In my last post I had mentioned that I was on my way to the Rough Notes litfest in Kinderhook, NY. Fun was had. I was on a panel with Francine Prose and Jayne Anne Phillips and at some point during our conversation, in response to a platitude about another writer, Francine said, “But Ami, Denis Johnson wrote beautiful sentences.” Yes, I said, yes. (And then I said to the audience, “Our dear Francine…. How blessed is she. Consider names. Her last name is Prose and she teaches at a place called, I kid you not, Bard!” At which point our wonderful moderator, Rob Spillman, commented that if you put these names in a short-story, folks in your workshop would say, That’s too much on the nose.) Anyway, sentences! When I came home, I went straight to Francine’s Reading Like a Writer. There is a chapter in that book titled “Sentences.” I remember that when I had first read the book, I had started with a late chapter on Chekhov. How I love Chekhov! This time, I read the chapter on sentences. And then a few others. But right now, because classes have started and I’m deep in the business of doing edits on my nonfiction book, I found myself re-reading what Francine had quoted of Isaac Babel’s advice on writing and revising:
Please read the section in italics. Read it again. That’s what I have done. I will share it with my students too. Also read Francine’s Reading Like a Writer when you get a chance.
As accurate as a slide rule, and as natural as the smell of fennel!
As I said, classes have started at my college and I also need to take care of my edits. Oct 1 is the deadline. No time, no time. But one more thing. On the morning that I was reading the above section, all the news in my timeline was about the devastating floods in Nepal. What were my sentences going to do for the world? I was asking myself this question and that is when I came to the conclusion in Francine’s book:
