Write On!
The ever-helpful trepkos has just lent me another how-to-write book: 'On Writing' by Stephen King. The previous such book I read contained some useful stuff and a lot that annoyed me or that I didn't agree with. So far this one has been incomparably better and I look forward to settling down to a slow, careful read through it (as distinct from the greedy binge-reading of huge chunks that I have done today) and hopefully to learning a lot!
'On Writing' is engaging and very, very funny from the outset - but funny with a serious purpose. And to my immense relief its author is describing a process that is familiar to me. I know what he is talking about. And I really hope that means that I am doing at least something right...
Here are a couple of random things about this book that made me go 'YES!!!' to the extent that the family asked me what I was getting so excited about. I daresay there will be plenty more when I've taken the time to absorb it properly!
'I remember the immense feeling of possibility at the idea [of writing an original story], as if Ihad been ushered into a vast building filled with closed doors and had been given leave to open any I liked. There were more doors than one person could ever open in a life-time, I thought...'
'...good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere... Your job isn't to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up.'
'Your stuff starts out being just for you... and then it goes out. Once you know what the story is and get it right - as right as you can, anyway - it belongs to anyone who wants to read it.'
And then of course there is his premise that writing is really telepathy. Something we seem to be scarily good at in our little community... and he's right, you see the picture in your head and then you try to write it in such a way that your readers will see the same picture, or as near as makes no difference. The hard part is picking out which features are the most important for the purposes of conveying that image...
(And dammit, it's bedtime and I am so in the mood to sit and write now!)