Franz Kafka - Notes on William Cane's "Write Like the Masters"

Chapter 9 - FRANZ KAFKA

Kafka’s writing characteristics:
· Encapsulating the conflict and plot with opening sentences
· Simple, imaginative plot with unsettling ending
· Hero at odds with the world
· Dark version of the “voyage and return” plot
· Lack of romance and human relationships

- Many writers shy away from revealing the entire conflict and plot in the beginning – let alone the first sentence – for fear of losing readers’ interest. The bare-all approach works for Kafka because the tone of his opening sentence matches the plot: lighthearted despite the confusing chaos.

The beginning of Kafka’s stories are free of “endless scene setting (like Balzac) or long character analysis (like Dickens) or convoluted prefatory scene (like Hardy).” (p. 95) One of the most famous opening sentences in all of literature comes from Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”:

“As Greg Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.”

- Kafka’s storylines are based on whether his protagonists can accomplish everyday duties such as scheduling an appointment or traveling to a nearby destination. Regardless of the simplicity of the task, they fail. The rigid requirements of the world always seem to get the protagonist stuck in the mud.

- Kafka put his hero at odds with either a nightmarish twilight zone or a complex system of governmental and societal regulations. As Samuel Beckett learned, to structure a story like Kafka, throw a hero into a peculiar world and make sure he is thoroughly baffled at first, then frustrated at every turn of his given assignment.

- For guidance on plot construction, review “The Seven Basic Plots” by Christopher Booker. Kafka’s “The Trial” is a prime example of the dark version of Booker’s proposed “voyage and return” plot, whereas Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” represents the light version. In both novels a protagonist enters a bizarre world and as the plot thickens, the strangeness and danger increase. In “The Trial,” the protagonist K. voyages but never returns (dark version); Alice in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” voyages and returns (light version).

- “Write Like the Masters” author William Cane claims Kafka’s greatest weaknesses as a writer are “his failure to provide background for his characters…(and) to portray developed romantic relationships.” (p. 100-101) This viewpoint is as common as its counterpart: Kafka did not use romance because it would depreciate the bureaucratic aspect of his stories. Cane points out that erotic interludes are never sustained in Kafka’s novels and relationships are fleeting, at best. Although Kafka admired certain writers whose work incorporated passionate love affairs, he did not follow suit. Judging Kafka’s intellect and the writers who inspired him, we can conclude he understood interpersonal chemistry or tension is a key element in literature, and he would have included it in his work, had he reason to do so.

Cane reminds us that when Kafka’s protagonist does try to form a relationship with a woman it is usually for ulterior motives. Yet, the woman ends up being incapable of helping him achieve his goal – perhaps a purposeful message from Kafka.

Edgar Rice Burroughs - Notes on William Cane's "Write Like the Masters"

Chapter 8 - EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

Burroughs’s writing characteristics:
· Beginning stories with the familiar before introducing the unfamiliar
· Appealing character names
· Several storylines crescendoing in unison
· “A stranger in a strange land” conflict
· Prolonging the separation of lovers

- Burroughs’s narratives were set in faraway and imaginative places where civilizations thrived and opposing races vied for power. Enter stage left: Hero warrior who must earn his right to live by becoming a student of the foreign civilization’s customs and policies. That being said, Burroughs refrained from opening his stories with exotic and confusing locations. Burroughs starts with the familiar before introducing the unfamiliar.

- Agreeable names are imperative to character believability. According to Cane, Burroughs’s "women sound euphonious, the heroes strong, the villains dastardly." (Wouldn't writers want foreboding names rather than dastardly for their villains?) To Burroughs's credit, I consider his villains' names foreboding. Check out “The Name Game ” by Christopher P. Anderson, which reveals subconscious psychological associations of names.

- Burroughs keeps his readers involved but prevents them from becoming exhausted. Whereas Maugham introduces a dramatic pause after an action-packed scene, Burroughs transitions from one storyline to another, forcing readers to wait for the action of the first scene to resume. An effective time to exercise the shift in storylines is at a chapter break. Perhaps Burroughs's technique served as inspiration for the originators of soap operas.

- His novels are laden with conflict with numerous near-death experiences and battles between tribes, nations and worlds. The common thread in Burroughs's novels is the “stranger in a strange lander” conflict - Tarzan in the jungle, John Carter on Mars, David Innes in the Inner World, Carson Napier on Venus, ect.

- Romance is integral to most of Burroughs’s stories. Burroughs understood it would take more than a “boy meets girl, boy gets girl” plot to captivate audiences with romance. His approach to romance in his novels reflects Richard Falk’s argument in his article “Obstacles to Love”: “No matter how strong the plot, the book won’t work unless the obstacles to love are serious enough to keep the lovers apart.” In most his work Burroughs prolonged the separation of the hero and heroine until the end of the novel, when all conflicts were resolved.

W. Somerset Maugham - Notes on William Cane's "Writing Like the Masters"

Chapter 7 - W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

Somerset Maugham's writing characteristics:
· Orchestrating contrasting character personalities to advance plot
· Well-crafted surprises

Somerset Maugham has been called “one of the first masters of the plain style.”

George Orwell said, “The modern writer who has influenced me most is Somerset Maugham, whom I admire immensely for his power of telling a story straightforwardly and without frills.”

- Woody Allen’s favorite book on plotting, “The Art of Dramatic Writing,” suggests characters must be orchestrated. “If all the characters are the same type…it will be like an orchestra of nothing but drums.” (p. 73) Character personalities must differ in a way that leads to interpersonal conflict; it’s captivating to observe main characters who seem to be always on the verge of a quarrel. A plug for the recent Sherlock Holmes film: The bantering between Holmes and Dr. Watson is a musical comedy in itself. Highly amusing, especially if you have the fortune of a similar sort of friendship.

Maugham boosts his readers' intrigue by placing his characters in situations they were forced to make difficult decisions. Think: Reality TV. Difficult decisions such as, Should I vote him off the island even if we’ve been sleeping together all season? Should I have a threesome with my roommates in our hot tub the first night we meet?

- Good writing is the ability to reveal only so much of the story as is necessary and hold back other events that will ultimately surprise the reader:

“Just when we think that Larry and Isabel are going to be happy, Maugham reveals that Larry is more interested in finding truth, enlightenment, and wisdom. (“The Razor’s Edge”) Just when we think Philip Carey is going to be content with Norah, Mildred appears. (“Of Human Bondage”) Just when Strickland seems to have found a woman he loves by stealing Stroeve’s wife, he casts her aside and causes her to kill herself. ("The Moon and Sixpence")" (p. 79)

Somerset Maugham’s surprises are plausible; the twists are integral to the story. While it is surprising that Larry prefers studying to marriage, Maugham has prepared readers by mentioning earlier that Larry is an intelligent, thoughtful young man.

Edith Wharton - Notes on William Cane's "Write Like the Masters"

Chapter 6 - EDITH WHARTON

Wharton’s writing characteristics:
· Concision and austerity
· Attractive setting descriptions
· A healthy dosage of foreshadowing
· Use of epiphanies to advance plot and develop character

- Her sentences are succinct and sans flowery fluff; they often read like poetry. She executed alliteration with such ease, such as in “Ethan Frome” when Ethan falls in love immediately after setting eyes on Mattie, he declares, “All his life was lived in the sight and sound of Mattie Silver.” (p. 62)

- Wharton used selection, condensation and integration to set a scene:
Selection - Only report the most crucial and relevant information. Example from “Ethan Frome”: “...and the basement windows of the church sent shafts of yellow light far across the endless undulations.” (p. 66)

Condensation - Omit words and sharpen the focus to just enough details to leave a vivid impression, especially effective when reaching a mini climax in the story, such as an arrival or departure of a character.

Integration - Weave descriptions of setting into the course of action. Just before Ethan and Mattie’s catastrophic sled ride they hear the church bell ringing, which added a dramatic sense of finality to the scene.

- Wharton foreshadowed through character details, epiphanies and action.

Details - Archer says of May, “The blood that ran so close to her fair skin might have been a preserving fluid.”

Epiphanies - After his marriage to May, “Archer suddenly felt himself looking at her with the startled gaze of a stranger.” As the story unfolds, we realize May is a coldhearted stranger to her husband Archer, and she manipulates people to prevent Archer from leaving her.

Actions - Ethan chances upon the gravestones of his parents and wonders “if, when their turn came, the same epitaph would be written over him and Zeena.” Not only did this foreshadow death; rather, Ethan's failed suicide attempt, but the way this sentence was written leaves room for interpretation of exactly what Ethan wondered. Did he wonder if the same epitaph would be written or if he would die with his wife Zeena?

(Examples on p. 67 are from “The Age of Innocence” and “Ethan Frome”.)

- Wharton’s epiphanies advance plot and develop character. She first learned the magnitude of epiphanies from James Joyce, but she considered his use of the technique narcissistic, sensationalist and purposeless - all for show.*

* Joyce’s epiphanies are to show horses as Wharton’s are to workhorses.

Knut Hamsun - Notes on William Cane's "Write Like the Masters"

Chapter 5 - KNUT HAMSUN

Hamsun’s writing characteristics:
· Nonconventional theory of the novel
· Multidimensional, life-life characters
· Stream of consciousness through dream sequences

“I know no one who writes better than (Hamsun) about passion – the sting of physical desire, the fear of rejection, the tragicomedy of courtship.” - Critic Edmund White

- Hamsun believed the conventional novel produced a flawed portrayal of human life. He sought and mastered a new approach to fiction with nonlinear progression, Dostoevskian emotional content, internal monologue that shifts eloquently between several time periods and dream sequences that reveal the insides of his characters’ minds. “Mysteries” is perhaps the best telltale of Hamsun’s style.

- Hamsun claimed none of his characters could be pinned down to a “dominant trait.” Instead, they are flexible and unpredictable, like Dostoevsky’s characters. He showed them acting out of character as well, which effectively made them more evolved and realistic:

“Nagel in ‘Mysteries’ is a boaster and a braggart, a shy man and an impetuous lover, a fool and a genius. He is a bully to a judge, a friend to a downtrodden midget, and a mystery to his neighbors. He is a man with a secret, alternately depressed and manic...and finally a suicide.” (p. 53)

- Hamsun shifted from the traditional linear plot development by creating a seamless transition between past and present in his characters’ minds, giving an intimate look at the actual processes of the human mind under the power of deep emotion, humiliation and memory. Rather than his characters’ pasts and presents foxtrotting around each other politely, they grind together with bewildering psychological power.

Hamsun exaggerated reality, departed from it in dreams and then returned to normal time. The main character in “Victoria,” Johannes, overhears an insult uttered by his rival, the Lieutenant, who is engaged to Victoria, the woman Johannes loves. Johannes’s thoughts of three time periods merge into one fluid stream of consciousness as he ponders Victoria’s kiss in the distant past, the Lieutenant’s insult he had overheard in the recent past and the Lieutenant and Victoria in present time walking together in the park without him:

“One day she had kissed him, once upon a time, one summer. It was so long ago, God knows if it was even true. How was it, weren’t they sitting on a bench? They talked together for a long time, and when they left he came so close to her that he touched her arm. Then, in front of an entrance, she kissed him. I love you! she said. ... By now they had walked past, perhaps they were sitting in the pavilion. The Lieutenant would give him a smack on the ear, he said. He heard it quite clearly, he wasn’t asleep; but he didn’t get up and step forward either. An officer’s hand, he said. Oh, well, it didn’t matter.” (p. 54-55)

To plunge deeper into his characters’ mind, Hamsun used dream or hallucinatory sequences, such as in Hunter S. Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” Hamsun employed this technique on the last pages of “Mysteries” in such a way that the reader doesn’t realize it is a dream sequence until the dream sequence is over. A cheekier example of this is demonstrated in Philip Roth’s “Portnoy’s Complaint.”

Fyodor Dostoevsky - Notes on William Cane's "Write Like the Masters"

Chapter 4 - FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY

Dostoevsky’s writing style:
• Penetrates the minds of his characters in the midst of turmoil and strong feelings
• Swift and innovative transitions
• Likeable voice – self-deprecating
• Memorable characters

- Immerses readers in a vividly imagined world in which Humiliation and Shame are sole proprietors, a world in which characters become disorganized because of their overwhelming emotions.

- Dostoevsky shifts from mind to mind in a carefully calculated manner.

• First, penetrate the mind of one of the characters in the midst of turmoil and strong feelings.

• Then switch focus to the next character when she is at the height of her passion, when she is beside herself with emotion, rather than when she is thinking ordinary placid thoughts. Dostoevsky alternates between her thoughts and feelings and her actions to keep readers interested.

Example from "Crime and Punishment": Raskolnikov has just confessed to his girlfriend that he is the one who killed Lizaveta. "As soon as he said it...he...remembered clearly Lizaveta's expression as he approached her with the ax and she backed away from him toward the wall with her arm raised in front of her and a completely childlike fear in her face." ... "Sonia looked at him quickly. After the first passionate and agonized feeling of sympathy for the unfortunate man, the terrifying idea of the murder once again stunned her. In the altered tone of his words she suddenly heard the murderer. She looked at him with astonishment. She did not know why or how or for what it had been done." (p. 38-39)

- When employing a first person narrator, Dostoevsky often has them admit their sicknesses, frailties and weaknesses to give readers the chance to put together all the pieces and find a method in the character’s madness.

- His voice is more like regular speech than edited prose.

- His characters make stunning (and usually poor) decisions. Exaggeration is key: Once you think of an action, stop and ponder whether you can up the ante by making it even more bizarre.

- The descriptive passages are loaded with emotional overtones and connotations. Dostoevsky describes Dmitry's physical appearance in "Notes From Underground" in a manner that hints there are layers that need peeling: “He was muscular, and by all appearances, physically very strong; nevertheless, there was something sickly about his face. For all the resolute intensity of his protruding, rather large dark eyes, there was a certain indecision in them.” (p. 44)

-When you write a violent scene, repeat it in the mind of your characters for the added effect.

Herman Melville - Notes on William Cane's "Write Like the Masters"

Chapter 3 - HERMAN MELVILLE

Melville’s writing style:
• Full of meaning, symbolism and emotion
• Rolling meter and alliteration
• Sometimes accused of overindulging in hyperboles and exaggerated characters

- Melville used four literary devices to characterize:
Complexity - Create characters with conflicting qualities (ie: refer to Alanis Morissette's song, "Hand in my Pocket")

Unreliability – Other characters speculate about the character

Selection – Melville only reveals a few main traits (ie: madness)

Mystery – Keep certain facts unknown about the character

- A conversation between two characters about the main character makes the main character more mysterious and unreliable.

- Don’t make your hero too perfect; allow him or her imperfections and foibles, so readers can see a reflection of themselves in him or her.

- Have characters wonder about the other characters, about their motives, their actions, their goals.

- Select two or three traits to focus on when creating main characters.

Charles Dickens - Notes on William Cane's "Write Like the Masters"

Chapter 2 - CHARLES DICKENS

Dickens’ writing characteristics:
• A cast of characters startling in their variety and engaging in their many permutations of human behavior
• Musical diction
• Dickens was first and foremost a caricaturist, always on the lookout for ways to embellish a portrait

“Make them laugh,
make them cry,
make them wait.”

-Charles Dickens

- His character descriptions are lengthy, so if imitating his intricate character description, abbreviate the length to keep the attention of today’s audience.

- Keep some conflict below the surface: Choose an aspect of the story that can be concealed from the reader, then play the part of the omniscient writer and reveal only as much as necessary.

- Dickens was a master of humor – satire, puns, wordplay and a curious method of characterizing that poked fun at his own creations. Exaggerate your characters a bit and use a satirical voice.

- To create emotion, you must feel emotion. Dig into your own experiences. (Easier said than done.)

"There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein." -Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith

Honoré de Balzac - Notes on William Cane's "Write Like the Masters"

I became an author at age three. Nearly every day I would sit at my plastic orange and yellow Fisher Price table with a box of broken crayons and computer paper, draw masterpiece after masterpiece, staple my stack, and then "read" my story to my parents. By age five I began incorporating words. My first titled book was, "This is the Story All About the Day the Bank Was Robbed."

When my mom realized I had a knack for writing but my reading skills lagged, she told me if I want to become a better writer, I must become a better reader. She used to reward me (bribe me?) with trips to the local dollar store when I would finish chapter books without help. My mom was the first of many teachers and mentors to encourage me to become a student of the art of writing so I can understand and perfect my own storytelling abilities.

Today, besides reading for enlightenment, escape or enjoyment, I pour over literature to learn what and how things flow, excite, flabbergast, fizzle, rile and curdle blood. I picked up a couple books this fall when I became more serious about making writing part of my everyday routine, one of them being, "Write Like the Masters: Emulating the best of Hemingway, Faulkner, Salinger, and Others," by William Cane. I'm compiling a personalized summary of each chapter not only to help me remember the writing characteristics of the greats, but also as a reference of the styles and tips I may want to experiment with in the future.

In the following several posts I will share my notes on Cane's studies.

Chapter 1 - HONORÉ DE BALZAC

Balzac’s writing characteristics:
• Realistic people
• Intricate plots
• Romance galore
• Clumsy ornate prose (but, forgivable because of the previous three)

- Include emotional tags, little references to the feelings of his characters, to add power to your writing. Emotional tags are unnecessary during everyday occurrences in your story. However, emotional tags are when the pace accelerates, when characters react with pivotal emotions such as anger, pride, hubris, longing, love, envy or hatred.

Example from "Père Goriot": “His bitter thoughts were dispersed by the pleasure that he looked forward to in dining at the viscountess’s.” (p. 9)

- Create the potential for change in your protagonist, even if only a subtle change.

Review of Cathedral by Raymond Carver

Raymond Carver’s short story “Cathedral” was pushed in front of me in an undergraduate Fiction Writing class. I recall labeling his style simple, natural and unmemorable save for the narrator protagonist. Two years later when browsing a ma and pa bookstore, I pulled “Cathedral” from the shelf to admire the alluring cover illustration. His name and the book title were unfamiliar until I came across a few lines in the last short story “Cathedral” about incessant drinking and a blind man, and everything came back to me. It was a time in my life I was starving for simplicity, so I bought it.

If Carver had been stripped of literary approbation, I might not have bothered to give myself pep talks to push through Cathedral. Although the clarity of his prose is refreshing, many of his stories' endings felt shortchanged and the plots moved at a distractingly glacial pace, causing my interest - both counterfeit and genuine - to falter.


"Feathers" – puzzling, quirky, subtly wistful
I liked this story more after a second reading because instead of being distracted by Carver’s staple ingredient, the perpetual feeling of “where is this going,” I was able to notice how well Jack knew and adored the quirks, faults and strengths of his wife Fran.

The strongest part of the opening of “Feathers” is when the main character Jack describes Fran as a tall glass of water, but doesn't explain why.

“Fran’s a big tall drink of water. She has this blond hair that hangs down her back. I picked up some of her hair and sniffed it. I wound my hand in her hair. She let me hug her. I put my face right up in her hair and hugged her some more.” (p. 5)

Carver lets the story unfold, showing how Fran is a tall glass of water, and then reminding readers of the aloof comment by having Fran ask the host, Bud, for “some of that Old Crow and a little water. … In a tall glass, please. With some ice.” (p. 12)

The beginning and end of “Feathers” gave me an immediate appreciation of Carver’s vision and control as a writer; though, I wasn’t much a fan of the fluff in the middle.

"Chef's House" – mild, neat, one-dimensional
Tight prose, doesn’t go below surface level. Very ho-hum.

"Preservation" – deficient, prosaic, obscure
Carefully chosen diction, weak ending. Too abstract for my taste. Take a gander at the story’s last paragraph below. I would prep you with some story context, but it’d be an unnecessary favor. You’ll feel lost either way.

“She looked down at her husband’s bare feet. She stared at his feet next to the pool of water. She knew she’d never again in her life see anything so unusual. But she didn’t know what to make of it yet. She thought she’d better put on some lipstick, get her coat, and go ahead to the auction. But she couldn’t take her eyes from her husband’s feet. She put her plate on the table and watched until the feet left the kitchen and went back into the living room.” (p. 46)

Hm…

…Still, nothing.

"The Compartment" – stirring, raw, bleak
A powerful piece, heavy on flashbacks and reflection and light on present action. The setting was limited to a train compartment, but Myers’s inner turmoil took readers to scenes of violence and sadness in his past and fear and anger while traveling to see his estranged son for the first time in eight years.

Myers earns readers’ respect and appreciation with his bravery and vulnerability - by tucking away his past and fretting over their reunion, respectively.

“He stayed awake after that and began to think of the meeting with his son, which was now only a few hours away. How would he act when he saw the boy at the station? Should he embrace him? He felt uncomfortable with that prospect. Or should he merely offer his hand, smile as if these eight years had never occurred, and then pat the boy on the shoulder?” (p. 49)

Just as readers begin to soften toward Myers, he takes a sharp left and doesn’t look back. He had bought his son an expensive Japanese wristwatch in Rome as a gift, but it was stolen from his coat pocket when he left the compartment to use the restroom. The theft of his son’s gift seems responsible for Myers’s moment of change, as it occurred immediately after he realized it was missing.

“It came to him (Myers) that he didn’t want to see the boy after all. He was shocked by this realization and for a moment felt diminished by the meanness of it. He shook his head. In a lifetime of foolish actions, this trip was possibly the most foolish thing he’d ever done. But the fact was, he really had no desire to see this boy whose behavior had long ago isolated him from Myer’s affections. He suddenly, and with great clarity, recalled the boy’s face when he had lunged that time, and a wave of bitterness passed over Myers. This boy had devoured Myers’s youth, had turned the young girl he had courted and wed into a nervous, alcoholic woman whom the boy alternately pitied and bullied. Why on earth, Myers asked himself, would he come all this way to see someone he disliked?” (p. 54)

On page 48, the narrator foreshadows Myers’s change of heart: “Now and then Myers saw a farmhouse and its outbuildings, everything surrounded by a wall. He thought this might be a good way to live – in an old house surrounded by a wall.” Instead of meeting his son, Myers opts for the selfish safe choice. He reneges his promise to reconcile with his son and remains in the compartment, surrounded by a wall.

- TO BE CONTINUED -

On Deck: Cathedral's “A Small, Good Thing,” “Vitamins,” “Careful,” “Where I’m Calling From,” “The Train,” “Fever,” “The Bridle,” “Cathedral” and a conclusion