Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 56

'Where I'm going; not how to get there'

 

“Myadvice would be not to write until after 35. You need some experience, and forlife to knock you about a bit. Growing up is so hard you probably won't havemuch emotion to spare anyway.” – Joanna Trollop

 

Bornin Gloucestershire, England on this date in 1943, Trollope (who often haswritten under the pseudonym Caroline Harvey) started her writing career at age37 and with a bang.  Her firstnovel Parson Harding's Daughter was named the 1980 Romantic Novelof the Year by the Romantic Novelists' Association.

Since then she’s authored three dozen books, several of which have been adapted fortelevision, especially on the award-winning PBS Series “Masterpiece Theater.”  Her“upmarket” family dramas and romances tend to transcend these two genres, andshe’s noted for writing with “striking realism,” especially in terms of humanpsychology and relationships.   Hermost recent book is the bestseller Mum and Dad.

“I plot the first 5 or 6 chapters quite minutely, and also the end.  So, I knowwhere I am going but not how I'm going to get there,” shesaid.  “That gives (my) characters the chance to develop organically,just as happens in real life as you get to know a person.”

 

A Writer's Moment: 'Where I'm going; not how to get there'

A Writer's Moment: 'Where I'm going; not how to get there':   “My advice would be not to write until after 35. You need some experience, and for life to knock you about a bit. Growing up is so hard yo...

A Writer's Moment: 'It just needs editing'

A Writer's Moment: 'It just needs editing':   “Poetry is everywhere.    It just needs editing.”– James Tate   Born in Kansas City, MO on Dec. 8, 1943 Tate grew up hoping to become...

'It just needs editing'

 

“Poetryis everywhere.   It just needs editing.”–James Tate

 

Bornin Kansas City, MO on Dec. 8, 1943 Tate grew up hoping to become a gas stationattendant.  After struggling in highschool and overcoming being in a gang, he fell in love with writing whiletaking college classes on a dare.

  

Ultimatelyhe earned three college degrees, taught poetry and creative writing in severalmajor colleges, and became one of America’s greatest poets, winning both thePulitzer Prize and the American Book Award.    He authored 16 books of poetry and 30 booksaltogether before his death from cancer in 2015.   For Saturday’s Poem, here is Tate’s,

 

                                         Teaching The Ape ToWrite Poems

                                                   They didn’t have much trouble

                                                   Teaching the ape to write poems:

                                                   First they strapped him into the chair,

                                                   Then tied the pencil around his hand

                                                    (The paper had already been nailed down).

                                                    Then Dr. Bluespire leaned over his shoulder

                                                    And Whispered into his ear:

                                                   “You look like a god sitting there.

 

                                                     Why don’t you try writing something?”

Loving the 'conversation' between writer and reader

“Thecraft of writing is all the stuff that you can learn through school; go toworkshops and read books. Learn characterization, plot and dialogue and pacingand word choice and point of view. Then there's also the art of it which issort of the unknown, the inspiration, the stuff that is noncerebral.” –Garth Stein

 

Bornin Los Angeles on this date in 1964, Stein is the author of The Art ofRacing in the Rain, which has sold more than 4 million copies in 35languages, and spent more than three years on the New York Timesbestseller list.    

 

Stein’scareer actually began in films where he was a documentary filmmaker directing, 
editing and/or producing several award-winning films, including TheLunch Date and The Last Party.   

 

Alsoco-founder of the nonprofit Seattle7Writers – dedicated to energizing readers and writersand their communities by providing funding, programming and donations of free books– he has written several novels and children’s books as well as more screenplays.  His latest novel is A Sudden Light.

 

“I'ma writer because I love reading,” he said.  “I love the conversation between a reader anda writer, and that it all takes place in a book – sort of a neutral ground.  A writer puts down the words, and a readerinterprets the words, and every reader will read a book differently. I lovethat.”

A Writer's Moment: Loving the 'conversation' between writer and reader

A Writer's Moment: Loving the 'conversation' between writer and reader: “The craft of writing is all the stuff that you can learn through school; go to workshops and read books. Learn characterization, plot and d...

It's 'the texture of the thing'

 

“What'sso hard about that first sentence is that you're stuck with it. Everything elseis going to flow out of that sentence. And by the time you've laid down thefirst two sentences, your options are all gone.” –Joan Didion

 

Bornin California on this date in 1934, Didion said writing was not on her radarscreen in her early years.  “I didn’t want to be a writer,” shesaid.  “I wanted to be an actress.  I didn’t realize thenthat it’s the same impulse.  It’s make-believe.  It’sperformance.“

As a senior at UC-Berkeley she entered an essay-writing contest for Vogue magazine(on a dare) and won the national top award – a job after graduation at themagazine.  In just two years at Vogue,she worked her way up from promotional copywriter to associate feature editor,and wrote her first novel, Run, River, published in 1963.

 

Shemarried writer John Gregory Dunne.  She and Dunne co-wrote a numberof screenplays, including an adaptation of her novel Play It As It Lays andthe biography of journalist Jessica Savitch Up Close & Personal.   Didion’s novel A Book of CommonPrayer was widely lauded, but her most celebrated work was herheart-wrenching The Year of Magical Thinking, which won theNational Book Award and chronicled the year of her husband’s death anddaughter’s battle with cancer.

 

Didion,who died in 2021, said she enjoyed writing nonfiction and fiction both.  “Writing nonfiction,” she said, “is more likesculpture, a matter of shaping the research into the finished thing.  Novels are like paintings, specificallywatercolors. Every stroke you put down you have to go with. Of course you canrewrite, but the original strokes are still there in the texture of the thing.”

A Writer's Moment: It's 'the texture of the thing'

A Writer's Moment: It's 'the texture of the thing':   “What's so hard about that first sentence is that you're stuck with it. Everything else is going to flow out of that sentence. And...

'The lives it illuminates'

 

“Ithink a biography is only as interesting as the lives and times itilluminates.” – A. Scott Berg

 

Bornin Connecticut on this date in 1949, Berg is one of our premier biographers writingon the lives of Samuel Goldwyn, the founder of MGM; aviator Charles Lindbergh;actress Katherine Hepburn, and President Woodrow Wilson – his most recentbook.  He’s currently researching for abook on Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

 

Whilestudying at Princeton, Berg got into writing biographies by expanding on his seniorthesis about Maxwell Perkins, the Scribner’s editor for both F. ScottFitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway.  The resulting book, Max Perkins:Editor of Genius, won a National Book Award and was adapted into the movie“Genius.”  A close friend of Hepburn, he wrote Kate Remembered as abiography-cum-memoir about both their friendship and Hepburn’s acting career.

 

Bergsaid he set a goal at age 22 to write “a series of biographies about great20th Century American cultural figures from different parts ofthe country.”   So far, he’s done 5 – one about every 8-10years.  

 

 “I am a compulsive worker,” hesaid.   “But I'm also a compulsive relaxer.”

A Writer's Moment: 'The lives it illuminates'

A Writer's Moment: 'The lives it illuminates':   “I think a biography is only as interesting as the lives and times it illuminates.”  – A. Scott Berg   Born in Connecticut on this dat...