I love these roundups and just looked through your back catalog. My favorite stories are the recent ones which indicates you are improving. However, I am nearly illiterate and so this actually may be bad news.
I also love that you are writing that novel, writing a novel is something that is impressive even if done poorly - like squatting 500lb with bad technique. However, I'm confident you will do it well.
Thirdly, I love that Greta Thunberg PHD story and feel it's a tragedy that it remains unpublished.
Thanks, Bill! Your supportive comment came a a good time. I'm on my third attempt at writing my next piece. I feel a bit like Norm at the moment, when he was saying he wanted to be a serious comedian and do important comedy. I just read the Grapes of Wrath and I want to write a commentary on class in the 21st century, but my draft is about a podcaster in the year 2054 who jacks off all the time.
Kidding aside, this was a pretty great round-up and as a guy who plays guitar, your musical analogies were spot on.
It's nice to hear you're gonna focus a lot more on themes. Many writers such as King often say that you shouldn't worry about the themes and let it come naturally -- but that's probably not what happens when you're writing short stories as opposed to long stories, ironically enough.
Hope you achieve all your goals this year.
P.S: That Nelly Furtado/Vietnam War/ant eater/environmentalist fiction piece sounds kinda rad, why didn't you release it? Couldn't find the right angle?
Thanks! Yeah the theme stuff is still rattling in my mind. I get the approach that you just write it and the theme emerges, or maybe you as the writer don't even know the theme and the audience decides, but I don't love that. I'm usually writing (here I'm talking longer pieces) to explore a specific issue or question. I'd like the characters to represent different aspects of the issue or answers to the question. It is analogical, in a sense. But also it's not some rigid black and white thing. I guess what I'd like to do this year is just give more thought to the meaning and the thematic questions in the planning stage. I still want to write stuff with a compelling hook, a nice resolution, a surprising journey along the way, but I also want it to have some kind of thematic coherence.
As for the Nelly Furtado story, the reason I never published it was because at the time Substack did not have video. The story was going to be the setup to a joke, the punchline being a video at the end where I apologise for all the factual errors in the piece. But the real joke was that I consciously wrote the piece in such a way that the factual errors were integral to the plot. I couldn't just change a date here, fix a name there. The errors were the scaffolding. One such error was that Greta Thunburg was Vietnamese.
Thanks, Matthew! I find it so useful to look at writing through a different art. I'm also so glad that you read my work. It means a lot. Hopefully I can keep improving.
I love these roundups and just looked through your back catalog. My favorite stories are the recent ones which indicates you are improving. However, I am nearly illiterate and so this actually may be bad news.
I also love that you are writing that novel, writing a novel is something that is impressive even if done poorly - like squatting 500lb with bad technique. However, I'm confident you will do it well.
Thirdly, I love that Greta Thunberg PHD story and feel it's a tragedy that it remains unpublished.
But mostly, I love you.
Thanks, Bill! Your supportive comment came a a good time. I'm on my third attempt at writing my next piece. I feel a bit like Norm at the moment, when he was saying he wanted to be a serious comedian and do important comedy. I just read the Grapes of Wrath and I want to write a commentary on class in the 21st century, but my draft is about a podcaster in the year 2054 who jacks off all the time.
One must imagine Luke happy . . .
Kidding aside, this was a pretty great round-up and as a guy who plays guitar, your musical analogies were spot on.
It's nice to hear you're gonna focus a lot more on themes. Many writers such as King often say that you shouldn't worry about the themes and let it come naturally -- but that's probably not what happens when you're writing short stories as opposed to long stories, ironically enough.
Hope you achieve all your goals this year.
P.S: That Nelly Furtado/Vietnam War/ant eater/environmentalist fiction piece sounds kinda rad, why didn't you release it? Couldn't find the right angle?
Thanks! Yeah the theme stuff is still rattling in my mind. I get the approach that you just write it and the theme emerges, or maybe you as the writer don't even know the theme and the audience decides, but I don't love that. I'm usually writing (here I'm talking longer pieces) to explore a specific issue or question. I'd like the characters to represent different aspects of the issue or answers to the question. It is analogical, in a sense. But also it's not some rigid black and white thing. I guess what I'd like to do this year is just give more thought to the meaning and the thematic questions in the planning stage. I still want to write stuff with a compelling hook, a nice resolution, a surprising journey along the way, but I also want it to have some kind of thematic coherence.
As for the Nelly Furtado story, the reason I never published it was because at the time Substack did not have video. The story was going to be the setup to a joke, the punchline being a video at the end where I apologise for all the factual errors in the piece. But the real joke was that I consciously wrote the piece in such a way that the factual errors were integral to the plot. I couldn't just change a date here, fix a name there. The errors were the scaffolding. One such error was that Greta Thunburg was Vietnamese.
Fair, your reasoning makes sense. I guess everyone's got their own method when it comes to writing.
Dang, that Nelly Furtado story sounds pretty experimental. Dunno if you'll ever come back to it, but the idea sounds cool.
Keep at it Luke, that’s a great read, much appreciated!
Thanks, Joe! Great to hear from you, and I'm glad you liked this post. I hope you're doing well!
Love the musical analogy for learning to write. Very strong parallels. Keen going! Looking forward to your next work.
Thanks, Matthew! I find it so useful to look at writing through a different art. I'm also so glad that you read my work. It means a lot. Hopefully I can keep improving.