![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
Train wrecks and transformations
First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who listened and took a second look after the initial firestorm erupted on Locus. Your willingness to stick around for the clarifications—to be just as interested in the follow-ups as the initial furor—meant a lot to me personally. The Internet tends to take incomplete information (especially if juicy and negative) and run with it. Jeanne Cavelos did warn us in the first week of Odyssey that we would encounter monsters; nobody knew that we'd also run into global villagers brandishing torches and pitchforks. ;)
Anyway, last week the train wreck eclipsed what Odyssey is all about—the transformation of base writers into a more valuable material. Now that the smoke seems to be clearing, here's why I would recommend Odyssey to anyone seeking to become a professional writer:
#1 Reason: Jeanne Cavelos
In the very first week, Jeanne critiqued the first chapter of my novel in a manner that left me breathless (and, for a while, feeling kind of clueless). Here was someone unseduced by style, uncompromising on clarity and effectiveness. She had a way of tracing the roots of narrative problems that was both rational and visionary. In short, Jeanne was the most inspirational wrecking ball I ever experienced—she knocked down everything about a house that couldn't stand on its own and cleared the lot for a more solid structure. After the first week's critique, I found I was not only compelled to make changes, but enabled to make the right changes, so that someone who wasn't me could read my book and have half a shot at understanding it.
My Odyssey classmates and I all got the electric shock of enlightenment, not only from Jeanne, but from one another. We dubbed a certain segment of the student critiquers' circle "Murderers' Row"—no manuscript escaped unscathed. We joked and drew cartoons on the classroom board: Dark Jeanne, her blade Destroyer of Dreams, the Scourge of Show Don't Tell. Our beloved director, serious as a heart attack when it came to writing, also had a sense of humor more than capable of appreciating our goofballery.
As the weeks went on I rewrote and restructured and saw the light on several points that had been keeping the novel's story from moving forward. My first-chapter rewrite worked a hell of a lot better, though now I had a sense of what was still missing, what still had to be straightened out. The next few chapters went through the same painful but salutary process. What I learned was invaluable. The best thing was knowing that all the word-winnowing, all the coal-treading and the sweaty-palmed fear of failure and the thousand little nasty dagger-toothed mind-biters that plague creative folk hadn't plied their torments for nothing. All of it was for the sake of vision: the vision of what the book could be, unencumbered by narrative flaws and other ineffectualities. I knew, after talking with Jeanne, that she championed my vision, just as eager for me to reach that goal as I was.
Which, I suppose, makes her less Dark Jeanne than Jeanne d'Arc. ;)
The Guests
In previous journal entries I covered Melissa Scott's wonderful world-building lecture, and Bruce Holland Rogers's excellent words on short-short story form and the psychology of the writing life. As I got busier, I barely found time to describe the other guests. In chronological order:
Roland J. Green represented alternative history. If you ever need to know anything about General Patton, in this time or in one that never came to pass, RJG is your man.
John Crowley, who has managed to obtain dual citizenship in both genre and literary fiction, played counterpoint (or devil's advocate, perhaps) to Jeanne's more straight-ahead approach to P(oint)O(f)V(iew). Whereas Jeanne likened POV to a tiny spaceship zipping around in people's heads, and expressed the hope that we would not send that spaceship zipping around so dizzily that readers would get motion sickness, Crowley advocated zipping smoothly enough to eliminate the need for barf bags. Easier said than done, of course. Jeanne didn't even squirm at Crowley's endorsement of the omniscient POV. Actually, I found the whole thing very informative. I hadn't known my arse from my elbow when it came to omniscient POV, and now I can definitely identify both. Crowley also enlightened us on deeper structures within fiction, tools we can use to shape our stories and parse others'. He teaches at Harvard. I can see why. Very articulate, charming, and witty.
Gene Wolfe, whose writing I love and revere. On the first night, he regaled us with his journeys to ancient Egypt. Small wonder his books are so vivid; he seems to have lived all of them. We learned that when he drafts a story, he knows the beginning and the end, and simply writes until he is done, then rewrites four or five times. He advised not spending more than a day researching or making an outline for a book—that one could get caught up in either, and that in any case, you would run across the areas you needed to research as you went along, and should do it then. I have always outlined my novels heavily; maybe I'll try moving closer to that ideal, though it seems daunting. The man is gifted.
Wolfe also described the way he works on several things at once, which I am planning to emulate. I need to carry out cycles of beginning-middle-end with more frequency. Good practice.
I profited most from these talks—this was where the craft and the love and the wonder spoke loudest to me. His critique gave me this: certainty of my own desire to write and to push myself as far as I can go. It is this that I'll remember and take with me throughout the years.
Lori Perkins, Jeanne's agent. An insider's-eye view of publishing. Lori is a wonderfully funny and insightful person; it's obvious why she gets along so well with Jeanne. Very informative lecture, and not even depressing, despite the raw facts of the business. The surest method of getting published is still creating great fiction.
Companions on the Road
All this, and no mention of my classmates, a bunch of fabulous people I can't wait to see again in person and in print. You know who you are. :) I haven't had a period of getting to know people like this since college. I expect we'll be in touch for years, egging each other on. These people were great to talk to, a barrier against isolation and insanity, and impossible to feel ickily competitive with. I look forward to watching everyone grow into their full potential.
Summing up the Summer
In all, every guest at Odyssey, and of course, Jeanne herself, confirmed that persistence in all phases of the journey—from creation to publication—wins, excellence being a by-product of persistence.
Now that we have these tools, we can get there. The only thing that can stop us is ourselves. But after a program like Odyssey, I am in no mood to stop.
Anyway, last week the train wreck eclipsed what Odyssey is all about—the transformation of base writers into a more valuable material. Now that the smoke seems to be clearing, here's why I would recommend Odyssey to anyone seeking to become a professional writer:
#1 Reason: Jeanne Cavelos
In the very first week, Jeanne critiqued the first chapter of my novel in a manner that left me breathless (and, for a while, feeling kind of clueless). Here was someone unseduced by style, uncompromising on clarity and effectiveness. She had a way of tracing the roots of narrative problems that was both rational and visionary. In short, Jeanne was the most inspirational wrecking ball I ever experienced—she knocked down everything about a house that couldn't stand on its own and cleared the lot for a more solid structure. After the first week's critique, I found I was not only compelled to make changes, but enabled to make the right changes, so that someone who wasn't me could read my book and have half a shot at understanding it.
My Odyssey classmates and I all got the electric shock of enlightenment, not only from Jeanne, but from one another. We dubbed a certain segment of the student critiquers' circle "Murderers' Row"—no manuscript escaped unscathed. We joked and drew cartoons on the classroom board: Dark Jeanne, her blade Destroyer of Dreams, the Scourge of Show Don't Tell. Our beloved director, serious as a heart attack when it came to writing, also had a sense of humor more than capable of appreciating our goofballery.
As the weeks went on I rewrote and restructured and saw the light on several points that had been keeping the novel's story from moving forward. My first-chapter rewrite worked a hell of a lot better, though now I had a sense of what was still missing, what still had to be straightened out. The next few chapters went through the same painful but salutary process. What I learned was invaluable. The best thing was knowing that all the word-winnowing, all the coal-treading and the sweaty-palmed fear of failure and the thousand little nasty dagger-toothed mind-biters that plague creative folk hadn't plied their torments for nothing. All of it was for the sake of vision: the vision of what the book could be, unencumbered by narrative flaws and other ineffectualities. I knew, after talking with Jeanne, that she championed my vision, just as eager for me to reach that goal as I was.
Which, I suppose, makes her less Dark Jeanne than Jeanne d'Arc. ;)
The Guests
In previous journal entries I covered Melissa Scott's wonderful world-building lecture, and Bruce Holland Rogers's excellent words on short-short story form and the psychology of the writing life. As I got busier, I barely found time to describe the other guests. In chronological order:
Roland J. Green represented alternative history. If you ever need to know anything about General Patton, in this time or in one that never came to pass, RJG is your man.
John Crowley, who has managed to obtain dual citizenship in both genre and literary fiction, played counterpoint (or devil's advocate, perhaps) to Jeanne's more straight-ahead approach to P(oint)O(f)V(iew). Whereas Jeanne likened POV to a tiny spaceship zipping around in people's heads, and expressed the hope that we would not send that spaceship zipping around so dizzily that readers would get motion sickness, Crowley advocated zipping smoothly enough to eliminate the need for barf bags. Easier said than done, of course. Jeanne didn't even squirm at Crowley's endorsement of the omniscient POV. Actually, I found the whole thing very informative. I hadn't known my arse from my elbow when it came to omniscient POV, and now I can definitely identify both. Crowley also enlightened us on deeper structures within fiction, tools we can use to shape our stories and parse others'. He teaches at Harvard. I can see why. Very articulate, charming, and witty.
Gene Wolfe, whose writing I love and revere. On the first night, he regaled us with his journeys to ancient Egypt. Small wonder his books are so vivid; he seems to have lived all of them. We learned that when he drafts a story, he knows the beginning and the end, and simply writes until he is done, then rewrites four or five times. He advised not spending more than a day researching or making an outline for a book—that one could get caught up in either, and that in any case, you would run across the areas you needed to research as you went along, and should do it then. I have always outlined my novels heavily; maybe I'll try moving closer to that ideal, though it seems daunting. The man is gifted.
Wolfe also described the way he works on several things at once, which I am planning to emulate. I need to carry out cycles of beginning-middle-end with more frequency. Good practice.
I profited most from these talks—this was where the craft and the love and the wonder spoke loudest to me. His critique gave me this: certainty of my own desire to write and to push myself as far as I can go. It is this that I'll remember and take with me throughout the years.
Lori Perkins, Jeanne's agent. An insider's-eye view of publishing. Lori is a wonderfully funny and insightful person; it's obvious why she gets along so well with Jeanne. Very informative lecture, and not even depressing, despite the raw facts of the business. The surest method of getting published is still creating great fiction.
Companions on the Road
All this, and no mention of my classmates, a bunch of fabulous people I can't wait to see again in person and in print. You know who you are. :) I haven't had a period of getting to know people like this since college. I expect we'll be in touch for years, egging each other on. These people were great to talk to, a barrier against isolation and insanity, and impossible to feel ickily competitive with. I look forward to watching everyone grow into their full potential.
Summing up the Summer
In all, every guest at Odyssey, and of course, Jeanne herself, confirmed that persistence in all phases of the journey—from creation to publication—wins, excellence being a by-product of persistence.
Now that we have these tools, we can get there. The only thing that can stop us is ourselves. But after a program like Odyssey, I am in no mood to stop.