Hoffman Ch6 Exercise

Exercise from 'the writing of Fiction'

14. Forget you are a writer and sit down to enjoy a story.

I am a writer. I am sitting at a little wooden desk. I add a bit of fantasy to add to the pleasure. It's raining. It's early autumn and the leaves are changing colour. I am at a university in Ontario and my wife and I are living on campus high high up in a student residential tower. The previous occupants of this room were artists and they left their watercolour pencil crayons and some paintings. I asked them when they were leaving but they said I could have them. A gift.

I stretch and then sit back down at my desk. It is cluttered with art supplies. But that's ok. I'm not going to write. I'm going to forget I am a writer and just enjoy a story. Should it be a story from the school newspaper? I could also read one on local mysteries and ghost stories. But the instructions for the exercise say it shouldn't be mystery or detective stories. So I choose the newspaper. There is a story on renovations of the residential towers where I am staying. There's just as much bickering here as back at UVic. The writer is angry about the failure of the university to address marginalisation. But I'm not clear who is being marginalised. I agree with the writer, I'm sure I do. Or I would if I knew what they meant. I turn to a different story, because I'm supposed to enjoy it and I'm not. I'm just confused. So instead I read something about alligators in the sewers. I'm not sure that this is much better. Finally I give up. I go to my box of books and take out the Left Hand of Darkness. I know I'm supposed to read something that I haven't read before but this way at least I know what I'm getting into. I know I'm supposed to read a short story, but I haven't had much luck finding one. Maybe that's the skill I'm supposed to perfect in this, just read and enjoy a story. I'll give it one more try.

I search online for a story about the mars expedition. I find a diary of one of the women living in the mars station. She talks about what it's like to make food in space and how simply being on mars feels less alien because there is gravity. I start wondering how much gravity there is on mars but I ignore it and focus on the details of dried foods and the pleasure of chocolate and the complexity of restocking. She talks about experiments they do in their free time to improve their electrolyte heavy drinks. It sounds like fun. I start to think about mars.

The instructions say once I finish I can become as critical as I please. I can see that I will have to practice not being critical ahead of time. It's definitely difficult. I think the student newspaper was a hard place to start because of the vague controversies that invite you to participate. The ghost stories always invite you to both believe and to doubt at the same time. But reading a little about mars was fun. Maybe next time I'll try fiction.