Where are you going? Where have you been? Discussing a short scary story by Joyce Carol Oates

Sometimes the best way to learn about writing is to see what someone else has done and why it worked. That is what Emma and I did today. She shared Joyce Carol Oates' short story with me, entitled, "Where are you going? Where have you been?" If you are interested in reading it for yourself, see link below. http://www.d.umn.edu/~csigler/PDF%20files/oates_going.pdf I learned one technique about creating fear in the reader from Stephanie More, which was that the audience knows more about the situation than the main character, because the main character rationalizes the danger away. In this story, however, Oates doesn't do that. The reader does know more about the situation than the main character, and in fact, is probably one step ahead of her all the way, and the effect is terrifying. Oates also spends a lot of time setting the terror up, by presenting several pages of banality, and typical teenage angst and behavior, to the point that I started flipping the pages, wondering how long this story is. But when the danger sets in, I understood why she did what she did: the contrast between yawning boredom and the scary guy made the fear more tangible. Em and I had a great time picking the story apart: noting all the foreshadowing, the close third person point of view (which allowed the reader to know more than the main character about her situation), the skill that Oates used at the climax of the story (incredibly awesome use of bodily functions as metaphors for murder), and the way she portrayed the antagonist's perception of reality. We were confused about the secret code used in the story, and read several essays about it, and I wondered why someone just didn't ask Joyce Carol Oates what she meant by those numbers. If you decide to read this story, I encourage you to read it in the light of day.

Blah, blah and blah

He was a nice older man, who looked ten years younger than his seventy-something years. Jim was his name. Yes, Jim. He introduced himself to Emma and me after talking non-stop for an hour, only ceasing because I packed up my computer and left the coffee house. Emma is more tolerant than I am. After fifteen minutes I was ready for him to be quiet and let us write. But he didn't stop, and blah blah and blahed some more. About his great life, about partying with the Grateful Dead, about Janis Joplin and her psychedelic sports car that someone stole. About how he didn't like alcohol, but really liked pot. The hippie talk annoyed me, but when he started in telling my daughter about how much he enjoyed smoking pot, I bristled inside. The man has no judgement, no filter about who he is talking to. Yes, my daughter at nineteen is an adult, but I really don't need some stranger telling my kid the wonders of pot. So, an hour for writing lost. Emma did remark what a good character he was, and to a certain extent she's right. He said something about his brain being so strong it could make a noise, and then he did something with his hearing aid that made it squeak.

Okay, I have to spew about the state of the economy of I will burst...

Reagan called it the "Ripple Down" effect, but I know better. Tax cuts for the wealthy do not create a ripple down effect, they only make the wealthy wealthier. And deregulation only opens the doors to make the crooked rich even richer, and when the bubble bursts, the government uses our tax dollars to bail them out. And why is that? It's because the same people that created the problem now run the financial arm of our government.

But I digress. This isn't what I really want to rant about. I want to bitch about the lack of what I call the "Ripple Out" effect, which is what truly drives the economy and makes it grow. I'm talking about the housing market. Housing drives the rest of the economy. I saw this first-hand when I worked for a real estate developer. First they'd hire huge companies to create the infrastructure, such as roads and sewers. Then the concrete foundations were laid (yet another company), and slowly, bit by bit over several months, houses were built. Think of everything that goes into a house and you can see why I call it the "Ripple Out" effect. Framing, roofing, plumbing, drywall, concrete drives, paint to name a few. Then the insides: carpeting, more paint, counter-tops, fireplaces, garage doors, chimney, refrigerators. Lots of little companies building and building, and each of their employees getting a wage, and spending money in their town, and in the state of California. Then the property taxes the new homeowners and my company would pay to the cities - payment for sewers, maintenance of city streets, firemen, police, schools, and other municipal services. Job creation spreads outward like a fan, or like a row of dominoes, one job creating another.

We bailed out the big banks in hopes they would lend money to prospective builders and homebuyers and start everything running again. But that has not happened. The banks are tight-fisted. They won't give credit to the builders, and their approval rate for new mortgage loans is dropping, not rising.

Meanwhile, the federal government is facing an August 2nd deadline to raise the debt ceiling or else? Well, I am not sure what will happen. Perhaps the feds will go bankrupt. Perhaps the value of the dollar will collapse and China will own us. Perhaps the sky will fall down. I am no expert, so I honestly don't know.

What I do know is this. The "Ripple Down Effect" is a myth. And the "Ripple Out Effect" is soon to follow, unless a new type of business can ripple out job creation throughout the economy the way the housing market has done. The only other solution I can see is what got us into this mess in the first place, and that is insuring the loans banks make so that they will loosen up their hold on the credit market and get things rolling again. Only I guess I'd suggest the government (ie us taxpayers) underwrite the insurance and make sure the entity applying for the loan is a sound risk. Like that would ever happen! Or even should happen for that matter!

Well, that felt good. Just needed to get it off my mind.

Creating Opportunity through Energy Shifts

Something I wrote in another blog, but need to remind myself.

I have to admit, I’ve never read the best seller, The Secret. All the buzz I’ve heard though, is how a person can manifest what he/she wants by visualizing it. If you wish it, it will happen. If you build it, they will come. And, I say, if you write it, maybe you can sell it. If you don’t try to write it, then you will fail before you ever started, because you never tried to create in the first place.

What about trying to create a writing life? Creating a space where you write, and can even earn a living? I say take little tiny steps, and don’t give up. Start small and think big. Open your mind to possibilities.

Well, that’s what I’m doing. Taking my energy and putting it where I love. To books, to writing, to writing what I love to write about, which is books, stories, and writing. I’m keeping my mind open to learn as much as I can along the way.

It’s not top secret, it’s not something I’ve discovered even recently. It’s the thoughts I’ve had since I was in my 20’s, but just the kind of thinking I keep forgetting. Keep my intention forefront, keep my mind open, pay attention, look for opportunites and keep working. It’s not talent or luck, it’s just persistence and maintaining focus.

One of these days I’ll have to read that book or watch that DVD and see how secret The Secret really is.

Conflict in Life, Conflict in Stories

I've been thinking lately, like I usually do, about life imitating fiction. Actually, fiction is supposed to imitate life, but sometimes life is so weird and strange, that if I were to write a fiction story about life, people would call it unrealistic.

Grasping conflict seems to elude me at times. But today and yesterday I was thinking about people and how they seem kind of stuck and unhappy, and if I could shake them like a rag doll and shout, "Snap out of it!" how much better off they'd be. Then I thought about it some more and realized that people do not change because they don't want to. Staying in the same place, holding onto the same perceptions or stagnating in the same circumstances for years serves that person(s) in some way. It might be too uncomfortable for them to make a change than to keep things unchanging, and no matter how much I think they would be better off to embrace change, maybe they would disagree.

After all, I am not them, I am me, and I am the only person inside my head. And I cannot get inside their heads and know what they are thinking and feeling. Their limitations serve some hidden purpose that I am not privy to.

But when I write a character, I can be that person and be inside that person's head, even if it is only for a little while. And I can make that person stagnate for a while, and then, I can make them change. I guess the trick would be to make the person courageous enough to cast off old beliefs and fears, or by external circumstances force a change in perception or situation on them. Sometimes writing is so much easier than real life.

Private Me

Only my mind-twin, Carolyn and I subscribe to this blog, which makes me think I can write most anything in the world, and no one will know. Except Carolyn. Who is like me in many ways.

I find myself dreaming of going back to school when I retire in 10 years and going for a Master's Degree in Creative Writing. Then I wonder if that is what I really want to do, or is it something that I think I want to do, but when it comes down to it, I won't really want to do it.

And then I wonder why I want to keep learning about writing, when I could be DOING IT! Writing right now! Like this!

Is learning another form of procrastination for me? Perhaps it is.

I only did this blog because my sister told me to. It seems like a lot of work for nothing. Everyone and his/her mother has a blog these days. For me though, now it is a place for private thoughts, because who is her right mind will follow me?

Ha!

Ray Bradbury on becoming a writer

I saw a youtube video with Ray Bradbury discussing the beginning of his writing career. He finally discovered that he was a true writer, when he wrote this story called "The Lake", which was a metaphor for something he experienced in his life. He went on to say that everything he writes is a metaphor for his life. When he wrote this story at age 22, he wept, because he realized he had written something beautiful,and that he was a true writer because he wrote for himself.

Gee... I have always written for myself, and the best things I write are metaphors of my inner life too.

I've been too insecure to call myself a writer, but Mr. Bradbury once again inspires me. At first I wanted to write stories that moved others the way his stories had moved me, and now I find validation.

Sometimes life brings you little hidden treasures.