Wednesday, January 22, 2020

#126 Inside the Emotion of Fiction "ROUNDABOUT" by Phong Nguyen



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****Phong Nguyen’s ROUNDABOUT is #126 in the never-ending series called INSIDE THE EMOTION OF FICTION where the Chris Rice Cooper Blog (CRC) focuses on one specific excerpt from a fiction genre and how that fiction writer wrote that specific excerpt.  All INSIDE THE EMOTION OF FICTION links are at the end of this piece. 

Name of fiction work? And were there other names you considered that you would like to share with us? The name of the novel is Roundabout, and for a long time I kept the alternate title Null and Void as a back-up. But as long as I can remember, I've had the title Roundabout in mind for the book.

Fiction genre? Ex science fiction, short story, fantasy novella, romance, drama, crime, plays, flash fiction, historical, comedy, movie script, screenplay, etc. And how many pages long? This is a surprisingly difficult question to answer. Roundabout is what I am calling an "improvisational fiction," written in the spirit of "yes, and." I entertained every whim as I wrote the book, whether it came from my own subconscious, or a friend's suggestion. The result is an illustrated, metafictional lipogram (written without the letter "E"). 


What is the date you began writing this piece of fiction and the date when you completely finished the piece of fiction? I actually started Roundabout way back in 2004, and finished a first draft in 2006. But I have revisited it and polished it and completed the most recent draft in 2019.



Where did you do most of your writing for this fiction work? And please describe in detail. And can you please include a photo? I wrote the first draft of Roundabout in the basement office of a condominium in Milwaukee, with faux-wood panel walls, mostly at night, with the lights off, just me and the glowing screen. My desk was a computer armoire, so I wrote the whole thing with my elbows tucked in tightly by my sides, since there wasn't much room to move.


What were your writing habits while writing this work- did you drink something as you wrote, listen to music, write in pen and paper, directly on laptop; specific time of day? Roundabout was composed entirely on a laptop where I removed the letter "E" from the keyboard, as it was a lipogram that relied upon this constraint. I often took breaks to play Scrabble and Boggle, because I found these word-games made me focus on the shapes of words in ways that made my subconscious more fluid and flexible.

What scene/excerpt of the book was the most emotional for you to write? This scene/excerpt can be as short or as long as you prefer. In the middle of Roundabout is a complete play in which the protagonist, Ovid Dullann, is put on trial for disobeying the author. The prosecutor is also accusing Ovid of killing his wife Anna (Ovid did not kill Anna, but he did run away with one of their two twin children) and he calls Anna's ghost to the witness stand. Anna's ghost condemns Ovid for his actions, and cries out that he "cut our kids in half." For some reason, the ghost of his deceased wife calling him out and condemning him gave me chills.

Why is this scene/excerpt so emotional for you to write? And can you describe your own emotional experience of writing this specific scene/excerpt? The scene was probably emotional to me because at the time I had two children of my own and was subconsciously imagining what life would be like if they had to be separated. The break-up of a family is a somewhat ordinary thing in society, but at the time it struck me as terribly tragic. Writing in the middle of the night, as I used to do, lends itself to emotional immersion, and I believe that the blurring of dreams, stories, and life was a part of this.

Were there any deletions from this scene/excerpt that you can share with us? And can you please include a photo of your marked up rough drafts of this excerpt. This is a rare scene that emerged whole-cloth. The scene in the final draft is close to that of the original draft, which is not the case for most of the novel. Maybe this is due to the aforementioned emotional resonance.


Other works you have published? Pages from the Textbook of Alternate History (Mastodon Publishing, 2019)
The Adventures of Joe Harper (Outpost19, 2016)

Memory Sickness and Other Stories (Elixir Press, 2011)

Anything you would like to add? The scene I mentioned stands out in the book because it is unabashedly tragic. Most of the novel is comic, or at least tragicomic, and invites a more complex and conflicted emotional experience.




Phong Nguyen is the Miller Family Endowed Chair of Literature and Writing at the University of Missouri, and Director of the Creative Writing Program. He is the author of two short story collections, two novels, and has published stories in more than 50 national literary journals. He lives in Columbia, Missouri, with his wife--the artist Sarah Nguyen--and their three children.
www.phongvnguyen.com

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#126  01 22 2020 Phong Nguyen’s
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