Friday, October 8, 2010

Book Pick: Becoming a Writer

One of the unsung perks of a formal creative writing program is the curriculum, the books recommended by the program as well as the book list prepared by faculty by genre.

In the Creative Writing program at Wilkes University, they recommend you read three craft books before you arrive for your first residency: Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg, On Writing by Stephen King, and Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande.

While I found them all useful, my favorite was Dorothea Brande's, which believe it or not, was first published in 1934. Is the material dated? Not in the least. Though the materials and tools have changed, the organic process of writing hasn't changed in the least.

Here are a couple pointers from Brande's book to get you thinking about your writing life:
  • Stick to a schedule of early morning writing to get the full benefit of your unconscious mind. The best way to do this is to rise an hour earlier than is customary. Without any other distractions, getting the paper or a cup of coffee, sit down to write anything that comes into your head--last night's dream or something that happened the day before. The real value isn't what you write but that you write in that twilight zone between sleep and your full waking state.
  • Set a time to write during the day and stick to it--come what may. This is what Brande calls your debt of honor. If you have decided to write at seven o'clock after dinner or dishes, then at seven o'clock, "Write you must!" Write anything--blank verse, nonsense, limericks, a fragment of dialogue. Do this day to day, but each time choose a different hour. The important thing is that on the dot of the moment when you promised yourself you would be be writing that you are.
[Sidebar: I love how she says things like, "Write you must!"]
  • Take pains to recapture the innocence of eye. Take Henry James recommendation and make it a vow: "Try to be one of those people on whom nothing is lost." Set yourself a short period every day to take thought and recapture a childlike "innocence of eye." For roughly 30 minutes, transport yourself back to a state of "wide-eyed interest" as if you were five years old. Turn yourself into a stranger in your own streets.
I had forgotten how rich and inspiring this book was until I picked it up again to write this post. I'm off to Vermont for the weekend, but I plan to take it with me, to reinvigorate myself, to recommit myself to the goal of Becoming a Writer

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