A Writer's Moment: 'A secret to writing success'

A Writer's Moment: 'A secret to writing success':   “I regard the writing of humor as a supreme artistic challenge.”  – Herman Wouk   Born in The Bronx, New York on this date in 1915, Wo...

'A secret to writing success'

 

“I regard the writing of humor as a supreme artistic challenge.” – Herman Wouk

 

Born in The Bronx, New York on this date in 1915, Wouk admired those who could write humor and thought about being a humor writer himself.  But after working as a gag writer for comedian Fred Allen, he decided to turn toward historical fiction, ultimately writing such massive bestsellers as The Caine Mutiny and the two-book series The Winds of War and The War and Remembrance (all three also made into popular movies).   Good career move.

Wouk actually was leaning toward business instead of writing when WWII intervened and he signed up for the Navy.  During “off hours” – sometimes between battles where he won numerous battle stars for heroism – he started writing to take his mind off the war.  His first effort, Aurora Dawn, a raucous satire about Manhattan's high-power elite, was released just after the war.  A huge hit, it established Wouk as a major new writer.

 

He followed that book with a string of other bestsellers, including The Caine Mutiny and Marjorie Morningstar often drawing on material from the extensive journals he kept about his personal experiences and the people he met or interacted with.  

 

From age 22-on, Wouk kept at least a journal a year until age 100 (he died at age 103 just 10 days shy of his 104th birthday).  He said he often referred to his journals to check dates and facts and found writing them to be a cathartic experience.  Wouk’s journals, 100 in all, are now housed at the Library of Congress – the first batch given at a 2008 ceremony honoring him with the LC's Lifetime Achievement Award for Fiction. 

 

In addition to his journals, of course, Wouk wrote hundreds of essays, short stories and more than two dozen bestselling novels, “Writing success is simple,” he said. “Write a page a day and it will add up.”

A Writer's Moment: 'The need to make sense of life'

A Writer's Moment: 'The need to make sense of life':   “The need to write comes from the need to make sense of one's life and discover one's usefulness.”  –  John Cheever   Born in ...

'The need to make sense of life'

 

“The need to write comes from the need to make sense of one's life and discover one's usefulness.” –  John Cheever

 

Born in New York City on this date in 1912, novelist and short story writer Cheever was one of the most important short fiction writers of the 20th century.  A high school dropout, he was “a natural writer” and published his first short story while still in his teens.  After being published in prominent magazines like The New Yorker. he joined a number of up-and-coming writers in the Depression-era government program called The Writer’s Project, then enlisted in the Army where he had his first book of short stories published while serving during World War II.

 

Among Cheever’s numerous writing prizes were the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award and a Pulitzer Prize, all for The Stories of John Cheever.

 

 Chronicler of both his times and the people he encountered, Cheever was lauded for his keen, often critical, view of the American middle class.  His stories are characterized by attention to detail, careful writing, and “tales of the extraordinary within the ordinary.”                   

 

Always cognizant of his reading public and what they liked, he once said, “I can't write without a reader. It's precisely like a kiss - you really can't do it alone.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Creating a lasting tale of dreams'

A Writer's Moment: 'Creating a lasting tale of dreams':   “Most people write a lot of autobiography, but when I came to write autobiography I discovered that nothing interesting had ever happened ...

'Creating a lasting tale of dreams'

 

“Most people write a lot of autobiography, but when I came to write autobiography I discovered that nothing interesting had ever happened to me. So I had to take the situation and invent stories to go with it.” –  W. P. Kinsella

 

Born in Edmonton, Alberta on this date in 1935, William Patrick Kinsella was a novelist and short story writer whose tales focused on baseball and Canada’s First Nations people.  For a wonderful read about life on the First Nations’ Reserve in Alberta, check out his short story collection Dance Me Outside, his very first book (released in 1977).  Narrated by a young Cree named Silas Ermineskin, it is a remarkable look at Reserve life, love, sorrow and triumph.

 

But while he writes poignantly and with great detail about the First Nations, it is for his 1982 baseball novel Shoeless Joe that he gained international acclaim and a lasting spot in American vernacular.

                                                                                                                         

Mildly controversial when it was released, Kinsella’s tale uses the reclusive (and still living at the time) author J.D. Salinger as one of its main characters, even though Kinsella had never met him. "I made sure to make him a nice character, though, so that he couldn’t sue me.” Kinsella said.   

 

Primarily set in small town, rural America the story has one of the great literary exchanges when one of Kinsella’s  “spirit” ballplayers – representing players from the early part of the 20^th century – emerges from a cornfield onto a baseball field constructed by a farmer named Ray who has heard a voice saying “build it and they will come.”  Seemingly bewildered, the player asks if this is Heaven?  “No,” Ray answers.  “This is Iowa.”

 

“Most writers are unhappy with film adaptations of their work, and rightly so,” Kinsella said shortly before his death in 2016.  “But Field of Dreams caught the spirit and essence of Shoeless Joe.”   

A Writer's Moment: 'Oh no!' it's that 'heartbreaking' result

A Writer's Moment: 'Oh no!' it's that 'heartbreaking' result:   “The awful thing, as a kid reading, was that you came to the end of the story, and that was it. I mean, it would be heartbreaking that the...