Tag Archives: John Irving

What Are You Reading?

1 Reply
Photo by Serge Melki

Photo by Serge Melki

As July slowly but surely starts to brown around the edges, it’s time to catch up with you, my fellow book lovers, and find out what’s been on your reading tables 0f late. As we all know, the most highly anticipated and controversial book this summer is Fudgin’s Doesn’t Not Play Nice, by P.I.X. Gwantonomous. But there’s been so much press and social chatter about it already, I won’t drag us down that rabbit hole.

But how about the second most highly anticipated and controversial book released this summer? Harper Lee’s Go Set A Watchman. Have you read it? Are you going to? I’ve read a few reviews and despite the lukewarm response it still piques my interest. But I’m a little queasy about buying a book that it’s dementia-addled author may have been coerced into publishing. Do I want to finance her exploitation? Am I being too precious about this? You tell me.

Anyway, in the past month I’ve read Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline, and The World According to Garp, by John Irving. Both books are great reads and rather topical; Ready Player One because 1980’s pop culture will never, ever, ever die, and Garp because it includes a zany but honest and humane exploration of a transgender celebrity.

At the moment and in anticipation of my attending the annual SCBWI Summer Conference, I’ve currently got my nose in The Diviners, by Libba Bray. To my knowledge, Ms. Bray isn’t scheduled to be at the conference, but her agent Barry Goldblatt is and I’d really like to talk with him. On the horizon there’s some intriguing nonfiction for me to get to, like Raising Hell: Ken Russell and the Unmaking of The Devils, and H Is For Hawk, by Helen Macdonald.

So that’s my book business, what are you reading these days?

Do You Write Without A Net?

3 Replies

Man on Wire

There are many popular writers out there, John Irving among them, who never begin a project without knowing exactly where they’re going. I remember an interview with Irving where he said he starts a book by figuring out what its last sentence will be. There is something to be said for having a map, a guide book of sorts to keep you on track, to allow you to chart your progress.

Conversely, there are just as many well-known writers, Stephen King among them, who start with just a germ of an idea, a character or two, and then delight in discovering their story in the moment as they’re actually writing it. They feel that an outline only serves to stifle the creative process; in their view, to plot a story is to suffocate it.

Here’s where I stand on the issue: I spent many years authoring screenplays which began life as  structured, organized outlines, and so when it came to writing my first novel I was determined to work without a net. I knew only the bare essentials before plunging in: the story would involve repressed memories, and my teenage main character would somehow become his parents’ therapist.  The process was extremely liberating; in fact, maybe too liberating, in that it resulted in a huge first draft. But I don’t regret my choice and believe the story would not have as much of the energy and surprise that it does if I had plotted it out beforehand.

Things are a bit different with my new project, a YA horror novel. I’ve decided to go a bit further with plotting, to know more about the story and characters before I set off to write. I’m not sure if it’s because this is a “genre” project and I’m concerned about hitting on certain “genre” beats or expectations, but it just feels like the right move for this story. However, I haven’t completely abandoned my intrepid spirit, as my plot structure is pretty loose and I’ve purposely left open the answers to several questions that I’ll dig up when I start writing. There needs to be an element of mystery, a willingness to embrace the unexpected, or the writing will go stale. I can only write about my characters and the story for so long before I get the itch to finally bring them both to life.

So how about you? If you’re a writer reading this, where do you fall on the issue of story preparation? Outline or no outline? Net, or nothing but the unforgiving ground to catch you if you fall?