Writing About Writers

To most people, the process of creating a book is a mystery, sometimes including the writers themselves. November, being National Novel Writing Month, seems as good a time as any to try to demystify this process. While each writer in the following books is different, there is one constant: creativity, while often difficult, is always rewarding.

Most writing books give advice and how-to's. Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott, is a classic in the field, but is so much more. Lamott's book touches on the realities of the writing life that most people don't know about. Everyone's heard of writer's block, but what about professional jealousy? Or the fact that publication isn't as much of a high as creating the work itself? Lamott's book shows that, in life as well as in writing, one has to take things "bird by bird."

Looking for Anne of Green Gables: the Story of L. M. Montgomery and her Literary Classic by Irene Gammel blends biography of both Montgomery, the creator of the beloved Anne of Green Gables series, and her literary creation. From her home on Prince Edward Island, the setting of the Anne books, Montgomery created a character that has delighted readers down the ages. Isolated though she was, she experienced the larger world through the magazines and catalogs that came in the mail. In particular, she was influenced by pictures of Irene Nesbit, a classic Gibson Girl. Gammel has done exhaustive research in writing this book, and the result is rewarding. If you haven't read the series, Gammel's book is a good introduction. But read the books, too. Today the Anne books are considered to be for children, but Montgomery intended them for a general audience. Even from an adult perspective, they're a lot of fun.

Fiction about writers isn't easy to find, but in Writing Jane Austen by Elizabeth Aston, the trials and tribulations of a would-be Austen follower are told to comic effect. Georgina Jackson is chosen to complete a fragment of an Austen novel which has recently been discovered. The author of a critically acclaimed, but dark, novel set in Victorian England, Jackson is the antithesis of Austen. A great deal of the book deals with her comic attempts to finish the book, until something monumental happens: she discovers within herself the book she was always meant to write. This is a fun, and funny, book.

Stephen King writes wittily and well on the writing life in Stephen King Goes to the Movies. Adapting their own works for the silver screen has bemused authors from Faulkner to Fitzgerald, and King is no exception. In this book he reflects on the filming of some of his works, including The Shawshank Redemption and Hearts in Atlantis. Each work is included in the book, along with a brief commentary. Different Seasons, the anthology in which "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" was originally published, also contains a semi-autobiographical prologue, which touches on the author's literary process. Well worth a read.

King also created a classic tale of an author in transition, and his biggest fan, in the terrifying novel Misery. When author Paul Sheldon is rescued from a serious accident by Annie Wilkes, he has no idea of the ordeal his is about to undergo. Enraged that Sheldon has killed off his best-known character, Misery Chastain, Annie forces him to write a new book, just for her. For Sheldon, who has lost his joy in creation, writing the book provides escape and salvation . The question remains, though: what happens when Sheldon finishes the book?King is an often underrated writer who creates a believable, sometimes sensitive, portrayal of both captor and captive. Don't read this at night, with the lights off - but do read it.

Have any ideas how writers do it yet? Neither do I - but it's fun trying to find out.