Scott Lax

 

My earliest influences were the American Transcendentalists, particularly Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman. They began writing in mid-nineteenth-century New England. The essence of their work was to push back against the Puritan ethic and materialism, and they celebrated freedom, individualism, inquiry, experiment and intuitive spirituality. They were at the literary center of American letters for half a century.

I think it helps to have some sense of where you write from in an intellectual and spiritual (or religious) sense. When I teach creative writing, I spend the first couple of classes working with students to access their writerly selves, so that they can supplant what’s been called “the icon of The Writer” with their own writer’s sensibility.

Real writing – that is, writing that lasts, that can take readers somewhere they’ve never been – usually comes from a writer’s core. Not from mere cleverness. Cleverness that affects intellect and hides honest feeling is like weeds growing where nothing else dares: in the cracks of a culture’s spiritual and intellectual sidewalks. It’s there, sure, but often ugly and ultimately abandoned, withered and forgotten.  Read More 

Maybe you agree that one of the biggest blocks to having a career as a writer, or even submitting your writing, is fear. Fear of rejection; fear of failure. I can't think of better advice than that of Eleanor Roosevelt, who said:

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do."

What are you afraid of as a writer? When you identify it, you can face it and work and write through it.  Read More 

Like many of you, I enjoy watching the Golden Globes. I respect actors, directors, set designers, production assistants, and the hundreds of other people that go into creating a film or TV show.

But I never forget one thing: every one of those shows or movies was written and/or conceived of by a writer. Story trumps all. Thanks to actors and all the rest for bringing them to life; but believe me when I say that they know where the story begins: with the writer.  Read More 

(Please substitute she for he, or woman for man, as needed)...

"The significance of a man is not in what he attains but in what he longs to attain." - Kahlil Gibran

If we apply that to writing, it's the act of writing - of reaching our writerly selves and allowing it to flow into our work - that matters. Most of us want to be published, and read, and so forth, but what gives our words significance is what we long to say. Writing from the heart makes that longing come alive.  Read More 

Graham Greene said, "Talent, even of a very high order, cannot sustain an achievement, whereas a ruling passion gives to a shelf of novels the unity of a system."

In other words, you have to care about what you're writing if you hope to achieve anything that matters to you -- and your readers.

I'm reading Tobias Wolff's, OUR STORY BEGINS, his most recent collection of short fiction. He's a master at the short story genre. He's so good that there are moments when I wonder if he's writing from another dimension.

I've learned not to get discouraged when reading the greats like Wolff. I learned this many years ago, when, as a young drummer, I went to hear perhaps the greatest drummer of all time, Buddy Rich -- not once, but three or four times. Buddy was a freak of nature. He was to drums what LeBron James is to basketball -- maybe even more extreme.

I was a professional drummer. I had to come to terms with the idea that I wasn't, and would never be, Buddy Rich. And I'll never be Tobias Wolff, or write short fiction like him.  Read More 

I had a nice talk with a newspaper editor today. Times are very tough for newspapers, as everybody knows. I think this doesn't bode well: even though so much content is free, I am suspect that many people are reading in-depth articles on their computers. I've found myself carting around The New Yorker and reading longer, in depth articles. It keeps my brain operating half-way decently.

You simply can't get that kind of information from a two hundred word Web piece. Most of them are toss-offs, full of easily digestible information.

The Internet is invaluable; I know that. But we are losing the in-depth, long form; we are losing serious investigative journalism. Will young people want to read serious journalism, having been raised on Twitter and snark? Maybe. In many ways, kids seem smarter than ever. Still, there needs to be some kind of happy medium.

I only hope that enough newspapers, magazines and book publishing companies survive to keep excellence alive. Otherwise, society will get stupider. (Can I say that more diplomatically? Maybe. But why?)

If you haven't read a long form lately, try it. A long piece in The New Yorker, or any magazine of that sort, will do. Or a book. It's amazing how much intellectual yardage you can gain by stopping the dink and dunk passes and going long.  Read More 

How do you name your fictional characters? For me, it's this simple: I give characters the names they have. This is where writing gets a little Zen. Just let go, and ask what the character's name is. It should come to you. I think it's good to stay away from being clever, or having any agenda, such as naming a bad character after someone you don't like. The character, if he or she is alive in your imagination, will let your subconscious know his or her name. The character may also have you research - for example, for a foreign name. When you find it, you'll know if it fits. Trust your writerly self. Read More 

The greatest writers in history were not arrogant, know-it-all ranters. They were often full of self-doubt. They were humble. They understood that the better they got, the farther they were from their potential. This paradox was part of their greatness. Humility gives an artist the need to probe his or her depths in the quest to be better.

This paradox reminds me of some self-help gurus: the motivational weight-loss speaker who's tubby; the financial wizard who makes her money by speeches about making money; the religious wing-nut who is filled with animosity toward the "other."

When a writer boasts, be it on a Web site or on a TV show, you might want to look elsewhere. You won't find beauty, or wisdom. You'll find empty conceit.  Read More 

What is "voice" in writing? Having just read Joseph O'Neill's NETHERLAND, I again see that voice is really tone. Maybe that's more confusing. Think of it in terms of music. Let's say that one saxophone player plays a song well. Then you listen to John Coltrane playing the same song. Let's say that even the notes are the same (which wouldn't be the case, but let's say so anyway).

Coltrane's tone is what set him apart. It's the tone, the voice, that sets apart great writers from the rest. It comes from somewhere different than the usual pathways in the brain. It comes from deeper than thinking. It comes from the writer's soul, just as Coltrane's playing came from his soul.

Voice is not simply being original. It's being true to yourself -- your unique self. If you learn the form -- say writing, saxophone, whatever -- you can express it. Don't grasp for words. Let them rise up in you like a great sax solo. Learn the art form, the craft, and allow its expression.  Read More