Monday, October 31

reading and writing books

After I enjoyed reading The Pregnant Widow by Martin Amis, I looked for articles on the web. In one interview, there was a list of Amis's advice to writers, for example:

• "Don’t start a paragraph with the same word as the previous one. That goes doubly for sentences."

Everyone who reads this blog has written a book, except me. I wonder if I have what it takes to write. Looking at the rest of Amis's tips:

• "Watch out for words that repeat too often."  I think he forgot to add that words like "it all balances up" are so important that you can never have too much of them.

• “Never use ‘amongst.’ ‘Among.’ Never use ‘whilst.’ Anyone who uses ‘whilst’ is subliterate.”   I couldn't agree more.

• "You write the book you want to read. That’s my rule."  What if you want to read pornography?


• “You have to have a huge appetite for solitude.”   I rest my case.




So on the evidence, I could easily write a book. I can only see one problem: a writer needs to be an effed-up sort of person. All creative people are riddled with addictions, contradictions, and mental problems. A normal well-adjusted joe like me is happy just getting on with normal things.

I read another book recently called Are You Boys Cyclists? I couldn't put it down, as they say. Actually I had to put it down, but only to eat. I continued reading on the bus to work, laughing aloud. I hope nobody was reading the graphic parts over my shoulder. A hugely enjoyable book by someone who knows how to write. Honest and depraved. Who would have thought a postmodern novel could be so much fun!

6 comments:

  1. I would invite you to join NaNoWriMo and give it a go.

    I think there are a lot of 'experts' out there with a different opinion on how things should be. But the fact of it is that everyone has stories to tell.

    I'm not a writer. I have no intention of being one. But this is the 10th year I'd done this and I find it interesting.

    Most of what I write is just to empty out the noise in my head.

    Come join.

    www.nanowrimo.org

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  2. Albert? Thanks for the plug! Whilst I couldn't agree more with Albert Amis, whose rules are very sensible, I have to say that writinng is a total mug's game. Stick to reading the computery manuals. Meditating is the newer writing anyway, except it's harder. Unfortunately, also a mug's game, but so is life! Hotboy

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  3. Albert? You're review doesn't show if you look for Cyclists here in Blighty! Don't know why that is. Hotboy

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  4. Thanks Nanners, it was after visiting nanowrimo that I wrote this post. Maybe one year I could use it to rewrite the memoir-ey posts from the last 6 years.

    Hotters. Life Is A Mug's Game. Now there's a catchy title. PS no idea why the review doesn't show at your end. If they wanted to censor something, they'd have banned the book.

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  5. Hotters. Try googling PEBKAC.

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  6. I say!

    Don't know the Amis chap myself. Did he open for Sussex in the 1950s?

    MM III

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