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I was talking with Gore Vidal ... no, he is quite alive. I talk with Roland, and he is all too alive, isn't he?
We were talking about how politicians love to dissemble with words.
Take Syrian President Bashar Assad who said:
"We will be forgiving only for those who renounce terrorism.
When a surgeon in an operating room cuts and cleans and amputates, and the wound bleeds, do we say to him,
'Your hands are stained with blood?' "
When a surgeon in an operating room cuts and cleans and amputates, and the wound bleeds, do we say to him,
'Your hands are stained with blood?' "
This after last week's massacre in Houla, where more than 100 people--many of them children--were killed.
I mentioned Roland's post about the internet craze of writing an entire novel in a month.
"Ernest, it comes down to whether one wants to be a carpenter or a woodpecker."
He scowled, "With novels, as with erecting buildings, it all comes down to design. And proper design takes time as does everything done with quality in mind."
I nodded, "Of course. Kidnap a woman's child and demand she write a novel within a month. She will write that novel."
Vidal chuckled, "Any Philistine could, but would it be a good novel? It is a truism of human nature that what one practices, one becomes.
If they practice slovenly writing, it is a certainty that they will become slovenly writers."
He smiled evilly. "Now, has Roland's penchant for geting into trouble gotten any less? And if not, do present me with the gory details."
And so I did. But Roland is a friend, so you will have to imagine the lurid tales I told Vidal.
I love it when you talk to bygone authors! I was very inspired by the style quote and the encouragement that it takes time. I'll keep plugging along.
ReplyDeleteJennaQuentin:
ReplyDeleteI have fun with these ghost posts as well. Gore hit it on the head with that style quote, didn't he?
You keep at your writing, no matter the time it takes. Which outfit looks better as the norm? The one you just throw on or the one you put some thought to?
Thanks for visiting and staying to talk over the cyber fence for awhile. :-) Roland
I wish I could write a novel in a month. Tainted Souls took me a year, and I thought that was pretty fast.
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to know what Hemingway would make of computer-facilitated phenomena like NaNoWriMo. It would also be interesting to know if anyone who's written a novel in month has done it with an old-fashioned typewriter (not including Jack Kerouac).
Nice post. My biggest issue with the NaNoWriMo is some writers reach the required word count, type "The End", and think they've written a novel. What they have, at best, is a very, very, VERY rough first draft.
ReplyDeleteSteven:
ReplyDeleteThe ghost of Ernest Hemingway is less than fond of the novel-in-a-month club. And yes, I would think it very difficult to type a whole novel the old-fashioned way with an acutal typewriter!!!
LD:
My belief exactly. But going so fast, you lose focus and memory of details that create yawning plot-holes that mar what could have been a fine story.