Sippican Cottage has some advice or words to that effect.
[My own advice: First read heavily and widely.Read the great writers but also read the hacks who can somehow hold your attention. Be wary of mocking a published author but don't bow down to them. Re-write numerous times. Read your drafts slowly and out-loud. Read them as if you are searching for a hidden message. Watch the flow. Consider each word but remember that you will have to finish and when you do you'll probably still be unsatisfied. Worry if you are completely satisfied.]
2 comments:
I once read a book by Stephen Brust called "The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars" which was really about the creative process. The protagonist was a painter and he was discussing how you can learn more about a kind of artistic style by looking and bad artists than good ones sometimes. When bad artists try to paint in a certain style, you can see all the tricks they are trying to use much more easily than when a master does it.
I'm not a writer but this has stuck with me in my own creative efforts. I'll study the great works and also not neglect the bad ones. The bad ones show me what is being attempted. The great ones show me what is possible.
Daniel,
Thanks for the book reference. Used bookstores are filled with books by writers who never became famous but are very good as well as ones who did become famous but whose main skill was in spinning a yarn. You're right. Even those who are bad have lessons for us.
It is a craft.
Michael
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