Dorothea Brande's
Becoming A Writer from the 1930's, is a really fine book. It deals not with writing techniques, but with the psychological blocks that may stop a writer. Ray Bradbury recomends this book very much (his own
Zen In The Art of Writing is also quite good).
For techniques and grammar, I have used an old high school grammar book, and
A New Guide to Better Writing (be warned of newer editions, in which parts have been omitted and sacrificed on the altars of the politically correct.
My copy. ), as reference.
The Elements Of Style, 4th edition , is also said to be good. I have not read it, but am about to.
Much more important though, is to write a lot. And to read. And, as Farmer says, to read parts you like loud to yourself; hearing it will get an instinctive feel for the language (and besides, it will give you the added pleasure and the more intimate sensation of the natural aesthetics and organic truth of the language, a treasure that only a long history of interesting life and cultural evolvement can create in a language). Grammar and techniques should preferably be learned like riding a bicycle, and not be used consciously to build text, but only consulted as side reference for details when needed. It is pure
Visions that flow through a good writer's pen, not conscious ideas about language. This state evolves only gradually with training over the years. In the beginning the language of every writer will be stilted, but this doesn't really matter as long as there are interesting visions and ideas glowing in the background. Visions is the essence of writing, and fantastic imagination is not built only from reading fiction, but equally important, from building a store of manifested firsthand knowledge and life experience.
I am not a fiction or poetry writer, and have not trained for it. And I hated grammar back in school. I am more into visual art. My English is limited, but I'm still happy for what I have learned later in life from my own efforts, enough for passably presenting some of my ideas in communication. When writing, I simply visualize the events in my head, and try to put down the corresponding words in the same order as the events would grab attention from the mind (which does not always follow a seemingly obvious linear timescale, since the relation between elements of reality, and their subjective importance, can be more complex), often using a dictionary and thesaurus to exactly capture my meaning.
If you read Smith's letters and essays, you will know indirectly what he would have told you. But it doesn't really matter what he would have told you, or what anyone tells you. His magic would not have transfered over to you. We all want to, and try to, help others in the best way we can and believe in, from our own perspective. But everyone has his/her own individual path to follow, and only takes in the knowledge he is already aimed for, and this knowledge comes naturally within easy reach (although the acquiring may take time, and also include searching out other individuals for
specific knowledge) as one pursues ones interests. And being an artist, in any field, is usually not a smooth path (unless you are extremely talented. But even then, you still can't escape the existential struggles); and self-critical as artists are, it's a constant struggle with self-imposed feeling of failure. You crash, rise up again, run along with joy, crash, rise upp again.. Eventually over time you become better and better from experience and training. Also, remember that working as an artist is a
privilege, you do it primarily for the pure joy the creative process brings you. Most people never get to experience such joy. It has a value by itself, and will not necessarily lead to money. It is an added fortune to also be able to make a living out of it. That is a gift for a job done well. Pursuing art for the money will surely backfire, unless one is a skilled con-artist with sharp elbows. The dedication to imagination and creativity, and sensitivity of perception, is everything that matters.
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 24 Nov 08 | 10:28AM by Knygatin.