1981_12 The Daily Collegian December 1981

              Page 8/December 4, 1981 -Dally Collegian   |
Writers
page 7
Caither said. "I would like it to be very much a part
of my future. It depends on how much I progress or
how good I become."
Like most other writers, Caither's plans also in¬
clude something to fall back on. After getting his |
degree in English he plans to go to graduate school
for a doctorate so that he can teach and write at the
"I like writing very much,' Caither said. "It can
be a lot of work and can be very frustrating, but I
never think, 'Cod, I don't want to write anymore,'
or stay away from the typewriter.'
The steady tapping of a typewriter stopped just
before Lillian Linstromberg entered the room. Her
smooth face and strong, steady voice belied her 79
After nearly eight decades of life, Linstromberg
possesses one of the keys to writing listed by Sim¬
mons and Hanzlicek—life experience.
During those years, Linstromberg has been a
dedicated observer; she writes down most every-1
thing that happens to her.
'Write about everything," said the author of four
short stories and a novel-in-the-works.
"Looking, observing and thinking about every¬
thing is important.
'I used to write a lot of descriptions. Maybe in
the morning I 'd take a walk with the dog and then
go back and write about it. Everything that happens
can be made into a drama, because you both observe
and put your imagination into it.'
Linstromberg's fascination with literature began
as a child, when she read everything she could.
'In school I had teachers who encouraged me. I
had a very good imagination,' she recalled. 'I could
look at a picture and I remember thinking of a story
that could illustrate it.*
Over the years, Linstromberg wrote a number of
manuscripts and kept diaries and journals detailing
the many experiences she had. She has worked as a
shipping clerk, linotype operator, newspaper editor,
has sailed in the Caribbean with her late husband
and raised three children.
Unfortunately, she destroyed her collected work
after the death of her husband a number of years
"I just burned everything up. At the time I was in
a great depression,* she said.
'I regret it very much. I would advise any writer
never to destroy anything. Now I wish I had them to
go back to. The longer you live the more you ac¬
cumulate in your head; you should just keep them so
you can remember how you felt then.'
Linstromberg has yet to be published, and sent
her first submission off just over two weeks ago. She
declined to name the magazine she had submitted
a short story to.
'For good luck, I'm not telling," she explained.
Linstromberg is auditing her second writing class
at CSUF this fall, and spends as much time as pos¬
sible on her writing.
"Sometimes I spend as much as eight or 10 hours
a day," she said, setting the minimum at about four
For complete quiet while typing in her room,
Linstromberg removes her hearing aid.
'I work very slowly," she said. "I may write a
couple of paragraphs, read, and rewrite them
several times before I go on. Sometimes I may leave
it around and go back to it in a few weeks."
She worked on a short story for one of Simmon's
classes for about four months, writing and revising
'It's not frustrating,' she said. 'I'm intensely
interested in my characters and I always want to
make a novel out of them (the short stories).
"I don't find writing a chore. It's the happiest
thing I do, even without getting published. I just
write forHhe sheer pleasure of it.'
Linstromberg said her stories include two that are
autobiographical and one that is an 'old-fashioned
love story.'
'That one will probably have the best chance of
selling,'she said.
'A lot of stories are published nowadays that
don't say anything. All they say is that people
are trivial,' she said. "Every story I have written
says something,' she said. There is a quality in
each character that is revealed in telling.'
Linstromberg, who lives a few blocks from campus
.with her daughter and son-in-law, enrolled to get
'some criticism of her work and comments on her
writing style.
She said the students, in critiquing her work,
'are very generous and let me know when I'm using
something that is completely out of date.'
'Most writers who write without criticism for a
length of time use too many adjectives,' she said.
Lillian Linstromberg
Mark Teegue/Dally Collegian
"I think I'm almost cured.*
Among her favorite writers is Ann Tyler. 'She
can take the ordinary people and make them sound
so interesting and important and strange, just like
people really are," Linstromberg said admiringly.
She also cited Jane Austen and Anthony Trollope.
'Before going on long trips at sea I would go to the
library and get a lot of books, but nothing that had
been published in the last hundred years.*
She is careful to emphasize that she is just an
amateur who writes for her own pleasure, and
seems surprised that anyone would want to know
about her work.
But as an amateur who has written for so many
years, Linstromberg's advice to those just getting
started is to observe and practice and 'learn how to
spell and learn grammar rules.'
dislikes revising, calling it the hardest part. Two or
three revisions,' he said, 'that realty drags the pro-
cessout,'
West, a graduate student, said it helps him to
take classes because 'it forces you to write to turn
things in.' He added that in-class criticism can be
helpful at times, but other times it is not.
'Criticism isn't hard to take,* he said. 'It's when
it's from somebody you don't have any respect
for, or their work isn 't as good as yours.'
At this point, West said his writing is not a career
'The opportunities just aren't there. It's just a
hobby that pays well once in a while. If I could be a
well-paid writer, that would be fine, but I don't see
that happening.'
Charles West Jr. might find himself the envy of
his fellow students at CSUF.
The Fresno High School teacher has had his works
published in several magazines and is currently
'I just burned
everything up. At
the4ime I was in
a great depression.'
working on an idea for a detective story based in
Fresno, which has sparked some interest from
editors at Ellery Queen magazine. i
His credits include a story published in Ellery
Queen in 1980, poetry in a few periodicals including
Jsaac Asimov's science fiction masazine   non-fir-
t..ce fiction magazine, non-fic-
>e work for a few men's maga-
But West brushes off the air of accomplishment.
"When you look at the volume of work compared
to what's published, success seems minimal,"
Said the soft-spoken author.
He said writing can sometimes be discouraging.
'Most of the rejections you receive are a memo
form letter and you don't even know if you've
been read or not.*
West said he has been writing since college
but never realty took it seriously at the time.
His subject interests include detective and murder
stories, but he also writes poetry.
'1 probably do more fiction than poetry, because
there's no paying market for poetry,' he said.
,• 'I write when I get the time,' he said, 'usually a
few hours a week. If I could get a few hours a day,
I could probably produce more.
'The ideas come easily-lt's just sitting down and
really putting the best effort into it.' West said he
Between raising two daughters and teaching basic
English courses at CSUF, graduate student Carol
Trottier said she has about two to three hours a week
to spend on her writing..
'If things were ideal,' she said, 'I'd get two to
three hours a day. Now, it's that much a week un¬
less I can grab moments here and there.'
On her limited time, Trottier is working on a
novel, which she describes as 'feminist science fic¬
tion satire.* The book is about a fourth to a third
Trottier began work on the novel a year ago, and
has spent most of her time doing background re-
To get over the rough spots, she meets with an in¬
formal writing group, in which all the members are
working on novels. Each person distributes a copy of
the work he has completed and the  members
'It's very helpful," Trottier said. 'Cenerally,
I can anticipate what they're going to say. Usually
the things I 've been having trouble with they have
trouble too.'
The novel is her only project now, although she
has written a number of°short stories.
"I submitted one short story to a couple of maga¬
zines who sent them back,' she said as she lit a
cigarette. 'I thought 'That'sit."
"I have several that are publishable but need re¬
vising. I love to revise because there I have some¬
thing down on paper. Cetting ideas on paper tends
to be bland. I like to let it lie there a while and let it
get cold.
*l 'm not published to this point,' she continued.
•Nothing that I have finished meets my standards.
I wouldn't want to see it in print at this point.*
Trottier said when she gets ready to write, she
usually goes through a lengthy 'production num¬
ber,' laying out all of her materials, getting a cup of
coffee and books she will be referring to.
'The hardest part is getting myself going,' she
said. 'I'm not fit to be around when I write. I
literally enter another world, lose a sense of time.
I get very spacey.
'My daughters know now that when I' m working
they just ignore me.'
Trottier's first attempt at fiction occurred about
five years ago.
'I scribbled out a little story. It really didn't have
too much of a beginning or an ending.*
She said she stashed it away and then later
showed it to a friend.
'She thought ft was a bunch of shit, but had some
I
l
Ut
■DailyColleglan.
A selection of short
stories, poetry, photos
and drawings by
CSUF students
By Dennie Farris   Journalism major