Chuck Q & A - March 2004
1. From bunglejunkie5:
I know you touched on this in your latest essay, but is it better to describe a physical sensation in great detail, like using very specific descriptions of each feeling, or to paint a picture around the feeling, allowing the reader to experience it themselves? In other words, can we describe a headache without using the word "head"?
Chuck Responds:
This is always the challenge: Not telling the reader how to feel. Instead, coaching the reader. With the best bits of physical description, when I read them, I find myself unconciously aping or mimicking what the character is doing. I might make the same gesture, touching my forehead or whatever. Good writing sucks you in that far. With physical sensation, it’s the same trick. If you can break down the physical actions and behavior of the sensation, you can sort-of hypnotize your reader into doing those things and thus feeling the sensation.
For instance, how does your perception and body language change when you get a headache? I’d guess, all other people become assholes, doing assholey things. Your shoulders pull up, higher and higher. Your hands grip until your knuckles pop. Dissect all these changes in your body and your perception, then feed them to the reader. By working in reverse: Response = sensation, instead of sensation = response, you can imply and create that “headache” without a short-cut like: “Bob’s head felt as if it were splitting apart…”
Next time you get a headache, take notes. You will always have a use for them.
2. From Paul The Whip Guy:
Hey Chuck. Yep, I’m the guy who made those whips for the movies!
With “on-the-body” you’re basically saying to not write; “I feel…sick, happy, etc…”, or “I have a headache”. Is there ever a time when you can use those sorts of things? Such as Dialog. What about in second or third person? And is there a possible way where using those abstract things could be as effective?
Chuck Responds:
Hey Whip Guy! There’s always room to cheat, but if you do, then cheat in an interesting way. Cheat in a way that only THAT character would describe his physical state. For example: In Fight Club, the chorus of “I am Joe’s white knuckles…” was just my clever way to imply a mental/emotional state. By creating a chorus that only THIS character would use, I don’t have to slow down a scene to un-pack his physical behavior.
Nothing is lazier than saying: “Bob felt filled with joy…” No, your job at that moment is to fill your reader with joy.
The second laziest way is to say it in dialogue. Don’t. Unless maybe it’s to contradict the narrator’s actual state. For example: When you’re feeling great, full of energy and power. And your Mom says: “Honey, you look tired…”
3. From Petrona:
When writing about physical sensation you try to be naturalistic and honest. But is there some line of being too obscene or disgusting that you don’t want to cross?
Chuck Responds:
What? Have you ever read my work? No… there’s no such line. If the sensation is part of the human experience, then you can use it. A million-million people will love you for depicting something they’ve experienced but never dared express. The only requirements are that you depict the experience or sensation effectively and with respect. The moment you start to show your own feelings or judgments (for example: Bob felt the obscene, disgusting things in his mouth…) you’re not doing your job.
4. From Justin:
The on-the-body technique seems pretty cut and dry. But I am curious, are there exceptions to the rule, and if so can you try to exemplify them?
Chuck Responds:
See question Number Two.
5. From JKabol:
On-the-body writing: if you don’t know what to write about next, describe the inside of your character’s mouth. Or describe hands. Or feet. And so on.
Do you mean this as more of a transitional devise than a describe-the-scene-without-the-fake-sensationalism stuff?
Chuck Responds:
It’s both. In a way, everything on the page is a transitional device. A story can’t be all dialogue. Or all action. Or all sensation. At least not without losing some power. You’re trying to pace the action, using description -- like a strip tease, getting to the truth slowly – so your reader is experiencing the full world of your character. That way, what happens to your character also seems to happen to your reader. What matters is that you describe the physical sensation in the most effective way possible.
6. From mbperkins:
My question has to do with copyright law. In this month’s essay you reference clothing patterns from Butterick and Simplicity. Must an author obtain permission to use a company’s name, or factual information about a company or its products before it can be used in a fictional story?
Chuck Responds:
No. There’s something called the “Fair Use Statute” in federal copyright law. Especially in a non-fiction piece, you’re free to depict the world as it occurs – so long as you don’t veer into attacking and defaming a person or entity (like Butterick). In Minimalism, you’re not allowed to judge and evaluate so you stand little chance of ever pissing off some deep-pocket company that will come after you. Song lyrics and other intellectual properties are another issue. Those, you need permission to use.
Still, when I write something very dark that uses a product in an upsetting way, I just invent a bogus name for it. That’s more fun, anyway.
7. From MileHighMancini:
How do you decide when and when not to use quotation marks when a character is speaking. In many (if not all) of your books, you switch back and forth. Sometimes there are quotes, sometimes not. Is this a method or an effect to keep literal surreal line blurry?
Chuck Responds:
Good question. I deeply distrust books that give every quote inside marks. No one telling a story remembers every word of every line they hear. Maybe it’s my old Journalism background, but I think we paraphrase what we hear, and we shape it to make our version of reality work better – at least as a story. To me a quote is a sacred thing and is more believable if it’s short or it holds huge impact. Those are the lines we remember – the punchlines.
So, to create a more interesting “texture” to the story, I use quotation marks as little as possible. And only to showcase the most important lines. Again, this is my nod to the subjective nature of all stories. Plus, all those quotes going down the page, they look BORING.
8. From Terminal Descent:
How far should one go in the usage of medical language? I really like this idea, but if your reader will have no idea what you are describing, should a writer explain or extend the description?
Chuck Responds:
Just be careful. Think of all those stories that use lines in French and don’t explain what they say. That arrogance always pisses me off. It’s as if the writer is excluding me AND showing off their French. Fuck that. Instead, consider using the wonderful poetical-medical stuff – but just before or after the language, define it in good, simple terms. In this way, you’re not shutting out your reader, you’re teaching and drawing them deeper into your world. Into your character’s mind.
9. From Owen Warlord:
Chuck, it seems from your comments that 3rd person is inferior to 1st. As everything I've read of yours is in first person, I'd like to know: do you find 3rd person to be a weak technique? If so, why?
Chuck Responds:
The way I’ve been taught, first person is stronger because there is someone accountable for the story. These days, we all know that the teller shapes the truth. We all know to “consider the source.” But in traditional third-person, there is no one telling the story. It’s as if God is telling it. And somehow we’re supposed to accept that God would never put His “spin” on the truth…
Well, that’s not God, it’s some writer. At least with first-person, we’re given a paper tiger or foil that acts to root the story in the real world. Instead of in heaven. Consider how movies like Citizen Kane and The Blair Witch Project were more effective because they seemed based in some non-fiction form. Kane in a newsreel. Blair in a school project. This grounding in reality (even a fake reality) gives the stories more authority from the first moment.
But, there is incredible third-person fiction. Look at Tobias Wolff. And more and more, just for the variety, my own work is going into third person.
Remember: You’re never stuck in any form. Think of how we tell a joke… “A man walks into a bar, and you know how those bars are, you can’t see a thing. I tell you, this bar is dark. And the man says…” There you have it, first, second and third person.
Do not limit yourself. Experiment. Diary was written in a subjective third person that implied an actual author who wasn’t revealed until the very last page. Screw around that way.
10. From TylerDurden777:
What kinds of music and/or composers do you like?
Chuck Responds:
Every type. It depends on the mood I want to create. I use music like a drug. For this non-fiction writing, I like “chill” music – with “Chill Factor Audiotherapy” playing right now. But for editing, I’ll listen to the Chopin Nocturnes that Tiffany Wong sent me. And for the first draft of my next angry story, maybe… Pink Floyd. Other stories, Country and Western. What can I say? I’m a mess.
