Process: The Writing Lives of Great Authors by Sarah Stodola

[irenegro]

Под этой обложкой скорее не глубокое исследование писательского процесса, а что-то наподобие "10 фактов о ...", посвященные некоторым известным писателям, и изложенные в весьма увлекательной форме.

Сара Стодола исследовала таких авторов как: Филип Рот, Ричард Прайс, Фрэнсис Скотт Фитцджеральд, Жуно Диаз, Джеймс Джойс, Эрнест Хемингуэй, Джек Керуак, Джоан Дидион, Салман Рушди, Владимир Набоков, Вирджиния Вулф, Джордж Оруэлл, Эдит Уортон, Ричард Прайс, Дэвид Фостер Уоллес, Тони Моррисон, Франц Кафка и Маргарет Этвуд.

Как они решили стать писателями, с чего начинали, каковы их писательские привычки (у Маргарет Этвуд два рабочих стола, а Набоков писал всегда от руки и в ванной комнате), ведут ли они дневники, любят ли уединение или, напротив, компанию - вот, о чем можно узнать из этой книги.



Например, про Маргарет Этвуд:

"She spends a lot of time researching names, to ensure that each one carries some kind of meaning appropriate to its character. And she understands her characters thoroughly, envisioning much more about the intricacies of their lives and personalities than ever appears in the book".

"While a work is in progress, Atwood doesn’t generally share or talk about it. Even Graeme Gibson, her partner of nearly forty years and an unfailing champion of her work, doesn’t get to see the novels until they’re published. And although Atwood worked briefly as an editor, she doesn’t rely on her own editors very heavily. “By the time they get the work, it’s been through six drafts usually,” she says".

"Ultimately, Margaret Atwood’s novels take anywhere from six months to a few years to complete. The Edible Woman and Surfacing each took just six months, although she’d been considering them for far longer. After her years of accumulating material, she wrote The Handmaid’s Tale in a year. Lady Oracle took her a little over two years, as did The Blind Assassin. When a novel is finished, Atwood tends to not write at all for a while, then write poetry until she’s sick of it, then return to fiction. Even after decades as a master at the art of fiction, Atwood insists there’s no unerring approach to achieving great writing: “If we knew what worked, we could sell it as an unbeatable program for writing masterpieces.” Ultimately, writing is an improvisational act, every time. “I have no routine. I have no foolproof anything. There’s nothing foolproof.”