Terry McMillan on Literary Excellence
“I just think there are some people who try too hard. They just think every sentence has to be perfect. I’m the sort of writer who thinks your first draft is your most honest. You know, get the story out any way you can. You don’t have to think about it. Just write it. Experience it. Don’t worry how pretty it sounds, how lilting it is, and the imagery, and the metaphor, all that. Most readers don’t care. It’s the people in your book that matter. It’s the human element. The emotional response that matters. That’s what I’ve learned.”
-Terry McMillan, published in January's Poets & Writers Magazine
And so the reign of Black literary mediocrity began.
Labels: on African American Lit
posted by Mat Johnson at 9:02 AM
18 Comments:
I used to get slammed by people who wanted me to like McMillan and I'd only shrug my shoulders. They'd remark that I was "hard to please." Similarly when I tell them now that I'm on my third re-write to my first shot at it, they remark "well, 'fill-in-the-blank-self-published-cousin/son-in-law/friend is on his third book, what's taking you so long? I still shrug.
That's an unfortunate bit of nonsense. I don't even know what else to say.
I'm speechless. The first draft is the most honest?
Maybe she was just trying to encourage new writers by saying it's easy? I have to read the whole interview.
Most writers I know (novelists and screenwriters) think about every single word they put on the page.
This is SO WRONG it's not funny (and not 'wrong' in the way some black folks say it while laughing at something outrageous). Thank goodness for Natasha's Pulitzer as a needed corrective!
maybe i'm naive...but i like this bit of advice. actually, i generally like the interviews of t. mcmillan about the writing process more than i actually like her books. i do like published authors who encourage others of us to "simply" write our stories. i wish i could recall that anthology of writers where i read another interview of hers...hmmm, was it writers' on writing, i can't remember at this moment...
I'd like to suggest something about Ms. McMillan's quote: she's lying.
I was quite a fan of Disappearing Acts, Waiting to Exhale, and Mama. I think that if you read them you can tell that Terry did not just spit them out as first drafts. While some people might slag them off as commercial fiction they're funny, moving, and the characters are alive and true. That's not something that happens without revision.
As proof you only have to look at the books McMillan wrote after she actually could turn in first drafts and have them published. Has anyone here read A Day Late and a Dollar Short or The Interruption of Everything? They're awful. Interruption in particular is rushed and sloppy and, at times, doesn't really make sense. I doubt the problem is just that Terry's talent disappeared, instead I think it's just that she finally took her own bullshit advice and the work suffered accordingly.
It's important to keep in mind that writers don't just tell stories on the page. I think we tend to tell stories about ourselves. We romanticize, we remove things. What writer doesn't want to say that they popped out a best-selling novel on the first draft? That's so much better than saying it took years of hard work. Jack Kerouac famously claimed to have written On the Road in one long, drug-fueled blast of days. The book itself was wonderful, but it was also that legend which made so many people turn the man into a mythic writer. He wrote On the Road in one sitting! Come to find out, years after his death, that it's true Kerouac had written it in that single long marathon session, but it was the last one many, many drafts. He'd written multiple earlier drafts, slowly and surely FOR YEARS before that one.
Ah those writers. Can't trust a word they say. They all want to make it look like magic. And why not? That's much more fun than saying it's all hard work.
lol, victor! u do have a way with words! i don't believe that the writer's mean we (newbies) shouldn't rewrite & edit, but very often i've found myself frozen by the thought of errors. now, i allow my thoughts to flow knowing that i'll go BACK & edit. i'll let u know after i produce my bestsellers just how this is working for me. lol!
I was going along with Miss Terry until she got to that 'first draft is the most honest,' part. Who knows, maybe the first draft of 'Stella' knew the Jamaican boy was gay and the others denied it. I don't believe in pushing a first draft too hard either. I love my imperfect first drafts and I write them all the way to their messy completion. The difference between me and Terry (or the audience she's pandering to) is that I know there are six drafts to go. Too often people look at the first draft as holy grail. Arundahti Roy a brilliant writer,nonetheless said one of the most stupid things ever uttered from a writer when she claimed that she does not rewrite because "to rewrite a sentence would a like redrawing a breath." As much as I love my first drafts I know they are, even in the best sense, garbage. You can primp, prop, polish and shine garbage all you like, but it still stinks.
Yes, I know it should have been "uttered by" and not "uttered from", language police.
Very early in my writing career, I attended an event at an NYC high school where Walter Mosley and Nikki Giovanni both spoke about themselves as writers. During the Q&A that followed, someone asked Walter how many rewrites he typically did on a work, and he replied without pause, "Sixteen." In my unwitting arrogance and naivete, I uttered (sotto voce, natch), "Damn, what kind of hack writer are you to need sixteen rewrites?" (Yes, I'm fully aware of my own stupidity. I have an epic respect and regard for Mr. Mosley that has increased even more so over the years.) This was after the publication of my first book, which had required very little editorial reworking (probably because the editor didn't know how to even approach some of the, um, "jargon") and deluded me into believing I was more adept at the craft than I really was.
Shortly thereafter, I saw the merit of Walter's words and realized that rewrites are God's gift to writers and where the real story begins to unfold. I don't know how many I do now...I check for everything and always end up learning so much more beyond what I thought I intended. Characters reveal more of themselves to me and the plot often takes unexpected turns. Writing, to me, is not just about spitting out a story, but respecting the damn craft and being bold enough to explore the literary microcosm you've created on a much deeper level.
The thought of handing in my first passes to anyone makes me shudder. They have, however, made for great lining on the bottom of the birdcage in my office.
P.S. I did five rewrites before I submitted this comment.
I don't know. I know that I'm going to cause controversy by saying this but sometimes, your first draft is your most honest, but not necessarily your best.
I guess the question then becomes, how do you know once you've achieved a level of fame like Terri McMillan, how many drafts you need to do for your work before its polished? If your editor looks at your work, and says that its publishable, does that mean its acceptable?
(I'm trying to play devil's advocate here.) So, how many drafts do you go through? I'm currently in an MFA program and I wrote a piece for a writer's workshop and my professor said that I needed to get it published, but I went back and revised it because of my own inner-voice that said it was not quite done yet.
So, I submitted the piece to 2 different publications for consideration--One, the first piece was unedited based on my professor's opinion, and the second, the edited piece based on my own inner-voice.
I'll keep everyone posted as to which piece, if at all, is accepted.
P.S. I did ZERO rewrites before I submitted this comment.
Lo- that's funny, I used to be the same way. Then one day you just get it.
I had a student who at the end of a lit class came to my office crying. She told me that she used to write poetry that came out immediately perfect, but now she had to edit her work nearly endlessly to get it right. I told her congratulations, you have just started to really write. Before, she didn't know enough to know what good writing was. Now that she did, she was working harder to get her work to that point. (She didn't want to hear it though, and quit trying)
Anon- good luck with the two stories. I suspect that even though your professor like it, he/she would like the edit more if you do as well.
Marlon- That Stella's thing was pretty hilarious, all around. Somebody should write about a book about that fiasco.
Capcity- I like the demystification of writing here, and that she does encourage others to go for it. I just hope that once they go for it, they then go back and build on the good and delete the bad.
Thinking about the quote more over the week, I started seeing it in context. It's interesting that Terry is a real writer, one who is very conscious of her literary decisions. She consciously meant to write generic prose, focusing her energy on the characters, creating new archetypes. Many (not all) that followed her footsteps were a lot less informed: they had no concept of what strong prose was, and they just picked up the archetypes she had created, changed the names and details and made those archetypes literary zombies. But Terry is legit, for what she is.
I have to be honest in saying that even when I post a comment on someone's blog I'm forced to rewrite it due to errors in spelling run on snetences and lack of clarity on the mental dribble that I'm penning for people to read and respond to ... with that said I can't agree more with the author of this great blog ... even though I looked this over twice sure I still sound like coffee crazed idiot ...
I read the quote in context as well and I get what she's saying.
In a writers' forum I belong to, every third or fourth thread is something along the lines of "Don't know where to begin!" or "I can't keep the energy up!" or various versions of "Writer's block! Help!" People seem to think that novels spring fully formed from writers' heads like so many Athenas, and no amount of persuading, yelling, or screaming sways them from this belief. In their attempt to edit every paragraph, every sentence, every word, they get bogged down and discouraged, and then they stop.
One of the many great things I've acquired during my time in an MFA program (two weeks until graduation...woo-hoo!) is the patience to let my first draft just flow from head to pen to paper. I even write notes to myself in the margins: "Yes, it sucks, but KEEP GOING!" "You can always go back over this LATER!" I'll put in blank spaces which I'll fill in later, e.g. *popular 1985 R&B song*. I have learned to actually finish drafts of stories in a much quicker time than when I was obsessing over every line.
(I only did a few line edits in this post. No complete rewrites.)
To add: I agree that there is a problem when people think their first draft is the only draft they need to do. One of my favorite quotes: "Nobody but God gets it right the first time. Everyone else has to rewrite."
All good points. It is important to spill your thoughts onto a medium as quick as they come, but refinement is a must to really reach most audiences out there.
The first draft is called the first draft for a reason. However, I do think that sometimes, when you've got a story brewing in your mind, it's best to just get it committed to paper before attempting any refinement. After all, the first draft is called the first draft for a reason.
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