is two guys collaborating to write on writing and collaboration.
This Day, Wednesday, September 30, 2009, in Fastball!
Wednesday
Sep 30, 2009
-
Stacey Levine named 2009 Stranger Literature Genius — Martin
-
Before she was a MacArthur Genius, Heather McHugh was Stranger Literature Genius. Other past literature geniuses have included Sherman Alexie, Jonathan Raban and Rebecca Brown. I mention this only to say that The Stranger is damn good at picking geniuses.
I’m not familiar with Ms. Levine’s work, but with a recommendation this high, I’m certain to pick up her book now.
Wednesday
Sep 30, 2009
-
When Writers Speak — Martin
-
From the Sunday New York Times, Arthur Krystal asks if writers should be good conversationalists.
Like most writers, I seem to be smarter in print than in person. In fact, I am smarter when I’m writing. I don’t claim this merely because there is usually no one around to observe the false starts and groan-inducing sentences that make a mockery of my presumed intelligence, but because when the work is going well, I’m expressing opinions that I’ve never uttered in conversation and that otherwise might never occur to me.
This reminds me of the old William Zinsser quote “Writing is Thinking.”
My personal experience has been that writing takes very different muscles than good conversation. Focusing on the former, sadly, has meant that the latter is under-exercised.
But I want to be a good conversationalist, so I work at it. The difference is in intention. Being a good conversationalist means listening more than talking. It means asking a person to draw out their stories, and when you share yours you are sharing them in relation to theirs. Disjointed conversations talk over each other. Good conversations feel fluid and connected.
I rarely know what I will say when I talk, I follow the flow of conversation. I occasionally know generally where I’ll go when I write, but never exactly how I’ll get there. When talking, what I say will have to be enough. When I write, it will be reworked and analyzed until it conveys exactly what I want as clearly as possible.
