So… I admit it. I, with my 305 page first draft of a novel, which I have edited and rewritten and tweaked, yes, I thought my work was likely the most complete and most compelling of the writing that we would encounter in the novel writing workshop.
But the third sample arrived from another group member last night, and I just finished reading it.
It. Is. Awesome. It reads like a warped cyberpunk version of Kurt Vonnegut on acid. It is a wild ride through a world far more alien and bizarre than mine. It’s sixteen pages that shock, amuse, alarm and engage you. I hesitate to say it, but it stinks of genius.
I am truly humbled.
6 users commented in " The value of humility "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThe problem with such writing is that it is difficult to continue for any length and, frequently, is even more difficult to read for any great length.
There’s a reason why Patterson and L’Lamour and suchlike sold so many and have such lasting popularity…
Yeah, I’m not sure how commercially viable his writing style is, but I had a hell of a good time reading it. Made my stuff look downright stuffy and boring. To use an analogy from the art world, my writing is like a traditional naturalist painting where his is like a modern art impressionist painting. He does some bizarre things with words, but most of the time it works. One short example, at one point in the story he’s got some kids shagging balls in a little league ballpark. The batter hits one toward a character. He describes the event something like: “Jimmy let the ball pass like a high school diploma.” I laughed out loud.
When Jack Niklaus first hit the PGA tour someone asked an old legendary golfer (I think it was Bobby Jones) to analyze Jack’s approach to the games, and the old golfer demurred saying “He plays a game with which I am not familiar.”
That’s how I felt reading his work.
I encountered such artistic people in one of the drawing classes I took many years ago. They could do things with lines, light, and texture on paper that were quite literally awe inspiring. They humbled me and made me realize I might be ‘good’ but still a far cry from great, and most definitely not artistically gifted. I think my experience in that drawing class is basically why I’ve avoided additional classes/training since.
But that’s just stupid. We really need to let ourselves suck – or be less than great – at something for a time before we can become really good at it. My painting class starts in October and I’m pre-emptively telling myself it may not be an entirely satisfying experience, that I may not be very good at painting right out of the chute, and that I need to give myself time to learn the craft of painting. I’m so hard on myself I fear if this painting class goes bad I may never lift a brush again.
I need to learn to be patient with myself…
You give a good example. For me, however, it is an example of how NOT to write. As a reader, I would come across such a passage and think “this writer is … (fill in the blank)”
Such a style tends to draw attention to the writer than the story. And, unless your goal is for your writings to be taught in schools rather than be purchased at the check-out, then it is to be avoided like the plague – or reserved for short stories and poetry.
When a particular turn of phrase pleases the writer, makes that writer well up with pleasure in the writing, causes that writer to feel that the passage may be the best thing he’s ever written, THAT is the passage which must be viewed with great suspicion, for, it may be that which the writer believes it to be – or it may be simply a pretentious artsy piece of self-important crapola.
Perhaps so, and I am looking forward to next Monday night when we go over his submission as a group. The example I gave is probably not as engaging out of the context of his whole chapter. To me it works. However, there are a few times that his similes feel sort of forced, like he really didn’t have something clever, but felt like he had to put something there to keep the flow going. I have marked those and will give him that feedback.
It is interesting that my first thought upon completing his chapter was that it would make an excellent short story.
The author, fwiw, is a call center worker who says he writes mostly at his desk while between calls. Or during calls, who knows…
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