In today’s Journal
* The MFA: Valuable or Harmful? Part 3
* The Numbers
The MFA: Valuable or Harmful? Part 3
If you missed Part 1, you can read it here.
If you missed Part 2, you can read it here.
Here’s the last bit of this series from Michaele:
In my writers’ group we do not read and dissect each other’s writing. Instead they give me topics or problems they’re interested in. Those who had a problem passage could bring it and I would use it for teaching purposes. (Joseph Epstein mentioned learning from other’s mistakes and how to make it right.)
Earlier this year, sensing that any tenuous grasp folks had of POV was slipping, I decided to present my small group with a story to identify POV. It would be original and short (under 5000 words), and it would be something they hadn’t read before.
[[Editor’s Note: Michaele has graciously allowed me to make her story available free to TNDJ readers for instructional purposes. If you would like to read it and then take the following quiz yourself, you may download the story in PDF by clicking on this link.]
After they had a few minutes to read through the story, I handed out a brief quiz; they were to keep the story handy for reference. Most follow-up questions were about POV, and two incidental questions were about backstory.
The story was clearly First Person POV (the author, Michaele). The other characters were Dick, Sheila, and Eric. There were no other points of view.
The group members’ answers to the quiz questions and their reasoning for those answers amazed me.
Only one person out of the group of five (excluding the author) correctly identified the POV as First Person. Two maintained that it was written in four points of view (Dick, Sheila, Eric, and Michaele); the remaining two said it was only two (Dick and Michaele).
One person argued that he was mystified by the use of “an omniscient narrator.” He couldn’t understand that Michaele was the narrator but was not omniscient, and that Michaele was the POV character.
And then the backstory question?
Granted that was a tiny bit more open to interpretation, but by my count there were three backstories: one each for Suzanne, Kurt, and Dieter. Some people identified five back stories, others as many as seven, but they all had a hard time explaining why.
The upshot of this story exercise was that it made me realize how inadequately writers—even those who had been exposed to writing for a long time and regardless of whether they were in Stage 1, 2, or 3—comprehend the terms we use in writing. And how poorly they apply what they should already know.
As a follow-up to the backstory question, I recall several students I’ve worked with who, in attempts to cut down on word count, would excise great swaths of backstory, thus creating confusion for the reader.
I suggested adding back at least some.
Client: “But I’m trying to keep my word count down.”
M: “But you could simply say, ‘It was Deanna, the girl I met on vacation last year’ and that would remind the reader that the character didn’t appear out of the blue.”
Backstory doesn’t even have to be a full sentence, just a simple descriptive phrase.
Is it unreasonable to expect writers (or those who aspire to call themselves writers) to have some basic understanding of these fundamentals?
My short story (4684 words) is actually a nonfiction account, though some members of the group even argued that it was not nonfiction!
Anyway, I realized the story contains several easy writing lessons. I did not intend it that way. It simply happened. But I realized it could use it to teach several concepts:
- Easy illustration of a tight POV lesson
- How to provide limited back story without doing a data dump
- How to use the exact same techniques that fiction writers use when writing nonfiction
- How to create setting and keep the characters (and the reader) grounded in the setting at all times
Here are some questions I concocted. The story was available to the readers.
1. Characters
- Who is the main character?
- The POV character?
- How can you tell?
2. Back Stories
- Which characters have back stories?
- Do we learn about them only where/when we need to know about them?
- Does anyone else need a backstory? Why/Why not?
- Does the narrator need one? Why/Why not?
3. Time, place, setting
- Where and when does the story take place?
- Is the reader fully grounded in the story at all times?
- Can the reader feel the setting? (sensations/atmosphere are part of the setting).
4. This happens to be a nonfiction account, but the same techniques of fiction are used throughout: controlled introduction of information where it makes a difference to the story and dialogue that matters is provided where it can function within a story.
5. There is always a sense of balance and proportion in storytelling.
Does the ending relate to or connect with the beginning?
I hope this will help.
*
Thank you, Michaele. Excellent series.
Talk with you again soon.
The Numbers
The Journal……………………………… 900
Writing of “Mistaken Identity”
Day 1…… 2131 words. To date…… 2131
Day 2…… 0864 words. To date…… 2995 (done)
Writing of “Somethin’ in the Way She Moves”
Day 1…… 2225 words. To date…… 2225 (done)
Fiction for September…………………….. 54911
Fiction for 2024………………………….… 681698
Fiction since October 1…………………… 838699
Nonfiction for September………………… 19210
Nonfiction for 2024……………………….. 294050
2024 consumable words…………………. 829692
Average Fiction WPD (September)……… 2890
2024 Novels to Date……………………… 13
2024 Novellas to Date……………………. 0
2024 Short Stories to Date………………. 14
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 95
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………. 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………. 251
Short story collections……………………. 29
Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer, but please try this at home. You can do it. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Unreasoning fear and the myths of writing are lies. They will slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.
Please support TNDJ with a paid subscription. You may click the Subscribe or Update button below, or you may click Donate Here and set up a recurring donation of $5 per month OR make a one-time (annual) donation of $60 via PayPal. Thank you!