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Meg Waite Clayton

Author of the international bestsellers The Postmistress of Paris, The Last Train to London, and 6 other novels

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October 6, 2016 By Meg Waite Clayton

1 Crazy Strange Writing Tip for #1ThTH

One of my favorite writing books is John Garner’s The Art of Fiction. But in looking for it this morning to read once again, as I do so often, the chapter on plot, I mistakenly pulled out his On Becoming a Novelist. And in paging through it looking for that plot chapter, I came across something that … well, actually shocked me:

There is nothing wrong with fiction in which the plot is relatively predictable.

But he does go on to say,

What matters is how things happen, to the people involved and to the larger humanity for whom the characters serve as representatives. Needless to say, it is always best if the predictable comes in some surprising way.

He says there is basically one plot form: A character wants something, goes for it in the face of obstacles which may include self doubt, and “arrives at a win, lose, or draw.”
And–this is the part I found crazy interesting–he says, attributing this wisdom to the poet Coleridge)

There can be no great art … without a certain strangeness.

And goes on to assert that

One has to be a little crazy to write a great novel. One must be capable of allowing the darkest, most ancient and shrewd parts of one’s being to take over the work from time to time … Strangeness is the one quality in fiction that cannot be faked.
If I could explain exactly what I mean here, I could probably do what I think no one has ever done successfully: reveal the very roots of the creative process.

So there you have it for this week’s 1 Thing Thursday: Be strange. It’s the secret of great writing. No one can quite tell you why.
Happy writing! – Meg
 

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Meg Waite Clayton


Meg Waite Clayton is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of eight novels, including the Good Morning America Buzz pick and New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice THE POSTMISTRESS OF PARIS, the National Jewish Book Award finalist THE LAST TRAIN TO LONDON, the Langum-Prize honored THE RACE FOR PARIS, and THE WEDNESDAY SISTERS, one of Entertainment Weekly’s 25 Essential Best Friend Novels of all time. Her novels have been published in 23 languages. She has also written more than 100 pieces for major newspapers, magazines, and public radio, mentors in the OpEd Project, and is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and the California bar. megwaiteclayton.com

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