Influence and Inspiration

I don't remember what exactly it was that first inspired me to write. Honestly, I'd say that it was a simple childish delight in stories. So many of my best and most vivid early memories are of books I read, or stories that my parents told to me, or films I watched. I'm sure I wasn't unique in that, but it seems like I never really lost that basic fascination with the idea of creating something from nothing.

Of course these influences, and the things that I watch and read now, are a big part of how and why I write. More than that, though, it's also bits of half remembered adverts or news articles and all sorts of things that all get jumbled up in the big melting pot of my brain and somehow come out as a meal that's more delicious than its individual ingredients.

I've always been someone who focused more on ideas and building worlds than on the intricacies of plot and character, but recently I've been heavily influenced by character-driven stories with complex plots. Game Of Thrones, Firefly, and Deadwood have all been recent favourites of mine, and they all rely heavily on their engaging characters and dialogue to keep them going.

I think this is one of the biggest reasons that I am inspired by things - when someone else is able to do something I can't. It's petty really: like the sulky teenager who's refused something, I throw a little strop, then lock myself in my room until I get it.

I'll end this post - and the blog - with an old favourite song, largely because it inspired one of my first half-decent pieces of fiction.

You can read my writing, but do you have to read me?

What exactly is an author, to the world? Each one has a public persona, which is inevitably linked to how much of themselves they put into their writing. Emily Dickinson's poetry is often highly autobiographical, with her admitting in one poem that it is her 'letter to the world', and John Cheever often has characters in his stories who have traits commonly associated with him, such as alcohol and depression. To an extent, knowing this can detract from the narrative and cause the reader to over-examine it for signs of the author.

Sometimes, a text is about something so far from the author's own life that to bring themselves into it would lessen its brilliance. Bronte's Wuthering Heights, for instance, is about dark, mysterious characters with wild passions and extreme hatreds, while the author herself was, from most available accounts, a very genteel, sheltered young lady. It is her incredible exploration of these characters that has made the novel stand out among others of the same period, and is the reason it is still enjoyed today.

But an author's public visibility is more than just how much of them you can see in their writing, it's also how much of them you see outside of it. Writers like Terry Pratchett, who frequently feature in news articles and put their opinions and personal lives on display, can bring something extra to the table that makes readers admire them. Similarly, many of my favourite writers work in multiple formats. Because of that, I have gained and become attached to a vivid image of, say, Neil Gaiman, from the various projects he has been involved with.

Terry Pratchett, discussing his Alzheimer's in an interview.

Political Writing

“In our age there is no such thing as 'keeping out of politics.' All issues are political issues....” 
George Orwell

Quoting Orwell when discussing the issue of political writing is a bit of a cliché, given how overtly political his fiction is, Animal Farm and 1984 being the most famous examples. Although his opinion here is that writing is inherently political, his own work is perhaps a bad example; it isn't just fiction that happens to have political references, it is built around political statements. For Orwell's theory to be applicable, I think it's important to distinguish between these two types of 'political writing'. 

In general, fiction will reflect the conscious and unconscious views of its author, but this shouldn't always be used as the main perspective to analyse writing from. More balanced criticism would also consider the artistic merit of writing and how successful it is as a form of entertainment and escapism for the reader. I certainly don't think that a writer should feel any pressure to include political and social issues in their work. 

On the other hand, writing that is intentionally political, like Orwell's, also has an important place in the world of writing, and serves different purposes. Cheever's writing is not exactly political, but it is full of social commentary. In particular, The Swimmer's melancholy picture of suburbia, and The Enormous Radio's discussion of the paranoia and jealousy of American city life are indicative of his views. Many of his stories contain an aspect of this disillusioned criticism of the 'American Dream'.

I'll end this post with Turkish author Elif Shafak's TED talk on political writing, which may be of interest.

Writing In Style

The concept of different writing 'styles' is a strange one. It's so far removed from the original purpose of writing - basic communication - that it seems illogical. Henry David Thoreau said that style "is not worth scraping and polishing, and gilding, unless it will write his thoughts the better for it. It is something for use, and not to look at".

However, style is also what makes fiction interesting and unique. A writer's influences, life events and personality all contribute to it, but there also seems to be a kind of 'Chinese whispers' effect. I used to love Roald Dahl's writing style as a child, but now I wouldn't actually be able to describe it. Because it has been years since I read his work, it has changed in my subconscious into something new - a part of my own style.

Writing evolves with the breaking of conventions and exploring of new techniques, and Emily Dickinson is a particularly good example of this. Her unusual, idiosyncratic use of punctuation and structure was unorthodox at the time she was writing, with writers like Longfellow and Lowell being popular for comparatively regular poetic styles. Many now consider her work ahead of its time - a precursor to modernist poetry.

Cheever's style was less radical, although still distinct in its own way. His style, poetic and lyrical without resorting to over-description or purple language, was both written in the New Yorker style, and also formed its future, being held up later as a textbook example of it. In this hundred-year anniversary article on Cheever, his particular style of writing is picked apart and examined, with some interesting conclusions.

Nice to meet you, I'm a professional liar.

Nina Bawden

Writers are liars; it's an unavoidable fact. We seek to entertain our readers as much as possible, and while the truth can be stranger than fiction, it isn't always more exciting. Nina Bawden, a childhood favourite author of mine, said that 'All writers are liars. They twist events to suit themselves. They make use of their own tragedies to make a better story... They are terrible people'.

Of course, this is a particularly extreme view when looking at fiction, especially fantasy writing like mine. However, even these pieces can be intended to influence readers with allusions to politics or current affairs. Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings trilogy and even children's books like Tove Jansson's Comet In Moominland are examples of this, both being heavily based on their respective authors' experiences of and views on war.

To look at this from another point of view, though, the views that shape those texts are in a way the truth of the authors' own lives, and this potentially adds something to them. Cheever's short stories, like The Death Of Justina, are revealed in his journals to similarly reflect the truth of his own life and of his inner thoughts. In this review of his journals from The Guardian, Geoff Dyer points out the many themes and images in his stories which are drawn from previous journal entries.

Writers, then, seem to be a strange paradox. We are pathological liars, manipulating reality and the events our lives for entertainment, while at the same time, we cannot help baring our most private truths and our most intimate beliefs to our readers.

Who Writes It Bloggy Style?

I still don't actually know what a writer is, never mind if I am one. I suppose now that I'm in my second year of a creative writing degree, a lot of people would consider me a writer, but I don't particularly feel like one. To me, writing has always been the easy option, the guilty pleasure.

When, somehow, I did well in all my A-Levels, I decided that I didn't want to be thrown out into the world of work. Instead, I signed up for a creative writing degree, because to me writing isn't work. I'm sure I'll end up spending most of my life putting off growing up and becoming a responsible member of society, and following my somewhat unrealistic dream was just a part of that.

I don't think it's possible to have a single definition of what a writer is, or why they write. Emily Dickinson, now considered one of history's greatest poets, was barely ever more successful than someone like me, and most of her poems were written in private. On the other hand, John Cheever, whose talents are similarly recognised, wrote professionally and publicly - he famously said "I can't write without a reader. It's precisely like a kiss - you can't do it alone".

The fact that these two polar opposites have both received such acclaim is a source of encouragement to me. It shows that the building of worlds and stories that I have always revelled in, and felt drawn to, can be both a form of art and a way of life, no matter why you write.