October 11th, 2004

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Introspective Writing

Via Colene, I found this quote on Former Pawn’s site about introspection and writing. It comes from Canadian author and teacher Wayson Choy:

“I tell my students,” says Choy, reverting to teacher mode, “don’t write what you know, but write about what resides in you. And you won’t know that until you become introspective.” Many people want to avoid introspection, he says, because it means confronting demons and pain as well as the chain of joys and good cheer that we bring up from that “bottom drawer” when we reminisce about the past. “A writer can’t just deal with the positive because life is lived totally and so the writers I trust most are those who say here is everything, let me retell what I have discovered resides there.”

Now, Mr. Choy has been teaching writing for nearly 40 years, so presumably he’s forgotten more about the subject than I know. Still, this seems like deeply stupid advice, and is the exact opposite thing I would tell new writers.

I should preface the following polemic by saying that I think it applies to all writing, from poetry to weblogs to essays. This only applies, however, to writing intended for public consumption.

Speaking as a former new writer myself, we tend to already be overly introspective. Why are we inclined to write? Generally, because we’ve got some deep emotional motivation (angst, exhibitionism, desire for fame, you name it). Generally, new writers spend far too much time within themselves, anaylzing and reanalyzing their lives and art.

It’s all well and good that Choy talks about “confronting demons” but, frankly, young writers have few demons to confront. And, for the most part, they’re the same demons everybody else has. As such, finding stories within yourself is often a limiting exercise. Now, if a young writer has had some unusual experiences, and earned a few rare demons, I’ll suffer some solipsism to read that. Yes, I’m talking to you, Evelyn Lau.

Encouraging introspection advocates a “tell, don’t show” model of writing. “Show, don’t tell” is, in my estimation, the number one rule of writing. As Mark Twain put it, “don’t say the old lady screamed…bring her on and let her scream.” In this context, don’t say “I went out walking and felt sad”, say “I went out walking and saw a crazy lady” and let your description of her demonstrate your sadness. There are few ways of writing the former, but infinite ways of writing the latter.

In a kind of Buddhist way, the young writer should practice a total and complete denial of self. That’s the best, fastest way to get better at the craft of writing. There will be plenty of time later on to explore your emotions on the page. For now, learn how to describe and interpret things, how to synthesize ideas, how to render the world around you in a comprehensible way.

All of my favourite writers, from Hemingway to Stephen King to Nicholson Baker, are light on the brooding self-analysis. They tell a compelling story in an original fashion and make the details sing. When they do pause for a little introspection (see, for example, King’s excellent On Writing), it makes their prose all the more powerful.

Like sculpture, writing is a craft before it’s an art. Getting introspective doesn’t help a carpenter make cabinets, and it won’t help you write compelling prose.

Comments: 7 Responses so far

Ross Laird
October 11th, 2004
5:37 pm

Darren;

Fair enough.
But I think the situation is not quite as polar as you suggest. To my mind, the question is not so much whether writers look inward or outward, but whether they can make the connections between their inner life and their external environment. In my experience working with creative writing students I have been consistently surprised by a general tendency (endemic in the creative arts) away from stringent self-scrutiny. This is not a good thing; after all, the only reason Roland is such a multi-faceted character is because King has spent a good deal of time hanging out in his own shadow (the Jungian one). As he says, “I think of what is taboo, then write about it.” This is a matter, primarily, of self-awareness.

Good writers and artists do two things: look inward, and express outward. Sure, “show don’t tell” is a great maxim, but I like Philip Roth’s better: “don’t imagine it; remember it.” In Roth’s view, this applies to fiction as much as to memoir.

To break the membrane between the inner and outer worlds is the mark of creativity. To blend the worlds is the mark of a good artist; to render the division between them invisible is the mark of a great artist (Conrad, Saint-Exupery, Melville, Rushdie — take your pick).

Cheers.

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Darren
October 11th, 2004
6:16 pm

All good points, Ross, particularly the Roth quote. Maybe I’m jaded, being 8 or so years out of university, but if you set loose an introspection-detecting hound on campus when I was at UVic, it’d head straight for the Creative Writing department (stopping briefly, admittedly, at the theatre). It’s my view that you can’t really teach the introspection–you can encourage it and try to facilitate it, but it’s going to come or not come on its own.

However, from a first-things-first philosophy, you can teach the craft of writing. For students, I’d rather see a well-written, clinical piece than a sloppily-written but emotionally-realized (replace ‘emotionally-realized’ with whatever you want to call the product of quality introspection) story. So, I imagine, would editors.

In short, I’m not saying that writers shouldn’t be introspective. I’m just saying that it shouldn’t be a priority for writing students. It’s achievable outside the classroom, and teachers aren’t going to help with it much. To return to the example of Stephen King–he could write a decent horror or sci-fi story, but how much self-actualization was he capable of at 19? By his own admission, not much.

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Chuck Ulls
October 11th, 2004
8:37 pm

Self absorbed = Evelyn Lau
Oh God. The horror.
Thank goodness Kinsella put a little of himself (teehee) into her.
She needed it.

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alexis
October 11th, 2004
9:22 pm

I was drawn to this quote because I wasn’t really thinking about writing, I was just thinking about introspection in general. I know that it’s a quote to do with writing, but my idea was that people tend to avoid a lot of things inside them, and focus on what’s outside them. I agree that “show don’t tell” is also a very important mantra. Actually, journalism school was what helped me the most. Journalism school does not allow you to have writer’s block, and you can get over that very quickly.

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Derek
October 12th, 2004
10:55 am

Choy does seem to imply that no one without an interesting (or possibly painful) past can be a good writer, of fiction anyway. And Shakespeare, for one, seemed to have lived a pretty comfortable life. How much of his creativity was introspective?

Then again, someone like George Lucas seems to have lost all introspection over the years, and his films have suffered for it, since there are no human characters left. So perhaps it is a balance.

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Mario Richard
December 26th, 2007
4:33 pm

Hello there!

Hope you’r having fun in this holiday season.

I have a question. It’s about hearing spirit voices.

Do you have a way, or method or techniques to get rid of them.

I just not enjoy hearing them in my mind. I realize that for a lot of people this phenomenom would be like a “gift”. Not to me.

I will be very appreciative if you can help me.

Happy Holidays!

Mario

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noelle arriola
September 2nd, 2009
3:43 am

i dunno. im an artist.. painting and creative writing are just the same right? aside from their “creativeness or art”. both are derived from the inner self to the visual artwork then finally to the viewer or reader. Introspection is essential. Its just a matter of how you will deliver your message.

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