Web blog Series: Popular Fiction Read-In

No book by any author listed on this monument is on my list.

I am embarking on a popular fiction read-in. I have avoided reading bestselling popular fiction, and now I want to read them to see what drives people to read books that I would not ordinarily read. The list is below: 

1. Harry Potter series (just the first book) by J.K. Rowling

2. Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

3. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

4. Twilight series (just the first book) by Stephenie Meyer

5. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

6. The Shack by William P. Young

7. The Game of Thrones series (just the first book) by George R.R. Martin

8. The bestselling fiction book at the time I get to number 8 (if it is not one of the above 7) as listed by the Globe and Mail.

I chose these books because they have been bestsellers of the last decade. I decided to stay with fiction rather than nonfiction (though The Shack may be a work of creative nonfiction--the use of fiction techniques in nonfiction, though I won't know until I read it, I guess).  I chose eight books because five seemed too few and 10 too many.

I may go to 10 books based on people's suggestions. Right now, however, I plan to read eight.

I plan to cleanse my palate between these books with other reading. Right now I am finishing a book of Anton Chekhov's short novels, and I am on Day Eight of Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron.  

I have preconceptions about the interaction of the palate-cleansers and the list. For example, I expect that my Chekhov reading will be enhanced by Hosseini, while I think The Decameron will prepare me for Fifty Shades of Grey. 

Some of these eight books I look forward to reading; others I dread. Some I expect I will rather hate; others I think I will like. I will try to be fair to all of them, but I can't hide my own reading habits, which have gotten more particular over time. The more good books I read, the more I lose patience with things such as sentimentality, misogyny, racism, sensational violence, and substandard writing skills. I dislike cliches, but I have more patience with plot cliches than with language cliches. Books that hit one of my negative hot-buttons will likely not get a positive reception from me. 

I will start with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

Software for Writing Novels

Novels can be complicated, so many people have written specialized software to help people write their novels. None of these actually "write" the novel--rather, they are organizers. An acquaintance of mine, Michelle, clued me on to novel-writing software.

I must confess that I am skeptical about this kind of software. I am also cheap, and I hate to pay for things that I suspect I don't really need.

I decided to check out what CNET Download says. Titles I found there include The Writer's Novel, StoryView, Dramatica Pro (which claims to help solve plot and character problems), Writing Type, StoryLines, and MyNovel. I keep telling myself that I just need to learn how to make a relational database using MS Access and I will be set. Before I try that, though, I downloaded a program called Writer's Cafe 2. I made a minimum effort to use it. It may or may not be useful for me. It's possible that I will comment on the software later.

Software makes sense for people who use computers anyway to create--I am using a laptop right now, so moving to a different piece of software is not a big deal. I don't know how useful creative software is for the plastic arts, for example, although digital visual artists do use computers, of course.

The Colbert Report has started a book club. It may be a one-off thing: the show seems to be promoting a particular movie. The single book on the book club reading list is The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Baz Luhrmann has made a film version of the book, and Colbert is having Baz Luhrmann on in a May episode. Also in attendance will be Pulitzer-Prize winner Jennifer Egan, who will lead the discussion. The Great Gatsby is sometimes treated as the Great American Novel (a phrase coined by not-famous-anymore writer J.W. DeForest). Colbert seems to mobilizing his Colbert Nation into a mass reading of this novel. I watch The Colbert Report religiously, so I will see it anyway, but I am curious to see if Egan comments on whether or not Gatsby has influenced her writing. Her book A Visit from the Goon Squad addresses the idea of the American Dream, a major theme in Fitzgerald's book.

Haiku story

I have an idea about using a short poem as the source of a story. I will try it by using a haiku (an English haiku) and see what kind of story opening I can develop from it using all the words in the haiku (in addition to my own). My goal is to use more than the words; I would also want to use the sense of the haiku itself in some way.

from Morning Haiku by Sonia Sanchez

your fast beat
riding the air settles
in our bones

     She held the wooden stem of the puddle jumper between her palms, arms extended. With a fast movement of her arm, she pushed the stem across her palm away from her and into the air. The puddle jumper flew from her hands across the restaurant parking lot. It was riding just above the top of the first car in front of her, but inevitably it dipped and struck the windshield of the next car hard, like the sound of bones breaking.    
     She tracked down the puddle jumper at the feet of the car it had hit. One blade of the plastic propeller had snapped. The blade dangled limply from the stem.
     That settles it, she thought. Our chances of making it in this town are gone. You have beat it down.

Poetry Reading

A poetry reading is taking place during the writer's circle group I am part of. I am here to write fiction. I will sit quietly (alone among poets listening) and write fiction, but in their spirit of creativity I create. I don't usually enjoy poetry readings. Is that wrong? Yes. I will try to enjoy. The poets seems dedicated, and the group is launching a chapbook, so I support them even as I create and ignore them.

Flash Fiction

Flash fiction, or postcard fiction, is a genre of fiction with a short word-length limit, usually under 500 words, but sometimes under 250 words or 1000 words, depending on the source.

This genre of fiction requires attention to detail and a willingness to compress experience. Short fiction is not easier to write than long fiction, at least for most people. Excess, a sin in some artistic orientations, is nearly impossible in flash fiction. The brevity of this genre makes it attractive to periodical and web publishers.

Finding flash fiction online is not difficult; I suspect the Internet has made flash fiction attractive because of the interest in blogs (which usually have short entries). There is now a national day in the UK (with a contest). A writer for the Guardian chronicles his attempt at generating a series of short short fiction (and he does quite well).


I have downloaded an app called Flash Fiction Prompter that generates prompts. Nothing about the generator makes the prompt more amenable for very short fiction only, but it works. I gave it try and wrote a 250-word story.  I gave my iPhone a shake and got these results:

Character: Male Stripper
Setting: Church
Plot: A character's son or daughter is recruited into a  [the plot description ends here]


 ____

Off the Guest List



Enterr didn’t hear about his son Melvin’s wedding until the day of.  His boss Gina was chatting with him in the break between his nooner routine and his teatime routine, and she said she noticed a wedding announcement in the paper. (She did crossword puzzles.)

"Can't be too many people out there with the last name 'Here,'" Gina told Enterr.

Enterr immediately called a cab and went to the Church of God's Children. The church was in an old strip mall next to a tattoo parlour. The doors were locked.  “So, it is a cult after all,” Enterr muttered.

 He waited outside until the doors opened. The first people out were his son Melvin and a woman Enterr didn't recognize. Both wore white robes. A small crowd of guests in church attire followed, throwing rose petals.

"Mel!" Enterr shouted.

Melvin turned around and saw Enterr. Melvin's mouth dropped open.  The guests stopped throwing petals and stared.

Enterr looked down.

He was wearing his teatime costume: a tophat, an unbuttoned tuxedo jacket and bowtie over a sparkling mesh t-shirt with bell-pull tassels sewn where his nipples were. He wore spats with black sequined socks and garters that went up to the tops of his legs, held up at the waist by a silvery belt. He wore a tiny black thong.

After a long silence, Melvin said, “Well, at least you wore a tie.”


___

A legend has arisen about Ernest Hemingway having written the world's shortest story (see snopes.com about it). To see some flash fiction with less controversial authorship, see http://flashfictiononline.com/main/

Consumption

I have been writing and entered a contest. The work of creating is time-consuming, and it has consumed this corner of my life and crowded out this blog. But creating is a good way to consume time.