"Fiction is about trouble."
This is quote by author Kent Haruf. His book, Plainsong, is the choice of my town's "One Community, One Book" reading program. Several of my students have been reading it. Haruf visited our school this morning and spent about an hour answering my student's questions.As someone who dabbles in writing, but hasn't ever been really serious, this was a chance to hear a critically acclaimed author of literary fiction discuss his work and the writing process. One thing that impressed me was his work ethic. Writing is hard work. "If you are waiting for inspiration, you'll wait forever." There is no magic moment where the perfect idea comes. Haruf said that rewrites his sentences over and over. Then rewrites the paragraphs and the pages and the chapters. He writes every morning from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM.
When asked what he thought made a good book, he said, "The best fiction is an attempt to say something about the human condition." I like that. I've been thinking -- how does my writing say something about the human condition? What is my understanding of the human condition, for that matter? This is something I will be mulling over for awhile.
posted by Jill Pole @ 2/27/2006
3 Comments:
Hmmm...very cool. That makes me think as well. My favorite writing prof (Chester) always said if you're waiting for inspiration, you'll starve. I hate to admit that I'm a writer who responds to inspiration. I'm trying to work on "writing to write" part myself. I actually picked up 2 different books today at Borders about writing with us in mind. I'll bring them when I come and we can pour over them together...
Oh man, wish I could have been there. I would have loved hearing him speak. I admire authors SOOO much. One of the items on my "things I want to do in life" list is to write a children's book. I can't even manage the inspiration, or whatever it takes, for that!!! Someday I'd like to read some of your serious writing!
I like that thought about writing the human condition too. Obviously, I like some plain old entertainment in fiction as well, but the stuff that sticks with you afterwards is the writing that actually has something to say, or makes a point, even around a fictional setting.
I’m trying to write too, and have posted some of my obviously amateurish attempts at it on my blog. Writing isn’t easy, but I’ve found that the more you do, the more you want to write. Plus I love the rare moments when you’re trying to hammer out a point in a story, you’ve got a bit of writer’s block, then you get an epiphany and you suddenly know exactly what to write. That’s a rare, but great feeling :)
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