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| Read the current Monday Report below! |
The ULA Monday Report!
This week's report by ADAM HARDIN
Literati Myth 1:
The Myth of Craft
I hear this all the time from the Craftologist: Good writing comes
from good craft. It's all about good craft. What is that? What I
am asking is how does one have or attain good craft since good
craft according to the Craftologist makes good writing?
Craftologists in their creative writing textbooks will give you a
litany of the obvious: Characters have thoughts, feelings, actions,
and speak usually to other characters. There is the setting, the
environment in which the character lives. There is conflict and a
climax. Yes. All these things one pretty much learned in six
grade.
The Craftologist loves to spout maxims. Its all about paying
attention to details. Show don’t tell. Do not explain or reveal too
much. Write about what you know. Write, and then revise,
revise, revise.
I don't disagree with anything the Craftologist says. The problem
I have is that all these things are gross generalizations and
abstractions (See Literary Theory). As a writer, I have to make
minute individual choices, whether it's choosing one word over
another, or what a character says or does, or how to describe an
item on a table. Every word I put down is an individual choice
that cannot be decided by appealing to a gross abstraction or
generalization. The Craftologist can not help me out here where I
am alone. Where I am alone is where I learn and become
stronger as a writer.
Furthermore, every rule the Craftologist comes up with no
matter how seemingly universal is subject to violation. Take the
rule of write, and then revise, revise, revise. Who would ever
disagree with that? Well, Jack Kerouac wrote On The Road
without revising, and the book's genius comes from that rough
unpolished syntax.
What about creative writing exercises found in the Craftologist's
books? Why should I do your creative writing exercises(other
than the fact that it sells books for you ) when I have my own: it's
called writing. A writer exercises his powers by attempting to
write. A novelist writes his first novel. A poet has to start writing
poetry. Shakespeare himself has creative writing exercises, his
early plays like Henry VI and Richard III which by
Shakespearean standards are terrible. Nevertheless he obviously
learned a lot from them. Emily Dickinson wrote roughly 300-400
bad poems before she began to gain her powers. Writing is the
best creative writing exercise.
Why Craft? Its good business for the Craftologist who can not
sell their work to readers, so they turn to the huge market of
desperate writers. Craftologists survive by selling this Myth of
Craft to young writers. MFA programs, Writing Conferences,
Creative Writing Textbooks, Workshops….The very people who
can not write concentrate their energies teaching creative
writing and writing creative writing textbooks.
Creative writing is not an Academic discipline. It has no axioms,
just singular examples like Don Quixote that are not reducible to
or derivable from gross generalizations or abstractions. Study is
reading. And what is good writing? I have to shut up and write. I
can’t tell you what it is, I must show you.
===============================================
===============================================
GO HERE TO ENTER THE MONDAY REPORT BOX.
This week's report by ADAM HARDIN
Literati Myth 1:
The Myth of Craft
I hear this all the time from the Craftologist: Good writing comes
from good craft. It's all about good craft. What is that? What I
am asking is how does one have or attain good craft since good
craft according to the Craftologist makes good writing?
Craftologists in their creative writing textbooks will give you a
litany of the obvious: Characters have thoughts, feelings, actions,
and speak usually to other characters. There is the setting, the
environment in which the character lives. There is conflict and a
climax. Yes. All these things one pretty much learned in six
grade.
The Craftologist loves to spout maxims. Its all about paying
attention to details. Show don’t tell. Do not explain or reveal too
much. Write about what you know. Write, and then revise,
revise, revise.
I don't disagree with anything the Craftologist says. The problem
I have is that all these things are gross generalizations and
abstractions (See Literary Theory). As a writer, I have to make
minute individual choices, whether it's choosing one word over
another, or what a character says or does, or how to describe an
item on a table. Every word I put down is an individual choice
that cannot be decided by appealing to a gross abstraction or
generalization. The Craftologist can not help me out here where I
am alone. Where I am alone is where I learn and become
stronger as a writer.
Furthermore, every rule the Craftologist comes up with no
matter how seemingly universal is subject to violation. Take the
rule of write, and then revise, revise, revise. Who would ever
disagree with that? Well, Jack Kerouac wrote On The Road
without revising, and the book's genius comes from that rough
unpolished syntax.
What about creative writing exercises found in the Craftologist's
books? Why should I do your creative writing exercises(other
than the fact that it sells books for you ) when I have my own: it's
called writing. A writer exercises his powers by attempting to
write. A novelist writes his first novel. A poet has to start writing
poetry. Shakespeare himself has creative writing exercises, his
early plays like Henry VI and Richard III which by
Shakespearean standards are terrible. Nevertheless he obviously
learned a lot from them. Emily Dickinson wrote roughly 300-400
bad poems before she began to gain her powers. Writing is the
best creative writing exercise.
Why Craft? Its good business for the Craftologist who can not
sell their work to readers, so they turn to the huge market of
desperate writers. Craftologists survive by selling this Myth of
Craft to young writers. MFA programs, Writing Conferences,
Creative Writing Textbooks, Workshops….The very people who
can not write concentrate their energies teaching creative
writing and writing creative writing textbooks.
Creative writing is not an Academic discipline. It has no axioms,
just singular examples like Don Quixote that are not reducible to
or derivable from gross generalizations or abstractions. Study is
reading. And what is good writing? I have to shut up and write. I
can’t tell you what it is, I must show you.
===============================================
===============================================
GO HERE TO ENTER THE MONDAY REPORT BOX.
