Wise Words from Writers for Writers
Donald Maass
Sarah Manguso
“The purpose of being a serious writer is not to express oneself, and it is not to make something beautiful, though one might do those things anyway. Those things are beside the point. The purpose of being a serious writer is to keep people from despair.”
“And if you keep that in mind always, the wish to make something beautiful or smart looks slight and vain in comparison. If people read your work and, as a result, choose life, then you are doing your job.” Sarah Manguso
(Such a profound thought, one to ponder, for writers and for readers.)
Sarah Manguso also writes: “ All writers will envy other writers, other writing. No one who reads is immune.”
And she goes on… “ To write despite it, I must implicate myself, to confess to myself, silently or on the page, that I am envious. The result of this admission is humility. And a humble person, faced with the superior product of another, does not try to match it or best it out of spite. A humble person, and only a humble person, is capable of praise, of allowing space in the world for the great work of others, and of working alongside it, trying to match it as an act of honor.”
This last sentence of Manguso is such a beautiful thought. Because truly, when you first tell yourself you ARE a writer or that you want to BE A WRITER, is it not because of what you have read? That someone’s words carried you away, or made you set down the book, the poem, the article and look into space, the ideas floating there, the wonder over those words, that scene, that philosophy. So that yes, many writers become writers, because they were inspired when reading.
AGENT, FRIEND & WRITING GURU, DONALD MAASS, PROVIDES THOUGHTS ON WRITING
“Stories do not require a consensus. They do not legislate. Their purpose is to persuade. But persuade us of what? And how?
In a novel, (or screen play, script that becomes a film) to prove others wrong, it is first necessary to acknowledge that they may be right. So…
create characters who represent divergent ways of thinking and doing–actually opposing ideas are represented by opposing characters. (Brilliant and basic. Every television drama presents tension–because people with differing points of view are interacting.) But to be strong, each character must face their weaknesses. (As writers, our characters face what we are afraid of). As readers and viewers we will not be moved unless we see humanity first. The character must fail. And then to persuade us to change, the character must change because of the failure. They see the light, in other words.”Maass also states:
Writers must create antagonists whose case is excellent and heroes who are flawed. But in order to truly be a hero, those characters must learn and then change. Thus the power of storytelling to change us (the reader) lies in the courage writers summon to see things as others do. It depends on creating heroes who are flawed and must learn. Most of all, it requires that authors humble themselves, writing not out of resentment but out of twined compassion and conviction about what is right.Finally, Maass asks: “What is the bell you will ring in your writing today? What clear and simple truth does it sound? Words are strong when you know their purpose. Stories speak loudest when the storyteller first listens.”
That last sentence….could be applied to every conversation we have, to those times when we are making decisions, evaluating pros and cons, arguing with a spouse or our progeny Are we listening?
FINAL THOUGHT
Writers speak through their characters. They use their so-flawed-ideas and their closer-to-perfect ideas. Both make it on to the page. My novel-in-progress presents a crack in the foundation of a marriage: one of the partners decides to forget an initial pledge to be compassionate in life and help others, so he is turning away. But she is not. And that doesn’t make her an angel, because maybe she is overboard, in some cases using hubris in her belief that she can change people through empathy and compassion.
Being a writer, helps me day to day to grapple with my own fears and insecurities while getting into the skin of my characters.
So thanks for reading. As Sarah Manguso states above, I will keep reading and writing–knowing that both will fight off despair.
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