BRENT VAN STAALDUINEN
  • home
  • NBL launch
  • About Me
    • bio
    • media
    • Story Basic
    • awards & notables
    • reading services
  • Books
    • boy: a novel >
      • BOY Launch
    • nothing but life: a novel
    • cut road: stories
    • saints, unexpected: a novel
  • Stories
  • events
  • news & blog
  • contact

A New Thing or Two

4/27/2012

0 Comments

 

I’m about to pass a patch of perfection,
a carpet of green, verdant –
I want to choke bunches of it
between my toes.

Such an infinite day, Spring.
Every year, reliable – more so, even,
than the rising price of gold.

Someone’s baby sister and her bff lounge.
Baby sister says something about bees
and planting a kiss on a solitary dandelion,
a jaunty bee-fed button, not worried
about the bug’s ever ready stinger.

Bff hums along to her iPod, but I
can’t tell if the mp3 is about new seasons.
Baby sister shares a secret and a dream
and a priceless piece of nonsense.

I wander on, out of earshot, not knowing
if bff answered but knowing
a new thing or two about Spring.

0 Comments

Character and Feeling How We Feel

4/4/2012

0 Comments

 

I am in the process of revising two novels. I’m working through what I hope will be the final set of revisions for Aeden’s Wake with my agent, and Old Habits (wow, I can’t wait to rename that one) is currently mellowing in a drawer, having been workshopped with my mentor, Nino Ricci, on Friday.

Nino said some pretty great things – you’d hope so, right? – but the one thing that is really giving me some mental-crunch-material was his suggestion to see and write the events of the novel through the characters’ eyes.

In one character’s case, he is continually trying to make up for a tragic decision he made in the middle of the desert – but he also lives in the same city as his father, who abandoned the family. I’d not forgotten about the father, but I did spend so much time on having Mohammed making up for what happened to his mother and sister that I ignored that he would likely think about “the Dad situation” far more than he does currently in the book. How many of his experiences would be coloured by that reality?

I think that this perspective has much to do with the authenticity of our characters, something literary writers strive for perhaps more than anything else. How do we know what our characters would see, hear, taste, want, need?

I have a few friends who have been having a rough time as of late – some chronically, others temporarily. And, as people are wont to do, everyone responds to those dear folks with predictable expressions of good cheer. Cheer up! Tomorrow will be a better day! Hope you feel more like yourself!

Sounds normal, and we’ve all experienced it – no one likes misery.

But when I turn things around and try to see the sickness or other maladies from the perspective of those who experience them, even though we mean well, what I think people want or need to hear more is genuine expressions in response to what they are feeling. When we feel bad, we smile away the words of others that don’t really meet us where we are. Thanks, we’ll say, when we really want them to tell us how much they love us, or support us, or validate who we are. Or we want them to work through an issue with us. Sometimes, we even want them to spit at us and tell us how much we deserve what we get.

What we want or need might not be pretty, but at least it’s honest.

Memorable characters are no different. Think about it – when was the last time you read a great book that had a walk-by “I hope you feel better!” from a secondary character that promptly went back to his own business? Doesn’t happen. Great writing gets straight to the meat: the best friend will speak honest truths, the priest will demand absolution, the villain will play on the malady with sadism.

Pick a character. Mersault is confronted by continual honesty, which contrasts with the absurdity of his worldview. Holden Caulfield gets no idle sympathy from anyone. Scout doesn’t receive Atticus’ dismissive platitudes. Jane Eyre finds no pats on the back as she surveys the charred debris. Jesus suffers, and the soldiers gamble for his clothing. Hamlet. Oedipus. And so on...

As a writing exercise, in an effort to distill true desires and hopes, starting today I’m going to try to hear what others are really saying, and try to respond in kind when people do the same to me. (At least to the people I know, and just for a little while – in real life, sometimes superficiality is necessary, and there’s no way I could do so for everyone I meet!) And then I’ll try to inject that meaning into the words and desires of my characters.

A Conversation with My Character

Me: “So how are you doing?”

Character: “I feel crappy.”

Me: “Really? That sucks.”

Char.: “Yes, it does. And my dog died.”

Me: “Death hurts.”

Char.: “It does, doesn’t it?”

Me: “Yeah.”

Char.: “But you know what really hurts…?”

Me: “No. Tell me.”

0 Comments

    Archives

    March 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    July 2018
    March 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    August 2011

    Categories

    All
    Agent
    Agenting
    BOY
    CanLit
    Christmas
    Corktown
    Creative Non Fiction
    Creative Non-fiction
    E-book
    Fiction
    Flash Fiction
    GritLit
    GritLit2016
    Hamilton
    Ian Weir
    Kindle
    Kindle Direct
    Kobo
    Literature
    Mfa
    Nino Ricci
    Nothing But Life
    Novel
    Pitching
    Progeria
    Publishing
    Querying
    Saints
    Saints Unexpected
    Self-publish
    Self-publishing
    Short Fiction
    True Story
    Unexpected
    Writing
    YA
    Young Adult

    RSS Feed

© Brent van Staalduinen. All rights reserved. 
home     about     contact
  • home
  • NBL launch
  • About Me
    • bio
    • media
    • Story Basic
    • awards & notables
    • reading services
  • Books
    • boy: a novel >
      • BOY Launch
    • nothing but life: a novel
    • cut road: stories
    • saints, unexpected: a novel
  • Stories
  • events
  • news & blog
  • contact