Charlotte Bronte struggled to bring some of her novels to a satisfactory end, whilst awful, awful sex scenes are still written by great authors almost as though they are contractually obliged to sear our eyes – the chapter on sex scenes is so gratifyingly cringeworthy it is worth the sticker price by itself. It is also a great discomfort to know that modern writing tropes are not that: they are as old as the quill and will be haunting writers for many eons yet.
It takes all sorts, and Cohen does his best to get through as many as possible.
Clean up every noon’, whilst also detailing more prosaic methodologies (Horace recommending letting a finished piece rest for nine years before assessing it). On the subject of editing, Cohen cites Chandler’s ‘Throw up into your typewriter every morning. Subjects like dialogue, editing, and character are discussed, but Cohen seems interested in the spectrum of approaches to these aspects rather than steering writers down a specific path. If, however, you are in the mood for a sedate meander down the river of literary figures, then Cohen’s book comes a close second to King. If you are looking for concise, prescriptive grammatical advice, the ‘Elements of Style’ is your book. I found Cohen’s book closer to the latter in content. So it was that I added ‘How to Write Like Tolstoy’ to a modest collection including Strunk and White’s ‘Elements of Style’ and Stephen King’s ‘On Writing’. Whether it is writing whilst standing up (Hemingway) or scribbling to the smell of rotten apples (Schiller) it is tempting to believe that if we change one or two writing rituals we will find ourselves blessed with inspiration or writing for sixteen hour stretches.
Despite the incontrovertible fact that reading about writing inevitably (in the short term at least) makes one less productive, it is a habit I frequently fall into.
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