Writing Fiction, Chapter 4

I think developing characters can be very difficult. Especially, when writing, for instance, a short story one has to know before how the character is supposed to look like, how he feels in certain situations, and the general traits the author wants to portray. Generally, authors are assumed to “have the lucky, facile sort of imagination”. However, not every writer has this ability. Chapter 4 provides a good approach to this problem. It introduces a so-called Character Journal. How this is supposed to look like is described the following:

“Use the journal to note your observations of people. Try clustering your impressions of the library assistant who annoys you or the loner at the bar who intrigues you. Try to capture a gesture or message that physical features or clothing send.”

Honestly, I have never heard of this technique before, but I like this idea very much. Gestures can reveal so much about oneself without even knowing it. And many of these gestures are most likely recognized by the reader.

To conclude, integrating a character journal during the writing process helps the author to describe the character. And how, for instance, a character acts or how it looks like reveals the specific traits this particular character has. So this is a much better way to describe these traits. A text becomes more interesting when the reader is challenged I guess. That is why the author should avoid serving the character traits on a silver plate but rather show indirectly the character’s personality in the story.

Response on "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg

The poem is very special since it reminds me more on speech than on a poem I think. For instance, the long sentences, the repetitions, and the length of the poem itself. Moreover, it has a very persuasive tone I guess trying to make people aware of social issues. For instance, there are a lot of images revealing social criticism: there are passages dealing with crime, violence, drugs, madness as well as sexual references, for example:

“in a Turkish Bath when the blond & naked angel came to pierce
them with a sword“

“who copulated ecstatic and insatiate with a bottle of
beer a sweetheart a package of cigarettes a candle and fell off the bed“

“who howled on their knees in the subway and were dragged off the roof waving genitals and manuscripts, who let themselves be fucked in the ass by saintly motorcyclists, and screamed with joy“


Moreover, the text is full of references which make it rather hard to approach its full meaning. However, I like the third part most where he directly addresses his friend Carl Solomon whom he met at Rockland. I have read that Rockland refers to a psychiatry. It’s interesting how the speaker experiences visions and hallucinations and how this is expressed through very unusual choice of his words or language in general.

Finally, Ginsberg’s language is very radical and violent. I think that is concerning the time this poem was created. I would have expected such kind of poetry some years later I guess.

Response on Joseph Heller's "Catch-22"

This excerpt is very different from what I’ve read before. What struck me most on the story were the last few lines. It made me want to know how this story ends. Why did the man punch the doctor’s nose? Actually, the doctor helped them and explained to them how to have sex. So why is the man that mad with the doctor?

Actually, there are more incidents in the story that are odd. Another thing was the sequence of Saint Anthony. I had to look up who this saint was. I found that he helps people against infectious diseases especially herpes. So does the woman suffer from an infectious sexually disease? If so, why doesn’t she know who St. Anthony is? And if not, why would she wear this necklace of this saint? Besides, I’m wondering why the doctor has no practice anymore? Is it because of the rubber dolls since he narrator tells that he had to “keep (them) locked up in separate cabinets to avoid a scandal”?

So what wants the author us to tell? I think there is some critique in this excerpt. I mean the narrator calls the newly-weds a „couple of young kids”. They have been married for one year and she is still virgin, moreover, both are thinking they have had sex without even knowing what sex is. So I think society has not prepared them for their adult life and marriage, respectively. Maybe that’s the point of this story.

However, I would like to know how this story ends and will probably read the full version of Catch-22.