Eva Hunter

Archive for the ‘Writing a Novel’ Category


Choosing Organization for Your Story

In Becoming a Writer, Creative Nonfiction, Creative Writing, Getting Published, Literary Nonfiction, The Craft of Writing, Uncategorized, Writing a Book, Writing a Novel, Writing Fiction, Writing nonfiction, Writing Short Stories on October 9, 2010 at 12:24 pm

THE CRAFT OF WRITING

part eight–Converging Narrative, section two

(If you are new to this series, please check  the archives for previous selections in THE CRAFT OF WRITING)

In the previous selection in this series, I introduced the idea of Converging Narrative as an organizational form–that is: two (or more) related stories run independently until they converge–or come together as one story–in what is usually the final pages of the composition. In this segment, I’m going to talk about the writing of my short literary nonfiction story, David’s Journey.

My specialty in those days (early to mid-1990s) was short literary nonfiction for magazines and newspapers, so I was always on the lookout for good stories. Just to review, literary nonfiction is defined as “real stories about real people and the dramatic events in their lives, using the techniques of fiction.” This does not mean, however, that literary nonfiction is a hybrid of fiction and nonfiction. That “hybrid” simply does not exist in the formal literary world.

Anyway. I had done a story about an organization in Portland, Oregon, that matched  veteran parents of disabled children with parents of newborn children who were born with disabilities. As part of the story, I interviewed a cranial-facial surgeon. I mentioned to him that I’d like to do an in-surgery story with him–meaning I would follow the progress of a surgery from inside the operating suite. A few weeks later he called  to let me know he would be doing a surgery on a child, now seven years old, with severe facial deformities.

The little boy’s name was David, and he was born to a first generation Mexican family who lived in Springfield, Oregon–which was about a two hour drive south of Portland. In the weeks preceding the surgery, I drove to Springfield several times to interview the family. What I found was Read the rest of this entry »


Writing Exercise: Using Description

In Creative Nonfiction, Creative Writing, Writers Resouces, Writing a Book, Writing a Novel, Writing Fiction, Writing nonfiction, Writing Short Stories on October 9, 2010 at 10:49 am

What’s wrong with this sentence?

“I walked down the street, bustling and filled with activity, early one morning in Mexico City.”

It seems like a perfectly correct sentence, right? The commas are in the right place, it uses activity, it identifies a setting. So why isn’t it a good sentence? The answer is that it really doesn’t evoke much of a picture–it doesn’t put the reader in the scene. Now consider a short passage from Sandra Cisneros’s  Carmelo:

The racket of the street bustle–street cleaners, merchants with all of their merchandise on their back, chairs, baskets, brooms, the fruit vendor, the sherbet vendor, the charcoal vendor, the butter vendor, whistles and shouts, rattle of wheels, clip-clop of horses, hum of electric trains, hoarse, sad cries of the mules hauling streetcars, slap of guaraches, click-click-click of hard boots, the unmistakable Mexico City morning smelll of hot aotmeal, orange peel, fresh-baked bollilo bread, and the ripe tang of sewer foulness.

See the difference? Description is made by using details–details that essentially “paint” the scene in the reader’s mind.  So now it’s your turn. Take this sentence, and turn it into a rich, sensual experience. Then send me what you’ve come up with!

I was two blocks away from my childhood elementary school, and it had been 20 years since I walked down this small-town street.

Go for it!

 

TEN THINGS EDITORS WON’T TELL YOU

You’ve bought all the reference books.  You’re subscribing to at least one writers’ magazine. Each month you’ve read it from cover to cover—looking for special tips and “insider” information. You’ve studied advice about query letters,  read all the updates about new magazines and what they pay, and attended a writers’ conference or two. You’ve listened to countless hours of advice about how to get an Read the rest of this entry »

Looking for a Writing Workshop?

In Getting Published, The Writer's Workshop, Writing a Book, Writing a Novel, Writing Classes, Writing Classes in Mexico, Writing Courses, Writing Workshops on August 7, 2010 at 9:24 am

In Writing Classes in Mexico, Writing Workshops on April 16, 2010 at 5:14 pm

Consider a three-week, or several day writing adventure in beautiful San Miguel de Allende, in Guanajuato, Mexico. Click on WRITING WORKSHOPS above for the PROFESSIONAL WRITING COACH’S schedule for fall 2011. The next available workshop starts in September-–but don’t worry: there  are workshops throughout the fall  and into the winter. THE PROFESSIONAL WRITING COACH’s students get published.


Choosing Organization for your Story

In The Craft of Writing, Writing a Book, Writing a Novel, Writing nonfiction on August 7, 2010 at 8:38 am

THE CRAFT OF WRITING

If you are new to this series, please refer to “The Craft of Writing” archives

part six in the series: “function as form”

 

We’ve already discussed the classic writing organizations of chronological, revised chronological, flashback, and the trip; and there are more to come. The organization we’ll look at today is perhaps a little less elegant than what we’ve looked at before. But–caution–that doesn’t mean that it’s not meticulous to build.

And “build” is the right concept to begin with. Tracy Kidder, that National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winner, used function as form in several of his books. Consider House, first published in 1985. In this book, the blurb says, Kidder takes us from the “first nail  to the final coat of paint.”

What Kidder did, then, was organize his book around the specific stages of building a house. And since information about how many inches of concrete were poured for the foundation would be boring material,  except perhaps  for concrete pourers, Tracy chose a house that was contracted for by a specific family, and told their story–and the story of the crew–throughout the book. The disappointments, the joys, the misunderstandings, nail by nail, floor by floor, until the house, and the story, and the book, were done. Kidder brought the emotional aspects of having a house built to the fore: What happens when the actual room doesn’t look like the owner thought it would?  What if one goes away for the weekend and returns to find the kitchen sink in the wrong place?

Kidder’s story is classified as literary nonfiction, and we know the definition of literary nonfiction, don’t we: “Real stories about real people and the dramatic events in their lives.”

That’s “function as form.” How could you use it as an organization in your stories?

Next issue: Converging narrative as an organizational form