AWP 2012: “Craft” = Work
Posted on 02 March 2012
Margaret Atwood’s keynote was fabulous last night, as expected, and afterward I was one of the lucky few hundreds to attend the book signing. A few key, if paraphrased, comments from her keynote:
I didn’t study “craft.” I read and wrote and read and wrote and read and wrote.
Plot is the order of events told linearly. Structure is how you tell that plot.
If you experience a voice [writing] block, change the POV or tense. If it’s a structure block, change the point of entry.
People who want to write but turn out not to want to read — they don’t really want to write. They want someone to sit down next to them and hear their sad story and that’s that.
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Last year Margaret Atwood spoke in Ithaca and when I told the people in my office I was going to hear her speak they all said, “Who?”
If I could fashion the image of GOD after a human being it would, undoubtably, be Margaret Atwood. And yet there are many many people out there who don’t even have a clue who she is.
Hope you’re loving AWP. These are (naturally) excellent tidbits. Thanks for sharing!
Oh Margosita, I understand! Doesn’t it make you crazy, like a lunatic crazy??
My top 3 “I don’t know who that is,” are: Jonathan Franzen, Truman Capote, and John Steinbeck.
See. I feel sick just typing that sentence.
I hope you slipped her a copy of your book!
If it weren’t for plot and structure (plus tension, characters, and overall narrative), it really would be no work at all. *sigh*