Reflections from the Well

On Writing Craft, Creativity & Inspiration

by Alexander Slagg



Living the Dream

Many of us harbor fantasies of living the lives of our artistic inspirations. Living lives of quiet, modest struggle, dedicated to our craft, until one day the world discovers our work and we rise into the sky a blazing comet of significance. It’s a story that’s inspired many people. But how long do you hold out for the moment of liftoff? Is that archetypal journey even realistic? Maybe it’s better to chart your own course, wherever it may lead. You may be pleasantly surprised where you end up.

I was a writer before I became an editor. I spent many open-ended afternoons and late nights sequestered in my dingy off-campus rental room, typing and picking away on stories, poetry, songs. After I graduated from college, I did much of the same. The afternoon fog would roll in and break across the city while I worked and occasionally put together a publishing query. Soon enough it was time to make myself presentable and hop on the Fulton #5 bus to my evening job at the restaurant.

At some point along the way I recognized I was adrift. I began to question where this free-form approach to establishing a writing career was getting me. I had a few published pieces occupying a small space on my bookshelf – meager results compared to dozens of rejection letters stuffed into my deluxe edition of Writer’s Market on the shelf below. I needed to rethink this whole thing.

I applied to writing programs, but was rejected. And really, I saw little to gain by digging myself into a pit of debt only to receive a degree whose primary value was to qualify me to be a writing instructor of some sort. I didn’t want to teach others to write; I simply wanted to write.

But I felt the need to bring some form of practicality to this pursuit, a plan. I also needed to make a living, get some health insurance, maybe put money away for the distant future. I hit upon the idea of becoming an editor.

As an editor, I’d be working in an area of interest, involved in something that I was passionate about. And I could get inside the machine, the world of book publishing, and learn how it works from the inside. The idea of mailing off a poor defenseless manuscript into its black maw would seem less frightening. Maybe some day my insider knowledge would be there to smoothly guide me through a foreign rights contract or some other authorial rough patch.

So I started taking community college courses, anything I could find that related to editing or proofreading or writing. And soon enough I was hired as an editorial assistant for a small publisher. I worked on New York Times bestsellers and complete flops. I learned the business. I supported a growing family, and I continued to write. It felt like the best of all worlds.

Sooner or later, many of us reach what feels like a fork in the road: Do I pursue my dream or give it up. Only it’s not really a fork. It’s one more decision on a bigger journey that encompasses your dream and so much more. There’s room for that dream and whatever else you need in your life. The question is, do you have a broad enough imagination that can envision this wider world? If you’re reading this column, you probably do.

Share your comments with Alex for possible inclusion on the LWN blog or in his next reflection at aslagg@literarywritersnetwork.org.

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The “Best Of" 10,000 Tons of Black Ink will be between 50-100 pages and feature the best stories published online at www.10ktobi.org since the release of our last print edition. Five hundred copies will be printed in the initial run, which will be sold at various bookstores in Chicago and the suburbs. A second run of 500+ will be printed should demand be enough to require it.

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SAVE THE DATE!

Please Join Us For Our
“Best Of” 10,000 Tons of Black Ink Volume II Release Party

Friday, March 23, 2012
7:00 – 9:00 p.m.

The Book Cellar
4736-38 N. Lincoln Ave
Chicago

10,000 Tons of Black Ink will release its next “Best Of” print edition featuring the strongest pieces published online since the last print edition. The evening will feature readings from the publication, work from local Chicago writers, and a silent auction offering many great prizes.

Be sure to come a few minutes early to visit The Book Cellar’s wine bar, with a variety of coffee drinks, beverages, salads, and sandwiches available for purchase.

Receive a copy of the magazine with your $5 donation. To learn more, please visit www.10ktobi.org.

10,000 Tons of Black Ink is a Literary Writers Network (LWN) publication. LWN is an organization dedicated to literary excellence through the advancement and promotion of emerging fiction and creative non-fiction writers. 10,000 Tons of Black Ink is an independent literary publication of quality literary or experimental fiction and creative non-fiction. It relies on the kindness and generosity of those who support the arts.

Reflections from the Well

On Writing Craft, Creativity & Inspiration


By Alexander Slagg



Don’t Fear the Future

I recently read about the publication of Modernist Cuisine, a 2,438-page, five-volume book on cooking history, theory, chemistry and microbiology. Its primary author is Nathan Myhrvold, a chef at the vanguard of modernist cooking (or what some call molecular gastronomy). The main thrust of a ‘modernist’ approach to cooking is deconstructing ingredients to their essential qualities and then reassembling them into food dishes that have never been seen before. Imagine Liquid Pea Ravioli—pea soup presented as a stand-alone sphere on your plate.

Does that sound appetizing? Not to me. I recently started learning to cook, mostly standard comfort foods: mac and cheese, meatloaf, ‘plain old’ split pea soup, stuffed peppers. My tastes run toward traditional dishes.

I was turned off by the whole concept behind Modernist Cuisine as I read. Cooking is fine without all the test tubes and centrifuges in the kitchen, thank you. But I caught myself. I began to wonder, what if I took the same attitude toward my own craft?

What if I approached storytelling this way? What if I only appreciated canonical writers like Herman Melville or other dead white guys? What if I firmly believed that a book was meant to be read, not listened to in the car, not viewed on an e-reader? Well, I’d consider myself to be a literary snob who was missing out on all sorts of interesting writing and innovations going on around me.

It’s important to appreciate traditions and study how things were done in the past. But I think it’s even more important to be open to new ways of doing things. Progress marches on whether we want it to or not. This is especially true in the world we live in, where technology develops at dizzying speeds and affects every aspect of our lives, including how we write and tell stories. And this has always been the case when you think about it, only it’s happening at a more rapid pace now.

Storytelling began around fires, cave dudes and prehistoric chicas finding entertaining ways to pass the time between hunting and gathering outings, pantomiming the day’s kill or painting on the cave wall. Mesopotamians took to writing on clay tablets. The Greeks moved storytelling to a theatre stage, adding a chorus and music. Medieval Europeans told their stories on the tapestries that hung in their castles to cover drafts. Gutenberg dreamed up the printing press and revolutionized how stories were shared. Then books on tape.

Today, we have e-books, another revolution. We can weave audio and video clips into a story, or guide the reader to a universe of relevant information through embedded URLs. Storytelling has gone through many transformations, and we stand at the threshold of another.

While I love traditional books, as an artist, I’d be limiting the scope of my own creative possibilities if I didn’t start exploring what I can do with writing and storytelling now in the e-book era. It’s a little scary and I’m likely to produce some poor art along the way as I incorporate this new toolset into my craft. That’s where I want to be as an artist – willing to leap into the unknown and see where it takes me. But I’m still not going to try the Liquid Pea Ravioli.

Share your comments with Alex for possible inclusion on the LWN blog or in his next reflection at aslagg@literarywritersnetwork.org.

Reflections from the Well

On Writing Craft, Creativity & Inspiration

By Alexander Slagg




Writing Schedules

It’s difficult for me to find time to write. I have a day job that drains my energy. I have children that need to be cared for and shopped for. I have a flat that needs occasional sweeping, a sink full of dishes that needs occasional emptying. I have a physical body that needs exercise and maintenance. I have relationships that need cultivation and pruning like garden flowers. And somewhere amid all of these basic routines and tasks, I need to work at my craft.

I’ve tried many approaches to scheduling writing time over the years, including mapping out a schedule in smudgy red ink on the refrigerator calendar. I’ve written first thing in the morning before the daily responsibilities hijack my thoughts. I’ve done it late at night, my bedroom lit by the blue glow of my computer screen. I’ve done it on the job, my story document hidden behind several open screens on my computer. I’ve written every day for months on end. I’ve written nothing for months and allowed my imagination to grow fallow.

What’s the best approach to a writing schedule? Whatever works best for you.

When I started taking my writing seriously, I worked as a bartender in the evenings and I spent my days reading and writing, or sitting on the backstairs watching the day go by. Day to day, I got a lot done. These days, I write when I can. I have more responsibilities today that take precedence over writing. That means I typically sit down to write 2-3 times a week, usually for only a few hours. In the future, that schedule will change again.

What I’ve learned not to do is become too rigid in my routines. I try to be like bamboo, flexible but firm. I’ve gone through deaths in the family, births, job loss, divorce—all sorts of life-altering experiences. And I felt compelled to focus my time and energy on those events and put aside the pen for a while. But slowly, and most definitely surely, I returned to the craft. Writing has often been my therapist, helping me process the bumps in the road of life. It’s what I turn to to make sense of it all. And it’s always there, whether it’s underlined three times on the calendar or not.

I’m also a believer in the idea that you need to be showing up to write whether the muse flies in through the window or not. You have to push yourself: No one is out there waiting for your first novel. The more often you’re sitting down to fire up your imaginative powers, the easier it gets and the stronger your creativity grows. It’s a muscle that needs to be exercised regularly. The more regularly the better.

And having said that, I also believe it’s a good idea to take a break and not do anything every once in a while. Allow that creative well to refill with life experiences and thoughts. If you believe in it, it’ll always be there beneath the surface, ready to quench that thirst. So which is it: Sit down and write regularly or take breaks from writing? It’s both. Do both firmly and with purpose.

Share your comments with Alex for possible inclusion on the LWN blog or in his next reflection at aslagg@literarywritersnetwork.org.