on Writing

When the going gets tough

Posted by shelley souza

Why does a writer write? Because a writer has a talent for it. Or, if not a natural talent, a passion to cultivate one. I often think of Van Gogh, whose work I have grown to love as I get older. I was never keen on it when I was young. A few years ago, there was an exhibition of his drawings (and a handful of his final paintings) at the Met. I realized he had given everything of himself to transform what was little more than a mediocre talent into a new narrative of line and colour. He sold only one painting during his life. Today, he is called the father of modern art. That stays with me, when the going gets tough.

 

craft murders Literature

Posted by shelley souza

“…I realized that I would greatly prefer to think of literature as a profession, an art, a science, or pretty much anything else, rather than a craft. What did craft ever try to say about the world, the human condition, or the search for meaning? All it had were its negative dictates: ‘Show, don’t tell’; ‘Murder your darlings’; ‘Omit needless words.’ As if writing were a matter of overcoming bad habits—of omitting needless words.” Elif Batuman

http://bit.ly/bbmGbb

and yet can we write without it?

@Wislawa Szymborska [via Melissa Marr]

Posted by shelley souza

It shows how badly I keep up with literature that I visited Melissa Marr’s website and discovered Wislawa Szymborska.

Time retains its sacred right
to meddle in each earthly affair.
Still, time’s unbound power
that makes a mountain crumble,
moves seas, rotates a star,
won’t be enough to tear lovers apart: they are
too naked, too embraced
too much like timid sparrows.

studies for a Large-scale work

Posted by shelley souza

I’ve been reflecting on the difference between writers and artists. Mostly artists are in interested in the process even they’re impatient to finish their work. While writers are mostly interested in writing “The End” (with a sigh of relief) on the final revision. I saw a Constable exhibition in London a few years ago. Many of his studies were like finished paintings. I’ve started to wonder whether multiple drafts are similar to preparatory studies for large scale paintings.