14 Replies to “The Next Book”

  2. i read the whole interview this morning. coming back this afternoon just to say that i was encouraged by such bright answers to your probing questions. i’ll have my eye out for this guy, justin isis. just in time… 💡 there does need to be a writing that improves on the last century. :up:i’m not so sure we have to give up story though… but that’s just me. can’t we have originality and content? :happy: because the human condition needs a breath of fresh air. an end to psychological recriminations and venting about the world…. let there be light.you for instance shine an honest light into the dark areas of subjectivity which is kind of like an old time steam driven railroad train rumbling and zigzagging around hairy turns. then slowing to a determined chug a chug up the grade. 😆 but always liltingly perceptive; tilting at the underground denizens.sorry, quentin. i waxed a bit fancy there.

  3. Originally posted by anonymous:Nice, I’m going to try spread the word around. Thank you. Justin Isis is officially my favourite living writer. That puts him under incredible strain, as he now has to live up to that. He also officially writes like James Joyce. I know this because I analysed some of his writing with the help of the I Write Like website:http://iwl.me/I analysed some of my own writing, and it said I write like David Foster Wallace and J.K. Rowling. Might as well just kill myself now.Either that or leave textual analysis to those who actually possess reading comprehension. Very few left on the planet. Originally posted by I_ArtMan:i read the whole interview this morning. coming back this afternoon just to say that i was encouraged by such bright answers to your probing questions. i’ll have my eye out for this guy, justin isis.Needless to say, I think that you should. Thanks for the interest.Originally posted by I_ArtMan:i’m not so sure we have to give up story though… but that’s just me. can’t we have originality and content? I think Justin does have originality and content. Very much so. I don’t know if this is encouraging, but Justin has described his debut collection as stylistically “conservative” (by his own standards). The stories follow fairly traditional narrative techniques. Later collections will, if I judge correctly, be less traditional. Originally posted by I_ArtMan:you for instance shine an honest light into the dark areas of subjectivity which is kind of like an old time steam driven railroad train rumbling and zigzagging around hairy turns. then slowing to a determined chug a chug up the grade.I like this description.Originally posted by I_ArtMan:sorry, quentin. i waxed a bit fancy there. Waxing fancy is great, and should be encouraged. No need to apologise.

  4. i put in my blog entry about mary mary in the village. the result was david foster wallace. is that weird. i’m going try again with another piece. like my horseback trip.i’m glad you didn’t mind my indulgent critique. much more to come. 😆

  7. Originally posted by I_ArtMan:i put in my blog entry about mary mary in the village. the result was david foster wallace. is that weird. i’m going try again with another piece. like my horseback trip.I think the analysis basically consists of averaging number of words in a sentence and picking up on key words. For instance, a paragraph of mine that had more than one use of the word “magic” in it was described as being like J.K. Rowling. Yes, this programme is really that sophisticated. In fact, it’s even more sophisticated than the average 21st century human reader.Originally posted by I_ArtMan: i did it again and my badge was daniel defoe… i feel better now because i had never heard of david foster wallace.Unfortunately for me, J K Rowling was what I got after trying to get something other than David Foster Wallace. Daniel Defoe, is not bad. The problem with this programme is that, if it’s true it’s insults miss their target, it’s also true that you can’t trust its compliments. But I think we should trust the latter and ignore the former, anyway.Originally posted by anonymous:( Quentin,how to write? )You want to know how to write? Well, clearly, if you want to write like J.K. Rowling and sell millions, all you need to do is use sentences of medium length and sprinkle the word magic in here and there.

  8. i tried it one final time and got david foster wallace again.but now that i’ve read a little about him i don’t mind…he’s sort of a rimbaud, kerouac kind of a writer.now i wish i could write like saroyan. 🙂 or aubrey menan. :idea:”There are three things which are real: God, human folly, and laughter. Since the first two pass our comprehension, we must do what we can with the third.” aubrey menan

  9. Anonymous writes:”Originally posted by anonymous: ( Quentin,how to write? )You want to know how to write? Well, clearly, if you want to write like J.K. Rowling and sell millions, all you need to do is use sentences of medium length and sprinkle the word magic in here and there. “No,not like she…I want to know how to write like,for example,a great author(for me,like Akutagawa Ryunosuke;or Bioy Casares/Borges;or Córtazar.Balzac.Goethe.)Not for money(and J.K. Rowling is not a model of writer,she is someone who ‘write books’,not necessarily a true writer.I know this,like you).It’s because a true wish,a true desire of communicate what i think.I tried what you said in a interview:’What advice would you give to a young person who wanted to become a writer? Try not to be negative.If I’m trying not to be negative, the advice must be, “Don’t give up!” Otherwise, it would be, “Give up!”But no, really, I’d give very bad, perverse advice like, “Write exactly what you want to write.” Also, I think this is true – you can’t wait for inspiration, you have to sit down and write. ‘I need your opinion,some advices.I read two interviews with you,and i saw that you could,at least,give-me a ‘direction’.Thanks fot the attention,Thiago B.P.s : sorry,Quentin,my english is very bad.I’m Brazilian.I’m learning english- read,only(this is the priority).So…this is the first time that i wrote an answer like that. P.s 2: There are many others like Rowling in world.In Brazil,unfortunately,we have Paulo Coelho. =/

  10. Originally posted by I_ArtMan:now i wish i could write like saroyan. or aubrey menan. “There are three things which are real: God, human folly, and laughter. Since the first two pass our comprehension, we must do what we can with the third.” aubrey menanI must look these writers up.Originally posted by anonymous:No,not like she…I want to know how to write like,for example,a great author(for me,like Akutagawa Ryunosuke;or Bioy Casares/Borges;or Córtazar.Balzac.Goethe.)Hello Thiago. I thought perhaps your question was prompted by something that Justin said in his interview, which is why I gave a flippant answer. I have just looked up the writer that I_Artman mentioned – Aubrey Menen – and found the following:Asked to give advice to writers, Mr. Menen, who was admired as a satirist, told the publication Contemporary Authors that the aspiring writer should perform a daily physical exercise: He should sit on his bottom in front of a table equipped with writing materials, he said. If his top end fails him, at least his nether end won’t.That, of course, is similar to what I said about not giving up. I also think it’s true. Here’s something from the Justin Isis interview:I don’t think writing can be taught, and I’ve never respected any living writer enough to want to have them tell me how to write. This isn’t because I think I’m so great, just that it seems absurd to me for someone to tell anyone else how or how not to write. If you’re a writer you’ll write regularly and develop your own style by always reading and writing, and that’s it. Mistakes will be corrected naturally.I also agree with this for the most part. The skill of writing fiction – fiction like that of Akutagawa or Borges – can’t be encoded into a how-to writing manual. I’m not even sure a writing manual can successfully teach how to write like Rowling.Therefore, it’s very hard to give specific advice. I would say this – if you can, try to mix socially with like-minded writers. Some people would be skeptical of this advice, but I think that writing is actually a very lonely occupation, and encouragement is one thing that is much in need. If you can get stimulation and feedback, this will help.If I can think of anything else that might be genuinely helpful, I’ll let you know. But I honestly don’t think there are any short cuts. I have become fond of reading the following passage whenever I am despondent about my own progress in writing, or quoting it to others who need encouragement. It is from Hokusai and is about the visual arts, but it applies equally to writing:From the age of five I have had a mania for sketching the forms of things. From about the age of fifty I produced a number of designs, yet of all I drew prior to the age of seventy there is truly nothing of great note. At the age of seventy-two I finally apprehended something of the true quality of birds, animals, insects, fish and of the vital nature of grasses and trees. Therefore, at eighty I shall have made some progress, at ninety I shall have penetrated even further the deeper meaning of things, at one hundred I shall have become truly marvelous, and at one hundred and ten, each dot, each line shall surely possess a life of its own. I only beg that others of sufficiently long life take care to note the truth of my words.Originally posted by anonymous:P.s 2: There are many others like Rowling in world.In Brazil,unfortunately,we have Paulo Coelho.I sympathise deeply.

  11. one might even ask “how can i think?”draw, draw, draw is the same as write write write. only by actually getting on the horse will travel be more comfortable than walking or something like that. when you make all the mistakes, which become apparent through doing something in quantity will the discrimination of quality appear. then, one may be said to have found one’s ‘voice’ and it will be particularly true to your nature.hokusai made me laugh with great relief, because that’s exactly how i feel about painting. if you’re lucky enough to live long, there’s a chance, if you don’t become discouraged,of finding the essence of things. and if you have worked diligently,and thoughtfully, the final reward is being able and knowing it.

  13. i read this. i have to laugh at myself. i commented. i just couldn’t bear the randomness and lack of connection with one’s own life. i said, as if you wouldn’t go there to find out what i said….”it’s rather dead. the opposite of inspiration.”

  14. Thiago B. writes:”I honestly don’t think there are any short cuts.”Me too;and because that,it is worth it!I mean,not only because this.In one point every writer agree: read(not only books) is a big part of the ‘formation’.”when you make all the mistakes, which become apparent through doing something in quantity will the discrimination of quality appear. ” There are a proverb in go that says: ‘Lose Your First 50 Games as Quickly as Possible’- It’s similar…In the ‘search’ of my writing,i’m reading this books: the intellectual life,by Sertillanges.A arte de escrever(The art of writing),by Silveira Bueno.Essays in the art of writing,by Robert Louis Stevenson.Letters to a young poet(Rilke).Interviews with many artists.Thinking,writing and asking for others.I will practice your advices.It’s something that i have to do.Thanks,Quentin and Scott.Thiago B.

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