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The WSJ asks a bunch of bigtime authors how to write a great novel. I think we all know the answer to that. Be a man. Or don’t. But be something. Or don’t. Sit with your hand up in the air. Bend paperclips into talismans from demonic cults. Use notecards, computers, typewriters, biros. Write in the early morning, late at night, in the basement, garret, at the kitchen table. Use folders, dividers, colour-coded pencils. Eat burritos before you write and then hold it in to create a sense of urgency. Get out the scissors, glue and paste. What the fuck? How about this one: stop fetishizing the process and get ‘er done.
An unusually robust crop of books from some of the biggest names in literature has landed this fall. Kazuo Ishiguro, Orhan Pamuk, Mr. Powers and Nicholson Baker have new books out this fall, along with a host of other prominent authors.
Behind the scenes, many of these writers say they struggle with the daily work of writing, clocking thousands of solitary hours staring at blank pages and computer screens. Most agree on common hurdles: procrastination, writer’s block, the terror of failure that looms over a new project and the attention-sucking power of the Internet.
A few authors bristle when asked the inevitable question about how they write. Richard Ford declined to reveal his habits, explaining in an email that “those are the kind of questions I hope no one asks me after readings and lectures.” Others revel in spilling minute details, down to their preferred brand of pen (Amitav Ghosh swears by black ink Pelikan pens) or font size (Anne Rice uses 14-point Courier; National Book Award nominee Colum McCann sometimes uses eight-point Times New Roman, forcing himself to squint at the tiny type). Some now offer fans a window into the process, reporting on their progress on blogs and Twitter feeds. On his author Web site, John Irving describes how he begins his novels by writing the last sentence first.
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November 6th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
The critic Edmund Wilson was once sent a stack of books on how to write and asked to review them. He sent them back unopened with a note that read, “The only way to write is well, and how you do it is your own damn business.”
November 6th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
HILARY MANTEL looks like Golum. NOt being mean here, I’m just saying, in that picture she looks like Golum. And I like her more because of it.
November 6th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
Couldn’t agree more. There is something addictive about reading these how-to narratives, about how hard writing is. But reading these has nothing to do with starting to write – if anything it makes it a more distant prospect -
November 7th, 2009 at 11:46 am
It should be obvious to anyone with an ounce of sense that if you have to ask other people how to write a great novel then you are not a person who is ever going to write a great novel yourself.
This kind of crap is page-filler for journalists who’ve run out of ideas. I assume any appeal these pieces have is to non-writers (or bad writers) to whom the writing process is somehow mystical and magical, rather than a hard slog achieved between bouts of intellectual and physical masturbation.
November 7th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
“a hard slog achieved between bouts of intellectual and physical masturbation”
I am SO using that line the next time someone asks me how I write.
November 8th, 2009 at 11:33 am
“intellectual” masturbation … speak for yourself.
November 10th, 2009 at 12:11 am
How to write a great novel? One word at a time.
December 24th, 2009 at 4:07 am
Epitaph on Charles Bukowski’s headstone: “Don’t Try.”
If it ain’t coming, don’t bother chasing it.