Writer's Series 2/24 Response

I really enjoyed hearing Matt Bell, Steve Himmer, and Robert Kloss read from their work last week at the writer’s series. All three readings were excellent examples of fiction that is rich with vivid, sensory details and concrete imagery. My favorite part of the night, though, was the question and answer period at the end of the reading. It was so helpful to hear the writers talk about their own experience with the writing process (which fit in really well with this week’s assigned reading) and to hear their suggestions and advice about drafting and revising.

I really enjoyed the writers’ comments about being aware of the sounds in writing. Sound always receives such a big emphasis in discussions about poetry, but it was nice to hear sound being applied to fiction as well since it seems to me like it should be equally important for the words to sound right in fiction as for poetry. It was interesting to hear that some of the writers will even add an extra word or syllable to a sentence just to make sure it sounds right. I’ve done that before myself almost unconsciously if there’s something about the sound of a sentence I’ve written that bothers me, and it was interesting to hear an author talk about the sounds of words as being as important of an element of fiction as character or plot.

Of all of the good suggestions the three writers offered, the one that I think will be the most helpful to me is the goal of finishing one project first before starting another. So often, I get so excited about a new idea that I’ll get side-traced and drop whatever project I’m currently working on. And then, of course, a little while later, a new, exciting idea will come along, and I’ll get side-tracked again. Even though it’s fun to explore new ideas, it also means that I rarely finish a complete draft of a story before starting a new one. Rather than switching projects every time I have a new idea, I should start a notebook to write down ideas to come back to later when I’m ready to write about them. I also like Robert Kloss’s suggestion (I think it was his) to just put any new ideas into the book you’re currently writing while they are still fresh in your mind and then go back later on during the revising stage and take out the ones that aren’t working well.

Overall, a very inspirational evening!