Evon Davis

Hemingway said that there is no such thing as writing, only rewriting. What he meant is that we cannot expect any first draft to be good writing. Those occasions when it does come out fabulous right off the bat are rare and magical. Even professional writers like Stephen King have to rewrite and revise several times before their manuscripts are ready for publication. If you’d like your writing to be publishable, come to this workshop and learn the tricks that the professionals know in order to polish your writing until it shines. Through discussion, reviewing sample pieces, and in-class writing exercises, novelist and writing teacher Evon Davis will raise your writing up to the next level.

To register, click on the Class Number link.

Just one paragraph. That’s all.

In Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott says that one of the best pieces of advice she can give to writers is to do short assignments. I agree with this completely. It is so strange that we human beings seem to think that when we pick up pen and paper to write, or turn on the computer, we are about to create the most profound work of literature ever known to humankind and change the world forever.

No wonder we get writers’ block and find any excuse under the sun to avoid going near that terrifying manuscript. It’s worse than a saber-toothed tiger hiding under the jungle ferns just waiting to rip us to shreds for dinner.

So that’s why I’m telling you now: Just do one paragraph. That’s all. It’s enough. You’ll see.

I just read the Sunday Book Review in The New York Times online,” The Problem With Memoirs” by Neil Genzlinger.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/books/review/Genzlinger-t.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=books

In his approach to reviewing four memoirs, he states that most people shouldn’t even attempt to write a memoir, and I must say that I strongly disagree.  First of all, writing and publishing are two different things.  If someone wants to write a memoir, they most certainly should.  There is much to be gained in the act of writing itself.

Socrates said, “An unexamined life is not worth living.”  Writing a memoir is a way to examine one’s life; it’s also a way to share your own unique story; and it’s writing practice (which is beneficial in any form). 

Many people write memoirs for personal reasons, not necessarily to get published.  But even if they do seek publication, who’s to say there aren’t thousands or milions of people who’d be interested in reading it? 

I personally might not be interested in reading any of the memoirs he mentioned, but that doesn’t mean someone else wouldn’t be interested.  So,tell us why it did or did not draw you in, but keep whether it should have been published to yourself. 

I did see the film “127 Hours,” based on the memoir by Aron Ralston, “Between a Rock and a Hard Place” .  Ironically the film was also reviewed in The New York Times online:  http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/11/05/movies/05one.html

I thought it was a fascinating story and well worth the time and money I spent. 

Having battled depression (one of the topics he says “have been disgorged by virtually every­one who has ever had cancer, been anorexic, battled depression, lost weight” that have caused the “memoir-eligible” to be ”lost in a sea of people you’ve never heard of, writing uninterestingly about the unexceptional, apparently not realizing how commonplace their little wrinkle is or how many other people have already written about it.”), I am so grateful to those people who did tell their stories and those who published them so that I could read them and come to understand what was happening to me and that I wasn’t alone.

He suggests that these people should just blog about it, but blogging and memoir-writing are two very different media.  It’s like comparing crumbs to the full-course meal.  Not only is the memoir going to be more complete, nutritious and satisfying, the author can also get paid for all of his or her hard work.  Blogging doesn’t pay, so it’s unlikely to ever be as good as the book.

I recently read two memoirs:  Bird Cloud by Annie Proulx (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/books/review/Fuller-t.html) and Faery Tale by Signe Pike (http://faerytalebook.blogspot.com/), and although Annie Proulx is an award-winning author, The New York Times reviewer Alexandra Fuller called Bird Cloud “something of a letdown,” which sums up what I and everyone in my memoir class thought.

Now according the Genzlinger’s standards, Annie Prouxl is memoir-eligible.  Her second novel, The Shipping News (1993), won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for fiction in 1994, and was made into a film in 2001. Her short story Brokeback Mountain was adapted as an Academy Award, BAFTA and Golden Globe Award-winning major motion picture released in 2005. She won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for her first novel, Postcards.

He says, “There was a time when you had to earn the right to draft a memoir, by accomplishing something noteworthy or having an extremely unusual experience or being such a brilliant writer that you could turn relatively ordinary occur­rences into a snapshot of a broader historical moment. Anyone who didn’t fit one of those categories was obliged to keep quiet. Unremarkable lives went unremarked upon, the way God intended.”

But who decides who and what is remarkable or unremarkable?  If Bird Cloud hadn’t had the name Annie Proulx attached to it, it probably wouldn’t have been published.  On the other hand, Faery Tale is the story of a 28-year-old woman, no more remarkable than any other, who wrote a memoir about her search for enchantment.  She sees enchantment in the mundane, like a robin who lands at her feet three times with a different insect in its mouth each time, and it’s utterly delightful.

I found Signe Pike’s descriptions of nature in Faery Tale far more engaging than those of Annie Proulx in Bird Cloud.

I’m just saying that if publishers only published what Genzlinger considers “memoir-eligible,” we’d miss out on a great deal of beautifully-written stories, some about suffering, some about the mundane, all of them remarkable in their own unique ways.

Mike Shevdon is the author of Sixty-One Nails and The Road to Bedlam.  I owe him for his inspiration and admire him for his writing. 

Hi Mike,

I first saw your book, Sixty-One Nails, on Jennifer Jackson’s website/blog, then I saw it one day while browsing in the bookstore. It looked interesting so I bought it and read it. I was hugely impressed!

I’m drawn into the world of magic that you create.  Because I live in a magical world and see it all around me, when I read stories with magic in them, I expect to see the core truths about magic.  That tells me the author knows what he or she is talking about.  I definitely see that in your writing. 

As soon as Road to Bedlam came out I bought it and started reading it, but had to put it aside while I focused on NaNoWriMo and then revising the novel I’ve been writing this year.  When I went back to it, I couldn’t put it down!  I stayed up late last night, way past my bedtime, to finish it.   

You are definitely on my list of favorite writers. I’m a huge fan of yours now and can’t wait to read your future books.   What I find appealing about your writing is that the characters feel so real to me.  Niall Peterson comes across as a very real person.  It’s been gripping watching him deal with the problems he’s had to confront, and I’m looking forward to seeing how he deals with his children and their powers, not to mention how the Seven Courts and humanity will resolve their conflicts. 

Along with Niall, Blackbird is one of my favorite characters.  She is a strong female (which appeals to me).  I was surprised that when you took away her magical powers in the second book, it didn’t diminish her at all.  It showed us that her power isn’t really in her magic; it’s much deeper.  (I think the same is true of Niall.)

The settings are intriguing as well.  Of course that’s expected as part of urban fantasy where settings are integral to the story, but you do an excellent job of bringing them to life.  The fishing village of Ravensby is as vivid as anything in real life.

We all have some kind of power (or what I would call magic).  One of your powers is writing.  I was pleased to read that you got a contract for two more books.  I hope there will be many more after that!

I’m sure I will enjoy reading them, and continue recommending your books to my creative writing students.  Thank you so much for the wonderful stories :)

Evon

Today I’m reading Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein.  I read it when I was about 20 and have wanted to read it again for ages, but finally got a bug up my butt yesterday and went to the bookstore and bought a paperback copy.  I haven’t been able to put it down since.

This brings up the topic of money, of which there was no Martian equivalent; a perspective I admire immensely.  Those who know me, know that I have mixed feelings about money.  I wrote a blog called “Money, the Greatest Hoax Ever Perpetrated on Humankind.”  http://evondavis.com/blog2/2010/11/17/money-the-greatest-hoax-ever-perpetrated-on-humankind/

I call it that because it’s a mental straight-jacket.  Yet at the same time, virtually everyone believes in it, so you have to walk around as if you’re wearing that mental straight-jacket, whether you are or not.  In other words, you have to act like you believe in it, even if you don’t.  Just like an African bushman can’t walk around New York City without his clothes on, whether he believes in wearing clothes or not.

Fortunately, don Juan taught Castaneda a concept called “Controlled Folly” in which you play a role as if it were real.  The trick is to play the role without becoming lost and imprisoned by it.

What I mean by being “straight-jacketed” is that we’ve been imprisoned by our beliefs because in this system we are taught to believe that we HAVE TO sell our labor for money in order to survive.  But if people could see through the beliefs that have been fed to them since birth, they’d see that it’s not true.  It’s a choice.  People choose what they want to believe and then reinforce each other in their beliefs.  Then, because it’s what everyone believes, we have to play along with it.  Controlled folly is a way of turning it into a game.  This keeps our minds free, while on the outside, we pretend to take the game seriously.

I’m starting to put my belief more in Spirit than in Money.  Who could have predicted that I would be able to leave CBS and follow my heart for the past two years?  I had a little savings and a lot of faith.  I believe it’s the faith that’s gotten me this far.  Without it, I never would have been able to overcome my fears in order to listen to my heart.  Some would call it coincidence — that I’ve not only survived, but thrived.  I don’t believe it’s random.  And there was no way to predict it with logic before the fact.  That’s what I call magic.

But I admit, I haven’t completely shifted alliances… still seem to need money to pay car insurance, phone bill, website hosting bill, gas, groceries, etc.  So in 2011, I will play this game called “Controlled Folly” and see where Spirit leads me.  I will play the game as if I really believe in it, as if I were really wearing the mental straight-jacket.  Inside I’ll know the truth — that it’s just a game.  If I took it seriously, I fear I’d become depressed, or at least as neurotic and stressed out as most people find themselves.