Recently I noticed that I had a large omnibus of Raymond Chandler novels on my shelf that included three I hadn’t read. Rather than start in write away, I figured I’d work my way through Chandler’s entire body of hardboiled detective fiction (he’s one of the genre creators) starting with the short story collection Killer in the Rain.
The book reminded me of what I like about Chandler. His language is wonderful (”She was the kind of woman could make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window” and “He was about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel’s food cake” are two of my favorites) and writing before hardboiled fiction became a genre, his work feels much more real than later authors who followed in his wake.
However, reading the collection over a few days, I couldn’t help being annoyed by the repetitive tricks Chandler used over and over: In every story, for example, the PI (John Carmady or John Dalmas—Marlowe came later) gets knocked cold from behind; in a couple of stories, he got drugged unconscius as well. I don’t remember Chandler being that repetitious in novels of the same length as the collection.
I think I’ve mentioned in the past that I don’t reread more than one book by a given author a month, or their particular stylistic touches or plot twists start leaping out at me. Ruth Plumly Thompson’s Oz books (she was L. Frank Baum’s official replacement on the series) are pleasant if read one at a time (though not match for Baum’s), but when I reread them all in a few days for The Wizard of Oz Catalog, her fondness for having characters stumble across some random magical item they can use to save the day got very, very annoying.
Even Ramsey Campbell, perhaps my favorite horror writer, had that effect when I last read a story collection: The persistent hint-but-don’t-show presentation of th supernatural menace works very well in each individual story but felt tedious by the time I’d finished.The funny thing is, I know I didn’t use to have this problem. I’ve read lots of anthologies, and lots of single author anthologies and it’s only the past few years that I’ve been distracted this way. Is it that my writer’s eye is becoming more alert to technique? Or that my reader’s eye has built up lots of experience?
Either way, I think when I next read a collection I’ll try spreading it out over a couple of weeks and see if that keeps things fresh.
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Archive for the 'Writing' Category
Killer in the Rain
April 28th, 2009, 11:06 am by fshermanBlog miscellany
April 13th, 2009, 10:29 am by fshermanOn Salon, Glenn Greenwald discusses the Obama administration’s position that it can use a prison in Afghanistan to hold enemy combatants without judicial review, just as the Bush administration did at Gitmo.
David Neiwert discusses Glenn Beck promoting the idea that liberals are the true fascists. This includes Beck asserting that Henry Ford—an ardent Hitler supporter who received some of the Reich’s highest awards for his support for their war machine—was a great anti-fascist because he opposed Roosevelt.
Locavore reports that agribusiness is having shrieking fits over Michelle Obama’s plans for an organic garden (”I shudder” was one opponent’s comment) and urging them to use “crop protection products” (pesticides) instead.
On an entirely unrelated note, I just sold a short story, “The Love That Moves the Sun” to All-Fantasy Anthology. This is the story I’ve had out the longest (three years now) so I’m delighted it found a home.
Regressing to the mean
February 10th, 2009, 12:40 pm by fshermanSo last week I had a stressful experience which kept me from focusing on my writing for a day.
Wouldn’t have been a huge problem, except that when I refocused, I was hit with a sudden sense of futility: I wouldn’t make my hourly quota for the week, so what was the point? Why even try? Which is illogical, I know, the equivalent of the “Well, eating that chocolate blew my diet, so why not eat the whole box?” school of thought.
Even so, I got enough done last week that I wasn’t too far behind … and then came this week. I wasn’t planning to put in a full week of work, since I have a Mensa event scheduled Friday and Saturday, but I’d figured I’d get a fair amount done Sunday through Wednesday.
Nope. Sunday, preparations for Mensa—memorizing lines for a skit, preparing a presentation I’m doing on the old movie Production Code—took up a lot of time, as did skit rehearsal Monday night. And I still have a couple of other tasks that need doing. So the end result is, I can’t seem to summon up the will to write (away from the paper). I spent the morning before work finishing Christine Garwood’s interesting Flat Earth instead of writing, while feeling vaguely guilty about it.
I think part of my What’s the Use? reaction is because it’s been so long since I didn’t make my weekly hours that it really threw me off-kilter—more so because writing went so well last month that I fully expected it to flow in February too.
It occurred to me this morning that by that assumption I was ignoring “regression to the mean.” As Peter Bernstein explains it in Against the Gods (a fascinating look at probability, statistics, gambling and stock investing), when someone or something does really, really well, the odds are that simply because of random factors, they won’t do as well the next time (the same applies to doing really, really poorly). That’s why “average” is somewhere in the middle of our range of performance and not at the top.
In discussing investing—Bernstein thinks the “rational investor” is largely a myth—Bernstein points out that people find regression to the mean counter-intuitive: If our performance today is excellent, we should do as well tomorrow. As Nicholas Taleb says in Fooled By Randomness, we overestimate how much of a role skill plays in what we do, and underestimate chance.
Which is a long-winded way of saying that not getting my writing done used to freak me out—what if I never get back on the horse? What if I keep goofing off?—I’m much more relaxed about it now. Sooner or later, a misstep is inevitable, but just as my output fell this month, inevitably it will rise again.
Published
January 29th, 2009, 8:11 am by fshermanMy short story One Hand Washes the Other is now out at Abyss and Apex , an online fantasy magazine.
I started it two or three years ago with something quite close to the opening scene of the finished story: A teenager bargains with a wizard to save his best friend (whom he’s in love with—not reciprocated) from dying of cancer. The deal they settle on is for him to perform one favor for the wizard, whatever she asks (with a few limits like no murders).
This then lay fallow until I decided I was ready to give it a shot. The rambling adventure that resulted from Tranh trying to carry out the witch’s favor is surprisingly close to the finished tale in tone and in plot, though it took multiple drafts to refine the details of the quest.
What did change was the protagonist: I decided it would have more punch to turn Tranh into a 35 year old (he was also no longer Vietnamese), someone who’d carefully mapped out his life plan only to lose the woman who was supposed to be a part of it. Worse still, Ryan couldn’t seem to let go and move on (I drew a lot on personal experience from a few years earlier for that bit).
That worked much better for me. Then my good friend Dori pointed out Ryan was being so noble in all this, there was never any doubt what would happen when the time came for a moment of decision. I rewrote him to be much more selfish, and apparently it worked: The last magazine I submitted to told me he was far too unpleasant a lead for them to accept the story.
I’m very pleased with the finished product, and I found myself quite fond of the leads; it may be there’s at least one more adventure in store for Ryan and Clothilde. We’ll see.
Some clarification is in order
January 27th, 2009, 1:18 pm by fshermanA letter from a Mr. Bill Pope of Mississippi is running in tomorrow’s paper as follows:
“It is interesting that the viewpoint of the Destin Log is totally dominated by the views of Mr. Sherman, your resident liberal.
His main purpose now is to attack the columns by Ron Hart. While Mr. Hart represents the stated views of your owner Freedom Communications, which promotes “Freedom and Individual Rights for All,” Sherman stands only for liberalism for all.
Apparently the publisher and editor agree with Mr. Sherman or his column would not exist. Either that or they lack the will or ability to express conservative views. Sherman attacking Mr. Hart is like a pea-ant attacking an elephant. ”
Setting aside that as with some of Ron Hart’s other fans, Mr. Pope doesn’t actually refute anything I said (admittedly that would be difficult, since I’m right), my column, as they say, does not represent the views of this paper or this company. Hart says one thing, I disagree, The Log runs us both; obviously, therefore, we’re not being selected because the editor agrees with our views. And the fact that Hart’s column does run shows we’re willing to run conservative pieces (we’ve had former columnists who were much more so).
It’s not my “main purpose” to take shots at Hart’s writing, as witness that this was my first column about his views since 2007. I’ve written fewer columns in response to Hart than I did to that former local conservative columnist, or to the Ayn Rand Institute when we ran their columns.
I do take a semi-weekly shot at Hart in my blog, for the same reason I used to write regular letters to the Daily News (before I became a Freedom staffer) about some of their columnists (Casey Brooks, Walter Williams) and write columns about the Ayn Rand Institute: False claims appearing in my local paper annoy me more than when they come out of the White House spokesperson or some national pundit. So as long as Hart’s writing for us, I’ll be blogging to explain why he’s wrong, just as I frequently do with letters in the Daily News or The Log.
As for not representing the views of Freedom, in the column Mr. Pope was referring to I was criticizing the government for the use of torture, illegal detention and the violation of the Constitution; opposition to those things is surely a good libertarian position (I’m not a libertarian, but there are things on which I agree with them). Mr. Hart, like a dutiful Republican, voted for McCain who would have continued those policies so no, I don’t quite see him as pro-freedom as much as pro-Republican.
The act of creation
December 11th, 2008, 12:49 pm by fshermanIn his “Permanent Damage” online column, writer Steven Grant discusses what he thinks is the lesson people don’t draw from successful creators. Although he’s discussing comic-books, I think it’s generally applicable:
“The problem is that everybody ignores two key aspects of WATCHMEN: while
it drew on the long tradition of superhero comics, it made specific points
that had not been made before (or, at least, not so publicly), and Alan
and Dave made their points and got. The hell. Out.
WATCHMEN didn’t exist to create a franchise. It existed to tell a story.
Period. You may not like the story, you may love the story, you may not
think it was worth telling or whatever, but all that’s irrelevant. It
existed to tell a story. A story. Prequels? Sequels? Regular series? Why?
No need for them. People want to read new Rorschach stories? So what? Is
there anything of importance anyone needs to know about Rorschach that
isn’t already in WATCHMEN? Would a secret failed marriage or an
unmentioned half-brother or expanded rogues gallery or any of the other
soap opera tripe that passes for characterization in superhero comics make
him a better character? In fact, WATCHMEN is anti-franchise. The best any
attempt to revisit the characters can hope for is to not weaken or subvert
the original work. About the best anyone intentionally doing their “own”
WATCHMEN can achieve is pathetic knockoff status.
(snip)
Throughout my professional lifetime, I’ve watched talent go to Marvel or
DC and occasionally other places, simply so they could work on Jack
Kirby’s characters. And do “their” version of Kirby. This includes people
I consider friends. Again, it’s one thing to have a good OMAC story in
mind, but I’m talking about people whose greatest dream in life is to make
their careers continuing Kirby characters. I don’t think there was one of
them who didn’t believe their work on his characters somehow honored
Kirby’s contributions to the field. I only spoke to Jack twice in my life,
but one of those times I asked him about this.
In fact, Jack did not feel honored. He wasn’t upset about it, and didn’t
complain (like others I’ve known in similar positions have) that he hadn’t
been hired instead to work on his own characters. He was saddened. Why?
Because he hadn’t spent his career just working. He’d spent it creating,
and constantly coming up with new characters and new creations wherever he
had the chance.
What saddened him was that message – create your own, create your own,
create your own - wasn’t the legacy his career was leaving for new talents
instead.
Likewise, the message talent should be getting from WATCHMEN is: tell the
story you want the way you want to, make the story your only, know when
there’s no story left, then get. The hell. OUT. And two decades on,
they’re still not getting that message.
We have to drum it into our heads: if you like Jack’s work, or Alan’s
work, or Warren’s or Robert Crumb’s or Daniel Clowes’ or Jim Lee’s or
whoever’s, do not imitate their work.
Imitate their example.”
Sam Seevers (6:19 p.m.)
October 6th, 2008, 4:19 pm by fshermanSeevers: Were the bids identical?
Greg: The bids were within 1 percent in the rates, but Regions also offered a $100,000 fraud protection plan and no late payments. Doesn’t think service will be a problem.
A Regions spokesman says Regions probably has more staff in Destin and more total deposits in Destin than First National.
Another Regions person says that card delivery will be just as fast as First National.
Oh, just suck it up!
August 28th, 2008, 9:32 am by fshermanSome Stephanie Meyer fans are not happy.
Meyer has written an amazingly successful vampire quadrilogy, but the fourth book has antagonized a lot of readers who hated the ending and decided they want their money back.
And I don’t mean readers going back to the store and returning the book, I mean there are some who are calling for a mass sending back of books on the grounds this will Send A Message to Meyer not to write bad books.
OK, I admit I haven’t read the book, but I think it’s a little much to assume this is a wilful decision by Meyer to write crap rather than an aesthetic disagreement.
She’s hardly the first author to have this problem, either: Many people hated the end of Rosemary’s Baby and Ivanhoe, though as far as I know, there were no mass movements to Send A Message to Ira Levin or Sir Walter Scott.
As a writer, I unsurprisingly side with Meyer’s comment that what she writes “can’t be about what everyone else wants.”
For more information, check out Christian Science Monitor’s book blog
An inspiring thought for morning people
August 25th, 2008, 12:17 pm by fshermanFrom writer G. Willow Wilson: “Art is by nature and most artists are extremists … I’m also an extremist—-I simply choose the other extreme. And at a time when artists of all sorts are allowed and even expected to do the stuff everyone else just wishes they could get away with, my extreme feels almost naughty. Antiestablishment. Aberrant. I like being a chemical-free, overdisciplined ball of morning-person enthusiasm.”
Does writing fiction make me a bad boy?
June 10th, 2008, 9:47 am by fsherman“The fiction writer is paid for his day-dreaming. But as far as the effect on the reade ris concerned, it makes little difference whether the day-dream is one’s own, or whether it has been written down by somene else. Day-dreaming, whether original or second-hand, has the effect of taking a person away from the real world in which he lives. It causes him to live in a world of make-believe. This is the principal reason why the reading of fiction is not desirable.”—”On Being a Woman,” 1951.
It reminds me of JRR Tolkien’s comment on what sort of people would object to reading for escape: “Jailers.”
For more from the same source visit blinkytreefrog’s blog
