Keep The Artsy Stuff Short

It's That Time Again

Would You Believe It?

Somebody just left this chicken on a bench during our heat wave. Score!

AND tomorrow is Slush Pile, the laboratory for incubating new voices. On our last go-round a writer — while in Portland on her honeymoon! — read a scene that started off calm, then detoured into shock, finally she killed everyone by landing on a short, intense story-within-the-story. Just like Chekhov, just like Tobias Wolff’s Leviathan and Bullet in the Brain, she arrived at a new story — told in numbers no less! And it worked so well people were stunned. Absolutely amazing. She was mobbed during the break.

Another writer, a returning regular, continued with a longer piece: two tellers in a cramped bank vault vacating safety deposit boxes and tallying money. The authority in the scene came through on-the-body detail: The stink of old paper currency, the heat in the crowded space. We’re swept along by so much insider knowledge of bank protocol and regulation, it’s glorious.

A third writer presented more of a book-length work-in-progress. A former student of Tom’s, he read with Tom’s delivery so perfectly that I can close my eyes and swear that this man is Tom. Dense. Poetic. Profound. But Tom always preached, “You can do arty… but keep it short!”

We knew exactly what the story’s setting looked like, but we kept waiting for something to happen in the scene. The writing was great — but we kept waiting for something to occur. This is why Slush Pile is crucial. It’s why an actor can use a director. Are you using too much description? Too many call-backs? Just too much for the reader to manage before the plot point occurs.

This writer sounded great… but I still ran home and spent the weekend combing through my latest manuscript and “killing darlings” like crazy. Deleting pages and pages. The lesson: our stuff sounds fine to us, well, because it’s our stuff. Take note of when — and why — another writer loses you. Dial your own work up or down accordingly.

Slush Pile is tomorrow night, the usual time and place.

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Yes, the Animal House test is still on.