Art Imitating Life

I hate the phrase, but it's a truism; it's a valid statement that covers a lot of the art world, whether that be music, visual art, or writing. I was reminded (yet again) that I need to be less solitary, that getting out and doing something outside of the house will only benefit my writing in the long-run, which is true.

I had the pleasure of spending most of May not at home in San Francisco. My youngest sister graduated from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor's in Sociology, the weekend after that my good friend Surya got married to a wonderful woman in El Cerrito, which was followed by another wedding in Los Angeles between my old friend Mel and her beau TJ (whose blog is pretty hilariously entertaining), which was again followed up by another family reception in Los Angeles the next weekend for Surya and his wife Jessette.

I had been struggling with ideas for some of my flash fiction-turned-short stories for this post-apocalyptic short story collection, but as I sat in the crowd watching Mel and Tj getting married, I realized that one of my strengths (and ultimately, a story that was lacking) is a good love story. I don't mean the romanticized "all ends well" kind of story, but just that the story itself encompasses an emotion greater than the characters involved. I'm good with the nuance of the interpersonal, at least on the page.

So while in Los Angeles the weekend after their wedding, I sat in a hotel overlooking the city of Torrance and crafted the first rough draft of what came to be the impromptu wedding vows of two people stuck in a world that was quickly falling into ash and crumble around them. There's potential for this one and I really love the ideas I've got for it. See the vows below:

"Under the rust brown sun

     Feet firm on wilted grass

With lover's hand in mine

     With lover's hand in mine

I sacrifice my solitude

     I promise to protect my love

My body, heart, and mind.

     From the world of things unkind.

In these times of dust and trouble,

     Upon this ground devoid of life

I give you all my cocooning warmth

     I stand to guard you from every harm

And pray this ring remains 'til death

     And with this ring as my promise,

I thee wed with open arms

     I thee wed; my life, my charm."

In other news, I've been re-reading through "Impasto." I removed all the paintings-as-characters sections and decided to see how the actual story between the human characters holds up. I had to ask myself if the paintings were simply a "clever" trope or if they were actually serving the greater good by breaking up the story. After a six month hiatus of not even thinking about the story, coming back to it with a clear mind as a reader and not as the author of it...there are parts that make me cringe. Some of the writing is truly terrible, which is both good and bad. It's good because the story needs work and there are about a thousand ways it can be made better. It's also good that I didn't start sending it out to publishers when I was high on the tail-end of my thesis work and firmly enmeshed in the story. I was too close to it.

But finding out the bad writing is bad because...well, it means there's a ton of work ahead of me. I became bored with some of the writing, which means other readers will too, so it's time to step up my game and make sure all the human character pieces fit. After all, their relationships to each other are the most important part of the novel and if they don't work, it doesn't matter what the art has to say about their lives.

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