Starting from Scratch

Rita Mae Brown, Starting from Scratch. NY: Bantam, 1988.

Subtitled “A Different Kind of Writer’s Manual,” it is definitely different. The first fifth is an admonition to be healthy, because that allows productivity: work requires food, sleep, and exercise! Oh, and learn Latin.

Now to writing. On plots: you’ll want one. Plot comes from character and conflict, e.g. self v self, another, the state, or nature. Those are your choices.

On to the subjunctive. You need it to explore emotions, the connections between character and characters, &c. Well, no, according to the noir authors. That’s (quite literally) immaterial, unobservable, and ultimately unknowable. It can only be “made up”, and thus calls attention to the fiction as fiction and, in effect, destroys the fiction. But it’s also generally the most interesting stuff, where we see the author exposed and learn how others might think. Oh, the conflict (and now we have a plot!).

That Latin mentioned earlier comes in handy for the section on symbolism, because you'll need you some of that, too. Maybe you need the symbols to express the (or a) painful truth honestly. Remember, its not art if you don’t.

Really, what Brown says is all important -- important background training for the trade, right down to her extensive reading list. More useful for one (who feels) ready to write are the exercises, and the short discussions of particular genre approaches for articles, stories, screenplays, and novels. Today’s publishing environment may be even more difficult to enter than what Brown faced, although the Internet does allow some writers to develop the critical audience mass necessary for publisher investment. Yet the book, now nearly twenty years old, is probably most important for autobiographical insight into an interesting author. For Brown, writing is just a (really good) job -- so get to work!

Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. NY: Scribner, 2000. Stephen King, the master of contemporary horror with over 350 million copies of his books in print, is one of the best-selling authors in the world. As such, he clearly has much to say about how to write, right? But, as the subtitle suggests, On Writing is a memoir, not a how-to book. In fact, only about a third of the book actually discusses the craft of writing, and much of that is standard advice: read a lot and write a lot; don't show off the work until after a second draft; write for a specific, personal audience; a second draft should equal the first draft less ten percent; pay attention to Strunk & White's Elements of Style. All of the advice is good, but none of it is new or unique. King readily admits as much. No, what makes On Writing interesting is the personal history King shares. By allowing us to see some of the early influences on his life, King helps us understand his motivations and the sources of his creativity. We also see the long, demanding developmental arch from high-school scribbler to best-seller; the effort King made in pursuit of his career is daunting, but ultimately provides hope. While he states that it is impossible to make a competent writer from a bad one, or a great writer from a good one, he believes it is possible for a competent writer to become good. King's book won't help much with this, but it does offer inspiration and encouragement for those trying to break into the field.