Patterns & Praise — mnchrm vol. lxv
Hello hello my friends!
I sort of spend the last few weeks constantly feeling like I was behind, like I always had a big backlog of things to get caught up on. Different things I had meant to write or read, things I wanted to watch or play, the different things in Japanese I needed to review. But somehow I’ve managed to get “caught up”; and now feel the full weight of the blank page. There’s so much to be done! But it’s a better feeling than feeling behind.
If you’ve forgotten, I’m Ian Battaglia, a writer, photographer, and filmmaker; and this is my newsletter. You can always update your subscription preferences at the bottom of this email, and if you’ve really enjoyed this dispatch, please consider sharing it with a friend.
This weekend, I took a class on writing. I had thought the course was going to be on story structure, which is a topic I’m perennially interested in. I love the idea that if you build your narratives in the right way, you can sort of wind them up and just let them lead to the logical end. I’ve been working on nailing the first section of my novel manuscript, because I have this idea, that if I get the tone and pacing and everything right here, the rest will just bloom from that.
Unfortunately, the class wasn’t really what I was looking for. As a compliment, I’d started reading the craft book Meander, Spiral, Explode by Jane Alison the night before. I had read it previously, but wanted a refresher to really load up on structural knowledge. So when the class didn’t turn out like I thought it would, I really wanted to plow through the end to get that structural information that I missed out on.
Alison presents an interesting idea, proposing a few different structural ideas as alternatives to the popular “wave”, which is how she refers to the three act structure rising and falling action triangle, for those of you in the know. I’ve long disliked the idea of the three act structure, and find conventional wisdom about composition often too programmatic. When I wrote the first draft of my novel manuscript, I did so with the intent of writing a five-act structured story, and think that’s part of what caused it to feel so stilted in my eyes.
Alison avoids delving too deeply into the nitty gritty here—you’ll find no mention of inciting incident or what must happen on page 17—but she does bring in textual evidence to support her claims. Structure is one of those things in writing that I think is more useful as a tool for analysis or revision than initial composition. Some authors like the framework to refer to, I think particularly genre writers, and others just soldier on.
For me, it’s not something I’m trying to consciously incorporate into my work as much this time. During my last read of Alison’s book, I was thinking about the multiple structures that could apply to my narrative at hand. But, it’s something I’d like to keep in the back of my mind as I write—and try and let the story find me.
My baseball team got the weekend off due to their planned opponent’s growing coronavirus outbreak. So without baseball, I’ve just been reading a lot of books. Probably for the best.
The second book I read this weekend was Raven Leilani’s debut, Luster. Despite the blurbs and promotional material nearing a fevered pitch, I found it just okay. Parul Sehgal says as much in her review, and her piece (which I could tell was less than glowing) played a big part in my desire to read the book.
Oddly enough, Luster is one of only a handful of books I’ve read this year that I didn’t intend to write about. But reading it, and reading what Sehgal wrote, has me thinking about the book promotional cycle and my role in it.
Basically, most reviews are advertising. They’re promotional materials. Even negative reviews, the hope is you read them and are intrigued by the book, or remember it subconsciously when you go to make a purchase.
Sometimes, this is more explicit than others. You’ve probably read a few book reviews (if you read book reviews at all!) that really don’t say anything critical at all; these can be hard to distinguish between blurbs you might find on the back of the book. Often, these tend to be written by other authors who are peers of the author being reviewed.
This link isn’t always so clear, though. Aside from the reviews, there’s the reviews on Goodreads and Amazon. There’s the tweets and posts from other writers and publicists. And at times, it can feel like everyone is tripping over themselves to write the most glowing praise.
None of this is inherently bad. There are far more insidious and misleading advertising campaigns in other mediums. The thing that’s interesting to me is how for books it’s all sort of coagulating down into the blurb and the pseudo-blurb. Both promotional material official and unofficial have adopted the same language, the same sorts of style. Effervescent, sharp, brilliant. But when every other book is the best book you’ve read in years, it loses more than a little of its potency.
Of course, I certainly don’t expect publicists to tone down their praise, and it’s hard to see a situation where others would as well. I guess that makes even tempered criticism all the more important. Because otherwise it’s just noise.
Please take a look at my incredible bread. I’ve been baking bread since the start of the year, and only now do I feel as if I’ve sort of got a grasp on the mechanics at play. I read Tartine Bread, a cook book that’s sort of about one recipe, for sourdough. But even with that, I struggled the first couple of times I tried. I’ve now decided that the times presented in the book were just way way too long; at least for my sweltering Chicago Summer kitchen. My bread never had a chance. It was getting overproofed before the dough was even fully formed.
I’ve cut the times way down; two hours for my leaven to peak, two hours of bulk ferment, and two to three hours rising. And the result is the bread you see above; a much more rounded, full puff, rather than the under and overproofed boules I was getting before. And baking bread has become something… well, I still don’t really look forward to it, I suppose, but it’s a fine way to spend an afternoon.
Eating fresh bread from the oven? Now that’s the stuff.
That’s all for me, folks. Hoping to keep up this good momentum and plow through a few more books on my to be read list while I’ve got it in me. Thanks, as always, for taking a look.
Stay strong, fight on.
From Chicago with love.
Your faithful commander,
— I