TEXT prose

Wendell Mayo

Sententiae for fiction workshop

― To write good fiction, you have to use words.

― So that’s his “fuck,” this is someone else’s “fuck.” Try to not get them confused.

― I wonder if this is a condition, like I could go to the doctor and say, “I’ve got terminal
meta-meta.”

― Like, “Full-On Dragon Twist” …You may think it’s the name of an ice cream special,
but it’s also a wrist lock!

― Like, I hate this kid in your story, he’s a brat, why does he keep screaming?

― He’s sort of like an undeveloped fetus... he’s like a stem cell, yeah, he’s like a stem cell;
he can be grown into a kidney.

― The damn solar system...

― The shallowness of the shallow past...

― Now that I think about it, I love my idea.

― A short story is like a thong, you have a pair of boxers here.

― But I like the banana scene.

― People bite other people when they’re having sex.

― So the wife in the bedroom scene serves her purpose, I mean, in terms of the fiction, in
terms of serving the fiction.

― Any of you guys in this room worn a dress? I have, but not why you think.

― From jewels to junk, there’s a story in there somewhere.

― You guys like talkin’ to yourselves? That’s so good. I love talkin’ to myself.

― Like, if anyone is going to play fast and loose with my imagination, I am going to play
fast and loose with my imagination.

― Hey, it’s my starry night, don’t screw with it.

Wendell Mayo is author of three books of fiction: two story collections, Centaur of the North and B. Horror and Other Stories; and a novel-in-stories, In Lithuanian Wood. He is Professor of English at Bowling Green State University where he teaches in the Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing.