Alexander Chee on Annie Dillard
Oct. 18th, 2009 02:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deborahjrossAn interesting essay on Chee's experiences studying writing with Annie Dillard. Although I don't usually have such admonitions running through my head as I work, I think it's good to be poked and pricked and nudged and exhorted from time to time.
Some of my favorites:
Don’t tell the reader that someone was happy or sad. When you do that, the reader has nothing to see. She isn’t angry, Annie said. She throws his clothes out the window. Be specific.
You can invent the details that don’t matter, she said. At the edges. You cannot invent the details that matter.
So, how does that apply to fantasy... because I think it does. There's a sense of knowing, of rightness, very different from the exuberant creation of invention. It happens in the land where what is true and what is factual have nothing to do with one another.
Talent isn’t enough, she had told us. Writing is work. Anyone can do this, anyone can learn to do this. It’s not rocket science, it’s habits of mind and habits of work. I started with people much more talented than me, she said, and they’re dead or in jail or not writing. The difference between myself and them is that I’m writing.
And finally...
Go up to the place in the bookstore where your books will go, she said. Walk right up and find your place on the shelf. Put your finger there, and then go every time.
Some of my favorites:
Don’t tell the reader that someone was happy or sad. When you do that, the reader has nothing to see. She isn’t angry, Annie said. She throws his clothes out the window. Be specific.
You can invent the details that don’t matter, she said. At the edges. You cannot invent the details that matter.
So, how does that apply to fantasy... because I think it does. There's a sense of knowing, of rightness, very different from the exuberant creation of invention. It happens in the land where what is true and what is factual have nothing to do with one another.
Talent isn’t enough, she had told us. Writing is work. Anyone can do this, anyone can learn to do this. It’s not rocket science, it’s habits of mind and habits of work. I started with people much more talented than me, she said, and they’re dead or in jail or not writing. The difference between myself and them is that I’m writing.
And finally...
Go up to the place in the bookstore where your books will go, she said. Walk right up and find your place on the shelf. Put your finger there, and then go every time.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 06:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 08:36 pm (UTC)Visualizing goals can be very useful, especially when disappointments and frustrations mount. I can always say, "That's where I'm going" even if I don't know how I'm getting from here to there!