Writing - craft or art or both?
I keep hearing:
"Everything about writing is a question of personal taste so nobody can say 'one piece of writing is better than another'.
Nope, sorry. Don't believe that one little bit. That's why we progress from Primary Reading Books (Janet and John visit the farm sort of thing) and primary school compositions "Yesterday we went on a picknic my mum and dad said we could go swimming and then it rained so we went home"... to... other things.
And there are MANY other things we can go on to, both reading and writing: from the highly literary to the more simple offerings. And I'm not saying any of them are bad or better than any other genre. But for writing to be 'sound' (let's avoid the word 'good'), you still need CRAFT.
Then I remembered a book I read about a year ago that puts all this really well. It's "Write Away" by Elizabeth George. She writes cop thrillers, and is highly popular. I've sort of got bored by her stuff but that's another story, but this is interesting and puts it all better than I ever could.
"I've long believed that there are two distinct but equally important halves to the writing process: one of these is related to art; the other is related to craft. Obviously, art cannot be taught (...) but it's ludicrous to suggest and short-sighted to believe that the fundamentals of fiction can't be part of one's education. (...) Those who argue that writing can't be taught would probably be the first to agree that the basic principles of sculpture, oil painting, watercolour, musical composition, etc. ought to be dipped into before someone thinks herself a master...
Pure craft will not make someone Shakespeare. But it can and will serve as a guide, as the soil into which a budding writer can plant the seed of her idea in order to nurture it into a story. (...) A thorough knowledge of the tools of our trade is what gives us something to turn to when we run into difficulties. Without this knowledge, we are at the mercy of a Muse who may turn fickle at the very moment when we're desperately depending upon her fidelity. Craft won't solve every problem a writer runs into during the creation of a piece. But it wll eliminate a score of difficulties that the unschooled writer faces without it."
I liked trying to pass on some basics from what I've learned about the 'craft' over 25 years in editing, translating, etc. although I don't consider myself the perfect teacher or editor either.
"Everything about writing is a question of personal taste so nobody can say 'one piece of writing is better than another'.
Nope, sorry. Don't believe that one little bit. That's why we progress from Primary Reading Books (Janet and John visit the farm sort of thing) and primary school compositions "Yesterday we went on a picknic my mum and dad said we could go swimming and then it rained so we went home"... to... other things.
And there are MANY other things we can go on to, both reading and writing: from the highly literary to the more simple offerings. And I'm not saying any of them are bad or better than any other genre. But for writing to be 'sound' (let's avoid the word 'good'), you still need CRAFT.
Then I remembered a book I read about a year ago that puts all this really well. It's "Write Away" by Elizabeth George. She writes cop thrillers, and is highly popular. I've sort of got bored by her stuff but that's another story, but this is interesting and puts it all better than I ever could.
"I've long believed that there are two distinct but equally important halves to the writing process: one of these is related to art; the other is related to craft. Obviously, art cannot be taught (...) but it's ludicrous to suggest and short-sighted to believe that the fundamentals of fiction can't be part of one's education. (...) Those who argue that writing can't be taught would probably be the first to agree that the basic principles of sculpture, oil painting, watercolour, musical composition, etc. ought to be dipped into before someone thinks herself a master...
Pure craft will not make someone Shakespeare. But it can and will serve as a guide, as the soil into which a budding writer can plant the seed of her idea in order to nurture it into a story. (...) A thorough knowledge of the tools of our trade is what gives us something to turn to when we run into difficulties. Without this knowledge, we are at the mercy of a Muse who may turn fickle at the very moment when we're desperately depending upon her fidelity. Craft won't solve every problem a writer runs into during the creation of a piece. But it wll eliminate a score of difficulties that the unschooled writer faces without it."
I liked trying to pass on some basics from what I've learned about the 'craft' over 25 years in editing, translating, etc. although I don't consider myself the perfect teacher or editor either.