Craft Notes
Cannibalisms, from Mark Gluth
Thoughts today via our Giant friend Mark Gluth:
The pest control guy told me about rats that cannibalize dead rats. He’s seen cats that eat cats. Then I read about this cannibal star that’s eating a planet. It got me thinking about a ton of stuff, and as per usual I started to think about writing, about how I write, about how much the end results of my writing process are built upon cannibalization of the lesser results of previous processes. About thoughts that kill previous thoughts to give rise to new thoughts.
So here’s my question: When’s the last time you cannibalized a piece of your own writing? When’s the last time you revised a character out of a story but reassigned one of his/her lines to another character? When’s the last time you wrote a 30 page story then edited it down to 3 lines describing a story a character in one of your pieces of fiction wrote? When’s the last time you threw a story out, but reused the title because it was the best part of it?
Tags: cannibal, mark gluth
picture is fuckin gross
picture is fuckin gross
‘Ca[n]nib[al]’ is from a misspelling of ‘Carib’ by a transmogrifier of Columbus’s journals.
‘Ca[n]nib[al]’ is from a misspelling of ‘Carib’ by a transmogrifier of Columbus’s journals.
I would say if someone was transmogrifying Columbus’s journals than it was not a misspelling but intentional. Unless you mean they were translating it and ended with transmogrifying it.
On topic though, Yes, cannibalism all the effin way. If I have yet to make something out of a piece of writing and need to feed another – then It will eat and eat till the piece is right – no matter what gets eaten.
I would say if someone was transmogrifying Columbus’s journals than it was not a misspelling but intentional. Unless you mean they were translating it and ended with transmogrifying it.
On topic though, Yes, cannibalism all the effin way. If I have yet to make something out of a piece of writing and need to feed another – then It will eat and eat till the piece is right – no matter what gets eaten.
HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TRANSMOGRIFIED? ONCE I BECAME A TURTLE
HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TRANSMOGRIFIED? ONCE I BECAME A TURTLE
isnt ‘the transmogrifier’ from calvin and hobbes?
isnt ‘the transmogrifier’ from calvin and hobbes?
I did pretty much all of that today. (Re Blake’s questions, not the resulting comments.)
I did pretty much all of that today. (Re Blake’s questions, not the resulting comments.)
Mark Gluth, thank-you for this (except the picture which grossed me out of my seat). everything you say pretty much exactly describes how i write poetry. It’s shameful to admit maybe, but i rarely start out writing a poem at all. i love reading poetry, and want to write poetry, but if i try to write a poem it usually sucks. i always start out trying to write a novel, and end up with a sonnet or something nearly like it. p.s. margaret kroftis is amazing.
Mark Gluth, thank-you for this (except the picture which grossed me out of my seat). everything you say pretty much exactly describes how i write poetry. It’s shameful to admit maybe, but i rarely start out writing a poem at all. i love reading poetry, and want to write poetry, but if i try to write a poem it usually sucks. i always start out trying to write a novel, and end up with a sonnet or something nearly like it. p.s. margaret kroftis is amazing.
it’s like when you’re baking bread, you gotta have that little sourdough starter, old fermented dough that could never be bread on its own? it’s like that, except with characters and lines and motivations.
Especially because when i was a freshman I was putting out 4-5 poems a day, like a fucking machine. Every single one of them sucks hard, but there’s plenty of material there to cannibalize.
it’s like when you’re baking bread, you gotta have that little sourdough starter, old fermented dough that could never be bread on its own? it’s like that, except with characters and lines and motivations.
Especially because when i was a freshman I was putting out 4-5 poems a day, like a fucking machine. Every single one of them sucks hard, but there’s plenty of material there to cannibalize.
YES, YES
YES, YES
Good lord. Between this picture and the one of Vincent Gallo, you have ensured that my visual week can only get better from here.
Good lord. Between this picture and the one of Vincent Gallo, you have ensured that my visual week can only get better from here.
My writing process is basically to write a bunch of stuff, knowing much of it will fail, but that the mulch of those dead bodies will make the ground more fertile for the ones that succeed. Started my fourth novel like four times before I had a working draft. Usually start a book or two before I write the “real” one.
There’s a line of dialogue in particular that will probably show up in every major work I write until one of them gets published. I’m obsessed with it for some reason.
My writing process is basically to write a bunch of stuff, knowing much of it will fail, but that the mulch of those dead bodies will make the ground more fertile for the ones that succeed. Started my fourth novel like four times before I had a working draft. Usually start a book or two before I write the “real” one.
There’s a line of dialogue in particular that will probably show up in every major work I write until one of them gets published. I’m obsessed with it for some reason.
I would think becoming human again was the transmogrification, I enjoy turtles although not as much as cows.
I would think becoming human again was the transmogrification, I enjoy turtles although not as much as cows.
If it were not for plagiarizing my own work (“work” perhaps is too generous a word) the excruciating sentences that push themselves through paristalsis would never reach their plop and aplomb. Mostly the occasional letter hits the windshield of my page, splats, dries into detritus, and falls into piles like mouse droppings around my desk, inevitably spelling out the same word, the same phrase, the same sentence.
The “rats” photo, however reminded me of a beginning that never began:
The sound of mice gnawing concrete kept him awake at night. This house, he was certain, was haunted. Not that the mice had anything to do with it. It was the footsteps in the wall; the distinct sound of footsteps as he pressed his ear to the wall, while the mice chewed their way in, their sharp teeth crunching the stone, which he could feel in his bones, and the fear of which made his bed an island.
If it were not for plagiarizing my own work (“work” perhaps is too generous a word) the excruciating sentences that push themselves through paristalsis would never reach their plop and aplomb. Mostly the occasional letter hits the windshield of my page, splats, dries into detritus, and falls into piles like mouse droppings around my desk, inevitably spelling out the same word, the same phrase, the same sentence.
The “rats” photo, however reminded me of a beginning that never began:
The sound of mice gnawing concrete kept him awake at night. This house, he was certain, was haunted. Not that the mice had anything to do with it. It was the footsteps in the wall; the distinct sound of footsteps as he pressed his ear to the wall, while the mice chewed their way in, their sharp teeth crunching the stone, which he could feel in his bones, and the fear of which made his bed an island.
Jon you nailed it. sour being the key word. ce and colin, yeah my stuff all starts out as treatments for video games I’d love to design. Then it..er…changes? Mike- I’m so in awe of how you write. Stefan- we had rats under our house. and I’m a wimp, a real pansy. Your beginning really got to me. yuck, but well written yuck. Not good, but so good.. And Blake picked the pic which is both worse and better than my choice. What I mean is less offensive and more disturbing, but it’s all disney stills compared to that Gallo thing.
Jon you nailed it. sour being the key word. ce and colin, yeah my stuff all starts out as treatments for video games I’d love to design. Then it..er…changes? Mike- I’m so in awe of how you write. Stefan- we had rats under our house. and I’m a wimp, a real pansy. Your beginning really got to me. yuck, but well written yuck. Not good, but so good.. And Blake picked the pic which is both worse and better than my choice. What I mean is less offensive and more disturbing, but it’s all disney stills compared to that Gallo thing.
[…] a great post from Mark Gluth over at HTMLGIANT right now about cannibalizing your own writing (warning: before […]
This has nothing to do with fiction writing or canabilizing, but it has EVERYTHING to do with rats:
http://www.laweekly.com/2008-07-31/news/rathouse-of-the-palisades/
And it would make for a pretty amazing piece of fiction, really. Or maybe not? Perhaps the Rat Ladies of the Palisades can only be convincing as non-fiction.
This has nothing to do with fiction writing or canabilizing, but it has EVERYTHING to do with rats:
http://www.laweekly.com/2008-07-31/news/rathouse-of-the-palisades/
And it would make for a pretty amazing piece of fiction, really. Or maybe not? Perhaps the Rat Ladies of the Palisades can only be convincing as non-fiction.
Hey Mark. Great post (minus the gross picture that’s been stuck in my head for weeks now).
I forgot to mention that I wrote a response to this post over at LitDrift. Would love to hear what you think of my criticisms. http://www.litdrift.com/2010/03/09/i-wouldnt-call-it-cannibalizing-just-recycling/
Hey Mark. Great post (minus the gross picture that’s been stuck in my head for weeks now).
I forgot to mention that I wrote a response to this post over at LitDrift. Would love to hear what you think of my criticisms. http://www.litdrift.com/2010/03/09/i-wouldnt-call-it-cannibalizing-just-recycling/