The Jim Krusoe Litany in my Head

It seems right to open this highly erratic blog on writing and literary events with a bow to Jim Krusoe: novelist, sensei, friend.

The fabulous Mary Otis and I dedicated our November 2009 UCLA Hammer Museum reading to Jim–as our collections were forged in his Santa Monica College fiction workshop–and I recited the Jim Krusoe litany that plays in my head as I work. Here it is, in part.

• When you’re writing a scene, give one character a task to complete. It gives the scene something to build toward.
• Let the task go wrong.
• Write the scene before the scene that changed your character’s life.
• If a scene with two characters isn’t working, bring in a third.
• Beware of designer names in search of a character.
• People love reading about characters at work.
• Look for enabling details–the one or two quirky or slightly off things about a person or setting that are so telling, the reader can imagine everything else, all at once.

And may I celebrate the most recent book to grow out of Jim’s workshop: BUMMER, by Janice Shapiro, a story collection just acquired by Soft Skull Press.