On the Art of Fiction
April 10th, 2008 bhenricksen
Graywolf Press of St. Paul, MN is publishing a series of books on the art of literary writing, each focusing on a different aspect of that art. Judging from the two I’ve read so far, this may well become the definitive collection for writers, teachers, and readers.
Ron Carlson Writes a Story, by (surprise!) Ron Carlson, takes us through the writing of one of his short stories, discussing his creative process in nearly a line by line fashion. The book is perhaps a more useful version of Robert Olen Butler’s video of himself writing, and it is also reminiscent of Roland Barthes’ S/Z, which offered a line by line analysis of Balzac’s “Sarrasine.” Carlson starts by talking about where the general idea for the story (”The Governor’s Ball”) came from, moves on to how he named his characters, and then to how he placed them in a specific setting. In discussing dialogue, he dismisses the old view that it should serve mainly to advance plot. Carlson’s advice is for the writer of a more modern, character-driven fiction, where dialogue exists as a window into the unconscious and the unsayable, a window into subtext.
