I've been fortunate enough to have been signposted to George Saunders Story Club within weeks of its launch and actively subscribed to it since.
This recent piece is, pun intended, a genius selection to share here in Boot Camp Tim. It was written as an A. to Q. posed by someone new to Story Club but, in my view, happens to be just about his best encapsulation of how he understands his approach to writing. It is just one post but it could very well inform a conversation (formal, as in a syllabus, or informal, as in Boot Camp) extending over a number of sessions, a season or a full calendar cycle. Just as you have been doing in the posts you put up in Boot Camp George Saunders takes those who may care to travel along to the heart of what this w malarkey we label 'writing' is all about and what being 'a writer' can be.
Tim I've found reading your 'Yes! No! But wait...!' genially provocative on the same plane as George's 'A Swim in a Pond in the Rain'. Different but not divergent. You each celebrate the truth that stories - of whatever length, in whatever context - are actually made in their recurrent telling, which is to say in the cycle of writing, reading, revising, reading as re-written, writing on, re-reading, revising, etcetera etcetera.
I'm inclined to think - from participating in your Substacks and in principle - that there is no reason why out of the spark that tripped you into conjuring the embryo for the thumbnail story of 'Charlie and the Hole' out of thin air there shouldn't come the fuller flame that powers the creation of a fully fledged story. If I'm learning anything it's that it is in the "tweaking and twiddling" that better and sometimes best stories can be forged... especially with the aid of one of George's metaphorical P/N Meters!
Thanks Tim, for sharing this. After you recommended George Saunders on a previous occasion, I read “A Swim in the Pond in the Rain” and found it to be not only extremely interesting regarding the writings of those great Russians, but also very encouraging to a lowly first-timer like myself. Writers taking on the challenge of putting together a decent piece of fiction can take heart from his thoughts and examples and plough on through inevitable times of self-doubt. I find it incredibly liberating when he writes about the importance of “micro-decisions” and “iteration” and how revision is “a chance for the writer’s intuition to assert itself over and over,” and goes on to say, “You don’t need an idea to start a story. You just need a sentence.”
“And, ultimately, this tells me something about my view of life.” I might be misunderstanding this, but I think the idea that the reading and writing processes kind of replicate you and the way you live is really interesting. Directing conversation, and charming your conversational partner, and imagining they are as smart as you - this is what we do, I think (although in my case, the other person is invariably smarter). The process of comparing drafts as they develop is also a reflection of life, albeit a subtle one. How we read, how we write - how we are ourselves. Never considered this before, but it’s quite fascinating.
I've been fortunate enough to have been signposted to George Saunders Story Club within weeks of its launch and actively subscribed to it since.
This recent piece is, pun intended, a genius selection to share here in Boot Camp Tim. It was written as an A. to Q. posed by someone new to Story Club but, in my view, happens to be just about his best encapsulation of how he understands his approach to writing. It is just one post but it could very well inform a conversation (formal, as in a syllabus, or informal, as in Boot Camp) extending over a number of sessions, a season or a full calendar cycle. Just as you have been doing in the posts you put up in Boot Camp George Saunders takes those who may care to travel along to the heart of what this w malarkey we label 'writing' is all about and what being 'a writer' can be.
Tim I've found reading your 'Yes! No! But wait...!' genially provocative on the same plane as George's 'A Swim in a Pond in the Rain'. Different but not divergent. You each celebrate the truth that stories - of whatever length, in whatever context - are actually made in their recurrent telling, which is to say in the cycle of writing, reading, revising, reading as re-written, writing on, re-reading, revising, etcetera etcetera.
I'm inclined to think - from participating in your Substacks and in principle - that there is no reason why out of the spark that tripped you into conjuring the embryo for the thumbnail story of 'Charlie and the Hole' out of thin air there shouldn't come the fuller flame that powers the creation of a fully fledged story. If I'm learning anything it's that it is in the "tweaking and twiddling" that better and sometimes best stories can be forged... especially with the aid of one of George's metaphorical P/N Meters!
Just passing thoughts, aired and shared.
Thanks Tim, for sharing this. After you recommended George Saunders on a previous occasion, I read “A Swim in the Pond in the Rain” and found it to be not only extremely interesting regarding the writings of those great Russians, but also very encouraging to a lowly first-timer like myself. Writers taking on the challenge of putting together a decent piece of fiction can take heart from his thoughts and examples and plough on through inevitable times of self-doubt. I find it incredibly liberating when he writes about the importance of “micro-decisions” and “iteration” and how revision is “a chance for the writer’s intuition to assert itself over and over,” and goes on to say, “You don’t need an idea to start a story. You just need a sentence.”
“And, ultimately, this tells me something about my view of life.” I might be misunderstanding this, but I think the idea that the reading and writing processes kind of replicate you and the way you live is really interesting. Directing conversation, and charming your conversational partner, and imagining they are as smart as you - this is what we do, I think (although in my case, the other person is invariably smarter). The process of comparing drafts as they develop is also a reflection of life, albeit a subtle one. How we read, how we write - how we are ourselves. Never considered this before, but it’s quite fascinating.