We Love Bad Writing: Interview with Poet/Filmmaker Vernon Lott

Remember when you were young and everyone was always telling you that you could be anything - you're a star! - and every creative piece you made was touted as the most brilliant work ever? Remember when you stopped hearing that? Or more importantly, why you stopped hearing that? Could it be because it kinda sucked? Some people never stopped to listen to that rubbish - they kept at it because that's how you get better, right?

Enter poet/filmmaker Vernon Lott, who never stopped nor, curiously enough, got any better. Browsing through old boxes during a move, Lott and his wife came across sheets upon sheets of pure, unedited poetry. And he had a revelation. That shit was bad. Really bad. So he decided to share these abhorrent pieces with who else but David Sedaris, George Saunders, Nick Flynn and Margaret Atwood, among others, while filming their reactions and (hopefully) heeding their advice. Fortunately for Lott, filming his bad writing proved more successful than just sending it out to various lit magazines (The New Yorker...!) and has probably even helped to lift the spirits of a few downhearted, aspiring poets along the way. And that ain't easy.

After Bad Writing screened here last month, Lott was generous enough to answer a few questions via email about how it felt to know how bad he started out, how helpful the criticism was and where he is going from here. Bad Writing will be available on DVD on February 1st at indieflix.com, so jump on it!

What made you want to make a movie about your bad writing-is it safe to say you were 'inspired' by your bad writing? Also, what constitutes as 'bad writing'?

When I found my old poetry, after weeping for about an hour, I thought that there might be a story somewhere. At least, I thought I could try to turn these bad poems into something good - or, rather, interesting.

In the film, bad writing gets wildly different definitions, from mechanical problems to point of view issues. In my case, I have a combination of poor writing on the sentence-level, mixed metaphors, and point of view (in trying to pretend I was a writer from the 19th century).

How did you get such great writers to read your bad writing? When you sent your work around to journals and magazines, did any editors take the time to give you feedback?

I sent out many email requests. The writers who participated in the film said, “yes.” About half the people I approached didn’t even return my emails. In addition to being great writers, the people I sat down with are kind and generous.

When I used to send out my poems, I never received any personal feedback - just form letters. That may have something to do with the fact that my cover letters were handwritten in a script similar to the Zodiac Killer.

After exploring all that bad writing is, do you think you can identify what good writing is?

I can certainly identify it in others’ work. However, I still have my bad writing moments. For instance, I’ve been agonizing over this interview for four days, revising etc., and I know portions of it are still bad.

Your film has been well-received. Do you want to continue making films?

Actually, my wife and I just finished another feature documentary about five unsolved homicides that took place in my hometown, all of which share one suspect. It's about as far from the Bad Writing documentary as you can get. We’re also working on a screenplay for a feature narrative about a young poet.

Do you have a favorite piece of bad writing?

When it comes to others’ bad writing, I love Amanda McKittrick Ros and William McGonagall. As far as my own writing goes, you can’t beat “Behind my eyes there lies an onyx moon that hangs like guilt.” I’m not sure how something can “lie” and “hang” at the same time, and people "lie" not "moons". But it has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

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