of immigrants in Chicago meat-packing plants. It shows the dangerous and unclean working conditions for these people.

7. Native Son by Richard Wright – Bigger Thomas is a destitute black man during the Depression who turns to crime. His lawyer points out that he is what society has made of him.

6. The Death Of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy – Ivan moves into a new place intended to show his family’s superiority. He injures himself hanging curtains and the doctors can do nothing. He realizes he will die and in is anguish since something so horrible would happen to someone who was so good. A few hours before he dies he realizes he has not been good, but selfish. With this realization, his pain goes away and he dies.

5. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens – Oliver suffers many mistreatments from the orphanage to the workhouse to the streets, where he falls in with young pickpockets. Despite his harsh life, Oliver retains a certain grace about himself and his life.

4. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe – Eliza escapes slavery and is chased by her master, Simon Legree. Through many adversities she gets away and Simon dies. The hardships and evils of slavery are shown as well here as in any novel.

3. Pudd’nhead Wilson by Mark Twain – A slave named Roxy switches her son for the white son of her owners. She is fair-skinned and her son only 1/32nd black, so the switch succeeds. The slave’s child raised in white privilege becomes a spoiled brat while the white child raised as a slave is taught virtue and lives rightly. This novel shows that skin color means nothing, but only the choices we make to follow good or evil.

2. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo – The working poor, along with prisoners and prostitutes, and shown to have a miserable existence and are constantly mistreated by anyone who can hurt them. The consequence is uprising and revolution.

1. The Grapes Of Wrath by John Steinbeck – We know that Steinbeck believed in an “oversoul,” which means we all share one soul. This means we are not only responsible for our families, but for everyone else’s welfare. And any act of cruelty is not only wrong, but against our own interests.

As with all of my Top Ten lists, these are my opinion. You may think of a different set of books. What would your Top Ten favorite Humanitarian novels be? Let me know of your list in the Comment section below. And if you enjoyed this post, share it with others.

 

Final Days Of Free Book Offer

This is the last week you can get your two FREE ebooks, THINK LIKE A WRITER and THE GATSBY READER. Send me an email for your request (abbott.neal@yahoo.com).

Two Free Books Available

Anyone interested in getting a pair of free books? I have two short ebooks coming out next month. One is an analysis of the Fitzgerald novel, The Great Gatsby, and it’s entitled THE GATSBY READER. The other is a motivational piece for Creative Writers called THINK LIKE A WRITER. It’s not anything deep or profound, just rah-rah stuff, but I still like it.

I will give anyone who wants these books a PDF advance copy. The only thing I ask is that you write a review for the books for Amazon and/or Goodreads. If you want one or both of these books, send me an email (abbott.neal@yahoo.com) and tell me which one or want or if you would like both.

And if you haven’t visited my Author Page here on Facebook yet, please come by and see it (https://www.facebook.com/nealabbottcreativewriter).

What Criminal Minds Taught Me About Creative Writing

One of my favorite TV shows on right now is the crime drama “Criminal Minds.” It’s different from the normal cop show. Usually it’s detectives following the clues, or sometimes the forensic evidence, trying to find out who dunnit. And both we who watch and the officers on screen don‘t know until the last fifteen minutes of the show.

“Criminal Minds” is different. It’s about FBI profilers who ask “Why did he do it?” in order to narrow their search and eventually capture the killer, or the rapist, or the kidnapper. Another way this show is different is that quite often we see who the criminal is before the end, sometimes from the opening shot.

What I love about the show is more than its unique approach to the crime drama genre, but the characters are wonderfully developed. Both the good guys and the bad guys are very interesting. You may want to Boo the villain, but he is still interesting, if not altogether creepy. I think about this show and it seems to me that “Criminal Minds” has something to offer the Creative Writer, particularly when it comes to character development.

Everyone Has Motivation

Like I mentioned, the FBI agents of “Criminal Minds” ask and answer Why did he do it? to find out who in fact did it. These profilers are terribly overtaken with the motive of the criminal, and it works. You often hear the agents talk of the unsub’s (FBI-speak for unknown subject) stressers and triggers. For example, an unsub might have been abused by his mother when he was growing up. That would be the stresser. And when his mother dies, that might be the trigger that sets this criminal off.

We can’t write interesting characters who do interesting things if we don’t know their motivations. People do what they do for a reason. Before we decide what our characters do, we need to know why they do it. This is not limited to antagonists. Each one of the agents has a reason for working for the FBI as a profiler. Even our heroes need motives, too.

Bad Buys Are Crazy

Almost always the lawbreakers on “Criminal Minds” are suffering from some sort of psychological disorder. To put it plainly, they are as crazy as a pet raccoon. We are all familiar with the mad scientist, and even the evil genius is somehow a little bit off. I remember how agent Graham told Hannibal Lektor in the movie “Manhunter” that even though the doctor was a genius he had the disadvantage of being insane.

I’ve talked to other Creative Writers who don’t like to make their bad guy crazy. They feel as if it makes it too easy for the hero to overcome him. But if done carefully, it could case more difficulty for the hero. The villain does not think the same way as the hero, which could itself be an obstacle to the good guy. We don’t have to have the bad guys ready for the straight jacket and the rubber room only to live out their days drooling into a cup. But something in their mind is not right. And let’s face it, crazy people are fun to write about because they are so different. And for that reason, that are a pleasure to read.

Even Good Guys Struggle

Each of the FBI agents have difficulties in their lives, and this often lays over into their professional life. We have seen agents on the show deal with everything from drug use, poor heath, divorce, loss of family to death, failed relationships, and even the stress of another job offer. And maybe the biggest source of stress for these agents is their bureaucratic boss. She really gets on my nerves. Our main characters should have other difficulties in their lives that just the conflict of the plot. This adds layers to our writing and helps build tension throughout our stories.

Some of the most basic struggles for these people are the same ones we all deal with, the internal struggle. The cares and anxieties of life can distract us or complicate our attempts to get done what needs to get done. We see this also in the lives of the profilers on “Criminal Minds.” Without these difficulties, our characters and our stories fall flat. Consider the example of Hamlet. His external conflict is avenging his father’s death. But his internal conflict is “To be or not to be.” This might be the greater difficulty for Hamlet. And let’s face it, it often is for each one of us. If we all struggle with common difficulties and basic affairs of life, then why not our heroes? To create this tension gives our hero more to overcome and makes his triumph that much more grand, or his failure that much more pathetic.

If you regularly watch “Criminal Minds,” then you know what I’m talking about. If you don’t watch it, start now. You’ll be thoroughly entertained, and maybe like me you’ll gain some insight about Creative Writing. If you found this article of some value, please Share it with other Creative Writers. And I would love to know what you think, so leave your Comments in the section below.

How To Ensure You Writing Is Creative

As Creative Writers, we want to do a good job. The problem is that sometimes we want to get it perfect on the first draft. The end result is that we are greatly slowed down or blocked altogether. When perfection doesn’t pop right out, we get frustrated and stop all writing until suitability resumes, and it doesn’t, so we do nothing. The answer is simple: put something down and move on. Here are a few tricks I use to keep the writing ongoing.

A Car Does Something Down The Street

When I get stuck for a single word, it’s usually for a verb. I’ll write a sentence with a verb that is not quite strong enough, and my little pre-editor says, “Find a better word.” This is where I get stuck if nothing manifests itself within fifteen seconds. So I put an absolutely non-sense word and go on. That way I keep on writing and leave something behind I cannot miss in re-writes.

For example, if I write, “the car drives down the road,” and I want to replace “drives” with something better, I might make it read “the car lollipops down the road,” or “the car fishwifes down the road.” There is no way that will get passed me the second time.

Somewhere A Dog Barks

Sometimes we need some activity, but our minds are stumped as to what kind and where. I once heard that when you are locked for some action, simply write, “somewhere a dog barks,” and this will be the clue for you in re-writes to put in some action.

I have a bad habit of writing longer bits of dialogue that reads like a screenplay. All talk, no action. I know this, and it might as well be a script for a radio show. So what I do is that I write the dialogue straight through. Then when I am done, I go through it and break up the conversation with “a dog barks” every several exchanges. In re-writes I put in activity that makes the work come alive with real people talking and doing things.

This dialogue-breaking action can be by the parties in conversation or some accompanying background movement. The key to using these incidentals is to make the action mirror the mood of the conversation. One of my favorite examples comes from the movie Good Will Hunting. Will and his girlfriend are having a conversation in the park. In the background you see two old men playing chess. This perfectly reflects the manipulation of the dialogue.

A Man Walks Into The Room With A Gun

Sometimes your scene slugs and you need something almost out of the blue to happen to make your characters react. I once read that Raymond Carver used to write “A man walks into the room with a gun,” whenever he got stuck like this.

Try my trick. Write down between a dozen to twenty phrases like Carver’s. When you get in a spot, pull three of them out at random. Pick one and write it in. Make your people react.

I have pulled three of my own phrases out and here is  what we got. “A ball bounces and stops at his feet.” “A bird flies into the glass door.” “From overhead, water drips on his head through the ceiling.”

This makes you write something creative that will probably be bad but may be ingenious. Either way, you keep on writing. And have fun with these phrases. I have one involving a sudden appearance by Darth Vader and another with the Doctor coming out of his Tardis, so you can do anything with these.

Remember, keep on writing and don’t get hung up. It easier to continue when you use a few tricks that help you get over the need to write flawless first drafts. Give your self permission to fix things. Just keep on writing.

 

What trick do you use to get over the hitch? I would love to hear about them. Tell me about them in the Comment section below. And if you found this material helpful, please share it with other writers you know.