John irving on not finishing books (and why reviewers are angry)

"Grown-ups shouldn't finish books they're not enjoying. When you're no longer a child, and you no longer live at home, you don't have to finish everything on your plate. One reward of leaving school is that you don't have to finish books you don't like. You know, if I were a critic, I'd be angry and vicious too; it makes poor critics angry and vicious - to have to finish all those books they're not enjoying. What a silly job criticism is! What unnatural work it is! It is certainly not work for a grown-up."

From The Paris Review - The Art of Fiction no. 93 (1986)

Read the full interview

mum or Mum?

I've been writing something recently from the POV of a young girl who always refers to her mother as 'mum'. When I write dialogue in which the girl addresses her mother I find myself capitalising 'mum' as though it's a name, which, in a way, I guess it is. For example 'I know that, Mum,' I said.

Even if she's referring to her when talking to other people I find myself writing 'Yeah, that's what Mum said' (or somesuch).

I have no idea what the correct way of doing this is but it feels wrong not to capitalise. I've asked a few people and, so far, everyone says it's better to capitalise. What do you think?

Tweet me (@matthwrites) and cast your vote.

Matt

God, I haven't blogged for ages!

Must do something about that.

Great writing: Jhumpa Lahiri

"...it started to rain. It came slapping across the roof like a boy in slippers too big for him"

Jhumpa Lahir A Real Durwan (from 'Interpreter of Maladies')

Writers on writing - Colm Toibin

"The page is not a mirror...your job is to fill it, not to see yourself in it. The first thing you do as a writer is an act of self-annihilation. You no longer exist - it is only the character."

Colm Toibin, speaking about his novel Brooklyn on the BBC's World Book Club podcast in 2011

My first review

A couple of days ago I emailed Scott Pack, author of the excellent Me and My Short Stories blog (which involves him reading and reviewing a short story every day). I asked if he'd take a punt on an unpublished stroy by a new writer and he said yes, but to expect an honest review. Fair enough.

So, today I had my first ever review (of my story Honesty Rules, the first short story I wrote)

Books: This is How - MJ Hyland

MJ Hyland writes as well as anyone I have read. At first glance her prose seems deceptively simple, yet each sentence is crammed with detail and insight and there's not an ounce of fat anywhere in this book. What I loved most about 'This Is How' is the ability MJ Hyland has to look unflinchingly at something disturbing without judgement. At no point are we, as readers, instructed as to how we should view what we're seeing - Hyland has an incredible talent (I was going to say gift but that does a disrespect to the amount of work writing this good requires) for tilting the world slightly so we see things from another angle without telling us what to see or how to react.

This book is extraordinary and deserves to be widely read.