If It's Not One Thing It's Another

 It's so much easier to read other people's work and be amazed or delighted or aghast than it is to sit down and write something. Anything, just about. To engage in informed insightful discussions with writer cronies about the merits and otherwise of something we have all just read, how affirming. Perhaps accompanied by herbal tea. Or sherry.

So much more civilized than writing and sharing and afterward saying, "It's you now, OK, I guess.  That part near the end's pretty good, I think. Maybe."

And, reading often opens up possibilities for our own writing. Such a recent reading experience for me has been Suppose a Sentence by Brian Dillon, a book of essays about the pleasures and intrigues of selected single sentences from published books. I had hoped and anticipated it would be mostly about old friends. You know, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" and so forth. It wasn't. Some of the authors, let alone the sentences, I have barely heard of. I was disappointed.

But.

After reading through the book's entries, I found myself intermittently captivated. So much so that, one thought led to another and I decided to write a review of the book. A few more thoughts led me to what appears to be an eccentric online book review site. We'll see what they think of my pwn eccentric approach.

But, here's the thing.

I'm genuinely excited about this. Who could have guessed? This is not something I would ever have attempted without reading Suppose a Sentence. And an added instance of enthusiasm for my own writing work.

So.

Added to the usual advice to developing writers such as I am of "Keep Writing" I feel confident to add "Keep Reading."

Labels Categories and Such

When I think of poetry / a poem / a poet, there is a certain level of sophistication, evocation, and insight I imagine. Wallace Stevens, for instance.

So, when I write something that is sort of poetry, I have been reluctant in the extreme to call it a poem. Even more so, I am embarrassed beyond words to refer to myself as a "poet".

I need to discover the correct word. When I do write something from time to time, it is always as bad as the word"Doggerel" implies. "Verse" can sometimes, but not always, serve as the word for what I write, but "Versifier" is unbearable.

With the help of other colleagues, I have been pointed toward the poetry of Billy Collins (poet laureate so tough to argue); GK Chesterton (whose poems are lighthearted and have a certain bouncy rhythm); and now Tony Hoagland. And have been advised that what I write may be termed "narrative poems."

Somehow that nomenclature provides me with a certain stature. Don't you think? Perhaps not a Poet. But poet?

All in all, I think labels serve editors and publishers and some critics far better than they serve writers themselves. 

I am convinced that whichever of the 9 Muses is whispering over my shoulder -- or yours -- is not overly concerned with trends.

The Semplica Girl Diaries

 

Everyone has his or her own individual path towards fulfillment as a writer. 

If I were searching for the most banal yet truest statement about developing as a quality writer, that would be it. There are nevertheless those who point to a particular technique or example or principle and say, "That's what good writing is all about." You can be certain these folks, experienced and excellent as they may be, are talking through their collective hats.

Often these same writers offer excellent advice. I'm beginning to think the most concrete feedback on a particular piece of writing is the most useful.

For me, I am at a\the point in my own apprenticeship when I am attracted to re-visiting some of my previous work with a view to improving it with whatever new skills I have developed over the past while. At the same time, I am also attracted to other writers whose work I am better able to appreciate now than before. 

Alice Munro (how wonderful she is. (I know you're sick of me referring to her.)

David Bergen as I mentioned in previous posts. 

And now, I have surprised myself by enjoying and admiring George Saunders. I am halfway through reading his short story "The Semplica Girl Diaries" in his book of short stories "Tenth of December". This is another example of what is possible to do -- I am unlikely to try to emulate it but its existence expands the possible. 

The fact that he worked on this story for "more than a dozen years" also makes him my kind of guy.

So, it's tempting for me to say, "So what you should do is review your previous work to revise it with your new skills; and read tons of writers who are new to you." That might make me sound like an expert and I am fully aware of how new writers struggle to locate a checklist of the right answers so they too can be published and fulfilled. They pay for courses and workshops editors and practice writing sites and what-not. These can be helpful for certain. The same ones, though, are not similarly helpful for all writers. 

And none of them, none of them, are magic.