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You need never ask a novelist "Do you have any advice for young writers?" at a reading again: thanks to the Guardian, you have all the answers you could possibly choose from. In honor of Elmore Leonard's now-legendary 10 Rules of Writing, which is about to come out as a book in the UK, they asked 28 fiction writers to list their professional pointers (see part one and part two). There's a lot of agreement over doubtless the two most important tips: "Read lots" and "Write lots" (to quote Ian Rankin's versions). There are hits and misses among the lists (Geoff Dyer's is the one to my mind that could deserve its own book, but I also recommend the advice of Anne Enright, Jonathan Franzen, A.L. Kennedy, Colm Toibin, and Sarah Waters), and if you enjoy these things like I do you'll have fun paging through them, but I thought I'd pull together my own top 10 of the top 10s. Unsurprisingly, though, I couldn't keep it to just 10, so here are two top 10s: one on technique, and one on life:
How to Write:
- Don't be one of those writers who sentence themselves to a lifetime of sucking up to Nabokov. (Geoff Dyer)
- Concentrate your narrative energy on the point of change. This is especially important for historical fiction.
When your character is new to a place, or things alter around them,
that's the point to step back and fill in the details of their world.
People don't notice their everyday surroundings and daily routine, so
when writers describe them it can sound as if they're trying too hard
to instruct the reader. (Hilary Mantel) - Lock different characters/elements in a room and tell them to get on. (Andrew Motion)
- Respect the way characters may change once they've got 50 pages of life
in them. Revisit your plan at this stage and see whether certain things
have to be altered to take account of these changes. (Rose Tremain) - Respect your characters, even the Âminor ones. In art, as in life,
everyone is the hero of their own particular story; it is worth
thinking about what your minor characters' stories are, even though
they may intersect only slightly with your protagonist's. (Sarah Waters) - You don't always have to go so far as to murder your darlings "“ those
turns of phrase or images of which you felt extra proud when they
appeared on the page "“ but go back and look at them with a very beady eye.
Almost always it turns out that they'd be better dead. (Not every
little twinge of satisfaction is suspect "“ it's the ones which amount
to a sort of smug glee you must watch out for.) (Diana Athill) - Imagine that you are dying. If you had a terminal disease would you
Âfinish this book? Why not? The thing that annoys this 10-weeks-to-live
self is the thing that is wrong with the book. So change it. Stop
arguing with yourself. Change it. See? Easy. And no one had to die. (Anne Enright) - When information becomes free and universally accessible, voluminous
research for a novel is devalued along with it. (Jonathan Franzen) - Style is the art of getting yourself out of the way, not putting yourself in it. (David Hare)
- Talent trumps all. If you're a Âreally great writer, none of these
rules need apply. If James Baldwin had felt the need to whip up the
pace a bit, he could never have achieved the extended lyrical intensity
of Giovanni's Room. Without "overwritten" prose, we would
have none of the linguistic exuberance of a Dickens or an Angela
Carter. If everyone was economical with their characters, there would
be no Wolf Hall . . . For the rest of us, however, rules
remain important. And, Âcrucially, only by understanding what they're
for and how they work can you begin to experiment with breaking them. (Sarah Waters)
How to Live:
- Are you serious about this? Then get an accountant. (Hilary Mantel)
- The first 12 years are the worst. (Anne Enright)
- You know that sickening feeling of inadequacy and over-exposure you
feel when you look upon your own empurpled prose? Relax into the
awareness that this ghastly sensation will never, ever leave you, no
matter how successful and publicly lauded you become. It is intrinsic
to the real business of writing and should be cherished. (Will Self) - Do back exercises. Pain is distracting. (Margaret Atwood)
- Defend others. You can, of course, steal stories and attributes from
family and friends, fill in filecards after lovemaking and so forth. It
might be better to celebrate those you love "“ and love itself "“ by
writing in such a way that everyone keeps their privacy and dignity
intact. (A.L. Kennedy) - You see more sitting still than chasing after. (Jonathan Franzen)
- If you fear that taking care of your children and household will damage your writing, think of JG Ballard. (Helen Dunmore)
- Have regrets. They are fuel. On the page they flare into desire. (Geoff Dyer)
- No going to London. (Colm Toibin)
- My main rule is to say no to things like this, which tempt me away
from my proper work. (Philip Pullman)
Meanwhile, in response to all these, Laura Miller at Salon has posted five rules for writers from readers (or at least from one reader who reads (or at least starts) many, many books a year). They can be pretty much summed up as "Stop messing around and tell a good story" (which is how you can sum up Leonard's original 10 as well). No doubt that's healthy advice. But I do have to differ with her regretful pox on style:
But whether you write lush or (please!) transparent prose, keep in mind
that in most cases, style is largely a technical matter appreciated by
specialists. You probably don't go to movies to see the lighting and
photography, and most readers don't come to books in search of
breathtaking sentences.
Really? People don't go to movies to see lighting and photography? What are all those people (still!) lining up at Avatar to see? Pretty much "lighting and photography," as far as I can tell. I'm sure they wouldn't be there if there wasn't a story to hang it all on (that's known as a Terrence Malick movie), but sometimes people want to see differently, and style, more than anything, is what makes that happen.
--Tom
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