In a recent post on his blog, Mark Charan Newton linked to an essay on writing manuals by Richard Bausch published in the Atlantic, “How to Write in 700 Easy Lessons“.

Bausch deplores them, and justifiably so given his experience with an unnamed how-to publisher and would-be student writers who fail to read. And this is the main thrust of his argument: many people seem to use these guides as ends in themselves rather than studying actual works of literature. It’s a fair point.

That said, I read Stephen King’s On Writing over the weekend, and I rather enjoyed it (even the parts where I groaned, however clichéd,  in horror and disgust).⁽¹⁾ It’s a great read, though my favourite in the literary memoir genre is Pierre Berton’s The Joy of Writing. Prior to reading this I didn’t realize how funny he could be.⁽²⁾  Joy is also immensely informative. I pulled it off the shelf again while writing this and have now become sucked into re-reading it, for sheer pleasure.

Both of these books offer insight into how they got started – not just in writing, but in life. Both are filled with lots of practical advice, with examples. And both encourage aspiring writers to read. A lot.⁽³⁾ Continue reading »

Footnotes:

1. Should I be surprised at how graphically King can render such images? Probably not, but I haven’t read King since I was a teenager. Reading this makes me want to read him again. [↩]
2. Then I saw him smoke a joint on Rick Mercer. [↩]
3. I was pleased to see I read more than Stephen King, who only manages 50-70 books a year. I totally beat that. [↩]

plutopsyche:
“Whoever best
describes
the problem
is the one most
likely
to solve it.”
–Dan Roam

jesus:
Ponies for everyone!

(You can tell it’s a poem by the line breaks.)

I haven’t done well with updating the blog about the book club a friend and I started since the first meeting.

A brief survey of what we’ve read since: Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient (we loved it), Robertson Davies’ The Rebel Angels (excellent), Guy Gavriel Kay’s The Summer Tree (well liked, but I felt it over-rated), Kurt Vonnegut’s Timequake (I loved it, but this had our lowest attendance), E.M. Forster’s A Room With a View (not universally loved), Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita (adored and it made for great discussion).

These summaries are necessarily brief, but we’ll see about doing more complete write-ups of what we’re reading. ⁽¹⁾

Alice Munro’s Too Much Happiness: Stories was our latest book club pick. I’d not read anything by her before, but since reading this I’ve picked up more. I love her style, perhaps because she scares me.

As advertised, she’s an amazing writer who, with but a few sentences, can capture the essence of an entire relationship. Witness this scene from “Deep-Holes”: Continue reading »

Footnotes:

1. For the nerds interested in what I’ve been reading, I keep a list here. [↩]