Sunday, March 27, 2011

Five Techniques for Good Craftsmanship

Annie Proulx writes literary fiction brilliant enough to win major accolades (Pulitzer, National Book Award, etc.) and accessible enough to win a wide audience.

Proulx specializes in short stories, including “Brokeback Mountain,” though her masterpiece may be the novel
The Shipping News. She didn’t begin writing until in her fifties and, as you’ll see, she doesn’t believe in rushing things.

Five Techniques for Good Craftsmanship
  1. Proceed slowly and take care.
  2. To ensure that you proceed slowly, write by hand.
  3. Write slowly and by hand only about subjects that interest you.
  4. Develop craftsmanship through years of wide reading.
  5. Rewrite and edit until you achieve the most felicitous phrase/sentence/paragraph/page/story/chapter.

From an article in
The Guardian