The Cut and the Beat: Martin, Mamet, & Dufresne

I can't seem to complete a first draft like I used to. Lately it's all hair-twisting and frittering and staring despairingly out the window, wondering if it's probable that I've just wasted the last five years of my life.  It didn't used to be this way.  Writing a story used to be fun and gratifying. It was easy to fill a fifty-page spiral-bound notebook in less than a week.  Now it takes months, or longer. So what happened to make the process so painful?

It seems I've been trying to "craft" my first drafts instead of simply writing them -- as "freely and rapidly as possible," as John Steinbeck would say.  I expect too much from this rough first pass.  I expect that the story will arrive on the page fully formed, just as it appeared in my head, and anything less seems like a failure. But there's simply too much to think about when trying to make good fiction: there's characterization and point-of-view to consider; plot, structure, narrative, style, and voice. You've got your beginnings, middles, and ends to come up with; inciting incidents, and doorways of no return; revelations, crises, climax, and resolutions. Just to name a few.

Learning to write fiction is a lot like learning to swing a golf club.  There's a staggering number of fundamentals to remember: feet shoulder width apart; back straight but slightly bent (from the hip socket, mind you, and don't slouch!), watch your grip pressure--you don't want it too strong, but not too weak either; keep your knees flexed, but only slightly, and your head down (or is it up?) as you address the ball. And then you've got your backswing, impact, and follow-through to worry about. My god, how does anyone manage to swing the club at all, let alone with any degree of accuracy?

The other day, when I was frittering away my morning online (I was supposed to be writing the first draft of my new short story) I came across this quote from Gregory Martin, Associate Professor of English at the University of New Mexico, and it made me want to hunker down and finish that draft I've been working on for the past month:

  

I found something else I liked on the professor's website--something that really got me thinking. It was this excerpt from David Mamet's book On Directing Film:

I like the idea of the story as a series of disordering events and the characters' attempts to restore order; the juxtaposition of shots that make up a scene; the scenes that make up a story. Obviously Mamet is talking about screenwriting here, and not necessarily the first draft. But if my goal is to get a quick sketch of the story on paper (so I'll have something to revise later on) this might just be the thing. The spine on which to hang all those subtle, profound complexities Professor Martin alluded to above--if I finally finish this first draft and get around to that more nuanced second one. 

So, let's get writing...
I'll leave you with a few inspiring words from John Dufresne, my favorite wise and wily administrator of tough love: "The best way to succeed as a novelist is to write the novel today and every day.  Don't put it off.  All right, then.  Do what I tell you, and no one gets hurt.  Pick up the pen... nice and easy... don't try anything foolish.  Now write.  There you go!"

~

John Dufresne: Is Life Like This? A Guide to Writing Your First Novel in Six Months

David Mamet: On Directing Film

Gregory Martin: Associate Professor of English, UNM: http://www.unm.edu/~gmartin/