Ask the Author: Michael Botur
Answered Questions (4)
Michael Botur
Hi Sarah, thanks for writing. Let me put it this way: Salman Rushdie once said to me over a warm glass of brandy, "Do you want to be remembered as a conquerer of the small, or an attempter of the mighty?" What Salma, as I called him, was trying to say was that whether you win or lose in the struggle against the man-sized crab, what's important is that you fought a man-sized crab.
Michael Botur
CW courses are useful because they teach you about things you might not have realised were out there. CW courses will introduce you to new authors, to the concepts of how narrative works, and it's incredibly important to get used to critiques from peers and teachers. Those critiques will ingrain a good "bullshit detector" into you so you'll know whether you're writing quality or not.
Michael Botur
Try really hard, write some stuff - then try a little harder. If something is easy to write, then it's not a challenge, and if it's not a challenge, then the end result won't be a complex result. It won't feel valuable unless you put value into it.
Michael Botur
The kernel of most stories is some real-life experience which generated enough feeling to be memorable. For example, labouring in a house that's being renovated, hosing down the concrete floor of a warehouse, attending a dissatisfying educational institute, watching people fighting in public.
You take the kernel, observe the dynamic of the character involved, then let those characters conduct the extreme of their behaviour - extreme violence, extreme lust, extreme self-destruction, extreme care and love.
You take the kernel, observe the dynamic of the character involved, then let those characters conduct the extreme of their behaviour - extreme violence, extreme lust, extreme self-destruction, extreme care and love.
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