From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #98 Reply-To: aml-list Sender: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk aml-list-digest Tuesday, July 11 2000 Volume 01 : Number 098 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2000 09:59:58 -0600 From: Margaret Young Subject: Re: [AML] YOUNG, _I Am Jane_ Thanks so much for this, Scott. It was wonderful to meet your wife after the show. Actually, there is at least one more re-write waiting for me to do before I'll call this script "finished," but we do have a remarkable cast. Not every actor is equal in talent, but most are truly gifted. It has been mostly a joy to work on this show. At least I'm sure that's how I'll remember it after I recover. "J. Scott Bronson" wrote: > Just got back from seeing "I Am Jane." Had an enjoyable time. Really > liked Margaret's script. Also enjoyed some of the performances. Really > some remarkable things about this show. I recommend it to those of you > in the Utah County area. You have two more chances (possibly three, if > they extend to Tuesday night) to see it. I have spent a number of years > participating in various critique groups and have always felt > complimented when one of my peers will say something like, "If I were > writing this I would have blah, blah, blah." Those kinds of comments > mean that the person felt strongly enough about the material to want to > make it their own somehow. Well, I sat in the Villa Theater tonight > wishing that I could have been in "I Am Jane." Or wishing that I had > directed it. Or that I had written it. > > J. Scott Bronson--The Scotted Line > "World peace begins in my home" > -------------------------------------------------------- > We are not the acolytes of an abstruse god. > We are here to entertain--Keith Lockhart > > - > AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature > http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2000 10:41:37 -0600 From: Eileen Subject: [AML] Re: PERRY, _Tathea_ > when I began the flight across the desert with her. Should I keep > reading to find the bits and pieces of the story that tell what > happened to her, or will the things that happen to her just be vehicles > for more philosophizing? > > -Beth Hatch To be candid there is more philosophy, but you also will find out what happens to Tathea. I will note that one of the reasons I enjoyed this book so much is because of the philosophy. I enjoyed reading C.S. Lewis for the same reason. If you do not like to read philosophy, but are looking strictly for an action story this will not be for you. There is action involved though and much does happen to Tathea, but there is philosophy/scripture as well. Eileen eileens99@bigplanet.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2000 10:45:01 -0600 From: Eileen Subject: Re: [AML] _I Am Jane_ > Because we've had capacity crowds, we are extending _I Am Jane_ one > night--into Tuesday, July 11. So that's the last opportunity to see it > unless you live in Chicago. Thanks to the list members who've come. It > really means a lot to see you there. [MOD: Please note Margaret's later correction that this extension will not be able to happen.] I am very disappointed that my schedule this weekend and week have been full and I was unable to rearrange it to see this play. Even the extension to Tuesday is unable to facilitate my attendance. I am pleased you are playing to capacity crowds and only with I could be one among the crowd. Congratulations! Eileen eileens99@bigplanet.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2000 13:35:36 -0600 From: "Sharlee Glenn" Subject: Re: [AML] What Can AML-List Do for Me? Tony Markham wrote: >But while pushing the mower, I came up with four > names and wondered what these writers had in common >to elevate them to greatness: > Shakespeare > Milton > Yeats > Faulkner (snip) > Another odd little commonality--these were all men. Are we more apt to > lose our (rational) minds than women? Are we gents more prone to let go > of will and surrender our volition to visions? Whoa! That's quite a jump! So the four names you came up with while mowing the lawn happened to be men. That hardly means that only men have produced great literature (which is what the posing of those questions suggests). While washing the dishes this morning, I came up with four names and wondered what these writers had in common to elevate them to greatness: George Eliot Virginia Woolf Flannery O'Connor Toni Morrison :-) Sharlee Glenn glennsj@inet-1.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2000 13:48:12 -0600 From: "Sharlee Glenn" Subject: Re: [AML] THAYER, _Summer Fire_ Rachel Ann Nunes asked: > So is it Summer Fire or Summerfire? There seems to be a discrepancy. > > [MOD: Sorry, I don't know the answer to this one.] It was published by Orion Books in 1983 as _Summer Fire_. I believe it was later picked up by Signature (?) and the title may have been changed then to _Summerfire_. Does anyone know for sure? Sharlee Glenn glennsj@inet-1.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2000 13:57:54 -0600 From: Melissa Proffitt Subject: Re: [AML] PERRY, _Tathea_ On Fri, 07 Jul 2000 17:12:44 -0600, Eileen wrote: >I feel, after having read Melissa's well-reasoned review and Darlene's >relief that Melissa agreed with her, almost declasse for having = thoroughly >enjoyed _Tathea_. I read it through once and within a week started it = again. >It was thought provoking for me and the essence of how I felt when = reading >lingers still almost a year later. I don't think you should feel bad about it any more than I feel bad about not liking Levi Peterson's works. My review covers what I think, from = *my* perspective as a reader, are flaws in the novel. It doesn't say = "therefore no one should ever read this book and if you like it you're a moron." Absolutely not. It sounds more like you're part of Perry's intended audience for the book (which I don't think I am). >P.S: I have a question about the positioning of books in Barnes & Noble = for >instance or any other bookstore for that matter, who makes that = decision? >The Barnes & Noble near my home has _Tathea_ placed in the Mystery = Section. >I have to say I don't think it even comes close to that genre. Sounds like someone was playing on Perry's success as a mystery writer to boost sales of _Tathea_. After all, dividing books into genres in stores= is mainly about helping customers find books they're most likely to buy. I = was reading somewhere online that the main reason people buy one book rather than another is the author's name--hence printing mass market books where the author's name is in much larger print than the title, and putting _Tathea_ with Anne Perry's other books rather than in the SF section. Melissa Proffitt - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2000 15:05:47 -0700 From: "Christopher Bigelow" Subject: [AML] Mormon Thesis Database I got a letter from BYU's copyright management office asking permission to put my master's thesis on an electronic database of all theses on topics associated with Mormonism. My thesis is a novella, so apparently they're including creative works. This could be a great resource for us. Does anyone else know anything about this? I will keep you posted if I hear anything more. The letter says the database will be available to a bunch of BYU and Church departments and to the general public through qualifying institutions. Chris Bigelow * * * * * * Read my novella about Mormon missionaries at http://www1.mightywords.com/asp/bookinfo/bookinfo.asp?theisbn=EB00016373. - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2000 15:19:48 -0700 From: "Christopher Bigelow" Subject: [AML] Great Mormon Novel Well, I've lost the day to e-mail, so I may as well add this to the pile: There's a fascinating review in the July 3rd New Yorker about the Great Gatsby (an earlier manuscript of the novel has been published). I thought the following description was interesting of why what I always thought was an overrated novel is considered perhaps the great American novel of the 20th century: "Short, easy to read, filled with symbols and subtexts and allusions, and also beautiful, 'Gatsby' is without doubt the most teachable American novel. In a half century of decreasing attention spans and increasing moral hunger, there can hardly be higher praise." Sounds like some good attritubes to keep in mind as we try to write our own great Mormon novels. Chris Bigelow * * * * * * Read my novella about Mormon missionaries at http://www1.mightywords.com/asp/bookinfo/bookinfo.asp?theisbn=EB00016373. - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2000 15:52:05 -0700 From: "Christopher Bigelow" Subject: [AML] First Novel Drafts I am currently subjecting my online writers groups to a first novel draft that I haven't even reread myself yet, though I wouldn't waste their time if it wasn't a solid start upon which I will hopefully craft a REAL novel, impacted in no small degree by their responses. I'm amazed at how difficult it is to write a novel. Just to get this far into the first draft (and I'm within about 50 pages of "finishing" it) I've had to just keep willfully writing ahead, not letting myself get discouraged by basic flaws that are already apparent or by sections that I know are too bareboned or too overloaded with irrelevant details that I've heaped on because hey, I'm writing a NOVEL, and it needs to be LONG, and I'll feel better if I can get FOUR pages done before I flip over to e-mail--yet I don't want to decide which scene comes after this one. Anyway, for the first time, I am now really psyching myself up to actually REWRITE a novel draft. I am carefully printing out and annotating the comments I get from my critique groups, and I have a 6-inch stack of notes and clippings of my own that somehow I need to sort and incorporate, and I've even already gone downstairs to my basement library and culled all the titles I need to review, skim, or read as background for my rewrite (about 15 titles, from "Basics of Feng Shui" to the biography of Lorenzo Snow). It seems to me that although the rewrite will be a HUGE task, it will be easier than the first draft because at least there's a framework to flesh in. This far into the first draft, I still believe in the story, which is amazing and give me the fortitude to keep working on it. I wrote one novella previously, but I never reread that one all the way through either. I have a file drawer full of notes and a bookshelf full of research titles for that novella too, but somehow I didn't have the heart to rewrite it after I turned it in as my BYU master's thesis (the committee pretty much accepted it except for making me cut some sexually explicit parts, so I didn't have to do any rewriting). I still intend to go back to that novella and rewrite it into a novel unless I lose interest in writing fiction after this current project (which I sometimes hope I will--but I feel too depressed about myself if I try to let it go). And besides, I wonder if I can pull off a good rewrite. I was heartened by the following quote from the New Yorker's July 3rd review of the earlier version of Great Gatsby that has been published: "When, in 1950, Edmund Wilson examined an early text of 'Madame Bovary,' he claimed to be excited by its very flatness, and said that it gave him a higher opinion of Flaubert 'to see him bringing these paragraphs to life, turning on the music and color.'" I've heard it said that writing is really REwriting, and I believe it, though I have yet to practice it much with my own fiction. I've already cut the first 18,000 words of this present novel draft, which didn't hurt so much because I was still left holding 70,000 words, although many of those could end up crumbling into dust too. And now it's looking like I may need to go back and salvage 7,000 to 9,000 words of that cut part and rewrite it. I wish I could just feed my notes and the first draft into a computer and have the rewriting done that way, but on the other hand if I can put another layer of creativity onto the skeleton, I might actually get some where. Writing a first draft is hard enough--why can't that be good enough? This is my fun hobby, right? Chris Bigelow (shirk, shirk, shirk) * * * * * * Read my novella about Mormon missionaries at http://www1.mightywords.com/asp/bookinfo/bookinfo.asp?theisbn=EB00016373. - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2000 16:46:30 -0600 From: Neal Kramer Subject: Re: [AML] THAYER, _Summer Fire_ Rachel asked some other questions about _Summer Fire_ that deserve to be addressed. >Very interesting in _Summerfire_ is how one of the two cousins sent to the >ranch did come out of the experience a stronger, better person. This made a >great contrast with the other who ended up wasting his wages in a brothel. I >didn't object to this outcome or the journey at all, but the apparent ease >with which they were flung into the situation in the first place. It wasn't >that the children were sent away to work, or where they were sent (this for >Alan who as I type is putting up wire fences and breaking horses), but that >they were sent away with no apparent moral guidance. Maybe this was the way >things were done back then, but in today's world that just doesn't work. >Obviously, it didn't work for one of the boys in Thayer's story, either. Thayer goes to considerable lengths at the beginning of the novel to explain the difference in the upbringing of his two characters. The one cousin has been allowed to slip through his life, with two parents at home always bailing him out before he has to face any consequences for his actions. Owen, the hero, has been raised by his widowed motherr and has never really known his father. His male role models have been his bishop and his seminary teacher. Both boys "know" what is right. Thayer, I think, wants us to consider whether the way we raise our children, or protect them, allows them to develop the inner strength necessary to make correct decisions when we're no longer around. The summer on the ranch is supposed to be a time for both boys to make independently correct decisions. But not all people always make the right decision. Even the ones who have been carefully shepherded by their parents. By having Owen, who has privately sought out the Lord--who has worked to develop a kind of spiritual maturity--make the right decisions, Thayer suggests that children properly taught will make good choices when faced with big challenges. One reason to have the other boy fail is to have us take a look at the reasons he didn't have any spiritual "backbone" and compare him to Owen. (I keep writing other boy because I'm too lazy to look his name up in the book!) That idea scares me, because I still want to believe that I can train my kids well enough that they won't really have to make these decisions without just doing what I tell them. But the truth is that all LDS youth have to learn to rely on the strength of their own testimonies and not someone else's, even a parent's. Thayer shows us how hard it is to grow up and to develop a strong testimony. From my male perspective, I can't think of another writer who has told me more about the challenges young men face in our culture--and who has more hope that the gospel is the blueprint for raising righteous young men. Neal Kramer - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 00:40:54 -0600 From: "D. Michael Martindale" Subject: Re: [AML] What Can AML-List Do for Me? Sam Payne wrote: > It seems to me that while using art as a > tool to *commune* with people (not necessarily to transcend them) may not > get the Great Mormon Novel written, it still could be a pretty pure place to > be coming from. Is that thinking too small? I think that the opposite is true. Creating art that resonates with people is a much more charitable act than the self-serving urge to create art that is applauded by the elite, but inaccessible to people generally. - -- D. Michael Martindale dmichael@wwno.com ================================== Check out Worldsmiths, the new online LDS writers group, at http://www.wwno.com/worldsmiths Sponsored by Worlds Without Number http://www.wwno.com ================================== - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 02:48:43 -0600 From: "D. Michael Martindale" Subject: Re: [AML] First Novel Drafts Christopher Bigelow wrote: > I'm amazed at how difficult it is to write a novel. Just to get this far into the first draft (and > I'm within about 50 pages of "finishing" it) I've had to just keep willfully writing ahead, not > letting myself get discouraged by basic flaws that are already apparent or by sections that I know > are too bareboned or too overloaded with irrelevant details that I've heaped on... This is the process recommended by many professional authors. When writing the first draft, just _write_. Let your creativity flow. Tell the editor in your head to shut the holy heck up. Then when you've finished, you put the editor hat on, and tell the creative side of your brain to shut up. You craft each chapter, paragraph, sentence, word, even syllable, into as perfect as form as you can. And the editor needs to mercilessly cut that darling prose which it knows should go, no matter how much the creative side loves it. Creating and editing are two antithetical processes. Any time they are mixed together, disaster results. At best, the author stumbles his way through the first draft, agonizing over each word, stopping and starting fitfully, never enjoying the heady pleasure of creative flow. At worst, nothing happens. Mixing the two processes is the cause of writer's block. > I wrote one novella previously, but I never reread that one all the way through either....somehow > I didn't have the heart to rewrite it after I turned it in as my BYU master's thesis (the committee > pretty much accepted it except for making me cut some sexually explicit parts, so I didn't have to > do any rewriting). Yuck! No one ever sets eyes on my writing until I've read it through at least once, with at least a night in between writing and reading. (Except for things like this message, which gets read once right after writing it--but it still gets read.) The illusion that I'm a good writer would immediately disappear if I didn't scrupulously follow this policy. It's already a fragile illusion as it is. > And besides, I wonder if I can pull off a good rewrite. You can. If there's a part of writing that's a craft that can be learned, it's rewriting. > I've heard it said that writing is really REwriting, and I believe it, though I have yet to > practice it much with my own fiction. According to the movie, Mozart composed everything in his head, and merely dictated a final draft when he set pen to paper. But I'll bet most accomplished artists rewrite the heck out of their work. It's like anything else: ballet, acrobatics, figure skating, quarterbacking: the masters make it look effortless, but behind the effortless perfection came endless hours of "rewriting": practicing and practicing until perfection was achieved. > Writing a first draft is hard enough--why can't that be good enough? Then everyone would write, and you could never stand out from the crowd. > This is my fun hobby, right? Fun hobby? You could get away without rewriting for just a fun hobby. I'll bet you're striving for a professional's mastery, based on some passion deep inside you, or you wouldn't care enough to keep working at it. - -- D. Michael Martindale dmichael@wwno.com ================================== Check out Worldsmiths, the new online LDS writers group, at http://www.wwno.com/worldsmiths Sponsored by Worlds Without Number http://www.wwno.com ================================== - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 03:53:12 -0600 From: "Alan Mitchell" Subject: Re: [AML] THAYER, _Summer Fire_ Rachel Ann Nunes wrote: It wasn't >that the children were sent away to work, or where they were sent (this for >Alan who as I type is putting up wire fences and breaking horses), but that >they were sent away with no apparent moral guidance. How did Rachel know that we're putting up fence today? She must be a prophetess! Okay Rachel, can you guess which prominent AML member and list participant is out helping and bringing one of his children to help in the moral guidance thing? Alan Mitchell - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 08:57:51 -0600 From: Scott Duvall Subject: Re: [AML] Mormon Thesis Database Chris: This project emanates from the BYU Library. We have identified approximately 700 Master's theses written at BYU over the years that deal with Mormonism in some way. These theses will be digitized and made available on the library's web site. We are considering bids for outsourcing right now and we anticipate this collection being available in about one year. Scott Duvall Assistant University Librarian for Special Collections Harold B. Lee Library Brigham Young University - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: (No, or invalid, date.) From: "Marilyn & William Brown" Subject: Re: [AML] THAYER, _Summer Fire_ I liked your story, Rachel. I think reading Doug Thayer's SUMMERFIRE (YES= ) and seeing what unguided dismissal can do is a good lesson. I certainly= got that out of your story. We had one boy we "let go free" and a girl = we put in the heritage school. Which one turned out? You're right, the = girl we put in the institution for a while. So thanks for your story. Mar= ilyn Brown - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: (No, or invalid, date.) From: "Marilyn & William Brown" Subject: Re: [AML] YOUNG, _I Am Jane_ (Performances) Dear Listers: (This is a biggy, but listen up!) HOORAY! HISTORY was made last night--the final production of JANE. It is = a SMASH HIT! Unbelievable! The theatre has not had this many people for = FOUR YEARS (when we had our historic last night of ANNIE). I am SO PROUD to have had some small part in helping Margaret with this = phenomenal success (besides I got to see her, and she is SO FUN to watch = herding all those lovely cast members of hers). If you want to wonder whe= re our real missionary tool is, it's right here, people. Not that "missio= nary tool" is the whole point. No, I think this little group of black peo= ple walking for 800 miles for their Christian belief is a literary master= piece. So well written, with humor, etc. Who was the funny brother that = made Bill Cosby look like an amateur? I tell you, these actors (Keith, = Denise, the singers, well, everyone) were just WONDERFUL. What was it--what is it--about JANE (besides the players) that is so abso= lutely riveting? I think the message is one we are all hungry for--and = it relates to President Hinkley's book. The story is one that demonstrate= s the blessing of COMMITMENT. Let's stick to it. Let's take hold of somet= hing worthwhile (the gospel) and go with it. Go 800 miles. Go through lif= e. Give it all we have. It's a great message, and so inspiring that hundr= eds of people flocked to have the experience of seeing it. I had a call from the author of SAND IN THEIR SHOES yesterday. (Does anyo= ne remember it? I played in the band as a mere sophomore--Crawford Gates = wrote the music). He is the one who is supporting Tim Slover in writing = the play HANNCOCK COUNTY. He's taking IRREANTUM now, and he's impressed! = He said he would start listening in on this list. Don Oscarson. I was so = happy to hear from him. He told me that a group of Jews got together (lik= e us) and said, "What can we do to change the world's opinion of Jews?" = They got financial support (and he's one of those eager to help) and sear= ched for the best novelist they could find. At the time it was Leon Uris.= And they told him what they wanted, so he wrote EXODUS. So--I ask you--a= re our discussions of all this "novel business" or "artistic" business = in vain? Absolutely not. We are COMMITTED. And I'm SO PROUD of Margaret and of all of you who are = hanging in here with AML. I am so happy to hear from people like Don Osca= rson. I am so grateful to the sweat and tears of Bill Brown for donating = his multi-resources to prepare a theatre where we can do works like I AM = JANE. Thank you to everyone, and let's just keep working. Marilyn Brown - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 02:26:51 -0600 From: "D. Michael Martindale" Subject: [AML] LDS Humor (was THAYER, _Summer Fire_) Kenny Kemp wrote: > On another note, Chaim Potok once said to me that the Mormon culture was not > yet a *mature* culture because it had not yet learned to laugh at itself. But that seems to be changing. Ed Snow, Rober Kirby, Pat Bagley, for example. By the way, I ran across a transcript of an online chat session with Kirby which touches a little on this topic at: http://www.tribtalk.com/transcripts/kirby1.htm. I also ran across several LDS humor websites. I do not vouch for the quality of any of the humor... http://www.mormons.org/humor/index.htm http://www.lds.npl.com/dir/LDS_Humor/ http://lds.about.com/religion/lds/msub4.htm?once=true& http://jeider.tripod.com/joke.htm http://www.of-worth.com/ea/humor.htm I don't think our attempts to appear perfect to the world will hold out much longer. We're getting too well known, and have too many detractors who love to point out our warts. With the Internet, all that information is available with a few mouse clicks. I understand the urge we've had as a culture to appear perfect after the harrowing history we endured. But, like Potok said, growing beyond that is a sign of maturity. It's also a necessity: our perfection is pure myth, so we really ought to face up to it. Trying to deny it only makes us look deceptive. The Gospel will hold its own even in the midst of our imperfection. I also think the honest approach will be more effective in the long run. Which group of people would you rather join? Relentlessly perfect people, or people who associate together to help each other improve? Which kind of prophet could you believe in more? One whose adherents claim is perfect, but who obviously makes mistakes, or one who struggles to perfect his prophetic mantel the same way every other human being struggles to perfect his vocation, therefore no need arises to rationalize his mistakes? Humor can help all of us face up to the reality of life within the Gospel, after a long-standing (and wearying) habit of maintaining the illusion of perfection. - -- D. Michael Martindale dmichael@wwno.com ================================== Check out Worldsmiths, the new online LDS writers group, at http://www.wwno.com/worldsmiths Sponsored by Worlds Without Number http://www.wwno.com ================================== - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: (No, or invalid, date.) From: "Marilyn & William Brown" Subject: Re: [AML] Andrew's Poll - ---------- > I wonder if the lady in Marilyn's ward who thinks "Mormon literature = isn't any > good" realizes that Marilyn is one of Mormonism's fine writers. > Margaret, you are something else. I think this is a MAS (mutual admiratio= n society for those of you throwing arlound your IMO and IMHO, BTW, etc.)= Anyway, you know this is one of the banes of our existence--all of you = who write out there! You know your ward members are apt to care only 2 = beans about your work. We have had only 2 of our families in the ward com= e to the Villa in four years! A few (maybe four people) know that I write= . And one of them, Pat Kreuger, whose husband works for Steve Covey, says= she's a fan now! She loves my stuff! When I go by her house on the way = to church, I have a moment of reverence, and mention it to my husband. = "Pat likes my stuff," I say. "She says she's a fan now. Somebody loves = me." When I get up every morning I start out the day with OMMMMMMM, prayer, = and "Remember, a prophet is not without honor except in his own house, = church and community." Of course my "except" extends to WORLD, also. I = remember winning (a year after Margaret won her award) the Utah first pri= ze for ROAD TO COVERED BRIDGE and nobody wanted to publish it because it = wouldn't sell. I have three of my GOOD novels sitting there, unpublished = still. (I did decide to do potboilers first, like THE EARTHKEEPERS purely= so that I could have an audience for the stuff I really wanted to write,= but it hasn't worked so far.) The reason I identify with Margaret so much is that although somebody did= take the risk to publish her SALVADOR, it didn't sell, either, and you = found it on tables of junk in all the book stores. My daughter Simeen did= the illustration on the cover and sweet gorgeous Margaret said to me onc= e: "If anybody bought it, it was because the cover was so good." Nobody = knows how thrilled I am that Margaret is going to be a best seller now. = Dear Margaret, that style, that class in that short story of IRREANTUM! = I wanted to write a critique of that. Just the beginning conversation--wi= th the mother and son finding if they can communicate. or keep their comm= unication while she is contemplating going somewhere else! BEautiful. I think I've hogged posts. But thank you. No. The people around us don't = care, my friends. That's why this list is so important. Thanks to all of = you for keeping it up. Sincerely, Marilyn Brown - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 12:09:56 -0500 From: Jonathan Langford Subject: Re: [AML] First Novel Drafts D. Michael Martindale wrote: >This is the process recommended by many professional authors. When >writing the first draft, just _write_. Let your creativity flow. Tell >the editor in your head to shut the holy heck up. This is true, I think, of many of the most productive writers. It doesn't work for everyone, though. Lloyd Alexander and Patricia McKillip are two examples of writers who compose carefully on a word-by-word and sentence-by-sentence level during their first draft process. As I understand it, the way they work, they can't really move on to the next scene until they're happy with the way the scene they're currently writing works. Of course, this doesn't mean they don't necessarily rewrite later on--and at least one friend of Patricia McKillip's commented once that because she works this way, she spends about half of each year in writer's block. But she's apparently found a way that (more or less) works for her, and I don't know that she would necessarily improve by trying a different strategy. I've long been interested in different writers' writing habits (including my own, though I'm not primarily a creative writer), and probably the most important thing I've found is that different strategies work for different writers. Some (like Scott Card) have to let the pot bubble for quite a while, then do the actual writing fairly quickly. From what I've read of his experiences writing, it seems that major rewrites, for him, typically consist of starting all over again--because for him, the key is finding the right starting-point. Sometimes a novel will require starting over several times to find that correct starting point, other times it won't. Other writers do more detailed outlining (I'm thinking of Dave Wolverton here, as one Mormon example). Others may "discover" their story as they write, and then have to rewrite backwards once they reach the end: Tolkien reported that much of this happened in his writing of _Lord of the Rings_, and if you look at his initial drafts (which have now been published in a 12-volume series by his son--thank you so much Christopher, I can imagine him saying from the other side of the veil, for showing my bad first drafts; but it's a boon to those with an interest in the writing process), you'll find that some of them are terrifying--terrifyingly bad*, though even in the first drafts there are still phrases and words that make it into his later versions. But he, too, started several times, before he finally found the conflict in his story. (He didn't have any idea that the Ring was going to be the center of the story when he wrote the first draft of the first chapter!) Once he found out where he was going, he still did a lot of revision--and a lot of revision while he was still forging ahead with the main story, as well as after it was completely written. Okay, sorry (get me started on Tolkien, and I have to be shut up by main force). But I think the main point is that a writer needs to find out what works for him or her. (I was going to take this post in a completely different direction--talking about how even though there seem to be different processes, some of the same things seem to happen in most good writers' processes, sometimes before the first draft, sometimes during the drafting, sometimes after the first draft--but I got sidetracked, so I'll let that go for now...) Jonathan Langford *Some examples of "terrifyingly bad" writing from Tolkien's early drafts, or at least writing that clearly changed from the earlier to the later drafts: For quite a long time, the main character of LOTR was going to be "Bingo" Baggins, not Frodo; Strider was a mysterious hobbit who "wore boots"; and Bilbo was originally going to leave Hobbiton because his money had run out. The very worst, though (in my opinion), is in the first draft of Bilbo's party speech, where the "Announcement" he builds up to is "Goodbye! I am going away after dinner. Also I am going to get married." Tolkien goes on to explain that this wasn't really the case, it was just that he had run out of money, then continues: "Then how could he get married? He was not going to just then--he merely said 'I am going to get married.' I cannot quite say why. It came suddenly into his head. Also he thought it was an event that might occur in the future--if he travelled again amongst other folk, or found a more rare and more beautiful race of hobbits somewhere. [!!!] Also it was a kind of explanation. Hobbits had a curious habit in their weddings. They kept it (always officially and very often actually) a dead secret for years who they were going to marry, even when they knew. Then they suddenly went out and got married and went off without an address for a week or two (or even longer). When Bilbo had disappeared this is what at first his neighbors thought. 'He has gone and got married. Now who can it be?--no one else has disappeared, as far as we know.' Even after a year they would have been less surprised if he had come back with a wife. For a long while some folk thought he was keeping one in hiding [!], and quite a legend about the poor Mrs Bilbo who was too ugly to be seen grew up for a while." Apparently, this seemed as unpromising a direction to Tolkien as it does to us, because after one more paragraph he abandoned this draft and started over. Thank goodness. jlangfor@pressenter.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 14:24:12 EDT From: ViKimball@aol.com Subject: Re: [AML] YOUNG, _I Am Jane_ (Performances) In a message dated 7/11/00 9:29:52 AM Pacific Daylight Time, wwbrown@burgoyne.com writes: << I had a call from the author of SAND IN THEIR SHOES yesterday. (Does anyone remember it? I played in the band as a mere sophomore--Crawford Gates wrote the music). He is the one who is supporting Tim Slover in writing the play HANNCOCK COUNTY. He's taking IRREANTUM now, and he's impressed! He said he would start listening in on this list. Don Oscarson. I was so happy to hear from him. He told me that a group of Jews got together (like us) and said, "What can we do to change the world's opinion of Jews?" They got financial support (and he's one of those eager to help) and searched for the best novelist they could find. At the time it was Leon Uris. And they told him what they wanted, so he wrote EXODUS. So--I ask you--are our discussions of all this "novel business" or "artistic" business in vain? Absolutely not. >> Don Oscarson also wrote "City of Joseph," among other accomplishments. Is "I Am Jane" going to travel to other cities besides Chicago? Perhaps I should be asking Margaret that question, however. St. Louis might be a good place to bring it for a couple of nights. The Oscarsons are in St. Louis right now and he might be able to find a place for it to perform. Violet Kimball - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 12:17:28 -0600 From: "Rachel Ann Nunes" Subject: Re: [AML] THAYER, _Summer Fire_ Neal said: >That idea scares me, because I still want to believe that I can train my >kids well enough that they won't really have to make these decisions >without just doing what I tell them. But the truth is that all LDS youth >have to learn to rely on the strength of their own testimonies and not >someone else's, even a parent's. I agree with you there. It is very frightening. And if Doug Thayer's book can help parents understand how important it is to make kids take responsibility for their actions, and at the same time influence young men for the better, then my hat goes off to him. Rachel - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ End of aml-list-digest V1 #98 *****************************