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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

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Fiction about writers and writing

25/2/2013

8 Comments

 
I can't make up my mind about novels about writers and writing.
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On the one hand, it seems a bit of a copout for a writer to make her (or more often his) main character another writer, a way of sidestepping the fact that a year of waiting tables, colourful or arduous as it might be, has little bearing on the working lives most of her readers, constantly updating their CV's. Who cares about the writing life anyway, except for other writers (although I confess that there seem to be enough of us about to make this a big enough market to target)? Despite, through this blog, I'm buying into the current requirement for self-promotion, and I'm sure Shelley Harris was being modest when she protested she was ordinary, generally I believe we writers are less interesting than what we write.

On the other hand, a work of fiction tells the story of a specific set of characters in specific situation to shine a light on aspects of the human condition common to us all. So if a writer manages to write about writing in a way that helps us understand ordinary creativity, I'm all for it. Just because I can't think of any right now that fit that category doesn't mean they don't exist, it's probably easier to achieve this the way some novelists have done by exploring a different kind of creativity, such as music composition or painting. Even so, these are still somewhat esoteric, and I'd love to see the novel about the creativity of the woman at the supermarket checkout.
(Actually, come to think of it, wasn't that Morven Callar?)

I’m also full of admiration for the writer who’s prepared to explore the darker side of creativity, and the way it comes close to madness, such as William Golding in his novel The Spire. Perhaps all our creative urges are located in the murky depths of our unconscious minds and we, like Jocelin,  the Dean of the Cathedral determined to build a 400 foot spire with no  foundations, can never be sure if our artistic endeavours are merely a  delusion.
But the theme itself which William Golding chose is significant: the  collapse of his work is always a threat of which the artist is aware. And here Golding describes a particular threat which must be experienced by every artist. Artists are often accused of being narcissistic, which is a great misconception, but the particular kind of omnipotent narcissism  represented by Jocelin must be a temptation that they probably have always to struggle with and to overcome.

The Work of Hanna Segal, p216.
This has taken me quite a way from the original trigger for this post: the publication of my short story, Lunch Break. I hardly dare mention it after all the sombre pontificating above, or perhaps the lighter touch will come as a welcome change to the palate, some simple home cooking after fussy restaurant fare.
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
8 Comments
geoff le pard
26/2/2013 02:02:45 pm

Hi Anne. My madness, or my writer's equivalent comes when my characters take over a scene or chapter. It seems to happen a lot just now but possibly that's a sympton of where i am with my stories. It's exciting as well as frustrating to realise these sods I've created know themsleves better than does the conscious me. And I like lunch break even if I assumed you were about to launch into some peado-transvestism.

Reply
Annecdotist
27/2/2013 01:12:00 am

Great to see you here Geoff and glad you liked Lunch Break. Hadn't really thought till your comment that although it's only just published I'd written it a while ago and is possibly foreshadowing (though no spoilers, eh) later works. As for your madness, isn't that being a proper writer, living and dreaming your characters?

Reply
Isabel Costello link
6/3/2013 01:43:24 am

Thanks for drawing my attention to your post and sorry for the delay in commenting. It's a very interesting question. The message I've come across most often regarding writing about writers is Approach With Caution - if at all. There's such a risk that it can come over as self-indulgent, plus it's hard to make the art of writing - so introspective - seem engaging. Maybe that's why it seems so much more common and successful to write about artists or musicians. Fiction Desk have a rather amusing quasi-ban on stories about writing in their submission guidelines which suggests that a lot of writers must dabble in this. I'm not tempted - it's bad enough being a writer in the first place!

It can be done very well, of course. I really enjoyed Atonement, and in A M Holmes' recent novel May We Be Forgiven the main character is the author of a (non-fiction) book on Nixon which was fascinating. In Unless, Carol Shields walks the line with a character who's not a very good writer, complete with horrible extracts from the other book. John Mullan's brilliant How Novels Work has a good section on Metanarrative.

Reply
Cariad Martin link
6/3/2013 02:19:10 am

I find it so boring when the protagonist of a novel is a novelist. It feels a little like the writer hasn't stretched themselves, and I can't help but wonder whether they actually have any other interests or hobbies.

When I was eighteen I went to university to study Media Studies, until I was on work experience and someone pointed out to me that no one makes TV programmes about making TV programmes.

Obviously, along the way I switched from TV to novels, but this is still kind of how I feel about writing. If you want to write stories you need to get outside and experience some things to write stories about.

Reply
rowena link
6/3/2013 04:02:11 am

I too would normally steer clear of reading novels about writing, but it occurs to me that 'HHhH' by Laurent Binet, which I have jsut finished, and which I enjoyed a great deal is essentially a novel deconstructing the process of writing a historical novel based on real people and events.

At the beginning of the book the contemporary story of the writer's activities sounded a bit trivial, but it progresses, the tension ratchets up, so by the climax the writer is driven near mad by his deep involvement with the story he is telling. Determined at the outset to be entirely objective in the recounting of history by the end he almost believes himself to be a part of the events.

The dual narrative is crucial to the success of the book - if it had been only about the research and writing process I don't think it would not have worked as a book.

Reply
Annecdotist
7/3/2013 01:09:26 am

Thanks Cariad, Isabel and Rowena for making it over to my blog and for sharing your thoughts. Sounds like it's generally a no, although with some exceptions that prove the rule. Interesting about how they don't make programmes about making TV – I wonder if part of the real or imagined appeal of writers is delving deep inside one person's mind which you wouldn't really get with the team approach to TV (I'm assuming). I haven't read HHhH (how do you pronounce it?) but I think it might appeal as I'm curious about how writing fiction pushes the boundary between real and imaginary and have a short post on this http://annegoodwin.weebly.com/1/post/2013/02/can-our-characters-gettoo-real.html
so thanks for the reminder about that book – it had good reviews but I really wasn't sure if it was for me. Atonement I loved (of course) but I did feel a bit let down that he'd made her a writer, as if an ordinary person (whatever that is) couldn't have that depth of feeling.
Thanks for visiting and I hope you'll come again.

Reply
Charli Mills
26/10/2017 06:40:51 pm

Stephen King built a brilliant plot in Misery, about a writer taken caliber by an insane fan after a car accident leaves him helpless. Otherwise, I'm not drawn to fictions about writers. Upon reading your post I tried to think why it makes me feel skeptical or uncomfortable. I didn't find Lunch Break to be either but maybe because it is a short story and add humor. It's the writer who take the writing self way too seriously and yes, I find it boring. That said, I've read lots of non fictions about writers whose lives fascinate me -- Tolkein, CS Lewis, Chaucer, Hemingway, Dillard, Angelou, Abbey and more. But to read a fiction about a character who is a writer? Not appealing!

Reply
Annecdotist
27/10/2017 09:56:39 am

I haven’t read that Stephen King novel, Charli, but I have heard about it. I revived this post because I was writing my review of Richard Flanagan’s latest novel (which I’ll be posting next week) about a character ghostwriting a conman’s memoir. I do think that brings an interesting perspective, but there’s got to be a reason for making a protagonist a writer.

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