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The dangers of reading books about writing
Oct. 7th, 2010 10:25 amI tend to read through books about writing. I like reading them. However, sometimes, they just boggle me. Following is an excerpt from the book The Elements of Storytelling by Peter Rubie:
An idea, however, is not a story. Shaping an idea into a story is the difficult part. In the same way that an artist needs a pencil sketch to begin an oil painting, or a chef a recipe to begin cooking a meal, a writer needs a synopsis that broadly sketches out in coherent terms the essential elements of his or her story from beginning to end.
The reason some writers affect disdain for such barebones plotting is that it's very hard to do. They seem to forget that, beyond style, what makes the great novelists and short story writers of the past great is their storytelling abilities. Writers who insist they just "let the muse take them where she will" are being intellectually lazy.
It goes on from there, but seriously "intellectually lazy"? What?
So, I write by the seat of my pants, mostly. But, I'll take being intellectually lazy. This book is a wash for me.
An idea, however, is not a story. Shaping an idea into a story is the difficult part. In the same way that an artist needs a pencil sketch to begin an oil painting, or a chef a recipe to begin cooking a meal, a writer needs a synopsis that broadly sketches out in coherent terms the essential elements of his or her story from beginning to end.
The reason some writers affect disdain for such barebones plotting is that it's very hard to do. They seem to forget that, beyond style, what makes the great novelists and short story writers of the past great is their storytelling abilities. Writers who insist they just "let the muse take them where she will" are being intellectually lazy.
It goes on from there, but seriously "intellectually lazy"? What?
So, I write by the seat of my pants, mostly. But, I'll take being intellectually lazy. This book is a wash for me.
