George,
As a Story Club member I so regret that a nasty seasonal flu collided with my ticket (purchased on Oct 6) to attend your book reading in Santa Cruz. I was so looking forward to just sitting, listening to the interview and the following Q&A, and then to maybe being able to stand up and thank you personally, not so much for impro…
As a Story Club member I so regret that a nasty seasonal flu collided with my ticket (purchased on Oct 6) to attend your book reading in Santa Cruz. I was so looking forward to just sitting, listening to the interview and the following Q&A, and then to maybe being able to stand up and thank you personally, not so much for improving my writing but for introducing me to your Shit Mountain concept in Swim In The Pond. I would have said it has helped me focus on what was emotionally true for me in developing characters that are real rather than trying to be another Hemmingway or any of my other literary heros. The perspective doesn't always work but I feel I'm getting there. So there, I said it here instead of at the event (also regret I never got to pose my questions). I'm not sure this is appropriate but I would be happy to connect with any Story Club members in Santa Cruz who would like to meet occasionnaly by Zoom or in person for Story Club conversations. Slow Reading is amazing. Looking foward to reading Liberation Day. Thanks again for Story Club and your dedication to teaching.
Bill! I hope you’re in the pink, health wise, by now—I empathize with the frustration/disappointment of anticipating something so earnestly and then having it fall through —
The upside is that we all here, even those a great length from Santa Cruz, are gifted by your comment —
HI Bill: I don't live in Santa Cruz (sorry to say) but I read your "shit mountain" reference and I read Swim in the Pond but don't remember that concept—can you post a quick overview? THANKS!
Angela: If you have the paperback edition of Swim, it's on pages 108-109. It's when George realizes that he has to write in his own voice (not, for instance, in imitation of Hemingway). He writes that at a certain point in his learning, he had to come down from the mountain of other writers and find his own place, his own voice--and he stumbles through the valley until he comes across a little shit-hill labeled "Saunders Mountain". He ends with this: "...what will make that shit-hill grow is our commitment to it, the extent to which we say, Well, yes, it IS a shit-hill, but it's MY shit-hill, so let me assume that if i continue to work in this mode that is mine, this hill will eventually stop being made of shit, and will grow, and from it, I will eventually be able to see (and encompass in my work) the whole world."
thank you, Mary, it's all coming back to me now—very helpful! I think a lot about what finding your own voice as a musician takes (my clients are musicians) and this perspective is terrific! Owning your own shit—that's the deal.
It's in "Swim", this "shit mountain" thing, you'll find it. But you'll find an expanded & I think better explanation in the text of an address George gave at AWP in 2018 and which appears in "The Writer's Chronicle", Sept 2018 issue, page 38ff. Check the AWP archive. The idea, basically, is an argument against imitation and how George found his own way & how we might also"find our own voice" as he says in the piece. Here's something else George wrote from an essay entitled "Why I Wrote Phil" & which I think is even more helpful: "[I]f a story is compelling line-by-line, then theme, character, politics, etc. will all take care of themselves." Hope this helps.
THANK YOU, Rosanne—very helpful! I LOVED "Swim in the Pond" and I'm always amazed at seeing what sticks with me and what doesn't in anything I read—I'm probably dissociating the portions that strike too close to my biggest challenges!
What a great thread...and exploration of George's Shit Mountain theory from Swim. I love Mary's explanation and now I'm imagining myself hiking in that valley. I've noticed that when I let my character do the talking (instead of me!) something magical starts happening too. And then I'm flying over my own Shit Mountain and seeing the world through my character's eyes and my own (because I made her up!)
George,
As a Story Club member I so regret that a nasty seasonal flu collided with my ticket (purchased on Oct 6) to attend your book reading in Santa Cruz. I was so looking forward to just sitting, listening to the interview and the following Q&A, and then to maybe being able to stand up and thank you personally, not so much for improving my writing but for introducing me to your Shit Mountain concept in Swim In The Pond. I would have said it has helped me focus on what was emotionally true for me in developing characters that are real rather than trying to be another Hemmingway or any of my other literary heros. The perspective doesn't always work but I feel I'm getting there. So there, I said it here instead of at the event (also regret I never got to pose my questions). I'm not sure this is appropriate but I would be happy to connect with any Story Club members in Santa Cruz who would like to meet occasionnaly by Zoom or in person for Story Club conversations. Slow Reading is amazing. Looking foward to reading Liberation Day. Thanks again for Story Club and your dedication to teaching.
Bill! I hope you’re in the pink, health wise, by now—I empathize with the frustration/disappointment of anticipating something so earnestly and then having it fall through —
The upside is that we all here, even those a great length from Santa Cruz, are gifted by your comment —
Yes to meeting on zoom with other Santa Cruz Story Club members occasionally!
HI Bill: I don't live in Santa Cruz (sorry to say) but I read your "shit mountain" reference and I read Swim in the Pond but don't remember that concept—can you post a quick overview? THANKS!
Angela: If you have the paperback edition of Swim, it's on pages 108-109. It's when George realizes that he has to write in his own voice (not, for instance, in imitation of Hemingway). He writes that at a certain point in his learning, he had to come down from the mountain of other writers and find his own place, his own voice--and he stumbles through the valley until he comes across a little shit-hill labeled "Saunders Mountain". He ends with this: "...what will make that shit-hill grow is our commitment to it, the extent to which we say, Well, yes, it IS a shit-hill, but it's MY shit-hill, so let me assume that if i continue to work in this mode that is mine, this hill will eventually stop being made of shit, and will grow, and from it, I will eventually be able to see (and encompass in my work) the whole world."
thank you, Mary, it's all coming back to me now—very helpful! I think a lot about what finding your own voice as a musician takes (my clients are musicians) and this perspective is terrific! Owning your own shit—that's the deal.
It's in "Swim", this "shit mountain" thing, you'll find it. But you'll find an expanded & I think better explanation in the text of an address George gave at AWP in 2018 and which appears in "The Writer's Chronicle", Sept 2018 issue, page 38ff. Check the AWP archive. The idea, basically, is an argument against imitation and how George found his own way & how we might also"find our own voice" as he says in the piece. Here's something else George wrote from an essay entitled "Why I Wrote Phil" & which I think is even more helpful: "[I]f a story is compelling line-by-line, then theme, character, politics, etc. will all take care of themselves." Hope this helps.
THANK YOU, Rosanne—very helpful! I LOVED "Swim in the Pond" and I'm always amazed at seeing what sticks with me and what doesn't in anything I read—I'm probably dissociating the portions that strike too close to my biggest challenges!
What a great thread...and exploration of George's Shit Mountain theory from Swim. I love Mary's explanation and now I'm imagining myself hiking in that valley. I've noticed that when I let my character do the talking (instead of me!) something magical starts happening too. And then I'm flying over my own Shit Mountain and seeing the world through my character's eyes and my own (because I made her up!)
Nice, Dee, keep going with this! Anything (legal?) that gets us flying is good!