Solnit’s Writing Advice

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.

It’s always inspiring when a writer you admire offers advice specifically about how to write well.

And I came across some advice the other day from Rebecca Solnit, whose work I really admire.

She wrote The Faraway Nearby and a number of other books.

And she had some advice for writers on the website Literary Hub.

And I wanted to share some of it with you because I think you will appreciate it, Grant.

She says, in terms of becoming a writer, the road is made entirely out of words.

Write a lot.

Maybe at the outset, you’ll be like a toddler.

The terrible twos are partly about being frustrated because you’re smarter than your motor skills or your mouth.

You want to color the picture, ask for the toy, and you’re bumbling, incoherent, and no one gets it.

But it’s not only time that gets the kid onward to more sophistication and skill.

It’s effort and practice.

Isn’t that the truth?

It is the truth.

There’s something about having to get through the terrible twos.

You have to get through them in order to go on to the better level.

As a writer.

As a writer, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

You can’t skip it.

Exactly.

And don’t we know that sense of frustration when you know sort of what you want to say,

But it’s always a disappointment.

The clarity of your thoughts is nowhere like the clarity of your execution.

Right.

The dullness of it.

Right.

She has several other suggestions for writers.

And another one of them that I thought was really interesting was she said,

Read good writing and don’t live in the present.

She said, read a lot of older things.

And she puts it this way.

Literature is not high school, and it’s not actually necessary to know what everyone around you is wearing

In terms of style and being influenced by people who are being published in this very moment

Is going to make you look just like them, which is probably not a good long-term goal for being

Yourself or making a meaningful contribution. At any point in history, there is a great tide of

Writers of similar tone. They wash in, they wash out, the strange starfish stay behind, and the

Conches. Check out the bestseller list for April 1935 or August 1978 if you don’t believe me.

Originality is partly a matter of having your own influences. Read evolutionary biology textbooks

Or the Old Testament. Find your metaphors where no one’s looking. Don’t belong. And I think all

Of this is pretty classic advice for writers, but I just like the way she put it, and I think it’s

Kind of a cool challenge to go back to those bestseller lists from 50, 80 years ago, right?

I’ve done it. I’ve done it to see what great works I should be reading, only to find out that

All of the great works were already available to me. They were already things that I had access to,

And there was no great mystery about what I was missing. None of those things

Needed to be recovered from the past. They were, like she said, now invisible tides made a part

The larger ocean. They need not be recovered. They were of their moment and didn’t have any

Lasting impact. It is interesting to look at those lists and see. I looked at the two that

She mentioned and there were a couple of classic works, but everything else just sort of washed

Back out to sea. Yeah, she’s got some really great advice. Where can we find that? You said

Literary Hub? Yes. Rebecca Solnit. Rebecca Solnit. And we will put a link to all of that on our

Website. You’re listening to a show about language, including writing. If you’ve got

Something to say, give us a call at 877-929-9673 or email us words@waywordradio.org.