Fictive Dialogues from Playwright Point of View (XI)

photo edited by Laura Lai

 by Laura Lai/Uncategorized

On the 20^th 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 personalized fictive dialogue from a playwright point of view.

Jeanette Winterson:

1 Turn up for work. Discipline allows creative freedom. No discipline equals no freedom.

It’s the first time when I hear that there might be a direct link between discipline in writing and creative freedom. I, actually, see them separately rather than in a cause-and-effect relationship: It’s not because I’m disciplined – which I am – that I’m creative or that I’m free in my creativity. Some people are creative, and others aren’t. For example, I’ve been said that at a very young age – kindergarten level – I was trying to make up poems. What resulted was entertaining, and that’s the way my parents found out that I was trying to make up poems. It’s an age you don’t know you’re creative, but then theater on TV and ‘Laurel and Hardy’ attracted all my attention. I was either standing and staring or sitting and staring – but staring fascinated. Then I went to school and I learned to read and write and I was going with the other children to the cinema that in the morning (on holidays, for example) was free for pupils. It’s the creativity of the others that you feel attracted by and by watching your spirit feels free. When you grow older, you’re more conscious about the fact that you’re creative and I chose human sciences high school where the focus was on languages, literature, and history without having much to do with sciences that your creativity has no calling for even if computer sciences lead to well-paid jobs. Therefore, I don’t see any direct link between discipline and creative freedom, although it might exist.  

2 Never stop when you are stuck. You may not be able to solve the problem, but turn aside and write something else. Do not stop altogether.

Most of the authors so far advised to do something else when stuck such as listening to some music, biking, baking, taking a walk, taking a bath, etc. I guess writing something else can also work. I do that sometimes. I try what I love the most – dialogue. It usually cheers me up and it’s like a refresher. And if I don’t return to the writer to write, I return to writing thinking about what I’ll write further – so, in a way, I’m back to my writing.

3 Love what you do.

I adore it!

4 Be honest with yourself. If you are no good, accept it. If the work you are doing is no good, accept it.

You’re right! It’s no point lying to yourself in any field: in writing, in a job one’s doing, in marriage, etc. By lying to yourself, you basically postpone finding a solution to a reality that is accompanying you until you’ll confront it and find a solution to it… sooner or later.

5 Don't hold on to poor work. If it was bad when it went in the drawer it will be just as bad when it comes out.

Absolutely! It’s not that by magic a manuscript will become sensational just by sitting in the drawer. Even if it pauses in the drawer, its author must still think about it, make notes about what and where to improve, and eventually take a course on how to improve certain aspects. For my plays, I wanted to improve the dialogue by making the language more artistic and the lines of the characters more persuasive. I found the course Rhetoric – the Art of Persuasive Writing and Public Speaking provided by Harvard. I did this course motivated. It was exactly what I was looking for and at the quality I expected. I loved what I learned and I returned to the manuscripts in the drawer that couldn’t get better by themselves without me doing anything about it.

6 Take no notice of anyone you don't respect.

Yes, Ma’am! On this issue, there is a general agreement among all writers I read from for this series.

7 Take no notice of anyone with a gender agenda. A lot of men still think that women lack imagination of the fiery kind.

I don’t take notice of anyone with a gender agenda! I never did, and I never will. I don't think they are fair. For example, a lot of men still think that by sleeping around and/or frequent change of partners, women are promiscuous. But if this thing involves both/two and the woman is promiscuous, the man is what? A saint?! Obviously, the man is equally promiscuous in this equation. But most women do such things because they have children to feed. What do the men have besides sexual needs? So, who's more promiscuous in this equation? To me, the man.

Others are successful in one field because the wife takes care of absolutely everything else. Who’s more competent? The woman, of course. Others are successful because they have a woman as an assistant - and she's a great one. And so on and so forth. There are also exceptions, but I don’t take notice of anyone with a gender agenda because I’m sure I’m not going to agree with the arguments. However, encouragement, nice words, and help are always welcome.

8 Be ambitious for the work and not for the reward.

I am!

9 Trust your creativity.

I do!

10 Enjoy this work!

So do you!

It is the end of this series and I want to thank both The Guardian for having taken the initiative to bring all these writers together and the writers to have taken the time to share advice and tips from their long professional writing experience.

            There is a general agreement on several issues: on discipline and perseverance in writing; on patience in working over and over the manuscripts; on the importance of reading them out loud to improve rhythm, pace and cut off what is redundant; on the fierce cutting off sentences, paragraphs and even pages; and on the reading – better said not reading – of the comments, unless it is about people who’s opinions we trust and treasure. There is also a general agreement on having the Internet turned off while working and not writing while drunk or on drugs.

            Some writers used the opportunity to stress the importance of auto-correcting settings, clichés, and of the fact that writing is hard work, but it’s also gambling that does not offer any pension plan. In terms of other authors that these writers quoted, I came across Oscar Wilde and Flaubert. The latter advised us to work more and speak less (‘Faire et se taire’).

I began this series in November 2019. At that time I was still enrolled in the online course on rhetoric at Harvard which has a quality reputation and the reputation of an academically demanding university. My motivation was also high to learn from one of the best and I knew I would not have much time left to do article research to write essays and comments for the Writing Break Blog.

            I thought to consider this article for the ‘uncategorized’ section of the blog. I thought to choose one good, long, and relevant (writing) article during my course. I thought to learn from the experience of the other writers while I was learning the way to write more artistic and persuasive lines. I thought to take from it what is relevant for drama writing, because I’m trying something slightly ‘avant-garde’ with the single-issue drama, in the sense that it is complex in itself but less explored. But I enjoy different writing experiences and all advice was useful. Commenting on their ‘free style’ (sometimes I tried to be funny, but I’m not sure I made it) was my way to show to each and every one of them that I gave a thought to every single piece of advice they shared – because I truly appreciate it.

There is more to be summarized because the advice was plenty, but I would better stop here, as one of the writers said ‘[f]inish the day’s writing when you still want to continue.’ And I would finish with another great piece of advice for all of us since we are still at the beginning of the year: ‘Get lucky! Stay lucky!’

Thank you all for your advice. Happy writing everybody! J