Author: Olyn Ozbick (Page 2 of 3)

Creative Pairings

November 30, 2020 / Olyn Ozbick

I love good literature.

I read it, write it, discuss it, and teach it. It is something I know about and care about. I spend a lot of my time with literature.

I love fine art too.

I have a much different relationship with art, however. I enjoy it every bit as much as literature, but…… with no strings attached. I don’t actually make it, I don’t teach it, I just enjoy it. It’s the perfect complement to my creative life.

My art appreciation and my writing life are in perfect balance.

Which got me thinking, wouldn’t it be fun to pair books with art. So that’s what you will be getting here on my blog.

My guide to pairing fine art with your reads will be updated regularly.

A Burning

From emerging writer Megha Majumdar, A Burning is contemporary, touching and eye opening. A stunning geopolitical first novel. This compelling story follows a young woman and victim of social media into a devastating downward spiral that takes you with her from her youthful origins in a slum, into India’s corrupt prison system and through to a shocking ending. All the while, her friends and mentors spiral to great heights on her updraft. An inditement of modern social bonds, corrupt police, and the greed and cynicism caused by systemic poverty and fear. Majumdar’s deft writing handles this harsh story with languidity, and her complex characters and settings are drawn with color and precision. More please, Megha Majumdar!

Pairs Perfectly with …

Lady in Red

Mumbai artist Rouble Nagi is recognized internationally for her bold paintings, mural-sized canvases and public sculptures. Some of her most important recognition, however, comes for the bold work she is undertaking to transform Mumbai’s slums into brilliant uplifting works of art. The local residents she recruits from within the slums to help paint the dwellings, such as aspiring young fashion photographer Ravi Parab, are vibrant talented individuals, who seem to spring straight from the pages of A Burning.

Don’t mention the Pandemic

September 16, 2020 / Olyn Ozbick

by Olyn Ozbick

As you know I have spent heaps of time since March 11 sitting in on Zoom calls, teaching Zoom classes, meeting with colleagues on Zoom, and taking Zoom courses myself. The reason I am certain you know this, is because I am as certain that you, yourself, have had the exact same experience in your own connections with the world.

And it’s all been great, right? A refreshing learning curve at first. A chance to see other faces during lockdown – my daughters for instance—finally. My writing colleagues—hallelujah. My students—hello again, yahoo!

Now of course, it’s all simply, day-in-a-life stuff, post 3/11.

Very recently I had a great Zoom opportunity, along with a group of writing colleagues, to meet a person who is legendary in the publishing word—because, wow, the connections we can now make via Zoom and internet. Ordinarily I would be chuffed to name this person, except that I’m going to disagree with them in this bit, so, you know… writerly self-preservation and all….

This legend, whom I continue to be super impressed with and would love to work with some day (just saying!) offered the following advice: Don’t write about COVID.

Wait just a second.

Whaaat?

Back up, back up!

How is that possible?

How do we writers move forward and NOT WRITE ABOUT COVID?

As I left the call thinking about this advice, what I could decipher was that it just was a bit of very well-intentioned business advice, not fully conceived.

Let me skip to a writing exercise I recently gave to my (Zoom) Creative Writing Class. John Gardner (another legend) in his book The Art of Fiction, offers up a fun little exercise:

Describe a lake as seen by someone who has just committed a murder and do not mention the murder.

Not possible, right? Not the tiniest bit possible to write a picture of a lake without injecting the emotion, the perspective, the reality of the Point of View Character having committed murder into every bit of every scene, every inuendo, mood, description, and emotion. If you know the POV character has committed murder it is THERE. Whether you name it or not. It happened, and so it pervades everything.

I actually offered my class the following homework assignment, inspired by Gardner’s exercise, even before having received the pronouncement from that well-meaning literary legend. Maybe give it a try yourself.

Describe a lake as seen by a character sitting at the water’s edge.

Now try this.

Describe the lake as seen by a character sitting at that same lake during or post the COVID pandemic and don’t mention the pandemic.

See if you will ever be able to write anything that isn’t about the COVID pandemic again.

How To Be A Writer

July 13, 2020 / Olyn Ozbick

By Olyn Ozbick

1) Take yourself as an author very seriously. To do this, you will have to quit all other work. It’s important to get in touch with the transcendence of your particular creative genius.

You can’t do that standing behind a till, budgeting or planning conferences. Get real about your creativity – embrace your true being. Your manager has never understood your creative abilities, face it, she never will.

2) Now that you have no job, revel in that exciting leap you just took. Celebrate your new literary freedom by sleeping in. Creative genius needs time – particularly morning time.

3) Don’t bother getting dressed. PJ’s are comfy – that’s why you wear them to bed. Why would you approach your creative endeavours in anything but the most freeing of attire?

4) Drink. No not milk. It could take a little time to get up to speed. Start slowly with a little Bailey’s in your morning coffee, wine at lunch and wine also at dinner. Once you get the hang of it you can start fortifying your wine drinking with a splash of scotch on ice. Soon you will be a true author, quaffing only whiskey morning noon and night. Well done!

5) If you’ve been taking writing classes, now’s the time to drop them. Don’t call the instructor to explain, you are too serious about your writing to waste time with petty scheduling issues, just stop showing up. If you have writer friends and colleagues, drop them too. You don’t need their annoying input, they are completely wrong about your work – always have been!

6) Stay in. Now that you are drinking day and night in your PJ’s and have no jobs, friends or commitments, you are a true reclusive writer, well done! Keep it up!

7) Hone impatience. Real writers aren’t patient, writers are driven. Get that first draft of your novel out the door as soon as possible. Don’t wait until it’s finished, it’s brilliant – you know it, and the agent will know it as soon as it hits her in-box. If it needs a little work, she’ll do it.

8) If the agent doesn’t get back to you immediately, don’t worry, she’s probably trying to tie down your three-book deal first.

Don’t be afraid to call her and introduce yourself, she’ll be delighted, after all, you are a brilliant writer and her career will skyrocket once she signs you, she’s probably a bit intimidated to approach you first.

9) Now’s the time to leave the house. Celebrate with dinner at an expensive restaurant. Don’t worry about the cost, put it on your visa! Soon your advance will arrive and later you will be rolling in royalty cheques.

Author: Olyn Ozbick (Page 2 of 3)

Creative Pairings

A Burning

Pairs Perfectly with …

Lady in Red

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