Looking for Signs....

Last spring in the Life Stories workshop I teach at our local Senior Center, one of the writers wrote about his father who had worked at the rubber factory in *Naugatuck— a town in Western Connecticut that I’ve passed countless times on Rout 8. I’ve noted all those vowels—wondered about the Native American origin of the word. But by the time I reached the next exit, my thoughts had moved on.

After learning more about the history of the rubber factory that included Charles Goodyear and Keds, my attention lingered for a bit longer each time I passed the exit. Something about this history stuck in my mind as I was creating the father of the narrator in my current project. He would have been around the same age as my student’s father and I had been looking for his back story. I decided to have him work at the rubber factory before he was sent off to fight in World War II.

As with many long-form projects, my attention and faith in the project has floundered, but whenever I pass that town it feels like a nudge from the creative gods to keep going—a reminder of what I’m working on.

In this same project, I use part of a Howard Nemerov poem as one of the epigraphs. Recently, I decided to reread the entire poem, which offered another round of inspiration. Then I Googled his name and saw his kind deep eyes staring back at me. He was a poet. He knows what this feels like—to try to make something out of nothing. Another nudge.

Do you do this too? Look for signs? Search for encouragement in unexpected places? Another sign came when the Gwyneth Paltrow voice that read my novel to me in Speechify pronounced the Armenian dish “boereg” perfectly - as if speaking for my grandmother from her grave.

In graduate school one of my instructors shared the Nabokov story, “Symbols and Signs”, I believe to show us what it looks like when motif and symbolism and metaphor are used most effectively in a story. From my memory, the instructor shared another anecdote about a former student who wrote a story in which a bird appeared at the window of a character’s bedroom that inexplicably changed the plot. It was unexpected and unearned. What they call a deus ex machina. These are the kind of signs as writers we want to avoid.

I believe the best writing comes from writers who are patient, who let the work lead them towards a surprising but expected climax. An earned ending.

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What I’m Reading:

The Fates Will Find Their Way by Hannah Pittard - a novel from 2012 in which a high school girl goes missing and a chorus of boys who have become men try to reconcile what happened to her. I love novels told in first-person plural and I’m trying to figure out how Pittard successfully uses this P.O.V.

The Electric Woman: A Memoir in Death-Defying Acts by Tessa Fontaine

Writing Prompt: This week’s prompt comes from this memoir: Tessa’s story begins as she sets out to join a traveling sideshow in an attempt to process the grief of her mother’s serious health diagnosis. Prompt: Write about a time you did something really dangerous (on purpose or not) maybe for love or out of grief.

Listening to: Brad Listi’s otherppl podcast has had so many amazing guests recently. I particularly enjoyed the interviews with Tommy Dean (flash fiction writer), Tana French, Leslie Jamison, and Tommy Orange (There There is one of my all-time favorite books - I’m starting Wandering Stars shortly!)

My Little Brain continues to be distracted by Instagram but when I come across one of Hilton Als’ tributes to artists in his life, I know I’ll never quit it. Specifically his extolment of Jodie Foster’s recent work (Nyad, True Detective) in which he writes: “Every beautiful line in that face that has provided such warmth comfort tough irony tough love sexiness and seriousness is about love…It wasn’t arrogance so much as her capability that we saw on screen: I can do this. What can you do? Show me. Come on, show me…. Time’s not on our side and what the hell are we doing if we even pretend that it is? You call that living?”

Those are only a few excerpts from his stellar, post so please go read the whole thing!

In other news, I’m teaching two workshops with Westport Writers’ Workshop this spring, beginning the week of April 1st: Writing Short on Tuesday evenings (remote) and Just Write on Thursday mornings (hybrid - join remotely or in person). We’re also bringing in Steve Almond for a special one-time evening event on Wednesday, April 24th - join us!

*Naugatuck is an Algonquian term meaning: lone tree by the fishing place.