Friday, November 16, 2012

129 ~on writing

HELEN DUNMORE’S 9 RULES OF WRITING

‘What will survive of us is love’



1.     Finish the day’s writing when you still want to continue

2.    Listen to what you have written. A dud rhythm in a passage of dialogue may show that you don’t yet understand the characters well enough to write in their voices

3.    Read Keat’s letters.

4.    Reread, rewrite, reread, rewrite. If it still doesn’t work, throw it away. It’s a nice feeling, and you don’t want to be cluttered with the corpses of poems and stories which have everything in them except the life they need.

5.    Learn poems by heart.

6. Join professional organisations which advance the collective rights of authors.

7.    A problem with a piece of writing often clarifies itself if you go for a long walk.

8.    If you fear that taking care of your children and household will damage your writing, think of JG Ballard.

9. Don’t worry about posterity—as Larkin (no sentimentalist) observed ‘What will survive of us is love.’


*****


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Copyright © 2012 by THE PYTHAGOREAN STORYTELLER. All rights reserved.

1 comment:

Dy said...

Nice list. I'll have to re-read Keat's letters and I'm interested in what you have to say about rhythm in sentences. Best,
Dy
www.dyloveday.com