M.J. Mandoki's Blog, page 18

The Influence of Philosophy

According to the website of University of British Columbia (see: http://philosophy.ubc.ca/undergraduate/why-study-philosophy/), the two main reasons people study philosophy are curiosity and transferable skills.  I have to say that I majored in philosophy for the first reason and ended up thanking philosophy for the second reason.

Transferable skills include effective communication, analytic and critical thinking, general reasoning, information management, design and planning, and problem-solving.  These skills have helped me greatly in my adventure of becoming a writer.  The creation of my first book is a good example.  To start off, my inspiration for stories arises from philosophical questions and struggles.  The Curse was the product of curiosity about people’s gullibility when it comes to superstitions and about the basis on which human beings develop their beliefs.  Once I gathered the necessary information about superstitions, I planned out the events my main character would partake in based on the overall design of the story.  I built the story step-by-step to allow it to become psychologically and logically more and more complex in order to prompt my characters to engage in creative problem-solving.  To make my audience aware of the philosophical issues, I retold the story in Part II.  Retelling the story provided more information in order to allow the readers to appreciate the importance of limited knowledge people often have to form their beliefs.  Yet, I left the question open whether people actually make good use of all their resources in this limited situation.  For example, Spyder does not seem to be able to clue in on the meaning of his dreams. 

Overall, I have to say that the skills I learned as a philosophy graduate student were crucial in building well-executed story-lines.  Therefore, I can thank philosophy for providing me with the transferable skills I now use in my creative writing process, in addition to the natural curiosity about life I have already possessed.  Philosophy is an important subject to invest time in.

M. J. Mandoki

Book Signing Lesson

I organized a small book signing event for November 29th, 2014.  My original goal was to invite people from my neighbourhood to allow them the opportunity to get to know me better and to sell some books.  I did not know that I would gain a lot more out the event than I originally anticipated.

In addition to the book, entitled “The Curse”, that I was presenting, most people were curious to find out more about my future books.  Of course, I was well prepared; I had posters on my desk ready to show to them.  I explained that I had two books in the making.  My next book is entitled “Real Life Choices,” which is a collection of short stories.  The stories are about strange events my characters encounter.  These bizarre or unique events that anybody could potentially face in life test the psychological, mental or moral toughness of the characters.  My second project in the making is a novel called “The Art of Revenge”.  It is a story about a woman who takes revenge on her cheating husband’s mistress.  The clever wife has a rather unique plan to carry out her revenge.

I was stunned by the reaction I received.  Although I received praise and interest for both projects, it seemed that all my female visitors were naturally drawn to my second project.  They were all incredibly excited about getting to know my main character’s unique plan for revenge!  One lady in her eightieth explained her reason for her interest.  She said: “Don’t I know about this?!  When it happened to me, I wanted to drive down to Mexico and hire a hit man.  I just wasn’t sure whether I should have him or her killed!  So, how does your unique plan look like?”  I wasn’t certain how to answer her question at first because I had such an overwhelming desire to just burst into laughter.  A hit man? Really?  Basically, the ladies were interested in revenge, wanting to gather ideas to deal with their bitter life experiences.  So, watch out, guys!  The ladies are very interested in getting back at you and your mistress, if you step out on them!

During the book signing, I realized that there was a valuable lesson to be learned.  Surely, I wanted people to get to know me better and buy my book.  However, a book signing is more than just an opportunity for me to give; it is also an opportunity to gain; this time, excellent feedback on my upcoming projects.  Seeing the ladies’ reaction, I know now that I am better off hurrying up and finishing my second project.  Valuable lesson gained!  By the way, since the book signing, I have had several offers from women to portray my main character, Georgia, on the cover of my book!

I still can’t get over it!  Ladies, are we seriously that revengeful by nature?

M. J. Mandoki

How do you start a story?

I heard so many people say that they struggle with starting a story.  They sit in front of a blank page, staring at it.  Does this sound familiar?

Personally, I’ve never had trouble with starting a story.  The reason is that there is a good way of avoiding the blank-page issue.  Firstly, you have to work out the outline of the story in advance.  Whether the outline is written down or held in memory, you need to know the skeleton of the story; otherwise, there is no story.  Once the outline is ready, the first event that puts everything into motion becomes apparent and your focus for the starting point.  You have to ask youself the following questions.  Where does this first event take place?  What day and time of the week, month, year is it?  Who are present?  What are they like?  What is happening?  Basically, you have to ask yourself what elements are important to tell in order for others to understand the first event that puts everything into motion.  These important elements are your starting point.  The starting point can be a description or a conversation.  There aren’t any strict rules or guidlines to follow for starting a story.

Let’s use a very short example.  Cathy, a teenage girl, is the main character in a story.  The story is about Cathy running away from home.  So, what is the first event that puts her running away into motion?  Here, the first event is Cathy and her mother having a fight.  Where and when does this fight take place?  This event takes place while shopping.  Thus, the moment of entry into the story is the arrival of Cathy and her mother into the parking lot of the store.  The following segment is a possibility for a start:

Cathy slammed the passanger door closed as soon as she got out of the car in the plaza’a parking lot.  She had had enough of her mother.  Her endless complaints and criticism made her sorry that she was even born–at least, into this family.  She began to walk toward the store, having no intention of waiting for her mother to get her purse and lock the car door.  She was just a few feet away from the vehicle when she heard her mother’s voice: “Can’t you even be polite enough to wait for the woman who gave birth to you?”  This comment was the last straw.  Cathy turned to confront her mother…  (Since this is a blog, the line spacing for the story is not properly used.)

Beginning a story is not difficult.  You just have to find the first main event that puts everything into motion, step back and describe the scene.  It does not have to be complicated or dramatic.  In fact, it is more ideal to keep it simple, honest, genuine and detailed enough for your readers to understand the situation.  Just visualize the event and start writing.  I assure you that you will no longer stare at the blank page, if you follow this simple guideline.

M. J. Mandoki

Why would one write a book about being cursed?

Ever since my book, The Curse, came out, I have been asked a number of times to explain my reason for writing a novel on the unusual topic of being cursed.  I am purposely using the word “unusual” to sum up some of the people’s emotional reactions that included the descriptions of evil, dark, scary, depraved, sinful and wrong.  Although I understand the tendency for some to react negatively to the word “curse” due to its forceful impact on society, this forceful impact is, in fact, the reason I addressed the topic in the first place.  The belief in curse and superstition is fascinating to me.  As one of my characters points it out, even scientists are often not exempt from its culturally ubiquitous influence.  Skinny Tyler asks, “Do you know how many scientists find an excuse not to show up on Friday, the 13th, to work because they believe that something terrible might happen? Or, how many of them pause when they see a black cat crossing the road?  Or, how many do not like to see an open umbrella inside their laboratory building?” (Mandoki, M. J., The Curse, p. 127).  So, are we all this gullible?  Do our beliefs stand on such an irrationally born, shaky ground?  This is what prompted me to address the issue.

On one end of the spectrum, we may seem gullible, but, on the other end, some of us are truly committed to utter skepticism.  This is the reason that I decided to create one of my main characters, Spyder, to be a complete skeptic.  He is faced with the dark prediction of being cursed and, as a result, having to die.  Being a skeptic, he is challenged by the previously predicted accidents that start happening to him.  Through this challenge, I invite my audience to see how much evidence they would need to believe in the curse and how long it would take to believe in it.

Therefore, the unusual topic of being cursed is simply a challenge to see where one stands in terms of the tendency to believe in a force such as the curse.  Where would one situate oneself between complete gullibility and utter skepticism?  And, how much evidence, effort and time would it take to move one away from a set position on the subject?  So, this is the reason for covering the topic of being cursed.  It may be dark, scary, evil etc… but, it is also fun in another sense.

Happy Reading!

M. J. Mandoki

About my blog

Today, I created this blog with the intention of inviting the public on a journey with me.  I intend to write about the adventure of being a writer.  Although the blog is meant to be somewhat personal, my aim is to share valuable information, ideas, questions and concerns with readers and other writers.  I will contribute to this site regularly and invite all to share their comments.  I just ask that all who contribute be polite and use appropriate language.  Thank you to my future blog readers.

M. J. Mandoki