“All art is autobiographical; the pearl is the oyster's autobiography.” - Federico Fellini
The above quote has
always been a favourite of mine, I wholeheartedly believe that it's
impossible to separate an artist from their work. Our creations are
mere extensions of ourselves, borne of the sum of our individual
experiences. This is most apparent in literature, where the drive to
pick up the pen stems directly from our own egotistical view that we
have a story to tell and an audience who will listen.
So when penning a first
novel it can seem tempting to allow your protagonist to follow the
same career path as you, that of the writer. After all, “write
what you know”. The most oft heard yet misunderstood quote in
relation to writing. I've read countless submissions with authors
and writers as protagonists but they always throw up unnecessary
complications for the audience.
When the protagonist is
a successful author, I the reader, am led to believe the actual
author considers themselves successful, or at least worthy of
success. When the protagonist is a struggling author, scraping
together the money for rent, I the reader, think of the actual author
'Oh boo hoo, poor you, perhaps if you wrote better books you wouldn't
be penniless.' Either way they can't win.
Writing prose about the
process of writing prose is downright incestuous. If I want to read
literary theory I will find a non-fiction book for that. Similarly
if I wanted to read transcripts of phone calls to agents and
publishers I'd... well I'd have an agent or a publisher.
The life of an author
can be fascinating, but the actual grinding process of writing isn't.
Once you remove that from the equation your protagonist might as
well be a freelance vivisectionist.
“Write what you know”
should refer to emotions and experiences, personal relationships,
hardships and triumphs, not the events that led up to them.
0 comments:
Post a comment