Freele Pesters: First Edition
During The First Fiction Workshop Week: Fiction Editor Stefanie Freele Pesters LAR Contributors and Staff about The Importance of Beginnings
I couldn’t help myself. In this first week, as we discussed titles, beginnings, first paragraphs, killer first lines – questions arose. How important is the beginning? The title? What should it include? Or not? What are people thinking?
So, I pestered. I tackled the LAR staff, I prodded a few LAR authors. Here are their responses. Note: some agree, some don’t. But, all are writers and as far as I know, real people. No one has been shielded to protect the innocent.
Stefanie
Ray Vukcevich – LAR Contributor – Spring 2009
How important do you think is the title to the story and where do your titles come from?
Perfect titles just fall out of the air. Sometimes brainstorming works. Sometimes closing your eyes and systematically relaxing your body and clearing your mind and waiting for the sparkly lights works. Word association is nice. Pretend the title is spy, maybe a mole, under deep cover, and it’s your job to dig it out. Actually, I don’t think that one has ever worked for me. If a title is perfect, it’s important. Otherwise, I don’t think reader care too much about them.
When do you write the beginning of your story? Does it come first, later, etc?
My method is to get some words down (like plopping a big bunch of mud onto the table) and then work them into shape. I sweep through the whole thing many many times. From front to back, from top to bottom. Then I zero in on areas and work them. Then I sweep through the whole thing again. At some point, I make the computer read the story aloud. Sometimes the very words that are the beginning are there from the start, and sometimes they come later. I listen carefully and make changes and tweaks. Then I do it all over again. I have claimed elsewhere that I do not rewrite. Instead I just keep writing as above until I’m done.
What information should be conveyed to the reader in that first paragraph?
It may be a mistake to worry about what information should be in the first paragraph. Instead, I think what must be achieved is a promise (maybe call it a “narrative promise”) that reading the story will be worth the time spent. The opening promises this is going to be so cool No, really! Cool, cool, cool. You’ll laugh! You’ll cry! You may name your babies after the characters.
I don’t mean the opening should be a “hook.” Those can often seem so artificial. The opening can be slow and sweet if it tucks you in and pats your cheek and promises nice dreams probably with some ups and downs and maybe some distressful setbacks along the way. The opening can be so perfectly structured that the reader is pulled along just to see what will be said next. In fact, a lot of this is simply the way something is said.
You might keep the phrase “a character in a place with a problem” in mind, but it isn’t a rule. Yes, you will want to “set the scene” unless the scene has nothing much to do with what you are trying to achieve. For me, it’s all about the promise. (Except when it isn’t, I suppose. Suddenly I’m thinking there might be a place to briefly bore the reader so when the next paragraph wakes them up, they go “Yikes!” Probably deeper in the story. Maybe that is the function of the 17th and 18th paragraphs.)
Any other comments you may have about titles, beginnings, first lines….
In other words, we should think about what effect we achieve with particular techniques. For example, opening with a line of dialog puts readers on hold. They don’t know who is speaking — woman, man, boy, girl, computer, scorpion from space. They hear no voice. They must guess and will be wrong a lot of the time. This is true even if that period is very brief. So, this is usually a mistake. But you could make it work for a particular purpose. The utterance could be so universal that when readers find out it came from Bob, they go wow that Bob is really in touch with things. There are probably lots of uses you could make of it.
The first paragraph is special because it is first, and the last is special because it is last, but in a way every paragraph is special because it is the one in just that spot in just that story. You could bring it down a level and say something similar about every word.
Finally, my advice — slap words down on the slab and run some electricity through them, and then sweep back through and snip out all the boring parts.
Kelly Davio – Managing Editor – Los Angeles Review
Do you have any rituals you do before you write?
I try to get into the head of the speaker from whom I’m writing. Sometimes this is as straightforward as thinking about the speaker, and sometimes it involves listening to music that I associate with that speaker. When I’m in a writer’s-block headspace, I may crawl under my desk, close my eyes, and pretend to be the character until I’m ready to write. Though the latter is to be avoided, as it’s weird and bad for the back.
What is your favorite LAR title? What might be an example of a ‘bad’ title (not from LAR of course)?
“Pray that It Were Otherwise, But the Hard Work of Life Isn’t in the Tapping of the True thought, But in the Building of a Pipeline to Deliver the Goods,” by Matt Mauch, Issue 7. I love an audacious title, but the poem or story had better deliver. The poem, in this case, delivers beautifully.
I hate titles that begin with “My.” The title might be “My Garden” or it might be “My Erection.” Either way, I don’t care about anyone’s anything until the thesis has been proven (please don’t forget that all creative writing is argumentative in some sense). I don’t want to hear about the personality of the speaker until he or she has built the pipeline to deliver the goods.
Hobie Anthony – LAR contributor – Spring 2010
Do you have any rituals you do before you write?
I do most of my writing in coffee shops here in Portland. So, I have to prepare. I pack my stuff and ride my bike to whichever shop I’m calling the office for that day.
After I order my Americano and get situated, I have to check e-mail, look at facebook, etc. Once I’m settled in, I open my document and get to it.
I never thought of that as a specific ritual, but this process tells my brain and body that writing is about to happen.
Ann Beman – Nonfiction Editor – Los Angeles Review
Do you have any rituals you do before you write?
I select a color. This applies to sessions when I write in my journal with those fun German pens I schlep around with me.
If I’m transcribing from my notes, or editing or rewriting, I make a cup of herbal tea first.
How do you feel about writing that breaks the rules?
I want to chuck the writer on the chin with approval and say, “Just look at you, all breaking the rules!” I feel this way only if the rule-breaking was intentional.
What is your favorite LAR title? What might be an example of a ‘bad’ title (not from LAR of course)?
“To the Bum Who Followed Me for a Quarter Mile Chanting Nigger” I love this title. It has it all: conflict, humor, detail, action, character, suspense, bad behavior. Every single word tells a story before you even get to the poem. In concert with its poem, this title takes me out of my comfort zone and into somewhere totally unexpected.
I’m with Kelly. My Anything = bad title.
Ravi Mangla – LAR Contributor- Spring 2009
When do you write the beginning of your story? Does it come first, later, etc?
The beginnings usually come at the beginning. I have a difficult time moving forward without a strong opening sentence. For me, the hook is more like the anchor. Without a compelling beginning I feel hopelessly adrift.
How important do you think is the title to the story and where do your titles come from?
Titles are very important. Each writer has their own style. I prefer simple, straightforward titles in most cases; they seem to compliment the deadpan tone of my work and they don’t distract from the larger story. My only advice would be to avoid titles that sound like Lifetime Original Movies.
Any other comments you may have about titles, beginnings, first lines….
Here’s one of my favorite opening lines:
“Steven returned from the war without lips.” (Aimee Bender)
The sentence is wonderfully direct and economical. It hints at approaching conflict. And it opens the story to a wealth of possibilities.
Tanya Chernov – Translation Editor – The Los Angeles Review
Do you have any rituals you do before you write?
This probably sounds super OCD, but I like to take a shower before I write. It helps clear my mind and get me into the introspective groove. If I’m having a good day, the shower is preceded by a workout. But either way, getting all clean and cozy with a mug of tea gets my creative juices a-flowin’.
How do you feel about writing that breaks the rules?
Yes! Writing should break the rules all the time. What is art for if not to break down boundaries, barriers, and rules? Like Hemingway said, writing should be dangerous and scary, should take you to the emotional edge—only then will the true beauty of your ideas come though, if you are brave enough to let it happen.
What is the importance in a title?
Oh my, titles are everything to me. The title is a great opportunity that many writers neglect to take advantage of. You can get a lot of information into a title that might otherwise be tedious or clunky to express within the piece itself. Not only does it set the tone for the story, but it must also grab the reader’s attention immediately.
A successful beginning (prose) should include…
A killer first line, a clear idea of what the characters want, and enough sensory details to allow the reader to begin painting a mental picture.
What is your favorite LAR title?
My favorite LAR title: “How To Make White People Happy” Excellent piece, awesome title
Nick Sansone – LAR Contributor – Spring 2010
When do you write the beginning of your story? Does it come first, later, etc?
I almost always write the beginning of a story first. Without a starting point in place, I have a hard time writing backwards to one, and so end up with a lot of disconnected sections. It’s only when I get that first line, or image, or idea that can start out a story that I’m able to sustain a draft to the end–and that takes awhile.
How important do you think is the title to the story and where do your titles come from?
Titles I don’t think are crucial. They just have to not be bad. There are lots of phenomenal stories with forgettable titles: “The Dog” by Jack Livings; “The Bath” by Raymond Carver; “The Bell Ringer” by John Burnside, just to name a few. That said, titles are definitely opportunities to draw a reader in, and there’s no sense in wasting them. Great titles like Lorrie Moore’s “People Like That Are the Only People Here” and John Edgar Wideman’s “What We Cannot Speak About We Must Pass Over In Silence” and Tony Earley’s “The Prophet from Jupiter” are titles that stick with me, and they made me want to read those stories.
As far as my own titles, I like for them to allude to some thematic element in the story, whether I do that with a plain title like “The Resurrection”–a story I wrote about a woman who mistakenly believes her cat has risen from the grave, as well as about her emotionally rebounding from a divorce (it makes sense if you read it, I promise). Or in the case of this story with a longer, more unusual title. Thanks, Stefanie, for the help with that, by the way.
Any other comments you may have about titles, beginnings, first lines….
While titles may not be crucial, first lines are. I work for a couple lit mags, and a really good first line is enough to put me in a generous frame of mind when considering submissions. Also, a good first line is never needlessly shocking, some self-conscious use of profanity, or reference to bodily fluids or nudity. All that can be in a story, but no need to open with it. In my view, at any rate; and I’m sure there’s some great first line that has all those things in it that’ll prove me wrong.
Joe Ponepinto –Book Reviews Editor– Los Angeles Review
Do you have any rituals you do before you write?
I employ a modern version of invoking the muse. Basically 5 to 15 minutes of meditation and contemplation to put my mind in the world of the story I am trying to write, and to make the “real” world and all its issues and interruptions go away.
A successful beginning (prose) should include…
Some indication of the stakes. Why am I reading this story? What hooks me in? As a reader for a lit journal, I see so many stories that begin with character introductions (one, literally had the main characters state their names and shake hands), or worse, unnecessary backstory.
What is your favorite LAR title?
I love a title that intrigues, like “Odysseus in Montana.”
Laurie Junkins –Poetry Editor – Los Angeles Review
Do you have any rituals you do before you write?
The only ritual I have isn’t a ritual as much as a priming of the pump. I always read in my genre before I begin to write. Always.
How do you feel about writing that breaks the rules?
Love it. There’s no forward movement in the evolution of literature without rule-breaking.