Mr. Ravenhill suggests artists are essentially setup by the time they are thirty; afterwards they refine their vision or prove their inability. “Great artists such as Bacon and Beckett distil; lesser artists become self-referential and self-conscious as their work goes on. A personally defined landscape can easily become an enclosed and introverted prison, referring only to itself.” When he picks up a novel that begins with a writer struggling over his novel, he pitches it. (via ArtsJournal)
Category Archives: Writing
Strength in Amiguity?
On the Way to the Emmys
Comedy writer Earl Pomerantz chat us up with his experiences at the Emmys. The highlight? “I shook hands with Raymond Burr.” Perhaps that should be the title of his memoir.
Put Down the Pen, Step Away from the Keyboard
The site, 101 Reasons to Stop Writing, has not be updated in months, but it still has some good demotivators ala Despair, Inc. Here’s an excellent new example. [via Books, Inq.]
Words vs. music
Had to take a little road trip tonight, for no interesting reason. So this post won’t even be up to my usual low standards.
The other day I got a call in the library from someone who wanted information on an old Lutheran hymn. You benighted Calvinists and Catholics probably don’t even know about this one, but it’s quite good . There are various translations, but the one I know is entitled “O Take My Hand, Dear Father.” I was able to use a resource we have in our collection to relate to the caller the story of the hymn’s writing.
Julia von Hautzmann (d. 1901), the poet, was born to a German family living in Estonia. As a young woman she married a missionary, but he left almost immediately for the far east (exactly where he went slips my mind). Sailing out to join him, she learned on arrival that he had died of a tropical disease. So she had to sail home again, a widow. On the voyage home she put her submission to God’s will into a poem:
Oh, take my hand, dear Father, and lead Thou me,
Till at my journey’s ending I dwell with Thee.
Alone I dare not journey one single day,
So do Thou guide my footsteps on life’s rough way.
Apparently she never married again. She wrote many Christian poems over her lifetime, but had them published only reluctantly, and even then insisted on anonymity.
My resource had something to say about the composer of the hymn tune, Friedrich Silcher, as well. But his story seemed a lot duller. He studied music, had a career as a church musician, wrote a number of hymn tunes, and that was about it.
What struck me was that, in most of the hymn stories I’ve heard over the years, the interesting part has almost always been the poet’s story. Contrary to their reputations, musicians always seem rather dull. Most of the time they come up with a tune to fit a poem. But it’s rarely a matter of much drama.
Which proves to me (word guy that I am) that words are more important than music.
And that bodes ill for contemporary church music.
The Rule for Writing
J. Mark Bertrand writes about following the rules for writing. “The problem with the rules . . . is that they focus on the means rather than the ends. Remember, it’s all about the illusion, so why should we quibble with how it’s pulled off? You don’t berate the magician at the county fair for passing his swords through his barely-clad assistant in the wrong way. So long as it looks convincing and nobody gets killed, he’s pulled off the trick. . . .
“Ignoring the rules isn’t going to keep you from success, so long as you create and sustain the illusion.”
Announcement
A while ago I told you I’d come to an agreement with a publisher, and promised more details to come. Since then I’ve been silent on the subject, and you’ve doubtless assumed that a) I’m delusional, or b) the deal had fallen through.
In fact it simply took a while to work out the details.
Yesterday I signed a contract with Nordskog Publishing of Ventura, California to publish the next volume in the Saga of Erling Skjalgsson. The book is titled (for now) West Oversea, and it ought to be released in very early 2009.
Nordskog is a new publishing house with only a handful of books on its list so far. I’ll be one of its first fiction authors. I hope that this will enable them to give my book more attention in terms of promotion and distribution than has sometimes been my experience in the past.
I’ll keep you posted as the process continues.
Arthur C. Clarke’s Final Novel
Frederik Pohl has collaborated with Arthur C. Clarke on the latter author’s final novel, The Last Theorem. It will be released August 5.
Clarke is known for predicting scientific inventions in his novels: In 1945, he predicted the invention of communications satellites, 12 years before the launch of the first artificial satellites. As a result, geosynchronous orbits, which keep satellites in a fixed position relative to the ground, are nicknamed Clarke orbits.
“The Last Theorem” includes a weapon called Silent Thunder that neutralizes all electronic activity in a given area to harmlessly disarm entire nations. Another is the space elevator, a cord suspended from an orbiting object in space that can pull objects from Earth, rather than rely on rocket power to launch them.
Pohl said his research and conversations with friends who are scientists convince him both will one day exist.
“If we can somehow figure out what possible futures there might be,” he said, “you can try to encourage the ones you like and avoid the ones you don’t.”
Pohl said the type of work he and Clarke did was different from much of what is written today. He said that rather than delving into difficult subjects like astronomy, math and physics, young writers sometimes turn to an easier route by writing fantasy.
“Science fiction is sometimes a little hard,” Pohl said. “Fantasy is like eating an ice cream cone. You don’t have to think a bit.”
I can understand that, but you don’t have to think much about fantasy only if you aren’t trying to hold to an actual historic time and place. And you don’t have to think much if you aren’t developing/creating much detail in your fantasy world.
Points of Reality in Publishing
Mary DeMuth has three posts on what she calls publishing reality.
- Fewer books are being published, so more pressure to perform is on authors.
- People are changing jobs within publishing houses as well as leaving the industry.
- Writers should serve their readers. Readers will buy a book for their own reasons, not to do writers a favor.
Untitled or What Do You Know?
Mary DeMuth asks what we know about writing and art, if anything. She says:
I am finally reading My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok. I wish I would’ve read it sooner. I’m halfway through the book where the young Asher Lev, an undiscovered but brilliant artist, meets with his soon-to-be mentor. This is what the mentor says to Asher:
“This is not a toy. This is not a child scrawling on a wall. This is a tradition; it is a religion, Asher Lev. You are entering a religion called painting. It has its fanatics and its rebels. And I will force you to master it. Do you hear me? No one will listen to what you have to say unless they are convinced you have mastered it. Only one who has mastered a tradition has a right to attempt to add to it or to rebel against it. Do you understand me, Asher Lev?”
Then she asks several questions I’m not qualified to answer.