I don't know what inspiration is, but if it finds me, it finds me working

Writing's always been a challenge, maybe that's why I'm doing it now.

Note: was reading Sartre's The Stranger out loud the other day (weirdly), and its language seems so effortless, flows so normal and natural (Side note: Is there anything better than reading to and being read to?). Seems like J.P. could have kept the precise, poignant descriptions flowing as long as his pen was on paper. I think that state of mastery is what we (at least I) imagine writing is - the unconscious On The Road inspired creative zone. At least novices, and apparently many masters, struggle. Notably, John McPhee, grandfather of literary journalism (see a piece of his in The New Yorker here (working on that - he's so popular, none are free on the NYer site)), says that each first draft of a story is excruciatingly painful - the birthpains of creating something out of nothing (see/hear the inimitable Juve sing about it below). Maybe effortless grace in writing is a fiction - certainly seems like none is coming out of any contemporary fiction (couldn't resist the dig). It's a craft, and we're artisans like any other.



As a becoming-better writer, here are a few revelations from the conscious study of the craft from someone just a little more than novice:

1) Know grammar. It really helps to know how to use the tools. Maybe this is obvious, but it wasn't to me before I took Magazine Editing with Jenn Rowe at the University of Missouri. Specifically helpful was understanding the use and structure of compound modifiers; they free language amazingly (though it's easy to overuse them horribly). And knowing where and how to use commas, etc. Surprisingly (maybe not), the knowledge helps smooth out clunky, forced sentences and paragraphs.

2) Know the precise flavor of the words used; only one source will do - The (Shorter) Oxford English Dictionary (the very definition of dictionary - really the first in one in the English language: took 70 years and some amazing crowdsourcing to complete! There will be a future post on it). The etymologies are fascinating, help you remember the word, and open up the realms, powers, poetry and immense interconnections of language.

3) Rewrite. In my limited professional writing life, I do close to 30 drafts for the magazine articles I've written. Don't mean to, but invariably that's what it takes to get competent, clear, accurate, somewhat-interesting prose. Hopefully, this draft number drops, but maybe not by much if what other professional writers say is true.

4) Use a thesaurus!

5) Know your subject, even if it's fiction. If you know it, the language flows, like a summertime's tubing down a shining-surfaced (compound modifier), willow-overhung (again) (maybe better to write Bald Cypress-overhung), springfed, Texas Hill Country river.

6) As Picasso said (paraphrased), "I don't know what inspiration is, but if it finds me, it finds me working."

Mas luego.