About my Mormon Lit Blitz story
William Morris on his Mormon Lit Blitz finalist "A Ward House, Stirring" and his three favorite finalists.
Hello.
After several years either not entering or not being selected as a finalist for the Mormon Lit Blitz, I'm back this year with "A Ward House, Stirring." You can both read and listen to me read it here.
I suppose you could characterize it as faithful realist in subject matter and weird fiction in execution, which makes it a fusion of my two main modes of Mormon fiction. More on how it came together below plus my three favorite Lit Blitz finalists. And because I'm listing those favorites, this email is going out a week later than normal (and thus after the Lit Blitz voting deadline).
In other news:
- I released a gothic indie pop single titled catacombs. Listen for free on Bandcamp.
- I wrote a post for A Motley Vision on Doctrine & Covenants 59:16 – 19 and what it might say about Mormon aesthetics
Other than a periodic AMV post, I probably won't have updates on any Mormon stuff until early winter. Right now I'm focusing on the WHM side of things, including working on publishing my first collection of SF&F stories. I need to do a final proofread and make some tiny adjustments to the cover, but I'm really pleased with it so far. Subscribe here if you want updates on that.
Liner Notes for A Ward House, Stirring
I will admit that over the years, I've become restless with the 1,000 word limit for the Mormon Lit Blitz, which is why a few of my finalists and rejections were expanded to 1,500 - 2,000 words when collected in Dark Watch and other Mormon-American Stories and The Darkest Abyss: Strange Mormon Stories.
At first, I tried to force things, but that just led to underdeveloped stories or ones where I tried to cram too much in. So the past couple of years I've taken a more relaxed approach. If I have an idea that I think will work within the word count, I write and submit it. If I don't, I don't submit anything.
For this year's contest, I didn't have an idea spring to mind, so I perused my file of fiction ideas, which goes back to 2011 and has almost 600 items in it (that range from a phrase to several paragraphs). Oftentimes, that becomes an exercise in frustration since most of the ideas in there are either not enough to spin a story out of or contain way more than 1k words. But I was in luck this time. Here's what I found:
SEPTEMBER 2024:
A story maybe longer that flits among a chapel and the cars parked outside it but the conversations and descriptions are uncannyish. Mormon but heightened in various ways “What I wish for you is that you avail yourself of the stirrings of the” The ghost in the last stall—the one nearest the font with the bench and hook—knew it shouldn’t think of theirself as a ghost but couldn’t think of theirself as any thing but, refusing as they did to move away from the location
the youngest of the young woman opens her battered coffee, copy of the pearl of great price fusses two fingers into the spongy pages and draw them a tiny Fleming sword. Someone is crying in the vestibule coats surrounded by coats.
That "maybe longer" was discarded. And the mode of the story went from uncannyish to something more like urban fantasy or magical realism or just plain weird fiction.
As you can tell by the misspellings and not quite coherence, this was either done right when I woke up or by typing quickly on my phone or likely both. But the overall concept is there, and all of the specific elements made their way into the story.
When I sat down to write it, I had that first line (or part of it), and from there I almost pictured in my mind a drone video going through the building (and out into the parking lot). Something like the ones that were popular on Youtube a few years ago where someone would fly a drone through an auto repair place or historical home or whatever.
This sense of movement of the drone made it fairly easy to write the story because I could see in my mind all the places where the camera would roam and where something would need to take place. And once the camera stopped and focused in on something it was simply a matter of figuring who was there and what was occurring.
I say simply, but, of course, if there is any magic in the story, it's in the details. My goal with each item was to capture something true while also not make them too similar to each other. I wasn't trying to present, for lack of a better term, a cohesive Mormon magic or a set of symbols that all fit into a specific system. Rather, I wanted to treat each spot almost as if it were its' own separate thing with its' own mini-eruption of magic/surreality/enchantment (or whatever you want to call it).
I also wanted to keep things fairly mundane and grounded in Mormon life. And, of course, above all to both pay tribute to and make strange—and in making strange, hopefully also make new—the beautiful/drab, amusing/serious, sad/joyful realities of Sabbath worship for Latter-day Saints.
Hopefully, it did that for you.
Also: I think it'd make a great animated film.
My three favorite Mormon Lit Blitz finalists
It's easy to say that all the Lit Blitz finalists are great, because they almost always are, but since there is a vote, I do force myself to choose. I think it's important to both honor the spirit of the competition and also put on my critic hat and really consider which works I think are "better." So here are my three favorite finalists in order of publication:
There were multiple pieces this year that invoked magic/fairy tale as well as several that focus on young women on the verge of adolescence and/or adulthood. I thought "Fairies" by Ilse Eskelsen combined the two beautifully. This line is so simple and yet encapsulates so much: "'Lauren,' I asked, now, 'is sixteen too old for this?'"
This year's finalists also featured several stories that retold scriptural or early church history events from a different point of view. Of those my favorite was "The Fugitive" by Mario Montani. Yes, it's a bit gimmicky (but fun gimmick pieces are one of the best traditions of the contest), but it's such a perfect genre choice for the story. If I had written it, it would have been longer and more Chandleresque, but I don't think that would have been the right choice. When you're doing a twist like this, shorter is more sustainable.
As I've said in the past, I have a complicated relationship with poetry, but overall, I think the poetry category outshined the fiction one this year (even though only one poem made my top three). Of the poems, "Use it in Our Daily Lives" by Laura Niedermeyer best balanced legibility with striking imagery and a simple but effective mastery of form.
Let me know what your favorites are.
I'll be back in two months with another edition.
Have a great rest of the summer!
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