Friday reading

It's Friday, so check out Mark Bertrand's post at The Master's Artist: Why We Don't Know What We're Doing. There's a lot of meat in this one. He suggests that our approaches to writing may vary and that most of us bring a complex blend of these to our writing. Here's some of what he says:

So instead of seeing these approaches as three positions on art, perhaps it would be better to think of them as different lobes in an author's brain, all of them present in every work, but one enjoying more favor than the others depending on the individual's orientation, the creative ebb and flow. The desire to explore the inexpressible, the desire to persuade, and the desire to delight in the thing itself are all present in each one of us, advancing and receding as the nature of the work dictates. And there are other currents, other dispositions at work, that I can't begin to name.

I'm still chewing on this. I can't begin to summarize it all, so go read it yourself.

And while you're at it, read Mick Silva's new post at Your Writer's Group: Story as Controversy. Even as I say "Amen, brother," I know I don't really write as honestly as Mick proposes. But I'm trying.

Have a nice weekend, folks.