the primacy of story

Gorgeous sentences, breath-taking images, metaphors that lead to a flash of insight… there are all great things. But are they the most important? Go read the series Lisa Cron is running at her site, Wired for Story, “Everything You Learned About Writing is Wrong.” At first, it bothered me. I love great writing, but she has a point: we read and tell each other STORIES. It is first and foremost about the story and we writers can forget that as we learn the craft of writing (and it is important to master the craft of writing – I still laugh at the image of a high school English teacher I know hurling The DaVinci Code across her living room after a few paragraphs, cursing the level of writing). My first pleasure in reading was getting swept away into another world. I was not crazy about the world I was in, so escape was blessed relief. Your readers want to get swept away into the world you’ve created. Tell them a great story. Then go back and rewrite it until your prose is sterling.

It’s not an either-or proposition – the great books are great stories well-written – but start with your story. Sometimes it will come to you in a piece and sometimes you will discover it along the way, but pay attention to Mark Twain, “I like a good story well told.” He went on to add, “That is the reason I am sometimes forced to tell them myself.”

 

Writing as triathlon

The main thing I try to do is write as clearly as I can. I rewrite a good deal to make it clear.          ~E.B. White, The New York Times, August 3, 1942

Courtesy fightmedics.net

Writing a novel has three parts to it and was thinking how they’re each a marathon unto themselves and then I remembered helping a friend train for a triathlon. Aha, better metaphor. Point of reference – the Ironman consists of a 2.4 mile ocean swim, a 112 mile bike ride, then running 26.2 miles.

Our “ocean swim” is the sometimes grueling task of finishing the first draft. Initially refreshing, the challenge of the great middle, then you finally finish. Great, it’s done! And you think you’ve finished The Best Book Ever Written. Especially with the first novel. Then comes the rewriting and here’s what separates the novices from the seasoned, the dilettantes from the serious. The second leg is the rewriting and I’ve come to believe this stage is even more rigorous that the first draft. It takes a lot of discipline and patience to stick with it. How many times do you have to go through the darned thing? As many as it takes and at least three as Bernard Malamud wrote:

I would write a book, or a short story, at least three times–once to understand it,the second time to improve the prose, and a third to compel it to say what it still must say.Somewhere I put it this way: first drafts are for learning what one’s fiction wants him to say. Revision works with that knowledge to enlarge and enhance an idea, to reform it. Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing.

              ~ “Long Work, Short Life,” quoted in The Magic Worlds of Bernard Malamud, by Evelyn Gross Avery, SUNY Press, 2001.

I’m here to tell you that there are days when it does not feel like exquisite pleasure – it might feel like biking 112 miles under the hot sun! But I have learned to enjoy the process of revision. Tips? Get a few trusted readers and two of them need to have a thorough knowledge of craft. After you’ve done that and been through it at least three times, preferably six, hire a professional editor, but only after you cannot face going through it one more time.

You’ve survived two long rigorous events. Now you can rest, right? Oh no, my friend. Now comes the marathon of getting an agent, getting it to print, and promoting it. You may get lucky regarding an agent or publisher – once you’ve honed your craft, it’s about matching up with someone else’s tastes and needs. Again, this is when it’s invaluable to have “training buddies.” Get to know other writers at all stages of their careers who you can call on for advice or guidance. And give back. Don’t make any of your relationships a one way street. You don’t like it – news flash: neither do they. Offer to read and critique other writer’s work. Be kind – you know how hard it is.

So that’s our triathlon. Get partners so you can train properly and finish the race. Then, guess what? You get to do it all again and you will know why people sign up for the Ironman with one significant difference. People have many reasons for triathlons and for writing, but unless they are raising money for a cause, triathlons are more about personal goals. Writing fiction is about communication. You have an audience. Now go find it.

 

Robert Halligan: September 11, 2001

At the beginning of Project 2,996, I paid tribute to Robert Halligan and through him, found his son, Rob, a musician, who sent me a note of thanks and now I keep up with him on Facebook.

Rob has written a song in tribute. If you buy it, all monies go to the 2 charities Rob works with.

Robert Halligan Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on November 15, 2001.

SHOPPING ACROSS THE POND

To a proud Englishman, America is a country of vexing insufficiencies. Its supermarkets know not of H.P. (House of Parliament) sauce and tins of steak and kidney pie. Marmite, sadly, remains a mystery.

Several times a year, London-born Robert Halligan, 59, a vice president at Aon, an insurance brokerage firm, would cross the pond to stock up on such indelicacies. He would cheer on his beloved Tottenham Hotspurs, visit his sprawling family, including five adult children, and drop by a specialty shop to add to the locomotive steam engine models he had been collecting since his trainspotting boyhood. Every weekend he brought the old country to his wife, Jerrie, and their son, Trevor, in Basking Ridge, N.J., by cooking a lard-loving British breakfast (sloppy bacon, fried bread, eggs splashed with grease) and Sunday lunch (roast, two vegetables, potatoes, Yorkshire pudding).

Yet for someone who clung to his British identity, Mr. Halligan flourished in America, where he moved with Jerri, his American wife. He gardened here, played golf and danced beautifully. He was a kind, solicitous grandfather of 10 with a knack for joke- telling. And here he celebrated the holiday he loved even more than Christmas: as a citizen of two countries, Robert Halligan adored Thanksgiving.

Profile by Patricia Turner published in THE STAR-LEDGER:
ROBERT HALLIGAN, LIKED THE SIMPLE THINGS

Despite his obvious success in life, Robert John Halligan of Basking Ridge was a very approachable person who always tried to make others feel comfortable around him, said former neighbor Robin Day.

“He was very down-to-earth and charming. He loved some of the simple things in life,” said Day, comparing Basking Ridge to Seven Oaks in Kent, the English village in which Mr. Halligan grew up. “It was more a cottage-type lifestyle.”

Mr. Halligan, 59, died Tuesday, Sept. 11, in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. A reinsurance broker for Aon Corp., he was at work on the 99th floor.

An avid tennis player, Mr. Halligan passed on his passion for the game to his son, Trevor, 20. Trevor became a well-known tennis player at Ridge High School, and also shared his father’s love of golf.

“He had an opportunity to play golf with his customers. This was one of the things he enjoyed about his job,” said a business colleague, Paul Napolitan of Pottersville.

Before he took the job with Aon, Mr. Halligan worked for Paul Napolitan Inc., first on Maiden Lane in Lower Manhattan, then at the World Trade Center. Napolitan has since retired.

But whatever Mr. Halligan’s abilities as a tennis player and golfer, Napolitan said, his passion was British football (soccer in this country). He especially liked Manchester United.

Born and raised near London, Mr. Halligan worked for many years as an insurance broker for Lloyds. At Aon and at Napolitan, Mr. Halligan worked in what is called reinsurance, meaning companies that insure other insurance companies.

A talented broker, he had a great affinity for the Spanish- speaking world, and although he didn’t speak Spanish, he did a lot of business in Puerto Rico, Napolitan said.

Mr. Halligan — he was always called Robert, never Bob — emigrated from Britain on July 4, 1980. He became an American citizen in 1996.

A memorial service will be held Friday at noon at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 140 S. Finley Ave., Basking Ridge.

The family has asked that contributions be made to the American Cancer Society, 600 First Ave., Raritan, N.J. 08869, in lieu of flowers.

Mr. Halligan also leaves his wife, Jerrie, who was working as a flight attendant for TWA when they met in the elevator at the Concorde Lafayette Hotel in Paris. They were married in 1980, one year to the day later.

Besides his wife and son Trevor, Mr. Halligan is survived by his mother, Brenda, who lives in England; children James, Robert, Lara, Emma and Sarah; his brothers and sister, David, Mary and William; and many grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

Rest in peace, Mr. Halligan.

Never forget.

 

Ehtesham U. Raja: September 11, 2001

This is part of Project 2996 

Ehtesham U. Raja of Clifton, NJ was 28 years old when he died in the World Trade Center. He’d gone there for a conference and was in Windows on the World. He was a 1996 graduate of The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia. He had his MBA from Goizueta Business School at Emory. His last call was to his girlfriend. As far as I’ve been able to find, his mother and brother live in Pakistan.

Occupation: TCG Software http://www.tcg-software.com/About%20TCG%20Software.php

Location: World Trade Center

mother: Asmat Fatima

nickname: Shamu, from his friends in Pakistan

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on November 14, 2001:

NO FAN OF FUNDAMENTALISM

Ehtesham Raja loved to party and loved his $70,000 BMW 740iL. He was a Muslim from Lahore, Pakistan, and worked for TCG Software in Bloomfield, N.J. Like many Muslims from India and Pakistan, Mr. Raja, 28, loved Hindi music. He sang it in the shower, and was also crazy about the Hindi movie star Amitabh Bachan.

His best friend in the United States was Maneesh Sagar, a Hindu from India. Mr. Raja talked about how some friends from Pakistan had become fundamentalists. “He hated how fundamentalism rears its ugly head,” Mr. Sagar said. “To all of us, religion is more a spiritual and personal thing than dogma.”

Recently, said Mr. Sagar, Mr. Raja was thinking of giving up partying and marrying his girlfriend, Christine Lamprecht, an American.

On the weekend before he was to attend a conference at the World Trade Center, he and Mr. Sagar went partying. They talked about their dreams, and at 5 a.m. ended up at an Indian restaurant for tea and tikkas, skewered lamb. “It was a guy’s night out,” Mr. Sagar said. And that’s how he would always remember his friend.
—–

HIs favorite celebrity was Amitabh Bachan http://bigb.bigadda.com/

His birthplace: Lahore, Pakistan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lahore

His car: BMW 740iL

Comments from the 911 Memorial:

“He was very dedicated to his work, following up quickly and thoroughly, and I know that the dedication he demonstrated was apparent in all things that he took on.”

“worked at a start up in Connecticut – he was the best guy – encouraging everybody even in the worst hour!”

“My college years at Boston University were spent dashing back and forth from Boston to NYC on weekends only to go partying with Raja jee when he was an undergrad at Columbia…We explored New York City together…then LA.. then Vegas ..Hell even during High School at Aitchison we explored all of Lahore.”

“One time a famous movie star came to visit Aitchison she was beautiful… As we feasted our eyes suddenly Raja thanked me for being there to share that moment with him because he was of the view that any other person would be unable to understand the excitement that goes with seeing an attractive women. We being high school and then later college buddies had a strange bond and a level of understanding very rare in people of such different backgrounds. Raja was a big Sangeeta Bijlani fan and Later Raveena Tandon….and from his days at Columbia i had to suffer through all his girl friends and later before making a decision to marry Katherine he had a lengthy discussion with me. Trying to recollect that discussion i realized, if anything, he was an embodiment of the true spirit of America… devoid of any racial inclinations…a true beliver in freedom of expression and militant proponent of a diverse and global world view. A master politician and a shrewd business mind…he would research his material to the minutest of detail and had an amazing ability to market his ideas and convince people.His was the death was a global citizen. A 22nd century mind struggling with 21st century problems.”

http://www.newsline.com.pk/NewsOct2001/cover7.htm:

The last to hear from Lahore-based Ehtesham Raja was his girlfriend. The 28-year-old financial analyst phoned her from the Windows on the World restaurant and said there had been “a bomb blast and that he had been thrown 10 feet.”  He said he was trying to get out.  He has not been heard from since.  Raja, a graduate of Columbia University did his A levels from Aitchison College, Lahore, before moving to the USA.  He  lived in New Jersey and had gone to the WTC  for a meeting that fateful day.  Raja’s family members have flown in from around the world in an effort to find him.  His parents  and younger brother  flew in from Lahore, his uncle from Canada.

They have trekked wearily across Manhattan looking for clues, any scrap of hope. His uncle Javed Rai says, “We have been to all the hospitals, the Red Cross and every New York City agency.  We have given in his  DNA sample. Hope is fading; it has been more than 12 days.”

Raja’s family says the Pakistani embassy has helped them a great deal but they have not been contacted by any Islamic organisation to date.  Raja’s grandmother who raised him is shattered.  The family prays for a miracle.

FROM COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY:

Ehtesham Raja, SEAS ’96

Ehtesham Raja didn’t believe in planning ahead. A party animal at heart, Raja loved his car, a BMW 740iL; his girlfriend, Christine Lamprecht; and the excitement of New York. According to Shahab Alam, human resources head for TCG software in Bloomfield, N.J., where Raja had worked since February 2000, Raja believed only ”in laughing and smiling–[he believed] life just happened.”

In fact, the only pressing plans in Raja’s near future were to fully devote himself to Lamprecht in the early half of 2002, finally giving up his “male activity” to marry his love. With laughter Alam recalled Raja as “a hell of a naughty guy.”

He once got into trouble by asking two ladies to call him at the same time,” Alam said. “He loved that situation!” Raja’s freewheeling spirit often took comedic turns, which he shared with those around him in his normal good-natured, self-mocking way. His deft maneuvering after angering a girlfriend by calling her by the wrong name was the source of much office laughter. “He was that kind of guy,” chuckled Alam, “all over the place. [And he] loved being in the company of women.”

Raja’s nature included and infused those around him. Often, after working late, Raja would pool together his coworkers for a late-night romp in the city. He loved to dance and stay out as late as humanly possible. He worked as hard as he played, though, and after such evenings would show up at work on time the next morning without a problem.

“Guys loved him for his competitive attitude and for the fact that he loved having people around him”, Alam said.

Raja, who did his engineering work at Columbia University and his management at Emory, loved playing cricket with his office buddies. Raja was the creator and captain of the cricket team while he attended Columbia.

He took pride in crafting his own identity as distinctly separate from religion. He was a self-proclaimed atheist who detested fundamentalism and was quick to dismiss conversation on it. “He felt it [religion] was useless, he wanted to maintain an identity that wasn’t tied to religion in any way.”

Raja was an original in the workplace as well, one of the architects of Internet banking. Before coming to TCG, Raja worked for IMG in Amsterdam, Bank 1 in Delaware, and a Connecticut company called Neweius.

He is survived by his mother and his brother, who are currently living in Pakistan.

FROM EMORY:

Ehtesham Raja

“He was a very kind, caring, compassionate, loving, and intelligent person,” says his mother, Asmat Fatima. “He was respected and admired by those who knew him. His talent and sense of humor made him standout in any crowd. But it was his loving and caring attitude that always made me proud.”

Raja, born in Lahore, Pakistan, worked for TCG Software in Bloomfield, N.J. After graduating with a bachelor of science in industrial engineering from Columbia University in New York City, he worked as a security engineer at Citibank on Wall Street, then, according to his Goizueta Business School application, he returned to Pakistan to work for Citibank Lahore, take the GMAT, and apply to business school.

“He was in the best years of his life,” says Fatima. “Everything seems to be going in his favour. After years of dedication and hard work he finally achieved this status. He had all the plans to pursue his career in finance. He was full of hope for his future.”

Raja also enjoyed sports. He was a swimmer and played cricket, squash, soccer, tennis, and polo while at Columbia.

A memorial service was arranged by TCG Software. “They were proud to have him working for them,” his mother says.

“It is still very hard to believe that he is missing and lost forever,” she continues. “I have to be emotionally strong as Ehtesham has a younger brother, who is at a very impressionable age.

“[Ehtesham] knew life and lived life. His time was limited but in that time he touched so many people. . . . May peace be with him now and forever. He will stay in our hearts and memories forever.”

Emory Magazine:

EHTESHAM U. RAJA ’98MBA, an Oxford University-educated economist, had worked as an adviser to the Ministry of Commerce and Trade in Islamabad, Pakistan; a security engineer at Citibank on Wall Street; and a staff analyst for the city of New York before coming to Emory.

“I can assure you of a perfect score during my study at your prestigious university,” he wrote on his Goizueta Business School application.

Raja, twenty-eight, died September 11 while attending a conference at the World Trade Center. He was a Muslim from Lahore, Pakistan, but friends say he had embraced the American dream.

Rest in peace, Mr. Raja.

Never Forget.

 

remembering another anniversary before 9/11

Tomorrow, this blog joins Project 2996 with memorials to two men who died in the Towers. When I went to Kenya last month, we stopped by the memorial to those who died on August 7, 1998 in the bombing of the American Embassy in Nairobi.

The near-simultaneous bombing attacks on the US Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania took place on 7 August 1998. In Nairobi, where the US Embassy was located in a congested downtown area, the attack killed 291 persons and wounded about 5,000. The bombing in Dar es Salaam killed 10 persons and wounded 77.

Read the rest here. Now the American embassy in Nairobi is in a suburban area with a number of other embassies and a lot of security. On the plane from London to Nairobi, I met a man who works at the American Embassy. I asked if there are still problems with extremists and he said incidents crop up from time to time, but are quickly contained.

Last summer, I was invited to the Norman Mailer Center in Provincetown. I was very fortunate to take Chuck Strozier’s workshop on Historical Narrative. Among an astonishing number of other activities, Chuck has a blog, is the director of the The Center on Terrorism and has a new book out, Until the Fires Stopped Burning: 9/11 and New York City in the Words and Experiences of Survivors and Witnesses. As Robert Lifton noted, “This is the only work on 9/11 to describe people’s experiences in depth while at the same time providing a broad sense of the human impact of the whole event.” It’s a very absorbing book, so please take a look.

Tomorrow, the memorials.

 

Is your writing grounded?

In reflecting on my trip to Kenya, I’ve noticed a change and that is wanting to be in action. It would help explain why I’m a bit stuck in my writing as well. To prevent or get over writer’s block, it helps to do something. The what doesn’t matter as much as the doing. It could be gardening, raising horses, cooking, training dogs, carpentry… a task that develops competence over time and ideally produces a product or result. It keeps your words grounded in the real world and that helps create a connection with the reader.

It’s easy to dismiss the advice in The Artist’s Way, except that it works. She notes that sewing, carpentry and knitting help fix plot holes, cooking and baking teach us to blend words or plot elements like ingredients. But there’s something more – learning to do those sorts of tasks, hobbies, trades, etc. keep your words from becoming mere ciphers, keeping words connected to concrete things. Instead of sitting around trying to come up with a metaphor, you’re in the midst of real smells, feels, tastes, sounds and over time, they will inform the writing and develop your voice.

And it’s time (again) for me to take my own advice. For me, it’s usually cooking. I wish I’d had the opportunity to spend a summer writing when my great-aunt had her farm (when she was in residence, we called it Frantic Farm). I did spend a summer there, taking care of cows, feeding dozens of chickens and ducks, tending crops, cleaning out coops and fireplaces and so on. An artist friend bought a place that needs work. Do I know anything about drywall? No. Can I learn? Yes. Will it help with my writing. Yep. What do you do or what skill will you learn?

FYI, re the 10th anniversary of 9/11, Rob Halligan is doing an online radio show. Please listen online tomorrow at www.robhalligan.co.uk 9pm (UK Time) or www.radioplus.org.uk

 

guess who’s on iTunes

My first novel, DEAD WEIGHT, is now an iBook and available on iTunes. Please spread the word! And as always, thanks for your support.

 

before the 9/11 tribute

Some of you know that I participate in Project 2996 every September 11. Through that, I heard from Rob Halligan who lost his dad in the World Trade Center and we’ve kept in touch. Rob will be playing a gig in Ethiopia to raise money for microfinance so please consider donating.

 

Here’s Rob’s song to the memory of his dad:

Also Project 2996 needs more bloggers ASAP!

 

Routine and resistance

Don’t writers hate routine? Not if they want to get serious writing done. After time away, removed from the U.S., the internet, social media and my daily routine, I’m back into it. There’s a lot to be said for getting completely away. But getting back, getting over jetlag and catching up on sleep also reminded me of the importance of routine in writing.

How dedicated are you? Or, if you prefer, how important is writing to you? I know people with families who work full-time and get up at 3 or 4 in the morning in order to have a couple of quiet hours to write. It’s that important to them. I’ve found that, like exercise, it works for me to start writing as soon as I can in the morning. At one of his lectures at Antioch, Marcos Villatoro talked about the importance for him of going straight to his desk from his dream state, barely stopping along the way to pick up a cup of coffee. It’s not so vital to me to get to the blank page directly out of sleep, but it is important for me to get some writing done in the morning, in part to have a feeling of accomplishment.

There are two takes on resistance and both have helped my writer friends. Take a look at Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art and the follow-up, Do the Work. The other is that resistance is not so much something to overcome as it is a necessary part of the process, like a caterpillar emerging from the cocoon. Does resistance make your writing better? More thoughts on that here.

One thing that helped to get back into my writing routine was editing. I prepared Dead Weight as an ebook and published it via Smashwords. It’s available on iTunes and will soon be up on Amazon, Sony, Barnes & Noble, eDiesel, etc. (believe me, I’ll let you know when!) You can also buy it directly from Smashwords.

Discipline leads into the creative work. What’s your routine? What works best for you to get the writing done?