The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof shit detector. This is the writer's radar and all great writers have had it.
Ernest Hemingway, interview in Paris Review, Spring 1958
In search of ideas for blog posts, I scoured the internet for interesting quotes on writing. My thought: when struggling for a post, insert a quote. If inspired, a post would follow. If not, I would post the quote and ask for readers to comment. Simple.
This Hemingway quote jumped out at me. I'm a shit detector in life; I don't always call people out on their shit, but I usually sense it. Too often, I excuse it. I am a softy for people's stories. If their story explains their shit, I can let is slide. (My mom is NOT going to like how often I used shit in one paragraph).
Originally, my favorite thing I read this week and why was going to be a link to my review of The Art of Racing in the Rain at my Mom in Love with Fiction blog. A great book and my favorite reading of the week, but the Hemingway quote brought it all together.
All of this to say, I guess I'm a good shit detector in writing, life and reading!
Are you ever surprised what element of a story stays with you?
11 comments:
Yeah, I have a very good 'crap filter' when I'm reading. Just hate it when someone is writing for kids/tweens/YAs and talks down to them, or has too-mature lingo coming out of a kid-aged character's mouth.
So I won't pass on junk to my readers when I write recommendations, because if a book is crappy, then it never makes it onto the 'write a review' pile in the first place. If it ain't great, it ain't showing up on BooksYALove.
Now, if I need to, I can write BS better than you'd believe. I used to tell folks that I spoke 4 languages: English, French, Texan, and Bureaucratese. Comes in very handy for grant-writing when obfuscatory prose can pad out a simple concept to the expected overinflated page-filling...
**Katy M
Recommending YA books beyond the bestsellers at http://BooksYALove.blogspot.com
Follow me on Twitter @BooksYALove
Yes, I'm pretty good at detecting s*** (your mom can be happy with me--I can't even type it once!! :) which is one of the reasons I often read nonfiction instead of fiction. It drives me crazy when I deal with hard-to-believe story lines. And I have stopped reviewing books on my blog (I only did it a few times) because I don't want to commit to reviewing a book then turn out not to like it. In terms of being surprised at what stays with me? This happens more often with movies (which I am usually a really harsh critic of...); I'll say how much I don't like a movie, then for DAYS I'll talk about some small thing that struck me about it. Pretty funny! Great, thought-provoking post!
Katy, good for you. By not passing on the BS, you build an honest relationship with the people who read your blog. That's so important. Kudos!
Julia, I write reviews and I have a hard time with books I find mediocre. I try to find some redeeming qualities but then discourage people from reading it. If it's plain awful, I won't publish a review (except on RebeccasReads where I review and need to).
And I have to admit I cringed each time I typed sh**, but felt the need to keep with Hemingway's theme. I cringed the most putting it on the yahoo group and Twitter, but felt silly putting sh**. Hmmmmm.
Thanks for visiting!
I have nothing to add to this conversation other than it's hilarious! Good stuff but still funny!
Thank you, too, for posting my blog. How sweet are you! And I said it before but I love the new look of your blog.
Thanks, Jan. I'll pass on the comment to my dear sister. I'm so glad to have found some great friends through Blogathon! I am enjoying my blog so much more now that I have a community!
I don't know if I have a true shit detector but I know a quality quote when I read it. I shared this one on Twitter.
Thanks for the retweet! I loved the quote . . . it inspired me.
Laura says:
LOL, love this post! I have no problems writing the word "shit" when deemed appropriate, the difficulty is to avoid writing *shit* altogether. I'm a beginner writer and my shit detector is not a finely tuned machine...yet. But I'm working on it with the advice and help of experienced authors which is essential to me.
Thanks for sharing!
Laura, Thanks for stopping by! I cringed writing it throughout the post because my mom and I do the blog together. But I think a well-timed and much-needed shit is necessary every now and again. Hope you are enjoying summertime!
I love the new design! On another note...shit is necessary from time to time. ;)
Thanks, Nicky. And amen to that!
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