The Nobel prize-winning Polish poet, Wislawa Szymborska, wrote How to Start Writing (And When to Stop) not long before she died. This despite her earlier trenchant disapproval of the genre. “We hear such things [‘How to’ books] appear in the United States, but we make bold to question their worth for one simple reason: wouldn’t any author who possessed a fail proof recipe for literary success rather profit from it himself than write guidebooks for a living?”
In fact her own book, recently translated into English and now published almost exactly ten years after her death, is more a collection of observations on work aspiring writers sent to her for comment than a guidebook on writing per se.
Some of the comments are brutal, describing one wannabe poet’s work as ‘cliched, immature, shapeless.’ Her response to another is even harsher: ‘We remained unmoved. You borrowed your terror from Kafka, and like so many borrowed things it was ill used.’ And to a young woman who enclosed a note with her poems saying her boyfriend said she was too pretty to be a poet, she replied: ‘We think you must be very pretty.’ Ouch!
To others she was more encouraging, inviting one shy young poet to come in and chat – ‘we welcome the timid. They generally seem to set themselves higher standards, they are more persistent, and think more deeply.’
In reality, several of her responses do read like strong hints on how to write well, if not actual tips: ‘Think about poetry, read poetry, but also consider acquiring practical know-how independent of the muses’ patronage; they are hysterical and hysterics are notoriously unreliable.’ Reading more – ‘read good poetry, and read it well’ – is a recurring theme in her responses.
Szymborska’s book may not be up there with Stephen King’s On Writing as a how to manual for aspiring wordsmiths, but it does sound like a lot of bracing good fun – with a few nuggets of advice to take to heart along the way.
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