Creative Writing Prompt #8

Nothing stirring to do? What stirs me? Great writing, for one. I have Moby Dick in my collection, but I've still never read it. However, seeing Melville's name reminded me of The Night Inspector, in which Frederick Busch uses Melville as a character. It was the kind of wonderful novel that stirs. I read it in my MFA core class and was blown away by what Busch had accomplished. It was stirring in so many ways: stirred my imagination with its imagery and creativity; stirred my intellect with its themes and depth; stirred my the pen in my hand with the skill of its craft: simply, I read it and wanted to write. The Night Inspector is an intense historic novel that uses an important literary figure as a secondary character: something I have no interest in attempting to create myself. Yet the writing was so impressive as to stir those impulses in me regardless.

I had the pleasure of seeing Busch come to Hamline and read one of his recent short stories back in 2005. I knew I was seeing something special in that auditorium, with all of those writers, poets, and professors being stirred just as much as me by his words. I realized even more how special it was when he passed away less than a year later. I realized we were all losing a great stirrer.

Not too long after, I purchased an earlier novel of Busch's, Girls: A Novel. You guessed it: stirred again. This piece was very different from The Night Inspector in terms of setting and theme, but still stirring in all the same ways.

While thinking about this blog post tonight, I browsed some of the remembrances written for Busch and noticed he's often referred to as a "writer's writer," and it fits. When I read The Night Inspector, we were encouraged in that class to read everything as writers: keep our toolbox with us and add to it when we could. For me (I realized tonight), Busch became a mentor I've never met. He showed me that hard work has a payoff in writing; that intent can stir better than chance; that when you really strive to use language as best as you can... well, I'll step aside:

"I don't feel that I've earned the right to walk on the ground I walk upon, unless I've made good language: words that are useful to someone other than me."
-Frederick Busch, 1941-2006

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Today's writing music selection: The Good Life, Decemberists, Bright Eyes, Nickel Creek