Some people are writing more than ever, others aren’t writing at all.
Some editors are overwhelmed with submissions, others are extending their deadlines for contests and themes because submissions are down.
Writers’ responses to the pandemic are as varied as any other group. As floundery…as dedicated…as anyone.
One thing that’s stayed consistent is my reading about writing. Each year, I read eight books on the topic and chat about them on my writing website. Not that it’s easy to split the writing-me and the reading-me into parts, but my other site mainly serves as a portfolio, so I can include fewer links when I pitch for freelance work and—every six weeks—I also review one writing resource. Spoiler: it’s nearly always a book. (They’re all listed here.)
NOTE: Reading about writing is also an excellent means of procrastinating—when you don’t want to write, but feel too guilty just sitting around watching TV? Reading is a distraction. Reading about writing…it’s very nearly a lot like practically as good as…really writing.
But with the library operating curbside-only, I’m never browsing their collections, which means my borrowing is limited to deliberate, premeditated choices. Maxing out my card means more of the books I was planning to read, fewer whimsical choices (i.e. none at all).
So I’m gradually making inroads with my “saved” lists on various themes, including my “shelves” for Creativity and Writing.
NOTE: By “inroads”, I mean that the number of books is hovering about the same, and by “about the same” I mean increasing by a few dozen each month, because I continue to add to the database every few days. So, “inroads”, because it’s no longer spiralling wildly out of control. (Not dramatically. But it’s still a whole lotta crazy.)
Janet Burroway’s book is commonly assigned in creative writing classes. I borrowed an earlier edition shortly after we moved to Toronto but, for years, it was something I’ve heard about from other people reading and studying it.
It’s expensive, too, so I was ridiculously happy to find a copy of the eighth edition second-hand a couple of years ago. (A bargain at $20!) It felt like no time at all, after that, when the tenth edition was announced—inexpensive and about half as long—so I added it to my library list instantly, but there was always another more intriguing (i.e. New! Shiny! Unfamiliar!) writing book to request instead. Now, out of excuses, I’ve had time to peruse that longstanding list-sitter.
This is the first time the volume has been published by The University of Chicago Press (which also released a favourite recent read, Jane Friedman’s The Business of Being a Writer) but, other than that, how different is this tenth edition? The most striking difference is that the classic stories are included, in full, in the earlier editions. (And the print is smaller, the margins narrower, and there are just a lot more words.)
As much as I love a reading list, it’s handy to just flip ahead a few pages, to be able to read the story being discussed. No doubt the permissions were expensive and the process of filing all that paperwork every time new works were included (my eighth edition, for instance, added several pieces of flash fiction), but I liked that. [The photograph above shows some of the full collections with stories representing them in earlier editions of Burroway’s text. Lots of my favourite writers!]
So, for once, I’m glad to be a little out-of-date; the eighth edition suits me fine. Now—what to do about the 52 other books about writing that remain on those “saved” shelves? And the six new titles I’m about to add, thanks to the summaries of other University of Chicago Books that I didn’t know about until today?
BIP, I may said that in excitement. I am not able to find the ‘Subscribe’ button on your writing website. Is there a way I can subscribe to it?
I read most blogs through Feedly, and somewhere like that, you can just input the name of the website. But now that I know you’re interested, I will add a subscribe-by-email option to the other site, too, and I’ll let you know when it’s up and running. Thanks, D!
You are right in understanding me. I haven’t written anything in the last one month. The ennui is caused by the brain that’s constantly in fight-or-flight mode. It’s a bit of a struggle to remember that I can write at all. I am hoping that this would change when India starts to breathe better.
I didn’t know that there is another website that features your writing. I have subscribed to it. I look forward to reading and learning.
I recently got a copy of Anne Lamott’s ‘Bird By Bird’. It’s collecting dust on the shelf. But books are our loyal friends. They will wait without grumbling and judging. I will get to it someday.
For me, writing has been a way to structure time and not necessarily escape (because one of the major projects I’ve been absorbed in is climate change) but force a kind of focus that I wouldn’t have otherwise. But, deadlines seem more essential than usual; if I don’t have a contract at stake, there’s always something else to read/do/think/obsess/panic about.
Thanks, kindly, for your interest and enthusiasm. Bird by Bird is, more than most, very understanding and kind about “not writing” and about being/feeling imperfect. On the motivational side, another I think you might like is the one that Andrew mentions, Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art, which I found useful too. (I’ve not written about it because I read it too quickly!).
I also hope your libraries will open for browsing soon!
I used to read more books about writing than I do now (or in recent years.) This probably has to do with the fact that I don’t write nearly as much as I used to. My favorites were Lamott’s Bird by Bird and Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones. Oh, and Stephen King’s On Writing is very good.
Maybe it’s a chicken-and-egg thing…maybe you would feel inspired to write more, if you were to read more books or essays about writing! 🙂
Those have been favourites of mine too (but I didn’t enjoy Goldberg nearly as much as the others, on rereading). If you’ve enjoyed those, I bet you’d also love Elizabeth Berg’s book (I think it’s changed title over the years) and Elizabeth Gilbert’s book on creativity. I feel like I should mention the newish Elizabeth George book, just to have a third Elizabeth LOL, but I haven’t read it yet myself!
Ah, if reading about writing is a way to procrastinate, then I’m not sure how to feel about reading about reading about writing. You reminded me, though, that I haven’t read a good craft book for a while, and I probably should. I devoured loads of writing books years ago and then mostly stopped. I read some Steven Pressfield a while back, but I wouldn’t really call those writing books—more like motivational books!
I haven’t ever read a book about writing, I don’t think. I would rather read a book about a writer or a book about books. I can see how these books might be inspiring though. I am hugely impressed that you manage another site too, I hadn’t known that. I hope you can indulge again in proper library browsing soon.
That makes sense to me. I feel like there are a lot of great podcasts that recognize that distinction too. Eleanor Wachtel’s interviews on CBC “Writers & Company” are clearly angled to appeal to readers (who might also be writers) first, with the emphasis on the author’s life and psychology and how a person has been compelled to tell a certain story, and then David Naimon’s “Between the Covers” series has episodes twice as long, which seem oriented towards writers (who might also be readers), about specific teachers and professors and other writers who have been influential and talk of structure and mechanics and specific crafting questions from how many words they write a day to how one project led into another (or didn’t).
Hehehe, that’s so true. Next time I’ll make it a much shorter post, maybe a tweet would suffice. LOL
Ohhh, I really liked the Pressfield book and I’ve recommended it many times (but it’s not one I’ve reviewed on my writing side-uh oh, I’m realizing now that I actually do sometimes read more than the eight, I think when there’s been a duedate attached to a newer volume, I’ve read but not taken notes, which was true, too, of Elizabeth Gilbert’s book on creativity, which kinda walks that same line but is a little more writerish. So you haven’t decided that you are no longer interested in reading about craft, it’s just one of the topics that’s slid to the back of the reading shelf? There are definitely a lot of writing books that don’t tempt me at all, and I know the idea of reading on the topic doesn’t suit everyone.
Girl you are busy! Two different websites? Gosh I’m impressed. Have you ever considered merging them or are they just two/too different in your mind?
I find it hard to fathom that there are SO many books about writing. And that you gave read so many of them! Do you find you get something new out of each one? Or are they more a source of inspiration?
Yup, I’m on my phone. Hi Anne!
Is it harder getting laptop time with the kids in lockdown learning? 🙂
Yes! 🙂
There are so many more that I don’t read/haven’t read!
Hmmm, mostly when I finish reading I feel like it was worthwhile despite the number of other books on the topic I’ve already read, that a different emphasis has helped me think differently about something, if only for a moment. But sometimes that’s only because I know someone else who would love the book (I recommended Save the Cat! to a friend who seemed to be craving that kind of approach at that juncture) more than I did, so I liked seeing how they approached craft but it wasn’t perfect for me personally. Once or twice a year, I’ll photocopy something from a volume that really clicked and offered a helping hand and that Aha feeling. They’re not so much inspiring, either–but, company. Mostly that.
Company is a nice way to describe it.
Maybe it’s like the difference between a shopping list you take to the grocery store and the actual contents of your cart as you approach the check-out; it’s all on the menu, but I feel like the writing website offers essential ingredients that editors require to determine whether a pitch suits their needs and the reading website offers a more personal touch. But, of course, in reality I’m all of that stuff together!
Our (Australian) libraries and bookshops have largely stayed open, which means I have the pleasure of walking past books and seeing what catches my eye, which is my preferred method of choosing. Luckily I own a wide enough selection of books that I can do that at home too. I think the only book about writing I have is David Lodge’s The Art of Fiction, though I have kept, and mean one day to re-read, my Lit theory texts from 15 or 20 years ago, especially Terry Eagleton.
Whimsy leads to some fascinating reading places. When attending lit festivals, and when I could afford to do so, I would try to choose one additional session that I simply had NO CLUE about, and it was often the highlight of that year’s events! I’ve been thinking about rereading some school texts too. There were so many aspects of them that I really didn’t absorb (so many terms, concepts, etc.) and I think it would be interesting to revisit. Also, I pencilled notes in some of them and am curious about them. Lodge is a gap in my reading (maybe I’ve read some interviews, something from the Paris Review I think?) but I have a feeling that I’d enjoy his stuff, on writing and otherwise.
David Lodge is one of my absolute favourite writers — or, at least, he was in my 20s. I’ll have to reread some of his novels soon and see how they hold up.
I wonder if David Lodge to 20-something you is Robertson Davies to twenty-something me. Academic, witty, classic…
Wow, is that a genuine typewriter?! A nonfunctional one was offered up at our local swap shop the last time it ran (19 months ago), but I let someone else who wanted it more have it. I thought it was probably best not to let something clutter up my study if it was only going to collect dust. (Though I do still mourn the phrenology head that someone was giving away locally but I was a few hours too late to nab.)
I love your asides on procrastination and TBR inroads. They certainly ring true!
My latest writer-y nonfiction books were handiwork by Sara Baume and a reread of Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman. I tend to amass such books, mostly on my Kindle, and then never read them. Your schedule must be a good way of actually ensuring they get read. One you might like to look out for is Braided Heart: Essays on Writing and Form by Brenda Lynn Miller (July 13, University of Michigan Press) — it will be in my first batch of Shelf Awareness books.
Probably just as well if it wasn’t working. Although I can understand the temptation. I don’t, however, understand the idea of the head just sitting around. LOL (At least you were hours late, and not just minutes!) But I also recognize that many of the battered and stained old books I pull from Little Free Libraries would cause a lot of lips to curl and noses to crinkle, and they just sit around too.
Hahaha, yes, we’ve got similar “issues” there, I agree!
Baume remains on my TBR thanks to your rec (the library has the other two, but not Handiwork, not yet anyway) and you’re right, Braided Heart looks right up my street (and how lucky it’s part of your new assignment!) so I’ll have an eye for that. And that’s totally it, I had to choose a number and make it a specific goal, because I just couldn’t keep a balance on it (which I’ve described to Stefanie too). I neither wanted to abandon the habit (because I’m a proponent of the idea of being a lifelong learner) but also recognized that reading too many of these books was eroding actual writing time (and I can read novels to do that snorts).
Braided Heart is SO good: it’s all about the art of the lyric essay, a term I didn’t know but one that describes all the autobiographical essays I love the most. She believes that form supersedes/determines content, and that using peripheral vision to look at events can help you pinpoint the truly important moments.
That sounds really great: now I’m looking forward to it even more. I like it when writers focus on form; it usually leads to that multi-layered kind of reading that I love so much.
It’s fun to read about writing I think and beneficial for readers and writers. As readers, we gain insight into how stories work and how to think about what we read. As writers, there is also insight to be had into how stories work, different techniques and different ways to work through the process. But yeah, it could be a slippery slope if you spend more time reading about writing than actually writing. But it sounds like you are doing pretty ok 🙂
There’s a tremendously granular volume by Madison Smartt Bell called Narrative Design that profoundly affected how I look at a sentence. Even though I was reading the book because I wanted to improve my writing, you’re right, in that it definitely changed how I read. Finally deciding on eight books/year was very helpful because there were times when I felt like I should be reading more and other times when I would go months without reading on the subject and then I’d binge. Six seemed not quite enough and twelve was too much: so, eight!
These sound like very valuable resources, well worth getting hold of to aid with your writing.
One of the things I would miss most about this city is the library system, for sure.
I hope you’ll be back to browsing again soon even if it does lead to an expansion of that TBR!
OOH, I miss it, but OTOH I appreciate the nudge to investigate the titles I’ve accumulated in the “saved” list over time. I wonder, though, how many librarians would be just as happy to keep the public at a distance and enjoy the quiet and relative peace inside the libraries, without interruption!