“You might aspire to art but it better start as craft.“ So says Geraldine Brooks, one of my favourite authors, in a Nieman Foundation interview.
I’m sure the judges who awarded Brooks the Pulitzer Prize for her novel March, consider her an artist, as do her readers. Brooks has honed her craft to a fine art. She revises constantly.
George Saunders, who won the Booker Prize for his novel Lincoln in the Bardo, is another author who wholeheartedly believes in the importance of revisions.
In an interview with the Guardian (2017), Saunders says: “What does an artist do, mostly? She tweaks that which she’s already done.”
Saunders says there are moments when writers sit before a blank page, but mostly they’re adjusting words already written. According to Saunders, revising [if done well] can increase the ambient intelligence of one’s writing. It communicates a sense of respect for one’s reader.
For Brooks, who mostly writes historical fiction, revision is not only about perfecting one’s craft, but about being historically accurate. She says: “Accuracy is very important to me. That’s your contract with the reader” (Morell, 2015).
Louis L’Amour didn’t feel the same obligation as Brooks to be historically accurate. “He [Louis] made a few glaring errors in his career… but he was an entertainer, not a historian,” says Beau L’Amour (Louis’s son). According to Beau, Louis did a lot of research for his Westerns but he didn’t slow the writing process down by checking his facts religiously.
Louis L’Amour wrote about 100 cowboy books in his day and entertained millions of readers. If you think that’s a lot, consider the fact that Enid Blyton wrote 762 books in her lifetime! It’s no wonder she ended up recycling characters, as my daughter once noted during her childhood readings of Blyton’s books.
Whether you write one story, or 100, I think it’s worth taking the time and effort to create the best story you’re capable of crafting. That means writing, and re-writing, and finding other people to read your writing and give you constructive feedback.
I’ve been fortunate to have two supervisors read and critique my draft novel, as well as close family members. I also recently sent my novel off for a manuscript review. It will be a few weeks before I receive feedback from that process.
It takes time to hone one’s craft and create engaging stories, with compelling plot lines and beautiful prose. But there’s no rush. It’s all about the journey. I leave you with the words of one of L’Amour’s characters.
“The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail. Travel too fast, and you miss all you are traveling for.”- Louis L’Amour, Ride the Dark Trail.
Written by Gemma Franks. Image by Yuri_B from Pixabay.
