The Writer's E-Zine Home

Writers' Village University - F2K: Free Fiction Writing Course - ePress-online
Writers' Village University Membership Information

Literary Lights

Priscilla Fagan

Read, read, read to write. So say the experts about the craft of writing. I wholeheartedly agree. Unfortunately, even the 'Literary Lights' disagree on what to read.

"Read, read, read. Read everything - trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out the window. "
William Faulkner

"Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all. "
Henry David Thoreau

"No one who intends to take up writing as a career should read any work that lies in the category in which his own efforts would be placed. If he disobeys this rule, he will almost certainly feel he must write literature instead of trying to say what he means"
Quentin Crisp

"You can't write fiction unless you read fiction. "
Bill Adler

All in all - Read! I'm motivated to write when I read. For me, it's a great 'block' buster. I believe there is more bad writing out there than good writing. Does this mean most of us emulate what we read? Edward Albee says, "If you are going to learn from other writers don't only read the great ones, because if you do that you'll get so filled with despair and the fear that you'll never be able to do anywhere near as well as they did that you'll stop writing. I recommend that you read a lot of bad stuff, too. It's very encouraging. "Hey, I can do so much better than this." Read the greatest stuff but read the stuff that isn't so great, too. Great stuff is very discouraging. If you read only Beckett and Chekhov, you'll go away and only deliver telegrams at Western Union. "

Well, I've read Chekhov and the only comment I'll make about that is - I don't work for Western Union.

So, one more opinion, this one from Raymond Carver. Something to think about. Have a great summer. "I remember [John] Gardner telling me, "Read all the Faulkner you can get your hands on, and then read all of Hemingway to clean the Faulkner out of your system."

Priscilla, being optimistic