The write idea
Helen M Walters explores what writers can learn from a story about the contrast between an unpublished writer’s dream and his everyday existence
This month’s story is a bit meta. It’s about a writer and the experience of trying to achieve publication. In Winter, 1965 by Frederic Tuten we follow a young writer as he tries to discover whether a short story he has had accepted by a literary magazine is in fact going to be published. As always, you will benefit most from this masterclass if you read the story yourself: writers/winter1965
There is much in this story for a writer or aspiring writer to identify with. Note how right at the beginning the narrator explains that the fact he is about to be published has changed him in the eyes of the people he associates with, many of whom are also striving to be published. And when he is plunged into despair by the non-appearance of his story he feels demeaned in the estimation of his fellow workers, one of whom mentions that he himself is about to have a poem published.
Notice how the story is enhanced by the stark contrast between the protagonist’s real life working for the welfare department and his imagined life as a successful writer. In his day job our narrator must care for the unfortunate people he is responsible for, from the blind lady who he fears will fall in her apartment, to the children whose mother has just thrown herself off a roof. He must dodge down staircases to avoid young men with knives who might want to mug him and he must carefully eke out his wages and make sure he holds on to his job. It’s a world away from the life he imagines for himself going to poetry readings, watching foreign films and reading aloud his own work to an admiring audience.
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July 2019
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