why kristin is pretty

[albionidaho]

Today is brought to you by green tea and Placebo and Placebo (Hah! It's young Brian and old Brian!).***
I have heard and read that people can process what they learned at Clarion and Clarion West for a least a year afterward.

I completely believe this.

I just had a revelation.  I think. =)

During week six, our instructor was Chuck Palahniuk.  He was wonderful -- kind, gentle, loving.  And he truly does believe you are a special and unique snowflake, unlike anyone else.  I adored him.  He's a beautiful, beautiful man.  And he has a lovely speaking voice.  (And, as you read on, you'll realize I've been lazy here and haven't followed Chuck's lesson I discuss below.  We'll have to cope; I'm in a hurry.)

One lesson he tried to teach us, which is not only useful for minimalist fiction (of which Chuck is a practitioner) but for all fiction, is the concept of specifics.  I may not be calling it the right term (I'd have to double check my CW notes), but let's run with that.

Chuck would say that a writer telling the reader that a character is 6' 5" doesn't tell anything.  It's not specific.  Telling the reader that someone weighs 135 pounds doesn't say anything.  Telling the reader that someone was 36 means nothing at all.  But when one adds context and fits the character's qualities and characteristics in with their life and the rest of the character's lives, suddenly so much more meaning can be implied and inferred. 

From Amy Hempel's "The Harvest":

"The year I began to say vahz instead of vase, a man I barely knew nearly accidentally killed me. "

In this one opening line Hempel tells the reader so much about what is to come in the rest of the story.  The section "The year I began to say vahz instead of vase," tells the reader a huge amount about the character, so much more so than if she'd said, "The year I turned thirty-two...". 

Just chew on that for a bit.

During his week, Chuck kept telling us that one of our classmates, Kristin, was pretty (and she is) because she has two eyes, two ears, a nose, and a mouth.  Several of us responded with, "What the hell does that mean?  Of course she does." 

But today I realized I think it's about specifics.  I could be wrong, and I hope my classmates call me on it if I am (and I'll tell you if they do), but I think he was trying to say, "Be specific.  Be detailed.  Kristin looks like most other folks; most folks have two eyes, two ears, a nose, and a mouth, but Kristin is pretty because she has her two eyes, her two ears, her nose, her mouth.  Show the reader what that means for Kristin, show the reader what this means for the other characters.  Tell the reader about the year Kristin started calling a vase a vahz.

I'm still processing.  This is really starting to make sense to me.  Does this make sense to anyone else?

***  This is the text of Hempel's "The Harvest".  One could spend a lot of time dissecting this story.  Hempel is brilliant.

Comments

[theferrett.livejournal.com]

Nice work. Hadn't thought about that, but now I will absorb it into my being.

That said, can you settle a debate in the house and tell us exactly how one pronounces Chuck's last name?

[albionidaho.livejournal.com]

Ferrett -- we'll have to cross reference C and CW notes and absorb all of it into our being :D.

And yes -- it's like Paula and Nick together. Paulanick, with a bit of an accept on the first syllable. =)

[albionidaho.livejournal.com]

That is accent, not accept ;).

You know what would be cool someday would be to have as many 08 CW and C people meet up as possible somewhere for fun and sharing and frolicking.

[theferrett.livejournal.com]

I absolutely agree with that statement. The second one, that is, though I can hardly debate the first. *G*

What would be even cooler is if we could get some of our instructors to come and mingle, too, so we could totally cross-reference and geek out and say, "OMG, I MET X" when X != "One of our instructors."

[albionidaho.livejournal.com]

That would rock! =)

[theferrett.livejournal.com]

Speaking of which, notadoor is now vaguely planning a three-week long writers' retreat at some as-yet-undiscovered location where people can stay for as long (or as short) as they like and write and bitch and crit.

I said, "Hey, those cool Clarion West folks should attend!" She agreed.

Also to the also, apparently WorldCon is where the Clarion action's at this year.

[albionidaho.livejournal.com]

Excellent!

I know many of us are planning to converge on WisCon and World Fantasy. (I'm not sure about myself yet.)

[michaeljasper.livejournal.com]

Good stuff! Thanks for sharing.

"Kristin is pretty because she has her two eyes, her two ears, her nose, her mouth." -- This is good advice for writers, too. Use your own brain and words to make your fiction, instead of trying to be someone else. Make your writing YOURS.

Also, yay for PIF: http://www.pifmagazine.com/vol30/f_jasp.shtml

:)

[albionidaho.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, Mike! Exactly.

[chris-reynaga.livejournal.com]

That's fantastic, Maggie. I'm cross-linking this. =)

[albionidaho.livejournal.com]

Link away =).

Further discussion to continue.

[lotusstone.livejournal.com]

Really about the comment below this, i will make sure to give him a fix of Placebo ;)
I think i still owe him some Gogol as well.

[albionidaho.livejournal.com]

He needs more Gogol! ;)

I put together a Placebo post for him, if he ever gets to it, and he's got some Placebo on the way ;). We'll saturate him in Brandon! It's a movement =).

[albionidaho.livejournal.com]

Er, Brian. Brian. Have I mentioned it's early?

[therinth.livejournal.com]

(Random)

Yay Placebo!

(/Random)

[albionidaho.livejournal.com]

Did you know Chris Reynaga has never heard of Placebo? (Or so he claims.) Can you believe it? This must be fixed =).

[therinth.livejournal.com]

Oy --

At Clarion West i did a story that was based on Infrared. (And some other stuff. But mostly Infrared.)

[albionidaho.livejournal.com]

My current WIP uses Infrared heavily =).

But thanks for introducing him to Muse. ;)

[kaiweilau.livejournal.com]

This was interesting! Thanks for posting!

[albionidaho.livejournal.com]

You are most welcome!

[commefantome.livejournal.com]

You met Chuck Palahniuk?!?

[albionidaho.livejournal.com]

Yes, I studied under him for a week at Clarion West :). He's fantastic.

[commefantome.livejournal.com]

Who are you and why are you so cool?

[albionidaho.livejournal.com]

LOL :).

I'm Maggie, and was just lucky enough to get into an amazing Clarion West class where Chuck was teaching :).

And that's one of the nicest responses I've ever received to an LJ post :D.

[commefantome.livejournal.com]

So I just added you, and you don't have to add me back, but someday when you're famous and awesome I can say, "Oh yes, I've known about her forever," in a really snobby way. :)

[albionidaho.livejournal.com]

Lol :). I'll definitely add you when my NaNo novel is done. And will be happy to have you know me when my fiction writing career is actually a career :).