tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15916138.post2639644828816191214..comments2023-09-25T05:45:41.437-07:00Comments on The Art of Fiction: Become a Better WriterUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15916138.post-48585434666890492552014-08-11T06:54:16.170-07:002014-08-11T06:54:16.170-07:00My first thought after reading this was: As if we ...My first thought after reading this was: <i>As if we have any real control!</i> By ‘we’ I mean ‘I’ because I judge everyone (probably unfairly and unreasonably) by my own standards. There are some bands—and solo acts and writers and artists too—who are very much one-trick ponies. I never saw John Wayne play any other character onscreen than the stylised version of himself that we all took to be the real John Wayne and the same goes for Woody Allen. And they get away with it, film after film. The plot for every Scooby Doo cartoon is essentially the same and Christ knows how many of them there’ve been. But then there’s something reassuring about this too. It’s like a kid wanting to be read the same story over and over again even though they have it memorised. Not everyone is Kate Bush. Most of us are Leonard Cohen. We have a very limited range but you can do a lot within narrow limits if you’re imaginative enough. Personally, like Beckett (not often one gets to compare oneself to Beckett), I find myself working within smaller and smaller spaces; I enjoy the confinement. I have no need to spread my wings and soar. Age is most definitely a factor. There’s not that much left I have an opinion on that I care to voice that I haven’t already written about and resolved myself on whatever the issues were. Occasionally something crops up that makes me think in a new way about an old thing but not so much. I’ve written only four poems this year and a novella that came out of the blue. The need to write has been satisfied for a while. I read a lot of poems online—especially those written in response to writing prompts—and I do wonder why they’re writing. I’m not sure ‘Just because we can’ is a good enough reason for me. If I don’t have anything that I feel really needs saying I tend not to say anything these days.<br /><br />One of the films that sticks in my mind is <i>The Glenn Miller Story</i>, partially because I’ve always had a soft spot for June Allyson but mainly because of the scene where Miller stumbles on his “sound”. We writers don’t have a sound but we do have a voice and I discovered mine when I was about seventeen. I was never one for mimicking my heroes (although in later life I have done as a bit of fun) but I can see why a writer might need to experiment with new ways of saying things until he finds the way—sorry to get all Zen on you—that suits him best. How much mileage he or she can get out of that before they start to repeat themselves is another matter and there are those who’ve slogged away writing the same book over and over again (Anita Brookner by her own admission) and managed to hang onto an audience; there are those who’ve done the same and lost their audience and there are those who know when to call it a day.Jim Murdochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15916138.post-84665582542595992742014-08-10T13:57:11.631-07:002014-08-10T13:57:11.631-07:00two lines:
'Grand projects are what you have ...two lines:<br /><br />'Grand projects are what you have when you're writing isn't yet good enough to simply be.';<br /><br />'To get better you sometimes need to get worse.'<br /><br />great stuff...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com