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Chris McClelland, multiple award-winning short story writer and novelist, also sometime writing coach

Chris McClelland's World War Two Romance, IN LOVE AND WAR named a #2 Best Selling YA military fiction e book by Amazon! Star-crossed lov...

Friday, April 16, 2021

Blog #24; the nature of truth in fiction; exploring consequences of characters’ actions; keeping motivation as a writer

 

Truth in fiction sounds like an oxymoron, but is very real.   The true aim of serious fiction is to find meaning by relating greater truths of human existence in “a made up” story.  I was thinking about this when considering a story I’ve been working on about the disparity between ideals and reality, and how people and institutions are often self-contradictory.   There are many ways to write a true work of fiction, and these are the stories I get excited about.   Whether historical or contemporary, these works are challenges, especially for the advanced writer, because as you grow, you see more deeply the implications of what you are writing and its consequences.

Characters’ motivated actions propel the narrative, and often it is hard to see where the consequences of those actions will fall.  Writing fiction is a process of exploration, an exploration of characters’ actions, and the consequences.   We can continue to explore as we write never fully knowing anything but a small profile of the ending.

Lately I’ve been trying to minimize the distractions, video games, etc., that keep me away from spending more time at the desk, writing fresh material.  Whether it’s this blog, or my short stories, or the novel in progress, A CONTRITE SPIRIT, all of these things need time and most need time every day.  Time and effort.  I am also immersing myself in several European languages concurrently, but mostly Italian and French.  I am doing this as an adjunct to my writing in English, to expand my vocabulary and my understanding of the nature of languages.  I have found a helpful resource for this which is free and if you are interested, contact me here at the blog and I’ll send a link.

Saturday, April 10, 2021

Blog #23; FREE GIVEAWAY of the short story “First, Do No Harm”; very quick and compelling read

 For the next two days, “First, Do No Harm” will be available for free; a timely story about a courageous young doctor and a mysterious virus and the ethical choices she must make. 




Friday, April 9, 2021

Blog #22; Hemingway PBS Documentary; the nature of fame and literary talent

 


Hemingway, the documentary, quickly became disappointing to me.  I don’t know if it’s because I already know so much about his life, or maybe it’s just the sneaking feeling that Ken Burns is attempting to manipulate his audience by feeding it all the old Hemingway myths.  Like disclosing the contents of his love letters with his first wife.  I have been exposed to personal material of Hemingway and his various women before, but a certain sense of decency caused me to stop watching the documentary all together.  Maybe Hemingway wouldn’t mind the public knowing but it caused me to feel embarrassed for him and his first wife, and his subsequent wives, and to realize that I am also a writer, and I would hate for private details of my relationships with my loved ones to be made public.

So often, as with The Sun Also Rises, fiction is really well-written, thinly veiled, gossip. And I don’t want to know his intimate life.  The details that may or may not match what he knew of friends and family  blur the achievement of the great work he created in later books.  It’s like the blog I wrote a few months ago about Kurt Russell.   The less I know about the personal life of an actor or writer, the better.  How else can a mature person suspend disbelief and become engaged with characters and story?

And it really goes back to maturity.  You get to a certain age and you just realize however remarkable his best work is, he was all too human and not to be admired as a man; and this is sad.  When a young, sensitive man is first exposed to Hemingway’s work, there is often a kind of hero worship that occurs, but like The Sorrows of Young Werther, most of Hemingway’s novels, excluding The Old Man and the Sea, are young men’s books.  Time and experience teach a man real life-lessons that make the presumptions of most of the abovementioned work hard to take seriously.

Friday, April 2, 2021

Blog #21; FREE SHORT STORY GIVEAWAY

FREE SHORT STORY GIVEAWAY; a medical doctor must struggle with the moral and ethical implications of her decisions in treating a mysterious virus.  From April 2nd to April 4th, this very short story with a timely theme will be available for FREE!


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