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EXCERPTS FROM A GREAT INTRODUCTION... |
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Some of my online poetry pals have heard all this, but I decided after all the effort of typing it out, I wanted to include it on my webpage.... |
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Last night, I had the privelage of reading an introduction that was inspiring, amusing, entertaining and RELEVANT! That's right folks, from someone who was beginning to believe hating introductions was deeply ingrained in her psychi, I actually found one that I did not want to put down UNTIL THE END. I was amazed by this fact, and loved this introduction so much, that I wanted to include some quotes from it here. I hope its relevant enough, it should be coz most of the quotes are actually about writing. For those of you who are interested in where I actually found such a praiseworth introduction, it comes from "The Rivan Codex" by David and Leigh Eddings, you might have heard of it if you've ever browsed the fantasty and sci-fi section in a bookstore. It's actually a group of texts that accompanies an ilead (that's a series of twelve, funk name eh!?) which includes "The Belgariad" (five books), "The Mallorean" (five books) and two prequels. The series itself is actually a bit of hard reading because it is long and sometimes slow moving.
Anyways the quotes here are in order of appearance, except the first one because it is my favourite and its just soooo true. |
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"I was in my mid-teens when I discovered that I was a writer. Notice that I didn't say 'wanted to be a writer'. Want has almost nothing to do with it. It's either there or it isn't. If you happen to be one, you're stuck with it. You'll write whether you get paid for it or not. You won't be able to help yourself. When it's going well, it's like reaching up into heaven and pulling down fire. It's better than any dope you can buy. When it's not going well. it's much like giving birth to a baby elephant. You'll probably notice the time lapse. I was forty before I wrote a publishable book. A twenty-five year long apprenticeship doesn't appeal to very many people." |
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"Then there are those letters, the ones which rather bashfully confide an intention to 'try writing fantasy myself.' I don't worry too much about those correspondants. They'll get over that notion rather quickly once they discover what's involved. I'm sure that most of them will eventually decide to take up something simpler - brain surgery or rocket science, perhaps." |
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"(Just in passing I should advise you that my definition of 'brief' and yours might differ just a bit. It takes me a hundred pages just to clear my throat. Had you noticed that? I thought you might have.)"
- Incidentally, his introduction is sixteen pages long, shorter than those found in our english texts... |
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"...and it may give some student of our genre some insights into the creative process - something in the order of 'connects wire A to wire B. Warning! Do not connect wire A to wire C, because this will cause the whole thing to blow up in your face!" |
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"I was convinced that I was a 'serious novelist', and I laboured long and hard over several unpublished (and unpublishable) novels that moped around the edges of mawkish contemporary tragedy. In the mid 1970s I was grinding out 'Hunsucker's Ascent', a story about mountain-climbing which was a piece of tripe so bad that it even bored me. (No, you can't see it. I burned it.)"
- Just to prove we all have our bad ones. |
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"Did you notice the simularities? I thought I noticed you noticing."
- Sorry, I just love the notice you noticing bit. |
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"If you're serious about this, you have to write every day, even if it's only for an hour. Scratch the words 'week-end' and 'holiday' our of your vocabulary. (If you've been very good, I might let you take a half-day off at Christmas.) Write a million or so words. Then burn them. Now you're almost ready to start." |
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"If you're worried about how much this will interfere with a normal life, take up something else." |
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Are you ready for some honesty here? Genre fiction is writing that's done for money. Great art doesn't do all that well in a commercial society. Nothing that Franz Kafka wrote ever appeared in print while he was alive. Miss Lonelyheart sank without a ripple. Freat literary art is difficult to read because you have to think when you read it, and most people would rather not." |
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"SF writers are technology freaks who blithely ignore that footnote in Einstein's theory of relativity which clearly states that when an object approaches the speed of light, its mass becomes infinite. (So much for warp-drive.) If old Buck Rogers hits the gas pedal a little too hard, he'll suddenly become the universe. Fantasists are magic and shining armor freaks who posit equally absurd notions with incantationsm 'the Will and the Word', or other mumbo-jumbo. They want to build a better screwdriver, and we want to come up with a better incantation. They want to go into the future, and we want to go into the past. We write better stories than they do, though. They get all bogged down in telling you how the watch works; we just tell you what time it is and go on with the story. SF and fantasty shouldn't even speak to each other, but try explaining that to a book-store manager. Try explaining it to a publisher. Forget it."
- Just so I don't get the SF lovers yelling at me, I love his explanation of the two, but that doesn't mean I hate SF ok! In fact, I like sci-fi almost as much as I like fantasy. (Does that technically ruin Edding's theory? I'm not sure.) |
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Final quote, I promise:
"One last gloomy note. If something doesn't work, dump it - even if it means that you have to rip up several hundred pages and half a years work. More stories are ruined by the writer's stubborn attachment to his own overwrought prose than by almost anything else. Let your stuff cool off for a month and then read it critically. Forget that you wrote it, and read it as if you didn't really like the guy who put it down in the first place. Then take a meat-axe to it. Let it cool down some more, and then read it again. If it still doesn't work, get rid of it. Revision is the soul of good writing. It's the story that counts, not your fondness for your own gushy prose. Accept your losses and move on."
- You'll all be pleased to know that my "fondness for my own gushy prose" does not extend to my writing, just includes my poetry. I have used that meat-axe on stories before. |
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Smiles and hugs everyone. I hope you liked the quotes, though they are long and there are so many.
Deej. |
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EVINAR LIBRARY |
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