Re: OT: Books on writing?

["Bill Troop" billtroop@xxxxxxxx]

For once I disagree with Patricia. Writing has to happen as uncritically, as quickly, as freely as possible. Editing should be a secondary step. I have seen with myself and with others how engaging the critical gear inevitably slows the writing process down to a snail's pace, and doesn't, for all that, result in better prose but only more stilted, lifeless prose. I really do think that creation and revision are separate processes. Maybe it worked for Sayers, but I have a feeling it's more likely that she only wished it did. I love the idea of turning off the screen -- I have used that in teaching a very gifted writer to type, but it had not occurred to me to apply it to actual writing.



Well, I beg to differ, but recall that I'm an editor first and a
writer second. But I don't think you can ever LET your critical

faculty lapse. It will do so enough on its own.

I cite an interesting example: Dorothy L. Sayers was a (at one
time) well-known author of who-done-its (the Lord Peter Wimsey
stories), plays, translations (Dante's Divine Comedy, the Chanson

de Roland), and essays literary and doctrinal. In a couple of the
Lord Peter stories, she depicts a writer writing. And the writer
character is always editing as she writes. FWIW.

--
Patricia M. Godfrey

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