Reading Response 2: Week of 3/21/11

Steering the Craft
Ursula K. Le Guin
Chapter 3: Sentence Length

I was so encouraged to read the letter of a writer of Virginia Woolf's caliber, saying, "But on the other hand here am I sitting after half the morning, crammed with ideas, and visions, and so on, and can't dislodge them, for lack of the right rhythm." Yes. Yes. Yes. Exactly. I was practically crying to hear how even someone so successful and skilled and respected has the same problems that I have. I've mentioned it before, but I simply can't write unless I hear the rhythm of the words in my head. Part of the problem is too many ideas and not enough clear direction. But even when I do have an idea, like the story I wrote about my Mom, it's so hard to get started and this is precisely the reason. It has to sound right, or I can't get it out. This wasn't Le Guin's point at all, I realize, and I appreciated the examples of sentence length and balance in the book, but honestly, what I took away from it was this big sigh of relief. "It doesn't have to end at a blank white Word document or sheet of paper, Sarah," is what I told myself. "Writers deal with this rhythm issue all the time and find ways to get past it. So get over yourself and start writing." I'm going to try to remember this whenever I'm discouraged and feel like quitting.


Chapter 4: Repetition

This chapter was enormously helpful to me and somewhat encouraging, as well. Repetition is something I find myself naturally drawn to as I write, whether it's prose or poetry, and I'm glad to see that it's not something that I necessarily have to abort to continue writing stories. What I need to do is dial back, I think, and learn when to use it and when not to, because (certainly for the story I submitted in class) the repetition is a little too overt and might not always add to the flow and content of the story. It might even detract from it, with someone thinking, "Why is she writing the same word over and over?" I have found that I do less repetition of words and phrases in my novel-writing and more of the sort of larger-scale "mountain" of repetition that she described, bringing certain themes or plotlines full circle from beginning to end. (Or, that's how it is in my head. I haven't actually written very much of the actual text of my novel so far. See above.)