Books to Help Your Writing

Friends sometimes ask me to recommend books on Creative Writing to them. Below are 2 favorites--I like them for different reasons.

1. Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott. Pantheon Books.

This is a more general book, accessible to beginners, very personal, with many anecdotes from Lamott's life. It's also very funny & has many good practical pointers. (Shitty First Drafts, Dialogue, Broccoli). Part One deals with the building blocks of writing, such as Plot, Character, Set Design. Part Two, titled The Writing Frame of Mind, discusses habits that are helpful for a writer to develop, such as observation and learning to turn off the critical voice inside one's head (Radio KFKD). Part Three, Help Along the Way, is about getting outside support. From index cards to writing groups, there's a lot here. Finally, she has a section on publication. I found this book very useful when I was starting off being a writer & often felt alone and worried that my writing was no good.

2. The Half-Known World, by Robert Boswell. Graywolf Press.

This book is also very accessible and filled with wonderful stories from the author's life, but it is, additionally, deep and complex. It gives you some unique ways to think about your writing. Boswell explains why some stories fail (he offers 5 categories of failure, such as the Bastard and the Hipper than thou story) and asks wonderful questions that will help you go deep into the character you are creating (What stupid thing kept her awake last night?). He makes you aware of patterns and designs in texts & teaches you how to look for them in your own fiction.The chapter on Omniscience is excellent. I particularly appreciated the list of fictional works  that appears at the head of each chapter. These are works he refers to in that chapter--so he's giving you a valuable reading list as well. This book will help a range of writers--all the way up to Creative Writing MFA students.

Hope this is helpful. I've been inspired by my own post--I think I'm going to re-read both these amazing books!

A Conversation with Orhan, Part II

Thanks to all of you who contacted me to say that you wanted more of my on-stage interview of Orhan Pamuk. Here are some more of his writing ideas/techniques.

Q: What would you say are some of the pros and cons of being a political writer?

To this, Pamuk responded by stating, quite firmly, that he doesn't consider himself a political writer. Only one of his novels, Snow, has overt political content. In the rest, we see the state of the country as it relates to the lives of the characters. Pamuk said that the problem with being a political writer is that immediately there are two sides, mine and the other's. My point of view becomes the right one. The other becomes wrong or harmful. But this is in conflict with the writer's enterprise, which is to try and understand all points of view, to try and treat all characters with compassion.

Q: You sometimes write the first sentence of your novel 50 or perhaps even 100 times. Could you comment on this?

To this, Pamuk responded, smiling, "Doesn't everyone? Well, then, they should!" He went on to explain that to him  that first sentence sets the tone for the entire novel and once he gets it right, he can write the beginning chapter--and often the following chapters-- quite rapidly.

Pamuk brought out many of his ideas about fiction in the Norton lectures he gave earlier this year at Harvard. He told me they will be published in about a year, so watch for them.

My final question to Pamuk--which is often my last question during these onstage interviews, since many of my Creative Writing students are in the audience--was, What advice would you give to young writers?

To which Pamuk replied (the audience loved his answer), "Never listen to an old writer."