from Robert Littell's essay, "Some Advice to Writers" from A Book of Good Essays (1944) -"...like the painter and the musician, you will throw the first two years' product into the waste basket, and that, if by mischance you sell anything written within that time to a magazine, you will repent of it and bow your head in shame. There is a maxim used by artists to humble those they teach; love the work, but hate the result. Begin, then, in that frame of mind and you will go a long way."
Oh, oh! Not only am I bowing my head in shame, I am now cowering in a corner.
"...Words are to be your raw material, so of course you must know all about them. They are variable and fluid; keep them always in the transient state, turning them over and over, pairing them, matching them, discarding them, picking them up again until some of their innumerable facets have begun to appear to you. Avoid, above all things, that easy coagulation of them into recurring phrases, into the rubber stamps which mark the lazy ear and the jellifying mind. If a phrase recurs to you, do not think well of it because you do not find it in the work of others; every writer has his own private rubber stamps along with those that are public property."
Oh, oh! I'm thinking about my personal collection of rubber stamps and how satisfying it can be to pull them out of the drawer and use them.
13 comments:
Love that. And I have words and phrases I use over and over - so I need to be mindful of that rubber stamping, too! :) That is a most beautious flower up above.
Thanks, Lynn. That beautiful bloom's common name is "Butterfly Blue Pincushion Flower", but scientifically is a scabiosa - which always reminds me of a disease - lol!
Hey, well I more than did my duty! I'd say the first 7 years worth of songs I chucked in the bin.
Love what he says about turning words over and over, yes the re-pairings can be breath-taking.
And who knew they knew so much back in the dark ages of '44! ;)
Seven years worth? Now that's a lot of stuff in the old shredder!
Words are so fun to play with and I guess they were even back in the 40's - lol!
I think all that old circular file material has alot of educational value. Of course learning to edit yourself is important, but when it gets extreme, there's no words left to communucate with...
Recurring phrases have worked wonders for some very popular writers. May the Force be with you. It's Ka. N some folks write whatever they wanna...
Such harsh old advice to stifle creativity...
Wow, the old stuff is vintage- What would that dude think to read the net today?
T -Nothing to be ashamed of. Write like your making love to the words and there will never be anything to cower about.
"Words are instruments; that we shall all play at one point, some of us slightly better than others."-You won't find that quote in any of those books. ;)-
Peace,
- Neo
Snaggle, I love the old words of wisdom...there are some nuggets of truth in there. Some writers are definitely love their placement of words so much they can't even conceive of a judicious edit.
Neo,I am not cowering from my use of words - but by the fact that I submitted and sold many things in my first few years of writing. It's true that quote - everyone has a voice, but not everyone is going to want to listen.
T - I wasn't referring to you personally, just that blub writing in a time where the world was so much different. It doesn't really matter if you sell one copy of anything, it's the point if you've used your voice in words for good things. Inspiration, understanding, principle, the foundation that all writer's hang their hats on.
Everyone WILL listen if you have something to say, it's up to you to inspire them...
*HUGS*
My great teacher tells me to be happy and just write.
Friends tell me to write and be happy.
I wonder if no one reads what I’ve written did I write anything.
Rubber stamps… are they just phrase or can we add in ideas? One writer writing the same story over and over just changing the names and places (romances come to mine).
I’m not at the growing point yet that anything is thrown away. Tho someday I might get to be one of the big boys.
Ellis, definitely there's a lot of re-telling in the old story-telling business!
And here we are blogging for everyone to read.
I wonder what Robert Littell would think of words like gr8t, and other snippets found in text messages and emails now days.
I thoroughly enjoyed these quotes. For myself, if I am using the same words, same phrases over and again, I get on my own nerves. They have to change.
As in your second quote, I like to lay my words down, let them rest on the pages, letting my mind simmer on their usage, their order, their meaning and feel if they are 'right'. Most times they aren't. I rarely leave my original writings without edit.
Brigit, I think he'd be both apalled and perplexed - lol!
Mia, thanks. I'm like you - I have old stand-bys that come out all the time and I have to be aware of them. Like you, I have to edit. I actually enjoy editing a lot. I let things sit for a while and then approach it with fresh eyes and really enjoy polishing it up.
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