From the Fiction Desk

One of the most important things I have learned over the last few years in this sapling of a writing career is the importance of networking with other writers. Regardless if they have been well published or just starting out, regardless of their style and genre (fiction, non-fiction, newsletters, poetry, etc.) of writing they all bring with them some level of experience and the intensity of creativity that comes with the discussions and sharing of our art.

Regardless if it is at an open mic night, seminar, workshop, writing group meeting, conference, or even a social site discussion board, there is a propagation of knowledge and inventiveness that spreads between writers. Critique and writers clubs may not be for everyone. I know some fellow writers who hate public speaking so much that they would refuse to come an open mic night. Regardless of the method, the important things in networking are to be comfortable with meeting other writers and sharing information about and love of our art.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for up-to-date information on the stories I am working on and other blogs.

In past blogs, I have all but stood on the battlements waving the flag of discipline as a necessary characteristic of writing. One thing to remember is that discipline can also interfere with artistic creation. When I push myself too hard or when I remain ramrod rigid in my discipline I notice that my stories lose their creditability and uniqueness. My word choices have less impact and the whole piece ends up feeling more wrapped in a wet paper towel than in the midst of an exciting adventure.

One main goal of a writer is to grow themselves in their art. Artistic expression comes from exploration in to the strange and the new. Growth comes from the challenge behind that exploration; the fracturing of the soul to form the characters and the story. Discipline is required to bring the writer to the desk. It is required to get the story, poem, or article out of the mind and to the world to read. We have to learn to wield the tool so that it does not stifle the art, but keeps the art flowing out of our souls and imagination.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com

More and more everyday I grow dismayed at how little of a gap exists between the modern American journalist and the modern American “fictionalist”. Do you watch the news? Do you watch your own local news? Are you happy with what you see? There might be a reason why you are not.

As a “fictionalist”, I weave my stories to contain elements of the news of the time to ground it in to a sense of realism. Regardless if the stories I blend in to the background is fictional or ripped from the headlines, they serve the purpose of entertainment—adding drama or sometimes ironic and sarcastic humor to counterpoint the fictional story. When I blend the news, I maintain a journalistic style to give the news its own element of reality and make the reader feel like they are truly in the universe of the fictional drama of my characters.

As I take this journalistic approach, I find that the modern American Journalist is taking my “fictionalistic” approach to their journalism. As one journalist, Don Marsh (http://www.amazon.com/Flash-Frames-Journey-Journeyman-Journalist/dp/193337036X) pointed out in a recent lecture on “The Evolution of TV News,” many of the modern news producers are not journalist. Actually, their backgrounds are more Hollywood focused. They quest after ratings and the money that comes with them, causing them to have a narrow vision of providing entertainment rather than focus on bringing out a powerful story of news that is needed to make rational and informed decisions. Let us examine for a moment the standard local news broadcast. Each half hour news show has at least 8 minutes of commercials. The evening news always starts the same. The first five minutes is spent discussing news about some drive by shooting or gang violence or showing the “dope on the table” so that the viewer can feel good for an instant. Then the rest of the seventeen minutes is spent showing brief snippets of national news teasers, the weather, sports and news stories where the reporter has decided to be a self proclaimed star in their own private infomercial and put themselves into the middle of their own “objective” news story.

If this was not bad enough, the industry of journalism is now outsourcing their news departments. Some reporters reporting on local news are not from or live in the area they are reporting. This is not an epidemic of just the visual news media, but is being seen in the floundering newspaper industry as well. While my own local newspaper, The St. Louis Post Dispatch, is shipping non-journalist jobs overseas, it is a matter of time that they will follow the steps of other newspapers. There is a newspaper in California whose news reporters rely only on the internet to create their stories. These journalists have to do rely on the internet—they live in India. They go to the city hall websites and others to pull their news stories and present them as local news to the reader. I cannot help but wonder how they could possible tackle social issues such as social justice, political corruption, the local effects of drugs, poverty and more.

Today, the American Journalist relies less and less on the skills of the “three I”s (Information, investigation, and instrumentation) to generate their stories and more on sensationalism. I know how this blog entry reads. “David, you have broken your word never to rant in your blogs.” I am not ranting, I promise. As I wrote, as a fictionalist, I use the news to set my fiction in reality. I try to make the dramatic more so with a journalistic piece based on reality. One purpose is to make the reader question the social issues behind the fictional and nonfictional story. But, let us look one last time at the journalist—just to prove I am not ranting. How many times have you seen on your local news pictures of big fires going through vacant buildings? The fires are bright against a night sky, and there is something mesmerizing about the flames. The reporter reports that officials are looking in to the cause of the flames, etc. But, did you notice it? Did you notice the one question that is never explored? Do you even realize that the question was not asked? What question? The question is “why are these buildings abandoned or vacant in the first place? What is happening in this neighborhood, in this town or city to have so many abandoned or vacant buildings?” Like a spider’s web, the questions and the deeper story stretch out in all directions from those two unasked and non-investigated questions, that I as a factionalist would pursue in my story.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for more information on what I am writing and other news.

A number of years ago I watched a live performance of Agatha Christie’s play “Black Coffee.” In it, as with any of Dame Christie’s stories, there was murder and a detective. I do not remember who did what anymore, but there is a scene that stood out—a perfect symbiotic display of character and scene presented for dramatic psychologically effect. Here is how the scene played out:

The setting was in a 1940’s or 50’s salon of some rich characters home, if I remember, cast on one of those melodramatic “dark and stormy nights.” The furniture is elegant and on a black and white checkered marble tile floor, with steps leading up to a French window. One character takes a cup of coffee, talks with others. Lighting flashes as the character is ready to sip. The lights go off as the character drinks of the poisoned brew, chokes and dies. All the characters make sounds of panic. Then the French window opens, lighting strikes, casting a set of figures in silhouette. Miraculously, the power is “restored” as the lights come on. Do you think I have described the psychology yet? No, not yet. Here it comes.

The detective seeing what has happened steps down from the stairs and onto the checked floor, as if a chess master has moved a powerful piece into play on the chess board (provided by the checkered tile). The setting and actions were perfect, because that is exactly what Dame Christie did. She has now moved the “great detective” into play on the chess board of the murder.

When writing a scene—especially in the rewriting stage, I try to recall this play and the effects of the scene. The stage setting was elaborately designed to produce the image of a chess board and the psychological effect that comes when watching a new threat or defender enter the game. I try to make the scenes of each sub-chapter of a story not only provide action, drama, and character development, but I try to produce a psychological effect on the reader that will subconsciously engulf them into the scene.

I heard it said that no scene should ever be left in the final draft that does not promote the action of the story forward or promote the character’s development. But, I wish to add to this. Have you ever watched an artist paint? Painters pay great attention to how their paint is laid upon the canvas to produce the image of what they are painting and the effect they try to produce in the viewer. Writers do the same. Our readers’ minds and hearts are the canvas we set to paint upon. Our words become the paint that is brushed carefully upon it, laying out the scene how our imagination portrays it. Then, as the painter, we lightly brush the image with the afore knowledge of what emotional and psychological effect we want to produce. No scene in the end should exist that does not have its own psychology and psychological effect.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for updates on my writing.

Whether you write songs lyrics, essays, poems, short stories, novels or something else, you know that what you do requires a discipline many others do not have. The outside world may see us as people trying to make a living in our PJs, because they have been able to write a cute little sketch at one point in their lives or jealousy wish they could stay at home and not spend the money on gas to get to work. Most of us do not have the luxury of only writing, but have to hold down other jobs to pay the bills and our discipline forces us to write despite the long days and stresses of those jobs.

We know it is not enough to produce one successful manuscript. We have to push ourselves not to repeat the success, but to exceed it. We rip open old wounds, examine them from every angle and then write from our souls. Writing is a calling and demands from us a level of commitment non-artisans may never have to duplicate. Our discipline tears us away from friends and family to plant ourselves somewhere and spend our lives working to put ink on paper so to touch someone who we may never see.

The discipline enforces the demands of our art to wake up early, go to bed late, skip watching some popular TV show everyone might talk about, shun the telephone, or miss some event so that we can pour our blood onto the page. We learn to juggle our schedules to get the most important moments of our lives in and to record them in written form. Without discipline, we can never complete a project (all the drafts) or improve as a writer.

Please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for information about my current stories.