Thursday, February 23, 2006

From Where You Dream


I've been reading Robert Olen Butler's From Where You Dream with some interest. I like his suggestions of finding the zone when you write and how to use cinematic techniques to better your writing. It's nice to find a craft book meant for a more advanced writer, but he tends to shit on genre writing. He even calls genre writers non-artists. It's funny how much snobbery popfic students have to put up with to learn the craft. And let me tell you, MFA programs are the worst.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Steve, I read this book recently too. It's extraordinary, in many ways. What's even more extraordinary is that fifty years ago Georges Simenon was writing in the manner Butler describes. Check out Simenon's THE BLUE ROOM. Genius.