Third Sunday Salon: 10am

Almost 10am and I am, afraid, still in my pyjamas. The Hodmandods get up very slowly on a Sunday and, since Hodmandod Major has made a visit home, there have been distractions. I am still reading this...



and am 82 pages in, and on chapter four entitled 'Metafiction, Deconstruction and Jazzing Around'. Here are a few highlights from my first page of notes:

The Value of Great Fiction
(i) entertains and distracts;
(ii) broadens knowledge;
(iii) helps us know what we believe, reinforces those qualitites that are noblest in us, and leads us to feel uneasy about our faults and limitations.

In order to write well you need to
(i) write what you read (it's important to do lots of reading);
(ii) blend genres;
(ii) maybe elevate 'trash' (comics, popular tales etc);
(iii) create a dream.

All writing begins as a mysterious dream in the head of the writer and by writing and endlessly revising a writer makes that dream available to the reader.

Good writing should, above all, tell the truth. Feelings should be expressed in concrete details - in the description, the dialogue and the recounting of action. For instance a good writer doesn't just describe a barn but describes how someone in a particular mood sees a barn.