Essay
I Fell In Love With Words Again Reading This One Story
A magic wand of inspiration
One can become incurious and trapped within one’s existing aesthetic system
George Saunders
We writers benefit from reading the words of others; another’s rhythm, syntax, word choice to marinate and meld with our own writerly desires and sensibilities.
But writing straight after reading an author we admire can be hazardous.
Years ago I did a morning masterclass with the writer Hanif Kureshi. It was very relaxed, very casual. No desks, just a circle of chairs. He outlined his typical writing day. He wrote first some idle thoughts, stray phrases, spontaneous sentences. Then threw that away, and he set about his current work. Ten minutes, a cup of tea, another ten minutes, etc.
This was reassuring. I feared he was a writer who glued himself to his chair for six hours — something I cannot do. I can, however, manage lots of tea in my day, so I’m practically half way to Kureshi.
Kureshi always reads in the afternoon. After he has written.
I wouldn’t read Wodehouse before writing, heaven forbid. I’d be…
