"The story of your life, described, will not describe how you came to think about your life or yourself, not describe any of what you learned. This is what fiction can do--I think it is even what fiction is for"
I find a lot of writing books redundant.
I should clarify: I find a lot of books about the instruction and lifestyle of writing to be redundant. Even a little pointless, and sometimes polarizing after a while.
It's not because I don't like to be told what to do, it's just that you can read so much advice, so much instruction that you spend more time on reading about writing, than actually writing. Also sometimes after reading, I'm left with a tinge of inferiority, that I don't fit the "criteria" for what makes one an illustrious author. How I didn't go to this school, graduate this particular program, know these awesome kooky writing peers, don't live in this bookish cliquish area, not tapping into the right writing 'zen'...catch my drift? Some authors just polarize, marginalize an aspiring writer, making them feel as if us peon hardscrabble scribes can't live up to whatever impossible lifestyle standard, all cause we are not this, that, and come from a certain background.
Granted there are some writing books that don't waste trees, and authors who in innocence just want to humble brag and dish freely about their writing lives, but I myself have certain criteria for what constitutes as a biblical tome for the written word. I prefer a book where the author is conversational, not instructional, and that they come from a real place, not some mythical fantasia of vintage typewriters, high-rise socials, and wrap-around scarves, pipes in the crooks of mouths. Leave that pretension at the doormat, I don't want it tracking in my house. I tend to like a book that just gets to the damn point, and tells me how fucking frustrating, spirit shattering, bloodletting, and all-around grueling writing is, while patting me on the back in support, showing me its ultimate rewards. I like a book that possesses lines like these:
"I think writers are often terrifying to normal people--that is to non-writers in a capitalist system--for this reason: there is almost nothing they will not sell in order to have the time to write. Time is our mink, our Lexus, our mansion. In a room full of writers of various kinds, time is probably the only thing that can provoke widespread envy, more than acclaim"
"Being a writer can feel a lot like writing and giving up on writing at the same time."
"Writing fiction is an exercise in giving a shit---an exercise in finding out what you really care about."
YES. This is what I want. Give me more.
