Don't Use Words You Can't Pour Gravy Over:Tom Franklin Visits Susquehanna Part II

Dr. Bailey had encouraged our class to ask Franklin lots of questions and not to be shy. “He’s here for you guys.” Even though most of us went to the Q&A just to listen, we ended up asking a lot of questions.

I asked Franklin a question I’ve been trying to decide for myself since I started Intro to Fiction — Should you know the ending before you write the story?

I’ve always found I have to know the ending or at least have to have a goal in mind in order to write a story. I’ve always felt like that kept the story focused and moving, but in class Dr. Bailey’s really been stressing to us that good stories are not driven by plot. They’re driven by character. I guess not knowing the ending forces you to let your characters drive the story.

Dr. Bailey says he never knows the endings to his stories when he starts writing. In fact, he says he can’t write if knows the ending, though he always concedes that some writers, like his colleague Susan Parabo, a writing professor at Dickinson, always have an ending in mind when they begin a story.

Franklin agreed with Bailey. “Endings are better if you surprise yourself,” he said and then went on to explain how Flannery O’Connor, while writing her story “Good Country People,” surprised herself so much with a twist in the plot that suddenly came to her that she wrote in the margin of her first draft: “Oh my God, he’s going to steal her leg!”

Don't Use Words You Can't Pour Gravy Over:Tom Franklin Visits Susquehanna Part III

“Endings are better if you surprise yourself.”

I jotted that down in the little writer’s notebook I’ve started to keep. I wasn’t the only one scribbling things down while Franklin spoke. After the Q&A session Liz, a friend of mine I first met at SU's summer workshop, compared her notes with mine, and we swapped Tom Franklin quotes. Here are my favorite pieces of writing advice from the Tom Franklin pages of my notebook:

“Write till you get to the end.” No matter how awful your first draft is, you have to finish it before you can start fixing things in the second draft.

“Writing is revising.” You’re not going to get it right the first time.

“Don’t use words you can’t pour gravy over.” Avoid abstract language. Use concrete words that readers can really picture. Franklin’s example went like this: You can’t pour gravy over “hate,” but you can pour gravy over a hateful face.

“Character and plot are the same thing.” That sounds really deep, doesn’t it? But it makes sense. Like Dr. Bailey’s been saying, character-driven stories are the best. Franklin’s example was that a gas station holdup story starring Clint Eastwood is going to be very different from a gas station hold up starring Woody Allen.

Flip-Flop-Free:Fall Break

I’ve just gotten back from fall break, a nice little vacation from marking up drafts and writing critique letters (that’s all I seem to do anymore). Not that the stories weren’t good. Before the break we were workshopping three drafts per class, and I was just starting to get tired of watching all of us make the same mistakes — plot-driven rather than character-driven stories; unrealistic, unbelievable, flat characters; implausibility; etc.

As the workshops have progressed, we’ve all really started getting a good grip on what makes good writing, on how to “read like writers,” as Dr. Bailey likes to say. We’re all paying closer attention to details, expecting characters to act like real people, and, I think, starting to make more insightful criticisms than before. He's probably going to assign us our second big short story sometime this week, and since we’ve all learned so much these past two months, I’m eager to read all the new drafts my classmates are going to write.

Dr. Bailey highly encouraged us to revise and rewrite over the break to save ourselves a headache during finals time at the end of the semester when our portfolios are due.

It was really great going home and doing the things I’ve really missed (seeing my family, hanging out with my friends from high school, sleeping in my own bed, eating my mom’s cooking and showering without having to wear flip-flops), and the break also gave me a chance to really sit down and work on “Broken” in a comfortable, familiar place where I could really focus. I spent a lot of the break kicked back in the big swivel chair in our basement with a cup of coffee (mostly cream and sugar) doing a rewrite and watching Alan become more alive on the page. His voice became clearer and more distinct as I filled in the gaps in the details of his life.

I’m actually really excited to have this draft workshopped or at least critiqued by Dr. Bailey because I feel like I’ve made some big improvements to it but it could still be a whole lot better. I can sense that it’s not done yet but I couldn’t exactly tell you why, so I'm eager for some feedback.