Kurt R.A. Giambastiani

I’ve Got Style

05 Dec 2012 by KRAG

I’ve been reading about Gustave Flaubert and his writing method. “What a bitch of a thing prose is!” he wrote to his friend and lover, Louise Colet. “It’s never finished; there’s always something to redo.” And redo he did.

Flaubert was a definite “basher,” taking up to a week to produce a single page. He once remarked that for the first 125 pages of Madame Bovary, he actually wrote 500 pages. But this constant revision was required to achieve the style for which he aimed.

“A good sentence in prose should be like a good line in poetry, unchangeable, as rhythmic, as sonorous.”

In reading an analysis of the style he adopted for Madame Bovary, I realized that I, too, have a style. Continue Reading »

Posted in Books, Writing | Tagged books, creative writing, Fallen Cloud Saga, Flaubert, madame bovary, novel writing, novels, Writing, writing style, writing techniques | Leave a Comment »

Relativity

04 Dec 2012 by KRAG

By the time he was my age, Gustave Flaubert was decades past his peak with Madame Bovary. By the time Hemingway was 54, he was pretty much done. And by the time Shakespeare was as old as I am, he’d been dead a couple of years.

It’s hard to look at facts like these and not get a little depressed. I mean, sure, I didn’t even start writing until I was in my thirties, and didn’t really get into novels until my forties, but…damn! Adding fuel to the fire, a quick search for “writers who started late in life” does not generate a list of late-blooming literary giants.

My mind quickly comes up with all sorts of justifications and explanations as to why so-and-so succeeded early in life and I have not—financial support from others, an early start in the craft, etc., etc.—but it’s all nonsense. As my father once wisely told me, there’s always going to be someone richer, smarter, or more talented than I am. Getting down on myself for not being a genius, for not getting that Nobel Prize for Literature, is silly. More than that, it’s counter-productive.

I don’t write to be famous. I don’t write for immortality. Crap, I don’t even write to make it into the “Who’s Who in American Literature.”

I write because I like it. Because I love it. And that’ll do.

Posted in Books, Writing | Tagged books, creative writing, Flaubert, Hemingway, novel writing, Shakespeare, Writing, writing tips | 6 Comments »

October 19, 1964

03 Dec 2012 by KRAG

In the years to come, much will be lost to him. Many details will simply not make it past the blinkers of his mind’s eye, and many more will be lost to the unraveling threads of time, but even at five years old, much will survive for him to carry forward.

He comes home from school, running up the hill, shoes scuffing the rough surface of the concrete sidewalk. The sun is bright despite the thin clouds. Past the last corner, he smacks the juniper in his neighbor’s yard, feels the sting of its prickly fronds and smells its sharp scent. He passes under the fading leaves of the Fillingame’s plane tree, kicking a path through the fallen litter. He looks up. His father’s car is in the drive. Dad is home? Already?

Dark, green ivy climbs the yellow stucco of the bungalow’s wall near the front door. He reaches up to turn the knob and enters. It is dark within. Shrouded. Silent. Immediately he knows. Something is wrong. Continue Reading »

Posted in Writing | Tagged 1960s, childhood memories, creative writing, memoir, Writing | 4 Comments »

Form v Content

30 Nov 2012 by KRAG

The holiday season always brings out my Inner Curmudgeon.

I won’t bore you with a crabby, cliché-riddled tirade against materialism and the mania that infects our nation during the calendar’s final months. You’ve heard that many times by now, and you’re either down with it or you’re down at the mall.

But there are other things we do, sabotaging our own best interests in the name of Holiday Spirit. We do them unconsciously. We never question them. To do so would be heresy. So that’s what I aim to do.

Posted in Culture | Tagged blogging, holiday meal, quiet living, Serenity, setting priorities, simple living, turkey | 6 Comments »

Speaking of Snake-Oil

29 Nov 2012 by KRAG

Yesterday, several writers I know—professionally- and self-published both—went ballistic at the news: Simon & Schuster Join with Author Solutions to Create Archway Publishing

Why the furor? Why is this such a bad thing? Two reasons.

Reason #1: Conflict with Writer’s Rule #1

Writers Rule #1: Money flows toward the writer.

When you’re self-publishing, this is a hard rule to keep. Remember, though, that when you’re self-publishing, you’re wearing two hats: Writer and Publisher. Money flows toward the Writer, but the Publisher has some up-front costs. But how much up-front cost is too much? Most writers don’t know, are naifs in the wilderness of the writing/publishing ecosystem, and are in general insecure about the whole “business” side of their business. Continue Reading »

Posted in Culture, Hi Tech, Writing | Tagged author solutions, CreateSpace, ebooks, iuniverse, novel writing, publishing, self-publishing, simon and schuster, vanity press, Writing, writing tips | Leave a Comment »

So Mad I Could Spit

28 Nov 2012 by KRAG

Oh, boy…

Yesterday, a video was making the rounds: a “bestofyoutube” video. It is a montage of sped-up, long-shot, city-scape footage depicting the busy, fast-paced, worker-bee nature of the modern world. These shots were interspersed with pictures of individuals head-down, poring over papers, frowning at computer screens, obviously unhappy, unfulfilled, and unrewarded. Atop this montage is an audio from Alan Watts’ 1960 lecture on “What If Money Was No Object?”

Using binary reasoning, Watts asserts that people, when asked what they’d do if money was no object, invariably speak of some artistic, creative, or peaceful activity. His deduction is therefore that we all spend all our lives doing something we do not want to do. And his conclusion is that we should chuck it all and spend our lives doing what we want. His thesis:

Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing, than a long life spent in a miserable way.

Bollocks. Continue Reading »

Posted in Culture | Tagged alan watts, best of youtube, follow your bliss, I want it all now, narcissism, oprah, The Secret, what would you do if money was no object | Leave a Comment »

Hum Me a Few Bars

27 Nov 2012 by KRAG

As a music major, I never really listened to music for the lyrics; I could rarely understand the singers anyway. (That’s why, during the final seasons of BSG, I missed the fun when they started quoting “All Along the Watchtower,” but that’s beside the point, really.)

Naturally, therefore, music has been incredibly important to my mind. It’s always been there, providing a soundtrack to my life, driving me onward or soothing my savage breast, lifting my spirits or challenging my assumptions with new and unusual combinations of sounds and tonalities.

When I switched from being a working musician to a struggling writer, music continued to play a big part. A very important part, as it turns out.

Posted in Culture, Writing | Tagged adiemus, creative writing, e s posthumus, Music, music for writing, novel writing, soundtracks, thomas bergersen, two steps from hell, Writing, writing techniques, writing tips | 4 Comments »

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Kurt R.A. Giambastiani

Words and Works from a Seattle Author

I’ve Got Style

Relativity

October 19, 1964

Form v Content

Speaking of Snake-Oil

Reason #1: Conflict with Writer’s Rule #1

So Mad I Could Spit

Hum Me a Few Bars

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