Word to the Wise

Tips and hints from established authors, teachers and others on the art of writing

4. Amanda Boulter, author of Writing fiction - creative and critical approaches; Palgrave Macmillan (2007)

Confusion between the writing and rewriting stages is perhaps the most common form of block, often underlying what seems to be a simple lack of confidence. It also underlies the mistaken assumption that a writer's critical awareness detracts from their creativity, causing the 'critical' to be seen as negative, judgmental, undermining faculty. But I want to turn this false assumption on its head.  It is not the writer's critical awareness that causes this kind of writer's block -in fact the writer's critical awareness offers the solution - the block is caused by the writer's creativity, by their fearful imagination. The blocked writer's despair is fuelled by the anticipated and imagined criticism of others - friends, family, editors, reviewers, readers - who become characters in another story playing out in the writer's head: the story of their own humiliation and defeat. In other words, the writer is creating two stories: one within their novel or short story, and another about their novel or short story. A critical-creative approach might help the writer to recognise this other story as a story and shut the anticipated audience out of the room until the next stage in the process: rewriting.  (pp. 112-13)

©  Amanda Boulter, 'Writing Fiction - creative and critical approaches'

To buy this book through amazon.co.uk, please click on one of the links on this page (and help us out!)