An Upper Michigan listener with a form of dyslexia told us he wrote to Kurt Vonnegut years ago about his frustration with trying to become a published writer. Vonnegut wrote back, assuring that when you care enough about your subject, the right words will come, and you need not worry about spelling—or getting it published. Here’s hoping the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library gets a copy. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Vonnegut’s Advice for Writers”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette. We got a wonderful letter the other day that I wanted to share with you.
It’s from Dwayne Martin Abramowski, and he’s from Upper Michigan.
And he wrote to say that he’s what some people might call a little dyslexic.
That is, he can’t spell without a spell checker.
And he writes, “My words collect on the page like pebbles on a stormy shore.”
And this was really frustrating for him when he was growing up because he wanted to be a writer.
And back in the 1980s, he decided to write a letter to his hero, Kurt Vonnegut.
And he wrote to Kurt Vonnegut that he was struggling to get his words on the page and asked him, “Why am I writing? I can’t spell. I can’t put the words together like everybody else. How am I ever going to get published and be a writer?”
And do you know Kurt Vonnegut actually wrote him back?
And Dwayne sent us the letter, and it’s beautiful with that classic.
If you’ve ever seen Kurt Vonnegut’s signature, it’s kind of wild and crazy looking, but it’s this beautiful old letter, and I wanted to share some of it with you.
And the letter says, “Your parents were correct in telling you that it is nearly impossible to make a living as an imaginative writer. That’s not a powerful argument against writing, though. Like singing and dancing and playing catch and so on, writing can be good for you, even if the pay is zero. Caring tremendously about some subject matters more than skill in the writing game. If you can care enough about your subject, you will become amazingly skillful. The words will arrive in their proper order.”
And he goes on to say later, “Other people can fix the spelling.”
How inspiring.
Right.
Don’t worry about the hurdle as long as you can put something on the page that can be fixed later.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I thought this was just a beautiful piece of advice.
Find your passion and write about it, and the rest will take care of itself.
And treat the writing as writing without thinking about market, without thinking about who’s going to buy it.
Right.
Just do it because you like to write.
Right, right.
Writing and publishing are two different things, right?
And I’m hoping, Dwayne, that you’ll share this with the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library in Indianapolis.
That would be outstanding.
I think this would be really cool because it’s just one of those beautiful old letters in that kind of typeface.
Right, yeah.
Well, we’d love to hear about who inspired you, who made you a better writer, who gave you the advice that you live with every day that makes you a better human being?
877-929-9673.
Email words@waywordradio.org.
