William Faulkner on How to Start Writing Your Novel

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ต.ค. 2024
  • How should you start writing your novel? Today, we will hear from William Faulkner on what you should focus on before starting your book. Faulkner throws his hat into the ring in these three debates.
    1. Character VS Plot
    2. Imagination VS Experience VS Imitation
    3. Starting Immediately VS Waiting
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ความคิดเห็น • 37

  • @batman5224
    @batman5224 23 วันที่ผ่านมา +23

    Faulkner was probably the greatest writer of the 20th century. I’m certainly trying to create a literary renaissance. I published my 7th novel a couple of weeks ago. It was also my longest. I’ll be turning 30 in a few months. How many people can say that they wrote 7 books by 30?

    • @salustianoberrios405
      @salustianoberrios405 23 วันที่ผ่านมา +5

      Where can I find them?

    • @Shmyrk
      @Shmyrk 23 วันที่ผ่านมา +3

      Props dude, that’s impressive

    • @MajinHico
      @MajinHico 23 วันที่ผ่านมา

      Karl Popper is the greatest writer of 20th century.

    • @toddjacksonpoetry
      @toddjacksonpoetry 23 วันที่ผ่านมา +2

      Agreed, about Faulkner. And maybe all the literary renaissance needs is you.
      So what's your name or pen name, batman5224?

    • @SkullBat22
      @SkullBat22 22 วันที่ผ่านมา +1

      I wrote one at 36, beat that. Psycho City Blues by Jack Karden.

  • @simpelman
    @simpelman 23 วันที่ผ่านมา +15

    Your strong point is to bring this enthusiasm, without the elitism nor being your English teacher. I can tell you, I started pumping out writings, and I found a small audience.
    I just write about daily life, with all its doubts and bad people. Just as life is. And no fairy tales.
    Think Bukowski without the booze.
    So thanx my man!

    • @toddjacksonpoetry
      @toddjacksonpoetry 23 วันที่ผ่านมา

      Never underestimate a good high school English teacher.

  • @Bolgini
    @Bolgini 23 วันที่ผ่านมา +6

    So glad to see material on Faulkner. He’s one of the GOATs.

  • @kentjensen4504
    @kentjensen4504 23 วันที่ผ่านมา +7

    I read some place that Henrik Ibsen would imagine meeting his characters on a long train journey and he'd write down the conversation he had with his characters, and he would not start writing the play until he felt the people were totally real to him.

  • @Whoyouwishyouwere
    @Whoyouwishyouwere 23 วันที่ผ่านมา +6

    He's underrated funnily enough. Back in the 2000s, he was the unquestioned master of literary achievement. People just gloss over him these days, barely mentioned.

    • @maxwindom1200
      @maxwindom1200 23 วันที่ผ่านมา +2

      I’m trying to read him but I just can’t get into any aspect of it. I’m trudging tho

    • @jeffrey3498
      @jeffrey3498 23 วันที่ผ่านมา +3

      @@maxwindom1200 Try Light In August

  • @maxwindom1200
    @maxwindom1200 23 วันที่ผ่านมา +3

    Ian I’d love to hear your thoughts on this; I feel in recent decades there’s been a massive shift in emphasis from substance to style. And while I work to be a stylist and understand the necessity, I fear we may stray too far from the base humanistic role of stories, sitting around the campfire, expressing feeling and observation and life. It’s almost art for the sake of art rather than art for the human, on par with walking out of a movie like “wow, what great cinematography” where the story should take precedence. If the viewer is concerned with style and behind the scenes, I feel like the artist has failed. All of these tools should be in service of the reader experience rather than the author’s signifier of his own wit. The greatest (imo Hitchcock, Steinbeck, etc) use these tools to immerse their audience where on second viewing you can see how the Magic’s made. All hat and no cattle. Do you see that happening as well?

    • @maxwindom1200
      @maxwindom1200 23 วันที่ผ่านมา +3

      Just thought of a possible answer… Simulacra (learned that shit from you lol) has taken over, modern art is imitation of previous art rather than the artist’s human experience. The farther we get away from base experience, the more inauthentic and stale it feels.

  • @ferg439
    @ferg439 23 วันที่ผ่านมา +1

    Man, you are such a big inspiration. Million thanks for your hard work.

  • @threechairs7680
    @threechairs7680 19 วันที่ผ่านมา

    I love listening to you. Faulkner? Haven’t really read him. I abandoned one of his books out of boredom and frustration with the dialect. You, however, are easy on the eye and ear.

  • @subjectZero023
    @subjectZero023 22 วันที่ผ่านมา +1

    Great video. could you make a dedicated video on each book you recommend for learning writing? I know you've mentioned some in the past. covering everything from grammar to plot and theme. Thanks!

    • @Angelicamuscaria
      @Angelicamuscaria 22 วันที่ผ่านมา

      I think that’s what he said his Skool course is going to cover!

    • @subjectZero023
      @subjectZero023 22 วันที่ผ่านมา

      @@Angelicamuscaria will check it out, thanks

  • @daniellewis369
    @daniellewis369 22 วันที่ผ่านมา

    I enjoy your videos, buddy. Thanks for sharing.

  • @oscarbuster-xn6gp
    @oscarbuster-xn6gp 23 วันที่ผ่านมา +1

    I watched the Movie "Perfect Days" last night and the protagonist was reading "The Wild Palms" by Faulkner. Good movie.

    • @kieranmaciel6195
      @kieranmaciel6195 22 วันที่ผ่านมา +2

      Same; watched it because of a recent Thomas Flight video and was thoroughly impressed by the film. I also paused the movie to see what he was reading, lol.

  • @haydenjohnw
    @haydenjohnw 23 วันที่ผ่านมา +1

    I ain’t part of ur substack or anything but write conscious is still my favorite YT channel

  • @christianvchacon
    @christianvchacon 23 วันที่ผ่านมา

    I'm really looking forward to your writing school, Ian. Good stuff, as usual.

  • @catchawave21
    @catchawave21 23 วันที่ผ่านมา

    What did I accomplish at university? I read The Sound and the Fury, and that was enough.

  • @gonzothegreat1317
    @gonzothegreat1317 20 วันที่ผ่านมา

    Let the writer take up surgery or bricklaying if he is interested in technique. There is no mechanical way to get the writing done, no shortcut. The young writer would be a fool to follow a theory. Teach yourself by your own mistakes; people learn only by error. The good artist believes that nobody is good enough to give him advice. He has supreme vanity. No matter how much he admires the old writer, he wants to beat him.

  • @perfectdarkmode
    @perfectdarkmode 23 วันที่ผ่านมา

    Do you read ebooks at all. Or just physical?

  • @ivanbezdomniy4534
    @ivanbezdomniy4534 23 วันที่ผ่านมา

    I am in Odessa, Ukraine. Can I write and create a renaissance now?

    • @toddjacksonpoetry
      @toddjacksonpoetry 23 วันที่ผ่านมา

      Never ask permission. Take it.
      "It is of no consequence what others think of you. What matters is what you think of them." - Gore Vidal

    • @ivanbezdomniy4534
      @ivanbezdomniy4534 23 วันที่ผ่านมา

      @@toddjacksonpoetry I wish I knew it earlier

  • @wannaknowmewhy
    @wannaknowmewhy 23 วันที่ผ่านมา

    Faulkner is so overrated 🙄🙄🙄 Hemingway's far much better

    • @Zigzagbingbongg
      @Zigzagbingbongg 23 วันที่ผ่านมา

      Faulkner literally ejaculates all over hemingways minimalist face

    • @toddjacksonpoetry
      @toddjacksonpoetry 23 วันที่ผ่านมา

      I disagree, except when it comes to the single sentence.

    • @wannaknowmewhy
      @wannaknowmewhy 23 วันที่ผ่านมา

      @@toddjacksonpoetry pretentious prose

    • @toddjacksonpoetry
      @toddjacksonpoetry 23 วันที่ผ่านมา +1

      @@wannaknowmewhy I get it. I think it fits Mississippi. It captures its overgrowth, its Bible, its humidity. Also Faulkner is always remembering when he's writing. Hemingway is always right here right now.

    • @kieranmaciel6195
      @kieranmaciel6195 22 วันที่ผ่านมา

      I haven’t read any Hemingway yet, and I’ve only read one Faulkner novel, but “Light in August” has stuck with me long after reading it, on a level only comparable to something like Blood Meridian.