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Stephen Lodge
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Post Number: 563
Registered: 06-2004

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Posted on Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - 07:02 pm:

Writing: Art or Science?
By Paul Greenberg
TOWNHALL.COM
Wednesday, July 25, 2007

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulGreenberg/2007/07/25/writing_art_or_science

Another editor here at the paper wants to know if I consider writing a science or an art. He's compiling a booklet on the subject for young writers, and would like me to contribute a chapter, maybe offer some practical suggestions. Glad to, I say. Writing about writing is so much easier than writing.

My take on his question: Writing is an art.

It's can also be an obsession. The shrinks have a term for it, Writing Behavior. H.L. Mencken, who knew writers well, offered his own diagnosis. He said "an author, like any other so-called artist, is a man in whom the normal vanity of all men is so vastly exaggerated that he finds it a sheer impossibility to hold it in. His overpowering impulse is to gyrate before his fellow men, flapping his wings and emitting defiant yells. This being forbidden by the police of all civilized countries, he takes it out by putting his yells on paper. Such is the thing called self-expression."

Surely that's only part of it. There is something more, some unattainable goal that would move a writer to put down words even if he had to publish anonymously. Or not be published at all. Call it a compulsion.

Flaubert said it: "Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap out tunes for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will melt the stars."

That mysterious longing is what makes writing an art, not a science. Yes, it does require some knowledge of the basics of the language - grammar, syntax, the rules and regulations. But language is not just grammar, as the road is not just the map. A racecar driver needs to know automotive mechanics, but it's the driving that's the art, and takes guts.

Something magical can happen on occasion: The words use the writer as their instrument instead of the other way 'round. The writer becomes a kind of amanuensis, and the words fall into perfect place of their own accord. Call it a compulsion.

As for practical suggestions, here are a few, most of them highly unoriginal:

-Spare us that bane of journalism, Fine Writing - capital F, capital W. Oh-so-fine writing seems a particular vice of the young writer, who tends to serve whipped-cream, cherry-on-top concoctions in place of simple prose, which of course isn't at all simple to produce.

-An old rule: When you think you've written some especially fine line, strike it. If you think it's Faulkner, it's probably not. Flannery O'Connor had the right idea: When the Dixie Limited comes roaring through, get off the track to a nice, safe siding. Leave the Faulknerian style to Faulkner; he could handle it.

-A better model for mere newspapermen is George Orwell, with his prose clear as a window pane. Describe, don't declaim. Show, don't tell. That way, the reader himself owns the meaning.

-Take risks. And get used to embarrassing yourself. Real writing is revealing. Safe writing is an oxymoron. If it's safe, it's just typing. Every idea, as Oliver Wendell Holmes said, is an incitement. Often enough against its writer.

-Get the meaning right and the sound will take care of itself. (Lewis Carroll)

-Whenever a writer starts talking about technique, you know he's fresh out of ideas. (Raymond Carver)

-"Love creative work; do not seek dominance over others; and avoid intimacy with the ruling authorities." That three-fold injunction from the Talmud, intended to guide interpreters of the Law, makes an equally good guide for journalists.

-A good editorial is one that says something everybody knows but nobody has said before. (William Allen White of the Emporia Gazette.)

Edit, edit, edit. Then re-edit. Most of the time - just about almost all the time - good writing is rewriting.

-The secret ingredient of good writing is time, or at least the illusion of it. The first sign that a piece will come out all right is when the writer loses all track of time.

-Take a tip from the Shakers: Approach this job as if you had all the time in the world, and as if the work had to be finished today. A deliberate urgency is the aim. It's called concentration.

Enough. I used to think I could teach anybody to write before I taught a course in writing. Never again.

Yes, the techniques can be taught, but the writing can only be evoked. Nobody can teach another how to write, any more than a coach can teach an athlete how to excel. The coach may be able to offer some useful tips and explain the rules, that's all. A writer who can't teach himself by reading others has deprived himself of the best education.

---

All these are such good suggestions that I may consider taking them myself someday. Giving good advice is easy; following it is the hard part.

---

A final plea to prospective writers: If you really hate the actual writing, if you would much rather be a writer than write, if you can't stand having to search out just the right word or form or metaphor, if you see no point in going through a piece and taking out all the commas before re-reading it and putting them all back in, if you've never been grateful to an editor for raising a question, if you don't sense any magic or mystery in this writing business then don't try and try again. Give up. You may not be a writer.

Flannery O'Connor gets the final word - as usual. Once asked if she didn't think universities were stifling a lot of young writers, she replied: "My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them."

Be the first to read Paul Greenberg's column. Sign up today and receive Townhall.com delivered each morning to your inbox. Sign up today!

http://www.stephenlodge.com
Novels by Stephen Lodge:
"Charley Sunday's Texas Outfit!"
"Nickel-Plated Dream"
"Shadows of Eagles"

Pacwriter
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Posted on Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - 07:18 pm:

I like the last bit by Flannery the very best. Ooops, not supposed to use that word "very".

http://www.perrycomer.com

Stephen Lodge
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Post Number: 564
Registered: 06-2004

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Posted on Thursday, July 26, 2007 - 08:03 pm:

I'm posting because no one at all posted today.

http://www.stephenlodge.com
Novels by Stephen Lodge:
"Charley Sunday's Texas Outfit!"
"Nickel-Plated Dream"
"Shadows of Eagles"

Claudia Turner VanLydegraf
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number: 3106
Registered: 06-2002

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Posted on Thursday, July 26, 2007 - 10:19 pm:

getting ready to go to my 45th reunion over the weekend and I had a blow up of the water faucet in the tub of my main bathroom today, so kinda jumbled right now, sorry about not being here. Had to shut off water and figure out the problem and then get it fixed, so that I can leave beginning tomorrow about 2 in the afternoon, for the parties and such that will last until the wee hours. Wouldn't be able to leave water for pets unless I got it fixed. And it is about 100 degrees all weekend here, so not an option available without water. Anyhow, thanks Stephen for posting and for attention to the board......

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I'll check in every once in a while, but don't suppose I'll be on it much, if at all. Be good everyone and I'll be back on by Sunday afternoon sometime, depending on when everyone finally leaves. We're gonna have about 300 people show up, so it will be a very good group all around.

Claudia
MINDSIGHT MODERATOR

Pacwriter
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Posted on Thursday, July 26, 2007 - 10:45 pm:

One thought you may want to add to your writing thoughts above: Be prepared for rejection, rejection, rejection and still more rejection. You got to have a hide tougher than sun-baked armadillo hide.

I've gotten two today. Feel like saying piss on em all

http://www.perrycomer.com

Fred Dungan
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Post Number: 1954
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Posted on Friday, July 27, 2007 - 12:18 am:

Rejection slips don't necessarily mean that they don't like your work. More often than not the decision to reject is based on something other than literary worth. If what you do is unique and creative, there is no way to know how the public - and the critics - will react to it.

http://www.fdungan.com/such.htm

Tom Elkins
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Post Number: 812
Registered: 01-2005

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Posted on Friday, July 27, 2007 - 03:35 pm:

I'm an introvert. You know how it is with us shy guys. We arrive at the party, grab a drink, and stand in the corner looking around for somebody we know. When nobody arrives we skulk off to the pub next door.

Tom Elkins
NORTH of TEXAS
www.authorsden.com/tomelkins

Fred Dungan
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Post Number: 1955
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Posted on Saturday, July 28, 2007 - 07:19 pm:

I was a Military Policeman. If we didn't like a bar, we made it off limits.

Writing is definitely an art. That is why I insist on doing my own illustrations.

http://www.fdungan.com/duke.htm

Harry Simenon
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Posted on Sunday, July 29, 2007 - 03:59 am:

I think writing is indeed an art; that's why there is so much discussion about how to write. I wouldn't call a piece of rust on a stick art, but others do. But I love Dali's surrealism, while others think that is silly.

Fred Dungan
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Post Number: 1957
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Posted on Sunday, July 29, 2007 - 10:24 pm:

You certainly would not want to call writing a business. A few top names make a halfway decent living writing, a handful more get chump change, and the vast majority of us have to struggle to make ends meet. At least now you know why most parents want their children to become a doctor or a lawyer - anything but a writer.

http://www.fdungan.com/such.htm

Harry Simenon
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Posted on Monday, July 30, 2007 - 01:26 am:

No, I must admit I'm not writing to earn a living; I would have starved long ago.

I have had more then three weeks off work, and wednesday I start again. I'm not looking forward to that, but it pays the bills.

Allen Parker
Awareness Member
Post Number: 13
Registered: 06-2006

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Posted on Monday, July 30, 2007 - 08:14 am:

Writing is a craft, part art and part science. It takes a person who can see the beauty in the prose, trim, shape and mold the artistic vision, and create a written work on paper (screen, digital bits, whatever.)

If it were simply an art, whatever rolled out of our mouths would be perfect. I wouldn't be part of this. My mouth is not so artistic.

If it were only science, everyone could study up and learn to write the great novel.

We know the art it takes to develop the great story. We know the process it takes to craft the story into a product. The two are symbiotic.

just a thought...
Allen

www.allenparker.net
Nudist Guy and Yankee Gal
available from Authors Ink Books at www.authorsinkbooks.com
Buy two, they're not fattening.

Tom Elkins
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Posted on Monday, July 30, 2007 - 01:23 pm:

You hit a vital part of it, Allen. For 40 years I was a journalist. There are those (even those among us) who look upon journalists with scorn for some reason or other. They are misguided. As with any craft (and art, and science) some do it better than others. But it does train one in an essential part of any kind of writing. Every day you go to work, and every day you write. You write about myriad things...sometimes things you're not even interested in. You learn (research). I knew nothing about the legal system until I became a court reporter. I, obviously, knew nothing about space travel until in happened. I could bore you with a long list of topics on which my job required that I educate myself. And I got paid for it. Perhaps that was my cardinal sin.

Tom Elkins
NORTH of TEXAS
www.authorsden.com/tomelkins

Todd Hunter
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Registered: 02-2003

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Posted on Monday, July 30, 2007 - 07:45 pm:

Writing (for publication) is just a more acceptable form of masochism...

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