writers.com newsletter

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Writers on the Net
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Vol. 7, No. 2
February 2004

IN THIS ISSUE:

AN AMERICAN WRITER: Jack Cady (1933-2004)
~~CLASS SCHEDULE~~ [to current class schedule page]
TIPS: Harry Potter & the "-ly" Adverbs
ROOTS: "butterfly"
~~NEWSLINKS~~

AN AMERICAN WRITER Jack Cady (1932-2004)

Back in 1999 *Writers.com* ran a review of THE AMERICAN WRITER: SHAPING A NATION'S MIND by Jack Cady. We had the privilege then of asking the author a few questions. Jack Cady died on January 14 at the age of 71. We thought it appropriate to re-visit the interview in this issue.

Like many writers, JACK CADY did not meet with instant acclaim. After being graduated from the University of Louisville, he worked in a variety of jobs including a stint in the U. S. Coast Guard and employment as an auctioneer, a tree high-climber and a truck driver.

In 1965 Cady won the Atlantic Monthly "first" award for his story, "The Burning," which has now been reprinted more than 50 times. Since then recognition for his eight novels and many stories has included the Iowa Prize for Short Fiction, the National Literary Anthology Award, the Washington State Governor's Award, the Nebula Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and the World Fantasy Award. He was awarded a fellowship from the national Endowment for the Arts in 1992. After teaching twenty-five on the college level, Cady retired at age 67.

Jack Cady's most recent collection was "Ghosts of Yesterday" (Night Shade), his latest novel was "The Hauntings of Hood Canal" (St. Martin's). Other notable work included "The Off Season" (St. Martin's) and "The Night We Buried the Road Dog" (DreamHaven Books). But it was his nonfiction book - "The American Writer: Shaping A Nation's Mind" - we focused on here.

* * *

WRITERS.COM: What is your best advice for folks who want to be writers?

JACK CADY: You have to believe that you are right in what you do. It makes no difference if the whole rest-of-the world says you waste your time, you have to know that the world is wrong and you are right. It is best to write every day. As one who has taught writing for many years, and who has published a bunch of books, I find that there's an approach that works for most people.

DON'T sit down to write a story or a novel. Your subconscious won't put up with it. Sit down with an alarm clock. Say to your subconscious, "If you let me work for one hour, or one page, whichever comes first, we are gonna get away from the typewriter and go have fun. We'll walk in the park, have coffee with friends, etc." STICK to your promise. When that hour is up, even if you have not written one decent sentence, get up and go. On the next day do the same thing, and the next day, and next. Tell yourself that writing is a luxury you allow yourself. You only get a little bit of it each day.

If you do this for a month a pattern will form, and you'll never have trouble writing. The subconscious will come to enjoy that hour a day. It will never like the idea of writing a whole novel. As you and your subconscious learn to like each other, you can raise the ante to two hours. That's my own limit, two hours a day, or one page, whichever comes first. There are advantages.

1. You get up, go about your business, but the ol' subconscious is working right along. The next day when you sit down, your mind will already have figured out what happens next.

2. When you're only doing one page a day, you have lots of time to distill the prose. When your book is done it won't need three rewrites. It will be almost clean.

3. If you write one page a day, in a year your novel will be done. If you write 15 pages a day, at the end of a year you'll have a gawd-awful mess that needs cutting and rewriting. Slow is fast, in my experience.

There are times when things sort of urp-out of the typewriter, when the rush of prose and ideas is so great that you feel like the stuff is being dictated. The one hour a day, or one page, is the method for writing every day. But, it you get an urp, let it urp. Next day go back to the one hour. etc.

Throw away your rejection slips because they are next to meaningless. There are probably 50 reasons why a story gets rejected, and only one of those reasons is that the story is inadequate. I once had a story rejected 23 times. It was finally published in a quarterly with 500 circulation, and ended up reprinted in BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES.

Trust yourself, and learn from other writers. Your friends and parents may be well intended, but their comments don't amount to much because they have no experience as writers. I mean, what can they tell you? "It's very nice, dear. I think a comma should go here, and you misspelled Massachusetts. But, I like it." That is sweet, but doesn't help. Get with other writers. Read the very best writers. Keep burning postage. The people who make it as writers are those who shrug off rejection and keep plugging. I once had a student who, I privately swore, would never be a writer. He came to my first class at U of Washington. Five years later, when I quit the U., he was just as bad as the day he started. Then, twenty years later I met him at a convention and he was pushing his second published book -- turned out to be a pretty good book.

WRITERS.COM: You've said that THE AMERICAN WRITER will "make some people mad and most writers very very happy." Why?

JC: Writers have a more generous point of view then most other people. They have to. You can't be narrow and be a good writer. You can't be a racist or a woman hater or a man hater and be a good writer. Insecure people want to feel special, but THE AMERICAN WRITER insists that everyone is special. When everyone is special, there is no room left for special pleading. I expect that fundamentalist preachers, right wingers, extreme left wingers, some teachers and some politicians and some minority leaders will not like the book because it insists on equality and the high discipline of art; rather than sloppy or narrow thinking.

WRITERS.COM: What do you think YOU learned from a long career as a teacher?

JC: I learned to be free, and not afraid. They are both about the same thing. You can't be free if you're afraid. When you write you become your own person. You're not afraid of jail, or death, or being broke. I know that sounds sonorous and pretentious, but it's true. I also learned to care deeply for people, even when they were acting like total butts.

Here is an obituary from the "Seattle Post-Intelligencer" but you will learn more about Jack Cady from these personal remarks by my friend Jeremy Lassen of Night Shade Books.

WRITING TIP:
HARRY POTTER AND THE -LY ADVERBS

I like J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" books. Overall, I think she's an entertaining writer, but she does one thing that drives me bonkers. Ms. Rowling overuses -ly ending adverbs. Open any of her books to just about any page (as I did, below) and you will probably find at least one or more uses.

From HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX:

(Page 338)

[They] were closely followed by a boy with an upturned nose whom Harry recognized vaguely...

"A couple of people?" said Harry hoarsely to Hermione.

"Yes, the idea seemed quite popular," said Hermione happily. "Ron do you want to pull up a few more chairs?"...

"Hi," said Fed, reaching the bar first and counting his companions quickly....

Harry watched numbly as the...group took their beers from Fred...

(Page 464)

"Harry, mate," said Ron uncertainly...

"No!" said Harry furiously...

The pain in his forehead subsided slightly, though he was still sweating and shivering feverishly....

"Harry, you're not well," he said shakily....

If I could sell 8 million copies of a book, I wouldn't care what anyone thought about my writing. But since neither you nor I are quite that successful, we should try to write as well as we possibly can. And, yes, using -ly adverbs is not "good writing."

Adverbs tend to weaken your writing. Most just aren't needed. If you use a verb with a specific meaning there's no need to add an adverb.

* The feather floated gently in the breeze. ["Float" connotes some gentleness.]

* They mourned sadly. [How else would one mourn?]

Using "said" all the time, is pretty dull, and "hoarsely" does tell us about Harry's voice (we probably would have assumed from the context that Hermione was happy), but Ms. Rowling is still sneaking emotions and explanations in with her speaker attributions. If it is truly important that we know of Harry's hoarseness, there are other ways to do so. Good dialogue (and Ms. Rowling writes good dialogue) doesn't require extra support. It can stand by itself. Think of it this way: You've built a strong wall, but still insist on adding unnecessary wooden bracing. The bracing makes that wall appear weaker than it is. Those -ly adverbs do the same to your dialogue. They make the reader think it is weaker than it is.

Using -ly adverbs is often an indication of lazy writing. Sure, it is an easy solution, but there's usually a better one.

Example:
* Speaking angrily, he pushed the book roughly in her face. "You idiot! Can't you read?"

Now, replace the verb/adverb combinations with stronger verbs:
* Ranting, he thrust the book in her face. "You idiot! Can't you read?"

Check your own writing. Use your word processor's "find" function and search for "ly." (Or circle use of -ly on a hard copy.) When you find one, read the sentence. Can you do better? Occasionally you'll find an -ly adverb that can be left as is, but in general try to eliminate when you can.

You will strengthen and tighten your writing. Just think -- if Ms. Rowling had tried our tip, she might even have saved a few of her 870 pages.

ROOTS
"butterfly"

Why the etymology of "butterfly" this month? Because Giacomo Puccini's MADAME BUTTERFLY, one of the world's most popular operas, debuted on February 17, 1904 at La Scala - 100 years ago. I just *had* to work that in somehow. The premiere, by the way, was a failure. Puccini revised his work and three months later the re-vamped opera was a success at Brescia.

You can find out more about the opera and its anniversary in The Scotsman and from National Public Radio.

As for "butterfly," it's an old English word that goes back (as "buterflege" or "buttorfleoge") at least to 700. It is, as you might have suspected, a combination of "butter" and "fly." English is not the only language with this creamy connotation. The German for "butterfly" is "Schmetterling." "Schmetten" came to German through a Saxon dialect that borrowed it from the Czech "smetana," which means "cream" or "butter." But no one knows exactly why this association exists, but there in conjecture. Butterflies "eat" by sucking fluids such as nectar, water, tree sap, and fruit juice, so perhaps they are attracted to the cream that was churned into butter. Another idea links churning and milking -- activities that would, once spring arrived, be done outdoors -- and butterflies first appearing in spring. The butterflies would literally fly around the milkers and churners. Another interesting theory posits that people thought witches assumed the fluttery form in order to steal cream and butter. (Seems to me if I were a witch, I could figure out an easier way.) Others suggest that the name comes from the light yellow color of a common European butterfly. In fact, yellow is the most common shade for butterflies worldwide.

In the pursuit of knowledge, it is only fair to mention this far-fetched etymology from the "Oxford English Dictionary," and I quote: "The reason of the name is unknown: Wedgewood points out a Dutch synonym _boterschitjte_ in Kilian, which suggests that the insect was so called from the appearance of its excrement." Other than being a bit disgusting, we can dismiss this theory on the simple scientific grounds that, although they void excess water, butterflies do not excrete.

QUOTATION: "I saw a poet chase a butterfly in a meadow. He put his net on a bench where a boy sat reading a book. It's a misfortune that it is usually the other way round." -- Karl Kraus (1874-1936)

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