“At the time I was first writing the stories/essays that appear in Oedipus Wrecked, I was still under the impression that people would be delighted to see their name in print. I overlooked the fact that I was writing about intimate matters, and people are a bit touchy about airing their private lives in such a public fashion. Especially when it's done without their consent.” PeopleWritingFirstsStillsMatterDoneFactsStoriesWould BeNamesBitsFashionImpressionIntimatePrintConsentEssaysPrivate LifeDelightedOverlookedTouchyOedipus Author:Kevin Keck
“I view my stories as sexual or personal. Curiously, I don't. When I was writing those stories I thought of them as comedy pieces in the vein of performance monologue, such as you might get with Richard Pryor, or Lenny Bruce, or George Carlin. So I don't feel vulnerable because I know the line of demarcation between "Writer Kevin" and "Narrative Kevin."” KnowsFeelsWritingStoriesMightLinesViewsComedyPiecesPerformancesVulnerableNarrativeVeinsKevinMonologues Author:Kevin Keck
“Not every story lends itself tonally to humor, so you have to navigate that territory properly. You can put a humorous spin on anything, really, if you know what you're doing, but it's not always desirable to have your reader laughing on every page.” IfsKnowsStoriesLaughingReaderPagesHumorousTerritoryDesirableNavigate Author:Kevin Keck
“If you're trying to convey a crucial emotional truth, you have to be in total control of the emotional pacing of the story, and if you can only strike one note in terms of tone then you're going to be quite limited as a writer.” IfsTryingStoriesTermEmotionalNotesStrikesToneCrucialPacing Author:Kevin Keck
“In fact, I always assumed that most everything I read was true, to one degree or another. I couldn't articulate this fact until after I read Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried and he discussed Happening Truth, Story Truth, and Emotional Truth. I always understood that the facts of The Sun Also Rises or On the Road were the facts as dictated by a certain narrative structure, but because the experiences of those characters echoed my own feelings about the world. I knew there was a Happening Truth behind them.” WorldCharacterFactsStoriesFeelingsCertainMy OwnBehindsSunEmotionalTruth IsDegreesHappeningsUnderstoodStructureNarrativeSun Also RisesNarrative StructureTim O Brien Author:Kevin Keck
“As a writer, I was deliberately creating an alternate world, and then populating it with experiences and people that I knew in this world, but I'd shake up the mix considerably. And about the same time that the memoir was becoming the dominant popular literary form in the mid to late 90s, I started reading writers who were deliberately playing with the notion of "truth" and "fiction" - that struck me as a much more interesting way to tell certain stories, particularly in the realm of comedy.” PeopleWorldWayStoriesFormCertainReadingInterestingFictionComedyThis WorldBecomingLateCreatingNotionMemoirRealmsShakesDominantInteresting Ways Author:Kevin Keck
