I Bought This Book on Writing

You’ve probably read books on writing fiction and found most of them only marginally helpful. And if you know of one that does more, let us know. That’s what I’m about to do.

I stumbled across one that does more some months ago. I almost passed it up because of the author. (Pardon me, but I will not yet reveal that name for fear you will stop reading.) I’m still not sure why I bought it. We all at times do things without knowing why. One of the insights in this book is an answer to that why. The author argues that the best creative writing, those slap-your-forehead moments, come from your subconscious. The best dialogue, elements of plot, insight into your characters, even descriptions of place, are not the result of your craft; they come from deciding what you want to accomplish and then forgetting about it, sometimes for weeks. But when are you doing the most mundane of everyday of tasks, powerful ideas spring to mind. Not fully formed, not polished, but essential raw material that can then be turned into powerful prose.

The author states, “What is colloquially called inspiration — namely that you write without full knowledge of why you write as you do, yet it comes out well — is actually the subconscious summing up of the premises and intentions you have set for yourself.”

Work out in your mind, precisely and in as much detail as possible, what your scene or character or plot point needs to accomplish. Not the actual words of the text, that is the last step. Rather, start with this set of goals: I want the reader to understand this about my character or visualize this place or understand why my character is behaving in a certain way. That done, forget about it. Leave working out the details to your subconscious. Sometime, when you least expect it, the “inspiration” will come to you. The text will almost write itself.

Does this actually work? I can only say it does for me. But it didn’t happen overnight. It was a process. For most of my life, the writing I did was quasi-legal, “Just the facts ma’am. Just the facts.” Such writing has its place, and it’s not in creative fiction. Took me a while to learn that, even longer to produce something creative. (Some argue I still haven’t, but that’s another story.)

Yes, I know, I’ve tried your patience. So the book in question is (drumroll please) …

The Art of Fiction by Ayn Rand.

I wonder how many of you just said, “Yuck!” I did, when I first saw the book. So why did I buy it? Read it? Because the lady wrote two bestsellers that are still read decades after her death. Whatever you think of Objectivism (probably not much and not often), she wrote good fiction.

Reading her book will help you do the same.