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Awards shows and writing...a little ranty
Mar. 1st, 2004 11:55 amAhhh the Academy Awards...is it just me or are they getting more and more predictable every year? ( a somewhat sarcastic ramble on the Oscars, protecting the innocent )
Finished Wicked by Gregory MaGuire this weekend. Interesting novel. Very much a political satire, but then so was The Wizard of Oz, I'm told.
Wouldn't know since I never read the original version.
What struck me about Wicked, is a comment made by a few thriller writers and the historical novelist John Jakes - "we don't read any fiction, just non-fiction, because we are afraid of stealing ideas or having our style unduly influenced" . Hah! For some reason this comment always pisses me off. Why? Because it is anathema to everything I was ever taught about writing. And why we write. You don't write in a vacuume. You write to share your thoughts with others and in return get theirs. It's about *communication*, the *sharing* of ideas, so we can figure out things together and develop new concepts.
Wicked, a fascinating novel by Macguire, basically proves these guys are missing out on some wonderful writing opportunities by avoiding fiction. My Dad echoed that speech about 'how certain fiction writers avoid reading fiction so as not to be unduly influenced to me' and I told him to ignore these guys - pay attention to what the *really* good writers have done. Harlan Ellison reads Issac Asimov, they even borrow from each other. Neil Gaiman is a huge Bester fan. Stephen King reads anything he can get his hands on, including some suspense thrillers by Louisa May Allcot who gave him the idea for a horror novel. Heck his new series, Kingdom Hospital, is partly based on The Kingdom by Lars Von Tries.
Wicked is a twist on The Wizard of OZ and it's pretty clear that MaGuire is not only very familar with the tale but has also read it a few times. Wide Sargrasso Sea is another example - that's a twist on Jane Eyre. The Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnette is a twist on a character in Charles Dickens' novel The Old Curiosity Shop. And Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials - was Pullman's response to reading C.S. Lewis' Chronicals of Narnia. Heck - Shakespeare borrowed ideas all the time - you didn't think he dreamed those tales up, did you? Legions of fantasy writers were inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Every creative writing teacher I've ever had or workshop I've been too has said the same thing: If you want to write well? Read a lot, particularly things similar to what you want to write. Learn from others. Don't worry about stealing or borrowing ideas, there aren't any new ones (trust me) and beside you can't frigging copyright an idea. Just don't copy the way the writer is telling the tale - that is plagirism and unless you plan to do what Janet Daily once did with a Nora Roberts novel..which is copy the entire plot, style, and just change the name of the characters and settings- you should be fine legally.
Yeah, it's a typical Monday morning and I'm in my typical bitchy mood, can't you tell? ;-) Won't bore you with the reasons, done that enough lately, haven't I? At any rate, must mosey on - already 12:30 pm and I have to clean my bathroom and kitchen today...preparations for my Mother visiting..
Oh the lovely new default icon is courtesy of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wisteria who creates some of the best ATS icons out there. It fits my mood, I think.
Finished Wicked by Gregory MaGuire this weekend. Interesting novel. Very much a political satire, but then so was The Wizard of Oz, I'm told.
Wouldn't know since I never read the original version.
What struck me about Wicked, is a comment made by a few thriller writers and the historical novelist John Jakes - "we don't read any fiction, just non-fiction, because we are afraid of stealing ideas or having our style unduly influenced" . Hah! For some reason this comment always pisses me off. Why? Because it is anathema to everything I was ever taught about writing. And why we write. You don't write in a vacuume. You write to share your thoughts with others and in return get theirs. It's about *communication*, the *sharing* of ideas, so we can figure out things together and develop new concepts.
Wicked, a fascinating novel by Macguire, basically proves these guys are missing out on some wonderful writing opportunities by avoiding fiction. My Dad echoed that speech about 'how certain fiction writers avoid reading fiction so as not to be unduly influenced to me' and I told him to ignore these guys - pay attention to what the *really* good writers have done. Harlan Ellison reads Issac Asimov, they even borrow from each other. Neil Gaiman is a huge Bester fan. Stephen King reads anything he can get his hands on, including some suspense thrillers by Louisa May Allcot who gave him the idea for a horror novel. Heck his new series, Kingdom Hospital, is partly based on The Kingdom by Lars Von Tries.
Wicked is a twist on The Wizard of OZ and it's pretty clear that MaGuire is not only very familar with the tale but has also read it a few times. Wide Sargrasso Sea is another example - that's a twist on Jane Eyre. The Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnette is a twist on a character in Charles Dickens' novel The Old Curiosity Shop. And Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials - was Pullman's response to reading C.S. Lewis' Chronicals of Narnia. Heck - Shakespeare borrowed ideas all the time - you didn't think he dreamed those tales up, did you? Legions of fantasy writers were inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Every creative writing teacher I've ever had or workshop I've been too has said the same thing: If you want to write well? Read a lot, particularly things similar to what you want to write. Learn from others. Don't worry about stealing or borrowing ideas, there aren't any new ones (trust me) and beside you can't frigging copyright an idea. Just don't copy the way the writer is telling the tale - that is plagirism and unless you plan to do what Janet Daily once did with a Nora Roberts novel..which is copy the entire plot, style, and just change the name of the characters and settings- you should be fine legally.
Yeah, it's a typical Monday morning and I'm in my typical bitchy mood, can't you tell? ;-) Won't bore you with the reasons, done that enough lately, haven't I? At any rate, must mosey on - already 12:30 pm and I have to clean my bathroom and kitchen today...preparations for my Mother visiting..
Oh the lovely new default icon is courtesy of
wisteria who creates some of the best ATS icons out there. It fits my mood, I think.