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lit e rary Advice from a Master Storyteller by Sick, » m The best writing advice I c came from two workshops I attended that were laught by Capilano College professor Crawford Kilian. Kilian is a prolific author--he has published 10 novels (15 books total), most of them sci-fi classics such as Tsunami, Lifter, and Gryphon. I asked him recently if he'd share some of the secrets of his success. "All 1 really do." Kilian explains, "is exploit my daydreams more than most people do. I'm really quile accuslomed to vacuuming the floor and doing dishes or whatever, and thinking about things that might rum into stories. I got the idea for Eyas when I was walking the dog one night in the neighborhood. After that, when I walked the dog. I'd think about how the story would develop, who the characters would be. I considered the problems that I would encounter in writing it And so How improve their skills' "A lot of writing is jusl straight craft. You do need lo know how plot works, you do need to be aware that what you're writing, in effect, is a kind of commentary on everything you've read so far, especially in genres you like a lot. So if you're reading a lot of spy novels and you're writing a spy novel, in your work you're paying homage lo some writers, satirizing others, sneering ai still others, whether you like their work or not. It's important to understand thai stories have specific components; how you deal with them is. in effect pan of the whole message of the story and if you disregard some of those requirements of craft, you may come up with an interesting experiment or two, but that doesn't mean that it's going to be a story thai anyone's going to want lo read, or if they do read, that they're going to benefit from. ihis particular writer but whai in thii writer is exactly like a whole bunch of others. A genre by definition is a body of works which resemble one another, whether it'i ihcir themes, their characters, their basic plols. their settings, their conventions, that develop around them--whether it'i a badboiled private eye story, atimetravel Hon. or a western, or whatever. What often happens is that as youreadabout literary theory or about the craft of putting something together, ihcn the next time you pick up a novel, you're looking ai it from a somewhat more abstract perspective and you say. 'Aha! I see why this is working. I see how this is preparing us for some "All a writer needs is ego and energy." "One last thing. A writer once told me, when I had jusl finished my first 88-page typed novelette at age 12. "Crawford, all a writer needs is ego and energy." and he was right; it's whether you have the ego lo think you have something worth saying and the energy to write il down, and by God. make a pest of yourself until someone publishes it. Persistence, ego. and energy will put the world at your doorstep " Nicki Breuer is a West Vancouver wnter and bookseller. She is the co-owner of Odin Books, which specializes ui psychology, therapy and family issues books. If you'd like more information about Odin Books, call 739-8804. This article originally appeared in the Federation of B. C. Writers' newsletter and has been Editor's note: The Arts Promouon Board will be offering a writing workshop in November. Check ihe next issue of Arts Access for deuds or call Ann at 984-9537. "I tell my students that all of writing is getting a routine, the habitual pattern of life where you spend some time brushing your teeth, doing the dishes, writing, or fixing supper. It's one of the things that happens. And when it's thattimeof day, you sit down and get to work. Bui there are also times in Ihe day where you're just trapped; you're waiting for something, whether it's a dental appointment or a meeting. When I'd find myself trapped in meetings that would drone on for hours, I'd have a loose leaf binder in front of me that I could scribble in. and I'd make some progress in my story. I simply exploit the time as it "I know people who spend most nights watching the tube from after dinner until 10 o'clock," he says. "That's three hours punched out of your life, and you could have done all kinds of things in those three hours, whether it was going ice skating or weight training,readingTolstoy or whatever, you've got three hours and it's like a gift. It's like a 27-hour day if you just don't watch the TV set." "Just as in a musical composition, you sound your theme in the opening bars, then you explore the variations implicit in ihose themes to the conclusion. If you don't have a themerightat the beginning, eveiyone is going to wonder what the heck everything else is supposed lo mean. Put it this way: whether you consciously do ¡1 or not you're going to try to tell a slory. If you do il consciously, you have much more control over your material; if you're doing it unconsciously, you end up with something thai a psychoanalyst might have a wonderful time with, but you or your readers might not be aware of what you're actually saying because you're not thinking about what the various elements of the story can convey. "I think there are people who are bom wilh the potential to be really good writers, because they're well wired in the verbal pan of their brains. They listen, perhaps more acutely; they read a little more perceptively and hungrily lhan others, but the actual process of becoming a writer is much more a matter of simply being persistent and mastenng the craft and to the extent that you can, mastering it consciously. You do this so lhal when you decide that you want to have sunrise come up at a particular point in the slory, you know why you wani it to be sunrise and you know what the sunrise is, even if the reader doesn't know it, conveying some n the overall story." "Write yourself a letter. Be your own editor. Imagine thai you are sitting down in some New York office, and your budding genius out on the West Coast has just phoned or faxed you and is saying 'Oh my God. I'm having a big problem, and I don't know what to do.' and then imagine lhal you're the editor consoling and write 'Here's what you're doingrightand here's what you're doing wrong." I don't have an editor who will soothe my brow and give me a nice cup of hoi chocolate so I have to do that myself. And just as there is a novelwriting program installed in every writer's brain, so there's an editor's program. All kinds of problems clarify themselves quickly. If it's a mailer of being scared about writing, write down. 'I'm scared.' And then, the next thing you know, you're explaining to yourself why you're scared, and it will be much less of a problem." "For one thing, by reading an awful lot and if they're reading fiction, by pulling back from il from time lotimeand trying it understand not just what is unique about 6 Am A m u S.p/Oo 1993