Who Is Your First Reader?

Steven King's first reader is his wife. According to him, she is quite helpful in terms of giving him feedback on his finished novel. Some people, though, think it a bad idea to have comments from your spouse, family member, or a good friend, because they tend to say good things about your work, trying not to hurt your feelings and at the same time trying to give you encouragement. Here is my thought:

1) If he/she says, "It's very good." Ask him/her, "What is good about it? The story? The theme? The way the story is told? Etc."

2) In my case, I show Wes my tanka and ask him to rate them: Great; Good; Problematic. Interestingly, those he rates "Great" are also the ones that I like. And, nine out of ten times, those poems get published after I submit them to journals. As to the "Problematic" ones, I ask him what the problems are and later, I rethink them and fix them.

3) Your first reader doesn't have to be a writer. Wes is not a writer. But he is a reader who reads widely.

So, when it comes to showing your finished work to your first reader, be creative and open-minded.

Story, Story, Story

When I read a novel, a memoir, a biography, an autobiography, and watch a play or a movie, I look for a story. Usually a good one. From all that I have read and seen, some stories are good, even great; others are so-so. We all love stories, don't we? And as writers, we want to tell stories. We can tell them not only in the above-mentioned forms, but also in the shortest forms, such as a haiku and a tanka; especially when they are written in a sequence.

Here is one of my tanka sequences, published in Atlas Poetica No. 15, which tells my story. I am going to quote the first poem and the last one. Together they tell a mini story about me,

"My Fist Visit to the Vietnam Wall"


being built
when I was cut off
from the free world -
I pay the soldiers tribute
with my words


time to say goodbye
I tell the soldiers:
I took refuge
in your country,
you suffered . . . I endure


After reading these two tanka, you know that I lived behind the Bamboo Curtain for years. Finally, thank Heaven, I got out. Meanwhile, you get the idea of how I feel about the war that has had a tremendous impact on both Americans and Vietnamese Americans. In my case, Chinese-Vietnamese American.

We certainly can write stories not drawn from our own experiences. Stories are everywhere. The key is that we know where to look for them.

To Plan Or Not to Plan

When it comes to writing, fiction or scripts, I am a planner. I don't plan everything, but enough for me to go by as I am in the process of writing. In other words, I know where my story will go. For me, it's like driving. If we know our destination, we can take as many detours as we want and will get back to where we want to go. Otherwise, once we are sidetracked, we'll get lost, wondering whether we should continue on the current route or we should return to where we come from and keep on going. That's where a writer's block sets in.

As far as I am concerned, I have not run into such a problem: because I know where my story will go and how to get to the endpoint. That's right: endpoint. While writing, I have made some changes here and there as I see fit; however, I have never lost sight of my story's endpoint taking a detour or detours.

I have come across quite a few articles in writing journals about how to cope with a writer's block. Fortunately, I haven't had any since I started writing. The reason? I always plan my story, but just enough. Planning too much would stifle our creativity and spontaneity.

My conclusion: know thy endpoint. That is my "weapon" to ward off a writer's block.

Structural Problems

Every form of writing has its own structure. Say, for example, haiku has a phrase and a fragment, and tanka has a lower verse and an upper verse. A stage play, a screenplay, and a novel? They have a much more complicated structure.

I always think of writing a long work the building of a house. With the foundation, which is the story idea, we build a play or a novel. In the building process, we might be blind to the structure. That happened to me while working on my memoir. Rewrites, which I did more than twenty times, did not help. Finally, I put it away for a while. Then, I looked at it again. Aha, I saw the big problem! Its structure was not sound--alas, I'm not Bill Clinton, but I'm writing an autobiography. And it's too colossal a building to tear down and to rebuild. I decided to save the material for a novel, or novels, I will write someday. It won't be an autobiographical novel.

It is a lot of headache and heartache to tear down the "house" and rebuild it. However, it is worth the efforts.

How to detect the structural problems? Simple, set the writing aside, whatever it is, for at least a couple of months. Then, look at it with a pair of fresh eyes. Yes, fresh eyes. I touched on this topic before.

You may argue that you don't care about structure when you write. That is fine, too. However, look at all the significant buildings in the world. Don't they all have some sort of structure? Even non-structure does have structure.

Beginning and Ending

Today is the first day of the Chinese New Year of the horse; also, it's the end of January 2014. The beginning and the ending fall on the same day. I found it interesting and thought-provoking. It seems that beginning and ending are two separate things. But, are they? Anyone who has paid close attention to nature knows that they are two-in-one and one-in-two. It's a very profound concept. A concept that I come to understand deeper and deeper as I grow older.

I will make this--beginning and ending--a writing prompt for myself. Wait a minute. Didn't I say earlier in my blog that I seldom write to writing prompts? This one is created by myself, so I should be able to write something about it.

What comes to your mind when you think of a horse? Kentucky Derby? I've thought about it, too. And, of course I've thought about all the Chinese sayings about a horse.

Have a happy Year of the Horse! Hope your horse will get you to the finish line fast!

Where Would You Like to See Yourself in Five Years?

I remember one of the questions my supervisor asked me during the review session in the company I had my day job: "Where would you like to see yourself in five years?" I don't remember what my answer was as a worker whose job failed to define me--a playwright at the time. As a writer, though, I do have an answer to that question, and I have had the answer since I graduated from WMU. Five years is a reasonable length of time to reach a goal, and it's not too far a distance to see things around us unless an emergency happens that completely upset our plan. It did happen to me in 2010.

That said, I am glad to be able to return to be a story teller again. I can tell a story in a tanka sequence and a haibun; however, it's a different kind of story telling. I have enjoyed writing them and will continue to write them. Meanwhile, I will be working on my long writing projects. Where would I like to see myself in five years? I got the answer.

What about you?

Happy 2014!

My Winning Haibun

I've been sick for more than a week and am still quite sick. So I'm going to post here my haibun that won a second place of Jerry Kilbride Memorial 2012 English-Language Haibun Contest. This haibun has just been published by Haibun Today Volume 7, Number 4, December, 2013, which comes out today.


Leaves Falling to Their Roots

A sunny autumn day. Wes and I are driving through territory new to me.

“Remember where I want to be buried?” I ask.

“Have your ashes scattered into the Pacific from a promontory on the Oregon coast,” he answers. I told him that during our trip there.

I smile sadly. “Yes. So, a bit of me might flow back to the coast of Vietnam.”

Hours later, we arrive. He holds her urn as we walk towards the designated spot.

Calgary
his grandmother rests
at home





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