Die week in woorde
My loopbaan as ernstige, obsessiewe leser het op hoërskool in Empangeni begin toe ek verslaaf geraak het aan Stephen King-boeke. Die dorpsbiblioteek het ’n redelik groot versameling King-boeke gehad, maar dit kon nooit genoeg wees nie. Hulle was gewild, dié nommertjies oor moorddadige narre, bloeddorstige aliens en demoniese rooi motors. Soms, as mens op die verkeerde dag voor die rak staan, is daar nie ’n enkele King beskikbaar wat jy nog nie gelees het nie. (Dit was goed vir die skrywers wat die rak met King gedeel het – as daar nie ’n nuwe King was nie, het ek maar Gary Kilworth gelees, sulke stories oor wolwe en muise wat hulle soos mense gedra.)
Ek het die mat na die Stephen King-rak deurgetrap totdat ek die hele lot deurgelees het, en toe eers het ek begin besef dat daar ander boeke in die biblioteek is wat dalk ook my aandag verdien.
’n Paar weke gelede het ek na die donker kant bekeer en ’n Kindle gekoop. En toe besluit ek what the hell, if I'm going to the dark side I might as well go all the way, en lees heel eerste ’n Stephen King. Dit was darem ’n ietwat meer respektabele een as dié waarop ek my leestande geslyp het: On Writing – A memoir of the Craft.
My gunsteling Kindle-funksie is "Clippings": dit laat jou toe om sinne of paragrawe te highlight terwyl jy lees, en al hierdie knipsels word op een plek geberg sodat jy later weer die lekkerste dele kan gaan oorlees. Alhoewel ek die hele boek vir aspirantskrywers sou aanbeveel, deel ek solank hier ’n paar knipsels uit On Writing wat onmisbare raad is vir enigiemand wat wil skryf.
Stephen King se raad aan skrywers uit On Writing
Oor idees
We are writers, and we never ask one another where we get our ideas; we know we don't know.
Good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun. Your job isn’t to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up.
Oor TV
If you're just starting out as a writer, you could do worse than strip your television's electric plug-wire, wrap a spike around it, and then stick it back into the wall. See what blows and how far. Just an idea.
Oor talent
I think I was forty before I realized that almost every writer of fiction or poetry who has ever published a line has been accused by someone of wasting his or her God-given talent.
Oor redigering
Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open. Your stuff starts out being just for you, in other words, but then it goes out.
Oor sukkel
Stopping a piece of work just because it's hard, either emotionally or imaginatively, is a bad idea.
Oor die lewe en kuns
Put your desk in the corner, and every time you sit down there to write, remind yourself why it isn't in the middle of the room. Life isn't a support system for art. It's the other way around.
Oor erns
You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair - the sense that you can never completely put on the page what's in your mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed, ready to kick ass and take down names. You can come to it because you want a girl to marry you or because you want to change the world. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page.
Oor paragrawe
Paragraphs are almost as important for how they look as for what they say; they are maps of intent.
I would argue that the paragraph, not the sentence, is the basic unit of writing - the place where coherence begins and words stand a chance of becoming more than mere words. If the moment of quickening is to come, it comes at the level of the paragraph.
Oor skryfwerk
If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.
Can I be blunt on this subject? If you don't have time to read, you don't have time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that. Reading is the creative centre of a writer's life.
Oor swak skryfwerk
One learns more clearly what not to do by reading bad prose - one novel like Asteroid Miners is worth a semester at a good writing school, even with the superstar guest lecturers thrown in.
Oor afleiding
For any writer, but for the beginning writer in particular, it's wise to eliminate every possible distraction.
Oor kennis
If you're a plumber, you know plumbing, but that is far from the extent of your knowledge; the heart also knows things. And so does the imagination.
Oor tema
Good fiction always begins with story and progresses to theme; it almost never begins with theme and progresses to story.
Oor geluksaligheid
Writing isn't about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end it's about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life as well. It's about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy.
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