This coming Tuesday I’m leading a workshop for “gifted” writing students in WI. I’ve done this before, in the Rohr Forest among other gorgeous places and it is a joy to work with students who are motivated learners and writers. The problem with these sessions is that they are far too short due to their packed schedule for the day. Hence, the sessions need to focus on one specific aspect of writing and for this workshop it’s dialogue. Writing dialogue is a blast and a discipline. It contributes to character development and forces the writer to be succinct, clear and incorporate the voice of the character in relation to the scene itself and overall plot. If it does not advance the plot with each spoken line, then excise.
I consider myself a “new” fiction writer. I’ve only written two novels and that makes me a student of the craft. This past spring I paid for a class with an author who told me that when you’re writing fiction you are, “Selling emotion. Fiction must contain three components: empathy, evil and suspense.” Since my second novel (House of Honor) was complete at the time, I went back and evaluated it against those principles. It held up pretty well, but empathy, evil and suspense are not quite enough to move writing out of the depths of decent to The Magic Mountain – top, thank you Thomas Mann. Lois Lowry taught me that the characters are the drivers and identification with them makes or breaks a work. My beloved mentor, Dr. Coleen Grissom taught me to, “Eschew obfuscation. Embrace simplicity, lucidity and euphony.” She also taught me not to take myself too seriously and inject humor. And by the way, the writing needs to sing. James Michener and Linda Sue Park implored that the quality of the writing is found in the author’s quality of reading, “Read a thousand books before you write your own,” Park said. Eudora Welty and Heinrich Boll extol us to collect and gather moments, just like The Clown. As Welty says in One Writers Beginnings, “I grew up to the striking of clocks.” We must tap all the senses of the reader.
On a rain-streaked evening this past April, my husband and I huddled under our golf umbrella and crept down the block to Left Bank Books in Central West End, St. Louis. This iconic bookstore, owned by the same woman for fifty years sits as an edifice to literature on the southwest corner of “Writers Corner.” There is a sculpted bronze bust of a famous writer on each point of the intersection, T.S. Eliot (my favorite) catty-corner from the bookstore. We went to listen to Leif Enger read from and speak about his latest novel, I Cheerfully Refuse. What a generous speaker and author Mr. Enger is! Given the pouring rain, the crowd lingered and asked numerous questions, hoping to wait and depart when the rain ended. I wanted his take on the three “must haves” of fiction so I threw out a question, “I took a writing class this spring and the author said that fiction must convey evil, suspense and empathy. What do you think of that list and would you add anything?” He thought for a moment and replied, “That’s a good list, but I would add joy.”
With Leif Enger at Left Bank Books
“I would add joy.” This one statement smashed my pandora’s box of curiosity. Yes, joy! Why has no other author shared this sacred secret with me?
So, dear students, for our all too short time together on Tuesday let’s write some joyful dialogue. What is it about writing that brings you joy? I look forward to our time together in an antique railcar.