7 writers on failure

26/6/2013

Life's far too complex for a stark division of our experiences into the extremes of success and failure. But this weekend's Guardian Review had seven writers reflecting movingly on their own experiences of falling short of their expectations in a way I know I'll want to come back to. I find it inspiration from knowing that even these denizens of the literary world can be hurt and move on.

I'd like to quote them all: Diana Athill on success in later life after a loss of self-confidence at what should have been her prime; Margaret Atwood on learning from the setbacks; Julian Barnes on misjudging others' lives as failures; Anne Enright on success and failure as both illusionary and real; Will Self in a similar vein on the unreliability of both; and Lionel Shriver on the long apprenticeship of failure and the notion of "giving up well". But you may find other things to highlight, or you may agree with many of the commenters on the webpage, that these successful authors had no right to moan. Having restricted myself to one quote, it's Howard Jacobson's piece that speaks the most to me (must go back and have another attempt at one of his novels):

Art is made by those who consider themselves to have failed at whatever isn't art. And of course it is loved as consolation, or a call to
arms, by those who feel the same. One of the reasons there seem to be fewer readers for literature today than there were yesterday is that the
concept of failure has been outlawed. If we are all beautiful, all clever, all happy, all successes in our way, what do we want with the language of the dispossessed?

I think this is an issue that lies at the heart of the writing life, at least for literary fiction, and one I'll be coming back to, but (mini existential crisis that nobody else cares about) not sure how to categorise it, as it's more about accepting good enough than tolerating failure.

Meanwhile, since my promised glut of fresh June stories are as tardy as the strawberries my garden, here's an old one on winning and losing that was due a revival. Enjoy!

8 Comments

Ailish Sinclair link

19/9/2013 07:19:27 am

a beautifully worded post and excellent link :)

Charli Mills

26/12/2014 02:11:38 pm

What an insight this is to literature, and of course, writing. I think that literature does struggle for a place on the shelf because it is art, but not always what readers want to read. I'm trying to find a happy medium in commercial fiction that is literary, yet takes in account the modern reader. If I wanted to write genre, it might be "easier" because specific genres have specific templates. Learn the rules and write...but I long for that creative expression and find myself drawn to stories that do not fit templates. Therefore, I think I'm prone to more failures because I'm trying to create my own blueprint. We can always learn skills and improve craft, but art--both the creation and acceptance--is subjective. I like to read how other writers persevere.

Annecdotist

27/12/2014 08:34:00 am

Interesting perspective, Charli, which makes a lot of sense – the more ambitious you are, the more risks you take, the bigger chance of failure. For me, I'm trying to write the kind of novels I like to read,
which takes me away from genre, but might make "success" more elusive.
Thanks for popping back to this old post..

Norah Colvin link

27/12/2014 11:25:41 pm

Thanks for linking back to this post in your comment on Charli's flash fiction challenge. http://carrotranch.com/2014/12/24/december-24-flash-fiction-challenge/ It was obviously posted before my time as a follower. It was interesting to read of the perspectives on failure of different writers. Sadly the link to your old one on winning and losing didn't work - for me anyway! :)

Annecdotist

29/12/2014 09:08:47 am

Thank you, Norah, and a reminder of how grateful I am to have you, and others like you, around – those early days were quite lonely at times!
I'm also extremely grateful for your interest in my fiction and apologies for the malfunctioning link – it seems that it was published so long ago the website is no longer maintaining its archive!
As it's a very short piece I'm going to paste it into a comment while I submit it to another publisher. Then I can get rid of the comment if/when they choose to host it.

Irene Waters link

27/12/2014 11:53:16 pm

Interesting. I agree with Howard Jacobson's quote that the concept of failing has been outlawed. It sets people up for disappointment in so many walks of life as failure unfortunately is part of it. I have my doubts that there are less readers of literature (writings with superior artistic merit) but I could be wrong. I doubt that I will ever write into this category but like you Anne, am not writing to a template but what I want to write. I think genre exists however whether you write to the plan the publishers want or not. The link didn't work for me either.

Annecdotist

29/12/2014 09:13:54 am

Thank you, Irene. Thinking about it again, I might be changing my mind about his quote – or perhaps coming at something similar from a different angle. There's certainly – especially for young people – an amazingly high expectation of amazing success which not everyone is going to be able to achieve, and perhaps we see not achieving it as failure rather than recognising it for what it is, that most of us are pretty average.
Thanks for testing the link to my story. As I've said in my response to Norah, I'm going to paste the story into a comment until I find another publisher.