Inspiration and Discipline, the second volume of The Glimmer Train Guide to Writing Fiction, is a bricolage of material taken from interviews of more than a hundred writers published over a seventeen-year period in Glimmer Train and the related newsletter, Writers Ask.
The editors have created the literary equivalent of a multi-level photomosaic. Each individual snippet of conversation, each comment from a single author has individual meaning when seen up close. Step back, and larger and more significant images emerge.
Inspiration and Discipline: Author Closeups
The interviews are organized into a succession of themes, each in its own chapter. Interspersed throughout like nuts in a cinnamon bun are brief bits of Writing Advice (which, taken together, would make a nice monograph for a writing class).
- Writing Away From Home - the impact that travel, immigration, expatriation has on writers as a source of inspiration.
- Early Roots - Sources of passion for writing, including family, theatre, and books (an early passion for reading is a common theme)
- How Reading Shapes our Writing - A more detailed look at literary influences and role models on writers' development.
- Writing What You Know - Consideration of the fact that the act of writing exposes the writer's selfhood.
- Taboos and Secrets - "Stories let us say things that we might otherwise censor, even hide from ourselves," as Vikram Chandra puts it. Discussion of handling difficult scenes, of revealing truths.
- Writing as Art - A discussion of the difference between craft and meaning, and of the impact of writing on the reader.
- Writing as Responsibility - Does the writer have a moral obligation to society? to the reader?
- Writing as Therapy - Like Chapter 5, a look at writing as a deep expression of self.
- Writing from Experience - Writing from experience is "not the same as writing about things that really happened to you" (Monica Wood). How to bring experience into the story.
- Writer's Block - "Writer's block doesn't really exist," says Melanie Bishop. George Makana Clark describes it as "your unconscious telling you to slow down and evaluate where your writing is going". Various tricks of the trade for coping with less prolific periods.
- Family Support - Family as first readers, as sources of inspiration or encouragement. Or not.
- The Writing Life - The daily grind, as practiced by writers. One of the fattest chapters.
- Approaches to Writing - A wide-ranging discussion of the nature of writing.
Inspiration and Discipline: The Larger Context
The two central threads are of course named in the title, and questions about and discussions of these threads determine the interviews selected for each section of the book.
Inspiration – literally "breathing in" – is more than just the answer to the question, "Where does a writer get ideas?" It is the process by which the world and all its wonder infuses itself into the author's consciousness. This concept of inspiration is woven throughout all of the chapters.
- "We learn how to live through stories." (Elizabeth Cox)
- "All writing has a certain level of autobiography." (Edwidge Danticat)
- "That [period of reading] had a remarkable effect on me." (Robert Olen Butler)
- "My mother inspired me." (Askold Melnyczuk
- "Many people touch us." (Sandra Cisneros)
- "We use what life gives us." (Tim O'Brien)
- "I don't believe in inspiration. I just believe in working." (David Long in the closing chapter)
Discipline – "working" to David Long – is the process by which the author's consciousness is expressed in craft, or as the editors put it, the way in which a particular piece of writing comes to exist.
Yes, there is the question of "How do you keep writing when life gets in the way?", there are issues of coping with writer's block, of family support (or the lack of it), of setting writing time and writing goals. But discipline is also shown to involve decisions regarding point of view, plot, setting, form, and the other building blocks discussed in the first volume of The Glimmer Train Guide to Writing Fiction.
Inspiration and Discipline is not a book to read in a single sitting. It requires patience and perseverance. It encourages multiple readings. But it is a book worth reading.
Burmeister-Brown, Susan and Linda B. Swanson-Davies, eds. The Glimmer Train Guide to Writing Fiction: Inspiration and Discipline. Cincinnati: Writers Digest Books, 2007, 444 pg. ISBN 13:978-1-58297-447-7
Further Reading:
Glimmer Train Guide to Writing Fiction: Building Blocks, a Collection from the Editors of a Literary Journal
Thomas Alan Gray - Tom has been writing for over 30 years; curiosity leads him to dig into a wide variety of topics.
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