Customer Reviews

From Where You Dream: The Process of Writing Fiction

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is a cleaned-up presentation by the author, Robert Olen Butler. On that basis it's certainly worth a 5 star rating. But I would expect most people buying this book expect more of a traditional presentation. Still, the lecture format, with extemporaneous examples, helps you understand the process. It's like a form of showing rather than telling. I actually liked the format, but other readers might not.

I can see how one reviewer states that the author is better in the short story form. The author evangelizes a right-brain approach of emotional writing that contains "no abstraction, no generalization, no summary, no analysis, no interpretation." I think this approach is excellent in short fiction. But, there are additional important issues that come to play in long forms of fiction.

The book offers a detailed look at writing the "right-brained" and "emotional" way. And thus, we find the title: From Where You Dream. The author says all fiction should originate from your dreams, not from your mind. There are exercises that almost explain this process. The reader has to ponder and analyze a lot to get the full benefit of this book, which is not bad in itself. But this is greatly offset by following the link to the author's online video presentations. GREAT, GREAT, GREAT! Where else can you get a chance to listen to a noted author and watch him create a short story on the fly?

This approach is so valuable, and the philosophy and the techniques presented so workable that this book will prove valuable for all readers. To become the "master of the sensual moment" will require repeated readings of this transcription of the author's workshops. He has put some of these presentations online and points you to his website. This is quite an addition and synergy to such a book giving a transcription.

One warning: he's quite dogmatic with a logic that goes, "If you don't believe X, then you aren't an artist." But this just makes his book a little spicy.

All in all, I found the reading most enjoyable and I have returned to it many times. The downside is that you have to expend a little effort prying out the key points. But I believe the results are worthwhile. The addition of the website lectures turn this book from very good to great. The author, an instructor at Florida State University, presents his ideas convincingly and clearly. I wish all authors would include online video presentations... like the extra trailers on DVD's.

John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TX

This book has its good points. The editorial review mentions "dynamism," and the lectures are certainly that. Also, when the review argues that this book is a sort of "manifesto" of the author's vision, I wholeheartedly agree. It is nice to read a coherent perspective on writing and the process of artistic creation from a writer that does not sacrifice passion for some kind of mechanistic clarity or something of the sort.

However, the ideas are ultimately simplistic. I would even argue that they are harmful ideas if not taken with a grain of salt. I, for one, stop trusting anyone who begins to put a limit on what writing can be. Writing is feelings not thoughts. This is literature, this is non-literature. That sort of thinking. It is another situation where an author has wrestled with himself and the establishment to find a unique voice, but who after becoming "legitimate" would like to close the door on what other voices might sound like. And it doesn't come as any surprise to me that Butler, in his picture of what good literature is composed of, manages to overlook a dimension missing from his own works (let's call it an artistic blindspot.)

I think Robert Olen Butler is a very good writer. Particularly in the short story form, he has achieved some moments of brilliance and excellence. But his short stories read like long prose poems. And when he tries to lengthen or elaborate them, they fall apart under their own weight. This is why his books or novella-length works do not operate as well. When I compare his works to those of a greater writer (say, a William Faulkner, a Joseph Conrad, a Henry Miller, a Norman Mailer--and that's no mean company I'm putting him in), I find that what is missing is the intellect (but writers "are not intellectuals"!) Yes, there's a dimension of ideas that exists in all of those authors' works that is missing in Butler's works. His argument, of course, is that that dimension doesn't exist for any purpose but to illuminate some system of emotions that is in play within the work, that a work is ultimately only for the expression of some unique emotion. It doesn't surprise me, then, that his work is exceptionally powerful in one direction, but it falls flat in a number of other ways.

His most successful work, A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, benefitted greatly from its timely political setting and topic. In a sense, Butler could do what he does best, simply represent the emotional movement of characters, and the profundity of the period and the larger issue at stake helped to make up for and in some ways substitute for the lack of this other dimension.

In any case, for a new writer to take Butler's ideas in this book as gospel would be to limit him or herself greatly. An older writer could probably better benefit from the collected lectures. A pleasant enough read if you remember to hold it at arm's length and to eye it critically. No, I wouldn't say this author has found the way.

I personally place all how to books (and this is a how to book, make no mistake) in the same category: interesting but not sufficient. No matter how many you read you will never on that basis alone write anything of interest. I also take issue with Butler's view that writers ought not to worry about intellectualizing, philosophical issues. Read "The Grand Inquisitor" or The Brother's Karamozov lately? Nevertheless, worthwhile. My instincts as a writer tell me to follow my instincts and never fall prey to the beliefs of another writer. This too shall pass.

Butler's perspective on writing (emotion only, no analysis, write from your subconcious) is certainly enlightening and perhaps even helpful. But like other reviewers have said, the aspiring writer must not limit him/herself to Butler's stubborn methods.

Butler offers an out-of-the-box approach to writing fiction that is fresh and eye-opening, but is overly dogmatic about his style of composition. The cinematic perspective he offers is good, as are other scattered points throughout. However, this is not the comprehensive guide to novel-writing. It is a semester's worth of Butler's own lectures about his own practice -- a very broad scope of advice on writing in general. Of course no reader expects a step-by-step guide to writing fiction, but those looking to learn specifically about charater, plot development, dialogue, etc. should look elsewhere.

Another reason I had to hold Butler's work at arm's length was that his own writing that is included in the book was unimpressive at best. In fact, the last student-written story in the book was by far a better manifestation of Butler's teachings than his own work, in my opinion. That said, it was written according to his methods and gives hope that they may be quite useful if used in moderation

This first half of the book had some good insights.

It became clear after a couple of pages that the book was a transcription of one of his actual workshops. Butler does not write this book, he TALKS this book.

Then the second half was full of student essays, which he then critques. It was painful to read most of them and even more excruciating to read the critiques.

Honestly, although I did get some good concepts, for the most part I felt ripped off.

If you are going to sell a book by claiming that you are a Pulitzer-prize winning author, the least you could do is write some of it.

Dream, yearn, write. Learn how to put yourself in the creative state of mind. Fiction is cinema...

That's what I'm doing via this book and Bob Butler's online presentations, a bootcamp for creative writing. Going from nonfiction to fiction has not been the same since I picked up this book two months ago. Breaking intellectual tendencies and derive from emotions is key, easier read than done.

This is THE book I will recommend to aspiring novelists.

"His self-declared obsessions have to do with the descent into the dreamspace of the unconscious in order to discover the yearning that is at the center of every person and therefore of every character, and with the moment to moment sensual experiencing of that character's story. He proposed fiction as the exploration of the human condition and the yearning as its compass. He conducts exercises to achieve the dreamspace. He offers insights into the nature of voice. He is eloquent on fiction as a 'cinema of the mind,' to be experienced by the reader as a sensual series of takes and scenes. And he has devised a system whereby revision is undertaken at the level of structure rather than sentence" (3). -Janet Burroway

While an excellent writer in the short story form, this book is more involved in trashing other people's work that teaching anything and I question his qualifications (considering his own lack of success with novels) to teach how to write them.

Comments such as this: "Nonart, genre writing, entertainment writing, is typically filled with abstraction, generalization, summary, analysis, and interpretation." show at best a non-acquaintance with genre writing and an assumption that ALL genre-writing is "non-art". Well, thank you very much but he could learn a thing or two from one heck of a lot of genre writers.

I've seen a lot of literary writing that was distinctly non-art although the WRITER obviously thought highly of their navel gazing--his novels fall into that category.

Which isn't to say there aren't some good passages in this book but frankly there are better books on fiction writing elsewhere.

Always remember your salt when dealing with books about art, because writing is art, and no one can ever say "no" to any writer trying to express himself. Read Hemingway's "A Clean, Well Lighted Place," where in the end the character recites the Lord's Prayer in his own way. It was spontaneous. Hemingway's own spirit shined through. He expressed himself.

I don't care how incredible the author is, how famous, how admired - you can't tell people "no" when it comes to art.

And Butler does that. He says there are certain things you can't do in writing. Don't do this. Do that. Write from this place. Never write from that. Don't be logical, he says, or you'll never be good. How misleading. There are scores of famous and respected authors who've written in a logical manner. Sometimes writing in that way is not only necessary to the author's personal development, it is an expression all in itself.

Learn from the pros, but if you follow everything they say, you'll be them in the end, not you. Your spirit must fly on its own. If people laugh at your work, at least you believe in it.

So take this book with a grain of salt. Although it will help, it will never set your pen free.

Forget everything you think you know about writing.

Throw all the information you've obtained in school about how to write.

All of that is useless.

Writing doesn't come from your logical, thoughtful brain. It's really out of your control and it's only when you let go of that control that you can write.

And, thus, my difficulty.

A refreshing new look at writing.