Kategori: Citater

Vi må nok være mere forsigtige,

partner, med ord som intet

og tomhed

der frister de higende

som i sin tid altet og fylden

Der suttes for meget på intet

Jeg ser kun et øde

og ordene

pis i sne

Dersom nogen siger at alt er intet

må vi svare: og intet er alt

Men lad os begynde forfra,

altså hvorsomhelst, f.eks. her

hvor noget er

Noget er vidunderligt

Det udvider pupillerne

og sætter flammer på fingerspidserne

Det er ikke nødvendigt at flirte med urmørket

Selv farverne er grader af formørkelse

der viser at lyset er til

Og jeg er poet

     en liderlig poet

og vil ha noget

på spidsen

og gerne lige til roden

og til bunds

(1986)

Den amerikanske forfatter Richard Peck har skrevet følgende no-nonsense guide til hvordan man skriver for unge mennesker:

1. Do not commit autobiography—use other people’s memories, not your own. (He writes in the first person to eliminate himself.)

2. Don’t begin the story too early—avoid too much background. Instead, start with the human voice (all readers are lonely) and action.

3. Do not allow adult characters to take over—especially the mother. A wise adult is okay, but the main character must solve the problem.

4. Avoid sentimentality. Childhood is a jungle, not a garden. You can’t both protect and portray characters. We’re writing the biographies of the survivors. If it’s too sweet, there’s no triumph.

5. Don’t patronize anybody—don’t write “down” and don’t give advice. Raise questions. What do you wonder? No unsolicited advice. No happily ever after.

6. Don’t attempt to recreate the wheel unaided. To write, you must read.

7. Do market research till it comes out your ears. Get publishers’ catalogues, read award-winners.

8. Don’t communicate with young readers by e-mail. Snail mail letters.

9. If you see an adverb, shoot it. Replace adverbs with better verbs; they are the mark of an amateur.

10. Use good vocabulary. Don’t write if you don’t know the meaning of “fustian.” (Sorry you¹ll have to look it up, just like we did!)

Læs mere Richard Peck’s Ten Commandments for Writing for the Young

Den amerikanske forfatter, Elmore Leonard, der har skrevet en lang række krimier, heriblandt Rum Punch, der blev filmatiseret som “Jackie Brown” af Quentin Tarantino, har skam også skrevet sin egen lille poetik. Hvordan skriver man godt? Få svaret her:

Easy on the Hooptedoodle

These are rules I’ve picked up along the way to help me remain invisible when I’m writing a book, to help me show rather than tell what’s taking place in the story. If you have a facility for language and imagery and the sound of your voice pleases you, invisibility is not what you are after, and you can skip the rules. Still, you might look them over.

1. Never open a book with weather.

If it’s only to create atmosphere, and not a character’s reaction to the weather, you don’t want to go on too long. The reader is apt to leaf ahead looking for people. There are exceptions. If you happen to be Barry Lopez, who has more ways to describe ice and snow than an Eskimo, you can do all the weather reporting you want.

Læs mere Elmore Leonard: “Easy on the Hooptedoodle”