Catching a Story by the Tale
Tips on getting started for beginning fiction writers and new teachers of creative writing
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Book Cover & Preview Text
8. A Get-Acquainted View I understand that there is a good chance that some of you may be thinking about writing about a “personal” or a “social” subject that is painful and that thinking about humor in terms of your own writing is not exactly on your agenda. With this in mind I want remind you that for our purposes here humor of any kind is not at all necessary. The tall tale framework is here to provide a way to include the setting and narration that you want for those fragments or that core story that you have in mind. A good way to get acquainted with the framework technique for your first efforts is simply to fill in the blanks of the outline of the “Jumping Frog” tale that follows. If “filling in the blanks” seems a bit off course from your idea of creative endeavor, not to worry. Filling in the blanks is a kind of hands-on way to becoming familiar with the material you’re working on. With that in mind, put aside if you wish the frogs, dogs, straddle-bugs, birds, and the curious characters that Clemens has in his tale, and try your hand at the following get-acquainted view of the tall tale. Going over the results has always brought some welcome joy to my classroom and a desire on the part of some students to jump in feet first and ask if they could develop their results into a story for the next class. In any case, my students have usually agreed that after hearing their classmates’ results, they themselves had a much better understanding of the framework form in action than they had gotten from just reading and discussion.
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About the Book
The Kojo Hand A NOVEL BY TOM GATTEN
“I’m very impressed with the vivid characterization here. From the self-conscious, guarded, headstrong Deanie, the hilariously crass but needy Barett, to the big-hearted Zerk, tortured by his past, and the quietly noble Kojo, each character is unique, consistent, and nicely layered. Deanie’s struggle to discover and stand by beliefs in an adult world that is constantly asking her to compromise is especially engaging. I also admire the moral force underlying the narrative: The Kojo Hand makes it clear that longing—whether for recognition, sex, fame, a sense of belonging—can lead to destruction and isolation when people let their desires blindly motivate them. The Kojo Hand is a giving and humane novel, exploring interesting and important human problems with a gentle hand.”
— Writer’s Digest
Mapper of Mists POEMS AND TRANSLATIONS
“I think Tom Gatten’s Mapper of Mists is a remarkable book of poems. For years I’ve been familiar with Gatten’s work and here we have it together with a great deal of grace, intensity and energy.”
— Jim Harrison
Author of Letters to Yesenin, Legends of the Fall, Dalva, The Woman Lit by Fireflies, Returning to Earth, The River Swimmer
The Bamboushay Steel Band RECORDING
Tom Gatten played with The Bamboushay Steel Band for two years. Based in East Lansing, the band played in places ranging from the original Hamtramck High School to the famous Gate of Horn club in Chicago. In 1962, National Educational Television produced, broadcast, and rebroadcast a half-hour show by the band. The band’s Folkways Records LP Album #FS3835 was reissued on Compact Disc by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings in 2001 and is also available on iTunes.
About the Author
Tom Gatten’s fiction has appeared in such publications as Art and Literature (Lausanne), The Quest (New York), and Tales, formerly Fiction Midwest (St. Louis). His poems have appeared in numerous publications and have been anthologized in The Sumac Reader (The Michigan State University Press, East Lansing), and Earth, Air, Fire & Water (Coward, McCann & Geohegan, New York, and Longmans Canada Limited, Toronto). His book of poems and translations, Mapper of Mists, includes the Spanish of Rafael Alberti. His novel The Kojo Hand was published in 2001. Tom Gatten was born in north central Nebraska and grew up in southwestern Michigan. While a grad student in Comparative Literature at Michigan State University, he played for two years with the Bamboushay Steel Band. In 1962 National Educational Television produced and broadcast a half-hour show by the band. The band’s Folkways Records LP Album #FS3835 was reissued on Compact Disc by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings in 2001 and is also available on iTunes. After Michigan State, Gatten went to the University of Iowa, where he earned an M.F.A. His college teaching credits include Stony Brook University, Lincoln Land Community College, The University of Hartford, and Penn State. For thirteen years he headed the Division of Management Information Services at the State of Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities and later became lead analyst for the Connecticut Department of Transportation Division of Graphic Systems, a position he held for five years. He lives in North Carolina with his wife.