Ask the Author: Dustin Lawrence Lovell
Answered Questions (6)
Dustin Lawrence Lovell
After crock potting a particular work's premise and characters enough and outlining as much as I can of a scene's purpose and circumstances, I try to pick as concrete an image as I can to use as a starting point and just write. If I'm having a hard time visualizing one part, I'll work on another and come back to the obscure part later, working in from the edges as it were until I figure it out.
Dustin Lawrence Lovell
Learn grammar. Discover how clauses fit together; be able to articulate the reasons why they do or don't. Practice rearranging and combining sentences, clauses, and phrases until you can expand or (more importantly) contract your word count at will. You wouldn't expect a professional LEGO designer to not know how and why different pieces do or don't fit together; that's what grammar is to us—sorting and learning the ins and outs of our LEGO pieces.
Dustin Lawrence Lovell
I'm currently halfway through the serial novel A California Kid in King Henry's Court, published monthly by The Mallard. The satire follows a young American who, having acquired through Shakespeare and Tolkien an inordinately idealized view of British culture, attends Oxford and finds that the England of the 2000s is nothing like what he romantically expects (a slight reversal of Twain's novel, to which the title is of course a reference). Even when he does get to participate in some Shakespeare plays, things don't go how he thinks.
Some events VERY loosely based on real events/encounters during my time at Oxford. If interested in more, check out the The Mallard at mallarduk.com, for which I am also a monthly columnist.
Some events VERY loosely based on real events/encounters during my time at Oxford. If interested in more, check out the The Mallard at mallarduk.com, for which I am also a monthly columnist.
Dustin Lawrence Lovell
Early 19th-century rural England of Pride and Prejudice; I'd work faithfully somewhere on Mr. Darcy's estate. Maybe a gardener—love the English picturesque trend of that time.
Dustin Lawrence Lovell
I usually don't do New Year's resolutions, but for 2022 I made an informal plan to try and give Dickens his due. Despite my predominant interest in the 19th-century novel, and despite having read and listened to several of his works, his entertainment value has still largely eluded me. So, I plan to add David Copperfield to my reading plan for this year—possibly over summer.
Also, I've been reading through Joseph Frank's excellent but massive biography on Dostoevsky for the last few years. I only have the last one left, so I might try to tackle that one.
I also plan to teach a reading class to 7th and 8th graders, the reading list for which will include a few books, including Twelfth Night, which I haven't read for a few years.
Also, I've been reading through Joseph Frank's excellent but massive biography on Dostoevsky for the last few years. I only have the last one left, so I might try to tackle that one.
I also plan to teach a reading class to 7th and 8th graders, the reading list for which will include a few books, including Twelfth Night, which I haven't read for a few years.
Dustin Lawrence Lovell
I started SSLL when, as an English teacher and tutor, I realized I needed to be creating as well as teaching. That left me with the question of what I knew enough about to write a book on, which was Shakespeare's History plays on which I'd written my UG thesis (various improvements of/rebuttals to which I had been mulling over for years).
However, having been out of the critical conversation for a while and wanting to be read by more than academics, I decided to apply my interpretation of the Henry IV plays to a theatrical setting in a novel. That led to questions about who would put on those plays and what conflicts they'd encounter.
Meanwhile, I started hearing about various universities (places as prestigious as Yale) muting or cutting Shakespeare from their literature programs. Thus was born the primary conflict of the book—the campaign, via online fervor and physical protest, to get the Henry plays canceled and Shakespeare removed from the curriculum.
The rest filled out from there.
However, having been out of the critical conversation for a while and wanting to be read by more than academics, I decided to apply my interpretation of the Henry IV plays to a theatrical setting in a novel. That led to questions about who would put on those plays and what conflicts they'd encounter.
Meanwhile, I started hearing about various universities (places as prestigious as Yale) muting or cutting Shakespeare from their literature programs. Thus was born the primary conflict of the book—the campaign, via online fervor and physical protest, to get the Henry plays canceled and Shakespeare removed from the curriculum.
The rest filled out from there.
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