The Single Best Piece of Advice I’ve Gotten as a Writer
Several years ago, I had the great (okay, and somewhat terrifying) experience of studying with Tim O’Brien at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. He gave our workshop the single best piece of advice I have ever gotten as a writer, advice I’ve tried to find quoted in his writings, to no avail.
My lame attempt to describe the advice in an interview when The Wednesday Sisters released in hardcover: Tim O’Brien … said something in workshop about what we should all be shooting for in our writing, the gist of which, if I remember it correctly (why didn’t I write down his exact words?!), was to use the extraordinary (in your characters’ actions) to illuminate the ordinary (emotions we all experience). That advice had a huge impact on me, and is what I now try to do.
Now here it is much more eloquently put in “Telling Tails” in The Atlantic:
“Above all, a well-imagined story is organized around extraordinary human behaviors and unexpected and startling events, which help illuminate the commonplace and the ordinary.”
I would submit as exhibit A the wonderful scene in chapter 15 of his novel, July, July, starting at p. 191 in the hardcover (yes, I keep it tabbed and handy, for inspiration), in which Dorothy Stier visits her neighbor Fred. I’ll say no more so as not to spoil it, but it is perhaps the funniest and most heartbreaking scene I have ever read. – Meg
Posted in Meg's Posts, Quotes on Writing
September 1st, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Oh, Meg, I know that scene without even going upstairs for my copy of the book. And yes, it perfectly achieves what he said.
I LOVE Tim O’Brien–and am so jealous you got to study with him. I find myself wandering back to The Things They Carried every few months just to read a page or two. It’s brilliant.
September 1st, 2009 at 9:42 pm
I was going to be chicken because he can be pretty critical, but Mac convinced me not to be a coward. I learned so much in that short 2 weeks. I LOVE Tim’s writing – as you say, he really is brilliant – and he was (much to my surprise and delight!) an absolutely lovely teacher as well.
September 2nd, 2009 at 11:19 am
Such an interesting insight. Into my book of quotes it goes.
July 19th, 2010 at 7:59 pm
Meg, thank you so much for sharing this! I went and read the whole article in The Atlantic, and it’s breathtaking in its wisdom. I’m teaching writing workshops these days, including one on fiction–and I feel as though I’m always jumping up and down trying to get across the idea that it’s not enough to make a story sound true, it also has to be interesting. And this tells it just right!
July 19th, 2010 at 11:45 pm
Those thanks should definitely go to Tim O’Brien! But glad to be the conduit for the advice, Maddie.