Nature or nuture? Some of both, I suspect. Certainly I have learned a great deal from writer friends and conferences, and four books on the subject are important to me. Listed in the order I read them, they are On Becoming a Novelist by John Gardner, Eudora Welty's One Writer's Beginnings, How Fiction Works by James Wood and Ann Patchett's Truth & Beauty. The last one is not so much about writing as a reminder that even someone who makes her craft look easy struggled to get started.
I would love to hear others' views on this subject.
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and BIRD BY BIRD, n'est-ce pas?
ReplyDeleteYes indeed. How could I forget, Donna Sue? Anne Lamont's Bird by Bird was and is a major help, worth rereading in discouraging times.
ReplyDeleteand YOU were the one who turned me on to this amazing book
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