David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest

 If we try something new, some will look at it and say, "The sentence is too long and difficult to follow", or "I just love the way you did that -- it's so different", or "I can't tell if that's the author speaking or which character", or "I can't tell what's going on", or something.

I have just read the first 50 pages or so of "Infinite Jest", a long (!) novel usually cited as Foster's most prominent. It is exhilarating and confusing and funny and tragic and all mixed up. 

Here is what Harold Bloom, author of "Genius" and a bookshelf of other works, as well as a Yale professor, had to say about it: "Infinite Jest is just awful. It seems ridiculous to have to say it. He can't think, he can't write. There is no discernable talent."

Time magazine cited Infinite Jest as "one of the most influential books of the 20th century". Other sources have made similar comments to this.

I think about this when I try something new. As an apprentice writer, I am quick to admit that my experiments may well fall on the 'just awful' side of the scale. But sometimes, these disappointments are more about beginning to learn to do something in full sunlight.

Even an eagle, right out of the egg, doesn't look that impressive.

Next I Tried a Fictional Memoir

What an odd category name this is. As I understand it, the author makes sure to use storytelling techniques to create a piece of work based on a true event or true events. For me, who needs to make extra certain there is 'narrative flow', this means that within the truth there needs to be a problem or a situation, attempts and obstacles, and a resolution (or explicit absence of resolution). So it's a 'story' about a piece of my life.

This one needed to be a maximum of 3,000 words, which is about 1,500 words more than any of my single-episode efforts. And it needed to be "Canadian".

So, here is what I found in my writing process. I continue to try to jam far too many ideas into a 'short story'. 

I can be pretty good now at 'narrative flow' although I do worry about settling for a kind of formulaic approach. 

Some perverse drive makes me want to break new 'literary' ground even though I am far from having mastered old ground; and wouldn't know new literary ground if it fell on me. 

I remain more-than-occasionally oblivious to the need for transitions -- I tend to jump from one event or thought to another without a reasonable escorting of the reader. And when they notice -- huh? being a common note from them -- I'm still a little bit surprised -- although I am getting better at this in my self-editing process.

"Head-hopping" continues to haunt me. This was a story that took place in my young childhood. When the adult narrator (me) spoke, sometimes he sounded like his child character (although, a particularly articulate child) and sometimes like an adult. One experienced writer giving me feedback referred to it as "dual focus". What a nice, but clear, way to say it. Right now, I do think that this head-hopping tendency adds a freshness to my writing that I lose when I avoid it. Or, I'm making excuses for myself. (Or, I'm breaking fresh literary ground!) 

I am happy that my 'voice' continues to be evident. My writing group colleagues would have known it was me, many said, even if my name hadn't been on the piece. 

And they went out of their way to say they liked the story even when parts of it 'bothered' them. They're supportive encouraging people but they would not have said they liked the story if they didn't.

Which brings me to Writing Groups. Thank you all who provided feedback. I have now been around long enough with each of you to know your core concerns about writing in general. And that there is no magic answer to any writing situation. Each of us has our own perspective -- that's what makes diversity so valuable.

The feedback I received ranged from:

-- grammar corrections [good ones; not pedantic ones]

-- to “I liked it I don’t have any comments”

-- to "I liked it but I didn’t love it" [what happened to the Bob that's funny?]

-- to “It's perfect don't change a thing” 

-- and from "that the last part didn't make sense" to "that last part was my favourite part".

What a rich experience my writing colleagues provided me with. They exhaust me after I have already done a pretty good job of exhausting myself.

When I don't hate it, I love it.