by Laura Lai/Uncategorized
On
the 20th of February 2010, ‘The Guardian’ published an article containing
valuable advice from consecrated writers of different genres. To construct my
creative writing exercise for this ‘Writing Break Blog’ I used some of the
advice to build this fictive dialogue from a playwright's point of
view.
Zadie Smith:
1 […] When an adult, try to
read your own work as a stranger would read it, or even better, as an enemy
would.
I’m fine with reading
the work ‘as a stranger’ because I understand to read it without any affection
that you wrote it – and this helps when cutting sentences, paragraphs, and even
pages; it helps from the objective point of view when the author needs to be
objective. To me, that’s one of the main and fundamental criteria when
writing single-issue dramas (with a political and historical dimension).
But do you know what it means to read ‘as an enemy’ would read? Once upon a time, politicians were political opponents with opposite views, debating and sustaining with great arguments their points of view. Nowadays, they are enemies. Therefore, to read as an enemy would, means to read the ‘2020 State of the Union Address,' for example, read by President Donald Trump the way the Head of the House, Nancy Pelosi, did – simply, tearing it up. Many authors read their own (many) drafts this way. As their final works…
2 Don't romanticise your "vocation". You can either write good sentences or you can't. There is no "writer's lifestyle". All that matters is what you leave on the page.
Come on! What’s wrong
with ‘romanticizing’ a vocation that concerns painting, writing, playing, and reciting something beautiful? As for the ‘lifestyle’, each writer is a
different individual and each has its own lifestyle, but we all have in common
a temperamental predisposition to write. The lifestyle can impact what the
writer writes about, but not the way it does that. In my case, it was the
political science background correlated to the pleasure of writing dialogues
that made me choose to write the type of drama I write that focuses more on the
topic than on the characters. Indeed, ‘all it matters is what you leave on the
page’ and the way you leave it – meaning artistically (literally) formulated. To me, why you
want to put it on the page is also important – to record an event for history, to recollect a historical
event that may be forgotten, to clarify, and if we
can also laugh a bit that’s great because laughing is the best medicine.
3 Avoid your weaknesses. But do this without telling yourself that the things you can't do aren't worth doing. Don't mask self-doubt with contempt.
I don’t see myself
writing poetry, for example (although I wrote a few when I was in high school and that were also published). Instead, I love reading it. I have a favorite poet (that happens to belong to the 'Romanticism' literature period). I know
poems by heart. But this is something I can’t do –most probably it’s because I
cannot express myself so shortly! J I don't take it as a weakness either. However, the point is that even though, I don't write poetry, it doesn’t mean that writing poetry is not worth doing. Oh,
yes! It’s worth doing. And there are plenty of poets that did that and are
doing that better than I will ever do.
4 Leave a decent space of time between writing something and editing it.
Reading with fresh
eyes is the advice I’ve read and heard from my writers. It seems to be a general
agreement on that – to which I subscribe, too. My WIP for
the drama writing course, at Oxford, was also the first political play that I
read it with fresh eyes a couple of times already. After writing for
years short dialogues, I felt ready to write tens of pages of an unfolding
dialogue around a topic and on a structure, I was still learning. Now, I’m going
to read it again, for one of the very last times, because following the course
on rhetoric at Harvard (that I have just completed in November) I want to work
the lines, and the words and make the way the arguments are expressed more
artistically. Although all my writings are dedicated to my parents, this first
drama is dedicated to my tutors. Therefore, I’m doing everything possible to
dedicate them something good and beautiful, too.
5 Avoid cliques, gangs, groups. The presence of a crowd won't make your writing any better than it is.
I’m not and have never
been the person of a ‘clique’, ‘gang’, or ‘group’. That’s the way some of us are
as persons. Some superficial people may call it ‘arrogance’. It’s wrong – it’s
simply the way some people are and there is nothing wrong with it because it
has no bad consequences for society as a whole. An ‘arrogant’ person is a
person who’s approached by people considered ‘inferior’ by education, social
status, professional rank, or whatever other reasons, and they consider that
they aren’t worth replying to, or worse, giving them a hand because that would
humiliate them to be seen next to them or with them. This is arrogance. This is
disgusting. And this is the way I’m not!
However, since last year I’m on Social Media writing groups – which is fine. I’m glad I took that decision. Some writers are part of reading groups, too. They read there their works, they get feedback, and they’re happy – and I’m happy for them. I think for many groups it might look like torture to read and give feedback on a political play with a historical dimension because many might not have an interest in reading such a play and they would feel ‘obliged’ to do so for a ‘group member.' Depending on the topic approached, maybe also the genre, I consider better feedback from one or two people who know the topic and who might enjoy reading it for feedback. The problem is that most of them never have time.
6 Work on a computer that is disconnected from the internet.
This is also a general
agreement, but I don’t find any problem to have my computer connected to the Internet
while writing because I can work without being distracted by it. Then I might
need it to check words in English or other data that need to be double-checked.
7 Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.
So that they don’t
distract me from writing? I write whatever text first in my mind. When I sit
and put it on the screen it’s done or almost done in my mind – and I can be
interrupted. I know where to resume. This doesn’t mean that I would enjoy
frequent interruptions because when you sit and write, you work and it’s not
pleasant to be frequently interrupted. Obviously!
8 Don't confuse honours with achievement.
And speaking of words
that need to be checked while working and connected to the Internet, the Lexico dictionary
defines the word ‘honor’ as ‘high respect, great esteem’ and ‘achievement’
as ‘a thing done successfully with effort, skill or courage.’ Now, that the words are explained accordingly
there isn’t any room left for confusion. On the one hand, achievements are
definitely for hard-working people, but not all of them are rewarded with honors. On the other hand, a Ph.D. that is plagiarism is an honor one can
long benefit from (with the respect and esteem that derives from it) without
having put in the effort and the skill to write it.
9 Tell the truth through whichever veil comes to hand – but tell it. Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never being satisfied.
I prefer writings and
movies inspired by a true story that also respects the historical truth and
makes a beautiful story around it. For example, the movie Titanic is
built on a true story. We don’t know if there was such a precious diamond on it
but the story built around it and linked to it might be the creational part that
made the story (absolutely!) fantastic. Jack was so talented at drawing that he
achieved a beautiful pencil drawing. What a pity that he didn’t make it to
America to get also the honors of a great artist! J
Colm Tóibín:
1 Finish everything you
start.
Yes... I think I’m
about to finish this series.
2 Get on with it.
Yes…
3 Stay in your mental pyjamas all day.
I love this metaphor
of the ‘mental pajamas’! It’s the first time I’m hearing it. Now that you
mentioned it, you made me think… As long as I did not have a job, I invested
all my time in my writing activity. It means that all this time I was in ‘mental
pajamas’ all day long. Sometimes I changed. Please, believe me! And if you don’t,
you can check my Instagram at Laura_Lai_Writer. This thing with ‘writer’ at the
end is also a tip I learned from the others – it seems that it makes it easier
for the followers.
4 Stop feeling sorry for yourself.
The person who told
you that I feel sorry for myself lied to you. That’s fake news! I’m not
surprised that you’ve been laid because, statistically, people lie a lot and
several times a day without any problem or any remorse – I’m the exception from
these statistics. But you know what? Once I’ve been told that ‘lies are also words.' And because the truth is also words - what's the difference? You can’t reply
with either principles, morality, or conscience if the other one has none.
5 No alcohol, sex or drugs while you are working.
If you say so…
6 Work in the morning, a short break for lunch, work in the afternoon and then watch the six o'clock news and then go back to work until bed-time. Before bed, listen to Schubert, preferably some songs.
Indeed, I also like to
listen to some classical music while I work or after, it depends. As for the
six or seven o’clock news… I’ll skip that. Would you mind? In the country of
origin, each of us can foresee the news: car crashes, murders, rapes, strikes,
Ph.D. diplomas that are plagiarisms … what else?.. complains about the lack of
highways and about the deep holes in those we have, etc. For news, I prefer TV5
Monde because I can French and because it informs me a lot about what’s going
on everywhere, in general, and from different points of view: some shows focus on artistic events (e.g. MOE on TV5) in different countries, others tackle the social problems, and others only the political events. Many Arab and African countries are also French-speaking countries and with TV5 Monde I learn more about what is going on around the world. And I keep fresh my French which I studied well and I used to participate in the French language local and national competitions and scored high (e.g. at the local competitions, I've been always been in the top three every year during high school). But there was a time when I was having on TV CNN, TVE, RAI, PRO7... Fortunately, I still have some movie channels, National Geographic and History left because otherwise, I would unplug the TV the way others turn off their Internet when there are writing.
7 If you have to read, to cheer yourself up read biographies of writers who went insane.
Why? There are plenty
of other things to do! If I want to cheer myself up and writing isn’t – as it
usually does – then, I take a break and I find another activity that cheers me
up: I’ll watch a movie, I’ll read a sketch, I’ll listen to some music, I’ll
bake something, etc. I also love taking a walk to a park (I would prefer a beautiful park, but I usually only find a bench along the street) to drink a coffee with milk that it's usually a take-away, just to enjoy the weather, to look at the people, and to think at my writings.
8 On Saturdays, you can watch an old Bergman film, preferably Persona or Autumn Sonata.
I love movies from all
my heart! I can’t wait until Saturday to watch one! I was a child who was
going with other children to the cinema. I’ve seen more movies in my life than
anything else: American, Indian, Russian, etc. – and I never had enough! I’m
watching every day. And I love old ones, too. Furthermore, I’m delighted that this Writing Blog is an opportunity for me to review old movies. This cheers me up twice: first, when I watch
the movie; and second when I write about it. J
9 No going to London.
The first time I went
to London was in 2018 to make some arrangements for my course in 2019. It was
October. I’ve been there for ten days and I had great weather. If you’d say
not to go to Oxford Street, I agree because it’s very crowded – that would be
hard to sit and write. Obviously, it’s not made for this. But when I went to
St. James Park and two squirrels climbed on my feet while some pigeons were on
my arms and one on my head that was lovely! And I'm glad I could take some pictures with the lovely pigeons on my head and my arms. The squirrels, instead, were too fast. There was a place one could sit and
think of whatever one wants to write about, but I took pictures of the pigeons. J What a welcome I’ve got! People were watching delightedly, too.
It was an amazing moment!
10 No going anywhere else either.
Do you mean that the writer more than any others is used with the lockdown? With long lockdowns? You’re right! J (To Be Continued)
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