Adele recently started a thread about Al Alvarez's new book The Writer's Voice. Well today I stumbled across an interview with the man in the February issue of Prospect ("My Top Ten Fears") which includes this excellent remark about writing:

"Writing itself is about thinking about one's fears, coming to terms with them and controlling them."

To me this seems connected with the need to learn to be honest in writing.

What does "being honest" mean for a writer?

Stripping away layers?
Asking ourselves questions about motivations, for our characters and ourselves?
Recognising our own defence mechanisms?

Hi Ani, my ears were burning and now I know why! I agree with the first two parts of what Al A says, but am not yet in a position to know if the last part is true – I hope so! Writing my current novel has involved raking over some very unpleasant past experiences, which stirred up some very painful feelings. But someone I see as a wise soul suggested to me that going through this process is how we get to the gold deposits. I hope that’s true as well.

I didn’t go through this process to anything like the same extent when I wrote my other (unpublished) novels, and I’m sure that’s why they weren’t very good. As a reader, I like emotional truth.

Adele.

PS This reminds me of Pirandello's idea that on rare occasions, we see ourselves in the mirror as we truly are, then we say, "but that's can't be me", and accepting the reality is so painful for us that we then go mad. I prefer Al A's idea of controlling those fears, but wonder which is true. Only time will tell...

<Added>

that's should read that

Like so many opinions on the subject:

"Writing itself is about thinking about one's fears, coming to terms with them and controlling them."

This is a wholly subjective view. There is a danger that we could be overwhelmed by the opinions of ‘experts’. While we should be open to their ideas, we should bear in mind that they are only one person’s opinion – and I really don’t care who they are!

Dee
x

Dee, I'm not quite sure from your post whether you agree or not or are simply annoyed.

Ani, another thought is that it probably depends what you are writing. But I think it applies, at least to some degree, to the kind of fiction I like to read.

Adele.

Adele,

I imagine both Alvarez and Pino--- (lemme look) Pirandello are both right; that we're lucky if we manage to identify and control the fears, otherwise they magnify and distort and come out the worse for it - both in ourselves and in our writing. Or something.

It seems with writing that the more a person does it, the more aware s/he becomes and the more he becomes aware of not knowing, i.e., writing that used to seem okay seems lamer and lamer. (BTW, I'm speaking of my own writing and nobody else's, though perhaps others have had a similar feeling.) My moments of awareness (identifying fears/ moments of clarity/honesty) tend to occur when I am NOT writing: controlling them would seem to involve bringing them into the writing as a first step, and working them out on the page.

Thinking back to the control/non-control of fears, I think honesty seems to be more important from a sheer writer's perspective; better to go mad on the page honestly! Almost like performance art.... ;-)

Anyway, it's a big challenge. (I don't know how I'm going to do it, either! So this is why writing can be just as good as therapy!)



Dee -- I think I know where you're coming from. There are so many 'thou shouldsts' decreed by 'those who know'. I think it's a matter of look at these pronouncements like a menu and taking what you need!

Hi Ani, I share your feeling of getting more self-critical the more I write; always setting the bar higher and higher. However, I still think my current book is a quantum leap ahead of anything else I've ever written. Of course that doesn't necessarily mean that anyone will else will rate it. L'enfer c'est les autres!

Adele.

Perhaps that suggests growth as a writer can be exponential -- let's hope so! :-)

I agree with Ani, you have to see this stuff as a menu and take what feels right to you - a bit like critiques of your work, really!

I don't like the last part of Al Alvarez' quote, though. It's the word 'control' I object to. Attempting to 'control' fears just magnifies them. You have to face them, let them wash over you. Can be damn hard and painful in the process (and can take a long time), but in the end you realise they're not so scary. That's my subjective opinion, anyway!

All of that honesty and fear stuff doesn't really come out in my fiction, it's the 'morning pages' (http://www.writewords.org.uk/forum/75_5519.asp?y=1&spage=1#6404) it comes out in - big time! I'd be an absolute neurotic mess without them now, I think.

Cath