The writer’s only responsibility is to his art. He will be completely ruthless if he is a good one. He has a dream. It anguishes him so much he must get rid of it. He has no peace until then. Everything goes by the board: honor, pride, decency, security, happiness, all, to get the book written. If a writer has to rob his mother, he will not hesitate; the “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is worth any number of old ladies.
An artist is a creature driven by demons. He doesn’t know why they choose him and he’s usually too busy to wonder why. He is completely amoral in that he will rob, borrow, beg, or steal from anybody and everybody to get the work done.
My own experience has been that the tools I need for my trade are paper, tobacco, food, and a little whiskey.
Writing is - Ninety-nine percent talent . . . ninety-nine percent discipline . . . ninety-nine percent work. ”
I guess you can’t do better than that.
This is part of an interview that took place in New York City, early in 1956.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Love 'em or hate 'em
Publishers get a lot of bad press – from writers, but where would we be without them?
Self Publishing
Way back when, when I was younger and even more foolish, I tried self-publishing – it seemed like a good idea at the time and the road to riches. I mean, the writing part was relatively easy, so how hard could selling be?
Don’t do it! Don’t touch it unless you have nothing else to do but promote your books and cold call every bookstore and chain from coast to coast. And even if you do sell them, there’s no guarantee you won’t get most of them back. You see there are damnable things called “returns”, which means if the bookstore doesn’t sell your babies in a reasonable period of time – reasonable to them, that is – they’re going to send them back and you’re going to write them a cheque, and your garage will be full of books no one wants.
There are vanity publishers out there, hundreds of them...most are honest and some who just want your money. But nevertheless, take my advice and go the regular route: find an agent, or find a commercial publisher; that way you can put your car in the garage overnight.
Take heed! Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) knew all about it back in his day when he wrote. “There are men who will make you books and turn ‘em loose into the world with as much dispatch as they would do a dish of fritters.”
Don’t do it! Don’t touch it unless you have nothing else to do but promote your books and cold call every bookstore and chain from coast to coast. And even if you do sell them, there’s no guarantee you won’t get most of them back. You see there are damnable things called “returns”, which means if the bookstore doesn’t sell your babies in a reasonable period of time – reasonable to them, that is – they’re going to send them back and you’re going to write them a cheque, and your garage will be full of books no one wants.
There are vanity publishers out there, hundreds of them...most are honest and some who just want your money. But nevertheless, take my advice and go the regular route: find an agent, or find a commercial publisher; that way you can put your car in the garage overnight.
Take heed! Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) knew all about it back in his day when he wrote. “There are men who will make you books and turn ‘em loose into the world with as much dispatch as they would do a dish of fritters.”
Publishers, God bless 'em
“Now Barabbas was a publisher.” (Thomas Campbell 1777-1844), and often wrongly attributed to Lord Byron. Which probably explains why he ended up where he did – Barabbas, not Byron.
But that’s beside the point. According to “Notes and Queries” there was a famous incident when Napoleon ordered the execution of Johann Palm, a German publisher who had been printing subversive pamphlets. Later, at an authors’ dinner, Campbell gave the toast, “To Napoleon!” Consternation reigned. Campbell went on, “I agree with you that Napoleon is a tyrant, a monster, the sworn foe of our nation. But, gentlemen – he once shot a publisher!”
But that’s beside the point. According to “Notes and Queries” there was a famous incident when Napoleon ordered the execution of Johann Palm, a German publisher who had been printing subversive pamphlets. Later, at an authors’ dinner, Campbell gave the toast, “To Napoleon!” Consternation reigned. Campbell went on, “I agree with you that Napoleon is a tyrant, a monster, the sworn foe of our nation. But, gentlemen – he once shot a publisher!”
Word Power
Every agent and editor has the power to reject your writing. But only you have the power to be, or not to be a writer.
Dementia Novella
Dementia Novella: The symptoms are a wholly irrational urge to get into print; so says the literary agent Frensic in Tom Sharpe’s “The Great Pursuit”. If that was true in 1977 when the book was published, how the disease has spread. It has assumed plague proportions that threaten the survival of the dedicated writer of fiction who might actually have produced something worth reading. No longer can you approach an agent or publisher with some expectation of at the least getting a hearing and a promise to read your offering: more likely you’ll get a polite form reply wishing you better luck elsewhere, or else be ignored.
I don’t blame the agents or publishers. I blame the disease that can be contracted by touching a PC or Mac with a word processor installed. Unfortunately, unless there is a massive worldwide power failure and writers are forced back to the dark ages of manual typewriters, I see no cure. The literary world is doomed to the continuing spread of this dementia.
I don’t blame the agents or publishers. I blame the disease that can be contracted by touching a PC or Mac with a word processor installed. Unfortunately, unless there is a massive worldwide power failure and writers are forced back to the dark ages of manual typewriters, I see no cure. The literary world is doomed to the continuing spread of this dementia.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
A few writers on writing
The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who write know anything.
Walter Bagshot 1826-1877
A man starts upon a sudden, takes Pen, Ink, and Paper, and without ever having had a thought of it before, resolves within himself he will write a Book; he has no Talent of Writing, but wants fifty Guineas.
Jean de Bruyère 1646-1696
(Sounds to me as if they’d both have agreed with the theory of the 99%! And fifty guineas for a first book, in those days? Wow!)
Literary success of any enduring kind is made by refusing to do what publishers want, by refusing to write what the public wants, by refusing to accept any popular standard, by refusing to write anything to order.
Lafcadio Hearn 1850-1904
There is only one trait that marks the writer. He is always watching. It’s a kind of trick of the mind and he is born with it. (And I’m sure he meant to include ‘she’)
Morley Callaghan 1903-1990
Almost anyone can be an author; the business is to collect money and fame from this state of being.
A.A.Milne 1882-1956
Writing is one of the few professions left where you take all the responsibility for what you do. It’s really dangerous and ultimately destroys you as a writer if you start thinking about responses to your work or what your audience needs.
Erica Jong
This is what I find most encouraging about the writing trades: They allow mediocre people who are patient and industrious to revise their stupidity, to edit themselves into something like intelligence. They also allow lunatics to seem saner than sane.
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
If you want to get rich from writing, write the sort of thing that’s read by persons who move their lips when they’re reading to themselves.
Don Marquis
(The trouble with that theory is most of those people now watch reality TV or play video games)
Writing is easy; all you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until the drops of blood form on your forehead.
Gene Fowler 1890-1960
(Maybe he should have tried something else)
And maybe the dreamers and wannabees should take note from Sean O’Casey (1880-1964) when he said that when he stepped from hard manual work to writing, he just stepped from one kind of hard work to another. Let’s face it, writing for money is a job.
Of course Benjamin Disraeli probably blabbed our innermost secret when he wrote, “When I want to read a good book, I write one.”
One last thought, from Papa Hemingway – The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in shock-proof shit-detector.
Walter Bagshot 1826-1877
A man starts upon a sudden, takes Pen, Ink, and Paper, and without ever having had a thought of it before, resolves within himself he will write a Book; he has no Talent of Writing, but wants fifty Guineas.
Jean de Bruyère 1646-1696
(Sounds to me as if they’d both have agreed with the theory of the 99%! And fifty guineas for a first book, in those days? Wow!)
Literary success of any enduring kind is made by refusing to do what publishers want, by refusing to write what the public wants, by refusing to accept any popular standard, by refusing to write anything to order.
Lafcadio Hearn 1850-1904
There is only one trait that marks the writer. He is always watching. It’s a kind of trick of the mind and he is born with it. (And I’m sure he meant to include ‘she’)
Morley Callaghan 1903-1990
Almost anyone can be an author; the business is to collect money and fame from this state of being.
A.A.Milne 1882-1956
Writing is one of the few professions left where you take all the responsibility for what you do. It’s really dangerous and ultimately destroys you as a writer if you start thinking about responses to your work or what your audience needs.
Erica Jong
This is what I find most encouraging about the writing trades: They allow mediocre people who are patient and industrious to revise their stupidity, to edit themselves into something like intelligence. They also allow lunatics to seem saner than sane.
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
If you want to get rich from writing, write the sort of thing that’s read by persons who move their lips when they’re reading to themselves.
Don Marquis
(The trouble with that theory is most of those people now watch reality TV or play video games)
Writing is easy; all you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until the drops of blood form on your forehead.
Gene Fowler 1890-1960
(Maybe he should have tried something else)
And maybe the dreamers and wannabees should take note from Sean O’Casey (1880-1964) when he said that when he stepped from hard manual work to writing, he just stepped from one kind of hard work to another. Let’s face it, writing for money is a job.
Of course Benjamin Disraeli probably blabbed our innermost secret when he wrote, “When I want to read a good book, I write one.”
One last thought, from Papa Hemingway – The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in shock-proof shit-detector.
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