"Everything a writer learns about the art or craft of fiction takes just a little away from his need or desire to write at all. In the end he knows all the tricks and has nothing to say." --Raymond Chandler


Sometimes I think Chandler is right, that studying takes away from our raw talent and our natural abilities as storytellers.

Other times, I think his statement is absurd, that improving our craft makes our work better without harming our ability to connect with our sources of inspiration.

What do you think?

Malcolm

I agree with Chandler.

Improving the craft is one thing. We need to know all we can about grammar, word usage, punctuation, etc. However, I don't want to take classes in writing that may hurt my work rather than help it. I know what I want to say, and most especially how I want to say it, and I think that is what makes each of us unique. If I take a class that teaches me something else, then I've lost that uniqueness, and that's not something I want to do.

Someone once asked Chet Atkins, one of the very best guitarists that ever lived, if he knew how to read music. "Yeah, but not enough to hurt my playing," he replied.

I don't want to learn so much about writing that it hurts my ability to actually sit down and write.

I like that Chet Atkins quote, Don.

Isn't that why we have editors? We write. The creativeness comes out. Then we correct. Does studying our craft take away from the creativeness? If it does, then we need to stop studying and start creating.

I believe writing is a process of steps. In the beginning, it's best to ignore the "study" and write from a place that is as free from forms and rules as possible. Once that stage is on paper, the study part comes into play with revision of major parts, developing or improving sequence, etc, and finally editing the grammar, usage, and mechanics.

Ann

Not a bad way to look at it, Ann.

Malcolm

Sure, it's best if you don't care to be published by a mainstream publisher.

But for those who still dream of seeing their books in the large chains, of seeing the possibility of getting on the best-selling lists, they'd better learn the craft of writing and the recommended structure of today's popular novel.

I can't imagine 'writers' spouting that kind of nonsense and teaching others the same philosophy. What a disservice to the students.

Brenda, I don't know what kind of 'nonsense' you're talking about, but I'll lay my writing on the table with anyone here, and in most other places as well. I think I have a good a chance of getting a major publisher as anyone else has.

I still wouldn't take a class that might actually hurt instead of help. Grammar, punctuation, etc has got to be as good as you and your editor can make it, voice and style must be your own.

No amount of classroom teaching can make an average writer much more than average. But a really great writer can take a less than great idea and make it come to life.

Without our own style or voice or whatever you want to call it, we are nothing, and you can't teach that in a classroom

Yes, Don, you can. Learning techniques to present a scene better, learning the craft of injecting suspense into whatever genre you're writing, and many other techniques can make an average writer better, and a good writer terrific. Like day and night. I've seen it. I've worked with writers for years and have taught what I've learned. Some have gone on to sign with majors.

Learning techniques does not change a writer's voice; instead, it enhances it. And I can't understand why anyone would think studying the craft of something they invest time in is harmful.

The 'nonsense' I referred to is the notion of teaching others to simply sit and write whatever's in their soul, with everyone happily tiptoeing through the tulips, la te da. That will not cut it in today's market. I've attended those classes and felt ripped off. I wanted to learn how to write a novel that would sell, not how to write something that only my family and friends wanted to read. After that, I made sure that the instructor was someone who'd actually sold to the majors. At least they knew what they were talking about.

This is one of those topics that can get bogged down when the focus is on polarities. Extreme positions become unbalanced and absurd.

Who wants to read any writing that is technically correct but has no soul? And how does a writer find that soul? By writing from it. This is a thing poets know, this thing about reaching a place where the writing takes over. The best storytellers know that the stories are preexistent, just waiting to be rediscovered.

It is also true that storytelling has a structure: a beginning, middle, and end; protagonists and antagonists; a problem that must come to resolution. Without that structure, the incidents merely meander through Brenda's tulips.

During my 27 years of teaching young people to write, I have come across individuals of all types. Nearly all of them needed help in one area or another. Some were very creative, but had little sense of order, others were so stymied by their insistence on following a pattern that they said very little underneath that pattern. Some had trouble letting go in the early parts of the process, others had problems getting to a worthwhile finished product.

Great writing is always a complex blend of both soul and mind and leaves the reader feeling balanced and complete. To focus on one part or the other will invariably lead to a product that is less than whole.

Just me.

Ann

The extremes are absurd, Ann. Know it or not, we all improve with time whether we want to call it "studying" or not. We improve each time we write and every time we read and absorb other writers' techniques.

If we're too old or too vain to learn new tricks, we're probably not going anywhere. We can learn without killing our muses or our spirits.

Malcolm

Ann,



You wrote that quite well, and I believe all you said.

I love to learn new things, but sometimes I need to let go, and just write. I have read the books, attended the conferences and classes, studied grammar, have a few dictionaries handy, but when I put all that aside and go out on the porch and write, what happens is the best.

I have been called too "encyclopedic," and try to set aside others' knowledge and words and write my own.

When I made my granddaughter's graduation scrapbook, I had a box where I put the photos and other memorabilia I chose not to use. That box became a symbol of writing to me, that sometimes we need to let go.

Carol

Malcolm,

I agree with you also. I have learned so much just coming here, and sometimes it is painful. And I have found writing on messageboards, to real people, I have learned a great deal. It isn't just book learning.

And I will never be too old to learn.

Carol

Ann says 'Who wants to read any writing that is technically correct but has no soul?' The idea that studying the craft of writing will result in a piece with no soul is absurd. Does a musician who studied music play with no soul? Does a painter who has studied art techniques paint with no soul?

Pavarotti spent years in vocal training, yet his concerts are so moving they leave me in tears.

Michelangelo apprenticed to a painter, studied sculpture under Giovanni. Can anyone truly say he painted with no soul because he studied his craft?

Leonardo da Vince apprenticed to Verrocchio.

Betina Krahn, a NY Times bestselling author, was the guest speaker at a writing conference I attended several years ago, and she said it took her about eight years of writing and learning before she signed with a major publisher. And she said several of her peers, many of whom I love to read, spent about the same amount of time learning the craft before they wrote with enough professionalism to sell.

Today Betina has about thirty books in print and several have been best-sellers.

Learning techniques doesn’t take away a writer’s unique way of writing; it simple teaches what’s needed to perfect the certain way of writing the story.

But, we all have to follow our own paths. I chose to do what I could to help my chances to write with professionalism.

And Don, I wish you the best on your wip. That’s the one with Brew, isn’t it?