How We Write No. 1

Image: Wikimedia Commons

I never met J. G. Ballard He was a guest at the Merril in the early days of Lorna's tenure as collection head, but his visit unfortunately coincided with the death of Lorna's father. From what I've learned of him, though, Ballard was not precisely a warm and fuzzy guy.

Which makes this compilation of advice so interesting to me. As compiled by Emily Temple of Lithub, this advice really strikes a chord with me (I think it's D#maj7). Allow me to mention the following as it pertains to the whole plot-vs-pants debate, something I suspect I'll be spending a lot of time on in this blog:

With short stories I do a brief synopsis of about a page, and only if I feel the story works as a story, as a dramatic narrative with the right shape and balance to grip the reader’s imagination, do I begin to write it . . . In the case of the novels, the synopsis is much longer . . .

There's a lot more in here that's interesting, and it's not a long read so you should definitely check it out. I also like this line, about the writer as rebel, which Temple places under the subhead "Rebel against yourself":

Most artists and writers in the past have been middle-class, the surrealists to a man, with backgrounds similar to those of the Baader-Meinhof gang.

As I said, the whole thing's worth the read, even if you aren't interested in writing as a craft.