From Lev Grossman’s blog, “A Brief Taxonomy of Writers”: “As far as I can tell there are two kinds of fiction writers: those who read no fiction while they write, and those who constantly read fiction while they write. Let’s have cute names for them. We’ll call them Soloists and Thieves.”
Fiction Writers: Soloists or Thieves?
Unfinished Work
At the Fiction Writers Review, Robin Black sits down with contributor and Year in Reading alumna Nichole Bernier. The two discuss, among other things, Bernier’s new novel, The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D., as well as novels in which lengthy sections feature characters reading journal entries. (Bernier calls them “funhouse mirrors.”)
Escape to the Seaside
“You have turned to stone. A hairline crack runs along your entire length from crown to toe. Your feet have turned to liquid, and you are melting onto the kitchen floor.” Are you living in an Elena Ferrante novel? Li Sian Goh at The Toast has compiled a helpful list of ways to tell whether or not you might be a character in Ferrante’s final Neapolitan novel, The Story of the Lost Child.
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Shondaland’s Fall Reading Recommendations
Meet Shondaland, a new website created by Shonda Rhimes and dedicated to storytelling that launched this week. One of their most recent posts highlights 28 books to read this fall. We know there’s a lot of reading recommendation lists around this time of year (like our September preview) but we appreciate the diversity of this list in particular and its willingness to hold back judgment if we don’t finish all the suggestions. Pair with our interview with Jesmyn Ward (whose Sing, Unburied Sing made the list), along with Year in Reading alum Eleanor Henderson’s Twelve Mile Straight.
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The Mythical Susan Sontag
Benjamin Moser's new book, Sontag: Her Life and Work, shows the ways Susan Sontag fled into her own mind to escape an awful reality.
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Lessons in Failure
“In eleven years, I’ve written four books: three novels and one story collection. Only the story collection has ever seen the light of day; the first two novels, including my thesis, were never published and the third novel is making the rounds with agents right now. I’d like to believe I’ve learned a few things about how fiction works over this time, but perhaps it is more accurate to write that I have learned how my fiction does – or in many cases, does not – work.” Michael Nye, who’s written for us before, shares his “Lessons in Failure and Writing a Novel” on the Missouri Review blog.
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Fair enough, but are you saying their are writers out there who don’t read books? That’s pretty amazing. How good can these ‘soloists’ be? There’s not really that much in the way of truly original characters/plots etc in the world; whats interesting and original is typically a handful of so-so ideas combined in a very clever way. People who read alot of fiction might have more ‘soso’ ideas (borrowed) from which to pick.Then again, most of what we write is heavily influenced by our own lives. So the soloists could be just writing from their own life. Not exactly fiction.
Bottom line: I don’t think we should chastize those who ‘borrow’ ideas, as I think originality is kind of overrated. The point is not to be clever or cute, but to be good. The thing with writers who read alot of great books, they tend to absorb not only writing styles (what you might consider influencing styles) but other people’s ideas for plot/characters, subconsciously. Writers who read alot tend to be much better writers.
It’s amazing to me too, but I met a novelist at a literary festival once who claimed he never read books. I haven’t read his work yet, but he was shortlisted for the Giller prize (one of the top awards in Canada) so I’m assuming he must be good.