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A review by beccak
From Where You Dream: The Process of Writing Fiction by Janet Burroway, Robert Olen Butler
2.0
Robert Olen Butler is a writer of note, particularly well known for his award-winning short stories. He used to be a Method actor, and he employs techniques of Method acting in his writing method (pun intentional).
While there are a few gems of advice in here, this is by far the most pretentious writing book I have ever read and parts were absolutely insufferable. His fault is not that he's a bad writer, in fact much of his advice is good, but that he shows so little respect for other creators and artists. He assumes his way is the only way. He also talks about certain ideas - such as the filmic/dramatic qualities of writing and of achieving FLOW states to write - which were written about previously and more clearly than here. And he confers an unnecessary mystique to writing which I found both hokey and misleading.
Butler makes sweeping generalizations about "entertainment writing" - genre writing, in particular - based on very little evidence of having read quality genre writing. He premises that only "literary fiction" is "artistic," and puts-down overly "intellectual" writers like Sartre along with the "entertainment" authors like Stephen King. He puts dreamy, "sensual" artists on a pedestal and smacks down those who plan and outline and sweat through drafts, yet in the end, he's a planner, too. Also, I found his assumptions about literary writers to be poorly researched. Many of the writers he ascribes "dreamy" and "sensual" qualities to actually outlined, planned, and intellectualized. We have evidence of this through the private papers, interviews, and so on they left behind.
Useful tips Butler offers:
- How to integrate sensory experiences into your writing without providing an intellectual barrier to interpret them for the reader.
- How to achieve a FLOW state through certain healthy writing habits.
- How to organize your writing as it develops.
- How to incorporate memory and flashes of fears/beliefs/hopes into your writing.
But I'd advise that any reader take his advice with more than a pinch of salt.
While there are a few gems of advice in here, this is by far the most pretentious writing book I have ever read and parts were absolutely insufferable. His fault is not that he's a bad writer, in fact much of his advice is good, but that he shows so little respect for other creators and artists. He assumes his way is the only way. He also talks about certain ideas - such as the filmic/dramatic qualities of writing and of achieving FLOW states to write - which were written about previously and more clearly than here. And he confers an unnecessary mystique to writing which I found both hokey and misleading.
Butler makes sweeping generalizations about "entertainment writing" - genre writing, in particular - based on very little evidence of having read quality genre writing. He premises that only "literary fiction" is "artistic," and puts-down overly "intellectual" writers like Sartre along with the "entertainment" authors like Stephen King. He puts dreamy, "sensual" artists on a pedestal and smacks down those who plan and outline and sweat through drafts, yet in the end, he's a planner, too. Also, I found his assumptions about literary writers to be poorly researched. Many of the writers he ascribes "dreamy" and "sensual" qualities to actually outlined, planned, and intellectualized. We have evidence of this through the private papers, interviews, and so on they left behind.
Useful tips Butler offers:
- How to integrate sensory experiences into your writing without providing an intellectual barrier to interpret them for the reader.
- How to achieve a FLOW state through certain healthy writing habits.
- How to organize your writing as it develops.
- How to incorporate memory and flashes of fears/beliefs/hopes into your writing.
But I'd advise that any reader take his advice with more than a pinch of salt.