Writer's Couch

[meg_evonne]

Ever wonder what writers you might be similar too?  I'm not talking style here, but how the rules other author's feel are most important that might be similar to your own?

So here is your challenge--
(yes these are limited names and many are English writers, but it's still intriguing to match up with them and then see what the author writes)

• Visit http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/20/ten-rules-for-writing-fiction-part-one
  http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/20/10-rules-for-writing-fiction-part-two
  
• Read and highlight the rules you know are part of your writing philosophies or practices.  Then tell us which writers you seem to match up with and let us know so we can get a glimpse into your mind.

• Or if you like just cut and paste your favorite ones in this thread.

I'll wait and post mine later!









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[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

I am the anti-Elmore Leonard, because I am not interested in either reading (or writing) to be told a story in transparent prose, I want the experience of the words.

[LizW65]

This one:
AL Kennedy

1 Have humility. Older/more ­experienced/more convincing writers may offer rules and varieties of advice. ­Consider what they say. However, don't automatically give them charge of your brain, or anything else – they might be bitter, twisted, burned-out, manipulative, or just not very like you.

2 Have more humility. Remember you don't know the limits of your own abilities. Successful or not, if you keep pushing beyond yourself, you will enrich your own life – and maybe even please a few strangers.

3 Defend others. You can, of course, steal stories and attributes from family and friends, fill in filecards after lovemaking and so forth. It might be better to celebrate those you love – and love itself – by writing in such a way that everyone keeps their privacy and dignity intact.

4 Defend your work. Organisations, institutions and individuals will often think they know best about your work – especially if they are paying you. When you genuinely believe their decisions would damage your work – walk away. Run away. The money doesn't matter that much.

5 Defend yourself. Find out what keeps you happy, motivated and creative.

6 Write. No amount of self-inflicted misery, altered states, black pullovers or being publicly obnoxious will ever add up to your being a writer. Writers write. On you go.

7 Read. As much as you can. As deeply and widely and nourishingly and ­irritatingly as you can. And the good things will make you remember them, so you won't need to take notes.

8 Be without fear. This is impossible, but let the small fears drive your rewriting and set aside the large ones ­until they behave – then use them, maybe even write them. Too much fear and all you'll get is silence.

9 Remember you love writing. It wouldn't be worth it if you didn't. If the love fades, do what you need to and get it back.

10 Remember writing doesn't love you. It doesn't care. Nevertheless, it can behave with remarkable generosity. Speak well of it, encourage others, pass it on.

[Kali]

For the closest match to all 10, I pick the last one:

Jeanette Winterson

1 Turn up for work. Discipline allows creative freedom. No discipline equals no freedom.
Ain't that the truth.  The more I sit down to write, the faster the words flow.  If I take long breaks, coming back feels like trying to start a car when it hasn't been driven in months.

2 Never stop when you are stuck. You may not be able to solve the problem, but turn aside and write something else. Do not stop altogether.
See above.  Stopping = death for my writing ability.  This is why I currently have three or four projects going (depending on how you count).  I got stuck on my Dresden fic, but I never stopped writing.

3 Love what you do.
Well I'm sure as hell not doing it for the money.

4 Be honest with yourself. If you are no good, accept it. If the work you are ­doing is no good, accept it.
This one's hard.  Sometimes I just have to say "Yeah, the reason this story isn't working is because this is all boring.  It sucks.  Give it up.

5 Don't hold on to poor work. If it was bad when it went in the drawer it will be just as bad when it comes out.
This one, I can't quite agree with.  It's true that bad work doesn't magically become good via aging. It's not cheese.  But sometimes what I think is bad is actually quite good, I'm just too close to it to see it.  So letting it sit changes my perspective, if not the work.  And sometimes, bad work contains good ideas that can be recycled.

6 Take no notice of anyone you don't respect.
Amen. 

7 Take no notice of anyone with a ­gender agenda. A lot of men still think that women lack imagination of the fiery kind.
Goes with #6. Anyone with a gender agenda, I don't respect.

8 Be ambitious for the work and not for the reward.
See above regarding loving the work. 

9 Trust your creativity.
I have the most trouble with this one at the start of a piece.  It's been done, it's trite, it's cliche, no one wants to read about this again.  A million reasons not to write, and all of them stem from not trusting my creativity.  Sometimes I get around this by telling myself that I'm just writing for me, for the love telling a story, so it doesn't matter if it's trite, cliche, boring, whatever.  Since no one else is going to read it, I can write free from worrying about what everyone else is going to think. 

10 Enjoy this work!
If I didn't enjoy it, didn't love it, I wouldn't do it.  Even when it's hard, even when it sucks, I still love doing it.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Does strongly believing gender doesn't matter count as a gender agenda ?

[Murphy's Stunt Double]

Yes.

But to be more specific, it would be non-gender agenda.

[meg_evonne]

Yeah, I found myself clicking in with Ian Rankin.  I picked one of his books up this weekend to check out his style. 

Ian Rankin

1 Read lots.
2 Write lots.
3 Learn to be self-critical.
4 Learn what criticism to accept.
5 Be persistent.
6 Have a story worth telling.
7 Don't give up.
8 Know the market.
9 Get lucky.
10 Stay lucky.

Although Joyce Carol Oates #2 rang deep inside me....Don't try to anticipate an "ideal reader" – except for yourself perhaps, sometime in the future.

And I loved her gnarled, snarled and "obscure" line... I'd prefer with out the "'s

[Yeratel]

I like Neil Gaiman, but I also appreciate brevity, so Ian Rankin works for me, too.

[LizW65]

I don't recall which one said it, but "stop reading fiction" has to count as the most idiotic piece of "advice" I've read in a long, long time.

[meg_evonne]

I saw that too!  Wasn't it worded strangely? (not a good sign for a writer huh?) I think it said TOO read, but if you are writing in the genre of mystery, sci fi, or romance that you shouldn't read those at the time?  It was a head scratcher for me too.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

I saw that too!  Wasn't it worded strangely? (not a good sign for a writer huh?) I think it said TOO read, but if you are writing in the genre of mystery, sci fi, or romance that you shouldn't read those at the time?  It was a head scratcher for me too.

I can see the point of "do not read something that is so very like what you are working on right now that it might be infectious", but not really beyond that. I can also see the point of "don;t just read fiction in your area or you work will be derivative", but that's as far as I get on positive reads on that.

[ZDP189]

If you're reading instead of writing, then stop reading. If you're researching instead of writing, then stop researching.

"Do not read fiction," also echoes something Vonnegut once said. (Vonnegut? I wanna say Vonnegut... It was in that essay he wrote calling Ginsburg's "Howl" self-absorbed...) Vonnegut once wrote that he became a writer because he came up through the Chemistry department, rather than the English department. He said if he had started writing in full knowledge of how men like Twain, Dickens and Shakespeare had approached and solved the problems he had, it would have put a cap on his writing before it had even begun.

Sometimes ignorance is a blessing.