# The Writer



## garza (Jul 1, 2012)

'I don't have a tie.'

'I'll buy you a tie'

'I don't want a tie.'

'You can't go to the party without a tie.'

'Then I won't go to the party.'

'There will be people there you should meet. And they want to meet you.'

'I'll do a Faulkner and go home to write.'

'That's a myth and you know it.'

'To quote one of your New Age reporter friends, ''If it didn't happen that way, it should have''.'

'You need to get along better with these people. They can make you famous.'

'I'm famous now. My eight-year-old kid back in Mississippi brags about me to his friends.'

'And they can make you rich.' 

'I'm rich enough already.'

'Nobody is rich enough already.'

'Depends how you look at it.'

'Let me get you a tie and a decent jacket. You can toss them after the party, but do this for me. You may not care, but my 15 percent means a lot to me.'  

'Do the people who read my pieces know I don't have a tie?'

'The way you write, they probably think you do.'

'Maybe I should change the way I write.'

'And give me a heart attack? Please, Ricki. You don't understand how this town works.'

'I understand how this town works. A cabbie explained it to me my first day here. ''A writer, huh? If you wanna make it here, you gotta be seen at the right table at ''21''. That's the secret''. What I've seen so far, he was right.' 

'That's not all there is to it.'

'Yes it is. Be seen chatting with Cerf at ''21''. Be at the same cocktail party as Capote. Have somebody start some gossip about you. That's all there is to it. But okay. I'll play. One tie, cheap. Make the jacket something I can wear places besides a New York cocktail party.'

'Bless you.'

'And Allen, this is a one-shot deal. Set it up so after this I meet these people in offices, or like, by accident, in a bar somewhere. That shouldn't be hard for you.'

'I'll bring the tie and jacket tomorrow.'

The agent left, the writer filled a shot glass with Bushmill's, sipped, and sat down at a Remington Travel Writer. He rolled in a sheet of paper and began to type.

_The Writer

'I don't have a tie', said the writer.

'I'll buy you a tie', said the agent._


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## Potty (Jul 1, 2012)

Hmmm an interesting piece, I felt the writer 'Ricki' to be slightly disinterested in his profile which I found a little odd. But I'm basing this on the fact that if I was in his shoes, I would wear a clown costume if my agent told me too. I understand he might be somewhat more dignified than me. also I honestly thought the agent would be a woman from the way he was speaking to Ricki. I was a little thrown to find out the agent was a man. Might be worth changing, as I don;t think I've ever met a man who would say to another man "Bless you." Unless he is in a church. 

I like how Ricki found inspiration from this simple conversation, this is true to most writers; "How can I turn this situation into my next master piece?"

A good short which I found quite enjoyable. But I think Rickis dialogue could use a little more character. Perhaps a little more confusion or outrage that being a famous writer isn't just about writing.


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## garza (Jul 1, 2012)

Potty - I stand with the Oxford Concise Dictionary of the English Language in my left hand as I raise my right hand and swear that 'bless you' was my first agent's favourite expression. Depending on circumstance it could mean thank you, sorry to hear that, good luck, or go to a dark corner and do something obscene with yourself. He and I were together only a short while, then I found a new agent who had a whole different attitude and a wonderfully enhanced vocabulary. That first agent was convinced that the way to success was not through writing but through meeting the right people and going to the right parties. The second agent had the odd notion that the proper way for a writer to spend his time was in writing. He and I stayed together for many years. He was not young when I first met him and he was forced to retire when he died.

If I were to develop this piece further  I suppose the 'bless you' would have to go, and perhaps the exchange of names would need to come earlier. 

The Remington Travel Writer was a gift from my parents when I graduated high school. I carried it with me whenever I was in the U.S. and have it yet.

In truth my response to the whole concept of 'you have to go to the right parties and meet the right people if you ever hope to be published in this town' was a great deal stronger than indicated in this piece. I had already been published there and had a small but respectable reputation as a dependable source of articles about the war, the infant anti-war movement, and the growing civil rights movement - not flashy and not likely ever to be a candidate for a Pulitzer but a steady producer of readable prose. That was good enough to keep me from ever having to look for a job, so it suited me fine.


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## Kevin (Jul 1, 2012)

"Bless you." Well, your uh..agent...I'm gonna go out on a limb and say he wasn't a jew.. And when do we get to the Shakespeare, you know...the parts with all the lying, backstabbing and bloodletting. I know it's f...,g   horrible, but you've got to write it.


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## garza (Jul 1, 2012)

Thanks Kevin. As a matter of fact he was, and so was my second agent, the one I could work with because he believed a writer should spend his time writing and not worry about parties.

Well, I've thought about a modern Hamlet where everyone lives except the gold-dust twins Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Ophelia does get herself to a nunnery where she earns enough to put Hamlet through med school where he specialises in psychiatry. He opens a clinic treating people with depression.

What do you think?


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## philistine (Jul 1, 2012)

Ever seen the movie _Wonder Boys_?

I read every word of that as if it was a conversation between Douglas and Downey Jr. Good stuff. :victorious:


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## Giantlobsterrobot (Jul 1, 2012)

I found this to be very witty.  It was a short set-up and then the punch (though it was humorous, but not necessarily a joke) made me chuckle.  

The "Bless you" line didn't strike me as odd in any way.  I immediately pictured both characters as male after the first few lines.  Right in the beginning though, I pictured the agent as a woman, but it changed once I read the line about the writer's child.  It switched to male and male.

Pretty interesting.  Thanks for posting.


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## playingthepianodrunk (Jul 1, 2012)

I heard Faulkner wore a corset. I don't like Faulkner, I think he was a hack. Nice piece though.


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## garza (Jul 1, 2012)

philistine - I've not seen the movie. Apparently my characters accidently echoed the ones in the movie. I'll have to look for it.

Thanks very much for your 'Good stuff' comment, especially as it is based on a close.reading of the piece.

Giantlobsterrobot -  Thank you for your comments. You and philistine make me believe I succeeded in doing what I set out to do, and I appreciate that.

playingthepianodrunk - Faulkner was one of the most significant writers of the 20th century but as is the case with my favourite poet, Wallace Stevens, he is not for everyone.

Thanks for your comment on 'The Writer'. It's appreciated.


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## playingthepianodrunk (Jul 1, 2012)

The only thing I read by Faulkner was Mosquitoes. It was alright, but I find him boring and I think he is probably a lot like the character in that book, Mr. Talliferro.


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## playingthepianodrunk (Jul 1, 2012)

...


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## garza (Jul 2, 2012)

playingthepianodrunk - _Mosquitoes_ is the worst book Faulkner ever wrote, with the possible exception of _Pylon_. He had not yet found his voice. A good first book to get an introduction to Faulkner is the last book he wrote - _The Reivers_. It was written as the scenario for a motion picture by the same name, so for once a movie is close to the book. It turned into a best seller and won a Pulitzer. It's Faulkner without the complexities that are often associated with Faulkner's work.

I don't have a favourite Faulkner novel - there are so many I like. His masterpiece in my opinion is the Snopes Trilogy, _The Hamlet_, _The Town_, and _The Mansion_. Probably best known of all Faulkner's works is _The Sound and the Fury_. Or maybe _Go Down Moses_. A Faulkner must-read is _The Bear_, which is part of _Go Down Moses_. _Light in August_ and _As I Lay Dying_ are two other great novels. 

If I did have to choose one Faulkner novel as a favourite, it would probably be _Absalom, Absalom_. I wrote a lengthy paper at university on _Absalom, Absalom_ centred around the house at Sutpen's Hundred, a one hundred square mile plantation. When the house is built it's of brick, but near the end of the book it burns down and is all wood. Many people believed Faulkner made a mistake, but the book went through several editiona and Faulkner made some changes in each edition but that brick house that turned to wood remained. It was a symbol, you see. The man Sutpen was a powerful man and he built a house worthy of himself. By the end of the book he is disgraced and utterly destroyed, so the house, the tangible symbol of Sutpen's power, had to be all wood so it could be destroyed as well.

Every page of Faulkner is filled with symbols and with sideways references to classical literature.


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## Kevin (Jul 2, 2012)

playingthepianodrunk said:


> I heard Faulkner wore a corset. I don't like Faulkner, I think he was a hack. Nice piece though.


 hmmm..


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## SevenWritez (Jul 2, 2012)

Hey Garza. (No comma, you'll notice. Write as you like, that's my final advice regarding that).

You asked me in the other thread if it was easy to distinguish between these two characters. Yes, it was, and effortlessly so. You said this was an exercise and so I'll treat it as such. There isn't much to review, and likewise nothing as fault. But if you want to treat it as a story I'd say remove the italicized parts. It's better just ending the piece with him pulling out the typewriter to write. 

Anyways, just coming here to say good job, and to add a bump to the post count (it's sort of like advertisement, once you get 21 responses it's officially successful.)

Just empty praise. But you deserve it. Again, good job.


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## Unseen (Jul 2, 2012)

That story is really cool man! I liek the way you write, when I get enough free time I will check out your older work.


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## garza (Jul 2, 2012)

SevenWriteZ - My worry with untagged dialogue is whether the reader will be able to keep track of who is talking. At the same time a sparing use of tags looks and reads better for me. Thank you for letting me know I succeeded with the characters.

The addition of the slant-face lines (I refuse to use the term 'Italic' because it's not, really) is intended to bring the story full circle. The writer starts building something out of the conversation he's just had. Plus it adds a bit of metafiction feel.

Unseen - I appreciate your comment. There are a few more of my stories around here somewhere, gathering dust in the corners.


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## GonneLights (Jul 2, 2012)

This is absolutely outstanding, honestly. I think it's fantastic. It's mentioned you were worried about the untagged dialogue - and it IS difficult. Long dialogue is _hard, _and so frequently avoided by a lot of otherwise very good authors. Include too many names and it's either a script or something a Valley Girl would know off by heart, include too few you run the risk of confusing everyone. I have a project running at the minute that involves a lot of extended untagged dialogue - for the purpose of it, there are only two characters who have spoken in the first vignette, much as is in your vignette. It's fine to me because when you establish a speech order, everyone knows who's talking next. The only problem is if one character responds with only a physical gesture, and the other resumes speaking, then you have to requalify. Otherwise, I find blank dialogue totally clear.

I find I've began to assume comedy stand-up routines. One character is the showman and the other is the straight man. My characters are a big dominican dope-peddler and a small Haitian junkie, and he's big in personality and he's small in personality. It's like Abbot and Costello meets Penn and Teller. You've got a similar approach, I note, yours is a very old comedy archetype. I don't know what the name for it would be but it's that 'parent and child' or 'con-man and wise-guy', I dunno. Maybe after this they'll call it 'writer and agent.' You had me laughing at some parts, it was really great. 

_'I don't have a tie.'

'I'll buy you a tie'

'I don't want a tie.'

'You can't go to the party without a tie.'

'Then I won't go to the party.'


_Man that just made me _laugh. _I love the dynamic between them, and it builds up and it's consistent. You've got the characterisation straight down from the very start, I'm already in love with BOTH characters. The fact that it's dialogue until the very end doesn't deter from the story itself, and the story is just great. A writer who's happy where he is, and an agent who wants to hound money off him. I'm sensing 1950s, black-and-white pictures, newspapers. Such is your background, in fact, right? You can really tell you know what you're talking about, like you've seen all the characters that are lying around the scene; you commit them to paper with expert talent. 

My favourite parts are the introduction of the cabby, the 'I know how it works, and this is how it works...' routine, the bite and cynicism in that, and how the agent just repeats 'Will you let me get you a jacket and tie?'. I mean, it's real New York. Also, my mentor is a writer who doesn't own a jacket or tie, so I got a real kick out of that. If he had an agent this is what would happen. 

At the end, the bit in what you want to call _slant-face, _actually really hit me, because when I reflected on those first few lines, knowing the set-up, the scenery, the plot behind it, the characters, the corner of time and what was going on, and I read again, '_'I don't have a tie', said the writer. 'I'll buy you a tie', said the agent.' - _man I said out loud, _'Oh my god, this is poetry!'

_I really can't fault it, I really can't fault it all. Go and publish it, or something. _Don't put a tie on it._​


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## SR Steed (Jul 3, 2012)

garza said:


> My worry with untagged dialogue is whether the reader will be able to keep track of who is talking.



This definitely wasn't the case here. I think you could keep a dialogue up like this for however long you'd like, as long as the characters are this distinctive then they don't need tags. I was recently rereading a 20 page section of David Foster Wallace's _The Pale King _where there was four or five characters in dialogue. It was all untagged, with no narration, yet as long as I paid attention I knew who was talking.

I loved the meta-fiction ending. Sometimes that can seem like just a trick, but here it was actually saying something about being a writer. You never know what we will use.


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## garza (Jul 3, 2012)

KarKingJack - 1950s, black-and-white pictures, newspapers, you nailed it. My first newspaper article, complete with photo made with Speed Graphic, was published in 1954. That led eventually to confrontations with New York editors and agents as well as south-east Asian jungles and Salvadoran guerrillas. I've managed to survive them all. And yes, in my travels, I figured out a lot about how the world works. The amazing part is that no matter how radically different the cultures are, the characters you meet are all much the same. Take that agent and put him in the uniform of a U-S Ah-mee desk driver and you won't know the difference.  

Thank you so much for your comments. When someone understands fully what I'm trying to do, that means a lot.

My maternal grandfather was Irish. He was born and lived his first 17 years in Belfast, then met a girl from 'across the road' and they both were disowned. He became an atheist, she became a Catholic, and they both lived happily into old age. He was the primary influence in my life for my first ten years. 


SR Steed - Dialogue is what I seem to do best, I've discovered. I've only been trying fiction for a relatively short time after a lifetime of writing non-fiction in a successful effort to avoid getting a job. Thank you for your comments.


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## Bailey (Jul 18, 2012)

Faulkner, wonderful way to begin a sentence.  I was blessed to read his great works before the early ones and was still equally impressed by the evident growth. In some things the man is a classic standard.  

Garza, I have perused previous post for some time. I always enjoy the insight.

To this post, easily understandable and made me enjoy a second of my time like a quick sip of an exceptionally strong well blended cup of coffee. Appreciate the wake up.


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## KatyBlue (Jul 21, 2012)

I really enjoyed this. I agree with previous comments that it did seem quite as though the second voice was female, I'm not sure at what point that changed but it didn't seem to jar and I don't think changing the gender would help matters.

Personally, I don't think this needs any changes. "Bless you" is a peculiarity but adds something.

It's perfectly encapsulated and delightfully circular.


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## garza (Jul 21, 2012)

Bailey and KatyBlue - Can't help but notice you are both newcomers. Welcome to Writing Forums. And thank you so much for your kind comments.

Faulkner's progression as a writer is there for all to see and it gives us all hope.


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## GoatBrain (Jul 24, 2012)

You make me want to stop writing. To know that I couldn't do something like this, it's disheartening. Then again, it also makes me want to put even more effort into thinking up ideas. Damn you and the conflicting emotions you've stirred. Expect to hear from me no more, not until I sort out this inner turmoil you've inspired.


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## Bloggsworth (Jul 24, 2012)

I have several ties and only use one at my age, the black one, for funerals - You can borrow any of the others...


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## garza (Jul 25, 2012)

GoatBrain - Here's how it's done. Start when you're a kid writing for a local newspaper whose editor yells 'just tell the story' every time you show signs of developing a 'style'. Keep an old pair of your trousers with his footprint on the seat hung up in the room where you write as a reminder. That's all there is to it.

Bloggs - Thanks, but I think I'll go on my tieless way. As for funerals, I figure it this way. My friends have never seen me wear a tie while they were alive, so...


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## Gaseimasha (Jul 26, 2012)

You use your dialogue well in the beginning, so as to avoid boring the reader. The conflict you use is well suited to display the temperament and natue of your characters. I will say that the brevity of the piece limits character development, though for what it is, the writing performs admirably. I suspect that a more traditional style of including description and narrative could do nothing but enhance the flavor of the story, which I greatly encourage you to do.

You also use details remarkably well.


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## garza (Jul 26, 2012)

Thanks for your kind commentsGaseimasha. I'll let this piece stand as it is, though I am working on developing my ability to write the kind of description and narrative required for fiction. My narratives tend to sound like rewrites from a police situation report.


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## Jamie Cook (Jul 31, 2012)

I found the dialogue to be very convincing. When your whole piece is almost nothing but dialogue, that's important.


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## garza (Jul 31, 2012)

Jamie - As a reporter I've spent years listening to people talk. In learning to write fiction I've discovered there are many techniques of non-fiction which are valuable in fiction as well. Accurately reconstructing a speech from notes is good practice for creating a conversation from scratch. While this exact conversation never too place, it is similar to many I've had. What I wanted to do with the piece was create two different characters only by having them speak. When you say you found the dialogue in 'The Writer' to be convincing, you tell me that I have achieved what I set out to do, and I appreciate your comment very much.


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## Cran (Aug 11, 2012)

It works; 'nuff said.


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