Pen in Hand
A Meditation on the Art and Craft of the Short Story
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Writing fiction requires a combination of art and craft. Craft can be taught. The art, in my opinion, cannot. Craft represents the rules of the road, so to speak. Anyone can learn them, how to create a story arc, how to balance dialogue and exposition in the narrative stream, how to represent characters in more than two dimensions, and so on. You can even buy computer programs that are the writer’s equivalent of paint by numbers. Choose a template and fill in the boxes. Then there is the art, alas, the potential flame brought to life from some ineffable creative spark that you either have within you or you do not. Of course, the spark can lie smoldering somewhere inside the heads of those who don’t realize it is there. They are the would-be writers who can be brought into action by the right kind of encouragement and support. Committing a decent piece of fiction to paper begins with learning the craft and reading the good stuff. It’s not unlike learning to play the piano. You start with locating middle C on the keyboard. You practice and you listen to good music. In my case, as a child I found middle C, listened to the best music, went to concerts (not to be confused with the popfests that go by that name today), but no piano teacher was ever able to guide me to mastery of the instrument. I learned the mechanics of playing the piano, I just couldn’t do it myself. The spark wasn’t there and so there was no ignition. Applying the piano metaphor to creative writing, if you have taken care of the fundamentals and if you have the discipline and desire to practice every day, you might one day become a writer. At some point you will discover whether or not you have reached that goal. The test: try to stop writing. If you can’t, you know you’re there.
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About the Book
"The connection which I have shown in this lecture to exist between the energy of the heart’s contraction and the length of the muscle fibers, enables us to understand not only the marvelous power of adaptation of the heart to the varying strains of everyday life, but also the condition of this organ in disease, when from overstrain or morbid alterations in its muscles or valves it fails to carry out its functions with efficiency." What a beautiful sentence. It was delivered by the eminent physiologist Ernest H. Starling near the end of his Linacre Lecture given at Cambridge in 1915. When I was a young man editing manuscripts for technical journals, I was appalled by how poorly so many young scientists wrote. As the excerpt from Starling illustrates, scientific reporting was at one time rendered in well crafted prose. So, what happened? Style in scientific writing, as elsewhere, grew so transparent as to disappear altogether. My personal journey put me on a decades long path from technical to creative writing. Good writing is good writing, wherever it is found. My goal is to help you become a sculptor of words as you pursue the art of fiction. Some of what I have gleaned over the years, as heir to an older tradition, I offer to you in this extended essay.
About the Author
Ethard Wendel Van Stee began studying creative writing thirty years ago. He has served on the editorial boards of several learned journals and has had many years of experience on the podium in university lecture halls. He shifted focus three decades ago to biographical writing and fiction. He teaches creative writing in the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in Beaufort, South Carolina. Mr. Van Stee’s books include I Didn’t Come From Nowhere, the life of Marie Johnson, daughter of a slave; Moira’s Scythe, a family saga; The Remarkable Life of Frances Emily Steele, a novel; A Woman of No Means, the second Frances Emily novel; The Bloodstone, a novelized collection of linked murder mysteries from the casebook of Frances Emily’s granddaughter Amy Elizabeth Fletcher, The Hangman, the second book from the casebook of Amy Elizabeth Fletcher. Most recently Madimi and The Monks of Arden, both set in late medieval England have appeared. They are available from any of dozens of Internet booksellers or by order from your local bookstore. Google Ethard Van Stee for more than you ever wanted to know. Mr. Van Stee has been the director of the Beaufort Writers organization since 1996. He is known to everyone as Van. He may be contacted at evanste@islc.net. His website address is www.ethardvanstee.com.