Books are Living Things

For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as the soul was whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them." (John Milton)

The Writing Process

[My process when working on a novel is] the same process no matter what I'm working on. I work according to language. I work starting with language, so that my process is simply to work my way into the next sentence. Sustaining the voice of a book is level one, where I have to stay to move forward. I work very slowly, until I find my way into the middle of the book. I know what to write next by reading what I've already written.

The Writer's Chronicle, May/Summer 2002
An Interview with Jayne Anne Phillips by Sarah Anne Johnson

Good and Bad Teachers

"I liked the company of most of my colleagues, who were almost equally divided among good men who were good teachers, awful men who were awful teachers, and the grotesques and misfits who drift into teaching and are so often the most educative influences a boy meets in school. If a boy can't have a good teacher, give him a psychological cripple or an exotic failure to cope with; don't just give him a bad, dull teacher." (Robertson Davies)

Shi**y First Drafts

Now, practically even better news than that of short assignments is the idea of shi**y first drafts. All good writers write them. This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts. People tend to look atsuccessful writers, writers who are getting their books published and maybeeven doing well financially, and think that they sit down at their desks every morning feeling like a million dollars, feeling great about who they are and how much talent they have and what a great story they have to tell; that they take in a few deep breaths, push back their sleeves, roll their necks a few times to get all the cricks out, and dive in, typing fully formed passages as fast as a court reporter. But this is just the fantasy of the uninitiated. I know some very great writers, writers you love who writebeautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts. All right, one of them does, but we do not like her very much. We do not think that she has a rich inner life or that God likes her or can even stand her.

Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft.

Besides, perfectionism will ruin your writing, blocking inventiveness andplayfulness and life force (these are words we are allowed to use in California). Perfectionism means that you try desperately not to leave so much mess to clean up. But clutter and mess show us that life is being lived.

Your day's work might turn out to have been a mess. So what? Vonnegut said,"When I write, I feel like an armless legless man with a crayon in his mouth." So go ahead and make big scrawls and mistakes. Use up lots of paper.Perfectionism is a mean, frozen form of idealism, while messes are the artist's true friend. (Anne Lamott)


Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Thinking Like a Writer

You can teach almost anyone determined to learn them the basics required to write sentences and paragraphs that say what you want them to say clearly and concisely. It's far more difficult to get people to think like a writer, to give up conventional habits of mind and emotion. You must be able to step inside your character's skin and at the same time to remain outside the dicey circumstances you have maneuvered her into. I can't remember how many times I advised students to stop writing the sunny hours and write from where it hurts: "No one wants to read polite. It puts them to sleep."

The idea that people aren't always what they seem was a startling notion to more beginning students than I like to acknowledge. I thought everyone knew that a person who smiles all the time may very well have a troubled and even murderous heart. This in turn leads to an analysis of what it means to be a) cynical and b) skeptical, and how, if you're going to write fiction it's more productive to be b than a.

If you're going to write fiction that's even vaguely autobiographical--and which of us hasn't?--in trying to decide what to put in and what to leave out, don't consider what your friends, neighbors and especially your immediate family are going to think and/or say, assuming, that is, that they ever read what you write. You don't want to hurt people deliberately; if you've got the proper skills, you can disguise most people so they won't recognize themselves.

From Anne Bernays in Writers on Writing

Carolyn See Needs a Group Hug

What comes through this dipsy-doodle is a longing for acceptance a group hug. Even though Ms. See has published many novels, teaches English at UCLA and serves on the board of the Modern Library (I demand an investigation), she mentions her brushes with "names" such as Joan Didion, John Updike and Shelby Foote in golly-gee wonderment, sounding ore like a lucky fan than a fellow toiler. She's so desperate to please that she still has to stop herself from tacking a quesion mark at the end of her name, Valleygirl style, when she introduces herself on the phone to editors. All those decades writing and teaching and attending confrences, and Carolyn See is still paying for approval, trying to find the secret password that'll admit her to the clubhouse.

from BOOKSHELF by James Wolcott, "The Next Bestselling Author--Why Not You?" a review of Making a Literary Life by Carolyn See, The Wall Street Journal.

Writers Who Distort Reality Distort Logic

A human being cannot escape logic. The great artists were also great logicians. Consider the stories of Edgar Allan Poe. You may say, "What kind of logic is there in Edgar Allan Poe?" Great logic. It is true that he believed in apparitions, and miracles, but once this premise was made he constructed his story accordingly. But the writers who distort reality distort logic.

from Conversations with Isaac Bashevis Singer