Maud Newton's blog says that the day before yesterday, or thereabouts, Justin on the Beautiful Stuff blog transcribed part of a Literary Friendships conversation between Waldman and Chabon (I think you're supposed to know their first names), moderated by Garrison Keillor, in which Waldman argued that blogging is bad for fiction writing. Waldman says this:
Don't start, don't start; it'll suck you into the screaming vortex of the blogosphere, and then you will never get out.Er, right. Well now, see, the thing is this. It is perfectly true that I, the GOB, haven't written a word of fiction since I started blogging. But I was, kind of, thinking about starting again. As I was shaving this morning.
Last autumn I had this flu-type infection, which gave me a temperature, and I had a dream about the story for a novel. And as I lay there, gently steaming, I began to work out the plot in more detail. And -- of course -- what happened was what always happens when you are struck by lightning in this way. I decided that my novel was going to be the best thing to hit the publishing industry since the Da Vinci thingy. (I was sick, please note.)
When I recovered I regained some form of sanity and realised that perhaps my novel would not be the Next Big Thing after all, so I put it aside. But over the last few weeks I've begun to wonder. Maybe it would be fun to do it anyway.
One thing is for sure. If I do write this book, it will be short.
1 comment:
You said, One thing for sure, If I do write this novel it will be short.
I know the feeling. I've written seven mysteries published by Renaissance E Books and I can't seem to push them past 60,000 words. I'm a retired journalist and have not yet shaken my training to get to the point.
Bob Liter
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