Welcome! Please sit down, make yourself comfortable, and have a brownie or three...

Friday, February 18, 2011

6 Things You Should Be Writing About

About a month ago, lovely agent Brenda Bowen (Sanford J. Greenberger Associates) posted about award ceremonies. She referenced Virginia Euwer Wolff’s remarks at the 2001 National book awards (the winning book was True Believer).

Ms. Wolff mentioned September 11th, and how she (like many writers) wondered how they would ever write again and if it would matter. She went to visit the World Trade Center site with her son while she was in town for the ceremony.

The following is an excerpt from her speech:

What I saw was living proof of Faulkner's six. Faulkner said in 1949 in the Nobel speech that if we are not writing about these six things we are not doing our job. They are love, honor, pity, pride, compassion and sacrifice. I think of them as Faulkner's six. I used to have them on my wall until I memorized them and now they're on this wall in here.

LOVE
HONOR
PITY
PRIDE
COMPASSION
SACRIFICE

Are these things in your manuscripts? One or two? All six?

Reading Brenda’s post and Ms. Wolff’s words made me want to examine my reason for writing—my reason for telling stories. Because at the end of the day, whether we’re writing middle grade adventures or literary horror, these six elements should be somewhere, reminding us to find and exhibit grace where we still can. Our characters are fiction, but we write from a place that’s not.

Anyway, it was a nice reminder for me. Keeping the “Faulkner six” in mind while writing certainly couldn’t hurt :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

38 comments:

  1. I'll have to memorize those. Great post!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the reminder. Those are definitely the basic elements that create the emotion I want my readers to feel when reading my stories.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very moving and great advice.
    -Vicki

    ReplyDelete
  4. Never heard of it, but I'm not surprised at the list. Everything on it is so important.

    ReplyDelete
  5. How inspiring! I want to examine my mss with these ideas in mind. Thanks so much for sharing this...

    ReplyDelete
  6. I LOVE these! Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh, this is awesome! Writing should be about more that just entertaining. And if you can write these 6 things in seamlessly, (we're not supposed to be too obvious, right?) all the better! I'm writing these down! I've got a few in my WiP, I'll have to read and see if I can find more. Thanks, Jess! Have a great weekend ~ :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. I've never heard of Faulkner's six before, but I totally agree and I am so relieved that all three of my current books include themes of love, compassion, pride (pitfalls of pride) and sacrifice. Maybe also honor... not sure about pity. Have to think about pity somemore. Both pride and pity could be take two ways: pride can be a positive trait, but it has pitfalls as well. Pity is not what I would consider a positive trait, though some might think so (???)

    Oh, that checklist for a contest is really helpful, too. Bookmarking that for later use...

    Hey, did you notice we are in the same Crusader Group? Not sure yet what we are supposed to do with our "group" but pleased all the same.

    ReplyDelete
  9. These are six excellent themes that comprise the story of humankind. Totally agree with these.

    Lee
    Tossing It Out and the Blogging From A to Z April Challenge 2011

    ReplyDelete
  10. I love those six elements. All very important! I need to copy that and keep it :) Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  11. This is a wonderful reminder about raising the stakes in our writing. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Very interesting - I shall have the compulsion to check all my novels for these six themes now :D

    ReplyDelete
  13. sad, thoughtful, moving and lots more things; thank you Jess, they're gonig on my writers room wall.x

    ReplyDelete
  14. Excellent post - I was just talking to a co-author of mine about this exact same thing. New follower:)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hey fellow crusader, thanks for the awesome advice! We should be creating a world that is beautiful and not corrupted. Thanks for sharing! :D

    ReplyDelete
  16. Just stopping by to say hello to a fellow crusader! :) Thanks for this post! Great advice.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Great list! I'm working on all those things in my WIP, but I think love and honor are the top two this time.

    Hello from a fellow crusader! (And hi to my CP, Chantele above!)

    ReplyDelete
  18. I hadn't heard of these either. This is really great information. It makes perfect sense.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Wow that's wonderful!! I actually think I have all 6 unintentionally! I mean...so intentionally....

    ReplyDelete
  20. The Faulkner Six will stick in my mind after reading this post. I'd never heard of them, but that's just about perfect advice, and six elements that a good story should include.

    Great Post!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Insightful. I sometimes forget the bigger picture when I write. I'm your newest follower from the crusade. Good to meet you. My blog is idevourkidbooks.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  22. Fellow Crusader (group 3, woot!), and wanted to pop over and say hello. Loved this post!

    EJW

    ReplyDelete
  23. I've never heard of that before, that's awesome! I shall add it to a "post-it" on my computer right now. *squee* Yes, I have all of these in my novel, and this blog just made me feel SO much better about myself. Thank you. Sometimes a writer needs that.

    <3 Gina Blechman (fellow crusader)

    ReplyDelete
  24. Hi fellow crusader.

    I never heard of Faulkner's six. Now I'm going to have to think about my manuscripts to see if I've done my job.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Great post! These are all necessary ingredients for a believable and sympathetic character. I like the idea of posting the list above the computer.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Excellent post with great advice. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  27. Hey Jess, I just wanted to let you know that I gave you an award on my blog today! Yay, come on over and get it :)

    ReplyDelete
  28. Great post. You're right and I'm going to make sure I've hit all of them in my WIP. Thanks Jess.

    ReplyDelete
  29. I love these! I've defintely got love and probably a little bit of pity in there, too. Thanks for posting them!

    ReplyDelete
  30. Hullo Crusader! popped in from Rachael's list to say hello! Also loved 'The girl who could fly' (saw it on your list!) Terrific book! Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  31. I like it a lot! I may have to add that to the multiple stickies on my monitor...

    Fellow crusader, swinging by to say hi, and follow so I don't miss anything!
    The Survival Mama

    ReplyDelete
  32. Lovely list! Thanks for posting this.

    ReplyDelete
  33. I like that. Sound advice from a great writer. Thanks for sharing. I am a new follower.

    ReplyDelete
  34. I love this! Time to post it on my wall somewhere :)

    ReplyDelete