Dial Your Writing Energy Up Above 1,000 (Michelle Intro) (03/06/2021)

A recap of the week's writing at Atticus Review and a request for support. Intro by Michelle Ross.

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As I write this, I just finished volunteering as a judge in the Regional SARSEF Science and Engineering Fair here in Tucson. Evaluating student science fair projects is similar to evaluating the fiction submissions we receive at Atticus Review. I’m looking for excellence. That means a demonstration of skill and meticulousness. Also, it means originality and spark. I’m looking for work that excites me. Some students’ science fair projects are so-called "out of the book" projects. These are projects for which Google turns up dozens of results. They’re projects judges see year after year after year. (Remember crushing cereal and using a magnet to draw out the iron?) In other words, they’re projects that aren’t particularly inspired. They’re the equivalent of stories that seem products of a general, vague intention to write a story.On the opposite end of the spectrum are projects that investigate a question or problem the student is personally invested in. These projects stand out because they’re more original and, therefore, more interesting. They stand out because they have a vitality the "out of the book" projects lack. These projects reveal something about who these kids are—what makes them curious, what engages them, how they think.There are different ways to refer to what distinguishes these projects from the others: We might say they have an emotional honesty and depth. We might refer to the projects "voice" or "vision." We might say it has resonance. We might call it "spark" or "energy." Whatever we call this quality, it’s of the same nature as what makes some stories stand out from others. I’m talking about the kinds of stories that have an undeniable energy, stories that are clearly driven by an urge much more specific than a general, vague intention to write a story. So powerfully affecting is this quality that we judges awarded a third-place prize to an elementary-school project despite its scientific shortfalls. Even though this student’s data was a little bit messy, and didn’t demonstrate as clear a relationship between variables, we were so charmed by the student’s passion for her unique and inspired inquiry, we easily forgave the project’s weaknesses. I’ve been reading George Saunders’s book A Swim in a Pond in the Rain in which he discusses short stories by Chekhov, Tolstoy, Turgenev, and Gogol. The book evolved from a course he teaches at Syracuse’s MFA program, and it’s a treasure trove of insight and delight. Reviewing science fair projects these last few days, I found myself thinking of Saunders’s chapter about Turgenev’s story "The Singers." Saunders acknowledges the flaws in "The Singers," namely Turgenev’s long, awkward character descriptions, but he goes on to say, "The writer has to write in whatever way produces the necessary energy. For Turgenev to get his energy level up above 1,000, he had to make those dossiers. He had to admit that he wasn’t good at integrating description and action. He had to plunge ahead, doing things his way, or die."Thanks for reading. We're glad you're here.Michelle RossFiction Editor

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THIS WEEK AT ATTICUS

FICTIONMA RECOUNTS HER LIFE IN THE BIG WOODS AND ON THE PRAIRIEby Sara Cappell Thomason"Ma swallows hard and continues mending, and cooking, and cleaning and weaving, and knitting, and sitting.  She stokes the fire burning in her head."READ ON

POETRYI WOULD WRITE BUTby Jordan Charlton"I can’t make a beautiful thing out of my sadness,or I won’t. There is no metaphor for it. I can tell youI’ve lost hours to crying, traded hungerfor satisfaction. That this also feels like betrayal."READ ON

CREATIVE NONFICTIONTOUR, WITH DEAD COWby Shreya Vikram "You’ll smell my house before you see it. I would tell you what you should look out for, but it’s hard to place—part swamp, part trash, part dead cow that’s been run over by a truck. It starts a few streets away."READ ON

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