{"id":59360,"date":"2019-02-26T05:42:16","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T05:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.imhd.nl\/log\/?p=59360"},"modified":"2019-08-04T17:16:57","modified_gmt":"2019-08-04T17:16:57","slug":"the-hard-and-lonely-task-of-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.imhd.nl\/log\/the-hard-and-lonely-task-of-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"the hard and lonely task of writing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Writing is learned by imitation; we all need models. […] But our best models may be men and women writing in fields different from our own. <\/em><\/p>\n

William Zinsser schrijft in Writing to learn<\/em> dat het bij nonfictie niet zozeer gaat om het onderwerp, de inhoud (natuurlijk gaat het om het onderwerp, de inhoud), maar vooral om de relatie van de schrijver tot het onderwerp. Iemands interesse interesseert, en dan vooral iemands levende, levendige interesse.<\/p>\n

\u2018I wouldn\u2019t look for writing, for instance, by journalists, good though it might be. If the discipline was geology I wanted good writing by a geologist. If it was evolutinon I wanted Darwin, if it was relativity I wanted Einstein, if it was cell biology I wanted Lewis Thomas.\u2019<\/p>\n

Het schrijven?<\/p>\n

Iedereen kan schrijven die kan denken en een vak beheerst, of beheerst wordt door een vak.<\/p>\n

William Zinsser hield van 2010 t\/m 2011 een log bij op The American Scholar, hij schreef 82 berichten. Een selectie is gepubliceerd als boek, The writer who stayed, ze staan ook op theamericanscholar.org, ‘and I invite you to revisit them, especially the many that deal with the hard and lonely task of writing. They will remind you not to write for the wrong reasons \u2014 marketplace reasons that crush your true identity. Give yourself permission to believe in the validity of your own narrative.’<\/p>\n

Ik heb op de knop geduwd, verlang ook het boek. Papier is rebels, geduldig, zacht en hard, het stalkt niet, wil niet weten hoe lang ik lees, welke woorden ik onderstreep, waar ik lees (thuis, in de lentezon achter glas). Het leest, kortom, niet over mijn schouder mee, ligt loom op zijn rug in mijn schoot, als een ontspannen kat die zich over de buik laat aaien.<\/p>\n

Envoi
\nWhat I\u2019ve learned writing this blog<\/p>\n

The Overtone Years
\nSympathetic vibrations at the age of 89<\/p>\n

Looking for a Model
\nMy true writing style emerged when I became a teacher<\/p>\n

The Writer Who Stayed
\nNovelist Daniel Fuchs went west and wrote screenplays for 34 years<\/p>\n

Thanksgiving Day Repainted
\nNorman Rockwell\u2019s successor<\/p>\n

The Perils of Pauline Kael
\nOn not taking yourself seriously as a movie critic<\/p>\n

Brother, Can You Spare a Job?
\nSongwriter Yip Harburg and Occupy Wall Street<\/p>\n

Hats Off
\nAnd then where will we stow them?<\/p>\n

Nowhere People
\nThe downside of being well connected<\/p>\n

Dancing With Scrolls
\nHow I first learned about Simchat Torah<\/p>\n

Hold the Emotion!
\nDon\u2019t set out to write a heart-tugging memoir<\/p>\n

\u201cWho Would Care about My Story?\u201d
\nSuccessful memoirs are built from details that ring true<\/p>\n

No Place Like \u201cHome\u201d
\nHistorian v New York Times hinges on the meaning of \u201chome delivery\u201d<\/p>\n

Flunking Description
\nWhy I tried to write like a Victorian novelist<\/p>\n

Improving a Masterpiece
\nMessing around with ‘Porgy’<\/p>\n

Peter McGuire\u2019s Holiday
\nSummer\u2019s final gift of unexamined time<\/p>\n

No Degrees of Separation
\nLetting go when the kid leaves for college<\/p>\n

Blue Moons and Buttermilk Skies
\nAmerican songwriters knew that weather was a state of mind<\/p>\n

No Proverbs, Please
\nWriting English as a second language<\/p>\n

The \u2018A\u2019 Word
\nWhat\u2019s expected of an orthodox WASP<\/p>\n

Summer House Books
\nIn praise of The Mask of Fu Manchu and other chestnuts<\/p>\n

On the Trail of Sublime
\nStarting out at Niagara Falls<\/p>\n

Unexpected Visitors
\nWhy voodoo is preferable to adumbrate<\/p>\n

How to Get to Our House
\nBob & Linda provide simple directions<\/p>\n

The Last of the Lone Wanderers
\nWhat elevates travel writing to literature<\/p>\n

Me and My Relationships
\nSandra is giving me up for Brad<\/p>\n

Baseball Without Myths
\nManager Jim Leyland\u2019s \u201cunbelievably rough summer\u201d<\/p>\n

Writing for the Wrong Reasons
\nPublishers don\u2019t necessarily have the answers<\/p>\n

In Memoriam
\nA visit to Omaha Beach<\/p>\n

Central Park Lite
\nExperiential optimization in the app brigade<\/p>\n

No Last Names
\nFundraisers call me \u201cWilliam\u201d<\/p>\n

Trapped by the Past
\nFinding a different take on John Horne Burns\u2019s story<\/p>\n

Once Around the Sun
\nWhat I\u2019ve learned in a year of blogging<\/p>\n

Easter Light
\n\u201c\u2026was blind, but now I see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Content Management
\nIn praise of long-form journalism<\/p>\n

Tristes Tropiques
\nRemembering the screenwriter of North by Northwest<\/p>\n

Prisoners of Britspeak
\nThe elocution problem with English movies<\/p>\n

A Cousin from Cologne
\nThis Zinsser family story took me by surprise<\/p>\n

In Bed by the Last Eight
\nMusings about songs upon the death of a fine singer<\/p>\n

The 300-Word Challenge
\nOn writing short essays<\/p>\n

Working for Tina Brown
\nIt\u2019s about how to communicate<\/p>\n

Looking Forward, Looking Back
\nWhat are memoirs about?<\/p>\n

The Right to Write
\nGetting published isn\u2019t the only reason to write your story<\/p>\n

Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln
\nUp from Disneyland, on to Appomattox<\/p>\n

No Second Act
\nJohn Horne Burns and The Gallery<\/p>\n

Stardust Memories
\nImmigrant lyricists embraced American language with fierce love<\/p>\n

Goodbye and Don\u2019t Come Back
\nMy problems with postmodernism<\/p>\n

E-Maledictions
\nIt\u2019s a life choice: I don\u2019t have email<\/p>\n

Blondie and Dilbert
\nHow Chic Young made me look none too bright<\/p>\n

Obama and the Lac Bug
\nHere\u2019s hoping our president gets many more shellackings<\/p>\n

A Christmas Dinner
\nThe frozen winter of 1944, on a base in the heel of Italy<\/p>\n

Stopping Steve Martin
\nWhen giving the public what it wants is a bad idea<\/p>\n

Yes, But
\nI collect self-canceling headlines, but I\u2019m tired of them<\/p>\n

\u201cBring Back Boredom!\u201d
\nRewire multitask tendencies<\/p>\n

Tales of \u2018South Pacific\u2019
\nStar turns and caricatures then; dramatic coherence today<\/p>\n

On the Trail of the Ch\u00eang Ho
\nFrom Coral Gables, Florida, to a harbor in Tahiti<\/p>\n

Tips
\nI don\u2019t give them to writers<\/p>\n

The Revenge of the Comic Novel
\nThe Finkler Question joins the ranks of Man Booker Prize winners<\/p>\n

Crash Through That Line of Blue!
\nIn football songs, exact rhymes and strict meters are not required<\/p>\n

An Interesting Life
\nFrank Boyden, Deerfield Academy headmaster<\/p>\n

Fantasia for the Left Hand
\nRehabilitation poetry for a wounded friend<\/p>\n

Men of Letters
\nBook-of-the-Month Club mandarins<\/p>\n

Out of Order
\nIn writing, think first about process instead of product<\/p>\n

Singing Along with Mitch
\nMiller revived an American tradition<\/p>\n

One Man\u2019s Library
\nAuthor James Norman Hall collected Joseph Conrad<\/p>\n

Where Did the Summer Go?
\nSongs about a seaside community<\/p>\n

The Grand Tour
\nNot just Renaissance Italy any more<\/p>\n

Literate Revelry
\nLight verse gets no respect<\/p>\n

Detour Ahead
\nLost with Ian Frazier<\/p>\n

Mark Twain\u2019s Hannibal
\nFictions and truths in the Mississippi River town<\/p>\n

Sacred Objects
\nHall of Famer Edd Roush\u2019s last interview<\/p>\n

Family Albums
\nMemoirs with wide appeal accentuate the particular<\/p>\n

Stevenson\u2019s Ghost
\nWhere the Treasure Island author wrote his final chapter<\/p>\n

Like a Mighty Stream
\nMaya Lin\u2019s monument in Montgomery<\/p>\n

What Does It Do?
\nWhat Dwike Mitchell taught me about broken pianos<\/p>\n

Melville\u2019s South Seas Myth
\nRe-enforced by Gauguin and Lamour<\/p>\n

Life and Work
\nWhy plumbers are good role models for writers<\/p>\n

The Old Flotilla
\nChecking out Kipling\u2019s Burma<\/p>\n

Permission Givers
\nTo teach is to allow and to encourage<\/p>\n

At Ease in the Stone Age
\nClosing the gap between Finchingfield and Irian Jaya<\/p>\n

Rescued by Humor
\nMore thoughts on less seriousness<\/p>\n

A Joyful Noise
\nLighten up, even when your story is dark<\/p>\n

Sharing the Issues
\nLet me tell you what I think about that<\/p>\n

Simple Geometry
\nA Matisse quote, Beethoven\u2019s \u201cOde,\u201d and Hirschfeld\u2019s lines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Writing is learned by imitation; we all need models. […] But our best models may be men and women writing in fields different from our own. William Zinsser schrijft in Writing to learn dat het bij nonfictie niet zozeer gaat om het onderwerp, de inhoud (natuurlijk gaat het om het onderwerp, de inhoud), maar vooralRead more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[599,967,122],"tags":[883,1082,3188,3189,3187,2950],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imhd.nl\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59360"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imhd.nl\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imhd.nl\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imhd.nl\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imhd.nl\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59360"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.imhd.nl\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60526,"href":"https:\/\/www.imhd.nl\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59360\/revisions\/60526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imhd.nl\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imhd.nl\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imhd.nl\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}