Jonis Agee presently lives on a pleasant farm in Denton, NE, a dream home for her and her husband, Brent Spencer, whom she meets often in the kitchen, as they take a break from writing.
As you can probably tell from the interview that Marge and Shelly conduct, Jonis loves Nebraska and centers most all of her literature on the state's people and the landscapes, as you can see in "Earl," where Jonis takes us on familiar roads and to places such as Nebraska City.
By the end of this semester's reading about these various Nebraska authors, you have certainly come to realize that all share some common thoughts about writing, though each has an individual way to achieve his or her goals.
Jonis offers some good information about writing, especially that serious writers must learn to be alone: "To write you really have to be able to spend time alone. If you can't stand to spend time alone, you're not going to make it as a writer" (81); clearly, with novels and short stories published, Jonis has enjoyed considerable success as a writer, though as she will tell you, she continues to struggle.
Jonis also, like so many of the authors we read this term, teaches. She is a Professor of English at UNL and, as the interview indicates, loves her work--as long as she does not have to get up too early in the morning!
Again, to write anything, really, you have to find a time and a place conducive to the matter at hand, no exceptions: well, if you want to write well.
As you read the interview, notice what Jonis has to say about landscape: "We all have a landscape that imprints us, and I was imprinted with this landscape, its spaciousness" (82). Here she speaks about Nebraska and the fact that she also tried to live on both coasts but found her way back here. This landscape, as the story "Earl" emphasizes, informs her work.
Your text does a good job of relating the fact that you must write about what you know--remember the Hugo quotation about if you know a place in New York, you can create a scene on Mars; I, of course, paraphrase, but the point remains the same: Writers must pay attention to details, must come to know places well.
So, Jonas might want to run off to the Badlands for a particular scene in a novel: pictures will simply not do for her. But first she had to learn about the landscape imprinted on her, as she notes. "I'm constantly paying attention," for no other vehicle will reveal to you the hidden head, all part of the journey you began six short weeks ago.
"It's what I call paying attention to what you're paying attention to," the really looking and taking into consideration sensual details, uncovering tone and mood.
And then you write, and you make mistakes: "Give yourself permission," Agee insists, "to practice and be lousy until you get to the good stuff." Thus for all good writers, writing describes a journey in and then out, a reciprocal sharing: know yourself and where you are--and then you move out to embrace other landscapes, as it were.
Beginning to write, however, describes a difficult process. And most new writers, as Agee points out, fail to see the significance of what they hold within, in that hidden head:
"It's hard for younger writers to understand that you have an infinite amount of material inside you and more is gathering all the time."
Writing helps you identify the material within. And thus the paradoxical sounding assertion: to write, you have to write.
What Agee has to say for the a great deal of the interview concerns the professional writer, though Agee does not make enough money from her writing to preclude the necessity of her working full time. But each of the authors we read about this term also talks about those who write for personal fulfillment, for personal expression, for the joy of writing and of writing well.
In this regard, she offers good advice and makes statements that concern all of you. Read through the examples of break- through experiences for those she teaches.
As does our text, she relates something Richard Hugo argued:
"every single person is capable of writing a poem or story that tells some form of truth and does it in a good enough way that they can be proud that they did that for the rest of their lives, something original, fresh, genuine. He said that most students aren't going to be writers but that the experience strengthens them" (91).
Well, I believe Hugo touches on an important point for all the writers in the class. You all have written something about which you feel good; and you will keep that writing.
But more important is that fact that the process of writing over these short eight weeks, for all of you who took this challenging plunge, makes you stronger in important ways, from observations about yourselves and others to utilizing a specific comparison for a chosen effect.
Writing builds confidence.
As Agee argues, "a lot of bravery is involved in a good writing class."
By the way, Jonis is wonderfully funny.
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