To write Shit or Art?
'The truth is like a lion; you don't have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself.' St. Augustine--
Kobenhavn breakfastSomething has just pissed me off lately. And yes, I'm writing this straight from the heart. If I make mistakes, live with it or 'piss off!'
I've been struggling with formula writing, the popular novel. I grew up with Faulkner, Joyce, Le Quin, Blixen (Dinesen), Durrell. I don't want to write that cardboard crap I see out there. FB is full of the 'writers' cranking out 10,000 words a day! A fricking day! Is there one word of beauty, truth, or love in all their books? I doubt it. But holy crap, they know the formula.
I think every writer has to decide what they write, on which side of the line they stand. Do you write 'grab 'em the collar and slam 'em to the desk commercial clone books, or do you strive to show beauty, reveal a truth? Do you work to be a modern Melville, who wrote possibly the greatest American novel ever written, yet had to go back to work in the custom house because it did so poorly in sales? But it will forever be dissected and taught in English classes. Or do you want to be Grisham, who, due to the success of his formula novels, was able to pay for the restoration of the Faulkner library? One got the Nobel prize. The other the $ales.
Writers, however, want to be read. I want to be read. But maybe that is why my books sell poorly. I am unable to concentrate on formula. Durrell calls, saying, leave the formula, write art. And maybe that is why some reviewers want to beat me with a hammer: I depart from the tried and true a million fricking times formula. Readers want to be lulled into the fictive realm. They don't want to think. Heaven forbid.
The answer, I believe, is to study the craft. Know the formula and work within it. Give a great read, but strive to create character development as never done before. Paint scenes brilliantly with few words, but shocking clarity. Refine the system. Choose art, but work within the formula.
Kobenhavn breakfastSomething has just pissed me off lately. And yes, I'm writing this straight from the heart. If I make mistakes, live with it or 'piss off!' I've been struggling with formula writing, the popular novel. I grew up with Faulkner, Joyce, Le Quin, Blixen (Dinesen), Durrell. I don't want to write that cardboard crap I see out there. FB is full of the 'writers' cranking out 10,000 words a day! A fricking day! Is there one word of beauty, truth, or love in all their books? I doubt it. But holy crap, they know the formula.
I think every writer has to decide what they write, on which side of the line they stand. Do you write 'grab 'em the collar and slam 'em to the desk commercial clone books, or do you strive to show beauty, reveal a truth? Do you work to be a modern Melville, who wrote possibly the greatest American novel ever written, yet had to go back to work in the custom house because it did so poorly in sales? But it will forever be dissected and taught in English classes. Or do you want to be Grisham, who, due to the success of his formula novels, was able to pay for the restoration of the Faulkner library? One got the Nobel prize. The other the $ales.
Writers, however, want to be read. I want to be read. But maybe that is why my books sell poorly. I am unable to concentrate on formula. Durrell calls, saying, leave the formula, write art. And maybe that is why some reviewers want to beat me with a hammer: I depart from the tried and true a million fricking times formula. Readers want to be lulled into the fictive realm. They don't want to think. Heaven forbid.
The answer, I believe, is to study the craft. Know the formula and work within it. Give a great read, but strive to create character development as never done before. Paint scenes brilliantly with few words, but shocking clarity. Refine the system. Choose art, but work within the formula.
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