So for the past two months I've been working on completing my application to grad schools. It was long, drawn out and exhaustive process, one that required me to turn out 20 - 40 pages of original material and a 10 page critical essay on a novel. This was no easy task, but one that has finally come to end save for a trip to the Post Office. And then I'm taking a week off from writing and from work -- sorry, that includes the blog.
I've found it is a very difficult thing to tell a story. The challenge for me in writing stories is tone and pace. I've found that I'm a great dialogue writer -- probably because I've been a news writer for like 8 years and put words in people's mouths. On the details, hmm...not so much.
So I've been telling a lot of stories lately -- stories you'll never read. Stories I won't publish here. But I will mention the plots:
1. A story about a man answering an ad for a new roommate. Two of the roommates are brother and sister, the later becomes an interest at first sight to the man. The third roommate is invisible -- like an invisible friend from childhood that the siblings never grew out of.
2. A conversation with God. Really, it's just a conversation between a medical student who just killed a patient and this beautiful woman over a morning's sunrise. There's a lot of dialogue here which played to my strength. I also borrow heavily from G.K. Chesterton.
3. The adventures of my grandfather. A fiction tale of me interviewing my grandfather and him telling me about his military exploits. It's based on the tales he actually has told me throughout my life. The only part, however, I submitted for the application is a write-up of me telling the story of our first meeting for the "book" I was supposedly writing. He talks a lot about the Cardinals.
Anyway, these are the stories I've decided to tell. And as far as telling a story goes, well, "if you want a man to know the truth, tell him; if you want a man to love the truth, tell him a story."
I only wish I knew who said that.
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3 comments:
Can your wife take time off from her medical career to fill in as your ghost-writer while you are on vacation?
I'd do it, but I think people would catch on when your next post is about "sharting" and not about a deep philisophical question.
You need a character named Luckey Haskins. Ask Dan Lee why.
Hey waddup?
This is your younger brother-in-law. I am going to give you my opinion on somethings that you write about your opinions. in hopes, that you would give me your opinions on my opinions. Does that make since? It should. So how is the theology course going? TTYL.
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