The Daily Tar HeelThursday, February 25, 19887
Exploring conflicts and characters
through creative writing medium
By KAREN ENTRIKEN
Staff Writer
PAIN. Ask Marianne Gingher. pro
fessional writer and UNC creative
writing instructor how she describes
her profession, and that is the word
she will use to describe it to you.
She compares beginning her most
recent novel to a big boulder standing
in her way.
"'I feel like I am walking around
a huge rock holding a crowbar and
I'm looking for just the right place
to fit it in to get the rock off the
ground. Finally. I just stick it under
neath the rock and lift.'
This process seems to have worked
for Gingher. Her novel. "Bobby Rex's
Greatest Hit." published in 1986.
recently won the annual Sir Walter
Raleigh award for North Carolina
writers and has been optioned for a
film.
The novel deals with a young girl
named Pally Thompson in the late
1950s and her unrequited love for
a local high school heartthrob. Bobby
Rex. Bobby leaves their mythical
town of Orfax. N.C.. to become a rock
star. He writes a scandalous number
one hit song about he and Pally
"doing it" down by Sawyer's Creek.
Meanwhile. Pally is left to contend
with a jealous fiance.
Gingher began her writing career
by dabbling in poetry at Salem
College and publishing her first short
story in the "Greensboro Review" as
a graduate student in 1971 at UNC
Greensboro. From there she wrote
more short stories, which have been
published in literary magazines like
North American Review and Carolina
Quarterly and commercial magazines
like McCall's and Redbook.
Seventeen Magazine published a
story in 1983 called "Hummingbird
Kimono." which will be part of her
newest publication, a short story
collection named "Teen Angel." She
has been working on editing the book
for two years. It will be published by
r: University
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Atheneum and is due in bookstores
by June.
Gingher draws a hodgepodge of
personal experiences together, then
applies her belief of the duty of an
author by putting them in order.
"I write how 1 wish something
would have turned out or how
something should have happened had
one thing not occurred. I begin with
a conflict I want to explore, then find
a character it belongs to as much as
it does me. It's sort of a magic trick."
In addition to Gingher's work in
the writing field, she also teaches two
classes a week: English 23W. Intro
duction to Fiction, and English 34.
the second course in the creative
writing sequence in the English
department. She uses her experiences
with editors and publishers as well
as input from students to critique her
students' works.
Gingher likes to break out of
routine curriculum in class by assign
ing creative assignments. Her English
23W students were asked to write
from a viewpoint different from their
own. Each student wrote a letter
from a character portrayed in a work
of fiction they had read, then brought
an artifact from that person's life to
class, giving their writing a valid
aspect.
Her class of 1 7 English 34 students
were given a task on the first day
of class. They had to write a love story
without using the word "love."
"I wanted them to eliminate all of
the mush in their first story." Gingher
said. "We read these stories aloud and
tried to be generous critics by telling
them their successes and excesses."
Gingher believes that the best way
to learn to write is to give up the
fear of being edited, have good
working habits and realize the impor
tance of deadlines.
As critics, she and her class cap
italize on what the student writers
have done well by telling them what
works, not what would happen if the
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,942r8711
story had been their own.
Another way Gingher varies class
is to have students read from daily
journals they keep. Topics range from
daily logs to obsessions to ideas for
fiction.
Gingher enjoys working in these
classes with talented students who
offer promising futures in writing and
publishing professions.
"Every year 1 see at least two or
three students who go on to become
professional writers or editors."
Gingher said.
One of her English 23W students
became a writer for Rolling Stone
magazine, then left a position there
as a full-time writer to write a guide
to beaches around the world called
"Life's a Beach."
Writing time is precious to Gingher
because she must fit it in between
her teaching schedule, meetings with
her agent and publishers, and spend
ing time with her young family. Her
method of writing is not like Ernest
Hemingway's walk across the beach
to a separate house early every
morning.
"My method of writing is to get
a babysitter. I have a studio away
from my house rented from the
Greensboro Arts Council. It's a tiny
room with a desk, a chair and a
typewriter where I go about three
or four times a week." Gingher said.
In that office she has been planning
her current novel for two years, and
she hopes to have it published in three
years. It takes her from three to five
years to complete a novel.
"I brooded for a very long time
about this novel . . . testing a scene
here and there, dabbling with the
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UNC creative writing instructor Marianne Gingher
characters. I sat down, wrote 15
pages of chapter one and then figured
out that this was not chapter one."
Gingher said.
The worst part of writing is over
after page 200. she said.
"It's like moving to a new town.
At first you don't know what grocery
store or dentist is right for you. but
after you live there for a while it
becomes familiar."
The towns Gingher becomes a part
of and writes about are mainly
Southern suburban locations. She has
set stories in Winston-Salem, Wil
mington. Raleigh and several in Orfax.
a fictional town she places some
where near Kernersville.
This type of local writing has been
greatly increasing in popularity. And
now. noted North Carolina writers
such as Eudora Welty. Flannery
O'Connor. Doris Betts. Max Steele and
Elizabeth Spencer have another
respected writer to add to their ranks
Marianne Gingher.
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