While we don’t advocate the traditional literary technique known as deus ex machina, we do enjoy modern interpretations of it. For this week’s “Get Over the Hump” writing prompt, we’d like you to try a different approach to that old literary device.

First you need a plot that necessitates the device–something impossible or improbable that has no plausible escape plan (think government bailout of the auto industry). From here you can use the appearance or act of deity of your choice (or other whimsical figure) to further the plot to reasonable end (or as reasonable as the apparition of a deity might facilitate).

Please don’t use deus ex machina to invite aliens into your work unless they are really, really cool.

If you really want to give your work that Chinese characteristic, you might consider your favorite characters from Journey to the West, such as the Monkey King.

For this week’s Mandarin Monday, we have something a little more difficult than the previous. We wanted to give our readers an idea of what a writer is. Many people have differing views of the writer’s purpose, and occasionally the idea of the writer is altered by time. But, many great writers have agreed that the purpose of a writer is to enlighten his or her readers. Therefore, today we have quotation to share in English and Chinese–feel free to use this in your conversations.

“The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.”   -Albert Camus

“成为一名作家的目的是保持文明的延续性.” (chéng wéi yī míng zuò jiā de mù di shì bǎo chí wén míng de yán xù xìng) – 阿爾貝 加繆 (ā ěr bèi jiā miù )

Today we are introducing a new weekly (we hope) feature to Terracotta Typewriter. Every Wednesday we will provide a writing prompt to help writers get those creative juices flowing. Since it is Wednesday, we’ll call it The Hump That Broke the Writer’s Back Humping the Book Write It Wednesday Hump It, Shakespeare! Get Over the Hump.

We will do our best to provide writing prompts for poetry and prose writers (but probably not at the same time). Please feel free to e-mail suggestions for writing prompts to tctype@gmail.com.

This week’s writing prompt: Take your favorite Chinese word or phrase and write about it (poem or story is fine). Think about why you like this word–is there something about the tone or the strokes in the character? Or does it have an unusual literal translation in English (i.e. faucet: 水龙头: literal translation: water dragon head). You can write a poem in the shape of the characters, or use the Chinese as a character’s name in a story.You do not have to specifically write the Chinese word or phrase.

Now, get writing!

Previous writing prompts: Faking It; On a Shoestring

Also, our comment problems have been fixed. We’re back to simple moderation.

We were informed that our CAPTCHA plug-in to prevent comment spam wasn’t working properly–it just didn’t show up, so no one could post a comment. We decided to deactivate it and try another plug-in instead.

The new plug-in has the same problem (notice that there’s nothing next to the security code field). Seeing that it was a failed experiment, we decided to delete the plug-in and return to simple comment moderation. Unfortunately, this new plug-in does not show up in the plug-in folder. It seems that “Simple CAPTCHA” does not exist on this site. However, it is the “Simple CAPTCHA” that is screwing up the site.

If you know how to fix this problem, please e-mail us at tctype@gmail.com. If you know the creator of this plug-in, please pass along a swift kick to the head for us. If you are the creator of this plug-in, fix the problem immediately so that we don’t send more violent behavior your way.

We have decided to begin a new feature here at Terracotta Typewriter–Mandarin Mondays. This is different from the Mandarin Monday that’s on Twitter, which is designed to help students of Mandarin write in characters. Our goal here is to provide a word or phrase each week that is related to writing in some way.

Today’s word is 作家 (zuò jiā), writer.

If you take apart these two characters you come up with 作 which is part of 工作 (gōng zuò), work, and 家 which is home or family. Put these together and you have a writer–someone who works at home. Or, if you want to have fun, you can change the character but not the tone of “zuo” so that you have 坐, sit.

It appears that the Chinese language believes that writers are lazy and stay home all day. Anyone care to fight that stereotype?

I’ve been perusing some fifty years of The Paris Review that are sitting atop my desk (I hope someday there will be fifty years of Terracotta Typewriter to peruse). I was surprised to find a chapter of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road before it the novel was published in Winter 1955.

In issue #23 (Spring 1960), there’s an interview with Aldous Huxley discussing the art of fiction. The first page of the interview is inspiring for less experienced and/or younger writers.

On how he works: “I work regularly. I always work in the mornings, and then again a little bit before dinner. I’m not one of those who work at night. I prefer to read at night. I usually work four or five hours a day.”

On rewriting: “I write everything many times over. All my thoughts are second thoughts.”

On keeping a notebook: “I don’t keep notebooks….I’m very lazy….One should keep notebooks, I think, but I haven’t.”

On the process of writing: [I]t’s not painful, though it is hard work. Writing is a very absorbing occupation and sometimes exhausting. But I’ve always considered myself very lucky to be able to make a living at something I enjoy doing. So few people can.”

I especially enjoyed Huxley’s comments on the process of writing. Far too often there are people who don’t believe that it takes hard work to create a piece of literary merit. I also agree with his comments on notebooks–I, too, have been lazy in keeping my notebooks and journals (my work is scattered among a number of notebooks and loose pages).

The Hong Kong International Art Fair will be the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre May 14-17. According to the Web site, tickets to the fair are 40% off, but that deal end tomorrow (today in HK). Don’t show up too early as the event opens at noon everyday.

The list of exhibitors is extensive, and most of them are Asian (though there are still plenty of European galleries).

There will also be some special events including screenings of documentaries and panel discussions.

Terracotta Typewriter will be unable to attend the art fair, so please let us know how it is if you’re in Hong Kong.

For more information, visit the fair’s Web site: http://www.hongkongartfair.com/2009/index.php

There’s an interesting article in the most recent Poets & Writers about writers who are using Twitter (if you don’t know what it is, you haven’t been paying much attention over the last year–we still don’t understand why media is obsessed with it). The article doesn’t promote nor condemn the use of Twitter by writers. It points out ways that it can be used to one’s advantage (or not used at all). It does point out that it can be time-consuming and lead to procrastination that inhibits quality writing (much like blogging, but on a smaller scale).

One successful writer/Twitterer is @John_Wray who used the system to write a novel 140 characters at a time. Other writers the editor of this literary journal follows include @LairdHunt, the author of The Impossibly and Indiana, Indiana, @xje Xujun Eberlein, author of Apologies Forthcoming (and an essay in the inaugural issue of this journal), @puerhan, a friendly poet with a nice blog, @TomCarter, photographer/writer of CHINA: Portrait of a People, and @lonniehodge, an American poet residing in Guangzhou.

Also today, we have a special link to an interview with Xujun Eberlein via Aimee Barnes (click here for the interview).