LIVE! #35
7 November 2021
Agenda
- Why We're Here
- Literary Forensics
- - What do I bring?
- - What do I feel?
- - What do I notice?
- - What do I study?
- Next Month's Reading & Study
Why We're Here
We Writers want to improve our craft
by Reading like a Writer
through Literary Forensics training
we learn from each other
Roundtable Rules
Always refer back to the book
We practice active listening & serendipity
Every feeling and observation is valid...
but not every conclusion
Always refer back to the book
Today's author: Martin Amis
- Born: 1949; Educated: Oxford; Lives: Brooklyn
- 15 Novels
- 7 Story Collections
- 2 Screenplays
- 8 Non-fiction works
- Kingsley/Martin - Father/Son writers very rare (exception: Alexandre Dumas)
- Amis on Art Novel vs. Life Novel
- - DH Lawrence started writing about real people
- Saul Bellow did it best? - "Life writing is an unsatisfying genre"
- "Writing fiction in my definition is freedom; once you confine yourself to your own life,
then there's a horrible restriction on your freedom."
"The novel is not a cri de coeur,
but a mea culpa"
- Martin Amis
"Because novels come from long-marinated and unregarded anxiety, from silent anxiety..."
- Inside Story: I. Ethics and Morals
"The book in your hands calls itself a novel
– and it is a novel, I maintain."
Martin Amis, Inside Story
What do I feel?
What in the book elicited that feeling?
Every feeling and observation is valid...
but every conclusion should be questioned
We practice serendipity
- nothing is too crazy
Always refer back to the book
What do I notice?
- • Language and Grammar
- • Context
- • Point of view
- • Character & character development
- • Pacing
- • Horizontal structure
- • Layering of themes
- • Overall effect
Inside Story - Stats
- Marketing: Dark Humor, Comedic Dramas & Plays, Biographical Fiction
- Genre: Realistic Modern-Day Archplot Long-Form
- Print Pages: 560
- Word count: 196,401; Avg. wds/sent.: 14.31
- Reading Level: Grade 9; Lexical Density: 48.77
- Flesch Reading Ease: 67.12
- POV: Martin; 1st & 3rd person
- Publish date: October 27, 2020
- Publisher: Knopf
- Sold By: Penguin / Random House
- Audio book narr.: Alex Jennings (23 hrs)
- It's a narrative . . .
No, it's an instructional manual . . .
Wait, it's both!
Writers Who Read: Coming Up
December 5: Deacon King Kong - James McBride (USA, 2020)
2022 selections coming soon!