A simple google search will get you thousands of links to texts that give advice to young writers, and by "young", I don't mean young in years, but young to writing. I'm not sure how worthwhile they are, if at all. You can find the ones I thought were most interesting (at first glance, that is; I haven't read them yet) at the end of this journal. What I want to know is:
What is the best advice someone--anyone--gave you about writing? Who were they and how has the advice helped?
Personally, I don't like the word "advice" used in this context, although I will have to make do with it for the time being. I worry that much of how-to-write advice is abstract, pious in some fashion, involving words like integrity, truth and honour. But there is also space for this "advice" to be practical.
The best piece of advice I have received is a comment one of my professors left next to a poem I had submitted for an assignment. It wasn't "Follow your dream" or "Write till your heart bleeds"--the kind of trash my cynical self expects of advice; it was:
Whittle it down till you haven't left even a single alphabet that isn't necessary. Would the entire poem come crashing down without that word, that line, that stanza? That's the test.
This was more than a year ago and it has helped me recognise my annoying habit of throwing unnecessary words into my first draft; I cut them out almost cruelly during revisions these days.
Back to my question. I would like to compile a list of the best responses (with credit of course), much like the
Poetry Is... initiative by *
underlit. This won't be anonymous, however. If you'd like to be anonymous, note me and tell me so. Else, you can just leave a comment here. It will be much appreciated.
There is a persistent kind of drizzle having its reign in Bangalore, the kind you would find in a hill station, without, of course, the added pleasure of watching cars spiral up and down its hills. (Why this kind of rain is alien to me requires some explanation: ordinarily, I expect light a drizzle to turn into a nasty monsoon rain, but now I've given up all hope.) Then Anoopa, who has travelled infinitely more than I, said that this--low temperature, weirdly constant drizzle, and wind--is how it is in London, which fascinates me in the way one is fascinated by oddly shaped clouds, penguins and other funny nature things.
I wonder how they managed to lift something as big and stubborn as weather and bring it to another city. The miracle of science.
(I don't know why I must harp on the weather so, but I feel--compelled.)
Unfortunately, despite their usual appreciativeness for anything foreign, Bangaloreans haven't taken to the new weather very well. Complaints of flu, muddy shoes and less than appealing roads have been heard. I, on the other hand, am content buying more sweaters, socks, perhaps even a brightly coloured raincoat.
It would be nice, also, to have a pair of windshield wipers for my glasses--preferably invisible so that I don't look like a complete idiot, the kind a shrewd JK Rowling would invent. Maybe I should get a scar on my forehead as well, to distract from the wipers should they materialise (malicious malicious) from their world of invisibility. Come to think of it, I already have the messy hair.
(diary entry of December 19, 2007)
So I've been back at uni for three weeks now. It is... odd. Several people have told me that I've lost weight, which I haven't. For one, how can you lose weight if all you've been doing for a month is eating unhealthily, experimenting with various kinds of alcohol and doing absolutely no exercise? For two (this is also odd, the way I'm phrasing my sentences), I can tell when I've lost weight even if I don't check it every hour like some girls do. For three, several people were also telling several other people that they had lost weight. I think it has something to do with seeing people after a very long time.
Do you tell people they've lost weight when you meet them after a long time? I think this question has important anthropo/socio/psychological/whatevertherightwordis significance. Currently my theory is that people say this to ensure that they get on well with everything for the rest of the semester. Hmm. Maybe I should randomly pay compliments to everyone. "Hey you, nice hair!" Maybe I will suddenly be popular and have an entourage.
The strange thing about hair is the strange things people do with it. I say this despite being somewhat overly concerned about how messy my hair is (if it's not, I feel like I'm losing my identity), but
explain to me why someone would permanently straighten their already straight hair? It's not like the procedure sounds very comforting. It's called REBONDING. Really. To me that says SCARY. I imagine it goes something like this: 1. Pluck out curly hair from head. 2. Pluck out poker straight hair from corpse. 3. Place poker straight hair in hole where curly hair used to be. 4. Repeat until all hair is poker straight.
My slightly wiser friend tells me this is not so, that they use chemicals instead. Is that not also SCARY?
Somewhere along the way, *
jonzoiplu and I realised what a wonderful word "sexybabes" is. If you ever feel like watching a dead account with virtually no possibilty of being revived, watch ~
SexyBabes. One day she may get reincarnated. (<--- lame joke that probably only *
jonzoiplu will get)
Anyway,
it made me wonder what the etymological root of "sexybabes" is. It must come from the phrase "sexy babes" (as in, "Hey look, there's a lot of sexy babes on the beach today." Okay, I apologise. I have no idea how surfer dudes talk, but I imagine it to be a variation of that.), but how it became one word and singular, I couldn't tell. So I found a
useful Wiki article to help me out. I lie: it's not really a wiki article, just a stupid youtube video.
Literagure Gallery Update (17 December)
Advice for a Young Writer 
Questionable
Must read!
OK/Good
Never again
Er
= Recently read 
Devious Comments
--
[x]
Don't be afraid to take risks.
Even if they aren't the right ones.
Don't be afraid to write badly.
Because there is something so empowering about writing badly but oh so well.
Don't be afraid of cliches, they are as much your friend as new and untrodden ground.
Never listen to advice. Listen only to yourself.
--
Power corrupts. Knowledge is power. Study hard. Be evil.
Write you mother fucker.
--
Power corrupts. Knowledge is power. Study hard. Be evil.
Remember I'm doing a young writers/author showcase.
(Did you get my suggestions, by the way?)
--
Literature Gallery Moderator
For Writers: Resource Central: Part One | Resource Central: Part Two
'Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.'
as to writing, i've quoted this before,
i think this encapsulates the ideal to produce art for the sake of art, not to create bestsellers and live off royalties, as enticing as it may be. henri michaux wrote, 'the ambition to write poetry is enough to kill it.' one must resign from the 'conscious', submit to the (ir)rationality of art, and then, one can attempt a pure stab at writing. such brilliant, yet quixotic thoughts of lonely european writers of our century.
everything we write (as neophytes) will eventually be eclipsed - it's a learning curve. start small, then grow. if you can't build a house, how will the castle stand? to expand that poor analogy, a builder learns from the masters. so, it would be best to attempt understanding literature by reading it (from chomsky to blake to wittgenstein to mann), learn the technicalities of language, then write (an idyllic process). most will start off with cliches - one can't help but imitate what's already out there. but, eventually, one develops a voice, and sharpens it to dissect the surroundings.
by then, hopefully one won't have to read the lousy advice of a soi-disant dilettante.
cheers,
j.
p.s. they use chemicals to break down sulfide-bonds in your hair, straighten it, then allow it to reform. it's using the same principles of denaturation of keratin, ie. hair curlers. but people spend way too much on their appearances already. *queue in facetious existential rant*
--
let's go play on a baggage carousel
i have only very recently heard it but i agree with every word.
--
Creation is looking at a stanger's view through a stangers window and seeing something you would not see in your own.
Yeah I did get your suggestion.
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