All good books have one thing in common - they are truer than if they had really happened. Ernest Hemingway
A man's got to take a lot of punishment to write a really funny book. Ernest Hemingway
http://mockingbird.creighton.edu/ncw/chekwrit.htm
Cross out the beginning and the end - that's where we do most of our lying.
This also adds mystery and treats the reader as intelligent. The story is short. Its just a glimpse at something. Get it and get out Carver says.
Restrain enthusiasm. He tells Max Gorky to do this. Whatever is being expressed gets lost in the enthusiasm for the reader. It becomes just enthusiasm, what is being expressed, and its boring. It goes on too long.
Write what is in your nature to write: is it lyrical or curse-ridden? Cold or soft? Am I cold person who writes drily. Not flowery stuff of the soft. To the point, precise, clean. Lean.
Know what your work is (about). Like for Carver it is about people who used to want to do what mattered but they have been broken and now they just try to do the best they can. They want to do what's right but they can't sometimes. They are human.
Fiction is what is like to be a fucking human being, David Foster Wallace says.
"Best of all, shun all descriptions of the characters' spiritual state. You must try to have that state emerge clearly from their actions. Don't try for too many characters. The center of gravity should reside in two: he and she."
You can tell when you read Carver that he practices this principle. There is often a man and woman, and he will let the mans actions describe his spiritual condition.
"but you are confusing two concepts: the solution of a problem and the correct formulation of a problem. Only the second is required of the artist."
It can be tempting to people who don't understand art to ask about a solution, and to feel that every problem needs a solution. These non-artists cannot bear to appreciate the beauty of problems correctly formulated. Stories sometimes have a sense of resolution, but often it is just a hint, and there remains the mystery of the problem.
Looking for the answer kills the beauty of the problem well presented. Like the story of Carver's where the deaf man kills himself and his wife. Its a story about fish. The father tries to present a resolution to the son but the son knows the father doesn't believe this. He is only trying to comfort him. So this tendency towards resolution is about comfort. Art is more about tension. Carver likes a story with tension, it gives rythm.
"It is time for writers to admit that nothing in this world makes sense. Only fools and charlatans think they know and understand everything. The stupider they are, the wider they conceive their horizons to be. And if an artist decides to declare that he understands nothing of what he sees — this in itself constitutes a considerable clarity in the realm of thought, and a great step forward."
This quote connects well to the previous quote. To make sense of everything kills the mystery. Detail kills the picture. David Lynch says these things. The writer has a duty to truth.
Reading Carver and following his recommendation to read Chekhov is just a small humble step to becoming a writer...
Cross out the beginning and the end - that's where we do most of our lying.
This also adds mystery and treats the reader as intelligent. The story is short. Its just a glimpse at something. Get it and get out Carver says.
Restrain enthusiasm. He tells Max Gorky to do this. Whatever is being expressed gets lost in the enthusiasm for the reader. It becomes just enthusiasm, what is being expressed, and its boring. It goes on too long.
Write what is in your nature to write: is it lyrical or curse-ridden? Cold or soft? Am I cold person who writes drily. Not flowery stuff of the soft. To the point, precise, clean. Lean.
Know what your work is (about). Like for Carver it is about people who used to want to do what mattered but they have been broken and now they just try to do the best they can. They want to do what's right but they can't sometimes. They are human.
Fiction is what is like to be a fucking human being, David Foster Wallace says.
"Best of all, shun all descriptions of the characters' spiritual state. You must try to have that state emerge clearly from their actions. Don't try for too many characters. The center of gravity should reside in two: he and she."
You can tell when you read Carver that he practices this principle. There is often a man and woman, and he will let the mans actions describe his spiritual condition.
"but you are confusing two concepts: the solution of a problem and the correct formulation of a problem. Only the second is required of the artist."
It can be tempting to people who don't understand art to ask about a solution, and to feel that every problem needs a solution. These non-artists cannot bear to appreciate the beauty of problems correctly formulated. Stories sometimes have a sense of resolution, but often it is just a hint, and there remains the mystery of the problem.
Looking for the answer kills the beauty of the problem well presented. Like the story of Carver's where the deaf man kills himself and his wife. Its a story about fish. The father tries to present a resolution to the son but the son knows the father doesn't believe this. He is only trying to comfort him. So this tendency towards resolution is about comfort. Art is more about tension. Carver likes a story with tension, it gives rythm.
"It is time for writers to admit that nothing in this world makes sense. Only fools and charlatans think they know and understand everything. The stupider they are, the wider they conceive their horizons to be. And if an artist decides to declare that he understands nothing of what he sees — this in itself constitutes a considerable clarity in the realm of thought, and a great step forward."
This quote connects well to the previous quote. To make sense of everything kills the mystery. Detail kills the picture. David Lynch says these things. The writer has a duty to truth.
Reading Carver and following his recommendation to read Chekhov is just a small humble step to becoming a writer...
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