The Writer's Book. Helen Hull, Ed.

The Writer's Book
Helen Hull, Ed.
New York: Barnes and Noble, Inc.
1956 (1950)

Why read it? An anthology of thoughts on writing--and reading--by a variety of writers. Below are some interesting ideas from the book. If you have read several books by writers on writing, these ideas and their implications will probably be familiar, but worth thinking about.

For example, H Freedman says that the play you see will depend on the audience. I remember vividly a play that I directed. On Friday night, the audience was responsive, the actors in turn responded to the liveliness of the audience, and the play was heralded as a great success. Saturday night, the audience overflowed as a result of Friday's reviews--and the audience sat on its hands. The actors responded to the lack of sympathetic response by turning leaden and the play became a total failure. I have never stopped thinking about why the two audiences responded so differently.

These ideas are worth thinking about.

Pearl Buck: People want to read about themselves, not the writer.

Ira Wolfert: Readers read to gain knowledge of themselves.

Thomas Mann: Everything great has come in spite of affliction, pain, poverty, destitution, bodily weakness, vice, passion and many other obstructions.

John Hersey: Character is the focus of novels.

John Hersey: Novelists can make people feel as if they participated in the events of the novel.

John Hersey: Journalists cause readers only to witness events.

John Hersey: Writing is a search for understanding.

John Hersey: People shape events and events shape people.

Ann Petry: When I kept receiving rejection slips, I read autobiographies by writers.

Arthur Koestler: Villains must contain some villainy in ourselves, the readers.

Faith Baldwin: Editors ask themselves, what do people want to read three months from now?

Jacques Barzun: Don't let the inner critic stop you to find the right word before going on.

Richard Summers: Short story writers are psychologists analyzing people under stress.

Richard Summers: Begin with an opening sentence that immediately attracts the reader.

Paul Gallico: People want to read stories about the emotions they experience.

FL Allen: Since the 1930s, readers are most interested in facts.

R Flesch: Modern readers do not want to put more effort into reading than watching a movie or listening to the radio.

Helen Hull: Pick out the most thought-provoking sentence in the article.

H Freedman: The kind of play you see depends on the audience.

H Freedman The audience is looking for the line of the play that indicates where it is going.