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Gene Wolfe, my favorite writer, said that the advice he gave people was to pick a short story they thought was perfect, and try to rewrite it word for word from
by karaterobot 4y ago
Gene Wolfe, my favorite writer, said that the advice he gave people was to pick a short story they thought was perfect, and try to rewrite it word for word from memory.
Presumably the idea is that you run into the same challenges the original author did — how to get from one scene to the next, how to direct or misdirect the reader, etc. — and by solving those challenges you understand the mechanics of storytelling at a deeper level. Since you've got the "perfect" version of the story as a key, you aren't just guessing, and there is a right and wrong answer.
He also said that, to his knowledge, nobody had ever taken him up on this advice.
But, Wolfe was a fantastic writer, and an engineer, so I assume his approach would be a practical and useful one for anyone willing to put in the work.
I just spent about 30 minutes trying to find the source of the quote, but failed. /shrug
- clucas 4y agoStephen Fry has talked about trying to rewrite scenes from The Great Gatsby from memory, and the renewed appreciation he got for Fitzgerald's prose after that attempt. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oSdLfPas8dw https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oSdLfPas8dw around around 10 minutes. Good stuff!
- vestrigi 4y agoOn a related note: Hunter S. Thompson simply retyped The Great Gatsby and some Hemingway texts to see how it feels to write such texts.
- RBerenguel 4y agoIt's in _The Best of Gene Wolfe_, and is copied verbatim here in case anyone is curious: https://raymondwriteswrongs.wordpress.com/2015/04/22/writing-advice-from-gene-wolfe/ https://raymondwriteswrongs.wordpress.com/2015/04/22/writing... PS: I'm more of a fan of Zelazny, but I enjoyed quite a lot The Book of the New Sun
- karaterobot 4y agoWow, thanks. I never would have thought to look there. Zelazny was my first love. :)