May
11th
2023
To write well, one must read · 10:57am May 11th, 2023
I've made this point many times; however, good ol' Howie makes it far better than I ever could:
No aspiring author should content himself with a mere acquisition of technical rules. … All attempts at gaining literary polish must begin with judicious reading, and the learner must never cease to hold this phase uppermost. In many cases, the usage of good authors will be found a more effective guide than any amount of precept. A page of Addison or of Irving will teach more of style than a whole manual of rules, whilst a story of Poe’s will impress upon the mind a more vivid notion of powerful and correct description and narration than will ten dry chapters of a bulky textbook.
The linked article also exalts the King James Bible (a deliberately archaic and incoherent work even when it was written), so any good advice is coincidental. I've posited before that Derleth saw the Mythos as worthy of preserving because he completely and painfully missed the point of it.
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That's why I selected the small subsection I agreed with, rather than the whole thing.
True words. In spite of that, would you recommend to read Story, by Robert McKee, just to get a basic theoretical idea of the art of storytelling?
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On the other hand, KJV has had an enormous impact on English language since 17th century, including much of the older, classic works. Familiarity with it helps.
Then there's those of us with ADHD who trial and error and flop around more than the average person to improve because sticking with a book that actually interests us is a miracle
So...learning to write better can be fun?
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I always kinda see Derleth as an annoying fanboy xD