Finding Angle
October 2019
Volume 1 | Issue 9
Dear Reader,
Have you ever hung your head off the edge of the bed and looked at the world upside down? It's a good way to notice all the ceiling spiders dreaming about spelling "Some Pig."
As the leaves delight and the air grows crisp, we turn our attention to how we perceive the world, to writing that gives a new angle on living, to setting that leaves its stamp on a story, and to visual art that gives us eyes to see the invisible.
Painter, teacher, and wisest of mothers, Juliana Crownover is our Guest Voice this month. She hails from my old stomping ground in Texas. If you get a chance, splash a few rain boots into one of her art classes and visit her blog. Be sure not to miss her essay and artwork, "Zoom In and Zoom Out."
Explore the many faces of Macbeth and how setting changes everything in "Setting Up for Success," and consider a new way to approach your content in "What's Your Angle?"
Thank you for sharing your Friday with us, and for sharing us with your friends!
by Kelli Sallman
A distinguishing feature of book proposals, essays, and stories that sell well is authors who understand the power and necessity of a good angle. But what is angle, exactly? What does it look like? And how do you find the right one?
For some, angle means catering to special interests. As with our more polarized news sources, coloring a story from one side of the aisle or the other (or targeting any special interest) increases confirmation bias and attracts already like-minded people. For others angle means reeling people in, finding the right hook to attract interest so you can present content. In the publishing world, both definitions find validation as ways to sell.
But may I offer a new place to begin, a new perspective on what we do as writers and artists? What if we were to look at angle not as “How will I get readers to see me and what I have to say?” but “How can I see them and what they long to know?” I propose that if we start with the reader—not just in mind but at the heart of what we set out to write—angle will take care of itself.
Rain for the Just and Unjust
Kansas City, where I live, and much of the Midwest has experienced record rainfall this year. We need rain and lots of it, but when it comes all at once and more than the ground can absorb, it’s not only useless, it’s destructive. The unchecked flood of writing in our information age acts much the same way.
by Callie Johnson
Last semester, I had class with a girl who was Shakespeare-obsessed. Over half of our conversations turned to the Bard, and many ended with discussing her dream production: Shakespeare’s Othello set in the Civil War. Her energy was contagious and caused me to think about setting more intentionally than I had before. How much does setting matter, really? What difference does it make if my story is in California or Florida? Are these details of a story part of my angle, or just an arbitrary decision?
Take, for example, Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. The story follows an aristocrat named Macbeth, who is told by witches that he will become king. Seeing one detail of the prophecy fulfilled, he acts to make the whole prophecy come true. At the pressuring of his wife, he assassinates the king and a friend and becomes king himself. But the ghost of Macbeth’s friend returns to haunt him, and he and his wife both slip towards insanity, killing many others before dying themselves at the end of the play. That is the plot. But the story runs deeper.
by Juliana Crownover
In my art and in my life, I am constantly fluctuating between the details and the big picture. Did I miss the forest for the trees? Was I so focused on the big picture that I failed to notice a small detail in front of me? The big picture holds the clouds, the way the land rolls, and helps put into perspective how small we are in this big, big world. The treasures are held in the details, the drops of tears on my daughter’s lashes when she laughs so hard she can hardly breath, the butterfly wings, the brush strokes.
In my parenting and in my faith, I am constantly having to zoom in and zoom out. I think about the big picture of parenting: What kind of man will he be? Is he on track to make the grades and test scores to get into the school he wants to go to? Is he honorable and kind with his encounters?