Ah, and you're starting the season with a victory! Over the neighbours? Edmonton are in the province over, aren't they? It's a good start, let's hope the Canucks keep it up for you :)
The Return "It is common," said Leslie daFox, looking around the classroom at the dull, grubby faces of his students, "for an author who has been successful with their first novel to try and reproduce it in their second novel. They find that they have finally, usually after many rejections and much criticism and effort, hit upon a formula that works, and they want to use it again and see if it works just as it is, or if it can be tweaked a little. Of course," and he nodded to himself here, his grey-haired head bobbing like an apple floating on water, "the best way to sell a book is to have already sold a book. The formula you use to write it is less important." The students bent over their notebooks, scribbling down what Leslie said. In some cases it would be a faithful copy, in others it would come close to parody. In Elaine's case he couldn't read her handwriting anyway so she might as well be writing her shopping list. "My own second novel," he said, with a hint of pride in his voice, "was called The Return and essentially told the story of the first novel backwards. I was therefore extremely pleased when it was critically acclaimed and had started in on a third novel where I was simply going to randomly order the paragraphs from the first and add filler. Then my editor took me aside over an expense lunch the likes of which we never see these days, and told me that while she thought I'd been very clever, I should consider what the success of the second novel said about the quality of the first." "Umm," said a middle-aged woman in the second row, raising a hand that looked like she'd been gardening with it. "What's a novel, exactly?" Leslie stared at her, his agile mind readying some sarcasm about her presence in a novel-writing seminar when she didn't know what a novel was, and noticed that the other students near her were nodding uneasily. "How many of you know what a novel is?" he asked, his tone of surprise dominating his words. No hands were raised. "You all know how to write though," he said, sarcasm unable to desert him completely. "No Elaine, I know about your problem. Right, I suppose we could do some definitions. An anecdote used to be the shortest salable piece at 2,000 words or so, but that has been supplanted by Flash-- yes?" "Umm," said the dirty woman again, chewing on her pen. "What's an antidote then?"
Greg - yes, Calgary and Edmonton are next door. The Canucks haven't fared so well since then, unfortunately. But it's early yet, even with a shortened season.
Hahaha, I like this teacher a lot, perhaps even more so thanks to his hopeless students. I suspect they will match up well in the end though!
2 comments:
Ah, and you're starting the season with a victory! Over the neighbours? Edmonton are in the province over, aren't they? It's a good start, let's hope the Canucks keep it up for you :)
The Return
"It is common," said Leslie daFox, looking around the classroom at the dull, grubby faces of his students, "for an author who has been successful with their first novel to try and reproduce it in their second novel. They find that they have finally, usually after many rejections and much criticism and effort, hit upon a formula that works, and they want to use it again and see if it works just as it is, or if it can be tweaked a little. Of course," and he nodded to himself here, his grey-haired head bobbing like an apple floating on water, "the best way to sell a book is to have already sold a book. The formula you use to write it is less important."
The students bent over their notebooks, scribbling down what Leslie said. In some cases it would be a faithful copy, in others it would come close to parody. In Elaine's case he couldn't read her handwriting anyway so she might as well be writing her shopping list.
"My own second novel," he said, with a hint of pride in his voice, "was called The Return and essentially told the story of the first novel backwards. I was therefore extremely pleased when it was critically acclaimed and had started in on a third novel where I was simply going to randomly order the paragraphs from the first and add filler. Then my editor took me aside over an expense lunch the likes of which we never see these days, and told me that while she thought I'd been very clever, I should consider what the success of the second novel said about the quality of the first."
"Umm," said a middle-aged woman in the second row, raising a hand that looked like she'd been gardening with it. "What's a novel, exactly?"
Leslie stared at her, his agile mind readying some sarcasm about her presence in a novel-writing seminar when she didn't know what a novel was, and noticed that the other students near her were nodding uneasily.
"How many of you know what a novel is?" he asked, his tone of surprise dominating his words. No hands were raised.
"You all know how to write though," he said, sarcasm unable to desert him completely. "No Elaine, I know about your problem. Right, I suppose we could do some definitions. An anecdote used to be the shortest salable piece at 2,000 words or so, but that has been supplanted by Flash-- yes?"
"Umm," said the dirty woman again, chewing on her pen. "What's an antidote then?"
Greg - yes, Calgary and Edmonton are next door. The Canucks haven't fared so well since then, unfortunately. But it's early yet, even with a shortened season.
Hahaha, I like this teacher a lot, perhaps even more so thanks to his hopeless students. I suspect they will match up well in the end though!
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