The other day, Margie Clayman asked a question that she may have asked just to provoke me. She won’t say. She asked, “Does good writing still matter?” I know she and I both think good writing matters, but what, exactly, is good writing?
Writing Life
Talent Won’t Get You Very Far
I may have some talent, but it won’t get me very far. It might open doors. It might not. The world can be a fickle place, and it’s true that there are many, many people who are more talented than I. If, then, talent isn’t enough to get me very far, what is?
The Curiosity Gap
One reason I recommend writers start en media res, that is, “in the middle of things,” is that it creates a curiosity gap. Readers want to know what led to the middle in which they find themselves. They want to know what happens next. It may be a ploy to capture attention, but it’s one that works without fail. I know; I’m the person caught in the aisle at Half Price Books reading the first chapter in a book because it piqued my curiosity.
This is What an Editor Does
And now, because I missed the deer whole, I want to cut back the honeysuckle – just enough to see I think. See through.
To more?
To beyond and not here?
I am thinking that cutting can shift a thing – release a space, be a new pattern laid.
That clearing a space is like crafting a question.
Lia Purpura, On Looking
The Better You Get
The better you get the more it hurts. In the case of CrossFit, it hurts more because you’re doing the movements correctly. The bar – even if it’s weighted PVC initially – stays as close to your body as possible. You learn to keep your weight planted in your heels and to use a hook grip. You focus on the form that will produce the most energy not so that you can lift the bar but so that you can get underneath it before gravity has its way. You begin to focus on not only form and power but also speed and mobility.
7 Thoughts on How to Write a Book
If I were to ask Ernest Hemingway how to write a book, I believe he’d scoff and say something about letting the words bleed onto the page. I’m no Hemingway, but I can understand his mindset: there is no right or wrong way to write a book. There is just the process of getting the words onto the page.