Interview with Brian Griffin and Dawn Langley's Online Creative Writing Class

Betsey: Good Evening and welome to the Sarabande in Education chatroom. Tonight Dawn Langley's Online class will be interviewing author, Brian Griffin. Wed Feb 12, 2003 6:41 pm

Betsey: Everyone make sure to set your "Auto refresh setting" to 10 seconds and click "Set!"

Lucille Heinrich: Hi Prof. Langley. ARe you there?

Betsey:Hi Lucille...I don't think anyone else is here yet. Did you have any problems getting in the chatroom?

Lucille Heinrich: Hi Betsey, No, except when I typed in "Student" and then "Learn", it would not accept it. So I just typed in "Teacher" and "Teach" and I got in.

Lucille Heinrich: I'm a little early, but Prof. Langley said she would be online about 30 min. prior to the 7 PM classtime so I hope she's okay.

Prof Langley: Hi Everyone!

Lucille Heinrich: Ah, there you are!

Prof Langley: Hey Betsey -- How are you?

Betsey: Hello there, Dawn!

Prof Langley: Hi Lucille -- I was online on Yahoo trying to get everyone in.

Betsey: Oh, I'm just fine...it's a bit chilly in the office, but other than that, I'm hangin' in there.

Lucille Heinrich: Did I see Marinda sign on? Hi Marinda.

Prof Langley: The username and password have changed since the last chat! I've had to tell everyone what you emailed me this aftn. I had sent them the "rules" already.

Kathleen: Hello everyone

Patricia: Hello Everybody

Melissa: Hi, everyone sworry I am late.

Lucille Heinrich: Hi Kathleen.

Prof Langley: Hi Tricia -- and Marinda and Melissa

Lucille Heinrich: Hello Melissa.

Marinda: Hi guys

Kathleen: Sorry trying to get auto fressh
Betsey: The weird thing is that Lucille was able to get in using "Teacher" and "Teach!"...the old passwords. I don't know how that worked...Lucille must have a special touch with computers!

Lucille Heinrich: Just dumb luck!

Debbie: Well we made it i see yeah

Prof Langley: I was wondering how she was here since I just got your email when I got home!

Prof Langley: Does everyone have a couple of questions ready?

Alisha: Hello everyone

Kathleen: I do......

Prof Langley: I'll "call on you" so we don't get Brian all confused. That usually works better than everyone trying to talk at once. Right, Betsey?

Debbie: is Haleyjo here yet? she was having problems

Lucille Heinrich: Hi Alisha, Yes, I'm ready.

Prof Langley: Great, Kathleen :-)

Alisha: That's how I got in also

Haley: Hey Everybody, I'm here!

Betsey: Sounds fine with me, Dawn. Whatever is easiest for you (well... and Brian!).

Prof Langley: Hi Alisha!

Prof Langley: Hi Haley!

Marinda: Is anyone there?

Prof Langley: Yes, that works best for us on this end. Besides, Brian isn't feeling well -- he's got the flu -- so we should be easy on him :-)

Kathleen: Hey Marinda

Alisha: My internet connect has been disconnecting today while online so if I all of suddent leave I'll be back on

Kathleen: Sounds familiar Alisha

Patricia: What should the auto fresh setting be set to?

Brian Griffin: Greetings from Knoxville, Tennessee, home of George Washington Harris, Nikki Giovanni, James Agee, Cormac McCarthy and Johnny Knoxville, one of the stupidest celebrities to ever grace the TV screen. We're proud.

Prof Langley: Not a problem, Lisha. Tricia, refresh rate should be 10 seconds.

Alisha: Hello Brian

Debbie: ok now i am getting nothing. is there anyone still out there or are we just waiting quietly?

Prof Langley: Hey, Brian! How are you feeling? This is Dawn Reno (now Langley)

Brian Griffin: By the way, I have a dreadful virus, so don't get too close to the screen. Be sure your anti-virus program is turned on.

Betsey: Hi Brian! You left your name off the celebrity list!

Melissa: Hello Mr. Griffin

Lisa: Hi Brian.

Alisha: LOL, are you sure you're not a comedian

Brian Griffin: I feel like I'm underwater. Quite nice, actually. And yes, I left my name off the celebrity list for good reason.

Prof Langley: We're going to do our usual, Brian, taking turns with questions. Lucille, since you were in here first, you have the first one.

Brian Griffin: Any questions?

Prof Langley: Lucille?

Lucille Heinrich: Ok, Thanks. Hope you feel better, Mr. Griffin.

Brian Griffin: I once met a guitar named Lucille.

Brian Griffin: I feel better, thanks.

Lucille Heinrich: At first I thought Sparkman in "Sparkmen in the Sky" was the most pitiful character among all your characters in this particular collection. Upon rereeading, I found Walter in "Training to Be an Astronaut' the most pathetic. Do you agree, and if so, why or why not?

Lisa: A guitar named Lucille? You sound like my boyfriend.

Brian Griffin: Okay, Lucille. HOld on...

Lucille Heinrich: Lucille is a very special name reserved for special women and guitars.

Lucille Heinrich: Sorry for typos, but my questions are lengthy.

Lisa: I kind of liked Sparkman's character.

Lucille Heinrich: Would you date him?

Linda Lyles: Hello, I'm here! Yeah!

Prof Langley: We're going to do one question at a time, so reserve the others, Lucille.

Prof Langley: Hi Linda -- We're doing questions one at a time -- I'll call on you when it's your turn :-)

Debbie: Prof. have you seen Haleyjo yet she was having trouble with me also?

Brian Griffin: I have no real opinion on which characters seem pathetic, but I must say that I try to add to my characters a number of aspects -- a little of the complexity of actual human beings. I hope Sparkman comes across as someone who is trying to break out of a past that has held him down and kept him from reaching his potential as a human being. Walter, I guess, is experiencing similar problems. It may seem pathetic, but I'm hoping for...well.. HOPE, as well.

Brian Griffin: They do struggle against odds, do they not? Next...

Prof Langley: Melissa?

Haley: Hey Debbie. I'm here.

Prof Langley: Okay, Haley -- I'll call on you when it's your turn to ask a question.
It's easier if we go one at a time.

Lucille Heinrich: Yes, you really gave them complex problems to deal with. Thank you for your answer.

Brian Griffin: Did I skip a question? If so, please repeat it.

Jennifer: Hello Everyone

Prof Langley: No, you didn't, Brian. Hi Jennifer

Brian Griffin: WHile we're waiting I'll say that a good rule of thumb is to never think of your characters as pathetic or worthless, or as anything that can be summed up in a single word. I hope I've succeeded in that at times.

Brian Griffin: Next...

Prof Langley: Melissa? Your question???

Prof Langley: Alright, if Melissa isn't ready, Marinda, you can do yours.

Prof Langley: Then Lisa, Linda, Haley

Marinda: Mr. Griffin did you actually know anyone similar to Sparkman or Reverand GrandFather

Brian Griffin: Lucille, by the way, is the name of BB King's guitar, which seems appropriate. I got the blues, folks. Oh, a question...Hold on, Marinda!

Linda Lyles: Mr. Griffin what is your inspirations for your characters?

Alisha: i knew that

Prof Langley: Linda -- wait until the others have asked their questions . . . we need to go in the order I suggested or it gets really confusing.

Linda Lyles: I'm sorry

Prof Langley: no problem :-)

Marinda: Should I repeat my question?

Brian Griffin: Well, the character that is the Reverend Grandfather is not the same character I based him on when I began the story. I began the story with the idea of describing a ride in a car with my own grandfather. But in the process of writing, the character as he is now simply emerged. I had no idea that it would happen that way. The story I set out to tell -- an account of seeing hang gliders fall from the sky one afternoon -- became the story you see now in the process of writing. The character was based on my own grandfather, but he is not my grandfather at all. He is a collection of characteristics gathered from my own experience of lots of people. He is a new thing. No one exists quite like him. That's the joy of writing fiction, for me.

Brian Griffin: More coming...hold on...

Brian Griffin: Linda asks what inspires my characters, and I think you can see, from the previous response, at least part of the answer to Linda's question. I think the best characters come from life as we live it. Use models from fiction to learn craft, but model your characters on people you know -- keeping open to the possibility of constructing wholly new characters by combining traits.

Marinda: Interesting, this helps explain how characters are created in great stories. Thanks.

Brian Griffin: I'm not sure that's very good, but let's move on...next?

Prof Langley: We just finished working on character sketches and short stories, Brian. Lisa, your turn.

Brian Griffin: Elizabeth Bowen says "Characters pre-exist." I agree. And they happen, too.
Prof Langley: Can you go with that a little more, Brian?

Alisha: Lisa's not asking so if you don't mind I will. After writing "Home for the Weekend" what did you wish for your reader to gain?

Alisha: Oops, Sorry

Lisa: I really enjoyed "Sparkman in the Sky". I could relate to him in many ways. However, I wanted to know what your over all purpose for the story was. I mean I got a lot out of it. What did you want your readers to get? What were you trying to tell them?

Brian Griffin: Is it possible to create an actual person using language? Is it possible to take Aunt Bessie and put her, lock stock and barrel -- in a story? We can try, but I bet it won't happen. I bet Aunt Bessie becomes some sort of mutant in the process. Oh, Alisha... okay hold on...then Lisa

Lisa: Sorry, it took a while to type it and get my thoughts together.

Brian Griffin: What I hoped the reader would take from "Home for the Weekend" is some sense of the sin of racism -- the depth of that sin -- and how the process of cleansing ourselves of it has only begun. The lack of resolution at the end is an attempt to show that dealing with racism is a work in progress. Now to Lisa...

Alisha: Great answer, I don't think it could have been said any better!

Brian Griffin: The title story, I think, is a story about liberation. Sparkman has been repressed all his life, and in the act of trying to fly a glider against all odds, he is, symbolically, liberating himself from a stifling past. It is a story about religion, and education.

Prof Langley: Brian -- I think this is my sixth chat with you, and I always learn something new about your work.

Prof Langley: Now, Linda!

Brian Griffin: Look carefully at how Sparkman deals with his grandfather...what does he do? Ask yourself why.

Linda Lyles: Mr. Griffin I am interested in what makes you tick as a writer so my questions are more along that line. Some writers write like they are personally and some use their writings to be what they are not. Do you write like you are or do you go out of your box in your writings?

Lisa: Thank you!

Brian Griffin: Uh, hold on Linda...

Brian Griffin: I think the answer is none of the above, but I'm not entirely sure. I write by delving into my own past. All writing is about memory, by the way. All experience immediately becomes memory, and that is an enormous treasure trove for writing. I have everything I need with me, always, if I have a pencil and some paper, because a fictional world exists in my mind, waiting for me to plunder it. And my favorite thing to do is to try to understand those memories and make them interesting to other people. That's what makes me tick -- bringing other people (the reader) into that world. To do so, I have to make that world seem real. That's the hard part.

Linda Lyles: Thank You!

Prof Langley: Did everyone ask a question?

Betsey: Dawn, Melissa is on the phone with me...her computer just totally crashed and won't come back on...she has someon on the way to try to fix it...any message for her Dawn?

Prof Langley: We can start over again, unless there's someone who didn't get a chance yet.

Linda Lyles: yes

Kathleen: nope

Alisha: yes

Kathleen: were there any special inspirations for "HOME" and how did you find it? What can you look for? Does it hit you like a ton of bricks or is it like the cool breeze and you just have to be on the look out?

Prof Langley: Tell her I'll send everyone a copy of the chat later.

Patricia: I didn't. Do all or any your characters have little pieces of your on personal characteristic's in them -- if so is it intentional or does it just happen naturally?

Brian Griffin: Your job as a writer is to make an artificial world -- the world of the story, the world in you mind, in your memory -- seem like a real world to a reader. That's why craft is so important. That's why you need to study how other writers create the illusion of reality in their fiction. Because the only thing you can do as a fiction writer is create a fake world that seems real, and that works as a movie in the mind of the reader.

Jennifer: I haven't

Brian Griffin: First Kathlee, then Patricia...

Prof Langley: Jennifer will be next since she hasn't had a chance.

Prof Langley: So it's Kathleen, Patricia, Jennifer -- just to be clear.

Haley: I haven't asked a question.

Brian Griffin: My inspiration for "Home for the Weekend" was my memory of a time when my brother brought a Nigerian to my church. It was a difficult story to write, and it remains a difficult topic to think about. I usually find inspiration, as I've said already, from my own past, and I guess I'm just a masochist, because none of it seems easy. I get the best joy after the first draft is finished and I realize how things work now that fiction has transformed everything. But there is no "cool breeze," unfortunately, until its too late.

Prof Langley: Haley, you go after Jennifer.

Kathleen: Thank you

Brian Griffin: Patricia: If my characters have pieces of my own personality in them, it isn't because I planned them that way. So I'll say the answer to your question is "no." My analyst (if I had one) would probably laught at that...

Jennifer: In the forward it said, "I think these stories are good because Griffin listened to them before he began writing them." What does this mean?

Brian Griffin: Okay Jennifer, just a second...

Brian Griffin: I'm not sure what Barry Hannah had in mind when he wrote that, but I think he may be talking, at least in part, about language. I obsess on finding a "voice" when I write a story, a voice that has a certain authentic sound, and I guess that I developed an ear for that by sitting around listening to people talk. To this day I say very little to people, but I love to listen.

Brian Griffin: I grew up around lots of liars, but they were wonderfully told, elaborate lies.

Prof Langley: I have to butt in to say that a good writer is always a better listener than talker. I tend to do the same thing -- sit on the sidelines and watch people talk.

Brian Griffin: Fiction lies to tell the truth about something. The liars I knew sometimes did that, too, but mostly they were just lying.

Prof Langley: I always tell new writers to ride the subway/buses/trains and just listen to conversations to get dialogue nuances.

Alisha: we don't have subways, buses, or trains around here

Brian Griffin: Good advice -- and I'm sure you mention that they should read their own work aloud, too. It helps, especially when you are just starting out.

Jennifer: Thank. At first I thought these might be stories you heard and decided to write them down.

Alisha: If I find it very difficult to hear my own works, anything to make it easier?

Prof Langley: Reading work aloud -- YUP! Can't tell you how often I've been going over work before going to a reading and have discovered things that didn't make sense or a rhythm that's a bit off. Always read work aloud.

Brian Griffin: No. The stories are attempts, sometimes, to tell stories I heard, or remember, but it is important to point out that in the process of making those stories real to a reader, they evolved (as I wrote) into something else.

Brian Griffin: Another question?

Haley: Mr. Griffin, You mentioned that "Home for the Weekend" was based on a story about your brother. Are there any more of your stories that are based on true stories?

Betsey: Just want to let everyone know we have about 15 minutes left.

Brian Griffin: Okay, Haley...

Prof Langley: Who hasn't asked a question yet? I want everyone to get a chance before we end the session.

Debbie: I haven't

Brian Griffin: "Home for the Weekend" is probably the most autobiographical of all the stories, in the sense that the series of events it recounts -- the visit to the church, the man dying from a heart attack, etc -- actually happened. But it is important to note that none of the other stuff in the story actually happened -- the kids riding the bikes, the visit to the river, etc. All that is pure fiction, and it is fiction written in an attempt to MAKE SENSE of the actual events that happened at my church when I was a child. I think it worked pretty well. What to the boys do? WHat they do and say is a direct comment on the events at the church, and there lies my "message," if that's the word. None of the other stories work quite that way.

Prof Langley: Okay, Debbie -- your turn

Debbie: I just wanted to know when is a good time to end a story? Alot of feedback I got was for more after writing my short story and after reading "The Santuary" I wanted to know more about the outcome.

Brian Griffin: Okay Debbie...

Brian Griffin: I ask a lot of my readers. I expect them to be engaged with every word and every nuance of the story, just as I am when I write. I know it doesn't always work that way for everyone, but it works often enough, and that is fine by me. I think a story must satisfy an attentive reader in one of two ways: it must either provide a "wrapping up" of external conflict (i.e. the external events of the story, the things "that happened") or it must provide some sort of resolution of an internal conflic (a conflict within a character, often an emotional conflict). You know you are finished with a story if you do one of those two things. ANd you have to trust your reader (and develop a thick skin if you are to deal with sloppy readers without getting depressed.)

Brian Griffin: I saw a good discussion of internal and external conflict in a book a long time ago -- I think it was Janet Burroway's book on fiction writing. She's exactly right.

Debbie: Thank you very much for your time and all your answers to our questions.

Lisa: Thank you for your time Mr. Griffin.

Prof Langley: Yes, that is Burroway.

Brian Griffin: Anything else?

Kathleen: Do you title your work first or after you finish the story? With the last essay we did in class I had this problem.

Brian Griffin: Okay Kathleen

Brian Griffin: I have no rule on this, but I will say that titles are important and probably should be changed to fit the story, if the story evolves as you write. The original title for this collection was "Training to Be an Astronaut," which George Garrett loved. That got nixed by someone at the press because they thought it would get shelved in the wrong section at bookstores. I think it is a better title...

Marinda: Thanks Mr Griffin for your time.

Betsey: I guess we're about ready to wrap up?

Alisha: How do you overcome writer's block and is there any advise you can give me to help become more descriptive of my surroundings and character?c

Kathleen: Thank you so much for your time and answers

Brian Griffin: Read good books folks. Turn off the TV and read the classics.

Linda Lyles: It's been a pleasure chatting with you Mr. Griffin.

Brian Griffin: Dickens.

Betsey: Thank you Dawn and class...and of course, Brian!!!

Brian Griffin: Tolstoy

Alisha: I'm sorry

Prof Langley: One last question, Brian -- which book would you suggest for these students? Novel-wise.

Brian Griffin: George Eliot

Kathleen: yes a true pleasure

Lucille Heinrich: Thank you, Mr. Griffin. Enjoyed the chat.

Lisa: Thank you!

Prof Langley: Thank you, Betsey -- and Brian, it's always a pleasure.

Brian Griffin: Hemingway's "In Our Time."

Betsey: Good night!

Prof Langley: Students, see you on our own chat board/DB throughout the weekend. This was a really good one!

Alisha: Thanks

Brian Griffin: Thanks for having me. This is fun.

Alisha: I thoroughly enjoyed this chat