The Writing Tips of James Champagne (Collected)

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Frater_Tsalal

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After a number of years of people asking me for advice in regards to writing/publishing, I decided fairly recently to begin posting a series of writing tips on social media, namely my Facebook and Twitter accounts. Realizing that not everyone uses such platforms, I also today collected the entire series and posted them on my blog for posterity, which I now present here as well. Although the end result is somewhat irrelevant and tongue-in-cheek (and I should stress merely constitutes my own opinions on various aesthetic matters) I do think there are some helpful gems buried in the mix: "seek, and ye shall find" (Matthew 7:7):

The Onyx Glossary: James Champagne's Writing Tips: The Collected Edition
 
Interesting reading your thoughts on author bios. I've never really considered them too deeply before, even though I've had cause to write a few of my own (on the very rare occasions something of mine has been published...Hey! Stop sniggering at the back there, please).

I find myself entirely agreeing with your conclusions. The latter example, or the bad example, is really quite irritating, with literally only the final sentence being of any relevance whatsoever.
 
As somebody who struggles to write I welcome any advice. This is more a declaration of your own creed than advice, unless your advice is to be you, in which case my options are limited. I don't want to be that kind of writer/human. I used to be into chaos magick, but grew incredibly disillusioned and tired with its elitist occlusion of potentially helpful psychological techniques. I find being edgy for its own sake -- rather than to fight for something -- largely tedious. I probably disagree with every single aesthetic stance -- down to using obscure dead words for their own sake or Friends being one of the great comedy shows -- apart from the Nicolay bio being too rambling.
 
For the record, I do not presently identify as a Chaos Magician (indeed, my span of time self-identifying as such was fairly brief, maybe around 2002-2003). Having said that, I did learn some useful psychological techniques from my sojourn in that area that I've been able to employ in my life to the present day.
 
This was fun; a few comments...

- The "overweight" dig is unnecessary.

- I've seen quite a bit of discussion about talking about works in progress. Some writers (Bradbury, was it?) believe you can talk about a book until you lose the fuel to actually write it; but I recently heard that (maybe) Roger Zelazny could describe a book in detail to his friends before he even written it. I think I'm in the former camp because talking about my future work can be a form of procrastination or even just talking the talk when I was younger.

- I have a fascination for how mid-list and even lesser known writers from the 70s-80s-90s present themselves and their work (often in print-on-demand), as they are semi-forgotten authors. SP Somtow has in the back of his recent reprints a biography of a few pages, a long list of accomplishments in both music and writing and I think it's justified to inform those who don't know. Pynchon can easier afford to be modest.

- Anna Tambour wrote an intro for Jayaprakash Satyamurthy, praising him yet rubbishing something from his author bio. I thought that was funny.

- A lot of people find Jack Sparrow completely tedious and I don't blame them.

- Goth cowboys are not that uncommon. That was exactly the concept for the band Fields Of The Nephilim.

- I do find creators who dress up quite interesting. It slightly puzzles me because I can't be bothered clothes shopping but I enjoy it when I see it often enough and it sometimes helps me buy their stuff when I see intriguing creator photos.
See this Bongwater photo that made me NEED TO HEAR THEM
https://iscale.iheart.com/v3/url/aHR0cDovL2ltYWdlLmloZWFydC5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL3JvdmkvMTA4MC8wMDAxLzM5OC9NSTAwMDEzOTg2NTMuanBn?surrogate=1cOXl179JY-syhxYSCX6Q1a_Mcu6UO8d-F4oJzpZf1hcUbJr4aIswNgBFE_7jx4DkxSJa8_rgBsVb-DywacWqwKI6opUJe5BW3CT82C68jf_VOx_aov-NLDDGFjOm-CVEr-umrjHT_ClUcG-ycIzZhjgaPfsy3lugOmhIGIDgJteSNUAlBzQ-4FMwKmKUNvir5ZMBHMiUD3FA17vDsRyssXL0ljE

- I say a life without illness would be just plain better, a life of plenty and luxury for all would simply set different standards for pain and unpleasantness.
I never complain when every song is an absolute stunner. I've never experienced a great work and then thought "this needs more dull and bad bits".
But the flawed story might be worth including and it does annoy me when stories are never collected but I would prefer people try to make everything amazing.

I see more and more extremely beautiful people than I have time for online and and the areas of excitement evolve and I find less and less people unpleasant to look at and more and more people beautiful that I didn't previously. It just keeps expanding. I'm not sure I have a totally coherent point here but I think beauty is endlessly complex and tends to be defined and understood poorly. We generally don't have enough language and understanding for it.

- Agree about getting the widest possible influences. I am a fan of trying to get some map of the whole of everything that might interest or benefit one as an artist. I would like it if young artists all got a disc or memory stick including maybe 5000 or 10,000 images with the broadest possible survey of visual art of every conceivable style.
And the good thing about those kind of art history books is that it really doesn't take that long to look at it and get a grasp of the possibilities.
A writer reading thousands of books takes thousands of times longer.

- I completely reject the feuds and enemies thing. They can be fun and fascinating to read about but they are mostly pointless and silly.
A true people person is a joy to behold and I think that however much or little we socialize, we should try to be able to talk to any type of person constructively. It's a valuable skill to cultivate.
I understand the fear of being constrained by others expectations and sensitivities but I think it's best to try to get on with people while being fearlessly yourself.
A lot of punk attitude simply springs from the fear or not being able to coexist with other people, giving up before you've tried.

I look at a lot of erotic art that fascinates me on a fetish level but not on an artistic level and for a very long time I wouldn't follow these artists on social media because I feared offending them with my honest appraisal of their techniques (should they ever ask me) and my stupid idea that I shouldn't look at any art that doesn't reach a certain level of aesthetic power.
This year I've tried to be fearless in my potential interactions with other artists. Trying to be both honest and considerate if I'm ever asked my opinion.

- Definitely agree about the set design. To me the setting is usually the most important character.
 
I kind of brought Jack Sparrow up because recently my brothers and I watched all 5 of the POTC films. The first 3 I had seen a few times but I had never seen the 4th and 5th ones. Oddly enough my favorite Sparrow performance was probably in the 5th one, which was also his most panned one by the critics: but I'm not entirely sure how much of that was "acting" considering Depp's physical and mental state at the time.

I think it's important to bear in mind though that I kind of wrote this series as a spoof of the oh-so-earnest "how to write" articles one often finds online, many of which just parrot the same generic advice. Hence why there's some stuff in here that probably won't help one very much (or, put another way, helps ME at least). I do stand by most of it though, especially the imperfection one, but then again, much of my aesthetic is inspired by Warhol, who is pretty much my favorite visual artist by a huge margin. I like how a lot of Warhol's films/art have mistakes that he kept in anyway because he found them interesting...

I wasn't being entirely serious about the writer feud segment (which was somewhat inspired by Justin Isis' notion of "Platonic Enemies"), and most of my own literary feuds are pretty paltry as I tend to get along with most people I meet... incidentally it's when I "fearlessly be myself" that I tend to make enemies. :p
 
Robert Adam Gilmour said:
This was fun; a few comments...

- The "overweight" dig is unnecessary.
Click to expand...

The dig at fat ugly people and emphasis on fashion etc. is pure pro-conformity, botching the attempt at counter-culture rebellious swagger, along with the other call-outs of people being ungainly or uncool. These are the default social views of the world. I don't like it when Justin Isis does this stuff either. I think it's tedious and mean. I relate more to fat nerds than I do Jack Sparrow or the cast of Friends, so it comes across as another aggressive call for people to be boring. I would legit rather not be a writer than be somebody like this.
 
I would argue that in many cases pro-conformity is a good thing, especially in the biological realm. Even the ultimate anti-everything rebel is still trapped in a body that generally speaking needs to do all the things that bodies need to do to stay alive (such as breathing, the beating of the heart, and so on). Whereas the true non-conformist would train their body to do their opposite. But they don't, so it's hard to take them seriously.
 
Sad Marsh Ghost said:
Robert Adam Gilmour said:
This was fun; a few comments...

- The "overweight" dig is unnecessary.
Click to expand...

The dig at fat ugly people and emphasis on fashion etc. is pure pro-conformity, botching the attempt at counter-culture rebellious swagger, along with the other call-outs of people being ungainly or uncool. These are the default social views of the world. I don't like it when Justin Isis does this stuff either. I think it's tedious and mean. I relate more to fat nerds than I do Jack Sparrow or the cast of Friends, so it comes across as another aggressive call for people to be boring. I would legit rather not be a writer than be somebody like this.
Click to expand...

Mainstream capitalist culture is a culture of “fat nerds”; at the very least it is a culture that rewards the repetitive ideas of the past being repackaged by people who think it appropriate to combine a blazer or vest with a T-shirt. Here is a recipe for financial success and widespread acclaim under the present conditions:

1. Mildly expand or outright remake a proven property from the past (scary weird stories from the 1930s, fantasy worlds with dragons and magic, superheroes and villains).

2. Wear poorly-fitting disposable clothes from chain outlets because caring about fashion is “conformist” (said with a straight face while you wear the same cheap, rapidly degrading garments - produced under exploitative conditions - as everyone else).

3. Discourage any real life change or concrete action other than small tweaks of consumption choices (i.e. make a known superhero fat so more people can “relate” to them).

Environments in which people are consciously trying to improve themselves or change things are generally positive environments in which people push each other to succeed. Environments in which everyone has a stake in the status quo being maintained are generally environments in which taboos are quickly established (“You can’t say that!” “That’s mean-spirited!” “You have to accept me as I am,” etc.).
 
I think it's possible to criticise geek culture without trashing the physical appearances of arbitrary geeks, but any argument I give about why body shaming is terrible is going to be deflected by the claim this is some super smart joke for cool people that I don't get, so there really is no point as it always ends up with lionising weird fashy ideas and douchey trolls while cutting absolutely no breaks for random people being socially awkward or physically imperfect. It isn't cool or interesting to be an irony-poisoned jerk to people to grab attention. It's worse than anything these overweight or nerdy or ugly or disabled people do with their *checks notes* choices of media or clothes or diet. I have no time for this any more. Feel free to bash my weight, appearance, clothes, autism, wealth or social status. I've dealt with this all my life. I seem to be in a minority of one here, but being a hipster bully isn't cool or smart to me. It reeks of insecurity. Of a constant, clutching terror of not being considered these things.
 
James if you feel all this that intensely then I suggest creating some culture of your own, put out some books or go join a demonstration or something, otherwise everything you say reads like a defense of inaction and the status quo; no doubt you’ll protest that personal circumstances, the terrible burdens of your life are making it hard for you, as if other people don’t deal with difficulties too. I am putting out something like 4 or 5 books within a space of less than 12 months, some of them collaborations with multiple authors where I am putting forward the work of creators I respect; and am currently working on designing and producing clothes while working a full time job and multiple side ones. Presumably I am doing all this out of “irony” when I should instead be watching Netflix or marinating in personal misery?

As for literal millionaires, I could have ripped them 1000 times harder but I mostly can’t be bothered, feels like punching down. They remain obese, poorly-dressed, unimaginative and well-recompensed.
 
Justin Isis said:
James if you feel all this that intensely then I suggest creating some culture of your own, put out some books or go join a demonstration or something, otherwise everything you say reads like a defense of inaction and the status quo; no doubt you’ll protest that personal circumstances, the terrible burdens of your life are making it hard for you, as if other people don’t deal with difficulties too.
Click to expand...

What somebody is able or unable to do is irrelevant to whether they deserve to be ridiculed for it or not. People have their reasons for being fat or mentally ill (in my case currently both -- the fat is new and I could lose it, but I'll be mentally unwell for my entire life). I'm not saying I deserve special dispensation from all personal criticism, but trashing me for these things is just being shitty. Seeing people trash others for these things adds to people like me feeling shitty. The defence for fat shaming and ableism -- the idea that it will improve people -- is always a mask for justifying bullying. There is objective proof it doesn't work and makes people's situation worse.

As for literal millionaires, I could have ripped them 1000 times harder but I mostly can’t be bothered, feels like punching down.
Click to expand...

Yeah, your perspective is broken.
 
I wasn't even talking about you dude, I don't care whether you are fat or mentally ill, or what you choose to do with your life and time. I am saying it is laughable to call someone "conformist" for caring about fashion or self-improvement while mainstream culture is entirely about over-consumption of low quality food, over-purchasing of boring, low-quality clothes produced under exploitative conditions (fast fashion chains), and the limitation of imagination achieved by past-centered franchise aesthetics.
 
That's completely disingenuous. You can care about fitness without sneering about fat people online in blogs. You can care about fashion without trashing innocuous people for not fitting in. Be harsher to systems. Be kinder to people.
 
Sad Marsh Ghost said:
That's completely disingenuous. You can care about fitness without sneering about fat people online. You can care about fashion without trashing innocuous people for not fitting in.
Click to expand...

The term "fat nerd" was introduced on this thread by you - which was why I originally applied it in quotes. I was responding to being called out by name and so I will naturally defend and clarify my position. Maybe you can find some other examples (on here or anywhere) of me disparaging "fat nerds"? Or other examples of me going out of my way to abuse "innocuous people" rather than criticizing systemic cultural trends that I am arguing promote a boring (and incidentally unhealthy) status quo?
 
Justin Isis said:
The term "fat nerd" was introduced on this thread by you - which was why I originally applied it in quotes.
Click to expand...

Again this is abjectly disingenuous framing. The conversation was about the body-shaming in the blog and whether it was justified.

I was responding to being called out by name and so I will naturally defend and clarify my position.
Click to expand...

It was a direct reply to Champagne mentioning you specifically as an inspiration for his position. I didn't intend it to be a call-out. I said I didn't like it when you bashed people for being uncool either. You then arrived to bash people for being uncool.

I do think that ceaselessly trashing people's fashion sense is 100% pro-conformity as a position, but it'd be better for a separate thread, and right now I'm going to take a break and evaluate if I even want to keep posting here.
 
I'm not quite sure how the notion even came about on here that I consider myself "hip" or "cool." I mean, I think anyone who lists REALITY BITES as one of their top ten favorite films of all-time (as I do) probably instantly disqualifies themselves from having such signifiers applied to them! Ah well...

I do feel, though, that there's another tip I should have added. Namely, that there are some writers with a certain sort of style or public persona or political ideology that find themselves inevitably being judged by others as morally repellent/inferior. There are people who, when it comes to their good deeds, prefer to work behind the scenes, or to not overtly broadcast their every act of generosity and charity. This puts them at a disadvantage when compared to those who try their hardest to put forth a "woke" or super-enlightened persona on social media (which, of course, doesn't require much direct action). If I really wanted to, I could easily disabuse them of their delusions, but perhaps its better for their ego that they see me as a moral monster. :)
 
Justin Isis said:
Sad Marsh Ghost said:
Robert Adam Gilmour said:
This was fun; a few comments...

- The "overweight" dig is unnecessary.
Click to expand...

The dig at fat ugly people and emphasis on fashion etc. is pure pro-conformity, botching the attempt at counter-culture rebellious swagger, along with the other call-outs of people being ungainly or uncool. These are the default social views of the world. I don't like it when Justin Isis does this stuff either. I think it's tedious and mean. I relate more to fat nerds than I do Jack Sparrow or the cast of Friends, so it comes across as another aggressive call for people to be boring. I would legit rather not be a writer than be somebody like this.
Click to expand...

Mainstream capitalist culture is a culture of “fat nerds”; at the very least it is a culture that rewards the repetitive ideas of the past being repackaged by people who think it appropriate to combine a blazer or vest with a T-shirt. Here is a recipe for financial success and widespread acclaim under the present conditions:

1. Mildly expand or outright remake a proven property from the past (scary weird stories from the 1930s, fantasy worlds with dragons and magic, superheroes and villains).

2. Wear poorly-fitting disposable clothes from chain outlets because caring about fashion is “conformist” (said with a straight face while you wear the same cheap, rapidly degrading garments - produced under exploitative conditions - as everyone else).

3. Discourage any real life change or concrete action other than small tweaks of consumption choices (i.e. make a known superhero fat so more people can “relate” to them).

Environments in which people are consciously trying to improve themselves or change things are generally positive environments in which people push each other to succeed. Environments in which everyone has a stake in the status quo being maintained are generally environments in which taboos are quickly established (“You can’t say that!” “That’s mean-spirited!” “You have to accept me as I am,” etc.).
Click to expand...
Victim culture is poisonous.

All of this progress has resulted in suffocating conformity. The left is now mirroring the right-- always othering those that make them feel uncomfortable. They de-humanize. They are at war with reality and have incredibly childish and simplistic world views.

I'm not here to defend conservatism-- I can't do that. But watching my liberal friends become obsessed with spitefulness and destruction is heartbreaking. I used to avoid my conservative co-workers...now I seek them out. That way I can talk calmly with other adults instead of being sucked into profanity laced ethical debates with insecure people who have done no research.

And oh how they love to project...
 
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