Writing Craft: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Cormac McCarthy’s The Road contained an unusual, if not disruptive writing style that immediately struck me on the first page. Sentences varied in odd structures, some abrupt, some run-on, some fragmented. Many contractions were missing apostrophes; quotation marks were completely absent from all dialogue. Some dialogue was intertwined within paragraphs of description, action, and narrative as exemplified in the following:

He screwed down the plastic cap and wiped the bottle off with a rag and hefted it in his hand. Oil for their little slutlamp to light the long gray dusks, the long gray dawns. You can read me a story, the boy said. Cant you, Papa? Yes, he said. I can. (7)

The disruptive writing style, seemingly incoherent at times, stylistically blended with the post-apocalyptical world of The Road. The atmosphere throughout the story was gray and cold, filled with the lifeless charred remains of a once flourishing landscape weighted heavily with despair and innate survival. The text portrayed this with eerie appropriateness. Sentences were cold, words were charred, and prose and dialogue loomed with despair, graced by the smallest nuances of hope. Proper constructs would have been detrimental to the authenticity of the story, its chaotic reality in the reader’s mind.

Dreams and memories blurred with the protagonist’s reality, as did the narration and the protagonist’s inner dialogue. Point-of-view shifted with no warning from third to first person to tell the story as accurately as it could be told. In the following example, a series of third person run-on sentences morphs into the protagonist’s perspective:

They stumbled and fell through the woods the night long and long before dawn the boy fell and would not get up again. He wrapped him in his own parka and wrapped him in the blanket and sat holding him, rocking back and forth. A single round left in the revolver. You will not face the truth. You will not. (68)

The ambiguity of who speaks the sentence “A single round left in the revolver” – narrator or protagonist – is found throughout the book lending to the precariousness and fragmentation of the story’s environment. The two subsequent sentences “You will not face the truth. You will not,” call to question whether this is actually the protagonist speaking to his son, his inner dialogue, or the narrator speaking to the protagonist, further compounding this world of uncertainty dynamic.

The stylistic handling or mishandling of the text contributed to the fullness of the story. Disjointed oversimplified dialogue with minimal clarity of who was speaking helped to illustrate the dismal, desperate environment. While heavy repetition of thematic words solidified the setting: gray, cold, wet, ash, burned, charred, dead. Run-ons punctuated by short fragments and single word sentences accentuated the scenes’ actions and moods.

My take away from The Road is one of creative freedom, of knowing the rules well and breaking them to fit the writer’s intent. The text successfully created a vivid portrayal of the post-apocalyptic world, one that was as rich and thriving in detail as it was gruesome and deadly in story. An exemplary literary work in which every word is used as the hues and thick brush strokes of a Van Gogh landscape.

Starting anew

New semester. New MFA writing. I have been away from this blog during the summer, not for any reason in particular, except for moving to a new home and undergoing some minor medical stuff. The fall semester has begun; a good excuse if any to dedicate time to this thing.

I read over the weekend as I recovered from surgery Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, which I will focus on in more detail in a following blog entry. I’m still processing it twenty-four hours later. Deep, dark, heavy, bleak, cold. The commentary on the value of religious belief, human nature, compassion, survival instincts, father-son relationships, trust, and the downfall of human civilization. To dissect McCarthy’s writing style at this moment is a massive undertaking I’m not prepared to take on for this blog, at least not today, but his rule-breaking and the resulting creative freedom is something I can cherish and learn from.

Unusual sentence structures. The lack of quotation marks for dialogue and apostrophes missing from certain conjunctions, like “havent” and “didnt.” The subtle convergence of inner dialogue, dreams, and third person narrative, which occasionally slipped into first person. All to tell the story exactly as McCarthy intended. The first few pages required some adjustment to the odd style, but I fell quickly into his post-apocalyptic world, his style providing foundation and lending to atmosphere rather than creating disruption. His disruptive style became my normal as the reader.

My take away is simple. Style, whether or not rules are intentionally broken, is as much a key part of the story as the characters and plot. Another tool in the writer’s toolbox, to borrow from Stephen King, that creates the indisputable uniqueness of a writer.

The Road has set the stage for an intriguing semester of new writing, new methods, new experiments with style. The perfect kickoff.

Radio interview tonight to support Unnatural Tales of the Jackalope antholaogy

Hey everyone, in the name of shameless self-promotion I will be one of a handful of writers tonight interviewed on Scary Scribes. The live show runs 6:00 – 7:00 PM eastern, after which, a podcast will be available. If you have the time please check it out: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/paranormaleh/2012/07/29/scary-scribes-ep-7

Unnatural Tales of the Jackalope is out!

Front cover art by Jason Mones, design by D.T. Griffith

I am excited to to share the news that my short story, "Johnny Versus the Creatures," is now published as part of the new anthology Unnatural Tales of the Jackalope, edited by John Palisano. This marks my entrance into the fiction publishing world. 

Please check it out on Amazon and considering buying a copy at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008H76GIS. The ebook is available now, paperback due for release very soon.

Keep up with news from Western Legends Publishing on Facebook. More books due out this year!

Back cover: list of contributing authors.

Summer of change

It's that moment when the cats's special diet food smells appetizing you realize it's time to get out. Locked inside, cleaning, working, only feeling the burn of the summer sun when it's time to make a dump run or donate more hoarded materials taking up valuable space in the house. By the time night arrives, all of that creative inspiration to write the next great American novel takes on the hazy view of an intoxicated glaucoma patient. Motivation withers away as exhaustion - both mental and physical - presides.

Surrounded by nature - wooded open spaces, rivers, an Audubon - yet never able to really appreciate any of it. Life has not dealt me those cards, the universe seems to have other realities in store for me. Realities in the form of work, obligations to meet for my employer to yield a profit and in-turn pay me a salary. A salary that is obligated to pay for home and food and a few little luxuries; most importantly though, to support my daughter's skating career. Obligations never cease to grow from the fertile soil of an active family lifestyle.

It is so rare that I find myself without something to do. Today is one of those days as I sit here in a Panera in the rolling hills on Connecticut eating lunch and writing feverishly on my iPad, waiting to return home after the realtor shows my private home off to prospective buyers. A circumstance we had not anticipated only a few months ago as our landlord placed the house on the market. One that necessitates relocating to my more urban hometown on the coast near friends, family, and the sprawling culture of the Greater NYC region. At least I'll once again feel at home. My nature will be the patches of woods between commercial properties, the rivers dissecting towns and cities as they spill into Long Island Sound, and the waterfronts.

As it's been said many times in varying capacities, life brings us full-circle. Less the snake eating its own tail and more an expedition through many life changing events and locations, only to return home as a stronger, wiser, more matured self. Until this move materialized, I never thought I would return to my hometown, much less feel excited about it.

Change is the predominant theme in my life this summer in every way. And I have no choice but to embrace it if I want to survive and continue to grow, and lose my appetite for the aroma of special cat food. More to come in a much less self-indulgent manner.

Destination Procrastination, Vindication

I wonder how many faceless people out there find themselves like me at this moment: filled with several creative ideas and inspirations, overwhelmed with sudden life changes and the associated obligations, and bearing the weight of a significant project about to rollout at my job. Thing is, if I had control over the timing on everything I would be in great shape, but I'm not a deity. Thing is, the project I feel least motivated to focus on this weekend is my top priority, and it would serve me well to work on it. Thing is, this is a pivotal point in my career ... I think.

Nothing is worse than uncertainty, well, not literally, I can think of many worse things that result in ER visits. Some job scenarios out of my control have cost me secured employment, killed opportunities to get ahead in life, and one even set me back.

My current situation is a little different. I have some insight in what's going on with this project since I'm leading the communication part of it. I know what is expected of me, but I don't know enough about where I will stand when I come out on the other side. It's a very strange scenario, one I don't mean to be vague about, but I don't have a choice. Vagueness drives me crazy when I read it elsewhere, believe me, I empathize and half-apologize.

A lack of foresight in anyone's career path can lead to many questions and reservations. They must be smacked down before their dark tentacles take hold, choking off the oxygen nourishing one's brain. I find the problem is with placing one's future in someone else's possession. It's a risky endeavor, one not meant to exist in the natural world. Mother Nature would cringe at such a thought, if she was more than a metaphorical figure.

At the end of it all, more effort is required than should be necessary to maintain control over our futures. Despite corporate policies, legal disclaimers, and unwavering personalities, do what's right for you. No one else cares about you more than you. And that applies to me too. Starting with my big project, there is a clichéd bull whose horns I must grab.

That's it for the self-indulgent blog posts for the weekend. Next up ... heads gone missing.

Let the words flow

I have been missing from this blog for the past month since my spring semester courses wrapped. It has a been a tumultuous four weeks filled with the common theme of change at home and professionally. Among the bigger things we have decided to relocate back to my hometown and I am creating managing a change communication plan for a large reorganization at my company. Crazy stuff. But great experience.

I had vowed to myself I would not let this summer slip away; that I would use the available time to write new stories and catch up on a laundry list of reading. Of course I had not anticipating moving so soon, spending free days and nights on sorting, purging, cleaning, and eventually packing possessions. To my surprise, purging items is quite freeing, no longer do I have a collection of four hundred-something CDs following me around from storage space to storage space, not once listened to in the past decade. Without all that stuff I can focus on what matters. It's a great feeling.

So I wasn't sure what I would write today, but felt I owed it to myself and my readers to put something out there. Despite the several levels of change occurring this summer, I have several things to look forward to - no worries, I won't bore you any more with introspective personal stuff. But I will mention that my short story, "Johnny Versus the Creatures" will be part of the upcoming anthology Unnatural Tales of the Jackalope from Western Legends Press, due out in a few weeks. I will post more info as we close in on the launch.

On that note, back to my life at rink side as my now 13-year-old daughter trains with her coach.