Comments on: Reading and Writing

By: brian furr

brian furr — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:50:00 +0000

good post. like carlos, i believe that writing is organizing reality. i don't think that any of us "just whip it out". almost every decent thing i have ever written was incubating in my head for a long time.
having the simple desire to write is the main thing that makes one a writer. people who are not meant to write just don't think about writing like i don't think about being a formula 1 race car driver. reading is the next most important thing because you need points of reference to help you find your writing voice. writing is like anything else in that you get better the more you do it. if you write nothing but a two paragraph blog entry every day, a year from now you will be surprised at how much better your writing is.

carlos, your last post was excellent, but it hit me on a bad personal level that you could not have been aware of. in 1996, someone close to me was struck and killed on their bike while listening to a terribly ironic pice of music. i will try to write about this on my blog tonight.

stacey, have you ever read sean stewart? he writes excellent fantasy novels for grown ups. Galveston, Mockingbird, and especially Perfect Circle are faves of mine. the last two take place in montrose area houston.

By: dd

dd — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 04:50:00 +0000

God, I wish I had more time to be involved with the NAP; it’s going some really interesting places.

But all I have time now to say is this: Jonathan Lethem’s masterpiece is THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE. (Although I haven’t read AS SHE CLIMBED ACROSS THE TABLE.) I found YOU DON’T LOVE ME YET pretty minor afterwards, sort of the MICROSERFS of the indie rock scene, which isn’t meant to be a complete dis (I liked MICROSERFS) but it’s not playing the same ballgame that THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE is.

By: Carlos Anaconda

Carlos Anaconda — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:13:00 +0000

Fiction to me is just what you call it when you don't want people to be offended by what you write (Oh that character is not based on you at all, it's just fiction).

By the same token, non-fiction is what you call it when you dont think you'll be taken seriously enough (it really did happen, it's non-fiction).

Mostly fiction and non-fiction are labels others should give to the writing. Cause really, all writing has elements of both.

I love writing that rides the line so well it ends up questioning reality itself. Most of the stuff coming out of the Theosophical Society at the turn of the 20th century, Jung, Castañeda, Lem, Herodotus, the bible... stuff like that. It's non-fiction? impossible!

As for organizing, that should be my middle name. I am a borderline OCD organizer (some would claim i'm certifiable). And that is one of the things I love about both writing and music. They both involve organizing. one organizes words, other organizes sounds. They both organize reality.

That last post of mine is a perfect example of organized reality.

Gave me a lot to think about there Stacey, thanks.