Get Fit: A Writer's Guide to Exercising

Many people believe a writer's job is simple. All we have to do is write. This, however, is not the case. Take any other job, for example. A cop must enforce the law. Even though there are those who can make a cop's job a challenge, it actually isn't that hard. The rules are laid out, and cops are often thrust into the difficult situations. They don't sit around trying to decide how to do their job today. They just do it. A bartender's hardest job isn't making the drinks. It is keeping the drinkers in line. A worker in an automobile factory has a list of jobs he or she knows must be done in a certain order. For a lot of professions like these, the ins and outs are laid out for the professionals, and often the main part of the work, the part that defines a certain profession, isn't the hardest. Writing is a task that defines a writer, and yet it is the single most difficult aspect of being a writer.

The first, and probably most obvious, solution to this problem is to hit the books. You should read books that deal with the actual mechanics of writing. The more well-known, and to some the more useful, is The Elements of Style, written by William Strunk and E.B. White. Yes, that E.B. White, the one who wrote Charlotte's Web. He studied under William Strunk, who taught the basic elements of plain English style. White then converted the teachings into a small book, adding his own little bits here and there. If you want something a little more punchy, try Lynne Truss' Eats, Shoots & Leaves. This book deals specifically with punctuation and revolves around a joke about a Panda Bear: A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and proceeds to fire it at the other patrons. “Why?” asks the confused, surviving waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder. “Well, I'm a panda,” he says, at the door. “Look it up.” The waiter turns to the relevant entry in the manual and, sure enough, finds the explanation. “Panda: Large black and white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots, and leaves.” Books are great for learning (or re-learning) the basics of writing, something many people overlook.

Another thing you can do to improve your writing is to play word games. Everyone knows Scrabble, a game that involves creating words out of a set of randomly picked tiles. If you like that idea but don't like the limitations of its rules, check out the more laid back Jargon, where slang and proper nouns are encouraged, or Bananagrams, a fast-paced, Scrabble-like game with no board. Try the game You've Been Sentenced, the object of which is to create sentences out of randomly picked cards. Another great one is Boggle, where you have three minutes to find as many words as you can in a grid of 20 letters. Then there's my personal favorite, Apples to Apples. This is a game of comparisons. The judge, a different person each round, presents a card that has an adjective on it (a descriptive word), and the players then lay their nouns face down in hopes that the judge will pick their card as best described by the adjective. Some pick funniest or weirdest. It all depends on the person.

A third, and very important, source for help with writing is a support group. These come in various forms. You could form a writer's group (or join one already started). Everyone in the group would share what they write, critique each other's writing, and bounce ideas off one another. If you can't find or start one locally, try looking online. There are whole networks of writers online. You can also seek information about writing from established writers. This is where books would come into play again. A prime example is Stephen King's On Writing. It is partly autobiographical, talking about how he came to be a writer, but it also talks about the craft of writing itself. And, of course, for more support you can scour the internet for blogs about writing, such as this one. Just google writing blogs and see what you come up with. Time can also be a support group. Maybe you don't write as much as you used to. This happened to my wife. However, when she started re-reading a book she first read when she was writing a lot, it took her back to that time and place and re-ignited the desire. That day she wrote almost fifteen pages worth of new material.

All of this is good and helpful, but it doesn't have you doing the one thing you really need to be working on: writing. That is where my final bit of advice, what I've been building up to, comes in. In order for you to truly better your craft as a writer, you must write. To put it another way, you must get in shape. Like a person who does physical exercises to improve his or her health, you must do writing exercises. And lucky for you I have a handful for you to try right here. Give these a chance and see if your writing improves:

The Observation Deck
This is a tool kit created by Naomi Epel, a literary escort from San Fransisco. Her job is to make sure authors get where they need to be when in town. She has had the pleasure of meeting many great literary minds. That, along with intelligent research on her part, contributes to the brilliance that is The Observation Deck. This is a deck of 50 cards, and on each card is a word or phrase connected to a chapter in the accompanying book. These explain the exercise to perform. They range from “Zoom In and Out,” advice about closing in on the details of a scene or pulling back to see the big picture, to “Ribe Tuchus,” the idea that you set aside a certain amount of time each day to just sit down and allow yourself to do nothing but write, even if it means doing nothing at all. These are inspiring exercises that give you the choice to either choose what to work on or pick a card at random. I believe The Observation Deck is one of the most useful tools a writer can have. (You can purchase your own copy from http://www.amazon.com/Observation-Deck-Tool-Writers-Present/dp/0811814815/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330145552&sr=8-1).

The Game Exercise
If you enjoy playing the word games I mentioned earlier, you are going to love this. After playing a game (whether for just one round or for a whole game), use what you gained as a jumping off point. For example, if you played a round of Boggle and got 13 words, turn the timer back over and use those three minutes to write something utitlizing the 13 words you acquired. Three minutes may not seem like a long time, but that is what really helps. You don't have the time to just sit and think. You economize your time. Maybe you will never use what you write, allowing the exercise to get your creative juices flowing instead. Maybe what you start will be the beginning a new story for you. You never know. You can even come up with your own methods of using games to get you writing, although giving yourself a time-limit is a good idea. Try them out and explore your options.

Event, Effect, Motive
A friend of mine taught this exercise to me, and it was actually very useful. It is best when utilized in a group. Three things must be determined. First, an event of some kind. This could be something small like a homework assignment to something big like political assassination. Second, somebody effected by the event. This can be general, like a dog-owner, or more specific, like Brad Pitt. It can even be a group of people (like PETA). Third, somebody who wants the event to take place. Again, this can be specific or general. The reason this works best in a group is because everyone creates one or two of each of these determiners. They are then put into a hat or box according to their category (event, effect, or motive) and shaken up. Each person then draws one thing from each hat or box, creating a random situation. These may end up being silly or they may become quite serious. The point is, as the writer you now have the authority to decide how much of an impact the event will have (it may not even happen, you may have your character prevent it), how the character will react to the event or the threat of the event, and what motivation the person or persons have who want the event to take place. This exercise puts writers in an active role so they are not passively waiting for ideas to come to them.

First Line/Last Line
I learned this one when in creative writing in high school. Pick up a book, any book, and look at its very first sentence. Now write it down. It doesn't matter how long or short it is, or how broad or narrow. Now do the same with the very last sentence. These are now the first and last sentences of your story. The story can be as long or short as you want, but you must coherently get from the first line to the last in your own words. Don't recreate the book you got them from. Make a brand new story. Some people find that getting started is the hardest thing, while others don't know what to write until they know how it's going to end. If you are either of these types of writer, than this exercise should help you.

Change the Mood (Genre)
This one is pretty simple. All you have to do is to take a familiar story, Romeo and Juliet for instance, and re-write it as a different genre. Shakespeare's play is dramatic and romantic, so you might make it light and silly. Keep the characters, the basic idea of the plot, and if you want, the setting. You then add your own dialogue and narration to make it a different story. This will most likely not turn into a story for publication, but it will get you to look at things in multiple ways so you don't overlook anything. Another variation of this is to use your own story. Maybe your stuck and can't write anymore on a specific piece. Try turning your comedy into a thriller or your mystery into a sappy romance. You might find that genre fits better, or you might just find that a character is not who you thought he or she was. Either way, this is usually a good help.

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words
This is a familiar exercise. Find a picture, it can be one of yours or someone you know or it can be one in a magazine, and write a story about what is happening in the scene you see. However, I will add a little twist to this. The saying is “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Your story must be around a thousand words. This makes it so that it isn't so short because you didn't have anything else to say, but it also isn't too long, keeping it nice and concise. It doesn't have to be exact, but try to be within 50 either way.

Magnetic Poetry
Even if you don't write poetry, this is a good tool to have. It should be accompanied by a dictionary, though. Magnetic poetry usually has a lot of words most people don't use, and even some that many people didn't even know existed. Find these words, look them up if you need to and incorporate it into a story somehow. If it is a noun, just drop it into the story and see what develops. An adjective can be used for describing a character or town. Find a verb to get the action going. Or you can just grab a handful of words and make a story from that.

Exercising is a very important part of getting in shape as a writer. Try out each of these ideas, or find the one that you feel like you need to focus on the most. You should create a routine, though. If you find that you write better in the morning when you first wake up, put aside an hour or two each day to practice. Perhaps you do much better at night. Tell yourself to get at least two or three exercises in before you go to sleep. Maybe you have a hectic schedule and can't find a specific time to write each day. That's okay. Just make sure that you ARE writing each day, even if it is only for 15 or 20 minutes. If you do this, you will see your writing improve, and on the days you have more time you might find yourself working on a longer story. Hopefully you will get to that place soon, but until you do, remember to stay in shape. Good luck.

Words and Phrases

Let me start this post by apologizing for breaking my New Year's resolution in the first week of the year. I wanted to post on here at least once a week, and this is my first post in 2012. I've been busy with school work, reading for school, looking for a job, and side writing projects, not to mention personal drama, but that's no excuse. I know I can find time to write here once a week, and dammit I'm going to do it.

That being said, I would like to say that, no, the title of this post has nothing to do with Wheel of Fortune. As an aspiring novelist, I find joy in words of all kinds, and I find even greater joy in the combining of said words into interesting, if not thought-provoking, phrases. So, I would like to take a moment to share some of my favorites with you and hopefully get your feedback on them as well as see which words and phrases you enjoy.

Your dreams are manufactured:
I guess I'll start with the name in the address bar. For a while now (at least ten years) I've been working on a fantasy series that has recently become more serious to me. One of the main plot devices is a dream world. So, when I went to use the restroom at a truckstop one day and saw this written on the inside of one of the stalls in permanent marker, I knew I had to incorporate it into my story. Now I have a character who manufactures dreams and I am one step closer to getting this story off the ground.

Ride the lightning:
Once again looking at this blog you will find a favorite phrase of mine, and once again it has to do with my fantasy series. My wife helped me think of this phrase when I read a passage to her that took her breath away. She said she felt like she just went on a roller coaster ride, and I thought of a ride called the Lightning. I also thought of a Stephen King short story, "Riding the Bullet." The phrase "riding the lightning" just jumped out at me and I've loved it ever since.

Future yesterday:
When staying up late at night, there's typically not a lot of television to watch. Having grown up a bit, I've found myself becoming more fond of late night talk shows. One of my favorites is Craig Ferguson. He's funny, unorthodox, and just obscure enough that I don't feel like a follower when I watch his show. He has a theme song, and one of the lines in the song is "Tomorrow is just a future yesterday." This is one of those phrases that really gets me thinking. After 48 hours, tomorrow will be in the past. It's something I wanted to play around with, and after much deliberation, I found the perfect use of this phrase. It is the title of a short story I'm currently working on, and it's going to be a doozy. I'll keep you updated as it nears completion.

Infinite:
I have always loved this word. I don't know how it does it, but it really captures the true essence of endlessness. There are a lot of big, flashy words that are just fine, but it is the small words that most often pack the biggest punch. I can't see or hear the word "infinite" without imagining the sideways eight. It is also great for coming up with awesome ideas, lyrics, etc. like when popular Jewish a cappella group the Maccabeats (covering a song by another famous Jewish artist, Matisyahu), referred to infinite as "one more than you know how to be." The use of infinite has endless possibilities (pun intended).

Heist:
Like I said, the small words are the ones that pack the biggest punches, and "heist" is no different. Dictionary.com defines the noun "heist" as "a robbery or hold up." However, for those of you who are writers and/or enjoy these types of movies and books, the word "heist" means so much more. Traditional heist stories involve a group of people all working together to steal something. Some examples include The Perfect Score and The Italian Job. These are appealing to me because there is more than just stealing going on. There is a sense of togetherness and a sense of identity. Everyone knows his or her role, and they all must work together perfectly to pull the heist off. I can't hear the word "heist" and not smile.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious:
Just because small words are mighty oes not mean I do not appreciate the big, flashy ones. For those of you familiar with this word, I don't really think I need to say more. For those of you who aren't...where have you been? This word was made popular as a song by the same name sung by Julie Andrews in 1964. It was written by the Sherman Brothers specifically for the movie/musical, which is based on a book by P.L. Travers. In the stage version, Mary Poppins and the kids walk into a book shop in search of a good conversation, only to find out the lady who runs the shop is fresh out of conversation. She does have, however, some letters left. Mary helps the children to form the word which then leads into the song. As she states in both the movie and the stage version "It can mean exactly what you want it to mean," making supercalifragilisticexpialidocious the most useful word of all. It is pretty much the American version of the French, jena se qua, which means that something special you cannot explain.

Being a writer and a reader, words are my life. I love word games such as Apples to Apples, Boggle, You've Been Sentenced, and Scrabble. I have so many more words and phrases that I would love to talk about, but then this post would be way too long. I hope you can tell me what you think of these words and phrases and tell me some of your favorites as well. And you don't even need to splurge to buy a vowell.

Don't Judge a Book...

When most people hear "don't judge a book" they might, in their heads, finish it with "by its cover." My wife gave me a button for Channukah, though, that instead warned "don't judge a book by its movie." This is a war that has been raging for a while, and I want to comment on it.

I have to admit, I've been getting a little bit lazy lately. I'm going to school full time. When I have a job I'm working, and when I don't have a job I'm looking for work. I've been painting in my room. I'm quite involved in my synagogue. And, of course, I try to find time to write here. I don't get much time to read for me. Most of my books lately have been for school (as you might be able to tell by the new "Reading For School" tab I added). Also, I love movies. That being said, when I see a movie preview that looks good, or at the very least interesting, and I see that it is based on a book I start to cringe. If I haven't read the book, I sweat. This is because I don't like to see movies before reading their literary counterparts. However, I know that I won't have time to read that book anytime soon (if at all considering the long list of books that I may want to read before that specific one). Do I risk it and see the movie, or do I safeguard my ideals and wait?

Believe it or not, I can find pros and cons for each side. If the book is one about which I am on the fence, then seeing the movie may sway my decision about reading the book (I know, I'm ashamed). However, the book and movie may be totally different, and the decision I make based on the movie could turn out to be a really bad one. On the other hand, if I wait, I may never know that story. I am a slow reader, so I may never get to it. Also, a bad book may turn me away from a good movie or a good book may turn me on to a bad movie.

It isn't easy being a book AND movie lover. Therefore, I have decided to rate 3 books and their movie counterparts in what I like to call TO SEE OR NOT TO SEE. I will let you know if a movie is worth watching compared to its book counterpart. Don't worry, I've read all of these books. I will tell you if the movie is not as good as the book, as good as the book, or better than the book and why. We start, in no particular order, with:

                        

 Okay, so I didn't read every single Sherlock Holmes story that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote, but I read enough of them to know a few things. First, Holmes was indeed a fighter, so the action wasn't too embellished. Also, Holmes was a social drug user, so casting Robert Downey Jr. gave the character the background it needed. Viewers still had to wait to find out the truth until Holmes decided to reveal it. But two things really sold the movie for me. The first was the few times I got to see his mind in action. Before taking out some bad guy, Holmes would break down what was going to happen blow by blow, showing the viewers the scene in slow motion before rewinding and seeing it play out at regular speed. The other thing that sold the movie for me was the closeness to the book. This especially shined through in the end of the second movie, playing out a scene almost exactly as it is described in the book. Guy Ritchie's directing and Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law's acting make the movies almost (but not quite) as good as the books and well worth seeing. Final decision: TO SEE.

Not many times in my life have I been more angry than when I watched the movie based on Stephen King's novella "The Mist." Anyone who knows me knows that I am a HUGE Stephen King fan. When I first read the story I instantly fell in love. Stephen King created true-to-life characters and put this in a very frightening situation. After reading the story, I got scared every time the weather turned foggy. Then I watched the movie. Originally I was excited because it was directed by Frank Darabount, who directed another movie based on a Stephen King story, "The Green Mile," which was absolutely fabulous. However, the acting was only okay and the effects were quite fake. I was willing to let all of that slide and just enjoy the movie as a guilty pleasure of entertainment. That is, until the end. *Spoiler Alert* Never have I ever walked out on a movie for a reason that wasn't an emergency. At the end of "The Mist," I could bear it no longer and got up and left. I actually felt sick. The end of the novella has a band of survivors driving as far as they can away from the main setting of the story. The reader does not know what happens to them, but does know that they want to live. In the movie, there are five survivors a woman, a man and his son, and an old couple. Feeling like they have no hope of surviving, a gun is drawn. It has four bullets in it. The man shoots the old couple, the woman, and his own son apparently so they don't have to suffer. A hazmat team then comes in and cleans up the mess. It is a sad attempt at an O. Henry type ending that literally made me sick. This movie is nowhere near as good as the novella. Final decision: NOT TO SEE.

 

I did not know who Philip K. Dick was, let alone know of this short story, until I saw the movie. After finding out that it was originally a story, I bought it and read it. It's not very long, which is the first thing that amazed me. George Nolfi, the director of the movie, was able to take such a succinct story and turn it into a full length movie that doesn't bore the audience to death. The short story makes an allusion to a supreme being constantly changing people's lives while the movie uses agents of fate. The allusion is still there, but only as an afterthought rather than the point of the story. The agents of fate keep referring to someone as The Chairman, leading viewers to believe it is supposed to be a heavenly figure. The fact that the movie makes you think twice about labelling The Chairman is one of the improvements it makes on the story. The other big one, besides giving more depth to the characters, is that the agents of fate explain their story a lot better while still allowing the viewer enough room to ponder. Dick's "The Adjustment Team" was a good story, but if I never knew it existed and only saw the movie I would be just fine. The movie was much better than the book. Final decision: TO SEE.

These are just a few examples of all the different directions movies can take from books. I would never substitute a good movie for even a mediocre book, but it's nice to know that some people won't make me have to choose.

Book Review: Corridor by Robin Parrish

In Robin Parrish's first attempt at writing a Young Adult novel, I would venture to say that he succeeded in writing something worthy of that genre. Although this story can easily reach its demographic, readers of all ages can enjoy it as well. It is full of mystery, suspense, and fast-paced action. Parrish's Corridor is written on a level comparable to O. Henry and Phillip K. Dick. Like so many of his other novels, Corridor starts off with a bang, barely giving his readers a chance to get used to the settings before flinging them into action. This is appropriate in his new novel because that is exactly what Troy Groggin, the main character, deals with. Troy wakes up in a place called the Corridor not remembering where he last was. The Corridor turns out to be a maze of sorts that tests its runners' physical and psychological skills while asking one question of them: how badly do you want to live? Troy finds the answer to that question as his will is beaten time and again only to have his world shattered by one final choice.

If there is one thing readers should remember before reading Corridor, it is to not try to figure out the ending. I read the story in two sittings, quite the feat for me even taking the book's short length into consideration, and all the while my mind kept racing to figure out what was going on. Even as I write this, I believe that the next time I read it something else will happen. That is the power Parrish has over his readers. He uses science fiction the way it was meant to be used, the way pioneers such as George Orwell and Ray Bradbury intended its use. Parrish uses Corridor to take his readers down a different kind of rabbit hole, one with very few hopes of escaping.

All this does not mean that Parrish's writing is flawless. His use of language is a little weak, most notably when a seventeen year old boy exclaims “Oh crud.” Troy makes this comment well after his many near-death encounters, and although I know that somewhere out there may be a seventeen year old boy who says “Oh crud” after almost dying for the umpteenth time, it isn't likely. I find it difficult to believe that a seventeen year old boy in that situation wouldn't swear, even if the words aren't spoken on the page. Parrish's first five novels were published under a Christian publishing house, and this one is represented by a Christian literary agent. However, he himself has said that he doesn't want to be pigeonholed as a “Christian author” but rather as an author who happens to be Christian. That being said, I don't think it's too much to ask that, after Parrish brings us into a world that we should have no right believing in but because of his writing we do anyway, he doesn't lose his readers' belief through his use of overly genteel language.

The biggest distraction for me, though, was not necessarily in Parrish's writing as it was in the editing. Troy is first referred to as runner thirty five thirty seven (3537), but later he thinks about how three thousand seven hundred and thirty four (3,734) people came before him. This was only one of the inconsistencies that should have been picked up in the editing process but, unfortunately for Parrish, wasn't. Thankfully, because of his effective world-building talent, these issues don't deter the reader enough from the novel to not read it. Overall Parrish did a great job of creating characters the reader can care for, a world the reader can believe in, and a story the reader can enjoy.

Corridor is available as an ebook for just $2.99 on the Kindle and the Nook. It is also available for POD (print on demand). For more information, visit his website at the link on the right.

A New Year

It has been almost one full year since my last post. I am the kind of person who gets excited about something, then kind of lets it go. Well, the blog is back and, at the risk of being too cliche, better than ever. I have decided on a few New Year's resolutions. Along with finishing painting my room and organizing the house in which I am currently living, I have also made it my resolution to write more. That last one starts with this blog. However, things don't just happen. Everything has a reason, and every reason has a story. Here's mine.

Just a few days ago as I was cooking pasta sauce and chicken noodle soup, my cell phone vibrated, indicating I had a text message. I set my phone up to receive tweets from some people, and that's what this was. I am currently following Robin Parrish on Twitter. You can read an earlier post to find out about him, or you can click on the link on the right and go to his website. Anyway, this tweet was to let his avid followers know that his latest book was almost done and that if a few people wanted to, they could e-mail him and he would send a pdf of the book to be reviewed. I instantly e-mailed him with a request, thinking that nothing would come of it. However, less than ten minutes later, I received a reply with the book. I was so excited that I nearly forgot to finish cooking. After portioning out the food into containers and refrigerating them, I started browsing the internet, reading up on Robin Parrish and other book and writing related things. I then decided to look at my blog. I knew I had no followers, since I didn't have any last time I posted, and that was a year ago, but I just wanted to look at it. Rereading my posts and thinking about reading and writing got my creative juices flowing again. It's been a long time since I felt this enthusiastic about writing, and I have Robin Parrish to thank for it.

So that's my story. If you went through my older posts, I will tell you this: I still plan on writing about writing; I still plan to write reviews; and I still plan to write about my endeavors as a reader and writer. I hope you find these posts helpful, fun, insightful, and overall enjoyable. I guess only time will tell. (AHH! More cliches!)

Stephen King is wierd

I finally realized today what it is about Stephen King's books that have frightened people over the years. It's not the monsters or scary scenarios. King's biggest strenth has always been his characters, and that is from where the fear comes. The first part comes from the fact that people can see themselves cast in a scenario similar to that, so they can empathize with characters stuck in certain situations.The second, and even scarier part, is that people can envision someone they know to be the "bad guy" in King's novels. Those people are usually the good looking, sweet-tempered guy or girl, as is the title character in King's story Blockade Billy. I've heard so many people say that King must be evil, or he probably worships satan, or he burns Bibles. No, he just knows people, and that is what makes him such a good writer.

That being said, Stephen King is wierd. I don't just mean wierd, either. He can actually be boring. Don't get me wrong, I think the guy is a great writer. He is one of my inspirations, one of the reasons I want to be a writer. I still enjoy reading his books. The problem is that he writes the same thing over and over again. I do believe that some of his characters are very realistic, but he uses the same characteristics in almost all of his stories. First of all, sex (and I don't mean gender) is very prominent in his stories. And this isn't your run-of-the-mill, everyday ordinary sex. His characters get freaky, such as the female protagonist in the other story in Blockade Billy, entitled Morality. The character, Nora, ends up begging her lovers to hit her. In fact, the novel Gerald's Game is almost exclusively revolved around sex. Next, there is always at least one character who plays the not-quite-all-there character who really wants to help out and thinks he or she can make a great contribution when really he or she just gets in the way. Think of it as the Barney Fife character, if you will. This character can be on the side of either the bad guys or the good guys, sometimes even both. Finally, the main bad guy is usually as slippery as a snake who very successfully manipulates his people into thinking his or her way is the right way and who never reaches redemption and goes down fighting all by him or herself or ends up killing him or herself. I don't mean to offend anyone, but this is basically like a Hitler character, the ultimate bad guy, if you will.

It makes sense that some of the characters would be like that, but when I read King's books lately, it's kind of like a broken record. I understand that this is what got him famous, but let's spread some variety. I still love reading his works, and I don't think I will stop as long as he is writing. In fact, most of the problems occurr in his novels, but his short stories are some of the best pieces of writing in the literary world. I just wish he would put more focus there. No disrepect, Mr. King. I'm just saying, is all.

"All Quiet on the Western Front" By Erich Maria Remarque

Okay, so I'm cheating here. I had to read this book for my History class and I had to write a paper for it. Instead of writing an original review here, I'm just going to let you all read my report on it. Enjoy.

Erich Maria Remarque's third, and by far most successful, novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, follows the life of Paul Baumer as a German soldier in the full throes of the First World War. He goes about his military life both in the barracks and on the front with his comrades and, because of the war, closest friends. Paul struggles with not only avoiding his own death, but also the agony, guilt, and grievance of dealing death to others.


Paul Baumer goes through the steps of the war almost mechanically; He smokes cigarettes, plays pranks, participates in sexual liaisons, and devours whatever meals are available to him while between visits to the front. He avoids bombs and gunfire, and watches as many Germans die while in the thick of the battle. He comforts his friends during difficult times, and he reassures his mother that, yes, he is okay but he will be going back. Nothing is new for him until he is put on guard duty watching over a bunch of Russian prisoners, noting how they cast their differences and animosities aside to band together when German soldiers often fight over the pettiest of things.

Remarque does a remarkable thing with this novel in that he not only portrays war in all its naked, raw, glory, but he does so from a German soldier's point of view and manages to get people who would have been on the other side of the conflict to be able to see that they dealt with a lot of the same issues. Young men being pressured into joining the army was always thought of, in the US, as a US stereotype. The Germans were hungry for world domination and therefore they all wanted to fight this war and they all knew how much it meant to them. As shown through the conversations amongst Baumer, Tjaden, Muller, Katczinsky, and Kropp, many of the very young soldiers didn't even know what they were fighting for, they just knew that people indoctrinated them with ideas of that's what good Germans do.

What was more was that Remarque did not try to make the force opposing the Germans out to be the evil entities that Americans have made Germans out to be. Baumer understands that most of the soldiers on the other side are just about as, if not more, clueless than he. It creates a feeling, not of sympathy as with most war novels that want readers to sympathize with the protagonists, but of empathy. This is not just empathy from the reader, although the bit of it that is from the reader is more targeted to the circumstances rather than the characters, but an empathic line is also created amongst the characters.

Most of this empathy between characters is Baumer empathizing with soldiers on the other side of the dispute. He empathizes with the dying Frenchman and he empathizes with the imprisoned Russians, although with the Russians, a bit of envy lies under the surface as Baumer is witness to their comradeship they are forced into. Empathy can be found between comrades as well. When Baumer is injured along with his last surviving friend, Katczinsky, Baumer makes well sure that they get on the same train together. While it is true that one reason for this is that Baumer does not want to be alone, it can also be argued that he wants to see to it that Katczinsky has someone with him who he can see understands the pain he is going through.

Remarque's most important accomplishment with this book is the way he dealt with the issue of war all together. There are many war novels and movies out there that, while they don't portray war as the best possible option, don't deter the idea of war as a good possible option. They have brave warriors, young and old, face each other in tests of strength, stealth, stamina, and strategy and, even though the story may not be told from the “good guys'” point of view, always has the reader rooting for somebody, usually the protagonist. The readers want the protagonist to destroy the antagonist and they know that, at all odds, that will eventually happen because the author wants to give readers what they want.

What Remarque does instead is to challenge the reader to not choose a side. He wants the reader to see what all anti-war novelists want readers to see, which is quite simply that war is bad. How is it that this author achieves this virtually flawlessly while others struggle to put out something mediocre at best? The answer is in how the authors personify the war itself. While most authors will have the main character's best friend killed off giving him just the motivation he needed to lop the head off of some unsuspecting high-ranking official, bringing the awful war to a halt, Remarque has his characters come right out to the reader and ponder what the motivation for this war really is. He then goes further and has his main character wonder about his own personal motivation, and he can find none. The catch: he has no motivation for not returning to the war.

The only sanctuary Baumer finds in all of this is the company of his comrades, whether sexing up some women across the river, on the front line facing death, or longing for the comrades while on leave, Baumer feels more whole with them than with his family at home. He even goes as far as to call these men his brothers, and unlike other war novels, Remarque actually goes out of his way to let the reader know that Baumer means this quite literally. By doing that, he makes the novel less about the war and more about the characters and their relationships with each other. This creates a cause and effect where, during the few scenes of the actual war, readers are even more disgusted with it, bringing Remarque that much closer to his goal of proving that war is bad.

What I expected to get out of this book was some sort of commentary on the political motivations behind the First World War. What I got instead was an insight to turn-of-the-century Germany and the struggles its residents dealt with while trying to fight a war nobody quite understood. I expected to get a clearer concept of the why's and the how's of the war. Instead, it all became even more blurred, not because the author didn't know what he was doing, but because there is no honest way to show what nobody knew. This book was truly about war at its finest hour, and that in itself should be enough to cause anyone to think two, three, four times before causing war, before declaring war, before signing up for war. Remarque finally drove home the point that we all knew all along but didn't quite understand: War. Is. Bad.