What do you think?
Essay On Writing
- GenresNonfiction
6 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1985
About the author
Raymond Carver
366 books5,281 followersCarver was born into a poverty-stricken family at the tail-end of the Depression. He married at 19, started a series of menial jobs and his own career of 'full-time drinking as a serious pursuit', a career that would eventually kill him. Constantly struggling to support his wife and family, Carver enrolled in a writing programme under author John Gardner in 1958. He saw this opportunity as a turning point.
Rejecting the more experimental fiction of the 60s and 70s, he pioneered a precisionist realism reinventing the American short story during the eighties, heading the line of so-called 'dirty realists' or 'K-mart realists'. Set in trailer parks and shopping malls, they are stories of banal lives that turn on a seemingly insignificant detail. Carver writes with meticulous economy, suddenly bringing a life into focus in a similar way to the paintings of Edward Hopper. As well as being a master of the short story, he was an accomplished poet publishing several highly acclaimed volumes.
After the 'line of demarcation' in Carver's life - 2 June 1977, the day he stopped drinking - his stories become increasingly more redemptive and expansive. Alcohol had eventually shattered his health, his work and his family - his first marriage effectively ending in 1978. He finally married his long-term parter Tess Gallagher (they met ten years earlier at a writers' conference in Dallas) in Reno, Nevada, less than two months before he eventually lost his fight with cancer.
Rejecting the more experimental fiction of the 60s and 70s, he pioneered a precisionist realism reinventing the American short story during the eighties, heading the line of so-called 'dirty realists' or 'K-mart realists'. Set in trailer parks and shopping malls, they are stories of banal lives that turn on a seemingly insignificant detail. Carver writes with meticulous economy, suddenly bringing a life into focus in a similar way to the paintings of Edward Hopper. As well as being a master of the short story, he was an accomplished poet publishing several highly acclaimed volumes.
After the 'line of demarcation' in Carver's life - 2 June 1977, the day he stopped drinking - his stories become increasingly more redemptive and expansive. Alcohol had eventually shattered his health, his work and his family - his first marriage effectively ending in 1978. He finally married his long-term parter Tess Gallagher (they met ten years earlier at a writers' conference in Dallas) in Reno, Nevada, less than two months before he eventually lost his fight with cancer.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 5, 2024
This essay sent me down the rabbit hole to read "Guy de Maupassant" by Isaac Babel, which I thoroughly enjoyed more than any of Carver's short stories. Also completely forgot that "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" served as the embedded narrative in the film Birdman. I feel like Carver was almost a Neal Cassady type; he could never really get past the throat-clearing of what he wanted to say, yet had a cultural impact in an unsung hero way.
December 8, 2025
Not a book but an absolutely brilliant essay. He has to be one of my favorite writers.
July 21, 2025
On Writing by Raymond Carver
Another version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:
- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...
This is an essay by the great Raymond Carver.
And it is difficult to write a note about it.
Especially since there is little material about it on the internet.
And he is so clear about what writing should be.
First of all, it should be authentic.
If I have even this simple statement right.
You find some comments on the essay here:
- https://www.theguardian.com/books/boo...
In the essay, there are a few important quotes that are hanged on a wall and deserve attention and need to be considered when writing
The writers mentioned include Chekhov, Isak Dinesen, Isaac Babel and Flannery O'Connor, who seem to be among the favorite writers of Raymond Carver.
One quote mentions tricks and Raymond Carver is against any of these and says that he falls asleep when tricks are used.
Then I think he supports the idea expressed by Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers, even if that came decades after Carver died.
And that has to do with practicing, working hard every day in order to get better at writing, or whatever one has in mind to achieve.
Flannery O’Connor is mentioned with her insight into how she writes and does not know where the story is going.
She writes about some women she knows, but then one has a wooden leg- which was not the case in real life.
And Flannery O’Connor does not know about the wooden leg, or that a personage would steal it, until she is only ten lines from the act itself.
An intriguing proposal from Raymond Carver, if not in those words, perhaps in a distorted form that shaped into my imagination is this:
- The writer must not be so smart…in fact he would do better to stare with a gaped mouth at the event and then write about it
Sincerity is paramount, without tricks as has been already established.
And hard work…
This appears to confirm the theory of Malcolm Gladwell as expressed and demonstrated in Outliers, where exercise leads one to the heights of performance.
There are other quotes that are important to Raymond Carver and are worthy of a note on his wall, on a two by four.
- “And Suddenly Everything Became Clear to Him”
This one is from Anton Chekhov.
And Raymond Carver expertly points out that the reader wonders- or at least Carver does- what has become clear?
- What was before that?
Then there is the experimentation and the continuous search for new techniques and styles, that Raymond Carver seems to disapprove of.
If I am not wrong.
New for the sake of new seems wrong.
And to end with another quote from the master:
- "Get in, get out. Don't linger"
Another version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:
- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...
This is an essay by the great Raymond Carver.
And it is difficult to write a note about it.
Especially since there is little material about it on the internet.
And he is so clear about what writing should be.
First of all, it should be authentic.
If I have even this simple statement right.
You find some comments on the essay here:
- https://www.theguardian.com/books/boo...
In the essay, there are a few important quotes that are hanged on a wall and deserve attention and need to be considered when writing
The writers mentioned include Chekhov, Isak Dinesen, Isaac Babel and Flannery O'Connor, who seem to be among the favorite writers of Raymond Carver.
One quote mentions tricks and Raymond Carver is against any of these and says that he falls asleep when tricks are used.
Then I think he supports the idea expressed by Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers, even if that came decades after Carver died.
And that has to do with practicing, working hard every day in order to get better at writing, or whatever one has in mind to achieve.
Flannery O’Connor is mentioned with her insight into how she writes and does not know where the story is going.
She writes about some women she knows, but then one has a wooden leg- which was not the case in real life.
And Flannery O’Connor does not know about the wooden leg, or that a personage would steal it, until she is only ten lines from the act itself.
An intriguing proposal from Raymond Carver, if not in those words, perhaps in a distorted form that shaped into my imagination is this:
- The writer must not be so smart…in fact he would do better to stare with a gaped mouth at the event and then write about it
Sincerity is paramount, without tricks as has been already established.
And hard work…
This appears to confirm the theory of Malcolm Gladwell as expressed and demonstrated in Outliers, where exercise leads one to the heights of performance.
There are other quotes that are important to Raymond Carver and are worthy of a note on his wall, on a two by four.
- “And Suddenly Everything Became Clear to Him”
This one is from Anton Chekhov.
And Raymond Carver expertly points out that the reader wonders- or at least Carver does- what has become clear?
- What was before that?
Then there is the experimentation and the continuous search for new techniques and styles, that Raymond Carver seems to disapprove of.
If I am not wrong.
New for the sake of new seems wrong.
And to end with another quote from the master:
- "Get in, get out. Don't linger"
October 21, 2023
A simple, short article on writing short stories. Carver begins with his lack of concentration on long narratives, and follow the prose with the most beautiful and helpful quotes by great writers attached to his wall.
His most important message is the language and using the right words to carry the expression of the writers way of seeing in the best possible way. Read this simple article, attach the quotes to your wall, and write everyday. Without hope, and without despair.
His most important message is the language and using the right words to carry the expression of the writers way of seeing in the best possible way. Read this simple article, attach the quotes to your wall, and write everyday. Without hope, and without despair.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews