Creative writing

[jayne lee wilson]

It actually made me laugh! But if publishers and agents were looking for something different from what I was writing, I wasn't willing to write the kind of thing they wanted. They wanted something more upbeat with happy endings, but that isn't what real life is like: that's just escapism. Life is about failure and disappointment as well as success but apparently people don't want to read that kind of thing (Should have been writing opera librettos, perhaps )

Elizabeth Strout (My Name is Lucy Barton et seq....) has done OK with the downbeat stories....unflinching on relationships, sibling rivalries etc.....conflict and unhappiness quite apposite to the Prince Harry saga (tbc)....writes so well too. Spareness, elegance, devastatingly truthful...good lessons in writing...

[french frank]

Elizabeth Strout (My Name is Lucy Barton et seq....) has done OK with the downbeat stories....unflinching on relationships, sibling rivalries etc.....conflict and unhappiness quite apposite to the Prince Harry saga (tbc)....writes so well too. Spareness, elegance, devastatingly truthful...good lessons in writing...

Quote from her Wikipedia page: "I wanted to be a writer so much that the idea of failing at it was almost unbearable to me." That's another important difference between us!

[RichardB]

I just remembered that I used to think to myself that, at a certain point in my life, I should if possible take a year out of my other activities and write a novel, something I then did have a chance to do during 2020-21, although I'd abandoned the idea some time previously, because actually there's no reason to expect I'd be able to just sit down and start writing, any more than a music enthusiast with no experience of musical composition could just sit down and write a symphony or record an album of songs, and expect it to be anything but a beginner effort. Unless of course one is a celebrity and can afford to hire accomplished "assistants".

As it happens I just finished a book (my second), it isn't a work of fiction but I would argue that it is an example of "creative writing". I say I've finished it, but there's still proofreading to go, plus constructing the index (with novelists generally don't have to think about, Alasdair Gary's Lanark being an amusing exception), designing the cover and getting some blurbs to put on the back. Mind you I do like that whole process.

[Joseph K]

I just remembered that I used to think to myself that, at a certain point in my life, I should if possible take a year out of my other activities and write a novel, something I then did have a chance to do during 2020-21, although I'd abandoned the idea some time previously, because actually there's no reason to expect I'd be able to just sit down and start writing, any more than a music enthusiast with no experience of musical composition could just sit down and write a symphony or record an album of songs, and expect it to be anything but a beginner effort. Unless of course one is a celebrity and can afford to hire accomplished "assistants".

As it happens I just finished a book (my second), it isn't a work of fiction but I would argue that it is an example of "creative writing". I say I've finished it, but there's still proofreading to go, plus constructing the index (with novelists generally don't have to think about, Alasdair Gary's Lanark being an amusing exception), designing the cover and getting some blurbs to put on the back. Mind you I do like that whole process.

That's good news about you finishing the new book!

[eighthobstruction]

I once had ideas for stories to be based on what people and daily life would be like if we got rid of capitalism and lived sustainably. Unfortunately my lack of imagination meant the ideas just dried up!

....and that's why we need to have capitalism [Boom Boom}....bring on the dancing girls, acrobats and circus clowns....lol

[eighthobstruction]

I wrote a sci-fi novel during lock down. It's currently with my editor and I hope to publish around the start of March (coinciding with my birthday). It's entitled "The Ventos Conspiracy" and is about 110000 words long. I've already started the sequel...

...ah not just interested in snails then [did you sneak a few snail references into it??}....well done

[jayne lee wilson]

I just remembered that I used to think to myself that, at a certain point in my life, I should if possible take a year out of my other activities and write a novel, something I then did have a chance to do during 2020-21, although I'd abandoned the idea some time previously, because actually there's no reason to expect I'd be able to just sit down and start writing, any more than a music enthusiast with no experience of musical composition could just sit down and write a symphony or record an album of songs, and expect it to be anything but a beginner effort. Unless of course one is a celebrity and can afford to hire accomplished "assistants".

As it happens I just finished a book (my second), it isn't a work of fiction but I would argue that it is an example of "creative writing". I say I've finished it, but there's still proofreading to go, plus constructing the index (with novelists generally don't have to think about, Alasdair Gary's Lanark being an amusing exception), designing the cover and getting some blurbs to put on the back. Mind you I do like that whole process.

But many debut novels are pretty good, aren't they? (Zadie Smith, Salinger, Arundhati Roy, DBC Pierre...Quite a long list....)....often precisely because they don't follow any supposed rules of "creative writing" and so on....

They may supposedly be "technically flawed" sometimes, but often that's part of their attraction...(like some early music opuses)...

[Jonathan]

...ah not just interested in snails then [did you sneak a few snail references into it??}....well done

Thanks very much! You are quite right, it's not just conchology! Yes, there may be a few references to molluscs in the book (e.g. The main character's ship might be called The Cowrie)...

[JasonPalmer]

I did have a publisher interested in a story I wrote about a green dystopia, think horses,bicycles and people boasting on social media about how green they are. I never made it beyond making it a short story but I later discovered that Hemingway started by publishing short stories and poems. I kind of like short stories, many a Netflix series was a good idea for a film but stretched out to fill in many episodes.

[RichardB]

But many debut novels are pretty good, aren't they? (Zadie Smith, Salinger, Arundhati Roy, DBC Pierre...Quite a long list....)

It's true. But most of these, all except Pierre I think, were involved in some kind of literary activity before writing their first novel, during which the necessary skills were being developed. Whenever I think for example of writing realistic dialogue, it becomes clear to me how much of a learning curve that would involve! - although no doubt there are many who can just do it without difficulty.

[JasonPalmer]

It's true. But most of these, all except Pierre I think, were involved in some kind of literary activity before writing their first novel, during which the necessary skills were being developed. Whenever I think for example of writing realistic dialogue, it becomes clear to me how much of a learning curve that would involve! - although no doubt there are many who can just do it without difficulty.

I suspect it's a craft you have to work at....

[jayne lee wilson]

It's true. But most of these, all except Pierre I think, were involved in some kind of literary activity before writing their first novel, during which the necessary skills were being developed. Whenever I think for example of writing realistic dialogue, it becomes clear to me how much of a learning curve that would involve! - although no doubt there are many who can just do it without difficulty.

Point taken of course.... you said...
"there's no reason to expect I'd be able to just sit down and start writing..."

But that's really the only way to do it, isn't it? If you want to "learn how to write" , just....start writing....and keep going..

(PS... reading as widely as possible, of course...good first principle? Try saying as much as possible with as few words as possible; the poetic principle: what can you leave out?)

Dialogue? The more you remember, the better you edit, and the less you falsify when you write it down....

[RichardB]

But that's really the only way to do it, isn't it? If you want to "learn how to write" , just....start writing....and keep going..

Quite. But starting with a novel is perhaps not the best way to go, just as it's very unlikely that someone who decides in later life to try their hand at composing is going to make an hour-long symphony for large orchestra their first ever work.

I've probably mentioned this before, but a friend of mine once remarked that the way to write the perfect novel would be to write a novel of 600 pages, then discard the first 200 and last 200 pages. Ever since I've found that a beautiful idea (and not just applicable to novels of course). Depends on what you think of as the perfect novel though, of course.