Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Follow the Leader (Coaxing the Muse - Pt. 3)


This is the third post in a series about Coaxing the Muse (see previous two posts).

Third Principle of Writing: Let the Writing Lead You.

In his seminal essay titled “Not Knowing”, Donald Barthelme argues:

“The not-knowing is crucial to art, is what permits art to be made. Without the scanning process engendered by not-knowing, without the possibility of having the mind move in unanticipated directions, there would be no invention....”

The best writers are constantly trying to discover what they didn’t know they knew. As more than one writer has put it, “how do I know my thoughts on a subject until I’ve read what I’ve written?”

Most writers I admire do their best writing when they ask a question they can’t answer, at least at first. Djuna Barnes said “The unknown room is always larger than the known.”

Victor Hugo said: Any poem has at least two subjects: The triggering subject (what causes the writer to compose), and the discovered subject (that which reveals itself only in the writing – serendipitous, intuitive, organic. If we dutifully stick with our first impulse, we will say more and more predictable things, and thus lead the reader into slumberland. By contrast, if we allow ourselves to drift a little, and pay attention to the music of the piece, we’ll make discoveries we hadn’t dreamed of otherwise.

Flannery O’Connor “Good Country People” about a conniving door-to-door Bible salesman and a potential customer, Hulga. At a critical moment in the story, the Bible salesman steals Hulga’s artificial leg. Ironically, this theft humbles Hulga and helps prepare her for God’s grace at the end of the story.

O’Connor explains that she had no idea the salesman would steal the leg until 10 or 12 lines beforehand. Because O’Connor was surprised, her readers feel that surprise on the page.

Allow the story or poem to lead you. Write to figure things out. The awkward and uncooked lets him see what’s on his mind.

William Stafford, about writer’s block: I just look out my window and something almost always comes. And if it doesn’t, I just lower my standards.

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