Kingsley Amis and Martin Amis

Close, but differed...

Father and son…

William: Both died at 73. Kingsley in 1995, Martin in 2023.

Paul: Coincidence, surely.

William: No significance.

Paul: Both smoked.

William: Not to mention genetics, lifestyle, environment and so on. Kingsley died of a fall and crushed vertebrae, which is not necessarily related to smoking or cancer. Martin died of oesophagal cancer, which could be linked to smoking.

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Voice-over

Correlation of both dying at 73 does not imply causation.

After writing comes the hard work

The author has finished the book…

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Publisher: Great. Now you have to go on the road.

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Writer: Why?

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Publisher: It’s part of the process. You write, we publish, you promote. There’s bookstore signings and some meetings… a women’s group in Stockholm organizing a panel on women who eat men for breakfast or some such…  Thursday, flight tomorrow, here’s your ticket. You’ll be met.

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Writer: What’s my line?

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Publisher: Talk about your next big thing, an old chap with three sons, that three arrows analogy… How’s it coming?

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Writer: Getting there. He’s becoming more obsessive about finding his identity, he’s never come to terms with his inner female, his shrink tells him to confront his sons. Drawing on American psychobabble.

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Publisher: Sounds marketable. Oh, a couple more things. We need blurbs and photos.

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Writer: Blurbs?

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Publisher: Get your writing friends to recommend the book. Big names. Celebrities.

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Writer: I’m not keen on having my photo on the book. Let the words speak for themselves.

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Publisher: Readers want to see you. They can see who is speaking to them. Someone they can relate to.

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Writer: But some readers want to imagine what the writer looks like. They want to create their own image.

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Publisher: Forget them. They’re a minority. We’re in the visual age. A good PR photo helps sales. We’ll see to it.

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Voice-over

Starting out writers may be not be aware just how much other stuff will interrupt their writing. Even if a book generates sales, royalties and residuals, it’s still just the script. Once it’s written, find a producer (publisher), generate publicity (do the PR), hire actors (the author and booksellers), rent a theater (signing venues and conferences), follow up (manage social media). A book is just part of a production.

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Routines of Writing and Running

Would-be writers...

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Riordan: What will be your legacy?

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Miles: The house. The kids can decide what to do about that.

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Riordan: Property, yes. But ideas?

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Maugham as writer

Miles: Somerset Maugham, Haruki Murakami.

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Riordan: What about them?

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Miles: They wrote. Routinely. Somerset Maugham went upstairs to his study and wrote nine to noon every day.

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Riordan: Three hours.

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Murakami on Running

Miles: And then enjoyed lunch.

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Riordan: And Haruki Murakami?

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Miles: He uses his mornings to write not less than ten pages every day. And then goes out running. Ten k’s.

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Riodan: Because?

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Miles: Partly to ward off the effects of sitting and then eating. Vocational hazard. And to create a void of privacy.

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Voice-over

Reminder to self: Start running. Today. To nurture writing routines.

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Is the story sufficiently strong to sustain a novel?

At a writer’s workshop…

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Anita: I don’t know whether to tell the story of this architect through fiction or nonfiction.

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Rachel: So it’s the reverse of Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead?

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Anita: Starting with a philosophy and using an architect as a protagonist? Yes, it's the reverse. This is the story of an architect and his buildings. He has beliefs but they come second to his designs.

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Rachel: I know you can express your views elegantly, and you can structure a spiral of suspense, but are you sure there’s enough in your story to sustain a work of fiction?

____________

Voice-over

Writing about a person and their work, by writing a biography or making a documentary, may be easier than fictionalizing it.

Some things to consider in crafting a fictionalized adaptation: lead character, opposition, challenge, climactic battle, inner journey, dialogue.
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Red Helen in science and art

Red Helen in flight

In a garden, the artist asks about a butterfly:
Entomologist: Papilion helenus.
Artist: And its common name?
Entomologist: Red Helen.
Artist: And who was Helen?
Entomologist: Helen was… Helen.
Artist: Means you don’t know.
Entomologist: Maybe. But I can tell you there are about a dozen subspecies. Swallowtailed. See, he flutters his forewings and the hindwings stay fairly still.
Artist: Helen is a male?
Entomologist: Helens are male and female.

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Voice-over
Scientists like taxonomies. As taxonomists, they compare, contrast and categorize. That is how they view the world.
Artists focus on features. Writers seek stories. That is how they explain the world.
Great scientists can tell stories and great artists can suggest the underlying science. They are scientist and artist. Look at Linnaeus. Look at Leonardo. Both were both.
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