Menulis Dengan Lebih Matang
Nasihat orang lain datang dan pergi dalam hidup seorang penulis. Tidak semuanya boleh pakai pun kerana setiap penulis mengasah kata-kata dengan batu pengalaman yang berbeza. Tetapi pasti ada juga nasihat yang berbekas dalam dirinya. Lebih-lebih lagi nasihat yang didengari atau dibaca ketika dia masih baru sedang belajar mengenal cara penanya melangkah dari baris ke baris (untuk seorang novelis, dari halaman ke halaman). Saya sendiri paling ingat nasihat Jane Smiley tentang siapakah seorang novelis:
"A novel has an author. The desire to write a novel is the single required prerequisite for writing a novel. It is the only thing that overcomes all the handicaps - perfectionism, low self-esteem, depression, alcoholism, disease of all kinds, immense riches, economic hardship, deadly enemies, the resistance of relatives and friends, laziness, retarded professional development, the regular responsibilities of adulthood, even imprisonment (Sir Thomas Malory, for example, wrote the roman…
"A novel has an author. The desire to write a novel is the single required prerequisite for writing a novel. It is the only thing that overcomes all the handicaps - perfectionism, low self-esteem, depression, alcoholism, disease of all kinds, immense riches, economic hardship, deadly enemies, the resistance of relatives and friends, laziness, retarded professional development, the regular responsibilities of adulthood, even imprisonment (Sir Thomas Malory, for example, wrote the roman…
