Read Someone Else's
Right now I'm reading Paul Auster's New York Trilogy, and I'm considering instituting a moratorium on the reading of good fiction, at least until I finish a first draft. Crap, now -- that's different; all the Patricia Wentworth mysteries ever written won't impact my work on The Amateurs, except insofar as time spent reading crap is time not spent working. But good fiction inspires in me a deep insecurity, based on the following syllogism:
The New York Trilogy is good fiction.
The Amateurs is nothing like The New York Trilogy.
therefore
The Amateurs is not good fiction.
In general terms, that's OK -- I'm not trying to write good fiction in the sense of trying to make a literary statement or comment on the human condition or win a Pulitzer. All I aspire to for The Amateurs is a good well-paced story with strong and interesting characters in an amusing, slightly flip style. Beach reading for the moderately intelligent, I call it. But reading real literature while I'm trying to write decent fiction always makes me feel like a fraud, and even a strong but not necessarily literary narrative (see the Harry Potter books) makes me jealous to the point of weeping (which is why I didn't get past The Prisoner of Azkhaban). Is this the character flaw that will stand between me and a decent novel? Only time will tell.
In any case The New York Trilogy is totally depressing. All about hermetically isolated outsiders living in one of the developed world's most dehumanizing cities, nurturing ingrown obsessions with other people's lives. Don't read it right after a massive humanitarian disaster, is what I'm saying.
Word Count: 26,145 (+846)
The New York Trilogy is good fiction.
The Amateurs is nothing like The New York Trilogy.
therefore
The Amateurs is not good fiction.
In general terms, that's OK -- I'm not trying to write good fiction in the sense of trying to make a literary statement or comment on the human condition or win a Pulitzer. All I aspire to for The Amateurs is a good well-paced story with strong and interesting characters in an amusing, slightly flip style. Beach reading for the moderately intelligent, I call it. But reading real literature while I'm trying to write decent fiction always makes me feel like a fraud, and even a strong but not necessarily literary narrative (see the Harry Potter books) makes me jealous to the point of weeping (which is why I didn't get past The Prisoner of Azkhaban). Is this the character flaw that will stand between me and a decent novel? Only time will tell.
In any case The New York Trilogy is totally depressing. All about hermetically isolated outsiders living in one of the developed world's most dehumanizing cities, nurturing ingrown obsessions with other people's lives. Don't read it right after a massive humanitarian disaster, is what I'm saying.
Word Count: 26,145 (+846)
posted by kathy monahan at 11:09 AM
2 Comments:
Auster's NY trilogy is a superb book but it stopped me dead in my tracks when I was working on some fiction of my own.
When writing fiction I tend to avoid reading fiction of any kind - I'm always worried that somehow it rubs off on me.
Something neutral like "The Romance of Arc-Welding Vol34" tends to be safe territory I find. If nothing else it makes me look better!
Keep up the blog - good therapy.
Hee! Glad to know it's not just me. And thanks for the thumbs-up -- it's nice to hear from someone who's been there.
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