I was always the sort of person to read how-to-write books but skip the exercises. Do you know what I mean? There's a chapter on narrative viewpoint, or first- versus third-person narration, etc., and at the end of the chapter are a series of prompts: "Write a scene in the first person which…"
And I was always like, "Yup, on we go to the next chapter…" Skipped right past that page.
But when I was working my way through Ursula K. Le Guin's quietly excellent writing manual Steering the Craft, I made up my mind to actually do every one of the exercises that she offered at the end of each chapter. I learned a lot by doing so, and I ended up with a raft of stories or story fragments.
Some of those, I decided to keep working on. Some of the ones I worked on, I eventually managed to publish.
- My attempt at her "Short and Long" exercise turned into the short story "We Shared Clothing and Laughed," published in Bowery Gothic. (It's included in Melancholic Parables too.) In the first draft of the story, the entire second half was one very long sentence; I edited the published version to be less headlong.
- The scene I wrote for her "Again and Again" prompt became "Murmurs in the Moiré," published in Press Pause. (Also included in Melancholic Parables.) The theme of repetition in the story came directly from Le Guin's prompt.
- Her "Chastity" exercise, which was to write a story with no adjectives or adverbs, resulted in "Awful Tender," published in CommuterLit (in a form I reluctantly admit is not entirely free of adjectives and adverbs).
- I wrote "Trial by Ordeal" for her prompt "Being the Stranger," and it was picked up by Litro. It was supposed to be written from the viewpoint of someone I would not like. The challenge was in attempting to be fair.
- My story "The Pacifier," which is about an elderly female superhero, was written for her "The Old Woman" exercise, taken rather literally, you might say. The story is forthcoming in Samjoko.
If only Ursula were still alive, and if only I thought she'd have time to read a letter from the likes of me, I suppose I'd owe her a thank-you note.
A sixth story called "The Biteworthy" came out of her "Points of View" exercise. The assignment was to write the same scene from various characters' viewpoints, or from an omniscient viewpoint, or from nobody's viewpoint at all. The scene I chose was an armed robbery where the robber is armed with a venomous serpent.
Some of the viewpoint sections didn't seem worth keeping, so I whittled it down. Then I submitted various versions of it to journals and magazines, including versions which I am very glad never saw publication. (The crap you'll write sometimes. You think it's golden at the time, but…) A total of 67 publications rejected the thing before Denver Quarterly picked it up for issue 56.3.
Apparently the issue has just come off the presses. Whether my contributor copy ever reaches me depends on the whims of the Malaysian Post. I hope it will arrive soon so I can see this sheepish wayward story in print at last. If you see the Denver Quarterly on the stand at your local bookstore, I hope you'll pick it up.