The Grasshopper #44: Worldly and Unworldly Writing
Finding balance between nonfiction and fiction, inspiration, and some musing about the Muses
I’ve got the worldly part covered, with my writing about very realistic, though often surrealistic topics like politics, climate, and global issues. For example, this week we saw an unfolding story that started with shooting down a Chinese balloon over the US and unfolded further with the shooting down of three more unidentified flying objects over US and Canadian land.
That story is the rather rare intersection of worldly and unworldly writing. The news aspects are nonfiction up to a point, then we enter the realm of speculation which veers us into creating fictional scenarios to explain the unexplainable.
It’s a pretty good example of why I write both nonfiction and fiction. In my case, I write fiction in the form of novels. Only a few have read them but I have a goal of making them accessible this year to anyone who is curious. I’m weighing my options on that. Free or for sale?
As you know, I believe in writers getting paid for our work, but the choice to write fiction can’t be driven by the need to pay bills. It’s very difficult to monetize enough to justify the time and work involved.
But the fiction is central to my writing, even as I parse the vagaries of American political theater, or the denial of climate change. Both live closer to the boundary between reality and fantasy than you might think.
The gist of it is that I think it is necessary to your health as a writer to at least try both. This week I’m going to explore that dichotomy.
Is time the boundary between fiction and nonfiction?
In the novel I’m working on now, a contemporary artist finds himself tangled in the deep past story of the Mahasiddhas, the crazy saints of early Buddhism. Their story intersects with his world in ways that are life changing and very rooted in the present.
You know, death, myth, love, creativity, and mystery. All the good stuff. If you’re looking for something fun about these men and women, check out the list of their names in this Wikipedia entry. The Severed Head Sisters, The Rejected Wastral, The Petrifier, The Dismembered Cousin, and many more. A marvelous cast of characters to fire the imagination.
That’s the stuff your fiction writing mind digs up.
This morning I wrote a piece dissecting the two election strategies we are seeing unfold for the 2024 US presidential election, a very different topic indeed. But at its heart it is a tale of good and evil, often found in unusual places. And it certainly has an air of unreality.
Not so different in the big picture from a made-up story, if there is such a thing.
Our local library system used to (alas) have a much bigger selection devoted to the craft of writing. Today, with advice and facts available online, there is little demand for print guides to actually doing this stuff. But there is something I remember but did not delve into back then.
They had books with titles like The 36 Plots in Theater and Fiction. That’s a made-up title but you get the idea. The writer reduced all fiction to those 36 models. Others might make a case for 12 or even one, as in Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With a Thousand Faces.
He makes a pretty persuasive case.
All of us are drawn to the edges of things, unless we are in some kind of protective denial. We like the idea that there are places where the rules are less defined, the less clear fringes of what we think we know and what we don’t. To me, those are the places I seek when I write a story.
This requires an entirely different approach to time. The fiction writer has control, to some degree, over the progression of time. We know that an event that one day goes by in a flash, may in another unwind slowly towards an unknown resolution, often unforeseen.
One of the reasons I have segmented my writing into three slots, my political stuff on Medium, my meditations on the writing life here on The Grasshopper, and the expansion of time and space in my fiction, is this fascination with time.
That piece about shooting down the UFOs this week lives in real time, as events unfold minute by minute. It is the story of a moment in time, a snapshot that may fade quickly as facts come out. Reasonable explanations, if there is such a thing.
In fiction we are not tied down to reasonable explanations, unless we write things like thrillers and murder mysteries, that require logical progression. But the best of these often leave certain things in the realm of the unknown to build drama.
For example, in my second novel, Trespass Strike, I have a scene where my character, a woman who is a bit lost but transitioning to the next phase of her life, encounters a strange little man on the sidewalk chanting that ‘there is a warm wind in the West’.
He is not integral to the plot, except as an illustration of her state of mind, a visit from her subconscious. Does he really exist, and why? Does that even matter? He has served his mysterious purpose with this cameo and fades away.
The Muses are both supportive and cruel mistresses
Relying on inspiration to write is going to limit your skill as a writer. Understanding this may be the key to becoming the writer you aspire to be. Inspiration, the idea that there is some outside force, is great, when it finds you. But what if it doesn’t?
The Muses don’t just visit when you ask them. And, like all demi-gods, they are a fickle crew, as willing to take away as to give. Learning to write when you’re not in the mood is the only sure fire way to attract the good ones.
We need to cultivate a strong relationship with the writer gods and digging in daily is what it takes. It’s mind training. Like any other habit, daily practice sets your mind into work mode, whether you feel like it or not.
In my experience, inspiration is a myth. The only time I’m really struck by something like it is when I’ve had a few drinks and a great idea comes into my head. I used to write these ideas down for the next day. Of course in the morning, that false inspiration has left and that brilliant idea has lost its luster.
They look downright dull in the light of reality.
If I get a great idea for a piece, I don’t drop what I’m doing and dive into it. That initial idea needs more work and that work happens behind the scenes. So I might open a blank doc, write a headline that reminds me of that idea, then come back to it later to see if it has blossomed into something.
Or I might just note it mentally and wait and see if it pops up again, demanding attention. If it is a good idea, it will.
Those Muses love patience. They also love you putting one word after another to the page and putting one idea after another. You’re building something and that requires bricklaying.
In other words, just do the work and the Muses will look kindly on you.
What exactly is a Muse? Here’s one take on it:
“According to ancient Greek mythology, the Muses are the sources of inspiration for all of the arts and of knowledge. The daughters of Zeus and Mnemosine, they were the romantic companions of Apollo’s entourage of gods.”
From The Greek Reporter
Anyone who knows Greek mythology knows the Gods are notoriously fickle. You depend on them at your own risk.
So what triggers an idea? In my case it is often a random phrase that inserts itself into my head, only to surface later. I’ve learned to let them ferment until they’re ready for their moment.
Then the Muses smile.
A big thank you to my new and existing subscribers, both free and paid. You offer a gift that is hard to beat: your time as a reader. That’s a real inspiration!
From Martin, who is enjoying another unseasonably lovely mild day in mid-February.
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My novel is also about time. I'm increasingly aware of how many novelists explore this idea. For one thing, it takes time to write a novel and it takes time to read it, so time is an ingredient in the novel and in the ongoing experience of it.
Thanks for this post. With regard to novel writing, I have been editing/rewriting then serializing older ebooks (don't want to get involved in producing the paper versions of books) I've written which are no longer available and posting on my substack newsletter. This helps in a couple of ways. 1. It helps me hone my writing skills. 2. They will be a complete book once finished, which can then be republished as an ebook. 3. Widens the audience reach.
Looking to your newsletters, Brother.