A few days ago I was reading the interview Sarah Salway posted with Elizabeth Baines celebrating the publication of her new short story collection, Balancing on the Edge of the World. You can read the full interview here. Baines is a real find. Her prose is pure poetry, and h
er characters feel like they are sitting in the room with you, as if you’ve known them forever. Each story strikes to your heart, whether you want it to or not. I really do recommend the collection. And I recommend the interview. It makes fascinating reading, but the one point which really intrigued me was the question of whether we writers “steal” our ideas or not. I, for one, unashamedly believe that we do — or at least I do. In some ways I feel like it is my job to steal. I walk through my life noticing people, overhearing snippets of conversations, savouring other peoples’ words. If you really attend to the world you live in, if you really are present within it, then you can’t help but take it all in. But it is the writer’s job to then process all of it, churn it up, turn it inside out and go on to create something new from it, something that then becomes uniquely theirs. The realities we create may be sometimes better or worse than the realities we already find around us, but certainly these creations are based on what we have already stumbled upon. Perhaps it’s more genteel to call it “standing on the shoulders of giants.” But to me, it’s all stealing, it’s all appropriating something that started off belonging to someone else and claiming it as your own.
And so, right at the top of this post is the video found and disseminated by the brilliant Ms. Salway herself. Some of you may have seen it there. But I urge everyone to take the time (ok — it’s about 18 minutes long but worth it!) to listen. Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat Pray Love (a book I reluctantly adored) discusses where genius comes from. Her ideas are so fantastic, I’m going to steal every last one of them!
I prefer to call it ‘borrowing’, though I have no intention to give any of it back!
Oh I totally agree with you. First off on the basis that there is no such thing as “new stories” and secondly because as writers we process and then reconstitute the world around us with our words. We shape what already exists and that in turn shapes new things into new forms – more stories, art, music etc. And so it goes, round and round and round, the energy of all that is constantly recreating itself.
Will have to come back and watch the video, having already spent too much time watch youtube videos about qi gong and Nia today!
You’re so right – Baines’ collection is utterly marvellous. Everyone should read it. Though I have to admit Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love left me completely cold!
Anne B
xxx
I heard the Elizabeth Gilbert talk after following the link from Sarah’s blog. I was having a few tough writing days. It freed me up. She was brilliant.
Just wanted to Absolute Vanilla is right – we process all the information we see, get told, hear about in our unique way, which is why sometimes stories about certain experiences come out much later but fully formed! Interesting. Thanks for the credit, Sue, but it’s all due to the Elizabeths really! Heck, they might even get to have their own party one day…
Balancing on the Edge of the World is on my list!
Thank you for the Elizabeth Gilbert video, Sue.
Like Michelle, I’ve added ‘Balancing on the Edge of the World’ to my list – thank you, Sue. Want to make time to watch the video too.
‘A book I reluctantly adored’…such a wonderful phrase! Andrew McGuinness once told me to treat going to work as an oppourtunity to do paid research for writing. That concept has helped me get up and go to work on many a ‘I’m struggling’ sort of day.
The creative process is a funny old thing isn’t it!! I frequently get inspiration from other people’s work….although my end result never ends up looking anything like what inspired me in the first place….I don’t know how it works but I love it!!
C x
I guess we can only use what we soak up as we travel through life. Hmmm, sounds like an excuse to have lots of exotic experiences!
🙂
Tom: right you are!
Ab Van: I do love that idea that everything gets “reconstituted”.
Anne: Thanks for dropping by. Funny, but I really didn’t want to like Gilbert’s book so I suppose when it was better than I had thought it would be, i was charmed. it was also the summer, sitting on the beach….you get the picture>>>
JJ: I do love the way just thinking about this stuff really does make a difference.
Sarah: I’ve been meaning to tell you that there is a play called “I’m Not Rappaport” and when it premiered in NY the producers invited all the Rappaports they could find in the phone book to one specific performance. My parents were there and they said it was incredible seeing an audience full of Rappaports, some of whom they knew,most of whom they didn’t. What a great idea.
Michelle and Susan: It’s always wonderful spreading the word like this. you won’t be sorry.
DJ: That is a great way of looking at it. Anything to keep us out there and in here, so to speak.
Carol and Jon: I’m already trying to think up a great exotic location for my next book. First Russia, then Cambodia, how about Fiji?