Writer's Are Wild: William Faulkner, Pt.1

Surely, you've surmised that I am a person who likes to learn by now. Curiosity is both my superpower and my nemesis. In addition to trying to cultivate and curate my personal skill as a writer, a goal of mine has been to study writers of all kinds. I want to discover and study a diverse range of writers past and present solely for the previously purported purposes. And I love a deep dive!

Recently, I've developed a system for studying writers of interest more efficiently by utilising ChatGPT. Here are the questions I typically start with when putting together a little rabbit hole to hop down to explore the life and ideas of a literary figure: 

1. Chat, can you give me some basic biographical information about...?

2. Was/Is this author considered problematic?

3. What are some good works to read by this figure tailored for a beginner?

4. Can you provide any good articles featuring or about (the figure)?

5. How is (this figure's) style defined and how can I incorporate it into my own writing exploration?

6. Can you provide writing prompts inspired by this author's style/genre?

7. Who are some diverse and modern day figures/writers who were influenced or comparitive in style?

8. Can you tell me (figure's) writing routine? 

Of course my questions and process will become more refined in the future the more I do this but for now it quickly produces such a rich document of research that offers a point of entry into my subject. This is only my 2nd I've done it for writers specifically and each time I've been busy for WEEKS exploring. 

More often than not, when I've done research on literary figures in the past I've discovered their lives have been quite astounding. This is the antithesis of the reclusive writer or boring librarian trope. Things were happening all around and many were sure to place themselves front and center to take notes and contribute commentary or a perspective of thought. I'm often delighted with little jewels of stories, gossip, and anecdotes involving these figures. So many of writers were quite the characters in the crazy story of their own lives. Many times, upon first glance the initial information may not read off the page as being that dramatic until you put them in the context of their time period and societal norms. Sometimes it's just imagining the literal reality and placing it factural life. Writer's are wild AF!

One of the first interesting things that pricked my mind about William Faulkner was that he exaggerated his military service. An odd place to start I know but he never served in a war, yet mimicked walking with a limp due to war injuries. In fact during World War I he was rejected by the US Army due to his height/small weight (allegedly 5'5) so he only ever served in the British Royal Air Force in Canada. The reality of this multiple Nobel/Pulitzer Prize winner limping around playing a wounded war veteran provoked all kinds of questions within me about what kind of person does that and what the motivations behind the pretence would be. Maybe daddy/granddaddy issues? 

Real talk, I feel like this was a pretty commonplace practice back in the day due to societal and social pressures on men/white men. I don't know how many men are lying about their military service anymore (though being a milspouse, I've witnessed it) but really I'm speaking more to the idea of men creating clout to fulfil perceptions of masculinity or valor/honor. Men, you are enough. None of this deterred me from my mental musings casting Falkner (later changed to Faulkner) as the southern gothic Verbal Kint from the Usual Suspects, traversing plantation roads and southern lanes gradually straightening up his gait the closer he comes to his writing room.  Nor from imagining, the far more exaggerated and hilarious Cherry Surprise from I'm Gonna Get You Sucka. " Don't make me come hopping after you." 

What's more is you can see how the experiences in Will's life; whether it be his service, the railroad, his hometown later went on to shape aspects and concepts in his writing works. Discoveries like these are alway encouragement to me because I've had a lot of life experiences and tries at things in life. I know a little about a whole lot of things. It's comforting to know that the greats were actually consistently pulling from the same small personal sums of their lives to create magic. 

Other intrusive thoughts while submerging myself in the basics of Faulkner include: 

-Is this where we get the term 'little Willy from or is it truly just a vulgar phrase?  How tall is Kevin Hart? 

-What qualified as romance prior to the 1900's? Willy's great grandfather wrote, The White Rose of Memphis, in 1881. It sounds like a racists or patriarchal purity based fever dream. I read some reviews and a couple of synopsis- it is not. 

-Bet he had a learning disability and didn't even know it - he quit high school after repeating eleventh and twelfth grade twice yet went on to be a bookkeeper, railroad owner, and THE prolific/profound Faulkner. 

-Where can I get a Phil Stone? 

-Octosyllabic couplets? Is that eight syllables per pair of lines? 

-What is post Joycean experimentalism and was there enough of it to be a named era? They just be naming everything. 

-Mosquitos: A rap battle mix tape. 

-IsYoknapatawpha Faulkner's Bon Temps? When I create my own BonTemps I'm going hard. 

-Bruh. Why did Britannica do him that way,

 "...his health undermined by his drinking and by too many falls from horses too big for him." 

The mind is relentless, chile. Can you gather why it takes me forever to study anything? This is why my remedy has to be to just start things. Don't think too much or you'll never stop ...or start for that matter.

In other news, Faulkner dropped out of college after only a single year ya'll. I wonder if there was a bunch of tense bullshit back and forth with his parents or if he just chucked the deuces in peace. The parent child dynamics of the past always intrigue me when I read about them. I can't imagine half the stuff depicted in novels and articles as the norm. Nevertheless, it plays out that his family and family relationships kept him moving and shaking through a myriad of jobs into what we would consider current day adulthood while he made small steps toward his writing destiny. 

What literary figures would you create your own AI study guide about? What questions would you ask?

The Great Courses

I'm wearing out these Great Courses! I've recently wrapped up "Wolves and Werewolves in History and Popular Culture." 

I learned so many things about wolf/werewolf legend and lore that I never knew and sometimes was appalled to find out. I also loved all the many references sited throughout the class. It was an excellent starting place for my shifter research to begin and now I have so many references for more resources! When I was a kid I remember that feeling of finishing a book I loved and seeing all the references for other books by that author at the end. When I became a teen sometimes the publisher would include an excerpt from the author or from like authors in the same publishing house. Listening to the course and taking notes on the new references gave those nostalgic vibes. 

Next I happened upon The Great Courses's, "The Real History of Dracula." While I still haven't finished the course it's a great accompaniment to reading Bram Stoker's Dracula with my kids in our little Homeschool Horror Creative Writing Unit Study. The course has been giving me all kinds of little insights to add to our discussions and really has me feeling boss level intelligent while educating my kiddos! 

Honestly, Dracula, can be a tricky read with schoolbag kids due to some of the adult themes going down but I've discovered I much prefer to face challenging topics head on as my kids mature. Literature is a fantastic catalyst for nuanced conversations that might not otherwise happen. It's easy to discuss potentially uncomfortable topics in a way that feels safe and unpressurised. It was doubly charming to hear the creators of the Werewolf course, Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman, echo this same sentiment within what I would call their thesis statement on the purpose and importance of the work in the class introduction. It was totally validating to hear!

The last Great Courses that I have in the works, likely to be worked at a snails pace for the foreseeable future is The Great Courses, Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques, taught by James Hynes.  Where the two former classes have a run time of about four and a half hours and the most interactive thing you have to do is listen- maybe jot some notes; this course runs over twelve hours and is stuffed full of concepts a novice pursuing writing can benefit from. 

It's actually a curriculum. A curriculum that you can borrow from some libraries for free, purchase from Amazon or Audible platforms, or even straight from the Great Courses website. Even if you pay out of pocket, it is a highly efficient and cost effective way to gain knowledge into the craft of writing. I decided to work through the material just as if I was taking a class- old school, but at home. The course is split into lessons with exercises, resources, and objectives to complete.

I printed the course materials out (it's almost 200 pages) from the Audible file and put it into a binder (also old school). Next I made myself a little schedule.  The schedule is mine so just like I love to do in my homeschool with the kids, if I want to go down a rabbit trail of learning I can do that. I promised myself I would read any and all resources of interest within the course and truly work on just enjoy the process. Enjoying the process is something I have a hard time doing sometimes. I tend to make my goal about finishing which sometimes can steal the joy from the journey. 

A negative point, thus far, is that a lot of the suggested reading neatly listed at the end of each lecture are works that are out of print, hard to find, or unappealing (mainly due to them being dated). Overall it's only a minor set back being that there are plenty of modern day craft books that I have my eye on or that I even already own and have not read through. I'm sure will suffice as supplements. 

After Lecture 2 one of the books on the suggested reading list was Stephen King's, Salem's Lot. It's a rabbit hole I chose to hop right on down. This book has been on my TBR list for years. So many craft books and classes site King's book in examples or as influence. Aside from his, On Writing, book I have not read a Stephen King novel since I was a teenager. It's been a neat and sobering experience to read his work as an adult. I'm about a quarter of the way through  and getting a bit antsy for things to come together. I feel like I've met every. single. person. in that measly town!

Anyway, as expected the course starts with beginner concepts and then progresses. Right now I'm at the point where we discuss getting into the writer mindset and the lesson also outlines bare bottom objectives like where to start when you actually do start to write and also how to start. Hynes starts out with the stereotypical adages of evocation and Show, Don't Tell. They are concepts that are completely overdone but entirely critical. I expect any standard class offering a comprehensive education in how to write will eventually include them. Hynes provides excellent examples and commentary so I'm not mad about it. 

The beginning lessons were quite exciting to me because I taught similar concepts in my teen co-op class this past November. We had the opportunity to participate in National Novel Writing Month as a class. It was such a fun and enriching experience that every single one of my students utilised and was excited about. I had fun giving the kids writing sprints, teaching them how to specifically start, and rooting out how and when "to show." It was cool to see I was on the right track with my course materials and layout from someone I feel is validated to teach through their credentials and accolades. Me personally, I'm just winging it- figuring things out with no official training!

With The Great Courses there is such a vast variety of subjects to explore. I also have James Scott Bell's course, How to Write Best-Selling Fiction. If I'm not burnt out, I plan to deploy that course next straightaway.  I whole heartedly stand behind the notion that these courses abound in laying the groundwork of research and development within any given subject. I would encourage everyone to use them as a starting source to build upon and give you structure when exploring a topic of interest. I look forward in sharing what I've scratched up through these courses on the blog.