Creative silence

J.P. Cunningham

TIME magazine, in its August 23rd, 2010 edition, placed Jonathan Franzen on its cover.  This was the first time in years that a novelist had graced the cover of this newsweekly.  One quote from the Franzen interview Franzen especially affected me

"The place of stillness that you have to go to to write, but also to read seriously, is the point where you can actually make responsible decisions, where you can engage productively with an otherwise scary and unmanageable world."

Nicely put, Jonathan.

Fiction, at its best, involves not millions of copies of hard-back books having to be inventoried and promoted so much as it does a quiet one-on-one dialog between the thoughtful, observant writer and an intelligent, attentive reader.

John Steinbeck, in diary entries during the writing of “The Grapes of Wrath”, mentioned repeatedly how success and the attention attached to it can distract.  He emphasized the usefulness of solitude and quiet focus.  “You start out putting words down and there are three things---you, the pen, and the page.  Then gradually the three things merge until they are are all one and you feel about the page as you do about your arm.  Only you love it more than you do your arm.” (Working Days, p. 121)  He frequently spoke of the importance of habit and discipline, with the habitual routine of sitting down and writing being more important than inspiration  to the production of good copy.

 A great deal has been said recently about the growth of self-publishing and the proliferation of e-books.  Wanna-be writers struggle to grab the attention of literary agents and traditional publishing houses only to be ignored or turned aside while traditional publishers recycle old titles and heavily promote the easiest books to sell rather than emphasizing the best.  Those same wanna-be writers turn increasingly to self-publishing in a desperate effort to make that connection between the thoughtful writer and the intelligent reader.   With so many titles thrown out into the marketplace through the combination of traditional and self publishing, and with a surfeit of mediocre talent and material mucking up the works, self-published works enter the fray  stained with the same taint of mediocrity, whether well-written or not.

The self-published author, once out in print,  has to shift gears abruptly, becoming a salesman, a specialist in internet marketing, an expert in facile and effective utilization of social (albeit virtual) networking.   Despite valiant efforts, the author then finds his or her serious work of fiction lost in a din of superficial chatter.   The most dedicated writer may begin to wonder whether there is any point to tolerating the rigors of writing…whether there is anything substantive to contribute that hasn’t already been done.  Even Steinbeck passed through profound moments of doubt.  Very near the time of completing “The Grapes of Wrath”, he wrote in a diary entry: …”It’s just a run-of-the-mill book.  And the awful thing is that it is absolutely the best  I can do. …” (Working Days, p. 90)

Most authors dream at least from time to time about gaining an audience in the millions.   They would better serve themselves and the quality of their work by sticking to a discipline routine and to an appreciation of the benefits gained from solitude, from the protective shelter of quiet…from “that place of stillness” that Franzen has mentioned.  Even before the staggering financial success of “Grapes of Wrath”, Steinbeck lamented a loss of quiet and productive solitude.  “…I was not made for success.  I find myself now with a growing reputation.  In many ways, it is a terrible thing. …” (Working Papers, p. 1)

Writers who share this sentiment are more likely to produce something worth reading.  And they can just as easily spring forth from the world of self-publishing as from anywhere else.

J.P. Cunningham

Jan 2011

Author of the novel SOMERSET.