Annie
asked
Larry J. Dunlap:
Cheryl Strayed is right up my alley. She changed her name because she strayed off the path. I use Annie Freewriter, because freewriting is what I'm good at. Do you use your formal name Larry?
Larry J. Dunlap
Hi Annette. Yes, I understand that Cheryl Strayed literally changed her name because of her remorse for all the happened after her after her mother's death. I'd say that's going pretty far, in a way even more than trying to hike the Pacific Coast Trail. I like the name you use, it would be an inspiring name to use as an author.
I use Larry J. Dunlap, basically adding my middle initial to the name I primarily go by. I can't say that I know why, maybe to add a little gravitas to what seems to be an inconsequential name. Since I was writing a memoir, it seemed like I had to use my real name, though, if I was going to write about people I knew/know. There are a number of things that happen to you as a writer once you decide to write memoir. I've been asked to write a post about that, and I intend to within the next few days.
On the other hand, my family name of Dunlap, even though I thought it was an awkward sounding word, is a good Irish name and basically means the 'bend in the river.' It wasn't until recently that I found that both sides of my family were relatively recent immigrants from the land of shamrocks and leprechauns. I never really liked my given name that much but I've grown accustomed to it. On the other hand, it doesn't provide much inspiration. Fortunately, with my background in documentation and technical specifications, my inspiration always had to come from the actual project itself. There are no such things as writer's blocks or not meeting a deadline in that world. I think that's why this last four years of writing Things We Lost in the Night, A Memoir of Love and Music in the 60s with Stark Naked and the Car Thieves one of the hardest challenges has been learning to write with my five senses instead of the literal sense of things.
It happens that today, this morning, just after the rain we experienced out here in the 909, I could smell the air, you know, the way you do just before, or just after a rain. As a documentarian, I knew it was ozone, of course. But as I thought of it as a writer, I tried to describe the tang of that smell to myself. Despite the fact that the only descriptive word I could come up with was 'flat' smelling, I realized that I'm an author now. My mind tries to describe things that can be written into words that my readers can be interpret with their senses.
I use Larry J. Dunlap, basically adding my middle initial to the name I primarily go by. I can't say that I know why, maybe to add a little gravitas to what seems to be an inconsequential name. Since I was writing a memoir, it seemed like I had to use my real name, though, if I was going to write about people I knew/know. There are a number of things that happen to you as a writer once you decide to write memoir. I've been asked to write a post about that, and I intend to within the next few days.
On the other hand, my family name of Dunlap, even though I thought it was an awkward sounding word, is a good Irish name and basically means the 'bend in the river.' It wasn't until recently that I found that both sides of my family were relatively recent immigrants from the land of shamrocks and leprechauns. I never really liked my given name that much but I've grown accustomed to it. On the other hand, it doesn't provide much inspiration. Fortunately, with my background in documentation and technical specifications, my inspiration always had to come from the actual project itself. There are no such things as writer's blocks or not meeting a deadline in that world. I think that's why this last four years of writing Things We Lost in the Night, A Memoir of Love and Music in the 60s with Stark Naked and the Car Thieves one of the hardest challenges has been learning to write with my five senses instead of the literal sense of things.
It happens that today, this morning, just after the rain we experienced out here in the 909, I could smell the air, you know, the way you do just before, or just after a rain. As a documentarian, I knew it was ozone, of course. But as I thought of it as a writer, I tried to describe the tang of that smell to myself. Despite the fact that the only descriptive word I could come up with was 'flat' smelling, I realized that I'm an author now. My mind tries to describe things that can be written into words that my readers can be interpret with their senses.
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