Sandra Kruse

[SandraKruse]

"The Writing Life" by Annie Dillard (a look at the struggle)

 

How did the book help you as a writer? What overall aspects of it taught you something?

 

It helped me to trust your assignment to rewrite my opening 5000 words in third person. (She is brutal in “killing all her darlings.” The beginning of my book was the oldest part and containing the original idea—I had started it seven years ago, then it lay buried during many hard years. I was overly attached to it as it was. I don’t know if I’ll keep it in third person but the whole enterprise liberated me from what I had written and it is much improved because of it. Annie’s ruthless approach to this was helpful.

 

What two or three major lessons did you learn from the book that you can apply to your writing and/or your novel?

 

1. Well, she’s not the overly prescriptive type, except for telling readers to get an axe and a table, but I did get liberated from the beginning of her book to kill my darlings—see above.

2. Her writing is idea oriented, which is the way I lean, but she conveys her ideas through life experiences in well drawn metaphors—it inspires me to do it better—avoid the telling and focus on the showing.

3. Best of all: “Spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right way, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book or for another book. Give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water.”

 

Was there anything in the books that obviously conflicted with lessons and readings in our novel writing program? If so, what were they?

 

Nothing contradicts but she isn’t focusing on the nuts and bolts of writing a commercially viable book so much as getting writers to “ride the point of the line to the possible” and then “wind it down to show.”

 

"Writing the Breakout Novel" by Donald Maass (another good primer)

How did the book help you as a writer? What overall aspects of it taught you something?

 

My take away from this book is to crank everything up so that, like Nigel’s amp in Spinal Tap, it all

goes to eleven

.

What two or three major lessons did you learn from the book that you can apply to your writing and/or your novel?

1.Liberate yourself from

real

characters—if your characters are based on real live people, you still need to make them unique and memorable—but not necessarily over the top or grotesque.

2.Always find a way to raise the stakes.

3.Conflicts should be deep and credible—you can have high stakes (like the world will end if…) but if there isn’t personal investment and cost and

sacrifice

, drama is hollow.

Was there anything in the books that obviously conflicted with lessons and readings in our novel writing program? If so, what were they?

No! It pretty much reinforces the idea that commercially viable books are not quiet books, while also giving a lot of point-by-point information on how to make them sizzle.

 

"

Write Away

" by Elizabeth George (a no nonsense primer, and humorous)

 

How did the book help you as a writer? What overall aspects of it taught you something?

 

The description of her process helped me the most. I like how she gets the story down before she starts writing--I got the same idea from Story by Robert McKee. I have to think about it more though…Annie Dillard is about following the line of writing, Stephen King is about getting an interesting premise and then seeing what happens when you have characters begin to interact. Not sure which suits me best, but I do like her model.

 

What two or three major lessons did you learn from the book that you can apply to your writing and/or your novel?

1. Use idioms to help establish a character’s voice.

2. THAD!

3. Self-discipline is the deciding factor in getting published, if you have talent or passion.

Was there anything in the books that obviously conflicted with lessons and readings in our novel writing program? If so, what were they?

Well, she says there are no rules! But she sets down a lot of them that correspond with the class, so....

 

“The Art of Fiction" by John Gardner (a great primer for this commercial program)

 

How did the book help you as a writer? What overall aspects of it taught you something?

 

I learned a lot from this book. It has the most underlines out of all the books I read for this class. Highlights: A trust in my aesthetic judgments and instincts is crucial to giving what I write power. That because art has power, the author has a responsibility to its readers to be truthful but also not to crush it with despair—some people might take issue with his take on this, but I find it compelling, and interesting that he says it so boldly.

 

What two or three major lessons did you learn from the book that you can apply to your writing and/or your novel?

1. A good writer should try to get everything across through dialogue and action. (Hard to balance when you have a lot of interior rumination.)

2. Climaxes need to be inevitable

and

surprising.

3. Don’t distract the reader from the fictional dream by using symbols too flagrantly. Since my book is allegorical, I need to walk this fine line.

 

Was there anything in the books that obviously conflicted with lessons and readings in our novel writing program? If so, what were they?

 

Nothing comes to mind…he doesn’t use the six act two goal model (most books/web sites don’t) but the essential plot structure is there.